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Peggy Joyce Ruth, aka "the Psalm 91 Lady" is author of a variety of Psalm 91 book titles with over six million copies in print. She taught a weekly Adult Bible Study for more than 35 years in her church in Central Texas as she shared how to make God’s Word your final authority. Known for her easy-to-understand style of communicating the Word of God and warm storytelling, Peggy Joyce's heart is that her books and teachings will bring you into the same freedom from fear she experienced and help you put God's Word to work in your life.
Okay, our Blood Covenant, Part one. Now, I believe there is a huge need more than ever before for us to have a better understanding of our covenant. Sadly, people under the Old Testament understood their covenant, I think, a lot better than we understand our new covenant. And they talked about their covenant all the time. In fact, I believe until we have a revelation on the inside of us about our covenant, I believe that we will never have the boldness and the confidence now that we need to operate in what's been given to us.
Speaker 1:Because we've been given something wonderful and we need to take hold of it and understand it and use it. Now, our covenant tells us so much. You know, have you ever wondered what the difference is between Jesus coming and proclaiming to be the Holy One versus having Mohammed or Buddha or anyone else making the same claim? What's the difference? Okay, of course, God raised Christ from the dead and He settled it.
Speaker 1:But before that happened, before the cross, what gave the assurance that there was a God? How could people know? Well, God had a plan, and He took care of all that. And when we finally see His plan, we're going to find that it all just falls into place. Today, I want us to very carefully study God's master plan.
Speaker 1:Now, before God could reveal who the Savior was, He had to first reveal to man that there was a God. And, He did that in a very unique way. He gave two witnesses to all man that there is a God. Number one, He had the world itself declare to man that there was a God when man saw the supernatural way in which the world operated. And number two, God put a knowing down on the inside of man that there's a God.
Speaker 1:Now, Paul states this very clearly in Romans one nineteen-twenty. It says, Because that which is known about God is evident within man, for God made it evident. He put that evidence on the inside of us. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that man is without excuse. We can just look around and see what God's done.
Speaker 1:First of all, we see in verse 19 that God put this knowing down on the inside of us. And second, God made His existence known to man through the world around us. All we have to do to know that there is a God who made contact with us is just to listen to our heart, to open our eyes and look at His creation. Okay, now, how does the earth and all the planets know how to orbit perfectly around the sun? You know, how do the birds know when to fly south?
Speaker 1:How do the trees know when to drop their leaves and the seasons change? How does a little dog know what to do with his first litter of puppies? This all happens because there's a God in heaven behind it all. His creation and the perpetual order by which it's run tells everyone, even a non Christian, tells them there is a God. Now, David was saying the same thing that Paul was saying here when David wrote Psalm 19 verse one.
Speaker 1:You need to mark this in your Bible. He said, The heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the earth shows forth his handiwork. He couldn't have said it any more clearly. We look at nature, and his existence is obvious. Anytime you look at nature, you know that His existence is obvious.
Speaker 1:And that's why Psalm 50 three:one says that only a fool says in his heart that there is no God. Now, the reason the Bible calls the one who says there is no God a fool is because God made Himself very evident to man. Number one, He made Himself evident to man from the outside through all of nature. You just have to look out at nature. And number two, He did it from the inside of us, this knowing or this instinct which is on the inside of us.
Speaker 1:Now, the instinct that's in man is obvious. It is so obvious. Because if man can't find something to worship, then he invents something. You can look all around the world. If they don't know God, if they don't know how to worship, they find something.
Speaker 1:They worship something. He has to worship something. It's an instinct within him. Now, it's true that there's a God shaped vacuum on the inside of each person, and only God can feel that emptiness. And instinctively, we're drawn to God just as instinctively as a bird knows how to fly south.
Speaker 1:And that's why even the so called atheist will instinctively cry out to God when he himself finds himself in a life and death situation. There's a God consciousness inside of everyone. Now, the Bible starts out, In the beginning, God. He doesn't explain his existence. He doesn't even seek to prove it.
Speaker 1:He just clearly states it as fact. Have you ever thought about that? He's not explained. It's just stated that He is. The proof that God gives is within man.
