24-0414p Transcript

Preacher: Jim Lokenbauer

(0:46) Hello again. Well, this morning we examined from the Old Testament scripture, (0:53) God’s angel. And John just read from us one of the references about his angel.

(1:00) And if you notice the language in that, especially being from the book of Isaiah, (1:08) you know, Isaiah has that famous chapter, which is actually almost forbidden by modern day Jews (1:19) to read. And it’s chapter 53, the very chapter that would point them to the true Messiah, (1:28) to the suffering Messiah. And if you recall what John just read, you know, a lot of that (1:36) language was in those verses.

You know, he carried us. He was afflicted because we were afflicted. (1:43) He feels our pain legitimately, not like phony presidents who say they felt our pain, (1:52) but really he knows what it’s like to go through life because he’s been guiding us (2:00) since the Garden of Eden.

He’s seen mankind’s affliction. (2:09) And we looked at three different ways that he manifested himself to God’s people. (2:15) And these forms God called his presence.

And the Hebrew word for presence is pene yeliku, (2:23) which means faces. God called his angel, the angel of my presence. God’s angel appeared (2:31) as three different angels we looked at at various times, depending on the different circumstances (2:38) to God’s people.

And this holy angel from the Father has been called the angel of my presence, (2:47) the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the covenant. He was one and the same holy being (2:54) who appeared to God’s people, but in different forms. God the Father said of this angel, (3:01) my name Yahweh is in him.

So this angel is Yahweh, a member of the Godhead, the Trinity, (3:12) the Elohim. He is the second person of the Elohim, who is the Son of God. (3:21) Of the three holy beings that make up the Elohim, Father, Son, and Spirit, God the Father, (3:28) we are told in the Gospel of John that no mortal eyes have ever seen him.

His holiness is so (3:36) brilliant, the Apostle Paul says that he lives in unapproachable light. (3:46) So that’s why humans cannot see him. We couldn’t stand before his presence, (3:53) not in this carnal, physical body.

It’s not until we become spirit (4:00) after we’re resurrected that we’ll be able to stand in his presence. (4:06) So the Father is not the holy being who has interfaced with humanity directly. (4:14) He has spoken to humans from out of heaven, but he has not been seen face to face.

(4:22) The Holy Spirit, to the best of my knowledge, has never appeared in human form either, (4:30) and interacted with humans the way that Jesus did. He is the invisible God that Jesus likened (4:38) to the wind. You can’t tell where it is or where it is going, but you can see and feel its effect.

(4:46) When Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection, he sent Christians, his Holy Spirit, (4:54) who dwell in us to help us and guide us. He is the seal of our redemption. The early church had (5:03) the aid of Holy Spirit and his miraculous power to help spread the word and create faith in people.

(5:13) Holy Spirit, during the church’s early development, even directly spoke to believers (5:20) on several occasions in the book of Acts to convey the Father’s will for them. (5:26) So the ambassador of the Godhead to man has always been the second person, the Son. (5:34) In past lessons, we looked at his role as the angel of the Lord.

In this morning’s lesson, (5:39) we looked at his role as the angel of God’s presence, (5:44) and we left off talking about the angel of the covenant and what his covenants were. (5:52) In Judges 2-1, after they had entered the Holy Land and they started dying off that generation (6:01) that wandered in the wilderness, well, they failed to tell their posterity about God. (6:11) And they started serving the Baals because they hadn’t displaced all of the inhabitants of Canaan.

(6:22) And so, the angel of the Lord had to appear to them. And this is what he says in Judges 2-1. (6:32) The angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said, I brought you out of Egypt, (6:39) and I have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers.

I said, (6:45) I will never break my covenant with you. This is the second figure of the Godhead, (6:54) is the angel of the Lord, saying that it was his covenant that he made with them. (7:01) This is proof that the angel of the Lord and the angel of the covenant, (7:05) the being that was on that holy mountain, Mount Sinai, in the Shekinah, Yahweh, (7:12) is that being.

They’re one and the same. So the angel of the covenant was the giver of the law, (7:22) who is Yahweh, and the angel of the Lord led them out of Egypt and eventually to Mount Sinai. (7:30) And there, Yahweh, aka the angel of the Lord, aka the angel of the covenant, also known as (7:38) the angel of his presence, gave them the law and entered into covenant with Israel.

(7:47) Man had his laws, so why covenants? We know it was Yahweh who gave Adam the first law. (7:58) We call it the law of sin and death. God said, the day you eat of the fruit of the tree of the (8:07) knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.

So it was a matter of obedience to God and keeping (8:16) of the law. The breaking of his law is called sin, plain and simple. This idea is carried forward (8:23) into God’s covenant with Israel.

You sin, you die. And to this point, Ezekiel recorded God saying, (8:33) the soul who sins will die. There’s the penalty for breaking God’s law.

(8:42) Now, the Gentiles, the Mesopotamians, way long ago, those who created their own gods because they (8:50) turned their back on the true and living God, they had Hammurabi’s code. And Hammurabi was a prince, (8:59) a king of Mesopotamia, which is the pre-runner to Babylon. And those were laws to govern his people (9:11) and to regulate commerce amongst his people.

