The Wrath of Abandonment

This isn't really about politics.

Well, maybe a little about politics.

But I am a Christian first, a believer and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And way behind that, I'm a political Conservative, a believer in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, limited government, free enterprise, low taxes, constitutional strict constructionism, and right to life. In other words, I generally favor a republican (small "r") form of government, in which people freely and democratically elect their representatives, but with a Constitution which protects the freedom and economic sovereignty of its citizens, even unborn ones.

Almost always, when that type of government is not followed, it results in evil practices. Biblically evil. Few exceptions.

Such veering away from the foundations of our Republic is rapidly happening now, due to a radical Leftist President, and a nearly equally radical Leftist Legislature.

The essence of this is both a rapid erosion of freedom (including the freedom to publicly worship Jesus Christ and speak for His Word), and such evils as abortion, infanticide, and the stealing of the earned income of productive citizens to be used for Marxist or Socialist purposes.

Even Marxism itself is essentially a materialistic philosophy, anti-Christ, and has no interest in the spirits and souls of people, favoring the supposed "good" of the State, or those who by their sheer numbers prop up the power of the State.

Finally, such political coups require such blatant and enormous deceit by its leaders that it makes "normal" political deceit look like shining truth. My observation of such deceit in the current U.S. President and Congress is that it has reached the proportions of "The Big Lie".

You may remember that "The Big Lie" was a concept described by Adolf Hitler as a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".

Except under the Obama administration, now only a month old, there are many such "big lies", too numerous to detail here.

Anyway, take a look at the following video, and then I would like to comment briefly on WHY I believe this is all happening:



Romans Chapter 1 speaks of the decline of peoples, individual and groups, in roughly the following pattern:

1. First, although knowing the power and attributes of God from the created world, they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, not seeking God.

2. Then there is typically a sexual revolution, which America experienced full force in the 1960's and 1970's, until today "shacking up", which was considered somewhat shameful when I was a kid in the 1950's, is now hardly blinked at.

3. Then there is a homosexual revolution, which we are currently in the midst of to an amazing degree.

4. Then, God reveals His wrath on a people, with a form of wrath John MacArthur calls "the wrath of abandonment", in which He, in one degree or another, "abandons" a people, nation, etc.

5. This results in a people of "depraved" minds.

John MacArthur, in an insightful message delivered during the National Day of Prayer in 2007, teaches this Romans 1 pattern regarding America, with a sobering conclusion that this "wrath of abandonment" has basically come about in America. (If that link goes dead, just go to family.org and search "John MacArthur, National Day of Prayer 2007")

MacArthur points out that "depraved minds" are minds which simply don't work like they should. They are illogical. Mentally defective.

So when we remark, "What's going on? Are these people CRAZY?!?", the answer is really, "Yes", in the Romans 1 sense.

Think of this next time you find yourself asking, "Is the Congress nuts!!!?" "Are the voters really that stupid!!?" "Has the world gone mad!!?"

A few suggestions:

1. If you are not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you to "flee the wrath to come", believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and follow Him. (More here)

2. If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, more than ever stay in the Word of God, and fellowship with Jesus. You need that truth, and you need that close communion with the Truth. You will not likely find truth in the mouths or programs of political leaders. Walk in the Spirit, be filled with His Spirit.

3. Pray for Obama and our other leaders. If you don't live in America, please pray for us. Hopefully, we can return the favor.

4. Don't be cowardly. It's been said that nothing is worth living for if nothing is worth dying for. If you think these are overly dramatic words, you need to study simple history better.

5. Stay informed, but don't fret and stew and hate. Walk in love, even as you walk in truth. Speak the truth in love. Leave the results to God. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord."

6. Be a witness for Jesus. Tell His story, His good news, His truth, His grace, in private and in public;
in letters to our political leaders;
in blogs and Letters to the Editor;
to your family who may be fearful in these times;
to a friend who may think that political power is the big answer;
to yourself...remind yourself regularly of who you are in Christ, and what He's done for and in you, and what is most important.

