Joseph Prince - New Covenant Keys To Interpreting the Bible
You know, every time I stand in the pulpit, I feel a sense of, you know, the healthy sense of fear and trembling, like the Apostle Paul says, because I know it is just a human vessel. That's all I am, amen? But the Word must come from the Holy Spirit. You see, you didn't come all the way through the rain, right, to hear man's opinion. You want me to be an oracle, to speak for God. And sometimes, you know, I prepare messages, and the verses, and all that, but then I find myself frequently, frequently, and you all see this also, I will just say things by inspiration, and it's exactly what someone needs because the Lord knows you are there. He knows you.
So in ancient Athens and all that, they have some people called oracles, which is people possessed by demons, and people go to them and consult them like a fortune teller, okay? Now, that is Satan's copy of God-ordained ministry, amen? Like the prophets of the Old Testament and the pastors and teachers of the New Testament, they are there just to proclaim God's voice, to make sure that they are a receptive vessel to proclaim God's voice, amen, to the people. And just one Word from God can change your life forever, amen? So we are in the last days, people. We are in the last days. You know, I thought of, like, singing that song, "Jesus, Jesus," but I feel like I'll just quote to you the lyrics of the song. It says, like, "Jesus, Jesus", you know that song? "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name. Call him Master. Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain. And it's raining. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all heaven and earth proclaim. Kings and kingdoms, they will all pass away, but there's something about that name". Amen?
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away and only one King will reign supreme over all, amen? His name is Jesus. And what a King. What a King. You know, Gospel of Matthew opens up by saying the gospel of, "The generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David". And it's interesting that David is associated as the king, right? He's put there, the first name after Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The very first name, "The generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David". The idea of the king is there in the Gospel of Matthew. You know that there are many Marys in the Bible and there are many Josephs, but only one David in the Bible. It's like God just wants the idea of kingship to be associated with His Son. The last name before, of course Jesus' name is the last name in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, but just before Jesus' name, you know whose name is it? David. David, the root and offspring of David.
So we see that this King would come, and that's why in the Gospel of Matthew he's portrayed as the King, amen? And for the King, you need to trace His genealogy. You need to trace that He is from the royal stock, from the royal family, or else there's no claim to kingship. So chapter 1 of the Gospel of Matthew, the very beginning of the New Testament, begins with the generations of Jesus Christ, amen? Why? That documentation is very important, because in AD 70 when the Romans came in and destroyed the temple, and many, thousands of people died, and many were taken captives and sold off to different parts of the world, the Roman world at that time, all the documentation burned to the ground. There's no more, what do you call, those genealogies that are all in rolls of parchments. They're all gone.
So this documentation in chapter 1 of Gospel of Matthew becomes even more important because it's the only one left that tells us today who has the claim to the throne of David. As well as because the throne of David is a picture of the throne of God, King above all kings, Lord over all lords, amen? And then we come to the Gospel of... so I think when you look at the Gospel of Matthew, you can put, for those who like alliteration, you can put the Sovereign, right? "Sovereign and His Sermons," because the Sermon on the Mount is found in the Gospel of Matthew. And everyone seems to know the Sermon on the Mount, and the Sermon on the Mount is the Sermon of the King, amen, the Constitution of the Kingdom. And it's full of sermons, the Gospel of Matthew, but the Gospel of Mark is not full of sermons. It's full of miracles, because the Gospel of Mark has no genealogy. It begins with this chapter 1, and you count the number of times that you find the word "straight away," "suddenly," "immediately".
The sense of immediacy, urgency. You find Jesus going from here, healing this person, casting this demon out, doing this, doing that. It's the Gospel of the Servant. It's the Gospel of the Servant, amen? And that's why you don't ask a Servant for His pedigree. There is no record of the genealogy. So you can put here, "The Servant and His Service," right? Then we have the Gospel of Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is portrayed as the Savior Man, amen? The Savior. A lot of salvation. The gospel is very clear in the Gospel of Luke. Even though the gospel is not yet preached or proclaimed, Jesus has not yet died and resurrected, but the gospel is very clear. You find Jesus going around saving, healing, amen, as the Messiah, the Man. And here you can see Jesus as the Savior and His salvation, amen?
The final Gospel, by the way, because He's the Savior, the Man Savior, it was a man that sold this whole earth, committed high treason by sinning against God. God commissioned this entire earth to man and God never meant for this earth to be the way it is now, right? No sickness, no disease, no death, man never growing old, amen, no lack, no pollution, nothing of that sort that we see today. No wars, no famine. All this is not God's plan. When God made the earth, God made the earth perfect, paradise on earth. But then God commissioned man. God put it under the stewardship of man, the highest creation of all His creation. That's why God made man last, and the only creation made in His image. So man is like an underlord, amen, he's supposed to execute God's justice, amen, equity, righteousness in this kingdom. So you cannot say, "Why didn't God just stop Satan"?
See, God honors administrations, principals, and laws that He Himself ordained. God cannot give something and God says, "I want it back," later on just because you failed. If God gives, God gives. The gifts and the calling of God are without changing of His mind, amen? So we find that man committed high treason, bowed his knee, in effect, by obeying Satan, trusting Satan instead of trusting God, and man fell. And that's how people grow old, and they have sicknesses and disease, and finally death came in, because of sin. So you look at the problem, but you must realize the problem is sin. And man don't wanna talk about sin, but we have the solution in Jesus Christ, amen? Amen? God sent another Adam. So what the first Adam lost, the second Adam recovered, amen? So as the earthly, we bore the image of the earthly, so the heavenly we shall bear the image of the Heavenly Man, amen? How many of you today are people from the Heavenly Man?
As He is, so are we in this world. We used to identify with, "As my father is," you know? I have got... my father is always like that. He's a worrywart, you know? He likes to worry, and I guess I'm also like that. My father has a bad temper, you know? We are Irish people, amen, and we are known for our temper. So we associate ourself based on our genealogy. But people, you are no longer like your dad in all those negatives, whether it is the doctor asking you, "Does your dad have high blood pressure? What did he die of"? and all that. Am I right, doctors ask you that? Because in the natural, you are associated with your dad. But the good news is, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things have become new". Can I have a good amen, people? Amen.
So you are now a brand new man, and if anyone ask you, all right, "How's your father"? He's perfectly healthy, amen? And my older brother, my elder brother is an example. As He is, so am I in this world. And He's perfectly strong, perfectly health, and the Bible says He's forever young, having the dew of His youth upon Him at the Father's right hand, amen? So we are to think of ourself, the Bible says, as beyond death. Now, if Jesus tarries, this body will be put away. Either way, it'll be put away. In the Rapture, we won't carry this body to heaven. This body is part of the old creation. We'll have a brand new body. Either way, if Jesus tarries and we go by the way of the grave, right, this body will still be put away, amen? But we are actually, we don't die, we step into. Actually we have died. You have died all the death you have died.
The Bible says, "Reckon yourself alive unto God from the dead". We are to think of ourself as like this. You must be aware that, as far as your Christian position before God, this is the true gospel position, you are no longer facing, you're no longer looking, like, death in the future. Death is behind you. Death is behind you. Judgment is behind you. Now, the world look forward, all right, there's death. Even in their personal life, they don't wanna acknowledge it, but they see death. They watch funerals and they don't want to acknowledge that they themself will have to face death. Others will mourn for them, right? They don't wanna face that. But for us, listen, the moment your heart stop beating, you're immediately in the presence of the Lord, and that's the greatest joy of heaven. I don't wanna go to heaven if Jesus is not there. Jesus is what makes heaven heaven, amen? Praise the Lord. And you can have Him in your heart today. Praise God.
