It Is Finished- Part 9

“It is Finished” The Cross

I Corinthians 1:17-18, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Galatians 6:12-15, “Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

The world of Paul was quite different from what most of us experience today. These Jewish believers struggled with what to do with the Law. They had been taught it all their lives. There relationship with God was based on it. The Apostle Paul was constantly confronted with the rules and regulations of the Law. Paul understood that our righteousness or our right standing with God was solely based on the cross of Jesus Christ.

Jesus faced this with His disciples. They had sat under His teaching for three years. He brought Peter, James, and John up the mountain and they saw Him transfigured before their eyes as He took on His glory before the cross. They had experience the reality of His deity and His Father’s approval. (Matthew 17). The Father only gave one command at this moment, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” All they were asked to do was listen to Him. Trust every word that He speaks. Have faith in what He says and step out on what He says. But as we move into Chapter 18 of Matthew we see that these same men were comparing themselves to each other. They were seeing who had done the most, given the most, obeyed the most as to where their ranking would be among the disciples in our Lord’s kingdom. 

It was a works-based righteousness. It was based on being good enough to be at His right hand or left. Listen to Matthew 18:1-5, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, ‘Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.’” The truth of the gospel is found is this scripture…unless you are converted and become like children.

Over the past two weeks we have taken a fresh look at the cross of our Lord Jesus. Our focus was not on the cross itself but on the covenant with the Father that Jesus had made and how we find ourselves in that covenant because of His shed blood and our faith in that finished work. Our righteousness, our right standing with God is not based on what we have done or not done, but it is based on our faith in the cross of our Lord Jesus. Does this mean that we can live anyway we want to and it does not matter? Don’t be deceived. The letters of the Apostle Paul also tell us that the moral Law of God still stands and those who practice immorality will not inherit the kingdom. Jesus taught us that we must become like little children, full of faith and trust in what God says. Children do not care who is in the lead but they watch out for each other and care for each other. They believe what is spoken from those in authority. If our authority is the Lord Jesus, should we not be like a child and believe what He says?

We stand at the cross and all that it means for us. We kneel before it and acknowledge it’s work in our lives. Galatians 2:20-21 captures it well when the Apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

Are you still working to become good enough for God. Have you finally come to a point where you will let go and die to self will and let the cross have it’s power over your life. It is time to walk with Him in humble obedience like a little child believing what He said is truth from God.

Let’s worship and pray. Father, I thank You and Worship You for Your goodness to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I pray for those who have followed these devotions the past two weeks. I ask for their freedom from the bondages of sin. I ask that the power of death would release them in Jesus’ name and that their eyes would be open to a new world where the Holy Spirit leads and Jesus reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. Fill us fresh with love and grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of Your kingdom. We ask in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished- Part 8

“It is Finished” - Forgiveness and Freedom

Micah 7:18-20, “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever. Because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their (our) sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth (faithfulness) to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers from the days of old.”

It is easy for us to understand forgiveness and that God will forgive our sins. Where it says that He will tread our iniquities under foot is also translated that He will subdue or sins. That is a different concept than most of us have dealt with. We can comprehend the forgiveness part but we have a hard time wrapping our minds around the fact that God Himself will subdue our sins. He will break their power over us. The New Covenant promises us that God will do the battle by His Spirit with in us. The Holy Spirit is our greatest gift and Jesus has sent Him to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. He is the One who wooed us to Christ Jesus and showed us the cost of the cross. He will do nothing that is not part of that cross and the grace that it bought. Think for a moment, if the Holy Spirit is in you, and you throw yourself on mercy of the Holy Spirit, trusting Him completely, believing that He is able to fulfill all that God commands us, what enemy could stand against us? What temptation could you not withstand? The Holy Spirit simply asks that we come to Him, believing that He has the all power and authority to break sin’s dominion over us.

