52:100218
The New Covenant
& what it meant
Genesis 14:18/20 "Then
Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the
priest of God Most High. And he
blessed him and said: “Blessed be Abram of God Most
High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your
enemies into your hand. .”
(I feel that before I start I need to clarify the
term ‘priest most high’)
It talks
of the one whom there is NO one higher than them. Example:- In the Catholic
faith – the Pope – is ‘the most high’
for them. In the Muslim faith it would be – Allah – (Allah
is the Arabic word for God in Abrahamic religions. In the English language, the
word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by
contraction from al-ilāh, which means "the god", and is related to El
and Elah, the Hebrew and Aramaic words for God).
Jesus
was a High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Where there were no curses,
and so there were only blessings after blessings, as did Abram who gave a
blessing in a ‘tenth’ of all his spoils. It was also a thanks giving response
under the ‘New Covenant’ which was a blessing upon blessings upon blessings.
The ‘Old
Testament’ was discarded, as God had released all believers, because it was
man’s ineptitude to follow it let alone being able to keep the entire ‘Commandments’. Once man was released
from the binds of the ‘Old Testament’,
it seemed they did not have those roles any more to follow.
#A better New Testament brought new promises#
Tithing
should be done with a thanks giving heart. Today all too many Christians feel
like they have turn up to Church to say/do, out thanks for all He has done for
them, tithing out of thanks and not just the big things, like saving/healing
someone, but, also the smaller everyday things. For example:- Green traffic
lights making our journey’s quicker and stress free. When you think of it like
this our Lord does a lot, that’s why we have so much to be thankful for.
Heb 7-11 “. .Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for
under it the people received the law), what further need was there that
another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be
called according to the order of Aaron?..”
Surely
if everything was working just fine, as the ‘Law’ was being kept, and as a
result it brought about perfection, why change? So why on Earth would up set
the apple cart? Even just by talking about the new ‘Priesthood’ of Melchizedek
and stay under that of Aaron. Imagine in today's world going to Church with a
sheep or goat of other livestock, under you arm to be slaughter in a way of repentance
or Worship, it would be brutal.
I do
need to tell you that this ‘Perfection’, that is being talked of is NOT
actually ‘perfection’ it’s a different meaning. When we look at ‘Perfection’
today, it is completely different, in what we look for today.
Perfection/flawless i.e where sin is concerned today.
Heb 9-9 “. .It was symbolic
for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience.
.”
In
Hebrews 7:7, we can see what is the message here, “.
.Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the
better. .” …is that under the Law, they found, that they were unable to
obtain this ‘Perfect-Conscience’. This was because a ‘P-C’ would mean a
Mind/Conscience, that would become a non-sin Conscience’* see below’. The trouble was
that they could not achieve this under the then ‘Levitical Priesthood’.
*this saying I once heard
Creflo Dollar call it.
It could no longer work under the old
Priesthood, Hence why the change had to happen, even to Aaron.
Please Pay Close
Attention To The Following
# If you are conscience of sin, but stop your conscience can be
perfected. There is only one option open to you, that is through the Blood of Jesus. Then and only then can
we stand a chance.
Please stay with me, as the next part
Is major importance.
If our
[mindful] sin is left to creep back into our lives, and do not deal with it
swiftly, your Faith is going to be slowly eroded away. So all the sweet tender
mercies will be of no use to us any more, especially those of the ‘New
Covenant’, the devil be very aware of this, read to pounce, at the earliest
chance.#
Heb 10-22 “. .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. .”
Pure:- Then, would mean the water to …
be without blemish … Clean … Undefiled. ‘Sin’ defiles and pollutes, this is why
the blood of Jesus is the only thing to wash ALL ‘Sin-stains’ away , to make
you as white as fresh-fallen-snow.
Every
time you come before God, the only thing that holds you back is an ‘evil-conscience’.
Every time we come forth to be … Healed … Delivered … Prayers Answered. The thing
that finds its way back into our lives, sometimes without even realising. This
will happen when accepting Christ into our lives, only half-heartedly, because
of this attitude you cannot have received fully the blood of Christ, thus it
would be like buying a 2ltr of milk and half of it is made up of water, you
will never feel the full benefits of the milk. That is what you do to the blood
of Christ every time you ‘Sin’, it’s why you will never be healed … Cleaned …
Purged, if you will, all because of Sin. Our Bible tells that ‘Cleansed/Purged’,
there shall be NO conscience
of us committing sin anymore as the yoke of bondage has been broken.
But, if
you would like to keep some of those sins, then good luck in being
cleansed/purged fully. This kind of folly is always going to S T O
P your faith and more importantly, Gods tender mercies.
1 Tim 4-22 “. .speaking lies in
hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. .”
