0:00 I'd like to finish, hopefully God willing, the message I started last week on the New Covenant. The secret of the New Covenant is essentially this, is that Jesus Christ is my model. 0:20 That means, for example, before I say something to you or text something to you or email something to you or post something on Viber or post on Facebook, I actually model Jesus doing that very thing. Saying those very words with the same intent and motive and attitude that I'm about to. 0:42 And it's not, like I said last week, it's not an imagination. I think, well, what would Jesus do? I really have a conviction, which is quite different from imagination. A conviction about Jesus, what Jesus would actually do. 0:54 And I know how to do it. Or, and I don't know if you guys have been practically doing this, I have been. When I stand in front of the mirror in the morning and get dressed, comb my hair, and whatever, getting ready. I picture these clothes are going on Jesus. 1:09 Because, that verse in Galatians 2, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And if it's really Christ living in me, it's Christ on whom I'm putting these clothes on. How would I dress Christ if He was actually here? 1:23 And that applies to men and women alike. If Christ has commanded something to us and says, this is how you must live, the reason He has said so is because of this. Because now it's not just you that's obeying this command. 1:36 It's Christ in you. And where the world, like we've been hearing all morning, looks at us, they ought to be able to see, oh, this is how Christ would dress. This is how Christ would speak. This is how Christ would post. 1:48 This is how Christ would live. And so we saw that Christ is our model. And just like Jesus was the light of the world when He was here, we are now the light of the world. And that new covenant mindset is tested in the least of the commandments. 2:03 There are many, many commandments in the new covenant. Some which we consider great, some which we consider little. Even Jesus said there are little commandments and great commandments. But to the new covenant minded person, even the great commandments and the little commandments are important, equally important in value. 2:22 Because the God who gave even the great commandments and the least commandments is the same, the unchanging God. And so if I see a little verse in 1 Corinthians 11 that says, when a woman prays or prophesies, she must have her head covered. 2:34 Or a man, when he prays or prophesies, should not have his head covered. It's only mentioned once, but it's a little commandment. A little commandment you can say, but a great God who gave that little commandment. That's why we take that command seriously in this church. 2:47 And you can look at all the commandments. And sure, it's mentioned once, maybe it's mentioned in passing. But if it's a commandment and we see that principle mentioned in scripture, we take it seriously. We don't make it bigger like, again, I talked about crossing the T's and dotting the I's. 3:02 When we dot the I's, we don't make the dot so big that it obscures everything else on the page. And we don't make the line across the T so big that it crosses out everything in the page. But we still need it there in its proportion and in its size. 3:16 So, and we talked about this also in Revelation, how there's the bride of Christ that's there standing at the altar in the wedding feast of the Lamb. And then the friends of the bridegroom, like John the Baptist, call himself. 3:28 Are you a friend of the bridegroom? Sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? But you know that your calling in the new covenant, if you have entered the new covenant, is something far greater than just a friend of the bridegroom. 3:39 You're the bride! Do you want to just be an attendee at the wedding reception or do you want to get married? And if we've seen the joy of being married to Jesus, his commandments are not burdensome. And all of a sudden this new covenant and the commandments of the new covenant come alive and they're fresh. 3:57 And there's a joy that's around it. We'll look at that some more today. And I believe the distinction between the two is that the bride were overcomers. They sought God's highest. They said, Lord, if it means it's a least commandment, but that's how I will attain your highest, then I want it. 4:13 And I want to value it with that same value. The others just professed to be Christians. And they were invited to the wedding reception. But it's quite a different experience standing here at the wedding, being in the wedding, and just being an attendee at the wedding. 4:29 And those people, I believe, were ones who, maybe they were truly born again and they will be in heaven. But they thought, what can I get away with on earth while I'm here? What's the minimum I have to do to get into heaven? 4:40 Enjoy this world and enjoy heaven. That mindset is the difference between the people in the crowd in heaven and the people who are the bride of Christ. If you read the Bible carefully, I believe that confirms what I've just said. 4:53 I showed you those verses. I want you to turn to Luke chapter 15. I'm going to look at something here that I've started to see in a little bit of a new light. It's a passage of scripture that's well known to all of you, I believe. 5:10 But in this story, this is a story of the son who ran away from home. It's actually a story about three people. The father and two of his sons. The younger son who ran away tends to get the majority of the focus when we read this. 5:26 For most people who read this story, the young son gets the majority of the focus. In fact, I have little subheadings in my Bible and it's called the prodigal son. But I believe the story is about so much more than that. 5:38 And I have seen the new covenant and the old covenant and that journey of coming out of the old covenant into the new covenant contrasted in this story very beautifully. And that's what I'd like to share with you today. 