Just as Christ’s sacrifice and perfect obedience are sufficient to cleanse us and save us, so His Holy Spirit subdues or treads our sins underfoot and crushes their dominion over us, through faith in the New Covenant promises. There is no formula or 6 steps for you to follow. You must simply take His promises, believe they are for you, and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. Our part is simply to trust that He will do everything Christ sent Him to do. He then will convict us, open our eyes to see God’s Word and to hear the eternal truths that it speaks. As we respond, He will move in to change us, warn us, chasten us. He will remove temptation from our hearts and often times, He will make the living Christ so real to us that it drives the desire to sin against Him far away from us. But all this is response to trusting Him to do the work. Because each of us are as individual as our finger prints, the way that He deals with us is just as individual. We must trust His work in our lives. We must yield to His wooing us and call us to the Father and Son.

Remember in our earlier studies that God has promised to give us a new heart. A heart that desires to obey God. Jeremiah 24:7 promises, “I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.” And again He promises in Ezekiel 36:26-27, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Do you see in these promises that it is God who is doing the work. He is giving us the new heart. 

This is the new birth that John 3 is talking about when Jesus said that we must be born again. He is the One who does this work as we believe the promise. Do you see how important faith is in all this? It is a matter of believing that what God has promised is true and that God will do it. Like we saw yesterday with Abraham, we must become fully persuaded. This is the hard part for us. So many times we are moved by what is going on around us and the natural circumstances. We must lift our eyes to heaven, to the very source of our life. We must become fully persuaded that what He has promised, He will do. Then we must humble ourselves to quit trying to make it happen in the flesh and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in our spirit, which will then bring the flesh to the death of it’s will.

Let’s worship and pray. Father, You are the awesome God, Creator of heaven and earth. You are worthy of all praise, glory, power, dominion! We come in praise of You, O Lord. Thank You for the New Covenant that was bought by the blood of our Lord Jesus. Thank You that in Him all Your promises are yes and amen! Father, open our eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit and what He is doing in our lives. Help us to see and yield and not fight against Him, as He causes all things to work together for our good. We ask this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor 

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished- Part 7

“It is Finished” Breaking Sin’s Dominion

Hebrews 8:8-10, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, say the Lord: I will put My laws into theirs minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

Last week we saw the new covenant as it was made between the Father and the Son. And now as believers we are in Jesus, in that new covenant. We saw that it was God’s work and God’s provision that accomplished it all and mankind brought nothing worthy to redeem himself. God and God alone provided redemption for mankind. We have also seen our inability to live up to the moral Law of God. We have utterly failed and sin has reigned in our lives. We have been held in it’s dominion. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we realize that we are forgiven and our righteousness is found in Jesus Christ. But our sanctification is a work of God’s Holy Spirit and that work is where we are now studying. Yesterday we saw the utter despair of our need for deliverance from besetting sin (sin that we seem powerless to over come). We looked at how we reach the point of total brokenness before God. We looked at how we could tell if we were still trying to accomplish the work in the flesh. Now today, we will look at how to find our Deliverer.

Romans 4:20-22, “Yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.” This scripture is about Abraham and the promise of Isaac. God had given Abraham a promise that He would give him a son in his old age. The scripture tells us that Abraham became fully persuaded that God was able to perform the promise and that He would. God has promised us that He would deliver us and set us free. And like Abraham, we spend many days trying to make the promise happen. Abraham had Ishmael, a symbol of trying to accomplish the promise of God in the flesh. God waited to fulfill His promise to Abraham till it was impossible to accomplish it in the natural. God got all the glory. But before the promise came, Abraham became fully persuaded that God could and would fulfill His promise. 

Now with this in mind, let’s look at John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Do you believe this? You say, “Yes, I believe.” Now the question, “Are you fully persuaded to the point that you would stake your mortal life on it?” Let’s go to John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The crux of our deliverance is found in us becoming fully persuaded that God and God alone can accomplish the work.