We have the final Gospel, the Gospel of John. In the Gospel of John, who do we have? We have the Son of God. The Gospel of the Son of God, amen? So you have your final alliteration, Son of God and His Supremacy, because in the Gospel of John He is God come down in human flesh, amen? So you have the four Gospels complete. Praise the Lord. Okay, you can go home already. God bless you. I've preached myself happy. Praise the Lord. Whoo, amen? Aren't you excited? We are in the last days, folks.
So when you see things happening, whether it's climate change, or wars, and famines, these are not exactly the signs in the fullness yet because Jesus actually said in Matthew 24, when Jesus... by the way, Matthew 24, His sermon on the end times is the longest chapter, by the way, all right, in all the Gospels you find. You can say that Sermon on the Mount and all that, but here, Jesus' discourse on the end times goes right into Matthew 25. It's not finished yet, and all based on one question the disciples came to Him. The disciples saw how beautiful the temple was and the disciple says, "Lord, look at all these beautiful stones, these beautiful decorations of the temple," the Temple of Herod at that time. Then Jesus says, "You see all these stones? There'll come a time that not one stone will be left standing".
In AD 70, just 40 years after he said that, Emperor... Titus became emperor later on. Titus, General Titus, who came and led the army, the Roman army, against Jerusalem, he's the son of the emperor. Later on, he became the emperor himself. He actually commissioned to the soldiers not to burn down the temple. The temple is too beautiful, too precious and all that. But later on, when the gold started melting and went between the stones, all right, the soldiers at that time, you know, during the, what do you call, thought of war, all right, they just tried to get the gold in between the cracks, and they pulled down the stones and they threw down the stones.
So today, when you go to Israel, you'll find those large stones right at the bottom. They have uncovered it, and many of you have seen it, amen? And many of you will see it a few months' time, from what I understand, amen? You'll be going there to Israel once again. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. You'll see those large stones, the words of the Son of God. There were two sons of the king. One was the Roman king, right? The son of the Roman king was General Titus, who led the Roman army. Here you have the Son of God. Now, he has all the natural armor, and weapons, and all that. Son of God seems to have no weapon, amen, but boy, He has everything that He needs. Whenever there's a need for supply, the supply is there, amen. Whenever the blind have need for sight, He opened the eyes of the blind. Need for hearing, He unstopped deaf ears. Even you need life again, He raised the dead, hallelujah. That Titus cannot do. Well, he knows how to kill, but this Son of the King knows how to heal, amen, how to give life. He knows how to destroy; He knows how to build you. Praise God.
So, whose words came to pass? General Titus told his men, "Don't destroy the temple". Jesus says, "The temple will be destroyed". Forty years before that, He said that one the mountain. And then Jesus says, "These are the beginning of the", some of your King James Bible and some of the versions says, "These are the beginning of sorrows". The word there is "birth pangs". Birth pangs, amen. And the woman knows, all right, when the time comes for her to deliver a child, it's not immediately pain, poom, the baby comes out, all right? The birth pang, it's not immediate. It is like it starts slowly, amen, and then there is a period between, all right? There is a stage between, interval, but the interval becomes lesser and lesser. Am I right, ladies, amen? So in other words, all these signs, famines, pandemic, and wars, and rumors of wars, and all the things that you see happening in the world will get more and more frequent and back to back. The Bible says plagues will increase.
So Pastor Prince, I didn't brave the rain today to hear you tell me all these things. I'm not telling you what I think. I'm telling you what Jesus said would happen in the last days. But He never gives you the problem without the solution. "When these things happens, lift up your head. Your redemption draws near". What redemption? Your bodily redemption. It gives us hope, amen? Amen. We're not afraid of death. Death is behind us, praise God. Even if this heart stop beating, amen, don't mourn over the corpse. The corpse is not where the life is. The life is there in heaven, praise God. And the Bible says when Jesus comes again, we'll have a brand new body. All those dead in Christ will receive first, amen? They will go up first in their brand new bodies, and then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together and He will transform our vile body like unto his glorious body, forever strong, forever healthy, forever young. Praise God, amen? Never to fall sick again. Praise the name of Jesus, and all the people said amen.
See, we go back home right now, we are happy already. Amen, church? So we are in the midst of teaching a series on how to study the Bible, how to interpret the Bible correctly. And I don't wanna approach this, you know, like teaching you the law of hermeneutics, and then I give you laws of interpretation, you know, all that kind of thing. I want to share what the Lord wants you to know in a very practical way so that when you open the Bible, these are the things that will govern you, amen? We covered last week that when you read the Word and you correctly interpret, amen, of course by the Holy Spirit, never open the Word of God without asking the Holy Spirit to teach you. Tell the Father, "Let Your Holy Spirit teach me all things". He's more than glad because He's come to unveil Christ to you. The Holy Spirit is there with you. He's in you to guide you into all truths, to show you things to come even, Jesus said. Show you things to come, amen, and He will guide into all truth. Isn't it interesting then that in 2 Timothy, here's a very interesting thought.
In 2 Timothy, and I didn't prepare this as my message for today, but on the way here, you know, I called up the lady in charge of the verses and all that, I said, "Put this verse down because God is speaking to me about something from this verse". And I always endeavor, that's why I am saying every time you come, you can't expect the kind of same teaching I know about the law of hermeneutics, you know? I buy a book on it and I study. It's not that kind of thing. It's like I wanna hear what God has for you and how you can find those keys that really speak to you. Like what we covered last week, you gotta see Jesus in all the Scriptures. Now, sometimes, all right, the focus is not very strong there, and I think that that's where people miss it. Jesus is everywhere. I'm tempted to again share with you things about seeing Jesus in the Bible, but let me show you what the Lord showed me this morning first, okay? You are excited?
Now, how will this bless your life? Number one, through the Scriptures, we have hope. Even when we look at all the negative things happening, amen, Jesus warned us about that, right, we have hope. We are not like people of the world who have no hope. The Scriptures give us hope. We know how to conduct our lives. This is the temporal life we live in, amen? Amen. Come on, church. You like it or not, how much money you make and all that, you can't bring your money with you. All right, people will gather around you one day and they will see that person who made millions of dollars. He finally made the final million he wanted at that age or whatever. He made another million. Oh, he made another billion, but he's dead physically. Jesus said it like this, "What shall it profit a man he gains the whole world but he lose his own soul"? So we know that we cannot be lovers of money, we must be lovers of God. So this is the passage that God gave to me.
Once again, we shared on this actually a few weeks ago but it came to me fresh in this light. In 2 Timothy 3, "But know this, that in the last days", say, "In the last days". Are we people of the last days? Yes. You know the prophecy that after AD 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and then took the people captives and all that, and Israel never came back to its land again, never. There's never been a time all the way through David, Solomon, David and all that, that Israel was not in the land except for one interval of 70 years. Seventy years captivity. We actually had a very interesting 70 years that just passed by, the Queen's reign, 70 years. You know, the first day of the announcement of her death, there was a double rainbow, all right? The last day of her death, there was a rainbow. The rainbow have how many colors? Seven. Her reign is 70 years. Her name is Eli-zabeth. "Eli" is God's name, "shabbat" is actually seven or promise. My God promise. Same word.
