 right good morning everyone welcome to a new week and before we begin let's say what a prayer Sid would you like to pray yes pastor go ahead father we come to the throne of grace Lord thank you for today is the new day you have been a slot Lord as we are going to learn about your covenant Lord your blood Lord about your cross Lord Lord whatever the sacrifice you have done for us a lot Lord it will not go in with Lord Lord we promise that we will bring thousands of souls in your in your presence or Lord Lord give us your your fear your knowledge Lord so that we can understand whatever is being taught by the pastor Lord Lord whatever the teaching we are getting Lord not it should not go in with but it should be used for the expansion of your kingdom Lord thank you for this opportunity that you have given us through a PC Bible college to learn you're about your word Lord in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you so much Sid all right so last week we completed chapter 4 let's just do a quick review I know there was a lot of material that was covered from the beginning of this course so chapter 1 we looked at God is a God who makes covenants right he is a God who has made a covenant with Abraham and then he has made a covenant with us so God is not just somebody up there in heaven and we are here on earth we are living our life and he's up there no God is a God of relationship and so we saw that in chapter 1 that he made a covenant with Abraham he made a covenant with Moses and then through the Lord Jesus Christ was another blood covenant and so God the reason for these covenants is because God wants to have a relationship with us right it's not like okay these are the set of rules you have to obey it and only then you know you're in the covenant no God being a holy God being a just God being a righteous God is a God who expects us to walk in that same manner and so that's why God you know set certain covenants for us then we looked at covenant names which was powerful Jehovah Rafa Jehovah Shammah Jehovah Sid Kedel Jehovah Rui El Shaddai El Adonai and so we saw that God was making a covenant not just on who he is but also the nature of his of who he is right of who God is we saw all through the Old Testament and even now those covenant names stands right you and I being in the covenant in the new covenant we cannot say okay you know Jehovah Shalom and Jehovah Rafa Jehovah Shammah they're all for the old covenant we can't say that because they still hold fast they still hold fast thousands of years back they still hold true now and they will hold true till the end of time right so as people of the covenant you and I can stand on God's covenant and say God this is what you have promised and so I stand on this covenant like for example we looked at you know when we studied about the names of gods and the nature of who he is for example somebody's unwell what we can do we stand on his covenant what is his covenant God you are the Jehovah Rafa the God who heals me and so we're standing not on what we are we are saying we're standing on what what God has spoken and about his nature we are standing on that right and so his covenant is true so we looked at the wonderful wonderful promises the wonderful nature and the names of God that you and I have that we can declare in chapter three we looked at you know the the blood covenant understanding how wonderfully God established this blood covenant first he told Abraham Abraham I have made you the father of many nations right and this is powerful we looked at that example of how God called Abraham out of nowhere he said Abraham I've made you the father of many nations now the choice of words is so powerful God is not saying I will make you I am going to make you or you will be no I have made you already a past tense and what does God do after he says that he backs up that covenant with his own word he says I am the mediator to that covenant right so when he's probably Abraham was thinking God how can I be a father to many nations when I myself I'm not a father in my house but God was reminding Abraham and saying Abraham I am a God who will make covenants and I am the mediator to my own covenant so you will not get a better mediator than me itself so what I'm saying I myself am standing to it and so he backed that up he said I will make this covenant and this your name I will change your identity I will take you change your location meaning I'll take you to a place which you don't know which you haven't heard about and and then he also made a blood covenant he made Abraham cut the an animal put it on the offering and we see that in Genesis God himself walks in between the offering pouring blood on the offering signifying and telling Abraham this is my promise on my own blood I'm saying this that coming going forward your generation will be like the stars of heaven what a powerful covenant then he made another blood covenant with Moses said Moses I'm going to make a blood covenant with you I promised Abraham that your nation the nation of Israel will will be a blessed nation I promised Abraham that his the generation will go on and on and on and I'm since I made a blood covenant there I'm making another blood covenant with you Moses and he says to Moses cut the offering sprinkle the blood and that will be a blood covenant we see God made two covenants there two blood covenants what is the significance last week we studied about the significance of a blood covenant the blood covenant is is life for life right I must be willing to give my life to the other person the other person must be willing to give their life for me if it's not only life but also material needs and everything that they have I must be willing to give it to the other person because he is in blood covenant with me so when we look at all of this and you look at the cross it makes you know the the the two make so much sense when you bring it together you see the Lord Jesus gave all of himself right he gave on his own free will the Lord Jesus gave himself as a blood covenant and no more is there a need for the Old Testament sacrifices and all those rituals not required