How New Is The New Covenant?

[0:00] Today's sermon text is Jeremiah 31, starting at verse 29. As a point of reference, many of you are familiar with the story of Daniel and the Hebrews who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

[0:19] When they were growing up and still living in Jerusalem, they would have heard the warnings that God gave to national Israel through the prophet Jeremiah. But most in Israel would have rejected Jeremiah. They considered him a madman.

[0:32] And he was bringing only bad news that their kings did not want to hear. Because Israel did not repent, national Israel suffered the consequences of breaking God's law.

[0:43] And they were carried off into exile in Babylon. In this ministry, Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy pit and left for dead. He was rejected by his own people, being a prophet of God.

[0:57] Some have said that Jeremiah suffered more at the hands of the rulers of Israel and Jerusalem than any other prophet, except for the Lord Jesus Christ. So this word in this heavy, dark book of Jeremiah brings us some of the most glorious promises of God's enduring covenant faithfulness.

[1:18] How even though these people are so rebellious and they're trying to kill even the messenger, Jeremiah, that God will bring a new covenant. He will be faithful to his people.

[1:30] And let's hear this promise from Jeremiah 31, beginning at verse 29. This is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear and sufficient word. I'll say this is the word of the Lord. You can respond. Thanks be to God.

[1:43] Jeremiah 31, starting at verse 29. In those days they shall say no more.

[1:55] The fathers have eaten our sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

[2:10] Verse 31. Verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

[2:29] My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

[2:43] I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.

[2:58] For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day in the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the scene and its waves roar.

[3:16] The Lord of hosts is his name. If these ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me.

[3:29] Verse 37. Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.

[3:46] This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

[4:07] Let's pray. Lord, we believe that your word is powerful.

[4:28] Your word is alive. It's active and it's sharp. The word is the sword of the spirit. The word is the sword of the spirit. We pray that your Holy Spirit will take the word that you revealed and that you will pierce us, Lord, to the heart.

[4:44] Pray that you'll cut away our wrong understanding of you. And that with your word, Lord, you will prune us. You will make us to bear fruit that keeps with the covenant that Jesus cut in his blood.

[5:01] We know that on our own. We know that on our own. We have no strength, Lord. I confess that as the one standing before your people to minister your word, I have no strength, no words of my own.

[5:13] I pray for your help. I pray that you'll guard my lips. That what I preach to your people, Lord, will be edifying. That it will exalt Christ as the Lord of your people.

[5:24] We pray this for his sake alone. Amen. If a child gets adopted into a new family, one of the first things they need to figure out is how is this family the same or how is this family different from what I'm used to?

[5:49] In our training to be foster parents, completing all those courses for certification, it's heartbreaking to learn the different types of backgrounds and families that children in the foster care system come out of.

[6:00] One of the common mistakes the new foster families make is that when a child arrives with their black trash bag full of all their belongings in life, the family wants right away to take all the belongings out of that black trash bag and put them away and then throw that old ugly black trash bag away because you're home now.

[6:20] But it's it's very comforting to the child to know these are all of my possessions. And if I have to run away from this home, I have everything I need right here in this black bag.

[6:31] So the counsel to the families receiving a child out of the foster care system is be respectful and understanding of that. Let the child keep their belongings in this trash bag.

[6:42] Let them keep everything right where they have it, where they're used to it, because they've had such bad experiences before this. Let them just feel safe in your home. All of us who are born as a human being from the line of Adam and Eve, we are under the curse of Adam, the federal head.

[7:03] We have a baggage, trash that we inherited. And if Jesus has saved you and by the power of his spirit has transferred you from the domain of darkness into his kingdom of light, and he's baptized you with the name of the triune God, you belong to him.

[7:22] We're sorting that out. How new is it to belong to God? How much baggage do I bring with me? Am I really at home here?

[7:32] Or will God have a mood and want to kick me out of his family? Well, my message for you today is about the new covenant that Jesus says he cut in his own blood.

[7:46] And the question I want to walk through is how new is the new covenant? That's the title of today's sermon. How new is the new covenant? This is part one of two.