The Bewitching of the Galatians (Transcript)

Sounds like some Hollywood science fiction movie.

But we're not talking about the Martians or the Venutians, here. We are talking about some aliens, though, who seem to never stop invading the Church, and bewitching people who really should know better.

The Galatians were not the invaders, they were the ones invaded. They were invaded by the aliens we call the Judaizers or the Circumcision Party.

Here's how it happened. Paul the Apostle, in his missionary journeys, had been to the area called Galatia and preached the gospel. By the grace of God, a good number believed the gospel and were saved. They became the churches of Galatia.

This would include some towns you may have heard of, such towns as Lystra, Derbe, Pisidia and Iconium.

But after Paul had preached the gospel to these folks and, you might say, founded these churches, along came some alien false teachers who sort of went behind Paul's back and told the people that Paul was not really the Apostle he claimed to be.

They said that he was leaving part of the gospel out. They said things that the people began to believe. Things that were so outrageous that Paul was not only a good bit peeved with the Galatians, calling them foolish, but he even went so far as to ask them, “Who has bewitched you?”

But you know what's alarming? The errors that the Galatians fell into are still alive and well in churches today. The evil false teachings that the Galatians were lured by are still luring unsuspecting believers today.

Well, what are these false teachings?

I want to talk about nine of them, which are distinct, yet related to each other.

1. They were bewitched to turn away from the true gospel.

We read in Chapter 1, verse 6, "I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel." "Which is really not another gospel", he says in verse 2.

First of all, what is the gospel? You know, many believers are unable to clearly say what the gospel is. They know they're born again, they know they're saved, they know they believe in Jesus Christ, but when it comes to saying what the gospel is, or explaining the gospel, they really have to think.

Well, here's the gospel in a capsule version:

First of all, the gospel is Jesus Christ Himself. That's the good news. But the other good news ("gospel" means "good news") is that Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross, was buried and rose again from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

He is Lord. And when someone believes in Him as Savior and Lord, they are saved by God. And it's by grace, which means it's a totally free gift, through faith, through believing in Him. Through faith alone without works adding to that salvation at all. That's the gospel.

Well, what were the Galatians turning to? It's what Paul called a "different gospel" and here's what that different gospel was: Grace plus works.

Now, I should explain, when we're born again, when we become a new creation, when we're saved, we will have good works. God works in us, He tells the Philippians, both to will and to do for His good pleasure. We are His poiema, His "poetry". He's built good works into us, and they will come out, in one form or another.

But those works don't add to our salvation. They don't gain our salvation, and they don't keep our salvation. Our salvation is gained and kept entirely by grace...through faith.

What does it mean, then, that they had a "different gospel"? Well, it was being perverted or distorted to the opposite of the true gospel. The true gospel is by grace alone, and they were being taught a gospel by grace plus works.

Don't be bewitched by that. If anybody ever tells you that you need to DO something in order to keep your salvation, or to get your salvation, don't believe them. That's another gospel, which is not a gospel at all.

2. They were bewitched to turn away from Christ Himself.

Look again at Verse 6, Chapter 1. "I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel."

See, they were turning... when you turn away from grace, you turn away from the Grace Giver. This takes away the relationship that causes our lives to flourish.

When we understand grace, and walk in unity with Jesus Christ, by grace, our lives flourish. We have the fruit of the Spirit. We have an ability to live the Christian life that we don't have when we turn it into a series of laws and rules, and think that we're gaining something in our salvation by following those laws.

Doctrine is important. But it's important because it reinforces a close relationship to God. It's not a matter of academics. Doctrine should reinforce a close relationship to Jesus Christ. And of that doctrine, grace is foundational.

Don't be bewitched to turn away from Christ Himself, and make your Christian life just a matter of following "do's" and "don't's". Those will come by the fruit of the Spirit as we walk closely with Him.

