Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Freed from the Law - Part III

So we've been covering for now the third week, and we're not done, at least a couple more weeks, possibly more, talking about being freed from the law. Freed from the law. Why is it important that we, I mean, are we trying to just beat it to death? Why is it important to talk about freed from the law? What's the big deal with that? Why talk about it for more than one? If you can't do it, Christ has to do it through you. Yeah, bottom line is we can't do it.

And a good deal of Christendom does not convey that picture, that law only belongs to some form or another. It's interesting to note that the Orthodox Jews, the Reformed Christians, the Roman Catholics, and the Orthodox Christians, as in Serbian, Russian, Greek, et cetera, All of those different branches have a different segmenting and distribution of the Ten Commandments. They don't. The Ten Commandments are not the same. One of the questions that came up last week is, what about posting the Ten Commandments? Well, guess what? Which one do you post? Because they actually have different ways that the Ten Commandments are organized and expressed between those groups.

What we have been going over here is summed up in this diagram, that in Adam, before faith in Christ, we were separated from Christ and joined to sin nature, the principle of law, important to make that distinction, and the world. And that in Christ, after faith in Christ, we're joined to Christ. And that joined to, by the way, is the significance of being married to. and then separate it from the sin nature and the principle of law of the world. So that's the big picture. Now, we come to this topic of the new covenant.

To me, it's been a real biggie. It's because the church where I came from many moons ago, Venizel Bible Church, had a teaching on it that was distinctive. It was even. It's a musical, recorded, and by the way, it does have some very good songs on it. I even sang one of them when I was coming here as a candidate. at Holy Hills 17 years ago, right? So it does have some very good music on it.

But I kind of, in the back of my mind, thought, is that really what the passage says? So it turns out it's a pretty big issue. And we'll go over it a little bit, all the different views that different Christians have. about what that means, right? So let's read the classical focal point passage out of the Old Testament. It's easy to remember, Jeremiah 31, 31, right? And so we're going to start there as we read the passage.

It's in the middle of page one here. And I've particularly bolded certain portions of it. It goes like this. Behold, days are coming. And when you say, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, what does that mean? It's prophecy, right? It's coming in the future. when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

So let's ask this question. If there's a new covenant, what does that imply about the covenant, that there's also an old one? And it turns out, especially the way it's expressed in the Greek, old, the word that is used is old and worn out. And the new covenant means new in time, not just new in sequence. So that's an additional thing that comes out from the original language here, especially in the Hebrew. And one more thing, and then with whom? With whom is the new covenant made? Israel. House of Israel and House of Judah. OK, why the two, House of Israel and House of Judah?

Why that separate? Talking about the divided kingdom? Yeah, in other words, this came across as the divided kingdom. Before the divided kingdom, would this have even It's been expressed that way. No, no, because Israel was one nation. And Judah was a summary of the prominent tribe of the southern kingdom. So the house of Israel and the house of Judah that together make all of the people of Israel the descendants of Jacob. So, this is not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So when was this? The old covenant is what? The one that was given through Moses at what time?

At Mount Sinai. Yeah, so here's the Exodus. God brought them out of the land of Egypt and got them quickly over to Sinai. Right? And so that's what this is talking about. My covenant, so why does God personalize it? My covenant. One sided? Yeah, one is God did not go and say here's the law and we're going to have a vote and you guys get to vote as to whether or not you get this and you get to decide it and we'll have a popular vote and whatever you guys vote that's what we'll do. Is that the way it works? No. So here's an assignment.

You don't get to vote. There's no popularity thing. It's not, do I have warm fuzzies about this? As a matter of fact, they didn't have warm fuzzies about this. Don't get close to the mountain. There's all this smoke and rumbling and flashing. And if you get close to the mountain, what happens to you?

He died. He died, OK? Now after that, are you going to vote in favor of it? You're dead. Probably not. You're dead. But it is my country. So this is a one-sided deal. God did it. But what Israel do? Which they broke. Although I was a husband to them.

Whoa. declares the Lord, and so this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, and so what does he do? I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people. So how many laws do we have, individual statutes? 613. 365 don't do this, right?