The word for "promise" is the word "seven," the number of perfection. So you can say it like, "My God promise," and you see the rainbow, amen, the seven-colored rainbow which is God's promise He will never flood the earth again. But for us, in Isaiah 54, it's a promise that God will never be angry with us again. So 70 years, very interesting. So except for just that time of captivity to Babylon, they were always in the land, all the way, and then they came back through, you know, Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all that. When they came back, the captives, they came back, there were only a few of them, about 42,000 that came back. The rest stayed in Babylon. They were comfortable in Babylon. And from that remnant came the people that would welcome the Messiah. Or when I say welcome, not all of them welcomed. "He came unto His own, His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God".
We know in the Lord's first coming, He was rejected by His people, amen? Only a remnant believed in Him. But when He comes again, we know all Israel will be saved, amen? And the Bible says blindness happened to them in part so that we Gentiles, we non-Jews, would receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the Bible calls this a mystery, amen, but thank God we are hearing the gospel today, amen? So in the last days, we're in the last days, "Perilous times will come". Dangerous times will come, all right? Then it says, "For men shall be lovers of themselves". I always say this. Dangerous times, wars and all that, this is dangerous times. But when it says, "Men will be lovers of themself". What does perilous, dangerous times gotta do with, "Men will be lovers of themself"? It's got everything to do with that. Wars is because men are lovers of themself. It's I, my. My territory, my country. This used to be my country. This is my land. Oh, you insulted me, amen? I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna take your country. That's how wars start, all right? It starts with man. You understand, amen? No man, no war. That's deep.
So, "Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money". Are you a lover of money? Hey, you all must say no straightaway, amen. Praise the Lord. "By the grace of God, no, Pastor Prince," amen? Are you lovers of money? No, but does God provide for you? Amen? Did he demonstrate that? Jesus said, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father". When there was a lack, amen, He supplied not just 12 basketful, amen. He made sure that they were all well fed. The Bible says as much as they wanted. They took the bread and fish as much as they wanted, and then there was 12 basketful, amen. Praise the Lord. "And men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud". Man, I'm telling you, it's like just go through the social media, all right, go to your Instagram and just look at the amount of boasting and pride, amen, presenting your best self, amen. The amount of pride, that sense of entitlement is rampant today, amen.
Once in awhile, you know, when you read the Word of God, I'm telling you, when you read the Word of God, the first thing it does to you, it humbles you. You see even examples in the Old Testament, even the portions on judgment or whatever. It humbles you. You realize the world doesn't revolve around you. There is One the world revolves around. Worthy is the Lamb, and we get to be part of it, amen? He didn't come after us, we came after Him. So it says, "Boasters, proud". Now, all this, I'm not going through this because I just wanted to show you what the Lord said to me. The Lord says to me, "What do we do? Tell the people this is what I want you to do". Same chapter, right? Chapter 3, right at the end, He will always give you the solution. Notice what He gave as the solution. Drop down, "You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures".
You see, you know, we are in the last days, the end times. These things are happening and all that. God is saying, "All the more, continue in the things that you have learned. Spend time in the Holy Scriptures. Spend time studying the Word of God". What a solution, amen. Why? Because it's possible to see what's happening at the end time. Like it or not, you will see the end times, amen? You are probably seeing the beginning of the end times already, amen? You are for sure, not probably. You are, amen. And what you see is very discouraging, but from the Scriptures you will find hope, the confident expectation of good in your future, amen. And you will see it personally as well when God begin to show you and unveil to you from his Scriptures. But what an amazing exhortation that in the midst of the last days and all these negatives that we see, and all these, you know, horrible things that you see, you can get discouraged. But before that, God says, "This is what you do, child of God".
Instead of going out there and we might think get involved more in service and that kind of thing, God is saying, "Spend time in the Word," amen. And continue, all right, "Continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus". Don't forget this is written already, amen. In the context, it's to Timothy, but it's for all of us. The Holy Spirit is talking to all of us and it's written to believers. So this "Wise unto salvation" is not just for you to be saved from eternal damnation, saved from hell, amen, saved from your sins unto eternal life. No, "Wise unto salvation," salvation is a very all-inclusive word. God is saying, "All that came in because of Adam's sin, all the fall, you'll be saved in your personal life".
And the Scriptures are able to make you wise unto this salvation, because the word "salvation" includes healing. It even includes, listen, wholeness and nothing lacking in your life. Nothing lacking, amen? So it's able to make you wise. Drop down. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and he begins to talk about the Scriptures, all Scriptures. Say, "All". Every Scripture is given by, listen, I am not one of those who say that the Scripture, the Bible actually is a very loose translation, you know? It's like it's not word for word. No, I don't believe in that. That's why I... you can read paraphrases like the Living Bible and the New Living Translation. They are loose, you know, like a paraphrase. They paraphrase for you. The Message Bible is a paraphrase, all right? But you don't build your doctrine from those kind of books of the Bible. I believe in a word for word translation. I believe the Scripture is that accurate. Every word is God-breathed.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God". "Inspiration of God" is just one word, all right, in the Greek. It means God-breathed. The very breath that gave, the breath that gave Adam life, the breath that gave you life in your mother's womb is the same breath you breathe in when you are in the Scriptures, amen? Praise God. "And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof". Doctrine is teaching, right? "Reproof, correction". Reproof is for wrong behavior. Correction is for wrong doctrine, amen? "For instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work". Now, this word, "That the man of God may be complete," this word "complete" is very interesting. It is the word "fitted". If you read carefully, one of the scholars in Greek defined this word for "complete" as, by spending in the Scriptures, what is imparted to you is a special aptitude, a special intelligence. And if you look at the word "aptitude", I looked it up in the dictionary. I know what it means, but I wanna see what the dictionary says, all right? It even has the word of "quickness".
Spending time in the Word of God will make you complete, complete, fitted with a special aptitude, amen. You are very quick to see things happen and have the right interpretation. I think Joseph had that. Daniel had that. Even the kings of their day did not have that. The kings can dream and dream, but they can interpret the dream about the future, amen. So I believe that there will come to you a special aptitude. You are able to see things happen. Even in your life, you are able to translate and see things happen, amen? That's becoming wise unto salvation, praise God. I mean, people are not wise. They keep on smoking, for example. Keep on smoking, you know, keep on smoking, and then their health is destroyed, right? But they still keep on smoking. Even after they go to the doctor, doctor says, "Don't do it," they keep on smoking. Something's not connecting. You get what I'm saying or not? Connection breakdown. Okay, you want me to mess a bit more? This is part of the reproof, all right? So you find that it's for your good, right? Amen?
Let me finish it. "That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work". The picture here is during the time of Paul when he wrote this, the picture is of a vessel that's supposed to go to a foreign land, all right, a far journey through the ocean. And it's fully equipped means it has every supply, every cargo, everything that it needs to make a successful journey. Enough food, enough water, everything that you need. The Bible says the Scripture is able to completely feed you, amen? If you lack something, you can get it from the Scriptures. I can't begin to tell you because I don't like to get personal about these kind of things or call attention to myself in these kind of things, but let me tell you this. There are times I read the Scriptures, there is an impartation. Something was dropped into me that I never had before. Certain aptitudes I have today, I got it from reading the Scriptures, amen. Certain ability to see Scriptures, all right, came because I studied.
