The very word FAILURE should evoke the idea that ‘there is a goal to reach’ and that you’re involved in ‘trying to get there,’ When you don’t get to that goal that’s called failure right. “Failure”- That one word is a great description of the old covenant. Failure and the old covenant involves people under it doing perfectly. If you go back to keeping any one of the laws of God — keeping the Sabbath for instance– then you are a debtor to keep the whole law– according to Paul in Galatians.
You can’t just keep the Sabbath. You are a debtor now to keep the whole of the law – no matter what sort of maneuvering and sidestepping your denomination puts on that.
Gal 5:2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Paul the apostle, who was given the gospel and taught it personally by Jesus says that you are a debtor to keep the whole law. Of course the law will kill you and you will fail.. hallelujah!! So all of you people trying to keep the law which included me and still sometimes does – are failures! You fail!
Paul talks about how they wanted to circumcise them so they could boast in their flesh… in other words they would boast to others that – ‘we made some converts back to the old covenant amongst those Galatian Christians’. They wanted to boast and that’s what the old covenant is all about.. not from God’s point of view but that’s what man does with it… he boasts.. he boasts in his own works.
The new covenant comes along and tells us ‘to cease from our own works’- Hebrews chapter 4 tells us. There is a rest that we can come into which can only be entered into if we cease from our own works.
Heb 4:10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience
Romans 3 puts it differently. Paul says that ‘all of us have fallen short of the glory of God’ and he says ‘that every mouth may be stopped’.. stopped.. every mouth may be stopped.’ “I fast; I tithe; I keep the Sabbath; I give to the poor;or I go to Mecca; i pray five times a day on my mat towards Mecca; I went to the Hajj; I went to Jerusalem; I made pilgrimage! I got this.. I did that… “that every mouth may be stopped!”
Rom 3:9″…that they are all under sin….10 As it is written:“There is none righteous, no, not one;…
3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
You see that’s what failure does. Failure stops us. It’s meant to stop us completely but that doesn’t happen unless we hear the good news and come over into victory. That’s what Romans 6 and 7 and 8 is is all about. That’s what it’s portraying. In Romans 6 Paul tells us what he discovered…
That if anyone died with Christ then we were also buried with him in baptism.. We died with Him – we were buried with him in baptism. Our ‘old man was done away with’ – rendered inoperable- that we are no longer slaves of sin, nor slaves of the law because we died to that which held us… and now we have been raised up alive unto God… ready to be married to another… to the Lord.. so that we are now slaves of righteousness. So failure is supposed to teach us yet again, when we fail, we cannot do it. We need to come and ask ourself “Why can’t I do this?” Because certainly there’s nothing wrong on God’s side of things… there’s nothing wrong with God.. why do.. why can’t I get through a day without getting angry… without being impatient… without uh lusting… whatever it is.. without boasting… any number of 660 things… Why can’t I?! It’s what I’ve been saying… “It’s not by might, nor by power but by my spirit!”
It’s not by the outer man– the old man— and so we come into this thing with all of these ideas and definitions of who we are and we think that: “we are responsible, separate selves, we’re separate from everyone else, we’re separate from God, we’re responsible and God is expecting us to do good today.”
I’ve heard preachers say that they will get up in the morning and look themselves in the face and say “I’m going to walk in holiness today. I’m not going to sin. I’m going to be a good boy for God.” It’s so laughable and that’s the old covenant… You see we’ve really got to discover.. we have to discover who the ‘I’ is when you say “I’m going to be a good boy. I’m going to be a good boy.” Well who is that I that you’re talking about and talking to? It’s certainly not Jesus is it? Do you have to tell Jesus to be a good boy?
Paul discovered and you read it in Romans 7:17 that:
“It’s no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
No longer I that do it. No longer I ? Where have you heard that before?
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I that live.”
Paul said in Romans 7:17- “It’s no longer I that do it” That tries to do good or that sins… No longer I operating anymore.. because it was crucified, it was buried, it was found guilty, it was found totally useless and unable to please God… that’s what you were like before you came to Jesus…
The old mindset carries on in the same pattern until we fail enough to begin to ask God “What’s going on here what’s the problem?”
“It’s no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me.” Paul said “It’s no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in my mortal uh in my members bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death.”
So the law of sin and death is the old covenant.. it’s Moses law.. it’s God’s law. The sin principle this thing called Sin brings us into captivity to the law so that we’re made to serve the law again.. which will then kill us again… show us we can’t do it… and we fail again until we come full circle back to the same place.. crying out “God help me I can’t do it!”
We need revelation. That’s what brings us over. That’s why Paul prayed “Oh that your eyes may be enlightened that you might receive the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him… that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened that you might know what is the hope of his calling.. what is the glorious riches of his inheritance.”