5:51 Now, I'll summarize the story in the interest of time. There was a man who had two sons. And it's important for us to see that the focus of the story is the man in the story, not his two sons. The man, the story starts with the man. 6:05 If you read all three of those parables, the man who had a sheep, the woman who had the coin, and the man who had two sons. The story is about them. And that's why the picture there, especially in this last parable, is God. 6:20 God is that man, that father who had two sons. God is our father. So this father, the story is about him and his purpose with mankind. And it ends, it begins and ends with the man. So it begins with the storyteller saying a man had two sons. 6:40 And it ends with the words of this man. So it's very important to us to remember that the story is about that man. But this man had two sons. And at some point, one of the younger sons said, give me my inheritance. I'm out of here. 6:51 He went. And the father said, okay, I'm not going to force you and twist you. I'm sure he tried to implore him, plead with him, like we're told to do as fathers, interceding for him. He says, please don't leave. Don't you want to stay here? 7:06 And it grieved his father's heart. But at the end of the day, the father said, you can go. I'm not going to force myself on you. That's exactly how God is. He doesn't force himself on any of mankind. He's given us free will. 7:18 He doesn't take away that free will. That younger son had the free will to choose to leave. And the father knew what was going to happen to him. How he was just going to come to an end of himself, lose his senses, eat pig's food or worse. 7:32 He knew all of that. And he said, I hope you won't choose it. But if you really want to, okay, go ahead and choose that life. And he let him go. And so the younger son went out and had a great time for a long period of time. 7:44 And eventually, his money ran out. There was a famine in the land. And he came to nothing. He's dressed in rags, working. And the pigs were eating his food. And the way I understand it, that the owner of the pigs said, I don't even have, I have, this food is for the pigs. 8:00 It's not even for you, which means I value you worse than my pigs, you whom I'm employing to feed my pigs. That food's for them. Don't you dare touch it. And he was longing to eat even the pigs' food, such an empty place. 8:14 And then he says, he came to his senses. He says, why am I sitting here longing for pigs' food when I could go to my father's house? So he went back to his father's house. The father saw him coming from a long distance and ran. 8:27 The only place in the Bible where we pictured God running. God, the almighty, king of kings, lord of lords, seated on the throne of God, on his throne, getting up from his throne and running and embracing him. You know, he probably had to hold his nose. 8:40 And the father who lived in such cleanliness and health and was healthy had to go and embrace this stinky, wretched son of his. But he did. And he brought him in and showered him, put a nice robe on him, put the ring on his finger and threw a feast for him. 8:59 And then you know the story about that older son that came in from the fields working hard, this younger boy's older brother. And heard the festivities and said, man, what's this going on? Found out that this younger son who had been out there wasting his money, wasting the father's money, had come back and the father had thrown a big feast for him. 9:20 And all kinds of thoughts went through this older son's head, but how he had not done those other things. And he had not wasted the father's money and he had been good with it. He worked hard. But inside, inside, inside, this older son was in the far off country. 9:37 You see that? The younger son was physically in the far off country. The older son was physically in the father's house, but inside he was in the far off country. And this is what Jesus meant when he said, first clean the inside of the cup and then the outside will be clean as well. 9:53 First, let that inner place of where you are be clean. It's not as important if you're physically in the father's house, if inside you're not there. And that was the problem with the older son. Physically, he was in his father's house, fulfilling the conditions that his father required of him, showing up for work, doing whatever he needed to do. 10:13 He's there for every meal. When they had prayer time, he was there. But the whole time, his heart was with his younger son. So the way the story is presented to us, there were really two sons who were in the far off country. 10:28 So let me replay the story, if you will, this way. Two sons went out into the far off country. One of them physically and the other spiritually. Inside, the younger son was also with his older son, was with his younger brother in the far off country, all while being in his father's house. 10:47 One son came back, the younger son. The older son remained in the far off country. And that's why when the younger son came back, he was angry that this younger son got to experience all the things in the far off country. 11:01 And this older brother, whose heart was really there, didn't get to have all that fun, but he longed for it. That's the difference between the two stories. Now let me rewind the story a little bit and put it this way. The two sons, I believe, when they were in their father's house before the younger son left, both had an old covenant mindset. 11:22 Both of them did. The father said, let's say, hey, work starts at eight o'clock. You guys, I'm not going to come there and wake you up, but you need to be there. You're my sons and you have your bedrooms and all that. But he told them the night before, let's say, we've got to start work at eight o'clock because you are my sons. 11:38 We have a business that we run here. We've got to take care of the farm or whatever it is the father did. And so he told them, show up at eight o'clock. And they did. The older son and the younger son, these are the commandments of my father. 11:51 And so they showed up at eight o'clock. And both of them were like, I'd rather sleep in. I'd rather go and hang out with my friends at eight o'clock in the morning. But they were both there. They showed up for work day in, day out. 12:02 And finally, one of them just got sick of this. He said, my father's commandments are burdensome to me. He tells me to show up at work every day at eight o'clock. And he doesn't even give me my money. I don't get any payment. 12:15 I don't get to have a party with my friends. I look at all my other friends, my neighbors. I see them having parties. But all I do is work, work, work, work, work. I get Saturday off. And even then, there's things to do around the house. 12:26 Sunday, we go to church meeting together. But Monday, it's back to work at eight o'clock in the morning. I'm sick of this. I'm sick of your commandments, father, telling me what I should do and what I shouldn't do. I'm old enough to choose for myself. 12:38 I'm out of here. That's the reason why the younger son left. He had an all-covenant mindset towards the commandments of his father. These commandments said, I have to. My father says, I have to be there at eight o'clock, so I have to be there at eight o'clock. 12:55 I'll get in trouble if I don't. I will be punished if I don't show up at eight o'clock. This is the all-covenant mindset. The result was this. Let me show you in Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, Paul talks about the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. 