In Pastor Jerry Zepnick's sermon titled 'The New Covenant,' he emphasizes the transformative power of the New Covenant brought forth by Jesus Christ. The sermon begins with a prayer and moves into a discussion on how the New Covenant fulfills and surpasses the Old Covenant by focusing not on the letter of the law, but on the transformation of the heart. Pastor Jerry highlights the importance of being 'born again,' as Jesus explained to Nicodemus, for entering the Kingdom of God. This new birth signifies a radical transformation characterized by new affections and desires aligned with Christ. He underscores the significance of Jesus' sacrifice during the Passion week, urging believers to focus on Christ's atonement rather than superficial celebrations. Pastor Jerry stresses the need for Christians to live in the reality of God's love, which is inseparable from them and should manifest outwardly towards others. He calls for a life of holiness and obedience to God's will, supported by the Holy Spirit's power. The sermon concludes with a call to evangelism, urging believers to share the Gospel and be ambassadors for Christ, emphasizing that without Jesus, they can do nothing.

Let's open up in prayer. Father God, this morning we thank you for your love and your care, Lord God, for us. We thank you for your word this morning that we can lean into, Lord God, and gain our direction, gain our focus. I pray for the work of your Holy Spirit, Lord God, through it and through your word today, Lord God. I pray that you would talk Pastor Rick, Lord God, and heal him, be with him and Bev and the family, Lord God.

And I just pray for Your Holy Spirit again, Lord God, to do a work in all of our hearts today in Jesus' precious name. Amen. And so, we are going to be in no particular small section of the Word, but we're going to be doing an overview of where we have been, John chapter 3 and into chapter 4. And so, this is something that it all comes back to 2031. And I want us to know that all of this comes back to, and the book of John sits under this umbrella in this, and this covering of what is 20-31.

I'm gonna read 30 and 31 to give it a little better context to us, But that says, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. So there's many signs and many wonders and many things spoken and done that were not written in the book of John. But the things that are written, but these things that are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name. So these are written that you might have life in His name. If you cut to the chase, that you might believe in them, if you believe in them, if you really believe in them, you will have life in His name.

And that looks radical. That looks different. And So we have to understand what that looks like, how different that looks in a Christian's life than what they looked like before. And that's everyone, not some of us. That's everyone.

New affections, new desires. The old has passed away. Galatians 2.20 for for the old me is dead. I can't think of it right now. I've got the stage fright, I guess you could call it.

But one of my favorite verses, and I know it unless I'm standing up here. I have been crucified in Christ as 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." And so This is the new Christian. This is the new believer. The old is dead.

The new is there. And so as we head into what is going to be this week of the Passion coming up, I want us to take a step back and just focus. Focus on us, focus on Christ and what Christ has done for us. If we just go into this, that's all we're going to do is walk into the beginning of it on what is Palm Sunday. And that's all we're going to see is a basket full of chocolate on the backside.

That's all we see. Because We're missing Christ in between. We're missing what was Good Friday, which was the false coronation of Christ when He came walking in on the donkey. He came in on the donkey as was prophesied. And everybody was singing his praises.

They thought he was the next king. They thought he was going to deliver them from their enemies, not from their sin. They didn't see it. And people still think that today. That Christ is going to deliver me from my poverty.

He's going to deliver me from my bad health. He's going to deliver me from all these other things. No, those things aren't your problem. Your problem is sin. That's what He delivers us from.

And so we started out with Palm Sunday, and then on Thursday night was Last Supper, And then was when Judas gave them away. And I've been studying on that. It's just so amazing. I can't wait to talk about it. And then we have Good Friday.

Good Friday. Good Friday when the sun went black. Good Friday when our Savior died on the cross. Why is that called Good Friday? Because if somebody took the punishment that you were supposed to get.

How would you feel? Feel good, right? Good Friday. That's followed by Resurrection Sunday. When our Jesus came up from the grave.

What better thing could possibly have happened? He rose from the dead that He conquered death, that we can conquer death in Him and in Him alone. And so, we go to this week coming up recalling Christ's passion with our hearts set rightly. We've got to come into it looking rightly. We can't come into it thinking of a bag of chocolate on the backside.

