THE TWO COVENANTS
George Burnside
Open your Bibles to Ephesians 2, verse 11. Paul says: “Therefore remember that you being in times past Gentiles in the Flesh.” Paul was writing to the Ephesians who had been heathen. They had been Gentiles but they had been brought into the great household of Israel through the Gospel. Therefore Paul says “Remember that you being in times past Gentiles in the flesh” - hurrying down, verse 12 - “That at that time (when you were Gentiles) you were without Christ.” Actually friends, a Gentile is a heathen, for the word Gentiles and heathen in the New Testament are translated from the one and same word. You will often hear people say “Oh, you do this, but we are Gentiles.” They are very proud of the fact that they are Gentiles. Have you ever heard them? Well friends they might as well boast that they are heathen, because that is the very same word, Gentile and heathen. Paul says to these Ephesians “That you were in the past Gentiles in the flesh” “And at that time you were without Christ”. They were heathen. “You were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
Now I want to study with you for a little while about the covenants. It is a wonderful theme. But like all other wonderful themes of the Bible, it has been terribly warped, the devil hates the great themes of the Bible and I find that the average person today, that knows anything about the covenants, has the idea that the Old Covenant was for the Jews, but the New Covenant is for the Gentiles. They tell me under the Old Covenant people kept the 7th day Sabbath, but under the New Covenant they keep Sunday. A questioner once inferred that the subject of the covenants, is one that embarrasses Adventists. Well I want you to notice first of all friends, that all the covenants that were made were made with Israel. There was no covenant whatsoever, made between God and the Gentiles. None whatsoever. And Paul reminds these Ephesians who had been Gentiles, he says “In that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise.” The Gentiles are strangers to the covenants of promise. Paul tells us in the book of Romans that everything was given to Israel, including the covenants, the giving of the law and the promises, and so on, were all given to Israel.
What is a Covenant? What are these Covenants? Covenants, friends, are agreements. Now perhaps I could illustrate it this way, for I want you to be clear on it. We will say for instance, that you are endeavoring to buy a certain piece of property. But in your struggle to pay it off you become financially embarrassed and it is apparent that you are going to be sold up, there is nothing ahead of you but bankruptcy and you don’t know what to do, you can’t see any way through. You want to buy that property but you are falling behind and your creditors are pressing. When you are in that plight a kindhearted philanthropist comes along and says “Friend, I have heard of your plight, I will tell you what I am going to do. I want to help you. You go bankrupt, absolutely insolvent and when you are bankrupt and penniless I will buy that property and I will give you the title deeds as a present, its yours.”
I don’t want to raise your hopes too much, in this world friends, your chances of getting a deal like that are practically nil, but listen, that is exactly what the God of heaven has done and I will show you how He has done it. Under these wonderful Covenants. God gives you the title deeds to a home in the land of glory, he gives you the title deeds to all things, and when I say all things, I mean it, for a child of God we are told in Romans 8,”is a joint heir with Christ.” Christ we are told is owner of all things, the Bible said - “All things are Christ’s.” In the last verse of John 3, we are told that the Father has given “all things into the hands of His Son.” That is why Jesus could raise his nailed scarred hands and say “All power in heaven and in earth is mine.” He is owner of all. Everything is Christ’s, the Bible says, and we can be joint heirs with Christ. What is a joint heir? I could illustrate it this way, my wife and I are joint owners of the little we possess. WE, have a joint bank account, we are joint owners, it is not mine it is not hers, it is ours.
It is as much hers as it is mine. We are joint owners. You and I friends, as children of God are joint heirs with Christ, that is why Paul says all things are ours. I was over there in America not long ago when they showed me a street of millionaires. They told me every house in that area was built by a millionaire. They showed me through one place and they said “You know the trouble with this man is that he doesn’t know what he is worth.” I said “Really, that is my trouble.” I don’t know and I can’t begin to estimate what I am worth as a joint heir with Christ. You know, I would far sooner be a joint heir with Christ than a millionaire on this earth, wouldn’t you?
