In this sermon, the preacher discusses the three main aspects of the New Covenant. The first aspect is that God will write His laws on the minds and hearts of His people. The second aspect is that all believers will have spiritual knowledge and will not need to be taught by others. The third aspect is that God will be merciful and forgiving, never remembering their sins. The preacher emphasizes that knowing God's will is a right of every child of God and that the New Covenant allows believers to have a personal and intimate relationship with God.

We'll please turn to Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8. We'll read from verse 8 through verse 13. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 8. For finding fault, he says to them, Behold, days come, said the Lord, and I will consummate a new covenant as regards the house of Israel and as regards the house of Judah, not according to the covenant which I made to their fathers in the day of my taking their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not regard them, said the Lord. Because this is the covenant that I will covenant to the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord. Giving my laws into their mind, I will write them also upon their hearts, and I will be to them for God, and they shall be to me for people. And they shall not teach each his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because all shall know me in themselves, from the little one among them unto the great among them. Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more. In that he says new, he has made the first one old. But that which grows old in age is near disappearing. Our God is a God of covenant. In the Bible you'll find God makes covenant with people from time to time. Of course the word covenant is the word contract that we use in our days. God is a God of contract. Now why do you make a contract? The reason why people make contracts is because people's words are not too trustworthy. So you have to put everything in a contract written down, stipulated, and signed. In order that it may have a legal obligation. And that's the reason why you'll find in this world we use contracts. Now God, so far as he is concerned, he doesn't need a contract. Whatever he says, he does. His words are as true, dependable, as his actions. There is no need for God to put himself in a contract with man. The reason why our God is a God of contract is not because of his own need. It is because of our need. He knows how weak is our faith. He knows that because we are what we are, we tend to think the same about him. In order to increase our faith, to strengthen our faith, God is willing to condescend himself. As it were, putting himself on our level and bind himself in a contract. So brothers and sisters, when we find God making covenant with man, making contract with man, let us remember one thing, that it shows God's great love. Because with himself there is no such need. It is because of us. He wants to bring us to where he is. Therefore he has to come down to where we are and making contract. Here in the book of Hebrews you will find two covenants are being mentioned. One is called the Old Covenant and the other is called the New Covenant. Of course the Old Covenant refers to that covenant which God made with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. God heard the cry of the children of Israel in Egypt. God remembered his promise to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. So God sent Moses down to Egypt to deliver his people out of Egypt into the promised land. After God had brought them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. You remember in Exodus chapter 19 God said, I have brought you to myself as on eagles wing. If you keep my word, if you keep my covenant, then you will be my people. People of my possession. And you will be a nation of peace. And there God covenanted with us. And in that covenant it is summed up in the Ten Commandments. So the Ten Commandments represent the Old Covenant. That contract which God made with the children of Israel. It was a conditional covenant. Why? Because in that covenant God said, If you will keep my word, then you shall be my people and I will be your God. In other words, in case they did not keep the covenant, then what would happen? The contract would be abolished. Because the children of Israel did not fulfill their condition. But anyway you will find when God gave this contract or covenant to the children of Israel, God said, Thou shalt. And Thou shalt not. And the people said, We will do everything that God says. So the covenant was made. It was as if God was taking their hand and tried to lead them on into the full purpose. But you know, just like sometimes when you are walking on the street with your child, you try to hold the hand of your child, trying to lead him safely through the street or try to lead him to a certain place and then something attacks that child and sometimes you find it is very difficult because you want to lead him one way and you find a little struggle there. He tries to get off your hand and because he is being attacked by something else. And this was exactly the story of how God led the children of Israel