We're going to not gain a thing from it. Our spiritual lives are going to be right in the gutter. And our walk with Jesus is going to be anemic. And we can't afford to have that. So as we see His love for us and His sacrifice for us, that God sent His Son to die on a cross.

He crushed Him for our sins so that we can have a bag of chocolate, right? So that we can kick back and we can be happy, right? He's more concerned about our holiness than He is our happiness. And so, we talk about this sacrifice for us that was given. We need to see our responsibility to Him and toward others.

And we talked about this last, well, two weeks ago. We had a little bit of snow last week. But two weeks ago, we talked about how Jesus spent the time with this woman and she ran into town and she couldn't wait. She told everybody about it. This guy, he's the Savior.

He came. He's here. He's out by Jacob's will. And the whole town went out there. And Brother Rick will preach on this next week, Lord willing.

And so These events were all done for the purpose of Christ creating a new covenant. Christ didn't come to omit the law. He came to fulfill the law. And so, Matthew 5.17, Matthew 5-7 all the way around is really amazing, but this is what Christ has done. And I think we really need to get a right picture, a right view of this.

When you look at Matthew 5, verse 17, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. This is what it's talking about. And then in verse 21, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

And whoever says to his brother, Raqqa, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raqqa, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." See, this is the law. It is no longer written like the Pharisees had it, where you had to do every particular little thing and you couldn't with the phariseeical law you could not wear a you could not carry a scarf up the stairs you had to wear it and then walk up the stairs and then take it off. And so this is how ticky tacky it was.

And so Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And so in verse 27 it says, you have heard it said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks to a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart. Ouch! Right? Guilty?

Yeah. So what hope do we have? This is the new covenant. Christ. We don't have to go kill a goat.

It was once for all. Christ's sacrifice. And so, verse 31, furthermore it has been said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery." See, Jesus over read the law. And He made it a thing of the heart.

It is no longer a thing of the law, of the letter of the Word. It is a thing of the heart. Verse 38, you have heard it said that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. Verse 43. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." This is just the opposite of what our human flesh and our human nature wants to do. This is what I'm talking about the New Covenant here. And so Luke 22 20, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood which is shed for you." And so Deuteronomy 5.1, I would like to read as well.

Deuteronomy 5.1 says, and Moses called all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. Okay, this is the old covenant, the statutes. This is the same with the new covenant. And that is to hear them, to learn them, and to do them, to obey them. It's no different.

And so Hebrews 922 says, and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And I think about when Jesus was on the cross, I'm sorry, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before, and He was praying, and He was sweating drops of blood, and He was praying to the Father, And it was, Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me. Nevertheless, let your will not mine be done. And God's will had to be done.

And what happened was that they turned around and up the hill to the garden comes the multitude to arrest him. And Jesus from that point on, as soon as he knew, as soon as it was all laid out, he went. Why did he go? Because I sinned against him, that's why. Because I couldn't, and you couldn't.

And so, this is the basis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have to come into this season understanding and appreciating. And not just that, but we need to let it change the way we live We need to take these things in our life that we Contemplate to be more important than God's will for our life. We need to get rid of them. And so the first point that I have today is, is the love of God.

And so this new covenant came about in the first place because of God's love, John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So this is a reality that people overlook a lot, but that God is always the initiator of a relationship with man. God is always the one that initiates. And so nothing can separate us from that. Romans 8, 38 and 39, it reads, "'For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen, right? This is where it's at. Once you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your life is not only radically different, you live in the reality that He loves you unto eternity. Romans 5a. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were still sinners. Romans 3.3, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Who has sinned? Who is a sinner? Okay, we all have.

And we all come short of the glory of God. But God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's love. Psalm 136, 26 says, Oh, give thanks to the Lord God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever. His mercy endures forever.

This salvation that we get from Him and His love toward us, it secures our salvation unto eternity. When we're saved, we're not just saved from now until we decide that we don't want to be saved or until we sin. We're saved from now until eternity. And we can have, as a believer, a real believer I'm talking about, Someone that has definitely died to self and had God live in them. When that happens for real, you'll see the difference.

