The Blood Covenant

You know, I've heard by the hearing of my ears about this place and we prayed for you years ago when things were moving in a powerful way and then all the difficulties of these last few years and now the Lord is stirring again. We hear this and it's a privilege for me to be here. I've been to a lot of different countries and a lot of different places but I've never had more of a sense of anticipation really than just standing here sharing this area with my good friend John Butler. I'm delighted to be here. You know, I was thinking as we were singing, it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Sometimes we feel that we've gone too far, done too many things. It has been, there's no way. But that's where we've got to start this morning. Jesus said, this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. And so the best thing that can happen to you or me in time or eternity is to move into a real, living, powerful relationship with the Lord Jesus. Not just a relationship with the Bible about him, but to really let that move in our lives and let him have his due. So I want to thank God for the privilege of being here. I was also thinking of those words, turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of earth will go strangely dim. But if you take your eyes off of Jesus, the things of earth will be strangely grim. And that's what's happening on every side. Men's hearts are failing them for looking at things coming to pass on the earth. There's such a rise in global prophecy coming to pass and national and heavyweights of things that many of us have never faced before. So where do you start a meeting like this when you've got all these dogs barking at you from around the world and we have no certain dwelling place here? I mean, earth is in big trouble on one level, but it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Well, I want to come in and start where I feel we really should start. And as he heats up the world, the Lord is getting people's attention. And what's he getting their attention with? You know what they're singing about right now around the throne of God? Have you ever looked in the book of Revelation at the theme of their song? It's all about the blood. It's all about the blood of the Lamb. We sang about that. The first two things we sang this morning, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. What a wonderful thing. Well, I want to pray and then I want us to launch out. Father, in Jesus' name, open our hearts that we might truly have an understanding from you about the riches of your inheritance and about the multitude of your abundant, tender mercies that are new every morning. It is a miracle that you haven't dissolved our country even now. But there's a space given by you for hearts to say the total yes, Lord Jesus. So have your way with us for our for our honor and glory before you that you would have honor and glory in our lives and that we would say yes, Lord, down at the deepest level. So we just thank you for your truth in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to read you from Psalm 25 and we're moving down toward one verse that I want to springboard from. It says unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Oh, my God, I'm trusting in you. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yes, let none that wait upon you be ashamed. Let those be ashamed which transgress without a reason. Then as the prayer, show me your ways. Oh, Lord, teach me your paths. I sense that's the prayer of so many of you. Show me your ways. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. And on thee I'm waiting all the day. Our eyes are looking to him. We're waiting on him. We don't know everything he wants to do, but we know him and his ways and his goodness abideth continually. Remember, O Lord, verse six, your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses. Remember that word, kindnesses, loving kindnesses, for they have been from of old. Don't remember the sins of my youth nor my transgressions. According to your mercy, remember thou me for your goodness sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, and he will teach even sinners his way. The meek that surrender, he will guide in justice or judgment, and the meek he'll teach his ways. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant, covenant, and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is it who fears the Lord? This is the one that the Lord will teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul will dwell at ease, and his seed will inherit the earth. Your soul and my soul and our children will inherit the earth ultimately. And then this verse, here it is. This is our key verse. The secret of the Lord is with them, and it means reserved for, those who fear him. And he will show them his covenant. So mine eyes are ever before the Lord. You know, the secret of the Lord. Did you know God has secrets? And he doesn't just tell them to everybody. He reserves them for a group of people who, as he would say, fear him. He says back in Deuteronomy 29, it says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, and these are the things which are revealed. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. That we might do all the words of this book, this law, this word of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and he will open up and teach you his covenant. These secrets can't be discovered by man. They must be revealed by God. And it's not just by studying on our own the Spirit of God, which you have seen moving among you. He will come and reveal this. It will be like, and you see that holy moment when his Spirit from his throne reveals the secret of God. It says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, but God has revealed the deep things of his life and his character and his power to us by his Spirit. And once God reveals these secrets to you, or to me, we then become spiritually discerning to see these things. He wants us to be stewards of the mysteries of God. This means that we are to be his and to be a channel, not just a reservoir. A channel of his presence and his life and his character and his power. He reveals his secrets to those who hold him in reverence and stand in awe and honor him and act on what he's already said to you. The best way to honor him is to act on what he's already said by the list of things that John said this morning. To act on what God has said. Well, this morning I want to talk to you about that secret of God. One of his secrets, it's 35 years ago, this thing began to boil, actually 50 years, wow, began to boil in my soul. And I began to be amazed at what the fear of the Lord meant. An understanding of the blood covenant that God has made with people that are his, through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will change your heart. Even if you are a Christian, to have it opened to you and reveal the mysteries of God, he will begin to lead and teach you in a brand new way. It's the key to the scriptures, to understand what the blood is really all about. It's essential to understand the blessings that you've been experiencing as a Christian or that you know are there for those who are Christians and maybe you're not yet. So just as Israel in the Old Testament, the old covenant, lost sight of the covenant over and over, they lost the sense of God's presence. And God had to come and call them back again and again. And so the church of the 20th century, our church in this time, has lost the awareness of what it means to live in covenant. Did you know it's possible to experience the blessings of God and not really understand why? Not really understand what it's about, but a rediscovery of the blood covenant that God has made for you, through Jesus Christ, will open up. The whole Bible is a revelation of covenant. I mean, you've got the old covenant and the new covenant. Every promise in this book is a covenant promise. Every relationship you have as a Christian is a covenant relationship. Your salvation and every time you pray in Jesus' name, it's a covenant matter and it's all about it. But it's hidden and it pervades the scripture, however. It's not just knowing about it, coming to Bible study and hearing about it. It's a revelation that God will give to you when He knows that you'll say yes to it. And so if you're hearing His whispers, then say yes to the whisper and His voice will become more clear to you. God's secrets, His mysteries, cannot be discovered. They must be revealed. And He wants to reveal them to you. But He doesn't give them to everybody. He gives it to those who fear Him. He must reveal it. So what is covenant all about? Union is the essence of covenant. Even our marriage is a marriage union. It's when two that have been separate become one. It's like a branch being plugged into a vine. It's when two that have been out there, they become together. The word covenant is used many, many, many times in the Old Testament. It's the word bereth. It's a mysterious word. It means to cut with the shedding of blood. But it also has the meaning of to bind together. How could this be? It's a mystery. How can you cut and shed blood and bring something together? It's meaning to bind together. So entering the covenant, if I were entering covenant with John Butler, it would be called cutting the covenant. It may say made in the English translation of that, but it means a cutting of the covenant. And it means to make a cut with the shedding of blood. And it's unbreakable, the covenants in the Scripture, unless they're man to man. This total commitment, total consecration to that which the covenant is about. It's an endless partnership where you come into an independent living, disappears, and it becomes dependence, total dependence on the one that you're in covenant with. It's a permanent bond, an unqualified trust together. Now covenant, if you travel the world, I've been in 65 countries and some of them a dozen times. And when I'm there, I always look for the ancient roots of this covenant. Because you see, every culture, every land on the planet has ancient roots of covenant. They've lost sight of it, maybe some of them today, where they put marks on their face or put a painted hand of a red hand on the back of an Indian horse. But all of these things go way, way back. And in every culture you can see the shadows of covenant, what it meant to them back then. But you look in England and you see all these things. Wherever you go in the world, you'll find the remnants of covenant. Even in our country, like when you raise your hand in the courtroom to swear, do you know that goes all the way back to covenant? Do you know that when you carry a bride across the threshold, it goes all the way back to covenant? Do you know that when you do all these things like don't step on a crack in the sidewalk, it goes all the way back to covenant? You can find it in Russia. You can find it in China. It goes back. It's older than man. You know why? Because the whole concept of covenant started with God Himself. He wants man to understand what it means to be in an unbreakable covenant. David's last words when he died, King David, here's what he said. He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and certain, for this is all my salvation. And this is all my desire. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. That's that word for loving kindness. So the Hebrew word chesed, it means grace, mercy, loving kindness. And it's over and over in the scriptures. Well, in Bible times, what did it mean to cut a covenant? How would you do it? You won't figure it out just by reading casually. You're going to have to search the scriptures. You're going to have to look at the older things that people used to walk in. But here's how you would cut a covenant in Bible days. You'll see parts of this as you look at Abraham cutting covenant, God cutting covenant with Abraham or Noah and all these things. Listen to how John Butler and I, if we were two Jews, ancient, would cut a covenant. The first thing we would do would be to come together in an open field or an open place with witnesses most of the time, like you do a marriage ceremony. But they would come to watch, John and I, and we would bring with us the things necessary for cutting a covenant. And the first thing we would do, now I'd get you to change your coat before I change with you. But here's what it is. No, seriously. We would exchange coats. Everybody's looking and I would take off my coat and give it to him and he would take off his coat and I might take it. But no, for those of you who are listening by tape, you don't understand this gaudy orange coat that John Butler has on. Grace, amazing grace. This is a symbol, a symbol. And you know what I'm saying to John? Everything I have, you have a right to me. Possessions, sometimes you would write this down and I'd give it to you and you'd give it to me. And what you have is mine and what I have is yours and we have in common. It's like the early church. They had all things in common. Well, the second thing we would do would be to take off our belt. Now, for the older civilizations, the belt was the binding together for your armor and your weapon. It was the place of strength, the abdomen, for the man. That was back then. But we would change our belt and we would say, all my strengths are at your disposal, John, and you would give me yours. All your strengths are mine. If I need to dig a ditch, I'll call on you and you'll help me. And your strength serves you. All of me is yours. My energy is yours. On my belt would be my sword or my bow or some weapon. And this weapon would say that your enemies are now my enemies and my enemies are now your enemies. Everything is changing. Your trouble is my trouble and my trouble is your trouble and I'll fight for you. We are one. That's what's supposed to happen when you become married, but you change all these things. So all my time, all my talent, all my ambition and strength belong to each other permanently. Now, this had different degrees according to how they understood it and it happened different ways, but then we would be called, what you say in the Scriptures, it's a biblical word, knitted together. It's like getting these threads and putting them together and we were knitted together in all of our being. The next thing we would do in this well-known, well-known, you see this happening all the way through the time of Jeremiah and Zechariah all the way back to Abraham in Genesis 15. We would take an animal and we would offer it to the Lord. For the Jew, it would be a clean animal with a divided hoof and chewing the cud, that's what they had to be. And so we would offer this as a sacrifice to the Lord and we would split it right down the backbone, cut it right in half. One bloody stack here, one bloody stack on this side and we would say these words, so be it to me and more, if I don't keep these words that I'm swearing to you, two bloody halves, and we would then walk that sacred figure eight around there. Eight's the symbol of eternity, isn't it? And we'd walk that sacred path of blood saying, the Lord do so and more to me if I keep not. And we'd say that word in the Bible, mispah, which means the Lord watch between me and you while we're absent, one from each other. Then we would stop after walking that path of blood and we would make a mark. We'd cut our wrist. These marks were different. Like for Abraham, it was circumcision, a mark. But this mark would be, I would cut about here and I would raise my hand toward heaven like the angel in Revelation who puts his feet on the land and raises his hand and swears by him who lives forever and ever. I would swear myself away to John. I would walk that figure eight and I would raise my hand with an oath and then we would strike the hands, it's called in the Scripture. The bloods would meet. This is where they did it then. If I let go, you've got me. If you let go, I've got you. We would strike the hands. It would be a joining, endless partnership. We still do these things when we shake hands and become friends with people, we say. But then after that, I'd put something in that cut that would be a mark and it would be maybe salt or something that would make a permanent scar and this scar would say to me, you're in blood covenant with John and you're his and he's yours and it's a mark of ownership. There's privilege but there's responsibility. There's another half of you and you're to live your life in respect of that. Then I would say to him the blessing and the cursing. John, may the Lord bless you. May he bless you and Jennifer. May Jennifer always respect and love you and may your children hold you in esteem. Then we'd do the cursing. But if you don't keep this covenant, may your wife nag you day and night. May your car just break down every turn and may your children be, I mean, it was serious. God did this with the whole nation in Deuteronomy 28, blessings and cursings. If you keep my covenant and if you walk in who I am, you see