through the wilderness. God was holding their hand, trying to lead them into His full purpose, into the promised land. But here you will find they tried to get away from God's hand. They tempted God. They tested Him. And for 40 years, they were in the wilderness. They broke the contract. And because they broke the contract, God... Now that was the old covenant. But in the book of Jeremiah, when the children of Israel were at that time at the end of the nation, they were soon to be taken captive by the Babylonians. But it was during that time that God spoke to the children of Israel, telling them that one day God will make a new covenant with them. And it was a better covenant. It was not like the old covenant which was conditional. It was not like the old covenant that was external. God took their hand and tried to lead them. It will be a new covenant. It will be something entirely different. And it will be of a higher... God promised them a new covenant. The nation was destroyed. For hundreds of years, nothing was heard. Had God forgotten His promise of a new covenant? Nothing was mentioned again of the new covenant. Until one day, you remember, on the night of His betrayal, our Lord Jesus was with His own disciples. They were heading the Passover feast as a family. But during the Passover feast, towards the end, our Lord Jesus, He took the load. He blessed it. And He gave it to His disciples and said, This is my body, broken for you. Take it. Do this in remembrance. And after that, He took the cup. He blessed it. And He said, This is the cup of the new covenant for the remission of your sins. Drink ye of it in remembrance. After Jeremiah mentioned the new covenant, nothing was said anymore. Until that night, our Lord Jesus, He raised the cup and said, This is the cup of the new covenant. It is true. One day in the future, God will yet fulfill His promise to the children of Israel. In making that new covenant with them. It will come. But thank God. Even before that day arrived, our Lord Jesus, the last night before His crucifixion, He brought what God had promised to the children of Israel in the future to His own church. So dear friends, the promise that God gave to the children of Israel for the future is now our possession in Christ. We are today living under the new covenant. God has made a contract with us through Christ Jesus. And this contract that God has made with His church, that is with us today, is the very new covenant that God promised to the children. A covenant defines a relationship. Our relationship with God today and God's relationship with us today, God's way of dealing with us today, and our way of dealing with God today, all these are based upon a covenant. It is therefore of great importance for us to know what this new covenant is. Because if we do not know what God has covenanted with us, we do not know how to deal with God, and we do not know how God deals with us. In order to maintain a right relationship with God, we have to have a good understanding of this covenant. You know, sometimes in this world, whether you are renting a house, or buying a place, or buying a business, or doing something, you'll find there's a contract, and you have to sign the contract. But oftentimes you'll find in the contract, of course, you have maybe a page or two pages or maybe more. All the stipulations, all the articles in that contract. And sometimes it tells you what you must do, and sometimes it promises you what will be done to you, and here you'll find all the contracts. But men are such. Oftentimes, they put something in very fine print, and you don't read it. Probably you read the big items, and you skip all the fine print, and very often you'll find when anything should happen, it's the fine print that really matters. And because it is in the contract, you have signed it, you suffer loss. Now, of course, God does never put anything in fine print. He gave us in bold letters. But, it behooves us to know what are in the New Covenant. What are the articles there? What has God promised to us? What has God promised to do for us? What right do we have, people of God? Or is there any conditions we must fulfill before God will fulfill His promise? Well, we need to know what the New Covenant is. We often say today we are living in the days of the New Covenant. But what is the New Covenant? What is the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant? As a matter of fact, many people today, and many God's children today, are still living under the New Old Covenant. You would be surprised how many of God's people today, even though they know they are under the New Covenant, and yet they still live in the Old Covenant. Why? Because they don't know the difference between the New and the Old Covenant. What is the characteristics of the Old Covenant? Number one, it is conditional. Number two, it is external. Number three, the burden of responsibility is upon man, not upon God. That's the characteristics of the Old Covenant. It is conditional. You must do this, you must do that, you must not do this, you must not do that, and if you keep the Ten Commandments, then you are my people and I am your God. Conditional. God says, you do this. The responsibility is on you. After