13:13 Life in the old covenant compared with life in the new covenant. So the father gave these commandments, hoping that through those commandments, they would see the joy of working with the father. At whatever time. If he said eight o'clock, sure, let it be eight o'clock. 13:30 He hoped that in these commandments, they would learn the joy of doing the work of the father. Jesus said in John 8 or John 9, I think, my father is always working and I must too. At the age of 12, Jesus understood, you read in Luke 2, I must be about my father's work, my father's business. 13:51 So the father gave these commandments to his sons and what we see here in Romans 7, the result of those commandments is explained here in Romans 7 verse 8. Verse 7, let's begin reading this. So this inner attitude, this inner filthiness of the cup, as it were, 14:34 that was there in both the older son and the younger son, would not have been manifest if the father hadn't given the law. This rebellious, I want to do whatever I want attitude would never have manifested if the father had never said eight o'clock. 14:49 If the father said, hey, show up whenever, whatever time is convenient for you, come, we'll work. Then that attitude of I want to do what I want to do, Santosh likes to do what Santosh likes to do, nobody tells him what to do, would never have been manifest. 15:03 And it's that attitude, that selfish, self-centered nature in my mind that God wants to set me free from. And if you look at the story, you'll see that I think the younger son got freed from that nature through his going out into the world and making a mess of his life. 15:19 The older son could have been freed from that nature as well if he had seen the new covenant, if he had gotten to know his father and his father's heart of love. So, the result was this, sin, verse 8, and this was the case, this was especially the case with the younger son. 15:38 Sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, the father moved the show up date, or show up time from 8 o'clock to 7.45 one morning. And finally the younger son said, I've had it. 8 o'clock, now you move it to 7.45, fine, I'm out of here. 15:54 I think that's probably what happened. So, sin in the younger son, taking opportunity through the commandment, the commandment, the father said, you know what, I'm finding that we're running out of time. Let's move it a little bit ahead, for our own good. 16:08 I'll be there too, the father was saying. But you, hey guys, tomorrow it's 7.45. And those two sons went to bed, 7.45, can't believe it. 15 more minutes of my sleep is robbed from me. These commandments of my father are burdensome, I'm leaving. 16:23 The other son, I don't know why he didn't leave. Maybe he didn't have the guts to, or he was a hypocrite. He says, I'll show up at 7.45, but in my heart, I'm still in bed. You know that story, I probably told it to you before, of the son who was punished, or the son was told by his mother, 16:39 hey, Johnny, sit down. Why do we always pick Johnny, by the way? Let's pick some other thing. Okay, son, sit down. And the son says, I'm not going to sit down. And the mom says, son, sit down. I'm not going to sit down. 16:52 Son, sit down, or you're going to get a spanking. And so he sits down, and then he tells his mom, I'm sitting down, but inside I'm still standing up, because I don't want the punishment. This was the older son, showing up at 7.45, but in his heart, he was still in bed at 8 o'clock. 17:09 Ah, I got to work, 7.45. Thinking about all the extra sleep he missed. The younger son had the honesty to just say, I'm done with this. I'm just going to go where I don't have to be a hypocrite, and left. So sin, verse 8, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting. 17:26 Coveting is like the highest form of sin that Paul uses here. Sin of every kind. So much so that the younger son went out and left his father's house. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was once, verse 9, alive apart from the law. 17:42 But when the commandment came, when the father said 7.45, sin became alive, and I died. And this younger son went out, my son who was dead is now alive, the father says. So this younger son went out and died in a sense, you can say. 17:58 And this commandment, the father had hoped that through him moving the start date to 7.45, I would see his heart. And I would see how it'll actually be good for me to show up at 7.45, then at 8, because the father said so, and this commandment which was intended to result in life. 18:17 Now you know what I'm doing here, right church? I'm using this story in Luke 15 as a picture of the commandments that the father gives us. That we can look at it and say, be, you know, rejoice in the Lord always again. I say rejoice. 18:30 Ah, that's a heavy commandment. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything with prayer and supplication, make your request known to the Lord. This is like the father moving the start time ahead. Do not grumble and complain. 18:44 Do everything without grumbling or complaining. All these little, little commandments. You can think of all different ones in the new covenant. This commandment which was supposed to result in life, all of the commandments of God, in all of his commandments actually, but especially for us in the new covenant, they're intended to give us life. 19:03 These are words of eternal life. And when we see the commandment that God gives us, no matter what it is, whether I think of it as a little one or as a big one, it's intended to give me life. This commandment which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. 19:18 So here was the father saying, you will actually have a more fruitful life, sons, if you get up at 745. And in both of their cases, it resulted in death. The older one stayed at home but left. The younger one left and left. 19:32 Resulted in death for me. Because, verse 11, sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Why did the younger son leave the father's house? I believe it was because of the father's commandment. 19:50 The father giving his younger son, his two children, commandments, intending for those commandments to give them life. And the result was death in both of their cases. And this is what Paul's talking about here. Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 20:07 So then, was it the father's fault for moving the start time to 745? Well, if you look at it from an outward case, sure. Because if he hadn't moved it to 745, the younger son would still be there, right? It was immediately after the father moved the start time to 745 that the younger son finally went away. 20:25 And this is what Paul is saying here again. Is the law bad? Should the father have rethought, you know what, I could probably have just let it be 8 o'clock. Maybe an unwise father would have said, hey, hey, hey, no, okay, okay, son, hang on, hang on. 20:39 I know your problem, 745, right? Okay, 8 o'clock. In fact, you know what, I'll give you an extra 15 minutes. 