Go with me to Matthew 15:21-28 and you will see this in action. Here is a woman who is not a Jew, she is not in covenant but she sees Jesus as her ONLY SOURCE OF HOPE. There is no plan B. She is not saying, “if this does not work, I’ll go to the roman gods.” She comes to Jesus for healing for her daughter. She has great love for her daughter. She will do ANYTHING to see her daughter healed! She keeps crying out to Jesus and refuses to be turned away. The disciples beg the Lord to send her away. She cries out to Him and bows down before Him. He reminds her that she is not a covenant person and even refers to her as a dog. She is not moved. All she knows is that Jesus has the power to heal her daughter. Do you believe in Jesus this much? Do you believe that He and He alone is your source of deliverance from your besetting or overcoming sin? Are you fully persuaded that He can do it or is there doubt? Are you still trying to do it yourself? This was the whole point of yesterday’s devotion. We must come to the end of ourselves and only see Jesus as the Great Deliverer.

Oh child of God! Jesus so much desires to make us free. He came that we might be free. Listen to the promise of His coming found in Matthew 1:21, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” He would not only forgive their sins, He would save them from their sins. He is patiently waiting for us to come to an end of our self-salvation and turn to Him as our only source of deliverance. When we see Him as our only source, and come to Him with nothing to offer, empty, in need of Him to set us free, the deliverance miracle will be there. Have you reached the point where you have nothing left? Get to it as quickly as possible. Get rid of plan B. Step out of the boat and believe His promise that He will give you a new heart and mind. Then He will write His laws on your mind and heart. It all comes down to a simple truth: Trust God and His promises.

Let’s worship and pray: How we worship You, Father God! You are great above all the earth. You are worthy of all worship and praise! You have redeemed us through the blood of Your Son. You have given us great and precious promises to believe. You have carried us on eagles wings and brought us to Yourself. We feel much like Thomas, “unless we see, we will not believe.” Forgive us Father. So many times we think we have to do the work. We strive so hard. Even though You have told us that Your yoke is easy, and Your burdens are light, we still strive to free ourselves. We come to You anew today for this is the day of salvation. We come empty, in need of You, our great Deliverer. Save us O God! We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus, standing on Your promises. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished- Part 6

“It Is Finished” Freedom from Sin’s Dominion

Exodus 19:4-6 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The old covenant was based on obedience to God’s commands. “If you will indeed obey My voice,” was the path to the promise. It was a package deal. You could not choose which ones you would obey and which ones you would not. It was all or nothing. There was no line item veto ability given to man. The promise of obeying was enormous and gave blessing beyond any that had been experienced in the earth. Not only would everything they did be blessed, but they would be humanities hope before God. The goal was that all of humanity could come to this tiny nation to find forgiveness and favor with God. As we know from history, Israel was unable to fulfill the covenant. As a matter of fact it was only thirteen chapters later that they entered into breaking the covenant that they had just made. But we must look past Israel and look to our own lives if we are to be free from sin’s dominion over us. 

I don’t know what you struggle with in life or where your place of frustration is. It could be any number of things from the lust of the flesh (every appetite of the body that rules us), the lust of the eyes (always wanting more and never satisfied which leads to idolatry) or the pride of life (always in need of being the best or highest position, a place of prominence) I John 2:16. All of these areas are what the moral Law of God exposes. Romans 5:20 says that the Law entered so that the transgression would increase. The Law brings us to the realization that we have nothing to give to God. We are bankrupt before God. This is a very important view if we are going to be free from sin’s dominion in our lives. I heard your thought, “impossible!” to be free from sin. Or is it? The promise is there, John 8:36, “He whom the Son shall make free, is free indeed.” Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you.”

So how do we win this battle? We go to God and ask forgiveness. We know the promise of the covenant. We cry and worry and fret. But we still feel in bondage to sin and unable to break it’s change. If this is where you are, you are on the right track. If we are to be free, we must first face the fact that we can not free or rescue ourselves. We need a Savior. This work can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. God must accomplish two things in us before sin’s bondage can be broken. First, God has to inspire the sin-bound person to want to be delivered from his sin. It is man’s nature to enjoy and hold on to his sin. So God has made a way for man to reach this point. 

