The CHRISTMAS COVENANT-V—Jeremiah 31:31-34
Attention:
No Official Governmental Civility?—(A ‘supposedly’ true story which I haven't researched)
Mark DeMoss, concerned about the increasingly harsh tone of public discourse, launched the Civility Project in January 2009. The Republican businessman & political adviser enlisted Democratic lobbyist & former Clinton aide Lanny Davis to help him. Together the two friends wrote to all 100 United States Senators, all 435 members of the House of Representatives, & all 50 state governors, asking each to sign a pledge promising, "I will be civil in my public discourse & behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against incivility when I see it."
How many of the 585 recipients agreed?
Three members of Congress, & no governors.
Living by the New Covenant repairs a lack of civility(respect for others) even among political representatives!
God informed Jeremiah & Jeremiah the people, of the promise of a new covenant to supplant/fulfill/uphold/empower the ineffective covenant.
God’s people have the promise of an effective covenant.
What is the Christmas Covenant?
Why is the promise of a differing covenant encouraging to God’s people?
5 elements/encouragements concerning the covenant people of God.
*OR beyond the Christmas season--‘The Covenant People Of God Are Encouraged With’...
Heb. 10:12-23 reminds us of the reality & intent of the New Covenant which was initiated in Christ & is maintained in Him—“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, & in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins & their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new & living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, & having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience & our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
We had found earlier that ‘The Christmas Covenant is’ OR--‘The Covenant People Of God Are Encouraged With’...
1. A PROMISED Covenant(:31)
2. A NEW Covenant(:31)
3. A UNITING Covenant(:31)
4. An INVIOLABLE Covenant(:32)
5—The Covenant People Of God Are Encouraged With(The Christmas Covenant is)...
A COLLECTIVE Covenant(:33)
Explanation:(:33)/No question who belongs or does not
:33—“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, & write it on their hearts; & I will be their God, & they shall be My people.”
“I will put My law in their minds,...”
Technically, the word translated “minds”[NKJV] more properly signifies that in the New Covenant, God’s “law” will be located within a person rather than without. It will be centered ‘within’, ‘the midst’, or ‘inward’ parts[KJV].
The New Covenant brings internal permanency(security/certainty) to the ceremonial, civil, & moral law, along with an ability to discern, separate, categorize, & prioritize those laws. It’s permanency will not so importantly be written outwardly. Rather it’s most notable feature is that God & His word will be personally known(:34) grasped & attended to by & thru the spiritually & emotionally dedicated “inward parts”(“heart”)!
Eph. 4:17-24—“This I say, therefore, & testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him & have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, & be renewed in the spirit of your mind, & that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness & holiness.”
Jn. 14:12-21—““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; & greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, & He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you & will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer & the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, & you in Me, & I in you. He who has My commandments & keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, & I will love him & manifest Myself to him.””
“Covenant”—tyrb ber-eeth'—Covenant, alliance, pledge, treaty.
“Make”—trk kaw-rath'—To cut, cut off, cut down, hew, cut off a body part, eliminate, kill, cut a covenant.
“Put”—Ntn naw-than'—To give, put, set.—to give, bestow, grant, permit, ascribe, employ, devote, consecrate, dedicate, pay wages, sell, exchange, lend, commit, entrust, give over, deliver up, yield produce, occasion, produce, requite to, report, mention, utter, stretch out, extend.
“Law”—hrwt towrah to-raw' OR hrt torah to-raw’—Noun Fem.—1) Law, direction, instruction—1a) Instruction, direction (human or divine)—1a1) Body of prophetic teaching, 1a2) Instruction in Messianic age, 1a3) Body of priestly direction or instruction, 1a4) Body of legal directives, 1b) Law—1b1) Law of the burnt offering, 1b2) Of special law, codes of law, 1c) Custom, manner, 1d) The Deuteronomic or Mosaic Law. Strong—from hry[properly--To flow as water (i.e. to rain); transitively--To lay or throw(especially an arrow, i.e. to shoot); figuratively--To point out(as if by aiming the finger), to teach]; A precept or statute, especially the Decalogue or Pentateuch.