remember that the Old Covenant the blood that was smeared with the high priest took that blood was only an atonement or a covering for sins but here the Lord Jesus the blood covenant he made was the washing away the cleansing of sins and so when we study the Old Testament and when we dig deep and study about the tabernacles and the outer court the courtyard the inner court the most holy place and how sacrifices were made all of them signify or point to the Lord Jesus Christ and also yesterday we saw last last week sorry last week we saw that we are people of the covenant and as people of the covenant God has made a distinction right so for example when the Lord when God looks at us he says okay this boy this child is a child of the covenant remember the Lord Jesus in his ministry the woman with a bent back what did what did Jesus say to her how can this woman being part of the covenant continue to be suppressed and oppressed by the enemy right remember Jesus did that he said how can this woman with you know being part of the covenant be oppressed and you know by the enemy and the Lord Jesus brings healing so God draws a distinction between those who are in the covenant and those who are not in the covenant right does it mean that God is showing partiality no right when right when we look through the Old Testament God chose Israel but then there were other nations the Amorites the Moabites the Kizites and there are different nations there but God chose Israel and when we are part of the covenant he draws a distinction now the distinction has blessings but if we do not obey those blessings we saw last week that we will turn it will turn into curses right and Deuteronomy 28 you know the writer writes and he says Moses writes and he's reminding the people God has given us covenants God has given us promises now if you don't obey it there will be challenges there will be oppression there will be sickness there will be diseases there will be death but when you obey it you will see the blessings of God flow into your lives into your families and so Deuteronomy 29 pictures that whole you know paints a good picture on keeping covenant promises the Lord Jesus has called us as His covenant as a special people and we are overtaken by blessings and as covenant people we don't look at the situations ahead of us in fear and remember we looked at the example of David last week entire army of Israel are fearful they are wondering what do we do this man Goliath is standing in front of us is you know oppressing us he's tormenting us he's saying we he's going to destroy us and that David comes into the scene and what what happens David says how can this uncircumcised Jew when he says uncircumcised he what he meant was he is he's not in the covenant how can this person Goliath an uncircumcised man come against the god of Israel the god who made a covenant with us how can this man he's uncircumcised he's not even in the covenant come against the people of gods you know in the covenant and so when David saw Goliath he didn't look at okay Goliath is you know 10 feet or 12 feet and he's got all these things when David saw Goliath David saw himself first as part of the covenant of God and two when he saw Goliath he saw him as he's not part of the covenant and he is going against not me but he's going against God and that was where even before he stepped in to go and fight against Goliath he had already won it in his mind right so as people of the covenant when we are walking you know our life we will see troubles we will see challenges but the moment we think about this and say God we are part of your covenant I am part of what you did for me the blood that was shed on the cross was for me you defeated the enemy for me I'm part of that covenant we look at ourselves that way we will be able to you know face the enemy Paul writes it so beautifully he says fight the good fight of faith which means what it's not going to be easy you know just because we are Christians part of the covenant doesn't mean that things are going to be easy we got to fight the good fight right as part of the covenant so we we stopped here in chapter 4 we'll get into chapter 5 before we do that any questions any thoughts that you would like to share any questions on the covenants till now whatever we've studied the questions any thoughts is everyone able to you know track along are you able to understand and is it making you know are you able to relate these covenants to the cross and to what Jesus is okay great another thing last week I think it was Zillatoli who asked about the salt of the salt covenant there are two ways to say it one is the salt covenant and the salt of the covenant so yes Zillatoli there is more we can study more about it later on because there are a lot of things you know God tells them you know some offerings you put salt so salt is a preservative and it has different flavors and all kinds of things so we will study more on the salt of the covenant but what I can do is I have I did listen to a couple of videos I'll just put the link here so you can listen to this it just talks about the salt of the covenant and what God tells the people of Israel you know there are some offerings he says put the salt only on these kind of offerings and there's the unleavened bread put the salt so we'll study more on that going further on as well so in the meanwhile you can watch this video it's just an audio so you'll get a better idea on what the salt covenant is and all right let's move to chapter 5 my covenant in your mouth my covenant in your mouth let's read Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 11 to 14 yes could one of us please read that I'm on page sorry let's check that I'm on page 27 Deuteronomy 30 11 to 14 Deuteronomy 30 verses 11 for this commandment which I command you today is too mysterious for you nor it is far off it is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend into the heavens for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it nor is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it but the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it amen thank you Sid so now the