8.15. A lot of Christians, I believe, have this attitude and this perspective of God that if I stiffen my neck and grumble and complain, 20:53 somehow he'll say, okay, you know, that's fine. Don't take that commandment seriously. I didn't really mean it. That's fine. That's fine. 8.15. What would have happened if the father had looked at the younger son? The younger son, the younger son said, you know what, you feel like you're always moving the star time earlier. 21:08 You're always giving me more work. I don't have any money. And the father said, okay, fine, man. I'll give you an allowance. Show up at 8.15. That younger son would never have left, but that inside of the cup would have remained dirty. 21:20 And so the father, perhaps in his wisdom, knew that this time was coming if I keep working with my sons this way and giving them commandments that they may resent it and say, fine, get me out of here. And they did. So is the law. 21:33 The law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous in good. Verse 13. Therefore, did that which is good, this commandment of the father, become a cause of death for me? May it never be. You can't blame the father's commandment for why the younger son left. 21:48 You see what he's saying there. Rather, it was sin. Rather, the father allowed this law, the commandment. He moved it to 7.45 so that this sin would become exceedingly sinful, it says in some translations. Let's read that whole verse. 22:06 So let me explain it and then I'll read the verse so you see it there in God's word. That the father said, I sense that my two children are here. My two sons are here reluctantly. I want them to see what's in their own hearts. 22:19 So I'm going to move this time to 7.45. And the moment he did, the sin in both of them became manifest. One of them covered it up and pretended like everything was okay, but he was living in sin in the inside. The other just went out and sinned. 22:34 That's the younger son. So this is, you can't blame the father's commandment for it, but this is what we see here. Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me? It may never be. Rather, it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin by affecting my death through that which is good, 22:53 so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. The father wanted to show these two sons how sinful their inside was, even though they were both in his home. And he wanted them to be cleansed of that mentality that is not united with him in his work and his kingdom, his house. 23:13 So here was the father with two sons who were physically in his house, but they didn't really want to be there. They obeyed his commandments, but they didn't really want to. And the father said, I've got to deal with that. 23:22 I've got to deal with the heart of the issue. I want to deal with the root of this problem, so I'm going to test it by raising the standard. And this is exactly what God has done in the new covenant. Read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. 23:36 Under the old covenant, you were told, we were told, us as well, do not commit adultery. That's like saying 8 o'clock. Do not commit adultery. What does Jesus say? You were told, do not commit adultery. But I say to you, my real heart, if you really want to know it, if you really want to come into the new covenant, 23:54 if you've gone out and wasted your time in the far off country, but now you're coming back and say, Father, I want to interact with you on the basis of this new covenant. He says, guess what? 5 a.m. You cannot even lust. 24:07 You can't even think that adulterous thought in your mind. Let's dig into this a little bit more. So, the old covenant mindset says, I have to. If I don't, I will be punished. And the result was sin became a lie. That sin which was there manifested itself, reared its ugly head. 24:28 It's like having a snake that's coiled up in the dark shadows, and all of a sudden the light is shining into those shadows. How? Through some circumstance. Somebody says something or does something, and all of a sudden this serpent rears its ugly head. 24:41 And you think, whoa, where did that come from? And Jesus, God, in his love for us, allows his light to shine into these little corners of our heart so that sin will rear its ugly head and show me that it was there all along in this neatly organized and swept and dusted home in that dark corner that I've been afraid to go into. 24:59 There's a snake lying there, and it reared its ugly head when I was provoked. That snake, you know, snakes, they're a good picture of sin because, for the most part, if you leave them alone, they'll kind of hide themselves, 25:10 at least in their interactions with human beings. But you provoke them, ah, they'll strike at you. That's sin that's hidden. It likes to remain there, but God loves us enough. It's like a cancer that's dormant, and God allows those little things to show up to manifest those cancers in us to say, I want you to deal with it. 25:29 Because if you don't deal with it, one day that snake will come back to bite you. So, now the sinful mindset, which was manifest in the younger son, after he left the home, was, I don't have to. Nobody tells me what to do. 25:43 And the result of that was what he says later in Romans 8, verse 2, he calls the law of sin and death. Unlicensed sin. Go out there and sin all you want. Nobody's even going to check up on you. There was no father to watch over the younger son when he was in the far-off country. 26:01 He was all by himself. He could get drunk and get drunk again and get drunk some more and get drunk some more and nobody would ever tell him anything. Unlicensed sin. He could sleep around. He could sin in all kinds of ways. 26:13 He could spend his money on this and spend his money on that. Where if he was still in the father's house, the moment he tried to spend the money, the father would say, hey, why are you spending it on that? That's a waste of your money. 26:23 No, let's save it. Let's invest it in something that's useful. In the far-off country with unlicensed sin. There was no check. Nobody tried to tell the younger son what he could and couldn't do. This is the law of sin and death. 26:37 Unlicensed sin. Well, then the younger son came back, as I've told you. He came back. I imagine him coming back on a Saturday evening. After just being tired of himself, he walks and walks and walks. Shows up on a Saturday evening. 