And so they had all those, and he's going to put it where? He's going to put it on their heart. Before they actually did the Ten Commandments, however it was supposed to be formulated, The Ten Commandments were put on tablets, but is that the only way in which they came? No, because they were also written in the books of Moses, particularly the book of Exodus originally. So also there, but the Ten Commandments, why did God put them in stone? Where were those supposed to go? in the Ark of the Covenant, okay? And then how many people got to look at them once they were in the Ark of the Covenant?

Nobody, okay? Nobody. Nobody had better look at this, okay? And it says, I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it, okay? So I will put my law within them, guess what? Are you going to need a rabbi during the time when this is implemented? You don't need rabbis. Rabbis go around and say, OK, we've got this and this and this and this and this, and reiterate this. The rabbis during the time of Christ used to go around saying, take my yoke upon you.

What do they mean? My teaching of the law. My teaching of the law. I'll put my law within them. On their heart, I will write it. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They're going to live it out, knowing the law and living it out by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And that's something they never had before.

They will not teach again, so therefore you won't need rabbis. not teach again each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me. Will they know him? They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. The implementation of Christ's universal death, burial, and resurrection, dying for the sins of all, the implementation of them specifically will be connected to this new covenant during the monumental kingdom.

Yes? So this, when that was written, this has not happened yet. It happens at the time Christ is crucified. Is that correct? OK. So let's talk about it. Here's Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. He comes up and he starts talking. He's been through that evening. what we call the Lord's Table was implemented. But they had been celebrating what? Passover. They had been celebrating Passover that evening. Christ implemented the Lord's Table, which they really didn't understand yet.

And then he says something that just kind of caused people to blink and to misunderstand. He says, this is the new covenant in my blood. That's one of the reasons why this is a big issue. What did he mean by that? And let me give you the quick answer, but we'll go over it in more detail and take more time if we need to.

But what had happened, had he at that point in time, at the Last Supper, had he at that point in time intended that the Jews would all have the law written on their heart? The intention was. But at that time, was that put in place? The Jews would all have the law written on their heart. Are the Jews going to really get it and obey the Lord and know the Lord every once in a while? No. So what this was is this is the ratification, just like with Abraham, what did he do? God made a covenant with Abraham, and what did Abraham do?

It was a sacrifice or token of some kind in order to signify that the covenant had been made. And so that's what Jesus was about to do in the next few hours, and what was pictured, symbolized, by this is the new covenant. This blood of the cup, so to speak, is the new covenant.

The ratification of it. The sacrifice, the implementation of it wouldn't be until later. God made covenants with Abraham, or they all implemented right away. No, no, no. Long, long time. This land that I'll show you, did he get the land? No, it wasn't his yet. Did Isaac get the land? No, it wasn't his yet. So did Jacob get the land? No, it wasn't his yet.

So the thing is, even though a covenant is made, it doesn't mean that it goes immediately into effect. In fact, you could say, here's one thing, why doesn't God just wind up history and call it good right now? He made promises to Abraham. He's not stopping until those promises are fulfilled.

OK? OK, now, so there have been several proposals about the meaning of the term Reardening Covenant. And here's the issue, what is the relationship of the Church? to that new covenant. So, here's one of them. What's that? Zero. Yeah. The church takes Israel's place in the new covenant that was for Israel so that for believers in the church, the law is written on your heart. And that has been the statement for a lot of churches. That statement right there summarizes what the Catholic Church did. It summarizes not all of, but a significant portion of many of the reformed churches.

The law is written on your heart. They really believe that? Oh yes, very definitely. Yep, the law is written on your heart, and a great many of, if not all, I haven't checked exhaustively, of the Orthodox churches, and what I mean by that is Greek, Serbian, Antiochian, Russian, etc. The law is written on your heart. And that's very commonly taught in a great many places, including places that would kind of make you blink and be surprised. The law is written on your heart. So let's ask this question. Can you please recite for me all 613 laws, since they're written on your heart?

Why do we have teachers? Yeah, why do we have the gift of teaching, if that's the case? People don't automatically know it. We do have teachers. This says no teachers. And are we empowered to live out the law? No, not so much. But people look at it because you'll see that I'll put my spirit Within them is some of the teaching that comes out in these New Covenant passages. And so they go, we have the Spirit, and therefore we must have the New Covenant. Well, no. Let's look at the next one.

The Church is a partial participant or beneficiary of the New Covenant with Israel. The beneficiary term was what I was taught in seminary. Do I believe it? No. The Church gets a New Covenant, and Israel gets its New Covenant in the Millennial Kingdom.

