In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of walking in covenant with God. He refers to the covenant God made with Abraham, stating that as descendants of Abraham, we are called to be in covenant with God. The speaker highlights the need to give God our whole heart and to continually walk in obedience to Him. He also mentions the importance of knowing and doing the will of the Father, as stated in 1 Thessalonians 4:2. The speaker expresses his belief that by the end of the week, the listeners will have a deeper understanding of the Old and New Testaments and how they relate to each other.

This is tape number three in a series. We urge you to listen to all the tapes in the series in numerical order so that the whole teaching can be received and understood. Listening to a part of the series or to the tapes out of sequence can lead to a misunderstanding of the nature, the intent, and the importance of the series. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. We'll start in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Last night we ministered on the blood covenant. We just covered some basic areas of covenant, what it meant to walk in covenant, what a covenant is. We'll be clarifying that and speaking more of it as we go through the week. But tonight we're going to talk about the heart that makes covenant with God. The heart that makes covenant with God. And we're going to go on, and I'm just believing God. By Thursday night, by Thursday night, I believe that you're going to have such an understanding of being able to just move through the Old and New Testaments and a tying and intertwining together of those two books, the Old and the New Testament, so that you can understand how they fit and flow together. I believe that God will give you this week an understanding of what the law is, why the law was given, how it relates to the New Testament, and where you stand with the Lord Jesus. And depending on how the Lord leads us, we'll either cover that tomorrow night or the next night. But we're going to just tie it all together. Now, every message will be self-contained, and that you can come and hear any one message, and I believe the Lord will minister to you. But I urge you to come, because every message the Lord's given me is building one on another. And He's given me the general outlines and the topics that He wants me to use, but He hasn't given me the messages, and I'm spending the afternoon praying before the Lord and just studying before the Lord to see what He would have me deliver. So I know He's building something here, and I don't want you to miss it. And so I urge you to make an effort to be here. And so I want you to start with me tonight in 2 Thessalonians 2. We're talking about the heart that makes covenant with God. What kind of heart makes covenant with God? We saw last night that covenant's the walk of death. We saw that when you enter into covenant with God, there's several things that take place. Principally, we saw last night there's an exchange of identities that take place. And we saw that whenever you enter covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father made covenant with God the Son, and you become a joint heir of the covenant in Christ Jesus as you give your heart to Jesus. How much of your heart does He want? All of it. God demands your whole heart. Now, we've also seen that there's an exchange that takes place. That God takes the robe of righteousness that was on Jesus, and He takes that robe, and He places it on all who will make covenant with God. And so there's an exchange. What kind of robe did God take from you? A robe of sin. He takes your robe of sin, and He puts His robe of righteousness on you. Then He took the robe of sin that you had, and who did He put it on? He put it on Jesus, and that's why the Word says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he who knew no sin was made to be sin on your behalf that you might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I want to say this to you. You're not just an old dead dog if you're in Christ, as we saw Mephibosheth saying. You're not just a sinner barely saved by grace if you're in Christ Jesus. That theory and that idea comes from a false humility that many of us learned that we're just barely going to make it. Grace is not simply unmerited favor. We talked about this last night. Grace is the power of God to enable you to walk in everything He calls you to do. Are you hearing what I'm saying? If you are in Christ Jesus, you're not just an old sinner saved by grace. Yes, you're a sinner saved by grace. Don't have any problem with that. But you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Now, can I tell you also there's a group of people who speak that with their mouth and come claim it with their lips, and I'm not talking about any denomination group. I'm just talking about people who do this, and they get a hold of this truth, but they forget to read 1 John 3, verse 7. He who is righteous, he who practices righteousness is righteous. Are you with me? So God's not talking about some theory or another doctrine that you can store up in order to talk about righteousness. God makes you righteous. Now, listen to me. There's not one thing that you can do to be righteous. All your good works won't make you righteous. God must make you righteous. Are you hearing me? Because your righteousness is as filthy rags. Not one thing. It's all Jesus. I want you to realize that. I said this last night. You need to know your part and God's part, because you absolutely cannot do God's part, and He won't do your part. All right? So you've made righteous by the power of grace. The power of grace makes you righteous. It's also the power of grace that allows you to practice righteousness. But the man who's truly righteous, or the woman