 Good morning everyone. How are you all doing? Welcome to our students online as well. Hope you all had a good time, good break. Yes, welcome to spring 2023. The course that I'll be doing this semester is the covenants, the cross and the blood. And we're going to be talking about three important sections. Section one will be about covenants. Now God is a covenant maker. Section two, we'll talk about the cross and what did Jesus do through the cross and how you and I as believers can walk victoriously. And section three will be about the blood of Jesus Christ. It's going to be an interesting study. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer so maybe any one of us can pray. Go ahead, anyone here, anyone online as well, feel free to pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, Shukumar says, can you hear me now, Shukumar? Apologize for my voice. I had a recording yesterday so I streamed my voice. Is my voice okay? Is it coming through? Okay, everyone have your notes. You have the soft copy. No soft copy also. Can you go to the stream and download it? Each one of you is available on the stream. So even the online students just go to the stream and you can download the notes. But here the students who are here, if you want hard copies, just let them print it for you. Okay, shall we begin? Yes or no? If I'm too low, just let me know. Okay, I'll try my best to speak a little bit louder. Okay, so we're talking about covenants. I'm sure all of us have heard this word covenant. We've heard it especially in the Old Testament and then here and there in the New Testament. What does it mean to be? What is a covenant? A covenant is simply two or three people coming in agreement with one another. And when you look at it in the natural terms, there are a lot of places where there are covenants. If you look at a rental agreement, a business contract, it's a covenant between two parties. Yes or no? It's a covenant between two parties and once that covenant is over or once the agreement is over, the relationship is over. How many of you are going to stay in a rented house? You move out of the rented house. It's very unlikely that throughout that year you're going to call up the owner and say, hey, how are you doing? How are things in your life? Is that going to happen? Very unlikely. You move on in life. So in the natural terms, there are covenants, but those covenants are not based on relationships. There's no relationship built, but in a godly covenant, when God makes a covenant, the reason he makes that covenant is because he wants to build a relationship. It's not that God is saying, okay, I'm going to set rules. These are 20 rules. Only if you follow these rules, you're in covenant with me. No. God's covenant with us is because he loves us. Nothing more. Nothing that we have to do. Nothing that we are signing there. It's all done by God and he calls us to be in part of that covenant. So how does being in covenant with God affect our life? So what God made a covenant, so what should I do about it? How does it affect our life? How does it impact our daily lives? So we're going to talk about all of this. How do we walk in covenant with God in our everyday life? So God has put a covenant. He's called us to be in relationship. But how do we walk in that covenant? Can we see the covenant? Is that a paper which we are signing and God is signing? But how do you and I walk in the covenant? So we're going to talk about all of these things. And a biblical understanding of a covenant is purely relational. Like I was saying, it's not about, you know, God is saying, okay, once you sin or once you do something wrong, I'm going to break the covenant. God is not such a God, right? Look at Abraham. When he made the covenant, he said, Abraham, I'm going to make you a father to many nations, right? Now, in between, did Abraham do something wrong? Yes. But did God say, Hey, Abraham, what is this? I mean, the covenant with you. I told you, no, I will give you your son. Why were you in a hurry? So now we'll break the covenant. I'll choose somebody else. Does he say that? He doesn't, right? The purpose of the covenant is to establish a relationship, but not just an ordinary relationship, right? It's a covenant of life. It's an unbreakable covenant of love. It's a covenant that was, we also talk about the blood covenant. It was life for life. Blood. When we look at the Old Testament, blood refers to what? Life. That is why in the offerings, they would cut the lamb and the blood was offered in the Holy, in the Holy of Holies, right? So it's a blood bond, a commitment of love, trust, loyalty, friendship. Now, the most, you know, the most beautiful part is God has called us into that covenant. So everything that we're reading here, love, trust, loyalty, loyalty, accountability, sharing, all these things we have with God and God has with us, right? Can you think, right? Why? Because it's part of the covenant, right? So you and I, for