0:00:00 - 0:00:23 Be seamless. The ideas discussed in this talk uh might be new to some extreme to others and make complete sense to some uh regardless if you'd like to know more about this. I recommend that you read the books, seek this Jesus, seeing, hearing and dwelling with God and the glory of God is intelligence 0:00:22 - 0:00:49 , acquiring and disseminating light and truth. Both of these are available in print on amazon.com and in free PDF form at upward thought.blogspot.com. What is sin? Answer is actually quite simple uh in James 417, it says therefore to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to Him. It is sin. So 0:00:48 - 0:01:17 sin is a deviation from what we know compared to what we do. In other words, sin is when we violate our conscience. Another way of looking at this is thinking of sin as when we turn away from our sincere understanding of what God's will is in whatever our circumstances may be. Jesus said that the first 0:01:17 - 0:01:40 commandment was to love God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. When you love God, with all of everything you have to give, it means that you put your understanding of what his will is before your own. In every case, without exception, there's a lot of misconception about 0:01:39 - 0:02:08 what sin is. And it's probably not correct to say that these views are incorrect necessarily, but they're not as uh as effectual as they could be. Paul said in Romans 323 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You have sinned. But the point I want to make to you today is that that doesn't 0:02:08 - 0:02:35 mean that you have to keep doing it. We all have sinned. We have all come short of the glory of God. But that doesn't mean that we have to keep on doing that forever. Jesus showed it was possible to live a sinless life. Paul said of Jesus that in all points he was tempted like as we are yet without sin 0:02:34 - 0:03:02 , there's a false belief that the Lord's divinity somehow exempted Him from being tempted. The fact is, and this is a very important fact to understand that Jesus was tempted as we are. The difference was not in whether or not it was difficult not to sin. The difference was that he didn't do it because 0:03:01 - 0:03:24 of this. We can know that it's possible to live without sin. If Jesus did it, then it has to be possible. And again, it's a false belief to try to weasel out of this and say, yeah, but he was the son of God. That's true. But he was born of a woman and he was subject to all the same temptations as we 0:03:24 - 0:03:50 are. The difference wasn't that it was easier for him. The difference is that he did it and because he did it, we can all have faith that we can do it too with his help. So whenever someone presents a new idea, there's this flood of, what abouts I call it. What about Itis? So if you go around saying 0:03:49 - 0:04:07 it's possible not to sin, this is the most likely counter argument you'll get, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. This is something that John wrote in one of his letters and we will get back to this. So my point in bringing this up is if you are aware of 0:04:07 - 0:04:26 this scripture, which of course, now you are, don't let it derail our conversation. And I just ask you to give me a couple of minutes to persuade you and give you some, some evidence on the other side of this. And then we'll come back to this and I hope it'll make sense how it is that John said this 0:04:25 - 0:04:52 and still what I'm saying is true to understand this. Uh like many gospel concepts. It's impossible to peel back the layers of tradition uh in just one go or a Twitter sized message, we actually have to dig into the scriptures a little bit and talk about uh some things at a deeper level and peel all 0:04:52 - 0:05:17 of this apart. So what we'll start on is the law. A lot of people are really confused about what the law is, what commandments are, et cetera. So we're gonna start here. All right. So what does this mean? The law? We could be talking about many things when we say the law and the scriptures are talking 0:05:16 - 0:05:37 about many different things when they say the law. So when you see the law in scripture, you can interpret it to mean one of these things, maybe it's talking about the law of Moses. These are the commandments that God gave. Uh not just the 10 commandments, but all of the commandments that God gave Moses 0:05:37 - 0:06:02 for Israel. It could be talking about some specific list of commandments without specifying what that list is. But something that's a limited list of things, a static list, it's set, it could be talking about obedience to any and everything that God has revealed to you, to your conscience. It could also 0:06:02 - 0:06:27 be talking about everything that God knows. So the law could be any of these things. And I hope that you realize that depending on which of these things we're talking about, the meaning will be very different, the law of Moses or any other static list of commandments. The purpose of all of those things 0:06:27 - 0:06:55 is to bring you to Christ. What does that mean. Well, uh and I'll elaborate on this significantly in other videos, but also read the books. There's lots and lots about this, especially on this particular topic. Um The glory of God is intelligence is the source that you'd like for this. But all things 0:06:54 - 0:07:16 that bring you to Christ, what that's saying is the point is to develop the light that's inside of you, your conscience to more completely reflect the knowledge that God has. So the point of the law, in terms of the law of Moses or any static list of commandments is to bring you to the point where you 0:07:16 - 0:07:41 are willing to enable, to obey your conscience completely without exception, when you obey any and everything that God has revealed to you by pursuing that path, you come to the point eventually where you can obey everything that God knows. There's a tremendous space between these two things. This isn't 0:07:41 - 0:08:03 just a hop, skip and a jump away. But uh that is the point that is the end that we're supposed to achieve the straight and narrow path. The opening to that the gate of that is coming to the point, this third point here where you are ready and willing to obey any and everything that God has revealed to 0:08:03 - 0:08:32 you, that is the start of the straight and narrow path. Yeah. So let's talk about that Jesus said in Matthew 517, think not that I am come to destroy the law. Or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill the end or the fulfillment or