Archive for the ‘Old Covenant’ Tag
Hebrews Highlights: What Do You Believe? – By Andrew Wommack
Over the last forty years of teaching the Bible, I have learned some interesting things about how Christians determine what they believe. Unfortunately, one of the things I’ve learned is that many Christians never let the Bible get in the way of what they believe.
A recent Barna Survey reveals that for the first time, most Americans now depend upon their own logic, tradition, or experience to formulate beliefs. Few actually take the Word of God as the basis of their beliefs. The result is what Jesus spoke about in Mark 7:13: “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.”
Most Christians today aren’t aware that their “old-time religion” is polluted with many traditions that void the power of God’s Word. While there are plenty of “man-made” traditions that are harmful, it comes as a complete shock to most believers that there are traditions instituted by God that can make His Word of no effect.
After you pick yourself up off the floor from that statement, let me explain. The Old Testament way of relating to God is not the same as the New Testament way of having a relationship with God. The Old Testament was legalistic and based on your performance. The New Testament, on the other hand, is a covenant of grace based on acceptance of what Jesus did. Because of that, there is a huge difference between the way people approached God under the Old and the way they should now approach Him under the New.
The book of Hebrews was written specifically to contrast this and to show us how to approach God through a new and living way. I have spent decades meditating on this book, and especially Hebrews chapter 10:16-23, which I believe summarizes the whole book of Hebrews.
Those verses read, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.”
Under the Old Covenant, a sacrifice had to be offered every time a sin was committed. Then, once a year on the day of atonement, a sacrifice was made by the high priest for everyone and everything just in case something was missed. However, all these sacrifices were just types and shadows of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come (Heb. 9:8-12 and 24-28).
Yet today, the Old Covenant thinking is still prevalent in the body of Christ. Average Christians have been taught, and believe, that the sins they committed before they were born again were all forgiven the moment they were saved. But they believe the sins they commit after their salvation all have to come under the blood and be confessed, one by one.
The extreme legalist believes that if a Christian does not confess their sins they will go straight to hell. The less extreme believe that at the very least, the person will lose their fellowship with the Lord, and He will not answer their prayers. Both are wrong. If you have made Jesus your Lord, you’ve become a new creature, and sin is no longer an issue between you and God.
Hebrews 10:10 says, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Verse 14 goes on to say, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
Jesus paid the price for all sin, and there is nothing left to pay! There is no other way to say it: All is forgiven forever (Hebrews 10:10 and 14). Once you understand this, it gives you confidence to enter boldly into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19).
David didn’t have this type of relationship under the Old Covenant. Therefore, when he was repenting over his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, he prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit” (Ps. 51:10-12).
However, for us as New Testament believers to pray this same prayer would be an insult to what Christ has done for us. God created a new heart in us when we were born again (2 Cor. 5:17) and sealed it with His Holy Spirit so it would never be polluted again (Eph. 1:13). He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), and His love, joy, and peace are now a permanent part of our born-again spirits (Gal. 5:22). Yet multitudes of New Testament Christians pray and sing the exact opposite of this.
Therefore, most Christians aren’t bold in their relationship with the Lord. They approach the Lord with fear of punishment and rejection. They fear they aren’t worthy and that they haven’t done enough to earn the right to be in His presence. They still believe their relationship with the Lord depends on their performance, and mixing the Old and the New Covenant makes the Word of God void in their lives.
Let’s read what Hebrews 10:22 says: “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Our consciences are the part of us that are defiled and keep us from having boldness to enter into the presence of God (Heb. 9:14). And why are our consciences defiled? Because of the Law, the Old Covenant. The Law is what gives us knowledge of sin and takes away our confidence.
Hebrews 10:1-2 says, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (emphasis mine).
The same word that was translated “boldness” in Hebrews 10:19 was translated “confidence” in Hebrews 10:35, which says, “Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”
There are not many people who have strong confidence in their relationship with the Lord. Therefore, they have a hard time entering boldly into His presence.
What I am saying here is powerful. If we can understand the promises that have been made to us in these scriptures and quit trying to mix the Old with the New, it will change our lives. This is exactly what Jesus was saying in the parable about the new wine.