He has to become sick and aware of how devastating his sin is. He has to see sin as utterly sinful. Second man has to see his inability to free himself. As long as man believes that he can free himself he will never cry out to God to free him. As long as he thinks that his sin is not that bad, after all, he has seen others with much worse sin and they still seem to be OK. Man must come to his wits end and reach the point of brokenness if he is to be free. He must come to the point where he cries out, “I can’t do it, I’m helpless to free myself from this sin. Lord, only You can do it in me. Will You set me free?”

This was the purpose of the old covenant. It was to bring us to the point of desperation before God. To show us our total need and dependence upon God for salvation. The very design of the old covenant was to show us the greatness of God and our futility to reach His standard of Holiness. The Ten Commandments themselves show us the very nature of God. It is a nature of holiness, purity, righteousness.

How do you know if the old covenant has finished it’s work in us and if we are ready to walk in the new covenant? It depends on how you respond when you fall or sin. Does it drive you to your knees and promise God that you will not do it anymore? Or do you blame God and say, “Where were You when I needed You? Why did You let me fall?” Or maybe you ask God, “Why didn’t you give me power to resist temptation?” If any of these are your response, then you are still living in the old covenant and are not ready to be freed. If you still think that you can recommit, restart, muster up enough spiritual fortitude in the flesh, you have not come to the place of utter desperation. This is our greatest problem. We still look at the Holy Spirit as a booster shot to the will of the flesh instead of a dead flesh and a living spirit.

Please take time to contemplate this. Where are you on the spectrum of dealing with the appetites of the flesh, eyes, and pride? Are you constantly running to God to forgive you one more time for the same sin? You must admit, something is missing.

More tomorrow,

Let’s worship and pray! Father, Your moral Law has come and we have been weighed in the balance and been found wanting. If we are truthful, we have loved the pleasures that our sin has offered us. We have pushed the envelope and looked for every loophole we could find that would allow us to do as we want to do. Please Lord, we desire to be free. We realize that sin has to become utterly sinful before we can be free. We realize that it is a work of the Holy Spirit that must be done for us to come to the end of our religion, will power, saving face and reputation. All of these must bow before You. We must come to the point that we desire You, and our freedom, more than we desire anything this world has to offer. Please do the work within us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 5

John 17:13-21, “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that you sent Me.”

It is Friday, and I think it appropriate to review where we have been this week in our study of the New Covenant. Our Lord Jesus last words in His un-resurrected body were “It is Finished.” Our study has taken us into understanding the relationship of the Father God with the Son, our Lord Jesus. It was the covenant that the two made with each other, at the beginning of creation, that we have become part of. It is in this covenant that we find the new heart and new mind. It is in this covenant that we find true freedom and peace and a clear conscience. But it is also these promises that challenge us because we find ourselves not walking in them. If you are like me, you don’t want to be like the children of Israel that wondered in the wilderness for 40 years, never entering into their covenant promises because of their unbelief.

On the night of the Last Supper, our Lord Jesus prayed a prayer that included us. He ask His Father to fulfill His end of the covenant. In this we find great insight into what we have in Him and how we lose ourselves to find ourselves in Him. It is such a true statement that our Lord Jesus taught us, that unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it does, it will bear much fruit. That becomes our journey: dead to sin, alive to God. Lets break the scripture down and see the implications of this covenant prayer that Jesus our Lord made to His Father.

“That they may have My joy made full in themselves.” Jesus joy was not based on His circumstances but on His relationship with His Father. It did not matter the storms that raged around Him or the people that stood against Him. What mattered was what His Father thought of Him. That was the source of His joy and part of our covenant through Him.

“I have given them Your word.” One of the greatest things that Jesus brought us was the understanding of the Law and the promises of God. He taught us righteous judgment and not the letter of the Law. He taught us to trust the promises of God and that all things are possible with God. This is part of the covenant in Him.

“Keep them from the evil one.” We are not of this world and we do not belong to the ruler of this world, Satan. We belong to the Creator God. We are no longer part of the kingdom of darkness but we have been translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. Just as the Father kept the Son from the evil one and walked with Him, God will do the same for us as part of the covenant.