who's truly righteous, will practice righteousness. They won't practice fleshly sin rebellion. Are you with me? When they recognize something that's not like Jesus, they come to Him with a whole heart, they repent, and guess what? It's accounted to them as righteousness. They're righteous. As a matter of fact, John 3, 7 says that not only does the man who practiced righteousness, is righteous, it says, just as He is righteous. I want you to think about that. That's an awesome statement that God would make. That when God makes you righteous, He doesn't make you righteous in degrees. His righteousness that's put on you makes you just as righteous in His eyes as He is righteous. Are you with me? Now you can let that sink in. That's an awesome statement that God made about us. I say that's an awesome statement that God made about us. He made us that righteous. All right? But now, I want you to turn with me, as I said, to 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 7. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. When's the mystery of lawlessness going to start to work? The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming. That is, now I want you to notice this carefully, that is, the one who's coming is in accord with the activity of who? The activity of Satan. And he comes. I want you to notice how he comes. He comes with all power and signs and false wonders. Folks, I want to tell you something. It grieves me. It grieves me when I see things like this happen. But when people stand up implicitly, just tell the devil to go. I was in a place not too long ago where the pastor stood up and he said, I want everybody that's got a Bible, raise your Bible. And so everybody raised their Bibles. He said, now wave them in the air. Just wave your Bible in the air. Wave them in the air. Everybody just waved their Bibles in the air. He said, praise God. Look at the devil. He's scared to death. He's running from this place. Praise God. I want to tell you something. That didn't shake the devil up at all. It didn't even budge him. The only thing that moves the devil is a heart turned toward Jesus. Because when your heart's turned toward Jesus, you have the identity and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he doesn't have to do business with you. He has to do business with Almighty God. And so the only thing that the devil's afraid of is Jesus. Are you hearing what I'm saying? When you're identified with Jesus, he pleads. But you can't be identified with Jesus if your heart's divided with the world. All these cute little tricks we try with speaking our lips and the things we do and laugh at the devil. Folks, I want to tell you something. He's having a ball chewing Christians alive. But the only ones he can devour and chew are the ones with a divided heart. Are you hearing what I'm saying? See, the Bible says, Be on the alert. Be sober. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Well, what does that mean? It means if he has to seek, that means he can't devour everyone. He has to seek for someone to devour. Are you hearing what I'm saying? The Bible also says in 2 Chronicles 16.9 about another secret. It says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro across the whole earth seeking to show himself strong or to strongly support those whose hearts are completely his. We've got two seekers. One seeker, God, is seeking a whole heart. The heart that's completely his. He says, I will be there to strongly support. And he does it on the basis of covenant. The devil is seeking somebody who's got a divided heart because if you've got a divided heart he can devour you. He's chewing on you right now. On your life, your home, your church. He's chewing on everything. Are you hearing what I'm saying? If your heart's divided. Are you with me? All right? Notice, Satan comes with all power and signs and false wonders. Can I also tell you something? We're going to see this very clearly. Now listen to me. This may come as a shock. It may be new to you. Simply because you appear to be being blessed does not mean that you are in the favor of God. You can allow your heart to go after an idol and Satan can bless you. Now I'll tell you something else. God blesses people. And sometimes the word of God says the blessings of God, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. And so because there are signs and wonders because there are blessings does not mean that that is a stamp of approval of God approving your life or your lifestyle. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now we're going to cover that more. You're going to see that. But I want you to notice this. He comes with all power and signs and false wonders and with all the deception of wickedness. I think that King James says the deceivableness of unrighteousness or something like that. But he comes with all the deception of wickedness. Now who's he coming for? Notice who he's coming for. For those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth. Are you seeing that? The only one. What do you love? Now let me tell you what it means. If you love the truth then when I speak something that's contrary to your doctrine you're going to check it out with the word. If you love your doctrine if you love your denomination if you love your church if you love some man if you love some system more than you love the truth then you're going to get offended and you're going to get mad and you're going to get upset and because your heart's not in covenant with God your heart doesn't love the truth. It doesn't want to know the truth. I don't know how many people I've heard so many people pastors will talk to me and they'll call and they'll say and I had the same thing happen to me. A deacon board saying well I see what you're saying and I know that that's true I mean I see it right