the completion or where it leads you of the law of Moses 0:08:32 - 0:08:54 or any static list of commandments. The point is not to save you. It's not to get you to heaven. It's not to make you like God. It's to get you to the point where you're ready and willing to obey any and everything that God has revealed to you. Those laws, those commandments are not capable of saving 0:08:53 - 0:09:16 you, but they are capable of reforming you and getting you to the point where you're humble enough and you have enough faith and you believe in God enough and you love him enough that you're willing to trust him and submit to Him in all things. When you follow that, that then you're keeping God's commandment 0:09:15 - 0:09:39 which He gave in Matthew 548 be therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven is perfect. So love of Moses is fulfilled in the law of your conscience or the law of the spirit. Those are synonymous. And if you follow that path, you'll get to the point where you are perfect, even as your father 0:09:38 - 0:10:03 , which is in heaven is perfect, which is a fulfillment of another command that Jesus gave. If you stop short of this, if you stop on the law of Moses, if you stop on a static list of commandments, then by definition, you are limited in your progression to wherever those things take you. And eternal 0:10:03 - 0:10:26 limitation is damnation. That's literally what damnation means. It's to stop, it's an end and that's also hell. I won't get too much into this. But again, if you want more, you can read the books. Um on the other hand, if you get to the point where you are fully obedient to anything and everything that 0:10:26 - 0:10:52 God reveals to you, then you are what the scriptures call perfect in Christ. And I'll talk about that more. In another video, you are qualified for heaven, you are saved. If you come to the point where you're obedient to everything that God knows, you are perfect and that uh is a qualification reserve 0:10:51 - 0:11:15 for the Lord and we could discuss that more, but we'll leave it at that. Our objective here is to become obedient to any and everything that God reveals to you. And I use the pronoun you intentionally. It's an individual personal thing. What God reveals to you could be very different than what he reveals 0:11:14 - 0:11:47 to me because we're all in different places. So uh what did Jesus come to this earth for among other things? He came to give us an example to prove that it's possible for men to be perfectly obedient to God's commandments. And he showed that uh beyond that, he also uh paid the price of our sins and gave 0:11:47 - 0:12:08 us this avenue. The gospel is like a ladder that helps us to climb out of the situation. We would be in on our own into a different situation that is made possible through Jesus Christ and his atonement. If he had not come, we would be subject to the fullness of quote, the law, which is to be perfect 0:12:07 - 0:12:33 in the same sense that the father is perfect. And of course, we all fall short of that. And so without the Lord, we would be condemned to die forever when we die and to never be resurrected and never have a chance to grow. Ok? So what's the relationship between obedience to the law of the spirit or our 0:12:33 - 0:12:57 conscience or any? And everything that God has revealed to you, those are all synonymous and obedience to everything that God knows. Well, the space of everything that God knows is very large and uh what happens is as you obey God, he will reveal things to you from that set of knowledge. Um And he'll 0:12:57 - 0:13:24 reveal them to you in a way that you can understand a way that fits your perception of reality and your ability to obey. And as He reveals more and more to you, you grow. And this is why static lists of commandments don't work. They can only damn you because if the list is limited by necessity, it can't 0:13:23 - 0:13:51 get you to be more like God. There's a limit to how far it can get you. So John 15, uh the Lord says some interesting things here. And he explains to us what the relationship is between the knowledge of God that we're aware of that's already recorded in our conscience, which grows over time. And the 0:13:51 - 0:14:13 list of sorry, not the list, the set of all knowledge of God, which is much more than that. He said, if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hate me, hate my father also, if I had not done among them, the works which none other man 0:14:13 - 0:14:33 did, they had not sin, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father, he was talking about the things that he had been showing to the people and the things that he had been teaching the people, especially the Pharisees, the leaders of the church, the Jewish church 0:14:32 - 0:14:55 . And he was saying before I came along, they may not have had such a great reason to believe these things. They may not have even known about them. But now that I've taught them these things and now that I've shown them through my works that I am who I say I am. They don't have a reason not to believe 0:14:54 - 0:15:21 and they're accountable for that knowledge. So this is how things transfer from the realm of the, the set of things we don't know about yet to the set of things we do. God reveals them to us and then we have to obey them because if we don't, then we are sinning. Paul said there is no respect of persons 0:15:21 - 0:15:44 with God for as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. If you want to be justified, you have to actually do what God 0:15:43 - 0:16:08 has taught you. There isn't a, a another option if you are aware of the law or if you are aware of more of God's will, you are accountable and you must do more of God's will. Don't be tempted by that to say, well, I'll just go hide in a cave then and the less I know the better because I won't be held 0:16:08 - 0:16:28 accountable for what I don't know. We'll get to that, but don't feel that way. Let's get back to this. But what about that we had from before where John said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. John understood that there's a distinction between obedience 0:16:28 - 0:16:46 to any and everything that God has revealed to you and obedience to everything that God knows. There's a difference between what you know and what God knows. And you're only responsible for what you know, more than that, that's all you could possibly obey because by definition, you don't know about anything 0:16:45 - 0:17:05 else. Well, John was saying that even when you're completely obedient to everything that God has