[The following is a manuscript of my brief devotional delivered on Sunday morning, the 31st of March, 2019. This Sunday we welcomed the Covenant Gospel Music Group of Asheboro, NC, who shared with us their ministry of beautiful music. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Before we bring Covenant back up, I’d like to look just a bit at their name, at that word “covenant”. The dictionary defines a covenant as an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified. Call it a deal. You do this, and in return I’ll do this.
Throughout time, God has made many covenant agreements. He made a covenant with Noah for the benefit of all creation. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the benefit of His chosen people. And He made a covenant with us, for the benefit of all mankind.
When John the Baptist was born, his father, Zacharias, spoke for God about covenants. Please listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 1, verses 68 through 75…
Throughout time, God has made many covenant agreements. He made a covenant with Noah for the benefit of all creation. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the benefit of His chosen people. And He made a covenant with us, for the benefit of all mankind.
When John the Baptist was born, his father, Zacharias, spoke for God about covenants. Please listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 1, verses 68 through 75…
68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life."
--Luke 1:68-75 (NKJV)
The “horn of salvation”, of course, is Jesus. God sent us His Son Jesus to redeem us, to save us from our enemies. Now we know who our true enemy is, if we’ve paid attention lately: it’s Satan and his forces. And really, sometimes our biggest and toughest enemy is ourselves.
But there is one detail in this passage we would be wise to pay heed to. The oath that God swore to Abraham and his descendants, and to all of us through Jesus, is to deliver us from our enemies so that we might serve Him without fear! That’s our end of the covenant, to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life!
The author of the Book of Hebrews recounts the results of not living up to our end of the deal, in chapter 8, verses 7 through 9…
The people failed to live up to their end of the covenant with God, and paid the price with their lives, and quite likely their eternal lives as well. So another covenant was necessary, a completely new covenant unlike the first.
Although the new covenant is recorded in the Gospel accounts, I think the Apostle Paul perhaps says it best in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 through 25…
When the Apostle Matthew recorded this in his Gospel account, he added Jesus saying that His blood is shed for the forgiveness of our sins. That’s the benefit to us, if we hold up our end of this new covenant.
Remember Jesus, and all He did for us. Believe in Him and keep His word. All in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
But there is one detail in this passage we would be wise to pay heed to. The oath that God swore to Abraham and his descendants, and to all of us through Jesus, is to deliver us from our enemies so that we might serve Him without fear! That’s our end of the covenant, to serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life!
The author of the Book of Hebrews recounts the results of not living up to our end of the deal, in chapter 8, verses 7 through 9…
7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, He said:
“The day is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
9 This covenant will not be like the one
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to My covenant,
so I turned my back on them, says the Lord."
--Hebrews 8:7-9 (NLT)
The people failed to live up to their end of the covenant with God, and paid the price with their lives, and quite likely their eternal lives as well. So another covenant was necessary, a completely new covenant unlike the first.
Although the new covenant is recorded in the Gospel accounts, I think the Apostle Paul perhaps says it best in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 through 25…
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
--1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (NKJV)
When the Apostle Matthew recorded this in his Gospel account, he added Jesus saying that His blood is shed for the forgiveness of our sins. That’s the benefit to us, if we hold up our end of this new covenant.
Remember Jesus, and all He did for us. Believe in Him and keep His word. All in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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