The New Covenant Commandment (SUNDAY JAN 26, 2025)

This is God's new covenant commandment for us.

God's new covenant commandment is that our life will be filled with love for our brothers and sisters. We ought to love like Jesus loved us… with true selfless, sacrificial love. That is how all people will know that we are His disciples.

All of us know the Bible is divided into two parts: the Old and the New Testaments. We know that the Old Testament captures the interactions that God had with mankind, before the time of Jesus. The New Testament covers the life of Christ and following. The word testament can mean either a will or a covenant, an agreement. There are multiple covenants that God made with saints in the Old Testament and they were all inadequate. Therefore in the careful study of prophecy, people of old knew that God promised a new covenant, one that we know was inaugurated as a result of the sacrificial death of Jesus.

9 of the 10 commandments recorded in Exodus 20 are repeated in the New Testament. The only one that is not repeated is the 4th commandment that speaks about honoring the Sabbath. We can interpret that the Lord is instituting that everyday is holy unto the Lord, not just a Saturday or a Sunday. Instead of a weekly worship day, even though most believers gather together for worship at least once a week, every day is holy unto the Lord.

I grew up understanding that God gave Ten Commandments to Moses at Sinai. And that in the New Testament, Jesus gave two commandments instead.

“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭34‬-‭40‬ ‭

After many years as a Christian, I was surprised to find out that these were not new covenant commandments, but old covenant commandments itself. ‬‬We read them in the books of the Law as follows:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬ ‭‬‬

“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭19‬:‭18‬ ‭‬

Also Jesus' rule called the Golden Rule in popular culture is also supposed to be a summary of the old covenant requirements as opposed to a new requirement.

““In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭‬‬

These were not new commandments. These were instead the essence of the old covenant requirements from God's people.

However, God wants us to fulfill the righteous requirement of the law in us, according to apostle Paul's exhortation in Romans 8.

“He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭4‭‬‬

The righteous requirement of the law is love and when we love, the law is fulfilled.

“Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭13‬:‭8‬,10‬ ‭

A few days before His death, Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples. It was so important that it is recorded twice; in John 13 and 15.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.””

‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭34‬-‭35‬ ‭‬‬

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭

This is God's new covenant commandment that He wants us to follow. That our life will be filled with love for our brothers and sisters. We ought to love like Jesus loved us… with true selfless, sacrificial love. That is how all people will know that we are His disciples. It is not through our programs, our teachings, our miracles, our blessings, our worldly success, our material wealth, our spiritual gifts or our holiness. It is through our love for one another. Can the world tell that we are Christians if they see our love?

There is sometimes confusion about whether faith requires works or not. We will never be justified by our works. God sees us as righteous because of our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. Our works are never going to please Him. However true faith works through love. And that is pleasing to God.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬ ‭‬‬

“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭1‬:‭5‬ ‭

The goal of all preaching and teaching should be love. That is how we are measured. That is what the world really needs to see. How much love do we have for the people in the body of Christ? Not just ones we like, but all the saints. When Paul heard of the Ephesian church, he heard of their faith toward God and their love towards all the saints, he never stopped praising God for them (Eph 1:15). How is our love towards all the saints? Not just the ones we are close to, not just the ones we get along with, not just the ones who are like us, part of our family, part of our small groups, but ALL the saints?

This is the desired end result of all preaching and teaching: how much do the hearers exhibit the love of God to the people around them. Remember, the Goal of the instruction is not Doctrinal Accuracy, Healing and miracles, material wealth, spiritual gifts, large numbers in churches, or even holiness. It is whether we are able to love the people in the body as Christ loved us.

Jesus himself warned us saying in the last days, the love of many shall grow cold. Let the love in our heart not grow cold and let it ever burn bright with the love of God.

May God's Spirit shed abroad His love in our hearts so that we may love like Jesus loved us.

Let Us Press On To Know Him (Knowing God - 2) Sunday Morning, Jan 19 2024

Today we are continuing on the topic of knowing God.

