God's Covenants With Mankind

When you and I talk about marriage, we know that marriage is basically a covenant relationship.

It is a promise that we make with our spouses for loyalty to death to us part.

And when that trust is broken, for whatever reason it may be, and the most extreme one obviously is adultery.

But when that trust is broken, it's very, very difficult to rebuild it.

You probably have come across people that have gone through these challenges, and to rebuild trust, it's very difficult. It's required a lot of forgiving, and it's requiring a lot of proving by what is the word? By works, by fruits.

That is genuinely pretentious and genuine commitment not to do it again.

So in a sense, when you do that, in a sense, it's like redoing your vows, not necessarily going through in every case a new recommitment, but privately it is a redoing of your vows, and it requires clearly a new heart and a lot of forgiveness.

You know, our relationship with God is also one that is based on trust. God-man, God-man, and God-relationship is one that was in the Bible compared to a marriage relationship. I mean, it's not literally that God literally married with Israel, but the symbology is so beautiful because it's a commitment of loyalty, and in that commitment there's always things that both parties have to do. That's undeniable. That's what an agreement, the commitment is. We look at scriptures like in Jeremiah chapter 3. Let's just go there very quickly. Jeremiah chapter 3, we'll read very briefly in verse 6.

It says, the Lord also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, have you seen that what backsliding Israel has done? She's gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. Look at it a bit further down in verse 9. So it came to pass through a casual harlotry that she defiled land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And so it basically means that God in this symbology is married to Israel, meaning that Israel is going to be loyal to God, like in a marriage relationship, and that loyalty was broken and Israel went to other gods. In this case, referring with stones and trees. In other words, statutes made out of stone or made out of wood and worship those, which in fact, in reality, they were worshiping demons. Not just the stones on those, but they actually, the spiritual reality of it is they were worshiping demons. So it's an act of idolatry.

And then we see a little bit later, it says in verse 14, return of backsliding Israel, says the Lord, for I am married to you. Return, repent, change.

And we read in other structures, like in Shaddamiah chapter 4, a little bit, probably maybe the same page of your Bible as you open. It says, if you return, Israel says the Lord, return to me. It was repent. And if you put away your abominations out of my sight, then, you know, it was then I'll bless you. So now we have a relationship which is broken and it needs repair.

I'll put it another way. It needs reconciliation. It needs reconciliation, which basically means a lot of forgiving and a lot of repenting and a lot of trust on both sides.

And so today, brethren, I want to talk to you a little bit about God's agreements with mankind.

And show you that these relationship contracts, basically they are contracts of relationships, like a marriage is a relationship contract. Have terms and conditions. And show you that these, let's call them covenants of God, they actually build up. In other words, they start at a level and then the next covenant kind of elevates it to a higher level and then elevates it to even higher level at the national level and then elevates it to a national and, in a sense, international level for the whole of mankind. And they all revolve around one important factor, and that is God's eternal love and trust for mankind.

But it requires us to repent and become trustworthy.

And so, because we sin and we have sinned, we have broken that trust, and we absolutely, you and I need forgiveness. Now forgiveness, or let's call it reconciliation, in other words, making the animosity between the two groups reconcile and be at peace, or in other words, justification, which is that relationship is made right, only comes, only comes through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His ongoing Atonement.

And so, the covenants don't replace the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but the covenants basically commit God to bless us and commit us to adhere to those terms and conditions.

In fact, the Hebrew word for covenant is bruh, where we get British words like that, which is a contract that binds two parties together. The New Testament word for it is the afika, which is a contract, but that word can be used both for a wool, like when a person dies, a wool, or a testament, but also a contract, a covenant. And so, when in the New Testament, we see that word used, some translators have at times translated it just to a wool or a testament, but when it's actually talking about an agreement between mankind and God, a better translation would have been covenant, let's call it new covenant, based on the usage as it is applied in the Old Testament and it's continued in the New Testament.

So, covenants, as I mentioned, show God's commitment to mankind and mankind's responsibilities to that commitment. But God's covenants also show an ultimate purpose.