example, you know, we can, when we wake up in the morning, we're praying, we know that even though we may have sinned, we are asking forgiveness and we know that God loves us, right? Why? Because of the covenant. But there's also accountability. So every time we go to God, we're praying and the Holy Spirit may remind us of us, probably a sin that we have committed or committing as accountability. So the covenant calls where the Holy Spirit says, ask for forgiveness, right? Get rid of this in your life. So it's based on a beautiful covenant, right? So feel free to stop me if you have any questions, online students as well. Thank you. Please feel free to stop me. If you have any questions, you can either unmute or you can post your questions on the chat. Right. So section one, understanding a covenant, right? Now, our God is a God of covenant, right? So by nature, one of his, his attribute is to be in covenant, right? He's not a God who, you know, works arbitrarily. The word arbitrarily means randomly, right? God doesn't wake up one morning and says, okay, I'll be your friend today. Let's see how you behave or let's see how your character and your attitude is. Let's see if you're able to read the word or if you're able to pray. Only then I will see what I'll do next. Now, by nature, right? God is a covenant keeping God. Look at Genesis in the early chapter. What did he say? My seed will crush the head of the serpent, right? And his, his heel will bruise him. Now, did God keep that covenant? He did, right? He waited about 4,000 years, but he kept the covenant. Let's read Deuteronomy chapter seven and verse nine. Yes, any one of us can read it. Deuteronomy chapter seven. Thank you. So therefore, now this is written in the book of Deuteronomy, where Deuteronomy means a reminder. So Deuteronomy means second time. So here are second. Yeah. Deuteronomy means a second time. So if you read Deuteronomy, the whole book is a reminder of what happened in Exodus, right? So he's here reminding, therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and mercy for a thousand generations. So one generation after another, thousands of generations, he will keep his covenant, right? Let's read Psalms 89 and verse 34. Hey, man, such a powerful verse, right? My God is saying this, my covenant, I will not break. How many of you have broken promises? I have many, many, many, many promises, especially when it's New Year's, we make a lot of resolutions, right? And many at times, by the time it's February, that resolution has gone out of the window, right? My God is not so. He is a God who keeps his covenant. He says, I will not break, nor will I alter the words that kind of come out of my mouth. I will not change it. It's not like God is changing his attitude or his character. He's saying, this is who I am. Whether you worship me, whether you don't worship me, I am God. Whether you are healed or you're not healed, I am Jehovah Rafa, right? Whether you receive or don't receive, I am the Jehovah, the provider, right? Why? Because he's that covenant keeper, right? The word covenant refers to a serious binding agreement between two parties, right? It's a solemn promise, an unbreakable promise of commitment and agreement, right? So, let's look at this. Now, we know in the Bible, there are two covenants, right? One is the old covenant, one is the new covenant, right? So, let's look at this word, the Hebrew word covenant is pronounced Barrett, which means to cut a covenant referring to a covenant that was made by passing between two pieces of flesh, which involved making a blood covenant between two parties. Now, let me just backtrack so you understand what this is all about. A little first covenant made, very good, in the garden, right? God made a covenant there, and he said, this is what I will do. Even though you have disobeyed me, I will make a covenant now, a promise that my seed will crush the serpent's head and no longer will the enemy be in control, right? So, but then when you look at the book of Leviticus, there came an offering called the blood covenant. The blood covenant meant the person would bring a lamb or a goat without blemish, bring it to the offering, they will cut the goat or the lamb, the sacrifice, and they will drain out all the blood, right? They drain out all the blood. When they drain out all the blood, what happens? Blood refers to what? Life, right? And they would put that offering on the table, and they would offer it as a burnt sacrifice, right? And the blood would be taken into the high priest, and the high priest will pour out that blood on the altar, signifying the covering of sins, not the washing away, but the covering of sins. So, it's like God saying, with this blood of the lamb, I'm covering the sins. So, I made a covenant between you. So, it's life or life. Now, even in Leviticus, he goes on, he says, he says that, when I have made the covenant, you also must partake in that covenant, right? So, that's