Know the Lord

Knowing God makes all the difference for eternity.

John 17:3 – Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

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• Knowing God is the secret to life that is real and eternal!
• How can we know One who is invisible, eternal and omniscient?
• He has made Himself known to humans through two Covenants!
• The Old Covenant – The Law – had to come first!
• The New Covenant – of Grace & Truth – came second!
• The Law was given to Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ! (John 1:17).
• How does anyone learn right from wrong?
• How do people become righteous?
• Hepios and Huios  (Old Covenant and New Covenant)
• God prepared the world through the prophets for new and different Covenant!

1.      The new one would not be written on tablets of stone,
2.      it would be written on hearts and minds!

• The message of Christmas is all about the Good News of great joy that introduced the New Covenant of Grace & Truth!

Jeremiah 31:31-34 –

“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

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Exodus 20:1-17 – And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

#1 – “You shall have no other gods before me.”

#2 – “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

#3 – “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.”

#4 – “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

#5 – “Honor your father and your mother.”

#6 – “You shall not murder.”

#7 – “You shall not commit adultery.”

#8 – “You shall not steal.”

#9 – “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”

#10 – “You shall not covet.”

Jesus was able to simplify and communicate the essence of the Law in much more concise terms:

Matthew 7:12 – So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 

Matthew 22:35-40 – Jesus replied: ” `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

Galatians 3:19-4:11 –

• What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.
• Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
• Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
• So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 
• Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
• You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
• If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
• What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.
• So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
• But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
• Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
• So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
• Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.
• But now that you know God–or rather are known by God–

• Romans 7:7 – What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

• Romans 3:19-25 – Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
• But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…

• Hebrews 3:7-15 – So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.’ “
• See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

Romans 10:13-15 – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

• The Law must come first – Knowledge of sin and revelation of God’s precepts!
• Grace and Truth – may then find a powerful saving place in the heart and mind of the true believer!

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• Knowing God makes all the difference for eternity.
• John 17:3 – Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 
• Knowing God is the secret to life that is real and eternal!
• He has made Himself known to humans through two Covenants!
• The Old Covenant – The Law – had to come first!
• The New Covenant – of Grace & Truth – came second!
•        The Law could not save anyone!
•        It only revealed our sin in the light of God’s righteousness.
•        The redemptive work of Christ in the New Covenant is God’s power to save people from their sins.
• So the Law was given to Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ! (John 1:17).

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• How does anyone learn right from wrong?
• How do people become righteous?
• Hepios and Huios  (Old Covenant and New Covenant)
• God prepared the world through the prophets for new and different Covenant!
•        The new one would not be written on tablets of stone,
•        it would be written on hearts and minds!
• The message of Christmas is all about the Good News of great joy that introduced the New Covenant of Grace & Truth!
• It must be communicated!