1. Covenant Lesson 9

2. Curse for breaking Covenant • God Will: • Deut.28 Tear them from the land • Scatter them among the nations • No Rest • Trembling Heart • Despair • Dread • No Assurance of Life

3. Deuteronomy 29-30 • God had: Provided • Brought them out of Egypt • Protected and provided in the wilderness 40 years • Their clothes and sandals did not wear out • IF THEY OBEYED: • God would bless them • Set them high above all nations • Establish them as a holy people to Himself • Multiply and protect them • Inflict curses on their enemies • Give rain on their land and bless the work of their hands

4. Context of the promises • Nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms • Northern = Israel Ten tribes • Southern = Judah – Two tribes Benjamin and Judah • Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. • Jerusalem destroyed in 586 B.C. by Babylon • All they had to do was obey Him and walk in His ways

5. Promises of the New Covenant • Jeremiah 31 The New Covenant is for the future of Israel and Judah • Not like the Old Covenant • Promised to put His Law within them • Write it on their hearts • He will be their God and they will be His people • They will ALL know Him • He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more • Israel will never cease from being nation • This Covenant is everlasting

6. Promises of the New Covenant • Jeremiah 32 God promised to gather Israel from the nations where He had scattered them • In the future, Israel will be safe dwelling in their land • He will give them one heart and one way • He will not turn away from them • This Covenant is everlasting • The land and the nation are connected

7. Jeremiah 17:9 • The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it? • God promised to write His Law: • ON their hearts and IN their minds • In the New Covenant their hearts will no longer be deceitful hearts. • Why? • My heart is now indwelt by the Holy Spirit

8. Ezekiel • Ezekiel 11:13-21 Question: Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel? • God said He would gather them from the nations • Give them the land • Give them one heart • Put a new spirit within them • Replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh • They will walk in His statutes and keep His ordinances • In the New Covenant there will be obedience to the Lord because of the new condition of the heart

9. Ezekiel • Ezekiel 36:24-28 When the Lord gathers Israel to their land, THEN • He will cleanse them from their filthiness and idols • Give them a new heart and spirit • Put His Spirit within them and CAUSE them to obey Him • They WILL live in the land, be His people and He their God

10. New Testament • Eph. 2:11-22 Gentiles were strangers to the covenants in previous times • Separated from the Messiah • Without God in the world • Without Hope • NOW: No longer strangers, but fellow citizens • Brought near to the Messiah • Eph. 3:4-6 Mystery: Gentiles are fellow heirs and partakers of the promise through the gospel of Jesus Christ

11. New Testament • Romans, John and Matthew • The gospel first went to the Jews • They were the original heirs of the promise • Hebrews 8 • Jesus is our high priest, seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens • Jesus had a more excellent ministry • Jesus is the Mediator of a better Covenant • Founded on Better Promises • Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant

12. New Covenant • New: Kainos – new as opposed to old or former and hence also implying better because it’s different. • The New Covenant is Salvation • The blood of Jesus draws Gentiles near as well as Jews • The Holy Spirit indwells those believing in Him • There is forgiveness of sins and an ability to obey God