what the whole of Leviticus is. Any covenants that God made, and as the people of Israel, they had to be in part of that covenant. Now, were they doing that? Yes, but they lost the understanding of what, why they're doing it, right? It's like three years Bible college, right? Initially, very excited, right? It's called Bible college. After the first semester, why? Because I hope not. But what's happening? They're doing something every day, same teachers, same topics. But the same structure you're following, monitoring, okay, worship, prayer, somebody comes, shares, then classes, then you go back in the afternoon, either you're going out or you're doing something here, the same routine, right? What happens? It's boring, right? That's what happened in the Old Testament. What are the people doing? They're doing everything wrong. They're coming, oh, today's Sabbath day, keep it holy. Sabbath day, they're very good. Coming, getting, okay, get one boat, get one sheep, do the offering, burn it, okay, done, I'm done. Money to Friday, go back and do what you want for Sabbath day. Then you have the feasts. The feast days, they would come, oh, I have to do my sacrifice, otherwise, God will be angry. So what's happened now? The whole covenant has turned into a ritualistic thing. It's become a ritual thing, right? That's why if you read in Matthew, when all the synoptic gospels, when you read, when John the Baptist came, why were they all upset? What is this baptism and all that? That's not required. All you have to do is go to the temple, give your offering and you're fine. What does John the Baptist say? God can raise up stones to worship. He doesn't need your offerings, right? So when we are in covenant with God, basically what we're doing is we are expressing our love and our gratitude for what God has done for us, right? Now, the use of Old Testament and New Testament as the names for the sections of the Bible indicates God's covenant is central, right? It's not like God in the Old Covenant is angry with everyone. New Covenant, he's good God. It's not like that, right? So whether it's Old Covenant, whether it's New Covenant, it's the same God. But all through the entire Bible, what do we see something in common? Covenants, right? We see he's making a covenant with people. Right now, you and I are in covenant, yes? What covenant are we part of? Hebrews, the book of Hebrews talks about it. What covenant are we part of? I don't know, grace, okay? It's simple. What is a new covenant? What is it? Whatever comes to your mind, say. Grace, sorry? Go ahead, it's okay. Nobody's going to laugh. Anyone laughs, I'll talk to them. Yeah, very good, right? What did Jesus do on the cross? Yeah, very good. The Old Testament was there for forgiveness of sins? What was there? Hovering of sins. But now in the New Testament, it's forgiveness of sins, right? So all through it's covenants, right? Even the Apostle Paul writes in his letters and he says, we're all part of Abraham's seed, right? So it's not like Paul is forgotten about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, no, they're all still there. They're all part of the covenant. But you and I have a greater covenant, right? So not only the Abrahamic blessings, but the blessings of the cross, right? Jack and says through Jesus Christ, grace and truth. Thank you. Yes, very true. Right. Now, what is the reason for God to be a covenant God? That should be a reason, right? Like all of us do things for a reason, hopefully. And we do things for a reason. Okay, I wanted to join Bible college so that I can grow in God's word, you know, study, get into deeper things of the word of God, grow in intimacy with God, all of that. What is the ultimate purpose for God to have a covenant? Is it that, okay, God has no other work? Let me give them some work. At least, oh, yes, very true. A relationship, a covenant of love, right? Abraham, this is so beautiful. James 2.23 talks about it. Abraham was called a friend of God. What a beautiful covenant that would have been, right? Imagine Abraham is saying, God is saying Abraham is my friend. So there was such a beautiful relationship and covenant built with each other. This is the Old Testament. Imagine the New Testament, right? God's relationship with his people is portrayed in different ways in the Bible. God is the father and we are his children. God is the king and we are heirs and part of his kingdom, right? God is a covenant God and we are his covenant people. And imagine this, God is the father, we are his children. Sometimes when we think of it, it really changes the way we can look at situations, right? Let me look at a very challenging, impossible situation. But when we go back and say, God, I am your child and I am covenant with you, the way you look at that situation changes, right? Now, if the change may not happen immediately, it's not like, okay, suddenly something will come and make everything normal. No. But when we know we're