Examine Your Covenant With God

Once upon a time, a couple entered into an agreement. The agreement said that you follow these rules, and in return, you can live in this paradise every day of your life, scot-free. You can have free food. You can have all the enjoyments here, free everything. The paradise was perfect. It was amazing. It was awesome. But one day, something outside the rules seemed more appealing than keeping the rules. And so, they violated their covenant. Adam and Eve lost it all. Once upon a time, a great genocide faced humanity. A man was offered an agreement. His life would be spared, and that of his family. The agreement said you follow the rules, and you and your family will get to live and repopulate the world. Noah followed the rules, and he lived 900 years. Once upon a time, a rich man was offered an agreement. You trust me, you follow the rules, and I will not only bless you, but I'll bless all of your descendants for all time. Abraham followed the rules. He kept that covenant. And we today are part of the promise, or receiving part of the promises, that were given to him because he obeyed and followed the covenant and was faithful to it. Once upon a time, three million slaves were offered their freedom. They entered into an agreement in order to receive the freedom. The agreement said you follow these rules, and you can become the world's richest and most powerful nation, and you will have your own country and live in a land of beauty and ease. They agreed, but the same day, something more appealing occurred to them. They made a golden calf, and they broke the covenant. And they broke it over and over and over until eventually they all became slaves again.

Today, God has made an offer to a few people. The offer of the covenant goes like this. You replace your human nature with my nature, and I'll adopt you into my divine family. That's a new covenant that God is offering to some people today. Today, I'd like to examine the covenant that you made with God, that you made with Jesus Christ. On the day of your baptism, you made a covenant. What was that covenant? What is it? What are the terms of it? How are you doing in fulfilling the terms of that covenant? Remember the other covenants that were made, all unique, all individual, all for their own time and place. Some succeeded and some failed, and now you and I have the opportunity to enter into a covenant with this very same God. How are we doing? And what will be the result of our entering into this agreement? Let's take a look at the covenant that we make with God at baptism, Hebrews 10, verses 12-23. Hebrews 10 will begin in verse 12. By this man, Jesus Christ, the one who was just sung about, the one who was just spoken about in announcements as far as the Passover and the remembrance of what He did for us, this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, a great and mighty deed that He did, enabling us to enter into the covenant that we have made, He sat down at the right hand of God. Now, in sitting down at the right hand of God, He is alive. He is empowered with the divinity that God gave Him and all the power that God gives to Him. But notice, He is, in a sense, waiting until His second coming. There is something taking place in the meantime. From that time, waiting until His enemies be made His footstool. The covenant is not something that the conditions transpire immediately. They are lived out. They take time. The ark took over a hundred years. Abraham became faithful and fulfilled His covenant over a long period of time. You and I have been given an entire life from the time that we're called till our death to fulfill that time. Jesus Christ is waiting as the people of this covenant are fulfilling or not fulfilling that covenant. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days. It's a different covenant for a different people. A special covenant for a special time. And I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them. He said He would put these in and Paul is saying, This has now been fulfilled. This is happening. This is ongoing. The laws are in our minds. They're in our hearts. They're what we know we need to do.

How are we doing with that? Then he adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Of course, that is after repentance. Repentance is an ongoing thing. Just as sin is an ongoing thing. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. So what we find here is the way in which the covenant is made available is through Jesus Christ.

It is then offered to us. It's put into our heart as far as the terms of the covenant. And then it's up to us as to what we will do with those terms.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh. I spoke to you recently about our access to God the Father. Through the veil to God the Father goes through the blood of Christ. Through the shed body, the stripes that He took on Him so that we could be healed, as you read in Isaiah 53.

And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So here is our covenant explained. Here is our contract. And then let us hold fast the confession of our hope. We are to hold onto that covenant and its terms, not let it go holding fast.

We are to grab onto that confession or that agreement that we made without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. It's a really wonderful opportunity that we've been given. The promises are fabulous. They're bigger than any promise that's ever been offered in any other covenant to anybody.