You see, you don't understand, for example, the seven feasts of Israel. By the way, today, today is Rosh Hashanah, the new year of the Jewish people, amen? It's not their idea to come up with this day for their day, all right? It's in Leviticus 23, the seven feasts of Israel, amen? It starts with Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the year. This is a new year, amen, this evening, because the Jewish day starts in the evening, evening to evening. So if you tune into Israel today, amen, we are six hours ahead, you will hear the trumpet, the shofar being sounded, amen. It's a day of new beginnings. Praise the Lord. May it be true for you as well. It could very well be the final year, amen, because Jesus is coming back. It could very well be. No one knows the day nor the hour, but the Bible says you can tell, right? Look at the seasons and all that. So much the more as you see the day approaching. Don't forsake ourselves in our assembling together. Amen, people? Praise the Lord.
So unless you understand, for example, the seven feasts, then you don't understand, like, when Bible says He was crucified on the Passover, Passover is one of the feasts. He was raised on the Feast of First Fruits. So the First Fruits is actually the priest waving the first portion of the barley harvest. Jesus rose from the dead, so to speak, to proclaim that He is the first man risen from the dead. Now, others who were raised by a miracle, amen, they died again. This is the real resurrection from the dead, never to die again, amen. And the Bible says if there's a first fruit, that means the rest will follow. The rest will follow, amen? You know, the world, I pity the world. The world, I pity the world. I pity the world. You know why? Because the world look forward, they say, "Oh man, I'm now 70. Oh no, I'm now 80. I'm now 90". It's like they look forward with no hope. No, friend, amen, your best years are ahead of you, and you have a blast in Christ while you are doing this, amen?
Have a high adventure in Jesus while you're doing this. Praise the Lord. Enjoy every day because you're gonna step into eternity with more better days, amen? The better world is coming, praise God, amen? This same earth, praise the Lord. Jesus is coming to reign on this earth. We're coming to reign with Him. Praise the name of Jesus, amen. Whoo! Whoa, praise God, hallelujah. So this whole chapter begins with the last days, perilous times. It's kind of bleak right now. But at the end, it tells you what to do, praise God, that you might be thoroughly equipped. Now, it does not say that a man of God may be complete through Instagram. "Thoroughly equipped," all right, or through social media. You must get all the knowledge you have from all these things. Because all this knowledge can confuse you and depress you. It makes you feel out of it and disconnected. It's funny, isn't it?
These things are supposed to connect you and make the world smaller but most people who are in it end up with depression of varying degrees. Some less depression, some more. Young people are being depressed the more time they spend in social media. They need to fast the social media for awhile and see how wonderful life can be. And all the people said amen. Praise the Lord. Spend time in the Word, amen. The Word is pure truth. And if the Word contradicts what you think is correct, that thing that's supposed to be correct in your mind must bow to the Word of God, not the other way around, amen? Just like one time during World War II, right, in the dark pitch of the night, there was this commanding officer of the vessel and he commanded the light that he saw down there, 'cause he was a large vessel, a large, I think it was aircraft carrier. And he said to the, you know, he was in friendly waters, so he knew that it's not the enemy. It's not the Japanese or the Germans.
And he said, you know, "Announcement, all right, we are coming through. Please move". And the answer came back, all right, "We cannot move, you move". So he said, "No, we are so-and-so. I'm Commander So-and-so of the vessel, and blah, blah, blah, blah," okay, you know? All the titles and what the huge vessel means and all that, supposed to impress that person. "Move". And in the darkness, you can see the light. "No, you move. We are here to stay". So obviously the guy down there is playing also, because right at the end, he says, "I command you as a US Admiral of this Navy fleet and all that, either you move or we blast you out," you know? Was threatening him. Then he says, "I'm sorry, sir. I cannot move. We are the lighthouse". Okay, so one thing to remember always, no matter how great you are, okay, how wealthy you are, all right, you know? But the guy is playing also, right, in the lighthouse. He could have told him earlier. Pulling, you know, it could be a young guy down there, you know? "Oh, Admiral, let's play games," you know? Ha ha ha. But I think we need to understand that the Word of God cannot move. You don't break God's Word, you break yourself on God's Word. Are you listening?
You know, it's like, you know, we johnny-come-lately and they have their own ideas, "Oh, the Bible is old fashioned. The Bible is this," only to find out the Bible is accurate, amen. The Bible is accurate in everything, you know? Even when George Washington was dying, near to him was his own Bible, and in that Bible, because, you know, he had some throat condition, and they believed in those days of bloodletting. So in other words, the more blood you let out, the poison will go out also and you'll recover. Literally, he died because of that. So at that time, they didn't have that knowledge that the life of the flesh is in the blood. You should not let your blood go. Replace, yes, but you need your blood. In fact, there's a blood transfusion and all that. So in the Bible, in the book of Leviticus is an old book, the Bible says what? "The life of the flesh is in the blood". The life of the flesh is in the blood, amen? And God has given it as an atonement for your souls.
The oldest book of the Bible is Job. I used to think when I was younger that if you wanna find a job, go to the book of Job. J-O-B, you know? You all laugh, okay, but that's how you get started. You see, as time goes on, aptitude. Now you all laugh out of aptitude. You have received that kind of aptitude, praise God. So I used to think that, you know, but it's the oldest book of the Bible. The oldest book, it's not Genesis. It's Job. And in the book of Job, you find that it says, the Bible says that man will be identified by their fingerprints. It says another place, "The moon shineth not". And during that time when they all look up, right, the moon shines. The moon doesn't shine, just like the diamond doesn't shine. Shine like a diamond. Diamond doesn't shine, it refracts. It reflects and refracts light. No light, no shine, all right? The moon doesn't shine. You all know, right? You're all quiet just now. The moon doesn't shine. The moon reflects the sun's shine, the sun's light, amen?
The Bible likens us, in the book of Song of Songs, "Who is this that comes out of the wilderness fair as the moon"? amen? The church of Jesus Christ, you and I, amen, leaning on the arms of the Beloved, coming out. Every time you lean on His love for you, you come out of your wilderness, amen? And as fair as the moon, you know, beautiful as the moon, because we don't have any light. Any light that you see on one another, we cannot take credit for it. We can't take glory of it because it comes from Him, amen? Amen? And of course Israel, they know that, so whenever there's an eclipse of the moon and all that, they believe there's a meaning for them, all right, in that eclipse and all that. I won't be going into that. Even the blood moon, there's a meaning there for them. And here, we look at the Scriptures and how it makes us wise. Are you excited, amen? How many will study the Word of God even more? And there are treasures, treasures on the surface, but even more hid treasures, the Bible calls it.
If you look for wisdom as for hid treasures, amen, the Bible says wisdom will enter your heart. Discretion will keep you, amen. Praise the Lord. "Keep My Words, for length of days, life, and peace they will add to you," amen. "My son, attend to My Words. Incline thine ear unto My sayings. Let them not depart for your eyes, for they are life to those that find them and health to all their flesh". To all their flesh. Any part of your flesh that is sick, God's Word is health to all your flesh, amen. And when you interpret the Word of God, the sign has gotta be, one of the ways you know that you are correctly interpreting something sweet to it, even a portion of judgment. Just now I shared with you, actually it's not exactly very positive in that sense, but even the words of Jesus warning us about the end time becomes beautiful, gives us hope when He's talk, when we realize that He's talking to His people. And all the people said amen.