in covenant, there's this inner joy, there's inner peace, right? How many of you, you know, you know that there's a difficult season ahead but there's joy in your heart, right? Have you gone through that? No, things are going to be very difficult, right? But there's a joy. Why? Because of the covenant God has kept us, right? We are partakers of his kingdom, right? So each one of us, we maybe become a big preacher, we maybe just be doing something small in the ministry. We are partakers of God's kingdom. We may not even be in ministry. You may be doing something in the corporate sector. Still, you are partakers of God's kingdom. You may have your own business or a partaker of God's kingdom, right? Covenant informs the basis for our intimate love relationship with God through which he has invited us to be sons and daughters, his heirs and coheirs with Jesus. Our relationship with God as sons and daughters, as heirs and joint heirs with Jesus, is wrapped in a covenant, right? Look at that. So powerful. Though the form, the covenant, the reason or the basis of our covenant with Jesus is because God has invited us to be his sons and daughters. Have we invited God or God has invited us? Right? So beautiful. Every time, each one of us, you know, I want to encourage each one of you. When you go to prayer and you spend time alone in God's word, remember, we went through it in Christian leaders' conference, he hears us in secret and when we pray, you pray out of that covenant relationship with God, right? You know, most of us are not married, but once you get married and you have a child, you will understand so much about covenant relationship, right? Because that child and as parents, you will do anything for that child if you love that child, right? I always say this, you know, John 3.16 made sense only after getting married and having a child. Otherwise, it was just John 3.16, right? We can quote, oh God, so love the world. But this whole love, that intimate relationship is, you know, is really walked in when we have experienced the love of God, right? So when you're praying, don't just pray, okay, God, thank you for this day, bless the stars and moon and all that and give us good health and thank you for the birds. All that is all right, right? But what is it? Main thing is, God, I thank you. You have chosen me to be your child and to be a partaker of your kingdom and you have wrapped all of this in covenant. So even if I say, God, I don't want you, I don't want to do anything with you and I walk away, that covenant is not like Jesus is staring the covenant, okay, done, walk away, go. No, he still got the covenant open. He's still saying, you come back, covenant is still open. I still love you, right? And that's the beauty of a covenant. What if there was no covenant? You go, come whenever you want to, doesn't make sense, right? Then you'll be thinking, oh, does God really love me? You know, for all the sins I have done, there's God really love me. Oh, God cannot use me because, you know, I don't have much talents or I can't speak well, I can't do this well. Now, when you understand you're in covenant, all these things will go away, right? We go away from it. Will they come to taunt us to, you know, to bring us down? Yeah, the enemy will do that. The first thing you say is, hey, I don't know, I'm in covenant with God. You know, it happened over the last few days. I was not feeling well. Most of you know, right? I was down. I didn't wake up in the morning. I didn't pray. The whole day I was like, oh man, this is, I didn't pray. I kept praying in my mind, but I didn't have that time aside for prayer, right? Until suddenly, when I woke up one morning, the thought kept coming to my mind, you know, it was like the enemy saying, see, you've not prayed. You've not prayed. Your life is not going to be right. Some problems are going to happen, right? Maybe your children will fall in. Maybe there's something going to happen. And for a moment, I said, oh man, I didn't pray. What if something happens? Right? And out of kind of a fear, not like fear, out of that whole feeling of, oh, I want my children to be safe, I went to the room and I began to pray, but then I stopped at that moment. I thank God for the Holy Spirit, right? Holy Spirit said, no, you rebuked that thought. You're not praying because of all these things that are happening. You're praying because you have a relationship with God. God's covenant is upon you. And I remember that. I remember that. I said, God, I stopped praying and I said, enemy, you cannot tell me what to do because I'm in covenant with God. Maybe I have not fulfilled everything, but God is going to fulfill His covenant. So His covenant says, my children shall be like trees planted by the rivers of water. His covenant says, I don't have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind. I began to rebuke the devil based out of what? Five hours of prayer, based out of my worship, based out of a