WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.720 You who don't know me may kind of be curious what does he seem kind of worked up about. 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:16.359 ! Just bear with me. I'll get over it here in just a minute. But I'm listening to you guys 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:29.980 sing and it's just like, wow! I love it. People who know Jesus and are happy with him, they 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:37.439 have every reason to make a lot of noise. Would you agree with that? And I have to tell 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:47.920 you, listening to you pour out your heart is just like, that's good. Okay, my job is to 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:57.179 preach. Your job is to pray. And our singular ambition is to see Jesus lifted up. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:05.219 So we're going to reverse the order just for a minute. I'm going to pray and you're going 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:09.239 to pray. And then we're going to open up the book and we're just going to have our hearts 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:11.439 lifted by the Spirit of God. Let's pray. 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:21.959 Precious Father, this morning for us, prayer is not just a routine or an obligation. It 00:01:21.959 --> 00:01:33.059 is the cry of a soul that is thankful and dependent on you. The Scriptures make it clear that apart 00:01:33.059 --> 00:01:40.119 from the Lord Jesus, we can do nothing. And so we confess that it is absolutely beyond our 00:01:40.119 --> 00:01:46.439 capacity this morning to allow the precious glory of the Word of God to make any different 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:54.700 at all in our lives apart from your Spirit. And so this morning we would ask that you would 00:01:54.700 --> 00:02:03.640 kindle in us a sincere longing to see Jesus lifted up, to see Him as the fulfillment of 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:13.960 your promises, as the satisfaction of our soul, and to allow those truths to make a significant 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:17.479 difference in the lives that we live in the week to come. 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:27.419 We're thankful, Father, also for the fact that we can pray together, your people, for the man 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:35.319 that you have set for this hour before them. And I'm thankful that as I come to this pulpit, 00:02:35.399 --> 00:02:43.439 that I can rely upon the prayers of your people to make the Word clear, to enable an earthen vessel 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:50.939 that the Lord Jesus Christ who enjoys the worship of heaven would be worshiped justly here among us. 00:02:56.219 --> 00:03:03.379 We pray, Father, also this morning for those that are here whose hearts are far from you, 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:13.120 believers who have allowed the cares of this world to interfere with that which is their blessing today, 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:23.079 and the absolute glory of heaven tomorrow. Help us to make the worship of Christ of preeminent importance, 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:31.680 superseding all other things, not only in this moment and time that we have together as a body of believers, 00:03:32.060 --> 00:03:38.060 but in every moment that we breathe until you take us home, until we see you. 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:43.539 Amen. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:52.920 Well, I don't know how many times I've actually had you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:57.060 and I'm not going to do it this morning just out of habit. I mean, I've done it so many times, 00:03:57.099 --> 00:04:01.539 it's like you know where we're going. It's already on the screen. But I am going to make a reference 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:06.599 just briefly to a statement that is made in that passage, and then we're going to step to a different 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:16.860 text. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and we probably know it more or less by heart, after Jesus had 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:24.259 gotten midstream in the Passover meal, it says that He took the bread and He took the cup. 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:32.480 He broke the bread and said, this is my body, which is for you. And then He took the cup, 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:42.599 and He said something rather interesting, that in the ear of the Jewish listener had to be very 00:04:42.599 --> 00:04:54.079 significant and stunning. He referred to that cup as being the new covenant in His blood. 