the blessings and the cursing because you see the whole family was being brought into this but they had to ratify like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Each one had to ratify to experience the blessing of that covenant. Then we'd change our name. I'd become Al Butler Whittingill and he would become John Whittingill Butler. This is what God did with Abram in Genesis 17. He took the Yah, the breath sound of Yahweh and put it at Abram's name and he became Abraham. And Sarah became Sarah. And God said, I'm going to be known as the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We changed names and we took the name and we had that name. This is what's happened to you if you're a Christian. This is what Abram did when he saw that fiery presence walk between those split animals instead of him and it matches the description of Jesus, Revelation chapter 1. Eyes as a flame of fire and feet as if they're in a furnace. Abraham, all he could do was just watch and behold. He couldn't add a thing to it. God cut a covenant on his behalf and they're still being blessed because of it and we're being blessed because of the covenant of Abraham. Then there'd be a covenant memorial. I might dig a well. That's what Beersheba is in the Old Testament. The well of the oath. Or I might plant a tree. That's what the oak of memory is you see in Genesis. Or I would make a pillar and sprinkle blood on it and it would be something that would always say to me like the stack of rocks when you came across Jordan River at Gilgal and it would say God has brought you into this. It would be a permanent reminder. Jacob and Laban sat on the stack of rocks and they exchanged a meal. We would eat a meal together. That's where our Lord's Supper comes from. The table of the Lord where he serves to us. We would eat this covenant memorial, this meal. In marriages when they link the arms and take the cup it's both drinking from one cup, two lives becoming one. I feed you, you feed me. Do you see the picture? It's all through the scripture and you see it. But it's a secret. From that day on John and I become friends. That's a covenant word. David was the friend of Hiram. So Hiram gave him everything to build the temple. The wood from Lebanon and all the rest. And so I would become friends. Jesus said you reveal yourself to be my friend. If you're keeping my ramus, my words to you. And so that's a wonderful thing. There is a friend who's closer than a brother. It means that a friend in covenant, he's actually closer to you. The Arabs say blood is thicker than milk. Which means that if you're in blood covenant with someone you're closer to them. It's thicker than even the brother who nursed at your mother's breast with you. It's closer than any natural tie. This sacred blood covenant. I'm bound to you is the attitude of scripture. This attitude of loving kindness is called hased. It means I have an attitude toward you John. I'm bound to fulfill this covenant oath that I've sworn. Whether I feel like it or not. It's sacred, it's a choice. A friend fulfills the blood covenant guarantees. Do you see it? You see it? Because there's a picture of this in the scripture. And I'm going to read it to you. I don't have time to go into it like I would like to. This deserves at least two hours. But you know the story of David who I just quoted as he died. He had this confidence in the everlasting covenant. Bigger than, there's eight or nine covenants that are so big. And the old covenant revealed the Phiniactic, the Mosaic. And there's the everlasting that's over it all. It's the everlasting one that Jesus cut with his heavenly father. Shedding his own blood. Not bringing an animal, but bringing his own body to the cross. And have it divided down the midst like the veil was rendered. You see the picture there in the scripture. And so David and Jonathan cut a covenant in the Old Testament. Jonathan meets David on the battlefield. When David comes down and he sees Goliath. And Goliath's going wah, wah, wah. There's no warriors in Israel. You see and they all were afraid of everything. Nobody knew the covenant but David. And David said, why do you let this man mock the armies of God? And David comes out and he says, You come to me with a spear and a sword and a shield. But I come to you in the name of the living God. Whose armies you're defied. And this devil will take your head off you snake. And he threw that rock and such a thing had never entered Goliath's mind before. He fell headlong, he cut his head off. And then so Saul is watching. Saul's a carnal man. He doesn't understand. He sees and he says, bring that lad to me. And Jonathan and David at that point, they were instantly knitted together in their heart. You've met people like that. You meet and you just say, I know this person. I want to be their friend. So 1 Samuel chapter 18, listen. It came to pass when he'd made an end of speaking to Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knitted together with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as he loved his own soul. And Saul took David and wouldn't let him go home that day to his house anymore. And Jonathan and David made a bareth. A blood covenant. Because he loved him. He loved him as he loved his own soul. Now you wonder as Jonathan took off the robe that was on him. He gave it to David and his garment. His sword, his bow, his belt. And they became covenant brothers. And you see it being ratified later. But as they come back to Jerusalem, the women are singing, Saul has killed his thousands, but David tens of thousands. And Saul became afraid of David and began to try to kill him. Threw a javelin at him. David ran out into the