But I do like the way this is said. I love the way this is said. "I will write My laws in their heart. I will." I like the way God says things. He doesn't say "well I hope to do this" or "maybe it could be done". He says, "I will write My laws in their heart" as a part of the new covenant. Now God is determined to have His children, those who can be members of His family to be and become the way He is. Now, we learned last week, and I think the week before, that God's heart, and God Himself, is revealed, in the first instance, through His commandments, because it reveals our relationship with God. That is, how we are supposed to act, how we are supposed to think, how we are to conduct ourselves to others. Luke 10:25. There can be no mistake as to what Jesus meant about this. Unfortunately, it is mistaken. But if you simply, if you examine it very closely, you will see that He is very concerned about God's laws, God's commandments, God's standards, and how they are being conveyed to people by the religion of the day. That is, among the Jewish community. Now, it says in verse 25 of Luke 10:

Luke 10:25 – And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Now Jesus is answering the question on the basis of what the person should do to inherit eternal life. And He said, "What is written in the law?" Well now eternal life then, of course, is what the object is here, and he is simply posing the question, to test Him of course, not that he sincerely wants an answer, as lawyers tend to do.

Luke 10:26 – And He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

So He turns the question right back on him.

Luke 10:27 – So the lawyer says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'"

Now this comes right out of the books of the law, and so that's what he answered. And so Jesus is giving an answer regarding eternal life right out of the law of God. But before you misunderstand it, we need to know how Jesus would mean this.

Luke 10:28– And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you shall live."

Luke 10:29 – But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Now here is where we have the great parable of, what is called the parable of the Good Samaritan, I guess that's a good name for it, in which Jesus explains to him that just because you make the quote, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself', that we have a very specific application to it.

Now, there is a tendency then to interpret the law in many ways. Which of course, lawyers could take this particular passage and say anything you want about it, and try to leave out a lot of things. In this case, he was trying to leave things out. He was looking for a loophole in the law, and Jesus was not going to let him off the hook. He was going to say, 'I'm sorry but you do have an obligation to do even what he explained in the parable', and He was not going to let this guy get by.

Now of course, here were people who claimed to keep God's law, and yet Jesus made it clear again and again, they rationalized their behavior around the fact that they didn't have to keep the law. They would find exceptions to it, once again, as a person legally would do. It's very interesting how they say people who keep God's law, well you're legalistic. I would say the people who try to get out of keeping the law would be legalistic, because to me that's what legal people do. How can you get out of keeping the law? And to me that's quite typical of legalism. And that's all I'm…, the terminology here is somewhat mixed up.

Now, but, in case people would like to take this and make it nonspecific, make it so general that you can worm your way out of doing most anything if you want to, Jesus then gives the parable to show that, well, that's not so. Now God's law, and this is an example of it, is held, generally, in contempt, and this is simply the way it's gone. And they did not respect the law. They said they did. They didn't, because if you try to weasel out of it, well then that shows you have a certain contempt toward the law. That is, a willingness, and a desire, an innate desire, to do whatever you want to do, so people like to generalize it, and while this is a summary, it is not open to speculation. It is specific, very specific, whenever you look at the Ten Commandments. Though you can't say that something like this obviates, or removes, or waters down, or whatever it does, to the commandments of God that are simply stated. But what it tends to do is to show that there is an all too willing approach to somehow get out of doing what God says. Romans chapter 8, here's the way Paul explains it, it's very interesting what Paul says. Romans 8:7:

Romans 8:7 – Because the carnal mind -that is the fleshly mind, that is a person simply left to himself, a human being, ordinary human being- is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Now, he's saying two things here. It's enmity against God, personally. You say, "Well I don't think he does." Yes, personally. Why? Because if you're not going to believe what He says, how would God take it? I would think He would take it personally. I mean, if I was God, I would. God has to take it this way.

Nor subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can he be. He can't even be subject to the law of God.

Now, He concludes this. I want you to show, go back to chapter 7 Verse 22. Romans 7:22, here's what Paul says, and he's referring to himself, a man who, decades after he was converted, he had turned to God, he recognizes certain things, he sees something that needed to be recognized.