00:04:54.259 --> 00:05:01.199 And so with that thinking from 1 Corinthians, which I want you to recognize, it's so very easy to go 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:07.480 through the process of coming to the Lord's table and partaking of it and really just kind of skimming 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:13.300 over it. And one of the reasons why in our fellowship, we never come to the Lord's table 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:20.219 without setting the entire service apart for that. It's not an add-on. It's not kind of something at the 00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:25.820 end that you can kind of have done in two seconds or three seconds and out the door you go. And, 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:33.360 well, I did have communion. For us, communion is a central feature in our study and, more importantly, 00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:39.300 in our affection for the Lord Jesus. And so I want you to think about this issue of the new covenant, 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:43.560 and to do so, I want you to turn back just for a moment to Luke chapter 22. 00:05:45.340 --> 00:05:49.680 I want to read the passage to you, Luke chapter 22, beginning there in verse 17. 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:52.480 And He took a cup, and when He'd given thanks, He said, 00:05:52.840 --> 00:05:57.819 Take, eat, or take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:01.340 I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 00:06:02.139 --> 00:06:05.379 And He took the bread, and when He'd given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 00:06:05.379 --> 00:06:14.420 This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup, 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:25.920 after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:30.620 Now, I want you to think with me just for a moment, kind of use a little bit of sanctified 00:06:30.620 --> 00:06:35.000 imagination and kind of pick up on the background of what we're talking about this morning. 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:40.500 Here is Jesus. Remember that when He gave instructions to His disciples, 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:47.740 in their thinking, they were celebrating the Passover. And the Passover was a very, very significant, 00:06:48.300 --> 00:06:57.199 and it was a very occupying worship and celebration. People engaged in the Passover, 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:03.019 and it was something that they planned for in advance. They came together. It was just a huge 00:07:03.019 --> 00:07:08.180 celebration. It put probably Thanksgiving and Christmas for all of us kind of over on the 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:14.259 shelf in comparison. And when the Jews celebrated the Passover, it was something that they really put 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:18.300 their hearts into. And here's Jesus telling His disciples, We're going to celebrate the Passover, 00:07:18.539 --> 00:07:23.839 and they all into that. And here they are going through the traditional Passover meal. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:33.519 And in the middle of it, Jesus takes bread, and He completely changes the course of what that meal 00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:42.459 in their thinking must have meant. Not only did He speak about the bread in relationship to being His 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:48.159 body, which is for them, but then He steps forward even further, and look at what He said there in 00:07:48.159 --> 00:07:53.159 verse 20. And likewise, the cup after they'd eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you 00:07:53.160 --> 00:08:06.120 is the new covenant. How many of you know that Jews tend to think of themselves as B'nai B'rith? 00:08:06.760 --> 00:08:11.940 How many of you have ever paid attention to the word B'nai B'rith? Does anybody besides Caleb know 00:08:11.940 --> 00:08:19.620 what B'nai B'rith means? Tom, do you remember? Seminary was a long time ago, right? B'nai B'rith means 00:08:19.620 --> 00:08:27.220 sons of the covenant. And what covenant were they referring to when they would recite themselves 00:08:27.220 --> 00:08:33.560 or they would identify themselves as B'nai B'rith? They were talking about the covenant that God had 00:08:33.560 --> 00:08:37.320 made with Abraham, and more particularly, the covenant that God had made with the nation of 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:43.720 Israel on Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments. And what kind of covenant was that? That was a covenant 00:08:43.720 --> 00:08:51.680 that was similar to the covenants you and I make when we buy a car or buy a house, and we don't have 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:56.660 a lump sum that matches the total. You know, you decide you're going to buy a house, and so what do 00:08:56.660 --> 00:09:06.160 you do? You sign a covenant in which you say, I am going to make thus and so on a monthly payment 00:09:06.160 --> 00:09:12.160 until I have satisfied the expectation. At the end of satisfying that, what do you get, 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:18.000 particularly when you buy a car? How many of you like having free and clear titles? 00:09:19.139 --> 00:09:23.699 Okay. Sometimes you have to kind of stretch to get there, but then you end up with that title. 