wilderness to hide from him. And he feared for his life. And when he's out in the wilderness, Jonathan comes out there and reconfirms the covenant again. You see in chapter 20 of 1 Samuel. When David, they meet in a field. Pardon me. In verse 8. Therefore, David says to Jonathan, You shall deal with chesed, or loving kindness, with your servant. For you brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. And they rehearse this again. And they swear again. And while they're doing that, you see verse 14. Jonathan says, You not only while I live will show the kindness of the Lord. The loving kindness of the Lord toward me. Jonathan saying. But that I die not. But you shall not cut your kindness from my house forever. No, not when the enemies of David have been cut off everyone from the earth. David, you and I are in a covenant with the Lord. And the kindness you feel for me is the kindness of God. And you swearing by the Lord to me that you'll show kindness. And the Lord watch between me and you forever. You read that 20th chapter and see. You'll see them confirming again and again. We both have sworn in the name of the Lord. Saying the Lord watch between us while we're absent from each other. And they made a covenant before the Lord. And David remained in the woods. And Saul began his endless pursuit of David. Chases him through the wilderness like a partridge on the hill. And so you see during this time. Jonathan has a child. His name is Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth gets to be about 5 years old. Out of the wilderness Saul is just about to get David. And David could have killed him. But he didn't because he was a covenant man with Jonathan. And Jonathan's house is in the covenant with him. And so he protected Saul. He loved Saul. But see Saul's regard for David is full of jealousy and greed. Saul tells lies about David. He's out to get you. He'll kill you if he ever gets you. If he ever gets a hold of the offspring of Jonathan. David will kill them. So that there will be no king but the one that is. My family. So Saul's hunt for David is interrupted when the Philistines rise up. They come to what's known as Armageddon today. The plain of Estraldon. And there they are in that plain. And the Philistines. Saul is killed. And Jonathan is killed. And some of his other sons are killed. And so David is in the wilderness. And he mourns for Saul and for David as they're lost. And the palace hears of the death of Saul. And they say that now David's going to come and get us. And so Saul's house flees. And they go to a place called Lodibar. Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame on his feet. And he was five years old when tidings came out that Saul and Jonathan was dead. And so as they're running out of the palace to evacuate, they trip or something. And Mephibosheth falls and breaks his legs. And from that day on, he is hopelessly crippled and paralyzed in his legs. He can't walk as he's supposed to walk or was born to walk. So you see this evacuation. And they run to this place called Lodibar. Lodibar means no bread. See the pictures of Scripture? It's awesome. No bread. It's like a dirty place. You go in these tents and sun burning down. Saul's house flees there. And here for the next 16 years, from five years old to 21, they're in a self-imposed exile. There, Mephibosheth, born for royalty, lives like a beggar. Surrounded by the aides of the now dead king Saul. They're feeding him lies. He grew up hating David, the faceless king. Growing up hating the faceless king that you're supposed to be in blood covenant with. Living in fear and hatred and ignorant of the truth. Like so many young people do today. When you've been taught one thing and you go out with your new friends and you're living in ignorance and fear and believing lies and you don't know the character of God. You don't know that you were born to be in covenant with the living God. But you don't know that, you see. All the time Mephibosheth out on that wilderness didn't know he's hating the one. The faceless king he's never seen or known. And he's hating him and living in fear and hatred. Well, what about David? Well, David has not forgotten. David hadn't forgotten. Sixteen years after everything calms down. He finally has peace. And he remembers the oath he swore to Jonathan. And David in chapter 9 of 2 Samuel. He says, Is there not yet any left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? For Jonathan's sake. Jonathan means beloved son. The gift of God. And there was of the house of Saul Ziba who was the head servant. He was still there for some reason. And he says, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am. He says, Is there any left of the house of Saul? Listen to this. That I may show the kindness of God. The loving kindness that has said of God to him. And Ziba said to the king, Jonathan has a son still and he's lame on his feet. The king says, Where is he? And they said, He's in the house of Meshir son of Amiel in Lodibar. And so David fetched and sent him out. And fetched him out of the house of Meshir. Now, When Mephibosheth, The son of Jonathan. The son of Saul. Came in to David. He fell on his face. And he did reverence. There it is. The reverence. The awe. The fear. But you see, He said, Imagine Mephibosheth on his crutches going over and seeing these chariots come. And they put him in the, Where's Mephibosheth? There he is. And all his friends say, There he is. They don't stick together when there's no real bond. And so they put him in the chariot. Take him back to Saul. Bring him in before Saul. And there he is. Put yourself in Mephibosheth's place. Brought before the king. Expecting to hear