Abraham was given laws to follow. Genesis 26.5 (9:20) says, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, (9:28) and my laws. So there’s laws that were unspoken that we don’t have recorded for us.

They were (9:36) spoken laws, but they were laws nonetheless that they had to obey. Those were besides the promises (9:46) and covenants that God made with Abraham. Laws are to keep order so we can have a properly (9:53) functioning society where freedom and rights are insured and protected so that nobody can (10:00) take advantage of each other and other people’s freedom and rights.

You break the law, you will (10:06) pay a penalty. Let’s look at some of the covenants that God made with his people. (10:19) Yahweh made a covenant with Noah and all the creatures of the earth after the flood.

(10:25) God also made a covenant with Abram. (10:31) Yahweh also gave Israel their law. Israel entered into covenant with God when they were sanctified (10:40) by God and agreed to obey the covenant.

What about the New Testament? So what is a covenant? (10:50) A covenant is a legal binding agreement made by two or more persons or parties. (10:58) Another name for covenant is testament, like a legal will. Keep that in mind.

(11:06) In the Bible, God has made covenants with men and with whole nations. Some of the covenants (11:15) are conditional and some of the covenants are unconditional. An example of an unconditional (11:23) covenant is the one that God made with Noah after the flood.

In Genesis 9 through 11, (11:32) God said to Noah and his sons, look, I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after (11:39) you and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds and domestic animals and (11:46) every living creature of the earth with you.

All those that came out of the ark with you. (11:53) Every living creature of the earth, I confirm my covenant with you.

Never again will all living (12:00) things be wiped out by the waters of a flood. Never again will a flood destroy the whole earth. (12:09) So here we see the Yahweh swears an oath to Noah and to all living life on earth (12:18) that there will never again be a flood of that magnitude.

If you notice, the only action (12:26) in the covenant is on God’s part. Noah and the creatures of the earth, (12:32) they didn’t have to do anything to keep their end of the covenant. (12:36) They were simply the beneficiaries of that covenant, the beneficiaries that there would be (12:43) no more global floods.

And so an unconditional covenant is like an oath or a promise. (12:57) And when a promise comes from God, he can swear by no one higher than himself and it will be (13:07) accomplished. When an example of an unconditional covenant that can be changed in the future, (13:21) we’re going to look at that.

When God makes covenant with Abram in Genesis 12, (13:29) one through four in verse seven, he says, Now Yahweh said to Abram, (13:34) leave your country and your relatives and your father’s house and go to the land that I will (13:40) show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great.

You will (13:48) be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. (13:56) All of the families of the earth will be blessed through you.

So Abram went, as Yahweh had told (14:03) him, then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built (14:11) there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. So God makes Abraham a threefold promise (14:21) where God would bring him to a land where he would grow into a great nation.

(14:27) And so it’s implied there that he would have a family when at the time he had no children due to (14:36) Sarah being 90 years old and being barren. So she was doubly unable to have children. (14:45) And God intended that because they were going to have a miracle baby, but that’s a lesson for (14:52) another time.

So God was saying that his family would grow into a great nation in that land. (15:02) And in chapter 15 of Genesis, God formalizes the land and son promises to Abraham by making (15:12) at the time an unconditional covenant with him. Nothing was yet required of Abraham to be (15:20) the beneficiary of this covenant.

But that changed later in Genesis chapter 17. (15:28) Lastly, through his family, one would come from his seed, from Abraham’s own body, (15:37) and that the whole of humanity would be blessed by him, singular. Abraham obeyed God and God (15:47) delivered on all his promises.

God revealed some of the attributes of his character through these (15:55) promises. One, he’s an oath keeper. He’s truthful.

He’s reliable. And by his providence, he guided (16:07) the events in Abraham’s life and the events of that time so that the rest of the patriarch’s (16:15) lives would benefit from the promises as they

were coming to fruition. And that speaks of his (16:24) omniscience and his omnipotence being able to accomplish all that.

But being the lawgiver or (16:32) the testator of the will, he holds the right to amend his covenant, which he did in chapter 17. (16:44) Now think about wills. My wife and I have changed our own will, our own last will and testament, (16:53) a couple of times because things changed in our life.

Somebody who was going to be a beneficiary (17:00) of our first will, they died. We had to change the will. Can’t have something going to a grave site.

(17:09) And so you can see why things change as events change, as times change. And it’s the right (17:17) of the testator to change his will anytime they want. As the testator, God does that as well.

(17:31) God created the covenant between he and Abraham or Abram at that time. And to enter that covenant (17:39) with God, all of the males in Abraham, Abraham and all the males that were going to be being born (17:49) into that family, all of his slaves, all of his hired hands, they all had to be circumcised. (17:58) That was the change amended to the first covenant that he had with Abraham.

If you remember, (18:06) Abraham cut up two oxen, had them side by side on an altar, and God came with this smoldering, (18:14) glowing pot of embers of fire and made covenant with Abraham. And that, we thought, was the end (18:23) of it. But as time changed here, what happened? Well, Sarah took it upon herself to think that, (18:32) well, I’m not getting a son through Abraham because I’m barren here at my handmaiden, (18:39) Hagar.