Now what about these covenants. Let us note what the Word of God has to say about it. Turn away over to the book of Exodus and you will find there the record of the first covenant. For the covenant in the Bible was a very solemn agreement. I note the dictionary defines. a covenant as an agreement entered into by two or more persons. It is an agreement, and God entered into an agreement with His people. There are two great covenants mentioned in the Bible. Here is the beginning of the first covenant. Exodus 19:3-5 “And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shall thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.”
Turn over to Deuteronomy 4:13 and you will read where God said, “My covenant is the Ten Commandments”. Don’t confuse the Ten Commandments with either the Old or the New Covenant. Because the Ten Commandments is always called God’s Covenant, it is not the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, but it was the foundation of both covenants and God referred to it as His Covenant. Now here He is entering into an agreement with Israel and he says, “If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel and Moses came and called the elders of the people and laid before their faces all the words which the lord commanded, and all the people answered together and said ‘All that the Lord hath spoken we will do’ and Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Lo I come to thee in a thick veil that the people may hear when I speak to thee and believe thee forever’, and Moses told the people and Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.” Now they are entering into the Old Covenant. As I said, God’s Covenant is neither the Old or the New Covenant, it is the foundation of both and it is referred to as “His Covenant”. And the agreement was the Old Covenant. In it they were to obey God’s voice. They had not heard God’s voice at this time. God hadn’t yet spoken the Ten Commandments, but He said if you will keep my Ten Commandments and obey My voice then I will do wonderful things for you. You will be a kingdom of priests and I will do wonderful things for you, and Israel couldn’t enter into it quick enough. They said, verse 8, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Yes of course we will do it, no question about it. We will obey God’s commandments, we will do whatever He asks. They wanted the Lord to be their leader and to fight for them, and so they just jumped into the agreement as quickly as they possibly could.
There was no forgiveness under the Old Covenant. There was no savior under the Old Covenant. Do you know why? Because the people felt they didn’t need it. They were not going to break God’s commandments - not at all. They said “All that the Lord hath said, we will do.” And they couldn’t get into it quick enough. There was no Savior. Turn over the page, Exodus 23:20 and 21, “Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions.” Was there any pardon? None whatsoever, and there was no Savior in the Old Covenant. You see, they felt they didn’t need it. “If thou shall indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I wi11 be an enemy to your enemies avid an adversary unto your adversaries.” They jumped into this Covenant just as quickly as ever they could. The Ten Commandments were given, then in Exodus 24:3 and on we read: Here, they are entering into the covenant. “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord hath said we will do.”
“And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar upon the hill and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel, and he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offering of oxen unto the Lord, and Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar and he took the book of the covenants and read in the audience of the people and they said, “All that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient” “and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made concerning all these words”. And so the Covenant was sealed. The Covenant was of no use until it was sealed. It was always sealed with blood. It was a life and death covenant. It was sealed, and sealed with blood. But that blood was hardly dry when that very same people that had said, “All that the Lord hath said we will do” what were they doing? They were down on their knees before a golden calf. Now when a Covenant is broken what happens? It is finished! For once a covenant is broken it is gone. Well now what happens? Let me explain it this way, we shall say for instance, you have a house down here in Melbourne, and I am asked to come down to Melbourne and I am looking for a house and I hunt around and you say “Well I have a house to sell.”
“Fine,” I say, “When do I shift in?”
“Well”, you say, “You had better come along and have a look at it.” We haven’t discussed the price yet. “Oh, that is alright, don’t worry about that, when can I shift into it?’
You say, “You come around and have a look at it.”
So I have a look at the house and I say “Fine this will suit me to perfection, when can I shift into it?” “Well”, you say, “We haven’t discussed finance yet.”
“Ah, yes that is right, how much do you want for it?”
“It is worth $100,000.”
Well that is fine.”
“You pay so much down and so much a week.”
Well I have a job to get the money to pay down, but I patch that up and I have to pay $150 per week.
“Ah that is fine when can I shift in?”
