“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 31:33
We are under the New Covenant. We are not under the old, and we are not looking for another. Jesus died for us, not only for our actual sins committed, but to remove our sinful nature. As the prophet writes, to remove the heart of stone, and replace it with a heart of flesh.
What is one of the simplest ways to teach faith? The Beatitudes.
Right here, the Teacher demonstrates one of the simplest ways. As small as it is, it can grow to be the largest of all “garden plants”.
Take any dire situation you have as a Christian. Take any lack, or any shortage, any place where your feel worn thin, and pressed hard. Everyone encounters these, and even Jesus said that we would experience storms, even when we were built upon the rock.
Most Happy are those who are poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
He who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought.
1 Corinthians 8:2 (paraphrase)
The most interesting thing about the gospel is that, you could have all the words right, you could say all the right things, have all the right demeanor and mannerism, you could know when to shout and how to dance, but you could be just as much of a devil as Judas was. That’s right. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.
You don’t have what it takes. You never have, and you never will. If you can do it, it isn’t God, and it needs to die.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
John 3:19-21
This is the verdict of Christianity, of God, and of the cross. This is the judgement. Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him, it might be saved. Yet, why didn’t people come to Him? By and large, they thought they were righteous, they thought they were the ones who needed to be exalted, they were afraid of losing what they had.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
John 3:19-21
This is the verdict. Light has come. Men didn’t want it. They wanted something different.
The difference here is important. Jesus contrasts the two walks. One is those who do evil. The other is those who do Truth.
In a stable, outside an inn, Jesus came in the flesh, God became man, and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten, full of grace and truth.
God gave Moses the tabernacle, the law, and the seat of government over the children of Israel. He specified every detail, the number of poles, the size of the curtains, and even the number and material of each clasp. Nothing was overlooked.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Matthew 7:24
[H]e is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luke 6:48
Growing up, spending a lot of time in Matthew, I sort of got the impression from Matthew 7:24, that listening to and following Jesus was kind of like considering real estate on the beach. You have sandy portions and you have rocky portions. In some places, there are only dunes, and in other places, namely, upon Jesus, there is a rock sticking out, and it is at this place that one should build their house, rather than upon the sand. The “choice”, if you will, was simply to follow the instructions or to live a different way, which, of course, would be wrong, and result in failure.
But seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
There are many things we see in church today.
We have programs. We have buildings. We have ministries. We have ministers. But seek first the Kingdom.
James 3:16 says that where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is confusion and every evil thing. Competition between brothers rises, looking to a particular gifting or position in order to get attention abound. Attempts to fill unmet needs in the soul by some level of attainment in the spirit are present in our ministers.
Faith is a substance. Faith is a communicable dis-ease with the status quo. Faith makes a way where there seems to be no way, and calls those things that are not as though they are. Faith looks beyond the facts, and sees God’s Truth, what He has said. Faith hopes beyond all hope, and is righteousness to God.
When one hears a Word of the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away. This is the word of the Kingdom. This is the Word of Faith, which we speak.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says that these three remain: faith, hope, and love. Hope is what we wait with expectancy to happen. Faith is the substance of that, now. We might hope for a piece of bread to eat, but Faith is to have the substance of that, despite my natural hand still being empty.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
