Our Better Covenant

Pick up your bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's just take this atmosphere and carry it in with the teaching of the Word.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm glad to be in church on Sunday night.

I'm feeling dangerous now.

The smell of blood is in the air.

The blood of Jesus permeates my life, makes me immune from permanent attacks of the devil.

He might take a snip at me, but he's not going to stay around long because I've got the faith to resist him in Jesus' name.

And, of course, when we resist the devil, he flees.

Let's look at Hebrews, chapter seven and eight.

Hebrews, chapter seven.

We'll start with verse 22.

Seven, twenty-two, says by so much was Jesus made a surety or a guarantor of a better testament?

The word testament means covenant.

Jesus was the surety of a better covenant.

Better than what?

Better than the old?

Better than the old covenant?

The new covenant's better than the old covenant, alright.

And then it says it again here in Hebrews eight, verse six.

But now, right now, have he obtained a more excellent ministry by by how much?

Also, he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

And so tonight I just want to encourage you about our better covenant.

We have a better covenant than did the Jews.

You know, this morning, back to school Sunday, I was encouraging our young people and everybody, but I geared the service to our young people's back to school for them, and I preached out of the Old Testament and talked about three young people who lived in times when it was hard to live for God.

They were persecuted for their faith, and that was David, daniel and Esther.

And David, daniel and Esther all function under the old covenant and the Bible says that we've got a better covenant found upon better promises.

How much Jesus is a surety of a better covenant, so better than the covenant under which Israel functioned.

You can say it that way.

Israel had to function under the old covenant.

The theme of the book of Hebrews is this Jesus is better.

Now the Jews.

This is written to the Jews.

They had to be taught that Jesus is better than the angels, jesus is better than Moses, jesus is better than Aaron.

And then they had to be taught the new covenant is better than the old.

Because the Hebrews and it's true today you see these Messianic Jews.

I've known a number of Messianic Jews and I'm not against you If you're a Messianic Jew here tonight, I'm not against you, but my observation of the ones that I've gotten close to, is that they just are too bottom heavy.

They spend too much time in the old covenant and they rarely are open to who they are in Christ.

You know, if they, if they got really into the kind of scriptures that I teach out of they'd be, they'd forget about the fact that they had a Jewish background.

See, I don't hardly think about my sourcrow background, my German background, my Cajun background.

You know I've got all that kind of a background, an Irish background.

John Walter Patterson that was my, my eternal grandfather, irish, married a Cajun woman.

How in the world do you, how do you do that?

I don't know they did it and you know I don't even think about my background.

You know why?

Because I'm a new creature.

There's no more junior Greek, no more bond or free, no more male or female, but just a new creature.

So they had to be taught these things that that the new covenant was better than the old covenant and the covenant that he cut for us that is Jesus, he cut the covenant for us with his own blood better than the Old Testament because it has better promises.

And yet when I read the Old Testament, some of the powerful things that they did under the old covenant, we ought to be doing that and more.

I mean, aaron stopped.

He stopped the sun for a whole day so they could finish cleaning up the enemy.

It got to be dark, it was going to get dark 30 and they, they, they, they.

He said stop up moon, stand still in the sun time of Agilon, and they, they kept killing the enemy until they got through.

Elijah turned the clock back.

Man you talk about, blow your mind, turn the clock back.

How do you do that?

Old Testament?

We ought to be doing great and mighty things.

And so Israel, when you read, you know here in Hebrews, israel was afraid of the giants, but you don't have to be afraid of your giants.

So I talked about David this morning.

Guess what?

David fought a giant.

400 years after they came into the Promised Land, they're still fighting giants.

The original, they were afraid of the same giants.

And all that time they still had to contend with those giants, and David wasn't afraid of them.

Why?

Because he was well versed in his covenant.

Well, we got a better covenant than David does.

If David wasn't afraid of giants?

What are we doing being afraid of giants?

We have no business being afraid of giants.

You might have a giant facing you in your health or you might have a giant facing you and this service has been around about the fact that the Holy Ghost wants to help you so you don't collapse.