I am in a hurry to get in. $150 a week, nearly half of that might not break me, but it would terribly bend me. So before long I am dropping a very long way behind in my commitments and it is very apparent I can’t keep up with the payments. So seeing I can’t keep up to the payments to buy the house, what do you do? Go and burn down the house? Do you? Never. You see, burning down the house won’t solve the problem. The trouble is with whom? With me. Not with the house. You know I meet a lot of people who have the idea that when Israel failed up in keeping the commandments God abolished them. My dear friends abolishing the Ten Commandments wouldn’t help Israel. The only way that I can possibly meet and pay for that house is for a new agreement to be drawn up and to make the payments easier. Friends that is exactly what God did, with these great covenants. Here we have those two great covenants that are mentioned in this precious old Book of God. The Old Covenant, was made back there at Mt. Sinai. It is referred to as the Old Covenant because it was made back at Matthew. Sinai and was broken very soon afterwards when they bowed down to a golden calf. Then there is the New or the Everlasting Covenant. It is called the New Covenant because it was ratified later than the Old Covenant. It was ratified by the blood of Jesus. You remember that Jesus took that glass of wine and he said this is MY blood of the New Covenant. Jesus died and thus sealed the New Covenant and seeing it was sealed after the old one it is referred to as the New Covenant although actually friends it stretches farther back because every soul that was ever saved was saved under the New Covenant. Not a single soul could be saved under the Old Covenant because they have sinned arid without Christ they couldn’t obey and so there you have the Old Covenant that really finished back there. The Old Covenant is often linked with the sacrifices because the Old Covenant, like the sacrifices, pointed to Jesus, showing people that they needed a Savior. That is why it was linked to the sacrifices. But the New Covenant is everlasting and will lift people right over into Eden restored.
When the Old covenant ceased that did not do away with the Ten Commandments. There is nothing wrong with the Commandments of God. Now I want you to notice the objects and some comparisons in these two covenants. Here we have the Old Covenant, you notice it was made between God and Israel. That is clear isn’t it? The object of the Old Covenant was obedience to God’s Ten Commandments. If you will keep my covenant God says, I will do great things for you. The whole purpose was for Israel to obey God’s Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were written on tables of stone. The Old Covenant was based on the promises of the people. The people said, “All that the Lord hath said we will do” and be obedient. It was ratified by the blood of animals. We have just noticed that, and it came to an end for as soon as it was broken it was really finished. Now friends there is the old covenant and it was finished.
I want to show you here that the New Covenant in some ways is very much the same. It had the very same object, but like the installments on the house, it arrives at that object by a different method. Now read regarding the New Covenant. If you turn over to Jeremiah 31:31 you will notice the Old Covenant that God promised to give Israel. Now turn over and read Hebrews 8:6-10 from the New Testament. “Behold the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Who was the New Covenant made with? You will notice the very same parties, namely God is making it with Israel. The New Covenant is not with the Gentiles, but with Israel. We read on: “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which My covenants they brake although I was an husband unto them said the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days said the Lord (Listen) “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, I will be their God and they shall be my people.” Now, notice here you have the New Covenant. You will notice it is made between God and Israel, the same as the old one. It has the very same objects that the old one, namely obedience to God’s commandments. In this one friends there is a difference. In the Old Covenant the commandments were written on tables of stone, but here in the New Covenant they are written on the heart. For God said “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.” The law is not abolished. But in the New Covenant, He is going to write it right in there in the heart. This one is based on the promises of God. God says “I will write it in their hearts.” This one was ratified by the blood of Jesus and thank God it will never end.
Now in case there is anyone who thinks that the New Covenant as mentioned in Jeremiah 31, is different from the one mentioned in Hebrews 8, compare them again. Hebrews 8:6-7 is telling you about a better covenant which is established upon better promises, based on the promises of God. “For if the first covenant had been faultless there should have no place been sought for the second.” If people could have been saved through the Old Covenant you wouldn’t have needed the New Covenant. You say, “Well, then why did God enter into the Old Covenant? If people couldn’t keep it, and God knew they couldn’t keep it, well why did he enter into a covenant?” I will tell you. If you are walking along the street with your little boy. A little fellow of about five and you are carrying a big suitcase, He says “Mother, let me carry the suitcase.”
“Oh, Johnny you can’t carry it.”
“Mum, let me carry your suitcase, of course, I could carry it.”
“Oh no, you couldn’t carry it John.”
“Yes Mum, I could carry it.”