And we have this joy that no one understands, no one else can have. We have this love one for another. We have this humility that no one gets. No one else from the world can understand it. We can rest in peace.

We can have a peace that the world doesn't understand. We can be resting in the God of our salvation, secure. And there's nothing that can shake that. Because He's bigger than all that. 1 John 4 19, we love Him because He first loved us.

And so as a result of this great love of God, as a result of this love that God showed us, you could tell a Christian is a Christian because their love goes outward. This love that came down vertically to us is now going this way. And it's just, it's out there. It is given to other people. And so love is a distinguishing mark of a true Christian.

John 13, 34 and 35, a new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you. That you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another. Okay, and so you will know a disciple of Christ that they have love for one another. They have charity one for another.

You also know those who are not His disciples because they do not have love one for another. They do not have charity. They do not have that. And this is something that we need the new birth in. We can't do it without Him.

Love is a distinguishing mark of a true Christian. And it imitates the love that came down on us. And with the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives, there's no way that we can't show that love out. When we have the right perspective of the love that God gave us, how can we not give it outward? How can that not go this way?

How can we look at another person and say, yeah, I don't know about you. God could save a wretch like me, But man, oh man, I look at you and I just don't think so. It doesn't work like that. It does not. And so, it's always been a mystery to me how God can take a wretch, a filthy wretch of a person doused in sin and shame and raise them up and get glory from them.

How God's name can be glorified off of this type of a thing, a person, whatever it is. It has always amazed me, but I can never doubt it because I know He's done it. I've seen it with me. And it's got to humble a person. 1 Peter 4, 8, And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

Right? Right? Love covers a multitude of sins. It allows us as believers to look at the offenses of other people upon us and Put love on top of it and say That's done. That's gone I'm not going to mention.

I'm not going to think about it. They offended they did not ask for forgiveness They they costed me my name. They costed me money whatever it might be They borrowed my car and they left a flat tire. You know what? I'm gonna fix it, I'm gonna put love on top of it, and I'm going to forget about it.

Like peanut butter on a piece of toast. Pretty soon you don't even taste the toast anymore, do you? So this is the love that goes over the top of anything that people do to us. The second point that I have today is the new birth. And so, this love that is so much a part of the Christian life is impossible.

It's really impossible to initiate. It's impossible to live that aside from being born again. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.3, we just went through that. Jesus answered and said to him most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, He cannot see the Kingdom of God unless one is born again. So, you disciple somebody.

They say they're born again. You talk with somebody. You've got a co-worker. You've got a family member. You know what?

Yeah, they're born again, but they just have trouble getting to church on Sunday mornings to committing. Or they just have this little drinking problem. You know? No. No, then you've got to wonder if they're born again.

And so, a person that is born again is controlled by the Word of God, by the work of God, and by the Holy Spirit of God. And that gives power to conquer the sin that used to rule your life. And so this is just as relevant today as it was then. The truth of this condition makes it a level playing field for everyone, For everyone that wishes to be in the kingdom of heaven someday. And you could say, well, that's an old word.

That's a couple thousand years old. That doesn't apply to our culture today. It's different today, isn't it? No, it's not. Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You will suffer separation from the God of the universe forever if you are not born again. Don't you think you need to find out what being born again means? Isn't that important? Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. See, both with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well, Christ's patience and His love, it's displayed.

It just emanates this love while giving each of the two the good news of salvation in Him. And so this is a statement to them, and it's a statement to us today. It does not make it optional. He didn't say, maybe you all want to think about getting born again. You know, it'll help you.

It'll help you to get to heaven maybe someday. He didn't say, Go to church every Sunday and listen to this guy scream at you about My Word and you will be suffering enough that Allah negates the Heaven for sure. Okay, No, it doesn't say that. It says you must be born again. And you know what?

The more you hear the Word of God without acting upon it, the more you heap condemnation upon yourself. Do you understand that? Ignorance is bliss, right? If you don't know, you don't know. The more you know, the more you're responsible for.