What we typically call knowledge is “facts.” The world refers to “knowledge workers” or a “knowledge economy.” In information science, it is merely information that has a useful application. However, what the Bible calls knowledge is an experiential awareness of truth that has the power to change us. The knowledge of God has the ability to transform us.

Last week, we talked about the general revelation of God through nature and the special revelation of God through the word of God, the Bible, and in particular Jesus, the son of God, who is God's greatest and most complete revelation of himself to us to reveal the father unto us. He is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person.

It is very important that we know God because if you do not know God and are known by God our eternal destiny is in question. Jesus said in John chapter 17 and what is commonly known as the high priestly prayer after the Last Supper, the Lord prayed in front of his disciples, telling God that the time had come to glorify the Son as the Son had glorified the Father. Then He goes on to define eternal life: Eternal Life is knowing the Father and Jesus Christ whom He had sent. (John 17:3). Eternal life is not just unending life. And it does not begin when we die in an afterlife. It is the experience of knowing God while we are in this world. Once we come to the saving knowledge of Christ's sacrifice, when we begin walking with Him and being part of His kingdom, knowing the Father and Jesus whom He sent, is eternal life. 

Let us look at three signs displayed by a person who knows God:

1. LOVE - You cannot love God if you do not know God. The corollary is also true, if you know God, you will love God. And you will have His love in you.
   “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
   1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬
   How much do you love? Do you love enough to sacrifice? Do you love enough to not complain about what you have to do? Do you love enough to forgive the faults of others and not just tolerate them, but also deeply love them? Do you love them knowing that they as much as you are created in the image of God and that they are as special to God as you are. That God's purposes for their life are as important God's purposes for your life.

2. SANCTIFICATION - If you know God, you will be sanctified and hold your body in self control.
   “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God;”
   ‭‭I Thessalonians‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭5‬
   This is easy to understand. I don't want to explain it, I only want to stress its importance. The Holy God who dwells within us wants us to keep our vessel (or our body in sanctification and honor) not in lustful passions. Because it is those that do not know God that do that. If think that immorality, especially sexual immorality, is a modern problem that is not true. However, what has happened since the last 50 or so years is how open it is in popular culture. So badly such as it is an influence not only on the general population, but also upon the Christians. It is so important to have godly standards for our life than what the world offers as standards.

3. TRUE DEVOTION - If you know God, you will avoid external, fleshly, superficial religion and focus on internal transformation
   “However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”
   ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭
   Paul, while admonishing the Galatians for going back to religious practices, such as that followed by Jewish people is giving a warning to each of us not to make religious practices more important than got himself. We always have a tendency to accomplish by works instead of trusting in the finish work of Jesus Christ. We always have a tendency to establish our righteousness. Whether it is how much we pray how much we read the Bible or how much we worship or however we pray, or how much scripture we have memorized, or how many people we have shared the gospel with, how many people we have encouraged Christian, let me warn you against it, establishing your own righteousness, and not leaning onto the righteousness that comes my faith in Jesus Christ let me warn you against adding to the finished work of Jesus Christ. God does not want us to focus on Christian religious traditions by which we try to please Him without knowing that it is by faith in the finished work of Christ alone that we can please Him.

These are changes that come to our lives when we truly know God. However, ultimately, these results do not come by striving. If we try to attempt these by human strength or willpower we will certainly fail. We can only do this when we live the life of God.

“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭2‬:‭19‬-‭20‬

If we are unable to love someone, because of it is difficult to forget something they did, remember that you died and your old nature is crucified with Christ. Christ is able to love everyone and so can you do it through His love.

If you are facing temptation that is difficult to overcome, remember that your old nature is crucified with Christ. The life that you live is His, let Him deal with the temptation and He will overcome. 

If you are struggling with religiosity and the need to please God through your own works, remember that you no longer live and Christ's work on the cross is complete. There is no need to establish your righteousness because God sees you as righteous because of what Christ did on the cross. 

‬‬“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.””