An ultimate purpose. What does God want in the end? And that ultimate purpose is eternal life.

And so, initially, those covenants were individual. We look at Adam, while they were in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, and after they were expelled out of the Garden of Eden, we'll see there were two types of relationship, terms of relationship. And then we'll see the covenant with Noah, which was also individual. But then we'll see the covenant with Abraham, which was also individual. And then we'll see it lifted up to a national covenant with Israel, which is what we call the Old Covenant.

And then we see one that is elevated to a higher level when Christ came, which he came to establish the first beginnings of the New Covenant. And so, these covenants build up to an ultimate purpose of eternal life. And therefore, the goal of these covenants is around a relationship between God and man. It's to make that possible. And unfortunately, because of our sins, our sins, a new, let's call it remarriage, or a new covenant has to be reestablished based on a serious commitment, not just a commitment that was broken. And that's why we read in scriptures like in Romans 3, 21, faith establishes the law. Because that faith, which is trust, is absolutely needed for us to show by our trust and living acts that we indeed are committed to do what's right.

So, let's very briefly start with the very first relationships, which was with Adam and Eve. And there were two types of, you can see, relationships between Adam and Eve. One was a relationship with Adam in the Garden of Eden. And then we see a relationship with Adam, and when I say Adam, I mean Adam and Eve, and therefore mankind, because after they were expelled out of Garden of Eden. Now, while they were in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve's son, God had a very special relationship with Adam and Eve. You know, Adam and Eve looked to God as a father, and he looked to them as a children. There was a direct, loving relationship without any fear or guilt. If you and I just turn to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, we can see there that, and God said, let us make man in our image. And so God created man in his own image. And so we can see a very loving, caring family relationship of a spiritual father, a creator for man. And we can see in chapter 2, Genesis verse 19 through 20, we can see, and it says, you know, and they came to see that there were a lot of animals and things like that.

And Adam and Eve, Adam in this case, had to name these different creatures. And we can see there's an unashamed, genuine, one-on-one relationship between God and Adam. God talked to Adam, and he walked with Adam like a loving dad will talk and walk with his loving children. It's just amazing. Last night I was with some of my children and grandchildren, and my son and my son-in-law, they were joking, and they were playing with the grandchild, and the grandchild would go to dad and say, dad, you fight for me! Dad, you fight for me! And it was this amazing, loving relationship between a dad and a child. And that's what God was. And dad said, yeah, I'll fight for you. And then obviously they were playing, you know, you know, just kidding. But for the child, this was very important. I mean, the other thing is the child was continuously going, the father would put him on the island there in the kitchen, and the child says, dad, go further away, go further away, and then you'd throw himself to dad. I mean, absolute faith and trust. And it's so beautiful to see that. And that's what God wants from us and with us.

It's just that relationship. It's so important. And so we see that there was a wonderful relationship. Then we see that there were two trees. We know the story of that. And then we see that God's law was violated. When you really think about it, what happened is Satan went and said, no, you don't believe God because you won't die. Think about it. I mean, we quite often say, well, he lied and this and that. But you know what even more profound is?

Satan was breaking the trust between man and God. He says, don't trust God.

That is so dangerous. And really, I remember when I was a, I mentioned the company at this moment, but you all know which one, but it was a salesman. One other salesman will tell me that one of the sales techniques is what he called it, if you do, fad, which is mean fear, uncertainty and doubt. And really, that's what Satan does, creates fear, uncertainty and doubt, basically is to break trust. And so that's Satan's approach. And many salesmen, I don't want to be respectful to salesmen, please, but it's a technique that we've got to be very careful. We've got to speak the truth.