there in the Bible but we're such and such a denomination and we just don't believe that way. Now let me ask you a question. Do they love the truth? Absolutely not. Then what's going to happen to them? Well let's see what happens. It says that if you don't love the truth for this reason God, verse 11 will send upon them now I want you to see who sends this I just want you to see it I don't want you to try to pretend it says something different who sends it? God sends upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false or that they might believe a lie in order that they all may be judged who did not believe in the truth but took pleasure in wickedness. Now I want you to notice again who he says he sends it upon those who do not believe the truth. Are you with me? Now when you don't believe the truth God allows a deluding influence to come to your life. Let me tell you what a deluding influence can be. You might be one yourself. You might be a deluding influence in your home, in your own family. You might be a deluding influence to your own children. Do you know what a deluding influence does? A deluding influence reinforces the lie. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Let me say it again. A deluding influence reinforces the lie. How many of you are with me? I said how many of you are with me? Alright, let me tell you what that means. You see, if you come to church and you just praise God and you dance and you raise your hands and you shout or if you sit in a pew but you come to church you're showing your children, for example Hey, this is, well we just come we just had a good time in Jesus but if they see your heart during the week, where it goes Jesus doesn't have first place here when somebody preaches a message about Jesus having first place in everything If you shout and scream and dance and agree with it I'm telling you what you're doing You are a deluding influence in your own family because you're saying this is what it means to love Jesus with your whole heart Are you hearing what I'm saying? And so you become a deluding influence Let me tell you another way a deluding influence works If you have a problem with resentment or bitterness or criticism If you have a problem with criticism and any of those things if there's something you don't like then count on it I say count on it You will meet somebody in a short course of time that will say exactly what you say and reinforce the lie that's in your heart whether or not you're speaking the truth or not it will reinforce the criticalness and the resentment that's down deep inside your heart Are you hearing what I'm saying? You will get a deluding influence If you have a heart or an ear that's prone to gossip guess what you're going to get? People will come and talk with you You'll be a very popular person for Satan to send people to talk to because you've got an ear open to a deluding influence Are you hearing what I'm saying? Because you see, you believe a lie So I say, how do I believe a lie? Well, the word of God clearly says don't gossip, don't slander don't be critical don't hold resentment Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now listen, if you've got a heart that's open to lust count on it You're going to get a deluding influence to draw you off into lust Are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright? You're going to have a deluding influence Examine your life Are you a deluding influence? What comes out of your mouth? Whatever's coming out of your mouth is what's in your heart Are you hearing what I'm saying? Whatever you're acting you're believing that's what you really believe rather than the word of God And God says He will allow a deluding influence to come on those who do not love the truth That means you love the truth more than you love any other influence Are you with me? I say, are you with me? Alright Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 We're going to see what the will of God is It's important to know the will of God because the word of God says in Matthew chapter 7 that not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord even though they cast out demons they heal the sick they do many miracles not everyone who says to Jesus Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But he says the ones that are going to enter the kingdom of heaven are those who do the will of the Father Are you hearing what I'm saying? They're not the ones who give him lip service They're the ones who do the will of the Father Are you with me? Now notice what he says the will of the Father is 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 chapter 4 verse 2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Now, what authority are we talking about here? The authority of the Lord Jesus Verse 3 For this is the will of God And what's the next word? Your sanctification or holiness Now, is that what your Bible says? Your Bible says that the will of God is your sanctification or your holiness Is that right? That is, that you abstain from sexual immorality Now, may I just tell you that that doesn't make the list complete You also abstain See, because you abstain from anything that is not a sanctifying influence on your life Are you hearing what I'm saying? You abstain from everything that's not like holiness unto God That means gossip That means slander That means greed That means idolatry That means pride That means all of those things Right? He says that here's what God's will is God's will is that you your sanctification or your walk of holiness And verse 4 That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification, in honor and not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God Now, how many of you see those verses? God says it's his will that each of you don't walk in lustful passion dealing with and contributing