Unraveling the Old and New Covenants: From Bondage to Joyous Freedom

I'm not under the old system where I have to be afraid that you're going to abandon me

and because of my sin you're going to now withdraw your presence, no Lord.

Even if I fall, I don't have to fall, but should I fall?

You run to me to pick me up, you don't abandon me.

The sin is no longer a problem because the sin has been taken out of the way and thoroughly

punished in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah!

Welcome to the CityLight Church Podcast.

Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that

He has for us.

If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com,

that citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already

working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you

are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Galatians is the clash of the covenants and that's the title of this series.

In Galatians, what you see is a group of people, much like inefficians, much like infilippians.

These were in Galatia and much like the other groups that got saved, they came to a saving

faith in Jesus, and they understood that their salvation was not dependent on them.

They understood that Jesus did all the work.

In other words, Jesus plus nothing equals everything, amen?

Salvation is a gift and you cannot add or contribute to it.

Yet here in Galatia, and what Paul is addressing in Galatians, is these Judaizers who have

come in, and now they put the people under bondage, these Christians, these new Christians,

and said, it's great that you believe in Jesus, but you also have to keep the law of Moses.

You must be circumcised, and there was more things in addition to that.

You must keep the Sabbath, and what they are in essence saying is Jesus plus your own

law keeping, Jesus plus your own behavior equals everything.

That's not the gospel.

That's not the new covenant, and typically the Christian response might be, what's the

big deal?

What's the problem?

As long as they believe in Jesus and you want to mix a little bit, maybe it even makes

you a better person if you mix it up a little bit, and Paul says no.

In fact, he vehemently says no.

You see him at his most Pauline, you see him totally lose it.

He's very emotional.

He says you are fallen from grace.

You're nullifying the grace of God.

You cannot mix the covenants.

Pick one.

Under the old covenant, under the old system of law, you never had right standing with God.

You never had the new birth.

You never had the Holy Spirit living inside of you.

What you had was a system where you endeavored, you tried, you strived to be approved

to God based on your own behavior and your own law keeping, and you failed every time.

Because the Bible says over and over again, if you break the law in one place, your guilty

of breaking it in all places, your guilty of breaking the entirety of the law.

So on the test of the system of the law, a 99 won't cut it, and a minus won't cut it.

You have to score perfect grade and no human can do that.

Only Jesus has done that.

And a plus on the test even got the extra credit, right?

And then took his name and said, whoever puts their faith in me, I'll put your name on

the test and you can turn that in.

Woo!

Now that's why the gospel is called Good News.

The new covenant is a different system entirely.

God hasn't changed.

God is the same.

But the way in which he deals with man has fundamentally changed.

What changed it?

The same thing that changed their calendar.

The same thing that changed their nations, the cross of Jesus.

The cross of Jesus changed everything.

So on the one side, you have the old covenant system of law where you endeavor to be improved

unto God.

You tried, you tried, but never were.

Under the new covenant, you already are past tense, totally forgiven, totally approved,

totally accepted, welcomed into the family of God.

All your sins past, present, and future done away with, not based on your effort, not

based on anything you do.

But solely based on what Jesus has already past tense, done, done, done.

Amen.

Which system would you rather live under?

I'm going to interpret the silence because you understand it's a rhetorical question,

right?

Amen.

Amen.

And do you have any reason to mix the two?

No, especially not when there's a clear warning that if you mix them even a little, you

actually are completely going back to under the old.

So we want to live on this side of the cross, not the BC side, not the before Christ side,

but the Anodomini, the year of our Lord side, the one where we realize that there is a cross,

there is the forgiveness of sins, it's already a past tense fact.

This change is everything.

So I want to just say, and echo what Paul has been saying in this class of the Covenants,

the old covenant system is done, the old covenant system of the law is done, it's finished.

Now here's what some people misunderstand when the Bible says it, or when I repeat it,

if they hear is, we don't have to read the Old Testament anymore.

Never said that.

The Old Testament is the Word of God.

The Old Testament is just as much.

The Word of God is the New Testament is the Word of God.

We just need to read the old in light of the New.

Amen.

I'll give you an example of how to do that in just a little bit.

Here's what some other people miss here when I say we're no longer under the law.

If they hear is, that pastor is telling people to be totally immoral.

They're not under the law, they're not under any commandment, they're not, and that's

not at all what I'm saying, that's not what the Scripture is saying.

What the Scripture is saying, which I'm reiterating, is that you are not and cannot ever be justified

before God by your law keeping.

You're justified before God by trusting in Jesus and how He perfectly kept the law in

your place.

Amen.

Sister, what about holiness?

What part does holiness play?

Should we be different?

Christians?

Absolutely.

Should we continue to sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

But now holiness is worked from the Lord, from the inside out.

God wants heart transformation, not behavior modification.

Passion comes from the outside, wants to change your external, but a new covenant relationship

with the Lord changes you and produces fruit from the inside out.