you have done this, then I will do that. It is written on stone. You read it, you try to memorize it, you try to tell yourself, don't forget it, and keep it. It is external. And you try by yourself. That is, these are the characteristics of the Old Covenant. The commandments are holy, are spiritual. But we are. It is through the weakness of the flesh that the law cannot. But the characteristics of the New Covenant are, number one, it is unconditional. There is no condition. Number two, it is immoral. It is something that God does within us. And number three, all the responsibility is God's. God said, I will take the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is to trust Him. Now, having said these, let's go into in Hebrews chapter eight, from verse ten to verse twelve. You'll find there are three items. Three main things in the New Covenant. Let us read them and then we'll go over them one by one. Verse ten. Because this is the covenant that I will covenant to the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. Number one. Giving my laws into their mind. I will write them also upon their hearts. And I will be to them for God and they shall be to me for people. The power of life. Number two. Verse eleven. And they shall not teach each his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because all shall know me in themselves from the little one among them unto the great among them. Spiritual. Number three. Verse twelve. Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses and their sins and their lawlessnesses, I will never remember anymore forgiveness of sins and even forgetting. This order is God's order. But when you come to our experience, probably it would be easier for us to understand if we start from the last one. Because so far as our experience is concerned, it seems as if the last one is the first one that we are really awakened to. In other words, God has made a covenant with us today in Christ Jesus. This covenant, this contract, is sealed by the blood of our Lord Jesus. It cannot be broken. And this is God's covenant with man today. The relationship of God with us today is based upon this covenant. And God deals with us today according to this covenant. And the same thing is true if we want to approach God. This is our approach. Now the first thing is, God says, I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember anymore. God promises to forgive our sins and to forget our iniquities. The moment we realize we are sinners. The moment we know we have sinned. When we are under conviction by the Holy Spirit, our natural reaction will be, What should I do then? How can I wash away my sins? How can I appease God? Immediately you will say, Let me try to do some good deeds. If I can accumulate some good merits that may be able to cover all my past faults and sins. And that may in a way appease the wrath of God. And it is upon this natural reasoning that all the natural religions are built. If you really mean bitterness, you know you have sinned, you are convicted, and you try to do something good to balance your account. The more you try, the more you'll find you are unable. If you are honest with yourself, you know that is impossible. As you find Isaiah says, Even our righteousnesses, things that you consider as good, as righteous, but even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. They are not only rags that cannot cover your nakedness, but they are filthy too. Nothing to eat. How can we have our sins forgiven? How can a righteous God forgive sinners? Before Christ died, the righteous God could not forgive sins without compromising. God is love. I remember many years ago, during the war time, I was talking to a lady. Her father was a Methodist minister, as my father was, and she was brought up in a Christian family. She came to this country to study. And then she went back. And one day we were talking and she told me, she said, Mr. Kong, God is love. How can God send anyone to hell? Surely God will forgive everybody. Because He is love. But she forgot. God is not only love, but God is righteous. God cannot love to the extent to compromise His righteousness. God loves sinners, yes, but God hates sin. The wages of sin is death. How can a just God justify sinners? No way. Only one way. God has made the one who knows no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness. It is because our Lord Jesus, the just, has died for the unjust. Therefore, there is forgiveness of sin for the unjust. If we try to come to God and ask for mercy, if we try to come to God and present Him with all our merits and say, with all these merits, will you consider? Will we be completely rejected? Our offering will be like the offering of Cain. He brought the best of the fruit of his labor on earth. And he tried to present these to God as if to say, now, will you accept these? And forgive me. And you know the story. God rejected His offering and rejected Him completely. It's only His brother, Abel, offered a more excellent sacrifice, the blood of the Lamb. And because of that, God accepted Abel on the basis of that better sacrifice. So, dear friends, when we come to God today, there is only one way. And this is in the New Covenant. If we come to God