Major Bible Themes

All right, we went over dispensations last week. You know, that was one of those things, and I think actually somebody on the tape called Mike about that, dispensations, you know, agreements, disagreements. And yeah, it's one of those things, you know, I was, I think I said last week, you know, I was kind of in dispensations that were, you know, which is a good thing. I mean, I don't know if I go as far as Mike that the only people that are exegetical about scripture are the people who are dispensationalists, but it's good to see these dispensations. But the one point I always bring out, and this was brought out actually by Hal years ago when he came to teach at the church we were going to.

Basically is when these dispensations aren't actually called out in scripture. There isn't like the Noah dispensation or the You know, whatever the law dispensation of the law mosaic. There isn't a scripture that says we're now entering in You know, it's like when you go from Denver to Littleton, there's a sign that says we are now entering Littleton, you know, it's It's not that way. But there are different administrations definitely within scripture and that's what I think the dispensations show. It's just how God has been working throughout time in these different administrations. And so I just want to say it's not called out as a dispensation.

Now we're going to get into the covenants. Today we're going to go out, what is a covenant? and what are the major covenants and how do dispensations and covenants relate. And then the misunderstood covenants. I think I'm going to hit this a lot too. The Eternal Covenant, Israel's New Covenant, and the Church's New Covenant. What's misunderstood about that, and that actually derives a lot of what we see in covenant theology, the misinterpretation of the new covenant, I think, and there's a lot of problems by that, and the eternal covenant, what that means.

So we're going to go over the summary of the major major covenants, and I probably as I told Mike I'm probably not getting even close to getting through this today, so we'll go through we'll finish up next week On this because there's just so much in it to go over so the first thing is The definition of a covenant actually the well we'll go through the definition of covenant so the what we have here is Diathake is the Greek word and it's the place between two parties so as to bind them together. Actually if you see on the graph or on the slide, basically what does a covenant require?

Two people. Two entities, two people. And then there's a covenant or an agreement or a binder that goes between them. So, like a real estate, when you have a buyer and a seller and you have a contract. So there's a covenant or an agreement between the buyer and the seller.

We'll expand on all these as we go through. And then there's type. There's conditional and unconditional. What does that mean? Just before we get into them. What does a conditional one mean? That's conditional. What's an unconditional? It doesn't matter. I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to go ahead with it. There's no conditions on it. There's no, if I do this, you'll do that. It's, I'm going to do this, regardless. Doesn't matter what you do, I'm going to do it. Then the other one are durations, obviously. Temporal, it only goes to a certain point and then it's done. Or eternal, goes on forever. So we'll look at these different durations.

Okay, so what is a covenant? The definition is a compound word, dia, is a preposition that means between two, and theke, which is, I forget what the original verb is, but it's theke in here, or theke in here, means to place or put between two parties an agreement or a binder. So this is shown in the marriage covenant, an agreement between a husband and a wife, or in real estate. All these things have a two people, two parties, an agreement. So the definition is to put a place between two parties, an agreement.

So the duration is key. Well, we'll get on to the types first, I guess. Types which are conditional, and basically you answered it. A conditional one is a covenant in which man has to fulfill responsibility before God will do his part. If man fails in his part, God is not obligated to fulfill his part. And the unconditional is what we said, a covenant in which God makes certain promises and will fulfill them in His timing, and man has no responsibilities in the fulfillment. God does desire that man believe Him. He wants that to happen, but it's not a requirement.

So, which are better, conditional or unconditional? I think it depends. But on a whole, I like the unconditional part. How good am I at keeping things? I don't ask my family, my wife, all the things I say I'm going to do, and I don't. And so I think on the conditional side, it is predicated on what that conditional covenant is. But on a whole, I like the unconditional where God's in charge. It doesn't matter what I do.

I like that. So the duration, again the temporal covenants which the duration is limited or eternal, a covenant which is for all eternity. So those are keys when we look at these covenants and now we get to the massive slide here and I like this one. This is one that Hal and Roger put together and I like this, how it stacks all the covenants and how they are shown and how they actually is what I say, stack. The other thing on this slide which I really like, and this is where we get away from the problems, is that there really isn't a verse or something here, but the wall of separation between the covenants that are specific to Israel and the Jews, and the covenants that are specific to us as the body of believers in Christ. so there's there's I like this because this kinda shows all these promises made to Israel do not apply to us and we're thankful that they don't because what what are what are the promises to the to Israel the Jews what are they based on or where are they based? yeah but where where are they focused where do all of them relate to.

