As The Waters Cover The Sea

Thank you, Mr. Ost. Good afternoon, brethren. It is wonderful to see you here, very much so.

I remember Mr. and Mrs. Ost very well in Amman, Jordan. We went down to the the marketplace, what they call the Sukk, and we haggled together for many, many trinkets in that marketplace, and it was very fun. Good times. Time flies, though, does it not?

I very much appreciated the special music, and I was considering how difficult it must have been, because imagine each one of those people performing is alone, singing into a microphone and a camera, and it comes out that well. That's amazing to me. The offertory music was especially poignant, a river flowing through us, because that is very similar to what the sermon is going to be about today, and the hymn was exactly on point with what the sermon is about today. I could have titled it Wake My Heart, but the title of the sermon, if you like titles, is As the Waters Cover the Sea. Maybe we'll put a subtitle, Wake My Heart.

When Jesus Christ returns, the earth will be ravished from what we call the Great Tribulation, a time of trouble the world has never seen, a time that if the days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. Jesus Christ will return, bind Satan, cast him into the bottomless and reign for a thousand years, and that is what we are here to be reminded of, even though we come year after year. I remember sitting in the Feast of Tabernacles in a Florida feast site, not much different than this one, as a little boy, more than 50 years ago, and learning what we are learning today, no different. The truth doesn't change, and that's part of the point of this opening message today.

Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 14 will be our theme scripture today. Habakkuk 2.14. You're probably very familiar with it if you've been to the Feast of Tabernacles more than once. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We're sitting on a beautiful beach looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, looking at all that beautiful water. Think about that. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth like that Atlantic Ocean covers that beautiful, the water covers that beautiful, beautiful ocean out there. Will you be ready to teach the knowledge of the glory of the Lord? Specifically, can you answer this puzzle? This puzzle was answered two generations ago, many, many generations ago as well, but as time went on, challenges came and this this knowledge was lost. And an older generation, a generation older than mine, solved this puzzle. And then in 1995, my generation was challenged with this exact same puzzle and challenge. And we formed the United Church of God, and thankfully, the older generation that had already solved the challenge was there to guide us through. And now I see an ocean of a new generation.

And what I would like to help you today is to be able to solve this puzzle as the previous generation solved it and helped my generation to solve it. And now it is your turn. Can you solve this puzzle without a tutor helping you? Because in the millennium, when Jesus Christ returns, you are the tutor. You are the teacher. Are you up for the challenge? Yes, you are. Let's walk through the puzzle. Many people ask a question. Is there a list of laws which Christians should keep and ones we should not? Can we just assign somebody to go through the Bible and make a list of laws that are applicable and which ones are not? Maybe we could color code a Bible, have a UCG version of the Bible. So it would be easier to see what we should do and what is no longer necessary. Can the church come up with such a list? And the answer is no.

You can't divide Scripture that way. Jesus and Paul and the other apostles had exactly the same approach to the New Covenant and the law of God. They both back up what is predicted in the Old Testament Scriptures about the New Covenant. We're going to go through some pivotal passages today to help you answer that question. First, let's define what a covenant is. What is a covenant? Because we rarely use that word covenant in our language today. It's basically an agreement. From a biblical point of view, it's an agreement between God and man. And it's very similar to a marriage covenant. An agreement between a man and a woman until death. An agreement for all of their lives. A marriage agreement between a husband and a wife, as God intends, is until death do you part. A covenant is an obligation that you enter into that you have a lasting relationship. Let's go to our first pivotal passage and talk about the New Covenant as predicted in the Old Testament. Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 33, the Apostle Paul quoted this passage in Hebrews chapter 8 when he was talking about the New Covenant. We're going to go to Hebrews a little bit later, but let's read this passage in its original Jeremiah chapter 31, starting in verse 31. Behold, Jeremiah says, now let's set the stage, when was Jeremiah written? Jeremiah was written when Judah was about to fall. Judah had sinned so much that they were a stench in God's nostrils, and Babylon was about to come and wipe them out.

They were sinners. They didn't know God on a personal level. Oh, the prophets did. Of course, a few great men in the Bible did, but as a whole, they did not. Jeremiah 31, 31, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant in the house of Israel with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. Now, we can see that this is given as an analogy just like a marriage covenant, a lifelong relationship. So a covenant is about a relationship.

