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What Old Testament Promises Are for Me? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Today's question is one I can certainly relate to myself. I read my Bible
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  in the morning, I come across a promise or a text in the Old
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  Testament. I write it out in a notebook. I take that text or
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  that promise into my day. But later in the day, when I return
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  to the text, I'm left wondering if I lifted the verse out of context
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  and maybe it doesn't really apply to my life like I first thought it did
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  that morning. Many texts to me feel more and more remote as the day
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  goes on. Has that happened to you? Well, it certainly happened to
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  me, and it's happened to marine, she writes, tend to ask this,
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  Pasture John, thank you for the Ask Pastor John podcast. How do
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  I know which Old Testament verses are for me? As a Christian? Today?
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  Sometimes I select a verse that is meaningful to me for my Bible reading
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  in the morning, But then later in the day, as I later reflect
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  on it, it feels like I lifted the verse out of context and misapplied
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  it to myself. How, Pastor John, do I know which Old test
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  promises are for me? Well, I'm tempted to say, even though I
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  know it's an oversimplification. All of it, all of it is for you.
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  All of the Old Testament is for Christians. Romans fifteen four says,
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  whatever underline that word, whatever was written in former days, was written for
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  our instruction, that through the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures,
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  we would have hope. All of it tewod Corinthians one twenty. All the
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  promises of God find there yes in Christ. Jesus said in Matthew five P's
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  seventeen. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the
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  prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
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  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
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  not one iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all
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  is accomplished. So even though it's an oversimplification, it's true. It's true
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  in a wonderful way, that all of the Old Testament is for those who
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  are in Christ. Jesus he came. He came to confirm and fulfill all
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  of it for his people. Two Timothy three sixteen. All scripture is breathed
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  out by God and profitable. That's important. It's all profitable for teaching for
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  reproof for correction, and training in righteousness that the Man of God may be
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  complete equipped for every good work. It's practical and profitable. But the reason
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  it's an oversimplification to say that it's all for us is that, yes,
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  some very profound changes in the way we use the Old Testament scripture took place
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  when Jesus came into the world, was rejected by Israel, established a new
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  covenant by his blood, different from the old covenant, the Mosaic Covenant,
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  and said now I will build my church. He did not say now I
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  will restore Israel. So maybe what would be helpful for marine and for me,
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  maybe others too, I hope so is to list the differences between the
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  people of God the Church today and the people of God Israel in the Old
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  Testament, and how God relates differently to each. These points can then function
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  as a kind of filter. At least this is the way I function in
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  reading the Old Testament. I have a filter, and I put things through
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  this filter to know how I embrace them, how I apply them in my
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  life. So that's what I hope will happen now as I walk through these
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  points of difference between Israel and the Church, because we're the Church and we
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  need a filter to know of what proper use to make of Old Testament teachings.
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  So Number one, Israel was an earthly political nation state among other political
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  nation states, but the Church is not. It is a people whose citizenship
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  is in Heaven, and who are so journals and exiles here scattered among all
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  the nation states. Christians are not first citizens of earthly states, but only
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  secondarily citizens of nation states. We are more closely related to Christians of other
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  political countries than we are unbelieving fellow citizens in our own earthly country. Number
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  two Israel was an earthly government authorized by God as a theocracy to carry out
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  God's punishments for those who broke his law, including capital punishment for idolatry and
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  various other sins. The Church is not a civil government and is not authorized
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  as a church to carry out God's punishments. Excommunication from the Church through church
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  discipline replaces execution through the judicial processes. Number three Israel was basically one ethnicity,
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  the Jewish people, but the Church is made up of all ethnicities.
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  So the kinds of food, laws and circumcision, for example, and other
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  practices that were designed to separate Israel from the surrounding people's ethnicities have been done
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  away with as requirements for God's people. Number four, Israel had defined geographic
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  borders and a geographic religious center where the tabernacle or the temple was. The
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  Church has no geographic borders or religious center where the people of God are gathered
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  in the name of Jesus, there is the center. There is Christ in
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  the midst Five people were born into the Jewish people, but people are born
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  again into the Church. The New Covenant is entered by the miracle of God's
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  forgiving sins through faith and through God's writing the Law on our hearts. That's
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  the New Covenant. Six. The Old Testament religion was mainly a come see
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  religion, while the New Testament religion was mainly is mainly a go tell religion.
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  There was no great commission to go reach the nations. In the Old
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  Testament, God's focus was on blessing Israel among the nations, so that the
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  Queen of the South came and had her breath taken away by Solomon's wealth.
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  But God never said to Solomon, use your wealth to evangelize the nations.
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  But that is precisely what he says to us. In the New Testament.
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  Seven, the people of Israel maintained their fellowship with God by regular sacrifices ministered
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  by a select levitical priesthood. But that entire system was done away with when
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  Jesus fulfilled it by becoming the final sacrifice and by acting as the final high
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  priest. In the New Covenant, people, we get right with God and
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  maintain our fellowship with God by t trusting the substitutionary work of Christ and by
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  depending on His daily intercession for us in heaven. And I think number eight
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  is the last one. The people of God in the Old Testament did experience
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  the working of the Spirit of God, but they did not experience or know
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  the Spirit as the indwelling spirit of the risen Christ. Today we know the
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  Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. He works in his Church, therefore
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  in a way that he did not work in the Old Testament, because the
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  Church is his body, the body of the risen Christ. So my hope
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  for Maureen and all of us is that with this filter, these eight points,
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  we can take any text in the Old Testament and make it our own
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  by treating it as fulfilled in Christ with the necessary changes implied in those points.
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  For example, Psalm fifty one ends like this. It's kind of a
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  surprising end to a psalm that we love until we get to the last paragraph,
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  which goes like this, do good to Zion in your good pleasure,
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  build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices,
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  in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your
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  altar. Well, it come to the Usum fifty one. This is exalting,
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  this is mine, this is mine. And then you read those words
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  and say, what what am I supposed to do? We do that?
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  So how are we to embrace that text as ours. Zion was the geographic
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  center of God's people, standing for the presence of God among these people.
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  And today we would embrace that commitment to God to his people and say,
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  do good to your church, o Lord, wherever it is gathered in your
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  holy name, build up the body of Christ, and make your presence felt
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  everywhere that your people are centered on you. And then we would come to
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  the end and we would conclude with, oh, how I delight in the
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  one great final sacrifice for sin that your son offered. We glory with you
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  in that final fulfillment of every bull that was ever offered on your altar,
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  and we give ourselves to you as a living sacrifice for your glory. Very
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  helpful grid here and helpful example as well. Thank you, Pastor John.
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  I want to reiterate at the end the importance of those two texts that you
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  mentioned at the very start, Romans fifteen four and Second Corinthians one twenty,
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  Absolutely essential texts and framing this entire discussion. If you haven't spent time getting
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  those two texts really clear in your own mind, I would recommend that you
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  rehearse them, memorize them, get them deep into your mind and your heart
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  and your soul. Romance fifteen four and Second Corinthians one twenty. Thank you,
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  Estor John, and thank you for joining us today. If you want
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  to ask Pastor John, email your question to us, said, ask Pastor
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  John at Desiring good dot org. Next week we talk about joy. Joy
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  Is is joy a choice we make? Or is joy a feeling that sometimes
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  comes and goes? That's the question up next time. I'm your host,
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  Tony Ranky. See you Monday.