book of Deuteronomy the word Deuton I'm sure you know this the word Deuto is a reminder now what happened was the people of Israel have gone round that mountain on and on and on and now the next generation right don't know what is happening why are they even there you know the first generation have seen the miracles they've seen the wonderful work that the Lord has done just the next generation don't know what's happening and so God instructs Moses you write a reminder Deuto which means a second time write it and remind the people of Israel what I did for them how with my mighty hand I brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and the wonderful miracle so the whole book of Deuteronomy is a reminder and so here he's reminding for this command which I command you today is not too mysterious for you nor is it far off right now when when we use the word command it's also you know synonym for covenant right this this command or this covenant which I am giving you today it's not very far off it's not mysterious right it's not up in the heaven where you should go search for it or not beyond the seas where you can go where you have to go and bring it to you but what is this covenant verse 14 is powerful but the word is very near you it is in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it right so he's reminding Moses is reminding the people that the covenant is not some some special writing on tablets alone it's not just those 10 commandments which I you know brought down from the mountain and then we put it into the tabernacle it's not only that it's not the physical only but the word is very near you it is in your mouth and it is in your heart I'm sure we've you know heard about this verse proverbs 18 21 life and death are in the power of your tongue and those who eat it will live off its fruit right so that's powerful what we speak is what we will become the more we speak the words of God the more the more we declare God's promises upon our lives the more we'll be inclined to fulfill God's promises the more we say negative or we talk about things that you know are causing death and destruction and we talk wrong things that are not in line with the word of God we will eat off its fruit right and and so it's very important as believers that we understand the power of words life and death are in the power of our tongue now you know growing up sometimes we know as young people we we say things and we don't really mean it but we have said it and we realize hey I shouldn't have said that here's the thing as we continue to mature in Christ we as believers need to know how to you know control and use our words in the right manner because life and death are in the power of your tongue and here Moses is reminding the people don't go looking go and go running to the tabernacle alone don't go here looking here and there for promises the promise the covenant is near you it is in your mouth it is in your heart all you have to do is speak it all you have to do is declare it all you have to do is to believe it right and and even Luke chapter 6 6 was 45 could one of us please read that Luke 6 45 it's not in your notes but it's just additional Luke 6 45 the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil for his mouth speaks from what which from that which fills his heart yeah thanks John so we see here the man speaks of what fills his heart and some other versions say out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks right so what we have in store so basically you know Moses is trying to tell the people what you have inside you is what you will speak right if there's hatred jealousy anger we will speak words of that itself coming out of a mouth if there's love joy peace patience we will speak words of fruitfulness words of life not only if to ourselves but also to the people around us so God is saying here my covenant is in your mouth you decide right you have to decide there's you know it's not a decision that I have to take but God is saying I've made the covenant you take the decision are you going to choose life or death right and so as believers very important you know sometimes we may know a lot about the Bible knowledge but to apply that in our lives you know we may fail we must not we must say God your word is in my heart your word is in my mouth and every time I speak it I want to declare your word I want to declare your promises you know sometimes when we are praying God may give you some certain visions or dreams or prophetic words don't push it aside and say I don't think this is God it may look like something too big to understand say God if I receive what you have for me out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks right so he's telling the the Israelites listen to what you speak think about what you speak you know the covenant the promise is near you it is in you it's in your heart now if it's not in your heart we need to repair that we need to make sure that all the evil all the things that are not of God are removed from our heart and our heart is filled with the word of God Psalms 50 14 to 17 let's read that as well Psalms 50 14 to 17 go ahead anyone Psalms 50 verses 14 offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver you and you shall glorify me but to the wicked God says what right have you to declare my status or take my covenant in your mouth seeing you hate instructions and cast my words behind you yeah up to 17 thanks you know right so here this is a wonderful verse Psalms 50 14 onwards now a lot of times we have you know said this I myself have said this you know call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver you and you shall be you shall glorify me these are wonderful promises but what is important is to also look at the previous verse offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high so what does he say here before you call upon me in the day of trouble offer to God thanksgiving what is thanksgiving offer to God words of praise words of giving him glory God I don't understand why this trouble is coming ahead of me but I thank you that you are in in control I thank you that you are you know you