“Sanctify them in the truth: Your word is truth.” We have been set apart and promised that the laws of God would be written on our hearts and minds. Our heart of rebellion and stubbornness would be taken out us and a heart that is tender toward God would replace it. This is part of the new birth or being born again. As we yield to the word of God, the promises become alive. Our challenge is that when we hear the truth, we try to make it work in the flesh instead of the spirit. I know this is hard for us to wrap our minds around. We will dig into it more later.

“That they may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may continually believe that You sent Me.” He did not ask that they would be perfect in knowledge about Him but that they would be one with God in purpose, will, and love and unity for one another. Too many times I see those who seek to be “right” about God and miss “Knowing” God. They will study and study to make sure that their theology is perfect, but they never bow their knees or prayer or seek to love others. They should use the book of Acts to set their theology, it will drive you crazy trying to put the wind in a box.

I have entered this study for two reasons. First is personal, I greatly desire to enter God’s rest. The second is what I see being shown to the world. I see two ends of a spectrum: I see those who scream at the world to stop sinning, when all the time the world is acting like their father the devil. It is obvious they need a new heart. They can stop sinning and still be unconverted. And I see those who speak of freedom, yet they are bound by sin and sin still has dominion over them. They believe and so desire to please God but can’t find the way. It is for all of these and myself that I have entered this study. This is not a short journey and we will need the Holy Spirit to lead us on the way through the Word of God but if we continue, I truly believe that He will open our minds and hearts to the covenant that we have in God in our Lord Jesus.

Let’s worship and pray. Father, It was our Lord Jesus that taught us to call You Father. He spoke of our relationship with You. Your word takes us to the point of it becoming even more intimate by calling you ‘Abba’ or ‘Daddy’ God. As a young child trust the parent to love and care for them, we trust You, Father. We know that there is much work to be done in us. We know that You desire all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth. You have chosen to use us, the Christians, the show the world who You are. Father, we seem so far away from what we are suppose to be. We trust You, Father, to change us into the image of Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 4

II Timothy 1:9-12, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

When we read this section of the letter by the Apostle Paul to Timothy, a young preacher, we see the reference of the covenant that our Lord Jesus had with His Father. His own purpose and grace have been granted us in Christ Jesus since the world began. So what is this covenant that Jesus has with the Father that we find ourselves in as believers and disciples of the Lord Jesus. Listen to Psalm 89 describe our Lord Jesus, “My faithfulness and My loving kindness will be with Him, and in My name His horn will be exalted. I shall also set His hand on the sea and His right hand on the rivers. He will cry to Me, You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation. I also shall make Him My first born, the Highest of the Kings of the earth. My loving kindness I will keep for Him forever, and My covenant shall be confirmed to Him. So I will establish His descendants forever and His throne as the days of heaven.” 

This is the promise that the Father gave the Lord Jesus that He would be King of kings and Lord of lords and that His kingdom would have no end. But the expectation was that Jesus on His part would come to mankind, in mankind’s weak and fallen state and shepherd them back to the Father. In Isaiah 61:1-2 it reads, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who morn.”

The ministry of our Lord Jesus was to heal us, bind us up, put us on His shoulders as a shepherd and lead us back to God. Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of His covenant with the Father. In Psalm 40 it says, “Behold I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God.” This Old Testament prophecy showed us that Jesus covenant with the Father was to bear broken humanity on His shoulders and bring them back to the Father. In John 6:38-40 we catch a glimpse of Jesus our Lord speaking of His covenant with the Father, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” 