It's just awesome how huge the rewards for this covenant are. And also how great the rewards for breaking it are. They're pretty consequential as well, as you heard in the Bible study today about the Third Resurrection. In Hebrews 2, the first three verses, we are encouraged to remember, pay attention to this covenant that we made so that it should not slip past us.

Hebrews 2, beginning in verse 1, it says, Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Let them slip. There's a concept. Adam and Eve weren't paying really close attention, and they let the terms slip. And they went for the forbidden fruit. And so it has been over time that people, Jesus said, will receive the covenant, they'll receive it with great joy, and then something happens. Something happens and it slips. It doesn't really take root. Something else gets it and it slips. Let me ask you a question. What were the promises that you made to your husband or your wife on your wedding day?

Are they right in the forefront of your mind? Do you have the eight or nine things that you said you would do right there? Do you wake up in the morning and say, if you're still married, do you say, Wow, I've got these nine things that I said I would do for Mary, and how am I doing today on those nine things? Anybody here have that right in the forefront of your mind each day?

Raise your hand if you do. Jump up and down, shout so I can see you, because I'm not seeing any hands go up, and you're not seeing mine go up. Isn't that interesting, though? Isn't it interesting how we want something, we want the reward, we want salvation, and yeah, whatever the minister's saying, yeah, we'll agree to that, we'll agree to that, just baptize me, get these sins out of here, get me some help to overcome, and get me on towards the kingdom. Do you remember what it was that you agreed to at your baptism?

I remember Mr. Armstrong doing our wedding. I don't remember anything he said. I was next to the girl, she was going to be my girl, I wanted the girl. Whatever he said, I said I do, and I got the girl. Sadly, sadly, it's the not fulfilling some of the nine things I said to Mr. Armstrong that I would do that has come back once in a while to whack me on the head. You know? And so it is. These covenants that we've made are promises that must be kept, otherwise there are penalties that will be paid.

You don't want the penalty for breaking the covenant with your spouse. That's a terrible, terrible penalty to pay. You don't want the penalty for breaking your covenant with God. That's the ultimate, ultimate penalty to pay. As we go on here in Hebrews 2, The Revised Standard Version here says, Lest we drift away from it. I think the analogy between the covenant with one's spouse and the covenant with God, they're really intertwined in a lot of ways. But I'll just say from this standpoint, the human mind is forgetful.

And the human mind gets distracted. And husbands, as I know I am one, can get distracted with work and the important things in life. And husbands can put wives and their needs second and third until such time as there are problems. And what did Jesus Christ say about our covenant with Him? People and men can get distracted. They can go on about the important things of life, and they can strain that relationship and lose that relationship with God by chasing materialism and other things.

As we approach the Passover, how serious are we about the covenant and appreciating the one who made this covenant with us and made it possible for us?

It says here in the Revised Standard Version, it talks about drifting lest we drift away from it. You know, drift is something very interesting to watch if you have the time. I think there's nothing, probably few things, more inspiring in nature to go see than water. And water has a very calming effect. Whatever you're doing on water, if you're sitting in a chair or sitting in a boat or something, it's just very calming effect. It's like fishing. Busy guys like to go fish. You throw your line out there and you're fishing. It doesn't matter if you catch fish. That's not really why you're there. You're there to go out and relax. And it's fun to fish. You don't even have to put a hook on the line. Hey, you don't even have to have water, really. Just a chair and a pole, you know, and relax, kind of unwind. But if you happen to be sitting in front of kind of a placid lake, you'll see something floating in that lake sooner or later. A little stick will be there. Maybe a leaf. Maybe somebody's boat that they had tied up on the shore. Something will be there. A bottle, a can. And you know, it's there. You think, ah, there it is. And it's a still day. After a little while, you know, it's not really there anymore, is it? It's over there. How did it get over there? That's drift. Drift is a curious thing. If it is nothing really demonstrative that moved it from there to there, if you tie your, you know, push your boat up on the land and you give it a good shove and it's up on the land, it's not going anywhere. How many times have you seen something that somebody shoved up on the land that, because of drift, because maybe a boat went by and a little later this weight came, little weight comes, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And a little stick starts to bobble and the, you know, the Coke bottle starts to bobble and pretty soon it's working on the boat and the boat starts slipping downhill a little bit. It doesn't give it a few hours and the boat's kind of gone around the corner. The guy comes down, where's my boat? What was it that put his boat out there? What took the Coke bottle? Was it anything profound? No. It's just a bunch of little things that come along in life, nothing of consequence in particular, but things drift. And so it is with us. It says here, therefore we must pay closer attention to what we've heard lest we drift away from it. We must pay closer attention to the terms of our covenants lest we drift away from fulfilling them, including marriage and with God. Drift happens, but truth does not move. Promises do not change. It's the person that drifts away from them. God is a rock. He doesn't move. Truth doesn't change. Agreements and promises don't change. It is us who are susceptible to drift from little and large and little puff of wind, a little of this, a little of that, and pretty soon we've moved. Recently, in the news, a U.S. Governor, who in his lifetime had made an agreement with a cute young little lady, and he said to her, you know what, you be my wife and I'll be loyal to you only. Over time, over time, circumstances and a little neglect and a little drift, and you find him over with some prostitutes and some monetary thing with prostitutes that blow. How do you get from there to there? It doesn't happen overnight. It just takes time. Somebody's not paying attention. Somebody's not really paying close attention. There's drift. In 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1 and 2, there's another thing that happens.

