Let's turn
to the first episode of John and chapter
2 and verse
17.
1 John 2, 17.
The world is passing away, and also its
lusts, but the one who does the will
of God abides forever.
Now there are many verses on eternal life
or living forever that are found in scripture.
But I have noticed in generally speaking among
evangelical Christians that most of them know only
one of those verses.
And that is Romans 6, 23 which says
the gift of God is eternal life.
So they use logic and say, well, it's
a gift.
What do you do with a gift?
You just take it, say thank you.
There is a tremendous danger in taking one
verse of scripture and interpreting it by logic
and not by comparing it with other portions
of scripture.
If you take all the verses about eternal
life, there are many other things.
And when you put them all together, you
understand what eternal life is.
For example, here is a verse, the world
is passing away and its lusts, but he
who does the will of God lives forever.
Now what do you understand by that verse?
What about those who don't do the will
of God?
Are they also going to live forever?
You know, if you want to avoid getting
surprises at the judgment seat of Christ, you
must be very careful to take every word
exactly as it's written.
One thing I can tell you, heaven and
earth will pass away, but this word will
not pass away.
And you will discover in the day of
judgment that it's exactly according to God's word
that he's going to judge.
Let me show you this verse in John's
Gospel chapter 12.
In John 12 and verse 47
and 48, he says like this, If anyone
hears my sayings and does not keep them,
I do not judge him.
Isn't that great?
Jesus said, I'm not going to judge somebody
who doesn't obey me.
For I did not come to judge the
world, but to save the world.
It's foolish men who judge.
Jesus came to save.
Then he says, he who rejects me and
does not receive my sayings has one who
judges him.
The word that I spoke is what will
judge him at the last day.
So, the word that Jesus spoke through his
own mouth, through his physical body, and through
his apostles, through the Holy Spirit, the spiritual
body, it's the words of Jesus, right through,
even in the epistles.
You know, there are people who say the
words of Jesus in the Gospels are more
important than the words of Paul in the
epistles.
That's if you believe that Paul wrote them.
But in John chapter 16, Jesus said, I've
got many more things to say to you,
but you can't bear them now, you can't
understand them now.
But when the Holy Spirit has come, he
will guide you into all the truth.
And so, we have some amazing revelations in
the New Testament about the body of Christ
and things like that, which Jesus never spoke
about.
Not because he didn't know, but because the
apostles wouldn't be able to understand.
So, when you come to the epistles, remember
those are also the words of Jesus.
The only thing he spoke it through people
like Paul and Peter.
And what is the word of Jesus?
He who does the will of God will
remain forever.
Or take another verse in Hebrews in chapter
5 about eternal life.
In Hebrews 5, it says in verse 9,
that Jesus, after he was made perfect on
earth, he became to all those who obey
him, the source of eternal salvation.
So, that's not a very favorite verse for
people who preach the Gospel.
That eternal salvation comes through obeying God.
Because that sort of clashes with the gift
of God is eternal life.
And why does God allow so many people
to fool themselves by just taking one verse
and skipping over verses like this?
Because I believe that God tests people.
When they read a word, are they going
to take it?
Or are they going to skip over it
and comfort themselves with some other verse which
says, I don't know how to do anything,
I don't know how to obey him.
Even if I don't obey him, I'll have
eternal salvation.
Is that what it says here?
That those who obey him, he became the
source of eternal salvation.
Let me show you another verse in Romans
in chapter 2.
Now this is a very well-known verse
in Romans 2, that God will render, verse
6, to every person according to his deeds.
Okay, we all know that.
But what does it go on to say?
To those, listen to this, those who are
going to get eternal life.
To those who by perseverance in doing good,
seek for glory and honor and immortality, he
will give eternal life.
Is that how you believe that you're going
to get eternal life?
That was not under the law.
There was no eternal life under the law.
And that comes before Romans 6.23, the
gift of God is eternal life.
If we don't take all of scripture together,
we can have a wrong understanding.
It's not only in our day.
Even in the first century, there were a
lot of people who heard Paul preaching on
believe, and you'll be saved.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be
saved.
But so many people thought of it as
just a head knowledge.
I believe that James had to write a
letter saying, what's he saying you believe?
Even the devils believe like you do.
They tremble, which is more than you do.
And they don't have eternal life.