And one of the things I learned in the company is that you'd never speak bad of the opposition, but you'd focus on the strong points that you have, which I think it is a right approach. But anyway, we can see that Satan created these doubts and sin entered and basically, trust was broken. And that's exactly the same thing that happens in a marriage. You think about when the trust in husband and wife between the two is broken for whatever reason, that leads to that separation, which ultimately could lead to a divorce. But that cold shoulder treatment, and you know what that means and things like that, that can, if there's not forgiveness and kindness and love and building it, it can have serious consequences. And we know, so we see there was one relationship. In a sense, it's like there was a contract between God and Adam, although it was not defined as a contract, but you can see the fruits of it. There was a relationship, an unspoken or unwritten contract between the two. And then after the son of both Adam and Eve, yes, Eve was deceived, but Adam's son, they're both son, right? Then we see severe penalties. You go to Genesis chapter 3, I mean, it first talks about the penalty with Satan, which I'll go to a little later, but when it talks about the penalty between man and woman, in verse 16 says, and woman will go through a lot of pain and sorrow. And likewise, the man in verses 18 and 19 says, thorns and thistles shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field in the sweat of your face, and shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, and it was till you die.

So, basically, we can see that as a result of sin, there were severe penalties.

And we can see that part of it, some of God's laws were broken, and not this, but the mere fact of not putting God first is breaking laws of the Ten Commandments. But we can see that even laws like the Sabbath were given right at the beginning in Genesis 2, and we can see the result of that a little later killing as we see the situation of Cain and the killing of his brother.

On the other side, we see also a very prophetic verse that is in verse 15 in Genesis 3 verse 15, where it says, an output enmity between you and the woman, that's between Satan and woman, in between your seed, that's Satan's, and her seed, the woman's seed, which in this case, implying to Christ ultimately, and he, Christ, shall bruise your head, and you, Satan, shall bruise his heel, implying Christ and the church. And so we can see there were certain penalties and sufferings because of which ultimately required the very death of Christ, because it says, it says, yeah, that you shall bruise his heel. In other words, Christ's Christ's can add to end up actually dying and giving his life for us.

We also interestingly see in Genesis chapter 4 verse 3 to 5, you see that sacrifices were already in place. We can see the sacrificial of killing a lamb, etc., was already in place.

And the mere fact that it's mentioned that there were sacrifices of the firstborn on the flock, in this case, and there were also sacrifices of food. And you can see that those sacrifices, in fact, when you look at the first few chapters of Leviticus, they are part of later part of national, part of the covenant done with Israel as a nation. So you can see those sacrifices were already at an individual level. And therefore, it's interesting, why was the sacrifice of offering food versus the sacrifice of offering a lamb?

The sacrifice of offering food was not accepted. Good well-being, it's not stated, yeah, but if this was symbolic of the Passover, doing a Passover with vegetables or something instead of a lamb would have not been seen very well by God. And so God has all these holy days, all worked out well in advance, and that could be one of the reasons why it was not a accepted at that time. But yeah, we can see there were two types of relationships with Adam.

One was before the sun, in other words, in the Garden of Eden, and the other one is a completely different relationship of separation between Adam and by Adam. Remember that when they are breaking of a relationship affects the children. It's like if there is a marriage divorce, probably in a marriage and there is a divorce, the children are affected. That's as simple as that. And therefore, the consequences of breaking God's law by Adam, it impacted the children, in other words, the descendants of Adam and Eve. Then we go a little further down the road and we look at the situation of Noah. And we see that in Genesis 6, verse 8 and 9, that Noah was an obedient man and he had favor with God and he was working on that relationship. That's a very clear yah in Noah, chapter 6, verse 8 and 9, he says in verse 8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he said he was a just man, perfect in his generations, and he walked with God.

He walked with God. There was a one-on-one relationship. The details we don't know, but he walked with God. And so, but we see that society had deteriorated terribly and God had no choice but to eliminate. And we can see that there was a flood and then after the flood, we see there was an offering. Noah does an offering. You read that in Genesis 8, verse 20, and he says, and Noah built an altar to the Lord and took every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. So, I mean, surely Noah knew what was clean and unclean. I mean, after all, clean animals came there into what we understand, seven pairs, while unclean was just one pair into the ark. And so, God caused the animals to come in, but he had to have planned and built an ark to accommodate those animals. So, he knew very well what was clean and unclean.

