Q&A 32: What does the Bible teach about covenants, stewardships & ages?

The question we have here, we're continuing on with this question of the covenants, and what we say here is, what does the Bible teach about covenants, stewardship in ages? So one of the questions that we have, since we actually didn't get to finish, There we go. Didn't get to finish quite because we didn't address the New Covenant. This is actually from the end of last week's handout, which instead of having the paper continue, I just thought I'd put up on the screen.

The New Covenant was given explicitly to Israel with the following key features. I have some passages here from Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. That's not all, but it's several of them. and covers a significant portion of it. The people of Israel would be empowered by a continuous, universal, and dwelling of the Holy Spirit to live out the law. And that's a key thing, because think of the Israelites there in the desert. They were given the law. How was it supposed to happen? How were they supposed to carry out the law? It was the Nike philosophy. Just do it. Right? Just do it. Quit your belly aching. Just do it.

It was the nature of the law. Actually, it was to do it in threat of curses. Yes, that's right. If you look at it, it's the carrot and the stick philosophy. Here's your carrot in front of you. Here's the blessing. Deuteronomy 28. Verse 14 verses spells that out. Here's the blessing, and then the stick. If you don't, here's the curses. Verse 15 through the end of the chapter, it's like through verse 68, gives the curses. So yeah, do it and things will turn out well for you. Don't do it and it will be unwell.

And it's the same philosophy for little kids and immature individuals, right? and Israel is very immature at that point. Yeah, looking at it, you know, imagine, well put yourself in their shoes if you would, which by the way didn't wear out until they stepped into the promised land. You imagine, I've had these shoes for 40 years, I'm getting really tired. Anyway, so here they are, they're in the promised land, Moses gives them 613 do's and don'ts.

And they're kind of going, wow, you know, I'm supposed to do and not do all this stuff. And by the way, you better get it down, you know, like really well, because you mess up, you know, you'll be kissing some rocks. Right. So. So that was, I'm sure, quite a bit, but there was no help for doing it. It was just you do it. You do it. And you get blessings if you do it, you get curses if you don't do it. Simple as that, right?

So, what will happen in the Millennial Kingdom, the people of Israel will be empowered by a continuous, universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit to live out the law of Moses. How is that similar to what we have in the church? We also have a continuous, universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit for every believer here in the church age, right? Okay, so that's similar.

Now, live out the law of Moses from the heart, in the land of Israel. That's the other part of it, it's in the land. Because that's one thing, if you look at the law of Moses, it keeps saying in the land, in the land, in the land. The things you do are in the land. And Moses was giving it to them, you know, when you get to the land, this, this, this.

Without need of a teacher. That's one thing is, what am I doing right now? I'm teaching the New Covenant for the Jews, no teacher. They just know it. You just know it. And, and so be blessed in all the ways given in the Palestinian Covenant with focus upon earthly blessings. Focus on earthly blessings. Under the old code that they had, it was still a focus on earthly blessings, right? And they did need a teacher. Matter of fact, you've got these people called rabbis, right? Go around teaching. Jesus himself was called a rabbi at various points, a teacher.

The descriptions of the earthly blessings that Israel have under the New Covenant are conveyed in many passages of the Old Testament prophets, including the book of Isaiah. We went through a number of them when we went through the book of Isaiah. We looked at, here are all the blessings they're going to have.

What will the crop production be like? during the millennial kingdom. Phenomenal! Things will just flourish. Places that are now desert will just be vibrant and growing and green unless there's some other color that's supposed to be showing itself, right? And so you're going to have tremendous productivity in the land. And here's something else that's interesting. Gentiles will come in and take care of it. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. It's not that the Jews will work the land. It says that the Gentiles will come in and take care of it for them.