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:27.299 Don't leave it in the glove box in case you're wondering. It's something that you should hold 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:34.699 on to a little more than that. But as a result of that mutually agreed on relationship, you do your 00:09:34.699 --> 00:09:41.299 part, the bank does its part, and basically they let you drive it until you own it. It's a covenant 00:09:41.299 --> 00:09:49.120 in which both parties have certain responsibilities. The bank says, yes, I will loan you, and you say, 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:58.479 yes, I will make my payments. Mutual covenants are an example of the kind of covenant that the 00:09:58.479 --> 00:10:03.819 Old Testament saint understood in the Ten Commandments. You do your part, I'll do my part. 00:10:03.820 --> 00:10:09.840 And in the passage that we're looking at here, when Jesus said, 00:10:10.780 --> 00:10:21.620 this cup is the new covenant in my blood, he was saying something that really kind of struck the ears 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:28.820 of his listeners. For one thing, the Mosaic covenant had been an absolute bust for Israel. Israel had sworn 00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:35.620 to obey and love God, but they'd failed miserably in their promise. Every Jew knew what was expected 00:10:35.620 --> 00:10:41.500 of them in the old covenant, the covenant that Moses had made. And yet, when they looked back over their 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:46.879 own lives and they looked back over the nation, they recognized that they had been an abject failure in 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:54.080 every aspect of it. And so here was Jesus speaking that night on the night in which they celebrated the 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:59.660 Passover, where God had taken them out of the place, the nation of Egypt, he says to them, hey, listen, 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:08.440 this is the new covenant. Not a, but the new covenant. And I want you to keep your finger there 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:15.280 in Luke, because we're going to come back to it, but turn back to the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 31, 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:25.459 1, we find the prophet giving a very encouraging word to the nation of Israel in the face of their 00:11:25.459 --> 00:11:33.839 abject failure in keeping the covenant, the old covenant. In Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31, 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:39.659 here is what God says to the prophet, and he communicates to his people, behold, the days are coming, 00:11:39.659 --> 00:11:47.199 declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of 00:11:47.199 --> 00:11:54.419 Judah. He says, I'm going to make another, a new, something different, a covenant with you that is 00:11:54.419 --> 00:11:58.839 going to be different than the covenant that you and I have already made and you have failed miserably 00:11:58.839 --> 00:12:05.860 to keep. It's not like the covenant, verse 32, that I made with their fathers on the day when I took 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:12.240 them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:17.200 their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:23.840 after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:29.860 and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor 00:12:29.860 --> 00:12:35.180 and his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, 00:12:35.179 --> 00:12:41.419 declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. 00:12:42.079 --> 00:12:47.299 Now, one of the things I would encourage you to do for the sake of your further edification and study 00:12:47.299 --> 00:12:53.919 on a periodic basis is that you may want to make a note in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. So the next time 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:59.859 you see that little phrase, this is the cup of the new covenant that you think about that passage in 00:12:59.860 --> 00:13:07.560 Jeremiah. And allowing that passage to inform your thinking when you come to this table is part of 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:15.060 what God wants us to be engaged in as we worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Now go back, if you will, again 00:13:15.060 --> 00:13:21.980 to the passage there in Luke chapter 22 and understand that when he made this statement, 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:30.279 this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, he was reminding his Jewish 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:37.159 listeners of something that they remembered in terms of prophetic utterance. But here was Jesus saying, 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:44.879 I, I am the one who is the fulfillment of the new covenant and is the one who is going to satisfy it. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:50.740 I have to tell you that that had to be a pretty significant and stunning blow to the disciples. 