Keep that in mind. When you enter an agreement, you're entering into, like a marriage agreement, you're entering into a lifelong relationship, and you have certain duties and obligations to the other person in that relationship. And that is key into answering the question, can we divide the Bible up into which laws we keep and which ones we don't keep?

Verse 33, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it. What is it? God's law. On their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Three important things come about as a result of the new covenant. There are changes that are made. What are those changes? Is it the law? Is it which laws we keep and which ones we don't? Three important changes on how we work with the law of God are predicted in Jeremiah 31. The Apostle Paul is often misunderstood as being someone who threw out the law of God. Like Paul changed everything. But here we see the new covenant was predicted to make a change in how the law and we relate together. Change number one, the law will be in our mind. Number two, in our heart. And number three, and very importantly, we will now in the new covenant have a personal relationship with God as a result. A personal relationship, instead of this vague national relationship, the relationship is now individual between you, the individual, and God. Notice verse 34. This is key, the third change. Jeremiah 31-34. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, no, the Lord. Nobody's gonna say that anymore.

Nobody's gonna say that like they had to say that when this was written. Because when Jeremiah wrote this, people were scrambling, saying, no, the Lord, no, the Lord. Because the Babylonian empire and Nebuchadnezzar was coming to wipe them out. They were so smelly, if you will, to God in their sins. They were a stench, and God was wiping them out, and only a remnant would be saved. And everybody was running around saying, no, the Lord. And Jeremiah is predicting. Nobody will say that then. In the future, there will be a personal relationship with every man and God.

No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, no, the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. I imagine those were sweet words, if you heard those, while hearing the rumble of the chariots of the Babylonian empire. Fast forward into the future and imagine the great tribulation where the entire world is under the destruction and the judgment of God, and God rescues just a remnant.

And then you and I will be there in the millennium to start rebuilding and teaching a new way, where the law of God will be in the minds and in the hearts, and everybody will have a personal relationship with God. God will come down and deal with us on an individual level. And right now that is what he is doing with the New Covenant Church. But at Sinai, God made a covenant with Israel. It was a national covenant. They were baptized by walking through the Red Sea together as a nation. Judges were set up to enforce the rules in the Old Covenant, but in the New Covenant there is individual accountability and responsibility. Individual accountability. The relationship in the New Covenant is individual. In other words, it's on you.

This is a major distinction between the two covenants. We now have to personally repent except Jesus Christ as our Savior, as our sacrifice for sin. No more is it bulls and goats.

Now it's between you and God, and now it's for your personal sins. It was always intended that way. It always pointed to that. Now you are accountable for it. Jesus Christ is your high priest, and we have to be personally baptized. We don't walk through as a group through a Red Sea to be baptized anymore. We have to personally have faith and repent and be baptized on our own to receive God's Holy Spirit. That was always the intent of the Old Covenant. Individual responsibility was always implied, but in the New Covenant, it's now required. The laws haven't changed, but our personal accountability has.

Main question that I'd like to address today is, what is the law's relationship with the New Covenant? And I really hope that the next generation will grab onto this concept, like my generation has grabbed onto it from the previous generation, and you, when we're old and gone, will teach it to the next generation. What is the law's relationship with the New Covenant? Let's talk about Greek for a moment. I know that can sound really boring, but this isn't boring, it's important. To make something new in Greek doesn't mean to necessarily replace something, but in English it usually does. So when we hear New Covenant, we think replacing the Old Covenant. But when it was written in the Greek language, that's not what they meant. In English, when we say we got a new car, it means we have replaced the old car with a new car. We say, oh, is that a new car? And we mean, did you get rid of that old junker and replace it with a brand spanking new car? But in Greek, when it comes to the New Covenant, it denotes the connotation of renewing, not replacing. In context of the New Testament, the laws of God were not replaced with new laws, but rather the responsibility and accountability of those who keep the laws is now emphasized. Personal responsibility. To the young adults and teens, I would like to give the analogy of playing a video game that has multiple levels of difficulty. You start off the video game at a lower level. You learn the moves, right? You press this button, and you jump. You press another button, and it moves your arm a certain way. And you gain skills at that lower level at jumping and moving your arms. And you have to face certain challenges that challenge those skills so that you get better and better. And then you move to the next level, and eventually up to the, what? The boss level, right? You cannot all of a sudden, at the boss level, forget all of your skills that you learned at level one. In fact, you need to become even more skilled at the boss level than you were at the beginning level, right?