Why? Because the Jews will all be serving as a priesthood for people of the entire earth. So you have in the Spirit's empowering of the people of Israel to live out the Law of Moses university all the time without any teachers and it will enable them to enjoy all the earthly blessings promised in Deuteronomy 28 and none of the earthly curses. Heal all your diseases, you'll have no problem with productivity, everything will be great. The Gentiles will be drawn to you. They'll have a number of Gentiles grab a hold of one Jew and say, please take me to the Messiah. It'll be that phenomenal. And there won't be a need among the Jews for teachers, because they'll just know it. They will just know it.

No teachers. You will live out the law to the finest detail from the heart, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do so. So what about the Gentiles that are serving now? Do they still need teachers? What's interesting is the Gentiles are not given a promise you don't need a teacher. So what likely will be the case is you'll see the Jews who know the law, right, conveying to the Gentiles. But among the Jews, they won't need one. Among the Jews, they won't need one. So the promise applies to the Jews particularly.

That's a good question. I think that the answer will be at least substantially so. At least substantially so. What we see as a generalization is they follow the Lord, they're empowered to carry it out. I don't know that I see the word sinless in there, but I don't see the description of them carrying out sin either. So, perfectly absolutely sinless? Not sure. But, what we do see as the description is one of abundant righteousness. Yeah. and it's for the Jews, right? It's focused on the Jews. Matter of fact, that passage explicitly says for Israel.

So it's kind of like having a new heart in the old nature. Because Satan's allowed to come back at some point in time, so their sin, for whatever reason, seems to get worse over the course of time. And they do fall again, right? There is, at the very end, Satan is released for a short period of time and it doesn't tell us what a short period of time is. So there is that. If you think of it, we now have three enemies. Two of those will be taken out of the way, right? Because you've got the world, the flesh, and the devil, right? And where's the devil except for that time at the very end?

He is bound for a thousand years. And it's not like the binding that gets done today in the charismatic circles, where it keeps getting loose. He's bound and he is stuck. He's not getting out. And as far as the world is concerned, Christ will be at the head of the world government. Therefore, no demonic, satanic world system. None such. You essentially will have two of the three enemies knocked out for a thousand years. Out of commission, out of operation.

Imagine what it would be like, even if a person wishes to express the sin nature. Imagine what it would be like if you're going to go to court and the judge knows everything. Hey, there's no, you know, saying, hey, let's see if we can get by with this. No. The judge knows everything. No parliamentary procedures, no little, you know, you didn't do this right or that right. He just knows everything and the absolute, total truth is exactly what's going to come out. Bang. Okay?

So there won't be any of this, you know, most of the time we can't catch these guys or, you know, we thought we had them red-handed, but he got away on a tech, none of that. Imagine what it's like when that's the case. You want to try to pull something off? I could say good luck, but it wouldn't do any good. You have a judge who knows everything and has absolute power, you're not going to get away with anything. Can't happen, right? Okay. So, looking at the handout here, proceeding on with that.

Though some of the covenants that were listed and briefly described in the previous lessons do have an impact upon us in the Church, there is no biblical evidence that God has a covenant directly with us who are in the Church. There are those who say that we in the Church have been incorporated into Israel's New Covenant in some way, or that Israel's New Covenant has been extended to include us who are in the Church, or that we benefit from the New Covenant with Israel. This is commonly the view of those who hold the Reformed or Covenant view, including that we are still under the law of Moses in some part or have the law written on our hearts. But as you look at the statements of the New Covenant, it was an oath only made to the people of Israel. I give a couple of references there, although we could give more. The New Covenant with Israel included God's promise to write the law in their hearts, whereas we in the Church died with Christ in relationship to the law.

So we do not have the law written on our hearts. For us, grace is the reigning principle. Now there's something to talk about here, because I think it's an important comparison. Was the law good? Yes, the law was good. And why would we say the law is good? picture of God's character. Yeah, in other words, the law represents the moral character of God.

God is a holy God. God is a God who is fundamentally moral, unlike the pagan gods. The pagan gods would lie, they would steal, they would cheat, they would commit adultery and cover it up. The pagan gods were not moral. The God of Scripture, in great contrast, is a God who is moral, and the law reflects that, doesn't it? Why is it then that we can be believers reflecting God's character here in the church age apart from the law? How do we live out this life? By the Holy Spirit.

