As has already been mentioned, we do have Rob Whitaker coming this next Sunday, beginning on Sunday.
The lessons will begin with the Bible class hour.
Just give you a little bit of background because some of you may not know who Rob is.
I first met Rob when I was the IT administrator for the Gospel Broadcasting Network.
We were invited to come up and record a debate that was going to occur up in Red Springs, Tennessee, about an hour from everywhere, as they say.
And it's up on the other side of Nashville.
was, happened to the congregation was where Rob was at, was sponsoring it.
And I'll tell you why the debate was happening.
It was a debate that was happening between one of the missionaries that is located at that congregation and also works with that congregation and with a Baptist minister.
And the reason that that debate was going to occur and did occur is because in that area, the church had made such inroads in converting
people out of the Baptist denomination to the truth.
They had started to have a bit of an uproar within the Baptist churches about the fact that the Church of Christ kept stealing their members.
And so finally, enough of them got behind one of the Baptist ministers and said, you've got to do something about this.
You've got to do something publicly about this because our congregations are dying as a result of the fact that these people are leaving and going to the Church of Christ.
And so they had a debate.
After the debate, in the course of the next few weeks, were another, my memory serves me correctly because it's been 10 years, there were another 11 members of the Baptist Church
converted as a result of the debate.
Why?
Partly because of the work of Rob Whitaker.
Rob had been diligent in doing personal Bible studies.
Those people who were converted out of the Baptist Church weren't converted on Sunday morning during sermons.
They were converted sitting down at a dinner table and studying the Bible by and large.
They were converted because people took the time to talk with them, to open the Bible with them, to study God's Word with them.
And as I was, actually during that event, got to spend the weekend with Rob and Nicole and their family at their house, found out that their daughter makes really good chocolate
chip cookies.
That was important.
But...
As I talked to Rob, I inquired concerning how he was doing the Bible studies.
And about 2008, as I was starting to preach out in North Carolina, I had run into some material that World Video Bible School had put out on the Back to the Bible series that
Brother Bobby Bates down in Texas had written.
And he was a man who had converted more than a thousand people himself using those three booklets.
And Rob said, well, I use back to the Bible.
I said, you do, because that's what I use.
But Rob is not only able to teach you how to effectively use that material, Rob and Nicole are able to teach you how to effectively get people to sit down and study the Bible
because that's the harder of the two.
Getting people in our modern day and time to sit down and open the Word of God, to be honest about the Word of God, and be willing to allow the Scriptures to stand.
for themselves.
There are people sitting in this auditorium this morning who are here and who are Christians because they sat down and were willing to open the Bible and go through the
Back to the Bible series and allow the Scriptures to stand for themselves.
My encouragement to you is first, there's an article in the Bulletin this morning, if you will pick that up and read that, that is just kind of a...
a launching point to get your mind thinking about what we're going to be doing in the next week.
But the other thing I encourage you to do is just go ahead and clear your schedules for Monday evening and Tuesday evening and plan to be here.
Because you will be blessed by doing it.
There is something that you can do, no matter your capacity, no matter your preparation, there is something you can do to help this congregation reach the lost.
and you will learn about the things you can do if you will be here.
Be here Sunday morning for Bible class, for the sermon, for the afternoon sermon, and then for Monday night and Tuesday night, please.
You will, and Wednesday night, and you will be blessed by doing so.
Well, let's take a moment and consider this, that God set in order as had always been His plan,
A new way.
around December, towards the end of December, people start thinking about their lives over the last year and start thinking, yeah, maybe I need to do some things a little different
next year.
The scale's not looking great, the numbers from the doctor aren't looking great, I don't feel as good as I felt January last I need to start doing some things differently.
I need a new way of doing things.
And if you talk to all of the gyms in the area, you'll find out that around January, people start coming.
And around February 15, they're done.
But God...
all the way back in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before Christ was born, told the Jews, and through the Jews all of humanity, that He was creating a new way of doing
things.
That He was setting things in order for a new way for things to occur.
I want us to consider some of the things that the Scriptures tell us God did that were new.
We're going to begin in Jeremiah chapter 31.
For God set forward a new plan, and God enacted a new plan.