But I mean, david wasn't even close to collapsing.

I mean he ran to the giant.

He said this day the Lord will give you into my hands.

You ever see anybody throw a slingshot?

I mean a real slingshot, not one of these little things like this I'm not talking about with a rubber.

I'm talking about the slingshot around your head, the way that works.

The physics of it is that it's an extension of your arm.

So however long that sling is let's just say it's three foot Well then, your arm is three foot longer.

So it's like you raring back and you've got an arm that's three foot longer and now the thing you're slinging is at the end of your arm.

You're gonna throw that thing.

If you could throw listen, if you could throw.

Let's just say you could throw a rock.

Let's just be conservative.

Let's just say you could throw a rock 70 miles an hour.

Now, with an extra three foot on your arm, you can throw it 130 miles an hour.

That was the whole premise behind that slingshot.

I saw a young man throw one across the Sabanel River one time and that thing whistled.

He threw a rock about as big as a baseball.

It was big and he had this little spindly little leather thing and around his head and they go deer hunting with it.

They killed deer with a slingshot.

Well, david killed a giant with a slingshot, hit him right in the forehead, boom, and so anyway, he faced Goliath unafraid.

Why?

Well, because he was well versed and steadfast in his covenant.

And we've got a better covenant, found upon better promises.

Let's be steadfast.

Let's know what our covenant has to offer us.

Let's know what the Bible says we can have and what belongs to us.

You know when you know what belongs to you, you're not gonna let the devil steal it, amen.

When the lion and the bear came to eat his sheep, he said no way and he killed him.

Killed him with his bare hand.

And he's just a teenager.

He's no big giant.

He's not a giant, he's a little kind of a shrimpy guy, wasn't very big.

He wasn't very big and he wasn't full grown.

How in the world did he gain the strength to kill a lion and a bear with his bare hands?

The anointing came upon him.

He was steadfast, knowledgeable in his covenant, and we've got a better covenant.

I said we've got a better covenant.

And so then he comes up on this giant defying the armies of the living God.

Blaspheme in God.

He couldn't take it.

Everybody else was hiding and he goes in there.

He's bold to confront that thing.

David called him this uncircumcised Philistine.

What was he saying that for?

Because this Philistine did not have a covenant with God.

And I do.

Oh, I tell you, god is making a difference between the children of righteousness and the ungodly.

Right now he's making a difference, amen.

So Goliath had no covenant.

So he had no.

He was no match for a covenant man, and neither is the devil any match for you, whatever giant you're facing.

Amen.

I mean, just run, don't run.

It's quiet.

Don't run without talking.

You've got to fill your mouth with the name of Jesus, fill your mouth with a word of God.

Don't go empty mouth, but run, don't run away.

You know, when I was a kid, four years, five years old, we lived on the corner little street, corner street, second street and what was the name?

East Way, I think the name of the street was, and Galena Park, east town.

And you know, back then the fifties, you know, dogs had just run out in the neighborhood and I was on the side yard next to East Way playing one day, out in the driveway with my dad was in the garage working on something, and this dog came running up the street and started growling at me and it scared me, you know, I'm just four years old.

And so it got right up to me and started acting like it was gonna bite me.

Well, I turned and ran.

Well, you know, I started running down the street and that thing is nipping at my heels, fixing to jump and get on me.

Now, it wasn't a pit bull, it was just a regular mongrel dog of some kind.

And then I heard that dog start yelping.

I heard this noise behind me and I heard the dog yelping and I turned around in time to see the dog flying through the air and hitting the ditch.

We had open ditches on either side of East Way and that dog hid in the bottom of that ditch and, boy I mean, tumbled and he started yelping and hollering and man, he was getting out of there, my dad had planted his foot right in his chest and it's like he dropped kicked him over the street, kicked him just like that, like a football, and then he turned and he swatted me about three times on my rear end.

Don't you ever run from a dog again?

You know, I've never forgotten it In 71 years.

I've never forgotten the lesson.

