Help to get our services Tuesday night, Wednesday
or Thursday, our intercessory prayer meeting nights, and
then Friday night Bible school.
Keep those services all in mind.
Would you turn to Psalm 89, please?
Psalm 89.
89th Psalm.
I want to read one verse before we
proceed.
Verse 34, please.
My message tonight, taking hold of the covenant,
taking hold of the new covenant, taking hold
of the new covenant.
Verse 34, my covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that has gone out
of my lips.
My covenant will I not break, nor alter
the thing that has gone out of my
lips.
We're going to talk about a subject that
many of you have never even heard a
single message about, other maybe than from this
pulpit.
Let me ask, how many of you have
heard, other than from this pulpit, how many
of you have ever heard one full message
on the new covenant?
Would you raise your hand, please?
Amazing, just a smattering of hands here tonight,
just a few who have heard about the
covenant.
That's why it's so very, very important that
we deal with it more and more.
We trust that the Lord will begin to
open our eyes.
When I was just a young preacher, I
don't even know how old I was, but
the Lord, in prayer one day, led me
to the 25th Psalm, and He said, I'm
going to make this the theme of your
life, and He gave me the very verses.
I'll just read them to you.
Don't turn there.
This is in Psalm 25, verses 12 to
14.
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
Him shall he teach in the way he
shall choose.
His soul shall dwell at ease.
His seed shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with them
that fear Him, and He will show them
His covenant.
He will show them His covenant.
Now, this is a promise for every single
believer that fears the Lord, that trusts in
Him fully.
God says, I'm going to show you the
covenant.
Now, that means that you have to believe
that, and you have to claim it, and
you have to press into it.
But we're going to see tonight a glimpse,
just one view, another view of what the
new covenant means.
Heavenly Father, I pray for the Holy Spirit
to come down upon this house, from the
balcony to the choir, to everyone listening to
me, and those who will hear this message
on tape or video.
Lord Jesus, You're trying to open to the
body of Jesus Christ in these last days,
truths that will set us free, that will
keep us from the wicked one in the
time of storm, when the enemy comes in
like a flood in the last final hour
of this time.
Lord Jesus, I pray Your Holy Spirit quicken
us now.
We have got to pray, Lord, for an
opening of our understanding that we may see
and we may hear.
Lord, we're not interested in preaching a sermon
tonight.
We're interested in You opening Your heart and
Your mind to us, and giving us the
revelation that we need in these last days,
that You will put in our hands the
truth that truly changes our lives and sets
us free.
Oh, Holy Spirit of living God, quicken me
to speak this, and quicken our ears to
hear it, I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, this promise has been made to all
believers that if you fear the Lord, God
says, the secret of the Lord is of
them that fear Him.
And this has been a secret that's been
hidden for many, many years from the body
of Jesus Christ.
I tell you, in all my years, I
have not heard a full message.
I've never heard a full message on the
meaning of the New Covenant.
Now, I know there's been some talk about
the Old Covenant.
In fact, if you get into that, you
get into one covenant after another, covenant after
covenant after covenant throughout the Old Testament.
And I have never yet heard anybody who
can fully explain all these covenants to me.
But God said He was going to make
a New Covenant for the last-days people.
And I have not heard that.
Now, when I was a young preacher, and
I'm trying to figure out why this has
not been taught.
When I was a young preacher, I was
more or less led to believe that covenant
theology was a theology of a number of
old, dead, Scottish churches, and that it produced
a permissive lifestyle.
Because, you see, when you understand the glory
of the covenant and what God agreed to
with Christ, it's so glorious, it's so life
-bringing, that many people take advantage of it
and have in the past, and they have
misused the covenant.
Another reason why the theology of the covenant
or the teaching of the covenant has not
been revealed to the church in the last
days, is because the Scripture says that God
said, I will make a New Covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah.
And so, what dispensationalists have said, well, Israel
is Israel, Jew is a Jew, Jerusalem is
Jerusalem, it's natural.
And so, they have assigned it into the
millennial age, saying that this is for the
Jews.
And so, it's been neglected, because we said
Israel, they said Israel is Israel, Jew is
Jew, and Jerusalem is Jerusalem, it's natural, you
can fly there, you can go there, so
it's just been put aside, they said it's
not for us.
And folks, I'm telling you now, and listen
to what the pastor is saying tonight, this
is going to be the one truth that
God opens up in the last days, because
it's going to be the most freeing truth,
it's been neglected, it has not been sought
out, because theologians have told us it is
not for us, it's for the Jew, or
that it's in the past, and it has
nothing to do with us today.
It's amazing that Paul can teach so much
about the New Covenant, and be totally ignored
by the church.
