Identifying The New Testament Church #10
God of Covenant

God said He would care and provide for His people. He described it as being born on eagles' wings: "I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself...if you will obey My voice and keep My Covenant, you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me...and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles." Exod. 19:4?6; Isa. 40:31. Those words were spoken by the God who created the heavens and the earth. He then created man and put him on the earth and walked in loving fellowship with Adam and Eve whom He created. God made a COVENANT with man. It was a COVENANT based on man obeying God's voice as stated in Exod. 19:5. This morning we want to begin to review the concept of covenant and emphasize the importance of the Covenant Seal that marks every person who is in Covenant Fellowship with God.
The Covenant Seal. ln the garden of Eden man sinned and lost his spiritual fellowship with God because of sin. But, God made a Covenant Promise that would restore that lost fellowship. Read about that promise as God speaks to the devil in Gen. 3:15.
1. In this Covenant Promise God vows to destroy Satan's power to bring death to mankind. Satan will bruise Christ's heel (not a mortal wound). But Christ will crush Satan's head (a fatal blow). Satan's power in death will be taken away. Jesus, our Covenant Representative died on the cross in our place. In doing so He paid the death penalty for all Covenant Breakers so they wouldn't have to die. "...Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil...having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, by triumphing over them." Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15. And that's what Gen. 3:15, said he would do.
(A) God repeated that Covenant Promise to a man named Abraham. This time the
promise is more specific. When God made the promise to Adam it just stated that
mankind's fellowship with God would be restored by a man (the woman's seed). When
God spoke to Abraham He stated that the blessing of the Covenant Promise would
come through one of Abraham's seed (descendants). Gen. 12:1?3, 17:2?4, 7. Then
God reaffirmed that Covenant Promise in more specific terms to David the King of Israel who was a descendent of Abraham. God told David that his throne would be
everlasting and one of his own descendants would reign eternally on that throne. You
can read about it in 2 Sam. 7:12, 16; Jer. 23:5; Jno. 7:42.
(1) Both the apostle Peter and Paul say that Jesus Christ is the promised seed who would restore fellowship between God and man?kind. First Peter talks about how God reminded King David (a descendant of Abraham) of His Covenant Promise to raise up a descendant to sit on the throne. Then he says that descendant was Jesus Christ, Acts 2:29?33, 36. That scripture says Jesus fulfilled the Covenant Promise made to David and that He now sits upon the throne at the right hand of God.
(a) Now Paul tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead and set Him at His
own right hand. Then God exalted Christ and gave Him a name which is
above every name. “And at Jesus' name every knee, in all creation, should
bow and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. Then Paul says that Jesus Christ is the one who brought the blessing of Abraham to both Jew and Gentile so that we might
receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. Eph. 1:19?21; Phil.

2:9?11; Acts 3:25?26; Gal. 3:13?14.
(1) Listen carefully to the statement in Acts 13:32?34. God has fulfilled the promise He made to the fathers. What fathers? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. What promise? "Your seed shall sit on the throne forever and through Him shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
(2) Those scriptures declare Jesus to be the promised blessing for both Jew and Gentile (All the families of the earth). He is the Messiah, the descendant of David, the promised Seed of Abraham. And as such He is now in the position of universal authority.
(1) That authority is exactly what He claimed in Matt. 28:18?20.
(2) Jesus is the promised Seed. Jesus is the promised Messiah. Jesus is the Covenant Promise fulfilled. And as promised in Jere. 31:31?34, He has established a New Covenant Heb. 8:8, 13; 12:24.
(3) That New Covenant, established by Jesus Christ with His shed blood on the cross is the New Covenant The one He spoke about in Luke 22:20, “When He took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” The church is the Covenant People of God purchased with the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. Isn’t that the one church of which your want to be a member?.
(4) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 06/30/2002 am