[7:57] So next week we'll be approaching this new covenant from the New Testament. But we want to understand what God had promised leading up to the finished work of Christ. And so the prophecy of the new covenant, it comes in the old covenant in many places, but nowhere more clearly than in Jeremiah 31.

[8:14] What we just read is our sermon text. To the people of God is promised a new covenant. And I want to see now, what does God say to the people of Israel in Jeremiah 31 about this new covenant that should set their expectation for how new it will be?

[8:32] The first observation in verse 29 is that the children of believers will stand on their own in the new covenant. In the new covenant, the children of believers will stand on their own.

[8:46] Let's understand this first in the context of Israel. Israel as a nation was in a covenant with God, but it was a covenant based on works. Moses gave the law from Sinai.

[8:57] And if national Israel, a sufficient number in national Israel, obeyed God's law, the whole nation would enjoy blessings in the land. The iniquities of the fathers was upon the children in this covenant of works, but also were the blessings.

[9:15] In other words, if your parents were part of a generation that feared God, the next generation could be very spoiled, take it for granted, and still get to enjoy living in the land.

[9:26] And that was the pattern for national Israel. In verse 29, we're told, In those days, referring to a future day that will come, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, but now the principle is going to change.

[9:46] In the old covenant, when the parents sin, the children's teeth get set on edge. But in the new, he says, In those days, in verse 30, Everyone shall die for his own iniquity.

[9:57] Every man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. So he's creating a distinction relating to the children of believers. He's using some Hebrew prophetic idioms here that we need to explain to even be able to interpret this correctly.

[10:12] What does it mean for your tooth to be set on edge or to eat a sour grape? A sour grape refers to the vineyard of God and the vineyard being the people of God not bearing the fruit that is pleasing to the owner of the vineyard.

[10:31] To eat a sour grape is to take something that is displeasing to God and receive it for yourself, grab it for yourself as a sweet morsel.

[10:43] It's to see a grape that you know is not pleasing to God and to consume it. Sin is treason against God. Sin is a sour grape.

[10:57] John Gill applied this to the church. He said, Sin, though it may be esteemed a sweet morsel, is always a sour grape because it's always committing treason against the owner of the vineyard.

[11:08] What does it mean for your teeth to be set on edge? I had to do a little study on this one. So think of your tooth like this.

[11:18] If you put your hand out like this and you've got the top of your arm with your fingers being your tooth like this, if you hit the top of your arm, it's a sharp edge. But if your tooth were set on edge and you try to cut something, it won't cut.

[11:31] It's blunt. So for your teeth to be set on edge, it means that your teeth are worn down. It's the dull side of the tooth that's blunt.

[11:44] It means that you have been gnashing your teeth so much that your teeth are now flat. So he says in the Old Covenant, the parents' sin and the children's teeth are set on edge.

[12:02] The sins of the parents in national Israel are going to bring curses and a miserable life for the children. So the generation in Israel that won't listen to the prophet Jeremiah is bringing curses on the next generation.

[12:16] They're going to get carried away into exile because of the sins of their fathers. That's the pattern in the Old Covenant. But notice the change. He says in those days, in a future covenant, the New Covenant, your standing will not be based on your parents' works or obedience, blessing or curse.

[12:34] It will be based on your own standing, your own obedience or rebellion against God. Look at verse 30 one more time. Everyone shall die for his own iniquity.

[12:47] If you have gnashing of the teeth and your teeth are blunt and grinded down from the misery of your sin, you don't get to turn and blame it on your parents. You stand on your own.

[12:59] This is a big change. Children of believers in those days will stand on their own. In John chapter 8 verse 24, Jesus says, I told you that you would die in your sins if you do not believe in me.

[13:18] You will indeed die in your sins. In those days, each one within national Israel must believe for themselves in Jesus Christ if they are to be part of the people of God and receive the blessings of Christ.

[13:34] So in the new covenant, in those days that he's describing as a future time, your blessing or curse is not based on whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, whether you're in the land or you're in exile like Daniel, or whether your parents are pagans or believers.