In Jeremiah chapter 31, Jeremiah as he is writing to Israel, as he is prophesying to Israel, as he's warning Israel,
as he has already been told by God, don't worry, Israel's not going to hear you.
Israel's not going to be obedient to the things that I say because their judgment is assured because they will not repent.
And yet God says as he speaks concerning the remnant, as he speaks through Jeremiah, he says in verse 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord.
When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of land of Egypt, my covenant
which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord." Notice first and foremost that God says the thing which He is doing, the thing which He is planning, the
thing which He is going to enact is going to be new and it is going to be unlike what He had done before.
You know, when you get to January 1st and you start that decision making process to have a resolution to do things differently, the thing that hasn't changed is it's still you doing
it.
One thing continued from December 31 over to January 1 and it was you.
And if you don't change, nothing's going to change.
But God is making the point that the thing which he is doing, the thing which he is talking about, the covenant that he is making is not going to be just a reformation of
Moses' covenant.
It's not going to be a part two to Moses' covenant.
This is not going to be a continuation of Abraham's covenant.
This is going to be a new covenant.
what had been before.
He says, 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 in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of
says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.
God as he speaks through Jeremiah to Israel says the new covenant is going to involve his law being written on the hearts and the minds of people.
Now Moses's law
was written on clay tablets but not this new law.
This new law God says it's going to be written on the heart.
Now that in no way implies that people just get to do whatever they want to do that's no law at all.
Rather that the law was going to be given and it was going to be given so that individuals could hear it and could keep it.
In verse 34, Jeremiah says, no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord.
Back when I was in the school of preaching, we were going over Jeremiah.
I didn't understand what that was saying.
I do now.
As an Israelite, you were born physically into the covenant.
When you came out of your mother's womb as an Israelite, you were part of the covenant.
You hadn't made a decision about it, you were born into it.
You had it by nature of descendancy, by lineage, by tribe, by family.
Because your parents were Israelites, you had part in the covenant.
But you didn't know anything about the covenant.
You had just been born.
So part of the responsibility under the Old Testament covenant was having someone who was born into the covenant now having to be taught the covenant as they grow.
And so one neighbor would teach another neighbor about the law, about Moses' word, about the covenant, about the things and the ordinances that they were supposed to be keeping so
that the person who was in the covenant would actually know how to keep the covenant.
Because they were born into it.
God says not so with this new covenant.
This new covenant they're going to know first.
before they're born into the covenant.
They're going to come to know me.
They're going to know what I command them to do, and through the commandment they'll enter the covenant, not by birth.
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 65.
Isaiah, who writes so much concerning Christ the Messiah, will write this in Isaiah chapter 65.
Beginning in verse 15, we read, "'You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen, for the Lord God will slay you and call his servants by another name, so that he who blesses
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth.'"
and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from my eyes for behold I create a new heavens
and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create for behold."
I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people as a joy.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people.
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her nor the voice of crying." Isaiah tells us that God says, I'm going to create a new heavens and a new earth.
I'm going to create a new existence for my people.
Sadly, so many people have come to this passage and have come to the passage in Revelation where the same terminology is used and they've said the earth and the world that we live
in when Christ returns is going to be renovated.
That is not the time period Isaiah is talking about.
Isaiah is making it clear that while this physical world is going to continue on, while the city of Jerusalem is going to continue on, inside this world God is creating a new
existence.
It is a spiritual existence.
How do I know that?
Because Jesus Christ while standing before Pilate
was questioned concerning whether or not he knew that Pilate had the ability to take his life, was questioned concerning whether or not he was the king, and Jesus said, my
kingdom's not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
Jesus didn't come to establish a kingdom, a physical kingdom on this physical earth.
Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the gates of death, the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it.
Because His kingdom's not of this world.
And so in the text, when we find that the church is given birth to in Acts chapter 2, and the gospel is proclaimed in Acts chapter 2, and the gospel goes forth, the kingdom goes
forth, the declaration goes forth, and a new world is formed.
The kingdom of Jesus Christ.
The world of God's people.
You say, Aaron, but it's a new heavens and a new earth and the old one's still here.
Yes it is.