revealed to you, that doesn't mean that you're obedient to everything that God knows. In fact, these are very different things. And if you say that you know everything that God knows, you deceive yourself 0:17:05 - 0:17:24 and the truth is not in you. It's obviously not the case. And in this very chapter, there's more that John says, that reveals that he clearly wasn't saying what those who would use this to fight against. What I'm saying would imply. It means in the same, same letter, different chapter, sorry. The very 0:17:24 - 0:17:47 next chapter he says He that saith I know God and keepeth not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. So right there uh if you know God's will and you don't do it, then you're a liar. The truth is not in you but whoso keepeth his word in Him verily is the love of God perfected hereby 0:17:47 - 0:18:10 know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also. So to walk, even as he walked in other words, if you believe in Jesus, if you really believe in Jesus, you actually have to do everything you understand His will to be and you actually have to abstain from everything that 0:18:10 - 0:18:42 is not in that this is very, very important. And it's really that simple. You actually have to keep God's commandments and you actually have to not break them uh the law of the flesh condemns, but the law of the spirit saves. In John chapter three, Jesus taught that um it was not his mission to condemn 0:18:41 - 0:19:01 the world. He says, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved if this sounds familiar. It's because this is the same chapter with John 316. It's the preceding verse. And that's the one that gets quoted all the time. It's an important verse 0:19:00 - 0:19:21 , but I wish people would keep reading. This is an incredibly important passage of scripture. It ranks very highly on my list. He continues, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not, is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of 0:19:21 - 0:19:40 God. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for every one that doeth evil, hate the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his 0:19:40 - 0:19:58 deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. And now we're getting back to where I said we'd come back to with the, why don't we just hide from revelation? I mean, if we don't know about the law, we're not held accountable. So let's just hide from it and run away from it. That's not the 0:19:58 - 0:20:25 way it works. The default state. So where we are automatically without having done anything is that we are condemned. Our lack of knowledge prevents us from living with God. We overcome that through more commandments, the more light and truth we receive from God, the closer we can come to Him. And uh 0:20:25 - 0:20:49 the condemnation remains if we turn away from the light and the light is available to all, all of the time Jesus came to save, not to condemn every commandment he gives. The purpose is not to condemn. It's to save, it's not to push people away, it's to draw people closer. And so if you want to draw closer 0:20:48 - 0:21:14 , there's only one way to do it and it's not to stay how you are. It's to obtain more and then do that, do what you're taught. We can put this into two columns. So the list of commandments approach, uh those are static. It's a fixed list, it's not adaptive. It's, it's uh after the flesh is how it's referred 0:21:13 - 0:21:36 to in the scriptures. And these rules, these commandments are such that you can follow them to the letter and still be wrong in the spirit. So you can follow the letter of the law and still have your heart completely wrong. And this happens all the time. I would say this is the majority case of Christians 0:21:35 - 0:22:00 in the world today that they follow the letter of the law as is taught to them by their church. But their hearts are completely wrong because they're static. You can know that they come from men because God is not static. Um So for example, these men don't have to be bad, but the law of Moses came through 0:22:00 - 0:22:22 Moses and he was a very righteous man. And yet it's a static list. So people thought in Jesus's time, things had become so corrupted that people thought they were keeping the law of Moses in rejecting Jesus. But actually, if you were keeping the law of Moses and the intent for which it was given, you 0:22:22 - 0:22:42 would have followed Jesus when he came, you would have recognized him for who he was. And that wasn't the case for the most part, lists of commandments can be corrupted because they come from men. So you're depending on a middleman to get this stuff. And so there's no need for you to actually be plugged 0:22:41 - 0:23:05 into God at any time. You can just follow this list that someone else gave you and then assume that you're good to go, that you're saved, that you've, you know, you're avoiding sin and that's not right because uh you've stopped first off and second because it came through a man or some men. Um You don't 0:23:05 - 0:00:00 necessarily have your heart plugged into God. It's very easy to get off the tracks. On the other hand, if you look at the law of the spirit or the law of your conscience, uh this is dynamic. It's adaptive. It's situational. God can speak to you and he will speak to you at any time. And in any place, 0:00:00 - 0:23:47 it's after the spirit because it's your spirit through which these instructions are coming. There's no way of weaseling out of this. Your heart absolutely has to be right because you're not doing what looks righteous on the outside. You're doing what God is telling you on the inside. And that's a necessary 0:23:46 - 0:24:07 condition by virtue of how this works. You're not just following a list of stuff that someone gave you, it has to come from God and because it comes from God, it can't be corrupted. Now, I'm not saying it can't be counterfeited. And I talk about this uh in the video I did talking about revelation. It 0:24:07 - 0:24:26 , it um it can be counterfeited but it can't be corrupted. So there's a difference between those two. So a man can take the law of Moses and say, uh this is what this really means. Now, follow me and give me your money and do what I say. Um That can't happen when you're following the law of your conscience 0:24:26 - 0:24:50 because God will, will channel that and, and keep you off of that path. OK? Here's a verse where we can break down the difference. This is from Paul in Galatians 216. He said, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. And in that case, he's