‭‭Hosea‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬ ‭‬‬

Therefore, let us press on to know Him and may His life shine through us.‬‬

That I May Know Him (Knowing God - 1) Sunday Morning, Jan 12 2024

What is God's purpose for us in this world?

YWAM, one of the best known missionary organizations in the world has its caption as "To Know God and to make Him known." As a new believer, when I heard about it, I was so thrilled. Later found that it is the caption of many other organizations as well. For example, the Christian Research Institute, even the church that we used to be a part of uses the same caption. It is so popular a caption because it is really succinct, and perhaps the most accurate statement of purpose that a Christian organization can have.

The Bible encourages us to boast in our knowledge of God. In knowing God as the One who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth.

“Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭9‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭

Just like knowing a person is knowing what type of person they are, what their values are, knowing God is understanding Who He is, in understanding what type of person He is.

When Moses requested to see God and His glory, God revealed His nature and attributes to Him, after hiding him in the cleft of a rock.

"Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”  And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.  So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

Exodus 33:19-23

That is a beautiful prophetic picture of how we can seek to know God. There are two important lessons to learn here:

1. To know God is to know His nature, His attributes.

2. We can only approach God while being hidden in the Rock, which is Christ. 

Since no one can see God's glory and live God allows us to see that in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus, is that Rock on which Moses stood as He saw the glory of God pass by, the Rock that was cleft for us. Hallelujah!

Ways that are not guaranteed to help us know God

It is important to know what does not constitute knowing God. 

• Knowing about God - One can know much about God while knowing God very little. It is not by gaining doctrinal correctness or intellectual knowledge about God that we know God. In fact, mere knowledge often alienates us from God since it becomes just an intellectual exercise. To know God, we cannot just learn to recite His attributes. we must really experience His attributes in our life. While we speak about the love of God, we must first experience God's love. And so on. An intellectual understanding of those attributes is not

• Learning Bible concepts or memorizing scripture - One can quote large portions of scripture without letting the word of God work in us. We need to first have a relationship with the Author of the word before we can use the word to know Him.

“For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” (Isa 66:2)

How then do we know God?

Because God desires that we know Him, He has provided a revelation of Himself:

1. Nature - Through His works or the world around us.

   "The heavens declare the glory of God;
   And the firmament shows His handiwork.
   Day unto day utters speech,
   And night unto night reveals knowledge.
    There is no speech nor language
   Where their voice is not heard." (Psalm 19:1-3)

   "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:20)

   The creation of God around us is a marvelous reminder of the greatness of God. The heavens and the earth, the heavenly bodies, the wonder of the human body, each cell in the body, prompt us to search for the One behind it and marvel at that. Most scientists begin with an assumption that everything was created by a lot of time and infinite chance. Honest scientists know that as we learn more about the complexity of the world and the amazing intricacy and purposefulness of creation, it is impossible to be the result of random chance. The child of God knows that the world was formed by the purpose of God and for His pleasure. 

2. His written word - The written word of God is the most accurate method of God's revelation that He has given to us. Proper studying of scripture is the method we understand who He is. 

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ - God's ultimate revelation is through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

   “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭3‬)

Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. He is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of God's person. If we want to know God, we need understand who Jesus is. Studying His person (who He is) and His work (what He did) is the greatest way of knowing God.

Imagine the disciples who spent three years with Him and watched the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person walk with them and talk with them. After His resurrection, they spent several more weeks with Him. Being with the person who is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person transformed them so completely that they not only decided to live for Him and great lengths to serve Him, but they were also willing to die for Him, that too suffering violent, brutal death for their faith in Him. Knowing God transforms us.

It also transformed Paul, who did not meet Jesus in person, but had a personal vision of Him. His encounter with Jesus changed him so much that after boasting about his pedigree as a Pharisee and teacher of the law, Paul says in Philippians: 

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭11‬ ‭‬‬

Let us also count everything but loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That we may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. 

May God enable us to know Him, and may that knowledge transform us.