So this two new covenants idea that was taught by Schofield, Schaper, Wohlford, Ryrie, on into recent times here at all the fields. Turns out, digging into this, and I studied this in depth for about a decade, But digging into this, Walvord and Ryrie both were convinced to change their minds from that view that they had been taught and brought up in. And by the way, Ryrie even wrote his master's thesis supporting that idea, that there's a new covenant for Israel and a new covenant for Turkey. But before they went home, I got to talk to each of them about it.

And they both changed their minds. And he said, no, after being encouraged to re-examine the evidence, we've decided both of them. They told me that the proper understanding is there's no new covenant for the church. There's no covenant for the church. But that's been a strong teaching. among Dallas Seminary graduates and others at that time. Yeah?

Well, using your reference on the back of this page, 1 Corinthians 11.25, it is kind of confusing because it says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Right. And so that started 50 days before the church age. So it seems like that new covenant was effective with the crucifixion of Christ, right? So that's where you say, is that what's happening?

All of a sudden, do I then, with Christ's death, do I then have the law written on the heart? No, I'm not saying that, but he is saying the New Covenant is in his blood. Yes, so what it is, is what is the New Covenant in my blood, so that's pointing to the sacrificial ratification, which was in fact carried out within hours after he said this. So wouldn't it be effective for the church because it was in his blood, right? Okay, that is the ratification, so similar to this, here's Abraham, he goes and does sacrifices when God makes a covenant with him, right?

Does that mean that everything was implemented at the time of the sacrifice? No, as a matter of fact, in no case. Was there, here's Abraham, he does a sacrifice, and it's immediately implemented. No. As a matter of fact, it's not implemented until a long time later, some of it yet to be fulfilled even to this day. And so what you find is the pattern is once the sacrifice has been made, a long, centuries, eons long period of time may follow before it's actually implemented.

God has a long-term viewpoint, doesn't He? Well, it's always now with Him. Yes, God sees everything in the present, but He expresses things to us. He expresses things to us who are living in this time tunnel, so to speak. But nonetheless, God's perspective is everything is right now.

So is there no covenant then for the church? Biblically, I don't believe there's any covenant for the church. None. None whatsoever. So that church doesn't have any promises? Promises, yes. But covenants, no. That's different. And in fact, you look at Romans 9, 10, 11. You look at Ephesians chapter 2. And it's in both places. It says, to whom belongs the covenants? Who? To Israel. The covenants are to Israel in both places.

So the new covenant for Israel replaces the old Mosaic covenant, and the eternal covenant is the church's new covenant. Well, having a new one implies an old one, and we never had an old one. And the eternal covenant was made before there was an old or a new covenant. So this doesn't quite match up either. So what we have, this will be at the top of the next page here, and we'll switch into a different mode. The old covenant with Israel was under the law of Moses. That's the old covenant. Does the law of Moses reflect God's good and holy and righteous character? Yes, that's Romans chapter 7. It reflects God's good, holy, and righteous character.

But it was given to Israel, and not to everybody else. The new covenant will be implemented in the yet-to-come millennial kingdom. It's been ratified in Christ's death, just like the sacrifices were made long before they were implemented later on. They're made by Abraham right after God made the covenant, but long, long time following before they're actually fulfilled. in every case.

So here we have the people of Israel will all have the Holy Spirit and be empowered to both know and to live out the law of Moses from the heart without a teacher, no rabbis. They will live the law and will all be blessed. So how are the Jews blessed? Deuteronomy 28 verse 14 verses. How are the Jews blessed? In the land, twice in that message. In the land and in what ways?

That under the law and blessed in material ways, you will have great crops, you will have your livestock be healthy and abundant. and flourishing, you will be without disease, all kinds of marvelous and wonderful earthly things will happen. And if the desert will move, all sorts of marvelous things will take place. But, if they're earthly, it's if you obey. But if you're empowered by the Holy Spirit to know and live out the law, what does that mean about your blessings?

You're going to have them. Earthly blessings during the Morning of Canaan will be absolutely certain. Israel will bloom and flourish and we ain't seen nothing yet. It will be astounding. The Old Testament prophets speak repeatedly of the great material abundance of Israel. streams in the desert.