talking about the law of Moses, but by the 0:24:50 - 0:25:09 faith of Jesus Christ. In other words, the law of the spirit or the conscience, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. And you can't believe in Jesus Christ. If you don't keep the commandments that He gives you through the spirit, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works 0:25:09 - 0:25:31 of the law, the law of Moses for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You can't be justified by the works of the law, meaning the law of Moses or any static list of commandments. Because by definition, you've stopped short of actually obeying Christ of actually obeying God. Because if 0:25:31 - 0:25:52 you actually obey God, he'll teach you, he'll teach you more. And so you can't just stop short with a static list and be justified. Here's another one, this is from Romans eight for they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit 0:25:51 - 0:26:14 . So he's presenting the dichotomy of you can either do this list of commandments that some guy gave you or you can actually follow the spirit for to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded as life and peace, why is it death? Because it has an end? Why is it life and peace? Because 0:26:13 - 0:26:36 it has no end. It's continuous because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. This is a mystery verse to many Christians. But it's not confusing at all. If you are obeying a static list 0:26:36 - 0:26:54 of commandments, you can't please God because your growth towards Him is kept. It's limited to whatever is on that list and you can go no further. And that's not the whole purpose of creation is to take you further. The whole purpose of Jesus, living and dying and being resurrected and living again is 0:26:53 - 0:27:10 to take you further. That is the work of God. It's the whole point. So of course, you're not going to please Him. If you say no, I'm good. I'm just gonna stick to this list of things that my church says is important and I'll be good. I'm saved. I have whatever credentials this church gives me that says 0:27:10 - 0:27:30 that I'm good, but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. What's the spirit of God dwelling in you again? I'll go into this morning another video. It's the light of Christ. It's your conscience it's the spirit of God, all these things. Now, if any man 0:27:30 - 0:27:51 have not, the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. That's it. You're not in the path, you're not moving towards him, you're just on a hamster wheel and you're not going to get anywhere. Ok. Let's talk a little about the difference between sinning, with knowledge and sinning without knowledge. There are 0:27:50 - 0:28:14 many things that God knows that you do not know. And when you act contrary to those things that you do not know, you're still sinning, technically, but that sin is absolved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And if you believe in Him and keep his instructions to you, then you are forgiven of that without 0:28:14 - 0:28:38 you even having to worry about it. But there's another type of sin, which is the one you need to be worried about, which is sinning against what you do know that's called willful disobedience. If you disobey commandments that you know, you are going to go to hell, if you keep all the commandments, you 0:28:38 - 0:29:00 know, you won't. But I think a more appropriate and effective way of thinking about this instead of being afraid of hell is thinking about what it actually means to love God, to believe in God and to trust God because I think a lot of people fool themselves to think that they do these things when it's 0:29:00 - 0:29:25 very obvious or should be very obvious to them that they don't. So we come to the first great commandment in the law. Again, we come back to Matthew 22 Jesus said love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, can you honestly say that you love the go the Lord 0:29:25 - 0:29:45 with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, if you choose to do something other than obey what he says, because these aren't, these aren't like magical things that happen to you. When you sin, it's all a choice. Everything is a choice. And if you're choosing to sin, what it means 0:29:45 - 0:30:06 is you're placing something other than God head of God, you're choosing to do something other than what you understand to be His will. And you can't say that you love God or that you believe in Him or that you trust Him. Because if you sin, you don't that by definition, you don't. It's really that simple 0:30:06 - 0:30:37 to go to heaven. You have to be completely obedient to God. First John 518, John says he that is begotten of God, keepeth himself. It you don't sin, whosoever is born of God sineth not, you don't actively contradict your best sincere understanding of God. OK. In first John 24, it says He that saith I 0:30:37 - 0:31:00 know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. In conclusion, if you believe in Jesus, you have to believe that it's possible for a person to be sinless in this life because Jesus was, if you believe in Jesus, you have to believe that a person has to be sinless in order 0:31:00 - 0:31:22 to be saved. That's what it means. Jesus saves us from our sins. He doesn't save us in our sins. Salvation comes to those who follow Jesus. You actually have to do what he says or else you don't really believe in Him, not the way he intended the word to be used. You might believe in Him like kids believe 0:31:21 - 0:31:44 in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny. But if you believe Jesus, you have to also believe the things he said and he said that you have to obey Him in order to get to heaven. Not because it's an arbitrary blessing or gift that God gives to people. But because it's based on actually knowing and actually doing 0:31:44 - 0:32:09 the things that God does. That's what salvation means. If you want to be saved, you have to actually be like Jesus. If you're not yet sinless, you have to address the reasons why, what are they trust in God? Love God believe in God work on those things because that's what, what's keeping you from doing 0:32:08 - 0:32:30 this from being sinless. That's what's keeping you from the gate and the straight and narrow path. It doesn't matter how much you say you believe in God, it matters how much you actually believe in Him you're not saved by what you say you're saved by who you are, who you actually become. So try to be 0:00:00 - 0:00:23 Be seamless. The ideas discussed in