And James went on to say, your faith,
if it doesn't have works, it's absolutely dead.
Peter, when he writes about grace in 1
Peter 5, at the end of the letter
he says, this is the true grace of
God.
There is a false grace and there is
a true grace.
So, I want to encourage you to see
that the Bible does not speak about people
who just sit back and say, well I
accept the Lord, I've got eternal life, and
not do anything more than that.
Because if you put all these verses together,
you can do a completely different concept of
those who have eternal life.
I want to show you another verse.
And that's in 1 Timothy in chapter 6.
See, God's word is the only book in
the world that tells us how we can
have eternal life.
There's no other book.
No other book in the whole world.
So, there's no other book in the whole
world that tells us about God.
And so, if we don't know clearly, particularly
what the New Testament teaches on this, we
can have so many wrong ideas.
You know, many of us may think it's
the Jehovah's Witnesses who got wrong ideas, or
the Mormons, or the Roman Catholics, or somebody
like that, or the Seventh-day Adventists.
We may have wrong ideas too, because we
haven't read the scripture carefully.
Think of these verses.
He became the source of eternal salvation to
those who obey Him.
And here, those who patiently do good, He
gives eternal life.
Or 1 Timothy 6, He says in verse
12, Bite the good bite of faith, and
take hold of eternal life to which you
were called.
What did Paul think?
What did Timothy say to Paul?
What do you mean, take hold of eternal
life?
I got it as a gift long ago.
So, these are the areas where you find
we can have certain wrong concepts in our
mind because of the tradition that we have
the messages we have heard, which we never
cared to compare with scripture.
And in that connection, I thought I should
share with you something about this verse we
just saw at the beginning.
The world is passing away, but he who
does the will of God will abide forever.
Now, if I really believed that verse, then
I would not live for this world.
I would live in this world, but I
will not live for this world or its
values, because it says all its passions and
all its lusts and everything that the world
stands for is going to pass away.
You would not put money in a bank
that you know is crashing and going down
the drain.
When it comes to money, we are very
careful that we would invest it only if
it's in a company.
We wouldn't put it in some company somebody
started yesterday because we don't know if it
will crash.
We put it in something solid and we
must remember that about the world we see
around us.
It's passing away.
Its values are going to pass away and
it's going to happen pretty soon.
But, if instead of living for this world's
values, you spend your life doing the will
of God, that is the life for which
you'll have no regret when you come to
the end of your life and enter into
eternity.
You may have made a few slip-ups
along the way, but if your basic goal
of your life is to do the will
of God, that would prove you're a saint.
You see, the mark of a saint is
not that he never falls.
Even the apostle Paul fell.
But, the goal you have in your life,
that determines whether you're a saint or a
sinner.
It's not a question of whether you come
to church and all the Bible has said,
Lord Jesus, come into my heart.
If the goal of your life has not
changed to do the will of God, something's
seriously wrong.
I don't know whether you'll live forever.
According to this verse, I don't know, but
the world is, but he who does the
will of God will certainly live forever.
And, when you look at the conflict that
God has had with man throughout the centuries,
it's centered around the will of God.
When God told Adam, revealed his will to
Adam, concerning just one area.
Adam, you can do whatever you like, but
one area, I don't want you to do
it.
I don't want you to go and eat
of that tree of knowledge of good and
evil.
That's all.
The will of God for Adam was very
simple.
He didn't tell him, don't kill your wife,
don't slap your wife.
He wouldn't do any of those things.
Don't eat of that tree.
And, I have a feeling, it was the
very first day that he went and ate
of it.
He was created on a, on Friday evening,
or, yeah, late Friday afternoon, and then, the
sixth day, which started Friday evening to Saturday
evening.
It was a Sabbath day.
It says the evening and the morning were
the sixth day.
And then, the seventh day, sorry, the seventh
day rested.
And then, pretty early on the eighth day,
Sunday, he went and ate of the tree,
and sin came.
Perhaps that's why Jesus rose on the first
day of the week, to finish with all
those consequences of what Adam did on the
first day of the week many years earlier.
But if the conflict was, God had said,
this is my will, and Adam and Eve
said, that's not my will, my will is
to do this, to eat of that tree.
So, right there in the Garden of Eden,
the great conflict was between God's will and
man's will.
What is going to triumph now?
Man's will triumphed.