to and yielding to the lust of the flesh but that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification, in honor, in holiness Now, you notice something? We're finding out something I said that you can't do God's part Are you with me? But now I said God won't do your part So, he just told us part of our part And part of our part is to know how to possess our own vessel Are you with me? I say, are you with me? Is that what the word says? Alright, so we need to know how to possess our own vessel That's one of the important things God says that's his will Now, I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12 We're going to see how important it is that you know how to possess your own vessel in sanctification or in holiness Hebrews chapter 12 Let's just see how important it is Let's see if it's an option Let's see, God said it was his will Let's find out if it's an option for you or if it's just something nice to do Hebrews chapter 12 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification or holiness without which Now what does that say? Without which what? No man or no one will see the Lord Now does that sound like an option to you? God says you learn to possess your vessel What's your vessel, may I ask you? It's your body You learn to possess your vessel in holiness If you don't learn to possess your vessel in holiness and sanctification then you are not going to see the Lord Now is that clear? That makes it serious, doesn't it? Alright So we're going to see how to possess our own body Turn with me to Romans 12 Romans 12 Very popular scripture I want to read it so you can see it As I've said this before I'm a teacher That's all I am is just a teacher And so that's why I had you turn to so many scriptures because I teach And if you want a real fiery sermon then you need to get a preacher I'm a teacher But this is why I want you to turn with me in the word so that you can follow through the word and you can see it with me in black and white Alright Romans chapter 12 verse 1 I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies What did they say present them? A living and what kind of a sacrifice? A holy sacrifice acceptable unto God which is your spiritual service of worship Now folks if you don't understand what he's talking about let me tell you what you'll do You'll go serve on a committee somewhere and you'll think that that's presenting your body a living and holy sacrifice Or you might get up out of bed as hard as it is and go to church every Sunday and think that's presenting my body a holy and living sacrifice Or you might be the one who goes out witnessing knocking door to door day after day and say I'm presenting my body as a holy sacrifice Or if you don't understand what that means you might just simply be saying man I'm spending I'm reading the Bible through twice every year I've got a 30 minute devotional I spend with God and read my Bible every single day don't miss a day and I pray and so I'm presenting my body a living and holy sacrifice Can I tell you something? You still haven't hit it Or you might be what's real popular today and I praise God for praise It's important Praise is a power that we move into from God It's a worship to God But now let me tell you what happens The Hebrews chapter 13 does talk about that you make to God the sacrifice of praise So some people feel in fact they even make a God out of it If I just praise God and I just get real wild about it and I just get and I believe in getting emotional for Jesus I'll just tell you I don't mind saying that but if I just praise God enough if I just shout enough raise my hands enough if I go through all those emotions that I'm presenting myself a living and holy sacrifice Can I tell you something? You still missed it We're going to see tonight the only sacrifice that God accepts and that's the kind of a heart that makes covenant with God Are you with me? Won't you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 We're still talking about covenant but we're laying some ground work last night and tonight in covenant so that we can know and understand covenant Hebrews chapter 10 Now folks I want you to understand something as we go through covenant We're going to be doing this all week If you go into a bookstore to buy a book on covenant Here's what you're going to find I'm not criticizing those books Don't misunderstand me I don't mean it that way at all But I want to tell you something All you're going to find in those books that I have found thus far by and large the most of them Now there may be some out there I'm just telling you what I've seen and I've looked I've looked a lot But what we hear today on covenant is all of the blessings of walking in covenant with God What I want to see you understand this week is how to enter covenant to know what covenant is how to enter in it how to walk in it and I want you to understand the effects of broken covenant and yes you can break covenant in the New Testament and I'm going to show you clearly in your work So I just ask you to stand with me and follow through the Bible I don't want you to have an argument with me I want you to see if your Bible says that I want you to check it out critically you can examine it see if I take it out of context I want it to be true and I know you want it to be true but I want you to be truthful enough and love the truth enough that you will examine it in your Bible Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's all I ask you to do Hebrews chapter 10 I want you to see this Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1 For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things can never by the same sacrifices year by year which they offer continually make perfect those who draw near Now let's make sure we understand what he's saying He's saying that the