this talk uh might be new to some extreme to others and make complete sense to some uh regardless if you'd like to know more about this. I recommend that you read the books, seek this Jesus, seeing, hearing and dwelling with God and the glory of God is intelligence 0:00:22 - 0:00:49 , acquiring and disseminating light and truth. Both of these are available in print on amazon.com and in free PDF form at upward thought.blogspot.com. What is sin? Answer is actually quite simple uh in James 417, it says therefore to Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to Him. It is sin. So 0:00:48 - 0:01:17 sin is a deviation from what we know compared to what we do. In other words, sin is when we violate our conscience. Another way of looking at this is thinking of sin as when we turn away from our sincere understanding of what God's will is in whatever our circumstances may be. Jesus said that the first 0:01:17 - 0:01:40 commandment was to love God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. When you love God, with all of everything you have to give, it means that you put your understanding of what his will is before your own. In every case, without exception, there's a lot of misconception about 0:01:40 - 0:02:08 what sin is. And it's probably not correct to say that these views are incorrect necessarily, but they're not as uh as effectual as they could be. Paul said in Romans 323 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You have sinned. But the point I want to make to you today is that that doesn't 0:02:08 - 0:02:35 mean that you have to keep doing it. We all have sinned. We have all come short of the glory of God. But that doesn't mean that we have to keep on doing that forever. Jesus showed it was possible to live a sinless life. Paul said of Jesus that in all points he was tempted like as we are yet without sin 0:02:34 - 0:03:02 , there's a false belief that the Lord's divinity somehow exempted Him from being tempted. The fact is, and this is a very important fact to understand that Jesus was tempted as we are. The difference was not in whether or not it was difficult not to sin. The difference was that he didn't do it because 0:03:01 - 0:03:25 of this. We can know that it's possible to live without sin. If Jesus did it, then it has to be possible. And again, it's a false belief to try to weasel out of this and say, yeah, but he was the son of God, it's true. But he was born of a woman and he was subject to all the same temptations as we are 0:03:24 - 0:03:50 . The difference wasn't that it was easier for him. The difference is that he did it and because he did it, we can all have faith that we can do it too with his help. So whenever someone presents a new idea, there's this flood of, what abouts I call it. What about Itis? So if you go around saying it's 0:03:50 - 0:04:08 possible not to sin, this is the most likely counter argument you'll get, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. This is something that John wrote in one of his letters and we will get back to this. So my point in bringing this up is if you are aware of this 0:04:07 - 0:04:26 scripture, which of course, now you are, don't let it derail our conversation. And I just ask you to give me a couple of minutes to persuade you and give you some, some evidence on the other side of this. And then we'll come back to this and I hope it'll make sense how it is that John said this and still 0:04:26 - 0:04:53 what I'm saying is true to understand this. Uh like many gospel concepts. It's impossible to peel back the layers of tradition uh in just one go or a Twitter sized message, we actually have to dig into the scriptures a little bit and talk about um some things at a deeper level and peel all of this apart 0:04:52 - 0:05:17 . So what we'll start on is the law. A lot of people are really confused about what the law is, what commandments are, et cetera. So we're gonna start here. All right. So what does this mean? The law? We could be talking about many things when we say the law and the scriptures are talking about many 0:05:17 - 0:05:39 different things when they say the law. So when you see the law in scripture, you can interpret it to mean one of these things, maybe it's talking about the law of Moses. These are the commandments that God gave. Uh not just the 10 commandments, but all of the commandments that God gave Moses for Israel 0:05:38 - 0:06:03 . It could be talking about some specific list of commandments without specifying what that list is. But something that's a limited list of things, a static list, it's set, it could be talking about obedience to any and everything that God has revealed to you, to your conscience. It could also be talking 0:06:03 - 0:06:29 about everything that God knows. So the law could be any of these things. And I hope that you realize that depending on which of these things we're talking about, the meaning will be very different, the law of Moses or any other static list of commandments. The purpose of all of those things is to bring 0:06:29 - 0:06:55 you to Christ. What does that mean. Well, uh and I'll elaborate on this significantly in other videos, but also read the books. There's lots and lots about this, especially on this particular topic. Um The glory of God is intelligence is the source that you'd like for this. But all things that bring 0:06:55 - 0:07:17 you to Christ, what that's saying is the point is to develop the light that's inside of you, your conscience to more completely reflect the knowledge that God has. So the point of the law, in terms of the law of Moses or any static list of commandments is to bring you to the point where you are willing 0:07:16 - 0:07:41 to enable, to obey your conscience completely without exception, when you obey any and everything that God has revealed to you by pursuing that path, you come to the point eventually where you can obey everything that God knows. There's a tremendous space between these two things. This isn't just a hop 0:07:41 - 0:08:04 , skip and a jump away. But uh that is the point that is the end that we're supposed to achieve the straight and narrow path. The opening to that the gate of that is coming to the point, this third point here where you are ready and willing to obey any and everything that God has revealed to you, that 0:08:04 - 0:08:33 is the start of the straight and narrow path. Yeah. So let's talk about that Jesus said in Matthew 517, think not that I am come to destroy the law. Or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill the end or the fulfillment or the completion or where it leads you of the law of