Romans 7:22 – For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

That is, in my mind and even in my intellect, in my heart, I do delight in the law of God. And matter of fact, I am for me keeping it and I am for everybody else keeping it. Now, what a lot of people would say, "I am for everybody else keeping it." Sometimes that's as far as it goes. But me? As long as I don't have to keep it. I like everybody else keeping it. Because that becomes very convenient to you doesn't it, because you don't get hurt. So I'd like everybody else to keep it. Now, he's saying, he's putting it in the first person here:

Romans 7:22 – I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

He says, "I delight in it." Now he says, but there's something else that happens here. Verse 23:

Romans 7:23 – But I see another law in my members, -now what does he mean, in his members? That is simply in his flesh. There are certain drives, certain tendencies within him - warring against the law of my mind, -In other words, logically, emotionally even, to some extent, intellectually more so, he can see the point, he can see that there's something else taking place here.- and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

In other words, naturally, left to myself, I am brought to the point where I am a captive to the law of sin. A law of sin, it's like, a force that we're subject to, prone to sin and will inevitably sin. That's it. He's just simply calling it the way it is, and he's saying this of himself. He says, 'I see this within myself.' Now he says a lot of other things here to explain this, which I don't want to get sidetracked on, but he then concludes in Romans 8 Verse 7 that the carnal mind is enmity. The word enmity is not a nice word. Enmity means derision, a very strong, even a hateful position toward God. Now that's how he saw it. Now he's describing pretty much human nature, a nature then that we have developed. So it's important to understand then what humans are. We spent quite a long time to describe: well, what is man? What is man? What is God, and who is God, and how was man created, and what happened to man? We spent a lot of time on that. And it's important to understand that because at least you can really get a good clear picture of what we are, so you know exactly what you're dealing with, and within yourself. Very, very difficult thing for people to deal with themselves, with their own thoughts, with their own motives, what drives them, what makes them tick. It's very, very hard thing to do and lot of times we're just not as honest, we don't see clearly because it's us. Now, somebody else may come along who's very clear about you. Now they may not be very clear about themselves, but they are very clear about you, which is the way things tend to go.

So Jesus says, what does he say in Matthew chapter 7? He says you know you're going to start talking to somebody else, get the beam out of your own eye first. Work on that. That is more difficult than what you think, to try to get it out, because we have here, as I said, a natural enmity.

I don't want to belabor that point, but here is one of the basic ideas that we had in the church for so long. We try to help people to understand why the world is the way it is today. That they're not going to listen to God, they're not going to turn to God, they're not going to believe God, nor are they going to obey God. So we have certain results and so God has to let things go for as long as He can, and stop it short whenever we are about to destroy ourselves so that we can see what's happening to us. If you get enough pain on one end, you begin to see 'maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe I'm thinking wrong, maybe I've incurred too many consequences as a result'. Now, eventually, this is going to happen and to a lot of people it happens that way, too. Not a whole lot of people, but a lot. And so some people would stop doing what they know they're doing. Alright, so it seems to me it kind of takes that for a person to wake up.

Now, generally we have the attitude of not wanting to be governed by some external law. We say I don't want somebody else telling me what I need to do. I will make up my own mind what I should do. And of course one might ask, "OK, but what are you going to base it on?" "What is your reference, what is the authority, how do you know you're right?" It could be completely subjective. Is there a God who can tell you what is right and wrong objectively, in every case? Is that the case? Well yes there is. And of course that's not what man naturally is going to accept.

Now, God understands this. He understands the arguments. He understands who started the arguments. He understands what happens to men, and to humans, and how we got in the situation we're in today. Now, a lot of this I think you know.

So God has a covenant, and He has a covenant in which He says, "I will write My laws in their heart." This is what He says He's going to do, and in this manner then He is going to change the situation. So He has a covenant that He's going to establish, He hasn't established yet, with Israel and with Judah, people who are in the church then, there's no covenant made with the church, by the way, in case you thought there was, there isn't. He makes it with Israel and with Judah. However, we come into that covenant because in the end of the day we're all going to be Israel. Alright I think I explained that one time, matter of fact, I did. I took a quite a lengthy bible study to do that at the Feast (of Tabernacles), to say here's what God is working out. Now, but here's a covenant where He says I will write my law in their heart. This is how God understands is the solution to the problem.