And by the way, when you're under grace, you're actually holier and the standard is set

higher.

All you have to do is read the sermons on the Mount where Jesus says you've heard it said

and He points to the law, and then what He actually reveals is what He and the Father

and the Holy Spirit had in their heart when they gave the law.

It's actually much more holy, amen?

But you can only fulfill it when you're filled with the Holy Spirit and you yield to

Him.

So I'll give you an example.

My wife, every week, she does the Scripture memorization verse with the kids on the way to

school, which I love that she does that.

She told me that she memorized one Bible verse a week as a child, and I'm convinced that's

what's kept her all these years.

You cannot have the Word inside of you without it working in you.

The Bible says, the Word works, Scripture memorization is so powerful.

The Word inside of you, you know, the Psalmist said, that in Word have I hid in my heart

that I may not sin against the Word works.

Paul said that, the Word works, the Greek there, and Edgar, it energizes, is it actually,

you memorize the Scripture and you think you're done with it?

It's not done with you.

It's in there for years working.

It's alive.

God is one with His Word, to have His Word in you, having God in you, and that's kept

her all these years.

So she does this Scripture verse, memorization, one verse a week, and this week's verse

was, and this falls great with my example from Psalm 5110.

Talking about, and we're going to finish Galatians 4, we're in the middle of it, I promise

you.

David here in Psalm 5110 is talking about coming back to the Lord, and he had committed

an awful sin.

He had just fallen with Bathsheba in adultery.

He killed her husband, Uriah.

He lied about it, and he didn't even confess it all, because he felt convicted himself.

It was only when the prophet came Nathaniel and busted him and exposed him in front of

everybody that now he's repentant, right?

And this is a beautiful verse, and we should memorize it.

There's even a song.

How many of you know the song?

This is based on this verse.

As a teenager, I cried many times, created me a clean, hard-o-god, and renew a right spirit

or a steadfast spirit within me, and then it gets real.

That's the point where I would start to cry, cast me not away from your presence, O Lord.

Did he ever do that under the new covenant?

Cast you away?

He says, take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Do you know anybody in the new covenant that had a Holy Spirit taken from them?

That's an old covenant problem, because the Holy Spirit would come upon only certain people

for a certain event, namely the king, the prophet, and the high priest, and then the Holy

Spirit would retreat.

Today, you have the Holy Spirit.

He's not going anywhere.

Trust me.

I've tried.

I've tried running from God.

He is faithful.

He's a friend that's six closer than a brother.

Amen.

So when you read something beautiful from the Psalms like, create in me a clean, hard-o-god,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me, you have to do it with a new covenant lens.

I love the Old Testament and reading the Old Testament, but read it in light of what

Jesus has done.

So when you read that, you realize this is David still looking forward to the cross.

Still knowing Messiah would one day come, but under his system, he's scared.

You don't have to be scared anymore.

And he's crying out to God, oh, God!

Create in me a clean heart.

Raise your hand if you've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior right now.

God has given you a clean heart, hasn't he?

That's your human spirit, the real you on the inside.

If you fall, if you sin, that does not enter your spirit.

You don't have to get born again again.

So you read this first and you can read it like, God, I thank you.

You have already created in me a clean heart.

You've already given me a steadfast and right spirit.

And then you read the next passage where he cries, I take that, you're a Holy Spirit

from me.

You can then pray the Psalms and say, Lord, I'm so glad that I live on this side of

the cross where you will never take your Holy Spirit from me.

I'm not under the old system where I have to be afraid that you're going to abandon

me.

And because of my sin, you're going to now withdraw your presence, no Lord, even if

I fall, I don't have to fall.

But shit, I fall.

You run to me to pick me up, you don't abandon me.

This sin is no longer a problem because this sin has been taken out of the way and thoroughly

punished in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah.

Let me reverse read with a new covenant, Lance, if you're ever reading the Bible and you

find yourself not elated, not filled with joy, you're probably mixing covenants.

Here's the classic one.

And I notice it's always angry, mean, religious people that love verses like this, that one

verse from Jeremiah where it says, the heart is desperately wicked, deceitful above all

things.

Do you know that verse?

Of course you look.

And then I'll ask, everybody suggests, and I'll ask, do you know the verse that says

the old covenant is no longer in place with which one is that again?

But the one that says you have a wicked and evil heart, everybody knows it.

It's the first thing you're taught.

That is true before you were saved.

That is true under the old covenant, they didn't have the new birth, they didn't have

a new heart, a new spirit put in them.

They were still waiting on the fulfillment of the promise that he would take out the heart

of stone and put in a heart of flesh.

So they did have a heart.

And so did I before I came to Jesus.

That was desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.

But now those of us who've received Jesus have been given a new heart, a submitted, a

heart now that's submitted to the Lord, a heart that says, all I want is what you want

for me, Lord.