Moses or any 0:08:33 - 0:08:55 static list of commandments. The point is not to save you. It's not to get you to heaven. It's not to make you like God. It's to get you to the point where you're ready and willing to obey any and everything that God has revealed to you. Those laws, those commandments are not capable of saving you, but 0:08:55 - 0:09:16 they are capable of reforming you and getting you to the point where you're humble enough and you have enough faith and you believe in God enough and you love him enough that you're willing to trust him and submit to Him in all things. When you follow that, that then you're keeping God's commandment 0:09:15 - 0:09:39 which He gave in Matthew 548 be therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven is perfect. So love of Moses is fulfilled in the law of your conscience or the law of the spirit. Those are synonymous. And if you follow that path, you'll get to the point where you are perfect, even as your father 0:09:38 - 0:10:04 , which is in heaven is perfect, which is a fulfillment of another command that Jesus gave. If you stop short of this, if you stop on the law of Moses, if you stop on a static list of commandments, then by definition, you are limited in your progression to wherever those things take you. And eternal 0:10:03 - 0:10:26 limitation is damnation. That's literally what damnation means. It's to stop, it's an end and that's also hell. I won't get too much into this. But again, if you want more, you can read the books. Um on the other hand, if you get to the point where you are fully obedient to anything and everything that 0:10:26 - 0:10:52 God reveals to you, then you are what the scriptures call perfect in Christ. And I'll talk about that more. In another video, you are qualified for heaven, you are saved. If you come to the point where you're obedient to everything that God knows, you are perfect and that uh is a qualification reserved 0:10:51 - 0:11:15 for the Lord and we could discuss that more, but we'll leave it at that. Our objective here is to become obedient to any and everything that God reveals to you. And I use the pronoun you intentionally. It's an individual personal thing. What God reveals to you could be very different than what he reveals 0:11:15 - 0:11:47 to me because we're all in different places. So uh what did Jesus come to this earth for among other things? He came to give us an example to prove that it's possible for men to be perfectly obedient to God's commandments. And he showed that uh beyond that, he also uh paid the price of our sins and gave 0:11:47 - 0:12:08 us this avenue. The gospel is like a ladder that helps us to climb out of the situation. We would be in on our own into a different situation that is made possible through Jesus Christ and his atonement. If he had not come, we would be subject to the fullness of the law, which is to be perfect in the 0:12:08 - 0:12:34 same sense that the father is perfect. And of course, we all fall short of that. And so without the Lord, we would be condemned to die forever when we die and to never be resurrected and never have a chance to grow. Mhm So what's the relationship between obedience to the law of the spirit or our conscience 0:12:33 - 0:12:58 or any? And everything that God has revealed to you, those are all synonymous and obedience to everything that God knows. Well, the space of everything that God knows is very large and uh what happens is as you obey God, he will reveal things to you from that set of knowledge. Um And he'll reveal them 0:12:57 - 0:13:24 to you in a way that you can understand a way that fits your perception of reality and your ability to obey. And as He reveals more and more to you, you grow. And this is why static lists of commandments don't work. They can only damn you because if the list is limited by necessity, it can't get you 0:13:24 - 0:13:52 to be more like God. There's a limit to how far it can get you. So John 15, uh the Lord says some interesting things here. And he explains to us what the relationship is between the knowledge of God that we're aware of that's already recorded in our conscience, which grows over time. And the list of 0:13:52 - 0:00:00 sorry, not the list, the set of all knowledge of God, which is much more than that. He said, if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hate me, hate my father also, if I had not done among them, the works which none other man did, 0:00:00 - 0:14:34 they had not sin, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. He was talking about the things that he had been showing to the people and the things that he had been teaching the people, especially the Pharisees, the leaders of the church, the Jewish church. And 0:14:34 - 0:14:56 he was saying before I came along, they may not have had such a great reason to believe these things. They may not have even known about them. But now that I've taught them these things and now that I've shown them through my works that I am who I say I am, they don't have a reason not to believe and 0:14:55 - 0:15:22 they're accountable for that knowledge. So this is how things transfer from the realm of the, the set of things we don't know about yet to the set of things we do. God reveals them to us and then we have to obey them because if we don't, then we are sinning. Paul said there is no respect of persons with 0:15:21 - 0:15:44 God for as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. If you want to be justified, you have to actually do what God has 0:15:44 - 0:16:08 taught you. There isn't a, a another option if you are aware of the law or if you are aware of more of God's will, you are accountable and you must do more of God's will. Don't be tempted by that to say, well, I'll just go hide in a cave then and the less I know the better because I won't be held accountable 0:16:08 - 0:16:29 for what I don't know. We'll get to that but don't feel that way. Let's get back to this. But what about that we had from before where John said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. John understood that there's a distinction between obedience to any and everything 0:16:29 - 0:16:48 that God has revealed to you and obedience to everything that God knows. There's a difference between what you know and what God knows. And you're only responsible for what you know more than that, that's all you could possibly obey because by definition, you don't know about anything else. Well, John 0:16:48 - 0:17:06 was saying that even when you're completely obedient to everything that God has revealed to you, that doesn't mean that you're obedient to everything