Matthew 9:17 reads, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”
The New Covenant is like new wine. It is meant to be placed in a new container. And you are that new container. In your spirit, when you were born again, you became a totally brand-new creation, created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). First John 4:17 says that you are identical to Jesus in your spirit: “As he is, so are we in this world.”
It’s your spirit that changed, not your soul or your body. John 4:24 says that God is a Spirit and that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So when a person says something like “I haven’t been praying enough, reading my Bible enough, or I just feel so worthless,” they aren’t worshiping Him in Spirit and in truth.
Instead, they have allowed an evil conscience, empowered by the Law of the Old Covenant, to condemn them. They are looking through the eyes of the flesh and soul, instead of the spirit. It’s time to stop mixing the Old with the New and to enter into the presence of God by a new a living way.
I have just taught a new series called Hebrews Highlights. It was a powerful teaching that visibly impacted the people at this seminar. I believe these truths will also help you get free and enter into the presence of God without condemnation or judgment. And maybe for the first time, you can begin to see yourself free from sin-consciousness.
FREED FROM THE LAW – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Luke 16:16 "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it."
LUKE 16:16-17
The Bible teaches that there are different dispensations or divinely ordered ways of God dealing with mankind throughout the ages. A dispensation is simply a period of time in which God deals with mankind in a certain way.
The Old Testament law was only a temporary dispensation and ruled from the giving of the law (Ex. 20) until the ministry of John the Baptist. When Christ came, He put an end to the law for righteousness (Rom. 10:4). Anyone who advocates the keeping of the law for the purpose of right standing with God is going back to an Old Testament system of law that has been abolished and is making the work of Christ void in his life.
The New Testament believer is under the dispensation of God’s grace. We are not under the law. That doesn’t mean the law has passed away. It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the law to fail. The law hasn’t failed. It has been fulfilled (Mt. 5:17). Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law for us and imputes to us that righteousness is not based on our performance but on our faith in Him. The law was never given for the purpose of justification. It was totally powerless to save. It only showed us our need and pointed us to a Savior.
The law was not made for a righteous man and it still serves a purpose for those who are not born again. For those who do not accept Jesus as their Savior, the wrath of God, which the law produces, abides on them. In this present age, Jesus has come not to condemn men but to bring them grace and truth. Those who do not believe on the Son are presently under the wrath of the Old Testament law, and, unless they repent, will suffer the wrath of God eternally. Thank God for His grace today.
Hebrews Highlights: What Do You Believe? – Article – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Over the last forty years of teaching the Bible, I have learned some interesting things about how Christians determine what they believe. Unfortunately, one of the things I’ve learned is that many Christians never let the Bible get in the way of what they believe.
A recent Barna Survey reveals that for the first time, most Americans now depend upon their own logic, tradition, or experience to formulate beliefs. Few actually take the Word of God as the basis of their beliefs. The result is what Jesus spoke about in Mark 7:13:
“Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.”
Most Christians today aren’t aware that their “old-time religion” is polluted with many traditions that void the power of God’s Word. While there are plenty of “man-made” traditions that are harmful, it comes as a complete shock to most believers that there are traditions instituted by God that can make His Word of no effect.
After you pick yourself up off the floor from that statement, let me explain. The Old Testament way of relating to God is not the same as the New Testament way of having a relationship with God. The Old Testament was legalistic and based on your performance. The New Testament, on the other hand, is a covenant of grace based on acceptance of what Jesus did. Because of that, there is a huge difference between the way people approached God under the Old and the way they should now approach Him under the New.
The book of Hebrews was written specifically to contrast this and to show us how to approach God through a new and living way. I have spent decades meditating on this book, and especially Hebrews chapter 10:16-23, which I believe summarizes the whole book of Hebrews.
Those verses read,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.”
Under the Old Covenant, a sacrifice had to be offered every time a sin was committed. Then, once a year on the day of atonement, a sacrifice was made by the high priest for everyone and everything just in case something was missed. However, all these sacrifices were just types and shadows of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come (Heb. 9:8-12 and 24-28).