law could not by all the sacrifices that they made the law could not make them perfect even year by year by year they offered sacrifices unto God according to the pattern God had given them but it could not make them perfect Galatians chapter 3 says that that law could not impart life or righteousness Are you with me? So, notice what it says Otherwise, verse 2 they would not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers having once been cleansed would no longer have had consciousness of sins Now here's what he's saying If those sacrifices were able to make you perfect if those sacrifices were able to impart life in and of the sacrifices if they were able to bring a cleansing to your conscience there would no longer be a consciousness of sin Are you with me? Now let me tell you the reverse of that I want you to understand this Here's what he's saying He's saying that under the law people kept a consciousness of sin He says it in the next verse But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year for it's impossible for the brood of bulls and goats to take away sins How many of you see that? Now I want you to understand this I'm going to make this statement I want you to let it sink down in your spirit God does not want you walking in sin consciousness Are you hearing what I'm saying? He does not want you walking in sin consciousness But now let me tell you what I hear about that today that I'm not saying And I want you to hear me I'm not saying this because it's not what it means There are a lot of people teaching that today and what they're doing is they're teaching a form of having no sin consciousness So what you do is you forget about sin and you think about how righteous you are in Christ Jesus That's not what it means Are you hearing what I'm saying? I say, are you hearing what I'm saying? That's not what he's talking about God has a better way It's not forgetting sin He doesn't say He doesn't want the conviction of sin to be before you Because God wants the fear of God before your eyes And you'll understand the fear of God this week if you don't already Alright? Now, he's saying this though God absolutely does not want you walking in a sin consciousness You know what happens when you walk in a sin consciousness? You come and try to make sacrifice to God Are you hearing what I'm saying? Please God with your own sacrifice That's what some people do to appease their conscience You see, if you've got a sin consciousness then what you're going to do is you're going to try to absolve that sin consciousness And the way you're going to try to absolve it is you're going to try to do it by serving on a committee being religious acting good and setting up a standard that's not the sacrifice that God accepts in covenant Are you hearing what I'm saying? You cannot Now listen to me when I say this You cannot make sacrifice for your sin Jesus Christ has made sacrifice for your sin There's nothing you can do to draw God's pleasure in sacrifice for your sin Are you hearing what I'm saying? I say, are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright, now listen What then is he talking about? I say, God's got a better way Look with me, verse 19 Verse 19 Hebrews 10, verse 19 Since therefore brethren we have confidence to enter the holy place And how are we going to get in the holy place? We're going to get there by the blood of Jesus By a new and living way Now when we say the blood of Jesus would that refer to covenant? I say, would that refer to covenant? Okay, I'd like you to talk to me Alright, now By the blood of Jesus by covenant by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh And since we have a great priest over the house of God Now notice this carefully Let us draw near with what kind of a heart? A true or sincere heart A true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean And what are they going to be sprinkled clean from? An evil conscience God wants your conscience clean before him That's why he says in 1 John If your heart doesn't condemn you you have confidence before God Are you with me? But if you try to justify your sins If you try to make a sacrifice for your sins If you try to come to God by sacrifice Then God cannot cleanse your conscience because he only accepts one sacrifice His name is Jesus Are you with me? Alright, now I want you to notice this A requirement for getting the cleansing of your conscience and your bodies washed with pure water is to come to God draw near to God But there's a stipulation There's a condition that he speaks of in verse 19 What is it? A true heart How many of you see that? He said God I want you to miss it I want you to see it It says And since we have a great Verse 22 Since we have a great Verse 21 And since we have a great priest over the house of God Verse 22 Let us draw near with a true or sincere heart How many of you see that in your Bible? Well some of you did I say how many of you see it in your Bible? Alright Now There's a condition to having your conscience clean and your body washed with the pure water of the word And the condition is having a true heart We're going to see what a true heart is I don't care how much you quote that you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus It will never become a living reality to you if your heart's divided and living for itself I don't care how much you try to forget about sin I don't care how much you try to cleanse your conscience God is the one who cleanses the conscience He cleanses the conscience in a true heart Are you with me? The only way God will accept you drawing near to Him is with a true heart Alright Now I want you to notice something in this chapter 10 because there's something we need to see If that's the case What kind of sacrifice and offering is God going to have us make? He just told us The only offering