[13:51] You must believe in Jesus Christ, your God and Savior personally. That's the first observation. Children of believers stand on their own in the new covenant.

[14:06] Do you see what I see in that? Are you with me still? Second observation. The terms of the new covenant are not according to those of the old.

[14:19] The terms of the new covenant are not according to those of the old. Let's read verses 31 and 32 together. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.

[14:39] In that day, I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

[14:50] The old covenant was made according to a certain pattern and principle. But he says in the new covenant, my covenant with my people in the new covenant will not be according to that same principle.

[15:05] Well, what was the principle of the old before we see the contrast with the new? The pattern of the old covenant, we get in Genesis 17, verses 10 through 12.

[15:16] God says to Abraham, this is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep. Every male among you shall be circumcised, the sign of my covenant.

[15:30] So the fact that you are related to Abraham by blood means that you're going to receive the sign of the covenant. It had nothing to do in the person receiving the sign, nothing in them in the old covenant.

[15:46] It was simply from here. You're from the line of Abraham. Ethnically, biologically, you're of Abraham. You get the sign of the covenant. That was the principle in the old covenant. But he said in verse 22, the new covenant will not be according to the covenant that I made.

[16:01] It'll be different. It'll work on a different principle. He says he will establish a covenant, the covenant that national Israel broke, and it will be according to other terms based on a different principle.

[16:17] What is that principle? Well, that's what he's going to explain in the rest of the verses of our sermon text. He says in verse 33, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

[16:32] God kept his word. National Israel received Jesus Christ. And God says, I make this covenant with Israel that everyone who will receive Jesus Christ as the promised seed, promised to Abraham.

[16:48] And if you believe in him from national Israel, this promise is for you. In Romans 1 16, Paul calls this the gospel, the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

[17:07] So God is true to his word. This new covenant is given to Israel first, and all who are appointed to eternal life in Israel will receive Christ as the fulfillment of this promise.

[17:19] It's much better than the old covenant. And it's not based on who your parents are. It's based on whether you receive Jesus Christ for yourself. So the terms of the new covenant are not according to those of the old.

[17:35] Third observation. You belong to the old covenant externally. If you're born in national Israel, your dad, being a male Israelite, would have received the sign of that covenant.

[17:48] He would have been circumcised. So you could belong to national Israel, being covenant with God, and have that sign of the covenant, the circumcision in the old covenant.

[18:00] But he says in the new covenant, you can't belong externally. You will belong to the new covenant only by what God does in your mind and in your heart.

[18:12] Look at verse 33. Thus says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

[18:27] It's not an external sign any longer. The new covenant is put to the inner man. God writes it on your mind, puts it on your heart.

[18:38] Romans 2.25 says, If you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If you claim to be in God's covenant in the church, and you pretend like you're a believer, that you're saved, but you live a life of sin, of treason to God, just eating sour grapes, it doesn't matter who your parents were.

[19:02] It doesn't matter if you're a Jew. It doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not, because that's what the early church was trying to decide. How new is the new covenant? What matters is if you are united to Christ, because if you are united to Christ, you are a new creation.

[19:17] The old has gone away. If you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. The external sign does not dictate whether you're truly in the covenant.

[19:31] If by God's grace, you were born to parents that God saved, you do have many blessings. If you're born into a household that loves the Lord and fears the Lord, if even one of your parents can say, I'm a saved sinner, you have so many blessings.

[19:49] These are the parents who will bring you to church. These are the parents who will forgive you as God forgave them. These are parents who will read God's word to you and pray for you and teach you to hide God's word in your heart that you may not sin against God.

[20:03] And through these parents, God can minister the saving gospel. But having Christian parents does not put you in covenant with God. There is no grace mediated through parents.

[20:17] Ultimately, Christ is the only mediator between God and man. So we have many blessings of being in a Christian household. No one can be born into the covenant of grace.

[20:30] You need to be transferred from Adam to Christ. You need to be taken as a slave under Satan and darkness and made a citizen under King Jesus and the new covenant.