Yet today, the Old Covenant thinking is still prevalent in the body of Christ. Average Christians have been taught, and believe, that the sins they committed before they were born again were all forgiven the moment they were saved. But they believe the sins they commit after their salvation all have to come under the blood and be confessed, one by one.
The extreme legalist believes that if a Christian does not confess their sins they will go straight to hell. The less extreme believe that at the very least, the person will lose their fellowship with the Lord, and He will not answer their prayers. Both are wrong. If you have made Jesus your Lord, you’ve become a new creature, and sin is no longer an issue between you and God.
Hebrews 10:10 says,
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Verse 14 goes on to say,
“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
Jesus paid the price for all sin, and there is nothing left to pay! There is no other way to say it: All is forgiven forever (Hebrews 10:10 and 14). Once you understand this, it gives you confidence to enter boldly into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19).
David didn’t have this type of relationship under the Old Covenant. Therefore, when he was repenting over his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, he prayed,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit” (Ps. 51:10-12).
However, for us as New Testament believers to pray this same prayer would be an insult to what Christ has done for us. God created a new heart in us when we were born again (2 Cor. 5:17) and sealed it with His Holy Spirit so it would never be polluted again (Eph. 1:13). He promised He would never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), and His love, joy, and peace are now a permanent part of our born-again spirits (Gal. 5:22). Yet multitudes of New Testament Christians pray and sing the exact opposite of this.
Therefore, most Christians aren’t bold in their relationship with the Lord. They approach the Lord with fear of punishment and rejection. They fear they aren’t worthy and that they haven’t done enough to earn the right to be in His presence. They still believe their relationship with the Lord depends on their performance, and mixing the Old and the New Covenant makes the Word of God void in their lives.
Let’s read what Hebrews 10:22 says: “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Our consciences are the part of us that are defiled and keep us from having boldness to enter into the presence of God (Heb. 9:14). And why are our consciences defiled? Because of the Law, the Old Covenant. The Law is what gives us knowledge of sin and takes away our confidence.
Hebrews 10:1-2 says,
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (emphasis mine).
The same word that was translated “boldness” in Hebrews 10:19 was translated “confidence” in Hebrews 10:35, which says,
“Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”
There are not many people who have strong confidence in their relationship with the Lord. Therefore, they have a hard time entering boldly into His presence.
What I am saying here is powerful. If we can understand the promises that have been made to us in these scriptures and quit trying to mix the Old with the New, it will change our lives. This is exactly what Jesus was saying in the parable about the new wine.
Matthew 9:17 reads,
“Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”
The New Covenant is like new wine. It is meant to be placed in a new container. And you are that new container. In your spirit, when you were born again, you became a totally brand-new creation, created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). First John 4:17 says that you are identical to Jesus in your spirit: “As He is, so are we in this world.”
It’s your spirit that changed, not your soul or your body. John 4:24 says that God is a Spirit and that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So when a person says something like “I haven’t been praying enough, reading my Bible enough, or I just feel so worthless,” they aren’t worshiping Him in Spirit and in truth.
Instead, they have allowed an evil conscience, empowered by the Law of the Old Covenant, to condemn them. They are looking through the eyes of the flesh and soul, instead of the spirit. It’s time to stop mixing the Old with the New and to enter into the presence of God by a new a living way.
I have just taught a new series called Hebrews Highlights. It was a powerful teaching that visibly impacted the people at this seminar. I believe these truths will also help you get free and enter into the presence of God without condemnation or judgment. And maybe for the first time, you can begin to see yourself free from sin-consciousness.
GROW IN GRACE – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Luke 9:55 "But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of."
LUKE 9:54-56
Jesus was constantly being accused of breaking the law of Moses. He taught differently than the law of Moses (Mt. 5:21-48), and now He rebukes His disciples for desiring to do what an Old Testament prophet did with God’s blessing and power. However, Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
Jesus came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them (Jn. 3:16; 10:10).