3. They were bewitched to reject the authority of the Word of God.

Paul was an Apostle, after all. We read in Chapter 1, verse 11 and 12, "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it. But I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now, as the saying goes, don't try this at home. Paul was in a very unique position as an Apostle, to receive direct revelation. And that revelation has ultimately been put down in the written Word of God. And that's all the revelation that we need.

The Word of God is sufficient for life and godliness. You don't need to go look for direct revelation from the Lord. Because you're not going to get it.

Paul had been given the gospel directly from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And he spends a lot of time in Chapters 1 and 2 defending his apostleship. Because that became important for the Galatians to understand, that when he spoke to them the gospel, and when he wrote them, in this case the letter to the Galatians, that this is the Word of God.

You may remember the salvation of Paul, when he was miraculously saved on the road to Damascus....from there he went into the wilderness of Arabia, alone. He didn't go meet with the other Apostles. He went alone with God, in the desert of Arabia, and met with the Lord directly for years. And during that time he, by direct revelation, received the gospel from Jesus Christ Himself.

And He preached that gospel to the Galatians. And they were bewitched to reject the authority of the Word of God. Don't you be bewitched by that thought, that the Word of God is not sufficient. That you need something more. That a false teacher has something that's revelation from God. If you have anybody that says "I have new revelation from God," [or] that contradicts the Bible, you can immediately know that that's a false teacher.

4. They were bewitched to forget what else happened on the Cross.

Let me read Galatians Chapter 2, Verse 20. This is one of the most important verses in the Scripture. "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and delivered Himself up for me."

You see, when Jesus was crucified on the cross, something else happened on the cross. We who are Christians were crucified with Him, in a mysterious way, but nevertheless an actual crucifixion of our old self. Our old man is dead now because we were crucified with Christ, and we were made a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says you've been made "a new creation...old things have passed away, behold all things have become new." And that's why Paul was asking the Galatians, what could works or law add to what had already been accomplished?

He says in Chapter 3, Verse 1, "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?" And he says that right after Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ..."

At the same time, we have been justified, that is, declared righteous by God. Totally righteous, in right standing with God, as though we had never sinned. And so he's saying, you foolish Galatians, what can you add to that? Having begun by the Spirit, are you going to be made perfect by the flesh? By following the Law? By doing something to complete your salvation, to gain your salvation, or to keep your salvation?

No, and don't you be bewitched by whoever who would tell you that you need to do something in addition to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, for your salvation.

5. They were bewitched to forget what the Law was for.

You see, they thought that the Law could give life. That's what the Judaizers taught them. "Oh yeah, grace is fine. But you need to add these works to gain life, or to maintain life."

Well, in Chapter 3, Verse 21, he says this, "Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteous would indeed have been based on law."

You see, the law couldn't give life. If it could, then righteousness would be by the law. We would be made righteous, in right standing with God, by the law. But he goes on in that chapter, where Verse 22 says that the law confines all under sin. In other words, the law shows us that we were under sin.

And so the law is a tutor, Verse 24, a tutor that leads us to Christ. Shows us that we need a Savior who will save by grace. Because we're not going to cut it if we need to gain or keep our salvation by the law.

But after faith, after believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, after we're made a new creation, we're no longer under a tutor, Verse 25. The law has fulfilled its purpose in leading us to Christ, that we might be saved by grace through faith.

Don't be bewitched and think that we need to go back to that law in order to maintain or gain that salvation.

6. They were bewitched to forget that the Old Covenant was made obsolete.

This is really made clear in Hebrew 8, which would be great for you to read. The Old Covenant was done away with precisely because we can't keep the law perfectly, and that's the only way that the law would gain anything.

And because we can't keep it perfectly, God gave a New Covenant in Jesus Christ, which is unilateral. He totally did it on His part, and then gave us the gift of salvation and righteousness through this New Covenant.

Don't be bewitched by going back to the Old Covenant and thinking that the following of those laws will gain or keep your salvation.

7. They were bewitched such that they didn’t stand fast or stand firm.

Chapter 5 of Galatians, Verse 1 says, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

Don't fall back into that. Stand firm in the fact that you are saved entirely by grace.