And so, we see God's laws well through long, long before they were given to the National Israel as a group. We also see that in Genesis 9, verse 3 and 4, that they were to eat meat, but not with blood. Obviously, it would have been meat that was clean, but not with blood. And then, there were certain administrative provisions given. You can see in verses 5 through 11, in which in that covenant, if man killed another person, there would be the necessary of the death penalty. That's it, because he was saying there, there is a carnal mind, an unrepentant mind. That's how God saw mankind at that moment. And when God deals with unrepentant mind, you have to use a strong hand. That's it. And then, we see a little later, still in Genesis 9, and in verse 13, you see that a covenant was made between God and Noah, which is a covenant between God and all the people on earth, which was the rainbow. And we don't know if the rainbow existed before that or not. It could have well existed. But from that moment onwards, the rainbow became a symbol of that agreement. It's like saying, whenever you have an agreement, you sign. But that does not mean that because you sign, that's the first time that a pen exists.

So, you know, so the rainbow could have very well existed before. Obviously, we don't know, but I'm just saying that from that moment, it became a memorial of that God promised that mankind will never be destroyed again by a full worldwide flood. And so, we see a relationship there. Then, a little later, in Genesis 12, we see a special relationship with Abraham.

And we can see that he obeyed. Genesis 12, we can see that Abraham tithed. Genesis 14, we can see that he had faith. Genesis 15, that he trusted God. And then we see in Genesis 17, that even though that covenant was conditional, because it says, walk and I will make you, it was conditional, I mean walking, it extended those physical promises to his descendants. And also, at that moment, a sign of that agreement between God and Abraham, and his descendants, was implemented, which is the sign of physical circumcision, which basically showed there were certain responsibilities to be performed by Abraham and his children, and his descendants. So, it's a sign of agreed responsibility, not a sign of national superiority. And so, later on, we read in Genesis 22, that God tested Abraham's heart, and when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac.

And then in verse 15 of Genesis 22, we see, now I know, now I know that you will obey me, and therefore the promise now became unconditional. A promise of physical blessings and spiritual promises, because right at the beginning, as we saw in Genesis when the situation was with Satan, that there was already an intent of a long-term spiritual promise related to it. And we know from Galatians 3 verse 16, that it says, to your seed, and speaking about one seed, not all, which is pointing very clearly, that is a promise to Abraham and to his seed, which is Christ.

And that promise was then repeated to Isaac and to Jacob. We know that you can read the scriptures about that, and we also know that Abraham kept the commandments of God. And all that, brethren, we read that in Genesis 26 verse 5. He obeyed his voice and kept his commandments, his laws, his statutes and judgments. So that was long before Moses, long before what we call the Old Covenant. And so what we have is a relationship. We have sacrifices that were already in place before Moses, although they were at the individual level. And we have that God's law, God's spiritual law, the Ten Commandments existed all along and remain constant throughout these different covenants. We can see that relationship, this covenant relationship, is one built on trust, on faith, but this covenant relationship does not reconcile us with God. What reconciles us with God is Jesus Christ's sacrifice, his blood, his death and his resurrection.

And so we are reminded of that every year during God's holidays. And so we can see that these agreements, these covenants, are based on Godly, genuine love and care for us. And the basis of that is love and the Ten Commandments basically are love.

Love towards God and love towards fellow man.

And so later on at the time of Moses, we see then these covenants now being made not individually, but being made to a group of people. The covenant at Mount Sinai, which is what we call the Old Covenant, which was made through Moses, is one between God and now the whole nation of Israel. And we can see in Exodus 19, Exodus 19, verse 5 and 6. Exodus 19, verse 5 and 6, he says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people.

And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and holy nation.