By the way, the same terminology was used in the Old Testament in Isaiah to refer to the God returning His people from Babylon to Israel and creating a new heavens and a new earth
and a new Jerusalem in a place where they were still on the same planet and they were still in the same universe and God didn't remake any of it.
But He restored them back to their rightful covenant location.
New heavens and new earth doesn't have to do with a renovated earth.
It has to do with the fact that God created a spiritual kingdom, the body of Christ, that exists in this earth, and you and I are a part of it.
We are a part of the kingdom of God.
We are a part of the new plan.
But let's discuss just exactly what that plan involves.
Consider there's a new person.
If you're going to take part in a new heaven and a new earth, if you're going to take part in a new covenant that you enter into by birth, you must be a new person.
Romans chapter seven.
Paul, as he is writing to the church at Rome, is dealing with those who would say that they can continue in sin.
Matter of fact, not only could they continue in sin, they should abound in sin because the more they abound in sin, the more grace they receive.
And it's good to receive grace, so the more grace you get the better off you are, so do more sin so you can get more grace.
Paul responds, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not.
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Though we were buried with Him through baptism in the death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified.
with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for He who has died has been freed from sin.
This new life, this new existence, this new heavens, this new earth, this new universe that God has created is kingdom in which the church exists.
It is a spiritual kingdom.
And the person who dies when you go down into that watery grave of baptism isn't the physical person.
I promise I've never held anyone down there under the water until they died.
But every person I've put under that water has risen up and the old person stayed dead.
You see, you go down in that watery grave of baptism, an old man of sin, and you rise up out of that watery grave of baptism, resurrected with Jesus Christ in newness of life,
alive still in this physical world, but now alive in a spiritual kingdom of God.
The new way involves a new plan and a new person, but it also considers a new practice.
In John chapter 13, as Jesus is there assembled with His disciples, as He is speaking to them in the upper room, as He is teaching them concerning what they are to be and who they
will be as He departs from them, as He is going to send the Holy Spirit in order to guide them into all truth, in order to teach them the things that they need to know, and in
order to give them comfort when He is no longer there.
Jesus will tell his disciples a new commandment, I give you verse 34, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Jesus makes it clear that the commandment of love as you love yourself was a great Old Testament commandment.
But he's giving a new commandment.
It's very much different from the old one.
Because now the commandment is you love as I have loved you.
John will write over in 1 John chapter 4 that if a man does not love his brother who he has seen, he cannot love God who he has not seen.
Jesus says, if you're going to take part in my kingdom, if you're going to be a part of my body, if you're going to be a part of my disciples, you're going to love the way I love.
Your standard of yourself is not sufficient.
I'm the standard of how you are to love.
So there's a new practice involved in this plan.
But then consider there's also a new pattern.
In Ephesians chapter four.
Ahem.
Paul as he's writing to the church at Ephesus, this congregation which he spent so much time with, the congregation that he loved so deeply, he writes to them in Ephesians
chapter 4 and in verse 17, and we read, "'This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their
mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work uncleanness with all greediness." Paul says, you have not so learned Christ.
Paul makes it clear that there is a new pattern of living.
There is a new way that we are to judge ourselves as to whether or not we're walking in accordance with the commandments of God.
and it is Christ.
He says you are to measure yourself based upon what you have learned in Christ.
He goes on to say if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man.
which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul makes it clear when you go down into that watery grave of baptism and that old man dies, he doesn't come back up.
What comes back up is a new creature, a new creation of God.
One that is birthed in true righteousness and holiness.
And that is to be the person that you continue being from that moment on because you're going to follow a new pattern of living.
What is the thing that causes so many individuals to start off a year with a
bunch of grand ideas on how they're going to change and then end up right back where they were.
the fact that they didn't become a new person.
But when you go down in that watery grave of baptism, when you die to sin, you rise to walk in newness of life, you come out a new person.
Aaron, does that mean that I'm never going to struggle with sin or temptation again?
No.
It does mean you'll never struggle alone again.
It does mean that the blood of Christ will continually cleanse you of your sins as you continue to walk in the light as He is in the light.
If you're willing to admit and to confess your sins to the Father, He's willing and just to forgive you of those sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
One of the things that we know, and we know it based upon so many studies that have been done, is that the people who succeed are usually the people who have someone helping them
succeed.