For example, when you are at the upgraded boss level, you now might need to know how to jump and move your arm at the same time. Not only do you need the original skills that you learned in the old level, but you now need to be able to implement those skills even better in the new level, the boss level. There's more responsibility on you now, not less. I hope that makes sense. The New Covenant did something very similar to that. The changes that were made did not replace God's law, like getting a new car replaces an old car. Your responsibility to keep the law is now from the heart. From the law's original intent was supposed to be magnified. The New Covenant is more like the changes that we've made to the United States Constitution over the years. In the U.S., our Constitution has been changed many times. We call those changes amendments. All of the amendments are tacked on, but do you realize that not one single word of the original Constitution has been deleted? The amendments are intended to make the Constitution better, not destroy it. They are intended as an upgrade. And that is exactly what the New Covenant does in relationship to God's law. Oh yes, it has a better sacrifice, the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not bulls and goats. It has better promises. It takes God's law off of stone and writes it on your heart, but it's based on the same truths that God used to make the old covenant at Mount Sinai. The New Covenant gives us individual access to God and His Spirit, which is the power to change. Get this to become a loving person. What's the point of going through all this rigmarole of an old covenant and a new covenant? So that you will get the point and be able to teach this point, so much so that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the water covers the sea, that you are to become a loving person.

The intent of the New Covenant is to upgrade the person, not the laws. The laws are fine as they are, but it's the people who are keeping those laws, us, us, all of us, not just you, but me also. We are in desperate need of an upgrade.

What is the law's relationship with the New Covenant? The law was the centerpiece of how you were to live in the old covenant. Does the New Covenant have the law as the center of how we should live? And is it the entire law, or was some of it done away? Or maybe did it abolish the whole thing? I will suggest to you that the next generation will be challenged on this, just like my generation was challenged on it, just like the previous generation was challenged on it. You will face this challenge, and somebody will come along and try to convince you in a really clever, twisted way to say, now that we're in the New Covenant, we don't have to keep that old law. Remember our first pivotal passage in Jeremiah 31, God's law in our hearts. You realize it's not a different law, it's a different location where the law is written. It's simply a geographic change from stone to inside you, from what you do on the outside to what you become and who you are. And that is a dramatic change. I'm only going to give two points. Two points today. And the first one is this. In the New Covenant, the law remains. Point number one. In the New Covenant, the law remains. Now, I know if you're tracking with me and you're thinking about this, there are a lot of yeah buts going off in your head right now. The law remains, yeah but. It's really not that complicated. Jesus Christ affirmed the law of God. Let's start there. He is our Savior. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17. We all know this. It's the Sermon on the Mount. What I call in my congregations the Constitution of Christianity.

This is after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan. He goes up on top of a mountain. It doesn't say which mountain it was. And he sits down. He doesn't stand. He doesn't overturn tables. He sits.

And this is a really personal message that he gives. Like sitting with your friends and talking. And in this Sermon on the Mount, he starts to talk about conversion. And right at the center of this discussion, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17, he says, do not think I came to destroy the law or the prophets. What does he mean the law or the prophets? He's talking about the Old Testament Scriptures. What we call the Old Testament Scriptures. They called the law and the prophets. Sometimes they just called it the law. But what they meant was far more than just the Ten Commandments. They meant the entire thing. And here he's saying, don't think I came to destroy what's sitting on your lap called the Old Testament. He says, reading on, for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle, will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So what Jesus just said is not one bit of the law can be abolished. You can't go through and highlight what you can keep and what you don't. Nothing can be deleted.

He even said in Matthew 4-4 when he was being tempted by Satan, he said, but he answered and said it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So here Jesus is affirming the Old Testament because you will notice he just quoted Deuteronomy chapter 8. Jesus quoted the Old Testament to Satan. He validated the Old Testament. But wait a minute! There have been changes, haven't there? How do we live by every word of God? And there's been changes made. We don't sacrifice. You didn't see us sacrificing any goats up here or bulls. We don't circumcise. How can you answer that? If you ask that question now, and I'm sure you do, don't you think when you're a teacher in the millennium, serving Jesus Christ, that people are going to come up to you and ask you the very same question?