have called me to be part of your covenant so it's not only Psalms 50 15 which we keep saying call upon me the day of trouble I will deliver you but before that offer God thanksgiving let our words say God these challenges I see ahead of me looks like an impossible situation looks like trouble looks like challenges but Lord I'm going to trust in you because I am part of your covenant I'm going to speak words that will only bring a good change to the situation I will speak words of life to the situation and then after giving thanks when we call upon him on the day of trouble he will deliver us that's what even Daniel did remember Daniel is taken now he's he's well advanced in Babylon he's serving under the Persian king now and what happened he said if you you know worship any other God we'll throw you into the lion's den but what did Daniel do he offered thanksgiving to God and he was normal he called upon God on the day of trouble and God delivered him but how can we give thanks when I know that I'm going into the lion's den he fulfilled this he said give thanks and then God will deliver me in the times of trouble so taking God's word in your mouth is taking God's covenant in your mouth can you picture that it's it's so strong it's so powerful when you and I take God's word in our mouth it's like we're standing on God's promises on God's covenant and that is powerful right next one he says choose life and death or sorry life and blessings or death and cursing Deuteronomy 30 let's read that Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have said before you life and death and blessing and the curse so choose life in order that you may live you and your descendants by loving the Lord your God by obeying his voice and by holding past to him for this is your life and length of your days that you may live in the land which the Lord spoke to your fathers to Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give them thank you John so Deuteronomy 30 19 this is wonderful he's saying here I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you that I said before you life and death blessings and curses therefore you choose life right so God has made this covenant of course he we did study about that and he's saying you have the choice you and I have the choice to choose whether we want life or death it reminds me of in the book of Joshua Joshua chapter 24 I think it's just yes Joshua 24 the people of Moses is dead and he's gone Joshua has brought the people out he's entered the promised land he calls all the rulers all the leaders the priests the judges he calls everyone the leaders of the tribes of the 12 tribes and he makes everyone stand and he says this powerful thing he repeats history to them he says okay people you are all the leaders you're all overseeing the people of the Jews and now here's what happened we were in bondage Joshua 24 he gives that whole you know it was like a whole lecture that he gives he says Josh you know you were in bondage God chose Moses brought you out in his powerful hand we came into the wilderness we saw the wonderful miracles that God did and then we saw the enemies being destroyed ahead of us and then we came in we saw the walls come crumbling down and and now we're here we've entered the promised land and then he says Joshua 24 15 choose this day whom you are going to serve earlier on even in the desert you were choosing to serve the god of Baal the god of Egypt the god of the Amorites the god of the Canaanites and all these idols you you are willing to worship them now God has fulfilled his side of the covenant he's brought us into the promised land now you choose this day whom you're going to serve are you going to serve the god of Egypt the god of Amorites the god of the Canaanites or are you going to serve the Lord God of Israel so Joshua saying you choose choose this day whom you are going to serve and he backs that up by saying but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord our God so Joshua is giving them strict instructions and he said you choose if you go on they all said no we will choose the god of Israel God is a true God but few going further on from Joshua goes on after Joshua passes away the judges come they again fall back into sin they again go into worship of Baals and idols so here Joshua is giving them a choice he's like you choose you you got the god of Baal you got the god of Egypt you got the god of Amorites if you want to go there and worship them go ahead nobody's going to stop you but if you want to choose the god of Israel this is what you will have this is the promised land so you choose if you want to go you can go back but if you choose to you know worship the god of Israel you can come enter into the promised land the choice is ours even now in the new covenant when the Lord Jesus you know when we see the ministry of our Lord Jesus he gave the choice to the people he didn't force he didn't force them when he called Peter and when he called Andrew he said come follow me he gave the choice to them he called Matthew he said come follow me Matthew he gave the choice to them God is not a god who will pressurize us he says I'm giving you the choice even now but if we turn away from God right God yes his Holy Spirit will you know convict us he will remind us he will stop us but you know why is it that we hear of so many Christians and strong believers even so that pastors and ministers of God serving in the ministry for many years have turned their back against God because it's a choice and God doesn't stop them it's a choice right and and so God is selling us in Deuteronomy 30 you choose there's life there's death there's blessings there's curses choose this day whom you're going to serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord right so that is that should be our response even as we look ahead even as we you know look at life even in this you know century that we are in now the gods maybe not idols or what we see around you know but anything that takes the place of God takes God's priority becomes an idol right minded of this young man who's part of our church and telling me I am just so addicted