Covenant

Covenant

Covenant / Nehemiah 9-10

  • Series, Restore the Church
    • Review
      • As they seek to restore themselves as a people, what can we learn as we seek to Restore our Church! 
        • Last week we talked about JOY
  • The NT defines the word joy as “cheerfulness; calm delight” (quickly review context in each)
    • #1. Joy in hearing the Word  / Ezra reads, they heard it, No VM
    • #2. Joy in our grief over sin / b/c they heard, they saw sin in light of word
    • #3. There is strength in joy / The joy of the Lord is our strength 
    • #4. Joy a discipline / Like the depths of love in a marriage
    • #5. Joy in obedience /  Be doers, don’t forget who you are!
      • They celebrated the Feast of booths

“Joy is found in the goodness of God” 

  • Today our message is titled “Covenant”. 
  • Please turn to Nehemiah 9, page 404 in the Pew bibles. 
    • What is a covenant? 
      • Covenant: Oath-bound relationship / between God and man. 
  • “The goal of all divine–human covenants is summed up in the words found throughout the Bible: ‘I will be your God and you will be my people, and I will dwell among you.’” Mark Jones
  • Coastline teaching 
    • What’s the big idea of the Bible? Jesus is the hero (Why?)  Because he keeps his promises (What are they?)  I will be your God, You will be my people, I will dwell with you
  • Format for today’s teaching and what we have been studying in our Community Groups, inductive study. 
    • What do we learn about God in the text? 
    • What do we learn about God’s people?
    • How does he dwell with us? 
What do we learn about God? 
  • Current Context-Levites cry out to God just started at the end of our reading this morning. This is the continuation of that cry… Read vs. 6-15
    • Here’s what I got when I study the text.
  • God has a name, he is the only God, creator, sustainer, worthy, chooses himself a people, gives us a new identity, searches hearts, makes covenant, keeps promises, righteous, sees our affliction, hears our cry, works wonders and miracles, just, power over creation, and avenges the enemies of His people. Leads, cares and speaks to us, shows us the true, right and good way to live, provides, and blesses us.  
    • As my wife said when I rad her that list… “He is very, very busy”
What do we learn about God’s people?  Read vs. 16-18
  • Arrogant, stubborn, disobedient, rebellious, forgetful of God’s salvation, intentionally returning to the things that cause bondage, idolatrous, and blasphemous. 
  • One of the questions while studying scripture that begins to develop your application is, What fallen condition is in the text? Can we relate to those sins? 
  • (Pause to look at list) 
What do we learn about God?  Read vs. 17b-25

Forgiving, gracious, merciful, slow to anger, loving, faithful even within our unfaithfulness, directs and guides by His good Spirit, provides, and miraculously sustains, gives us a home and causes so much fruitfulness that delight in his great goodness cannot be helped. 

What do we learn about God’s people? Read vs. 26

Disobedient, rebellious, turn our backs to your ways, murderous, and blasphemous. 

What do we learn about God? Read vs. 27
  • Disciplines us, hears us, merciful to us & provides salvation for us
  • Are you beginning to see a pattern? 
    • Read vs. 28-31 Great summary of the Old Testament. Time and time again, God saves, the people rebel, God saves, the people rebel, over and over again! If you don’t end the reading of the old testament with a clear, “Oh God, we need a savior, for with man this is impossible!” Then you missed it. 
      • BUT, we are not at the end yet and you see a foreshadowing of their purposed solution in the text, middle of verse 29. “but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them”. 
      • Covenant of blessing or cursing. If you obey you will be blessed, if you do not, you will be cursed. 
        • They are looking to the covenant of Moses, A covenant of Law, but ignoring the covenant of Abraham, a covenant of faith. 
    • Law and the need to minimize either God’s holiness or our sin. 
    • Read vs. 32 “I think we have suffered enough, it’s true, we have acted wickedly, but we went your blessings again soo… Here’s our plan.” 
    • Read vs. 38 We are restoring our covenant with you! This time, it’s firm! 
      • Have you ever done this? God, if you do ____, I will do ____.  Deal? 
      • This is ultimately what they do. READ 10:29. Sounds good, right? But then they use creative exegesis to define what the law is. 
        • They will keep the “holy seed” but it’s suppose to be “Holy People”  
        • Keep the sabbath day and year, sounds good but it’s not about rest and trust in God, it’s about trading with foreigners.  
        • Give so “We will not neglect the house of God” (vs. 39b) 
    • It all sounds ok, but there is some pretty big stuff missing. How about “we shall love the lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul and teach our children to do the same, to be generous to the foreigner and sojourner to leave the corners of all our crops for them, and the covenant to Abraham to be a blessing to the nations? 
      • At this point I would love to take our application to a renewed covenant. That’s what they did so it seem logical to apply their solution to our context. BUT, we are not to take text out of the rest scripture. We have a larger context to look to. 
      • Not only that, we’ll see next week they couldn’t even keep these minimized version of the law in their own covenant with God. 
        • The larger issue is we something we can relate to. We minimize God’s holiness, and we minimize our sin in hopes of earning our way back to God’s good graces. 
          • Do we do this as Christians? 
          • What is the solution?  It’s not obedience…

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. Romans 4:13–14

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Galatians 2:21

  • You see our covenant, our Oath-bound relationship with God is not based in our obedience, but by someones else, our true hero, Jesus! 
    • Our covenant is found at the table, where we remember Jesus!
    • It is his obedience that establishes the covenant. It is his oath that binds our relationship with God. 
    • Our Covenant is the table! !
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