“Minds/Inward parts/Within them”—brq keh’-reb—Noun Masc.—1) Midst, among, inner part, middle—1a) Inward part—1a1) Physical sense, 1a2) As seat of thought & emotion, 1a3) As faculty of thought & emotion, 1b) In the midst, among, from among(of a number of persons), 1c) Entrails(of sacrificial animals). Strong—properly--The nearest part, i.e. The center, whether literal, figurative or adverbial(especially with preposition).
“& write it on their hearts;...”
Permanency(security/certainty)—To have God’s law “written on” one’s “heart” further describes making one permanently, personally, & publicly accountable...Accountable to God, as well as to others like themselves(as brothers & sisters in Christ), who have the same “law” “written on” their “hearts”!
Rom. 10:8-10—“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth & in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus & believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, & with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Yet even before the New Covenant’s initiation, Israel is cautioned...
Ps. 119:11—“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!”
As Christians are cautioned in the permanence of New Covenant...
Jn. 15:9-11—““As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments & abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, & that your joy may be full.”
Free-will is both a necessity, as well as the potential bane of God’s perfect design for mankind.
If we allow God’s love to inhabit our “inward parts”(“minds”), then it will be indelibly engraved(“written”) “on” our “hearts”...then that love will never leave our own deepest desire! We will desire what God desires...God’s desire will become your passion...And we will passionately pursue God’s will. And that, in turn, will cause His desires to play out in our personal loves, our personal reasonings, & our personal choices or decisions.
Rom. 12:1-2—“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good & acceptable & perfect will of God.”
“Write”—btk kaw-thab’—Qal Imperfect—1) To write, record, enroll—1a) (Qal)--1a1) To write, inscribe, engrave, write in, write on, 1a2) To write down, describe in writing, 1a3) To register, enroll, record, 1a4) To decree. Strong—a primitive root; To grave, by implication--To write(describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe).
“Hearts”—bl lab—Noun Masc.—1) Inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding—1a) Inner part, midst—1a1) Midst(of things), 1a2) Heart(of man), 1a3) Soul, heart(of man), 1a4) Mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, 1a5) Inclination, resolution, determination(of will), 1a6) Conscience, 1a7) Heart(of moral character), 1a8) As seat of appetites, 1a9) As seat of emotions & passions 1a10) as seat of courage. Strong—The heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for--The feelings, the will & even the intellect; likewise for--The centre of anything.
“& I will be their God, & they shall be My people.”
The fulfillment of the “law” within individuals grants that each person is an integral part of the specific & exclusive group considered by God as ‘God’s people.’
OR--
Having God’s law within the heart of a “people”, secures the working role/relationship between those people who legitimately recognize “God” as “their” own, as well as between “God’s” legitimately recognizing the “people” He has raised up, as His own “people.”
1Pet. 2:9-10—“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
“The [true]Church has an ‘intimate’ knowledge of God’s will that is immediate upon one’s acceptance of Christ as their Savior. The Church is, therefore, a body that is bound by a common [intimate]knowledge of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”—BS JerE.#2, C21-52
“Be”2X—hyh haw-yaw—Verb—1) To be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out—1a) (Qal)--1a1)—1a1a) To happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass, 1a1b) To come about, come to pass, 1a2) To come into being, become—1a2a) To arise, appear, come, 1a2b) To become—1a2b1) To become, 1a2b2) To become like, 1a2b3) To be instituted, be established, 1a3) To be—1a3a) To exist, be in existence, 1a3b) To abide, remain, continue(with word of place or time), 1a3c) To stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality), 1a3d) To accompany, be with; 1b) (Niphal)--1b1) To occur, come to pass, be done, be brought about, 1b2) To be done, be finished, be gone. Strong—a primitive root [compare awh haw-vaw'; OR hwh haw-vaw']; To exist, i.e. Be or become, come to pass(always emphatic, & not a mere copula or auxiliary).
“God”—Myhla el-o-heeym'—Strong—plural of hwla [el-ow'-ahh]; Gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used(in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; & sometimes as a superlative.