to this these games on the phone so he cannot stay without his phone he's if you give him a phone this is what he was sharing with me you give me a phone I don't I don't want anybody I don't need anybody phone and internet that's all he needs so he was telling me I would ask him hey why didn't you come to church he said no I want to come but this is a challenge and he was sharing with me and I remember sharing this with him I said see you know the Lord you know that you accepted the Lord Jesus you know everything I don't have to share the gospel with you but here's what God told Joshua in the Old Testament he said you got to choose this day whom you're going to serve it is about your life as a pastor as a leader I can just tell you what is right and what is wrong but it's your choice he's just 22 years old he's got his exams coming he hasn't even you know he doesn't even he hasn't even gone to college and he's going through a tough time the parents are worried and so it's important that we you know turn away from these idols of the world what the world is offering what the enemy tries to you know steal the time that we have we are to speak life we are to speak blessings we are to speak out of the abundance of our heart now for example if we are all the time right watching TV or you know doing things that are not beneficial for us nothing wrong and watching TV but what I'm trying to say is if we are always focused on that on you know on things that are you know not beneficial for us what will happen all of that fills into us and it fills into our heart and then out of the abundance of that our mouth will speak you know if you've got I was just reading a couple of weeks back a very sad story a young man this happened in the west their parents were good believers are good believers and you know he had a good upbringing but this young boy this happened about a couple of months ago in the west and I read that article I just thought how the enemy can you know take us away from the covenant the blessings of God this young man was you know it was a birthday gift he got a playstation and he began to just play games and slowly it just you know increased and increased and he would always play games the parents are worried they took away that somehow he would save money he would get his friends a playstation and he would play and what would he play he would only play these games which involved you know shooting and killing and bloodshed and murdering and all these kind of games and so he was playing that for months and months for hours continually then a thought came to his mind and he was also sharing in this article a thought came to his mind that he wanted to see blood right so he wanted to so he would cut himself he would see blood he was excited but that that feeling got more and more that urge to see death and blood was so much increasing in him the thought came I want to kill somebody and what happened was the thought was so strong in him he went one day he went to his parents bedroom and he killed his parents and he saw the blood he saw death and he was satisfied good believer and what happened because of the abundance of what they what he saw and what he took into his heart and into his mind over and over and over again he killed his parents he's sitting there he calls the police and he says I killed my parents and he doesn't even know what to say he's saying he said I don't know because of these games I wanted to see blood I wanted to see death and it was it's a very sad story and he's a believer God says choose this day whom you're going to serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord some questions that we can ask ourselves even as we are studying this is Lord who am I serving I know I'm serving I'm reading your word am I reading your word am I praying am I spending time in your presence what am I filling into my mind and my spirit other other things that are fruitful for the kingdom of God you know a lot of students in our church they come and ask me pastor is it okay to listen to you know secular songs they they're not bad they don't have any bad words they don't secular songs the answer was it's not bad but it's not good also it's not bad but does it you know bring fruit in your life does it bring you closer to Jesus it's okay to play games it's okay you can play but does it bring you closer to Jesus right now we're not trying to be legalistic here I don't know you have to do this dog have as a choice have control over things that you do set priorities set examples right so in your own life for your family for your children set certain examples you know some of the things we do is you know my children they play they take your phone they play video games and all of it but I time them I say okay only 15 minutes only half an hour after half an hour they know they gotta give it back and then when we sit for prayer we tell them what is the importance of prayer we tell them what is the importance of worship and what do these video games do how does it affect you and we just share it with them we don't force it into them so there are times my little boy comes and says I don't feel like playing today I don't feel playing video games it's good because during the prayer time we just sit and share we fill in their hearts we put in their hearts at a young age what is important you know I keep sharing with my children you know I used to like to play guitar when I was small you know why don't you play drums so get them interested in other things right you fill in their heart what do you put in their heart is what they will do when they grow up same thing in our lives you fill in their heart fill your heart with the word of God with the promises of God that's what will come out of our bonds right okay any questions any thoughts any questions everything okay am I going too fast is is everything all right okay all right we'll take a break and we'll come back and we'll start with chapter 6 right now we're on chapter 5 we've completed chapter 5 we'll start with chapter 6 after the break so we'll take a 15 minute break we'll come back at 11 o'clock and we'll start with chapter 6 thank you