covenant, right? Based out of that covenant I stood. And then you all can do that. You all can do that. And the enemy knows, oh, this guy knows what he's talking about. The enemy knows your weak point. So he comes and he presses on that weak point. That's when you stand on your covenant. In our weakest moment, we stand on the covenant, tell the devil, hey, maybe things are not going my way. Maybe I've not been doing the things rightly, but I am still in covenant with God. And when you know it in your heart, in your mind, the devil cannot do anything to you. Amen. So we don't have to base our relationship with God with how much we know or our diploma certificate. All of that is important. Our basis is out of this covenant. Everyone with me? Okay. The covenant was ratified, which means confirmed, endorsed, or brought into force by an initiating ceremony. What is that ceremony that this covenant was brought into force? The cross, right? Through the cross, redemption is an act of God bringing his people who went out of the covenant back into the covenant, redeeming them back, right? Now, quickly, what are covenants? What are they? Covenants had responsibilities, which means terms and obligations. They had promises, right? And they had consequences, right? Everyone say this. First one, covenants had responsibilities. Covenants has promises and covenant have consequences. What was the first one? Responsibilities. So there are certain terms and conditions. If you have a rental agreement, what is it? You have terms and conditions, right? What is it? Okay. This agreement is for 11 months. After 11 months, they're going to do a 5% increase. And during this 11 months, only this five people must stay in this apartment. And these are the things that are already available in this apartment. If there are any damages to the, when you're leaving the property, you have to pay for those damages. This is the advance amount that has been given. So you have the full agreement and it's on a legal bond paper. You can't write it on a piece of paper and say, this is a covenant. It doesn't work, right? It's, it's legal, right? It's a legal contract. So there are terms, there are obligations, which we must, you know, for example, you know, you can't, so say, for example, you rented a house, right? And then this happened during COVID. You say, oh, COVID. So I'll go back to my house to another city. We go to another city and then after six months, you come back. Now the owner is saying, hey, where were you, man? You didn't give the rent where all your things are here. No, I was not living there. So I didn't give you rent. What is the owner going to say? Hey, look at the terms and conditions. You've got to pay rent. So your things are here. You're not living here. We have not, you know, cancel the agreement. Whether you live here or don't live here, you have to pay the rent. It's the terms, it's the obligations, right? Same way, when God made a covenant with us, there are certain terms, there are certain obligations that he wants us to do. Some of them just to the top of my head, obey his word, walk in obedience to his commandments, love him, honor him, worship no other God. So many covenants or so many promises and terms that he has set in place. Second one is promises. Every time we are in covenant with God, we are blessed and we have been given blessings, provisions and privileges. Right? What are our blessings, promises and privileges? Blessing is we are here in the morning, right? Many of them have not seen today. Many of them are in the hospital. Many of them are going through different challenges, right? But in that covenant, he says he will bless, he will provide and he will give you privileges, that covenant, right? And thirdly, there are curses. A curse, now when we say curse, it basically means consequences in the Old Testament. If I don't, if I'm a believer and I say, hey, Psalms 91, angels in charge of me, he will, a thousand may fall at my right, 10,000 on my right hand, but nothing shall come near me. We're declaring Psalms 91 and imagine I take the bike and go without wearing helmet. Okay, I'm going out. The cops catch me. They say, hey, I'm a Christian. I obey all the rules, but today I didn't wear the helmet. The cop will say, I don't care if you are a Christian. I don't care if you, whatever you are, you may be the greatest preacher, but you're going to pay the fine because you've broken the law. Right? You can't, you can't say anything under the politician's son and all if you say, maybe they'll let you go, but then it's wrong, right? So the same way, when we disobey God, we are putting ourselves in a place where we're loving the enemy to come in and cause wrong consequences, right? It's not like God is putting the consequence or God is putting a curse upon us. No, when we go out of the covering of God, we're allowing the enemy to come and say, do what he wants, right? Are you with me, everyone? Yeah. So sometimes, you