1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1.

1 Corinthians 5, verse 1. What did I say? 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1. I don't know where you went. I went to Thessalonians. I kind of like 1 Thessalonians 5. A lot. I almost stayed there, but you came back from 2 Corinthians, probably. We all go back about the same time. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 1 says, It's actually reported into the church at Corinth that there is sexual immorality among you, and that's not even named among the Gentiles.

What has happened here? How did they get from here to there? What we find in verse 2, you are puffed up. There's spiritual leaven that took place. Something here is changing. You know, leavening, if you mix up your dough, and you have the leaven in there, and you pound it out. I've seen my wife do this many times. I don't know. She pounds or rolls it or something and throws it in a pan. Nothing's happening. It's just there. Nothing happens. But you know, you go away and you come back, I guess maybe an hour or two or three hours, and things have changed. And so it was with Corinth. They came into a covenant with God, but over time they're not paying attention, and they're okay with sexual immorality within the congregation. And he's saying something has grown here within the whole group.

Spiritual leaven.

In verse 6, he says, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? He's talking about the whole congregation. The church at Corinth is now a little leaven got in, and everybody is okay with it, and that mentality spread around, and over time it leavened the whole lump.

Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may become a new lump. You and I and every human needs to purge out the sin. Go find it, realize it, recognize it, see how we've floated, see how we've changed, see how we've not been paying attention, and let the leaven of malice, the leaven of wickedness, the leaven of pride, the leaven of self get in, and we're not paying attention to what we said we would do for God.

In verse 9, I wrote you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. And what did you do? You kept company with sexually immoral people. That little bit of yeast got into the lump, and now look, the whole group is leavened. Verse 11, But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who was sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or reviler or a drunkard or extortioners, not even to eat with such a person. In other words, you take this out of your relationships. Don't get leavened. You have made an agreement to me in the New Covenant not to do these things, and you can see that by putting a little leaven around you, it gets to you, and after a while you're okay with that as well. So, in order to be a godly person, you have to distance yourself, even from church members he's saying here. Anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, covetous, idolater, reviler, drunkard or extortioner, don't even eat with them.

He's saying this is important if you want to be successful in the covenant that you've made with God.

It says in the Bible, come out of her and be, you separate my people. It says don't be joined together with unbelievers. God is trying to tell us to stay away from the influences of spiritual yeasts that are everywhere. As soon as you start becoming around that, getting in with that, you're going to sort of let go. Overcoming sin includes staying away from the practitioners of sin. Not that anybody is perfect, but he's talking about overtly sinning people.

