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The New Covenant: Most Churches Gest it Wrong · Walk Talk: Faith in Motion

• Randy Dupre: So much better is the forgiveness that we have. Now, Christians, I know a lot of Christians that they don't seek to like this matter. But you know, it's not about what we like. The ego, the human ego sometimes doesn't respond well to God's grace. Have you ever noticed that? The Pharisees think like God's grace. And Pharisee like God's grace. You tell some Christian that they are forgiven once for all and they'll get mad at you, they'll be ticked off, angry as hornets. That's I like to say, they're forgiven to get mad. Not only is that true, that ⁓ a lot of Christians do seem to have a problem with the thought that you are forgiven for all of your sins. Past, present, and future. ⁓ a lot of Christians also have a problem with the idea that forgiveness is something that has been given f to everyone in in the entire world. At least that's how I understand it. And so when when a lot of Christians hear that, when they hear someone say, Well, Jesus died for all sins of everyone who has ever lived, and to totally remove sin from the equation. They think that that's heresy. They think, well, that means everyone would be saved, which just tells me that they don't have a real understanding of the gospel because it's not forgiveness that saves a person. It's not forgiveness. Forgiveness makes salvation possible, but it's not salvation itself. A person is saved because they have believed and they have received the Spirit of God. When you believe, when you confess with your mouth and you believe with your heart, then Jesus comes inside of you and you have the spirit of the living God living within you. You went from death to life at that moment. So now when you die physically, you continue to live eternally because the life that is in you, the life of God, is by nature eternal. Jesus took your sins away once for all, it is finished. And so people say, well, if you give me that kind of forgiveness, if you give me a blank slate, every single day, every morn that I await, if I have a clean slate, I'm telling you, it's going to be a disaster. It's going to be a mess. I'm just going to send up a storm. I'm going to set world records for sin. You watch my smoke as I have. This grace you speak of. And God would be naive if all we did was say, Forgiven forever, forgiven forever. Good luck. Covenant is wiser than that, better than that. It is total forgiveness. You're forgiven and you're new. And you're forgiven and you're new. And you're retarded with new desires and don't really want to sin anymore. Let me tell you, there's only one way that you're going to discover what you really want. The only way somebody discovers what they really want is when you're free. discover you're living for the fam, for the church fam. You're living for the religious community. You're living for good reputation. You're living for brownie points with God. You're living for some other reason that I want to. I desire. I long for too and when So I could just see some people saying, you know, wait a second, he just said that I could sin as much as I want. Because all my sins are forgiven. And some people might take issue with that. And Andrew Farley here is basically saying, look, not only does God forgive you, but he makes you new. He gives you a new heart. So you no longer want to sin. And some people might struggle with that because they might think, Well, wait a second, I sin all the time. Are you saying I'm I I don't want to sin? But isn't that exactly what Paul said in Romans seven? Didn't he say, I find myself You know, in the situation where I do do what I don't want to do and I don't do what I do want to do, and I find that it's not me who sins, but sin living within me. I mean, Paul's basically describing what we as modern day believers experience all the time, which is we know what's right. We we have the spirit of God inside of inside of us telling us what we should do and what we shouldn't do. But sometimes we choose to sin, and at that moment. It's not even us who's sinning, but it is sin that we're allowing to use our vessels to live within us that's doing it because the the the the new us, the new heart that we've been given doesn't want to do those things. Change what I want. Right. He has changed what I want, and the gospel is not a half gospel, it's the whole, it's total forgiveness and a new heart. Total forgiveness and a new nature. Total forgiveness and desire. These go hand in hand. Can't leave one out. And so we have a better covenant, better promises, a better meeting, a better heart, a better nature, a better life, a better connection. We're going to dive deeper and see it like we've never seen it before. Here we go, for seven. For if that covenant, that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a seven covenant. Now, what did that do to the The new covenant is a continuation. We need a balance between the old and the new, they say. No. Or they just can say, you know, ⁓ Jesus is the continuation of the law. No, the passage says the culmination is the end of the law for all those who believe. The fulfillment of the law. ⁓ It had its issues. And that's why you need a second covenant to replace the first covenant. It's not a combo. This is not a covenant combo kit. It's not a two for one sale. You invest in Jesus plus nothing. A ⁓ hundred percent. On social media, you see people are interested about law and grace. So I would say my opinion is the law, the role of the law hasn't changed. The role of the law is the same that it's always been under the old covenant and the new covenant, which essentially is it's a tutor to basically teach us how evil and wicked that we are by nature. And so if you are not a believer, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the law is for you. Exactly what it had it had has always been. It is a standard to show you how short you fall. I I always say how fall you short. I didn't say at that time. It's to show you how short you fall. That is the purpose of the law. That purpose has remained the same. Okay. This isn't a religious expectation. What should you