And God was making this covenant with Israel, understanding the intent of God, ultimate intent is that God works through people, through families, through a nation, with what intent? To get and reach the whole of mankind. So God was saying, Hey, I'm going to work through you and with you because you will be a special people, not because you're better, but because I have chosen to work through you so that then through you I can reach the whole of mankind. And that's what God is saying. And then we can see in Exodus 20, Exodus 20, that God spoke to the nation.

And you can see he spoke the Ten Commandments.

Now, it's very important to understand that the Ten Commandments were given to the nation directly by God. God spoke and the nation heard it.

And so, in fact, when you look at it at the tablets of stone, they were written, the Ten Commandments, by the very finger of God.

In the first set of tablets, God even made that first set of tablets. The second set of tablets Moses had to make, but God still wrote with his own finger.

So the Ten Commandments were given to the nation directly by God, not through any human instrument.

So really, the Ten Commandments is like the heart and core of the Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant is more than just the Ten Commandments, but it's the heart and core of the Old Covenant. And because of that, we can see that day, the Ten Commandments are a basic expression of God's character and God's love to us, because it's love. And we can see in Exodus chapter 20, verse 18 and 19, it says, and all the people witness. And they say to Moses, now you speak with us, and we will hear. They say to Moses, you speak with us, and we'll hear. But let not God speak with us, lest we die. And they basically asked for an intermediator, in this case, Moses.

But the Ten Commandments were given to the nation by God Himself. Now, when I say God Himself, we know the Father instructed the Son, and the Son as the Word, as let's put it, as the Spokens actually spoke, because the Son, the Word was God as well. And therefore, God gave instructions directly to man. We know that in Deuteronomy 5, which in a sense is a repeat of that Lord or restatement of that, God says, oh, and that's in verse 27 through 29, He says, oh, that they had such a heart that it would obey all the time. Because God knew that they would be disobedient.

God knew they were a carnal, stubborn nation. In fact, it's easy to say they are a stubborn nation.

I think what we need to say is the whole of mankind is stubborn. It's not just that nation. Maybe some people are more stubborn than others, but the whole of mankind is stubborn.

And then we read from Exodus 21 through to Exodus 23 various laws that God gave Moses while Moses was in a mountain, various judgments that cover things like how to treat people, penalties for crimes, laws to make sure that you control animals, laws relating to property, laws related to sexual morality, moral principles, how to be holy and clean, how to be just and not have bribery, and how to properly apply the Sabbath, the annual Sabbath and the time. And I mean, that's just a very brief summary. And then we can see that then in Exodus 24 and in Exodus 24 verse 4, it says, And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. So all the instruction you received in a mountain, Moses received in the mountain, which is all these additional laws around, let's call it the basic constitution, right? So let's call it, for instance, Ten Commandments like the basic constitution and all the basic laws around that Moses wrote. And he says, and therefore he rose up early in the morning, built an altar. And then you read, he wrote those into what it's called the Book of the Covenant. And you see that in verse 7. Then he took the Book of the Covenant. You see, so that Book of the Covenant is that section of Scripture between Exodus 21 and 23. And these became central to the government of that nation. And that was sealed and signed and was ratified in blood. And you can see that in verse 8. And Moses took the blood, sprinkled in all the people, and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the word has made with you. So he's rectified that covenant. And so we can see that that throughout this, Moses put this covenant in front of the people. And then we get down further down the road. This was detailed with more details. The law was explained in more details because that was just in a sense like a summary, was further detailed.

And we read all that through, for instance, Leviticus, where there's detailed instructions about the priests and the divides. There's detailed instructions about clean and unclean animals. Leviticus 11. There's more detailed instructions about sexual morality. Leviticus 18. There's more detail on moral and ceremonial laws. Leviticus 19. There's more detail about the holy days. Leviticus 23. And then it in a sense concludes it in Leviticus 26 with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, which is also repeated in the book of Deuteronomy, specifically chapter 28. And so we can see this is all done. And then after Deuteronomy 28, where the summary of the covenant is done, after the blessings and cursings is repeated just before Moses' death, then in Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, God tells them, choose life. Choose life. You see, then we see Joshua being the new leader. And we can see that later on Joshua as a leader has different responsibilities. And we know through history that Israel disobeyed. We just know Israel disobeyed.

