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You know, morning services. We have been talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And we’ve been talking about in the New Covenant begins for us, the moment we come to Christ and we’re justified. And then followed by our sanctification, a process that the Holy Spirit pushes us along in and calls on our cooperation to help. And then finally there is that glorification when we get to heaven or some people refer to it as going to glory. And in that middle step of sanctification, a part of the agenda of the Lord is that he wants us to grow more and more to be like him. As a matter of fact he’s made humanity to have a lot of things about families where the same principles are actually happening with families where there are and it is amazing how kids grow up to be more like their parents than what they realise. When I was a little tacker at one time, and that was the true of all of us, when I was a little tackle and my father was very much a person who studied and read books and very rarely went out and did something practical I do remember he took us fishing once that I ever remembered. I do remember going down the beach with him and he was so white that all the other people seemed to be putting on their sunglasses, but he wasn’t used to being in the sun. My father did have one enjoyment that he liked and that was driving cars fast. I had given him an old Morris Miner at the college where he was the principal to drive, and with another man who was on the board, who had a big custom line, our families went together down to south of, this is in Perth, down to somewhere down south, and on the journey down there, the Morris Miner was taken across a hump in the road where a lot of dirt was pushed, big stones were. One big rock knocked off the sump. The car was stranded. To my joy I got to ride in the custom line. It could go very fast. I was beginning to develop something like my dad of liking big cars. He must have squawked enough on the committee but they bought him another car. They were always second-hand. College didn’t have a lot of money but it was an FJ Holden, with stick shift you know on the column, and my dad was an expert at burning people off of the lights. But he took me on his own. He didn’t do it with the families either but he would take off. And the acceleration of that very light saloon was fantastic. I couldn’t help but realise that a lot of my dad got to be in me, and that’s just natural. So when he at last came up to the College as Principal here, the students called me Little Hoot. I couldn’t work out where they got that nickname, except that onto TV there was a western star fellow riding horses who was called Hoot Gibson, and that was apparently my dad’s nickname Hoot Gibson by them. So they called me Little Hoot. Because there was that happening of you growing up to be like your parents. The Bible actually tells us that when Jesus comes, one of the amazing things for us will be when we see him like Him. And that’s the purpose of sanctification as the work of a spirit makes us more and more like Christ. That’s His agenda for you and for me and for all of us. That we gradually progress in Christian things by the Spirits’ doing. Now, this I am talking about is the New Covenant, that as is mentioned in the Communion service, Communion Service is about snack and learning T om projection to get them out of Egypt and get them out of E entertainment by God’s grace and at the beginning of the journey through a promised land. T But it’s to remind them that the new Covenant is also a grace bound sentient being or an embodying of grace. and I really like the Communion and His emphasis on grace, and the fact that’s what’s where actually the first celebration of grace and Jesus actually promising that one day He was going to share it with all of us and share it when he does so new in his kingdom. Now by the way that doesn’t mean Jesus is not present here spiritually by the holy spirit, Jesus is here. So we’ve been sharing with Jesus ever since we became Christians spiritually. But there’ll be a time when physically he is going to arrive. And the new covenant, which by the way in the scriptures is that which God prophesised for the Jewish people. And you say, Oh no no, the Old Testament, that was the Law of Moses but we got Christ and we are not Jews. Well that’s where you got it wrong. Excuse me. Physically, you don’t have to be a person circumcised to be a Jew. You have to be a person who spiritually has coming to Christ. and in fact the new covenant was promised to Israel and all the ones who are across in Jerusalem and around regions in Bethlehem and whatever who are Jewish people but are not yet Christians are prophecies in the Bible that the time will come when they will get converted, circumstances will come to put their backs against the war with a nation from the North all invading – probably Russia and a group of nations all against Israel. When you watch what is happening in Israel today, don’t let it scare you too much because God has it in hand. He is the one with control of history and a part of what’s going to happen is indeed there will be nations around Israel which will seek to come in and kill off Israel and get rid of it. We’ve seen some of that in the news but don’t worry because something going to happen when they get desperate, you know how they won the Six Day War back in the sixty’s? When every step they’ve had in danger they’ve somehow come out where the nation is still existing, but there’s going to be something else that will happen still and they’ll be so desperate that they’ll cry out in prayer to God and at that moment there’s a prophecy, and the prophecy is in Zechariah if you want to turn to it, I think it is in Zechariah, I better look this up, I’ve got so many places I could speak from today, Zechariah 12 10. Thank You. These people in the back are pretty quick, you know, and I’ll pour out on the house of David, now you know house of David, don’t you? Jerusalem was the city of David the house of David is one of the tribes of Israel but the one that it was prophesied that the Messiah would come from, Jesus is from the house of David. 