Another principle that I wanna share with you that I think you need to tuck this somewhere, all right, and I feel the Lord has put it in my heart, is that you need to interpret everything you read in the Old Testament. And by the way, Pastor Prince is a preacher of grace, but I preach a lot from the Old Testament. How many of you have been here for 10 years, even more, 20, 30, years, and you find that Pastor Prince preach a lot from the Old Testament? Why do you speak to yourself in the, like, what, the third person? Amen, it's fun. Pastor Prince preaches. So I can criticize myself, you know? You know what I'm saying? You all don't agree, okay. I preach a lot from the Old Testament, right? But when I preach from the Old Testament, do you find hope? Why? Because I don't let it remain the law. I translate, all right, the whole thing into the Word of Christ, seeing Christ in it. That's what it means. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," doesn't mean, "Read only the New Testament".
You read, some people think only the Gospels printed in red are the Words of Jesus. It's not. It's some publisher's idea to print Jesus' Words in the Gospels in red. Because Jesus actually in the Gospels, for the most part, He has not yet died. Even His sermons and all that you must also interpret. One time He says, "Don't go to the house of the Gentiles but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". Do we apply that today? No, today He says, "Go into all the world," at the end of that, right? So we don't take that part. It's important to remember one of the first complete translations of the Bible into English, all right, was a man called Miles Coverdale, not Tyndale. Tyndale translated the entire Old Testament, together with Miles. Miles assisted him, all right? And Tyndale is the main guy, of course, behind, the top man who was martyred later on. But he translated the whole Old Testament, Tyndale did, into English. But Miles Coverdale, the entire Bible into English.
Now, this was about the 1500s. And you know what he said? It'll do you good to remember this. This is what he said. "It shall greatly help ye", I shall speak to you in Elizabethan, Victorian English in those days. King George's English. "It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom," very important. "Of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goes before," context, "what goes before and following after". That means interpret it in the context, okay? So this is the man that translated the entire Bible into the first English Bible, okay? This is what he says. So, look at the context, see who it's speaking to. Remember, when God looks down on earth... I'm not gonna show you the reference and all that. It's there in the Bible. It says, "Give none offense, neither to the Jew".
This is what God says. When God looks down on earth even today, God sees three groups of people: Jew, because He has a special covenant through them with Abraham, amen? And they are still in the thoughts of God, in the plan of God in the end times. So God says, "Give none offense, neither to the Jew", say, "Jew", "or Gentiles". Gentiles are all of us who are non-Jews. All of us who are non-Jews. And then the last one, church of God. Now, the church of God is made of Jews and Gentiles. It's one new man. The devil has succeeded down through the years in making the church appear like old fogey people, you know, like boring, you know, just like all the music here is organ music, you know? As if the modern inventions of music and all that... hey, the Bible says David, who knows? David maybe was the first one to invent the guitar. He played the lyre and the harp, excuse me. I need help, amen. And then the Bible says, "Play skillfully on the string instruments," amen.
So I believe all these are ideas from God, but you know, devil is always trying to make the church appear... no, the church is not a building. So whenever people change, right, geared to the times, but anchored to the rock, right? When people try to change that, and they say that you gotta be like old-fashioned and all that kind of thing. Now, I'm not talking about fashion in the sense of dressing and all that, but in the way of thinking. He managed to keep the church at bay with no impact, amen. You see, I always thought like this. Jesus says, "Be careful of wolf that come to you in sheep's clothing". Remember that in the Sermon on the Mount? "Beware of wolves that come to you in sheep's clothing". How about I send some people into the world, all right, sheep in wolf clothing. No, okay, never mind, all right? Nowhere does it say it's forbidden, amen? After all, the tribe of Benjamin, the animal that marks them on their banner is wolf.
All right, so the end time generation is a wolverine, ha ha, all right? All right, you just gotta be careful that you don't devour the sheep around you. The Benjamin generation, they are marked by the wolf, okay? And so I think that we need to be wise, amen? Amen? We don't compromise the core fundamentals of the Word of God, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, amen. But some people will just say, "Well, you know, this is the evil thing. This is bad. This is bad. This is evil. This is from Satan. This is from Satan". Everything is from Satan. Don't watch TV, it's from Satan. Satan says, "Thank you very much, I'll put my shows on it," amen? Amen? If a Christian goes on television and all that, "Oh, gotta watch", the devil will make sure that he's attacked, when actually the idea came from God for the purpose of the gospel.
Come on, church, come on. Airplane, the airplane was invented by who? Two young men, brothers. What were their names? Orville and Wilbur Wright. Do you know they are sons of preachers? Do you know their generation, their father is a preacher? Amen. They are both Christians. How many Christians have impacted history, amen, with their ideas, inventions, creation? Amen. Recently, even modern times, the first man, the first scientist to successfully name all the, what, genome, our genes, amen, the top scientist that was able to name all the genes, his name is Colin. He's a strong believer in Christ, and received a lot of flack because he's a believer. I'm telling you, Christians, listen, you are people with creative inspired ideas. When you go to work, you can go to work the attitude of, like, you know, "I'm here, all right, to make my company successful". That, do you know, is a Christian position at work, amen?
And by doing so, you are in a position to be able to share the gospel or even shine for the gospel. The gospel can be preached with words and without... your life. So much so that your Pharaoh... okay, your boss will look at you and see that the Lord is with you, and whatever Sarah touches prospers. Your boss will be able to see that the Lord is with you, but you have the attitude, "No, I'm working for a non-Christian boss. I just do my bare minimum". No, Jesus says go the extra mile, amen. Be the person in your company that thinks through problems, pray through problems, find the solution. Don't apple-polish your boss, not with that intention. The Bible says, "Do everything as unto the Lord, not for eye service," eye service, do things only when your boss is watching, "but to the Lord, knowing", listen, "Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance," amen. Others don't see. Your boss don't see. Someone else is trying to play office politics.
The Lord sees and the Lord's able to promote you. Don't forget, Joseph had so much favor, he was lied about, went to dungeon. From there, he prospered even in the dungeon and went even higher after that, amen. Praise God. I do not know why I got into that, but again, somebody needed to hear that. So look forward, Monday, okay? Praise God, it's work day. I'm gonna glorify the Lord in my work, amen. I'm gonna have ideas, witty ideas that other people don't have. Why not? You have access to the One who is the source of all wisdom, who gave Solomon wisdom, amen. And best of all, favor. Your colleagues don't have that favor. The one that apple-polish. Oh, you put apple down there, man, for the boss, amen? The boss eat the apple, right? All right, that one don't have favor. You have favor. Favor means they can do all kind of thing to you and all that. You are like the buoy in the water. They try to push you down, boing, it comes up again. Push it down. No man can push down what God elevates, and God promotes you.