And over the years, you know, you run into these dogs and I never run.

I always turn and face them.

Why?

Because my dad taught me not to run.

Well, what if it's like a pit bull?

Well, you're still better off not running.

You might as well just get ready to bite him, get ready to kick him, get ready to do something besides run, because running is the worst thing you could do, because the dog is gonna jump on you.

Then If he ever gets you down on the ground can be bad news.

So you know you've got to face your enemy.

Don't run from the devil, don't run from the circumstance.

Face it down with God's word and the name of Jesus.

Come on, let's lift our hands right now.

We've got a better covenant than David did.

We've got a better covenant than Daniel did.

Daniel faced a line then, and he did not bow, he did not bend, he did not compromise, hallelujah.

Let's look at Galatians, chapter three.

I confess this every day.

I say this every day.

I said Father.

In 1 Peter I say, father, I thank you.

I've been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a valiant without blemish and without spot.

Christ has redeemed me from the curse of law.

He was cursed so I could be blessed.

I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus and because you've broken the power and penalty of sin in my life.

Today I prosper in walking health, even as my soul prospered.

I say this every day.

I say, father, I thank you, I thank you for your soul prospered.

I say that every day, every morning, I say it every day.

I said, I say it every day.

See, your confession will build a faith in you to face whatever kind of thing comes against you.

Are you with me now?

Yes, so Galatians, chapter three.

I just quoted it, verse 13,.

Christ hath redeemed past tense.

It's already happened.

It's not something he's gonna do, it's already happened.

It's already a fact.

He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

What law is that?

The Jewish law, the law that the old covenant is based on.

The reason we've got a better covenant is because the Jews had curses with their sin.

Their sin brought curses.

Jesus took our curse.

We've been redeemed from the curse.

We are not cursed any longer.

Oh, what a deal we've got there, you go.

I wonder what David would have paid for a covenant like ours.

He could have bought it.

I bet he would have paid everything he owned.

He owned a lot, pretty rich man toward the end of his life, not as rich as the son Solomon, but he's pretty rich.

Because it says it has written Christ is everyone that hangeth on a tree so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, for Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

So David's covenant had curses for sin.

Our covenant has no curse, only blessings.

Jesus took all the curses.

So when you look at Deuteronomy 28, let's turn over there real quick.

You get your encouragement from God's Word.

You'll never lose.

You know.

You can get all kind of encouragement natural encouragement from experts and all that.

But listen, god's Word is the best encouragement.

Deuteronomy 28, verses 14 through 66.

Deuteronomy 28:14–66

Those are a listing of all the curses of the law.

Those are the curses that we've been redeemed from.

So when you read those verses, if you find your condition anywhere in verses 14 through 66, you know that Jesus has already redeemed you from that.

The devil has no right to hold that on you.

Are you with me now?

So let's just look at a few of them here.

For example, verse 22,.

We've been redeemed from consumption, fever, inflammation.

You ever face inflammation, man.

Inflammation is one of the things that I've had to face in my life.

I'm almost more than anything else Inflammation in my teeth.

Inflammation in my blood, coronary arteries, which is what causes plaque buildup.

Inflammation in the heart muscle, inflammation in joints.

You know that's a curse of the law.

I've been redeemed from the curse of the law.

I will not stand for inflammation.

Consumption I've never had consumption but I've had bronchitis.

It's just about the same thing.

It's horrible when you cough and you cough.

One time I pulled up the channel 14, I was going to do a spot they do these commercials and they asked Pat and me to come over and do the voiceover minute one minute commercial for the upcoming begathon.

I mean a telephone and I pulled up in the parking lot and got out of the car and I'd been coughing and I just barely could make it there.

It's all the way across town, 45 minute drive from my house to the studio.

Got out of the car, went to the back door and got my jacket, put my jacket on, I started coughing spasms and I leaned over the back of the car and grabbed the trunk lid on top of the trunk and just bent over and I thought I was going to faint.

I just got one of those coughing spasms and it was just my whole.

All my chest was vibrating and it was so loud they heard it inside the station.