Now I don't identify with that verse anymore.

The only way I identify with it is this used to be me, but it's no longer me.

Do you see what I'm saying here?

Hallelujah.

There's other verses whenever in the Old Testament you see a conditional promise.

Ask yourself, have I met this condition?

A lot of blessings in the Old Testament are conditional.

For example, it says, the Lord God is the Son and a shield.

The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from the one who walks uprightly.

Who here can read that and then go, whoo, that's me, all by myself.

I walk uprightly.

I cross every T and that every I, therefore I qualify that God is not going to withhold

any good thing for me because I walk uprightly.

You should read that verse at first and cry and go, I am missing out.

God said he won't withhold anything.

If I walk uprightly, if you think you do walk uprightly and then of yourself, whoo,

you need some law to lead you to grace because you can't enjoy the beauty of grace until

you first experience the terror of the law.

Today when I read that verse that he won withhold any good thing from the one who walks uprightly,

I don't read that and go, you know what, Lord, I gave my life for the ministry, whoo,

mastering 21 plus years, I qualify and then I list off all the sins I stopped doing as

a favor to him.

Surely, Lord, you know I quit X, Y, Z, didn't want to, but you know you kind of owe me now.

No, I look at that verse and I say, I am qualified.

I have been made perpetually upright in Jesus alone, I don't qualify for any conditional

promise, but in Christ, all of your promises are yesterday, man.

Hallelujah.

In Christ, I'm upright.

In Christ, I'm righteous.

In Christ, do you know when the Father looks at you, if you've made Jesus to your Lord

and Savior, do you know how He sees you, perfect, spotless, sinless, He cannot find one

eye out of sin in you?

This will raise your confidence.

This will eliminate the judiizing voices in your life.

The voices that want you to mix the covenants together.

What are the warning signs that your covenant mixing?

In the theme, the theme, we call this service, this series, the clash of the covenants,

but the theme here is no mixing of the covenants.

What was the question I just asked?

How do you know if you thank you?

How do you know if you're mixing the covenants?

There's tell-tale signs.

It wasn't hard to tell in the first century because they wanted to circumcise all the

men.

That's pretty overt.

Today, it's more subtle.

Any voice, any teaching, usually the judiizing covenant mixing temptation, comes from your

own self, your own mind, yet unrenewed mind.

The tell-tale signs, the warning flags are, of course, if you're experiencing shame, guilt,

condemnation.

If you find yourself striving, if you find yourself trying to earn God's love, if you

feel like you have to perform in a certain way for him to accept you, that's mixing the

covenants.

Anything that seeks to belittle you and take you away from your rightful place as an

heir of God, seated in heavenly places, that's your positional place, seated in heavenly

places in Christ.

As a son of God, that's a covenant mixing voice that you should not listen to, and you

know when I say son of God, just using that scripture language, it's all inclusive.

Like brethren, his brothers and sisters, son of God, son of daughter of God, child of

God, that's who you are.

Paul just made that case in Galatians.

You're a child of God with the same rights and privileges as the natural born heir.

You take that.

You look at the scriptures.

You know you're on the right track when you almost feel like you're bordering on heresy.

Yeah, because what that's saying is that when the father looks at you, he sees you the

same way he sees Jesus.

That's what Jesus did for you.

This is why the gospel is good news.

He elevates you.

He took you out of the mud of sin.

And now he made you equal with him, that's why in Hebrews 1 it calls Jesus your brother.

Of course we still worship Jesus.

Of course we still submit to him, but positionally speaking to God the Father, he sees you in Christ

and doesn't see the difference.

If you really got that, you'll be a magnet for answered prayer.

You'll be a magnet for favor, a magnet for blessings.

You won't have some spiritual inferiority complex.

You won't ever run from God when you mess up, you run to him.

And Christianity actually becomes, wait for it, pleasurable.

Who would have thought this is what Paul meant when he said it was for freedom that Christ

has set you free.

That church should be the happiest place on the planet.

People who understand they've been redeemed, they got all the credit and didn't under the

work.

Hallelujah.

Let's go to Hebrews chapter 8 verse 7, no better way to finish Galatians 4 than by starting

Hebrews 8:7

in Hebrews.

Amen.

We're going to finish Galatians 4.

I just want you to see some things in the scriptures for yourselves, because I've said

over and over again the old covenant system of the law is finished, dead, and I don't

want you to take my word for it.

We're reading in Galatians over and over again how Paul says the same thing, but I don't

want you to even take one epistle or one New Testament letter as evidence.

I want you to see that this is throughout the scriptures.

By the way, the Hebrews letter was written to, wait for it, Hebrews.

Jewish Christians, and they were under heavy persecution.

They were socially ostracized.

They were economically ostracized.

They weren't, people were told not to trade with them or barter with them.

And out of all the Christians that experienced the most persecution, it was Jewish Christians.

They weren't Christian enough for the Christians.