I saw this when I was just a
young man, and I'd been seeking and praying
about it, and it's only lately the Lord
seemed fit to open just a few views
into this, and I've told God, I'll not
let go of this, I spent all my
time praying for the revelation of this New
Covenant, because I believe it's the secret of
waking up the last day church, I believe
it releases such power, and if the devil,
the Bible says, is going to come down
to us in the last days having great
wrath, knowing his time is short, and he's
going to send a flood against the church,
against this woman, the church, how much more
do you and I have to have the
secret of the Lord in our hands, how
to overcome, and the power and the glory
of the New Covenant has to be released
in our spirits, in our minds, it has
to come.
And I told God, I will not let
him go.
I'm not going to let him go until
he shows and unveils this New Covenant, and
I believe there are going to be many
others.
I see God revealing this to Pastor Carter
in a very clear way.
You're going to see others who are praying
and seeking God.
Now, I know that the prosperity people are
going to come, and they're going to try
to abuse it, and carry it off into
some extreme.
Let that be what it may, God will
not let this truth be hidden much longer,
because this is the last day, and this
truth is going to come forth.
Now, let me show to you, I want
to prove to you that this covenant belongs
to you and me.
Now, the only way you can behold of
the covenant, the New Covenant, is to be
absolutely persuaded that it's meant for you and
me today, that it's not for some Jewish
nation, it's not for natural Israel or natural
Jerusalem or natural Jew, it is for spiritual
Israel.
There are two Israels, there are two kinds
of Jews, there are two kinds of Jerusalems.
We're going to go right into it.
Now, Israel's first mention is found in Genesis
32, 28.
It was a name God gave to Jacob
by faith.
It was his regenerate name, and he said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob,
but Israel.
That name was given to him only after
his spirit, his carnal spirit was broken.
He was given the name Israel as a
faith name and represented all the seed of
faith, all the children who had come to
God by faith, through Abraham and his seed,
and this now through Jacob and his seed.
Truly God, the Bible says, is good to
Israel, even to such as have a clean
heart.
It says God is good to Israel, those
who have a clean heart.
Now, he distinguishes Israel as those who have
a clean heart.
The natural Jew at the time had no
clean heart because the blood had not been
sprinkled on them.
It is only those...
no heart can be clean other than through
the sprinkling of the blood.
So he's distinguishing between two Israels immediately.
Romans 9, 6, Not as though the word
of God hath taken none effect, but they
are not all Israel which are of Israel.
In other words, natural Israel is not just
Israel.
There is an Israel according to Galatians 6,
16, the Israel of God.
Galatians 3, 7, Know you therefore that they
which are of faith, they are the sons
of Abraham, not the natural Jew, but the
spiritual Jew by faith as in Jesus Christ
is the seed of Abraham.
The spiritual seed of Abraham.
Romans 9, 8, They which are the children
of the flesh, they're not the children of
God, but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed.
Nothing could be clearer in all Scripture.
Galatians 4, 25 and 6.
This Agar is Sinai in Arabia and answers
to Jerusalem which now is.
He said there is a natural Israel.
There's a natural Jerusalem.
He said which now is.
It's in bondage with all her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free and
is the mother of us all.
He said there's two Jerusalem's, two Israel's, one
natural and one spiritual.
Revelation 2, 28, Romans 2, 28.
For he's not a Jew which is one
outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh.
But he is a Jew who is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of
the heart and in the spirit and not
of the letter whose praise is not of
men but of God.
Now the new covenant is for spiritual Israel,
all Jews and all Gentiles who have put
their trust and faith in Jesus Christ.
If you're in Christ, you are the new
Jew, you are the new Israel, and you
are born again in the new Jerusalem.
Hebrews 8, 6.
But now, now in the new covenant he
has obtained a more excellent ministry.
He's a mediator of a better covenant.
Now folks, when Jeremiah gave the announcement of
the new covenant that was going to come
to the new Israel, the natural Israel was
divided into two groups at the time.
They had two different kings, two different centers
of worship, and they were enmity with each
other.
So this could not have been to the
natural Jew.
They were in no position, they didn't have
the clean heart, they didn't have the hunger
for God, they were backslidden, they were in
idolatry, they were two different groups, they were
mixed up, they were enemies at enmity with
God and with each other.
So it was no possibility it could be
given under Jeremiah's first announcement of the new
covenant that had been to the natural Jew.
Now, who are the parties?
Remember, a covenant is agreement between two parties
and what is to be done and what
is not to be done.
And we would call it a contract.
And once this contract has been finalized, it
had penalties by the law if one party
did not fulfill the terms of the covenant.
Now, there are terms made by each party.
Now, who are these parties?
The Bible says that God made a new
covenant.
Now, He said with Israel and Judah, but
Israel and Judah, the spiritual Israelites, that you
and me in Christ were brought into it
later.
We were brought into it because we were
brought into Christ.
But the two parties of this covenant is
God the Father and God the Son.
Now, listen to me closely.
Before the earth was begun, before the world
existed, before time itself, the Heavenly Father and
His Son.
Now, remember Jesus, the Son of God, though
He was not in flesh.
