Fulfilled in Christ - Part 1

I just want to greet everybody in Jesus' name this morning. I am very thankful to be here. I have a lot of mixed feelings this morning, but nevertheless I'm very thankful. Thankful to be here, thankful to be able to share a message with you that has become precious to me. Let's just stand for a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us this day and this opportunity to gather and for all your loving kindness and all your tender mercies. We thank you for brothers and sisters to gather with and we thank you for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. We pray, Lord, that you would instruct us in that faith and help us to live it. And we pray that you would help us as we look into your word, open our eyes, that we can see, our ears that we can hear, and our hearts that we can understand. We pray that your spirit would abide with us here and that everything we do and say can be in your will and bring glory to your name. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Yeah, well, like I said before, it seems like a while. I know I gathered with you all last Sunday, but there was a few, what, about three weeks or so before that that I didn't gather with you because I wanted to stay with my wife. It was coming close to time to have that baby, and praise God the baby was born this past week on Thursday, I guess. So, baby and Carol are both doing well and we are so thankful beyond what I can express. And so I'm thankful to be here and not have to worry that maybe I have to rush home and be able to speak with you all. So, I would like to, this message I'd like to share today is the first message of a series of messages, probably three, I'm not quite sure yet, of messages. And it's kind of unique how this subject came about. I feel like it, I feel like it. It's unique. About four weeks ago when I started staying at home more from work and from the meetings, I thought, well, I'll start getting a message ready for the next time I can gather with you all. And I had a very hard time deciding between three different subjects what I want to study on. And I thought about it, I thought about the three subjects, trying to think which one's most urgent, which one's most relevant. I'd still like to teach about the other two sometime. But through both thinking and reasoning and praying, I didn't feel like I had much of an answer and I did something I don't think I ever did before. I cast lots. And I wrote these three subjects on three separate papers and prayed about it and had my wife pick one out for me. And she picked out the subject of the Sabbath. Back then, I did not know that I would start studying this subject and to do justice to it, I feel like I need to do more than one message. Back then, I did not know that there were even people among us who were starting to ask this question like, should we rethink the Sabbath? Is it something we should be keeping? I didn't know that back then and so I think it was the Lord's doing, let's put it that way. And I have been blessed in studying this. I keep notes and it has been one of the subjects on my list of possible things to give a teaching on for a long time. But so are a whole bunch of other things that sometimes I just have this little inspiration about something like, oh hey, maybe we need to hear a teaching about this sometime. I'll make a little note. Anyway, the reason I want to do more than one message on this subject is because how we interpret scripture depends so much on so many things. It depends so much on our view of God. It depends so much on our view of scripture. All these things have bearings on how we then interpret the written word. It's called a paradigm or a framework of thinking and reasoning that affect how we interpret scripture. For example, a Protestant who has gone through seminary and he has been indoctrinated with Calvinist thinking. He has this framework in which he reads the scriptures and it's hard for him to see it in any other way. Everything he reads, he reads through those lens and everything needs to fit that framework and it's pretty hard to read the scriptures in any other way. Someone who's in some kind of a cult, a very closed cult that maybe has a one-man leader. He has a framework in which he reads the scriptures and everything he reads somehow has to be fit on there. Every passage he reads about a leader applies to his leader, right? That's just the way. I don't think any of us can necessarily escape that. We have something. We have some kind of a platform on which we stand or a framework which we have in which we view the scriptures. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have that. I'm just saying we have it. I had it. I grew up with that framework. What I read in scriptures, I read through the lens of what I grew up with. I read this particular subject of the Sabbath. I was taught growing up that Sunday is the Sabbath. I didn't have any other understanding. Maybe I had an understanding that it used to be the seventh day and somehow I understood it changed to the first day. But when I read anything, Old or New Testament, when I read the conditions for the Sabbath, I understood it to mean this is what we do on Sunday. We do not work. I remember sitting under sermons of preachers giving a lesson about all the things in the Sabbath and being like, man, I need to be more careful. I need to be more careful that I set this day aside to rest and to not do work. But sometimes your paradigm shifts. Sometimes this whole framework in which you were reading things, sometimes that whole framework shifts and you have what we call a paradigm shift. And all of a sudden you can read the same scriptures you've read over and over and over again and they look totally different. Everything starts looking different because you're reading it through a different framework. That's what happened to the apostles and the first believers. They had a concept of the kingdom of God that was promised. They had a concept of what these promises would be. They had a framework in which they thought this kingdom was going to come and everything they read in the Old Testament fit on there. They thought it was going to be this way and they read the scriptures that way and it's how they understood every promise out of the Old Testament. They speculated and they anticipated how it would happen and how it would look. And it's why when Jesus came, they missed it. It's why when Jesus came and he said even to his close disciples, he said something like, I will be delivered to the wicked men and they will crucify me. Peter is like, no, no, that can't happen to you. That did not fit onto his framework. It