This sermon discusses the disappointment God feels when His children remain spiritually immature, likening it to a 25-year-old still in first grade. It delves into the limitations of the Old Covenant in transforming hearts and contrasts it with the transformative power of the New Covenant through Jesus Christ, enabling the Holy Spirit to dwell within believers. The message emphasizes the importance of living as Jesus lived and the empowering grace available to walk in obedience and holiness.

Not angry, but is he disappointed? A good father is not angry with his son who is sitting in the first standard even though he is 25 years old. He is disappointed. He says, why is my son so mentally retarded? He is 25 years old and he is sitting with these 6 year olds in the first standard. You'd be disappointed. And I wouldn't blame you for being disappointed if your son is 25 years old and sitting in first standard still. Do you know how disappointed God is? Does that disturb you? Or are you like those children who wouldn't care? What does it matter if dad and mom pass or fail? It's okay. I play marbles. I'm good at marbles. Don't forget that. Do you know how many marbles I won yesterday? Is that what you send children to school for? To play marbles and win marbles? And that's what a lot of people say to God. Do you know, Lord, how many meetings I've been to in my life? It's like winning marbles. What about the really important things like mathematics and science? What do you get in that? That's what's important in school and the important things in life are like that. So in Hebrews chapter 8 it says, When this old covenant could not make man to this place of perfection, he sort of remained perpetually in kindergarten. We can say that the law could never lead a man outside of kindergarten. It was like a school where there was only one class, kindergarten. Whether you're 5 years old or 50 years old, you sit in the kindergarten. That was the law. God says the law couldn't do that. Why did God keep it like that? To teach man something. And also, because until there was one human being who had the Holy Spirit within him, because he lived a perfect life, nobody else could have the Holy Spirit within. You know why? That's why nobody in the Old Testament could have the Holy Spirit inside. Until Jesus came and had the Holy Spirit inside, because the Holy Spirit is so holy that he could not come even inside John the Baptist. When it says he was filled with the Spirit in the mother's womb, it's the Old Testament experience of being filled, which is an external thing. We can say he was clothed. That's Old Testament fullness of the Spirit. There's a difference in New Testament fullness of the Spirit, which is within. Remember this. Everything in the Old Covenant was outside. Everything in the New Covenant is inside. Everything. Old Covenant was outside temple. New Covenant is inside temple. Old Covenant is outside murder. New Covenant is inside murder, which is called anger. Old Covenant is outside adultery. New Covenant is inside adultery. Avoid it. Everything in the Old Covenant is inside. Old Testament sacrifices are outside. New Covenant sacrifices are inside. Secret. Nobody can see. So, the Holy Spirit's fullness also in the Old Testament is only on the outside. Nothing on the inside. Samson was filled with the Holy Spirit. He could deal with lions on the outside, but he couldn't deal with lions on the inside. So the law could not do anything about the man's inside, and the reason being, man's inside was filthy with sin. And until Jesus shed his blood on the cross and ascended to heaven, man's heart could not become clean. They shed the blood of bulls and goats as a picture of the blood of Christ, but that couldn't make anybody's heart clean. No. That's why, even though a man like Elijah's heart was not clean. You remember David saying in Psalm 25, O Lord, please don't remember the sins of my youth. David was chosen probably when he was 18 or 19 years old. What are the sins he committed before he was 18 or 19 years old? What are the sins you committed before you were 18 or 19 years old? But David did some things like that. And when he became a wholehearted man of God, he said, O Lord, I'm reminded of those sins I did when I was 16, 17, 18. Please don't remember them against me, he says in Psalm 25. He doesn't tell us what they are. Thank God he doesn't. I don't want to know them. I don't want to know about anybody's sins. Do you have a curiosity to know other people's sins? Are you a Roman Catholic priest or something to find out about other people's sins? I'm not. I'm not interested in knowing anybody's sins. Knowing my own is enough. I don't need to know anybody else's. Yeah, I don't have a curiosity. I don't need to know what David sinned, but I know he was a sinner. And he couldn't have the Holy Spirit within. He says in Psalm 51, You desire reality in the innermost being, truth in the innermost being, and I don't have it. But when Jesus came, shed his blood, died on the cross, went up to the Father, we could now be cleansed. And when the vessel is cleansed so perfectly by the blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit could come within. That's why on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit could come within and fill this vessel. There was 120 vessels. That was different from John the Baptist's fullness, or Samson's fullness, or Gideon's fullness. It was something from within. You remember Jesus said in the New Covenant, If you thirst and you come to me and drink out of your, where? innermost being. Rivers of living water will flow, John 7, 38. In the Old Testament, it was on the outside. It's like God poured a ton of water on somebody and it flowed out through him to other people. But Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, I'm going to put a little spring inside you. That's just going to keep bubbling up and it will become like a river. So, the Holy Spirit couldn't do that until Jesus came and died. And Jesus demonstrated by his life, the first human being that walked on the earth and showed man how God wanted Adam to live. And how no human being from the time of Adam until Christ had ever lived like that. But when Jesus came, God was so happy. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And now, you know what the Bible says? 1 John 2, 6. I like the Living Bible paraphrase of this. If anyone says he's a Christian, he must live as Jesus lived. Anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Jesus lived. That's impossible to tell somebody in the Old Testament to do that. That's why you don't find such verses in the Old Testament. Have you ever heard any preacher, other than me, preach this verse? I'd like to meet such a person who actually, specifically spells out, for example, how to be free from the love of money. How to be free from anger and lust and things like that. Practically, not just in a general, vague, hazy type of way. You have to walk as Jesus walked. If you say you abide in Christ. What a standard. Now, how do you look at that verse? John Wesley, when he read that verse, he didn't get discouraged. Oh, boy, what a burden. I have to walk like Jesus walked. No. You can look at the same verse in two different ways. Oh, I have to walk like Jesus walked and get depressed. But John Wesley, it was the exact opposite. You know, you can read scripture in two ways. The Bible says, if you don't turn to the Holy Spirit, it's like having a veil on the Bible. When you turn to the Holy Spirit, the veil is taken away. You understand it. So, the veil was taken away. And John Wesley read that verse and he says, Boy, this is fantastic. That means God will give me the power to walk as Jesus walked. Boy, how exciting that is. That's how he saw it. But he saw that every word that God spoke would have a power in it. You remember in Genesis 1? God said, Let there be light. What happened? Did nothing happen? Something happened. When God said, Let the earth bring forth trees, something happened. Because the earth responded. There's such a tremendous power in God's word. That when I read a verse like this, He who says he abides in Christ must walk as he walked. I say, Lord, like the earth submitted, I want to submit to that verse. Or I read another verse like 1 John chapter 4 and verse 17. As Jesus is, so am I in this world. I submit to that. And something happens. I mean, the earth can't say, I struggled and I produced these trees. No. God said, Let the trees come forth. It came forth. What can the earth glory about it? You can't glory if you walk as Jesus walked. God says it and he'll do it in your life. You've got to just submit.