Now, one of the great themes in the bible from start to finish is man's unwillingness to obey God and to recognize the true creator God. That comes all the way through, that comes from the book of Genesis chapter 3 all the way through to Revelation. It comes especially through the history of Israel; it comes all the way through. I mean, to the history of it you see the historical books, not just the time of Moses and the Israelites, but the historical books, the historical books of the kings, the prophets especially lament over this and they just deal with this one particular idea.

And then of course once you come into the New Testament it's saying the same thing, that here is a situation where people simply do not have a heart to obey God or to believe what He says, or to of themselves take measure to override the tendency to disobey God, and to deal even with the temptations in life in which we as humans succumb to them. We will find all kinds of ways, as I said, to rationalize what we do, see lot of weird and wonderful ideas out here that allow people, even in the church, they've adopted them, to do whatever they wanted to do according to their own lust. I'm not afraid of saying it, this is what happens.

Deuteronomy chapter 5, Moses says this. Simply make the point and describe what has to come later.  Deuteronomy 5:29:

Deuteronomy 5:29 – He says this, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments, that it might be well with them and their children forever!"

Now this is what He says, "Oh, that they would have a heart in them." See. Tying right in with what we've been talking about.  There is not a heart to simply obey God and to, what's the operative word in this scripture? What would you say is the operative word? Very simple: always. It says always. You might say, "Well, I do pretty good sometimes." "I do pretty good most of the time." This is not what He says. He said always. The Israelites were quite good some of the time. There were times when it was bad, really bad. I mean the whole rebellion by them, and the testing God and questioning God and enmity against God that was shown over and over again. And you might say well maybe they had some excuses, maybe they were being provoked. You know, wait a, whoa, we're off on a whole different thing here. A lot of people can site reasons, more excuses than anything. God's not having it. God's not going to put a person in that kind of a situation. There are going to be testings on us. There always will be. That's simply the nature of the game.

As to are we going to do what God says, or are we going to give in then to the world around us? And say well that's, well you know, it's not going to hurt this time. Or, it's not that big a deal. Or we may, it doesn't hurt me, it's my business. We tend to say things like this. Well, He says it differently here, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments." And man would say, why do I have to do that? You mean, 'God requires that?' What kind of a God is that that would be so strict? Doesn't he understand what it's like to be a man? Yes, He does. Ok, I think we understand that, He does.

Now, He makes a covenant with them, but He laments. I want to go back and just read this passage, starting with verse 22. Here is Moses, he recites the ten commandments, just as almost as they were found back in Exodus 20 that he did 39 ½ years earlier, almost 40 years ago. Actually, yeah, that's about when it was. About 39 ½ years prior to this when God's commandments were given, so he recites them again. Here Deuteronomy is being given again at some time called the second lament, in fact that's what it means, the name, and he is rehearsing everything to them before he goes up on the mountain never to be heard from again. And this is what he wants to say, and he says this after almost 40 years of experience with them. So at the end of the Ten Commandments, verse 22:

Deuteronomy 5:22 – These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Now, that's going to play into this a little bit later on. In fact, he wrote the commandments on two tablets of stone, but He spoke to them, and a lot of things went on here whenever he spoke. Verse 23:

Deuteronomy 5:23 – So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountains was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders.

Deuteronomy 5:24 – And you said: He's telling them what they said now, back then. "Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.

So that is, man still lives. He isn't struck dead just because he heard the word of God.

Deuteronomy 5:25 – Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die.

Deuteronomy 5:26 – For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

Deuteronomy 5:27 – You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and then we will hear and do it.

This is a very interesting proposition here. He says look, we don't to hear what God says. We don't want to hear Him speak directly. You know what they're doing? They're kind of making it one step removed from God. They say, you go do it, and you come back and we'll do it. Now, I got a little problem here. It seems to me that here you have God and if you had a right approach and attitude toward God, you would want to actually be closer to God, not further away from God, wouldn't you think so? I mean, is there a person here that says, "I don't want God to speak to me." I think it would be an enormous thing. Not that He is, don't worry. Because people come to me and say, "God spoke to me." I say, "I don't believe you." OK, I'm just simply making a point. Alright.