logically expect from a radical surgeon at the core of your being? Something's gonna happen. Over time, it's called barren. And so God is at work anyway. Do and we will that you want the one answer of its left. And one thing I would just add here, too, from my own perspective, just as it's not sin, it just says it isn't us that desires to do sin, but it's the sin that's living in us because we have this new heart, it's not us that bears fruit either. It's our relationship to the vine that bears fruit, it's God bearing fruit through us. So we don't need to feel the pressure to bear fruit. We Just need to rest in the finished work of the cross and focus on the love of God and our relationship with God. And we will naturally bear fruit. We shouldn't feel burdened by this. We shouldn't feel pressure. We shouldn't feel like there's something that we need to do. I feel like that's all human nature that's just at war with our spirit, essentially, our flesh and our spirit battling that makes us think, well, I need to go do something. But it's not. It's not anything we need to do. It's the spirit of God living within us that is going to do. What? have a Bible. For hundreds of years the early church did not have the NIP or NASP bound up in plastic or leather or paper. They were lucky to have one letter, maybe two. How were they made? Eternally, what was the proof? Gather, encourage each other, study it. Absolutely. It's fantastic, let's remember. But when we forget, it's still true. And that's why we can't live by the flow of our strength up and down all around us. And the other train I would say to get off of is the train of thinking that every time you commit a sin, you need to repent and that you need to ask again for forgiveness and you need to turn away from that sin because God's angry with you and he's upset with you and you can't have a relationship with him until you turn away from that. I think that's a trap that Christians get into. And we hear it from pulpits all the time. Yes, you are forgiven of all your sins, past, present, and future. But Pastor, what do I do if I sin again? Well, you just need to repent and just pray that God will forgive you. Okay, well, that seem there seems to be a contradiction there. Seems like you got a little bit of Moses, a little bit of new covenant and old covenant mixed together there. I think what Andrew Farley's saying here makes a lot more sense to me that what we need to do is we need to understand that our sins have been forgiven. God doesn't see them anymore. And that what we need to do is just rest. And just trust that God has, you know, taken care of all of it, that Jesus' sacrifice was enough and that there isn't anything that we need to do. And that if we do sin, the grace of God has already covered that sin. We're already forgiven for the sin that we're gonna get commit tomorrow. God's not going to be angry with us. Amen. Amen. So I I I I agree with his argument here that basically what he's saying is yes, this is the book of Hebrews, it's written to Hebrews. It talks about their first covenant, it talks about a new covenant. For our Christians, this is really the first covenant that we've been included in. And so it's that's why it doesn't specifically call us out ⁓ and say it's you know, it doesn't clarify this specifically. He's using some other passages. And I and I and I think that totally makes sense. The other way I think you could look at it. as well is ⁓ you know romans two twenty eight and there's other passages ⁓ along these same lines. Paul says for no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly nor is circumcision outward or physical but a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. And so what we're learning from Paul here and there's other parallel passages as well that that have the same sentiment is that ⁓ a Jew is not necessarily someone who was born of Abraham. Matter of fact, in another passage, it actually says this explicitly, ⁓ that you don't have to be born of Abraham to be considered part of Israel. ⁓ so I would say that here Christians are included, even if we didn't have the other verses that Andrew Farley's citing ⁓ that talk about us being, you know, having this first covenant, the second cov covenant being our first covenant, because by what I'm reading from what Paul says. the real Jews today, the real Christi are are Christians, essentially. ⁓ not to say that the Jewish nation doesn't have ⁓ a role to play or they're not still the chosen people. I don't want to get into any of that, but to say that the Bible makes it pretty clear that as Christians, we are basically adopted Jews, if you will. There is a little passage that says Okay. So do you see that? And like that. gonna cause some headaches. Covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Why? Why does it keep the difference? Because they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. So basically, Israel had kind of like a marriage covenant, you might say, and they were kind of like ⁓ you know cheating on their spouse. It was of So I want you to notice first of all as this passage, as this verse opens, I want you to see that you're saying it's different. What you and I have today is different. I'll try to sell you a bill of goods. They're gonna talk fancy and have nice words and sound eloquent, and maybe even have glasses on if they raise them lower as they speak. Now, every person you ever met in your life thinks they can lose their salvation. Cause they blank. They keep sinning because they sin too much. Because they say they're sorry and again. Because they sin real big. Because they walk away from God. Because they Yeah, and and I would just say too that with without really fully understanding, in my opinion at least, the new covenant, a lot of ⁓ people who are very Calvinistic, either the Calvins, Calvinists or Baptists who believe in Calvinistic theology, they they kind of get around this problem by saying, Look, it is all God, it's the sovereignty. Of God. It's all a work of God. There's nothing that you can do. ⁓ you are dead, and you can't even accept the gospel unless you've been chosen and God raises you to life, so you could even believe. So even your belief