“People”—Me `am—1)Nation, people; 2)Kinsman, kindred. Strong—A people(as a congregated unit); specifically--A tribe(as those of Israel); hence collectively--Troops or attendants; figuratively--A flock.
Argumentation:
Heb. 10:23-25—“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love & good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, & so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
1Jn. 2:18-20—“Little children, it is the last hour; & as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, & you know all things.”
Jn. 10:14-16—““I am the good shepherd; & I know My sheep, & am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; & I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, & they will hear My voice; & there will be one flock & one shepherd.”
Heb. 13:3—“Remember the prisoners as if chained with them--those who are mistreated--since you yourselves are in the body also.”
We are to remember the prisoners particularly because they have been imprisoned for their testimony of Christ. Yes, we should have compassion on all prisoners. But we should especially commiserate or empathize with fellow Christians in their persecution!
1Cor. 8:4-13—“Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, & that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods & many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, & we for Him; & one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, & through whom we live. However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; & their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, & wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
Gal. 5:13—“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Php. 1:8-11—“For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more & more in knowledge & all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere & without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory & praise of God.”
1Cor. 12:4-7, 11-14, 25-27—“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:”.....“But one & the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one & has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--& have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.”.....“that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, & members individually.”
1Cor. 11:26-32—“For as often as you eat this bread & drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body & blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, & so let him eat of the bread & drink of the cup. For he who eats & drinks in an unworthy manner eats & drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak & sick among you, & many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”
I have a tendency to sin in in my closeness to Christ. The more closely I know Christ & admit His intimate knowledge of me, the more free I become. However, my ‘freedom’ does not include inalienable ‘rights’ to certain actions or involvements. Personal God-ordained ‘freedom’ is never to be wielded over others—so that others are forced to succumb to the freedoms which are mine alone—but my ‘freedoms’ are rather to be executed for the good of others. I am never to exercise personal freedom to the degree that it becomes the cause of my brother’s fall from God’s blessing.
Likewise, Christians are a vital part of a group that is set apart from all others on the basis of our personal faith in Christ. When we are “judged” due to personal sin in our lives, then we do not face “condemnation” as those who do not accept Jesus as their Savior.
Illustration:
Certain neighborhoods ‘go all out’ with their Christmas decorations/The entire neighborhood is ‘on the same page’/They jointly collaborate—work together/In the Christmas season the neighbors have ‘expectations’ of their surrounding neighbors/They expect their neighbors to decorate ‘appropriately’ in a similar manner/Each neighbor recognizes that they are all part of something bigger than themselves!/COLLECTIVE Covenant
Example: McAdenville, NC bills itself as ‘Christmas Town USA.’
Neighborhood Watch program/COLLECTIVE Covenant
Homeowner’s Associations/Concerned with the common interest of all in the neighborhood/COLLECTIVE Covenant
When we lived in Savannah, GA we belonged to the Sierra Club/We we not members to make a political statement—We didn’t even know their policies!/We were members because we loved to go canoeing, canoe camping, sailing, hiking, etc./We simply enjoyed the beauty of the outdoors/The vast majority of the other members were of the same mindset—No politics, just outdoor enjoyment with little environmental impact!/Our participation with other members & them with us was part of a shared love of the outdoors/COLLECTIVE Covenant
?Why are you (not)associated with & are(not) part of any specific church?
Application:
?Are The Covenant People Of God Encouraged With(The Christmas Covenant is)...your COLLECTIVE Covenant?
?You living in Covenant with God thru His only-begotten Son?
CONCLUSION:
Action:
The Christmas Covenant is...
5. A COLLECTIVE Covenant(:33)
1. A PROMISED Covenant(:31)
2. A NEW Covenant(:31)
3. A UNITING Covenant(:31)
4. An INVIOLABLE Covenant(:32)
The arrival of the Christ Child(Christmas) anticipates the fulfillment of these aspects of the New Covenant!
Pt# 5 only! Presented 01/06/2019am to:
FBC Cbelle
206 Storrs Ave. SE(SE Ave. A)
Carrabelle, FL 32322
Pts. 1-5 Presented 12/05/2004pm to:
Providence Baptist Church
975 Providence Road
Whigham, GA 39897