didn't work. Until something happened, until the spirit of God came down upon these men and they were born anew, they were born again and they started seeing everything in a completely and utterly different light. All the Old Testament scriptures and the promises that they had studied now all of a sudden looked totally different than what they had thought. We now have the Old and the New Testament. We are persuaded that in this book is the message to the way of life. But we too can read this through a framework that gives us a wrong understanding of what this message is. I'm somewhat amused when I hear people emphatically take this book and declare that they go only by this book. From Genesis to Revelations, they follow what's in here and nothing else. Really? First of all, I think that's a very narrow-minded illusion. I don't even think that's possible. Secondly, why do literally thousands of people and thousands of denominations all claim that same thing and nobody agrees with what the message is? I think it's a narrow-minded illusion. The Bible is the most printed book in the world and also the most disputed book. As people grapple over life's most serious questions, where do we come from and where are we going? There's no wonder that we need to take this serious. There's also no wonder that somebody might come away wondering, is the God of the Old Testament the same as the God of the New Testament? And it's a bit unsettling to think that he's not. It's kind of unsettling to think that he changes. I hope in this series of messages to show you that God does not change, I hope to show you that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is so unchangeable. In fact, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning in him. That what changes and must change is not God, but the framework or the paradigm in which we stand to interpret scriptures. One of those core things in proper biblical interpretation is having an understanding of the covenant of God. That there was an old covenant and that there is a new covenant, and what they are and what stays the same from one to the other and what doesn't. Over the years I've met a lot of people through our evangelistic efforts and just in life. I've met a lot of people who I know are confused about this. From people, from messianic Jews who openly declare and live that the Torah, the first five books of Moses are the foundation on which we stand, on which all the rest of scripture must be interpreted. To people who object the idea that the Torah is necessarily the everlasting word, but that the Ten Commandments, the ones that are written on stone, that they are somehow different, those are the ones that stay. To people who just don't necessarily claim all of those, they will insist on Old Testament scriptures if they support what they believe, and reject them if they don't. And do the same thing with the New Testament scriptures. I've met lots and lots of people like that. And I think even among us. I think some of the things we grapple with, I think some of the finer details of things like divorce, reconciliation, leadership, a whole list of things, like sometimes we just kind of, I don't know about always, but I think often they could be linked to how we understand the covenants. So in this first part of this series, I mostly want to talk about the various covenants that God made. I just want to kind of, in this first message, I just want to kind of create a skeleton for the rest of the messages. And I do believe that this skeleton, though it be a skeleton, is what the whole redemptive story is built on. And I apologize in advance. A lot of this may be over the children's head. Maybe it'll even be a little dry. I'm going to do a bunch of reading. But that's kind of how skeletons are. They're a little dry. I want to put some meat on them in the next messages. A covenant is a solemn binding agreement between two or more people. It's a chosen relationship or partnership in which two parties make a binding promise to each other and work together to reach a common goal. A covenant is similar to a contract, but it's also different. There's a spiritual and solemn understanding to a covenant. They differ. A covenant and a contract differ from one another in that a covenant is very, very relational and personal. The difference is like unto a business partnership and a marriage partnership. They have technical similarities, but they're very different in nature. A covenant is often accompanied by oaths, signs, and ceremonies. The covenants that God makes with man usually include a shedding of blood as part of the ceremony. There seems to be a pattern in God's covenants where a plan from God Remember, God is spirit. There seems to be this pattern in which you see a plan from God the spirit coming down into or through flesh. You'll see some of that, but there seems to be a pattern that a lot of these covenants are that. In fact, from what I could find, the Hebrew word for covenant, berith, seems to either be derived from or related from the idea of a cut between pieces of flesh. God is a God of covenant. He is a covenant maker. He is a covenant keeper. In the 103rd Psalm, it says, The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant. Covenant is at the heart of how God has communicated with his creation. God is love. Can we let that sink into our minds? I'm not saying that God does love, though he does. But it says God is love. He is love. Now, love is a selfless relationship with another. So God cannot just love himself. That's not love. And so he builds this great universe. And in this universe, he makes earth, and he makes life in there, and he puts man in there, and he partners with him. And man enters into this relationship with man, in which man is given the charge to take care of the whole earth and spread goodness. God wants to partner with man to spread goodness over the whole world. Though the word covenant is not used in this creation story with Adam, the relationships and partnerships are very similar. We know how that all went. In short, man messed it up. That's this partnership agreement. And that's just the beginning of something that kept on happening over and over and over again. God would make a covenant, and man would mess it up. God would make another covenant, and man would mess it up. God could have walked away. That's maybe debatable, whether God could have walked away. But what I know for sure, his love for humanity didn't allow him to walk away. It could almost appear, as we read through the biblical narrative, that God went to the drawing table, and he drew up a plan for this covenant, this agreement, this contract. And he brings