You see we are blinded even though we’re born again and we have to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. not Romans 12 be transformed by the renewing of your mind..but be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
Eph 4:20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
it’s not just reading a book by somebody or listening to me… it’s getting with the Holy Ghost… it’s crying out… it’s coming to the end of yourself and all your strength and all your efforts and being fed up with failing.. Fed up with being a fake.. Fed up with trying and pretending and faking it on Sundays… Being fed up with putting on the suit and the tie and looking the part but knowing that you’re a failure and a hypocrite.
That is all part of God’s work in you brother or sister.. to bring you to that place where you’re ready to cry out to him: “I don’t care what it takes Lord! You’ve got to show me the gospel! If the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe– Lord show me the gospel! You’ll find that He will lead you to the Apostle Paul’s writings because Jesus gave him the gospel. Jesus gave it to a self-righteous Pharisee, a Hebrew who had righteousness according to his own efforts at keeping God’s law, a great law-keeping Jew our brother Paul, who went around in his zeal for God murdering people, torturing people…
Such is the fruit of the old covenant which we see in the news every day over there.. and I hope they are getting fed up with it.. that they begin to have an ear… and do what I’m saying and cry out to God: “Please show us because what we are doing cannot be the truth!” It’s the same for all of us Christians. God wants us to come to the end of ourself and he will allow us to fail again and again and again.
People come along and try to encourage you to “try again”… maybe you should fast… maybe you should this maybe you should that… but the gospel of Paul is not preached. It’s been opposed ever since Paul released it. It’s been hidden. It’s been pushed aside and ridiculed but it’s the power of God unto your salvation, your wholeness inside of God. It’s what you’ve been looking for. It’s the revelation given to Paul of the new creature that you are, the new person that you are…
Christ in you the hope of glory.. Him(Christ in you) we preach, warning every man, teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect and complete in Christ.’
You see “it’s no longer I that do it” Romans 7:17 says “But Paul says in Galatians 2:20 “it’s no longer I that live, but the life that I now live in the flesh,” he said it’s “Christ living in me” but “it’s no longer I that do it” —“it’s no longer I that live.” There’s another person living in me! Jesus! Jesus is living in you “to will and to do for his good pleasure.” Isn’t that what Philippians 2:13 says? “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” yeah your own salvation… but religion takes that and says “Yeah you got to work out your own salvation” it’s up to you!”
Read the next verse “for it is God who is at work in you energeoing in you, energising you by an inward life, Jesus living in you, it’s God, it’s Jesus in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Jesus does it all inside of you hallelujah… it’s no longer I that live… but Christ that lives in me… and the life that I now live in the flesh… I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness came through the law then Christ died in vain.
Righteousness does not come through trying to be righteous — righteousness comes through the grace of God. which is Jesus living in your heart… Jesus living as you… the one who now lives is Jesus… no longer I that do it… it’s Jesus who’s doing the doing… it’s no longer I that try not to sin… and try this and that… it’s Jesus who lives in you… and he doesn’t have to try not to sin folks he doesn’t have to try to be good… he himself does what I’m saying.. He rests! He rests in the finished work of his Father.
It was God who was in Christ on the cross dying on that cross. It was God who was in Christ reconciling the whole world to himself.. bringing the whole world of sin and darkness and angry opposition towards God… he took all of that and put it all on Jesus his son… he carried it with Jesus… while he was in Jesus. He carried all of that angry opposition.. satanic rebellion, hate for God, accusations and blame towards God, He carried all of that ugly sin inside of Jesus… because only God could handle it.. He crushed his son. But the father enabled him… it pleased the father to bruise him– to crush his son— for we have all gone our own separate ways and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus Christ carried your iniquity dear Jewish brother or sister. Jesus Christ is Isaiah 53’s suffering servant… and by his stripes you are healed hallelujah… surely he carried our infirmities and bore our sicknesses and our griefs and by his stripes we are healed.. we were healed..
He is the answer. He is the well of salvation in Isaiah 12– Yeshua –salvation— the well– I will draw water…the water that Jesus wants to give you is his life… and he gave it to you on the cross… not that you would struggle under the heavy yoke of bondage which none of your fathers could bear… but he released you from the slavery of sin… he released you from the law putting you to death so that you are no longer subject to it and he raised you up inside of Jesus… inside of Yeshua. and Jesus in you.. that you might live before him blameless and holy by faith alone.. by grace alone…
If you’re willing to let go of the law and your standing and your reputation, if you’re willing to let go of all your boasting in the outer obedience of the law and humble yourself before your God and receive Jesus Christ as your only righteousness and receive him as your only strength as Isaiah 45:23 said
“They will take an oath and they will swear surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength”.. will you do that today dear brother or sister …whether you’re Jewish or not because in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor is there Gentile, neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female but all are one in him. HEAR O Israel the Lord thy God is ONE GOD.