Blessings and cursings. The old man. Like a real life place here. You're getting warmer. Earth. They're all earthly based. They're all earthly based. And do we want to have earthly based stuff? No. Where are we blessed? Heaven. And where is heaven? Wherever Jesus is. Wherever Christ is. So we are wherever Christ is. But the Jewish blessings were all based on earthly blessings. And this is for an eternity. So when we say a new heaven and a new earth, where are the Jews? It's an eternal, and that's why the durations are critical in here, because the blessings to the Jews were earthly and they were eternal.

So, I don't want to mix the blessings of Israel with what we have. So basically, without knowing the separation, many have been led down wrong conclusions about the church. Covenant theologians incorrectly associate the covenants of Israel with those for the church, leading to confusion and incorrect identification with earthly blessings reserved for Israel and heavenly blessings reserved for believers. Now, I want to point out, if you have looked at your book, too, Lewis Barrett Schaeffer calls out eight covenants. The slide that Hal and Roger put together shows only seven covenants, and they're kind of different than what was presented in the book.

The ones not shown on the slide are the ones, the, if I can say this right, Edenic, Eden, Edenic, Eden, and Edenic and Noic, Noah, the Noah, Adam, Edenic. They're not shown on here specifically. And really, so what was the, and Louisburg Chief puts it, what is the Edenic, Eden Covenant? He brings it out. We don't show it here. Because it works. They got kicked out of the garden. You don't eat this tree. You can prosper. And what, was that a conditional or an unconditional? Conditional. Conditional. It's definitely conditional.

You don't eat of the tree, life, be with me forever. You eat of the tree, you're out. So that was the one, and it was a conditional one. Same, if you look at the other ones, the Noah and the Adamic ones. And the Adamic one was just where he's getting kicked out. That's the covenant where he says, okay, you're out of the garden. So there's the Eden one, which it says, don't eat of the tree. And then the Adamic one, according to Schaeffer, is where they get kicked out. And that's, okay, I'm going to make a covenant from here out. You're going to toil in the fields. You're going to blah, blah, blah. This is all. Okay.

And then the Noach one is, is really, where God made a covenant and says, I'm going to wipe out everybody but eight people. And then, that was the start of what? There's kind of, it was the start, Schaefer puts it, it was the start of the government, where there were governments then. At that point, after Noah, is when government starts. So there were some things.

Were those conditional or unconditional, if you think about it? Noah and the Adamic. Conditional. They're all conditional. You do this and I'm going to make you toil. You do this and I'm going to wipe out the world. You're building the ark. So those are all conditional. So I think that's maybe one of the reasons why Hal and them didn't put this in.

Because most of these, with the exception of I think the Mosaic Covenant, are all unconditional. So, if we look at this slide, what is the foundation or the underpinning of all the covenants? Just for clarity, I think I misheard you. Were you saying that the Adamic and the Noahic covenants were unconditional? Conditional. Okay, you're in disagreement with Shapiro. I think he puts it some way, and I guess parts of it, I thought he said those were conditional.

No, the Noahic covenant was made with Noah and his sons, this covenant while repeating some of the features of the Adamic covenant introduced a new principle of human government. Right of government. Like the Adamic covenant, it was unconditional, and it revealed God's purpose for the race. See, I thought it was, the part I talked about was with building the ark and things like that.

He was required, Noah was required to do something. And that's where I think, I thought he pointed out that that was part of the conditional part of it. But yeah, I guess the whole covenant, I should go back on that. Yeah. Because Adam, it was like, and I think I, where did I listen? I looked at something else on Schaefer. That was what I looked at. that there were conditional things, but I guess the actual covenant part where he kicks him out and does all that is unconditional.

God was going to do it anyway. But there were conditional aspects of it. You build the ark. That was one of the things you do. Right, but it was unconditional. I'm going to flood the earth. Right, he's going to flood the earth. Somewhere I looked at it and he was saying there were conditional aspects of it, I guess is what I looked at. That they had to do something.

And, but yes, I guess that's right on the whole part that the covenant that he says he was going to do it anyway. Once you're, once, and the endemic one was, you're out of here. You're gone. It doesn't matter what you do, but then he's, there are, you're going to be, you're going to toil. There are conditional aspects of it.