And that's how the devil got a hold
of Adam and the entire Adamic race.
Once a man begins to do his own
will, he doesn't realize that he actually comes
under the power of the devil.
That's what you see in Genesis chapter 3.
If you understood that, you would fear to
do your own will.
You would fear to speak with your tongue
whatever comes to your mind.
And if you do accidentally say something, which
you know is not in line with God's
will, you would immediately repent and take it
back.
Are you like that?
Are you like that at home?
When you feel like saying something to your
husband or your wife and as soon as
you it comes to your tongue, the Holy
Spirit says no, don't do it.
It's not speaking according to God's will.
You hold it back or you let it
out.
Very often we let it out because we
say, I've got to let him or her
know what I think about this whole situation.
Go right ahead.
But that's where you see your rebellion.
That same rebellious spirit that Adam had which
says, I don't care about the will of
God.
I'm going to do what I want to
feel like doing.
I'm going to say what I feel like
saying.
And the Holy Spirit says, don't you know
that word which says every idle word that
men shall speak, they shall give an account
in the day of judgment, Matthew chapter 12
verse 37 to 39.
Yeah, I know that but I don't care.
I've got to let this person know what
I think of him or her.
And then afterwards you can repent.
But you know, I've seen with people who
do that, well, they may be forgiven but
it never goes well with them in their
life.
I've seen people who are stunted spiritually, you
know, like these dwarfs who never grow more
than three feet tall.
They are fit for circuses.
Spiritually, that's a condition of many Christians.
You know why?
Because they keep on sinning and keep on
asking God to forgive them.
They take sin lightly.
They say, oh, I'm forgiven.
I'm justified.
God looks at me as if I've never
sinned.
That's true.
God does look at you as if you've
never sinned but you don't grow either.
You're justified but you're in the same level.
Because we don't take the will of God
seriously.
Just like Adam.
And through all the centuries this was God's
desire but he knew that no human being
could really do his will.
Once the poison of sin had come in,
it was like a bent in man's nature
that made him automatically go in the wrong
direction.
It's like a cycle wheel, cycle handle that's
bent.
When you hold it straight, it goes in
some other direction.
Man's nature became like that and God knew
that nobody could do his will.
I was looking up the concordance for the
phrase, the will of God.
You know, many of you have concordances but
I don't know how much you use them.
It's very easy to study God's word with
a concordance.
Take a word that occurs to your mind.
It'll take you only five minutes.
It did not even take me five minutes
to study the will of God.
Not even five minutes.
And I saw that the phrase, the will
of God, it never comes in the Old
Testament.
Never.
There's not even one occurrence of that phrase
in the entire Old Testament.
Because God knew that nobody could do it.
But as soon as you come to the
New Testament, it comes 25 times.
And that strikes me.
I mean, that shows that in the New
Covenant, the will of God is so much
greater than in the Old Covenant, like 25
to 0.
That means infinitely more.
25 divided by 0.
Infinitely more.
And it is so central.
And the first person who walked on the
earth and did the will of God perfectly
was Jesus.
In fact, if you were to sum up
the life of Jesus in one sentence, why
did Jesus come to earth in one sentence?
It's not that he came to die for
our sins.
That is only one small part of his
work.
In one sentence, Jesus himself describes it in
John 6, verse 38.
You must know this verse because this is
the only verse that tells us very clearly,
in Jesus' own words, why he came to
earth.
Listen to this.
I have come down from heaven, John 6,
verse 38.
What for?
Not to do my own will, but to
do the will of him who sent me.
That sums up the life of Jesus.
What did Jesus come from heaven to earth
for?
Not to do his own will, but to
do the will of the Father.
Actually, that's the meaning of the cross.
The cross is where my will clashes with
God's will.
And Jesus had a will of his own
when he came to earth as a man,
and that's why he had to take the
cross every day from childhood, where he crossed
out his will and did the will of
his Father.
Not my will, but thine, was not only
said on the last day in Gethsemane, but
it was said from the time he could
discern between good and evil as a child.
Not my will, but the Father's will.
He told his mother at the age of
12, didn't you know that I must be
about my Father's business?
I must do my Father's will?
That was always the guiding beacon in his
life.
He was always seeing what is the will
of my Father?
What's the will of my Father?
It doesn't matter what people say.