certain death. He falls on his face. And what does he hear? He hears this. Fear not, David says. I will show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake. This is covenant kindness. I'm going to restore to you all the land of Saul, your father. And you're going to have continual bread. That's the name of the bread in the temple. Continual bread. The bread of his face. It's like the Lord's Supper for us. It's holy bread. And so Jonathan, I mean, Mephibosheth bowed himself and said, What is your servant that you should look upon a dead dog like me? He can't believe his ears. He's expecting death. And instead he hears, I'm going to bless you. And I'm going to give you what Jonathan would have had. And I'm going to give you everything. You're going to be a joint heir with what Jonathan would have had. So he cries out, I'm a dead dog. David says to Mephibosheth, I do know who you are. I know what you've been planning for me. You wanted to get rid of me. But I've been saving this for you. This is covenant kindness. This is because of a blood covenant that was cut for you before you were even born. You weren't even around. And so Mephibosheth had a choice. To rise up and say yes and enter the covenant, or to go back to Lodibar and die. To enter the covenant, he had to lay down his personal ambition to be the king of his life, because he was a king, but in princely order. He had to die to all the lies he had believed about David and all the falsehoods that, like a young person believing, I'm not going to run the show anymore. I'm not going to believe all those lies that I believed. I'm going to get in the word of God. I'm going to leave Lodibar and I'm going to move in the palace with the king. So he had to enter a whole new life of relationship and become the friend of David. Can you imagine what it was like for him as they took him up to a room and put him there with a view, maybe I'm imagining now, overlooking the Jordan River or something they could see from out the long view. They're looking at a new world. So all of a sudden while Mephibosheth is up there, they say, Come and dine, Mephibosheth, the master calleth. He's calling you to his table. He says you're at continually. And so they bring him down and as he comes in and he hobbles in and they put him at one of the king's sons at a place there. They hide his lame feet beneath white linen. Perhaps it was white, who knows. But you see, he's sitting there and he says, What am I doing here? I've spent my life in rebellion against this man and now I'm at his table. I don't deserve this. And just then David reaches out to get something and he sees that mark, the covenant mark and the wrist of David. And he says, That's the reason I'm getting it. It's because of that mark. That mark means blood covenant. That's why I'm getting it. And someone else says, Well, you're not worthy. You're not worthy to be here. And Mephibosheth might have said, Well, you're right, I'm not worthy. But go ask King David about what it means as to why I'm here. Something about that mark. Something about what that means. So you see, here's the picture. And we're finishing. All of us are like Saul's house. We're in Adam's race. And when we understand what God really wants from us at first, we feel threatened. I don't want to give up my sovereignty. And you see, the natural man does not. It's enmity against God. I don't want him to run my life. But you see, then I begin to see his goodness and what he's like. So you see, naturally I don't want God around. So I kind of run away. But there's one that's different in Adam's race. And it's the Lord Jesus. It's the human race's Jonathan. The Lord Jesus. The gift of God. The beloved Son. He's not like everybody else, you see. He's a sinless man. The Lord Jesus. Yet he's one of us. He sweat. He got tired. He had to sleep. He cried. He was a valid man. But he never stopped being God when he incarnated as man. He was God in the flesh. The Jonathan of the human race is Jesus. And just as Jonathan was the only one that could cut covenant with David, because he knew him, Jesus was the only one that can cut covenant with the Heavenly Father. Because he's of the Heavenly Father. He is one with the Father. I am the Father. I am one. So when you see this about his father's business, the first words you ever see recorded in Luke 2 that Jesus ever said, I must be about my father's business. It's not at the wedding in John 2 when he's older. It's when he's a 12-year-old saying, I must be. Even though it must be, the Son of Man must go as determined. This is Father's business. And so he comes in and shows a valid, real, true man entering everlasting covenant with God the Father. He's called the Malachi, the messenger of the covenant. And everything he did moved toward that moment when he walked up that Calvary's Hill and he would come like all the scriptures said he would and all the pictures of the cross and all the pictures of the blood to that divine moment between heaven and earth when he hung there a representative man in solemn covenant with God the unveiling of the plan of the ages at Calvary, at Calvary where I first saw the light. He stood on John's behalf, my behalf, your behalf, and he cut covenant with almighty God on behalf of those who would come. That's what he said the night before he died. This is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. This is shed for many. I'm going to cut covenant with you using my own body, my own blood. He didn't bring a substitute animal. But when he cut covenant with the heavenly Father, here's what happened. You see, he took the fountain of his own life. We talk about the cross. This is what the cross means. He poured it out, cut in covenant, and when he said, it is finished, he meant as the messenger of the covenant, it is finished. He did it for me, but he also did it as my representative as me. See, how can you say that? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but not me anymore. Just like Mephibosheth was in Jonathan, so were you and I when we come by faith to him in Christ as he was crucified. So when he was raised again to be the living guarantee, that's when covenant was ratified by Father God. See, his face was marred more than any man, it says in Isaiah. His back was furrowed. All those wounds were healed when he rose from the dead except for those five marks on his hands and feet and his side. Covenant marks. See, it says in Isaiah 49, when it says, can a woman forget her nursing child? Verse 16, and it says, it infers, yes, she can. But can I forget you, Israel? I've inscribed you, I've etched you on the palms of my hands. The palms meant anywhere from here to there to the Hebrew language, you see. When Jesus was crucified, when he was arrested, it says, smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Quoted in three synoptic gospels. It's talking about Jesus, and it says, someone will ask you in that day, what are these wounds in the palms of your hands? And he will say, answering chapter 13 of Zechariah 6 and 7, these are the wounds that I received in the house of my friends. We're almost through. So, we're like Mephibosheth. We have our own hideout. We live in a safe place. We try to make it safer, safer, safer. I did not know, I didn't know, that my Jonathan had entered covenant with the Lord Jesus before I was born. When I was born, I was in low debar. I couldn't live like a man was meant to live. I couldn't. As I grew up, I knew something was wrong. Didn't want to admit it. Kept trying to have a positive attitude. Think and grow rich. You know, all those books, you read them. Try to improve yourself, and you realize that you'll never be good enough on your own, ever. So, I had the same attitude. If God ever got a hold of me, he would make me marry a 600-pound woman that didn't shave her legs and had no teeth, and he'd move me to Africa, and I'd have to live there with people that hate me and are trying to kill me all the time. That's what I thought, that I deserved, if I ever came to God. I didn't know. I didn't know. So, God sent the Holy Ghost and surrounded me in my own Lodibar, and I remember that day so well. Has this ever happened to you? When God's brought you in before himself, and you know, this is it. I deserve to die. It's over. I had the wedges of sin as death, and it's over for me. I was frightened, and I trembled. It's called conviction in the Scripture. And so, the Holy Spirit brings you face-to-face with God, and you say, it's all over. And he says, he calls you by name. He says, I'm going to raise you up and put you in heavenly places and seat you on the King's throne with him. I'm going to give you righteousness, peace, and joy. But Lord, I've been rebellious against you. How could you do this? I haven't even been faithful at church or anything like that. How could you ever do this? And he says, I know who you are. I know exactly what it is, but this is not because of what you've done or can do. This is because of a blood covenant that was cut on your behalf before you were ever born. I'm going to make you a joint heir. And so, I said, yes. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his chassad, his mercy, his loving kindness. He has saved us by the washing of regeneration. But it's not just automatic. When you're there at that point, you have a choice. You can either go back to Lodibar, the way you've always been, but you've got to die to your independence. You've got to die to all the lies you believed about Jesus and give yourself to find out who you really is. And you're not your own anymore. You've got to rise up and receive a whole new life of relationship, the friend of God, the brother. Actually, blood brothers with Jesus. Can you believe that, that he would call us that? Blood brother with Jesus. You are my friends if you do the words that I'm saying to you, my Ramos, all my time, all my talent. Here's what happens. I give him my coat, filthy rags, unrighteousness. And at Calvary, where he cut that covenant, he takes off his coat and he gives it to me. White linen righteousness. That's why we have him on in heaven. White linen, pure, his righteousness. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become righteous in him. And he puts his coat on you. And he gives you his belt, the strength. All power is given to me, so I give it to you. And then, you see, I give him mine, which is total weakness. And he's crucified through weakness. He takes it on himself. And my sword, my weapon, is all the words I've ever used. The blasphemy, all the stuff that comes out of a corrupt heart. His words are gracious words. And he changes that. It's an exchange. And he puts in your heart a new beginning, you see. And he's your sacrifice, the lamb slain, divided down the midst. And you've got to come to Calvary and walk that sacred path. Come boldly to the throne of grace right through the path of the split veil. And he's your sacrifice. Now you have the mark of a circumcised heart. Not the outer only, but the heart is circumcised. It says in Romans, in Philippians 3, a circumcised heart where you cut away the old and make room for all the new. My name is changed. And it's written in heaven. And he gives me his name. I know his name. I give you my name whatsoever you ask in my name. And my name is there in heaven. Does this make you, I mean, does this give you the slightest little