When we say that we believe in Jesus, what is it that we are believing? We are believing that He came from God to fulfill the covenant that He made with God to restore us back to God by His obedience to the cross and giving us new birth by the Holy Spirit. My favorite part of this verse is that He will lose nothing. That includes me and you that have believed. He is still shepherding us back to God. He is still healing the broken and wounded. He is still comforting those who mourn. He is still King of kings and Lord of lords. He is still fulfilling His priestly ministry through the Holy Spirit, bringing us back to God. Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The Apostle Paul endured much hardship as a result of His walk with God but Paul said that He was convinced that He could trust Jesus with what he had entrusted to Him against that day. Are you convinced about the ministry of the Messiah in your own life? Am I convinced that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day? He came to heal, forgive, restore, deliver, set free, bind up… all of these things are what we commit to Him. We bring the brokenness of our humanity to our King and we ask Him to fulfill His priestly ministry for us before God. But our King sees deeper and that we need a new heart and a new mind. We must be born again. That work can't be done by ourselves. There is no 10 step program or token prayer that will make that happen. It only comes by complete surrender and emptiness of our will to His. It is only when we have used up all of our man made religion and all of our attempts to become right with God or impress God that we are able to receive His gift.

Let’s worship and pray. Father, You are holy, just and true. There is no one who compares to You. All things are possible with You. Father, help us to surrender ourselves to your will. We do not have the ability to save ourselves. We need Your work of grace in our lives. Father, I am not speaking of the salvation that You have offered us by faith in Christ Jesus. I am speaking of the changed heart that we need. Change our heart O God… We pray with the Psalmist David, Create in us a new heart, and renew a right spirit within us. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 3

Hebrews 8:8-12, “Behold days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the House of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt. For they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days says the Lord; I will put My laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying ‘know the Lord.’ For all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.”


I love this scripture in Old Testament Prophecy found in the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He had seen Israel’s sin and God had called him from his youth to preach to Israel and challenge them to repent of their sin and if they did not, the judgment of God would come upon them. As the Law had promised, they would be taken from their land and carried to a foreign nation. But in the midst of this judgment on their nation, Jeremiah spoke a word of hope. God had seen, Judah and Israel’s inability to keep the commandments. The rules were about to change. God was going to make a new covenant unlike the old. In this covenant, God Himself, would put the laws in the minds and hearts. It would be an inward work of the Holy Spirit and not an outward work of simple compliance.


I have often considered the kid in school who refused to sit down. The teacher told the child once again to sit down or he would be punished. The young man finally sat down but look at the teacher and said, “I may be sitting down on the outside but I am standing up on the inside!” That is how many of us are with God. We will outwardly obey the moral Law of God but inwardly we are full of rebellion, strife, hatred, lust and every evil thought. As you walk with Christ, more and more of this is revealed in your life. But here is the question. Can we really be free? Is there really hope? Notice the covenant promise that God Himself would do the work of writing His Laws on our hearts and minds. How do we activate these promises in our lives? If this question catches your attention, stay with the study. You will begin to see how to open the covenant to release it’s secrets into your lives. It is not as hidden as you make think. But it is definitely a shift in thought process, attitude, and emotions as you allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. 

God is so patient. He is unwilling to short cut the process because He will get all the glory. You will never ever be able to stand before Him and say, “look what I did.” When the work of heart is accomplished, God will look at you and say, “Look what I did!” and you will respond, “Glory to God!” As long as we feel that we have the ability to free ourselves or supply our own needs, faith is unnecessary and unneeded. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Now do you begin to see the picture. As long as you are doing the work of changing you, faith is dormant. You are still operating in the flesh. You are still walking in the old covenant. What am I saying, should we sin so that we have to stand on faith? Not at all but faith in God’s promise does not come alive until it is challenged by life‘s experiences.

　

Go back with me to Matthew 19 with the story of the rich young ruler. Here was a man totally committed to following the moral Law of God. He had done it from his youth. But Jesus told him to give everything away and come and follow Him. He could not do it because he trusted in his wealth. As he was walking away, Jesus said to those around Him, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” The disciples stood astonished because everyone wants to have enough food, clothing, shelter to be comfortable and not be concerned. They ask the question, “Who then can be saved?” I love our Lord’s response and we miss it if we do not take time to contemplate it. He said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Think for a moment about the new covenant. God Himself will write His Laws on their minds and in their hearts. This is speaking of the born again believers in the Lord Jesus. It is God Himself that is doing the work. Job faced the same challenge as the rich young ruler. His world was stripped away from him and in that moment, all he had was his faith in God. It was then that Job’s faith became alive. He did not understand. He had a thousand questions. But he trusted God.