So answer it. Learn the answer, live the answer, and be able to teach the answer. It's not as complicated as it sounds, but it is important to understand the details. Paul and the other apostles had the same exact point of view on the law that Jesus Christ had. After all, Jesus Christ was their teacher. Notice how Paul agrees with what Jesus said, and he instructs us to live by every word of God. Let's go to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3 in verse 14. 2 Timothy 3, 14. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you learned them, and that from a childhood you have known the holy scriptures. Paul is now talking about the Old Testament once again, which are able to, notice how he describes the Old Testament, make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. He goes on in verse 16 to say, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. Profitable, huh? The word profitable can mean useful.

Every word in the Old Testament can be useful, which means every word in the Old Testament can apply to your life somehow. Paul is not saying that keeping the law can forgive sin, and I'm not going to address that today. I'm not going to address the legalism argument today. Simply don't have time. But you cannot forgive sin by keeping law. Paul addresses that in the book of Romans and the book of Galatians. Just not enough time to address that today. We're going to answer this one question today. How does the law relate to the New Testament? But Paul is saying that every word of God is useful in your life.

Keep that in mind. Every word. Both Jesus and Paul just said that. So how can you know what to practice and what not to practice? In other words, let's be specific and not shy away from this. Why do we keep the Sabbath and tithe, and we don't eat pork, and we believe that sexual immorality is wrong, but we no longer think it necessary to circumcise a male child on the eighth day, nor do we sacrifice animals on an altar. As you can see, there's no altar up here.

And here's why I bring all of those examples up specifically. Because each one of those examples that I mentioned, the things that we do and the things that we don't do, are all found in the same book of Leviticus. So how is it that I say live by every word when it seems like we're picking and choosing?

Let's continue on with Paul, 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, and let's read verse 14. We have a responsibility, brethren, to understand these things, to learn them, and to be able to teach them. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 14. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. In other words, don't get into ridiculous arguments. Once an argument gets to a certain point, it is okay to cut it off and say, let's agree to disagree. Verse 15. Be diligent to present yourselves, and prove to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You have to be able to divide the word of truth. Can you do that? Yes, you can. All of God's word is true, but you have to put each word in its right use. You are supposed to be able to answer the question, why do we keep the Sabbath and we don't eat pork, but we don't sacrifice animals at an altar. Can you answer that question without needing a tutor to constantly tell you? I want to explain that to you right now, so that you never forget this and never let anyone take the beautiful law of God away from your heart, where it's supposed to be written. The second point for today, the first point is the law never goes away. The second point is, the law is the minimum standard of acceptable behavior. The written law of God is the minimum standard of acceptable behavior. In other words, it is not the end goal, it is the starting point.

And I will show that to you right now.

Point number two, the law of God is the minimum standard of acceptable behavior to God. You can't go below it, but you definitely need to rise above.

Romans chapter 3 and verse 20. Let's start this point in Romans chapter 3 and verse 20. Paul says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh can be justified. Justified is synonymous with being forgiven. So you can't be forgiven by keeping the law. That's like saying, if you get a speeding ticket, you can't earn the penalty away by no longer speeding. If I get a speeding ticket in July and my court date is in August, and from July 1st when I got the ticket until August, whenever my speeding ticket is, I keep every speed limit.

I don't roll through the stop signs. I make sure I buckle my seat belt. I go before the judge and I said, I kept the law after July 1st. The judge is going to say, great, you're not going to get another ticket, but you're still paying the fine for July 1st when you were doing 30 miles an hour over the speed limit. Not that I would ever do that. So Paul is saying, by deeds of the law, no flesh can be forgiven. You can't forgive yourself.

Okay, we got that part. The next part is key. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Here we see that the law is the dividing line between sin and acceptable behavior. It points us to love by telling us the things that are not love. Don't murder. Don't lie. Don't steal, etc. Those things are not perfected love. In other words, you cannot consider yourself to be like God and Jesus Christ if you only keep what is explicitly stated in the law, because the law divides, if you will, good behavior from bad.

That's where the law fits. I would like to read a quote from the booklet, A New Covenant, Does It Abolish God's Law? It's a big booklet, but if you haven't read it and you don't understand this concept that I'm speaking about today, may I suggest that you read the booklet and get this concept in mind of where the law fits, then you will never be tempted to think the law of God is done away. Speaking about what Paul is saying in Romans, reading a quote, he says, quote, his point is that the right approach to obeying God after we are forgiven is to exceed the mere letter of the law.

