The ancient covenant.
I. THE OBJECT OF THE COVENANT. This was to secure obedience. No covenant was required on God's side, since he is ever willing to bless and changeless in his beneficence. But for the sake of men's faith and to secure their allegiance God graciously condescended to enter into covenant bonds. It is therefore foolish to claim the fulfillment of God's promises irrespective of our conduct. They are covenant promises—i.e. conditional and assured on certain terms. If we break the terms we can no longer expect the fulfillment of the promises.
II. THE SANCTIONS OF THE COVENANT.
1. The obligations of gratitude. The past mercies of God are recited; e.g. deliverance from Egypt.
2. Promises of future good. If faithful, Israel was to take possession of the "land flowing with milk and honey."
3. Threats in ease of disobedience. If they proved unfaithful, the people were to find the land of premise full of troubles, and ultimately to be expelled from it (Deuteronomy 28:15).
4. Constant Divine pleading. The covenant could not lapse through forgetfulness. Prophets were sent again and again to urge its claims on the people (Jeremiah 11:7).
III. THE OBLIGATION OF THE COVENANT. This was an ancient covenant; yet it was still binding. God was still fulfilling his part in blessing his people. The obligation was not such as time could affect. What is inherently right once is right eternally. Truth does not lose force with age. The Bible contains covenants which age has made venerable, but not feeble. Its commands and promises are eternally fresh and living, and when the merely local and personal exterior is laid aside, the essence of them applies as much to us as to the Jews. The appetite for mere novelty which characterizes much intellectual inquiry in the present day, as it did that of the Athenians of St. Paul's age (Acts 17:21), ignores the fact that the most important question is "What is true?" not "What is new?" Old familiar truths must be noticed that they may be remembered and practiced, though of course not to the exclusion of new truths. The New Testament does not abolish but perfects the spiritual truth of the old. It contains that and more.
IV. THE BREACH OF THE COVENANT. The people are accused of disobeying the precepts of the covenant (Jeremiah 11:8). Disobedience involved both the loss of the promised blessings and the execution of the threatened curses. They who accept special privileges incur special obligations. They who enter into a Divine covenant will be judged by the terms of that covenant. Christians will be judged, not simply by the common law of righteousness in conscience and nature, but by the special requirements of the New Testament, i.e. of the covenant of Christianity.