14. I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy, so that when they look on me, 15. Now who’s speaking? This is Jesus speaking, he’s the one who’s the personality behind all the scriptures, he’s the one who speaks. When you read the Bible it can be just a lot of writing and ideas, but sometimes the Spirit of God moves and suddenly you realise it’s not just a book, there’s the person behind the book and it’s Jesus, he’s the one who was the author of it behind all the human authors. He’s the one who speaks to people through the scriptures and suddenly he’s speaking and they will look on me, on him whom they have pierced, who’s the me, the one that was pierced. You know the idea of someone being pierced is not just giving a little prick, but it is the fact that you’re stabbed and you’re going to die and Jesus was pierced when he was already dead, with the soldiers afterwards making sure he was dead. They will look on him whom they have pierced, the generation that put him on the cross and the Jewish people, they shall mourn for him. The Messiah came and as Jesus himself said about Jerusalem, you did not know the time of your visitation, they’ll mourn for the mistake their ancestors made, the nation made and for the fact that most people there in Jerusalem today are intellectuals, many of them are or they are not all but many of them are intellectuals but they are not necessarily Christians, nor are they necessarily believing in God as Jews. But, when Jesus comes at the end of time at one of the endpoint events they will look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child … and whip Beasley over here…” As one weeps over a firstborn That’s going to be the moment of the conversion of the Jews Now I’m beginning to do today, this morning This is just a little part of what I wanted to get on to I’m beginning to do today is to get you into what is called eschatology Es-ca-Tar are the last things and the eschat-on as the last moment, the big ending Eschatology, the Lodgy part means study of, so eschatology is the study of the last times. And what often happens, and it was that last Sunday morning I was saying that some people take the wrong way Paul’s statement, that he says I determined to know amongst you only Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And, they take it as though you just got to stick to the death of Christ and and don’t bother love all the rest. As a matter of fact elsewhere Jesus adds to B.T. crucify Jesus rather than He rose again. If you follow Paul’s writings through he not only has the gospel is not only that Jesus came as the Son of God but He came to be fully human, the God Man He was and is still. Jesus died on the cross for our sins but that’s not the end of the gospel. The gospel is also that on the third day he rose again. The gospel continues that he went back to heaven, ascended – when he was in heaven he was made King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Peter’s first Pentecostal sermon was about the fact that when Jesus ascended to heaven what happened to him was that he understood then, not just to be the Messiah, a human person on whom God’s Spirit was, that He could lead the charge in the Kingdom of God. But it is also God, King of kings, Second Person of the Trinity, whose name Jesus has been accredited with the power of the Highest name in all eternity. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord. It’s the name Jesus in whose name we have met this morning and the promise is that where two and more meet together in his name, there he is, in the midst via the Holy Spirit. Jesus is present here, and I want to tell you just as in the Book of Revelation in those first three chapters, Jesus is the one who comes to the churches, and when he comes to the churches he comes with something to say. Nikbian 5.4 Listen to what the Lord says He is here right now. And by His Spirit when we assemble in His name He comes with an agenda to speak to to people, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve been, or what you think of yourself, I want to tell you that Jesus is here and has come to speak and we need to listen. Well, this Jesus is the one you’re supposed to be sanctified, to become more and more like him. importantly about families. My family, with my dad, reading books most of the time. We did go for one holiday that I, are the ones that I remember, and the ones who took down FJ Holden. We went down south of Perth somewhere and all the family would stay sleeping, but that I always got up with the sun. And I go out and it had chrome, what do you call, bumper bars and I used to polish that car every morning around five o’clock and six o’clock and get those all the chrome-y bits on it shining. I sort of really love the holidays and and it was also good because usually my dad wore his serious clothes you know he was a very bad dresser in the sense that he we’re the white shirt and the wrinkly tie and have his old pants on. I thought he’s on holidays and he might be wearing something different but he still wears sandals and socks down on the beach and he didn’t know how. He looked like an Australian person. I thought he was There was my dad. Mum was from a family which was well-to-do. Her grandfather