They have someone who does it with them.
They have someone who participates with them as they try and change themselves.
They don't try and do it alone.
God is that someone for the Christian.
But then consider, not only is there a new pattern, but there is a new path.
You can try.
You can try diligently.
to try and save yourself.
when I was about eight years old.
We had been invited to go over to one of the members' houses.
It was a class thing.
And so the kids in my class had gone over to one of the members' houses.
And we had all been invited to swim.
I didn't say to the person who was my teacher, I don't know how to swim.
So it was a Sunday afternoon.
We had just gotten to the house.
The kids had gone out to the pool.
And I just said, well, I'll just sit on one of the little floaty things and I'll get in.
Because I don't know how this went.
But I didn't say that to anybody.
said it to myself.
This good sister who still loves me was in the house still in her Sunday clothes when she realized that the hand sticking up out of the pool was the hand of a child who was
drowning in the pool.
and in her Sunday dress she jumped in that pool and saved me which is why I'm still here preaching to you today.
You can try and save yourself from sin.
but you will fail.
Because you don't know how.
You don't know how to save yourself from sin.
You can't.
You will end up defeated.
You will end up without a solution because there's only one.
In Hebrews chapter 10, the Hebrew writer,
will tell us that not only as God spoke from the Old Testament about a new covenant, as He spoke from the Old Testament about a new priesthood, as He spoke from the Old Testament
about a new salvation, as He spoke from the Old Testament about a new creation, as He spoke from the Old Testament about all the things that He was going to do.
He also spoke about a new way.
In Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 12, the Hebrew writer says, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God.
From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.
for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us.
For after He had said before, this is the new covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will
write them.
Then He adds their sins and their lawless deeds.
I will remember no more.
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness,
to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
Understand that if you are going to address the very throne of God, if you are going to approach the throne of God without sin and in righteousness, there is only one way to do
it.
It is through the blood of Jesus.
There is no other name under heaven given whereby men must be saved.
He says, "'Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His
flesh.'" In the Old Testament the holy place was there at the front of the tabernacle and then there was the veil and only once a year could the high priest and no one else enter
through the veil.
There were so many things that they had to do on that day of atonement in order for him to just walk through that curtain one time a year.
And yet the Hebrew writer says that now we as Christians
we have boldness to enter into the presence of God not one time of year, not for the remembrance of sin, but without sin, to enter into the presence of God with boldness
because we enter through the veil that is His flesh.
He died that we might live.
As Jesus was hanging on that cross.
As Jesus said, Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.
As Jesus said, it is finished and gave up the ghost.
The sun turned dark.
The earth shook.
and the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn into from the top to the bottom.
I don't mean it was torn completely.
mean the tear began at the top and went to the bottom.
If a human had torn it, they'd have started at the bottom because that's what they could reach.
But it wasn't a human who tore down and tore open the veil between the holy place and the most holy place.
It was God.
And the Hebrew writer says, having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
And let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
God, way back in the Old Testament, said, I'm making a new way.
I'm making a new covenant.
It's going to include the forgiveness of your sins that will be remembered no more.
It's going to include a way for you to stand before me.
It's going to include a way for you to be born
by knowledge and obedience.
And the Hebrew writer says, when you are washed in that water,
You rise up with boldness to enter into the presence of God.
a new plan, involves a new person, it involves a new pattern and a new practice and a new path.
You can't get there any other way.
So if you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, if you have not submitted to God's plan of salvation, there is no other way to achieve
salvation.
You're drowning in sin.
and you cannot save yourself.
But the Hebrew writer says, it's okay.
because the sacrifice has already been made.
The one who can save you from your sins has already done his part.
All you have to do is your part.
and then you can have your conscience washed and you can enter into a relationship with God in full assurance of faith and hope.
and you can live no longer as an old man of sin, but a new life, a new existence in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Church of Christ.
If you have need of that invitation this morning, because you haven't availed yourself of that salvation, the Hebrew writer also says, how shall we escape?
If we neglect so great a salvation, if you have need of the invitation, this morning, whether you're outside the body of Christ or whether you're a member of the body of Christ
and you've become like those Christians in the Hebrew Writers' Day who turned their back on God and went back to law.
