4/29/07 – 17LAW “Grace and the Old Covenant” - Part 2
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s message is “Grace and the Old Covenant - Part 2”

Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, as we study this most important subject regarding grace and the old covenant, I pray that You bless those listening today with the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding so that we may live in the center of Your revealed will, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

Last week we learned that the Old Covenant was an agreement containing promises, which were made between God and the children of Israel. The Ten Commandments was not the covenant, but was the object or instrument of the covenant. God promised He would bless if the people obeyed. However before Moses came down from Sinai, the people had already broken their promise as they were worshipping the golden calf. 

We learned in Hebrews 8 that the Old Covenant was built on poor promises, but that was not God’s fault. The people were the reason the Old Covenant was found to be faulty. God’s law was not in question.

We read what David wrote in Psalm 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:” And Paul wrote in Romans 7:12 “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”  
Let’s go on. What else was wrong with the Old Covenant that meant it had to be replaced?
Hebrews 8:13 “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
Let me ask you this. Do we find anything in the New Testament to indicate that the Ten Commandments vanished away? Listen, Jesus, James, Paul and John quoted the Ten Commandments. All ten are listed in the New Testament. On the basis of that fact alone, the Old Covenant cannot be the Ten Commandments.
Look what Paul said in Romans 3:31. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”  
Paul wrote Hebrews and Paul wrote Romans. Therefore he states clearly that for New Testament Christians under grace, the law is established. How can the same law, the Ten Commandments, vanish away and be established at the same time? To be certain of that point, let’s look at Romans 3:31 again. Instead of law, let’s substitute ‘Old Covenant’. “Do we then make void the Old Covenant through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Old Covenant.” Do you see? If the Old Covenant is the Ten Commandments, then it must make sense. But it does not! The Old Covenant cannot be the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments cannot be the Old Covenant. Is that clear?
Alright, now let’s go back and see what the Old Covenant really was. Turn to Exodus 19:3-6 “And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”
Here God was making a proposal to Israel. You do something for me, I’ll do something for you. You keep the covenant and I will bless is in essence what He was saying. You see the basis of the covenant would be promises. Now verses 7 & 8 of Exodus 19. “And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.”
The people said they would do it. There you have the Old Covenant based on the promises of the people. They felt self-sufficient to obey the instrument that would be the basis of the covenant. They were in effect saying that independent of God’s help, we can do it!
It’s like the barn example. The barn was not the covenant or the agreement, it was the object of the agreement. The covenant was the promise of one person to pay, and the promise of the other to build the barn. So the Ten Commandments were the object or instrument of the promise of God to bless and the people to be obedient. Do you understand?
Now in order for the covenant to be official, it had to be ratified and sealed with blood. Turn to Exodus 24: 3-8. “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.”
God made the covenant with the Ten Commandments as the instrument, but the Ten Commandments was not the covenant. The covenant was concerning obedience. Obeying the Ten Commandments. Do you see? The people promised to obey, God promised to bless. The people said we will keep it and it was ratified by the blood.
Now I ask you, were they able to keep it? Did they obey the law? NO! Only days after Moses went into the mountain, they were already breaking the law worshipping the golden calf. They were breaking God’s law before the stone tablets were even delivered into their hands. They broke their promise! Now do you see on whose side was the poor promises? God would certainly have kept His, but the people did not keep theirs. Now we see clearly in Hebrews 8 why a New Covenant was necessary. 
According to Hebrews 8:8 “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”
Do you see? The fault was with them, the people. Now what was the better promises in verse 6? “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”  
We find them in verses 10-12. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Now whose making the promises? God. And why is the New Covenant established on better promises? Because God is making the promises. Is that clear? In the Old Covenant the people made the promise that they would keep it in their own human strength. 
It is impossible for people to keep the law in their own strength apart from God. We see that all around us today. Especially in church people who reject any commandment. Under the New Covenant it is God making all the promises. I will, I will, I will.
Do you see the difference? It’s a big difference. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant involves the same law. But the people were trying to keep it in their carnal nature, by their own strength under the Old Covenant.
Under the New Covenant God has written the law into their heart and mind, into the regenerated nature that had been transformed by the power of God.
How was the New Covenant ratified? The Old Covenant was ratified by the blood, and so was the New. Turn to Hebrews 13:20,21. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
The blood of the New Testament was the blood ratifying the New Covenant and that was the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, and that was the blood of Jesus, and it is through His blood that He will make you perfect. It’s not the people saying, “We will do it, we will obey.” No, No. It is God saying, “I will do it”. Jesus is working in you to do His good pleasure and that’s the big difference between our working it out and Him working through us. 
So, the New Covenant was ratified by the blood of Jesus and His death on the cross. 
Well time is up for this week, we will continue next week with “Grace and the Old Covenant - Part 3”
If you would like to worship with seventh day Sabbath-keepers, come to the Victory Seventh Day Adventist Church in South Hill at 117 W. Danville Street, in the old Citizens Bank building, just a couple doors from the library.
Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Come Lord Jesus.