What's the will of my Father?
It doesn't matter what my own body says.
Yeah, you must seek some convenience, you must
seek this.
No, what is the will of my Father?
Always.
And that included many things.
It included the cross, but cross was maybe
item number 895 or something, in the will
of the Father.
It was not just, it wasn't the main
thing, it was one thing.
There were so many other things in the
will of the Father.
He had to submit to Joseph and Mary
for 30 years, he had to learn what
it is to be a carpenter, to earn
his own living, to support a family of
8 members, he had to learn all that.
That was all the will of his Father.
He had to go around blessing so many
people.
So many things, and one of them was
the cross.
To die on the cross.
But the whole thing could be summed up
in one sentence.
He came to deny his own will and
to do the will of his Father.
So whenever a person says that I'm following
Jesus, I want to follow Jesus.
This is what it means.
It means that in my life, I don't
want to do my will.
I want to do the will of my
Father.
Because my own will is the spirit of
the world.
And the world is passing away.
And it comes 25 times in the New
Testament, this phrase, the will of God, the
will of God, the will of God.
Because it's only after the Holy Spirit came
on the day of Pentecost that people could
do the will of God.
It is impossible to do it before that.
Before that, they could keep the law, which
was just a small part of God's will.
The Ten Commandments, which so many people make
much of, is a very small part of
God's will.
Very small.
You know, some people make much of the
Sabbath day.
That's even a much smaller part of that.
The will of God is seen in the
life of Jesus.
Perfectly.
In Philippians chapter 2, we read about what
man could do after the Holy Spirit came,
which he could not do before the Holy
Spirit came.
That's why the will of God is found
so frequently in the New Testament.
Philippians chapter 2, we read verse
12 and 13.
So then, my beloved, just as you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence only,
much more in my absence, work out your
salvation with fear and trembling.
Because it is God who works in you.
Whenever you find the phrase God working inside
you, that's always the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us and it
is God working inside us.
So here it's referring to God, the Holy
Spirit.
God works in you to do what?
What does the Holy Spirit work in you
to do?
Two things.
He first of all makes you will God's
good pleasure and then work God's good pleasure.
In other words, first of all to want
God's will and then to do God's will.
Even the desire to do God's will, the
wanting to do, is the work of the
Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit did not work in
me, I would have no more desire to
do the will of God than Adam.
It's the work of the Holy Spirit that
makes me want to do God's will.
And I'm sure that in many of your
hearts you have a desire to do God's
will.
I hope you're not so conceited to think
that you produced it.
You didn't produce it.
It's God who worked in you to want
His will.
We got to be humble enough to acknowledge,
Lord that's not me that had a desire.
Sometimes we get that idea.
We become proud and we think, oh I
have a desire to do God's will.
Who produced that desire in you?
It was not you!
We must always remember that.
A desire for a holy life.
It was not me.
It was not you.
Desire to please God.
That was not you!
Don't be conceited to think it was you.
The Holy Spirit worked in you to make
you desire God's will.
To desire fellowship with God's people.
You think you produced it?
I produced it?
No!
It's God who produced that desire in me.
When I recognize that, that every good desire
in me was produced by God, I will
not look down upon other human beings.
No!
I will not look down upon other brothers
because I see the God who did it
in me can do it in them too.
I'll share God's word with them, challenge them,
but I won't despise them.
God is almighty but he doesn't despise anybody.
And the more we are like God, we
don't despise anyone.
The devil despises everybody.
But the more we become like God, we
despise no one.
And if you're despising somebody, you're pretty close
to the devil, let me tell you that.
But this desire in us is produced by
God.
Now the reason I emphasize that is can
you believe that the same God who produced
this desire in you will also give you
the ability to do it?
Because that's where the devil fools us.
He fools us in two ways.
First of all, he makes us think that
we are the ones who had a desire
to do good, to please God.
No, the Bible says there's no one who
does good, there's no one who seeks after
God, there's no fear of God before all
their eyes, that's our condition.
You read Romans chapter 3.
But then God worked in us and produced
this desire.
And, of course, we allowed God to work,
that's another thing.
But if you don't allow Him to work,
then He can't do it because God doesn't
catch people by the neck.
We allow Him to work, He produced that
desire in you and this verse tells me
that the same God who produced the desire
will also make us do it.