If you need to come back to the Lord, why not come forward now as we stand and as we sing.
on Sunday, the lessons will begin with the Bible class hour.
Just give you a little bit of background because some of you may not know who Rob is.
I first met Rob when I was the IT administrator for the Gospel Broadcasting Network.
We were invited to come up and record a debate that was going to occur up in Red Springs, Tennessee.
about an hour from everywhere, as they say.
And it's up on the other side of Nashville.
But it was, happened to me the congregation was where Rob was at, was sponsoring it.
And I'll tell you why the debate was happening.
It was a debate that was happening between one of the missionaries that is located at that congregation and also works with that congregation and with a Baptist minister.
And the reason that that debate was going to occur and did occur is because in that area, the church had made such inroads in converting people out of the Baptist denomination to
the truth.
They had started to have a bit of an uproar.
within the Baptist churches about the fact that the Church of Christ kept stealing their members.
And so finally, enough of them got behind one of the Baptist ministers and said, you've got to do something about this.
You've got to do something publicly about this because our congregations are dying as a result of the fact that these people are leaving and going to the Church of Christ.
And so they had a debate.
After the debate, in the course of the next few weeks, there were another 11 members of the Baptist Church converted as a result of the debate.
Why?
Partly because of the work of Rob Whitaker.
Rob had been diligent in doing personal Bible studies.
Those people who were converted out of the Baptist Church weren't converted on Sunday morning during sermons.
They were converted sitting down at a dinner table and studying the Bible by and large.
They were converted because people took the time to talk with them, to open the Bible with them, to study God's Word with them.
And as I was, actually during that event, got to spend the weekend with Rob and Nicole and their family at their house, found out that their daughter makes really good chocolate
chip cookies.
That was important.
But...
As I talked to Rob, I inquired concerning how he was doing the Bible studies.
And about 2008, as I was starting to preach out in North Carolina, I had run into some material that World Video Bible School had put out on the Back to the Bible series that
Brother Bobby Bates down in Texas had written.
And he was a man who had converted more than a thousand people himself using those three booklets.
And Rob said, well, I use back to the Bible.
I said, you do, because that's what I use.
But Rob is not only able to teach you how to effectively use that material, Rob and Nicole are able to teach you how to effectively get people to sit down and study the Bible
because that's the harder of the two.
Getting people in our modern day and time to sit down and open the Word of God, to be honest about the Word of God.
and be willing to allow the Scriptures to stand for themselves.
There are people sitting in this auditorium this morning who are here and who are Christians because they sat down and were willing to open the Bible and go through the
Back to the Bible series and allow the Scriptures to stand for themselves.
And my encouragement to you is first, there's an article in the bulletin this morning.
If you will pick that up and read that, that is just kind of a launching point to get your mind thinking about what we're going to be doing in the next week.
But the other thing I encourage you to do is just go ahead and clear your schedules for Monday evening and Tuesday evening and plan to be here.
Because you will be blessed.
by doing it, there is something that you can do, no matter your capacity, no matter your preparation, there is something you can do to help this congregation reach the lost.
And you will learn about the things you can do if you will be here.
Be here Sunday morning for Bible class, for the sermon, for the afternoon sermon, and then for Monday night and Tuesday night, please.
You will, and Wednesday night, and you will be blessed by doing so.
Let's take a moment and consider this, that God set in order, as had always been His plan, a new way.
Around December, towards the end of December, people start thinking about their lives over the last year and start thinking, yeah, maybe I need to do some things a little different
next year.
The scale's not looking great.
The numbers from the doctor aren't looking great.
I don't feel as good as I felt January last I need to start doing some things differently.
I need a new way of doing things.
And if you talk to all of the gyms in the area, you'll find out that around January, people start coming.
And around February 15th, they're done.
But God, all the way back in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before Christ was born, told the Jews, and through the Jews all of humanity, that He was creating a new way of
doing things.
That He was setting things in order for a new way for things to occur.
And I want us to consider some of the things that the Scriptures tell us God did that were new.
We're gonna begin in Jeremiah chapter 31.
For God set forward a new plan.
And God enacted a new plan in Jeremiah chapter 31.