desire to get up and say, Yahoo! It does me. It makes me want to shout. I'm no longer my own. So here we are at the end. Blood brothers with God. God says this to you. But see, when you're at this point, you know what they call that when you're at the point you have to make those decisions about dying to your own independence and letting him be Lord. What it says about your lies you've believed that were falsehoods that you thought were right. You're foolish. You've got to lay that down. You've got to move out and move in with the king. You've got to move out of Lodibar where there's no word and move in with the king. It's called repent and believe. And there's no other way to enter into the covenant at all. And so I remember going into church and seeing all the blessings on every side and suddenly feeling like I belonged here in a certain way and they weren't talking about how terrible my life had been. Things were new. And somebody says, You better behave yourself, son. We're watching you. And it's kind of like saying, You don't belong here. And then I start to panic and then I look up and I see the Lamb with the marks of death, the scars on His sides and I say, That's it. It's the blood covenant that was sealed for me. God's loving kindness became a person. It's finished. I've got to trust and obey. So when Satan tells me to defend myself, I've already lost if I'm trying to defend myself. If I agree with my adversary quickly and say, It's all about Jesus. Go ask Jesus about the blood covenant that He's made with me. Ask Him about it. Perhaps some of you sitting here today are sitting here and you've said, Wait a minute. That's a whole lot more than when I, quote, asked Jesus into my heart. It is more than asking Jesus into your heart. You're letting Him come in. See, God says, It's when God says, Not only, I'm not calling you to do a bunch of things for me. I want your life to be different and I'll change your life. But I'm calling you to let me do a bunch of things in you and through you. I want you to be my hands, my body, my feet, my tongue. I want you to belong to me. And trying gives way to trusting. And doing becomes done in Jesus' name. And struggling changes to, Now I'm resting. Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what you are. And the last thing is, you see, the covenant's not only vertical with God, it's horizontal with you. It's the early churches. I'm in covenant with you. We're in covenant with each other. This whole Bible's about it. If you read this with covenant eyeballs, you'll see God loves the covenant. What I want to ask you, will you act on this? It's not just acting here, not just opening up the altar, but it is acting in your whole life. Are you willing to come to Him and let Him do everything? It's never too late, no matter how old you are or how young you are, it's not too early. When you see this, when God shows you this, it's so you can receive it. Will you receive it? Will you say, Thank you, Lord Jesus, that today you've gone in to the very sanctuary of the Most High God and there as High Priest, Lamb of God, you bear in your body the marks of blood covenant. You sit on a throne that has a rainbow, the mark of the covenant for Noah. You are a covenant-keeping God and keep your covenant to me and put in me your spirit, the promise of covenant to Abram, the promise of the Spirit, and the promise to the church. I want to be a new man. If I'm in Christ, you said I'd be a new person. I want to be a new person. Maybe you've believed Jesus for a long time and you didn't know all this and God says today, it's yours. Listen, you don't just get the cheese and crackers, you get the whole feast. The whole feast, when you sit at the King's table, it's everything He gives you. He wants you to be His person. In the days ahead, John and I have been talking about this, we're going to need to be ready to walk with Him in white, as it says in the book of Revelation. We're going to need to be His and be available and be His mouthpiece and His heartbeat and His hands and walk where He walks. Well, I want to pray with you and I want you to, how do you receive a word like this? You simply open up and say, yes, Lord, I want this for me. I want this for me. I want this for my family. I want this, I want to know you. I want people to see my life like they said, I think about one of those that was baptized. Their life changed. That's the mark, that's the fruit of the real proof of knowing God. Let me pray. Father, thank you so much that you so loved the world, that you sent on holy business. Jesus, a new covenant will I make with you in those days. I will write my laws in their hearts and in their minds and they will know me intimately from the least to the greatest and I will forgive their sins and iniquities. You made central to that knowing you and knowing your word. cause people today, supernaturally, by the grace of God, to have a longing to know you in a covenant relationship sworn by the oath of God that you said if this oath is not kept, if you're in covenant with me, I, the Lord, will cease to be. That's what you promised. You swore by yourself an oath to fulfill every part of the covenant. So may this joy that we sang about today be our strength and may it be the motivation, the goodness of God to lead us to a deepening, ongoing, searching our hearts and minds and a daily repentance that turns from self to the living God. That turns from the God of this world to the God of eternity. That turns from our selfishness and pride to the cross and its brokenness and fullness of the spirit. So we pray in Jesus' name that you'll do this for that one in their heart now as we sing in Jesus' name. Amen.