In the Bible, it doesn't say, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and stay there". It says, "Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time". That your due time is coming, folks. Your due time is coming. Praise the Lord, amen? So whatever job you are doing, whether you go to work or you work from home, whatever you do, all right, be fruitful, be productive. The very first command, "Be fruitful, be productive," amen? Praise the name of Jesus. What has that got to do with the Bible? I just told you, right, I like to speak, you know, as the oracles of God, and I believe that, you know, God wants someone to hear this. Okay, praise God. When you interpret the Old Testament, interpret in the light of the New. There's a beautiful verse that's meant, again, remember the one that Paul says? He took a law in the Old Testament, right, in the book of Deuteronomy that says, "You must not muzzle the ox when the ox is treading out the corn". Remember that? Remember that?
And he saw from there that God cares for all of us, hey. But how come? It's talking about the oxen. And he says that, "Do you think it's oxen that God is concerned about"? God is drawing illustration, the more you teach the Word of God. And then in the New Testament, Paul quotes that also in Timothy. Paul says to Timothy by the Spirit, he says, "Let the elders or the pastors that rule well be counted worthy of double honor". And you study that carefully, it's the word "double salary". Let the elders that, especially. He says, "Especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine, teaching," amen. And you know what verse he used? "Thou shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn," right? So that is a teaching that we can draw for how to even treat our pastors, our leaders, amen, especially those who are laboring in the Word for you.
So Paul would see principles like this. So I'm gonna show you a principle right now that the Lord showed me from here, all right, how to interpret the Old Testament, and it says this, "You shall eat old store". And this is from Leviticus, the book that most of you, your pages are still stuck, right, together. It says, "You shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new". Now, actually it refers to the store of the harvest, right? In those days, they keep it in a store, storehouse, amen. But it says here, "You shall eat... you shall bring forth the old because of the new," amen. So what I see here is that God is saying that when you bring, you know how you bring forth the treasures and the nuggets in the Old Testament, all right? Through the New. You must interpret everything in the light of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the light of the gospel.
When you see something, for example, like for example you say that, "Wow, you know, you see this judgment coming on this person," remember this, you are not that person. You are not under that covenant. You are under the covenant of grace. Does that mean that today there's no correction? No, God corrects you, but God will not punish you. Punishment is behind you at the cross. Are you all listening, people? Okay, so people interpret this, like Miles Coverdale said, "You must understand what goes before and what comes after". So you look at this for example, this in Hebrews 10, verse 26. People are fearful of this, why? They don't see what came before or what comes after. They take this verse out of context. "For if we sin willfully", how many of you have read this verse before? "We sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries".
Wow, sounds frightening, right? So don't sin willfully. There are people take this verse out of context and they say, "Don't sin willfully". Now, listen, friends. Let me tell you this. Don't sin, period, all right? And the grace is there. Sin is behind us. But let me share with you this context. Look at what chapter is it. Hebrews, what? Hebrews 10. So people read this and they get frightened. And I ask people all the time, "Every sin that you commit, is it willful"? Talk to me. All right, I allow you to talk to me now. Every sin that you commit, the last time you decide to show angry expressions on the road, for example, you should not, was it willful? It was willful. When you got angry with your wife, was it willful? It was willful. You can shut up, but you didn't. You wanna talk, and talk, and talk, and you got yourself angry. Right or no, amen? You can. You can move yourself away, right? Amen?
Like a man said, you know, they are both very old, in their 90s, and people are asking them what's the secret of their successful married life. They say from young, the day they got married they both agreed, "One of us or both of us are angry with each other, all right, we each, either one of us will take a walk, long walk, and not say anything. So I credit my successful married life to an outdoor life," he says, amen? But look at what comes before. What chapter is this? Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 begins with, "The law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect". This "perfect" here is the word "perfect in your conscience," 'cause the previous chapter shows us that, okay, in earlier part in Hebrews, all right?
So your conscience is not perfect. Every time you feel that there's sin there, okay, it says, "For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins". Oh, this is amazing. It tells you if those sacrifices of lambs, and calves, and red heifer, you know, and all that worked, they don't have to come back to offer again, but obviously it didn't work. For example, if you see a man, okay, he's taking medicine every day. Every four hours he takes medicine, that means what? He's still not cured. If he is cured, he will stop the medicine, all right? So it's saying they will stop offering those burnt offerings, sin offering, trespass offering, peace offering, the meal offering, they will stop offering that, okay, if the sacrifices worked. And how do you know it worked? Because the worshippers, once purified, and this word "once," "hapax" in the Greek, is once and for all.
As in the Christian Standard Bible says, all right, "Purified once and for all". Go back to our New King James Version. "For the worshippers, once and for all purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins". So Christians, today they think that when they come to the presence of God, they should have consciousness of sins. "Oh Lord, we come to you and we deeply humble ourself, for we are such creatures of failure and we are such sinners, Lord, before you," and they are not reckoning on the work of Jesus. This is actually a posture of unbelief. It's actually kind of blasphemous 'cause you're not honoring what Jesus did, amen. So, "But Pastor, to come without any consciousness of sin". That's why the Bible says you must know what Jesus did. So let me give you the three Ws real quick before we close, okay? Bible study in action. We are talking about the sinning willfully and how to translate that. We look at the verses before.
If something bothers you, always remember, when something bothers you and there's no joy, there's no sweetness, all right, you know, always interpret obscure passages with clear passages, certain passages. Don't interpret obscure with obscure. For example, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes Him should not perish". If you are wondering one day you might perish, "Should not perish but have everlasting life," amen. "He that believes on Me shall not see death," Jesus says, amen, "but has passed from judgment unto life". That's why I said death is behind us. The heart can stop beating if Jesus tarries, but there's no death, amen. You'll find, "My goodness, this is what I was afraid of"? Amen, that kind of feeling. And the next thing you know, "I'm so alive! I am so strong! I feel so good"! Dun, dun, dun, dun, oh! Amen, don't take off just yet, all right? We need you on earth. Calm down, calm down. Praise God.
So, "They will have no more consciousness of sins". So the next verse says, "But in the offering". Okay, the next verse is not here, but let me give you the verse because I've memorized this passage a lot already. But in the sacrifice they offer year by year, there's a reminder of sins. Not consciousness of sins, sorry, not "No more consciousness," there is a conscious reminder of sins. They keep on taking the medicine, that means what? A reminder you're still sick, amen? If the sacrifices work, there'll be no more sin consciousness. So the first W we look at, what was the Father's heart for all of you? Do you think He wants the will of the commandments to be enforced in your life? Look, I'm talking about morality of the highest form. "Only when you're dead to the law can you bring forth fruit unto God".
I'm just quoting Scripture here. Only when you're dead to the law can you bring forth fruit unto God. "Wherefore my brethren, you also are become dead to the law that you shall be married to another, Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God". All the children that we have in our love union with Him will be moral excellence, okay? So people get very frightened. We're not talking about the antinomian of the time of, like, John Wesley and all that. John Wesley's concern was that people, they call it antinomian, or the Ranters in those days. And they are people who say, "We are not under the law, okay"? But at the same time, they told John Wesley, "You know we can take anything from anyone"? That's called stealing. "You're not under the law, okay? We can sleep with any woman, why? All things are ours". That is stupidity, okay?