00:13:50.740 --> 00:13:56.980 Pause just for a moment. How well did the disciples do with getting basic spiritual truth the first 00:13:56.980 --> 00:14:02.419 pass? What's the answer? Not very well. You know, they had right over top of them and they kind of 00:14:02.419 --> 00:14:08.440 missed it and on they went. But here was Jesus at the time they were celebrating the Passover. He said, 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:14.620 this cup is the cup of the new covenant that I am making in my blood. So I want you to think with me 00:14:14.620 --> 00:14:19.460 just for a moment about the characteristics of the new covenant and kind of hold on to those as you 00:14:19.460 --> 00:14:25.100 think about what we're going to be engaged in here in a couple of minutes. What were the significant 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:31.480 promises of the new covenant? What were the characteristics? For one, the new covenant 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:39.440 promised transformation. The new covenant promised transformation. If you were to go back again, 00:14:39.920 --> 00:14:44.180 keep your finger there in Luke because we're going to come back to it, but go back again to Jeremiah 00:14:44.179 --> 00:14:51.199 chapter 31 and mark what it says in verse 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of 00:14:51.199 --> 00:14:56.519 Egypt, my covenant that they broke. He says, this is what I'm going to do. I am going to put my law 00:14:56.519 --> 00:15:02.679 within you. I'm going to write it on your heart. How many of you recognize that you have a heart that 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:08.659 has some problems? I'm not talking about the physiological problems that you have with your heart. 00:15:08.979 --> 00:15:13.099 I remember last week I was sitting in a doctor's office and the nurse took my blood pressure and my pulse 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:17.680 and she was counting. How many of you know that when the nurse is trying to count, it's not a good 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:26.779 idea to talk? She has to start over and over if you call. So she was counting, counting, counting, 00:15:26.920 --> 00:15:33.440 counting. Finally, she looked up and I said, it's below 60. Right? That's not the heart we're talking 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:38.940 about. We're talking about that little nasty thing inside of you that is giving you all the problems 00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:45.300 that you had this morning and the day before and the day before that. It's the heart that is deceitful 00:15:45.300 --> 00:15:50.460 above all things and desperately wicked. Isn't that right? How many of you have been utterly surprised 00:15:50.460 --> 00:15:57.820 at just how wicked and ungodly other people can act on occasion? And then you stop and think, yeah, 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:03.680 I can do that. I don't need practice. Here is what 00:16:03.680 --> 00:16:12.540 God promised His people. He says, listen, I am going to work to bring about transformation into your life. 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:19.240 I'm going to give you a new heart. Jeremiah chapter 32, verse 39 and 40, just to look forward a little bit, 00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:25.940 here's what it says. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for their own 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:32.120 good and the good of their children. God is saying this, here's what I'm going to do for you as a 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:40.020 result of my grace. I am going to give you a heart that is different than the heart that you have. 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:48.240 Let me ask you a question. Be honest with yourself. How many of you sitting here this morning know for 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:54.640 a fact that you have a different heart than the one you used to have? If you're sitting here this 00:16:54.639 --> 00:17:00.840 morning and you do not have a different heart than the one you used to have, I would appeal to you, 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:06.839 I would plead with you, you need the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior because apart from a changed 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:16.960 heart, there is no salvation. God, in His grace, provides a new heart to the person who has come to 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:22.900 faith and cries out to the Lord Jesus and said, I desperately need you to be my Savior. And along with 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:35.040 salvation comes transformation, we are not, we are not obligated to stay the way we used to be, 00:17:35.360 --> 00:17:41.160 particularly if we're a believer. We are given a new heart and as a result of that, we can grow and 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:45.500 change. Listen to me carefully because I think it's important for us to understand that. 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:57.440 I bump into people regularly who grew up in church, learned the vocabulary, sang the songs, 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:04.180 and here's the deal. They can never point to an issue of change significant in their life. 