Remember Lot? Lot was a righteous man. God saved him. But something happened. Here we have Lot and Abraham, and they're traveling around. Next thing you know, we see Lot has lived in Sodom for a long time. You talk about some drift. Remember the angels come down to visit him and the appearance of men? And Sodom is just a nasty place. And Lot tells the people banging on the doors trying to get at these men to abuse them. He says, no, please, take my daughters and rape them. Go on, rape my daughters. Let these men alone. Now, how's that for drift? How's that for drift? That's somebody who has drifted a long way, but doesn't really realize it. Growing in righteousness here means hating sin and really getting away from it. Getting away from it the various sources of it. The entertainment, the media, the people, the friends in the world, the friends in the church that are breaking the rules, but we're in the church, it's okay. Let's go to Psalm 26 in the first two verses. And let's notice here the relationship of how we grow in righteousness. David was a man after God's own heart. Let's go look and see how he conducted himself as a godly individual, as he repented, as he grew. In Psalm 26 verses 1 and 2, he's looking to God as the source of his growth and his spiritual understanding. And he said, Examine me, O Lord, and prove or test me. Show me, show me, check me out and show me where I'm wrong. As we come up to baptism, those of you who are looking forward to baptism, this is the prayer that you pray, God, show me, show me. Open up my mind to see as you see. Help me to see myself as you see myself. Not the nice little view that I have, but your view. Test me and show me and try my heart and mind, he says. For your loving kindness is before my eyes. He is looking at God and the perfection of God, and he's trying to walk in your truth. That's his desire. Now, in the pursuit of righteousness, notice what he says in the next couple of verses. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals. Why would he say that? Because he is trying to become godly, and who you surround yourself with is what you're going to be like. And so he says, I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with the hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of the evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. David was serious about his covenant with God, and there wasn't anybody who was going to influence or talk him out of it. That had happened to him a time or two in his life, for sure, and he was on top of this covenant. He was paying attention.

Now, at this time of the year, it can be a little bit overwhelming as we think about this covenant. We think about the Passover. We think about the days of unleavened bread. We've heard that we are in the end times. Wow! It can be big, can it? Well, let's simplify it. Let's simplify it. Let's cut right through and simplify it. Typically, you and I are striving to be somebody, something, someday in the eyes of God, in our own lives even. We're usually thinking in the future. You probably are thinking in times, okay, when this happens, what will happen to me? When that happens, what will I do then? How will I react then? Will God take care of me then? Will I fail then? Will I become a person of integrity? I want to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What are we dealing with? We're dealing with something that does not exist. Something that simply does not exist. What does exist? Right now. That's all that exists. I snap my fingers, but I can't even go back to then. We can't even go back that far. We can't go forward a minute. We can only deal with right now. Go over to Matthew 6. I'd like to work backward through this chapter. I like to read books backward. I don't know if you ever do. I don't read Arabic. I don't start at the back of a book, which is the beginning of the book. I really enjoy taking a look at the book, seeing what the conclusion is, seeing if I agree with the author's conclusion, before I get to the first part of the book, and go through all the little dance he's going to work you through to come to his decision at the end. It may be about politics, it may be about religion, it may be about all kinds of things, but you know how people are. If this and this equals that, well then here we are here. Now if this and this equals that, well now here we are there. Pretty soon you get to the end of the book, they say, you know, we're all going to jump off the ship and drown. I want to know that. I want to know where we're going.

If we look at Matthew 6 in this way, we can start with verse 34. Therefore, in other words, here's a conclusion of what he's going to have been talking about. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Therefore, in conclusion of everything he will have said now in chapter 6, therefore, in conclusion or in summary, therefore, don't worry about a time in which you can have no control. You're not there. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about what's over the hill. Notice, sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Now, here is where we live. Here is what we do. We have our own challenges, our own issues, our own situations today. This is the reality.

Again, the typical concept that we have as humans is to strive for something that's intangible. I want to be a person of character, but what are you thinking right now? What are you doing at this moment? Where are your thoughts today? What have you said? What have you done? What are your intents? What have you repented of? What have you seen? What are you changing? That's reality. What are you going to do immediately when the service is over? This is our reality. This is today. And the reality of God's will for us is to be happy. To live a happy life, a blessed life. To live joyfully. To live a godly life. You can't change yesterday. And Christ made it where He won't drag you back there. There are penalties for breaking God's laws and breaking covenants that will continue to hit us. And you can't take away those. But God will not drag us back.