We still have much to say about this work of heart that the Lord is doing in our lives. The covenant of our Lord Jesus stands for eternity. Keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking… He has promised we will find, it will be given us, and the door will open.


Let’s worship and pray. Father God, Your master plan for mankind has been kept a secret until the time of Christ. But now You have revealed it through Your word, in Your Son and by the Holy Spirit to us. We realize that all things contained in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, were written for our good. Help us Father, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, so that we might be filled. We so desperately need the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us. Thank You, Father, for Your patience with us. Thank You for never giving up on us. In the name of our Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 2

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 2

Hebrews 8:8-12, “Behold days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the House of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt. For they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days says the Lord; I will put My laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying ‘know the Lord.’ For all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.”

One of the biggest factors in covenant relationships is trust. We see this in marriage. When a man and a woman come together and make a covenant before God in marriage it is more than just saying vows before a group of people. It is literally a legal, binding agreement between two people to walk as one before God and mankind. When one of the two parties breaks that trust by infidelity or deceit it has the ability unravel the whole covenant, if the offended party does not walk in forgiveness. In the old covenant God made an agreement with the children of Israel through Moses, that if they would obey His Law, He would bless their lives. But they did not keep their part but continually found it impossible to stick to their part of the agreement. God kept His part and fulfilled every word of the agreement. 

The Apostle Paul captured well this problem of keeping the covenant in Romans 7:14-19, “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin… For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; of the willing is present in me, but the doing of good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” He would have not know sin but for the Law (Romans 7:7). It was the covenant of the Law that showed Paul his inability to keep covenant with God. He comes to the final conclusion of all this in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

So here we see our problem. We have been given awesome, holy, just promises from God but we have no ability to keep our end of the old covenant with Him. As a matter of fact in 1st John, it tells us that if any man says that he has no sin He is a liar. James also told us that if we have broken one point of the Law we have broken it all. It is important that the old covenant is not something in the past but that you understand how each one of us has failed to live up to it. It is important to grasp, from a spiritual perspective, our failure and inability before God. We have unraveled the old covenant. Now we can begin to grasp, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16). 

There is a truth that I missed or did not notice for years that is pivotal in our understanding of the old and the new covenant. The old covenant was made with the children of Israel without the ability to cleanse the conscience. The new covenant was made with the man, Jesus Christ, God’s begotten Son. Matthew 13:35 says, “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.” The plan of salvation for mankind and the new covenant was not made haphazardly but was made at the beginning of time between the Father and the Son. Matthew 25:34 says, “Then the King (Jesus) will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” John 17:24 says, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” 

You must grasp this, that the plan of salvation was made from the very beginning. The new covenant was not an after thought when the first one did not work out. It was not plan B. The old covenant was required to show us and act like a school master so that we could see our inability to meet God’s standards. If you are still striving to become good enough for God or if you think you are good enough for God because you have paid your tithe, you have given to the poor, you have gone to church every week and you even sing in the worship band, you are still seeking God in the flesh. I know that this is a hard reality but remember what the Apostle Paul told us in Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

We have much to search out in the scripture in this study and devotion. I would ask you to be patient as we daily seek to lay the foundational truths necessary to grasp the work of grace in our lives and understand and experience the laws of God being written on our hearts and minds. But as for today, meditate on where you are with God. Are you striving to become good enough for God, after all we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Or do you feel pretty smug that God has given you a gold star for your efforts, after all He is not unrighteous to forget our labor of love as the scripture tells us? Or maybe you find yourself very frustrated because you are still in bondage and slavery to sin? All of these are shallow and flesh centered views or perceptions. All three show us that we do not understand the covenant yet. 

More tomorrow...