When the bosom of His Father created all
things, all things were created by Him and
for Him.
Now, in eternity, God the Father, God the
Son, realizing that the first Adam was going
to fail, He's going to bring reproach, God
said, I will not lose this generation that
I created.
I will not lose mankind.
I will not let him go.
I will not let this fail.
And in time, before the world was created,
there was an agreement, there was a covenant
made between God the Father and God the
Son that there would be a redemption made,
that there would be a sacrifice made.
God said to His Son, God, if you
will go and be the slain Redeemer, the
Lamb of the Father, I make a covenant
with you.
And this covenant, this agreement, was made not
in private, but every word of this covenant,
all the conversation of this covenant, has been
revealed in the Word.
God wanted us to know every detail, all
the terms of the covenant made, because He
wanted us to rejoice in its security.
I'm going to show it to you in
just a few moments.
These terms are not made in secret.
Now, I want you to follow me very,
very close, if you will.
All the contracting and all the conversation of
this covenant between God and His Son, all
the terms of the covenant were openly recorded,
and they are here in the Word.
The Spirit of the Lord, when He inspired
this, made sure that every word that was
spoken on that covenant time was made between
the Father and His Son, was fully recorded,
so we know the details.
Let me give you an example of covenant
conversation between the Father and His Son, recorded
in the Scripture.
Don't go there, but Psalm 89, 19.
Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy
One, and said, I've laid help on one
that is mighty, I've exalted one chosen out
of the people.
This is the Father speaking in covenant to
His Son.
He is saying to His Son, Now, Son,
this seems like a mystery, but I'm going
to ask of you to go into the
world, and I'm going to send you to
people who have become by sin weak and
miserable, hopeless and overwhelmed, and they will be
unable to find their way back to Me,
and they will be lost.
They will absolutely be lost.
I must have you go.
He said, I've appointed you, and I've laid
help upon your shoulder, and I've made you
mighty for the purpose.
This is not what He's saying there.
I have laid help on one who is
mighty, I've exalted and chosen one out of
the people.
He said, I have chosen you, My Son.
I want you to go on My behalf.
This is an agreement the Father is making,
and He's spelling out the terms of His
going, and then Christ will spell out the
terms of His accepting it.
You'll see it all.
It becomes very, very clear as we go
on.
Now, the purpose of God in making a
covenant with His own Son was to recover
lost humanity from the power of the devil.
This was God's rescue plan out of the
very clutches of Satan.
And it was done absolutely in divine love,
for God was not willing that a single
one should perish.
It came out of the heart of God's
heart of love.
Now, when God said that, He set out
the terms.
He said, you're going to go, but I'm
going to lay help on you.
I'm going to make you mighty.
You're going to be called the mighty one.
And Jesus answers back in so many words,
Father, you've laid help on me, on my
shoulders.
You've sent me to rescue the imprisoned, heal
the hurting, break Satanic strongholds, to reconcile creation
back to you.
And here, in His own words recorded, is
His acceptance of this term of His Father.
Listen to it.
This is Jesus accepting the terms of the
covenant.
Lo, He's speaking to His Father.
I come.
In the volume of the book, it's written
of me.
I delight to do Thy will, O my
God.
That's Jesus saying, Father, I accept the help
You lay on me.
I accept Your might and Your power.
I'm going to need it for what You've
sent me to do.
So I've come now to submit myself.
I've come now to do Your will.
Jesus said, my meat will now be to
do Your will and to finish Your work.
And everything Jesus did on this earth, He
did it as fulfillment of the terms of
the covenant.
Every healing, every bit of good that He
did, every word that He spoke of divine
life, everything He received of His Father, it
was given to Him before time was created.
Every word was spoken to Him.
When He said, I do it, my Father,
only what I see and hear from my
Father.
He saw it and heard it before He
ever came.
This commandment I've received in my Father that
I shall lay down my life.
He said, that was one of the terms.
When I go, I'm going to have to
lay down my life.
And I agreed.
John 12, 49.
For I've not spoken to myself, but the
Father has sent me, who sent me, He
gave me these commandments, what I should say
and what I should speak.
When the covenant was made, when it was
cut, the Lord told Him, laid out His
whole ministry before Him.
The Word of God clearly states that the
terms of the covenant and all of the
requirements were laid out.
And here are some of the requirements.
It's all recorded in the Scripture.
First of all, God said the term of
the covenant on His part was He was
to divest Himself of all of His glory.
He was to strip Himself of all the
appearance of His Godhead.
He had to strip Himself of all godness.
Scripture says then, another term, He was to
take on a human body.
And then Jesus answered, A body have you
prepared for Me?
He said, I agree to the terms.
He said, You'll be born of a woman.
Jesus, it is written of Him, that God
sent forth His Son made of a woman.
He was to take on the form of
a servant.
He was to be holy, harmless, undefiled.
He was to endure great sufferings.