it to man, and man messes it up. And he goes back to the drawing table again, and he draws up another one. And he comes to man again, and man messes it up. And he goes back, and he draws up another one. Though I believe God knew before he even made Adam that he was also going to make, or that his son was going to be the last Adam, or the second Adam. I don't think God had any surprises in any of this that happened. But as you read through the biblical narrative, you could almost get that impression. With Adam and Eve, God promised to deliver. This promise involved bloodshed. There was the slaying of animals, in which God took their skins, and he closed Adam and Eve, and covered them, and sent them out from the garden. And he told them, he told them, there's a promise in your seed. There's a promise of deliverance, and it'll be from your seed. From there, man multiplied, and they sinned ever more grievously, to the point that God wished he hadn't made them. And then he found Noah to be righteous, and he said, okay, I'll establish my covenant with Noah now. And he flooded the earth, and he saved Noah and his family. And after the flood, in Genesis, it says Noah came out, and it says, then Noah built an altar to God, and took of every clean animal, and every clean bird, and offered whole burnt offerings on the altar. So the Lord God smelled a sweet aroma. Then the Lord God thought it over, and he said, I will never again curse the earth because of man's works, although the mind of man is diligently involved with evil things from his youth. Nor will I again destroy every living thing that I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring shall not cease by day or by night. We see what happened here again. Moses offered up an animal. He shed the blood of an animal. He put it on the offering. God smelled this, and he reconsidered, I think. And he promised. He made a promise. I will not do this again. Instead, I will make my covenant, Noah, with you and your seed. This is what he says further in chapter 9, starting in verse 8. Then God spoke to Noah and his sons with him, saying, Behold, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your seed after you and every living creature with you, the birds and the cattle and all the wild animals of the earth and all that come out of the ark with you. Thus I will establish my covenant with you, and never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of the flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth. Then the Lord God said to Noah, Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you. For perpetual generations I am setting my rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. The water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. My rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will certainly remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature and all flesh on the earth. Again God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant I established between me and all flesh on the earth. And so in this covenant we see these things again. We see bloodshed, we see a sign. On this one the sign is the rainbow that God has established this covenant with Noah. Several hundred years go by. Humanity continues in their sin and in their evil imaginations. And God makes another covenant. He narrows it down a little more. And he says, he finds Abraham and he says, I'll make a covenant with this man. And this time, this covenant is even, it's just more, I think it gets more personal. It gets more, the signs of it even get far more intense. God said to Abraham, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, what do you give me? I'm childless. You say you're going to establish a covenant with my seed, but I don't have any children. I'm an old man. God said, I think Abraham suggested like, just make the covenant with my servant. Let him be the heir. And God said, look toward the heavens and count the stars. If you are able to number them, so shall your seed be. I want you to remember that. I want you to remember this little phrase for a future message. He says, look toward the heaven and count the stars. If you are able to number them. And then he says, so shall your seed be. Okay, we'll talk about that later. God said, I promise this land to you to inherit it. And Abraham said, how shall I know? I'll inherit it. And here's a pretty amazing and a pretty intense thing that God requested as a sign and to establish this covenant. He says, bring me, God says to Abraham, bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. They killed these animals and shed their blood. They cut them in half. They laid one half of the carcass over here and the other half of the carcass over here. That's what they did with the three-year-old heifer. They did the same thing with the goat. Cut the thing in half, laid one carcass over here and one carcass over here. Same thing with the ram. The turtle dove and the pigeon they didn't cut in half. I understand they put one on one side and one on the other. And there was a little space in between these. They did this one day and throughout the day as the vultures came down and tried to mess with these carcasses, Abraham would drive them away. But about sundown or as the sun was setting, it says Abraham fell into this trance and a darkness came upon him. And at sundown or as the sun went down, there appeared this smoking furnace and a burning lamp and it passed right between those carcasses. It says in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. I will give this land to your seed. Now this whole scene seems a little grim and foreboding in our day and age. I should say here's these bloody slaughtered carcasses laying there for some ceremonial thing. But I think in that day, this was not an unheard of way in which they made a ceremony for a covenant. In fact, as best as I could understand, it might have been a practice of the Chaldeans from which Abraham came out of. And we do read that it was something that the Jews continued to do. Jeremiah has this little phrase in which he describes a covenant just like that, an agreement. But what it was is like they did this thing. They slaughtered an animal, they cut it in half, laid it apart, had this little path between it and the parties involved in the covenant would together walk between these carcasses. As best as I can say, as if to say, may it be done so to me if I do not stay faithful to this covenant. Just think about that. Here God comes down in a smoke and a lamp and he goes through these carcasses as if to say, this is what will happen to me if I do not stay faithful to this covenant. The signs of the covenant weren't completely over there. We go just a few chapters further and this is what God says to Abraham. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am your God. Be pleasing before me and blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you and will multiply your seed exceedingly. Then Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abraham, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your seed after you. After I will give you and your seed after you the land you are occupying as a sojourner, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I will be their God. Then God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout the generations. This is the covenant you shall keep between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations. Every male child among you shall be circumcised and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins. It shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. A child of eight days old shall be circumcised by you, every male child throughout your genealogy. He who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner, not of your seed, he who is born in your house and who is bought with your money must be circumcised. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from my people for he has broken my covenant. Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her and I will bless him and he shall become nations and kings of people shall be from him. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his mind, Shall a child be born of a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah who is ninety-nine years old bear a child? And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might be before you. Oh, Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will increase and multiply him exceedingly and he shall beget twelve nations and I will make him a great nation but my covenant I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. Then Ishmael finished talking with Abraham and departed from him. Mostly, okay, so here is where circumcision was established and became the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. This became, and I just want you to like let this sink in how this reads. The uncircumcised male child who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day there is really not much ambiguity there. We don't have to wonder too much whether when he says an everlasting covenant whether it means everlasting. We don't have to wonder too much what this means. I won't go in great description here but this thing, this sign, this covenant is something the God who changes not established and he says he that breaks this breaks my covenant. Don't run away just yet. So God's people do grow into a nation and from Abraham and Sarah we have Isaac. From Isaac we have Jacob. From Jacob we have the 12 sons of Israel. The 12 sons go into Egypt. They become slaves. They are slaves for 400 years. There is the exodus under Moses and we come to Mount Sinai. Here is the great the great covenant that God made with Israel that we call the Mosaic covenant. I'll do a bunch of reading again. I think it's just as we'll just read it. That's what it says. Sometimes you can explain something just a little shorter, briefer but I'm just going to read Exodus 19 and a good portion of 20. If it's possible I know our I know our the amount of imagination that we have is not all given given out similar or to the same measure but if you can I mean these are the kind of these are the kind of areas where I think we we have been given imagination for a good purpose. I want you to try to imagine being there. This is this is out in the desert. They've left Egypt. I'm not sure. Maybe a week or so ago. Maybe 40 days. I think maybe it's 40 days. Anyway that part is not very important but just as you as you hear the description of what's going on there as best as you can try to try to put yourself into that desert. The third month after the children of Israel departed from the land of Egypt on the same day they came into into the Sinai desert for they departed from Rephidim came into Sinai into the Sinai desert and camped in the desert. So Israel camped there before the mountain and Moses went up to the mountain of God and God called to him from the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be a special people to me and above all nations for all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation. These are the words you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words that the Lord communicated to him. Then all the people answered with one accord and said everything the Lord said we will do and hearken to. So Moses reported these words to God. Then the Lord then said to Moses behold I come to you in a pillar of a cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Again the Lord said to Moses go down and solemnly charge the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes let them be ready for the third day for on the third day the Lord will descend upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around saying take heed to yourself that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain will surely die. Not a hand shall touch him but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow. Whether man or beast he shall not live. When the thunders the trumpets and the cloud depart from the mountain they shall ascend the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified them and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people be ready for the third day. Do not come near your wives. So it was that on the third day in the morning there was thundering and lightning and a dark cloud on Mount Sinai and the sound of the trumpet was very loud and all the people in the camp trembled and Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because God descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the people were exceedingly amazed and when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. Then God spoke to Moses go down and solemnly charge the people as they break through to gaze at God and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near the Lord sanctify themselves lest he destroy some of them. But Moses said to God the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you solemnly charged us saying set bounds around the mountain and sanctify it. The Lord then said to him go, go down and then come up you and Aaron with you but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to God lest the Lord destroy some of them. So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. Now the Lord spoke chapter 20. Now the Lord spoke all these words. So you get an idea of what's going on. There's shaking. There's trembling. The very ground on which their feet are is shaking. And there's a smoke coming up out of this mountain. And there's thunderings and there's lightnings and there's a trumpet sound that is just getting louder and louder. And then this is what God says. Now the Lord spoke all these words saying I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God recompensing the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, neither you nor your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, your cattle nor your strangers who sojourn with you. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and mother that it may be well with you and your days may be long upon the good land that the Lord your God has given you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his house, and neither shall you covet his field nor his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey, any of his cattle or whatever belongs to your neighbor. Now all the people witness the thundering and lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw this, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, You speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Be of good courage, for God has come to test you that His fear may be among you so that you may not sin. So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. It's much easier to read this than it would be to be there. I never felt the tremors of an earthquake. I've never witnessed a great explosion or something like that. Nothing. But even whatever, the Twin Towers crumbling, the earth quaking beside you, I don't think any of this is quite comparable to what happened here at Sinai. And then in the midst of this time when you're just struck with fear, you hear the voice of God. This would not be something to be taken lightly. Whatever He said here would not be something to dismiss the next day or any thousands of years later for that matter. I think what He spoke here, what God audibly spoke here, is a summary of what He then, from there, Moses went up into the mountain. Just Moses. And he talked with God. And God expounded on this. He told him a whole bunch of things pertaining to these things. And I think what God spoke audibly was the summary of what He then explained to Moses in much, much greater detail. And what was Ten Commandments there expanded into more. And as time went on, it expanded into more and more for that matter. But that's what I think those Ten Commandments were, is more or less a summary of what He then later told Moses. Because part of, not entirely at all, but one of the main things I'm focusing on in this series is the Sabbath, I just want to read part of what God would have expounded to Moses further. If we go ahead to chapter 31 in Exodus there, this is what He says. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, You shall direct the children of Israel saying, see to it that you keep my Sabbath for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath because this is holy for you to the Lord. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death for whoever works on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath, a holy rest to the Lord. Whoever works on the seventh day shall be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe them throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord created heaven and earth and on the seventh day He ceased and rested. Again, there's just not that much ambiguity there. This is an everlasting sign of a covenant with God. There may be, we might be left with questions, well, what consists of work? But the question whether God wants us to work, whether God was saying here that this is a day of rest, that's not really in question. At least if we just read this, right? Sure, but I want to expound on that later. But even that, who are we? Are we not the Israel of God? I agree that it's a covenant with the children of Israel, but we, the church, the New Testament says we are the Israel of God. But I know where you're going at and I agree with you. Okay, so we could wonder, well, okay, what consists of work? That's very fair, that's very... But you can read the Old Testament and it comes down to pretty minor stuff. If you gather sticks and kindle a fire, that was worthy of death. He did that on the Sabbath. If you gathered manna, you were violating the Sabbath. If you carried a burden, that was considered profaning the Sabbath. Remember those three. Kindling a fire, gathering, and carrying a burden, those are considered violations. We know already that that certainly rules out plowing and planting and harvesting and all those. Now, we might not know, you know, what all, but I'm not sure. All I know is that we're not supposed to kindle a fire. It was considered work on the Sabbath. This covenant was also confirmed by the sprinkling of blood. I'm not sure that it says that the tables of stone... Later, okay, God had spoke these Ten Commandments audibly and then later he wrote them into a table of stone. I'm not sure if the tables of stone got sprinkled with blood, but I know that when he got done with Moses and he got done expounding all this, like they killed animals, they offered up animals, they caught the blood, they sprinkled the people. There's not so much spoken about the seed here in this covenant, but remember this is still Abraham's seed. It still follows. It is God renewing his covenant with them and expanding it. Okay, in this first part of the message is mostly about covenants. There's one more. These are not the only covenants, but these five are the main covenants, I think. It's the covenant with Adam. It's the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, and the Davidic covenant. God made a covenant with David. I'll read a little bit out of 2 Samuel 7. Starting in verse 12, And it shall come about when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers. This is God. This is Nathan speaking to David what the Lord was saying to David. He says, It shall come to pass when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will prepare his kingdom and he shall build a house for my name and I will establish his throne forever. I will be a father to him and he shall be to me a son and if he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men, but I will not take my mercy from him as I took it from those whom I withdrew from my presence and his house will be made sure and this kingdom shall be forever. We see this covenant in David's psalms too, like in Psalm 89. He says, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. God is not a covenant breaker. He made these covenants with his people and he