They weren't Jewish enough for the Jews.

And they were really being tempted to go back to living under the old covenant.

Much like Galatians, Hebrews has two main themes.

One of them is don't quit, don't quit.

The second one is you can't go back to the old covenant because it's over.

It's done.

Let's read.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for

a second.

That's not right there.

There's a clue in the old covenant.

When the old covenant prophesies that a new covenant is going to come, that tells you

that the old isn't perfect.

Right?

I mean, if I'm trying to give you a product and say a totally different version is coming

out next year, you're going to say, what's wrong with this one?

There's a built-in problem in the old covenant where if the first covenant had been faultless

or perfect, there would be no place for a second.

Verse 8.

Because finding fault with them, that's the problem of the old covenant, the old system

of the law.

That could still find fault with you.

The old system of the law puts, how easily everyone's distracted, all of a sudden, someone

coming down the aisle, most fast, anything they've ever seen.

Right here.

This is, that was going to change your life, look at me.

I will not be ignored.

I want you to get this little change in life.

The problem with the old system is that God still could find fault with you because

you break the covenant, the old system of the law places a demand on you for holiness,

for right living, but doesn't fill you with the power to meet or fulfill that demand.

So God could still find fault.

Because finding fault with the people with them, he says, behold, this is now, he's

according from Jeremiah 31, it's not amazing, a prophecy in the old testament that a new

testament was coming, a new system of order, 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, a

new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.

So he's reiterating, this is completely different.

It's not even according, it has no similarity to the old covenant, not according to the

fathers.

In the day when I took them by the hands to lead them out of the lands of Egypt, because

they did not continue in my covenant, and that's the problem with the old.

It really is a perfect covenant, but it's just not perfect for man, because we cannot

meet our end of the obligation.

This is why the new covenant is superior.

You see, the old covenant was God on one side, he's not going to break it, he's perfect,

and you on the other side having to behave perfectly in order for the covenant to be

intact.

Guess what part failed?

That's the problem with it.

Under the new covenant, the covenant is between God the Father and Jesus Christ in you, the

hope of glory.

So you have God the Father and Jesus as you're set through holding the covenant perfectly

together on your end.

What a deal, because if it was up to me, I'd mess it up yesterday.

It would last five seconds with me.

But Jesus now is holding it in your place, what a glorious Savior.

The pressure is off.

Now I can rest.

Now I can actually have something called Sabbath, except it's not once a week on Saturday where

I can play with my light switches.

It's actually me, every single day, every hour of the day, ceasing for my own striving,

ceasing for my own laboring, just like Jesus did.

And he sat down, which is a place of rest.

I can now sit down and say, Lord, I don't have to work for you to earn salvation, to earn

favor, to earn approval, to earn right standing, I can rest, I'm already made.

This is what the book of Hebrews says.

Made perfect.

It says, you have been made complete, made perfect in him.

Then what do you do from there?

Just chill out and just occupy till he comes.

That verse actually is a very active verse, but people think it means, all right, now you

just kind of just wait until the trumpet blast.

No, now that you have been made perfect, now you're going to outwork everyone.

Not because you have to, because you want to.

Not because someone from the outside is making you, but you're filled with the Holy Spirit

and you're grateful.

And now you're like, Lord, you've taken my sins completely forgiven and forgotten, made

me and you're so blessed me, you've even called me a friend.

I'm adopted into the family of God, now I want to live for you.

And now it's coming empowered by the Holy Spirit from the inside out, not from religion.

Let's keep reading verse 10.

For this is the covenant that I will, shout I will.

See the old covenant, all the pressures on you.

When the Ten Commandments were given, who was the emphasis on?

You, you shall not kill, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not commit adultery,

thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt, and you're under other end going, I don't want to

but sometimes I do.

Now God says, all right, I'm going to do for you what you can never do for yourself.

So he comes in with his eye will.

When that pressure is on us for you too, we crumble, we cannot.

He says, I will.

I will make with the house of Israel after those days this covenant, this new covenant says

the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts.

Do you see it's not external anymore?

The law came on two tablets, external, and you weren't given the Holy Spirit inside

of you to help you meet that obligation, but now he says, a new covenant is coming where

I'm actually going to put inside of you a desire to do right.

I'm going to put inside of you a desire to live for me.

I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and then the place where

intimacy is opened up.

I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Verse 11, none of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brothers saying, no the Lord.

For all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds.

I will remember no more.

Isn't this beautiful from Jeremiah 31, a prophetic word that the new covenant is coming and

what it would be like?

Verse 13.

In that he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete.

I'll never forget.

This is by the way I've been hammering this truth for years.

Back in 2009, I preached this even earlier and two people made an appointment with me.

They were very upset and they weren't even Jewish, but they ministered to Jewish people and

they were very upset that I was saying you're no longer under the system of the law.

They said, show it to me in the Bible, I literally just preached this.