I guess I misspoke because there are conditional aspects of it, but God was going to do it in any way, which is the unconditional part of the covenant. All right. So, what is the underpinning? of all this? The Eternal Covenant. And what is that? What is the Eternal Covenant? It's a covenant between God and His Son. You die for the sins and I'll raise you up. Yeah. So the two parties are who? God and Christ. So there's a covenant, it's two, and you'll see here basically Christ's seed would shed his blood and then God would raise him up. That's the covenant that was made between them, what was going to happen.

Let's look at Hebrews 13.20, if you can. So it says, now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord. So that's where it actually is called out, the eternal covenant. And then if we look at Acts 2, 22 through 24. Men of Israel, listen to these words.

Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.

But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power." Okay, so the predetermined plan was what? both the parties here, Christ and God. Christ would be sacrificed, the blood would be shed, and then what? He would raise him up again. So the covenant is brought out here. We also look at 1 Peter 1, 18-21. knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but he has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Again, just explaining the people, Christ shed his blood, God would honor that and raise him, and that was the eternal covenant.

That's really the whole gist of all the underpinnings of all this. That was the plan from time past, eternity past. That was the plan. Okay, so that's really the underpinning of everything that goes on here, is that eternal covenant. Now, again, that's what, an eternal one. What is the duration of this? Eternal.

That was an easy one. I thought that would be the easiest question I'd have today. So, now the question is, is the eternal covenant conditional or unconditional? It's not conditional. We have nothing to do with it. Everybody agree? Conditional? Unconditional? Yeah. What? Oh, you were going to say? No! You were going to disagree and I just cut you off. Oh, no. No. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was conditional.

And what were the conditions? What were the conditions? in the world, and that God would raise him up. Right. So, party number one, Christ, would die, shed his blood. Party number two, once that was accomplished, he would raise him up. So it was a conditional covenant, and it was eternal. I was going to ask a question, but Crystal already said it. Do we have anything to do with this? No. Who are the two parties? Are we anywhere in that? No, the two parties of God and Christ. So it was between them, we aren't even in that. Which is great because we'd fail if we had anything in it.

Okay, well let's look at the Abrahamic covenant. So, let's look at Genesis 12, 1 through 3. If you look at Genesis 12, 1 through 3. And this really lays it out, kind of the three aspects that came from that covenant. So, Genesis 12, 1-3, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.

And then the second one, And I will make you a great nation, and then I will bless you. Those are two of the promises, or two of the things we'll look at. And make your name great, and so shall be your blessing, and so you shall be a blessing. And I'll bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I'll curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So, first of all, does it say how all the families or nations will be blessed? How is it through Abraham, Abram at this point, Abraham, were all the nations blessed? Because the Savior will come. Okay, and do you have a verse for that? Would you have a verse? Okay, look at Genesis 22, 18. Genesis 22, 18. Somebody want to read that just so? And through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, all because you have obeyed me.

Okay. And what was the year of this? In what? 2218. Yeah, 2218. What did you say? What was it? It says, and through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So, descendants. What's another one? Seed. Seed, yeah. In your seed, all the descendants of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Right. Translation. Right. So see, that was, yeah, so yours is just descendants. So, so how, how is, how are all the nations going to be blessed? His seed? His, a descendant? Okay. So who is the seed? Jesus. Christ. Okay.

Look at Galatians 3.16.

Somebody read Galatians 3.16 for me.

Galatians 3.16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.

He does not say, and to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one, and to your seed, that is Christ. Pretty explicit. Who is the seed neighbor? And I like even in here that he says, and not seeds. It's not multiple. I mean, clearly, it's not. Because he says, I'm going to create a great nation. I'm going to give you descendants that are the grains of the sand or whatever it is. We're going to make you a huge nation. But he's very specific here. It's not seeds. one, and that seed is Christ. So I like how in that verse basically it comes out very clearly about who he is talking about.

Now, this is where the confusion lies. With Christ as a seed and the New Covenant, we do not receive any blessings from the New Covenant as expressed by in Jeremiah 31. This is where we talk about a new covenant and a new covenant in Christ. But in Jeremiah it talks about a new covenant. And this is where the confusion lies. What is he talking about about the new covenant? So I'll read this one.

Jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For 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." So, very clearly, and this is where it's hard to get the confusion, but who does the Lord specifically call out that the New Covenant applies to?