that God knows. In fact, these are very different things. And if you say that you know everything that God knows, you deceive yourself and the truth is 0:17:06 - 0:17:25 not in you. It's obviously not the case. And in this very chapter, there's more that John says, that reveals that he clearly wasn't saying what those who would use this to fight against. What I'm saying would imply. It means in the same, same letter, different chapter, sorry. The very next chapter he 0:17:25 - 0:17:48 says He that saith I know God and keepeth not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. So right there uh if you know God's will and you don't do it, then you're a liar. The truth is not in you but whoso keepeth His word in Him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we 0:17:48 - 0:18:11 are in Him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also. So to walk, even as he walked in other words, if you believe in Jesus, if you really believe in Jesus, you actually have to do everything you understand His will to be and you actually have to abstain from everything that is not in that 0:18:10 - 0:18:44 this is very, very important. And it's really that simple. You actually have to keep God's commandments and you actually have to not break them the law of the flesh condemns. But the law of the spirit saves. In John chapter three, Jesus taught that um it was not his mission to condemn the world. He says 0:18:43 - 0:19:02 , for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved if this sounds familiar. It's because this is the same chapter with John 316. It's the preceding verse. And that's the one that gets quoted all the time. It's an important verse, but I wish people 0:19:02 - 0:19:23 would keep reading. This is an incredibly important passage of scripture. It ranks very highly on my list. He continues, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not, is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the 0:19:23 - 0:19:41 condemnation that light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for every one that doeth evil, hate the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made 0:19:41 - 0:20:00 manifest, that they are wrought in God. And now we're getting back to where I said we'd come back to with the why don't, we just hide from revelation. I mean, if we don't know about the law, we're not held accountable. So let's just hide from it and run away from it. That's not the way it works. The 0:20:00 - 0:20:26 default state. So where we are automatically without having done anything is that we are condemned. Our lack of knowledge prevents us from living with God. We overcome that through more commandments, the more light and truth we receive from God, the closer we can come to him. And uh the condemnation 0:20:26 - 0:20:50 remains if we turn away from the light and the light is available to all, all of the time Jesus came to save, not to condemn every commandment he gives. The purpose is not to condemn. It's to save, it's not to push people away. It's to draw people closer. And so if you want to draw closer, there's only 0:20:50 - 0:21:15 one way to do it and it's not to stay how you are. It's to obtain more and then do that, do what you're taught. We can put this into two columns. So the list of commandments approach, uh those are static. It's a fixed list, it's not adaptive. It's, it's uh after the flesh is how it's referred to in the 0:21:14 - 0:21:36 scriptures. And these rules, these commandments are such that you can follow them to the letter and still be wrong in the spirit. So you can follow the letter of the law and still have your heart completely wrong. And this happens all the time. I would say this is the majority case of Christians in the 0:21:36 - 0:22:01 world today that they follow the letter of the law as is taught to them by their church. But their hearts are completely wrong because they're static. You can know that they come from men because God is not static. Um So for example, these men don't have to be bad, but the law of Moses came through Moses 0:22:00 - 0:22:23 and he was a very righteous man. And yet it's a static list. So people thought in Jesus's time, things had become so corrupted that people thought they were keeping the law of Moses in rejecting Jesus. But actually, if you were keeping the law of Moses and the intent for which it was given, you would 0:22:22 - 0:22:42 have followed Jesus when he came, you would have recognized him for who he was. And that wasn't the case for the most part, lists of commandments can be corrupted because they come from men. So you're depending on a middleman to get this stuff. And so there's no need for you to actually be plugged into 0:22:42 - 0:23:05 God at any time. You can just follow this list that someone else gave you and then assume that you're good to go, that you're saved, that you've, you know, you're avoiding sin. And that's not right because uh you've stopped first off and second because it came through a man or some men. Um You don't 0:23:05 - 0:23:27 necessarily have your heart plugged into God. It's very easy to get off the tracks. On the other hand, if you look at the law of the spirit or the law of your conscience, uh this is dynamic, it's adaptive. It's situational. God can speak to you and he will speak to you at any time and in any place, it's 0:23:27 - 0:23:47 after the spirit because it's your spirit through which these instructions are coming. There's no way of weaseling out of this. Your heart absolutely has to be right because you're not doing what looks righteous on the outside. You're doing what God is telling you on the inside. And that's a necessary 0:23:46 - 0:24:07 condition by virtue of how this works. You're not just following a list of stuff that someone gave you, it has to come from God and because it comes from God, it can't be corrupted. Now, I'm not saying it can't be counterfeited. And I talk about this uh in the video I did talking about revelation. It 0:24:07 - 0:24:26 , it um it can be counterfeited but it can't be corrupted. So there's a difference between those two. So a man can take the law of Moses and say, uh this is what this really means. Now, follow me and give me your money and do what I say. Um That can't happen when you're following the law of your conscience 0:24:26 - 0:24:50 because God will, will channel that and, and keep you off of that path. Ok? Here's a verse where we can break down the difference. This is from Paul in Galatians 216. He said, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. And in that case, he's talking about the law of Moses, but by the 