So I opened and they met with me the next Wednesday.

So I opened up the same verse that I just preached that they were sitting under, which

just over the years I've learned.

You can be talking to someone and they hear something totally different.

You can be saying two plus two is four, but if they have other biases, if they're looking

at you through a wonky lens, they're going to mishear you and get something totally different.

So I just re-read the same thing.

People think I wrote this because they say it so much.

I didn't write it.

I'm just quoting what the writer of Hebrew said in that he says, a new covenant, he has

made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete, the system of the law, the system of trying to get God's

approval based on your self effort, finished, done, even Psalm 51, someone said, what's

the big deal?

I took my kids aside and we had a fun time for 10 minutes reading Psalm 51, creating me

a clean heart with a new covenant lens.

Why is that so important?

Because you see David, does he appear strong and confident to you?

Does he?

No.

He's begging.

He's afraid.

Oh God, creating me a clean heart.

This is the most Christian cast me down from your presence.

Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

What is me with Hissep?

What is that?

How do you read that and not think of the new covenant?

Clens me with Hissep.

What is Hissep?

I know what Hissep is because I went to the Russian baths right near Seventh Street

where a church was.

Nicole, you go to those Russian baths?

I had a back thing years ago, someone said go to the Russian baths.

I had no idea.

I thought I was going to get a relaxing massage.

It's right in St. Mark's where our church for 18 years was.

And inside, it's like 50 burly Eastern European men just walking around.

I can say that because I'm Eastern European.

You don't want to?

Just walking.

And then there's this pool with 50 people.

And they got these green branches and there's workers and they're bashing each other over

the back.

And then one guy goes, you next.

I'm like, what?

And they're bashing each other with these branches and the backs are all red.

I go, what is that?

And he goes, is Hissep?

I was like, I'm going to go straight to the massage.

Thank you very much.

Hissep is a plant from the mint family.

They used it to clean things, to wash clothes, and also the priests used it to ceremonially

cleanse things.

So David and the old Testament are going to cleanse me with Hissep.

You should not pray that today.

You should know that that Hissep is a symbol pointing to Jesus and His blood, the ultimate

cleansing.

And then you think, oh, I'm on this side of the cross.

Oh, I lost my way.

I'm on the right side of the cross.

I don't have to beg God.

Oh, cleanse me.

I am cleansed already.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Yes, I still, if I sin, I go to the Lord, I say, Lord, forgive me.

But really, I know He has already forgiven me 2,000 years ago.

I'm not trying to get forgiveness.

I've already been forgiven.

So does that make you sin more or less, less?

When you really get grace, you sin less.

You won't ever be sinless, but you're going to sin less, because you get His grace.

Oh, hallelujah, my mic is on, right?

All right.

In that He says, a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete.

Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

I got in a wonderful argument with a close pastor friend.

I've fully converted him now to the new covenant.

Wonderful man, but he was just stuck, like many people stuck in the old.

Why?

Because the old appeals to us, because we're sick and messed up, but the old makes sense.

Adam and Eve, they gravitated to the system of the Lord.

They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That is the system of the law, is the knowledge of good and evil.

When God just wanted them to eat from Jesus, the tree of life, forever.

We always, if left alone, will gravitate to the law.

If you didn't go to church for six months and didn't hear any word, trust me.

I would find you in the most bound legalistic place.

If we sat down and talked, you'd end up weeping and saying, God is so distant and He's

cursing me and He's punishing me and you, because we forget so quickly.

Peter talked about that, he said, you forgot, you forgot, you forgot, you were cleansed

from all your former sin.

So we're arguing and he's saying, see, the old covenant is not fully obsolete, it's ready

to vanish away.

So there's just a little bit left.

People will say anything to mix the covenants.

This is a true story.

I'm not preaching now.

I'm telling you the truth.

Right.

It's a joke.

You're not going to see if you're awake.

The only reason he said is ready to vanish away because obviously the final nail in the

old covenant system of the law was Jesus Christ's resurrection.

But the final final nail was the destruction of the temple in 70 AD and that was still

just a handful of years away from when he wrote this.

Because when the temple was destroyed, the whole sacrificial system that the law is based

on was done away with.

You don't need, God allowed the Romans to destroy the temple.

You don't need goats and bulls and heifers to cover sin once a year.

When you yourself came down in the person of Jesus in the form of man, to give your life

a ransom, one sin for all, take all of humanity, sins away.

You don't need a system where bulls and heifers are sacrificed annually.

So the temple was destroyed and that was really a shafar blast to the whole world saying,

the law is done.

Finito, stop it.

No matter how much you want to go back to the ABCs of the universe, don't do it.

We have a much better covenant in place now.

I feel like we should just say this.

He has made the first obsolete.

Can we just say that out loud?

I feel like demons are going to leave some of us when he said out loud.

They're going to cry out with a loud voice.

No one wants to say it because a joke like that said, come on, he has made the first obsolete.