Israel and Judah. Israel and Judah. And what does that mean? Do you know what that, Israel and Judah, what that meant at that point? It's both the North and the South. North and the South, when it was a split kingdom, that they had the, what, ten tribes and two tribes. So that's why he brings that. So the twelve tribes will be brought back, and that's what's covered. But it specifically, twice here, it says this new covenant is to Israel and Judah. How do you take this new covenant and apply it to us? Covenant theologians will try and do that.

If you really start taking this apart, in verse 32, what covenant was broken? It says in verse 32, Not like the covenant which I made with the fathers in the day, I took them by the hand, then out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them. What is that covenant that was broken?

Well, when they came out, he said, I will be your God, you will be my people, in the works of stipulations. But before the law, I mean, because they have the whole scene with the mount, and he says, in Exodus 20, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Out of the house of slavery you shall have no other gods before me.

So that happened first. And then, yes, that we do have the 600 and something laws. That's what they broke. Yeah, that's what they broke. I mean, this was when he brought them directly out of Egypt, that's what happened. So I think that's what this is probably referring to. See, I...Lewis Berry and I, I was looking at some other verses and stuff, but it's really where the law, where they broke the law, is yeah, he promised all this stuff, but the covenant that he's talking about here that they broke is the law. originally the 10 and then the 600 plus laws, that's what's broken, that's what he's speaking of, that's the covenant that was broken. So, just to be clear what that was, what covenants are they breaking, but that's really talking about the law. Now, so when you really start to dissect this a little bit too, if you want to try and apply this, apply this to us as believers. It says the law is written on their hearts. Do we have that now? As believers?

Nope. We don't. We're in Christ who is everything. I mean, if we just rest in that, we aren't breaking any laws. We don't have the law written on our hearts. We're placed in Christ. So again, how do you translate this new covenant to us? I mean, if that's true, we should have the law written on our hearts. And if you look, how does that, in that, okay, well, first, you know, but this is the covenant which I'll make with the House of Israel after those days. Bingo, is that us?

No. But if you want to go and totally obliterate that, I'll put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again. Each man his neighbor, each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquities and all that." So do we...

Well, and if you jump down to 38, verse 38, it's very specific as far as it... an earthly, soil-based place where it says, Behold, the days are coming, it declares the Lord, when the city will be rebuilt on the Lord in the tower of Henanel to the corner gate. And then it just talks about the divine place. See, and that's where I tried at the beginning of this. Where are all of Israel's blessings based?

On earth. Do you want that? You know, that's what I think when covenant theologians say, you know, let's group us all together with the blessings of Israel. I don't want any part of that. You know, do you want earthly blessings or do you want heavenly blessings? I don't want anything to do with this place.

You know, but you look, and those are eternal ones. Again, remember we talked about the durations. These are eternal ones. So, the Jews will be eternally basically. Terrafirma. So, you know, when we'll be with Christ, and when they roll around the millennial one, Christ will be here, we'll be with him, where is heaven, wherever Christ is, we'll be with him. But the blessings to the Jews are right here.

And again, when you look at this stuff, if you start putting it together, covenant theology does not make sense. Nor do I want it to make sense. I mean, I don't want that. So that's really the point here is that, you know, you get a lot of these things that are translated that I don't want any part of, you know, a believer in Christ. That diminishes what we have in Christ. So, when is the law written on their hearts? On the Jews? Israel? When is that written on their heart? Now? Millennial Kingdom. Yeah, the Millennial Kingdom. So, again, that's for the Millennial Kingdom. It doesn't apply to us. The covenant doesn't apply to us. We're identified with Christ. We're placed into Him. Very different than the law written on our hearts.

Also, this hasn't transpired yet. It's going to be a future thing that God will write it on the hearts, which is kind of an amazing thing. You think of the Millennial Kingdom, They won't need to have teaching because the law will be in their heart, written on their heart. And it says in this Jeremiah one, they don't even need to teach it because it's written on their hearts. That's pretty cool, actually. They won't need it because it's already written on their hearts. The New Covenant sounds good and it sounds like us, but it's like all covenants between two parties. So who are the two parties in this covenant? God and Israel. The Jews.