And then in Verse 4, he says that the Galatians had "fallen from grace". Falling from grace doesn't mean that they lost their salvation. It means that they got off of the ground of grace, and got onto the ground of law. And that quenches the Holy Spirit and actually hurts their relationship to Jesus Christ.

They forgot about faith and love, which is the fulfillment of the law.

Don't be bewitched by that. Stand fast. When anybody tries to lure you away from grace, you stand fast and stick with the Word of God.

8. They were bewitched to forget to walk by the Spirit.

Chapter 5, Verse 16, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." "You will not fulfill the lust of the flesh," one translation says.

They were bewitched to forget about walking by the Spirit. They went back to the law, and began to say that we're going to complete our salvation by these laws.

When you walk by the Spirit, it leads to the fruit of the Spirit, and leads away from the works of the flesh. So our life is actually more abundant when we walk by the Spirit and not by the law.

Don't be bewitched by that. You stand firm and walk by the Spirit.

9. They were bewitched so that they forgot to bear one another’s burdens in grace.

You see, not only are we saved by grace, and kept by grace, but when we do sin, or when we find another who sinned, we need to treat that with grace. It needs to be corrected, but it needs to be done so by grace.

Grace is not self-righteous. Grace doesn't say, "I'm wonderful, and you're not, and you better get your act together."

No, look at Chapter 6, Verse 1. "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual [See that? You who are filled with the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, you who are spiritual] restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted."

See, grace is not self-righteous. It's gracious.

And grace keeps us going. Verse 9, "And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap, if we do not grow weary." And it's grace that keeps us from not growing weary, as we walk in grace and the Spirit of God.

Grace glories in the Cross. It doesn't glory in our own successes, like self-righteousness does ("Oh, now I'm doing really well. You're not, so you have to get it together, buddy!") No, it's not that attitude at all. It's the attitude that we're all under grace, now let's walk by the Spirit together.

Don't be bewitched. Don't be like the Galatians who fell from grace and forgot these things that they had been taught by the Apostle Paul.

The Bewitching of the Galatians

This week's audio message:

The Bewitching of the Galatians

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

What Do Tornadoes and Roe v. Wade Have In Common?

What do tornadoes and Roe v. Wade have in common?

They both happened on my birthday.

On January 22, 1999, tornadoes swept through Clarksville, Tennessee, greatly damaging much of our historic downtown area, including several stately church buildings, the local newspaper building, the County Courthouse, and a bunch of lawyers' offices (no chuckling).

Today's Leaf Chronicle headline:

TORNADO: 10 YEARS LATER

Today, of course, driving through downtown, you would never know it had happened.

A Cultural Moral Tornado

A cultural moral "tornado" occurred on my birthday in 1973. So much more damaging than the Clarksville tornadoes, comparison is absurd.

The Supreme Court of the United States abandoned their rightful role as Interpreter of the Constitution, and took on the role of Legislature by, in effect, making a ruling that the right to "abortion on demand" would now be the law of the land.

Thirty-six years later, just under 50 million unborn children have been slain in (and out) of the womb. Legally.

Just for comparison, here are the current population figures for several entire countries:

United Kingdom - 60.7 million
Italy - 58.1 million
South Korea - 49 million
Spain - 40.4 million
Canada - 33.3 million

Do you see what has been done? The equivalent of a major nation wiped out.

John Ensor is the Vice President of Heartbeat International and author of Answering the Call: Saving Innocent Lives, One Woman At a Time.

He wrote the following:

"Some years ago, a woman named Suzanne came to me while I was setting up a pregnancy-help clinic in Boston.

She said, 'If I have the abortion, I will have more money to spend on my other two children.'

I asked, 'What do you think your children would say if they knew you were doing this so that they could have cable TV and other stuff?'

She said, 'Well, I'll ask them.'

Then and there I knew the baby would live. Abortion is unthinkable to children--incomprehensible, horrific, something that would never enter their minds to do.

Sure enough, the children were aghast at the thought.

'We want the baby,' they reassured her.