26:52 They have a feast Saturday night. It's a great time of festivities. Sunday morning, maybe they go to a church together. Church meeting together. The father, and he can't wait to proudly proclaim and praise God in the midst of his people for his younger son, 27:05 who was once dead and is now alive, who was lost and is now found. What did Monday morning look like in the father's house? This is the question, I think, that I've been meditating on, pondering over as we seek to understand the new covenant. 27:22 What does Monday morning look like in the father's house after the younger son has come back? Now, the younger son, again, put yourself in his shoes. He's been used to a life where he does whatever he wants. Nobody tells him what to do and says, you're not going to do that to me. 27:37 You're not going to tell me what to do. I'm an adult. I have free will. I have my own convictions. I'm going to live by my convictions. Nobody tells me what to do and what not to do. And he comes back to his father's house now, empty, broken. 27:49 He came back for food. But what does Monday morning look like in the father's house? I'll tell you what it looks like, I believe. The father goes to work at whatever time he goes to work. On Sunday night, the father says, hey, welcome home, son. 28:05 Guess what? Life has continued here just as normal. After you left, my father's always working, Jesus said. My sin and my wasting of my time and all of that didn't change the fact that the father was still fulfilling his purpose on this earth. 28:18 His building of the kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit has not stopped from the moment it was inaugurated when the veil was rent. Jesus made a new and living way into the father's house. So he told his two sons. I don't know if the older son was still there. 28:31 Maybe he was. But maybe he had already left. But he at least told the younger son, hey, guess what? It's Sunday night now. And I know you've been living a life where you did willy-nilly whatever you wanted to do. But this is still my house. 28:43 And the laws haven't changed. In fact, while you were gone, I raised the start time to 7 a.m. What do you think the younger son thought? See, if we don't understand this and if we miss it, I think we will go back and forth and say, wait a minute. 28:58 What do I really want? Do I want that where I can sleep until 11 a.m.? Or do I want this? I come back and I find that after I went out and wasted my life, the father's raised the standard. He used to allow me to lust as long as I didn't commit adultery. 29:15 Not that God wanted that, but he allowed it under the old covenant. Now he says you can't even lust. If I don't really understand the new covenant and if I haven't understood the father's heart, I'm going to look at that and think, ah, I just want to go back to that life. 29:29 I'll give you a confession, my dear brothers and sisters. I'm a little bit ashamed to acknowledge it, but I think you can relate to it. I've gone in and out of the father's house many times like that. Because I found that the father gave me the standard that the reason I left in the first place wasn't dealt with all along. 29:47 This selfish, self-centered, rebellious nature that does what it wants to do and does not submit to the authority God has placed it under is still very much there. And I went in and out and in and out. And this insubmissive nature, unsubmissive nature, this unbroken attitude was still there. 30:07 And so I found that I tried it for a little while, 7 a.m. And I went out there, tried 7 a.m., but my heart was thinking about, man, it's the first time I had to wake up at 7 o'clock. First time I've had to set an alarm clock, set an alarm to get up. 30:23 And finally, after a couple weeks of that, I said, forget this, man. I hear that there's another country where there's not a famine. Let me go over there. And I did. You go over there and try that for a while, and eventually God will allow you to come into an end of yourself. 30:35 And you come back, and the father will welcome you. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. His loving kindness is eternal. And as many times as you come back, he will welcome you back. But what happens when you come back two weeks later on a Saturday night? 30:51 Again, there's a party. And then you go to church, and church meeting, and you're enjoying the father's presence. But what will he tell you again on Sunday night? My commandments, guess what? Now it's actually 6.30. You're seeing more of my law and my commandments, 31:05 but my commandments are for your good. And then when you get to know the father's heart, you realize that he's working all the time. The father actually woke up at 4 o'clock. And he allowed me, because he was gracious and long-suffering. 31:20 And he knew how much I could bear. God will not test you more than you are able to bear. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. And if he knows that you will not be able to get up at 5 o'clock, he'll start with saying 6.30. Because his goal is for you to know his heart, 31:36 and to see his desire. Where you get so wrapped up in his kingdom and his work. Where you're looking, you ask, but when the father tells you to wake up at 6.30, you know what the response of a new covenant-minded person is? 31:51 Father, what time are you waking up? Are you waking up at 5 o'clock? Then why are you asking me to wake up at 6.30? I want to get up with you. Because the reason I'm here in this house is not to do your work even. It's to be with you. 32:05 This is the essence of the new covenant. And if I discover that Jesus wakes up at 5 o'clock, the new covenant mindset is, is that where you are, Jesus? That's where I want to be. Jesus, I have this hope fixed on me that I am going to be standing at the altar with Jesus, 32:23 married to him. And the ones who will be worthy to stand there with Jesus, holding his hands and says, yes, I do, will be the ones who said to him throughout their lives, yes, I do. It's not going to be that in a moment I'll get there and say, 32:39 yes, I do, Lord Jesus, because all the years of my life I said, no, I won't. I'm going to do whatever I want. When you said, come, let's go. He said, no, I won't. I want to sleep in a little bit longer. And then I expect that magically when I get to heaven, 32:52 I'll say, yes, I do, Jesus, take me. He says, I never knew you. You spent your time in bed doing all the things that you thought were right in your own estimation, coming up with your own convictions and your own ideas of what's right and what's wrong 33:06 and telling me, you're not going to put those commandments on me. That's old covenant, man. That's legalism. But I was calling you to draw in closer to me. When I got up at five o'clock in the morning, there were a few who said, 33:18 you're getting up at five? I'll be there. And they were alongside Jesus. Or maybe they said, you know what? I struggle with this. But can you help me? Jesus says, I will. I'll come alongside you. I'll knock on your door. 33:30 And if you're even too lazy to do that, I'll come and I'll shake you up, wake you in the morning. And I'll wake you up. Maybe I'll splash a little water on your eyes. Jesus does that to me every now and then. Splashes some water in my eyes and say, 33:39 whoa, I need to get up. I need to take my life seriously while I'm on this earth. And then he says, okay. Come on. Take one leg out of bed at least. Make a little bit of effort. Try. Even if you don't fully understand it. 33:53 Even if you think, I don't get this. This commandment. I don't understand why it's there. And I don't know how I'm supposed to obey it. But I will. I see it in your word. It's called the obedience of faith. It's not the obedience of understanding. 