What is the best way you know to convince him that he couldn’t carry it? Let him try! That is what God did and Israel plunged into the Old Covenant. God permitted this because he wanted to teach His people at the very outset that they needed a Savior. Mankind is very proud. They have too much of the spirit of Satan, who boasted “I can do this, I will do that, I will do something else.” Men come along to me and they say, “Don’t worry Mr. Burnside, if I make up my mind to do it. I will do it. I wi11 keep the commandments if I make up my mind.” No fear you won’t. You can’t do it friends, without Christ. For instance remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Could an unholy man keep that? Never. And unless a man is born again by the Spirit of Christ he hasn’t a ghost of a chance of doing it.
God let them try back there and they certainly made a mess of it. God says “The time is coming when I am going to enter into a New Covenant, with the house of Israel. I am going to seal it with the very blood of Jesus and in this one I am going to write these promises and that law right in their hearts.”
Now we read Hebrews 8:7-10 “If the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with the Ten Commandments??????” Is that right? I am glad you can check me up. You know I could go to some audiences and I am afraid, into some churches, I could read out of the Bible or out of the Encyclopaedia and they wouldn’t know which was which. I meet a lot of Christians that haven’t got - the faintest idea whether you are reading out of the Bible or not, but I am glad you can check me up. It doesn’t say finding fault with the Ten Commandments, but finding fault with them. Who was at fault? It was Israel. They were the people who failed. There was nothing wrong with the Commandments.
“But finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of” who? Of Israel, not with the Gentiles, but with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, said the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” God is going to write that law right there in our hearts. He is not going to write a law in our hearts that He abolished 2,000 years ago, is he? The law is still there. I meet plenty of people who tell me that if you keep the law of God you must be under the New Covenant because not a single soul under heaven ever kept it under the Old.
They couldn’t, but if you find a pet-son keeping the Commandments of God they must be under the New Covenant because it is the only way they could ever do it. And when you read over there in Revelation14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and faith of Jesus,” there is a people, you see, who are trying and trusting in Jesus and by His power He has written the Commandments right there in their hearts and in their souls.
Yet somebody put a question in the Question Box at one of my meetings stating that the Covenants is a subject that embarrasses Adventists! Just read again that God is going to write His law in their hearts. Does the law have a part in the New Covenant? Friends, what was once written on tables of stone, God wants to write today on the fleshy tables of the heart. If you are under any doubt about whether these are the same Commandments written on the heart, turn over to 2 Corinthians 3 and I shall show it to you right out of the book of God. In verse 3 we read “For as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone.”
What was written on the tables of stone? - The Ten Commandments. - “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” And so you see under the New Covenant God says what was once written on tables of stone, God today wants to write into your heart. So, when Christ wants to write His law in your heart, let Him write the whole ten precepts there, then it will be a perfect law, not merely part of them. If you will allow Him He will write the whole ten precepts into your heart and in that way friends it will change mere precepts into practice. You will be able to do something about it, for there will be power instead of mere precepts.
I meet a lot of people who say, “Ah, yes, the Covenants, under the Old Covenant they kept the Sabbath, but under the New Covenant it is Sunday.” Did you ever hear that? That is what they tell me. I am going to show you how in the next few minutes, that you just can’t even push Sunday into the new covenant. You couldn’t hammer it in. You note, I will give you a couple of texts. In Matthew 26:26 we read that Jesus sealed the New Covenant with His blood. I think you are all clear on that. So, turn now to Hebrews 9:16,17 and we will notice something here in regard to the Covenants. Hebrews 9:16,17 “For-where a testament is 1here must also of necessity he the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.” When a man makes his last will and testament, it is not binding until what? His death. Where there is a testament there must of necessity, God says, be the death of the testator, for the testament is binding after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. That is common sense that is logic isn’t it? Good!
Now turn over to Galatians 3 and verse 15: “Brethren I speak after the manner of men, (that is, he is using a human illustration) though it be a man’s covenant yet if it be confirmed no man dis annuls or added thereto.” When a man makes his last will and testament and that man dies the will is binding. You can’t add to it and you can’t take away from it. It is final. Now notice carefully for we are right down here to the death of Jesus, right down to when Jesus dies. You remember Jesus was crucified on what is known as the preparation day, commonly known as Friday. He rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, and so did the disciples. The Scriptures state they rested on the Sabbath according the commandments. And He rose again on the first day of the week. Here we have three days. He promised He would rise again the third day.