He works in us to will and to
do.
He gives us the desire and the ability.
Many times we have a problem with this,
we say, oh, I have a desire to
do God's will, but I'm not able to
do it.
Who gave you the desire?
You think you did it yourself, that's why
you think you can't have the ability.
Once you recognize it was God who worked
in you to will it, you will also
believe that the same God can work in
you to do it.
He cannot produce in you a desire and
then not give you the ability to do
it.
See, that's the meaning of this new covenant
promise in Hebrews chapter 8.
Please remember these two things.
The Holy Spirit works in us to will
and to do.
To desire and to be able to do
God's will.
It's all related to God's will.
So that we can do the will of
God and remain forever.
For eternal ages.
In Hebrews chapter 8 he says this is
the new covenant, verse 9 that I'm going
to make in those days, verse 10.
What is this new covenant that he's going
to make with us who are the Israel
of God?
There are two things here.
I will put my law into their mind.
That means I'll give them in their mind
a desire to do my will.
Number one.
And then I will write my law upon
their heart, which means I'll give them the
ability to do God's will.
So what you read in Hebrews chapter 8,
verse 10 is exactly the same what we
read in Philippians 2.13. God works in
us.
Here it says he writes his laws in
us.
Same thing.
First in my mind to give me a
desire to do God's will.
And then in my heart strengthening me to
do God's will.
See that's why you know that that's the
purpose of grace.
We talk about grace in the New Testament.
And it says in Hebrews chapter 13 and
verse 9, the last part.
It's good for the heart to be strengthened
by grace.
Grace comes to strengthen our heart to do
the will of God.
God works in us.
First of all, writing his law in our
mind.
Has he written it there?
You know like the two tablets of stone.
Do you know that the Ten Commandments were
written on two tablets of stone?
I think there were four commandments on one
relating to God.
Six commandments on the other relating to man.
And God wrote both of them.
Moses didn't write them.
And when Moses broke the first set, God
wrote it again.
Now the same God who wrote on those
hard pieces of rock says I can write
that in your heart, mind and heart as
well.
These are the two tablets, mind and heart.
And what does it mean?
It means he first of all gives me
a desire to do the will of God.
Because the Ten Commandments are an expression of
God's will in the limited way they could
understand it under the Old Covenant.
But now we have a fuller revelation of
God's will through Jesus' life.
That's why we don't live by the Ten
Commandments, at least I don't.
I've got a higher law.
And that is the life of Jesus is
my example, not the Ten Commandments which is
a pretty low standard.
Now Jesus' life is my example.
I'm not just trying to keep the Ten
Commandments.
You can live a very wicked life keeping
the Ten Commandments.
Your thought life can be like a sewer,
filth and muck and keep the Ten Commandments.
But when you make the life of Jesus
your goal, your thought life will be pure.
So God writes his law in my mind
means he gives me an understanding and a
desire to do his will.
Has he done that in you?
Has he given you?
Has he written his law in your mind?
Given you a desire to do his will?
Then the same God he says I'll write
it on the second tablet also.
He didn't just finish with one tablet and
forget about the second tablet when he gave
the commandments to Moses.
The same God says now I'll write it
in your heart which means I'll strengthen your
heart with grace so that all this revelation
of my will which I gave you a
desire to do I'll make you do it.
I will make you do it.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It says how the Holy Spirit drove Jesus
at different times to the cross to the
wilderness.
He was led by the Holy Spirit into
the wilderness.
The Spirit drove him.
See this verse in Ezekiel.
It's a lovely verse.
It's one of the finest verses in this
connection that you see in Ezekiel 36.
When God puts his Holy Spirit within us.
This is a prophecy Ezekiel 36 which is
not fulfilled in the Old Testament but which
is a prophecy that he would do it
in the New Testament.
Verse 26 I will give you a new
heart that means he's talking about the new
birth.
And I'll put a new spirit within you.
That means he'll renew my recreate my dead
spirit.
And then after putting a new spirit within
us he'll take away the old hard heart
I will put my Holy Spirit within you.
Verse 27 And when I put my Holy
Spirit within you, he's going to drive you
from within and I will cause you to
walk in my statutes.
Now there's a lot of difference between saying
I will make you walk in my statutes
and saying you should walk in my statutes.
Or you must keep my commandments.