So you would think they would have a little bit of a different approach. But it also shows a certain attitude here toward God Himself. It's not as healthy as it should be. Because you would think they would want a good relationship with God, one in which He could speak to them, they could speak to Him. After all, He said I want to be their God, I want them to be My people. I want to dwell among them. I want to be with them. I want to bless them. This is what He wanted, and yet, they come up with this. Let's notice what it says here:

Deuteronomy 5:28 – Then the Lord heard the voice of your words –Now, Moses is rehearsing this to them, and he's reminding them, by the way. Then the Lord heard (the voice) of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: "I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken."

He says, 'they are right.' What does he mean by that? He means, 'that's right'. They really don't have to have a close relationship with Me. I accept that. They're right. Good, I'm not going to talk to them anymore then. So, you don't want to talk to God, God doesn't want to talk to you. But they made the choice. It wasn't Him. He was prepared to talk to them. He was prepared to have a relationship with them that was absolutely wonderful and to really take it as far as they were willing. Then He makes this statement, God makes this statement:

Deuteronomy 5:29 – Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

No lapse in this, always, and always obedient, in everything. It would be absolutely wonderful if they would do this. So He said:

Deuteronomy 5:30 – Go and say to them, "Go back home.", "Go to your tents."

That's what He said. Go to your tents. God says, "I'm not talking with you, that's your approach, I'm not talking with you." I think He's completely justified in saying that. 

Deuteronomy 5:31 – But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.

Deuteronomy 5:32 – Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you, …So He says, 'be really careful…' you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Deuteronomy 5:33 – You shall walk in all the ways …not just some of them, or most of them whenever you're feeling like it, all the ways… which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

So, Moses is saying basically this, and Moses adds the last two verses here. Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. Why? He says, 'I'm outta here.' I'm leaving, I'm walking up on the mountain just like God says, and that's it, you're not going to see me anymore. You're going to have new leadership, and then what are you going to do? He says, "I'll give you some good advice: be careful." Don't let it slip, stay with what you know and do what God says. And don't let anything fall by the wayside. Deuteronomy 11:1. Just to, before we go on, I just want to point something out here to show you how God sees it and what He's really instructing them:

Deuteronomy 11:1 – Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.

He's not leaving much out, is He? Charge, statutes, commandments, and on that He adds 'always'. He really wants to make sure you really get this point here because you got a strange tendency to not do it. So he doesn't recognize that there is a problem after the fact. He knows there's a problem, he knows that with this covenant there is a built in obsolescence in that it doesn't make a provision for the people and He knew this. So He had in his mind, I'm going to establish yet another covenant.

Now, in Hebrews 8:6, this tells us quite a bit here:

Hebrews 8:6 – Now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

OK there's more to this. He's going to up the ante in obedience. He's going to up the ante in the results as to what will happen. And so He says this is a better covenant. As He said, in other words, it's going to result in so much more. But He's going to do something more. So He goes on to explain in verse 7:

Hebrews 8:7 – But if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Alright, there was a problem here.

Hebrews 8:8 – Because finding fault with them, He says: Who? The people.Them. He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-

Hebrews 8:9 – Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

Now this is, that's an interesting statement. God doesn't kick them out of the covenant. God doesn't remove them as the covenant people. He just says 'they didn't continue in the covenant, so I disregarded them'. Now that's different, simply disregarded them, in that He is not obligated then to bless them further. As He said they would, would they be obedient to Him and keep their terms of the covenant? So, He disregards them. He says, 'OK I'm not going to walk among you, I'm not going to bless you, and I'm not going to save you'. He says, 'You'll have to learn the hard way. That you have become a nation and a powerful nation and you have been extraordinarily blessed because I gave it to you.'

Now, that's something our people will eventually have to learn, that what we have here today is something God gave us. And so there would be then an obligation. But there comes a point, God says, 'I'm disregarding you.' Why? 'You disregarded me. So I'm not obligated any further.' Now He's not kicking them out. He's not removing them. He's not destroying them. He's not doing anything like that. He just says, 'I'm disregarding you'. That's all He says, which He's well within His right to do so. As a matter of fact, He's exactly right according to His own wisdom to be able to do such a thing as that, for their own good.