The
easiest way to put this is that because of the ‘Blood-of-Christ’, no longer has
dominion over you, despite all the devils attempts. If I miss the (and not
cling onto, also continue) I’m not going to worry, why because I have been
cleaned by Jesus blood.
Part 2
Knowing our Earthly law is to know what is
acceptable and what is not. So to drive your car through a town centre at over
80mph/Kmh is just so wrong, as we know it is only 30mph/Kmh at the most.
Gen 2-9 “..The tree of life was also in
the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil..”
God made
all the things in the ‘Garden of Eden’, and it was all so good. Even the tree
of ‘knowledge’ was there and was good, with no-thing bad about it. As time was
to prove, the law was not good for man, because of man’s inability to keep the
simple law. Some people believe as Christians must have Holy lives, thus being
able to teach about the tree of ‘Knowledge’, of good and evil.
Gen 3:7 “..Then the eyes
of both of them were opened,
and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves coverings..”
Now, God
had told them that they were not to eat from the tree of ‘Knowledge’. They
could have fruit from all the other tree’s in the Garden, as it was good. This
lye’s to the start of man’s consciousness and disobedience. How easy was the
command from God, how easy are we influenced to do wrong.
Because
of A&E’s (Adam & Eve’s) disobedience they were embarrassed about being
naked. Before A&E left on their sinful ways, as they could see sin now,
that the tree of Knowledge, taught them right from wrong, they now knew good
from evil. They did not have all these worries, because before they were blind
to all sin, they only ever saw God’s majestic beauty, how wonderful this must
have been.
OK
I want
you want you to think of this before answering ….
Do you want your mind to be ruled by the law?
OR
Do you want your mind to be ruled by Christ Jesus?
For me,
it has be ruled be Christ Jesus, as it gain for more than ever conceived
possible before. A perfect conscience would be to know we have been delivered
from the law; this has to now make us more confident as we go to stand before
God.
1 John 3-21 “..Beloved,
if our heart does not condemn us,
we have
confidence toward God..”
#To keep our hearts from all
sin, we must always be quick to confess#
When
after confessing these sins, we have to remind ourselves that …
I.
When I miss the mark, remember, I am
righteousness of God.
II.
Remember my sins have been purged.
III.
I am not a sinner, because I have been made right
by God.
Make
your life one of Holy living something you do, so you’re your heart is not able
to condemn you. The thing is you should not be trying to live Holy just to
impress God. Once you are saved, you were washed clean, and made Holy, thus
being saved is now to made whole. Thus this has now brought about all God’s riches
and graces of … Righteous … Interest in Heaven … Prosperous … and Healed.
Now we
are saved and made whole, it’s time to let Christ Jesus be our guiding morale
compass, and we can’t go far wrong. One way is read Proverbs, last thing at
night, and then be it the first thing you read in the morning over breakfast.
Suddenly you will find your helping people with wisdom.
W A R N I N G
Always be
aware, the more you try and live Holy. Watch out, you will receive a very angry
devils wrath, he will spit ~ bang around ~ hiss and more besides. Now the devil
will use all his under handed tricks, he wants your conscience, then beat you
down till your faith is in tatters. The
devil just loves it whenever we flick that switch marked ‘self-destruction, now
you are open for the devil to start making you think it’s all Gods fault.
Part 3
Heb 7:17 “..For He testifies: You are a priest forever
according to the order of
Melchizedek..”
During this time of Jesus being alive, it
was told He would be a High-Priest, with no curses only blessings.
V18 …
Tells how and why the ‘Old Testament’s Commandments, I mean just 10 rules, how
inept we must/are have been, in not keeping & living by them. Because of
this, God surely must have been beside Himself. Hence why when God sent His son
Jesus, God tore up the old 10 rules, then told His Son to show a new way to
live and worship God. Even in these simple ways, we show God how weak and
pathetic we are.
Heb 8: 6 “..But now He has
obtained a more excellent
ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which
was established on better promises..”
This verse makes
this whole situation, as clear as crystal, also these promises become only
better and better every time.
At this juncture
there is a big point worth of note, that is the New Covenant, is that it
does not talk about ‘balance’. It has to be sais that we must be guarded that
we we’re not fooled by someone saying ‘falsely’ about ‘balance’, and no curses.
V19
Heb 9:19 “..For when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and
goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself
and all the people..”
With the arrival of
Christ Jesus, so for all the sacrifices of animals are now made obsolete, under
the New Covenant. It was Jesus who said ….
Luke 22: 20
Like “..wise He also took the cup
after supper, saying, “This cup is the
new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you..”
V20 - Heb 9 20 “..saying, This is the blood of
the covenant which God has commanded you..”
Jesus made an oath
to Melchizedek that He (Jesus) was going to be the
‘High-Priest’, and just for then, but forever. Remember, that when God makes an
oath with you, it will come to
pass. Now as it after Melchizedek, now will come blessings upon blessings,
remembering also there are going to be no curses.
