Loving Kindness - Covenant Loyalty
Series: The Blood Covenant
May 19, 2019
Ben Homan
Ben Homan - Class Leader Lesson 11 in the series on the Blood Covenant titled: "EXECUTING THE COVENANT"
Episode Notes
Why Did God Make Covenants
Mark 12:28-31
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”Greatest Command.
When we think of law, we think 10 commands. Jews had 613 laws. Jesus summed them up in 2 commandments.
God wants people to love him with heart, soul, mind, strength
Not to force us into submission
In order to deal with us, God uses covenants.
Hesed - Loving Kindness, love, kindness, loyalty, mercy, compassion
1 Sam 20:8, 14-15
8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is iniquity in me, put me to death yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?” 14 If I am still alive, will you not show me the lovingkindness of the Lord, that I may not die? 15 You shall not cut off your lovingkindness from my house forever, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”V8 Therefor deal kindly = hesed
V14 show me loving kindness
V15 cut off loving kindness
Faithfulness keeping the covenant
Work in a way that the other party benefited from the covenant.
Luke 12:42
42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his [a]servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?Luke 12:47
47 And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes,Luke 16:10
10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.We cannot be just rule keepers, we have a responsibility. We need to find ways of success doing for God’s Benefit
How is the New Covenant Different than the Old Covenant?
Hebrews 8:8-10 - People did not keep the Old Covenant.
But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them (Zech 11:10-14), declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.V.10 God made a new covenant, it will not be like the old covenant.
Not leads us by the hand, but have personal responsibility
Writes laws on our hearts and forgive our sins.
Gen 20:6-7
6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. 7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”Being in a covenant with God makes you different than the rest of the world
How Do We Get Into The New Covenant?
Baptism
Hebrews 10:22
22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.Your heart has to be sprinkled with blood
The bible doesn’t teach you can pray your way into heaven/coveant.
1 Peter 3:21
21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,Not a cleansing power of water, it saves us through the resurrection of Jesus.
Lords Supper
Hebrews 13:10
10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.Christians have an alter that we can eat from that those outside the blood covenant cannot.
Matt 26:26-28
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.The Cup is Jesus Blood, He is initating an alter that will be forever part of the new covenant
Christians are able to come to the alter and connect with God by contacting Jesus blood at communion
How Do We Stay In The New Covenant?
Revelations 3:5
5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.Overcoming sin will prevent name from being erased from the book of life
Hebrews 10:19, 25-29
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. >>26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?According to hebrews, if we “forsake assembling ourselves together (for communion)” “there is no more sacrifice for sins.” The only thing we have waiting for us is “more severe judgement” because we have “broken our blood covenant”
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.The Spirit of God can only be with you if the Spirit sword works on you.
Luke 19:22-28 - Parable with a side of truth
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow?Who is called a wicked servant? A Christian that did not particpate in the ministry of reconciliation.
If we just take what God has given us and wait for his return, we breach the covenant.
Our mission as covenant keepers is to share the gospel with the world.
How To Go Above & Beyond What Is Required
New Testament Hesed
We go from Hebrew to Greek. Greek word is Eleos
Matt 12:1-8
12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”Desire mercy/compassion = Eleos
Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.desire loyalty = hesed. Same word
More to the covenant that just keeping the law
Matt 9:9-13
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”Desire mercy = Eleos
Hebrews 10:5-10 - does not use the word Eleos
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.Psalms 40:6-7 Quoting from here.
Context is the same as what Jesus is talking about and only fulfilled when Jesus does the will. That is Jesus’ Hesed
Isaiah 53:10
But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.What pleased the Lord? All because of the Hesed for the covenant.
God went into a covenant with man because he loves man.
Did the Pharisees understand Hesed? Do we?
What is the consequence for being a law keeper? Hell.
Matt 23:23
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.Missing important things.
Mercy = Eleos/Hesed = covenant loyalty, of the law
Without Hesed, you will be like the Pharisees; just a law keeper. Are you showing Hesed?
How did Jesus show Hesed?
Whose example are we to follow?
Are you showing hesed?
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