Compare Matthew 5 and verse 20. We should obey it according to its intent or spirit, not by doing only the bare minimum of what is explicitly stated. It serves us as our guide to attaining truly righteous thinking and behavior. So the Apostle Paul establishes in Romans chapter 3 and verse 20 that the law is the dividing line between good and bad behavior. It's the starting point, not the finish line. Jesus Christ is the finish line. We'll get to that in a moment.

Where do you start the journey? All the way back at the law. First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. Paul adds to this concept of the law being the dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior by stating this. The Bible says, by stating this, First Timothy this time, we were in Second Timothy. Let's go to First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9.

Knowing this, Paul says, that the law was not made for a righteous person. Hmm. But for the lawless, insubordinate, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. Who is the law for? People who are below minimum standard. All of us from time to time. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Who is the law for? Not righteous people. And I mean no insult by this whatsoever. It's the starting point for us. That's what Paul was addressing. It's our starting point. So the law does not tell you how to be a perfectly mature person. Instead, the law tells you how not to be a sinner. Although I will say this, the law does point the way to become a perfect, mature person. Let me give an analogy that I often give in my congregations of bowling. Most of you, I will assume, have gone bowling at one time in your life.

Have you ever been in a bowling alley? And if you're not familiar with the concept of bowling, you take a really heavy ball, roll it down a wooden alley, and you try to knock down 10 pins that are arranged in a pyramid form.

And there's a gutter on one side, which is out of bounds, and a gutter on the other side, which is out of bounds. And as you roll the ball down the line, if that ball falls into the gutter, you don't score. You will not win the game bowling in the gutter. So when we teach children how to bowl, we have these things that come up from the gutter, and they guard the ball from going into the gutter. Rails come up. Bumpers on either side of that lane. And that bumper serves to keep the ball from rolling into the gutter. Just like the law of God. The law of God keeps us out of the gutter. It's the dividing line between what is acceptable and how we're in play and when we're in the gutter.

So that law stays up. And a lot of people want to convince you that that law is down and there's no gutter anymore. That Jesus Christ did away with the gutter. And that's not the point of the new covenant at all. But at the same time, you can't win a bowling game by just bowling down the bumper. If you bowl the ball down the bumper, you'll hit a pin or two. Every once in a while, you'll knock a few pins down, but you certainly will not be an expert bowler. The expert bowler, if you will, the one that goes to that boss level, bowls down and hits the center pin in the exact right way that knocks all the pins down. And he doesn't just do it once and thank himself lucky. He does it every time in every game. That's the stature and the fullness of Christ. He's not bowling on the bumpers. He's not worried about, do I go in the gutter or not? He's bowling down the center lane. We're not there yet, brethren. That's the whole intent of the new covenant, is to get off the bumpers and start bowling down the center lane.

But some people want to convince you that those bumpers are down and it's now okay to bowl in the gutter. It's never okay to go below minimum standard. It's never okay to go in the gutter. But you also have to go above and beyond just bowling on the rails. And you have to bowl at the center pin. Jesus Christ. You have to become perfectly mature. The new covenant is a personal covenant. If I may remind you of the beginning, it's a personal covenant with personal responsibility where you grow and I grow to become a loving person. And you can't do that on the bumpers. That's not enough. Matthew chapter 5, we were there and we read all the way to verse 20, back to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is sitting and talking. We read to verse 19. Verse 20, Jesus Christ tells us to go above and beyond. Now remember, He just told us the law will not be done away. But now He tells us to go beyond. Matthew 5 and verse 20, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't just bowl on the rails. You are going for something far greater. Better righteousness on an individual level must rise above what the scribes and the Pharisees do. They look righteous on the outside, but what did Jesus say about them? Inside were dead men's bones. That should not and must not be said of you and me. And that's the point of the new covenant. The law is not changing. You are. I am. That's the new covenant. Hebrews chapter 7. The apostle Paul gets specific. Hebrews 7 and verse 19. For the law, speaking of the entire Old Testament, they called it the law. For the law made nothing perfect.

