A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
"But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second….When He said, ’A New Covenant’, He has made the first obsolete." Hebrews 8:6-7,13.
COVENANT: "a binding agreement between two or more parties expressly for the performance of some action." Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.
I. OUR GOD IS A COVENANT-MAKING GOD
1. God’s first covenant with Noah related to building and entering the ark. Genesis 6:18-22.
2. The second covenant with Noah was extended to every creature on earth and is called the "covenant of the rainbow" Genesis 9:8-17.
3. God’s covenant with Abraham. Genesis 17:1-14.
4. God’s covenant with the nation of Israel at Horeb (Mt. Sinai) Deuteronomy, chapter 5.
5. God’s covenant with Israel after 40 years wandering in the wilder-ness and just before entering the promised land. (Moab). Deut., ch. 29.
II. CLEARING UP SOME PRESENT DAY MISCONCEPTIONS
No covenant relationship exists today between God and any nation. The only such relationship that has ever existed was between God and Israel. That covenant relationship ended when Christ died on the cross and was signified when "the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Matthew 27:51
III. THE EXPRESSED OBLIGATIONS OF THAT COVENANT
Israel was blessed when it kept the Law and punished when it broke it.
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8.
IV. GOD’S COVENANT TODAY WITH MAN IS BETWEEN GOD AND THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN.
Made possible by grace; appropriated by faith and carried out in love.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your-selves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10.
Love Him, worship Him, serve Him and be blessed…do otherwise and miss out on God’s choicest blessings.