had been a politician in the Melbourne Parliament and her dad was a big businessman. They’d moved around from capital cities, setting up business things. She was altogether different and she drove her family car, which was a Studebaker, if you know anything about cars. In the olden days that was a very fast one. There’s my mother, so different from my dad. How am I going to grow up? Well, one thing about me is that I had to wear a little double-vested suit on Sundays, yuck, and short pants and then this suit. My dad always dressed formally and it was no wonder they called me a little hoot. But then there were some friends they had. Friends who were in Christian work and the particular Christian work that these friends were in was in some ministry to Jewish people. The expertise of the man, the expertise of the father of the house, was that he knew all the prophecies and he could show slides and give you photographs of how it was being fulfilled in Israel, and he dug up all these prophecies about one day things would change for Israel and some other barren places would suddenly be big orange groves and he had photographs of the orange groves. And my parents had to go to somewhere, probably a convention to speak at or something, and so I got shipped out to be with this family.” now the thing was their family were all together different, they were like country people who, they didn’t like the hot weather and on the hot weather around the house they all just wore their underpants, and they made me run around in my underpants and I remember how awkward I felt in this house where that was how they were. For he was an expert that man on Israel And the things he told me About how God was going to do something for Israel Rode into me And understanding you haven’t got the whole picture If you think that you just preached Christ and him crucified, and don’t bother with the other little details I want to tell you, you don’t have the spirit of Christ For he who has inspired our New Testament, In our Old Testament has put in all sorts of details about what God is going to do and about these covenants. Never has the Bible explained to you yet, because there are covenants and we just had a communion service which was where Jesus taught them about the new covenant and the of the New Covenant.” And I think what I was meaning to do last week, I don’t even know if I got around to it, but was to explain to you that God has his ways in the Old Testament of showing his grace but he also has his ways in the New Testament of showing his grace. Actually grace and faith, are two things that are always present all the way through to the Bible, but the way that the grace would be received, listen, in the Old Covenant well there are two things that the Old Covenant did for you. Number 1 is, it gave you the standards of God which he hasn’t actually changed. There’s a bit about the way the worship that is certainly different, but the law came through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, our Gospel of John tells us, and the law coming through Jesus said, don’t think that I’ve come to get rid of the law – get rid of all those standards – he spoke about them as being from God and they’re still here. There’s some change about what is necessary for a person to be a man to be circumcised and for people to keep the Sabbath, They belong to the Jewish nation alone and there were laws about how to do your offerings down at the temple. They belong to the Jewish people who are still under the law, but they do not belong to us. And we don’t have to get circumcised and we do not have to observe all of the temple things because what the Old Testament and what the Old Covenant does is it gives us a way to know what is sin. More than that it gives us a measuring stick by which we end up realising we are surely sinners And that’s the whole purpose of the Law the Law came through Moses. That the Nation Israel and the whole world that studies it can see that we are actually all sinners. Which is why Paul in his writing the New Testament Gospel in Romans, and if you go through the Roman Road those verses which pinpoint all the different points when it lead up to the the Gospel in Romans 3, 23. It says, For all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God. And it goes on in Chapter 6 to say the wages of sin is death. And that’s an absolute statement. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the Old Testament or the New Testament under the Old Covenant still, or you’ve come and found Christ and are under the New Covenant, as the Communion was talking about, it doesn’t matter. Nonetheless, sin will always bring death. We need to be alerted to what is sin. The law is a very excellent measuring tool. And to follow it is what the Bible calls us to do if we not want to have death come on us. The thank-God that Romans 6-23 verses the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God his eternal life through Jesus, Christ our Lord. So God in the new covenant offers a way of eternal life, offers a way of forgiveness, offers a route for R.O.U.T.E, offers us a way to get into God’s good books. It offers us grace in a way that was far above that which was available through going to the temple. And there were different ways God wanted grace to be realized in the old covenant and there there were different courts in the temple that people could have participation in and there were different procedures and taxes and all sorts of things and lots of laws and rules but nonetheless God’s grace that He was gearing up for people to have through the temple now He offers very simply and I think it was last week I was contrasting that little verse that is in 1 John and chapter 1 and we’ll put it up again I got worried you know during the week that I was skimping of everything that you didn’t really understand. 