34:07 I found in my own life, and I see many Christians living this way, that they will obey if they understand. This is an old covenant mindset. If I understand it, I'll obey. But if I don't understand it, I think, well, I don't understand it. 34:17 So I'm not obliged to obey. False. Wrong answer. Because the law of God is the law of God. And even if the sons didn't understand why the father was saying five or seven o'clock, even if they didn't understand, they said, my father loves me. 34:32 He would not give me anything that's too much for me to bear. So I'm going to just obey him in faith. I'm going to trust him that he's given me his word. He's given me his commandments. I'm going to obey him. And you know what happens? 34:44 Faith unlocks the understanding. Faith is the one that's leading it. And my feelings and all those other things follow in line after. But if I'm allowing my life to be led by feelings and understanding and reasoning, explain it to me. 34:59 If I get it, I'll follow. If not, I'm just going to wait here for the Lord to reveal it to me. It's that same unbroken mindset. The father says, obey in faith. Just trust me. And you will see when you come at six o'clock 35:12 as you spend time with the father, the joy of the new covenant life will so fill your life that you'll be like, man, can we do 5.30 tomorrow? And Jesus said, I was hoping you would ask. Because guess what? I actually get up and find. 35:25 And that longing for the bride to be with her bridegroom, whatever that means. Whatever, this is how the commandments of God become light. Jesus said in Matthew 11, verse 28, come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden. 35:42 I'm thinking 6.30, man. I'm weary and heavy laden of trying to get up at 6.30. Come to Jesus. Learn from me. Take my yoke upon you. Do it the way I do it. Come and hang out with me for a little bit. I think that's kind of how the message 35:56 paraphrases that passage. Come hang out with me. Come sleep in my room there on that bed. Make your bed where I'm right next to mine. I think that's what Jesus is saying. And so in the middle, early in the morning, I'm there sleeping 36:09 and I haven't made my bedroom and then Jesus' bedroom and we've kind of got these little distinct compartments. I don't think that's the father's house. And the father was looking for those who say, hey, you know what, Jesus, 36:19 I have a hard time getting up. Is it okay if I just bring my bed and sleep in your room where you are? And he says, okay, that's good. Because now when I wake up, you will hear me wake up too. This is what it means when he says in Isaiah 42, I think, 36:32 you've given me the year of a disciple. I go to bed at night listening for the voice of Jesus and he puts me to sleep. And I wake up in the morning expecting to hear Jesus is awake now. I expect to hear that Jesus is awake 36:46 and therefore I too want to wake up and I want to obey him in the obedience of faith. But it could be a no covenant mindset which looks, if you see it up there, exactly like the sinful mindset. I don't have to. The father told the younger son 37:03 on Sunday night, hey, we're getting up at, work starts at 7.30 in the morning tomorrow. And the younger son could have said, I don't have to. Nobody tells me what to do. This is the same mentality that took him out of the father's house. 37:18 The result of this is now what people, what we see in Christendom today, sadly, licensed sin. They think, oh, you know what, my father, look at how he welcomed me and threw a feast for me. He said, I'm your son. You were lost 37:32 and now you're found. You were dead. Now you're alive. He put the ring on my finger, the ring of justification. Guess what? I can still sin. See my ring. He's given me the license to sin. It's called in Jude 1, licentiousness. 37:46 See, this is different from living in the far off country. In the far off country, there is no sense of license, really. It's unlicensed sin. Just sin if you want. But what Jude calls license, let's look at that verse, Jude 1. 37:59 Very important for us to see that. See who he's talking about. The difference between what I'm calling licensed sin and unlicensed sin. All of us have done unlicensed sin. But then we came back to the father's house and now I can think 38:13 that somehow the father has given me a license to sin because he's put his ring on my finger and he's put the robe on my dress and he's called me his son again. And I think that because of justification and because of forgiveness 38:25 and because of God's love and mercy that I can do whatever I want. Jude 1, verse 4. See, Jude had intended if you read verse 3 to write about this what he calls a common salvation. He says, verse 3, Beloved, I was making every effort 38:42 to write to you about our common salvation to remind you, hey, you used to be in the far off country but now you've come home. This is common salvation. Jesus Christ has offered you a way of salvation. I was going to write to you about that 38:53 but I realized the Holy Spirit prompted me and nudged me and says, hey, Jude, they need to hear something else. Because I think they get that. They get that Jesus is the salvation and all that but I need you to write about something else. 39:06 I felt, how did Jude write, why did Jude feel it? Because the Holy Spirit nudged him. He says, Jude, I'm going to use this letter that you think you're just writing to a group of people or maybe to a church. I'm going to use that 39:18 as my Holy Spirit inspired word. And so I'm going to nudge you and say, hey, write about this. I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 39:33 You must have a contending, a fighting, a zealous attitude towards the faith. Why? Verse 4, because certain persons have crept in unnoticed. If he's talking to a church, he's saying, listen, there are some people who have come into your church 39:50 that have crept in unnoticed and you've kind of been so busy with this common salvation perhaps or how the praise is or how the fellowship is and all these other things that you've noticed, haven't noticed these people that are in your midst 40:01 crept in unnoticed. Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, who say, hey, what's all this? Take up your cross and your messages 40:19 sound kind of heavy and when you talk about loving pleasure and not loving God, I can't listen to that. These are people who have crept in unnoticed, who long beforehand were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons 40:34 who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. And what I think the Father would be telling his sons in a group of his sons and daughters who were there in his church, he's saying, 40:49 listen, all of you are prodigal sons that have come back, but there are some of you that are sitting here, the Father, I imagine him telling his sons that are here and think that because I put the ring on your finger and because I've clothed you 41:01 in those robes that you have the license to sin. Turn the grace of God into licentiousness. We've talked about this already. The standard is raised higher. Let me show you a few verses in John. I've been recently reading, 41:19 prompted to read through my meditation on the New Covenant, the letters of John. John, as you know, we call him the apostle of love. He was a very tender kind of person. You know, he's the kind of person that felt comfortable 41:30 to lean on Jesus' breast while he was sitting there. It takes a really, you know, a special kind of man to be able to do that, I think. And John was that, need and mind. He was the apostle of love. The word love is mentioned often 41:43 in the Gospel of John and in the letters of John as well. But he was also the man that God used to write the book of Revelation. But it's very interesting to read, if you read the book of John carefully, especially the letters of John, 41:57 what this love is portrayed as. And the same John who talks about the love of God also talks about the commandments of God to present to us that the commandments of God are for us to be viewed out of his love. And his love 42:11 becomes the context in which I view his commandments. So instead of commandments, commandments, commandments, I say love, love, love. And I see the commandments of God in that light, in the light of God's love. I believe that this 42:26 is the main purpose of these, the epistles of John, the epistles of John especially, that we will see the commandments of God in the light of his love. And if we see his commandments in the light of his love, it changes our perspective 42:39 towards those commandments. For example, he says here in 1 John 2, verse 3, By this we know that we have come to know him. This is, imagine again, somebody telling, an older brother perhaps, telling the youngest son who's just come home, 42:55 This is how will you know, this is how you will know that you know the father. By this we know that we have come to know the father if we keep his commandments. How will you know that you have come to know the father? You get up at 7 o'clock 43:09 when he asks you to get up. Verse 4, The one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not him. This is the apostle of love. Let's read it again. By this we know that we have come 43:24 to know the father. Jesus said, depart from me, I never knew you. Lord, you know what that does for me? It says, Father, I want to be one whom you will be able to say, you know me, I know you. And John gives us a very clear test. 43:37 By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. He says further down in verse 7, 43:50 Beloved, I'm not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. At the same time, on the other hand, I am writing a new commandment 44:03 to you which is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. What is he saying there? Let me summarize it. He's saying, the commandments are the same. In fact, they're raised higher. 44:14 It used to be this but it's now this. It used to be that, you know, like Jesus told the Pharisees, out of the hardness of your heart, God allowed divorce. But the standard is God hates divorce. And that standard was raised. 44:28 And he says, the old commandment is still there. It's not abolished. It's fulfilled. How? By a higher commandment. You see, the old, Jesus said that. We saw that in Matthew 5 or 17. I didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. 44:39 How? By raising the standard higher and changing the inside of the cup. So, is the commandment that you should wake up at 7 o'clock to work with the Father? No, it's to wake up at 5 o'clock. And in doing so, you fulfill 44:50 the 7 o'clock commandment. But my focus is not on that time anymore. And that's what John is saying here is the new commandment is this. What Jesus, what John records in John 13, a new commandment I give to you that you what? 45:08 Love. That you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and you love your neighbor as yourself. That you love one another. This is the new commandment and in that new commandment, that new commandment 45:18 of love, I fulfill every old covenant commandment, the spirit of them. That's what he's saying here. Further down, chapter 5, 1 John 5, verse 3. How do I know that I have God's love and I love God? This is the love of God 45:34 that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. Beautiful verse. I think we should memorize that one even though it's not on our list. By this, we know the love of God that we keep his commandments 45:47 and his commandments are not burdensome. If you're there, my dear brothers and sisters, you're walking in the new covenant. If you're not, the father invites you to come to this life where you are keeping his commandments 45:59 but you think that they're light. You've seen that they're not burdensome. You're fulfilling the law of God and it's coming out from the inside. The love of God is causing you to fulfill those commandments. I'll close with this. 46:14 In Exodus 21, I've probably shared this here before. It's worthwhile for us to look at it again. The new covenant is this. Described this way that God says, I will write my law on your heart. When you open up your heart to know me, 46:30 when you come to, when you want to know me and you want to spend time with me, you will find that I'm writing your law, my law on your heart. And the result of that will not be, I will keep your commandment. I will wake up 46:43 at 7 o'clock. I will, I will, I will. You see the father saying I will. But our response is this. I love my father and out of that I find a desire to do your law. I find me saying I will. After the father writes his law 46:59 on my heart saying, the father saying I will write my law on your heart, I find the