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:10.019 And one of the things I challenge them to think about is that if you can't see the evidence of a 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:16.819 different heart at work in your life, there may be reason to recognize that you do not know Christ. 00:18:16.900 --> 00:18:23.619 You better stop and think about it. The new covenant made a promise of transformation because 00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:29.259 of a change in our heart. Let's look at a second thing. The new covenant also promised complete 00:18:29.259 --> 00:18:35.859 forgiveness through Christ's blood. You're there in Jeremiah chapter 31 and mark what it says there in 00:18:35.859 --> 00:18:42.859 34, the latter part of the verse. 34 says, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their 00:18:42.859 --> 00:18:49.919 sin no more. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Let me just take a 00:18:49.919 --> 00:18:56.279 little side shot at something that every now and then kind of puts my fur on end. Everybody listening? 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:01.619 Have you ever heard people say, I can't forgive myself? Have you ever heard that kind of thing? 00:19:01.619 --> 00:19:08.719 That is probably one of the more idolatrous things an individual can say. Here's why. Who are you 00:19:08.719 --> 00:19:15.319 worried about forgiving yourself? Do you understand that? When God settles it and forgives you, the case 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:21.239 is done. This business of being obsessed about, well, I'm so important, I'm really having trouble 00:19:21.239 --> 00:19:26.139 forgiving myself. That's just memory of the baggage that you had. Understand, forgive it, forget it, 00:19:26.179 --> 00:19:31.359 forget it rather, and let it go. Don't be obsessing about, I can't forgive myself. Well, who are you? 00:19:31.619 --> 00:19:38.939 You're going to be room temperature here in a couple days. Don't worry about it. He's forgiven. 00:19:39.219 --> 00:19:49.419 The case is settled. And here is what the scripture says. I will forgive their iniquity and I will 00:19:49.419 --> 00:19:56.599 remember their sin no more. And here you are walking out of the courtroom and you have been pardoned and 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:01.579 some low life is over and over and over and said, do you remember that sin you did? I'm done. I'm gone. 00:20:01.699 --> 00:20:10.819 It's gone. Forget it. Here's what the new covenant was a promise of. It was a promise of complete 00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:17.019 forgiveness. Look over also, if you would, at Jeremiah chapter 33 verse 8. 00:20:17.019 --> 00:20:26.920 I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me. And I will forgive all the guilt of 00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:35.119 their sin and rebellion against me. Let me ask you this. How many of you have laid awake at night just 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.559 kind of obsessing and struggling with the burden and the blackness of your own heart and the sins that 00:20:39.559 --> 00:20:45.500 you've committed and they have been almost overwhelming? And then you've been reminded that 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:50.759 because of the blood of Christ, all of that has been forgiven. It's settled. Do you know what? 00:20:50.940 --> 00:20:56.240 It says that he throws those things in the sea of his forgetfulness. He is not bringing it up. 00:20:57.140 --> 00:21:01.099 And every time Satan brings it up, here's a little thing I would encourage you to think 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:05.180 is say, thank you, Satan, for reminding me of how wonderful it is to be completely forgiven 00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:11.440 of all of my past. Can I tell you something? Satan does not like Jesus getting any credit and 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:14.380 he'll kind of tamp it down and say, well, let me try a different strategy. 00:21:14.380 --> 00:21:20.900 Thank you, Jesus, for giving me for all of that. By the way, Satan, if you want to remind me again, 00:21:20.940 --> 00:21:26.680 I'm just going to thank Jesus again. All about his forgiveness. Let me have you look at a third 00:21:26.680 --> 00:21:33.540 characteristic of the new covenant. And it is a complete, full, and unchanging relationship. 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:42.220 You look there in Jeremiah chapter 31 and mark what God says here. He says, I will be, 00:21:42.220 --> 00:21:51.860 in verse 33, I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will be their God and they shall be my 00:21:51.860 --> 00:22:00.160 people. When he says that, he is not just referring to a formal and legal relationship. He is talking 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:07.539 about communion and intimacy. He's talking about someone who knows you personally. One of the things 00:22:07.539 --> 00:22:13.920 that has been such an encouragement to me is to stop and think about the fact that the creator of this 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:25.119 universe actually pays attention to me personally. He knows my every need. He knows my thoughts before I 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:34.059 think them. He knows my down-sitting and my uprising. And he pays attention. He affectionately cares for me 00:22:34.059 --> 00:22:43.980 personally. And that thought should just cause our hearts this morning to say, man, I'm satisfied. 