10/02/05 - “Grace and the Old Covenant - Part 1” 27L
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Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today’s message is “Grace and the Old Covenant - Part 1”

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.
In weeks past, we have shown clearly that God’s Seventh day Sabbath is to be restored to its proper place as it is God’s 4th commandment and the Ten Commandments have never been done away with.
After presenting the Sabbath to most Sunday keeping Christians, the listener will usually fire back a statement that goes something like this: “Oh I’m not under that old covenant, I’m under grace. I don’t need to keep that old law, it was nailed to the cross.” 
Do they have a legitimate Bible argument, or are they making a statement they hope is true? The first thing you need to understand is that they do not take their stand from a position found in scripture. Their statement is based on ignorance and is the product of what they have been taught by pastors in pulpits. 
Today we’re going to prove from the Bible that they don’t know what they’re talking about, and you’re going to learn how to show from the Scriptures why they don’t know what they’re talking about. And we need to be loving in our dealings with such people. If we show a Pharasaical pride, we, we do not represent Jesus. 
We’re going to answer the following questions: 
1.	Was the Old Covenant done away with? 
2.	Were the Ten Commandments the Old Covenant? Millions believe that they were. And… 
3.	Did Jesus’ death on the cross abolish what God gave at Sinai?
The very first thing we need to do is to understand what a covenant is.  The dictionary tells us that a covenant is an agreement between two or more persons or groups, especially a solemn and formal one. The agreement is based on mutual promises that they make to each other regarding a certain object that they have come together to base the agreement on. Is that clear?
You can say that a covenant is a type of contract. Back in the days when people didn’t put it in writing, they made their agreements, or covenants or contracts verbally, based on promises, and then they pledged their agreement soley on their word. That’s back when a man’s word was his bond. You could trust his word. 
For example, let’s say a farmer needed a barn built. His contractor friend said I will build your barn for fifteen thousand dollars. So they shake hands on it. The farmer promises to pay $15,000. The contractor friend agrees to build the barn for that sum. That is their agreement based on promises. The barn is not the covenant. The promises are.  
In the Old Testament, God made many covenants. We’re not going to turn to them right now, but you can write down the references and study them later. God made the first universal covenant before the fall, called the Edenic Covenant, found in Genesis 1:28 and 2:15. The second universal covenant was after the fall and was called the Adamic Covenant, which He made with Adam in Genesis 3:14-19. The third universal covenant was after the flood and that was the Noahic Covenant. God made that covenant with Noah in Genesis chapter 9:1-17. The Abrahamic Covenant was the fourth universal covenant and the first Theocratic covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. The Mosaic Covenant was the fifth universal covenant and the second Theocratic covenant which God made with Moses and it is found in Exodus 19: 5-8. The covenants involved God’s blessings but were conditional on the obedience of the people. There was another covenant called the Davidic Covenant that God made with David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. But the most important covenant ever made is the Everlasting Covenant that God the Father made with his Son Jesus before the world was even created. 
Jesus the Lamb of God, agreed to be the Savior of the world in case of sin. He therefore was, as stated in Revelation 13:8, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” 
The Everlasting Covenant has never been changed. Anyone who sins can receive pardon by repentance, confession, and asking for the cleansing forgiveness and they receive it according to the promise. That is the Everlasting Covenant that will always be there for a sinner in need of grace.
Now let’s take up this Old Covenant that we hear most about, that was supposed to have vanished away and been replaced by a New Covenant. As previously stated, a lot of people believe the Old Covenant was the Ten Commandments. So we’re going to read about these two covenants in Hebrews 8: 6-13. Turn there if you will. I will read it in your hearing:
“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. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 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: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 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. 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.”  
Alright, so this tells us the Old Covenant was abolished and replaced by the New Covenant. So the question is, was the Old Covenant the Ten Commandments? Brothers and sisters, even thought the Ten Commandments is referred to as a covenant a time or two in the Old Testament, that is not the covenant referred to here. The Ten Commandments was not the covenant. The Bible proves why it could not be the Ten Commandments.
First we have to look at what was wrong with the Old Covenant. The obvious answer is it had poor promises, as we just read in Hebrews that the New Covenant had better promises. The Old Covenant therefore had weak or poor promises.
Now let me ask you this. Do you know of any poor promises in the Ten Commandments? No, of course not. Turn to Ephesians 6:1-3. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”
Paul acknowledged that the Ten Commandments had a good promise of a blessing of long life on children who honored their father and mother.
So there are no bad promises in the Ten Commandments. What else is wrong with the Old Covenant? Hebrews 8:7 “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.” Based on what we just read, it is obvious now that the Old Covenant was faulty. Now let me ask you this: Is there imperfections or flaws in the Ten Commandments? Are they faulty? Of course not. 
We read in Psalm 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:” And in Romans 7:12 “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”  
No man has ever been able to point out a single flaw, blemish or imperfection in the Ten Commandments. Why? Because Jesus the Son of God wrote them with His finger on stone at Sinai.
You know what amazes me? These same people who want us to believe the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross when you talk about the Sabbath, are the same ones who rallied around that judge in Alabama to keep the Ten Commandment monument on public property at the courthouse. Talk about Babylonian confusion and hypocrisy.
Well time is up for this week, we will continue next week with “Grace and the Old Covenant - Part 2”
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.