Is there a problem with the law? Is Paul saying there's a problem with the law? No. So what's the problem? You and me. We're the problem. The law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

So the Old Testament Scriptures pointed the way to perfection, but we're incapable of changing the inner man. The upgraded covenant perfects us. That's the change between the old covenant and the new. It's the power to have internal change. You are the change. You are what's supposed to be upgraded. Brethren, the law was already perfect. It still is. It always was. And it stays right where it always has been. You, however, and I are not yet perfect. You and I have a lot of upgrading to do. A lot of skill to learn, if you will, if I can say it that way. We're not at the first level anymore. We're in the boss battle, if I may continue that video game analogy. The old covenant pointed to a new heart. It talked about a new heart, but there was no way to change the heart. Now there is. We now have the strength and ability to change because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and access to the Holy Spirit, the power to change who we are. And that's the point of the new covenant. The old administration was focused on death. Animals had to die. Every day, morning, and night they had to sacrifice animals. Every special event, every holy day, animals were killed. It was a penalty-based system, and a perfect one, by the way, to show the difference, to draw the line, to be the dividing line between what was unacceptable and what was the minimally acceptable behavior. The one missing link was the death of the Messiah that actually paid the penalty for our sins. Without the sacrifice, there was no reconciling man to God, therefore no way to give a righteous heart through the Holy Spirit. So the death of Jesus Christ was the pivotal point of the new covenant, and Jesus said that the night before He was crucified. As He said in Luke chapter 22 and verse 20, this cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you. This new relationship necessitates a change, if I may say, in the law, but it's not a reducing or doing away, but rather an increasing or an upgrade. Sacrifices are no longer symbolic, but now the reality of what they pointed to are here. That's not doing away with sacrificing. That is an upgrade.

That's not doing away with the law. It upgrades it. Not one jot or tittle has passed away. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1. Paul says, now this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Now not only a new priest, but new access to a better tabernacle. Verse 6, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry. You see, it's not a doing away with. It is an upgrade. It is much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant. What's a covenant? An agreement, a relationship, a lifelong relationship. And this is a better one. It is an upgrade. It is not a replacement. Not one jot or tittle passes away. But there is definitely more added on, which is established on better, what, laws? No promises. The old covenant promised land and health and all kinds of physical blessings, but no promise to live forever. It wasn't there. No promise of a personal relationship. The old covenant was national. Good crops. Your enemies would be defeated. And this is Paul's main point. A better covenant with better promises, eternal life. You becoming a person who can make peace so that you can help a world become a world of peace. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul puts forth the idea that the old covenant was a ministry of death, but he calls it glorious. And we don't have time to go there today. We're all guilty of sin, which brings the capital punishment. The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life. And God, his Spirit, is a merciful one. But we're going to skip 2 Corinthians for time's sake. God gives us the Holy Spirit. And he made it clear in Romans chapter 3 and verse 20, which we already read, that the law is the dividing line between sin and not sin, if you will, that our deeds, no matter how good they may be, do not forgive sins. Obedience does not justify. Obedience does not justify. Only Christ's sacrifice can do that. But the required response of the believer, the one who accepts that forgiveness, the one who gets the sacrifice and forgiveness put on them, is that he or she must repent and begin to live a life of obedience, going beyond what is explicitly written in the law. Notice what Luke said, or Jesus said in Luke 17 and verse 10, about going beyond. Luke 17 and verse 10, so likewise you, when you have done all the things which you are commanded, what's he talking about? The law. You, when you have done all the things which you are commanded, when you have kept the entire law, he says, we are unprofitable servants.

We have done what was our duty to do. If God's law is good, holy, and just, how can it be if we keep it we're unprofitable? Let's consider the Ten Commandments to answer that question. It's the simplest way I know to answer that question. We think of those as the higher laws than laws concerning sacrifices or, let's say, laws concerning you're responsible to rescue your neighbor's cow if it gets out of the fence. That's actually a law. Okay? And that law is still applicable. But we consider the Ten Commandments, some people refer them to refer to them as the Big Ten. But even they are the minimum standard of acceptable behavior. Consider this. You shall not murder. Do you have perfect love for me if you just don't kill me? Thou shalt not commit adultery. Do you have perfect love for your spouse? If you just don't cheat on them? No. You shall not steal. Do you have perfect love? Have you risen to the stature of Christ? If when I leave my lawnmower out in the front lawn and go in and get a drink because I'm overheated, you don't take my lawnmower. Is that perfect love? No. That's the minimum standard of acceptable behavior. Have no other gods before me. That's the first commandment. That's the big... or is it? Do you love God? Do you have perfect love in you for God? If you ignore Him all day, every day of your life, but simply have no other gods before you, is that perfect love? No. That's actually an easy standard to keep.