Yes? Okay, so the church has, the believers in the church have the Holy Spirit. Right. Okay. In the millennial kingdom, they too are going to have the Holy Spirit and assume that it's the same Holy Spirit. So then why is there so much confusion today about knowing the Lord in believers? Okay, so let's talk about what goes on here.

Do you know how to live righteousness? Just on your own. What does righteousness look like? Can you do it? No. Can't pull it off, right? Did the Jews know how to... Here's the law, they've been given it all, here it is, all written out for them. Here's the law, here's what righteousness looks like. How'd they do? Not so good.

Yeah, and so imagine Jesus meets with Nicodemus, you know, in John chapter 3. And here's Nicodemus. Jesus calls him THE teacher of Israel. The teacher of Israel. This guy is really on top of it. And then he goes and blows his circuits. You must be born again. Do you know that the rabbis said that there were six ways that you could be born again? And for a Jew, Nicodemus had every single one of those already licked and covered. Nobody could be born again more than that guy Nicodemus, so far as the Jewish traditions were concerned, and their definition of born again. He was as born again as you could get. So Jesus comes up and says, hey, you must be born again. And he said, oh, man.

What on earth? How am I going to do that? So that's where he comes back with what's ultimately a ridiculous question. Do you mean I've got to be going to my mother's womb and start over? What are you talking about? He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it.

So here, here is this new covenant. What was Nicodemus' big problem? Did Nicodemus know the law like nobody else? Sure. This guy had it backwards and forwards. He was the teacher of Israel. He had the law backwards and forwards. What's the problem? What's Nicodemus' problem? His focus was on the law. His focus was on the law, part one. And why was the focus on the law? The focus was on the law because did Nicodemus have the Holy Spirit so that he knew and lived out the law? And was he a teacher? He was the teacher of Israel. What's going to happen with the new covenant? No teachers, right?

So this guy's definitely under the old covenant. The problem with the old covenant is not the law itself. We shouldn't badmouth the law. The problem is man's not up to it. And that's why we need the new covenant. The Jews need the new covenant. Why are we differently empowered to live out righteousness? We have a common need with the Jews.

We can't pull off righteousness by ourselves. So us in the church, God says, look, I'm going to put the law completely out of the way, I'm going to put Christ in your heart, and I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit so that righteousness gets lived out by my empowerment. It won't be because you know the law by heart. It won't be because you're empowered to live out the law. Does Christ need help being righteous? Does Christ need help knowing what's righteousness? No, he does not.

So for both us in the church and for the Jews, God has provided for a common need in two very different ways. And the Holy Spirit is given for us, for one reason, to live out righteousness apart from the law, and for the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom to live out righteousness through the law. The common need is we can't pull it off. That common need is met, in both cases, with the Holy Spirit. It's implemented in radically different ways. For us, we died in law. For the Jews, it's written on their heart.

Yes? So a personal question. Do you see in the world today, even in the churches and with the believers, the effectiveness of living out righteousness? I don't see it. And how would you say that that's the case? Is there universal expression of righteousness among those who claim to be believers? No. Not a lot of it. Why not?

We don't believe. Yeah, in other words, if you look at it, here are the Galatians, Paul's first letter that we have. He writes to them, and what's their problem? Right out of the chute, what's their problem? We want to keep the law and be righteous. Yeah, if you so much as sign up for the first law and get circumcised, You guys are mostly Gentiles anyway, right? You sign up for the law and get circumcised. You signed up for the whole thing. You sign up for the whole ban.

You cannot just pick one or pick ten or pick eleven or pick nine. You cannot do that. Why not? What's the problem with that? It's a package deal. Pardon? It's a package deal. Yes, package deal. God never gave the option. Did he tell the Jews, you vote for which ones of these you want to do? He never did that. He says, here's 613 of them, and you guys do it. That's it. And so if anyone goes and signs up for, hey, I'm going to do this, you're going to sign up for every single one. You better not bite into a worm that's in an apple. That's against the law. And don't you dare pick up firewood after sundown on Friday afternoon.

So were we ever under the law of Moses? So we were not, but if a person signs up to be under the law of Moses, Yeah, the bottom line is they're lawbreakers because part of what happens, especially among us Gentiles who are ignorant of the requirements of the law, we go and we say, well, I'll just pick this one and that one and that one. Did the Jews ever get that kind of an option? The Jews never got that option and neither do we.