Now, you can call it antinomian unfortunately, but the moment you start teaching that you are dead to the law, people say you're antinomian, all right? That was the teaching of the antinomian at that time. You can check it out. These two areas, stealing and adultery, it's something that they say is okay. Does this church practice that? Do we teach that? Have you ever heard me teach that? No, amen? That's why the devil will try to muddle up the real gospel so people are scared to go into grace, the true grace of God. 'Cause they know the moment you are under grace, sin has no dominion over you, amen? So the first will is the will of the Father. See what the will of the Father is? That we don't be under law, but under the new covenant, grace. Drop down, "Then Jesus said," this is Jesus, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God". He's talking to the Father.
So the Father has a will. What is the will? "Jesus takes away the first that He may establish the second". The first is the Ten Commandments, amen? You shall not, you shall not, you shall not. The second is God says, "I will do this. I will do this. I'll be merciful to you in your unrighteousness. I'll put my laws in your hearts and minds. I'll give you the one-two, amen? I'll supply you with the strength. I'll supply you with the grace. And your sins I will remember no more". It's all on His part. Our part is to trust Him, rest in Him. Are you with me so far? Okay, so, "By that will," by Jesus performing that will, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ," how long? "Once and for all". You know you are sanctified to God once and for all? Once and for all. But what if I fail tomorrow, Pastor? You're still once and for all. Nothing can change the once and for all, amen. That frees you up to deal with your weaknesses and sins by the grace of God and not feel you are under it or condemned. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".
So the first will is the will of the Father, all right? The first W, okay? The next one is Jesus' work. What did Jesus do? Drop down. The same chapter, "And every priest stands," say, "Stands," "ministering daily and offering repeatedly," stands daily, stands daily, offering repeatedly, "the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins". People bring you back to the Old Testament and they say that, "You see, every day you gotta deal with sin, every day". You are negating the work of Jesus. And they try to bring in the example for us to follow. We are not under that law, that covenant. We are no more under that law. We are now under grace, the finished work that worked once and for all, one final sacrifice. "But this Man," Jesus, "after He had offered," shout, "one sacrifice for sins forever".
Come on, church. One sacrifice for sins forever. Say it, "One sacrifice for sins," for how long? Forever! "Sat down on the right hand of God," contra with "Every priest stands". You know in the Old Testament, the tabernacle of God, Tabernacle of Moses, like the house of God, has no seat. Has no seat. Every house has a seat. You know, remember that woman, Shunammite woman, she and her husband has no child, and Elisha is always passing by her house? So she told her husband, and they're quite wealthy, and she told her husband, "Let's build a room for Elisha," right? "Let's build a room for Elisha in the upper chamber". So this is what she said, "Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table". Notice all the furniture items. There are four. "A bed for him, a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there".
So two of these four has got to do with rest: the bed and the chair. One for the night, one for the day. It's gotta do with rest, but do you know something? The table and the lampstand can be found in the temple of God, but no seat. Table is there, lampstand is there, but no seat. Why? Even not just Tabernacle of Moses, Temple of Solomon, no seat because the work is never finished. Today, go back to Hebrews 10, "But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever," what'd He do? "Sat down". If you fail tomorrow, or you sin, or whatever...okay, now, I exhort you not to sin, all right? That's not the lifestyle you wanna live. But if you sin, He's not gonna get up and say, "Ugh, I gotta die again". That means that one sacrifice did not work. You just have to say, "One sacrifice for sins forever," amen?
In that way, it's true repentance, and move on from there. No one in their right mind, knowing this truth, will say, "Oh yippee! I can go and commit adultery," like the time of John Wesley, these Renters who say that kind of thing. It's stupid, amen. Just because your wife forgave you of a sin or whatever doesn't mean that you keep on repeating that sin, huh? Don't forget, insanity is repeating something again, and again, and again, all right, no revelation at all, and expecting a different result every time. That's insanity, okay? Never mind, you can forget that one. That's not Bible. But this is Bible, "This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down". So this is the work of Jesus. Work of Jesus.
Let me bring you to the final one, the triune God. Who is the third divine person? On earth today, you know who is on earth today? The Holy Spirit. He's on earth today. You know where He dwells? In the church, in all of us, in the church of Jesus Christ. He came on the Day of Pentecost, amen? When God gave the law, the old covenant, 3,000 people died. It was on Mount Sinai. But at Mount Zion, God gave the Holy Spirit and 3,000 people were saved, amen? The Holy Spirit in place of the law. We follow the Holy Spirit, and He will never lead you into immorality, never. But you cannot try to keep the law and produce moral excellence because the law was designed, the more you try to keep it, you produce the opposite. Paul says, "I had not known lust until the law says, 'Thou shalt not lust.' And the more I try to keep it," and this is in Romans 7, "the more I try to keep it, I find in me all manner of lust". Follow me so far?
That's why I endeavor for people to see this revelation. We are not under the law so that sin will have no dominion over you. Satan will have no dominion over you, amen. Sin there is a noun, all right? You can put anything evil down there. Even sickness that came from sin will have no dominion over you, amen. Now, we may not be there, but let's believe the truth until the results we have in our life is the reflection of the truth. Right believing will always lead to right living. So we have the work, we have only the Spirit is not mentioned here. We have the will of the Father to take away the first, amen? That means God's heart is not in the law. For God to have this as His will, to establish the second, His heart is not unto the law. Why did God give the law then? 'Cause man is so proud. If God didn't give man the law, man think he can. When God gave him the law, the law brought him to his knees. The law showed him he can do nothing. The more he try to keep God's law, he produce the opposite.
So God knew the law cannot be kept. God knew it. That's why in Romans it says, "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound". You seldom hear that, but it's Bible. So the will of the Father is remove the first to give you the second, all right? Now, the third triune God, the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Where do you find it in Hebrews 10? Drop down, "The Holy Spirit also witnesses to us". Whoa! Listen, when you go to court and the judge says, "Do you have any witness"? right, who better than God Himself? Holy Spirit who is here on earth today, amen, He witnesses something to us. You better listen. This is a witness that you seldom hear preached. And that's why every time I preach this, you know, in times past, right, there were, I don't talk about it anymore. Maybe I shouldn't. You want me to tell you something? No, I won't, but there are supernatural accompaniments. I'll just speak in parables.
Some of you were with me years ago when we were at the Rock Auditorium and I'll preach about Jesus' finished work. Every time I say something like that, something will happen that you all can see and hear, okay? I'll speak like that so no one can, you know? But that's not important. What's important is what I said. Did it happen one time? No, it happened twice. And some of you who were there, you know what I'm talking about. It's like the Holy Spirit, it's like God is so pleased to hear that that He confirms it with a sign and a wonder, amen. "The Holy Spirit witnesses to us," the new covenant. Then it says, "For after He had said before". Now, that means, first of all, "He said". That means first of all He said, so what He said in the first part is not the main clause of the witness. The witness is on something that after He has said this, "'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,' then He adds," this is the part, this is the witness, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I remember no more".
So we come to the witness of the Holy Spirit, amen? The last W, the witness of the Holy Spirit. You have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How more complete can it be? You know what the Holy Spirit witnesses to us? It's seldom being taught. He witnesses to you your sins God remembers no more. In this same chapter, it says what? By offering the sin offering all the time. I don't know what you're offering every day whenever you sin and all that, but instead of looking to the finished work maybe you're going through all this rigmarole, all right, religious rigmarole, and you feel better after that. I don't know what is it, okay, but that is unbelief. So what, Pastor, if I... Just realize, "Father, I thank You my sins You remember no more, amen". Repent from it, of course. In fact, the best repentance is to know what God has done concerning that sin. It's gone once and for all. That's a posture of faith. Once you know that, you cannot add to the eternal efficacy of that one sacrifice for sins. You cannot add to it. You only have to realize it. Tomorrow it won't change. Your failure is not so powerful it can negate what the work of Jesus has accomplished, okay?