So, He says He's going to include them in a new covenant. That, He makes it possible then, for humans to obey Him, to obey Him always, to obey Him in their spirit, in their thoughts, in their attitudes, so it's going to go a little further than that. So He says here in verse 10:

Hebrews 8:10 – For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

He's not losing or quitting on what He intended to start with, He's not doing anything of the sort. He's now going to establish yet another covenant with them, and He will be their God.

Hebrews 8:11 – Now none of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

Hebrews 8:12 – For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

Hebrews 8:13 – In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Now, so He says the problem was with them. They are not able to deal with their own tendency to disobey, they can't do this. Alright, so now I'm going to do something different. I'm going to make it possible to where My law can be written on their heart. He didn't say, "I'm going to do away with My law." He says, I will write it in their hearts, on their hearts, and in their minds, which means, they will agree with it academically, intellectually, logically, and they will want to keep God's laws. I want to do it. Sure they will.

Now, so this is His solution, but the other great feature of this covenant is that sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ, and they are remembered no more. This is very interesting. The two great features between the new covenant as opposed to the old: He's going to write His laws in their minds, in their hearts; and He's going to forgive their sins. They will not be remembered anymore, but sins will now be forgiven through Jesus Christ, not through the law.

Alright, the code of the law, the standard of the law remains. How sins are forgiven is what has changed. Sins still have to be forgiven, but now we ask the question 'why is it?', does He say, He will remember their sins, their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. It's very simple, because they're not going to be sinning anymore. Under the new covenant a person would sin inadvertently, but not the way they tended to sin under the old covenant. Now, sins under the new covenant are not brought up again. Have you had your sins brought up again? I'm serious, think about this, under the old covenant, you read Psalms, David, you read Moses, we just read Moses, where he's reiterating what they did and some of their rebellions, that's, Deuteronomy is full of that. You read the prophets, when they refer back to past rebellions and the prophets lamented over the fact that you did this and you did this, you did this you did this, and therefore this is what's going to happen to you if you continue. They're still sinning.

Now, on to the new covenant. You have the provision where God's laws are going to be written in their hearts. They're not going to be sinning like this all the time. They're simply not going to be doing it. They're going to turn to God. It's going to be a permanent thing. It's going to be quite permanent, in fact, so He says, "Under this covenant then, I got to write them on their hearts."

Let's go to 2 Corinthians 3:1:

2 Corinthians 3:1 – Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Did you ever notice how people tend to do this? Watch television a little bit, I'm talking about religious preachers, they tend to commend themselves. Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

Paul was saying, "I don't get my credentials in that way. I don't need somebody to give me a letter giving me a recommendation. I don't need that, is what he's saying.

2 Corinthians 3:2 – He said, "You are our epistle written in our hearts, in other words, to show I'm absolutely sincere and genuine in what I'm saying is your changed life. That's what he's telling them. "You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; in other words if it's not apparent then it's not worth mentioning.

2 Corinthians 3:3 – clearly you are an epistle of Christ, …That is, your life, then, is a testimony, is like a written recommendation because of what you do and your changed life. ministered by us, …Ministered, that's all, ministered, it's different. Not responsible for, simply ministered by us... written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

So what we have here then is a genuine change in the individual. One in which, when they make this kind of a change, then they sustain that through their relationship with God in the new covenant that they are going to continue with that. And it is, the proof is in the changed life of another individual not a document that you may write.

This is very interesting here, that the, you can write them on tablets of stone and what is written on a person's heart were both written with the finger of God. That's very interesting. That's what he's saying here. However, simply to write them on tablets of stone, those tablets don't exist anymore, they're gone. Now, to write then in a person's heart, where it is a living thing, it stays with the person. That person then is able to pass it on to his children and then he is willing and able to pass it on to his children. Then it becomes a permanent thing.

This is the nature of the new covenant. They don't keep going back and disobeying every second or third generation. This is not the way it works. So the new covenant then is theoretically supposed to work. And you're going to find this, whenever He establishes this with Israel, whenever He establishes this with Judah, yet to come this is going to continue. It is permanent.