1 John 1, one of the most famous verses that we give to people who are becoming Christians, before they get out the door, we teach them, look, if you find yourself having fails, don’t despair but look what this says, verse 9 and 10. we confess our sins is faithful and just and I asked a congregation last Sunday faithful and just why is this business saying that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Why’s that? It is because in the new Covenant someone else has stepped in about our sin. That’s That’s what we’re talking about. And look, you mean that when Christ died on the cross he paid the penalty for all of our sins. So, God can be faithful to his character, not to leave sin unpunished—and he could be just in forgiving us because of what Christ has done. Now do you know if—I wish I had known this last week. But if you just go over to the very next chapter, John, chapter 2 of 1 John, and verses 1-2. And here is Paul writing out, listen to this, this is very important, my little children, he’s a really old man so he calls them all his little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin – and he’s writing to Christians – If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and the righteousness of Christ is at the heart of the Gospel. It isn’t that you have to become righteous to get accepted – you become righteous because you get a gift from Jesus the righteous one, forgiveness, and and you get his righteousness attributed to you. He is the propitiation for our sins. Now, propitiation is sometimes compared to another word expiation, expiation is where sin has dealt with. There have been times when someone who has had a father that drove an FJ Holden gotten speeding tickets, and has paid the money and someone in the office pulled out the record and put it in the bin, probably, and put it away. The sins are expiated when God deals with them so they’re no longer a problem. Propiciation is actually what he has done to allow the sin to be handled. Propiciation is something that is done to a person, and the propiciation happened when and Jesus Christ hung on the cross was that the offering that he gave of himself was accepted by the Father and the Father was turned away from being angry at us because of Jesus death. It’s so very important to understand that Jesus’ death was not just that all the angels were adding up your sins and getting an exact count of them and then Jesus died for them and you came became a Christian, but oh, you’ve added an extra one. No, listen. When Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins, then it says, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. The death of Christ upon the cross was a universal death for all sin. Not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2 verses 1-2 and that’s why forgiveness or trusting in Him is the beginning of Christian life and going on trusting in the efficiency of that death to keep you forgiven. The only, I was going to say catch, this is not a catch, but the requisite and only requirement is that you confess your sins, if we confess our sins. And if you don’t confess your sins, that means not necessarily to any person or to a priest, but to Jesus who is the priest, the great high priest in heaven, when you confess to Jesus he forgives you and cleanses you from all unrighteousness. and so you have the wherewithal to be able to go on in the christian life and then you call on him for his help and he’ll really help you to grow and get passed whatever was the issue that was yours then there are some issues as the Apostle Paul find in Romans Chapter 6 and 7 and 8 that he couldn’t get over very easily at all he had one terrible sin or I think I asked in the evening service? Does anybody know what was Paul’s terrible sin? I won’t ask you necessarily, but put your hand up if you know this terrible sin? Are you telling me one person knows? anybody i’m being tempted to but you don’t know what was Paul saying well it was coveredness coveting is a word that means your longing to make yours what doesn’t belong to you and apply to sexuality can apply to money most often in our cases it is us being coveted other people and things that they have. It might be what I discovered because some young man from the Baptist Churches came and told me one day about a problem, he says to me, they are a bit jealous of you because your Dad was the principal. I didn’t quite see why that wouldn’t even bother other people. But they were covetous of the Gibson family.” Covetous is a sin that the apostle Paul struggled with and for many of us there are things that either come because of the circumstances or our background or there are things that come about because of the company that we have kept. Or because the bible tells us that we struggle with what’s called the struggle of the flesh and the spirit. And the Book of Galatians in Chapter 3 lists a whole lot of things that come out of you when you walk after the flesh. Now it’s a metaphor walking after the flesh mean walking after what you are in your humanity rather than walking after what you are created in Christ. But when you’re in the spirit there comes out of the good lists. Love, joy, peace. But if you relax and think that it has all been made as a Christian then sometimes, before you know it you have found yourself acting out the works of the flesh. Read the book of Galatians, chapters 2-3, about the struggle between works of the flesh, the fruit of the Spirit. And, that’s where often all the sinful things come, and the bad news I have to tell you tonight along the way is you don’t get over the