Jeremiah as he is writing to Israel, as he is prophesying to Israel, as he is warning Israel, as he has already been told by God, don't worry Israel's not going to hear you.
Israel's not going to be obedient to the things that I say because their judgment is assured because they will not repent.
And yet God says as he speaks concerning the remnant, as he speaks through
He says in verse 31,
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of land of Egypt.
My covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord.
Notice first and foremost that God says the thing which He is doing, the thing which He is planning, the thing which He is going to enact is going to be new and it is going to be
unlike what He
done before.
You know when you get to January 1st and you start that that decision-making process to have a resolution to do things differently, the thing that hasn't changed is it's still
you doing it.
One thing continued from December 31 over to January 1 and it was you.
And if you don't change, nothing's going to change.
But God is making the point that the thing which he is doing, the thing which he is talking about, the covenant that he is making is not going to be just a reformation of
Moses' covenant.
It's not going to be a part two to Moses' covenant.
This is not going to be a continuation of Abraham's covenant.
This is going to be a new covenant.
what had been before.
He says, verse 33,
says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.
God as he speaks through Jeremiah to Israel says the new covenant is going to involve his law being written on the hearts and the minds of people.
Now Moses's law
was written on clay tablets but not this new law.
This new law God says it's going to be written on the heart.
Now that in no way implies that people just get to do whatever they want to do.
That's no law at all.
Rather that the law was going to be given and it was going to be given so that individuals could hear it and could keep it.
In verse 34, Jeremiah says, no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord.
Back when I was in the school of preaching, we were going over Jeremiah.
I didn't understand what that was saying.
I do now.
As an Israelite, you were born physically into the covenant.
When you came out of your mother's womb as an Israelite, you were part of the covenant.
You hadn't made a decision about it, you were born into it.
You had it by nature of descendancy, by lineage, by tribe, by family, because your parents were Israelites, you had part in the covenant.
But you didn't know anything about the covenant.
You had just been born.
So part of the responsibility under the Old Testament covenant was having someone who was born into the covenant now having to be taught the covenant as they grow.
And so one neighbor would teach another neighbor about the law, about Moses' word, about the covenant, about the things and the ordinances that they were supposed to be keeping so
that the person who was in the covenant would actually know how to keep the covenant.
because they were born into it.
God says not so with this new covenant.
This new covenant, they're going to know first before they're born into the covenant.
They're going to come to know me.
They're going to know what I command them to do, and through the commandment they'll enter the covenant.
not by birth.
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 65.
Isaiah, who writes so much concerning Christ the Messiah, will write this in Isaiah chapter 65.
Beginning in verse 15, we read, "'You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen, for the Lord God will slay you and call his servants by another name.'"
so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth.
And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth, because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from my eyes.
For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create.
For behold, I create Jerusalem,
as a rejoicing and her people as a joy I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her nor the voice of crying." Isaiah
tells us that God says I'm going to create a new heavens and a new earth.
I'm going to create a new existence for my people.
Sadly, so many people have come to this passage and have come to the passage in Revelation where the same terminology is used and they've said the earth and the world that we live
in when Christ returns is going to be renovated.
That is not the time period Isaiah is talking about.
Isaiah is making it clear that while this physical world is going to continue on, while the city of Jerusalem is going to continue on, inside this world God is creating a new
existence.
It is a spiritual existence.
How do I know that?
Because Jesus Christ while standing before Pilate
was questioned concerning whether or not he knew that Pilate had the ability to take his life, was questioned concerning whether or not he was the king, and Jesus said, my
kingdom's not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
Jesus didn't come to establish a kingdom, a physical kingdom, on this physical earth.
Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, the gates of death, the gates of the grave, shall not prevail against it.
Because His kingdom's not of this world.
And so in the text, when we find that the church is given birth to in Acts chapter 2, and the gospel is proclaimed in Acts chapter 2, and the gospel goes forth, the kingdom goes
forth, the declaration goes forth, and a new world is formed.
kingdom of Jesus Christ, the world of God's people.
You say, Aaron, but it's a new heavens and a new earth and the old one's still here.
Yes it is.
