Title: The Covenant of God/Isaiah 59:21
Contents God's Covenant/Isaiah 59:21, Ephesians 2:8-18
We praise God for guiding and protecting us over the past year. Also, thank you for the grace that allowed us to welcome the coming new year with dreams and hopes. I pray that the new year will be a year of keeping promises to God. We pray that we can keep the covenant we made with God with thanks and joy. God is faithful. God has never forgotten the covenant he made with us. Never once broke. God wants to make another promise to us this evening at the end of the year. He wants to speak of a promise of blessing. And he wants you to look forward to the new year of hope rising at dawn while remembering those words. So, what is the covenant God makes with us?
1. God made a covenant of blessing with us.
The Bible testifies everywhere that God made a covenant with humans. Therefore, it can be said that the Bible is the book of the covenant God makes with humans, and Christianity is the religion of the covenant. But there is one thing to remember. It is the fact that God's covenant is not made by human request or request. The sovereignty of God's covenant belongs exclusively to God. However, a person who is a creature enjoys and enjoys the blessings of that covenant. In addition, the content and scope of the covenant can only be claimed by God thoroughly, and the form is also determined by God.
For example, God made a covenant with Abraham through circumcision (Genesis 17:914). He made a covenant with Noah through a rainbow (Genesis 9:817). And he made a covenant with the people of Israel, including Moses, in blood on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:8).
The Israelites wanted to preserve and not forget the words of their covenant with God. And I wanted to remember. They wanted to let the world know that they were the people of the covenant. So the manna jar, Aaron's staff, and the word were kept together in the ark of the covenant. And this ark of the covenant became a symbol of God's presence to guide the people of Israel. Wherever the Israelites went, wherever they went, they took the ark of the covenant in front of them. When they crossed the Jordan River, they went with the ark of the covenant (Jos 3:17), and when they captured the city of Jericho, they went with the ark of the covenant (Jos 6:4, 8).
What was the secret of the Israelites' victory? God, who wants to make a covenant with us, has the secret of that victory. Dear saints, God wants us all to remember the covenant we made with Him. You want to believe. And He wants you to expect that by proclaiming the contents of that covenant.
2. God selects people and establishes them as partners in the covenant.
Just as God chose the people of Israel and made a covenant, He chose me and you today and expects you to carry on the inheritance of that blessing. He also wants us to choose our family so that the blessings will be passed on from generation to generation.
Genesis 1:28 testifies: “God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
God made a covenant with Adam, the first man. That covenant is not a covenant of duty and regulation. The covenant God makes with man is a covenant of blessing. The blessing is, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Also, have dominion over all living things, and make your food with every vegetable, fruit, and tree. Is there anything God needs in these words? Does God have any use? There is not. There is nothing for God. All the words and all the blessings are meant to be given to people.
Also, in Genesis 12:2~3, God makes a covenant with Abraham. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing… … All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” There are two meanings of these words. The first is God's will to make us a source of blessing. What is a 'source of blessing'? In a word, it is a 'bulk lump'. God's covenant plan is to make me a blessing. The second is that wherever I go, other people are happy because of me. It's just that good things happen when you meet only me. People around the world refer to this as ‘luck’. But this is not 'luck or fate'. This is because ‘luck’ is a coincidence, whereas ‘covenant’ is God’s plan and will.
Also, God appeared in a dream to Jacob, who was running away from his brother Esau to his mother's hometown of Paddan Aram. And you said “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and they will spread across the east, west, north and south, and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you, I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you (Genesis 28:14-15).”
These words have one thing in common. That is, God's blessings for one person do not end with that one person. God's covenant is a promise of great blessings through one person to thousands of generations.
3. The covenant of blessing that God made with the people of Israel is reaching us today through Jesus Christ.
Genesis 3:15 testifies: “I will make you hostile to the woman, and your offspring will be her offspring and enemies.”
God has already promised the coming of Jesus. And the promised Jesus came into the midst of this earth. God fulfilled His covenant through Jesus. Now, God's covenant is no longer fulfilled through region and blood ties. It's not just given to a few special people. The blessing of God's covenant is a grace that can only be enjoyed by those who believe in it and expect that it will be as it is.
The text proves this. “… … My spirit upon you, and the words I put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, from the mouth of your descendants, or from the mouths of your descendants' descendants from now on and forever. saith the LORD (Isaiah 59:21).”
The focus of the covenant that God wants to give us through the prophet Isaiah is none other than the work of renewal through the Holy Spirit. It is the promise of restoration through the Word. I expect that we and our home and workplace will build a foundation with the Word of God and continue the genealogy of the Word. God wants us today to live a year on the basis of the covenant of the Word.