you can give to God is not the blood of bulls and goats anymore It's not the offering of religious sacrifices Are you hearing me? I'm talking about religious sacrifices today It's not the offering of religious sacrifices of how much you go to church of what committee you served on how active you've been how many Sunday school pins you wear It's not That's not the sacrifices There's no religious sacrifice you can make to please God Are you with me? There's a sacrifice of a true heart That's all God's looking for It's all He accepts for you to draw near to Him Now notice what He says in verse 5 Hebrews 10 Therefore when He comes into the world He says Sacrifice and offering thou hast not desired How many of you see that? He doesn't desire sacrifice and offering from you But a body thou hast prepared for me Who was that body? Jesus In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast taken no pleasure Then I said Behold I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God How many of you see that? Now notice this And after saying the above It must have been important because He said it again After saying above Sacrifices and offerings for whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast not desired nor hast thou taken pleasure in them which are offered according to the law Then He said Behold I have come to do thy will He takes away the first in order to establish the second Now what sacrifice is God interested in? He's telling us He's interested in a true heart How many of you see that? A true heart He's interested What does a true heart do? A true heart comes to do His will Are you with me? Now mark Hebrews 10 because I'm coming right back to it and turn with me to Psalm 40 Mark Hebrews 10 so you can turn to it quickly but I'm coming right back to it and then turn with me to Psalm 40 Psalm 40 because we're going to see where that statement came from The 40th Psalm Psalm 40 Psalm 40 verse 1 I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined to me and heard my cry He brought me up out of the pit of destruction out of the miry clay He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm and He put a new song in my mouth a song of praise to our God and many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord Many, O Lord, my God are the wonders which Thou hast done and Thy thoughts toward us There's none to compare with Thee If I would declare and speak of them they would be too numerous to count Now that's a good statement God says that His thoughts toward you are so numerous that they couldn't even be counted Are you with me? Is that what the word says? Alright, but I want you to look at this Verse 6 Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired How many of you see that? My ears Thou hast opened burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book that's written of me I delight What does he delight in? To do Thy will, O my God Thy word or law is where? Within my heart So the only sacrifice that is pleasing before God is a heart that's willing to do His will How many of you see that? We already saw what His will was His will is that you know how to possess your body in holiness or sanctification and without it no man will see the Lord Now, is that what we've covered? I didn't take anything out of context, did I? Is that what we've seen in your Bible? Is that in your Bible? Alright, now I want you to go back to Hebrews 10 We're going to understand some difficult verses there in Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 Now, listen to me as I say this I'm going to cover this again this week but I want to say it over and over again because many people don't understand how the Old and New Testaments fit together and some people say that there was no grace in the Old Testament that it was simply law no grace Now, folks, that's not true Now, let me tell you why it's not true Now, listen to me carefully Under the law there were ordinances customs, rituals, regulations and sacrifices Whenever a person sinned the law prescribed for him a sacrifice And what did he do? When he went to the high priest and made that particular sacrifice he received atonement for sins For the sins that were taking place all during the year they had the ashes of a red heifer to go to For the sins of the whole nation at one time each year the high priest would go into the holy place on the day of atonement and offer sacrifices Now, but we just read that those sacrifices never removed the consciousness of sin nor did it make them perfect Are you with me? But now let me ask you a question Did it impart grace? Well, it absolutely did impart grace because that grace allowed them to receive mercy and walk under the atonement of the blood Are you with me? Why? Because it was pointing to Jesus If they sinned If they sinned what did they do? If they had a heart for God they came to the sacrifice Are you with me? Alright Were they judged for their sins? No Is that grace? Yes What about the new covenant? If you're in covenant with God and you commit a sin Has God provided a means of grace? Has he provided a means of mercy? When you come in the new covenant what do you have to do? You have to do the same thing they did You come to the sacrifice His name is Jesus Does God give forgiveness of sin? Yes Is that grace? Yes Now the problem was it didn't grant forgiveness over there it grant covering Over here the beautiful difference is that you're not covered anymore It's cast out of God's sight Forgiveness and I'll remember your sins no more But grace was still available in measure over there Are you with me? Alright Now notice this is important that you understand this If you sin what do you do? Come to the sacrifice His name is Jesus Are you with me? How do you come? You draw near with a whole heart a true heart where there's no deceit no