Tomorrow isn't here, and so really, if you want to succinctly say, what's life about? Live now properly. Live now properly. Live with your spouse and your children properly. Live with God properly. Live with your neighbors and society. Live a proper life now and here and now, whenever that is. Always live properly. You'll be developing godly character. You'll be showing the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. You'll be enjoying situations now. And remember, as we just started in Matthew 6, don't worry about tomorrow. I think everybody looks pretty happy today. We can imagine some pretty evil things just over the horizon. But Christ said, don't worry about that. Worry about what you're doing at any given time. Verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God. We're not to worry, then, about the end time. He said, don't worry about tomorrow. We're in the end time, but we're not supposed to worry about it, are we? Are we to worry, to fear? Or are we to be godly every moment of our life through the end time, always being godly, always being a light, always being an example, always being an ambassador of the coming kingdom of God? Whatever we are, wherever we are, whatever we're doing, that's pretty straightforward, isn't it? You don't have to have some long-range theory of what maybe you'll be or what maybe you'll do. Just live life every moment in a godly way. It simplifies it. It just makes it so doable.

Everything will work out for the good, God says, for those who love Him and keep His commandments. If you're keeping His covenant, it's going to work out fine, whatever fine is. But seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. That's what we do. All the time. All the time. Working back a little further, verse 27, which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Can you be taller? In the end time, verse 25, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. We are in the end times. Okay? Do not worry about your life. That's the first thing we'd all worry about, isn't it? But what if there won't be any food? Well, he says, don't worry what you will eat. Water is getting scarce. Don't worry what you will drink. Nor about your body or what you will put on. Isn't your life more than food and body more than clothing? And God said, I'm looking after that. We go back a little further, verse 24.

No one can serve two masters. Here's our problem. We have this covenant with God, but we also have the desires of the flesh. But no one can serve two masters. Which one are we going to serve? That's the wrestling that Paul came up with. He said, over here I have what I want to do, and over here I have what I want to do. The Spirit in God makes me want to do this, but the Spirit in the flesh, my carnal mind, makes me want to do this.

Well, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. What are you going to do? Right here, right now, each minute, as you're thinking, as you're going through life, what master are you going to serve? For he will either hate the one and love the other, or be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. That's the God of this world. It's the physical things that people want to get for themselves in any way that breaks the covenant that we have with God.

The manner in which they go about it breaks the covenant we have with God, if it's done in a wrong way. And society does it in a wrong way. Look at the big financial mess the world is in. Because all these greedy people have been staying and lying and cheating everybody for years, and the chickens have all come home to roost. And nobody can sort out that Gordian knot. But they just want to keep doing it. And they're going to keep doing it. We can't serve that and also God. We have to be godly about our business and about our relationships.

In other words, whatever you do, whatever job you have, whatever role you have, whatever responsibility, in the here and the now, right now, how are you doing that? Verse 14. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. We're told to pray. We're not supposed to hold anything against others. We're supposed to let all these flaws in each other go. And we're also told to pray. Give us this day our daily bread, this bread.

Are we focusing on the bread, Jesus Christ, that bread that we will take at Passover, the word, the bread, the logos? Are we being filled? Are we growing on that? Or did we hide that little thing in a napkin? We haven't eaten anything since. We're just starving. We're getting food our own way. Verse 10. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is what life is supposed to be about, from beginning to end, doing God's will, praying to God, looking to God, forgiving others, serving God, not worrying about life, seeking first the kingdom.

And if we do that, I'm not talking about tomorrow and the rest of your life. I'm talking about right now, every moment that you can think and do and live, and you continue that all through the end times until Christ get here. What is he going to say? What is he going to say? Well done, good and faithful servant. You win. Enter into the kingdom of heaven. You fulfilled your covenant. Those are wonderful words. But we do have to pay attention, don't we? We have to pay attention all the time. Life is to be lived in a godly manner.

A godly manner will bring joy. The fruits of God's Spirit is love and joy and peace. And life in a godly manner is performing the covenants that we've agreed to. Ecclesiastes 11 gives us three R's for daily living. I'd like to take a look at these. Ecclesiastes 11. It's interesting here that you have three R's that pretty much point to three words or three concepts that define a godly life.