If you do not act upon the Word of God and the Spirit of God as He speaks and works on you, it will be held on your account in the end day. And you heap condemnation upon yourself. You must either accept through faith what Jesus said and be saved, or reject it and stay condemned in your sin. We have the same offer today, this new birth is one of full repentance of your own sins. It is looking at your life and saying, God is holy, I'm definitely not.

God is perfect, and you know what his standard is? It's his standard to be pretty good. It's his standard to be a good person. It is not. His standard is perfection.

We cannot have perfection aside from the blood of Christ. It is the only place that we can have perfection. And aside from your repentance for your sins and your death to yourself, you will not spend an eternity with Christ. When one is born again, This is what Scripture says that it looks like. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 and 21.

It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." That is one of my favorite verses of all time. It doesn't say that we need to do a ritual.

It doesn't say that we need to do a ritual. It doesn't say that we need to be a good person and do this and that. No. It says that He made Him who knew no sin. He made our Savior, He made my Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, that I, a sinner, a filthy rotten scum bucket might become righteousness of God.

That's not fair, is it? I'll make that trade any day, but it's not right. See, being born again looks like walking away. It's a change of mind, a change of direction. Walking away from old life of sin and walking as Christ did in righteousness.

Being a Christian means wanting to be like Jesus. Wanting to be like Jesus starts with knowing what He said and obeying it, right? See, if you're committing any sin in your life that you were doing before you made a profession of faith in Jesus, How can anyone believe that you've been saved? We're called to live holy lives. We're not called to live like the world.

We're called to be separate from the world. So I don't have a slide for this, but 2 Corinthians 6, 14-17 reads, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has Christ with belial, Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them.

I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." See, it's imperative that we come to Christ according to His way. There's not many ways up the mountain. It's not like a bike tire where there's spokes all. You just pick a spoke and you go to the middle and you'll find Jesus, right?

No, there's one way and that is death to self. Mark 1.15b, repent and believe the gospel. Jesus said, Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. See, and once we come to Him by His way, we then live for Him. We live completely for Him.

And so the third point I have is surrendering to him. I have the surrendering servant and our responsibility. Luke 22 41 and 42 And he, Jesus, was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw away. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done." This is Jesus' submission to the will of His Father.

And so just as Christ surrendered to the will of His Father, we have to surrender. We have to surrender to the will of Christ in our life. And you know what? It's hard sometimes because there's temptation. There's all kinds of things that are dangling in front of us.

And we don't want to, we take our situation and we justify it by saying, it's never been anything like this in the history of humanity from the days of Noah until today. No one has ever felt the love that I have for this person ever. And so I'm gonna do what I want to do or I'm gonna go and I'm gonna buy this or I'm gonna do that or I'm gonna move here or I'm gonna go there because nobody understands and God will just have to understand that in the end, right? Oh man, that's so far off base. We need to surrender without hesitation, without limits.

We need to surrender now and we need to surrender everything. So we see this posture of surrendering, this habit of a surrendered servant as a regular pattern in both the life of Christ and the life of the saints throughout Scripture and the faithful saints ever since. You want to read a book, read it in page 3 of Martyrs' Mirrors. It's just amazing. You see the obedience of mankind throughout the millennia with the power of God in them.

It's just amazing. If we expect to see the direction of God in our lives. If we expect to see any kind of blessings from God in our lives, we cannot stray. We cannot stray from His commands. Not an inch to the right or to the left.

You're going to end up right in the pickers. That's where you're going to end up. You stay. You track. You follow His Word.

You follow His commands. You follow His church, His people that He's put in your life. And you walk. You walk in the truth. You walk in the light as He is in the light.

You walk. You walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You walk, you get it straight and you get it right. You do not stray from that. And as we see what is the pattern of Christ to redeem His fragments of time, talking and witnessing and redeeming people, whether it's with Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, so many different things throughout Scripture, this needs to be our habit.