[20:44] Martin Luther continued that practice of the Roman Catholic Church of baptizing infant children of believers. But his theology was correct that he called his children little heathens.

[20:56] This is not a sermon against children. We love children very much. We love them so much. We don't want to give them false assurance. We want to preach the full gospel. You need Christ.

[21:08] You and I were born as heathens. And just like being baptized in the Roman Empire didn't make you any less pagan or citizen of the Roman Empire, we don't want our children to have the idea that because my parents love God and fear him, I got a ticket.

[21:23] You stand on your own. You cannot belong to the covenant externally only. It must be a work God does in your heart and in your mind.

[21:38] Colossians 1.13 All the little heathens as we're born need to be delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God's love.

[21:50] When the New Testament talks to children in the church and saying, Children, obey your parents in the Lord. These are letters to the church. Yes, children are part of the gathered congregation. But if you're not in Christ for yourself, you receive that as the law.

[22:06] Children, obey your parents in the Lord. And you think, I didn't obey my mom just this morning. I'm a sinner. I need a savior. So it's a blessing that you can hear the law of God within the congregation.

[22:19] Just like we remind ourselves of God's moral law every week because it drives us back to the cross. The covenant of grace is made between God the Father and God the Son.

[22:33] And with all of God's elect in Christ as his seed. If you are in Christ, you are the seed of Christ. And if you are in Christ, you receive all the blessings that God gave to the church through Christ.

[22:50] But the only souls in the covenant of grace are those to whom the redemption that Christ purchased has applied by the Holy Spirit. You cannot be in the covenant of grace unless God the Holy Spirit applies redemption to you.

[23:06] because you belong to the old covenant externally, but to the new covenant, you can only belong by the work God does in your mind and in your heart.

[23:18] Fourth observation about the new covenant is that God mediated the old covenant by sinful men, but the new by God, the Son himself. The old covenant God mediated.

[23:31] He had someone stand in between God and man, which was Moses. In Deuteronomy, the people begged, please don't let God give us the law directly. It's terrifying. We will die if we have to hear the law from God directly.

[23:43] So God rose up Moses as a mediator to stand between God and the people to give them the law. But in the new covenant, there's no other mediator except Jesus Christ himself.

[23:57] Our sermon text was written to national Israel, Jeremiah 31. In the non-Jews in the church era, 1 Corinthians 10, 11, are told this, that the history of God redeeming Israel happened as an example for you.

[24:18] They were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages has come. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul's telling the church, when you read about what God did with national Israel, that is for you, for your good.

[24:33] God made promises and a covenant to national Israel. And God has kept his word and he will keep his word. But those promises are also for you to learn from, to admonish the church, which includes Gentiles.

[24:45] And so what is it that the church needs to learn about this promise in Jeremiah 31? Let's look at verse 34. In this new covenant, God says, No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.

[25:08] How can sinners know God? God says, For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. They shall all know me in the new covenant, from the least to the greatest.

[25:26] You don't need a priest. You don't need Moses. You don't need a pastor mediating God to you. In the new covenant, you will know God directly. Christ is the great high priest.

[25:38] He is the mediator. And you know God. You know God himself when you know Jesus Christ in the new covenant. Some of you might be thinking, What does this passage in Jeremiah 31 have to do with me or with the church?

[25:56] How do you know this is referring to the new covenant that Jesus cut? And some of you maybe have Hebrews 8 memorized, but if you don't or if you want to see it with your own eyes, turn to Hebrews chapter 8.

[26:12] You just need to know it's not a pastor up here trying to twist something from the Old Testament and make it be about the church. Well, Hebrews 8 is most likely Timothy's sermon notes of the sermons preached by Paul.

[26:32] And in Hebrews 8, starting at verse 7, he writes, For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second, because finding fault with them, he says.

[26:51] Put another way, the covenant God made through Moses and national Israel found fault in the people of God. it exposed their ability to keep God's law by their own flesh and by their own strength.

[27:06] So having exposed their need for a savior, he says, this is Hebrews 8, verse 8, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.