We've pretty much covered these already, but let's let Ecclesiastes define them. Somebody noticed these three that kind of work from verse to verse here. The first one is in verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 11. Rejoice. Yes, life is to be enjoyed. It is part, as I just said, part of having God's Spirit is joy. Rejoice, O young man in your youth, O young woman in your youth.

Have joy. It's a good thing. Joy, however, is the effect of a cause. You can't just have joy. The pursuit of happiness is a myth. If you go pursue happiness or joy in a selfish manner, you won't find it. Joy is the performance of your covenants. If you perform your covenant with your spouse and you do it well, what kind of relationship, what kind of family life would you expect to have? Good? Two thumbs up? Yes, you would. So joy will come from doing those things that you promised you would to your spouse.

What about to God? Joy resides, the Bible says, at the right hand of God there is great joy. In order to be with God in His kingdom, you have to fulfill your covenant. You have to fulfill that covenant.

There is joy all the way along and there is great joy to be had forever, once we do. Now, if you don't fulfill your covenants and you break them, look at the sorrow that takes place. Look at the shattering of relationships, both spiritual relationships, us and our God, and us and our fellow man, if we break our covenants.

So joy, rejoice. The second one is found in verse 10. Therefore, remove sorrow. Remove sorrow from your heart. How do you remove sorrow? Well, society has a way. It's called binge drinking. I've got all this sorrow. I've got all these headaches from everybody. I think I'll go get drunk. Then I won't know anything.

And now I won't have sorrow until I wake up. Then I'll just be compounded from everything I said when I was drunk and this really bad headache I have. And probably I'm in jail on top of it. So that doesn't really work. Remove sorrow from your heart.

Once again, it's cause and effect. Where does sorrow come from? Sorrow comes from sin, from breaking the contract we made with God. Lawlessness. Notice going on. And put away evil from your flesh. That is how you get sorrow out of your life. The first one is to rejoice because you're keeping the covenant with God. The second is to get rid of sorrow. Repent would be another good R for number two. To remove sorrow is repent. Get rid of sin. Put it out of your life. And joy will take its place. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1 is the next R. Remember now your Creator. See, we tend to get preoccupied.

We tend to have this drift. We tend not to pay close attention as the Scriptures have said. And when we're not paying attention, we're not remembering God. And next thing you know, we're floating away. And we're not remembering our source of everything. Our source of thinking is God. Our source of spiritual understanding is God. Our source of life, physical life is God. Our source of spiritual life is God.

All the blessings, all the lifting you up will come from God. We need to remember now your Creator. So life is to be lived, but it's to be lived God's way. Rejoice in living. Remove the sin. Love your neighbor. Remember God. Love him the most. Now let's go to 1 Peter 4, verse 17. Let's see what Jesus Christ is doing at the right hand of God. Is he sitting, waiting?

What is he doing? 1 Peter 4, verse 17. For the time has come, or the time now is, for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, notice the wording is very important. Judgment has not been in those previous times.

Judgment begins with us first. This is the judgment for eternal life. Adam and Eve didn't have that. This is a different judgment. Judgment has begun at the house of God and the body of Christ. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of Christ? Everybody is going to be judged. We heard in the Bible study today that there is a time of judgment and a time of reward for all humans who have ever lived. But each is judged in his own time and his own order. Firstfruits are judged first.

For those who know the truth, now is the time. It's the end time. It's the only time. Now is the time for judgment. And Jesus Christ and God the Father are judging you and me. Each day, each minute, each thought, each deed. How are we doing? We know the truth. We know the prophecies. We know what's coming. We know God's law. We know the covenant we've made. We know the kingdom and the promise of that.

We know all of these things. Ephesians 5 and 5 tells us what to do with all of these things. Ephesians 5 verse 15. See then that you walk circumspectly. It means watching your step. We don't use that term circumspectly a lot. You probably didn't use it this week. It just means as you're walking, watch your step. We tend to think over the hill. When we get over the hill, we're going to set up camp and wonder if there's going to be snakes and on and on and on. See how we think as humans. We're not paying attention to our daily moment-by-moment steps. This is our reality, not what may be over the hill.