I hope you see the difference between saying
you must keep my commandments which is what
he told people under the Old Testament and
what he says under the New Testament.
I will cause you to keep my commandments.
This is the reason why we can keep
God's will on earth.
We must believe it.
Now if you think that you're you still
got to live like those Old Testament people
where you struggle struggle to keep it you
know what you need brother sister?
You need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit.
That's the answer.
See a lot of Christians are not filled
with the Holy Spirit.
That's why they're living under the Old Covenant.
But he says when I put my spirit
within you, I will cause you you will
go through any inconvenience, sacrifice in order to
do my will.
Oh when you read of these mighty men
of God who sacrificed so much denied themselves
year after year after year after year I
mean think of a man like John Wesley
till the age of 88 or something get
up at 4 o'clock in the morning
and ride a horse and go preaching the
gospel 88 years old!
Who put that desire in him?
He wasn't doing it for money.
He didn't want honor.
He didn't want money.
They persecuted him, tried to kill him but
he went on doing it.
It was God who put the desire in
him and gave him the ability to do
God's will and gave him the health as
well.
And I tell you if you are more
concerned about doing the will of God in
your life you'll have pretty good health as
well.
God will give you that.
You got to be open.
You got to allow God to fill you
with His Holy Spirit and when He fills
you with His Spirit He says I'll cause
you to walk in my statutes and you
will definitely be careful to observe my command.
He's not saying you should be.
You will be.
You see the difference?
You will be careful, very careful not to
miss my will in any area.
You won't be like those other third rate
believers who are just carelessly walking through their
Christian life, sinning and confessing their sin and
saying all types of things with their tongue
and confessing it, doing wrong things, never growing
spiritually.
You will not be like that.
That's the new covenant.
What does it mean when He says I
will write my laws?
How does God write His laws in our
mind and in our heart?
I want to show it to you from
Scripture.
Turn to Luke chapter 11 and
verse 20.
It's a wonderful thing to compare Scripture with
Scripture.
That's another way to study the Scriptures.
You know, whenever you see a passage of
Scripture, one way is to use the concordance.
The other is to compare Scripture with Scripture.
You see a verse in Scripture and you
say hey, can I compare that with another
verse in Scripture that talks about something similar?
Yes.
Then we discover something.
I've discovered so many things.
I could spend a whole morning telling you
things I've discovered just comparing Scripture with Scripture.
Okay, here's one of them.
Luke 11 20 If I cast out demons
by the finger of God then the kingdom
of God has come upon you.
How does Jesus cast out demons?
By the finger of God.
The finger with which He wrote the Ten
Commandments.
The finger with which He writes His laws
upon our mind and upon our heart.
The finger with which He makes us desire
His will and give us the ability to
do His will.
Now turn to Matthew chapter 12 and verse
28.
Exactly the same passage.
See how Matthew wrote it and we saw
how Luke wrote it.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 12 28, exactly the same sentence
comes like this.
Where Jesus says, if I cast out demons
by the spirit of God then the kingdom
of God has come upon you.
Okay, so the finger of God is the
spirit of God.
You got it?
It's what Jesus' own word.
The finger of God is the spirit of
God.
So when He says, I'll write my law
upon your mind, with what finger does He
write?
The Holy Spirit.
When He writes it upon our heart it's
the Holy Spirit.
Exactly like we read in Ezekiel 36 that
when the Holy Spirit comes, we allow Him
to renew our mind.
We allow Him to fill our heart.
You know what happens?
You have a burning passion to do God's
will.
Now there were people in the Old Testament
who had a desire to do God's will.
It wasn't very great desire, but they had
some sort of desire.
But they could never do it.
See for example Psalm 40.
This is the Psalm of David.
This is another place we need to compare
Scripture with Scripture.
Psalm 40 we read, Psalm of David, and
what could David say?
Verse 7 Verse 6 Burnt offering and sin
offering, sacrificed meal offering you have not desired.
My ears you have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not
required.
Then I said behold I come.
In the scroll of the book it's written
of me.
The scroll of the book is God's word.
It's written of me.
What did He say in verse 8?
I want you to read this carefully.
Don't skip through Scripture carelessly.
I delight to do your will.
Oh my God your law is within my
heart.
They didn't have a clear understanding in the
Old Testament about mind and heart and all
that.