is not a covenant breaker. Maybe you children have been told that God can do everything or anything. That's not true. God cannot lie. God cannot die. God cannot break his covenants. We need to come to grips with some of these things. God made these covenants and man repeatedly broke them. God never broke one of them. He never has and he never will. He is still keeping his end of these covenants to this day. It's clear that all of them were everlasting covenants. Take note of the fact that all of them are a promise for a seed from the people that he made the promise with, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to David. Before I close this first part, I want to make mention of other promises. These are not the only promises that God made here in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 18, this is what he said. I think this one is really important. In verse 15 of chapter 18, remember what happened at Sinai. Remember what God told the people and what God told Moses and what Moses told the people. Now this is in Deuteronomy. This is toward the end of Moses' life here on earth. And this is what Moses says. He says, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear. According to all you asked from the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly saying, let us not hear again the voice of the Lord our God, nor let us see this great fire any more lest we die. Remember that's what they had said. We don't want to hear God any more. You, Moses, you talk to us. We'll listen to it. We're going to die if we keep hearing God. It says, The Lord said to me what they have spoken as well. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren and I will put my word in his mouth and he shall speak to them all I command him. It is pretty clear to me that Moses is not referring to an Isaiah or a Jeremiah or a Daniel. No, he's referring to someone like unto him who would come and who would say what the children of Israel said. Let's not hear it from God. Okay? A couple more promises and prophecies. In Genesis 49:10, when Israel was blessing his 12 sons, this is what he said of Judah. He said, The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from his loins until Shiloh comes. Take a little thought into that. There shall not depart a lawgiver from the loins of Judah until Shiloh comes. Moses is not from the line of Judah. He's from the line of Levi. Moses is not from Judah's loins. And yet here in this covenant that God made here, he is the lawgiver. He gave the law to Israel. And yet here is a prophecy that is already an indication there's something more about to happen. There's something different yet coming. Isaiah 2 has a very interesting prophecy. The more I think of this prophecy in Isaiah 2, the more I'm fascinated by it and what I think the fulfillment of it is. I'll probably get into the fulfillment of it in a later message. Isaiah 2:2-4 says, Now it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord and the house of God shall be visible on the tops of the mountains and exalted above the hills. All the Gentiles shall come to it. Many Gentiles shall travel and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will proclaim his way to us. And we shall walk in it for the law of the Lord shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between the Gentiles and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. I'm pretty sure we've all heard that and been familiar with it, but I just want to draw our attention again to this is many, many years after Mount Sinai. Neither is it at the same... This is in Israel. This is in the land that was called the land of Canaan, not out there in the wilderness of sin where Mount Sinai was. And he says, Out of here, out of Jerusalem, out of Zion shall go my law. And people from all over the Gentiles are going to say, Let's go up here to the mountain of the Lord where the law comes forth. Okay? That's another promise that is indicating something. Something is not yet full. There's something that is still lacking. In Isaiah 42, the first couple of verses is a very obvious prophecy of Jesus. Part of it says this, He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard on the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break and a smoking flax will he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait on his law. When it says the isles, I think it's maybe talking about the islands or the coastlands. Maybe it's just talking about the Gentiles in general. But still, there's this indication, there's this prophecy of this one who's going to come and we're waiting on his law. And perhaps, perhaps the greatest of these prophecies is in the book of Jeremiah where he says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord. He uses a term here that he's not used before. Okay? He says the days are coming when I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers. In the day that I took them by their hands and brought them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not abide in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will surely put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be as a God to them and they shall be my people. Each shall not teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their wrongdoings and I will no longer remember their sins. I think it's interesting there he says, Not like this other covenant where I took them by the hand Like, he's describing Israel at this time as like, they were like little babies, like little children who I had to take by the hand so they could get out. He says, I won't make that kind of covenant. The covenant I make is for my sons and my daughters, for people, he says. For people that I don't have to do that with. Right? Maybe saying not have to do with is not a good term, but he's gonna make a covenant that that will not be the procedure. I will not take you by the hand and basically drag you out of Egypt. Okay? All right. I'm gonna close there, but I want to make it clear. This is not the end of this message. Okay? In case, you know, in case, I think somebody could hear what I said today and either run away in a wrong direction or be concerned that I'm a false teacher, I just want to make it clear this is not the end of this message. I have only, I've only put a skeleton out there for you. We'll try to, we'll try to add, we'll try to add some meat to it later. God bless you and feel free to share if you have something. Yeah. Amen, brother. I'm gonna prophesy here. I think that that skeleton is gonna walk and talk one day. Anyways, I was really blessed. That was really good. I think I have some ideas where I think you're going with it and