[27:19] And if you notice, this entire passage all the way to the end of verse 12 is word for word Jeremiah 31. The application of the new covenant to the church is given in Hebrews 8.

[27:34] All that the apostle has to say next is verse 13. In what he says, a new covenant he has made the first obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

[27:48] With the finished work of Christ, there is no more mediator. Church received this promise of Jeremiah 31 as fulfilled in Christ.

[27:59] And this new covenant that fulfills what God told Abraham, through you all the nations will be blessed. How can that be? Well, from the line of Abraham and David comes Jesus Christ and he is truly God, truly man, the mediator of the new covenant.

[28:15] Now the ceremonial law, the judicial law, they're obsolete. They've faded away. They have no more bearing on God's people to bring a curse on them, to expose how they are covenant breakers.

[28:27] No longer. Instead, Christ is the only mediator and this covenant is not a covenant of works, it's a covenant of grace. To be very specific, parents, you may not mediate the covenant of grace in Christ's place to your children.

[28:48] Some of you are saying, well, hold on, didn't Peter say in Acts 2, 39, this promise is for you and your children. Yes. In fact, let's turn there. Let's turn to Acts chapter 2.

[29:01] If you can turn in your Bible to the New Testament after the Gospels, the book of Acts chapter 2, and let's read exactly what Peter says to the church about the promise.

[29:15] Acts 2, verse 39. Verse 39. Peter preached, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and to your children, to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

[30:02] So parents, you can preach the Gospel to your children, and you can encourage them. The promise of salvation is for you. It's for you who will receive the gracious offer of Christ to save you by His blood.

[30:16] And it's not only for you who are children of believers or who are ethnic Jews, it's also for those who are far off to the islands and the coastlands, as many as the Lord our God will call.

[30:32] That's who will receive. That's who will respond in repentance. And the church affirms that and praises the Lord and celebrates that with baptism. So the gracious promise of salvation in Christ is offered freely, genuinely to all.

[30:50] And it will be received by as many as the Lord our God will call by the application of that promise to their heart by the Holy Spirit. Matthew 27, 25 is a connection I hadn't seen until this week.

[31:07] Peter is saying the promise is for you and your children. And think about who Peter's audience was. These were the same Jews, the great crowd that had cried crucify him. And Pilate said I wash my hand this man's innocent.

[31:21] And in Matthew 27, verse 25 listen to what the Jewish crowd says. May his, Jesus' blood be on us and our children. They brought on a curse on themselves and their children.

[31:34] They're eating these sour grapes saying crucify him. And it's their children who they're cursing by rejecting the very son of God. And Peter stands and tells them no, this promise is for you and your children.

[31:50] Turn to the Savior Jesus Christ and be washed of your sin. Your children too can be blessed. And as many as are far off through you national Israel will all nations be blessed and all those that are regenerated or engrafted in they are the seed of Jesus Christ.

[32:08] who is in the new covenant? It's all those who receive the promise of grace through faith in Christ who repent of unbelief because the spirit regenerated them and they are united to Jesus.

[32:23] That's what's symbolized in baptism. You're forgiven of your sins. You've received the Holy Spirit. It's not based on whether you're in the land.

[32:35] It's also for you who are far off. It's not based on being born into a Christian home or being part of the church or being considered a citizen of the Roman Empire.

[32:46] That's not what makes you in the new covenant. It's as many as the Lord will call because no one can mediate the new covenant of grace except Christ himself. Well, the fifth observation is that man could break the old covenant but the promised seed himself secures the new.

[33:07] Man could break the old covenant. It says it right there in our sermon text. The covenant which you broke. But the promised seed himself is the one who secures the new covenant.

[33:19] Let's look at verse 35 through 37. Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for a light by day the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night who disturbs the sea and its waters roar.

[33:33] The Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances the sun the moon the tides if those ordinances were to depart from before me says the Lord in other words if God were no longer sovereign over all his creation then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me.

[33:52] It's not going to happen. God will never stop being sovereign over his creation and never will the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before him. Thus says the Lord of heaven above if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath only then would I cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done says the Lord.