And He's writing according to His understanding.
He had a desire to do God's will.
I delight to do your will.
But He couldn't do it.
Is that your experience?
I delight to do your will, but I
can't do it.
That was Paul's experience you know.
He says in Romans chapter 7 I want
to do God's will, but I can't do
it.
I want to do good, but I end
up doing evil.
Do you find yourself like that?
Well it's a little better than those who
don't even want to do God's will.
Definitely it's better than that.
But it's sort of living under the law.
I want to do God's will.
You know like when the Moses came and
proclaimed the ten commandments the people said oh
yeah everything God said we will do.
I really believe they were sincere.
They couldn't do it.
They disobeyed it pretty quickly.
So here He says I delight to do
your will.
That is the man after God's own heart
in the Old Testament.
David.
All he could say is I have a
great longing to do God's will.
Now you see the same verse.
Exactly the same verse.
How Jesus quotes it in Hebrews chapter 10.
This is again what I said compare scripture
with scripture.
That was David saying it but Jesus says
it slightly differently.
And there's a big difference between the two.
It's not just a slight difference.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse 5 Therefore when Jesus
comes into the world what does he say?
Sacrifice and offering you don't desire but you
have prepared a body for me.
In Mary's womb God prepared a body for
Jesus.
In your mother's womb He prepared a body
for you.
In my mother's womb He prepared a body
for me.
That's what I have here.
And that's what you have there.
Just like Jesus.
And what did I say with this body?
This is Psalm 40 verse 8.
Then I said behold I have come in
the scroll of the book it's written of
me to do.
You see the difference?
Not I delight in your will but I
have come to actually do it.
And you know there's a world of difference
between delighting in the will of God and
doing the will of God.
That is the difference between the old covenant
and the new covenant.
It's everywhere.
And the God of this world has blinded
the minds of believers so that they don't
see it.
You remember what Jesus said after that wonderful
revelation of the will of God in the
sermon on the mount Matthew 5 6 and
7.
We can say that Matthew 5 6 and
7 was the manifesto of the kingdom of
God.
A revelation of what life in God's kingdom
was going to be like.
A revelation of the will of God for
his people in the new covenant.
And at the end of it he said
this way to life is narrow and few
there be that what what find it not
understand it.
Many will understand it many will take copious
notes and listen to CDs and attend conferences
understanding it but few will actually find it.
I'm not asking whether you understood it.
In your mind have you found it in
your heart this way to life where your
will is crossed out and where you die
to your will.
When you are provoked to say something and
you die.
Keep your mouth shut because dead men don't
speak.
When you are provoked to lust with your
eyes you turn your eyes away because dead
men's eyes are closed.
When you are provoked to do something with
your hands you don't do it because dead
men can't move their hands.
That's the meaning of I die with Christ.
I bear in my body the dying of
Jesus.
To what?
To my own will.
To wanting to say what I want wanting
to do what I want wanting to think
what I want I die.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit has given me a
burning desire to die.
The Holy Spirit has given me the ability
to die as well.
Isn't that great?
Do you know that, do you know how
Jesus went to the cross?
How did he go and die on the
cross?
How did he take the cross everyday and
how did he die on the cross?
Let me show you.
Hebrews chapter 9.
It's a wonderful verse.
Those who don't believe in the humanity of
Jesus Christ those who call us heretics for
preaching that Jesus was not only fully God
but fully man find it difficult when they
read this verse.
Hebrews 9 and verse 14 middle of that
verse Christ who through the eternal Holy Spirit
offered himself without blemish to God.
How did Jesus offer himself to God on
the cross?
Through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit within him drove him to
deny his will everyday.
He yielded, yielded, yielded through the will of
God.
The will of God.
And I'm excited that on the day of
Pentecost that same Holy Spirit Jesus gave to
his disciples.
What a tremendous deception a lot of Pentecostals
and Charismatics have made by making this baptism
in the Holy Spirit only relate to speaking
in tongues or raising your hands or clapping
or shouting or noise.
I thank God for all of that.
I'd like to make as much noise as
the loudest Pentecostal in the world, praising God.
But I know that that is not the
main thing that the Holy Spirit came to
do.
He came to give in me the same
burning desire to go the way Jesus went.
I will cause you to walk in my
ways.
I'll cause you.
He changes our way of thinking.