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. 5:19). Jesus was just in doing this because He bore our sins (Isa. 53:4-6) and the accompanying wrath of God (Mt. 27:46; Heb. 2:9). Jesus didn’t reject God’s judgment against sin; He bore it (2 Cor. 5:21). Therefore, He was able to extend the grace and mercy of God to those who would have been doomed under the law of Moses (Acts 13:38-39).
The Old Testament law was like a judge passing sentence upon sin. Jesus became our advocate (or lawyer). Even more than that, He became our substitute, bearing "our sins in his own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 2:24).
He didn’t destroy God’s judgment; He fulfilled it in Himself, so that we could go free. This forever changed God’s dealings with sinful man. In light of what Jesus has done in the New Covenant, we would be rebuked for trying to release God’s wrath upon others as was done in the Old Covenant. Likewise, if Jesus would have been on the earth in His physical body, reconciling the world unto Himself in the days of Elijah, then Elijah would have been rebuked for his actions, as recorded in 2 Kings 1:9-15. There is a difference between Old Testament law and New Testament grace. "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17). Grow in grace.
2 Corinthians 3:14; But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.
Hebrews 8:1-13; Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
THE LAW IS NOT OF FAITH – Andrew Wommack Ministries
Mark 7:2, "And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault."
MARK 7:1-7
Man looks on the outward appearance (this is what the scribes and Pharisees were concerned with), but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus looked on men’s hearts. The Old Testament laws concerning washing served a secondary purpose of hygiene, but as stated in Colossians 2:16-17 and Hebrews 9:1,9-10, their real purpose was to shadow or illustrate spiritual truth.
Defiled food may hurt our bodies, but it cannot reach our spirits (Jn. 3:6).
The scribes and Pharisees missed the principle of spiritual purity taught by the Old Testament ordinances and became obsessed with strict adherence to their rituals. While they relentlessly enforced the laws dealing with the physical realm, they had become completely corrupt in the spiritual realm.
"The law is not of faith." When combined with Romans 14:23 which says, "…whatsoever is not of faith is sin," this statement must have been near blasphemy to the legalistic Jews, just as it is to legalistic Christians today. It is sin for the New Testament believer to try to relate to God by attempting to keep the Old Testament law. The law itself is not sin (Rom. 7:7). But it is sin to try to use the law for justification with God. This was never the purpose of the law.
Under the law a person got what he deserved. Under faith, the New Testament believer receives grace because of what Jesus did for him. Any departure from faith, especially a departure back to the Old Testament law, voids the work of Christ (Gal. 2:21) and is the worst sin of all. Only faith in Jesus Christ has the key that unlocks the door to the law’s harsh imprisonment of guilt and condemnation. With a great price He has purchased your freedom. Walk in it today and enjoy His Life.
WE ARE COMPLETE, ONLY IN HIM
Matthew 26:28 "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
MATTHEW 26:27-29
The principle of the Old Covenant was "do" and you shall live. The principle of the New Covenant is "it is done," and includes redemption, reconciliation, righteousness, and sanctification. The work is finished! We are complete in Him!
If the Old Covenant had no defects, there would have been no attempt to institute another (Heb. 8:7). In the Old Covenant, men found themselves unable to abide in its agreement, for it was based upon a man’s performance.
The new agreement, however, is based totally upon God’s grace. Under the Old Covenant, men approached God through a priest, while under the New Covenant, we have direct access to the Father through Jesus Christ. Under the Old Covenant, a man’s sin led to his death while under the New Covenant, God is merciful to our unrighteousness. Under the Old Covenant, man could not be cleansed of a consciousness of sin while under the New Covenant, our sins and iniquities are remembered no more, and our guilty consciences are cleansed.
Prior to salvation we are incomplete and there is a constant striving in every person to satisfy their hunger. Through the new birth we are complete in Christ and our hunger now should only be for more revelation of what we already have in Christ.
In the same way that Jesus had the fullness of God in Him, we also have the fullness of Christ in us. That makes us complete or perfect in Him, that is speaking of our spiritual man. Our born-again spirit is identical in righteousness, authority, and power to Christ’s spirit, because our born-again spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). It has been sent into our hearts crying "Abba Father" (Gal. 4:6).
Free From Burdens 