is a gift from God. And so, yeah, He it is all God. He is the one who ⁓ sustains you, He chose you and He saved you, and there's nothing you could do. And I do believe that that is, you know. Essentially all true. But I also believe that ⁓ God wants everyone to believe that He doesn't just choose some and not choose others, that He's made salvation available to anyone. But like Andrew Farley's saying here, God has solved the problem of the old covenant. Not that there was something wrong with the old covenant, but that we were unable to keep our end of the bargain. And he solved that problem by saying, look. There's nothing wrong with the old covenant if you could do it, but you can't do it. So therefore, I gotta give you a new covenant. And in this covenant, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do both sides. I'm gonna be the one, I'm gonna be God fulfilling and keeping all the promises of God, but I'm also be gonna become a human and I'm gonna keep the man's side of the bargain as well, because you can't do it. So therefore, all you have to do is believe and receive, and you're good to go. Not because of God's sovereignty necessarily, but because that is the way the new covenant is designed. That if you as a believer believe and put your hope and faith and trust in the finished work of the cross, then that's it. That's that's what you need to do. God has already solved that old covenant problem. Yeah, I mean, if you believe that it is the work of God that saved you, how does it make sense to believe there's something you could do to become unsaved? I mean, if you believe, if you truly have believed and have been born again, do you really believe there's anything you could do to become unborn? I mean, I love to use this analogy and it's a silly analogy, but if I was carrying around a briefcase with a million dollars in it, you might believe me, you might not believe me. But if I open that briefcase and I show you that there is a million dollars and you see it with your eyes, and then I close that case. Can you really go back to unbelief after you've seen it? Doesn't make logical sense. In the same way, and I know this is this analogy is a stretch, but in in in my in my view, in the same way, if you really have received, if you really have believed in the finished work of Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, then you've been born again. You're a new creation. How could anything you do cause the Holy Spirit of God to leave you? And if there isn't anything, Then how can you no longer be saved by something that you do? And we know you're not gonna lose your salvation by anything God does because God is faithful and He's already made the promises that He's gonna remember our sins no more. Fellowship saved, or you're out of fellowship lost. So what happens when we sin? I mean, let's not be obtuse here. Clearly, something happens when we sin. There's a lack of contentment, there's one of So so funny story. So a pastor that I won't I won't name ⁓ of a Pentecostal church that I used to attend was accused of quenching the spirit because he asked congregants to hold back on speaking in tongues on Sunday mornings. He said and the logic was basically look, there's a lot of people who come for the first time, a lot of non believers. ⁓ it's a mixed crowd on Sunday mornings. We got Sunday night services. We got Bible studies all week. We got Wednesday night services. Any other time, you know, if you feel that to speak in tongues, fine. But don't do it on Sunday mornings, please. And a lot of people left the church because they said he was quenching the spirit. I think Andrew Farley's explanation of quenching the spirit makes a lot more sense. Amen. So, I mean, it makes it makes total sense to me. I mean, Adam and Eve had the Spirit of God living within them. I truly believe that. And I believe that on the day they committed their sin, that spirit left them because God is a holy God and he can't dwell where sin is. But because of the new covenant, because of the finished work of the cross, because God has dealt with the sin issue, sin is no longer a problem. So we receive the Holy Spirit of God. It gives us life. It it lives within us. And when we die, we continue on and live with God an eternity because we've received that life. And there's nothing that we could ever do that would cause the Spirit of God to leave us or forsake us. Why? Because God has already forgiven our sins. He separated our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. Right? So If the Spirit of God's inside of me, now when I sin, unlike Adam, the Spirit of God doesn't have to leave me. It stays within me. It stays within me. I don't lose my fellowship with God. I don't ⁓ lose my salvation. I'm not backsliding. I'm not in need of repentance. What happens is when I sin, yeah, then the Holy Spirit is is quenched because, like Andrew Farley said, you can't be walking in Christ and bearing fruit and also sitting at the same moment. Those two things are not compatible. And then also the Holy Spirit is grieved because he cares about us, because the Spirit of God cares about us. And just as a father or a mother would be grieved when they see their s their their son or their daughter commit a sin, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be angry with them. It just means that they are going to be concerned. They might not be happy about what they're doing. They might be you know, grieving about what they do, but it doesn't mean their anger is, you know, directed towards them or their wrath is directed towards them. So because sin is dealt with, we don't lose the spirit every time we sin, but we do grieve the spirit and we do quench the spirit when we sin. Okay, so those are the two laws I would have thought of. What wouldn't if if I had been asked this previously, you know, what is what does it mean that, you know, God says He's gonna write his law on our hearts? This is where my mind automatically would go. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Because Jesus said those summed up all of the law and the prophets and those two commandments. But Andrew's Andrew Farley's take on this, a little bit different. And actually think it's even better. So Andrew Farley here is saying, look, the the law that's written on your heart is essentially love others as he has loved us and to believe in Jesus. And Jesus himself said in John chapter six, he says, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. It's pretty clear right there. So we got the commandment that he just mentioned to ⁓ to believe in Jesus. We got Jesus himself right here saying that that's even our work is to believe. So anyone who tells you that ⁓ faith without works is dead, just remind them what your work actually is. Your work is to believe in the one whom God sent. And Jesus himself said that. Yeah, and I I'm I I love that he says that we love because he first loved us. We love God and we love others not in order to be loved, but because we were first loved. We forgive not in order to be forgiven, but because we have been forgiven. It the language sounds very similar, but the difference is night and day. Mm. Amen. table there maybe you had one or two parents there at the breakfast table. Could you kinda introduce yourself over dad the two people. ⁓ hey, good morning. It's me. Nice to meet you. ⁓ table family belong and you also have it chewing. So is this anti-teaching? Clearly not. The New Testament's filled with spiritual gifts and teaching, preaching, body. That's not the point. The point is not. And in fact, I would argue that everything we've said today about the covenant, I believe we know it at a hard level. God is not a double talker, he is not a liar, he doesn't give us fixed messages, and we don't need to balance Jesus plus Moses. Mm. Wow. I I I love that I love that passage. ⁓ Romans twelve one and two, be you know, don't be conformed to the ways of this world, be transformed ⁓ by the renewing of your mind, then you can approve of what God's good and perfect will is and something like that. I'm quoting it off of memory here, but I never thought about it that way, that it doesn't say you need to renew your heart. The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitfully wicked, and a lot of Christians still quote that. As if that it ⁓ is something that still applies to us as believers. But Andrew Farley here is telling us the truth that the Bible does make it pretty clear that if you've been born again, you are a new creation. The old man died, symbolized by the baptism when you went under the water, and the new man has arisen, then you don't need a new heart. You've been given a new heart, and God has written his law. his commands, his new commands on your heart. But what you need to do is renew your mind. And that's I think that's very, very true. We need it to go from here to here. Sin, sin how to stop sinning. And and me and PJ have talked about this a lot. I do believe that, you know, churches focus too much on sin, especially in light of the fact that God says he's already dealt with sin. If you're in church, you're probably a believer. I know not everyone who goes to ⁓ church service on Sunday mornings are believers, but you probably are. Most people probably are if they're if they go every every Sunday. We don't need to constantly be reminded about our our sin, or taught better ways to manage sin. We focus too much on sin. We should be focusing more on love, on Christ, on the finished work of the cross, on understanding how much God really loves us. So that way we could take that love and go and do what he says, which is love others like he loved us. It's obviously replaced by stream. Amen. Not getting closer. Yes. Mm. Amen. Mm. Mm. Wow, really good stuff. Really good. Love Andrew Farley. ⁓ like I said, this is probably one of the best sermons that I've ever heard. And ⁓ he covers so much while digging into Hebrews chapter eight. ⁓ the old covenant is not just an extension of the new. ⁓ the old covenant makes the old the new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete. Just like your iPhone 1 is obsolete. The new covenant is all that we need. And it's a superior covenant. And in the chapters leading up to Hebrews 8, we see just that. We learn about how Jesus is a better priest because he is, you know, a priest not of the Levites, ⁓ but from the order of Melchizedek. ⁓ we learn that his sacrifice is a superior sacrifice because the blood of bulls and goats never could actually. Forgive any sins. It was all just a symbol. It was all just a shadow of what things were to come. And now we learn that the new covenant is superior to the old and has actually made the old covenant obsolete. So we don't need to treat the new covenant as an extension of the old or have a little bit of Moses sprinkled in to our Jesus. It's Jesus plus nothing. That's it. There's nothing else that needs to be added to it. And I just wish that more, more believers understood in their mind what their heart already knows. I wish more pastors understood this and preached this from the pulpit and could see the contradictions that come up so often when you still try to sprinkle in some old covenant into the new covenant. Your heart knows that there are contradictions. And it's not that the Bible contradicts itself. Look, non-believers have been telling us for decades, for centuries, that the Bible contradicts itself. But it doesn't. However, we contradict ourselves. When a pastor gets in gets up in front of a congregation and preaches the new covenant at the beginning of the service. And then finishes with the old covenant, he is contradicting himself. When you get up there and say Jesus died for all your sins, but you need to go and come up to the altar and you need to confess and repent and pray that God will forgive you. That's a contradiction. When you say that Jesus, that Jesus saved you, when you say that the finished work of the cross is what saves you, but then you say things like in order to remain saved, you need to do blank. Or if you don't do blank, or if you do do blank, you could lose your salvation. You're contradicting the finished work of the cross. And it's in my opinion, it comes from not fully understanding the reality of the new covenant. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you haven't already, please like, subscribe, follow the show. God bless.