You shall not bear false witness. If you just don't tell a lie on me to try to get me in trouble, does that mean you love me? Does that mean I love you? Or is that just the minimum standard? Are we supposed to go beyond that? Yes, we are.

What about the other laws, the national civil laws? Do Christians still keep those? Do you still retrieve a lost sheep or ox? Is a Christian still responsible? Yes, and so much more. You're responsible to look out for the needs of others, to watch out for their property, their life, their health, even to the point of laying down your life for them.

You bet that law still applies, and so much more. What about circumcision? Why don't we do that anymore? I would argue we do, through baptism, as the Apostle Paul explained in Romans chapter 2 in verse 29.

Circumcision is of the heart. And by the way, that's what Moses said when he introduced the concept to ancient Israel. Paul wasn't adding something new. We never go below the law, and that's the point. We never bowl in the gutter. We never lose our level one skills, whichever analogy relates to you the most. The law is like the floor that we stand on and never go below. Jesus Christ and His love that we're supposed to have inside us is way up there beyond the ceiling.

Of course, the law is not done away. We've got work to do. Don't be distracted by those people that call you a legalist.

Why do we still keep the Sabbath? We don't take God's name in vain. Why don't we get tattoos or yoga? Do yoga? Because that's the minimum standard. We don't ever go below minimum. We're going the opposite direction.

If that's all we do is keep the Sabbath and don't eat pork, call yourself unprofitable. We are to go far above that. So which laws are we to go above? All of them. They're the starting line. Jesus Christ is the finish line.

The entire Old Covenant is the minimum standard. It points to Christ, but does not perfect us on an individual basis. It is glorious, unchangeable, and perfect, but it's not far enough. It's the starting point. And you go further. If we keep all that is in the letter of the law, we're unprofitable. Another way to put that is, you're not a loving person yet.

You've started and you're on your way, but you're not there yet. The Old Covenant was glorious, but the standards were minimal, and the New Covenant requires you to go further. How much further? Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 15.

And he himself, let's start in verse 11. Hebrews 4 verse 11. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body, which means building up the body of Christ. That's you. And that's all the generations here, represented here. Some of the previous generation that has long fought this battle, this is old news to them. My generation that fought this battle in 1995 with the help of that generation, and now the younger generation, there are some kids walking around here, and it just reminded me of growing up in the church. And there's a whole other generation out there, ready to start fighting the boss battle, the next level. Ephesians chapter 4, 11. Sorry, verse 12. Sorry, verse 12. No, verse 13. Okay. Till we've all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. And that word perfect doesn't mean just without flaw. That's not what the word means. It's more along the lines of perfectly mature, completely grown up. How grown up is Paul talking about here?

This is the essence of the new covenant, brethren. To the perfect man, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ. He was literally willing, put yourself in these shoes, to not just die some quick death, but he was, for about 24 hours, ridiculed, slapped, spat upon, beaten and marred beyond recognition, and humiliated some more, then required to carry his own pole, form of execution, to the execution site, and he was so weak somebody had to help him. Then he was nailed to it and ridiculed some more! Would you be willing to do that? Because that's what Paul is talking about here in Ephesians. To the stature and the fullness of Christ. In other words, are you willing to every day learn just a little bit more how to become a loving person towards other people, giving and serving other people, and not making yourself the center of the universe like we're born to do with our selfish human nature, but rise to the stature and the fullness of Christ, then after he went through all of that and was nailed to either the tree or cross, both were pagan symbols, and the Romans used both forms of execution at the time, so I'm not really sure which one it was, but it doesn't matter. Point is, it really hurt, and he did it, and he looked out and said, can you do this? Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. He was not the center of his universe. God was the center of his universe. The Father was. That's the stature and the fullness of Christ. He literally laid down his life every day while he was with his disciples. Every day while he was with his disciples, and then literally shed his blood for all of us.

That is what the new covenant is about.