Furthermore, it's a law designed to be lived outside of the land. No, it is not. It was given in anticipation of them being the land of blessings. Deuteronomy 28 verse 14 verses have the land twice. The curses, verse 15 down to the end of the chapter, and by the way that's a lot longer, the land twice. Oh, by the way, part of that is the land will spit you out. So, if you're not Jewish, and you're not in the land, the law is going to be really tough to live out. Plus, right now, just try to do any sacrifices or carry out anything like that on the Temple Mount right now. What's going to happen? If you're going to go by it, you'll probably be shot. I was there, I didn't try it. So, yes.

Okay, so does this come out to be a similar situation in the Church in the fact that The Jews were unable to live out the law because of their sin nature and being human and all the other things that go along with it. Now we're in a church and so we're supposed to be living out this righteousness through grace and so is the fact that we're unable to do this also so we look at that and say well We can't do this by ourselves, so we have to rely on Christ to do that. Let's go back to the Galatian issue, because I think that will address your question. He writes to them several different chapters on how living by the law is a problem. One of them we looked at was you're no longer under a tutor.

He gives that illustration. He gets into chapter 5, and he says, you guys keep doing this, you're going to end up biting and devouring one another, right? And so he says, here's the solution. walked into the spirit and he will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. And he goes in and spells out, here's what the flesh looks like, right? Spells out all that barfy stuff about the flesh. Then he goes on, and the fruit of the spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience. Then he goes on, so here's the fruit of the spirit.

And what's interesting is early on, he talks about a walk in that passage in Galatians 5, this individual walk. And then there's walk, and it's rarely recognized that it's a different word for walk. The first word for walk in Galatians 5 is an individual believer's walk. You must walk in the Spirit. If you are an individual believer's walk, and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh, that applies to each one of you individually. As you all together walk by the Spirit, the last walk in that chapter is not an individual walk. It uses a different word.

And it's Roman soldiers marching in unison together. Why would he do that? Because about two of the four or five cities of Galatia were Roman colonies with lots of Roman soldiers living there and passing through constantly. So what does that mean to us? Our individual walk is to be by the spirits working in empowerment. And if we do so, we will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. Had the Galatians been having a problem with satisfying the desires of the flesh? Sure. They absolutely had. And that's why they were biting and devouring one another. You guys keep going at this, you're just going to tear each other up.

But, if you individually, each one at a time, walk individually in the Spirit, then, the last walk in the chapter, you will be marching in unison. That's the walk. A different walk. A radically greater walk, because that walking together happens from each individual walking in the Spirit. So, let's put this way.

When you have a church split, what's happening? Yes, that's the problem. You've got people who are not walking in the Spirit, and so the last walk, walking in unison, doesn't happen. It would be like Roman soldiers, where you get one whole squad and they split in two and start fighting each other. The stoicheia, the marching together in unison, didn't happen. Why? It goes back to the first walk.

Somebody's not walking in the spirit. It doesn't mean everybody is not, but somebody's not walking in the spirit. It actually pretty clear. Every believer is to walk in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, you won't satisfy the desires of the flesh. If you have that happening throughout the church body, and by the way, there is no believer here in this church in Galatia when this letter was written, no believer that is any older than two years old in the Lord. So it is walking in the Spirit necessarily something that only older believers in the Lord should do. No. You believers, all of whom are young, none of whom are older than two years older than the Lord, you must walk in the Spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh.

And that passage I teach every time I go to Uganda when I teach in the church. Every time. And it's fresh every time. So, this is a huge principle, and it gets down to the answer to your question, how come we don't see more righteousness lived out? Bottom line, here it is right there.

Ephesians 5, starting with verse 16 down to the end of the chapter, on verse 25. And the two walks are entirely different words, But it gives the answer, the reason, and one more thing, the biggest secret in Galatians 5 and Romans 7, both of them say this, the biggest secret, you cannot will to do the right thing on your own. Paul writes it twice, this is Galatians 5, 17, the last half of the verse, and it's in more words and more verses in Romans 7, you cannot simply will to do the right thing on your own. It cannot happen.