So the seed was also promised. If you look at this slide too, from this we read about, there's a great nation, all nations will be blessed, and I will bless thee. From that, we come out of the Palestinian Covenant, which we'll look at in Deuteronomy, the Davidic Covenant, and then we've talked about the New Covenant. So, we'll get into a little bit of each of those.

The Davidic covenant, is that conditional or unconditional? Promise about having a kingdom, a throne, and a king. Was that conditional or unconditional? Did David have to do anything about that? Unconditional. Yeah, did he have to do anything about this? God promised he would have a kingdom, a throne, an eternal throne, and an eternal king through his lineage. So, I look at this today, and we'll look at this a little bit next week too.

The Palestinian covenant, what was that about? Did you guys read it in the book at all? What was that a promise of? Which one? Land. The Palestinian covenant was, I promise you land. And if you look at the Deuteronomy passage, it basically says, here's the land I promised to you, eternally.

How important is that today? Wow. That's a big thought. Do you think we're going to resolve the matters in the Middle East anytime soon? So, this is, it becomes important today because of what's going on. I just love every new president comes in, I'm going to solve the Middle East. We're going to, you know, you're going to give back a little land Israel and everything will be hunky-dory. Have we seen in any of these that this works? And why doesn't it work? God promised them the land. So whatever we do as man, try to parcel and cut and push, there was an eternal covenant that said, this is your land. So I laugh at all the efforts that we make. I think the latest one, our great president has said, go back to the 67 line or whatever.

If you look at that Deuteronomy, and I don't know if somebody can look at that real quick. Deuteronomy 31 through 10. If you look at what that is, I think it goes from the land of Egypt to the Euphrates. I think if somebody can pull that up. Deuteronomy 31 through 10. Somebody want to read that real quick? I think that's the one that calls out the land. So it shall be when all these things have come upon you? Yeah, well basically I think it calls out where it says from Egypt to Euphrates.

Isn't that the one? I think that's the one. I didn't pull it up here. I'm trying to look at my notes. Yesterday it basically says this is the land from Egypt to the Euphrates. I'll have to get that. There's a verse in there. There's a verse that I'll have to look it up. I looked it up and I got the wrong reference then. It is basically where it calls out the lamb. The Palestinian one is all about lamb.

And it's where it was promised to him. We'll get back to the Davidic covenant. Maybe that's it. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river of the river of Ukraine. That's the one. 1518. I know I looked at it, and I just didn't have the reference here, and it was a promise. That was a promise.

So again, what I do is I put it into perspective today. Go back to the 67 line. Go back, parcel, get down, squeeze. Is that going to happen? Is that going to accomplish peace? No. It won't. And so all these efforts that we try to get peace in the Middle East by parceling Israel down to nothing goes completely against what was promised to us. I look at it too. As an unbeliever, how would you look at Israel surviving all these They're outnumbered by 10 to 1 and they always come out on top. And God keeps this parcel and it'll go back at some point to what He's promised. And so all of our efforts to try and squeeze them and make peace does not do it. It won't ever accomplish it.

Alright, we'll finish up. There's a lot of stuff on here and then we'll get to If you can, look at the book. It has a lot of good stuff on it. This one will hit next week, which I think is a really good graph on how everything is laid out. And this is what I think is what Hal put together, I think. The three lineages that are traceable through the scripture, as opposed to the dispensations. And he kind of lays out how the dispensations fit within these three lineages. And I think the lineages are clearly spoken of throughout all of scripture. Well, the church is, as it's revealed, but... So anyway, we'll get into this one quite a bit next week and how it lays out which ones are eternal, which ones are conditional, which ones are, you know, temporal, those type of things. So, alright, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thanks for this day, Lord.

We just thank you for this time in which we can gather and study your word and all the different covenants. We do thank you for the unconditional ones, the ones especially where we don't have anything to do. We are just under your promises. Father, we just thank you that we have the new covenant in Christ, which is eternal, where we are placed in you and we are blessed with all blessings in the heavenlies.

And Father, we just thank you just for your plans for Israel, the Jews, and for us, the church. We just thank you for all that you have planned. We couldn't come up with a plan like that, and if we did, we'd fail. And Father, we just thankfully rest in your hand and your plans and we just thank you again for the gift of salvation, which is through the one thing that we can't claim any work or effort through, through faith.

And Father, we just thank you for all these things. We do pray for Vern upstairs with the message coming up. Just prepare our hearts to receive it and prepare him to clearly present the Word. So Father, we just do all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.