Why? Because they were unconverted people. They were rebellious, unconverted people.

And so we have here a whole system, a whole law and a whole system to deal with unconverted people. In fact, it was a nation. So it had to have, let's call it, civil laws, laws about to handle criminals and things like that, which today are handled by our own governments, federal or state or whatever it is. But those laws were written there in that, what we call the law of Moses. It included all those laws, which by the way, as I said, included civil matters, civil laws.

And then we see, as we get brought forward into the writings of the New Testament, we can see in Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9 and 10, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9 and 10, because Hebrews is an interesting book, which basically compares the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. Yes, it shows our Christ is much higher than angels and Christ is much higher than the other priesthood, because the priesthood of Melchizedek. But because really in the end, it's comparing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant and saying, yeah, we've got a New Covenant. And in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9 and 10, we say, and when you talk about the Old Covenant, the tabernacle, all that, all that priesthood, it says here in verse 9, it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him or perform the service perfect in regard to the conscience.

It says, so all those offerings and sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed to the real sacrifice, which is Christ. And then it says, which says it's concerned only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinance imposed until the time of Reformation. And the time of Reformation when Christ came and we read, for instance, in Daniel 9 that Christ will come and establish this covenant and halfway through that week you'll be interrupted because the first part is when he offers himself as the offering. And the second part of establishing that covenant is when it comes to earth and becomes the king and the ruler and establishes in a words the application of that new covenant into the wall.

Because that says a covenant will be made with Israel and Judah, with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And the house of Israel, the house of Judah is more than just the church. So the first part that he did was the sacrifice and the latter part that he will do will be becoming a king, will be the second exodus, the Israelites coming in and establishing that covenant with the nation of Israel, which then will be through us as kings and priests reigning under Christ, as helpers will then be implemented and let's call it spread out to the whole of humanity.

In chapter 8, Hebrews chapter 8 verse 6, we see, by now he, that's Christ, obtained a more excellent ministry as the minister under the ministry of Melchizedek, in much as he also is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. So now we have a better covenant, a new covenant, a new covenant which is established on better promises.

And you and I can see a lot of scriptures in the New Testament that are, in a sense, linked to scriptures in Old Testament, which basically create that bridge between old and the new. And in fact, right here in Hebrews chapter 8, it says, the fault, the problem of the old covenant, Hebrews chapter 8 verse 8, was with the people because they did not obey. They did not fulfill the conditions of that contract. But now there will be a new covenant where it says, I'll put my laws into their hearts and their minds and they will obey.

Now how will we do that into people's hearts and minds through the power of God's Holy Spirit, giving us a spirit so that we can be changed? So we can see there is a new covenant. And so this new covenant, as we know, was prophesied. Yes, it was prophesied. You can read Jeremiah 31 verse 31 to 34, which is quoted in Hebrews 8 verse 9 through, I mean, verse 8 through verse 12.

So it is repeated. And it just shows that Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Now this is a point that quite often we don't fully grasp. When it says Christ came to fulfill the law, quite often we say, yes, he came and obeyed it to the fore. Correct. But the law pointed to a future Messiah, to a future Christ. Writing Genesis, which is part of the five books of the law, Pentateuch, it's already pointed to Christ.

The promise to Abraham says, your seed will be blessed for all nations. So that needed to be fulfilled. And that is part of the law. The sacrifices, the sacrifices in Leviticus 1 through Leviticus 5, pointed to Christ and also pointed to the work of God's early Spirit. And that had to be fulfilled. And so the law was fulfilled not only because Christ obeyed the law, but also was fulfilled because those prophetic statements in the law about a Messiah were fulfilled.