So stop trying to live under it.

Oh hallelujah.

Let's look at Ezekiel.

I want to show you another prophetic verse of this great new covenant that we live in.

Hallelujah.

I'm preaching myself so happy.

If you will, go on a journey and realize like I do every day, I don't quite fully get

it.

I need to reform my mind to get the beauty of the new covenant.

Why don't I fully get it?

Because Paul said this is hard to understand.

He called it a mystery.

This isn't something you get overnight.

It is completely contrary to everything we've been taught.

Text time.

It's like unraveling one of those Russian dolls, you know?

When you go on a journey, you focus on Jesus, you go on a journey of discovering all

that you have as a result of being in Christ, in Him, over 250 verses in the New Testament

that used to phrase in Christ, in Him, by Him, in whom your mind will be renewed.

And then you'll realize who He has made you to be, how He has elevated you, how He has

lifted you up, and now you become a magnet for all of the things that Jesus died in order

for you to have hint, they're all good.

They bring victory, victory in every area of your life.

And that's what I'm after here this morning.

Because I know we're getting theological, I'm going in a lot of details, but what I'm

after this morning is you living in victory 24-7, and you cannot live in victory if you're

mixing covenants impossible.

I want you standing firm in the new, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of your

faith, and now you're in the path to victory.

And yes, sometimes bad times come, but I've noticed even when bad times come, trying times

come, even when you suffer, you can suffer good.

You can suffer in victory.

And it honestly makes that season that the devil would love to make a multi-year season.

It makes it weeks or months.

It's just passing by.

You're like, pass on by.

Next.

There's a great, from Ezekiel, not to be outdone by Jeremiah.

Here comes Ezekiel with his own prophecy of the new covenant.

Count the eye-wills.

No, because remember, the old covenant, all the pressures on you, you will, you will,

you will.

There's over five eye-wills here, because God says, you should have, but you didn't,

and I knew it, but you insisted on it, so I let you have your way, and you failed every

time.

Can I please help you, because you are making a mess?

Now I will.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart.

This is what Jesus, when he looked at Nicodemus and said, you must be born again.

He was talking about this, a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.

I will take out the heart of stone, out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you.

Do you know what it was like for people on you, the old covenant of the law to hear this?

That God Himself would come and indwell them?

No, no.

We've heard of that happening occasionally to the king, the prophet, the high priest,

a little old me.

Yeah, all of us.

And whoever the Lord our God shall call.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you.

This is why holiness is yielding to the Holy Spirit.

It's not trying really hard to stop sinning, yield to the Holy One inside of you.

Because already inside of you, He's causing you.

He's making you to think His thoughts and to walk in His will,

and according to His good pleasure.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

By the way, if you want to really live this out, there's things that you can do to help.

You don't do these things to get close to God.

You realize you don't get any closer than you and Him and Him and you.

You're already close with God.

But you can do some things that will help this.

For example, I found praying helps this.

I found scripture reading helps this.

I found coming to church helps this.

Having Christian friends and talking about the Lord and the Word helps all this.

Amen.

Worship, that really helps all.

It doesn't help, you're not adding to the finished work of the cross,

but it keeps you in a place where you're receiving.

Amen.

Can we go back to that verse, please?

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes

and you will keep my judgments and do them.

Notice it's now internal, not external.

Hallelujah.

Let's finish up Galatians 4, shall we?

Paul goes into a Bible lesson here.

Everybody all right?

Amen.

We're covenant you're going to live under.

You become really good.

Become an expert on the new.

Study out the new.

Go to a church that will do a eight week series on the new.

Make sure nobody doops you.

Make sure nobody hypnotizes you like Paul said to the Galatians who was bewitched you,

was hypnotized you.

Make sure you're not living under shame, guilt and condemnation and that you're enjoying

your relationship with the Lord.

It's easy to enjoy your relationship with the Lord when you realize he's smiling down

at you, not gritting his teeth at you.

I'm going to hide his teeth.

No.

Yeah.

He's a much better father than most of us have had.

Very gentle, very loving, long suffering because what I will tell the people, I'll say

holiness, the Lord will work out holiness in you.

And then I see some people that happens quickly and then I see some people.

It happens slowly.

There's areas in my life, certain things were overnight, major changes overnight.

The Lord just, but other things, it was like, whoa, these sins, Lord, seem to be persisting.

Bad habits, bad behaviors.

I would notice he's very long, sir.

It's not that he's winking at sin, God is still against sin.

But he loves you while you're the work in progress.

He does and you actually get your power to change, not from yourself, not from self-discipline,

from trying really hard.

No, it comes from receiving his love for you.

There's some sins that broke off me only when I fell 30 times, 30 times, 30 times.

And I realized he still loved me.

And he still chased me.

It was the enemy, it was my own voice of self-condemnation, saying, oh, he's so tired of you.

But no, I'm tired of me.

