New Covenant - the Root of Sin - Part 3

One of the best examples of faith is the one Jesus himself gave of the branch in the tree. You want a picture of faith? A number of pictures of faith Jesus gave. One he said was drink.

Faith is to drink. Come to me, open your mouth and drink. That's faith.

Another example Jesus gave was the branch in the vine. He doesn't do anything. He just depends on the vine, the tree for all its supply and its producing fruit is effortless.

Do you know that the Christian life in one sense is supposed to be effortless? The production of fruit in our Christian life, whether it's love, joy, peace, patience, forgiveness, humility, self-control, faithfulness, and even the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are supposed to be effortless. It doesn't mean there's no wrestling. We wrestle with Satan.

We have to discipline our bodies and fight against the lusts in our flesh. All that is true. But when God gives us something, when it comes forth from us, it is effortless.

Now in the beginning it isn't, because we're in a transition stage. It's like a brother said, and I've never heard it put better than this, a very godly brother once said. He said, when I was unconverted, I could only tell lies.

Very easy for me to tell lies, but very difficult to tell the truth. Then I got converted, I came to stage two, where with a great battle I would not tell a lie, and I spoke the truth. But then he says I moved on to stage three, where it became impossible to tell a lie.

It's just like it was so easy to tell a lie in the beginning, now it's so easy to speak the truth. In the same way he said, when I was unconverted, it was very difficult to love people. Very easy to hate them, get angry with them, get upset with them, no effort at all.

Then I got converted, stage two, where with great battle I would control my tongue, and not get angry, and with a great battle I would love people, great battle I would forgive people, good. But he says, then I moved on to stage three, I cannot hate anybody, it's just love flowing out. You see, that is what I mean by the effortless stage.

Now we don't get there overnight, but that is the real new covenant life. You remember how Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly, that's stage three. There's depth, which is stage one, unconverted, and there's life, stage two, and then there's abundant life.

You see, one is where you have a cup of water, the other is where you have rivers of water flowing out. And you know, a river flowing is just sort of effortless. There's no effort at all in a river flowing out.

So, that is the type of life that, it says here, the righteousness which comes by my dependence upon Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, the righteousness which comes from God giving me his nature. You know, a branch has got the same nature as the tree. The tree is supplying its nature to the branch, and that's why in a branch the nature of the tree comes forth.

If it's oranges, oranges. If it's apples, apples. If it's grapes, grapes.

It doesn't produce another fruit from the nature of the tree. So, that's the meaning of faith. He says, when I'm rooted in Christ and I'm dependent upon Christ, his life flows into me, and the righteousness which comes forth from me is the righteousness of God.

In other words, it's from within. The wonderful thing about the New Covenant is it's from within. So, that's the righteousness of God, whereas the righteousness of the law is external.

Please remember this, that everything in the Old Covenant was external, and everything in the New Covenant is internal. If it doesn't come from within, it's not New Covenant. It may be good, but it's not New Covenant.

If you smile at somebody who hates you and spoke an evil of you, is that good? I think it's good, but it's not necessarily New Covenant. If it doesn't come from within, you know how easy it is to smile at someone just on the outside, to appear to have forgiven somebody. That's good.

You may hate his guts inside you. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's Old Covenant righteousness. God doesn't want us to live in the Old Covenant.

That's why I say 95% of believers are living under the Old Covenant, because they don't have a clue that there's a better life, that God has provided for them a better life. I always take the example of a father who is a multi-millionaire, who has written a will for you, one of his sons or daughters, to have, you know, a lot of big houses. It's yours.

Father built it. He's written it in his will for you. But some lawyer in between has cheated you of that, and you live in a little hut, in a rented hut.

Not even yours. Well, you don't have to live there. You just got to get your eyes open to see that there's an inheritance.

But you can't get it easily. You remember the story of the widow? Jesus said in Luke 18, whose inheritance was stolen by an enemy. Maybe her neighbor or somebody stole that inheritance, or a lawyer or somebody.

And she went to the judge and said, Hey, I need my inheritance. Give me justice against my enemy. The judge said, No, I don't have time for you.

She went on and on and on and on and then got it. And Jesus said, Think of that evil judge. You think a loving father in heaven will not give you your inheritance if you cry day and night to him? Those are his words in Luke 18, verse 7 and 8. If you cry day and night to him.

But tell me, how many people in the world, how many Christians in the world do you think are crying out to God day and night, Oh God, make me holy. Make me holy like you are. I think very few.

If you were to go to heaven and listen to how many believers around the world are crying to God day and night, God, make me holy, make me holy. I think there are very, very few. There are lots of people who sing songs and say wonderful things on Sunday morning, etc, etc.

But those who cry day and night, like Jesus said in Luke 18, very, very few. No wonder they don't get their inheritance like that widow got it. And she just pestered that judge till she got it because she knew that's mine.

That guy's got no right to have it. Do you know that there's something that's yours, that your father has written a will for you and Jesus sealed it with his blood? Why do you let the devil take it? Do you remember in India we had a... Some years ago Pakistan came and occupied a place called Kargil in the mountainous regions of Kashmir. Hardly anybody lives there.

It's just a mountain. But do you know what the Indian government did? They said we're not going to let that bit of mountain go to that enemy. We're going to fight.

And they lost a lot of soldiers and they fought and got it back. And as it were, taught the enemy a lesson. We're not going to let you take any bit of our property even if it's a little mountain.

I said, boy, I want to be like that towards the devil. You're not going to take a single thing from me. It's my heavenly father's written in the will for me.

And I'll tell you something, your heavenly father's written in his will for you.