Some months later, after the baby arrived, I heard her share her story. She said she was embarrassed to think back on her earlier state of mind. She had joined the circle of those who think abortion unthinkable." (HT: Challies)

I will still have a Happy Birthday.

I trust in the sovereignty of God. I know He will exercise justice in the end. But I also know that some of that justice has already been exercised in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. From that He offers mercy.

The same God who forgave me of all my sins stands ready to forgive all who come to Jesus Christ, believing in Him as Lord and Savior, believing that He died on the cross to pay for their sins, and believing that God has raised Him from the dead.

I'm glad I was born.

And born again.

Remembering 1976 on Inauguration Day 2009

It was 1976.

I was 26 years old, and had been politically active since 1964. We elected a President that was not my choice, Jimmy Carter. Many had great hopes. But for many they morphed into despair, even as America had just marked our 200th Anniversary.

Jobs became scarce. Mortgage interest rates zoomed to 18 percent, so many couldn't buy a home.

We waited in long lines for gasoline, hoping the gas station wouldn’t run out before we got to the front of the line, like other gas stations had.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini backed the bold invasion of the U.S. embassy and kidnapping of 52 American diplomats. We sent soldiers to rescue them, but crashed two aircraft in the process, eight soldiers dying. We came home empty handed. The hostages remained for 444 days. The humiliation was broadcast on the nightly news, well...nightly.

President Carter didn’t help things. Many of us think he made things worse. That he was inept and ideologically misguided.

High unemployment, rising energy costs, American hostages, the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. And a President who at best only meant well.

There are similar feelings of hope and impending despair as we inaugurate our new President, Barack Obama.

But where is our hope, really?

It’s not in a new President who promises to pass the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, wiping out every bit of progress that we’ve made against the holocaust of the unborn since 1973.

It’s not in a new President who boldly promises to steal (let’s call it what it is) from the so-called rich to give to the so-called poor.

It’s not in a new President who promises to undermine the integrity of our Constitution by appointing unjust Judges who won’t interpret the Constitution, as they are called to do, but will in effect make unjust laws by perverting or ignoring the Constitution.

It’s not in a new President who judges moral righteousness, not by the Word of God, but by how it fits a left-wing political agenda.

No, our hope is in the Sovereign Lord who “turns the heart of the king like a river.”

I pray He will turn the heart of our new President to righteousness.

I pray He will yet bless America.

Regardless, though, He is still building His Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Oh, did I mention...?

1976 was also the year that the Lord Jesus Christ came into my life. What a wonderful year after all.

Whatever the political future holds, it is appointed to all men once to die, and then comes the Judgment. As the Bible says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wrath of God will be poured out on all who reject Him. And the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus said that if anyone comes to Him, He will in no way cast them out, but will save them, by grace. This salvation can't be earned. It's a free gift to all who believe in Him.

If you don't yet know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please turn to Him today. Believe in Him who died on the cross to pay for our sins, and was buried and rose again from the dead. He promises forgiveness to all who come to Him. Call upon Him. In Him is eternal life. Flee the wrath to come.

Have A Blessed Christmas!

The Real Meaning Of Christmas:





The Rest Of The Real Meaning Of Christmas:



Romans 8:1 - There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 8:3 - For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Romans 8:4 - in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Have A Very Merry Christmas!

Why The New Covenant Is Unilateral (Notes)

The Bible is what we call the Word of God. The Scripture itself says that it is “god-breathed” or “inspired” by God. Working through ordinary men, God spoke in a miraculous and mysterious way, through the writing of these men, so that we have a record of the actual thoughts, the very heart, of God. In what we call the Holy Bible.

And as we read and study this Bible, this Word of God, one of the most important things we can do is to “rightly divide” the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Cutting Straight The Word of God

That phrase “rightly dividing” literally means “cutting straight”. We need to cut straight or rightly divide the Word, in the sense that we see the divisions that God Himself has made as He progressively revealed Himself over many hundreds of years.