Speaker 1:He's put it on the inside of us, and it's also without in the whole nature, in the whole universe. Whoever says or thinks otherwise, the Bible calls him a fool. Now, that's why Romans one twenty says that a person is without excuse if he doesn't believe. He's without any excuse. Then, once God reveals Himself from within us and He also reveals Himself from out with all of nature, then His plan was to progressively reveal a little more and a little more of Himself as time went on to anyone who was willing to listen.
Speaker 1:Okay, now I want you to follow with me because I'm leading up to something. The Messiah couldn't just show up one day declaring I'm coming to you from God. He couldn't do that or He would be like any other self proclaimed Messiah. There would be no assurance that He really was the One. So how would you know now when man didn't even know that he needed a Savior?
Speaker 1:There was a time he didn't know he needed a Savior. He was drawn to worship and he found something to worship, but he really didn't know that he needed to be saved. So, we had to be taught, first of all, that we were lost, that we were in sin, and that we didn't have any hope in and of ourself, and that we were absolutely headed for hell. And man didn't know that at first. Romans seven:seven tells us that the law had to be given so that we would know that we were sinners.
Speaker 1:And that's why the law was given. So we could know we were sinners, so we could look for the answers, so we could one day be with Him. And that's why the law was given. Then when man couldn't keep the law, he finally realized he needed help. And after he knew he needed help, then man had to be educated through the years on who and what help to look for so that we wouldn't miss the Messiah when he did come.
Speaker 1:Messiah was going to come, but God had to bring us to a place where we didn't miss him when he came. And man was drawn to worship, but he didn't know that he needed to be saved. He didn't know that. And that's what God did. He told man who and what to look for.
Speaker 1:So I want you to mark this down. The entire Old Testament existed for the sole purpose of painting a picture now of Jesus through types and shadows and symbols and rituals so that anyone who cared to know the way that God had provided could know exactly what to expect, and could recognize Him when He did finally come. So, God did everything possible to get man ready to receive Jesus. Now, God had to make the journey to earth to pay the price for us and to buy us back out of the hands of Satan. We did this to ourselves.
Speaker 1:We put ourselves in Satan's hands. And God went to a lot of trouble to make a way to bring us back. And that was man's only hope. And it was planned by God before the foundation of the world. It was planned for His divine nature to be planted by the Holy Spirit into the womb of a virgin.
Speaker 1:Then, it was God's plan for Him to be born as any other man is born as a baby. And this is important, so I don't want you to miss this detail. He had to be born as a baby with no more recollection now of Father God than anyone else when they were first born. He had just the same thing that we have as he matured. He had the instinct now within himself, and he had the proof of nature out there in the world.
Speaker 1:But that's all he had. You see, he had to be born, he had to grow up as a child, and he had to search the Scriptures. He had to believe them just exactly as we have to do it. He had to develop a personal relationship with the Father. So, Jesus learned everything through the Scriptures and through the witness of the Holy Spirit during His time on earth.
Speaker 1:So, He had to start out just exactly like we do. He came to know who would betray Him and all that he had to suffer in order to redeem mankind. And it was revealed to him as he grew in the Holy Spirit. As he grew, he started understanding these things. It was revealed to him exactly like God reveals it to us.
Speaker 1:He studied all of this that would happen through the mouth of the prophets and he studied it through the Scriptures and he came to know that his own would reject him. He didn't ordain that. It was revealed to him as he studied the Word. And as he studied the prophets who had had it revealed to them and he began to receive from them. And he spoke every detail of this that would happen.
Speaker 1:And then he had to accept and believe by faith the divine call on his life by the unction of the Holy Spirit. He didn't come to the world knowing all this. He came and then he had to believe God, reading the Scriptures, listening to the prophets because they learned it by believing God and reading the Scriptures. And so, just like we each sense and recognize the call on our life, and we have to receive it by faith. He had absolutely no more availability to Him while He was on earth than what we have available to us.
Speaker 1:He came as a man to do it for us. And then the son from a babe, just like us, all the way up to manhood, he played it out by faith, by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When we realized what he went through to buy this for us, oh, it should make us fall on our face in repentance and just adoration to God for what He did. He could not have resisted temptation now and overcome sin for us in our place. And He could not have any more available to Him than has been made available to us.
Speaker 1:Now, He left heaven, and He put Himself now that kind of position simply because He loved us that much. Jesus had to study the Scriptures. That's what He was doing at age 12 in the temple. He didn't know them automatically. But at age 12 in the temple, He was drawn to those who knew the Scriptures.