[34:16] He's saying you want to know how much better the new covenant is how gracious how secure you are if you're in the new covenant no matter how bad national Israel has been this new covenant will be secured just as I secure the orderliness of my creation just as you can't measure the expanse or the depths of the ocean that's how unfathomable my covenant faithfulness is to you.

[34:44] He's saying I could cast off or throw away or break ties with and banish forever the Israelites of Jeremiah's generation for all the sins that they have committed against me.

[34:55] God has every right to do that. They are covenant breakers but God says I won't do that just like you can't understand how deep the earth is and how to measure the distance between an expanding galaxy so you can't understand my covenant faithfulness that I will I will be faithful to the seed of Israel.

[35:18] Well now we need to understand who is this seed to whom God will be so faithful. We have three options. One it's the biological seed of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob ethnic Israelites today.

[35:35] You can be a Christian and believe this. Second option is that this refers to the Christians now and their children today. If you think that the church has replaced national Israel then it's the children of believers who are seeds the seed promises are fulfilled ultimately in Christ but also then to biological children or third that Jesus Christ is the capital promised seed.

[36:07] Let's let the Bible interpret the Bible for us and would you please turn to Galatians 3 New Testament Galatians chapter 3 who is the promised seed?

[36:23] Galatians chapter 3 and verse 16 Galatians 3 16 Paul is writing to the church which was disputing this very thing should Gentiles be circumcised because that's the sign of the old covenant?

[36:51] who are God's promises for? By the inspiration of the Spirit Paul writes now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he does not say and to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed here it is underline this if you haven't already your seed who is Christ in this Abrahamic covenant God is promising blessings to Christ and through Christ to all of Christ's seed man could break the old covenant but this promise seed Jesus Christ he himself secures the new covenant well for today the last thing I want to encourage you with is this you are secure if you are in Christ in the new covenant how secure?

[38:00] how secure are you if you are in Christ's new covenant? I just have four for today in the new covenant Christ himself holds you secure because Jesus Christ undid the curse of Adam Romans 5 17 since by one man Adam's offense death reigned over all much more you who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness have life through the one Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ undid the curse of Adam for all those who are in his covenant of grace how secure are you in his new covenant?

[38:43] well Christ holds you fast because he signed your adoption papers with his blood John 1 12 says as many as received Jesus Christ to them he gave the right to be children of God to those who believe in his name 1 John 3 1 behold what manner of love is this the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God the seed promises fulfilled in Christ extend to all those who believe in Christ first through Israel then for the nations how secure are you in Christ's new covenant?

[39:23] Christ holds you fast in his covenant of grace because the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of you who believe Romans 8 15 you have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ how secure are you in Christ's new covenant?

[39:55] God promised in Jeremiah 31 verses 35 and 36 as stable as I have made the course of the sun the cycle of the moon the placement of the stars the movement of the waters of the oceans so stable is my promise to you just as I show you my sovereignty over all creation so I will sovereignly keep you by my power in my covenant of grace through Jesus Christ you shall never depart from me says the Lord my promised seed God the son who took on flesh to be your mediator Jesus Christ has secured you for himself you belong to him and if you belong to Christ you shall never cease from being his people you are the people of God before you in Christ God has a kingdom a nation and you are firm secure in his hand he says just as heaven cannot be measured nor the foundations of the earth searched out beneath so you

[41:04] Christian can trust that God will never cast off any who are his children through Jesus Christ that's how secure you are in the new covenant well for many of you I hope this is comforting you are not in a covenant of works you are not that orphaned foster child that needs to fear being kicked out of the home or having to grab all your belongings and run one more time you're in a covenant of grace the principle is different it's not based on your works or the works of your family you are secured by Jesus Christ himself he came under the law his own law and he fulfilled all of it on your behalf so that you could be a co-heir with him in his father's home you are secure in Jesus Christ praise him for his new covenant of grace and every time we come to the

[42:04] Lord's Supper you remember your adoption papers are signed with his own blood let's spend some time praying in response to the gospel you've heard today good thank you my God let's have a approximately stop pom amazing God哲学 joins