If you look at Galatians, we could look at Romans, but the succinct statements are actually in Galatians, and you're correct. When I was over in Uganda the first time, they were surprised because they said, what verses do you want read? I said, Galatians 5.16 only. Wow, I never had anybody just want to read one verse like that. But I said, Derek says, walk by means of the Spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh. Therefore, Therefore, walking by means of the Spirit is how God intends for us to do our living.

But earlier in that very same book, Galatians 2.20, let me start with verse 19. I have died to the law. That's the message of verse 19. Verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

I'm going to do an expanded translation, not too much, don't worry. It is no longer I who do the living. It is Christ who does the living in me. Therefore, rather than having to have me try to comply with the law, either from an external law, and I try to live it out, or even an internal laws the Jews will have and live it out, I will have, as I walk in fellowship with the Lord, or as he puts it, as I put my faith in the Son of God, His righteousness living through me. His life, His righteousness. Christ who is our life. Christ who is our righteousness. So rather than having a law code that reflects the moral character of God, we have the very life of Christ.

So for the Jews, they will be given, they don't have it yet, unless they're believers, they will be given the Holy Spirit during the Millennial Kingdom. They will be given the Holy Spirit universally, every one, all the time, to do what? to empower them to live out the law in the land with Christ as the Messiah and the King of the Jews and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ruling over not only Israel but the entire earth. For us, Christ died on the cross so that we would be separated from the law, released from the law, and that his life and his righteousness might be lived out in us. Does Christ's life and Christ's righteousness have the moral character that the law seeks to present? Yes, most certainly, right?

Because it's him. It is his life. That's why he is the one in dwelling. That's why he is the one who does the living. Because His living, that is God's character. His living in us and through us, that is God's character. So while the law presents the moral and holy character of God expressed externally, it will be instead Christ's life lived out in us that will be the representation of Christ.

Yes? Yeah, the rapture happens prior to the beginning of what is known as the tribulation period. It's the weeks of Daniel. And it is a period of seven 360 day years. So prior to that time, the church will be taken out. That we call the rapture. The term rapture, by the way, you look up in the Bible, you will not find it. Why? It's because it's a Latin term, and the Greek word is harpazo. So that's what we have adopted for our common usage, like the word Trinity. That's not in the Bible either. But it is a handle, it is a term that means to be taken out.

I don't know how this relates to what I do, but I can't explain it. The Jewish people were under a yearly atonement system. Yes. So there was no eternal forgiveness or anything else in their particular society. That's correct. If Christ died and fulfilled the law, then his sacrifice was eternal. So now we're under grace because of the eternal sacrifice that he accomplished. So now we're under the eternal forgiveness, right? Or grace. Yes. I don't know how to explain that, but that's a huge difference between the two. Yeah, let me see if I can finish answering his question and then get to yours, because they actually go together. Okay, so here's the rapture, then a seven-year period of tribulation, getting worse and worse. At the end of that seven-year tribulation, the Lord will come again.

We will come with Him. There will also be an army of angels and an army of Old Testament saints coming. I mean, people are going to just be awestruck. And it's not like a flash, here he is, but this thing is getting brighter and brighter and bigger, and as the earth turns, like every night, here's this thing getting brighter and bigger, and we're coming. And He's coming. And the armies of heaven are coming. People are just going to be overwhelmed by this sight.

And either they will say, oh no, it's Jesus. Or they will be saying, hallelujah, it's Jesus, right? And they're going to be one way or the other. At the end of that seven-year tribulation, when He comes with us, with the other saints, And with the army of angels, that will begin a thousand year period of time in which Christ will reign upon the earth.

Now, to include part of what Stan was just referring to, here's the interesting thing. There will be a sacrificial system in place during the millennium. The temple is described in the book of Ezekiel that will be used during that period of time. The other thing that's interesting about that is Stan made mention of in the Old Testament system you had to keep having sacrifices and keep having sacrifices.