And likewise the prophets, because the prophets pointed to Christ's coming. Many prophets pointed to Christ's coming. So we see in the book of Hebrews explaining clearly this transition. We can see that Jesus is greater than Moses, Hebrews chapter 3, verse 1 through 6. Hebrews 4 verse 9, you see the Sabbath remains. Sabotism, we're keeping other Sabbath remains. So the Sabbath remains. We see that Levitical priesthood is replaced by Melchizedek priesthood, Hebrews 5 and 7. We see in Hebrews 8 that Christ is the high priest of the New Covenant. He is the mediator of the New Covenant.

We see also in Hebrews 8 verse 13, which you probably hear right there, it says, a New Covenant and he has made the first obsolete.

So the first covenant is obsolete. Not the laws, but the actual agreement, because there's now a better agreement, a better contract. And then we see in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9 and 10, we see specific physical activities or the old covenant that are being declared unnecessary in the New Covenant, like meat and drink offerings in ceremonial washers. And then in Hebrews 10 verse 10, and that is a beautiful scripture, Hebrews 10 verse 10, where it says, by that which we have been, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the blood of Jesus once for all. That sacrifice of Christ is once for all. And so we can see through this that the book of Hebrews upholds and sustains the law of the New Covenant. The big problem that existed at the time is that people at the time of Christ were thinking that circumcision was what made people reconcile with God. And it's not circumcision that makes people reconcile with God. It's not circumcision that produces forgiveness. It's Christ's sacrifice that produces forgiveness. And that was a big challenge at Christ's time, or one of the big challenges at Christ's time. You see, the problem was the understanding of how we are made just and right before God. In other words, how we reconciled. We reconciled, we are forgiven not because of works of the law, but by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, what he did and his absolute trust in the Father, that the Father would resurrect him.

And that is what forgives us. So no amount of any law, no amount of any law can earn a person forgiveness. It's like saying, no amount of driving correctly according to the law will pay for your penalties of past infractions to the traffic law. It doesn't matter. There is a fine, and the fine is life for life and Christ's life for our life.

So once again, no amount of law keeping or no human effort can earn a person forgiveness for his sins and reconcile him or her to God. And so the history of the covenants now doesn't end there.

You see, because today we only act a preliminary part of the new covenant relationship.

You see, because we are in what we call the engagement period, the betrothal period, we're not yet married to Christ. You see, we betrothed to Christ so that we can be a chaste virgin. That's what we read in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2. Let's look at that. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2. He says, For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

When? At the marriage of the Lamb, which is described in Revelation 19.6-8.

After the resurrected saints, you and I, God willing, are part of that covenant relationship, then it's time to call to salvation the rest of Israel and the whole world in the millennium.

A new temple will be built in Jerusalem. You can read that in Ezekiel 40. Certain sacrifices will be enacted as a reminder of Jesus Christ's sacrifices. And after the millennium, that the new covenant will be offered to those that have sinned in the past and died and did not know the truth. In other words, in the second resurrection. And then they will have to repent and change and commit and be evaluated on their commitment and remain faithful to the end.

And then we read in Revelation 21, the final stage of the new covenant, when God the Father himself comes to earth with New Jerusalem. And there will be a final, glorious relationship that the Father will have of all of mankind in the new heaven and new earth. At that time, it will be spiritual kind, but the whole of mankind is now a deal to those standards.

And so you and I, brethren, can see that God's covenants progressively grow and grow with the aim of achieving the ultimate fulfillment, which is man living without sin. And at that time, will be spiritual mankind as God beings in God's family and having eternal life with God as his Father and Christ as our elder brother. So we can see, brethren, the covenants complement each other.

And as you can see, there is a continuity in the covenants from beginning to end. And therefore, the covenants only describe what God expects us to do.

But obedience to the law of God is still required under the new covenant.

But no obedience to law or series of laws will earn salvation from you or force God to forgive you. That is part of God's loving sacrifice that he did to us through Jesus Christ.

And so what is your part and my part in this covenant?

Brethren, your part and my part is to believe and trust in Him. And upon genuine repentance and continuous willingness to change from our heart, we must then stay and abide in that covenant till the end. And indeed, the covenants of God are an amazing gift and blessing from God to you and I.