Pastor Griner, you going to be okay?

I said well, you're going to have to give me a few minutes to get over this.

But once we start this, you're going to have one take.

We're going to do it in one take and if it's good then you go have it.

If it's no good, I'm gone because I'm not going to be good for two takes.

All I can do is 30, I've got faith to do it for 60 seconds without coughing and I did.

God help me get through that 60 second message.

But you know that's the curse of the law.

I started talking to the devil.

I thought I was going to have to call J to come get me because I was concerned that I would get into one of these coughing jags while I'm driving down the beltway.

That's not real healthy, you know you.

Just you can't control the cough.

You start coughing and you know it's dangerous.

But anyway, I just started rebuking the devil and just claiming my rights as because I knew I had a better covenant.

I knew that this was the curse of the law, y'all getting anything out of this.

Verse 30, deuteronomy 28.

Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her.

You shall build a house and not dwell therein.

You shall plant a vineyard and you shall not gather the grapes thereof.

So that sounds like marriage trouble, financial trouble, the curse of the law.

Marriage trouble is a curse of the law.

Financial trouble is a curse of the law.

You don't have to put up with it.

I said you don't have to put up with it.

In fact you shouldn't put up with it.

What do you have to be?

You have to be steadfast in your covenant, the way that David was.

You've got to run at that giant with something in your mouth besides a complaint, amen, amen.

Verse 35, the Lord shall smite thee in the knees and the legs.

Now see, the Lord doesn't smite you.

This is Old Testament.

Old Testament is progressive revelation.

So it's not God smiting you with disease or with arthritis, but it is.

You know, you being on the wrong side of the covenant.

You see, you reap something that, and that's the curse.

Well, we've been redeemed from it.

So what is that?

Well, it's arthritis your knees, your legs, a sore botch that cannot be healed, all kinds of skin diseases, from the sole of your foot under the top of your head that covers a lot of territory, and so forth and so on.

Verse 41, no, no, not able to enjoy your children, having children not enjoy them, they go into captivity.

That's a curse of the law.

They have trouble with children where they're disobedient, where they're in trouble, where they're having problems, where they're smarting off to you and being disrespectful.

That's a curse of the law.

You have every right to run the devil out of your house.

That's the devil.

Afflicting your children illegally.

That's illegal.

Because, why?

Because Jesus redeemed us from that.

You might have to have the rod of correction.

Start early and then you won't have to do it later.

It's a lot harder when they're older.

I don't recommend it when kids are 12, 13, 14,.

You've waited too long to start paddling them.

Then they're just too long, they're bigger than you are, mama, so you're gonna have to be creative about how to correct your children.

Amen, all right.

So, and then it goes on to say that every sickness and every disease that's not listed in this list of verses is covered as a curse, and that's what we've been redeemed from Glory to come on, lift your hands and receive.

So when you face a giant, learn from Israel's troubles.

Let's look at Psalm 78.

Just got a few more things here Just to encourage you.

Most of you know these things.

We need to hear them over and over again.

God delivered me from the fear of repetition.

Psalm 78, it says about Israel, that verse.

Let's look Psalm 78, verse 40.

Psalms 78:40

Oh, how often did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert.

Talking about Israel, provoking God and grieving God.

Yay, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy one of Israel.

They limited him, they limited him, and so you have to learn not to limit God with certain behaviors.

And the first thing that I see in Psalm 78, verse 36, says nevertheless, they flattered him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues.

Psalms 78:36

And Romans 12, verse nine says let your love be without dissimulation.

In other words, let your love that you say you have for God be sincere, not just a tagline I just love God, but really your actions.

Now how can you say you love God when you disobey Him?

Why call you me Lord?

Lord, do not the things that I say.

And so you know.

Let your love be without that fake facade that a lot of Christians have.

They know they should love God, they should love their neighbor, but they don't.

Their behavior belies them.

So if you're gonna walk in the blessing of God, you've gotta obey the love of God.

Put Him first, honor Him.

You know James was talking about honor this morning during the offering time.