That's why in Hebrews 7 through 10 it keeps referring to the having to sacrifice again and again and again and again, but in contrast Christ makes a sacrifice once for all. Once for all, and the word hapax is in the Greek. Once done, perpetually valid. Once done, perpetually valid. He does it and it doesn't need to be done. Why the sacrifices in the millennium?

They are not sacrifices that are seeking to supplant or displace Jesus' sacrifice, not at all. They are memorial sacrifices. So the sacrificial system will be there, and by the way, the Jews won't have to be taught about it, right? Because they won't need a teacher.

But, what will happen is you will have the sacrificial system in place, which they will know by heart, and will carry it out as a memorial sacrifice, not because there's anything deficient about what Christ did, but It's somewhat in comparison to what we're going to do this morning, and that's with the Lord's Table. What is that?

Do this in remembrance. It will be the Jews' means of remembrance, including, by the way, the whole Passover time. They will have memorial sacrifices. they'll have some of the same things going on there that, you know, if you want to, you know, bless somebody or whatever, you bring a gift to the temple or... Well, and consider this.

Remember that the tithe was a tenth, right? The tithe will be much bigger because the land will be productive, right? So they will have much greater tithes than they had previously. Because 10% is a lot more when it's double, triple, quadruple the crop yield. A lot more tie. It's still 10%, but it'll be a much larger total 10%.

I would like us to turn to page 2. I'd like to make a connection here. Christ and the covenants. and kind of weave in where Christ fits in these covenants. The Eternal Covenant was between God the Father and God the Son, obviously meaning that Christ must be born of human flesh and shed the blood of the Eternal Covenant. So that's one.

The Edenic Covenant included access to the Tree of Life, but the Adamic Covenant included consequences for Adam, Eve, all mankind, and the whole earth for breaking the Edenic covenant. But promised in the pronouncement of the judgment is the victory of the Savior on our behalf, and at his own expense, and the demise of the serpent of old. And the sacrifice of the life for the animal for covering for Adam prefigured the sacrifice of Christ's life for mankind. And the Noahic Covenant, though it was made with Noah, has certain earthly impacts for all mankind and consequences for the animals and the whole earth as well. The sacrifices that initiated God's giving of the covenant prefigured the sacrifice of Christ's life for mankind.

And the next one, the Abrahamic Covenant. impacted Abraham's descendants through Isaac and Jacob, then all mankind, the sacrifices that Abraham made prefigured the sacrifice of Christ's life for mankind. But all the families of the earth, the nations, are blessed through Abraham because Christ was descended from him. Remember when here is Abraham and he is told to go sacrifice his son Isaac.

And Isaac says, and by the way, Isaac is like around 40 years old at the time. He's not some little kid like some of the drawings might imply. So here's Isaac. He's about 40 years old. And he's looking around and he says, where's the sacrifice? Dad, this is a little funny. I'm feeling nervous.

Right? And what's Abraham's answer? God will provide the lamb, right? God's going to provide it. And so what you see is that's in fact what takes place. And what is it doing? It's prefiguring God's provision of the lamb, of his lamb, for the sacrifice.

The Mosaic Covenant contains many sacrifices which prefigured the sacrifice of Christ's life for mankind. And then we can see the next item here, the Palestinian or land covenant. will have its ideal and ultimate fulfillment in the time when the New Covenant is fulfilled, when Christ will be the reigning King of Israel fulfilling the Davidic Covenant.

So you see the connection there? There's the Mosaic Covenant giving picture after picture after picture, as Hebrews reviews, of Christ who would once for all sacrifice and be sacrificed for our sins. And then you have this land covenant ultimately fulfilled when the Jews are empowered by a continuing and universal presence of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, since they obey the law from the heart without a teacher, they get all the blessings and none of the curses.