Now when Jesus died He sealed the New Covenant. Is that right? That is why the New Covenant is so mighty and so powerful. It is sealed by the blood, of Jesus. Scripture clearly states that even in a covenant, When he dies no man can add to it and no man can take away from it. When Jesus died the New Covenant was sealed for eternity. It was ratified. The big argument today in favor of Sunday is what? They say they keep Sunday the first day of the week, why? Because Jesus rose from the dead on that day. Is that not so? Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. The Bible is quite clear on that, but remember friends Jesus sealed the New Covenant on Friday, three days before. Now I will defy any man to trace Sunday keeping further back than the Catholic Fathers. But take note, even if you could trace Sunday right back over the ages, right back to the resurrection of Jesus, you are still three days too late aren’t you? You can’t get Sunday in. Everything in the New Covenant had to be in before Jesus died. That is why you have baptism in before Jesus died. It is in the New Covenant. The Lord’s supper came in just before lie died. The New Covenant includes the Lord’s Supper. You can’t put anything in to the New Covenant now for God says you can’t add to it and you can’t take away.
Friends, if it was not in the New Covenant when Jesus died it will never be in. Sunday therefore is just three days too late. It is out and it is out for keeps, and what is more, in this generation it will be out forever, for when Jesus comes it will never be kept again. It is going to die with this generation and die for eternity. I hope you won’t die with it. Sunday was not in the New Covenant and never will be in the New Covenant. Was the Sabbath here before Jesus died? Every opponent I have ever had to meet admits that the Sabbath was in the teaching and practice of Jesus.
Well, if the Sabbath is in there before the cross, it is there for keeps. Sunday is left out. That is why Christ never asked you to keep it. It is a usurper, it came in branded with the mark of the antichrist and handed down as a counterfeit to the people of God from the enemy of truth. But the law of God is right in there in the Covenants and it is in there for keeps, for Jesus is going to write these commandments right in there in your heart and in your mind and that will include the seventh day Sabbath. We could sum up the Covenants thus:
In these verses the Bible has used the word “testament” instead of covenant or contract. The word means the same thing. Friday afternoon, when Christ died upon the cross, He sealed the New Covenant. His last will and testament had been made. By His death He made provision for all to live. The official document of- the New Covenant was now written in the courts of heaven. All access to eternal life must come through this plan, which had now been fully agreed to and sealed by the blood of Jesus. Never will this New Covenant come to an end, and never can the terms of the New Covenant be changed. Whatever was contained in the New Covenant at the time of the death of Christ, must of necessity remain in the New Covenant for all time to come.
We know what was contained in the law at the time of the death of Jesus. The law, as it was upon that occasion, is the same law that is forever a part of the Covenant. It is the law that was known as God’s Covenant, the Ten Commandments, and is written in the heart of the one who enters into the New Covenant relation. The last will and testament of Jesus Christ cannot be changed after His death. All admit that the fourth Commandment, which demands that we observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, was still in force that Friday afternoon when Christ died. Almost every Christian will admit that it was still in force the next day after the death of’ Christ. This day was Saturday, the Sabbath. The Christian women observed the following day after the death of Christ as the Sabbath, according to the commandment. “They returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56. It cannot be possible that a new law came into the Christian’s code on Sunday, the third day after the death of Christ. The observance of Sunday started many years after the death of Christ. Sunday observance is too late to be a part of the New Covenant. The institution of Sunday as a rest day should have taken place before the death of Christ, to make it legal and binding upon Christian people.