The devil's tired of me.

My friends may be tired of me.

But he's not tired of me.

And if you don't quit and keep looking to him, keep holding his hand and walking with him,

he'll work his will out in you.

Amen.

And guess what?

You can actually enjoy that journey.

Doesn't have to be a grievous burden, some journey of frustration.

Church has made it that way somehow.

But that's not how it should be.

Amen.

All right.

Hallelujah.

I feel like we need to have a little sealah.

Paul goes here into a little biblesson of Abraham.

Abraham and Sarah.

And the promise that was given to Abraham, that he was going to be the father of many nations.

Abraham and Sarah received this promise when they were well advanced in years.

And so they did what most of us would do.

We sit here comfy and we judge them and go, how could they?

When we've all done the same thing, which is when we don't like God's timing and we get impatient,

we make it happen in our own strength.

So here's what happened.

God promises to Abraham and Sarah.

You're going to have children.

You're going to be the father of many nations.

And then they're like, this is so awesome.

But then years go by and there's no kids.

And so wondering what's up with that?

So they make it happen in the flesh.

What is in the flesh mean in their own strength?

And they have the bright idea that Abraham should sleep with the slave that was a part of

their family, the bondswoman, the servant girl.

Her name was Haggar.

And he had a child, Ishmael.

He was a child of the flesh, a child of him making the promise of God come to pass, which

really isn't the promise of God.

Just know that you cannot do something and then ask God to come and bless it.

You got to go to where the blessing already is and do what he already said would be blessed.

Because whatever you do, I mean you could do that, but then you got to maintain it.

You got to sustain it.

You got to now be absolutely exhausted by propping it up all the time.

But when it's the promise of God, then there's freedom.

There's no sweat.

There's joy.

Tell me you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

This is what I feel like telling some of you.

Some of you who love mixing the covenants and you're upset with me that I'm saying the

old is done.

Tell me you who love to live under the law.

Do you not hear the law?

God hear what's said in the Old Testament.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond woman, the other by a free

woman, the free woman, his wife, Sarah, the bond woman, Haggar.

But he who was of the bond woman was born according to the flesh and he of the free woman

through promise, which things are symbolic.

I'm so glad Paul said this so that when I tell you that these things are symbolic, you

don't think that it's just me that's making them symbolic.

I wonder what book pastor has been reading and now he's drawing these inferences and

no, Paul says this is symbolic.

He says, Isaac is a symbol of the new covenant.

Isaac was the child of promise, the promise of the spirit.

He's the new covenant that thing that you did, ischmail in your own strength, trying to

make my promise come to pass.

That's symbolic of the old covenant.

He's doing a little compare and contrast here.

By the way, do you know what Isaac means, anybody?

Isaac means laughter because when it's under the new covenant, there's no sweat, there's

no laboring.

Have you ever seen someone laughing and striving at the same time?

No.

No covenant is about striving, schmitzing, pushing, trying but never achieving.

Under the new covenant, there's a freedom.

The new covenant, which Isaac is a symbol of, means laughter and then people ask, how come

when I go to city light, there's people laughing?

That's why, some of them, it's actually a prophetic, it's, I've been forgiven of all my

sin, me to sit in heavenly places in Christ, I'm a child of God, under the new covenant,

and I can't even help him out with it, he gave it all to me for free.

That is a high, amen.

For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage.

He calls the old Testament system bondage.

By the way, can I, I'm going to take my time, because there's no time limit on this

service, I'm going to tell you something.

For people who love, who think that like church should be tougher.

If I thought that you would have a better life if I was tougher, I could be the meanest

toughest person, trust me.

When the law was given, 3,000 people died.

God said when the law was given, even if an animal touches this mountain, let it be put

to death.

The fear, the threat was.

And do you know how long it took him to sin after they got the law?

Hours.

In other words, the threat of punishment didn't prevent them from immediately sinning.

It never does.

That's why I'm not the waggy index finger preacher, telling you to get your act together.

Because if that could help you, I would do it, but it doesn't help you.

Didn't help me.

That day, 3,000 people died when the law was given at Mount Sinai.

And the new covenant was implemented at Jerusalem, Mount Zion, 3,000 people were born again

that same day.

And there's no threat looming over you.

He's saying, I have done.

I have forgiven you.

And now from the inside out, you have a change.

Hallelujah.

The one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is hagar.

That's the old covenant, bondage.

That's verse.

For this hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is and

is in bondage with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free.

Did you know there's a Jerusalem above?

There's a temple that's above.

These things were built.

The Bible actually says as a copy of the things that are in heaven.

And you have a home place.

And it's not the country you were born in.

The real you, you're from the Jerusalem that's from above.

The Bible says your citizenship is in heaven.

You have a home.

The new Jerusalem that above that is free, which is the mother of us all.

Verse 27, for it is written, rejoice, O Baron, you who do not bear, break forth and shout,

you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.