Speaker 1:And He studied and He asked questions of all these Bible scholars. And the Holy Spirit witnessed inside of his spirit and revealed truth to his spirit and confirmed that the entire Old Testament now was talking to him and literally pointing out his life. And that's why he was so forward when he talked to the Jews, because the Holy Spirit had spoken that to him and he believed the Scriptures. As he heard the Scriptures, they came alive in his spirit and he believed them. In Psalm two, verse seven and eight, it says: I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord.
Speaker 1:He said to me, Thou art my son. And when he read that, he realized, I'm God's son. Today I have begotten the ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as thy possession. And he would read those scriptures and bear witness in his spirit and he would believe it. Now, it was by the Holy Spirit that Jesus came to know this was being said of him.
Speaker 1:As he read those scriptures, he realized it came alive that this is speaking about me. This is telling me what my part to play is. Now, in the scroll of the book, it is written of me, Jesus said, and he went on to believe the word that said, I delight to do thy will, o my God. Thy word is within my heart. And he read that and he believed it.
Speaker 1:That's Psalm 40 verse seven and eight. Then in John five thirty nine through 40, Jesus said, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it's these Scriptures now that bear witness of Me. And when He read that, He realized that. And then He was able to tell it to others.
Speaker 1:Then on in John five forty six and forty seven: For if you believe Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me, but if you do not believe his writings, then how will you believe my works? So, as time went on, he he took in all the scriptures. He took in everything that God was saying and he knew. He knew in his spirit that it was talking about him.
Speaker 1:Now, in Luke twenty four forty four, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Luke twenty four forty four. Now, all this was revealed to Jesus through the word of God, and God didn't hide any of it from us. But we have to study His Word just exactly like Jesus did to discern the truth. Now, it's there, but we have to find it, we have to believe it, and then we have to decide to walk in it.
Speaker 1:Now, these people who never study their Bible, they're at a huge disadvantage. I know Christians who they've probably never even picked up their Bible. They're at a huge disadvantage because just exactly how Jesus realized who He was and what He was to do through the Word, that's what we have to learn. Jesus learned it from the Word and from the Spirit and that's exactly how we have to come to understand. And if we're not reading our Bible, how are we going to learn these things?
Speaker 1:Now, the Jews divided the Old Testament into three divisions. The three divisions were the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets. That's the whole Old Testament. And while Jesus was on earth, He came to realize Moses in the Law was talking about Him. I can just imagine when he's reading that in the Old Testament when he's young and all of a sudden he's thinking, That's talking about me.
Speaker 1:And God revealed that in his spirit and he started reaching out and receiving it. Moses in the law was talking about him. The Psalms were talking about him, and he came to realize that the prophecies of all the prophets were pointing to him. Can't you imagine when he's young and he starts saying that? Don't you know it just shocked him and excited him?
Speaker 1:Everything from Genesis to Malachi was written about Jesus. Now, that was the only purpose of the Old Testament, to point toward Jesus and to explain what He was coming to do and to explain the blood covenant. Now, that's why you can't take the Old Testament without the New Testament. And by the same token, you can't take the New Testament without the Old. There are some denominations that say the Old Testament has passed away.
Speaker 1:It has no meaning for them. But that's not true. I love what St. Augustine said. And he said it so well when he said, The New is in the Old contained and the Old is by the New explained.
Speaker 1:I loved that the first time I heard it. You know, said, the New Testament is over there in the Old Testament. It's all contained over in the Old Testament. But it says the Old now is by the New Testament explained. He was saying that everything that happened in the New Testament was contained or told about in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:And the Old Testament was finally explained and fully understood after it was fulfilled in the New Testament. Now, both the Old and the New Testament were tied together. They're inseparable. And they're both for the same purpose: to point out Jesus and point to the covenant. And that's how people know.
Speaker 1:They may hear it from another person and get it, and that's wonderful. But God intended them to go into the Word and hear it and receive it. Now, the Old Testament told what was going to happen in the New Testament. Like I say, the New Testament tells that it did happen. Okay, that's why they could know Jesus was the Messiah.