In one sense, it’s absolutely stunning that so many men over so many hundreds of years could write something that fits together in a way that makes sense. At least it makes sense if we “rightly divide” it. If we don’t rightly divide it, then some things don’t make sense.

God at various times and various places, with various peoples, sometimes had different plans, different commands, different expectations, and different ways of dealing with those people.

The Old Covenant And The New

And one of the most important ways that we need to “rightly divide” the Word is regarding the difference between the Mosaic Covenant, or Old Covenant, and the New Covenant.

Let’s read from the book of Hebrews something about the New Covenant, and then we’ll look at some comparisons with the Old Covenant.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

"Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord.

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those day, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

...."For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

When He said, "A new covenant" He has made the first obsolete. (Heb. 8:7-13, selections)

I’d like you to notice three things from this passage:

1. The Old Covenant is obsolete.

--doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from it
--well worth studying
--what we want to know is the heart of our Lord, don’t we?
--there is much about Him that we can learn even from the Old Covenant
--but it is obsolete, even for the Jew (it was never meant for the Gentile)
--vs 13, “becoming obsolete” refers to 70 A.D. destruction of the temple

2. The Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant

"When He said, 'A new covenant' He has made the first obsolete...." (Heb. 8:13)

--although promised to Israel, the Gentiles have been grafted in, as Rom. Chapter 11 tells us, and we Gentiles who believe in Jesus Christ, are now included in this great New Covenant.

We see this in such passages as:

1 Cor. 11:25, "In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

2 Cor. 3:6, "...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

3. There is a reason why the New Covenant replaced the Old, and why The New Covenant is a BETTER Covenant.

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."

So what is the reason why the New Covenant replaced the Old, and why it’s a better covenant?

Hebrews 8:7,8, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."

What does He mean, “finding fault with them”.

Well, it simply means this. The Old Covenant was a bi-lateral covenant. That means it had conditions for both sides. This was expressed many times in the Old Covenant laws, which said over and over this basic message:

“If you follow these laws, you will be blessed. If you don’t follow these laws, you will be cursed.”

Now there are a couple problems with that, to put it mildly.

The Problems With The Old Covenant

1. First, it couldn’t save.

There were over 600 laws under the Old Covenant, and the bible makes it clear that if you broke one single law, one time, it was just as if you’d broken them all, and that would keep you from earning salvation.

And obviously, no one could keep all the law, all the time.

Most couldn’t keep any of the law all the time, and some could hardly keep any of the law any of the time.

So the Law couldn’t save.

2. Secondly, the Law was a great burden.

If you read through Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you will literally thank God that you are not under the burden of the 600 laws proscribed there, many with a simple penalty: death.

But even if you made the attempt, of course you would fail over and over, at least regarding the perfection the Law required.

And because you would fail, the sacrificial system itself was a burden. Actual rivers of blood flowed from the slain animals sacrificed to cover sins.

3. And that brings up a third problem. There could be no forgiveness of sins, only the covering of them.

Only the temporary covering of sins, because "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." (Heb. 10:4)

And so the sacrifices had to be done over and over and over, with never any real assurance that it was enough. At times God Himself said, your sacrifices make me sick, because your hearts aren’t right.

Then Came Jesus

Ah, but then came Jesus. Then came the Lamb of God who became the final sacrifice, the once for all sacrifice, the One who gave His blood that truly could take away sins.

In came the New Covenant.

The New Covenant is not a bi-lateral Covenant. The bi-lateral Old Covenant failed, in that man was unable to keep his end of the the Covenant. So a better Covenant was put in place. And the one sure defect was left out, namely, dependence on man doing his part.

The Unilateral New Covenant

The New Covenant is UNI-lateral, that is, it was planned, instituted, carried out, fulfilled, and maintained by God. It is not a Covenant between God and man, with each having conditions to make the Covenant "work". It is not of the "letter", but of the "Spirit", and thus cannot fail.