By the way, the same terminology was used in the Old Testament in Isaiah to refer to the God returning His people from Babylon to Israel and creating a new heavens and a new earth
and a new Jerusalem in a place where they were still on the same planet and they were still in the same universe and God didn't remake any of it.
But He restored them back to their rightful covenant location.
New heavens and new earth doesn't have to do with a renovated earth.
It has to do with the fact that God created a spiritual kingdom, the body of Christ that exists in this earth, and you and I are a part of it.
We are a part of the kingdom of God.
We are a part of the new plan.
But let's discuss just exactly what that plan involves.
Consider there's a new person.
If you're going to take part in a new heaven and a new earth, if you're going to take part in a new covenant that you enter into by birth, you must be a new person.
Romans chapter seven.
Paul, as he is writing to the church at Rome, is dealing with those who would say that they can continue in sin.
Matter of fact, not only could they continue in sin, they should abound in sin because the more they abound in sin, the more grace they receive.
And it's good to receive grace, so the more grace you get the better off you are, so do more sin so you can get more grace.
Paul responds, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not.
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Though we were buried with Him through baptism in the death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with Him that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for He who has died has been freed from sin." This new life, this new existence,
this new heavens, this new earth, this new universe that God has created is kingdom in which the church exists.
It is a spiritual kingdom.
And the person who dies when you go down into that watery grave of baptism isn't the physical person.
I promise I've never held anyone down there under the water until they died.
But every person I've put under that water has risen up and the old person stayed dead.
You see, you go down into that watery grave of baptism, an old man of sin, and you rise up out of that watery grave of baptism, resurrected with Jesus Christ in newness of life,
alive still in this physical world, but now alive in a spiritual kingdom of God.
The new way involves a new plan and a new person.
but it also considers a new practice.
In John chapter 13, as Jesus is there assembled with his disciples, as he is speaking to them in the upper room, as he is teaching them concerning what they are to be and who they
will be as he departs from them, as he is going to send the Holy Spirit in order to guide them into all truth, in order to teach them the things that they need to know, and in
order to give them comfort when he is no longer there.
Jesus will tell his disciples a new commandment I give you, verse 34, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Jesus makes it clear that the commandment of love as you love yourself was a great Old Testament commandment.
but he's giving a new commandment.
It's very much different from the old one.
Because now the commandment is, you love as I have loved you.
John will write over in 1 John chapter 4 that if a man does not love his brother who he has seen, he cannot love God who he has not seen.
Jesus says, if you're going to take part in my kingdom, if you're going to be a part of my body, if you're going to be a part of my disciples, you're going to love the way I love.
Your standard of yourself is not sufficient.
I'm the standard of how you are to love.
So there's a new practice involved in this plan.
But then consider there's also a new pattern.
In Ephesians chapter four.
Paul as he's writing to the church at Ephesus, this congregation which he spent so much time with, the congregation that he loved so deeply, he writes to them in Ephesians
chapter 4 and in verse 17, and we read, "'This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their
mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness to work uncleanness with all greediness." Paul says, you have not so learned Christ.
Paul makes it clear that there is a new pattern of living.
There is a new way that we are to judge ourselves as to whether or not we're walking in accordance with the commandments of God.
and it is Christ.
He says you are to measure yourself based upon what you have learned in Christ.
He goes on to say if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man.
which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul makes it clear when you go down into that watery grave of baptism and that old man dies, he doesn't come back up.
What comes back up is a new creature, a new creation of God.
One that is birthed in true righteousness and holiness.
And that is to be the person that you continue being from that moment on because you're going to follow a new pattern of living.
What is the thing that causes so many individuals to start off a year with a bunch of grand ideas on how they're going to change and then end up right back where they were?
The fact that they didn't become a new person.
But when you go down in that watery grave of baptism, when you die to sin, you rise to walk in newness of life, you come out a new person.
Aaron, does that mean that I'm never going to struggle with sin or temptation again?
No.
It does mean you'll never struggle alone again.
It does mean that the blood of Christ will continually cleanse you of your sins as you continue to walk in the light as He is in the light.
If you're willing to admit and to confess your sins to the Father, He's willing and just to forgive you of those sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
One of the things that we know, and we know it based upon so many studies that have been done, is that the people who succeed are usually the people who have someone helping them
succeed.