Speaker 1:And that's why Jesus said in Matthew five seventeen, I didn't come to abolish the law. He said I didn't come to do away with the Old Testament. He said I didn't come to say that we don't need that anymore. He said I didn't come to tell you that the old law was invalid. He said I simply came to fulfill it.
Speaker 1:He said it was speaking of me and I came to fulfill it. He said I've done everything that it proclaimed about me. The entire Old Testament. The law, the psalms, the prophets. He said every one of them were pointing to him.
Speaker 1:And they were. And they were describing what he was going to do. And he did. He fulfilled it all. Okay, let's look at Luke 2four 20 five-twenty seven: And he said to them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.
Speaker 1:He would read the prophets and he would realize, This is true. This is speaking of me. But he's saying, Man is foolish when they don't believe it, when they don't read those things and understand them. Because he said, If you'll read it and you'll open your heart to God, He'll reveal it to you. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?
Speaker 1:And then he said: And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scripture. He said, you know, you'll get in that word, he said, all of this is speaking about me. Now, wouldn't you like to have been in on that explanation to hear Jesus explain those Old Testament Scriptures? Wouldn't that have been exciting? And then to have heard how Jesus explained all those Scriptures and how they painted a picture of Him and pointed toward Him.
Speaker 1:Now, during His earthly ministry, while He walked on earth before the cross, Jesus Himself had believed by faith. He had to believe by faith. He had to see it in the Scripture and then reach out and receive it by faith. And he received the revelation of Himself in the Old Testament and then the proof was in the pudding when God did indeed raise him from the dead, proving that He was right and confirming everything that the Holy Spirit had shown him after the fact. So, even Jesus allowing himself to be crucified, it was a total trust in the Father.
Speaker 1:He had to believe that God was going to resurrect him from the dead, just like we have to believe the promises. When he allowed himself to be crucified, he believed. He had studied the Word. He knew it was speaking about him and he believed that God would resurrect him. That's why he could go so faithfully and so easily to the cross.
Speaker 1:Now, in doing that, He established once and for all the blood covenant. Now, the definition of blood covenant means to come into agreement, to cut a covenant by the shedding of blood. Okay, I want to discuss the difference now between a covenant and a contract. A contract always has an ending date, while a covenant is a permanent, everlasting arrangement. Another difference is that a contract generally involves only a part of a person, such as maybe a skill.
Speaker 1:They have a contract that they can maybe paint your house or a contract to do a job for you, while a covenant covers that person's total being. Now, you'll see in the Old Testament the expression covenant of salt. One example that you might want to mark is Numbers eighteen nineteen. That expression covenant of salt simply means that it's a binding agreement to be honored forever. A covenant of salt was to be honored forever.
Speaker 1:When Paul used that term covenant breaker in the New Testament, he was using the term to describe a very detestable person. Paul understood the significance of a covenant and it was terrible to be called a covenant breaker. That was the last thing a person wanted to be accused of in the Old Testament. A blood covenant between two people is the closest, it's the most lasting, it's the most solemn and the most sacred of all covenants. And when you enter into a blood covenant with someone, you promise to give them your life, you're promising to give them your love, your protection forever until death.
Speaker 1:We see that between Jonathan and David, you know. Now, in God's eyes, it was a contract that could not be broken. And a lot of cultures believe that. A lot of cultures believe so much in this covenant that they know that it can't be broken. Sadly, we have, as New Testament Christians, we haven't come into that like we should.
Speaker 1:But it's all there in the Word, and God's wanting to bring us into the place that we understand the importance of the covenant. Now, firmly believe that if people had a better understanding of what a blood covenant really is, there would be a drastic reduction in divorces because marriage is a blood covenant. Few people see and understand marriage to be a blood covenant, but it is. I've been so excited to see more couples take communion during their wedding vows. More are starting to do that.
Speaker 1:That, at least, is a step in the direction of their understanding their marriage covenants, to be a blood covenant between two people joined together in Christ. Now, even the tradition of the bride and groom feeding each other the wedding cake and feeding each other punch at the wedding. You know, they'll give each other a bite of the cake. Oh, that's a carryover from the symbolism of a covenant. And what they're doing, they're following the ritual out of tradition but without knowing that it originated from something that once had real true meaning.