So what happens, pastors get up front and they go challenge the people in their church, you guys got to decide to do the right thing, good luck with that. And by the way, he'll go right after that sermon and go over to Red Lobster and violate the Law of Moses. Especially after the teaching on tithing. So there's all kinds of teaching going on in America today, even this morning, I wouldn't doubt that it's being taught. You're supposed to go out and do this stuff, and do it on your own, whether it's the Law of Moses, some part of the Law of Moses, some other law that people come up with, some principle of law. Pastors teach it all the time, and Paul the Apostle says, you're not doing it, can't be done. I have one last question. Just one? We may have more time for more.

Okay, so it's the sin nature, the Jews not being able to follow the law, it's the sin nature. People in the church, you just talked about that, I presume that's the sin nature that's taking over there too. So in the millennial kingdom now, it seems to have changed. So is the sin nature gone during the millennial kingdom for these Jews? The sin nature is not described as gone, but what you will see is that they have, with the sin nature, by the power of the Holy Spirit, been able to put it aside. and have the Holy Spirit ruling and carrying these righteousness out.

Do you think that's because Christ is actually there? Yeah, think about what this is going to be like. So, one is there's Christ living and ruling and reigning right among them. Right there. I mean, right now. You can go to a website. I go there from time to time just to see what people are saying. It says, Jesus never existed. I go there from time to time because I want to see what they're saying. I don't believe a word of it, but Jesus never existed.

Are you going to be able to do that during the morning of Kingdom? Not a chance. One more thing. Nah, not just one. At least one. We have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Will there be the world system? Yes. No. Not your demonial kingdom, right? Because who's going to be the head of the world's system? Jesus, the ruling and reigning Messiah, will be the head of the world's system.

Do you know one of the things that people get disgusted about? I have to put myself among those politics. Jokingly, I've heard this breakdown of the definition. Pauline means many, right? And ticks have to do with all those bloodsuckers. So the thing is that right now, politics is never going to be an answer. We may be more in favor of this candidate than that one. We may applaud some Supreme Court ruling and then lament one other one. But the bottom line is there's never going to be a good and final answer to that. Things won't be right here on planet Earth until Christ comes. So there will be, of the world, the flesh and the devil, you have no more world system because Christ will be at the head of it.

Imagine going to court and there's no fast ones to pull. It doesn't matter which lawyer you hire. Imagine getting up there and having your judge know exactly what the testimony is that you ought to be giving. That testimony is a lie. You're out of here.

And nobody's fooling anybody about anything. Imagine not. There's no technicalities. Nobody gets off on a technicality. Claim temporary insanity or permanent insanity or anything else. Right is going to be right and wrong is going to be wrong. Truth is going to be truth and false is going to be false. And nobody is going to mess with them.

Yes. Well, Singh will be dealt with immediately too. Pardon? Singh will be dealt with. Yeah, Singh is dealt with in its face. First of all, it will be seen for what it is, dealt with immediately. None of these appeals and appeals and appeals, right? Dealt with immediately. So you're just not going to be able to mess around with things. Nobody's going to fiddle with it. You're not going to be able to hire a high-priced fancy lawyer to get you off. No. Not happening. You're going to get one over on Jesus? Good luck with that. Right? So that's the world. How about the devil?

What's going to happen with him? He's gone. He's in prison. He's in prison. And it says he's wrapped up in a chain. By the way, how many angels does it take to wrap up Satan in a chain? One. And he doesn't necessarily describe him as a strong angel or anything special about him. One angel takes a chain and puts him, you know, he chains him up, puts him in the abyss and seals it up. One, two, three. Satan's out of the picture. Right? So the world system is out of the picture. Satan's out of the picture.

Are there still sin natures? Yes, there are. And so that's where there will be a hazard. But the sin nature also is going to be challenged strongly in its expression. Because you won't have the world system or Satan to cooperate as happens now. Sometimes we have justice in our justice system.

Then in the Millennium Kingdom there will be 100% justice all the time. Whether you like it or not. Yes. At the very beginning, all the believing Jews entering the Millennial Kingdom. There will be believing. As a matter of fact, everybody entering the Millennial Kingdom will be believers. Period. But at the start, yes, that's the way it will be. They will all have the law written in their hearts. The believing Gentiles will not have the law written on their heart, will they? Because that's not promised to them.