The only way the truth can live, the only way the truth can exist is that it lives in the hearts of men. Make that clear. You can make the most beautiful document you want to. We've made our own documents, and you can read them. Well done. Absolutely well done. You know how much those documents are worth? Start a good fire with them. All it does is tells us best how we're going to operate now, currently. They are no guarantee of tomorrow. The guarantee of tomorrow is what takes place inside of you. That's it.

Ok, now this is important to properly understand that. They are engraved. One is engraved on stone. One is engraved in a person's heart. Ezekiel 36:22. Here we have God establishing the covenant.

Ezekiel 36:22 – Therefore say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.

Ezekiel 36:23 – And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord," says the Lord God, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

How is somebody else affected by the truth of God? When they see the change in you. That's going to make them say, "Wow, you're not the same person you used to be. You've changed. You're not angry, mean, violent. You don't have the same habits you involve yourself in. You are a very pleasant person to be around. You've changed your ways." And they see that and they say "how did you do this? Why are you doing this?" Don't they? Sure.

The truth of God is preserved in a person. Not in a document. Not even on tablets of stone. No matter who writes it. God has to write it in a person's heart and then by what that person does. He says, "you did not follow it, therefore none of the other nations who were supposed to say… you read Deuteronomy chapter 7… they were supposed to come and say "what kind of a great God is this that you have who blesses you, who supports you, that you obey, who has done all of this to you!" Wow, this is really something. They were supposed to say that. You didn't have any nations saying this. Because Israel, they were not doing what they should have been doing. So He goes on to say:

Ezekiel 36:24 – For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.

This is the future captivity from which He is going to bring them back. This is not just that captivity. There is still yet a future captivity. He says, "I am going to bring them out, from the nations, plural, and:

Ezekiel 36:25 – Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Ezekiel 36:26 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

A heart of flesh simply means a heart that can be reached by God. OK? Not a heart of stone which is impervious to what God is doing.

Ezekiel 36:27 – I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, here is the new covenant now… and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Ezekiel 36:28 – And then you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

He will do exactly what He says. If there is a consistent, a permanent, and a consistent change within you, OK, then the truth can be passed on. It affects other people, and other people can see that. So this is where it's at, the change within you. Can your nature change? Yes it can, in this sense. Not that you will ever lose your capacity to choose. You will always have that. But when you make the right choices, that's the key, when you make the right choices. As a human, you will always be tempted, but you will also make the right choices. The presence of Christ becomes greater. The temptation to sin will still be there, but the presence of God dwelling in you becomes greater and more powerful.

1 John 4:4. Here's how, why He said under the new covenant, the people of the church then, were successful:

1 John 4:4 – You are of God, He says, little children, and have overcome them, who's them? Well, the antichrist. That's the context. People who are against Christ, against the law of Christ… because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

This is permanent, it is life giving. The truth of God is preserved under this covenant and upon those who then understand what that covenant is about, and it influences all aspects and relations of life. Nothing, no part of God's law is left out.

Now in the next few minutes before I close, I want to give you some specific things that is also promised under the new covenant that makes all of this possible. I want to go to Philippians 2: 3-5.

Philippians 2: 3 – It says, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Philippians 2: 4 – Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Philippians 2: 5 – Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Now, is this the law of God, as it is manifested in your own life? This is the law of God. Nothing changed in the law of God. God made it applicable in so many ways then that the people, the religious people of His day, did not understand. Many people in the Old Testament did understand it. The people that Christ came to didn't, and He tried His best to show His disciples and teach His disciples. He says, "Teach them what I have commanded you."

So, what's He teaching them? He's teaching the full extent and the application of God's law. And He calls it here in verse 5: the mind. Let this mind, let this approach, let this way of life, this way of thought, then be manifest in your life, and then He goes on to show what Jesus Christ did. He says, He wasn't going to hold on to what He was, what He had before. It says He made Himself of no reputation. This is so unlike ordinary human beings.

Philippians 2: 7 – He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

You know that's what He did? That's what He did. That's spoken for itself. That's the letter. That's the recommendation that was given. Well what did He do? Isn't that what you want to know? What does the person do? I don't care what He claims. What does He do?