6. The New Covenant will never come to an end. It will never vanish away. Mow the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the-blood of the everlasting covenant.” Hebrews 13:20. Now, I want to give you a very simple illustration that I think will explain to you the difference between the Old and the New Covenant. I want you to get it very very clear, so you won’t make a mistake. We will say for instance, I am lecturing down here in Melbourne and a man comes along to me and says, “Mr. Burnside, I am very interested in your work of soul winning, your work of evangelism. I am very interested and I want to help you.” He said that he was facing a predicament, he could not just hand me a good sized donation, but he thought he might be able to work something out that would help. He said he wanted to have a house built. He had a block of land and he wanted to build a house on it and was willing to pay $80,000 for that house, saying “I thought you may be able to build it along with some help and when you have built it I will pay you the $80,000.” I work out roughly in my mind what the materials will cost and I can see I can get a few of my friends to help me and we will have a good sized check that will see me right through the next evangelistic campaign that I plan to run. Fine! I can just about feel that money in my pockets, so I say “Fine, I’ll build it for you.” It is as good as done, as soon as my holidays come along I will be right along. So as soon as my holidays come I go right along with my hammer and saw and I say we are ready to start. “Alright,” he said, “Come around and I will show you the block of land. But before we go,” he says, “Let me get the plans and specifications.”
“Oh, yes,” I said, “They will come in handy, bring them along.” So we go along and there is the block of land and he hands me over the plans and specifications. I look over the plans, they seem alright. Then I read carefully through the specifications. I notice the first one deals with the height, the length, and the width of the building. That is alright.
I notice the second one deals with the basement. There is a basement 12 by 12 that comes in, yes underneath the bathroom. That sounds alright. The next one deals with the bathroom, I notice there is a shower in the bathroom and so on. The fourth one deals with the exterior of the building. I notice it is to be painted cream, with chocolate facings. The next one deals with the living room, the fireplace and so on. The next one deals with the kind of timber, the roofing, the windows and so on.
Oh, yes, they are all quite clear, so we measure up and I get my friends in and we start right into excavate for the foundations. Then I go down and have a look over and low and behold we have to excavate for that basement, 12 x 12. So we measure again and I say alright friends let us dig this hole out 12 x 12 and 8ft deep. So we start right in and are getting along famously. Oh, I can just about feel that roll of notes in my pocket, we are getting on so well.
But you know we only get down about 1 foot or 2 foot and we run into solid rock. Believe me it is hard. We bash away at it for hours and we hardly make an impression. They say there is only one thing to do, we will either have to get dynamite or a pneumatic drill or something. “Well”, I say, “That is going to take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. Let me think.” I think what on earth does a man want a basement down there for anyway. It is a silly looking thing to have a basement under the house isn’t it. “Oh,” I said, “bother the basement we will get right on without the basement. I don’t see why he wants a basement anyhow.” So we go right ahead. We are getting the house up without the basement and it looks alright. We are getting along quite well and then we need the plumber to come in and fit up the shower in the bathroom and so on. But when he comes along and examines things, he says we are in strife. I asked, “What is the trouble?”
“Well” he said, “The piping had to go down underneath and through the basements, but there is no basement.” He said, “I can’t put in the plumbing.”
I said, “That is awkward, let me think around it for a few minutes.” So I wander around the house and I look underneath. I say, “Come in here, there is plenty of room underneath the living room, we will put the shower in the living room.”
He says, “That is hardly the place for it.”
“Well,” I said, “There will be plenty of room and it is quite easy to get the piping in there. So we will put the shower right there in the living room.”
“Well,” he said, “I don’t think it should go in but if that is where you want it, that is where it will go.” I say, “Fine, you have got to admit it is original. I think that will be quite nice.”
So he fits the shower up very nicely in the living room.
Then we get the bricklayer to come along and put in the chimney and lo and behold the chimney is to go in where we have put the shower. What will we do? So I wonder. “Well,” I say, “We haven’t got anything in the bathroom, we will put the fireplace in the bathroom. It will make a nice cozy little room for the winter. I think they will like it.” “Well,” the bricklayer says, “That is not the place according to the plan.”
I answer, “Bother that old plan, its been getting in the road all the way along.” So he puts the fireplace in the bathroom. He gets that all fitted up nicely. I like it. Then we are getting the building shaped up and it doesn’t look too bad either or at least I think so. Next we have to paint it, so I go along to the paint shop and I say: “Look we are building a house and I want some cream paint and I want some chocolate paint for the facings and so on. Have you any paint? You know I don’t want to pay too much.”
He says, “I am sorry Mr. Burnside, paint has gone up and it is pretty dear.”
“Oh, that is terribly dear.” I can see that roll of notes shrinking all the time. “Haven’t you got anything cheaper?”