Now we, brethren, worship team, come on up.

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, where the children of promise, that means you're under

the new covenant, only live under the new covenant, and you're a child of promise.

What does that mean?

That you're a child of the promise.

You've been promised salvation.

Are you saved right now?

Yes.

You're saved right now if you've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

You are saved right now and all your sins are forgiven you, but you have not yet experienced

the full culmination of your salvation.

What you have right now, according to the Scriptures, is a down payment.

It actually, Paul uses that word, down payment, earnest of deposit.

You have a down payment of heaven.

What is the down payment?

The Holy Spirit.

When you said Jesus, I believe in you, the Holy Spirit came inside of you and gave you

that assurance of salvation and you got the down payment.

But on that day, this is why the whole thing is by faith, because even though you know

you're saved right now and you should believe I have it now, you're still anticipating

that day, you will receive the fullness of the promise and you will be saved.

Not just in your spirit, but with a glorified body as well and a completely renewed soul.

Hallelujah.

This verse, but as he who was born according to the flesh, who's that Ishmael, representative

of the old covenant system, but as he who was born according to the flesh, then persecuted

because Ishmael mocked Isaac, do you know Ishmael still mocked Isaac?

In many ways, we can get into the whole thing Ishmael, that's where the Arabia and the Arabs

come from.

You can say Isaac is Jewish and Ishmael is still mocking Isaac, but just want you to know

that's not the point Paul is making here.

Paul is saying Ishmael is representative of the old covenant system and Isaac is representative

of the new covenant system and people who love the old covenant and want to mix the

covenants and want to relate to Jesus today still while mixing the covenants, they mock

those who are exclusively under the new, who are receivers of grace.

Why?

Why did they mock them and bother them?

Why do Judaizers come in and try to get them in bondage?

Why?

Because misery loves company, that's why.

And also because you offend them when you stand in grace, you take a religious person

who takes pride in their religiosity, who thinks that they impress God with their strict

law keeping, even though God came to them and showed them all the places they were missing,

they would be horrified.

But they don't see that.

They only see their wonderful law keeping, their church attendance, their giving, whatever

it is that they're doing to cross every tea and die every eye.

And then they run into you and you're like just merely walking one out and they're like,

hey, and you're like, wow, I'm just the son of God, I'm totally forgiven.

And I believe that everything Jesus died is mine right now and I'm blessed and I'm highly

favored and they're like, based on what?

Well, not based on anything I do, but based on what Jesus has already done for me and

they will nash at you with their teeth.

Who do you think you are?

Because now you're offending them because what you're actually saying is all of the times

that you thought you were getting credit and scoring points with the big guy upstairs?

Didn't mean anything.

Everything you're ever going to get, I'm telling you right now.

Part of me is I want to spare you some of the pain I went through.

There's some things in life I wanted so bad.

And they didn't come until I had kicked and clawed so much my fingers were bloody and then

I finally collapsed and I gave up to the point of sometimes I could, Lord, I don't even

want it anymore.

And then all of a sudden the next week, boom, I had that lesson over and over again.

He taught it to me so I can teach it to you, surrender, die, quit striving, quit pushing.

My pastor used to say all the time, the moment you quit struggling to get the thing you

want, you'll have it.

But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according

to the spirit, even so it is now, fair as the echo, legalistic, covenant-mixing Judaizers

will always hate Christians who live under grace.

Nevertheless, what does the scripture say?

Cast out the bond woman that's haggar, a symbol of the system of law.

They were all living in the same tent.

Awkward, right?

That's reality TV right there.

Got Sarah and haggar all in the same tent.

And God then says, hey, that bond woman, she's got to go.

By the way, God and his infinite mercy, he still took care of haggar, the bond woman and

ishmael and they became a nation.

For the son of the bond woman shall not be air with the son of the free woman.

What is God saying here?

He's saying two covenants cannot exist under the same roof.

Two covenants cannot exist in the same tent.

You cannot have the old covenant haggar and Sarah, the new covenant and ishmael and

Isaac, you cannot have them in the same house.

And that's the allegory and God, that all played out for our example.

And now Paul is bringing it to life and saying, this is what God was telling you.

Cast out the bond.

Cast out any relating to God based on the old system of the law that's in your life, cast

it out.

They can't be in the same tent.

Am I clear?

Cast out the bond woman and her son for the son of the bond woman shall not be air with

the son of the free woman.

Verse 31.

So then brethren, shout this out, everybody, we are not children of the bond woman but

of the free.

I am under the new covenant of his grace.

I am now blessed, highly favored, completely forgiven, a child of God.

Good things come to me.

Heaven is mine.

Now the kingdom of God is within me.

It flows through me everywhere I go.

I bring blessing, the light of Jesus, hope, I am blessed in Jesus' name, amen.

Give the Lord a big shout.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about

Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com that's citylightnyc.com.

You're free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God

loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening.

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