Speaker 1:They may just be doing it for fun now. But it is the representative of something that used to be understood, the covenant that used to be understood. Now, in old customs, at the wedding, they fed each other bread and wine And so they're doing it with the wedding cake now. But they really did it with bread and wine symbolizing, I'm becoming a part of you and you're a part of me. That's what the blood covenant of marriage is.
Speaker 1:Of course, that symbolic union is made complete by the physical act of marriage when the bride and groom come together as husband and wife. And at that point, the blood covenant is consummated. Now, that helps us to see why sexual activity before marriage and extra sex during the marriage is such an abomination in God's eyes because of what the marriage covenant stands for, what the marriage covenant really is. And these people that take their dating so haphazardly or take their marriage so haphazardly, they're not understanding what God put together in the marriage covenant. All sex sins and divorce cause the most binding and most precious of all covenants, the blood covenant, to be scoffed at and trodden underfoot.
Speaker 1:And that's why venereal disease runs rampant in sex outside of marriage. You know, you think about it and you think, Well, why all of a sudden when you have sex with another person that you're open for a venereal disease? Because of the fact you're breaking a blood covenant that's so precious to God. Because people are tampering with the sacred covenant's consummation that's ordained by God for the marriage covenant partners alone. The wedding rings are a sign of this covenant.
Speaker 1:And the ring is a reminder or a token symbol now of the covenant promises that have been made. Now, these rings are also a sign to anyone else who sees it that the couple has entered into a binding, unbreakable blood covenant. And that's why the person who's been unfaithful to his marriage partner, if you notice, he'll take off his ring. He won't go into a relationship that's out of God's will. He won't do it with his rings on.
Speaker 1:He takes his rings off because it's a contract reminder that they are already in a blood covenant relationship. Now, the fact that marriage is a blood covenant is why divorce is so complicated and it's why it's so damaging. There is a tearing apart of two people who have literally become one person. Too many people don't understand that when two people marry, they literally become one. And they tear that apart, they're tearing apart something that literally had become one person.
Speaker 1:Now, is not an unpardonable sin. But divorce explains why you see so much more damage in sexual sin than in a lot of the other sins. Now, God has put into the heart of man to long for the desire and to long for and to desire the kind of union with Him like in a marriage. That's what He wants. He shows it to us in the marriage, but He wants us to have that kind of relationship with Him like you would have in a marriage.
Speaker 1:And that's why you find all the nations, even heathen nations, instinctively now being drawn to various forms of blood covenant. God established blood covenant from the beginning. It's in bread in man. But they can't seek after the true God, so their ritual became idolatry. They're wanting it.
Speaker 1:They feel it in their heart and they're drawn to it. But since they're not doing it with the true God, it's just idolatry. But it still shows an instinctive desire to worship something, an instinctive need to reach out to God. They're just reaching out to the wrong God. Now, as the Old Testament people of God observed these blood covenant rituals that God ordained, whether they knew it or not, they were participating in a type and shadow of the blood covenant that we entered into with Christ today.
Speaker 1:So, the Old Testament now is not just a lot of meaningless Jewish rituals or or Jewish customs all lumped together. And when they go into it like that, it means nothing to the New Testament Christian. But they do have meaning. God wants us to come to a place where we realize there's meaning in all this. We've got to seek Him out and say, Lord, we've let it go by the wayside too long.
Speaker 1:We need to mark these things down and realize that the giving of the 10 Commandments, the Levitical laws, the Old Testament feasts, the size and layout of the tabernacle given to Moses at Mount Sinai. If you'll remember, God gave the exact instructions. The priesthood and their rituals, the Levitical animal sacrifices. Each one of these things was given specifically now by God to draw a picture of the blood covenant that was to come in Jesus that would set man free forever. And all those things, they were drawing a picture.
Speaker 1:It was a picture to show us what was to come. Now, to me, there is absolutely nothing more fun than studying the Old Testament types and shadows of Jesus. It's so much fun because every one of these was a type and shadow pointing to Jesus. Every Old Testament book has either a symbol of Christ or a ritual that pictures Christ or a prophecy that is prophesying about Christ. All of the stories, every one of them, they're a type and shadow pointing toward Jesus.
Speaker 1:Everything in the Old Testament was a picture of the blood covenant. And God progressively, just a little bit at the time, explained that covenant that was to come. And He started in Genesis and he went all the way through the Old Testament. That's what it was all about. That's what the Old Testament was for.