“Well,” he says, looking around, “I have a line of old yellow paint here, in fact it has been lying there since before the war, you can have it very cheap. It’s not just your color, but is it any good to you?”
Yellow! Well, yellow has more body in it than cream hasn’t it? And I think of what I am going to save on it. So I say, “Fine, I will take the yellow paint.” So we get the yellow paint and we take it along and on to the building it goes. Ah, the house shines like the rising sun. It is a beauty. And we get the house all finished and so I go along to my friend and say, “We have got your house finished. I have come along for the check.”
“Ah,” my friend says, “You have been quite quick on the job.”
“Yes,” I said, “I have had some good helpers, we pushed it right along and I want you to pay me.”
“Well,” he said, “I will look it over first.” So he picks up his specifications and along we drive and when we turn the corner he gasps. He says “What is that?”
I say, “That is your house.”
“But,” he said “Look at that color? I specified cream and you have it yellow.”
“Well,” I said, “I know it said cream, but you know sir, paint is paint, one paint is as good as another one. What are you getting excited about.”
Everywhere I go and preach this wonderful old message somebody comes along and says, “But Mr. Burnside, you know one day is as good as another, what are you getting excited about? The sun rises on Sunday just the same as it does on the seventh day, a day is a day, one day is as good as another, and the Lord will be just as satisfied with Sunday as He would with the Sabbath.” MY dear friends I can’t convince this owner that one paint is as good as another. You see I have saved a good deal of money, and a lot of people reason that way. They say, “Look it is going to take a good deal of my money if I keep the Sabbath, and I am going to save a lot of money if I keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath.” They reason very much the same as I did with the paint. But, that man is not satisfied. When I try to argue that one paint is as good as another - I won’t tell you just what he said about the paint, but he said, “Come and let us have a look over the house.”
Well, we go into the living room. Oh dear, what follows, why recall? I won’t tell you what he said, and when he saw the bathroom he walked out of that house absolutely disgusted. After he had cooled off a little I went over and I said, “Well sir, can I have my check.”
He said, “Listen, Mr. Burnside, I agreed with you to pay you a certain sum of money on condition that you built that house according to the specifications.” He said, “You haven’t met one of them.” Listen friends, away back there the God of heaven gave ten specifications that would build a perfect man. Mankind broke those specifications, the same way as I broke them in the building. The man said, “I offered to pay you that sum of money on condition you built according to the specifications.” “But,” he said, “You have broken everyone of the specifications.”
I think for a moment, then I say, “Yes, sir, those old specifications were the humbug all the way along. If it hadn’t been for those I could have had the house up in half the time.” I say, “Burn the old specifications. They have been the trouble all along. Get rid of them. Burn them.”
“But,” he said, “Listen, Mr. Burnside, burning the specifications won’t right the house. That house looks as though it would blow down in the first decent wind.” Honestly, if we burn the specifications, would that right the house? Would it? Listen - God gave ten specifications back there that were going to build a perfect man. Because man failed to meet those specifications men say, “Well, abolish the law.” But abolishing the law won’t build a good man will it? It won’t make dishonest men, honest. Arid when I come to the place where I am absolutely hopeless and discouraged I can see that everything we have done is gone. The man said, “Well, Mr. Burnside, I am sorry, I really want to help you. I might have known that a preacher couldn’t build a house at any rate. But I will tell you what I will do. I am also a Master builder and I am going to come right along now and help you. I am going to show you where to put every cut and where to drive every nail and when it is finished I will pay you the money.” And this time we succeed. That is exactly what God did under the New Covenant. For where man miserably failed the great Master Builder is right there to help us and to show us exactly what to do and to give us the power to do it and the wonder of it all is, when Jesus does all that for us and with us, when all is finished we get the credit of doing it. For where He writes of His people down in the last days and He says, “Here are they that keep the commandments,” and He says those that keep the commandments are going right through into the land of glory and yet it is the power of Christ only flowing through those people that helps them to do so. Don’t you see that? It is the only way they can ever do it and so my dear friends, if you feel discouraged remember that the great Master Builder is right there to meet your needs and to supply the power that you didn’t have. When Christ comes into a man’s heart He makes a difference.