presence of the flesh and it’s works until you get to glory. You may get your character changed so that you’re less with a propensity to do those things. can gradually bring about a change, but you never get past being a person who could fall back into exhibiting the works of the flesh. And what we need to do is to bring those works of the flesh to the confession of 1 John 1-9 if we confess our sins is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you never are more than one confession away from a fresh start and seeking to walk after the spirit. Sometimes we think about the other denominations where they have a different understanding of salvation. One, many different denominations has a sacramental understanding of how salvation comes. So as the Church does the sacrament, so it makes you somewhat saved and confession is one of those sacraments. This is not a sacrament. It is a simple promise, a promise which you take to Jesus anytime you like, and you don’t need a priest. You don’t need anybody waving their hands. You don’t need to have a big, heavy church that makes you fall over backwards. You don’t need to have people laying hands on you while you’re wriggling on the ground, I think that all you need is a promise. And the forgiveness of God’s promises of Christ is that promise that is made. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And you can take Jesus’ hand and squeeze His hand and walk on. Sometimes there are people who have very deep dyed things in their background. I know people who have swearing problems, face the trouble of it coming out of the subconscious. And we’ve got a brain that can be absorbing all the time, especially if you live in rough circles or the work that you’re at is swearing all the time. It’s amazing how it all collects up in there. And there’s actually a physical disease some people have whereby they can’t control what comes out of their mouths. And if they’ve been in those bad rough circles, they find themselves swearing at moments they don’t want to be. I knew of a minister who had to leave the country he operated in to come out to Australia for a fresh start because he’d messed up all these contacts by swearing in his sermons, but he had a brain problem that he needed to cry out to God about. But there are all sorts of things that happen in our brain when we mix ourselves in company forever, you know articulating things that are against Christ. And it can be something that comes out of us. It’s a part of the works of the flesh as far as you’re concerned, and the only answer to it is to learn to walk after the Spirit. Walk after the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. There’s Is only one of them And the only way to get back into the spirit is the way of one John on mine Confess your sins and that’s because it is the new covenant But doesn’t need a temple here at earth that actually has the presence of Jesus in heaven as the great high priest And that’s the equivalent of Jerusalem temple, but we don’t need a trip to Jerusalem we don’t need to become Jewish and have do all it’s festivals to to have the new covenant blessing. It’s already ours. And one day, listen to this, the Messiah of Israel, Jesus, is going to join us in celebrating what is the Christian Communion. Because Jesus said, as it was quoted in the Communion, for there will come a day when He will share that Communion with us in physical means when He has come. It’s all a part of eschatology and the study of the last things and when you know that you’re destined to be included in that final gathering of all the Christians. I don’t know how many big meetings you’ve been to, there were 10,000 in one of the concessions and in Holland Holland I went to, and when they all got to sing it was fantastic. I enjoyed the ceremony I went to America because in the chapel, they used to have 2,000 students and within the chapel they all sang the mighty hymns of the church and used to make you just think you’d beaten one step away from heaven, the church I went to over there, I think it was about 20,000 members. And had a lot of choirs. And that will be one day, every now and then when they get all the choirs joined together in all the upstairs part of the church. The church can only hold 5,000. So not all the 20,000 members came at once. But when those choir was there and they all sang. And you’re sitting down in the bottom and you’ve got And maybe a 5 or lower than others, but a thousand, they had an orchestra that had 80 pieces in this room doing different things. And when that – that was quite, say, it was like the rapture, it happened, it was so invigorated, and it was amazing. By the way, in a little sense, our church is getting more like that, like this morning. It was fantastic. And something is happening amongst us that makes it worth being here. And to be a part of it is that worship that is a foretaste of glory, a foretaste of heaven. Well, it’s not quite eleven o’clock yet, isn’t Church supposed to start at eleven o’clock? The olden days started at eleven o’clock, but now we’re trying to finish a little earlier than eleven o’clock. Shall we have a prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you in Jesus’ name. thank you for the new covenant and the difference between the old covenant. We don’t need to go to Jerusalem. We don’t need to be in a physical temple. Maybe there will still be one that the Jewish people will make, but even they will find out about the new covenant and get in the door. We don’t fully understand all of those prophecies but I believe that the are going to get converted to Christ and become His ambassadors under the new Covenant. What a fantastic thing. Bless those times we pray in Jesus name. Amen.