He was to endure reproaches, injustices.
The Father said, Part of the term of
the covenant, You'll be termed a man of
sorrows.
You'll be acquainted with much grief.
He was to grow up in the presence
of His Heavenly Father without any form of
comeliness.
The Father said, I'm going to have to
watch you grow up, even from childhood, as
an undesirable.
He shall grow up before Him.
Before whom?
Before His Father.
He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, as a root out of dry
ground, having no form and no comeliness.
And then part of the term was also
this, And after all this, You're to humble
yourself.
You're going to be placed in the hands
of wicked men.
And in great agony, You're going to lay
down your life as an offering.
I'm going to lay the sins of the
whole world upon you, my son.
He said, this is the term.
Then the Father says, Your ministry is going
to be one, first of all, of a
priest.
You're going to have to carry this seed
of yours all through time and bring them
into eternity.
He said, I'm going to make you a
shepherd.
You're going to go under many ministries, but
your main ministry is going to be a
shepherd.
And then He handed him a list of
names.
He said, these are the names.
This is your flock.
I have known from the foundation of the
world.
Even in the womb, I will number their
members.
Even in the womb, I will count every
hair.
He said, I want you to be a
shepherd.
And if one of them ever goes astray,
I want you to take him in your
arms, into your bosom, and bring him back.
You're going to go as a shepherd.
You're going to lead him beside still waters.
You're going to restore their soul.
You're going to cause them to have all
the green pastures they need.
You're going to comfort them.
No wonder the Scripture said He called His
sheep by their own names.
He knew their names.
John 6, 37.
All that the Father had given me, they're
going to come to me.
And they shall come to me.
They that come to me, I will know
I was cast out.
Because I came down from heaven, not to
do my will, but the will of Him
that sent me.
The Father said, if you go from me,
if you cut this covenant with me to
go and seek my loss, here's a list
of what I'm going to require of you.
Here are the terms.
You're going to have to preach tidings, good
tidings to the meek.
You're going to bind up the broken hearted.
You're going to proclaim liberty to the captives.
You're going to open prison doors to those
that are bound.
You're going to bear with the weaknesses of
the frail.
You're not going to break any bruised reeds.
You're not going to quench any smoke flax.
But you're going to tenderly deal with ignorance.
You're going to supply all the shortcomings with
your strength.
You're going to feed the flock.
You'll gather the lambs.
You'll gently lead the young.
You'll give your strength to those who are
weak.
You'll guide them with your counsel.
And you will promise to send them the
Holy Spirit to take them on when you
leave.
You will cherish them.
You'll protect them.
And then you will bring them home to
glory with you.
Now God says, if you will do that,
my son, let me tell you what I
covenant to do with you.
And for you.
And these are all clearly revealed in the
Scripture.
Nothing is hidden.
The Father says to His Son, if you
will go, first of all, you will have
the Holy Spirit without measure.
And that's exactly what God did.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Jesus said.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure
unto Him.
God did not give the Spirit by measure.
He didn't get it in drips and dribbles.
He didn't get a drop of the Spirit
here and there.
Now you and I received the Holy Ghost
in measure.
But He said, if you'll go, I will
empower you with My Spirit.
You will have the Holy Spirit on you
every hour.
You will not go in your own strength.
You will go in the power and the
anointing of the Holy Ghost.
You remember the moment the dove came and
settled upon Him as My beloved Son.
The Holy Spirit was upon Him.
He did all His works through the power
of the Spirit, unlimited in the Spirit.
Secondly, if you go, you will never be
out of My sight.
My presence will be with you everywhere you
go.
I will be to Him a Father, and
He shall be to Me a Son.
Hebrew 1-5.
He said, I'm a Father to you.
And you know that not even an earthly
father that is an honest man would ever
give up on his son.
He would always be there to help him.
If he asked bread, he would not get
a stone.
If he asked fish, he would not get
a serpent.
I'll be a Father to you.
You'll be My Son.
Thirdly, I will lift you up in all
your times of opposition and discouragement.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
Caelius said, judgment in the earth.
God said, every time the enemy comes in
and you're discouraged, I will be there.
And by My Spirit, I will lift that
off of you.
And I will encourage you by My Spirit
every time you need it.
Then He said, I will highly honor you
and give you a name above all the
other names on earth, heaven or earth.
Wherefore, God hath highly exalted Him and given
Him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow.
And then He said, Son, after all of
this, and you have fulfilled all the terms
of the covenant on your part, I will
bring you back to glory in victory and
power and anointing.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter then into glory, the Scripture
says.
There it is.
It's all written.
It's all out there in black and white
for us to see.
Now Jesus gladly accepted the terms of His
Father's covenant.
He agreed to fulfill the demands and the
terms to become a sacrifice of His own
body.
Scripture said He made of Himself no reputation.
He took upon Himself the form of a
servant.
He was made in the likeness of man.