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:54.319 I have him. He is the one that satisfies that longing of my heart to be significant to someone. He is the 00:22:54.319 --> 00:23:02.899 one who loves me unconditionally. And he has made a commitment that he will be my God and I am his. 00:23:04.059 --> 00:23:09.319 Well, let's stop and ask ourselves a question, though, because we do need to pay attention to 00:23:09.319 --> 00:23:14.619 the text. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31, it says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, 00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:23.940 where I will make a new covenant with the house of what? Maranatha. Look in the Bible. See if you see 00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:30.819 it there. Does it say Maranatha? Does it say Kenoyer? Does it say, you know, Gibbs? Does it? 00:23:30.819 --> 00:23:37.200 So, do I have the right to just arbitrarily, how many of you understand that little song, 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:41.599 every promise in the book is mine? You know, it's a nice thought, but it's really not accurate, 00:23:41.700 --> 00:23:45.179 entirely Bible. How many of you understand that there are some promises in the Old Testament 00:23:45.179 --> 00:23:51.579 and some promises in the Scripture that don't fit you? Okay? So, back up a little bit. Here is a 00:23:51.579 --> 00:23:59.659 promise that is made in Jeremiah to which specific group of people? The Jews. How many of you are Jews 00:23:59.659 --> 00:24:08.699 here this morning? I mean, full-blood. Anybody? Full-blood Jew? Anybody? So, all of you are not 00:24:08.699 --> 00:24:14.039 part of this picture in terms of Old Testament prophecy. Would you agree with that? Okay. 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:20.500 So, did I just kind of jerk this out of context and I decided, well, let's wing it? I mean, what am I 00:24:20.500 --> 00:24:27.079 going to preach on Sunday? Well, let's try this. No. So, how is it that we are included in the New 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:34.399 Covenant? What right do we have to think that this passage has application to us this morning? Number 00:24:34.399 --> 00:24:41.259 one, obviously, when Paul wrote this to the church, by the way, which church was this? Was this the church 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:46.259 in the New Jerusalem? This is a church in what? In Corinth. What kind of people lived in Corinth 00:24:46.259 --> 00:24:54.660 predominantly? Pagan, Gentile, unbelievers until they came to Christ. And here is Paul writing to 00:24:54.660 --> 00:25:00.480 them and says, hey, listen, guys, when you do this communion thing, and I want you to straighten up 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:04.299 because you guys are way left of center in your behavior and your heart attitude towards this. 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:10.079 And he explains that when you take the bread and take the cup, you are celebrating the Lord's death. 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:17.399 His substitutionary atonement, his dying in my place. And secondly, you are celebrating the, 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:29.919 the new covenant. He spoke to Gentiles. So, how is it that Gentiles, by the way, Jews, an ethnic group, 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:40.100 Gentiles, non-Jews? How is it that we as Gentiles are included and have a right to expect the blessings 00:25:40.100 --> 00:25:45.300 of the new covenant to have bearing on us? In fact, this morning, we're going to hold up that cup and we're 00:25:45.300 --> 00:25:51.940 going to say, this cup is a reminder of the new covenant. How does it fit us? 00:25:51.940 --> 00:26:04.279 Turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Think with me of what the apostle 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:12.980 says to another church in a Gentile environment. Gentiles there in Ephesus, he says this in Ephesians 00:26:12.980 --> 00:26:18.820 chapter 2 verse 11. He says, therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, that's who you 00:26:18.819 --> 00:26:23.759 write into in the church, called the uncircumcision. By the way, did you know that to be called 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:28.980 uncircumcised was a very dismissive, it was kind of like, I don't want to use a term, you know, 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:39.419 you know, it was a bad term. You're uncircumcised. Really? Bad thing. He says, the uncircumcised by what 00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:45.600 was called is the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that 00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:50.840 time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the 00:26:50.840 --> 00:26:57.060 covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That's where you were. That was 00:26:57.060 --> 00:26:59.300 your condition. But now listen to verse 13. 