The Ten Commandments, the law, the Old Testament, that's the starting point. This is the finish line, and this is what you and I are supposed to teach in the millennium, so much so that this knowledge will cover the earth as the water covers the sea. And then Paul gives a warning, verse 14, that you should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, which is why I'm giving this sermon today. The previous generation was challenged, my generation was challenged, and it is very likely that the next generation will be challenged by the trickery of men. And your job is to defeat that boss level, and you can do it with God's help. Verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. There is a heart that wants to be like God. It seeks to go above the minimum standard, above the first level skill, if you will. That's what the New Covenant is all about. Going beyond, never below. Don't let anyone take that away from you. What law of God do we not keep?

Really, none of them. We have to go beyond them, never below them. Not one jot or one tittle will pass away. Not one principle of God's opinion, his word, his Torah, is done away. But which ones do we have to exceed? All of them! Including the Ten Commandments. Sometimes people ask which laws we have to keep. And sometimes they're saying they don't want to keep God's law. Don't fall for that. They don't want to live by every word that comes out of God's mouth. They don't want to think that all scripture is profitable. That's a heart issue.

The heart that seeks to grow up, to go beyond minimum standard, is the heart that God is working with. And that is the essence of the New Covenant. So, in summary, the New Covenant didn't mean that God was replacing the old, throwing out the old, and bringing in the new, like you throw away that junk or car that left you stranded on the road, and you never want to see it again. But instead, it means he's renewing his covenant. It's renewed. The laws weren't done away.

The covenant was renewed. So what changed? Well, there's a better sacrifice now. Jesus Christ's sacrifice actually pays for sins. And there's better promises. And the best one of all is eternal life through God giving you his Holy Spirit. That's a whopper of a promise. But what does that mean in everyday life? What does that mean to you? The answer is, if you're baptized, if you're a baptized member, and this is just a reminder to you, remember what Mr. Shaby said in the sermonette that we are the temple of God. May this feast of tabernacles put another brick, building up your character, encouraging you, driving you forward in the conversion process that you are already in. But if you are not yet baptized, what does the new covenant mean to you? I remember when my kids were growing up, some of them, well they still are I suppose, but when they were really young, they played all of those video games, and they would get to the boss level, and they would try it out and instantly get defeated, just wiped off the map.

And it was very discouraging and very intimidating to try it again, and they would hand the remote to each other, you try it, no you try it, oh stop it, you try it. Because the boss battle can be intimidating, but once they finally did it, and they won the really difficult level, that's all they could talk about for days, weeks, and I kid you not, years later. Do you remember that boss battle? Oh, it was great. You know how you have to slip behind him and go around like this and throw that thing? And they still talk about it, and you know what? I think that's the point, because God wants you to win the boss battle, and then he wants you to talk about it in the millennium for days and weeks and years to other people, and tell them how to win the boss battle. That's why you're here. So I encourage you, do not be intimidated, as some of you are holding off getting baptized, thinking, whoa, that is the boss battle, man, and I don't know if I can win that one. I might just wait a little while. I encourage you to get in the game, because Jesus Christ and God the Father are here to help you win the boss battle. We just lost a very elderly man in San Antonio one day before the feast began. He was 98 years old, a World War II veteran, one of the last ones. Mr. Gail Nelson. He was a B-25 bomber pilot.

But he told me, two days before he died, I visited him in the hospital before I drove to Florida.

He told me, Rod, war is terrible. In war, nobody wins. Everybody loses something. I thought that was so profound. And then he said, I hope I'm in the first resurrection. But he wasn't worried at all about dying. There was literally no anxiety in this man's voice. He was ready for the kingdom, and he died and won the boss battle. And now he's going to be resurrected right there with Jesus Christ, ready to talk about it to anybody who will listen to help them along. And you are invited to be there also. Don't hesitate. Look at yourself. Examine yourself whether or not you have faith in God. See yourself for the human being that you are, that we all have had to do, that you make mistakes and repent. And go to your local minister and ask him to counsel you for baptism and get baptized and get in the game and win the boss battle. And then you will be there when Habakkuk 2 in verse 14 is fulfilled. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The law of God is not done away. It doesn't need to change. You and I do. And that's the point of the new covenant. May this Feast of Tabernacles help us to grow just a little bit further towards the kingdom of God, the character of God, the nature of Jesus Christ, that loving, perfect human being.