This sermon emphasizes the transition from the Old Covenant with its 613 commandments, which could not bring life, to the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. It highlights the difference between following a list of rules externally and following Jesus internally, who overcame every temptation as an example for us. The importance of honesty in acknowledging our struggles with sin, the need for the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and the power of God's Word in overcoming temptation are key points discussed.

Come up and found you know how many commandments there were in the Old Testament 613 You know ten of them in the Ten Commandments there are lots of other commandments in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy you total them all up there are 613 commandments and Even if you kept all of them you still wouldn't get life it was hopeless and It was commandments commandment you do this and do that and do the other thing and do the other thing and a lot of Christians Try to live by that do this do this do the other thing That's not Christianity Jesus said follow me and the difference as I've often said is the difference between explaining to you on a blackboard how to swim and Saying okay go jump in the river now do what I told you breathe like this and move your legs like this and you'll drown The other is teaching you to swim by me getting into the river and say follow me Which is easier, which would you rather which way would you rather learn? That is the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant the Old Covenant was a list of commandments on the blackboard Do this this is this isn't you can't do it And Jesus said I'll show you I'll be tempted in every single point that any of you at any age in your life have been tempted I'll overcome and at the end of my life. I will say follow me and There will be people like Paul Who will say 1 Corinthians 11 1 follow me as I follow Christ and who will say in Philippians 3 17 brethren follow us and others like us Who are an example? the Christian world today lacks such men and women of God Who can turn around to others and say follow me as I follow Christ? That's not pride It's faith a lot of people think humility is to say well don't follow me No, why in the world you're saying anything Don't tell anybody Something that didn't work in your own life If the gospel hasn't worked in your own life. You've got no business to share it with anybody else But praise God it can work if we have faith, and we need to be challenged We need to be stirred up out of our lethargy laziness unbelief especially To see that Jesus was tempted like us the second thing as I said the first is that they didn't have an example in the Old Testament now we have an example in Jesus the second is they didn't have the Holy Spirit indwelling them In the Old Testament, so it was impossible Everything in the Old Testament was external you could only clean the outside of the cup Not the inside Nobody could clean the inside of the cup Even in the list of ten commandments you could keep nine of them But when you came to the tenth one who could keep it you know what the tenth commandment is the first and nine commandments are very easy and many many Unbelievers ungodly people in the world who keep it You know there are many ungodly people who don't worship idols There's certain religions where they just ate idolatry other than Christianity and There are many people who fear God and Honor their father and mother don't commit adultery don't murder and don't bear false witness in a court etc etc But when it comes to the tenth commandment You shall not lust After your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's daughter Every girl in the world is your neighbor's daughter who kept it Paul was honest and said when I came to the last commandment Romans chapter 7 I found all types of lusts in my heart The word covet there means to desire Something God hasn't given you to look with desire That's something God hasn't given you it's not your wife Anything to desire somebody's property To desire a sari that somebody else is wearing You're broken the tenth commandment immediately you don't have to go and grab it to steal. That's another commandment thou shall not steal To steal your neighbor's wife or steal your neighbor's daughter It's another commandment you may not do that, but the tenth one is you shall not desire that in your heart You shall not lust after that When a man is honest like Paul to say I couldn't keep it God will lead him to victory Because that's after he says in Romans 7 I found all types of lusting in my heart Are you honest enough to say oh? How many Christians pretend as if they're not tempted? liars hypocrites But Paul was honest. He said I'm less. I found all types of desires and lusts in my heart And he says but and he says old wretched man at the end of Romans 7 how shall I ever be free from this Have you had a cry in your heart like that a longing to overcome temptation? Saying old wretched man that I am I get angry I lust Lord I slip up here. I slip up there. I've hurt people all wretched man that I am Instead of saying all wretched woman that she is a wretched man that he is You'll never get victory that way When you say like Paul said in Romans 7 24 all wretched man that I am who shall deliver me He moves on to Romans 8 2 & 3 where he says the law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free The law of sin and death was what the law could not do God did that's Romans 8 2 & 3 So there we have an example, and that's why we have given the example of Jesus being tempted And we see here that the the fact that we are tempted doesn't mean that we are in the wrong path Some people think now you can put yourself in temptation unnecessarily You can open a pornographic book and say Lord lead me not into temptation. That's a lot of rubbish You know you keep cigarettes in your drawer and say Lord, please don't let me smoke Lord what destroy those cigarettes You can't keep sources of temptation around you and say Lord deliver me from temptation the Bible says to run away from temptation But God allows us to be tempted It says who led him to be tempted the Holy Spirit Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and the very next thing the Holy Spirit was leading him into wilderness And we think as soon as we are anointed with the Holy Spirit. We're gonna go out and become great preachers hang on Before you become that great preacher you got to be tempted You got to overcome the devil in private Before you have a public ministry That's what we learn in in this new covenant In new covenant truths The Old Testament it had didn't have to be like that Moses didn't have to be an overcomer in private Before he proclaimed God's Word or even wrote scripture like the first five books of the Bible No, and old covenant preachers, and there are plenty of them today can be defeated in their private life And get up and preach wonderful sermons as wonderful as the books that Moses wrote But a man with discernment, there's only about 1% of Christians like that can see through that 99% of Christians are fooled boy what a wonderful preacher I Want to say to you my brothers and sisters God wants us to serve him powerfully But that power can come Only as we Spend our life studying God's Word, and that's one of the things Jesus Did we know that he knew the scriptures of the age of 12 and the very first answer to temptation here? We come to that is he spoke about the Word of God