I think it's gonna be real edifying. I had one question for you was the word Brit or Brit. Did you, I wanted, I tried to look it up a little bit but in anywhere when you were looking it out, studying it out, did you see that it was related to circumcision? Yes. I found, I found what was in it strong to be a little confusing. Like it gave this, it gave this under, under definition it said something like it gave another word that said from, from I think compact and then it said something like they cut, they cut a whole piece of the flesh. I'm not super scholarly and I'm unable to tell whether it's saying the word is made up of words that do this or if they consider that the definition but I think, I had a friend of Bret's and he said the word that they use, that word would be used for, would that make sense? Right, right. Yeah, it's true. A lot of words, a lot of times when they have a piece and then over time they see the word being applied to a certain word it's like they take on the definition, the second definition by that application in the same way that some of them use the word that they use for the circumcision. Yeah, it's called a bris, right? Yeah. Yeah. A bris. I think some of them pronounce the T as an S. Bris. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't want to spoil too much but that's kind of what I was thinking was that it's going to be a new circumcision. Amen, Brother Dwayne and like Brother Tao I can't say anything. I know there's going to be more meat and porn meat and so whatever I say it will be, well, hold on the next time. Hold on for lesson three. Hold on. But I'll just briefly, briefly just say that amen, it was very profound brother and you did all your homework and we learned everything. I mean we can learn it more and more each time. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. But Hebrews 8 talks about if the first law had been perfect there'd be no need for entanglement so let you dwell on that. You know, everlasting, so many things that everlasting doesn't mean for a long time. Okay, Brother Darren, I got one for you, okay? Because I can't, Brother Brett, I couldn't figure it out. Thunders and lightnings you know, going through this all imaginary, the eye of imagination and it's a scary thing. Hebrews 12, thunders and lightnings and the trumpet is getting louder and louder. Who blew the trumpet? Darren, who do you think? I have to tap him to get the answer. Well, his opinion which I think is great. Joseph, who, go ahead Darren, who blew the trumpet? Yeah, I didn't know that. The angel blew the trumpet, right? I mean, the guy's not going to blow the trumpet. He's, he's already white as a ghost, right? I guess, I don't know, but yeah, the angel blew the trumpet. I guess that's what everyone's saying. I never thought of it. And anyway, okay, too little meat there. God made a covenant with Phineas later on, Numbers, you know, 25. He got that thing there. Mark that guy. Covenant forever. He made a covenant with the Rechabites, Jeremiah 35. You're not going to lose one man, so this is meat. He makes a lot of covenants. It's going to be interesting and exciting. The Lord be magnified. Okay, I'll just share a little bit about this word, Shiloh. First of all, I know we all like to encourage one another with, hey, amen, brother, that was great. I sincerely, enjoyed this message. Thank you very much. Spot on. Awesome. So yeah, so in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob's on his deathbed. He's about to die. He's prophesying on all of his 12 sons, the patriarchs of the 12 tribes. And as you pointed out with Judah, this part of that prophecy, really good, mentions this word, Shiloh. I think most scholars would agree. I kind of looked up the word in my Hebrew dictionary here. And so, Shiloh is basically a transliteration. In other words, we're taking the Hebrew word and basically doing our best with our alphabet to use the same pronunciation or whatever. But to us, it's like, Shiloh, what does that mean? And so, what the word seems to mean is his prosperity. And so, it makes me think of, it's like, so it says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a ruler from between his feet until, until what, and then I even saw that I think a lot of scholars would consider this to be a messianic title, this Shiloh, referring to the Messiah. So, but the word, the root of the word seems to have to do with prosperity, his prosperity, specifically the ending says his. So, I don't think it's a stretch of imagination to seem it's even suggesting, especially with the word scepter, shall not depart from Judah, of his kingdom. And it says, and the obedience of the people shall be his. Now that makes me think of Daniel chapter 7, which is one of my favorite passages, with verse 13, where it says, the son of man is brought before the ancient of days, and a kingdom and a dominion was conferred on him, I'm paraphrasing, so that every nation, language, and tribe would worship and obey him. And that's what this sounds like to me, so I just thought I would share that. Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you, brother, for sharing that. I knew Robert would beat me to it with the Phineas Covenant. I know you love it. I know it's zeal. I know. Yeah, that's... I was thinking about that one too, just the zeal he had for being righteous, and we need to bring that into our lives this day. And, yeah, I look forward to the next messages. I appreciate this message. I wondered about the statement you made, Dwayne, about... Oh, I'll probably mess it up. The Bible can't be followed from Genesis to Revelation. I just wondered if that needs a little more explanation. I don't know that I... I know where you're going with it. I probably agree with it, but I don't know... Yeah, I think that could be wrongly understood. But, yeah, it was good. It was edifying, and God bless you for that. Yeah, I appreciated the message too. You mentioned about... Well, it said about the children of Israel said they didn't want to hear the Word of God because they were afraid they'd die. So I had to think of in the New Covenant, unless we die, we can't hear it. So we need to die in the New Covenant to hear the Word of God. I was... One thing I was... Last night I was sitting at my computer, and I pushed on the messages of other messages. Then Joel came up in that tent meeting about riches, and I punched on that, and I was sitting there till... I don't know. It was an hour and a half message. The longer I sat there listening to them, the wider awake I got. I had a hard time to sleep by the time I was getting in bed after 12 o'clock sometime. So it was a real blessing to hear that about