In Romans chapter 12 you know we started
with that verse in 1 John 2.17.
The world on one side and the will
of God on the other.
The world is passing away but he who
does the will of God remains forever.
Well here again you see the world and
the will of God put in contrast to
each other.
In Romans chapter 12 it says, take your
bodies brethren.
Verse 1 and just like Jesus gave his
body as a sacrifice.
The moment you read the word sacrifice you
think of the cross.
The cross where you die to your own
will.
Present your body no longer to do your
own will.
That's the meaning of verse 1.
Present your body to God no longer to
do your own will but to do the
will of God.
Not a sacrifice once for all on a
physical cross but a daily sacrifice.
That's why it's called a living sacrifice and
a holy sacrifice which is acceptable to God
and he says that's the way you worship
in the spirit.
That is your spiritual worship.
Nobody could worship like that in the Old
Testament.
Old Testament worship was all physical and soulish.
Because they could not yield their body to
do the will of God.
But this, like Jesus told the woman of
Samaria the time has now come when the
true worshipers will worship God in the spirit.
Here it is.
This is your worship in the spirit.
What is it?
Present your body to the Holy Spirit to
take up the cross.
And in your mind, once your body is
yielded, the next thing is your mind.
Verse 2 Don't let your mind be conformed
to the way of thinking of this world.
But let it be transformed so that you
begin to think like God thinks.
Thus you can prove what the will of
God is which is good and acceptable and
perfect.
In the Old Testament they did not know
the will of God like that.
The high priest had a thing called a
Urim and a Thummim.
I don't know exactly what it was.
Some type of thing which gave a light,
which shone with some light when they were
finding God's will.
Or it remained dark when it was not
God's will.
That's how they found God's will.
Or there'd be a voice from heaven or
Abraham would hear God speaking to him.
But it's not like that in the New
Covenant.
Because God's not treating us like babies.
He's treating us like mature men.
And he says, I want to change your
mind so you'll know my will without even
my speaking it.
You will be transformed from within.
And you will know the you will prove
the perfect will of God.
I don't wait for voices from heaven to
guide me or open the Bible to look
for guidance or even signs.
All that is good when in our growing
stages when we are young, when we are
children but now we are sons or we
should have become sons where our mind begins
to think like God thinks.
And we don't allow the mind to think
like the world thinks.
You know the way the devil gets power
or please listen to me.
The way the devil gets power over us
is by making us think that something in
the world is great.
You need it brother.
Supposing he makes you think, sex is the
greatest thing.
He's got you.
He'll make you read pornography.
He'll make you tempt you when you go
to the internet.
Television.
Everywhere he'll tempt you because he's convinced you
that sex is the greatest thing.
But if you can say that's a lie
Satan.
Sex is not the greatest thing at all.
It's like the dust at my feet.
It's like the road I walk on.
Do you need a road?
Sure you walk on it but it's not
the greatest thing.
The greatest thing is the will of God.
Or he can convince you brother money is
the greatest thing.
Oh once he's convinced you about that you're
doomed.
Or that girl.
You've got to marry her.
That's the greatest thing.
Or that boy.
If you don't get him you're finished.
Once the devil has convinced you that something
in the world is the greatest thing.
Or that job.
Or that admission.
Or that house.
Something is the greatest thing.
That devil's got you.
But you can call his lie by saying
that's not the greatest thing.
The greatest thing is to do the will
of God.
Then my mind is renewed.
I don't think like the world thinks anymore.
Then I can do the will of God.
Compelled by the Holy Spirit.
Pushed by the Holy Spirit.
I want to tell you the yoke of
Jesus is easy.
His burden is light.
His commandments are not a burden.
I can say it only after a few
years.
John the Apostle said it after 65 years.
His commandments are not a burden.
I hope you can testify to that too.
That's our testimony to the world around us.
Let's pray.
Let's bow our heads before God.
Take a decision to respond to what we
have heard today.
Say Lord I want to spend the rest
of my life doing the will of God
in every area.
Little and big.
I may have to learn it because I
haven't done it much in the past.
But I want to learn it Lord.
If it's like ABC take me into the
kindergarten.
Lead me on from the kindergarten to first
standard, second standard.
Lord I want to go on.
I want to do the will of God
and abide forever with you.
Heavenly Father help us each one.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.