And Jesus Himself answering the Father, He said,
I was not rebellious, Father, neither turned away
My back.
I gave My back to the smiters.
I gave My cheeks to them that plucked
off My hair.
I hid not My face from shame and
all the spitting.
He said, they spat on Me.
I gave My back, but I knew this
was the term of the covenant.
And I was willing to fulfill it because
there's a plan.
I do this for a reason.
I know, Father, You're in love for Your
children.
You sent Me to save Your children.
You sent Me to keep Your children.
And I share that love because I share
the Spirit of Almighty God.
He was not doing this for His own
good.
It's for the seed.
For His children.
Now, think back of everything Jesus did.
Of every person He healed.
Of opening the prison doors of death and
raising people right out of the grave like
Lazarus.
All the miracles, all the healings, everything He
did, He was fulfilling the terms of the
covenant.
These were the things that God sent Him
to do.
He was not doing them on His own.
He said, Father, I'm doing exactly.
We agreed way back before the world was
created.
We agreed that I would do this.
I am doing it.
He went about doing good, which was keeping
the covenant.
He was keeping the terms of the everlasting
agreement.
The contract they made in eternity.
You say, I can't accept that, that this
covenant was made before time.
Listen to what the Scripture says.
In hope of eternal life, which God, who
cannot lie, promised before the world began.
And that word promised, that is covenanted.
He covenanted before the world began.
2 Timothy 1.9, according to His own
purpose and grace, which was given to us
in Christ Jesus before the world began.
The covenant being fulfilled in Christ Jesus before
the world began.
Hallelujah.
You see Jesus going after the last sheep,
taking His arm, bringing it back.
That's what the Father told Him He would
do in covenant.
He's just fulfilling the covenant.
Hallelujah.
And you see Him, all through His ministry,
appropriating the promises God made to Him.
Remember what Jesus said, and my God shall
be my strength.
I will put my trust in Him.
Hebrews 2.13, Jesus said, I put my
trust in Him.
He made a covenant with me and it's
settled, it's eternal.
My Father can't lie.
He's my strength.
I appropriate it.
So what's that have to do with you
and me?
It's all about the love of God for
His people and for the lost.
The covenant that was cut was because God
said He's not willing that any should perish.
Now you see, God gives His Son, and
the Son gives His life, and we get
all the benefits.
God said, I give you my Son.
The Son says, I give you my life.
And why?
That you and I may have all the
benefits.
By mutual consent, this covenant was made to
keep and preserve the seed of Christ, His
children.
I want you to see that in Psalms
89.
Are you still in Psalm 89?
Start with me at verse 26.
This is Jesus speaking to the Father.
I told you it's all in the Word.
It wasn't hidden.
This contact wasn't made in secret.
Verse 26, He shall cry unto me, Thou
art my Father, my God, and the rock
of my salvation.
And here's the Father saying, And I will
make Him my firstborn, higher than the kings
of the earth.
And the Father's speaking to His Son now.
My mercy will I keep for Him forevermore,
and my covenant shall stand fast with Him.
His seed.
Now who's the seed?
The spiritual Israel.
You and I are the seed.
Folks, get this.
Ask God to help you understand it.
This is for you and it's for me.
It is so glorious it's mind-boggling.
We can scarce conceive it.
His seed also will I make to endure
forever.
And His throne is the days of heaven.
And if His children forsake my law and
walk not in my judgments, if they break
my statutes and keep my commandments, I will
visit their transgression with rod and their iniquity
with stripes and send them to hell.
What's He going to do with His sinning
body?
His sinning children.
Those who transgress.
Those who grieve Him.
What is He going to do?
Read the next verse.
Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly
take from Him, nor suffer or allow my
faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break.
I will not alter the thing that's gone
out of my lips.
I will not lie to David, and to
David there is Christ.
I'll not lie to myself.
I made a covenant with my Son to
keep Him, and by faith you're in Him
and every promise I've made to my Son
is yours.
Hallelujah.
If you're in Christ by faith, you're His
seed.
The pledge the Father made to His Son
is, If you go, my Son, I'll be
faithful to you, and I'll be faithful to
all your children, your seed.
And I covenant with you, my Son, to
keep and preserve them just as I've kept
and preserved you.
My faithfulness that I've shown you, I will
show them.
I swear to cause your children to endure.
I will keep them from falling.
I cannot lie.
Remember what Jesus, remember the pledge the Father
made to His Son in Isaiah 42, 6.
Don't turn.
Let me read it to you.
I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness.
I will hold thy hand, I will keep
thee, and I will give thee for covenant
to the people and for the likes of
the Gentiles.
The Lord said to His Son, If you
go, there'll never be a time that my
hand is not in yours.
There'll never be a time that you're away
from my keeping power.
I will keep you from the power of
the devil, the power of the enemy.
I will keep you.
I will be faithful to this promise.