malice no wickedness no hiding of sin no justification but you draw near with a true heart Are you with me? Alright Now notice this What I did with my Bible Alright I want you to see He says in verse 14 Hebrews chapter 10 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are what? Sanctified Now I want you to understand what that doesn't mean That does not mean Now listen to me carefully That verse does not say that by one offering you've been sanctified for all time and people take that and say Well, I had an experience in Jesus over here and that means because I had this experience in Jesus I've been sanctified for all time That's not what it says It says For by one offering the emphasis is on the offering His name is Jesus and He says this By one offering By one offering That's the only offering that needs to be given By one offering I have the ability to sanctify for all time Are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright Now that's what He's saying by that verse Now notice We're going down He says And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to this to us for after saying This is the what? The covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord I'll put my laws upon their heart and upon their mind I'll write them And then He says And their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more Isn't that good? Now Look at this Where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin Now let me tell you what that means God says If this sacrifice is so complete that the sins don't have to be covered anymore but they're forgotten completely then there's no need for you to make another sacrifice for sin Are you with me? There's not one thing you can do Listen to me carefully There's not one thing you can do to please God for what you did yesterday or an hour ago except to come to the sacrifice God has provided Jesus with a whole heart Are you hearing what I'm saying? I don't care what kind of condemnation the devil brings against you I don't care what kind of sin you've done There's nothing you can do to atone for it When you say God I ask you to forgive me for this sin You can't offer one sacrifice to make Him happy Are you hearing what I'm saying? Nothing Nothing you can do You can't wait a while If you sin You can't wait a while until it passes away and say I can't come to God this soon I just did it You can't offer Him a sacrifice of time You can't offer Him a sacrifice of your body You can't offer Him a sacrifice of one thing He accepts one sacrifice for sin His name is Jesus And the only way to come to that sacrifice is with a whole undivided true heart Are you following me? Alright Now We can understand what he means then in verse 26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin How many of you see that? Alright, now let me tell you first of all what it doesn't mean I had a girl come to me and I'd read that scripture and she came and she said Brother Bob I I used to commit some pretty bad sins of immorality and she said I'm not doing them anymore but I knew it was wrong and I knew I shouldn't be committing them and yet I went ahead and did it but she said I'm not doing them anymore and I hate them Does that mean that there's no sacrifice for my sins? The answer is obviously no That's not what it means Now listen to me That's not what it means Here's what it means God has provided one sacrifice for sin His name is Jesus There's only one way to come to that sacrifice It's with a whole true sincere undivided heart When you come to that sacrifice with that heart there's no other sacrifice that needs to be made But if you come to Him with a double heart if you come to Him with lip service if you come to Him still loving to sin and you keep on sinning willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth know this there still is only one sacrifice There's no other sacrifice other than the one which has been made the Lord Jesus Christ Now are you hearing what I'm saying? How many of you understand that verse now? Alright Now I want you to know this If that's the case we ought to understand something about the heart that God requires us to have Don't you think? Because you see if you keep on sinning Notice what it says If you keep on sinning after receiving a knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins Let me say it again What God is saying is this If you keep on sinning after receiving a knowledge of the truth there still is only one sacrifice and one way to get there and it's to come to God and be cleansed but to draw near to Him with a whole heart Now if that's the case we ought to understand what kind of heart God makes covenant with Are you with me? Alright Because you see if you keep doing that it says in verse 27 but a certain terrifying expectation that means you can count on it expectation of judgment and a fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries Now please don't think that God's blowing wind at the world God's not trying to talk to the world Look at verse 30 with me He says For we know him who said Vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge the world No, who? His people He's writing this to His people Now there are some other things in these verses that I'm going to cover later on in the week so I'm going to leave those alone but I want you to understand Is He talking to His people? Is He telling them that there's one sacrifice only one Jesus Christ You must come to Him with a whole, true, sincere heart If you do you'll get your conscience cleared of evil You won't have to walk in the consciousness of sin but you can literally be washed with the water of the word But if you keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth there's no sacrifice available for you because you keep refusing the only sacrifice that's been made coming to Jesus