Romans 6:13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life.

a) Because we have "new life" waiting for us in heaven, we need to try as hard as we can, not to sin in this life? (Many peoples idea of Christianity!)

b) This indicates that you need to watch your hands, feet or eyes closely because at times they will wander off and become instruments of sin apart from the rest of your body. (it wasn't me sinning…it was my hand!) (I'm not a sinner but I sure have trouble with my left eye)

c) The new life promised is something God starts in you in this life! You were spiritually dead before you came to Christ… now he want to re-make you spiritually alive! (yes!)

d Our part in this new life is not just trying not to sin…but in giving ourselves completely to God…he will create the new life inside of us? (yes!)

One more:

Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

a) This verse is primarily a prohibition against prostitution and the use of crack cocaine… it has little to say about our daily attitudes and actions?

b) The path to not living a lifestyle of sinning is a combination of God helping you a bit from his end and a whole lot of self control on your end! (careful!)

Let me draw for you a verbal picture between the Old Covenant/Testament and the New Covenant/Testament.

1) God takes a pagan people and begins to forge them into his own people

2) They know nothing of righteous living… only sinful paganism

3) God fleshes out what it means to live righteous in written form (10 commandments+)

4) Then God's new people set out to live by the principles God has taught them.

5) Their mind wants to obey God but their sinful nature rebels against him

6) God gives them a system of offering animal sacrifices to cover their sins

6) God sternly warns them to obey Him or consequences will follow

7) They fail, consequences come, but God doesn't give up on them

8) God promises a New Covenant where his laws will be written on their heart.

That's the story of the Old Covenant… enter the New Covenant:

1) Jesus arrives on this earth as God in human form

2) He gives an even more potent call for us to live righteous lives

3) He knows, of course, that we can't do it ourselves (5000 year track record)

4) So He takes all the sins of mankind on himself… and dies for our sin penalty

5) He can't stay dead or nothing will be accomplished; he takes on sin, satan, and death.

6) He rises from the dead… then offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe.

I want us to understand what happened here…something/ several something's… just changed dramatically. Living righteous in the New Testament is not the same as living righteous in the Old Testament. There's a whole new play book. There is a completely new path to righteous living under the New Covenant than their was under the Old Covenant…. Some Christians try to live the New Covenant Christian life in and Old Covenant way and it's like putting water into your gas tank…

Hebrews 9:12 (Jesus) did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood… 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Jesus Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

All right…so we're going to erase the animal sacrifices that covered mankind's sins and we're going to insert Jesus death as the final sacrifice that provides forgiveness for everybody's sin… right? So that's a huge change!

Stay with me here: Was there anything in the OT sacrifices that:

Cleansed their consciences from acts that lead to spiritual death!

No! That was the problem. They knew what God expected them to do… they sinned anyway… then they offered sacrifices to cover their sins… and then the cycle would start again.

Temptation-sin-sacrifice-atone

Temptation- sin- sacrifice- atone

Can I say something hard for us to hear??? The reason I'm bringing this up today…is because this pattern looks familiar to many of us in this room…doesn't it?

Hear me…That is an Old Covenant pattern… not a New Covenant pattern!

If under the New Covenant we are still going to, as a lifestyle, be tempted, sin, ask forgiveness, receive covering… then start the same cycle over and over again… then not much has change has it??

Now…we know that Jesus satisfied, once-for-all, the sacrifice/atone part of this equation… don't we?

Does it make any sense, at all, that God would come to this earth and make eternal provision to deal with the last half of the equation…and not also make provision for the first half of the equation? That's the whole point of these five sermons and four Wednesday evenings:

1) On one mountain are sinful people with a

long set of righteous laws.. who's faith involves

them working hard to keep the rules.. to ensure

God won't get angry and judge them..

2) On the other mountain are equally sinful people who have realized that they cannot keep righteous rules in their own strength but have embraced an eternal gift from God himself that assures them forgiveness and the re-writing of God's moral code deep within their heart.

1) On mountain one are those who are

trying to offer enough sacrifices to cover

their sins so they won't offend a holy God.

2) On mountain two are people who have put their full faith in God incarnate coming to this earth and providing the final sacrifice by dying in their place for their sins.

1) On side one people are trying so hard

To obey God but their inside nature has

not changed.

2) On side two God has literally implanted his Holy Spirit with his eternal moral code deep inside people's hearts and minds so the desire and power to do righteous things comes from deep inside them.

These two mountains are the difference between the Old Testament and the New.

If you are living in the New Covenant it would make no sense to view your Christian life as you doing your best to follow a list of God's rules.

You hear this a lot… I'm a Christian… I don't murder people, I don't commit adultery…I try to keep the Ten Commandments. Good..and let's talk about how the God's Holy Spirit implanted in you is changing your attitude and actions to become like Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:8-9 Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way, which makes us right with God!

What?... how could the Old Way be considered glorious?... If you were an idol worshipping pagan and the God of Heaven met you and gave you his moral code for living you would be honored beyond belief…and that's just how the Children of Israel viewed it….for a while…until they found out how hard it was to change their sinful behavior…

That's why the New Testament authors work so hard, under the inspiration of God, to draw a line in the sand:

Galatians 3:21 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.

2 Corinthians 3:6 … This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

Let's bring back Fred from last week… Fred had a problem with compulsive lying and horrible rages where he says some pretty awful things. Remember with Fred's sins we made each of you the Pastor and you have to tell Fred how he can get beyond his compulsive lying and destructive rages.

We all collectively voted last week that Fred's compulsive lying was not just a personality trait but a symptom of his old sinful life. We, I assume agreed that he should not just go on sinning but should allow this "new life" God promises to take control.

How?? How are you going to tell Fred to make the necessary changes? " Fred, you're a stinkin' liar…quit it! One of the Ten Commandments says not to "bear false witness" and that's what lying is. When you sense a lie traveling from your brain to your tongue you need to stop it from coming through your teeth… If you don't God will be angry with you. If you do take yourself by the "knap of the neck" and stop this wrong behavior you will slowly become more and more righteous. Sound right??? _______ No! ________

2 Corinthians 3:6 … This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

I'm going to assume that what most of you are going to tell Fred is that Jesus died not to save him in his sins but to save him from his sins!

Fred - The New Covenant provides so much more that trying to exert self control over one's sinning. God promised to write his moral laws inside our hearts. He promises to implant his Holy Spirit who will, not only, cleanse us from past sin but will also begin to apply the cleansing to present sinning practices.

Our self-control is not the basis of the new equation…The Holy Spirit within is the basis of the new equation!