Sermon Tone Analysis

We're going to pick up for we left off last week in our *teaching* on the *Blood Covenant*.

As I was waiting on the Lord on what to *minister* on for this *Easter morning* service, I *felt impressed* by the Lord to *minister on* what we've been teaching on and that is the *Blood Covenant*.

*Without* *the shed blood of* the Lord *Jesus* Christ, *Easter would not be a day of celebration* for us.

*Jesus had to shed his blood to pay the price for our sins* *and* *then* *when he was resurrected from the dead* *you and I were also raised together with Him*.

Jesus said in *(John 14:19)*, *"Because I live, ye shall live also."*

In *(Ephesians 2: 5-8)* it says, *"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."*

*Jesus was crucified*, *shed his blood*, *and* *died* *for us* *and* *on the third day he arose from the dead* *and* *ascended into heaven*.

*Because of what Jesus did* *we now have eternal life* made available to us, *and* *we also have* *all the blessings and promises* *found in the Word* of God.

*It belongs to those* *that have excepted Jesus* Christ *as* their *Lord* and *savior*.

*I) **As we read* from our *opening text* *we* can *see that* *it was Jesus* *who brought about this new covenant*.

In the Bible *we have 2 main covenants*, the *Old Covenant *and the *New Covenant*.

*A) *The *New Covenant *was *established and sealed* *by the shed blood of* the Lord *Jesus* Christ.

*1) **The Word* *“COVENANT” *is the *same thing as* the Word *“TESTAMENT”*, *old or new*.

*Both* of them *referred to* the *blood covenant*.

*a) **God* has *entered into a blood covenant with mankind*.

*And* as we said *there are 2 main blood covenants in the Bible*, *the Old Covenant and* *the New Covenant*.

*B) *Now *people often wonder why* *there had to be the Old Covenant or the Old Testament*.

*1) **Sometimes people think*, *"Well*, *I guess the first covenant wasn't good enough."*

*a) **Well*, that's *partially true*.

*But it wasn't God's fault that the first covenant wasn't perfect*.

*(i) **God didn't sit up in heaven saying*, "*Well*, *we'll try this one first* *and see if it works* and *if it doesn't we'll try something else."*

*(ii) **That wasn't the case* at all.

*God has foreknowledge of what's going to happen*.

*He can see the future*.

*So then why did God bring about the Old Covenant* *if he knew it wasn't going to work?*

*C) **The only way that God could bring about the new covenant* that we are living in now *was to first bring about the old covenant*.

And *let me* try to *explain* why.

*1) **In* the book of *Genesis* *Adam sinned* and *when he did man fell*.

*Fell from his right standing with God*.

*Fell from his fellowship with God*.

*Fell from his place that was reserved for him in heaven*.

*a) *In *(Romans 5:12)* it says, *"Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."*

*b) *And *(Romans 3:23)* it says, *"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."*

*(i) **Man* was *without hope* in this world, lost and *destined to hell*, *unless someone could intervene on man's behalf*.

*(ii) **Someone had to die for man's sins*, but *not just anyone*, *someone* that was *perfect* and *without sin*.

*c) **But that presented a problem* *no one was perfect and without sin* because *all have sinned*.

*This is why Jesus* *had to come* *and* *pay* *for our sins*.

*d) **But* *that also presented another problem*.

*God no longer had the right to intervene on man's behalf*.

*(i) **When God created Adam*, *God gave* *Adam the authority on this earth*, *but when Adam sinned*, *Satan gained the authority*.

*(ii) *In *(2nd Corinthians 4:4)* it refers to *Satan* as being *THE GOD OF THIS WORLD.*

*(iii) **God could no longer just come in* *and do what he wanted*.

*e) **But man on the other hand* *had a right to be here.*

*And because man was here*, *he had certain rights and privileges*.

*(i) **For instance* he could *work*, *play*, *get married*, *start a family*, and *have children*.

*2) **The only way* that *God could regain those privileges on this earth* *was to enter into a covenant*, *a blood covenant with man.*

*a) **In a blood covenant relationship* *everything* that *you have*, that you *owned*, *all your rights*, *and* *all your privileges* *now become mine* *and* *vise versa*.

*b) **So God entered into a covenant with Abraham* *which is the old covenant*.

*(i) **By God entering into this covenant* *he now had all the rights and privileges Abraham had* by living here on this earth.

*(ii) **God could now bring his only begotten son into this earth* *through a woman*.

*D) *Turn with me to *Genesis 17:1-5*.

*1) **1st of all* *God states clearly* *that he is in a covenant with Abraham*, *but notice that God changes Abram's name to Abraham in (verse 5).*

*a) **In a blood covenant relationship* *a person's name is changed*.

*You take on part of your covenant partner's name*.

*2) **How did Abram take on part of God's name?*

*a) **The last two letters of Jehovah* is *A H*. *Those two letters* *are placed right* *in the middle of Abram's name*, *changing it to Abraham*.

*3) **But did God change His name?* Turn to *Exodus 3:1-5*.

*a) **We know the story*.

*It's the story of Moses meeting God for the first time* in the mountain.

*b) *But *look very carefully starting in* *Exodus 3:5-6*.

*(i) **What did God call himself*?

*THE GOD OF ABRAHAM*, *THE GOD OF ISAAC*, *and* *THE GOD OF JACOB*.

*(ii) **That was his new name*.

*The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob*.

*II) *Now let's *go back to Genesis* *and* *pickup where God is speaking to Abraham*.

*Genesis 17:7-11*.

*A) **There are a few reasons for circumcision*, but *one of them* *was for the sake of entering into a covenant*.

*1) **Blood had to be shed by both parties* *for the covenant to be enforced*.

*2) **Right here man's blood was shed*.

*Now God's blood had to be shed*.

*a) **When Jesus went to the cross* *God's blood was shed* *forever sealing the covenant*.

*III) **After some period of time went by*, *Abraham gave birth to the son of promise* *and that was Isaac*.

*A) *Now turn with me to *Genesis 22:1-12*.

*1) **Now that God had required that Abraham's* *only son of promise would be offered up as a sacrifice*, *God in keeping the covenant* *would have to do the same*.

*2) **But where Isaac was spared*, *God's son the Lord Jesus Christ* *could not* *because God's blood was not yet shed to keep the covenant*.

*And God is not a covenant breaker*.

*B) **Jesus shed his blood on the cross for ever sealing the covenant between him and us*.

*Jesus died on the cross* *to pay the price for our sins*, *but on the third day* *he arose from the dead* *and* *when he was raised* *we too were raised from the dead*.

*1) **God has brought us back to a place where man was before the fall*.

WOLCC Sunday, April 04, 1999 from the book Blood Covenant.

By Theo Wolmarans PP 69-85.

[Starting at this point begin to explain why there was old covenant and the new covenant.]