And so what you see is the Palestinian covenant, the New Covenant, and the Davidic covenant all go together. Now right below that we have a paragraph that says Christ's death on the cross. Christ's death on the cross, which was the fulfillment of the eternal covenant and prefigured by all the sacrifices involved in the prior covenants, was the sign or gesture confirming the new covenant with Israel. This is the new covenant, right?

God made this death of Christ, which was the confirming of the new covenant with Israel, in which they would have the law written on their hearts and be empowered to live out the law of Moses, the same event that separated us from the law. Isn't that amazing? God would use this death of Christ, which is confirmation of the Jews' new covenant, to separate us from the law. Amazing. God would, in the Jews, empower them to carry it out, but for us, separate us, and we fulfill the living out of God's moral character and His righteousness, not because of the law, even separated from the law, but because of His life. Because of His life.

What we find is Christ's death on the cross is the connecting line between all the covenants and it is beyond the covenants. It fulfills what the covenants never intended to do. It goes beyond the covenants. Last paragraph on page 2, God has used the covenants as a means for managing all of history towards summing up all things and heaven and earth in Christ in which the church's involvement in that summing up was a mystery.

When Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah wrote about the new covenant, did they know about the church? No. They hadn't a clue it was coming. So guess what? God, in confirming and fulfilling the New Covenant, said, hey, I've got a surprise for you. I'm going to have this thing called the Church, and I know you've never heard of it, but I'm going to come up with it, and these people, through the confirmation of the New Covenant by Christ's death, will also be blessed. Oh, and by the way, they'll be blessed unconditionally. Wow, this is phenomenal. One way to look at it is this.

Suppose that I were going to give my son $2 million and that was his inheritance and it was written in the will. Unbeknownst to my son, I also had a $2 million life insurance policy that would benefit somebody else he didn't even know about. So the son is expecting to, you know, at the father's death, to have this will, right? To have this will in which he would inherit the money he was told he was going to get.

But unbeknownst to him, somebody else also gets a benefit from this death that he didn't even know about, and it doesn't diminish his benefits at all. So it would be kind of an analogy in an approximate way. It's an analogy, so it has limitations. But just to show the Lord blessed us and benefited us by this death without detracting from or reducing the benefit of the ones who were already promised.

Okay. Let's take a look at the top of page three. So Ephesians 1, 9, and 10, God the Father made known by deliberate revelation to us in the church the mystery, a truth previously unrevealed but now revealed by the Father's will, consistent with the Father's kind intention which he planned for those who are in Christ, namely the church. That planning for the church has this direction, the Father's management of everything in the created universe, to include those in the church, the mystery now revealed, but the final one of all the accumulated times of the present heavens and present earth, that is the heading up of all things in the Christ, the Messiah. And I'd like to make a brief point there. In our translations of the book of Ephesians, What is usually dropped out, often dropped out, is that there's a definite article in the Greek before Christ, which means the Christ, the Messiah. That was his name, his messianic title, if you will. And that is why, for example, Caiaphas would ask him, are you the Christ? Right? And so that was a question. Are you the Messiah?

That is what shows up here for the first time in Ephesians, in Ephesians 1.10, and it is used 23 times in the book of Ephesians. Our translations don't bring that out. I think they ought to, because Paul was being emphatic with the Jews.

Here is the Messiah, and guess what? What you never understood is the church has a connection and involvement here, and I'm telling you now because it was never revealed before. But all things in heaven and on earth, everything, including the church, that you didn't know about before, is going to be summed up in Christ the Messiah.

Everything. That's the exciting part about this. This has an exclamation point that goes with it. during the millennium with the all things being all those created things in the heavens and those things on the earth both visible and invisible. Does this include angels? Yep! It includes angels. It includes all spiritual beings who are with the Lord, who are on the Lord's side.

All things summed up in hymn. The all things in heaven and those things on the earth, both visible and invisible. The millennial reign of Christ is the time on the present heavens and earth when all things will be summed up in Him, which is the beginning of the complete restoration of all things.