What does it mean to be honored?

Well, honor means put Him first.

He's a priority.

Doing what he says, doing what the covenant says, is a priority, not an option.

You put it first.

You honor God.

You walk in love toward others.

It's not enough to love God.

You've got to love others.

You've got to love the vertical, but you've got to love the horizontal.

If you don't love the horizontal, you really don't love the vertical.

You don't really love God if you don't love His people.

Amen, that simple, it's not very hard.

So obey the love of God If you want to walk in a place where you can face your giant down and defeated.

And number two remember God's faithfulness.

We're singing that song this morning.

That's one of the prettiest songs we sing.

Our God has been faithful all my life.

You've been so faithful.

All my life you've been so good.

And hadn't he been faithful?

See, we need to learn the whole time.

As you say, count your blessings.

You can't get depressed and discouraged and have a pity party if you spend 30 minutes counting your blessings.

Well, I don't know what God's blessed me.

Yeah, let me tell you something.

If you got a pulse, why don't you check your pulse?

You start at the basics, start with a very basic of life.

If you've got a pulse, you're blessed and then go from there, because I'm sure you can find some other things besides your pulse.

If you ever check your pulse and you don't find it, that means all your problems are open.

No, it just no.

Remember God's faithfulness.

Count your blessings.

Be filled with gratitude.

Have an attitude of gratitude.

We need to praise God more and more.

I had a post on my Facebook page.

We're just about to hit 12,000 followers on Facebook page.

I appreciate all of you commenting and liking stuff and sharing it Makes a big difference.

But I just, you know, I try to answer people, you know, when they're just really whacked out.

And somebody was sat on there about we talked about resisting discouragement and all that, and somebody said, I'm trying, how, how how do I do that?

And I just have to preach a little mini.

I mean, I don't have time to teach them everything I'm teaching tonight, so I just have to give them a verse Psalm 149,.

You know, let the high praises of God be in your mouth and two-edged sword in your hand.

If you praise God, you're gonna get with the devil, you're gonna slice him up.

Praising God is the biggest thing we can do, the easiest thing we can do, thanking Him, being grateful and grateful.

And then the third one is watch your confession, watch what you're saying out of your mouth.

Look at, listen to what they were saying in verse 19, psalm 78, verse 18,.

Psalms 78:18

They tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Yeah, they spake against God and said can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Can God?

They doubted God's ability and fed it out of their mouth.

Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed.

Can he give bread?

Also, can he provide flesh for His people?

Therefore, the Lord heard this and was wroth.

So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel.

Unbelief always angers God.

He doesn't always act on his anger, but you gotta watch your confession.

You gotta watch what you're saying Always magnify God, don't magnify the devil.

Don't magnify the problem.

Don't talk sickness.

Don't talk lack.

Don't talk down.

Don't complain and say what's the use?

That's the use in serving God.

That's what they said all the time.

What's the use in serving God?

Here we serve God all this time.

What good does it do?

Don't ever act that way.

Don't let Him hear you say that I'm talking about how to defeat your giants, because we do have a better covenant.

Amen.

We don't have the curse working against us.

We've been redeemed from it.

I mean, when we miss the mark, all we gotta do is confess our sin.

He is faithful and just right now To forgive us our sin, cleanses of all unrighteousness.

We don't have to wear that thing around our neck for six months and do penance.

As a Catholic boy, I was taught to do penance.

Well, that's a bunch of baloney, it's not in the Bible.

No penance.

We just confess our sin, not to somebody but to God, and he instantly forgives us and cleanses us, and that's the end of the story.

It's under the blood.

We don't bring it up, he doesn't bring it up.

The only one that brings it up is the devil, and maybe other people.

Amen, praise God.

I'm glad this brings it up.

No, she doesn't, she's, and I'll tell you, the giant will fall, like all the rest did.

Amen, let's run toward the giant and keep our mouth filled with the Word of God in the name of Jesus.

Watch that sucker fall.

Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight our better covenant.

Did you get anything out of this tonight?