V22
Heb 9: 22: “..And according to the law almost
all
things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission..”
God & Jesus must
burnt the mid-night oil with this ‘New Covenant’, it has been set as
‘fool-proof’. For it truly does what it says on the tin. Such is the simplicity
that even today it is as they intended it, still fool-proof.
The new covenant was made this simple, so it
would transcend down the ages, and you don’t have to be a High-Priest, to
understand it. It was if God had stamped an ‘Eternity-Guarantee’ upon it.
Because of Man’s ineptitude & weakness of the flesh God & Jesus let’s
take this out of Man’s hands, as only I can up hold the New Covenant.
Under the old
Covenant who was found to react to what man did, but today it is now man that
who reacts. This is a real revelation, we have missed out on so much because of
how we started out in ‘The garden of Eden’. Man can’t be left alone to his own
devices, now we now we have a real relationship & balance, who would not
want this? God has told us that we need no longer slaughter animals in His
house, in fact we don’t have to bring anything, accept ourselves.
# It’s all about God now #
When someone gives
you something for ‘free’, you would smile (because let’s be honest we all like
getting something for free) and with that say thank you. Whilst growing, up our
parents would tell us to mind our ‘Ps’ & ‘Qs’, in other words to say ‘Please
& Thank you’. This has to be the very least would say for being healed, or
all those green light making you journey an easy one.
Heb 8: 6 “..But now He has
obtained a more excellent
ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which
was established on better promises..”
With the removal of
the 10 Commandments, has been the cause of many a argument down the ages. Many
have said man found them hard to keep, that’s why they were done away with.
This should be of no surprise, for all the way back to the Garden of Eden we
have shown great distain to following God’s Laws, be it 1 law or 10.
God had made them
simple, or so He thought anyways. He should have known what would happen,
despite in His view of them being easy to follow. Hence forth there is no
longer going to have no more outward showing people that knowing God is simply
the best way to live your life. This is because God’s will from that point
forth, is going to make His word known to everyman woman & child.
No books/Covenants is going to tell us what
we are going to do, instead , God will direct us, and teach us. As God is the
only one who will inform us, in what we are going to do next.
God must have sat in
Heaven and wondered to Himself how more simpler He make it for us to abide ….
… The
law in the Garden of Eden was the simplest of
all “..but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat..” Gen 2: 17
…. Adam and Eve had the whole garden to eat from and God’s
blessings would flow freely.
So let’s have a
recap as to where we are so far…
-
Having brought His people, out from Pharaoh’s slavery, to
freedom, they had become unruly and shown that they needed ‘new’ guide lines,
with which to live. Just in case they can’t follow these simple rules, they
must make a sacrifice, of an animal, and all will be forgiven.
-
Once again it was man’s pathetic ineptitude to follow 10
simple Commandments/rules, another new covenant was made, God
sat down and once again had a rethink. So He tore up His ‘simple’ covenant. Now all we have to do in order for God’s
blessings, it’s as simple as have Faith & Believe.
It’s as easy as 1 2
3, what we all have to do is, think about God during our day, say a prayer, and
stop sinning, even though He will no longer remember them because His only
begotten blood has washed them away.
We tend to be too flippant about God’s gifts,
when they are all ready for us to have, listed below are just some of the
common ones ….
Ø
When you’re sick, “know I’m your
God, so believe and be healed” I have seen this for sure. I saw a girl
be healed at a Christian gathering, north Wales.
Ø
When the rent money is due, have faith and believe. He will
provide for you.
Having ‘Faith &
belief’ is what I did after being saved. My rent was due, I had a 600 mile
round trip in bringing my parents to witness my baptism, and that is not counting
buying food for month, as well as fuel for the car to get to work. So with the
last pound I had and put it into the offering. I said “it’s over to you Lord,
you said it would be multiplied by x10. God asks that we believe in Him, and
provisions in my store house will come unto you.
Here’s a tip :- ‘righteousness will help/cause us, to know
our Lord more closely .’ As we have seen, and learnt, at hoe powerful was that
of an animal sacrifice which ceremonial cleansing. But now, the son of God has
been offered as a sacrifice, ‘His own blood’. How much more will the spiritual
sacrifice of Christ will now cleanse the soul?
When God said “I’ll be you God”, and also, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
This has become part
of the essence of our faith. We mere humans, tend NOT to believe something that which we cannot see – touch –
smell. So to go against this can take doing, for me again it comes back to my
saying “have faith & believe”.
Again I will
ask … ‘Do you believe?’ … Do you believe
in God’s word?’
God needs us to
trust in Him, far more than we could ever trust ourselves. I will finish my
message, and leave it summed up in Gods words ….
Jeremiah 31:34 “..No more shall
every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the
greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will
remember no more..”