It has His laws placed into the hearts and minds of His people, and He causes them to walk in His ways. It causes man to die to the Law (the very *principle* of Law), so that he is no longer under Law, but under Grace. And this very construct insures that the Law, all Law, is fulfilled, not by the [always shaky] performance of man, but by the [always sure] performance of God.

1 Cor 11:25, "In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.'"

2 Cor 3:6, "...who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

Why The New Covenant Is Unilateral

This week's audio message:

Why The New Covenant Is Unilateral

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Meditation For Freedom (Transcript)

I’d like to begin by quoting a great verse of Scripture from Philippians 4:8. Some of you may have memorized this verse. It goes like this:

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things."

In connection with this passage on what we should be thinking about, what we should be meditating on, I’d like to read also the verse from John 8:31,32 which says this:

"If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Much of what we decide to do or not do in life is decided by how we FEEL about it. And this is not automatically bad. Emotions certainly are a gift from God. To be able to feel often means to be able to enjoy. To be able to feel often means that we don’t just live as robots, but that we live with zest and passion and COM-passion and focus and fun.

Of course our emotions also may allow us to feel grief, despair, depression, rage, and misery.

But how do we take these wild mustangs of emotion and drive them into the corral, and train them to do what’s best for them? To be able to value them, and not dread them? To get them to help us in making decisions in life that are wise decisions? Without becoming robots?

It has to do with what we think about, meditate about.

When we think about things that are bad, we tend to feel bad. When we think about things that are good, we tend to feel good.

Now this is actually good news, for three reasons:

1. We can limit the bad that we take into our minds.

We can’t eliminate it, because it assaults us through our eyes, our ears, and even internally from repetition of past bad things. But we can limit it. We can stay away from input that we know contains great amounts of bad, whether it be books, TV shows, or a particularly destructive person.

2. We can fill our minds with good.

The most obvious source of this truth, this good, for the Christian is the Word of God. Secondary sources may be trusted teachers of the Word, including books, spoken messages, and so forth. But filling our minds with good things tends to set us free.

3. Our emotions are the result of our thoughts.

Now the reason this is good news, is that if you can limit the bad you take in, and if you can fill your mind with good, and if your emotions will respond to that good, then you can be made free. Free in your thinking, free in your feeling, and free in your decision-making.

Now I’ve heard teachers say, don’t let your feelings make your decisions for you, use wise thinking. But they’re in a sense denying a normal thing, and that is the simple reality that SOMETIMES our feelings decide for us. And it’s important for those feelings to be directed by the true, the noble, the just, the pure, the lovely, that which is of good report, that which is virtuous and praiseworthy. As our verse for today tells us.

Another word about what is true: The Bible is big book, and some truth is just plain more important that others. The geneologies are good. But some truth affects our emotions in a good way.

So there’s a lot of truth in that wonderful book. Now the Bible itself says, in 2 Tim. 3:16, that "ALL scripture is inspired by God and profitable." And I sure believe that. There is no scripture that should be left untouched or unread, from the genealogies of Genesis, to the obscure symbolism of Revelation.

But, having said that, we have to realize that when it comes to our daily lives, and truth that brings right thinking, which leads to right emotions, and good decisions, in other words, what we meditate on, there are some scriptures which are just plain more important than others.

There are some rich gems in the genealogies, and digging them out is a wonderful thing. But lets’ face it, there are some truths of the Bible that if we don’t have a good solid handle on, we are just plain messed up. And by “messed up”, I mean “in bondage” of one kind or another. We’re not free in our thinking and in our feeling.

So let’s just look at a couple examples of these foundational truths that tend to set us free. These things that are more important to meditate on than perhaps some other more obscure parts of the Scripture.

Some Extra-Important Things To Meditate On

1. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” -- John 14:6

Whenever we talk about truth, primary in our minds should always be Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ was the Truth and is the Truth upon which all other truth is based. Just meditating on that fact, even just meditating on that passage that “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’”...that has so much in it that can change our thinking, and therefore our feeling, that just to meditate on that truth alone is a valuable thing.