0:24:50 - 0:25:09 faith of Jesus Christ. In other words, the law of the spirit or the conscience, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. And you can't believe in Jesus Christ. If you don't keep the commandments that He gives you through the spirit, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works 0:25:09 - 0:25:31 of the law, the law of Moses for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You can't be justified by the works of the law, meaning the law of Moses or any static list of commandments. Because by definition, you've stopped short of actually obeying Christ of actually obeying God because if 0:25:31 - 0:25:51 you actually obey God, he'll teach you, he'll teach you more. And so you can't just stop short with a static list and be justified. Here's another one. This is from Romans eight for they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, but they, that are after the spirit, the things of the 0:25:51 - 0:26:14 spirit. So he's presenting the dichotomy of you can either do this list of commandments that some guy gave you or you can actually follow the spirit for to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded. Is life and peace. Why is it death? Because it has an end? Why is it life and peace? Because 0:26:13 - 0:26:36 it has no end. It's continuous because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. This is a mystery verse to many Christians. But it's not confusing at all. If you are obeying a static list 0:26:36 - 0:26:54 of commandments, you can't please God because your growth towards Him is kept. It's limited to whatever is on that list and you can go no further. And that's not the whole purpose of creation is to take you further. The whole purpose of Jesus, living and dying and being resurrected and living again is 0:26:53 - 0:27:10 to take you further. That is the work of God. It's the whole point. So of course, you're not gonna please Him. If you say no, I'm good, I'm just gonna stick to this list of things that my church says is important and I'll be good. I'm saved. I have whatever credentials this church gives me that says 0:27:10 - 0:27:30 that I'm good but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. What's the spirit of God dwelling in you again? I'll go into this morning another video. It's the light of Christ. It's your conscience. It's the spirit of God, all these things. Now, if any man 0:27:30 - 0:27:51 have not, the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. That's it. You're not in the path, you're not moving towards Him, you're just on a hamster wheel and you're not going to get anywhere. Ok. Let's talk a little about the difference between sinning with knowledge and sinning without knowledge. There are 0:27:50 - 0:28:14 many things that God knows that you do not know. And when you act contrary to those things that you do not know you're still sinning technically, but that sin is absolved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And if you believe in Him and keep his instructions to you, then you are forgiven of that without 0:28:14 - 0:28:38 you even having to worry about it. But there's another type of sin, which is the one you need to be worried about, which is sinning against what you do know that's called willful disobedience. If you disobey commandments that you know, you are going to go to hell, if you keep all the commandments, you 0:28:38 - 0:29:00 know, you won't. But I think a more appropriate and effective way of thinking about this instead of being afraid of hell is thinking about what it actually means to love God, to believe in God and to trust God because I think a lot of people fool themselves to think that they do these things when it's 0:29:00 - 0:29:25 very obvious or should be very obvious to them that they don't. So we come to the first great commandment in the law. Again, we come back to it. Matthew 22 Jesus said love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, can you honestly say that you love the go the Lord 0:29:25 - 0:29:45 with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, if you choose to do something other than obey what he says, cause these aren't, these aren't like magical things that happen to you. When you sin, it's all a choice. Everything is a choice. And if you're choosing to sin, what it means 0:29:45 - 0:30:06 is you're placing something other than God head of God, you're choosing to do something other than what you understand to be His will. And you can't say that you love God or that you believe in Him or that you trust Him. Because if you sin, you don't that by definition you don't. It's really that simple 0:30:06 - 0:30:37 to go to heaven. You have to be completely obedient to God. First John 518, John says he that is begotten of God, keepeth himself. It you don't sin, whosoever is born of God sinnet, not, you don't actively contradict your best sincere understanding of God. OK. In first John 24, it says He that saith 0:30:37 - 0:31:00 I know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him. In conclusion, if you believe in Jesus, you have to believe that it's possible for a person to be sinless in this life because Jesus was, if you believe in Jesus, you have to believe that a person has to be sinless in 0:31:00 - 0:31:21 order to be saved. That's what it means. Jesus saves us from our sins. He doesn't save us in our sins. Salvation comes to those who follow Jesus. You actually have to do what he says or else you don't really believe in Him, not the way he intended the word to be used. You might believe in Him like kids 0:31:21 - 0:31:44 believe in Santa Claus or the Easter bunny. But if you believe Jesus, you have to also believe the things he said and he said that you have to obey Him in order to get to heaven. Not because it's an arbitrary blessing or gift that God gives to people, but because it's based on actually knowing and actually 0:31:43 - 0:32:08 doing the things that God does. That's what salvation means. If you want to be saved, you have to actually be like Jesus. If you're not yet sinless, you have to address the reasons why. What are they trust in God? Love God believe in God, work on those things because that's what, what's keeping you from 0:32:08 - 0:32:29 doing this from being sinless. That's what's keeping you from the gate and the straight and narrow path. It doesn't matter how much you say you believe in God, it matters how much you actually believe in Him. You're not saved by what you say you're saved by who you are, who you actually become. So try 0:32:29 - 0:32:34 like him and do actually do what he has taught you.