Faith in Christ brings us into this blessing
of the covenant, all these blessings of the
covenant.
The Bible said, For as the body is
one, and has many members, and all the
members of that body, of that one body,
being many, they're still one body, so is
Christ.
In other words, you look at me, I'm
one body, but I've got fingers.
I've got ten members right there.
I've got ten toes, ten members there.
I've got eyes, two members here.
I've got two members here.
All members of one body.
Folks, in Christ Jesus, though we be many,
we are one body.
One body.
One Israel.
Jesus was the one Jew.
And in this one Jew, he brought the
Gentiles, he brought all nationalities, everybody into himself.
And in eternity, he covenanted with the Father,
Father, you will deal with me as one
man.
I will bring all humanity to trust in
me to you, but we will be one
man.
Everything you promised me, I claim in covenant
for them.
He said, These are my terms.
My blood sanctifies, purifies, and wipes out all
the claims of the devil, now and forever.
In John 17, you find the greatest covenant
conversation.
God and the Father made, and it's amazing
that God allowed us to hear it and
share it.
Jesus is praying covenant to his Father.
In John 17, we hear the Lord's last
prayer before he leaves this earth.
He's already fulfilled all the terms of the
covenant now.
He's about to go to the cross.
And now he's taking on his mediatorship, and
the mediatorship of Christ has to do with
covenant.
He mediates the covenant to make sure that
Father's reminded that he has fulfilled all the
terms, and then to come and remind you
and me that we have every right to
come and lay hold of his covenant.
He mediates the covenant to us, as well
as interceding for our sins.
John 17, 1.
Go to John, would you please?
17th chapter.
This is all covenant.
You know what Jesus is doing?
He's going back into eternity.
And he's reminding the Father of that time
they cut the covenant.
It's amazing.
When the Holy Ghost didn't open this, I
just got up and walked around my house
weeping and rejoicing.
I said, oh God, I've carried such useless
burdens all these years.
I've carried such helpless guilt and fear and
condemnation.
Lord, I'm so ashamed of that.
God, help me to come into the covenant.
17, 1.
These words speak.
Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come.
Glorify thy son, that thy son may also
glorify thee.
Remember when the terms of the covenant, you
come and then I will bring you back
to glory?
I'll restore all the glory you had with
me before you left.
He's saying, now Father, I have completed all
the terms of the covenant.
I'm going to the cross and it'll be
finished.
The work will be done.
He said, I have glorified thee on the
earth.
Verse 4, look at verse 4 also.
I've glorified thee on the earth.
I've finished the covenant.
I've finished the work which thou gavest me
to do.
I've fulfilled all the terms.
It's all done.
Everything you asked me to do to bring
about the redemption of mankind and to bring
your body into one.
It's done.
I've finished it.
He's saying, Father, you pledged in the covenant
that we cut to bring me back to
glory when I've accomplished everything you sent me
to do.
And verse 5, and now, oh Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self and the
glory which I had with thee before the
world was.
He said, I am coming in to my
part of the deal.
You made a deal with me, Father.
You would bring me back to glory when
my terms were fulfilled.
They're fulfilled now, Father.
I've claimed the terms of the covenant.
Bring me back to glory.
Read it.
Now, Father, glorify me with thine own son
and the glory I had with you before
the world was.
Oh, glory to God.
Jesus stood up and claimed the covenant.
Why shouldn't we?
Jesus said to the Father, I'm coming home,
but now let's talk about what's going to
happen to those that I leave behind.
Let's talk about the covenant deal.
Let's talk about the contract that we made
for my seed that remains.
Hallelujah.
Verse 11, Now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world,
and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me that they may be one as
we are.
You know what he's saying?
I am bringing them now into the covenant.
The oneness has to do with being brought
into the covenant.
The Holy Ghost, the Father, Jesus, and you
and me.
He said, well, one now.
Father, I am bringing them into the covenant.
It's all fulfilled.
Everything is done.
And you made an agreement that you would
deal with my seed as you dealt with
me.
The same faithfulness that you gave to me,
you give to them.
Now, Father, I am bringing them all into
the covenant.
For I've given them the words which thou
gavest me.
They have received them and have known surely
that I came out from thee and believed
that thou didst send me.
I pray for them.
I pray not for the world, but for
them which thou hast given me, for they
are dying and mine are dying and they
are mine.
Thine are mine and I am glorified in
them.
Verse 11, And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the
world.
And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep
to thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one, even
as we are one.
While I was with them in the world,
I kept them in thy name.
Those that thou gavest me, I have kept
and none of them is lost but the
son of perdition.
Verse 13, And now come I to thee.
These things I speak in the world that
they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Verse 15, I pray not that you should
take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
That is the covenant cut between the father
and his son.
God says, I will keep you my son
if you go.
I will encourage you.
Now Jesus is saying, This I claim for
my seed.
You promised me that you would be faithful
to my seed, to all my children.