It's to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, right? But imagine that one of the things that the Bible says is that the Gentiles will grab a Jew, and a bunch of them will grab a Jew and say, take me to your Messiah. Just, yeah, please. So the Jews, rather than having a tribe that is a priest priesthood tribe, the Levites, and within them, those who are priests, every Jew will serve as a priest to the world. So this is one thing where you end up with a different question, because at each point, once babies are born, each person will have their own decision to make, won't they? To believe or not believe.

So there will be those who will try to rebel against the system. How well is it going to go for them? It's not real well. Life will not be very nice. But at the end, when Satan is released, there will be a brief rebellion. There will be those who will decide, eh, I don't like this Messiah guy. So we're saying the covenant then is not for the children? The covenant does not appear to be automatically applicable to the children. It does not appear to be automatically applicable to the children. So I'll put it that way and leave it there. So let's see if we can, I'm actually thinking this probably should go on another week because we're not going to get there.

But let's look at God's covenants with Israel which have fulfillment in the coming Millennial Kingdom. So here are the covenants. Remember, it's Romans they're going to be studying downstairs, and Ephesians, as they already studied downstairs. Both of those talk about the covenants belonging to Israel. Here they are.

We have one, the Abrahamic covenant, approximately 2100 BC. Starting off in, it's not the only place at all, but Genesis 12, 1 through 3. That's the initial statement of the covenant with Abraham. That covenant was expanded and repeated with Abraham in the years to follow, as well as with Isaac, as well as with Jacob. Restated and expanded with all three of those men. And by the way, if it was still restated with Jacob, had it been fulfilled yet, Now, it's still restated as a future yet-to-be-fulfilled promise. OK, the next one is Moses. So here's the law covenant, the old covenant. So here's 1446.

Moses leads the Israelites out from Egypt. And they go through the sea and under the cloud. And as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, they're baptized into the law of Moses. That ties into Moses, right? So here is the law. This is Exodus 19, 1 through 6. It's the definitive passage. In fact, the whole first five books are considered the law of Moses by the Jews. The alternate name, using the Latin terms, Pentateuch. All right, so then. We have the land covenant. So here's Moses after he's given the law.

So Deuteronomy, again, that's not the Jewish name, but Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law. 31 through 10 is the definitive passage, not the only one, that lays out the land covenant. The next one is the covenant with David. So what's the covenant with David say?

So there will be a descendant, right? You'll have a descendant who will rule and reign and so that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, right? In the kingdom. When I talked to a local rabbi some years ago, here, he said, you know, The Messiah, when he comes, will be a descendant of David, but he won't be deity. By the way, he won't be deity. That's not what the Old Testament says.

The Old Testament says the Messiah will be deity. Zechariah chapter 13 is a good starting point. Next, we have the New Covenant, and that's the one we're looking at here. The primary statements of the New Covenant are in the book of Isaiah, and in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Those are the three primary books where the New Covenant shows up.

So, we need to cover this a second week, so hold on to the handout or put it back and we'll get it back next week. That will be continuing with Freed from the Law and we'll have to figure out how that It carries out the schedule. But yes, we spilled over into three pages here, or at least two and a half.

Yes? OK, the eternal covenant. Did you describe that? I did. That's expressed in Hebrews, the very end, the eternal covenant. And quickly, I'll describe it. This is the eternal covenant, which is not with anybody on Earth. It's between the Father and the Son with regards to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. OK.

And so that's why it talks in Hebrews about the blood of the covenant, Christ's death on the cross then being the expression of that. So if you look at it, multiple things are happening on the cross, the fulfillment of the eternal covenant. is there on the cross. The ratification of the new covenant is there on the cross. Christ dying for the sins of the whole world for all time is there on the cross. And we'll see this morning that the church was purchased with his own blood there on the cross. Yes? So John 17 is kind of an extrapolation of that relationship, right?

Yep. OK. Right. You got it? And we're going to pray because the buzzer went off for the last time and that's about it. And so next time we'll go, so either hold on to this or put it back because next time we'll just pick right off where we left off. Okay? Let's pray. Thank you Lord for what you've laid out here. Thank you that even though we have short memories and they're limited, you most certainly do not. And with this phenomenal, amazing, astounding teaching, we look to you just to enlighten us as to how you have empowered us to live out righteousness, we who would do something as simple as walk by means of the Spirit and then not satisfy the desires of the flesh. And so we look to you to teach us that, teach us the depth of that. Until we see you face to face, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.