Speaker 1:A genealogy was written starting in Luke three twenty three, tracing Jesus' lineage backwards all the way to Adam. Now, God could look down through the ages and know the heart of every man to be born. And whenever He knew there was one who had a heart turned toward Him down through the ages, down through the years of the genealogies, He made plans to reveal a little more and a little more of the covenant to that man because He knew which ones were going on with Him. And the more we go with God, the more He'll reveal to us. You take somebody that's not interested in God, they'll know very little about the Bible.
Speaker 1:But if you have the least bit of interest in you where you want to know more, God will give you all that you can take. The more you receive, the more He'll give to you. And so, if we go down the genealogy in Luke three, if you'll do this and underline in verse 38 the word Adam, you underline in verse 36 Noah. This is all in Luke three. Verse 34, you underline Abraham.
Speaker 1:And then in verse 34, also you underline Jacob, who is Abraham's grandson. And now Jacob had 12 sons, but only one of his sons, Judah, is mentioned in this genealogy. And that's because this is tracing the lineage that passed through Judah and went all the way to King David and then all on the way to Jesus. So, when you see these genealogies, everything, if you look, it's leading you all the way to Jesus. Now, these are not the only ones to whom God revealed the covenant.
Speaker 1:Men like Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Boaz and Solomon, Daniel and probably most all of the prophets, these were all aware of their covenant with God and they passed that truth on. But those that we underline are the main Old Testament recipients who had a special revelation of the covenant given to them. And so, you need to follow through. God had certain ones and it kept being passed down so that it would finally get to us. Now, sadly, the Old Testament people understood a covenant so much better than we understand it today.
Speaker 1:You know, we don't know that much about covenants. It's sad that the Old Testament talked about covenants all the time. We don't hear that much under the New Covenant. But, in fact, a decade ago, there was so little teaching about the covenant as Christians that most people didn't even know the Old Testament and New Testament simply meant Old Covenant, New Covenant. They didn't even know that it meant that.
Speaker 1:They didn't know those were covenants. Now, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to shed His blood so that whosoever will enter into covenant with Him, enter into a covenant relationship based on His shed blood, shall not perish but shall have everlasting life. We need to realize all these scriptures, when we understand covenant, they become so much more important to us. They reveal so much more to us. The Old Testament people knew that the man without a covenant was a man without God.
Speaker 1:They knew that. Therefore, they knew he's a man without hope, no matter how much he has by worldly standards. And that's why David called the giant Goliath. He called him uncircumcised. David understood about covenants.
Speaker 1:Circumcision was the Old Testament sign of having a covenant with the God in the Old Testament. And he was saying that giant can't prevail. He can't overtake us because he's a man without a covenant. He's uncircumcised. There were a lot of people there with David that day who had the same covenant that David had, but they didn't trust in their covenant.
Speaker 1:And so it really wasn't doing them that much good until they followed David. And when they followed David, who believed in his covenant, they won the battles. But David knew his covenant. So we need to ask ourselves, do we know our covenant? Are we even aware that God has given us a covenant?
Speaker 1:We're in covenant with the God of the universe. It makes all the difference in the world. But it's not going to do us that much good if we don't know what our covenant is. Yes, we believe our covenant enough to know that we accept Jesus and go to heaven. But for this life, we need to understand these covenants so that we can walk in victory.
Speaker 1:We need to be so sure of our covenants that when Satan begins to harass us, we're able to rise up and say, What do you think you're doing? Satan, you don't have a covenant with the God of the universe. You can't prevail against us because we're covenant people. But we haven't been teaching that to people. And so, yes, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:People get saved and they know that they've accepted Jesus. They're going to go to heaven. But so many times they stop right there. But God is calling out a people in these end days that don't stop short. Those who realize that we have a covenant to be victorious in every area of our life.
Speaker 1:And not only we to be victorious, but to get other people victorious. And we need to come to a place where when somebody's coming against us, when the enemy's coming against us, we can say Who do you think you are to try to taunt the armies of the living God? I'm a part of the army of God's army. And who do you think you are, Satan? Unfortunately, there are some today who are chosen people, but they're totally unaware of their covenant rights.