It reminds me of that Scripture which says, “Be still and know that I am God”. Such a simple thing on the surface, and yet the truth of that small passage is so incredible.

2. Secondly, let’s look at the idea of Righteousness.

Romans 3:21 says, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction."

Meditating on righteousness is a great and valuable thing, too. One of the things about the Gospel is that it reveals the righteousness of God, to those who otherwise never would have understood righteousness at all.

You see, because as the Scripture teaches, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that when we’re born into this world and inherit the sinful nature from Adam, our forefather, we have no righteousness within ourselves.

If we’re to be righteous at all, if we’re to gain any kind of righteousness, it has to be given to us from elsewhere, as a gift. And that’s exactly what God did.

He said that Jesus became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. And when we meditate on that truth, that we have been declared righteous by God, that He has given us His righteousness, and now it’s ours...when we meditate on that, it can turn our thinking around. And cause great joy and feelings of gratitude and enlightenment, that nothing else can do. So that’s a great one.

3. The third one is we need to understand and meditate on the fact that we died too, when Jesus died on the cross. Those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ...when He died, we died – in a way that, while mysterious, is very clear in the Scripture.

We look at Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who delivered himself up for me.”

Romans 6:11: “Reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to god.”

See, when we died, we died to sin, and became alive to God in Christ by this miracle.

Romans 7:6: "But now we have been released from the Law, having died
to that by which we were bound."

See, when we died in Christ, we also died to the Law. We were released from the Law, so that the Scripture says that we’re no longer under law but under grace.

Galatians 2:19 "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God."

So something amazing has happened here, and worth meditating on. Talk about that which is noble and of good repute! This is an amazing thing that God has taken us with Him in Christ, and allowed us to die, our old self to die, and be made new, a "new creation". "Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

4. O.K., fourthly, is our Unconditional Love and Acceptance.

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...”

Boy, is that worth meditating on.

And Romans 8 goes on to say that “NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ, the love of God”. He accepts us in the Beloved, and there is nothing we can do to make Him accept us more, and nothing we can do to make Him accept us less.

He accepts us in Christ.

He loves us in Christ.

That alone is a worthy cause for meditation.

5. Fifthly, the Sovereignty of God.

This is one of the most important ones, to understand simply that things are not out of control. That God has control over ALL things.

Philippians 4:11 says, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content”.

Paul says that he has learned to be content in any circumstances. Why? Because he understands that God is sovereign. That no circumstances come into his life that God has not planned and allowed, for good. And that even things that are bad are being worked together for good.

Romans 8:28, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, and are the called according to His purpose.”

When we can meditate on that, and really get a grip on that, we have no cause for [undue] sadness. We have no cause for despair or depression, because all things are being worked together for good.

And if we can meditate on that, get a hold of it, it can revolutionize our lives.

Contentment comes from understanding that God is good, and that God is in control. That’s the sovereignty of God.

6. And then lastly, the fruit of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit.

What a wonderful thing to meditate on. This leads to surrender.

This is the wonderful fruit of the Spirit that comes into us as we meditate, commune with Christ, surrender to Him, are filled with His Spirit, are walking in truth.

And this only comes from the Word of God and the Spirit of God, as we look upon Him. As we meditate on Him and His Word. As we move our eyes from ourselves, and onto Him. As we surrender to grace, and get off the ground of law.

In comes this fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Those things alone are great to meditate on.

As we meditate on good things, we are filled with the truth of Christ, and the truth of Grace, and the truth of who we are in Christ, and the truth of His great love and acceptance of us, and we naturally tend to respond in our feelings, and with that comes a freedom we may have never known before.

Well, let’s close by reading that great verse again, Philipp 4:8:

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy -- meditate on these things.”

And you know, God has made us fearfully and wonderfully in a particular way, and that is that our minds can only think or meditate on one thing at a time.

So as we set our minds on these things that are good, on these things that are true, it actually crowds out of our minds those things that are bad, and untrue, and that cause bondage.

Meditation For Freedom

This week's audio message:

Meditation For Freedom

Grace For Life audio archives are here.