And now I claim, I come to the
covenant on behalf of all my seed, all
my children.
Keep them from the wicked one.
Sanctify them.
Keep them holy.
Keep them pure.
Cause them to endure as you caused me.
Well folks, do you understand that we are
now by faith under an everlasting oath by
a God who cannot tell a lie.
He cannot tell a lie.
He made an oath to his own son
and his own son now is holding the
father accountable to the covenant father.
My seed, my seed.
Before I go, my seed.
Secure them.
I kept them while I was here.
Now I'm leaving.
Now you're going to send the Holy Ghost.
Send the Holy Ghost.
Hallelujah.
Now here's the better part.
Verse 23.
That the world may know that thou hast
sent me and has loved them.
How?
As thou hast loved me.
Now listen folks.
If that doesn't get into your heart and
bring peace and joy like you've never known.
You know what he's saying?
Because of the covenant father, this was what
we agreed with from eternity.
That when I'm gone and I've fulfilled all
the terms of the contract, I know how
you loved me.
You were God to me and I was
your son.
Now I want the whole world to know
that you loved them as much as you
loved me.
Just as much.
Do you understand that God loves you by
covenant right now as much as he loves
his own son Jesus because you were in
Christ?
He loves the body.
We are in the body of Christ.
He loves you just as much as he
loves his own son.
Think of it.
Try to comprehend.
Are you loved next time the devil tells
you that you're not going to make it?
You're going to be a cast away?
That you have sinned too much and you've
gone too far and you can never get
back and that you're unclean and you're unholy
and you're no good and all these lies
from the accusations of the devil, you stand
up and you lay hold of the covenant
so I'm under a contract with my heavenly
Father.
Jesus co-signed it with his own blood.
Oh yeah, he'll chasten me.
He'll spank me when I need it.
Oh yes, instill the wages of sin or
death.
Oh yeah, you go out and fool around
and you can get aged and you can
die.
But he said my faithfulness will be when
you keep reaching out to me and you
trust in me confess your sins and repent.
I'll be faithful to you because I've made
a deal.
I've made a covenant.
Think of it.
To walk around the sin-cursed world and
say I know how much he loves his
son but he loves me the same.
He loves me as he loves his...
That's what Jesus said.
It's in your Bibles.
I don't have a special one here.
Look at verse 23.
Read it out loud, verse 23.
I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in love and
that the world may know that thou hast
sent me and hast loved them as thou
hast loved me.
There's even something even better.
If it could ever get any better.
This is verse 24.
It's all the covenant.
Father, I will.
You know what he's doing?
This is the will of the Son.
It was the will, his will when he
cut covenant with the Father.
He said, Father, as sure as you're bringing
me to glory you're going to covenant with
me that you'll bring my seed to glory
also.
It's there.
Read it.
Verse 24.
Why don't you read it out loud with
me too?
Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I
am that they may behold my glory which
thou hast given me for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world.
Look at this.
Now he's saying, My will.
It is my will, Father, that you bring
them to glory.
Hallelujah.
Folks, you're going to glory.
Are you in Christ?
By faith?
Do you understand that that's all God's been
looking for all the time?
He's not been looking for somebody trying to
figure him out.
He's not trying to find people to get
it theologically straight.
He's always been looking for heart confidence in
him and heart love out of the abundance
of the heart to love him and trust
him.
And he cut this covenant so that there
could be no questions.
He's trying to remove every question.
It's just that if God's saying, I'm going
to treat you as though you had no
faith, you had no confidence that you didn't
even believe a thing in me.
I'm going to make it so clear.
I'm going to make such a strong oath
and such a powerful covenant that you have
to believe it.
That you can't escape the simplicity and the
love of your Heavenly Father.
Folks, there's a problem with that.
And this I close.
The majority of us have never come to
grips with the fact that all these things,
the cross, the suffering, and all that the
Father has done, all the covenant, everything, was
done because in spite...
He did all this for us when we
were at enmity with Him.
He did all this when we were sinners.
He made these provisions.
Now that you're His, now that you belong
to Him, why will you not trust Him?
Folks, by grace, I'm going to lay hold
of the covenant.
And every time the enemy comes at me
with an accusation, with a lie, and says,
Devil, Jesus made a covenant with my father,
and my father made a covenant with my
Christ, that as long as I believe in
Him with all my heart, as long as
I'm in love with Him, as long as
He is my Lord and I'm under His
Lordship, no way, Devil, you can touch me.
Oh, you can harass me, but you can't
claim my soul.
You may abuse my body, but you can't
touch my salvation.
I am secure in the Lord.
And I'm on my way to glory.
I'm coming home to glory.
Let's stand.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I want everybody who loves Jesus just to
raise your hands and thank Him for this
work that He has done.
Lord, we thank You.
Father, we thank You.
Jesus, we thank You for the covenant.
We thank You for this promise, everlasting, unbreakable,
unchangeable.
It's eternal, Lord.