result of that is that heart which is my will is surrendered to God and I say I will. That's what it means, dear friends, when it says that 47:13 Jesus says you must take up your cross and follow me. Jesus will not take up my cross for me. The father doesn't take up my cross for me. He says you must take up your cross for me. or you must take up you must take up your cross 47:26 and follow me. But I could do that one of two ways and I say okay I'm going to take up this cross and I'm going to try and I try and I try and I try that's the old covenant mindset. But if I allow God's law to be written 47:37 on my heart I say Jesus how did you take up your cross? Show me. I love you and I want to know your law more. Write your law in my heart and I find out of that law is a desire to take up my cross. I think you're seeing this 47:50 in our midst dear brothers and sisters that increasingly among us there's this desire I do really want to take up my cross. I believe every one of you has that desire deep down in your hearts as I do as well. I want to take up 48:02 my cross. You know why? It's not because I fear that God's going to throw me in hell if I don't. That fear has been removed from my heart a long time ago. But I find that there's a love that God has put in my heart. The love of God 48:15 has been shed abroad through His Holy Spirit where I want to take up my cross because I want to be like Jesus. I want to be near Him and if I saw that He walked this life taking up His cross I want to walk this life taking up my cross 48:27 as well so that I can be near Him and experience the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection. We see this heart of God sprinkled even throughout the Old Covenant and it's here in Exodus 21 where right after 48:41 God had given the commandments you know Exodus 20 is the 10 commandments in chapter 21 He talks about something beautiful there that pictures the attitude we must have in the New Covenant towards these laws of God. He says 48:53 verse 2 Exodus 21 verse 2 right after God has given these Old Covenant commandments He says If you buy a Hebrew slave he shall serve for six years but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment if he comes alone 49:08 he shall go out alone if he is the husband of a wife then his wife shall go out with him if his master had given him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters the wife and her children shall belong to her master and the man should go 49:19 the slave shall go out alone But verse 5 this is the New Covenant mindset hidden like a little nugget there right after the Ten Commandments If the slave plainly says listen I love my master told me every morning you got to show up 49:35 for work at 7 o'clock and I did 7 o'clock and I did 7 o'clock and I did and after six years the year of Jubilee has come and he was marking off on his secret calendar this day I'm going to be set free for my master no more getting up 49:49 at 7 o'clock I marked it on my calendar one more day to gain the countdown ten days nine days I'm going to be set free the year of Jubilee is coming eight days five days two days one day tomorrow is the year of Jubilee and then he wakes up 50:03 the next day and it's the year of Jubilee and he has the option to leave but he says you know what these six years I've been working for my master something happened my mentality my attitude towards my master changed every time I went out 50:19 to work at 8 o'clock when he asked me to do I got to know him a little bit and I got to know his heart and I saw that he was working even harder than me and I saw that he was tempted in more points than even I am all the points 50:32 Jesus was tempted my suffering is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered and I saw the life of Jesus I saw Christ manifest in the flesh the mystery and after those six years and God says okay you want me to give you a license to sin 50:48 and the response of this slave in the new covenant he says I love my master I love him what kind of a life am I going to have out there where I can do whatever I want and I'm not subject to his law I love my master and my wife 51:04 and my children I will not go out as a free man this is the new covenant mindset I will not go out as a free man I don't know if you've ever seen the new covenant presented that way I will not go out as a free man Lord because I love you 51:23 don't set me free from being a slave of righteousness please don't I want to be a slave to yours don't set me free I will not go out as a free man because I love my master and at one point the father says to the younger son 51:40 hey do you ever miss those days you know you want me to let you go have a party with your friends in that far off country just come back home tonight the younger son will say no I will not go out as a free man because I love you 51:54 then his master shall bring him to God and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl this is where piercing the ear is talked about in the Bible in this context spiritually 52:10 and he shall serve him permanently you know the new covenant is called a permanent covenant a forever covenant you know how it's based on that Jesus pierces my ear and says you're mine now there's no more wanting to go out 52:25 and do your own thing I pierced your ear and he stands there and looks out upon this world of people who are singing their praises to him and trying to fulfill the commandments of the law and you know what he's looking for 52:37 he's looking closely at the ear to see which ones have allowed me to pierce their ears which ones have said I don't want to go out as a free man what is the commandment you want me to obey Lord I will obey it because I know 52:48 you'll help me to do so pierce my ear and let it be a permanent mark that I am yours I belong to you I'm a slave of righteousness now this is the new covenant that verse in Revelation 12 this is what enrages the devil I believe 53:05 that there are many people across Christendom who take the name of Jesus sing his songs read the Bible talk about grace talk about justification talk about mercy talk about forgiveness and even talk about the new covenant 53:17 the devil is not upset at them but there are a few whose ears are pierced and only they and the Lord know it the bride and the bridegroom know it and their ears are pierced and those are the ones that the devil is angry at 53:28 because he knows that those are the ones that have authority those are the ones that are taking down the gates of hell those are the ones that constitute the true church of Jesus Christ against which the gates of hell will not prevail 53:40 this is the church we are and must be dear brothers and sisters a church of people whose ears are pierced spiritually and Jesus sees that Amen Amen