And so Abraham had a child through Hagar. And his name was Ishmael. And years passed.

(18:49) Ishmael was 13 years old. And that’s when this covenant was amended. And that’s when God decided (19:00) to be in this covenant with me.

Every male has to be circumcised. And it was a circumcision of the (19:12) flesh. And so he had that right to change the covenant to a conditional covenant.

(19:21) And another example of a conditional covenant can be seen when God, as the angel of the covenant, (19:29) made the covenant between he and the entire nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. And at Exodus (19:39) 19, verse 5, Yahweh said, now, if you diligently listen to me and keep my covenant, (19:50) then you will be my special possession out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine. (20:00) So we see a logic statement, if then.

If something happens, then this will happen. (20:08) And that makes what God said conditional. To be a conditional covenant, (20:21) the agreeing parties must abide by the terms of the agreement.

In this case, Israel had to obey (20:28) the laws that were written down by Moses at God’s command. If they obey, then they would receive (20:36) the blessings. And the list of blessings can be found in Deuteronomy 28.

And if they broke the (20:43) promise, then they would receive curses from God. And those two start in Deuteronomy 28 and go on (20:52) for quite a long time. There’s more curses than blessings.

So that was quite the warning to the (20:59) people. Exodus 24, one and following. Then he said to Moses, come up to Yahweh, you and Aaron, (21:10) Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel.

You are to worship at a distance, but Moses alone (21:19) is to approach the Lord. The others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.

(21:27) When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice. (21:34) Everything the Lord has said, we will do. And Moses wrote down everything the Lord had said.

(21:42) He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up (21:48) 12 stone pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he sent young Israelite men (21:55) so that they offered up burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings (22:01) to the Lord. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls and the other half he sprinkled on (22:09) the altar.

Then he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people. They responded, (22:15) we will do everything the Lord has said. We will obey.

Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it (22:25) on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in (22:34) accordance with all these words. So we see God’s angel, Yahweh, entered into covenant with the (22:43) entire nation of Israel. And it was a blood covenant.

It involved a lot of symbolic ceremony. (22:57) They were told a few days prior to that to ceremonially wash themselves, to sanctify (23:05) themselves to get ready for this event. They heard the law read, which were the terms of the covenant.

(23:18) And they agreed to them. Then they were sanctified by the sprinkling of blood (23:24) and entered into covenant. The covenant between God and Israel wouldn’t last forever, (23:33) not because of any negligence on God’s part.

We see in Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, (23:43) and Galatians 3.19, that Israel and Judah broke covenant with God by worshiping the Baals, (23:52) and they refused to repent. They paid the penalty for their sins. Some died right away (24:00) when they were invaded.

Some were carried away and never to be seen again in a foreign land. (24:07) And Judah went into captivity in Babylon for 70 years, and then to finally return as the remnant (24:17) of Israel. So God foretold them of the Messiah who would come and make a new covenant with them.

(24:28) The New Testament is an example of a conditional covenant as well. (24:34) It is a covenant between Jesus and individuals, Jew and Gentile alike. This is the fulfillment of (24:45) the third promise made to Abraham.

Jesus is the blessing to the world, the seed promise to even (24:54) the Garden of Eden. When Jesus came, his arrival marked the beginning of the end of the covenant (25:02) that he made as another form, in another form, as God to Israel. In Matthew 5, 17 through 18, (25:14) Jesus said, Don’t think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I didn’t come (25:21) to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, (25:30) not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law (25:39) until all things are accomplished. Jesus satisfied all the prophecies that were

made about him and (25:50) exposed all the foreshadow types of him by the brilliant light of his perfect life.

(26:00) And isn’t it appropriate that the angel of the covenant, the testator of the old law should be (26:07) the one not only to amend the old law, but to remove the old law altogether by his death on (26:16) the cross and replace it with his glorious gospel, which is his last will and testament. (26:28) And that’s what we follow, his gospel, the new testament. We are the beneficiaries of his will.

(26:39) We are the beneficiaries of eternal life granted for those who believe in him. (26:47) And we enter his new covenant by his blood sprinkling us. When does that happen? (26:57) When we believe and when we are buried with him in the likeness of his death.

(27:06) Jesus was buried. When we’re baptized, we’re buried. And then we rise up a new person, (27:15) just like Christ bursting forth on the third day by the power of the resurrection.

He was raised (27:23) new. And now we live in a new era, the Christian era, the new testament era. (27:32) When Jesus died on the cross, the covenant between God and Israel came to an end.

When he breathed (27:39) his last bit of air on that cross, enough to say it is finished, it ushered in a new era (27:48) in mankind’s relationship with God. Jesus Christ, God the father’s anointed one, died (27:59) and was nailed to the cross along with the old law and its system of worship, (28:07) bringing in the era of the new testament church. So the invitation is for anybody who needs it.

If (28:16) you need to be a member, and I don’t see anybody in here who is not, a member of the Lord’s church, (28:23) now is the time. Or if you need the prayers of the church, you may come and we’ll be glad to pray (28:29) for you.