It cannot be broken.
Glory be to God.
Glory to God.
Could you just quietly now, in your own
way, thank God for His love for you?
I don't care where you're at.
I don't care what has happened.
I don't care how discouraged you are.
I don't care what kind of temptation that
you've been through or anything else.
I'm telling you now, you've got to be
convinced no matter what I'm going through, no
matter what my battle is, I am loved.
I am loved.
That's where you start.
Once you know that you are secure in
His love, once you know that God has
pledged to keep you from falling, once you
know that, then this great...
there should be such a response of love.
He said, if you love Me, you'll keep
My commandments.
You'll keep My commandments.
Under the old covenant, it was obey or
else.
And it failed to bring a people to
God.
He said, I'm going to make a covenant
of love.
It's all of love.
It doesn't matter to you.
So, Brother Wilson, if you only knew what's
in my heart.
He made this covenant when you were a
devil, fool of hell, a rebel.
And then made it with Him.
He sent Christ.
He was always reconciled to you and me.
He sent Christ to reconcile us to Him.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Him.
He wants to heal so many hearts here
tonight.
You need healing because you've been trying so
hard, so hard to love Him.
And you fall so short.
He said, My love just doesn't make it
because I think I serve Him out of
love and then something happens and I blow
up.
I lose my temper.
I do crazy things.
Yes, we're His children and some of us
are spoiled.
I think all of us are spoiled.
We think the wrong thoughts.
We say the wrong words.
But He said, I'll tell you what, you
let My Holy Spirit work in you and
we'll get to all that.
It might be painful, but we're going to
get to it.
God says, I have secured you that I
may sanctify you.
But until you know, that you know that
you know, My Father loves me.
He's not mad at me.
Will you get out of your seat if
God's dealing with you?
If you've been carrying a heavy burden, say,
Oh, I can't seem to shake away the
fact that I have failed God.
Now, if you have sinned in your life,
you're living in open, flaunted sin, bring it
to Jesus right now.
Repent and say, Lord, I'm sorry.
I come to you by faith now.
I come to the covenant.
I come to the blood cleansing, the sprinkling
of blood.
Jesus will wash it all away and bring
you right into the covenant.
Hallelujah.
Up on the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side.
If something was said that was meant for
you tonight, you're carrying a burden of sin
or fear or guilt or condemnation.
Bring it to this altar tonight and lay
it down and say, Jesus, by faith, I
come into your covenant right now.
I come into your covenant.
Jesus, you are my covenant.
You're my covenant partner.
And I believe you and I trust you.
Come and bring your hurting heart.
Bring your hurt.
Upstairs, go to the stairs on either side
and come down any aisle.
I'll pray with you and let's believe the
Lord for healing tonight.
Bring it to Him.
It's by faith alone.
Nothing else.
Not by works.
Not by any good thing.
Not by your promises.
By faith.
And without faith, it's impossible to please Him.
They that come to Him must believe that
He is and He's a rewarder.
And that reward is the covenant promises.
The covenant promises of God is keeping, saving,
healing power.
Glory to God.
Let faith arise in your heart.
We come to Him by faith right now.
Pray in faith these words with me right
now.
All who come forward, Jesus, I thank You
for Your Word.
I thank You for Your promises.
And I come to You now in my
weakness, my frailty, my helplessness.
And I turn to You, Jesus, as the
mediator of the covenant.
I claim by simple faith the covenant of
the Lord Jesus, its security, its forgiveness, and
its power.
Lord Jesus, now, I turn away from my
own strength, from my own ideas, and I
surrender now completely in confidence, in faith, in
the faithfulness of God to keep His promise
to me.
Father, as sure as You kept Your promise
to Jesus, You're going to keep it to
me.
You made an oath, You made a promise,
and I stand on that now.
Hallelujah.
Give Him thanks.
Hallelujah.
Praise You, Jesus.
I give You thanks.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now, Father, I pray for those that are
standing here that may not understand.
Lord, let there be a beam of light
break through.
Let something that was said tonight bring hope.
Lord, if it was just one sentence, or
one paragraph, just one thing that was said
tonight that opened up a ray of hope
and strength to show Your love into the
hearts of those who feel unloved, those, O
Lord, going through great struggles with guilt and
with fear, afraid that all the time You
may cut them off, living in fear that
they may fall, Lord, take that fear away.
You said, I'm going to be faithful to
You.
I'm going to stand by You.
I'm going to keep You by my grace.
And all I ask is that You come
to me.
Keep coming to me.
Love me and trust me with all Your
heart.
Trust me with your sins.
Trust me for power over your sins through
the Holy Ghost.
And according to your faith, I'll reward you.
As your faith is given to me, you
will please me.
You're not pleasing me by your struggles.
You're not pleasing me by trying so hard.
You please me by surrendering to my will,
to my promises.
I promise to keep you, the Lord says.
I promise to keep you.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.