through Jesus Christ, through His shed blood, and God said, I will forgive your sins and I will remember completely. You know, oftentimes when we talk with people, we say, now, if you only confess your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus, accept Him as your Savior, because He has shed His blood for you. God will forgive you. To their mind, this doesn't seem to be. I have sinned. I've just come to God, trusting in the Lord Jesus, and God will forgive me? It's too good to believe. They will forget that it is in the New Covenant. God said, I will forgive. I will not remember anymore. God has said it. God has put His Word in the Covenant. And because God has put His Word in the Covenant, and it is unconditioned. God said, I will. God does not say, you do certain things and I will. God said, I will do that. I will do that. So anyone who will come to God through Christ Jesus, his sins shall be forgiven. Not only forgiven, in 1 John chapter 1 it is said, if we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. God is faithful. We will say God is merciful and loving. But here you'll find it is that God is faithful and righteous. Faithful to what? Faithful to His Covenant. Righteous to His Covenant. He will do whatever He has said, whatever He has promised, and whatever He has put in the Covenant. He is faithful and righteous. That gives us great assurance. You know, many people come to the Lord, they have prayed, they ask God to forgive them, but their whole approach is mercy. Lord, if you show mercy to me, then you will forgive me. Now suppose God said, I'm not going to show mercy to you. Then what will happen? Before Christ died on the cross, it was mercy. It was love that gave Christ. But after Christ has died on the cross, it is more than mercy and love. It is faithful. We can go to the Lord and say, God, you have said it. It is here in the Covenant. Fulfill the contract. We can approach the throne of grace with boldness. You do not need to be in fear and trembling. You can come to God with assurance, knowing that because Christ had already died, your sins are, it is sure, not only forgiven. You know, sometimes our problem is, we come to the Lord and ask for forgiveness, and we think we are forgiven. But tomorrow, the next day, we begin to remember it, and we come again to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive. And maybe in the afternoon we remember again and say, Lord, forgive. But the Lord says, I don't remember. I don't remember. God has a wonderful memory. He remembers all that needs to be remembered and forgets all that needs to be remembered. And our mind is so distorted. We remember what we should forget and we forget what we should remember. But dear brothers and sisters, thank God. All our sins are forgiven. Not only forgiven, but forgotten. God said, as the east is from the west, so is your sin. He had thrown our sins behind His back at the bottom of the sea. He remembers no more all that we made. We don't need to look backward anymore. Dear brothers and sisters, all our sins, our sins are forgiven and forgotten. If we believe in the Lord, He forgives and forgets. So we can go on. You know, one of the tricks of the devil, of the enemy, is to try to bring back. And by doing that, he is the accuser. He tries to accuse us of things already under the blood. And dear brothers and sisters, if we do not know the new covenant, our faith sometimes will be shaken. We wonder if our sins are really forgiven. But if we know the new covenant, we can answer our adversary and say, the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has cleansed us from all our sins. How blessed it is! When Martin Luther, the great reformer, while he was doing the work of reformation, one day Satan appeared to him and brought to him a scroll called The Sins of Martin Luther. And it was written within and without. And of course, lots of them were true and lots of them were false. And the adversary challenged Martin Luther and said, Dare you do the work of reformation? Who are you to do the work of reformation? You are not qualified! Full of sins like you are. And thank God Martin Luther knew the blood of the Lord Jesus. He knew the new covenant. He took a raggedy pen and wrote upon it and said, The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleansed me from all my sins. And Satan disappeared. Dear brothers and sisters, this is where we stand. On the blood of our Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven. And not only forgiven, this is not only the past. This is our everyday experience. Brothers and sisters, if we fall, just confess what we were. Repent. Truly. Our sins are forgiven. Don't look back. Just go forward. Many Christians today always go back, go back to their failures. They think that they have to be sorry for it. Yes. You need to be sorry for it. But your sorrow does not cleanse you from your sins. It is the blood. Therefore let us go on. Trusting the blood of our Lord Jesus. And go on. The past is under the blood. Whatever is under the blood, God would never bring it out. Even one day when we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ, anything that is under the blood is forgotten. Thank God for this new covenant. But