This needs to be our habit. We've got so many things that distract us. And yet, if we took, like I said a couple weeks ago, if we took all of our time and we organized it like a bookshelf or like a garage and we got rid of all the junk out of there and we organized it where it needs to go and we had this nice time slot right here and we called that Bible time or fellowship, a prayer time, witnessing time. Man, you'd be amazed what could be accomplished. But we're to reach the lost souls with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And sometimes that's not easy. That's not easy for some people. But we need to walk outside of our comfort zone. We need to say, okay, this is our comfort zone. Number one, if we can't do it, we've got to question if we're saved at all or if we have the strength of the Holy Spirit in us or if we have the power in us.

And so, We need to be careful on that. And so, we see Him, and we need to have that pattern as well. We're to reach the lost with the Gospel. Romans 10, 14, and 15. It reads, how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. If we don't tell them, who's going to tell them?

Somebody's got to. And You know what? You know who He ordains to tell other people? Those who He redeems. Those who are born again.

If you're born again, You're commissioned to go tell people. You don't have an option. That's in your job description. And so, we don't have that option. That's not outside of your wheelhouse.

Oh, I'm just not good at that. Really? Well, the Holy Spirit lives in you, right? Yeah, but I'm just not good talking to other people and stuff. Really?

Because God saved you, and you do realize that without him saving you, that you'd go to hell, right? Separation forever from God, right? Okay, so you realize that this uncle of yours is gonna go to hell if you don't tell him, right? Oh, I guess. Okay, then you tell him.

There's no option. 2 Corinthians 5.20. It reads, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. We are ambassadors for God.

Everyone that is born again is an ambassador for God. And it is as though God were pleading through us. I want you to get that picture in your head, right? God is using us to plead with other people to be reconciled with God. You're a sinner.

You need to be reconciled with God. You're a sinner. You need to be reconciled with God. And so here, please be reconciled to God. If you're here this morning and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I am pleading with you this morning to know Christ.

I'm pleading with you to surrender your life and your life's will to the Lord Jesus Christ. You will do it here, or you will do it in the next life? Do it here! Do it now. And knowing all of this makes no difference if our life does not reflect it.

1 John 1, 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. See, we're powerless to be witnesses of Christ without the power of the Holy Spirit in us. This is a work of God and not of man. This task is big.

I was studying this and I said this task is big and we are small. You know what, I was wrong. I was corrected pretty quick on that one. He is big! And let me tell you what we are in John 15, 5.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in Him bears much fruit. For without Me, you can do nothing." What are we? Nothing. We are nothing.

Without Jesus, you can do nothing. When I was studying this, I went to bed last night with a song in my head, and I woke up with the same song in my head. It was written in the late 1890s, and the song is When We All Get to Heaven. And the chorus is... The words in the song are really neat, but I remember the chorus.

And my prayer is that everybody in this room, we would have this joyous reunion in Heaven. The song was written because we do go through earthly trials. We go through tough times down here. But the reunion that there will be when we see Jesus face to face. And it says when we all get to heaven, What a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus.

We'll sing and shout the victory. We'll sing and shout the victory. We won! We're here! We can have that victory today and know it.

Because we're fighting a battle from a platform of victory in Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing. He keeps me singing as I go." There's two sides to this. Without Jesus, we can do nothing. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

Where are you this morning? Which side of that are you on? Are you part of this new covenant? Are you part of life in Christ today? I have to ask that this morning.

Because without Him we can do nothing. Because if you're not part of that, you can be. This morning. You can be this morning. We have a fellowship meal right after this.

And then we have an annual meeting. I pray that everybody will stay for that. If I had to forego the fellowship meal, the meeting, to talk with somebody about receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, I'd go 10 weeks without eating a drop if I knew somebody would get saved. Father, this morning we thank you for your love and your care for us. Father, I pray for our hearts this morning.

Lord God, for every soul that is so precious, Lord God, this morning, to know you as Lord and Savior. I pray, Father God, heading into this passion season, Lord God, that our hearts and lives would be right with you, that you would reset us, Lord God. Shake us and wake us up, Lord God, to the love that you have given us, Lord God. Help us, Lord, to see and to walk with boldness and newness of life, Lord. I pray in Jesus' name this morning, amen.

Thank you.