They have someone who does it with them.
They have someone who participates with them as they try and change themselves.
They don't try and do it alone.
God is that someone for the Christian.
But then consider not only is there a new pattern, but there is a new path.
You can try.
You can try diligently.
to try and save yourself.
when I was about eight years old.
We had been invited to go over to one of the members' house.
It was a class thing.
And so the kids in my class had gone over to one of the members' houses and we had all been invited to swim.
I didn't say to the person who was my teacher, I don't know how to swim.
So it was a Sunday afternoon.
We had just gotten to the house.
The kids had gone out to the pool.
And I just said, well, I'll just sit on one of the little floaty things.
And I get in.
I don't know how this went.
But I didn't say that to anybody.
said it to myself.
This good sister who still loves me was in the house still in her Sunday clothes when she realized that the hand sticking up out of the pool was the hand of a child who was
drowning in the pool.
And in her Sunday dress, she jumped in that pool and saved me, which is why I'm still here preaching to you today.
You can try and save yourself from sin.
but you will fail.
because you don't know how.
you don't know how to save yourself from sin.
You can't.
You will end up defeated.
You will end up without a solution because there's only one.
In Hebrews chapter 10, the Hebrew writer,
will tell us that not only as God spoke from the Old Testament about a new covenant, as He spoke from the Old Testament about a new priesthood, as He spoke from the Old Testament
about a new salvation, as He spoke from the Old Testament about a new creation, as He spoke from the Old Testament about all the things that He was going to do.
He also spoke about a new way.
In Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 12, the Hebrew writer says, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God.
From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool,
for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us.
after He had said before, this is the new covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will write them
then He adds their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Now where there is remission of these there is no longer an offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, understand that if you are going to address the very throne of God, if you are going to
approach the throne of God without sin and in righteousness, there is only one way to do it.
It is through the blood.
of Jesus.
There is no other name under heaven given whereby men must be saved.
He says, "'Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His
flesh.'" In the Old Testament the holy place was there at the front of the tabernacle and then there was the veil and only once a year could the high priest and no one else enter
through the veil.
There were so many things that they had to do on that day of atonement in order for him to just walk through that curtain one time a year.
And yet the Hebrew writer says that now we as Christians
we have boldness to enter into the presence of God not one time of year, not for the remembrance of sin, but without sin, to enter into the presence of God with boldness
because we enter through the veil that is His flesh.
He died that we might live.
Jesus was hanging on that cross.
As Jesus said, Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit.
As Jesus said, it is finished and gave up the ghost.
The sun turned dark.
The earth shook.
and the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn into from the top to the bottom.
I don't mean it was torn completely.
mean the tear began at the top and went to the bottom.
If a human had torn it, they'd have started at the bottom because that's what they could reach.
But it wasn't a human who tore down and tore open the veil between the holy place and the most holy place.
It was God.
And the Hebrew writer says, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
And let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful.
God, way back in the Old Testament, said, I'm making a new way.
I'm making a new covenant.
It's going to include the forgiveness of your sins that will be remembered no more.
It's going to include a way for you to stand before me.
It's going to include a way for you to be born by knowledge and obedience.
And the Hebrew writer says, when you are washed in that water...
You rise up with boldness to enter into the presence of God.
a new plan, involves a new person, it involves a new pattern and a new practice and a new path.
You can't get there any other way.
So if you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, if you have not submitted to God's plan of salvation, there is no other way.
to achieve salvation.
You're drowning in sin.
and you cannot save yourself.
But the Hebrew writer says, it's okay.
because the sacrifice has already been made.
The one who can save you from your sins has already done his part.
All you have to do is your part.
and then you can have your conscience washed and you can enter into a relationship with God in full assurance of faith and hope.
And you can live no longer as an old man of sin, but a new life, a new existence in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the church of Christ.
If you have need of that invitation this morning, because you haven't availed yourself of that salvation, the Hebrew writer also says, how shall we escape?
If we neglect so great a salvation, if you have need of the invitation, this morning, whether you're outside the body of Christ or whether you're a member of the body of Christ
and you've become like those Christians in the Hebrew Writers' Day who turned their back on God and went back to law.
If you need to come back to the Lord, why not come forward now as we stand?