00:26:59.299 --> 00:27:10.559 But now, in Christ, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Do you 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:15.740 understand that? How many of you know just how many different times, I shouldn't say how many you know, 00:27:15.919 --> 00:27:22.879 but I want you to mark how many times Paul refers to us being in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:31.720 in this intimate, sweet, blessed relationship with Him and in Him? Here's Paul. You once were far off, 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:42.860 now in Christ, you've been brought near. He brought you near by His blood. He also made you into a new 00:27:42.860 --> 00:27:51.360 person, and He made you part of a new body. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 15, by abolishing the law of 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:58.659 commandments expressed in ordinance, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:08.259 so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:14.219 the hostility. There was a time in which the Jew and the Gentile really fundamentally had nothing to do 00:28:14.219 --> 00:28:19.519 with one another. They disliked each other. They hated each other. They didn't want to have anything to 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:24.220 do with the different communities and the different cultures. And Paul says, listen, because of the Lord 00:28:24.220 --> 00:28:31.980 Jesus Christ, we have been made one new man. That's the reason that when we come together as a body of 00:28:31.980 --> 00:28:38.519 believers, we come together by virtue of our relationship with Christ. We do not come by virtue 00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:43.940 of our ethnicities or backgrounds or anything else. There is one thing that informs our relationship. 00:28:43.940 --> 00:28:50.259 It is the sweetness of this Word and the clarity with which we stand upon it in the reality of our 00:28:50.259 --> 00:28:57.880 relationship with Christ. I want you to recognize one other passage. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 6. 00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:07.620 This mystery, and by the way, in the Bible, a mystery is something that we wouldn't know if we hadn't been 00:29:07.619 --> 00:29:17.059 told. A mystery is something that God reveals to us by revelation, and apart from His revealing it, 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:23.899 we wouldn't know it. So when we use the term mystery, most of the time in the Bible, we're talking about 00:29:23.899 --> 00:29:31.419 something God is showing us. He says, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. How many of you 00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:38.600 know what an heir is? Just theory, theory, theory, theory, theory. How many of you would like to have parents 00:29:38.600 --> 00:29:44.180 that when they died left you $20 million? Don't nod your heads. I mean, you're not thinking, but you're 00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:56.340 spiritual. But how many of you would like to find out that somebody else only had two children, and they 00:29:56.340 --> 00:30:01.320 decided three weeks before they died that they were going to adopt you into their family? Would you like that? 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:07.320 Would you like to be the heir in that situation? Would you be okay, Tim? You're all right with that? 00:30:07.740 --> 00:30:14.880 That'd be all right. Doug, you're working on that, right? Okay. We don't mind being heir if there's 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:22.400 something to be gained. Am I right? Here's what Paul says. Look at the passage. Gentiles are fellow heirs, 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:29.080 members of the same body, and listen carefully, and we'll tie this up, and partakers of the promise 00:30:29.079 --> 00:30:40.159 in Christ through the gospel. Why do I have a right? And why does Paul refer to me having a blessing in 00:30:40.159 --> 00:30:47.279 terms of the new covenant? It's because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that I have all the 00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:53.460 privileges that were granted in the promises that God made to the nation of Israel in relationship to 00:30:53.460 --> 00:31:02.640 the new covenant. And so when I come this morning and I take the bread, I remind myself, Jesus died for me. 00:31:04.360 --> 00:31:12.319 And when I take the cup, I say, and this cup is the testament or it is the witness to the new covenant 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:16.559 that He has made that I have the privilege of being partaker of. And what is the new covenant? 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:23.720 It is life transformation. It is complete forgiveness. And it is personal relationship 00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:28.740 with the Lord Jesus Christ who is actively engaged in my life, helping me grow and change 00:31:28.740 --> 00:31:37.200 and drawing me towards heaven. Is that true for you? If it is, then we come to this table this morning 00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:42.319 as believers. I ask the deacons to come, and we gather around this table to celebrate the reminder 00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:44.759 of what Jesus has done for us.