New Covenant- God's Final Goal - Church -Part6

God sent his son and said, let's start again with a new creation. The day of the resurrection, Jesus rose up from the dead to build a church. He said, okay, now let's start a group of people who love one another.

And what's the one thing Christians do not do? Love one another. What are the things they do? They have meetings, they have music, they have raised money, they have programs, they have social programs, they help the poor, they establish schools, they establish colleges, they speak in tongues, they do everything except love one another. What a work the devil has done! If you love one another, the proof of it is over a period of time, you'll become more and more one with each other.

I can say that about me and my wife. We became more and more one over the last 39 years. I can say that about me and many of brothers in the church.

Not all, a few. That over the years, we've become more and more one. Because we love one another.

It's not that we don't disagree. We can disagree as long as we live on this earth, we'll disagree. It's not this type of unity where one dictator says, that's the way we're going to do it.

Oh, yes, sir. That's not unity. That's dictatorship.

A lot of homes are dictatorship. Either the husband is a dictator, or in some cases, the wife is the dictator. The husband meekly obeys.

That's not unity. You know, when a person says, there's perfect peace in my house, no quarreling, that could mean two things. Either it's a dictatorship, where one or the other keeps quiet for the sake of peace, or it's real fellowship.

In most cases, it's dictatorship. But most of the other homes, they just fight and yell and quarrel, and they don't even believe that they should love one another, or they feel that you should love one another once in a while. Once in a while? Are you supposed to breathe only once in a while? How many of you believe that love is like breathing? I'm supposed to love people all the time, just like I breathe all the time.

Love is the breath of the Christian life. And the whole purpose of the new covenant is to bring people to that where Adam and Eve failed, to bring us to unity and oneness. That's the church that Jesus is building.

The purpose of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit is not to display. See how I can heal people. You see how this fellow's year that was only 80% open is now 90% open? After I prayed for him.

This type of rubbish that goes on, displaying themselves as great. The purpose is not the gifts of the Spirit, it's to make people one. And the church that has succeeded is the church that has become more and more one, where fellowship is more important than even understanding of the Bible.

I think all of us have got enough understanding of the Bible. I think many of us have got even more than Paul and Peter. We can explain things better than Paul and Peter could.

But that's not the test of spiritual growth. Fellowship. How do you evaluate your home? Is it how many more gadgets you have in your home, how much more life has become more comfortable, how well your children have done in their studies, and got good grades, etc., etc., and school and college and jobs, etc.? No.

How much more is there peace in your home? Not the peace of dictatorship, but the peace of unity and fellowship. That shows whether your home is a New Covenant home. You know the church comprises of homes.

And you can't have a New Covenant church without a New Covenant home. That's why we have spoken so much about Christian homes through the years. We've got to build a home.

And I want to urge you, my brothers and sisters, can we make a beginning today? After all that we've heard about the New Covenant, here's where we must end. In love and fellowship with one another, which means we have to die to ourselves. If I were to ask you, where do we see the love of God? All of you would say, at the cross where Jesus died.

Where can I see your love as a husband? On a cross where you die. Where can I see your love as a wife? On a cross where you die. Where can I see your love as a brother or sister? On a cross where you die to yourself.

That's the only way of fellowship. When Jesus stretched out his hands on the cross, he was saying, I want you both to be one. I want you all to be one.

Not one at the expense of truth. If you read John's Gospel, many people go to John chapter 17. Oh, see how Jesus spoke about unity, unity, unity, unity, unity.

I agree. We must be one. We must be one.

But, you know, like people take verses out of context, I said before John 17, have you read John 14, 15 and 16? You know what he spoke about in John 14, 15, 16? Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. I am the truth. I'm going to send you the spirit of truth.

He will guide you into all the truth. And when the spirit of truth has come, he spoke so much about truth in three chapters, then he spoke about unity in chapter 17. And that's where Christians have missed the bus.

They don't want truth. They don't want the spirit of truth. They want the spirit of excitement, emotion, and they want unity.

It will be a counterfeit unity, that talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, they split, split, split, split, split, split. Why is that? Because they've sacrificed truth for the sake of unity. 1 Timothy 3, 15 says the church is the pillar and support of the truth.

So we're not going to sacrifice truth for the sake of unity. No. If he sacrificed truth, we would have a mega church.

Huge crowds. But we don't sacrifice truth. We preach the whole counsel of God.

We preach the entire Sermon on the Mount. We preach you've got to hate money. We preach that you've got to be detached from your possessions.

You've got to love Jesus more than father, mother, brother, sister, job, car, house, everything. That's the truth, to be a disciple. Then, unity.

What is the result of that? Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, this way is very narrow. Very few find it. You know, it's in Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, 14, 15.

This way is very narrow. What I've just described in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, 7. And very few find it. The next verse is, but beware of false prophets.

And I want to paraphrase it. Who will tell you? Millions will find it. All of India will be converted one day.

I don't believe it. I believe that very few will find the way. If you preach the whole truth of God.

If you compromise that and leave out 90% of the truth, then, of course, you can have big crowds. And that's what's happening today. And don't be deceived.

When you read Christian books and listen to Christian preachers, see how much of the Sermon on the Mount they preach. Not even 10%. Go and ask a Christian, for example, do you know what it means to be poor in spirit? They'll all say that means to be humble.

It does not mean to be humble. Humble is another word. To be poor in spirit means to see your own needs.

And nobody else's. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. Get me a poor in spirit husband and a poor in spirit wife, their home will be like a heaven.

They will be united. Give me two poor in spirit brothers, they'll really be one. Make it three, four, five poor in spirit brothers, they'll really be a church.

That's the solution. That first verse of the Sermon on the Mount is the key to the entire New Covenant. The Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

That's the church which the devil is afraid of. We want to build such a church, build such a fellowship. That's what we have striven to do and may God do it even more in our midst in the days to come.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us light, revelation. We've got the understanding now.

Give us revelation that changes our lives on these truths that we have heard. Your name be glorified through us, Lord. Father, we see your heart's desire, children who are one, homes where there's the love and the peace of God.

We pray there'll be many more like that on the face of the earth. We pray in Jesus' name.