Speaker 1:And so it leaves them without victory. If we want victory in this life, we're not only going to have to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior for our eternity, but we're going to have to receive Him and His covenant for the living in this world so we can be victorious here, so we can get other people into the kingdom. We, on this side of the cross, have no excuse for not having a total understanding of our covenant. That should be something that we teach our children that every child of God should know. We have the Old Testament with all the types and shadows telling us about our covenant.
Speaker 1:We have the New Testament explaining our covenant. We have all explanations of those types and shadows. We have the book of Hebrews that deals totally with the explanation of our blood covenant. So, we're without an excuse. But yet, I'm going to say more than half of the people that I talk to, they don't know anything about their covenant.
Speaker 1:They know they've accepted Jesus. They're going to go to heaven. So, they're happy. And they stop right there. But God is calling us in these end days to realize we have covenants.
Speaker 1:And He wants us just like the Old Testament people. Not all of them understood their covenant. David and some of them really did. But He's wanting us to come to a place where we understand our covenant and we realize we can be victorious in everything we do. But we just have to believe Him and walk in what we have.
Speaker 1:We should at least be as sure of our covenant as David was of his when he faced Goliath. His knowledge of his covenant protected him from lions and bears and even protected him from the giant. We shouldn't have less than what he had. We should build on what David had and move on up. Christians often suffer needlessly simply because they don't understand their covenant rights.
Speaker 1:And everything in us. Our group of all people should understand our covenant rights and teach it to others. We need to come to a place where we don't let down on what God has given to us. But it's not too late. It's essential that we study and get to know our covenant rights so that we're equipped for what we're going to be facing in these end days.
Speaker 1:We have some things that we'll be facing that the Bible tells us about if we read what's going to happen in the end times. We're not ignorant. We can read that and know we're going to be facing a lot of things. But we don't want to face it without understanding everything that God has made available to us. Yes, He's made available to us Jesus.
Speaker 1:And yes, we've accepted the fact that we're going to live eternally with Him. But He wants us to be victorious in this life. He wants us to be victorious in everything we do. And the only way we're going to get there is when we say, I want to know everything You have for me, Lord. I want to be prepared.
Speaker 1:I want to be ready. I want to be out getting other people into the kingdom and I want to be telling them about their covenant so they can get others into the kingdom. God's made it available to us but it's not going to do us any good until we say Lord, I want it. I want everything you've got and I'm not going to be satisfied. I'm not going to stop until I have everything that you have available to me.
Speaker 1:And it comes by our understanding, our covenant. We have a covenant with the God of the universe and that covenant carries and covers everything. Father, I'm asking in the name of Jesus, Lord, that You're going to help us to just start somewhere. If it's nothing but just stopping and saying Lord, I don't understand the covenant rights. I don't understand these things but Lord, I want to know.
Speaker 1:I want to know more. If we'll just go to that point, God will open the door and show us the things that we need to know. He'll show us where to go in the Word. The Old Testament and the New Testament describes the covenant, shows us the covenant. But Lord, we have to be willing to say Lord, I want to know it all.
Speaker 1:I want to know not just more but I want to know everything You have. I want to be a part of the one who ushers in the covenant of you, Lord. Lord, I thank you that we've accepted you and we're going to live eternally with you. But, father, we don't wanna just wait for eternity. We wanna start right now and be everything that you've called us to be.
Speaker 1:And it won't happen until we say, yes, Lord, I want it all. I may not understand it, but I want it all. Teach me. Show me the way. And, Father, we know that when we start asking, oh, you'll give it to us.
Speaker 1:You'll start showing us through ways and means that we never even dreamed possible. But we have to ask. He said, ask and it shall be given. And, Father, that's what we're doing today. We're asking you, show us everything we need to know so that we can be victorious in this life.
Speaker 1:Father, there's so many people. All they want to do is just go on to heaven. Father, that's not what You want for us. Sure, we can all go into heaven and that would be wonderful. But, Lord, You called us to be victorious in this life and get other people in the kingdom.
Speaker 1:So, Father, don't let us fall short. Don't let us fall short. Our rewards in heaven are going to be dependent a lot on the fact that we realized we've got a part to play. And we say, Lord, I want to be a part of everything You're doing. I wanna be a part of getting others not only into the kingdom, not only saved, but, Father, into their part, the part they're called to play because we all have a part to play.
Speaker 1:We thank you, Lord. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.