So, the all things, is that why the Gentile branch was grafted in? because that's part of the all things. That's part of the all things. So the church, which is the current age now, is basically the gospel message to the Gentile nations, correct? Yes, where the Gentiles are included.

Initially, this was even back in the Old Testament, one of the key things that shows up in Isaiah is the Jews were to be a light to the Gentiles. They in great part failed in fulfillment of that. But, nonetheless, so that's one of the reasons God brings in the church, because here is a body with the law, the wall of separation taken out of the way, and you have Jews and Gentiles in one body. Well, God even witnessed to Nineveh through Jonah. Absolutely. So that's a picture of what was going to happen later. That's right. And an appeal to repent and you'll not be destroyed. And they did, much to Jonah's disappointment. Okay.

Now, let's look at covenants and stewardships. It's quite often that these are not put together, so you might find this kind of unique. But the primary aspects of a stewardship in Scripture and otherwise can be seen to include, and what I have here in this series of bullets, what is that, about ten of them, are the aspects of a stewardship. While all of these are not spelled out in detail in every stewardship that appears in Scripture, upon examination of God's Word, we find that these things are true.

Now, I'm going to pause here. Let's kind of step through what these bullets are. This is on page three. The bullet's in the middle of page three. In a stewardship, there is one entrusting something to another. It can be God, or there are actually lots of stewardships where it's not God. But when something is entrusted to another person, it's a stewardship. Let's think of an example.

Here was this guy Joseph, right? He was the steward, ultimately, over Potiphar's house. In fact, it's real practically humorous. It says that Potiphar didn't have to worry about anything except lifting the food to his face. Why? Because Joseph just took care of everything. He was a faithful steward. There was a stewardship there.

We are not told every aspect of this stewardship, but Each of these points apply. In many cases, we're told some details of it. Let's think of what are some things that people are entrusted with in varying ways and degrees. Can you think of things that people are entrusted with?

Yeah? Pardon? Children are a stewardship. That's right. Children are a stewardship. I don't own my kids. I don't let them buy themselves out of slavery, right? They're a stewardship. Okay? They're a stewardship. Good. Anything else? Other people's estates. Yeah, you might be entrusted with handling someone else's estate. That is a stewardship. Good. Anything else? Yeah? The material possessions that we have are essentially a stewardship. That's correct. Yeah. A stewardship. Anything else? A job.

A job is essentially a stewardship, okay? If you look at it, every single one of us is given some kind of a stewardship, probably several. And essentially, you know, juggling the balls of this game called life is juggling the stewardships. We have things over which we have a stewardship. Do we have a stewardship over our bodies?

You know, that's another example. Yeah. Good works, something that is entrusted to us. Gifts, and by that you mean spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are a stewardship. This body right here is a stewardship. If you start to see it, there are stewardships everywhere. And every one of us has one or more stewardships. And I would say one is probably way on the low side. But every one of us has some kind of a stewardship, something over which we have been entrusted.

So there's the one doing the entrusting, the one being entrusted, the steward. The title of the one being entrusted. In some cases that title is a significant thing, in other cases it's not. The character of the one being entrusted. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, it is required of stewards that they be faithful. Faithful, so that's the character of a steward.

The work of the one who is entrusted. What is it that they do? How do they carry out that entrusting? The arrangement or assignment of the entrusting. Now here's what's involved. The principles of the entrusting. What are the ways in which it gets done? What are the fundamental truths about the things that you've been entrusted with? The objective.

In other words, what's the goal here? Is the objective for kids that they have to have saved a million dollars by the time they graduate from high school? Well, I hope not because there's not too many of us that fulfill that, right? So that's not the objective.

But oftentimes there is an objective stated for someone who has been given a stewardship. And sometimes the stewardship might be as simple as deliver this to there. Okay? And then it goes on for a lifetime. Another one is the domain of the one being entrusted. What area do you have responsibility over? And it may be a physical geographical area or it may be something that you count, you know, in numbers. But what's the domain of the area? And then the call of those in the domain is another feature of a stewardship that may be the case.