Psalm 40:7,8 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Jesus had the law of God in His heart, and if Jesus has that law in His heart and He comes into your life and into mine, will the law be there too? Sure, it will be right there and in that way He writes it in our hearts. That is the only way that any man or woman can keep the commandments of God. Thus through the terms of the New Covenant, when we let Christ come into our lives, He will write His law in our hearts and He will be merciful to our iniquities, and will grant us forgiveness. When we make a mistake He will give us power to start off all over again. He will be merciful and lie will write His law into out, hearts. Those people down there in the last days who keep the commandments of God have also the faith of Jesus for Jesus will be right down there too, and that is the way they are enabled to walk with Him. Always remember, when Jesus comes into a heart and into a life He makes a difference.
Over there in Chicago a few years ago, a man was counting a large sum of money on the counter. He was called away to an urgent telephone message and when he came back he was horrified to see that he had left the sum of money lying on the counter. While he was away a man had come into the shop. He was very thankful to see that he was an honest man and the money was safe. He didn’t realize that that man who had entered the shop had served a term in prison for robbing a building in the very same block of buildings that he was now in. In fact he had been such a thief that he had spent more time in prison than he had in freedom. In fact he had been such a thief he not only stole out of prison, he stole in prison. In telling his experience he said how that he and another criminal under guard were unloading turkeys for thanksgiving dinner for the guards, and when the guards were not looking he slipped one under his coat and kept it.
He stole in prison and he stole out of prison and he got to that place where he was declared an habitual criminal. As soon as he was released from prison the police were on his track and they would push him over the state border. The police in that state in turn tracked him until they too pushed him over another border. The man was lonely and he was discouraged. He was also cold and he was hungry and one winters night he was getting along a street in old Chicago. A little further on he saw a lighted door and people were singing and there was a notice up, “Welcome.” So he thought anyway I will get in out of the cold, so he slipped in and sat down on the back seat and lo and behold men were getting up and testifying of what Christ had done for them. And when the evangelist made a call the man got up and walked down to the front and said, “If anybody needs Christ, it is me.” Later he had a talk and study with the evangelist and just as fully as that man knew how, he gave his life to Christ arid when Christ came into that man’s heart he gave him power to keep the commandments. He wrote the commandments into that man’s heart. - “Thou shall not steal.”
Before that man just couldn’t leave things alone that weren’t his. But when Christ came into his life he wrote that law into his heart and the man could keep it and so when he walks into that office and there was this large sum of money lying on the counter unattended it was safe, for Christ had changed his life. When Jesus comes into a life He makes a difference, doesn’t he? He changes things. People in the last days will be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They will be under the New Covenant.
When you think of just what Jesus suffered in order to give to you and to me the terms of the New Covenant we ought to love him, shouldn’t we? Turn to the book of Hebrews. Let us read something. I often think of this text. Hebrews 10:26-29 “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” You see this is telling of the New Covenant and the amazing work of Jesus. Another translation says, “Those that have trodden under foot have spurned the Son of God.” Any man or any woman today that is breaking the commandments of God is spurning the blood of Jesus, isn’t that so? Why? Because if you will allow Jesus after suffering all of that to bring in the New Covenant, if you will allow Jesus to come into your hearts he will give you power to keep it. But, if you are sinning, if you are breaking the Commandments Of God it is because you are spurning the blood of the New Covenant and you are trampling underfoot Jesus and his work. And God said that you will face it at the judgment bar of God. It is a fearful thing to despise the blood of the New Covenant. Jesus went through all of that so that you might have power to live the Commandments of God.
That you may have a place in the land of glory. And if ever you are tempted to sin think of what Jesus went through that you and I may have the privilege of entering into the blessings of the New Covenant. Every time you sin it is just as though you went forward and struck Jesus again in the face. Sin took His life on Calvary and this side of Calvary as we look into the face of Jesus, we can’t sin, can we? We can’t go on doing it in the face of that love and that sacrifice. We give ourselves to Him and we ask Him to come into our lives and enable us to live above the sin that took His life on the cross, don’t we? Oh, let us seek Him, let us live for Him, let us love Him and keep His Commandments.