know, we may be going through difficulties. Now, not always that we have stepped out of the covenant with God. No, it's just that sometimes God lets us take, you know, go through these seasons, right? He works in transitions, right? So let God do that in our lives. Covenants have a testator, the one who made the covenant. There are mediators, which means guaranteeors, people who enforced the covenant, right? So if you look at a, I'm always trying to bring the natural as well, you look at the rental agreement. At the end of the rental agreement, what is there? Usually, signature of the, signature of the, the rentee, the person is going to stay there. And then you have another section here, which says, signature of two witnesses. Usually, those witnesses are known to the person who's taking the rent, I mean, getting into the rental agreement. So there are mediators. And in the old covenant, who was the mediator between the relationship? Who is the mediator? The priest. They would come, they put the offering, the priest will go. He was the mediator. But now, look at Hebrews, who's the mediator between God and man? Yeah. So if you look at Hebrews, it's powerful, because the entire verse, you know, chapter nine, chapter seven, chapter eight, and chapter nine talks about it. Hebrews seven, eight and nine. So you can read it. Very powerful. Jesus is our high priest. Like how Melchizedek was a high priest. Jesus is our high priest. Right. So the fact is established. Each one of us are in covenant with God. We haven't made that covenant. Who has made it? God has made it. We are right now. Are we in covenant with God? Yes or no? Yes, we are. Right. And so now let's look at the cornerstones, meaning the foundations of covenants. Right. Before that, there's a question here. You give an example of your personal testimony. You overcame fear through the covenant. When it comes to our loved ones, and we are praying for them sincerely, but reality is quite different. They are not able to see. How do we stand firm based on the covenant? Yeah. Everyone understood that question. Yeah. So the question was, you know, sometimes these small things like fear and doubt come in, we stand on a covenant and we declare God's word. But what about, you know, in terms of when we look at our own family members, maybe they're on a sick bed, going through, you know, suicidal tendencies or depression. And we've been praying and nothing's happening. So Jacqueline's question is how do you, how do we stand firm based on that covenant? Right. So Jacqueline, the answer is we need to fully put our trust in God. Right. Now, especially during those times, it's difficult. Right. The small things fear, doubt, pride, jealousy, all that we can stand on those. But when it's something to do with our family, when it's life and death, that's where the enemy comes in. He's going to say, Hey, what are you standing on? Nothing? Why don't you do this? That is where the real test is. So Jacqueline, what we need to do is you need to go back and stand firm on the covenant. Right. Timing. Yes, it's there. We know that if you look at Abraham's life, 75 years, he got the promise, but he waited 25 years. Right. Now I'm not saying that can you have to wait for 25 years. What I'm saying is he stood firm on that covenant. Right. So what you and I can do is when the enemy comes in and he's bringing all these thoughts, you don't see anything in the natural changing. You need to stand firm on God's covenant, God's promises. Right. It's hard, but it's a, but it's something that we must do. Right. So that would involve spending more time in prayer, spending more time in the word, fasting and praying, having dedicated times of fasting and prayer, and allowing God to work in your life. Right. And the more we put our trust in God's promises, the more there's a release of the things of the flesh. There's more there's a release of what the enemy is trying to do. Right. The pure doubt, all of that will go away. Right. So I want to encourage you with that, Jack, and just continue on God's word. All right. So the cornerstones of God's covenant, everyone with me? Yeah. Okay. There are two cornerstones of God's covenant. And what are they? One is his word, which is a covenant that he has made for us. And two is his nature. Right. His nature we looked at. Right. He's a covenant keeping God. He's Jehovah Jairah, Jehovah Rafa, Jehovah everything. Right. I am that I am all that. That's his nature. Then there's God's word. Right. So you and I have two strong foundations that we can stand on to strong foundations. One is his nature and to his word and God establishes covenant through making a solemn promise and giving us his word. So the covenant that God is making is based on two things, his word and his. Let me take a break. I'll just come back. We'll take a break for 10 minutes. We'll take a break for 10 minutes. We'll come back at 9.50. Is that okay? I just want to have some hot water. Thank you.