So, sometimes, another word that you hear for this is dispensation. I tend to favor stewardship because while some may have a different opinion, dispensation is a word that is sometimes rarely enough used that people don't understand it. So stewardship is one that we tend to have more of a common understanding about.

In the eternal covenant, the father and the son each entrusted the other. Each had a stewardship. It's a mutual stewardship. The father and son would each entrust the other in eternity about what would take place in time. This is interesting. They entrusted in eternity about what would take place in time. Here's Christ who could say in John chapter 8, before Abraham was born, I am. But what's he going to do? He's going to enter history for about three decades or so of time. And he's going to carry out the things that the father and the son mutually entrusted each other with.

We see in Ephesians 1, 9, and 10 that God also manages all things as the ultimate steward, a self-appointed steward of history. God has managed history, including the details of these covenants that we've been looking at, to the end that everything would be summed up in Christ, including us in the church.

Okay, let's take a look at page 4. Top of page 4 says, In the Edenic Covenant, Adam was entrusted by God with the Garden of Eden, its animals and plants, and with his wife Eve. Adam failed in his stewardship, and the consequences to Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the whole of creation were both devastating and profound. Spelled out in the Edenic Covenant. Adam had a stewardship, didn't he? He was told, here's your domain. It's Eden. And here in this place in Eden, you do this and you don't do that. And the don't do list was actually pretty small. Don't eat of that tree. Don't eat of that tree. You need everything else, just go for it, but not of that tree. Don't do that.

So then we have in the Noahic Covenant, while it was given to Noah, the principles of stewardship extend to all mankind from his day forward to the end of the present heavens and earth regarding the allowance for eating meat in what had previously been a vegetable diet, being fruitful and multiplying, that was repeated again after first being stated to Adam in the garden, and then capital punishment for murder. was also laid out there.

In the Abrahamic covenant, impacting his descendants through Isaac and Jacob, then all mankind, Abraham became a steward before God, but in which Abraham's stewardship responsibilities centered on Abraham believing God. Isn't that something? Abraham, let me tell you what I'm going to do. And you know what you're supposed to do, Abraham? Believe. You've got to believe me. That's what I'm going to ask you to do. That's your stewardship, believe me.

The Mosaic Covenant was a stewardship under the principle of law initiated through Moses as the prime steward, but in which subsequent stewards were entrusted with the people of Israel, with the law of Moses, as the continuing principle of stewardship. The leaders of Israel during the time of Christ, did they have a stewardship? Yeah, how'd they do? Right?

Not so good. Jesus was telling them, in your stewardship, you have blown it. You get an F. You have not done well. You have not been... It requires stewards to be faithful. You have not been faithful. It's your job to understand the Scriptures and the power of God, and you've done neither one of those. You've blown it.

The Palestinian land covenant is a stewardship of the people of Israel regarding the land of Israel with obedience to the law of Moses as the determining factor regarding earthly blessing in the land or earthly curses in the land or even out of the land. If you really blow it, you'll be pitched out of the land. Of course they did.

In the Davidic covenant, King David was promised by God through the prophet Nathan that a descendant of his house would be on his throne and reign over his kingdom, which will be in the land that is subject to the Abrahamic covenant and the Palestinian covenant. Since David did not have to do anything, nor could he fail to do anything that would change his covenant promise, God is the self-appointed steward of this covenant. After Nathan told of God's promise to David, was there some way that David could blow it? Essentially, this is one of the ways in which the Ephesians 1, 9, and 10 passage gets fulfilled.

God manages all things, whether He takes total responsibility or whether He assigns responsibility. He manages all things towards this direction, that all things are summed up in Christ. Things in heaven, things on the earth, things visible, things invisible. Everything is summed up in Christ. And God takes responsibility sometimes by having sovereign control, sometimes by handing off a responsibility and trusting a responsibility to another, but still bringing everything to be summed up in Christ.