Philippians 2: 8 – and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2: 9 – Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, and so on.

Alright, we have a mind here that is made possible through the indwelling of God Himself, whether it is Christ living within us, and the Father, too, that's how Christ explained it then. He says, "We will come dwell within you." And this is what the new covenant means. This is what the new covenant says, that you do this.

OK, I'm going to take it a little bit step further, show you a little bit how it works. Back to Ephesians 3:14:

Ephesians 3:14 – For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Ephesians 3:15 – from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named

Ephesians 3:16 – that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man

Now, was that possible during the old covenant? Yes, it could be. It could be, but for the most part it wasn't. I didn't say that was a term of the old covenant, necessarily. I'm just saying it could be. You did have people then who did through the help of God, obey God back in the Old Testament. I don't want to mislead anybody on that part. However, the new covenant is an agreement on which this will happen. Please write that down. We have an agreement here that this is what will happen. So when I'm talking about what God says He will do in terms of a covenant, that He binds Himself to, it includes this.

Now, we might say, well I don't know, can you have faith in this? I mean, can you believe in this? Can you go to the bank with this? OK, you know, present the check, this is what God says, I need it. Do you understand what I'm saying here? This is the way it is. He's bound Himself to this.

Ephesians 3:17 - That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; now what's that, a feeling? He's talking about… what's He saying, strength? How do we understand this? Dudamous, I think it's called (in Greek), strength, force. You need that? I do. I need something beyond where I am. I've got to have it there. I've got to have it consistently. And I really like the idea that it's being put in the form of a covenant that I can say… I can present the check. Say 'will you mind cashing this? I really got to have this. Is there enough in the account?' God says, "Sure, there's plenty, just ask." OK, does everybody understand what I'm saying here? OK, it's what this new covenant means, and how it should operate. Because He's bound Himself in this kind of agreement to you if you're prepared to take Him up on the terms of this covenant. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Powerful motivator. OK well I don't have much love. I think you can grow in it. It's part of the new covenant.

Ephesians 3:18 – that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-

Ephesians 3:19 – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; ok this is beyond anything you can read about or educate yourself on. This is beyond that. that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

That's kind of like the word always, isn't it, if you think about it? Remember?

Ephesians 3:20 – Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, …great terms of the new covenant here…above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,

Power, I like that word: power, dudamous. Energea is the word works. Is our what, energy. I run low on energy sometimes. That's the age in which we live, that I live. I don't know about you. Alright, but there's something then that works in you, in our hearts and our minds.

Ephesians 3:21 – to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Now He says, let's go further than that. John 16:33, I'm not even going to turn there. My peace I give to you. Are you emotionally in turmoil or do you have peace? All of this, and this is only scratching the surface, all of this is a part of the new covenant that you have become a part of if you have agreed to those terms through repentance, baptism to have your sins forgiven, and then He gives to you the Holy Spirit and then you move from there.

Now, do you have to make decisions? Yes, you do. Do you have to show a determination and a resolve? Yes you do. It's not just something that comes along and just does something for you. There's more to it than that. It's something you have to understand how this works.

I want to conclude with this scripture in Luke 11: and so Christ, building on this, building on what's been said in the Old Testament about the new covenant. That was Jeremiah 31:31-34, by the way, that we quoted in Hebrews. Three times in the bible that's quoted.

Luke 11:9 – So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Do you have to seek it? Do you have to do your part? Do you think it's automatic? No, it's not. You have to do your part. You have to show willingness. You have to show a desire. You have to do what it takes to express that desire. You have to exercise a certain discipline yourself, to make sure it's done. However, you do so knowing that you are incapable to go all the way like Christ says.

Luke 11:10 - For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

He's putting that in a rather definite way, don't you think? That's the covenant. That's what a covenant is. You're a member of a covenant. Did you know that? Well, you are.

Luke 11:11 - If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

Luke 11:12 – Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Luke 11:13 – If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father … your heavenly Father! I want to be their God, He says. And I want them to be My people. I want to walk among them and I want to bless them. how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

So, He's giving us terms of the new covenant.