the new covenant is much more than just this. Here we find the second article. And that is to say, they shall not teach each his fellow citizen and each his brother saying, Know the Lord. Because all shall know me in themselves from the little one among them unto the great among them. You know, we are the children of Israel. How do they know the Lord? How do they know the Lord? The only way they could know the Lord was they had to be taught. They had to be instructed. And that was the reason why God set out the Levites, the priests, to study the law and to teach the people. Now if you don't know anything, you go to them and they will teach you and tell you, instruct you as what the law was. Now suppose it came to a place where you do not know where you should go or what you should do. For instance, like Saul. His father lost some ashes and he was out to try to find his ashes but he couldn't find them. Now what should he do? Should he go on, continue to find them or should he go back whether his father is worried or not? Now what do you do? Now in the Old Testament time, you went to a seer, to a prophet. And the prophet would ask for you before God and would tell you what God said. In other words, in the Old Testament time, the knowledge of God was indirect through instruction from outside, information, information. Why? Because God was outside of you. We need people to teach us know the Lord, know the Lord. You know the word know the Lord here is a word which means know outwardly, objective knowledge. Knowledge that you accumulate through information, receiving instruction. Then you say, now I know, but this is not the new covenant. The new covenant is you do not need to teach your brother or your fellow citizen say know the Lord. You don't need to do that. Why? Because everyone knows the Lord in himself. This know is another know. It's not the objective knowledge, it is the subjective, intuitive knowledge. It is not a knowledge that is accumulated through information. It is a knowledge that comes directly from God within your spirit. You don't need to tell any of your brothers say know the Lord. Why? Because every child of God knows the Lord. From the littlest one to the greatest. Now dear brothers and sisters, do you know that this is the new covenant? Our problem today is after we come to the Lord, now probably we know that if we believe in the Lord Jesus our sins are forgiven and forgotten. Probably we know that. Thank God we are saved. But the problem comes. I am now saved. What shall I do? What are the requirements of being a Christian? How shall I live a Christian life? What things I can do and what things I should not do? And with the best of intention we begin to inquire. We go around and ask, now I have believed in the Lord Jesus but I am very new. I don't know anything. Now you have to tell me what I should do and what I shouldn't do. You have to tell me that. When you are told, well you should read the Bible. And from the Bible you will know. But the Bible is so thick. I am just starting to read it. And if a problem comes, I cannot find it in the Bible. What should I do? Just tell me. And even if you don't ask, you will be told. There are so many teachers in the church today. Everyone wants to be a teacher. After you have believed in the Lord Jesus people will begin to pile information on you. Or maybe you are anxious to gather information. What you should do, what you shouldn't do, where you should go and where you shouldn't go and so on and so forth. And all these things. And you begin to inquire and ask. Now in one thing you should ask. That is true. We should be humble enough to ask. But brothers and sisters, there is something far basic than that. And I am afraid this is something that Christianity has ignored. Where comes our knowledge? Does it come from outside? Through instruction? Or does it come from within? How do you know God? How do you know God's will? Everywhere I go people, the one thing that they are really interested in and they want to talk about is how do I know God's will? How can I know God's will? I don't know God's will. I want to. But I don't know. And then people will begin to tell a row. If you want to know God's will, then know these three things. Number one, what the Bible says. But you say, well I don't know the Bible. Number two, you pray. You pray. And, but, you don't know. Number three, you watch these circumstances. You watch and you are all confused. You know? They try to give you a formula and the formula sometimes works and sometimes does not work. Now how do we know God? Is it the right of every child of God to know God? What is the New Covenant? The New Covenant says every one of us knows God. You don't need to be taught. You know? When? In you. In you. When? It starts from the middle. The moment you are saved, you have the ability to know God. The moment you are saved, God has put something in you that you may know. Is it not true the Bible says? The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God? How do you know you are a child of God? You know. How do you know? You say you know. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, dwells in your spirit, that new spirit, regenerated, and deep down within you you cry out, you know you are a child of God. You don't need to be told. You know. It's from within. Now, brothers and sisters, this is the way. It begins from within. Now, continuously. Remember, we do not need people to teach us because we have a teacher within. The Holy Spirit is the teacher, the Spirit of truth. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit in him or in her. Now, to be filled with the Spirit is different. You may not be filled with the Spirit, but that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is not in you. As long as, and as soon as, the moment you are saved, regenerated, the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit. He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Why is he in you? He is there to keep you in all things. Therefore, in 1 John 2, verse 27, it is said, the anointing, the unction, which is the anointing, the Holy Spirit, the anointing that is in you shall teach you in all things. Great things and small things. Everything. And his teaching is true and is not a lie. And if you obey the teaching of the anointing, you abide. Brothers and sisters, we all have the Holy Spirit in us. Don't try to feel it physically. You know? It is not your feeling. You say, I don't feel it. It is not your feeling. Don't try to imagine things. It is not in your mind. Not in your mind. How do you know God? In your spirit. Deep down in your spirit. The Holy Spirit, like the anointing, he is applying an ointment upon your spirit. You know, if you have a wound here, you apply some oil, or ointment on it, and it is very soon healed. Very soon. You feel it. You know it. So, that is the same thing. The Holy Spirit, as he operates, as he begins to teach in your spirit, it is like the applying of an ointment. It is not something overpowering. It is not something oppressing you. It is a still, small voice. A very smooth, soothing sensation. Not in your body, but in your spirit. Oh, in the spirit you sense it. This is the way. Walk in it. You may not know how to explain it, because it is intuitive. You may not feel it outwardly, because it is not emotional. But it is deep down in your spirit, the Holy Spirit is teaching you. Oh, brothers and sisters, you just try to look back. When you are first saved, you don't know too much. But sometimes, when you are talking with people, in the midst of your talking, suddenly you feel something there. As if telling you, now stop. If you continue to talk, you will say, do you have such feeling? Were you used to such talking before? Therefore you feel well? What is wrong with it? It was strange. As you are talking, suddenly you feel something there. There is a change. A restraint. A little fear. As if telling all of you, saying, now stop. Don't go. Brothers and sisters, do you listen to that? If you learn to walk inwardly with God, and you will pay attention to the leading of the Holy Spirit within you, and you will stop. But if you continue on it, and you don't listen to the Holy Spirit, well, so far as your flesh is concerned, you have said it. Everything is poured out. But, you know how you feel after. Not like before, after you have said things, you feel everything is poured out, you feel very happy. But you feel very happy. You bring it down. And you are going to. Until you confess it before the Lord, your sins are forgiven, then you will feel your relationship with the Lord is restored. The Holy Spirit is speaking within you. He is moving. Very often, you meet a person. Somehow, in your spirit, the Lord is saying, this is my attitude. This is my attitude. He may stand all right, but somehow you feel it. God's people today need to learn this inward walk. Because this inward way of knowing God is the true way. Often times, you know, we are drawn outward. Drawn to the outside. Our Christian life is lived all on the outside. It is not an inward walk. But thank God, in the covenant, God said, we can go to the Lord and say, Lord, I thank you, because the Holy Spirit is there teaching you. Does it mean that, because we do not need people to teach us know the Lord, we know Him in ourselves, therefore there should be no teachers in the church? Well, even in the Bible, Paul is a teacher. Timothy is a teacher. And the Bible says, do not despise prophecy. Now, what does that mean? Remember, all those teachers of prophesying are just to confirm or to correct what God has already spoken to. In other words, you cannot base upon these. You have to base upon what is within you. But you need to be checked and confirmed or corrected by the teachers that God has sent to His church. Why? Because our spirit is weak. It's young. We may misread the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always right, but we may misread Him, you know. So that's the reason why we need the Word of God to check it. And we need teachers, instructions. But remember, our Christian life cannot be based on people's instruction. Our Christian life must be based upon a living relationship with God. Instructions can only confirm, correct, and help. They are not the basic. So, dear brothers and sisters, we all are given this life. Just like our sins are forgiven. So... This concludes Brother Kong's ministry on the New Covenant, November 1973.