riches. How we need to forsake riches in this world to have them in eternity. I have a lot of things to do in my part to just pray for me that I can live the way I should. Yeah, I just wanted to thank both of you brothers for sharing. I didn't really have anything to add about the Samson story. Not much to add on the other either. I'm blessed with the idea of building something here. I don't know. Did you prophesy a tale about it walking? Did you say something like walking? The skeleton was going to walk and talk one day. I had thoughts like I hope he's going to not only have flesh but he's going to come to life. That was my thoughts. It's not really on the subject I don't think, but a kindling fire specifically means the best I can tell is start a fire. And I wondered if God would allow them to have a fire on Sundays but not start it. Because maybe it was hard work to start a fire back then. I'd have to do research on that to find that out. Because in all of the things I've seen it was not like... I know they took it then later on as not to have a fire I think. But I've wondered if that's originally how God felt about it. Just a thought. They were allowed to gather manna. It was Sunday. There wasn't any manna. But they were allowed to gather the day before. Right. So they couldn't gather on Sundays. They went out there and looked for it but God was displeased. And then they didn't gather on Saturdays on top of that. I think they didn't gather on Saturdays so Sunday morning they went out looking for some or Sabbath I should say. No, they didn't all do that. Anyways, I was thinking about Kindle but I just wondered if it would have been a pretty serious job to get a fire going from scratch. Just a thought I had about that. Yeah, I've been blessed. Thank you. Yeah, Natalie, I'm not sure what more to say about that. I do agree that maybe there could be more explanation. I accept from Genesis to Revelation as the canon that we call the Holy Scriptures. I totally accept that. But I think there is an illusion to the idea that we can actually be soul of Scripture. There's just something about that at least I felt that way with people that I've talked with that were pretty emphatic and kind of arrogant about the idea that I just go by the Scripture. Oh yeah? What do you go by? Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth? Or do you go by I say unto you who resist not evil? You know what I mean? If you say you follow the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation like what do you do with some of those? And I guess that's what I'm Okay, so the whole point of that is like I don't think we can like I don't think we can follow. I don't think we can obey it from Genesis to Revelation. If Peter and Paul would have said like what are you something like why are you binding things that neither we nor our fathers could keep? But we all have a platform on which we stand to interpret Scriptures. Anyway, I'll get into more of that later I guess. I think I have this from a converted Jew that I had as a as a young man took some Hebrew classes from but that people I don't know which Jews would they be Orthodox or what but this is just an interesting fact regarding kindling a fire that people who would be zealous to keep that law still now would not light a burner on a stove like that would be kindling a fire so like turning the knob on a on a stove would be breaking the Sabbath. And I think I don't know if this would be for the same reason but also like lighting a switch like flipping a switch to turn on lights so they would have somebody else do that for them like a Gentile or someone who's not keeping the law. I had this little thought on and I just to say I appreciated the message or the start of the message and appreciated the opening too. One of the I had a little thought on the opening here. It's quite remarkable how Samson's birth was predicted or announced by an angel I think. And then there in chapter 14 where it starts to talk about Samson having gone having seen saw a woman in Timnah and wanted to marry her and told his father that and he father and mother said is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren or among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines. And then Samson said get her for me for she pleases me well. And then the next verse is explains it I think it says but his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord. That this was of the Lord like this was not I mean that that stretches it stretches my it stretches the box that that I want to put God into and the the amount of liberty I want to give God to work things you know where I think God should work and how he should do things but I think I think it's it when I read this God was trying to to get or he was just using this to get occasion like to start said that Samson would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines and that that's ultimately like that's ultimately what he did. Anyway my thought was just that I think sometimes we can we can fail to see God working just because our the our our box is is a little too small and we we just can't see God being able to work in in a way that we're just seems to be outside of our comfort zone but that's all. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm Oh, to her tasks rise up and make her great, Stiff by the cross of Christ, tread where its feet have trod, As brothers of the Son of Man, rise up, O men of God. Harnoned be, O my God, that I a statue approach thee, Yet that which upon my tears did flow, was a remembrance of suffering. The brutal death of thy martyrs defense us hath altogether, Then a sun that filled the water and fire, to God's Lord in peace be bowing, There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake most holy. There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake, O my God. I'll bear my joy contemplation, as my dear confidants sing, In thy great grace I'll take up valiantly, through the strength in all foreseeing. How I often enwish them, to be a partaker with them, My soul with them to Britain and then, in the tribunal I stake them. There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake most holy. There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake, O my God. Patiently there I besought them, without being, saying or flinching, Suffer the sentence of death urging them, at the place of execution, Staple and stake, saying to them, find all of thee sisters brethren, But have a way till, and guide us with them, so break my love, and rock with them. There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake most holy. There to suffer and there to die, for thy name's sake, O my God.