So then the Abrahamic covenant would be faith principle, right? A faith principle and also a grace principle. Faith and grace, right? Because when Paul, whether you're in Romans or in Galatians, wants to give an example of justification by faith, what does he do? He goes to Abraham both times. He was justified by faith.

So the knowing covenant didn't have necessary faith, that more had to do with how you live and how you eat. and multiplying and increasing. And it was substantially earth-based. The Noahic covenant was earth-based. Whereas Abrahamic was faith-based. Was faith-based. Now, did the Abrahamic covenant have earth-related elements to that covenant? Yes. The land that I'll show you is one of them, right?

Okay, the last one, the New Covenant with Israel is the culmination of all the prior covenants with Israel, assuring success where the covenant was conditioned upon Israel's obedience to the law of Moses. The New Covenant is the last and driving covenant that makes all things sum up in Christ. See that? The New Covenant is God's last and final principle that makes everything summed up in Christ. The Abrahamic Covenant will be completely fulfilled and the people of Israel will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit to both know innately and live out the law of Moses so as to fulfill the Mosaic Covenant. No law school. No law teachers. Just open your eyes in the morning and all 613 laws just right in front of you. Right? Isn't that amazing? They just have it. No schooling, no training, no teachers.

So they live out the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant live only in the blessings of the Palestinian covenant with complete fulfillment of the Davidic covenant as Christ reigns as Messiah and King of Israel sitting on David's throne. All the covenants will all be fulfilled including the new covenant in this coming time and all of history is being managed by God so that everything is summed up in Christ. That'll include the nations, that'll include Israel, and that'll include us in the church. It'll include things that are physical and visible. It'll include things that are invisible. Everything will be summed up in Christ. That is the direction toward which God is managing history. So you don't need to wring your hands too much about this next election. Right? Okay, yes. Yes, yes.

He asks the question, isn't there something where Jesus will rule with an iron rod? Essentially, this is Psalm chapter 2 is where it starts. And so what you have is during the time of the millennium, okay, here is Jesus and here are the Jews. They will be empowered to live out the law from within. Will the Gentiles have that? No. There will not be the world. There will not be the devil. To pester people, there will be the sin nature. But how much is the sin nature going to get away with? Not much. Like I say, think of the example, you know, you go to court. Does the judge know everything? Yep. Does the judge have the power, without any technicalities, to do what needs to happen to make absolute justice? Yep. Today we can have situations where people walk out of the courtroom and they say, ah, that wasn't just. Justice was not served today. And people will be frustrated. In the millennial kingdom, not at all.

Never. Every court case will be, that was just. This is it. And there will be no exceptions. None. And when you have that kind of a world, it's not some deal like you got the drug lords down in Mexico that are creating this big havoc and whatnot. That won't happen. No way. You will not get away with anything. Not when the judge knows everything and is all powerful.

That's just not going to happen. economy of the first church, which really was a theocracy and a socialistic type of economy because Ananias and Sapphira, they were told to give their land if they wanted to and all this sort of thing. It's going to be similar to that, only Christ is going to be on the earth carrying it out. Yeah, essentially what's going to happen is people, while there will be plenty of graciousness, there's also absolute law. The Jews will be empowered to live it the Gentiles will be compelled to live under it. And they will see the sense and the justice and the righteousness in it, but if somebody wants to live unrighteously, it's not going to work for them.

I mean, it just won't. You know? If somebody wants, hey, I think I'll get away on a technicality, no you won't. I wonder if I can get away with saying this, no you won't. You don't have to swear on a stack of Bibles because you're not going to lie or it's not going to work. Right? Not happening. And we're way past time. I see noses starting to get pressed against the windows and we'd better pray. Okay? Alright.

Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed. What you have spelled out here for us is indeed awesome. And we thank you for it. We pray as we continue our study of these covenants and the stewardships and the ages, we just pray that you would give us understanding and insight. We thank you for the great assurance and the certainty that we can have because you've made these things so clear. And we thank you for your awesome and amazing grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.