Now, because of that, the next verse says, drop down, real quick, all right? Now, you sure? See, verse 18. Go back to that verse again. Verse 17, okay? So verse 18 come after verse 17, in case you don't know. Eighteen come after seventeen. So because, because, okay, because your sins God is no more mindful of, His focus on you is no more on your sins, all right? In other words, God is not looking at your sins anymore. God is looking at His Son and the perfection of His work. In God's economy of things, it's all finished once and for all. There's no future sin that will put you out of fellowship with God. Now, this is radical, but check your own Bible whether it's true or not. "Having", after verse 17. Because of this, "Having", okay, "Now where there is remission of forgiveness of sins, of these sins, there is no longer an offering for sin".
So stop giving up sin offerings, whatever version it takes. You don't serve in church because you feel guilty. You serve because you wanna love the Lord, and the gifts He's given you finds expression and fulfillment for you, amen, when you serve Him. But there are those who are doing it out of sin offering. 'Cause I've done some terrible thing, I come back to church, all right? It's good to come back to church, but get rid of that because you must need, you need to see what Jesus has done. Okay, "Therefore, brethren, having boldness". "Therefore" is related to all that preceded just now, based on the will of the Father, the work of the Son, and the witness of the Spirit, "We have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus". This is something priests and worshippers in the Old Testament cannot do. Even the high priest, once a year with fear and trepidation, he goes in, just in case he has not done everything according to order, he might die. But for us, God is not counting our sins. We come in and doesn't see sins on us.
Now, please understand we still have an indwelling sin, but we need to know also even for that, that indwelling sin has been condemned in Christ. What is condemned doesn't exist in God's eyes. Now, you experience it, yes. I'm saying we still have indwelling sin. If anyone say we have no sin, we lie, okay? All right, we make God a liar. No, we still have indwelling sin, but God is not identifying you in that indwelling sin. God is identifying you in Christ His Son. You go home, you just underline that. You go home, you are blessed. You just heard the gospel. We tell people, "Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel". What is the gospel? It's not for sinners to do something they cannot, amen. And those sacrifices priests and worshippers in the Old Testament they were ever doing. They were ever doing, doing, doing, never done. Jesus' work finally, one sacrifice for sins forever.
So because of that, we can come, you know, imagine praying to God, hey, you can pray to God like I'm so... when I say, "Father," I'm there already in the Holiest. It's not even the Holy of Holies on earth, you know, people. This is the real Holiest. You have boldness to enter because of all Jesus has done. Do you take advantage of that? And you know something? You don't have to think anymore, "Oh, I had better deal with this sin before I talk to God. Oh, I need God's intervention in this area. Oh, I need God's favor in this area". You can talk to God any time all day when you know you have influence with the King of heaven, the God who moves events and circumstances, amen. Oh, I preached myself happy. I don't know about you, but I'm happy, amen? Okay, hold your clap. I wanna send you home. Right, look at this. It says that, "By a new and living way". The word "new" there in the Greek is "freshly slain". That's why when you take Communion, always think of, like, Jesus just died just now this morning. It's fresh. It's always fresh. This new way is not the old and dying way.
See, the Old Testament is the old and dying way. You do something wrong, bang, because God was counting their sins against them. But now, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin". Because of what Jesus has done, you can come to God boldly. Even with all your faults and all that, you come to God boldly, amen, because he's no more counting those sins against you, amen? Praise the Lord. You come to God boldly, in a freshly slain. The idea of Jesus just died, amen? And living! That means what? What's living? Everyone who comes, their heart is beating, isn't it? They are living, isn't it? But not in that sense. That means, I believe, every time you come, you come alive. Every time you come, you are healthier. It's the opposite of the Old Testament. The Old Testament, every time you come, chances are you might die physically. But now you come, you live. You come, you live. You come to Him, you live. You come boldly, you live. You come to Him, you live. Today, you have lived more. You have come to Him. Makes you look forward to praying.
Any time you see an accident, you don't say... we get into a mood. Straightaway say, "Father, I pray for that person. Cause that person to live long enough, Lord. Heal that person first of course and give them their life". God will hear because of you, amen. Now, because of time, I wanna send you back. This is verse what? Twenty. Then you can drop down to the same chapter, "If we sin willfully". Can you see the context? "After we have received the knowledge of the truth". Is it talking about people who are really saved, people who are believers? No, these are people that come to church. For example, it's even back then, they come to the service. They have the knowledge. They have not received the truth. They received the knowledge of the truth. They know the gospel.
Like there are people, for example, listening to me right now, maybe at home, and they have just received the knowledge of the truth, what Jesus has done for them. You know what they say? "I don't want. I turn my back". That is sinning willfully, and nothing other. Context. Miles Coverdale said what? Look at what preceded before. I just showed you that. Context is king. Sinning willfully there is not every sin and whatever sin you commit, all right? It is referring to that one sin of turning your back on Jesus. It's not even backslider. A backslider can still come back.
This person, the judgment on him is terrible. It is in that day and age, what book is this called? Hebrews. It's the Jewish people, too much to give up for Jesus, you know? I want to believe on Him. I just received the knowledge. After I heard Paul preach, I received the knowledge of the truth and I want to believe, but no. Or they believe for, you know, it's like they believe for awhile, but it's not the faith that saves, amen. They wanna try it out, and then when persecution comes, they turn their back and they go back to the temple sacrifices, which sooner or later is gonna be burned down. That is sinning willfully. So don't be afraid. It's not referring to you. For you, one sacrifice for sins forever. And all the people said... Have you been blessed? You gotta praise the Lord. Give Jesus the praise.
Every head bowed, every eye closed. Friend, if you are here, you never put your faith in Christ, not just received the knowledge of the truth, amen, receive the truth, Jesus Himself is the truth, pray this prayer with me right now. Say:
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the truth that I receive right now. Jesus Christ Himself, the truth, the way, and the life. I believe Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believe He was raised from the dead when I was acquitted, justified in Him. Now, baptize me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. All my sins forgiven. Death, judgment, and sins are behind me. And I thank You. From this day forth, I live no longer as a servant, but as a son of God forever. In Jesus' name, amen.
Praise the Lord. You are now saved. Stand to your feet, church. And if you prayed that prayer, you are now a child of God. Lift your hands before the Lord.
Heavenly Father, I thank You for everyone under the sound of my voice, even those watching at home, Father. And I ask in the name of Jesus that all that has been shared, Lord, will go deep, Lord. Not just in their mind, but deep into their spirit man where it begins to govern them, rule them. Everything they do, Lord, grant them, Father, I pray that they will do it in the new consciousness, the consciousness that You love them all the time. They are the beloved of God. The consciousness that all their sins You are mindful of and You take into account no more. Thank You, Father. I pray for that new consciousness, Lord, to be established this coming week throughout. And even when they fail, Lord, and that's the time they feel like condemning themself, Lord, remind them once again, Holy Spirit witness to them that their sins You remember no more; that they might repent, change their minds, and continue their walk with You, in Jesus' name. And all the people said amen.