with a whole heart Are you with me? Turn with me to Acts chapter 3 Acts chapter 3 Acts chapter 3 In Acts chapter 3 we're going to start with verse 18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ should suffer He has thus fulfilled Isn't that interesting? Who did all the prophets talk about? Is that what it says? It says that the prophets announced Jesus that He should suffer and it's undefiled and so it says in verse 19 Repent therefore and return that your sins may be wiped away Now notice He doesn't say covered He says they're wiped away They're absolutely wiped away In order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord Do you see what He's saying? That there can be no times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord unless you are walking a life of repentance coming to Him and having your sins wiped away Is that what He says? I say is that what He says? Otherwise there'll be no there'll be no times of refreshing Now look at this That He may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient times Verse 22 Moses said The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren To him you shall give heed in everything He says to you The King James I believe says that you're to listen to everything He says to you The word is give heed to everything He says to you because it carries the idea of not only hearing Him but doing it And so you are to give heed in every When you tell your children something do you want them just to listen say I got that Pop and not do it or do you expect them to listen and heed? Alright So God says that He expects us to give heed to how much that He says Everything He says And verse 23 And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that does not heed Now let me ask you a question Is this in the New Testament? Every soul that does not heed that prophet in how much? Everything He says that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people Does it sound like God's serious about obedience? Alright And likewise Now look at this All the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward What did they announce? Did they announce these days? Are you with me? See I want you to see something because we've allowed something to happen Most of the things that I've seen written on covenant They like to read Deuteronomy 28 We'll even read Deuteronomy 28 this week But they like to read Deuteronomy 28 Particularly the first 14 verses Because the first 14 verses say If you diligently obey the Lord your God then all these blessings will come upon you Verse 15 just starts with the other part It says but if you don't diligently heed and obey the Lord Jesus or the word in all that He says these curses will come upon you It's an interesting thing to me I see those curses mentioned there all over people who claim to be Christian but we're told today they don't exist They do exist and you can break covenant with God and come under a curse I don't have any problem with saying there is no curse for those who are in Christ Jesus The only problem I have is what some people call being in Christ Jesus Alright? Now notice Here's what he says He says that all the prophets announced these days Well that ought to tell you something about the Old Testament It no longer has to be a dead dry history book to you because it wasn't just talking about then It's talking about right now as well Let me tell you something How many of you know the word of God is eternal? If something is eternal If it's eternal It absolutely must have a past a present and a continual future Are you hearing what I'm saying? God's word is eternal That means that everything I read about in the prophets Everything they preached against and everything they preached for is for me today because it not only has a past it has a present and after I'm gone it will speak to people after me Because the word of God is eternal And he says that you and I are required to heed him in everything he says Now I want to tell you again what that means When you came to Jesus you must come making him Lord or you never came at all It's just an outward form of religion And you had to give him all of your heart But once you got in Christ Jesus you noticed something As you started walking you found out areas of your heart he didn't have You thought you gave him all your heart over here but you found out areas he didn't have But now if you're going to give give heed to him in everything he says what do you do? You repeat return and come to him with a whole heart again And you say God I recognize this doesn't belong here I put it to death I turn my heart from it I resist it I repel it in Jesus name and I choose you Lord and I choose your will Guess what you've got You've got a whole heart for Jesus Are you hearing what I'm saying? And in that way you're giving heed to everything he says Are you with me? Alright Now notice this Here's what God says If you're the type of person that's giving heed to everything he says If that's the kind of person you are Verse 25 It is you who are sons of the prophets and of the what? Covenant If you're the type of person that's giving heed to everything he says then you are a son of the covenant How many of you see that? Which God made with your father saying to Abraham and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed Are we called descendants of Abraham? Galatians chapter 3 verse 29 says that if you are in Christ Jesus you are a descendant of the Abrahamic promise And so if you are one who's giving heed like I just described of continually walking and giving God all your heart then you're in covenant with him and you're a son of the covenant If you're not doing that you are out of covenant with God Are you hearing what I'm saying? Alright This concludes tape number 3 Please proceed to tape number 4 where this message continues