Let’s worship and pray! Father, we so desperately need the Holy Spirit to teach us and show us the truths of the covenant that You have made with our Lord Jesus. You have told in Your word that all Your promises are yes in our Lord Jesus. You have told us to keep seeking first Your kingdom. You have promised us a new heart and mind. We believe, trust, rely on Your promises. Forgive us, we ask, when we fail or seek to please You in the flesh. In Jesus our Lord’s name we pray. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant- Part 1

It Is Finished: Understanding The Covenant

John 19:28-30, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture, said, ‘I am thirsty’. A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. There fore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

The Apostle John has always given us a greater revelation of the life of Christ than any of the other Apostles. John’s experience at the cross of our Lord Jesus is no exception to this. John is there standing next to the cross as our Lord is dying, with Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Jesus our Lord had fulfilled all the prophesies of His coming. He had lived out the Law and the Prophets and now He was at the end of His earthly journey. He cries out that He is thirsty and they filled a sponge with sour wine (vinegar) and put it on a branch of hyssop and brought it to His mouth. Having now the ability to speak clearly, He makes one final statement, “It is finished!” 

This statement was the last that our Lord uttered before His resurrection. And as He gave up His spirit, all creation moved. He had been suspended between heaven and earth and the sacrifice of the perfect man was complete. Hyssop being used to give Him a drink was not as random as you may think. Go back to Exodus 12 and you will find that it was hyssop that was used to put the blood on the door before the angel of death passed over Egypt and killed all the first born. It was this blood on the door placed there by the hyssop that prevented the angel of death from claiming any of the Hebrew first born that night of the Passover.

When we hear the words, it is finished, it makes us ask the question, what is finished? Immediately we think of our redemption for we know that's what the cross was all about, but that is just the beginning. It was the establishment of a new covenant with God Himself. God has always had a covenant with mankind, from the very beginning. Even the Holy Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. Testament is another term for covenant. What we are looking at in the Holy Bible is the Old Covenant and the New Covenant that mankind has with God. A covenant is a legal document between two parties that is binding and has legal ramifications if either party chooses not to live up to the agreement. When Jesus our Lord cried out that “It is finished!” He was sealing His covenant with God the Father for mankind. 

When you read Deuteronomy 28, you read the blessings and the cursing that were part of the Old Covenant. It was established between God and the children of Israel. When we read the Old Covenant we realize the blessings that God promised if the covenant was followed. But we also realize the consequence of not being obedient to the Old Covenant. Now let’s go to the book of Hebrews 8:6. It reads, “But now He (Jesus) has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” This is the subject that we will be digging into this week. If we can understand our Covenant with God through the Lord Jesus, or should I say, His Covenant with God the Father that we are part of in Him, we would walk in victory over every thing that would seek to have dominion over us.

In Romans 5:6-10, the Apostle Paul demonstrates the sealing of the New Covenant, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” And Paul continues in verse 17, “For if by the transgressions of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Do you see the victory that has been promised?

If we can grasp the New Covenant and have it open it’s secrets to us, many of the things that we have struggled with in life will give way to the life of the Lord Jesus. This is the promise. Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant.” If you have been battling things that you have wondered if you would never be free from, let’s walk together, learning who we are in the covenant of our Lord Jesus with His Father. God has promised us freedom. He is not a man that He can lie. Therefore it becomes our duty to seek out the secret of His covenant so that we can be free. I truly believe that as we become fully persuaded of what God has promised and that we believe and trust His word, we will be like the woman with the issue of blood that said, “If I can touch but the hem of His garment, I will be made whole.” And she was, for the covenant child of God, received her healing. We have so much to learn for we are in a greater covenant.

Let’s worship and pray! Oh Father God, we know that You love us. You have demonstrated this love through the Gift of Your Son. We can not comprehend this kind of love. It is beyond us. The Holy Bible has revealed You as, “God gave.” From the very beginning of time, You have given. Now we come to You, asking that You open the secrets of Your covenant to us, so that we may become the children, sons and daughters, of You. So that when the world looks at us, they see a people that walk in covenant with You, not because of great wealth or earthly prosperity that passes away, but a people that are free from the dominion of sin, death, hell and the grave. Father, teach us, lead us by the Holy Spirit. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that comprehend so that we may believe. We ask this in the name of our precious Lord Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Alan Wiggins

Associate Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com