See then, you know all of these things. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. He goes on, redeeming the time. The word redeeming means to buy up, to rescue it from loss. It's just about to fall over and smash, but you grab it. You grab the vase, the pitcher, whatever is falling, you grab it and you rescue it from loss.

When he says here, redeeming the time, he's saying, use it. Don't lose it. Don't let it get away. Use it. What time do you have? Tomorrow? No. Yesterday? No. Right now. Use the time. Because the days are evil. Use it profitably. The spring feasts are coming up and they speak to our covenant with God.

Our covenant we made is we will repent, God will forgive us, and we will have salvation as a reward. We've agreed to that. The lesson of Passover is very, very profound. That is that repentance and forgiveness is a very life-cleansing event. It's the most wonderful thing that we have been given, really, so far. It's the cleansing of ourselves from any guilt or any responsibility, from any deed that we've ever done. That goes on on a continual basis. It's a cleansing, very life-generating moment when we are forgiven. That's through the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It promotes life. It makes life available. It's almost like rain to the desert.

I don't know how many times you go out in the desert, but several of us drive out to Yuma and back through a very hot, dry desert. In June, it can just be a wasteland of just sand and rock. Then the rains will come. It's amazing what happens, how those rains refresh. They clean off the dust and the sand. Then life pops up. More life than you can believe sometimes can exist in the desert. It is so refreshing, and that's like the washing of Jesus Christ and the life that is potentially there. The lesson of unleavened bread is likewise profound.

A little sin will destroy you. A little sin, a little leaven, will grow up inside and spoil the whole batch. It will consume you. It will destroy you. God will come back, and you and me, if that's the way we want, if we want to be full of the leaven of self-centeredness, then that loaf is going in the oven, so to speak.

If it spreads, it can destroy a whole church, as we saw there in Corinth. The lesson of Pentecost is also profound. Those who overcome sin will reign with Christ, and they will live forever. That's the first fruit resurrection. That is the wonderful reward for those who have slogged through the covenant they've made with God and been true to it. Failing, slipping, that's true, but in the end, true to that covenant. They will live forever and reign with Christ at His return. In conclusion, if you're baptized, you made a covenant with God at baptism. What did you agree to? How well are you performing it?

God is never going to let down His end of the agreement, but you and I would do well at this time to stop, analyze that covenant, go back and look at baptism, pick up the booklet Transforming Your Life, pick up the road to eternal life, see how dedicated we are, what we're committed to, and analyze as we come up to the Passover service. Are we really dedicated to this? Are we taking this in a worthy manner in the sense that, yes, we are fully dedicated, fully appreciating what God has done for us. The baptized are being judged daily, right now, in the here and the now. What reward is there for you and me as individuals?

Each of our rewards is unique. To conclude, I'd like to read about the rewards that are coming from Christ to the saints as He is judging us. Revelation 21, verse 7, succinctly states this covenant that we've made with God.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things. That's pretty much it in a nutshell, a little nutshell. He who overcomes, you win the battle against sin and your selfish human nature with my help, and you will inherit everything.

I will be His God and He shall be my Son. That's one reward. The other possibility is in the next verse. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the cowardly is one who will not go forward, who is fearful of fulfilling that covenant, is trembling and intrepidation and thinks it's too big or too hard or whatever, and they're fearful. They won't go forward, but is unbelieving. Abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. That's the other reward. Now we've seen several covenants that were made, and now is the time for us to have a covenant.

More than anything, God wants you to be successful in that covenant. He is very positive about it, but He's also very serious about it, because He's going to raise you up to be part of His family and a heritor of the universe with Him, the spiritual universe. So remember your covenant with God, and live it each day, each moment of each day. Enjoy the life that God has given to you. Because as we read just across the page in Revelation 22, verse 12, it says, Behold, I am coming quickly, because you live in the end times. And my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his or her work.

So, brethren, let's go into this festival season, very dedicated and very committed, and really understanding what we're doing each step of the way as we live this life with God.