0:03 [clears throat] So, [clears throat] we call ourselves New Covenant Christian Fellowship. And [clears throat] those first two words are very important. We've often spoken about the New Covenant. And it's important that every brother 0:22 and sister here, and also the children, understand the privilege and honor it is to be in the New Covenant. Not in this church, but in the New Covenant. So, there are a number of places 0:41 [clears throat and cough] where the distinction comes out clear between Old Covenant and New Covenant, even though I was I've often said, three-quarters of your Bible, of the Bible, is Old Testament. And New Testament is only about 25%. 1:00 But, that's just [clears throat] history. But, when you turn to the pages of the New Testament, the very first page, I never [clears throat] get tired of saying this, because I never discovered it for more than 16 years after I was born 1:18 again. Nobody pointed it out to me. That you finish the three-quarters of the Bible, which is the Old Testament, and you turn into the New Testament, and on the very first page, it says about about Jesus. 1:38 Jesus' name is in the very first verse. But, the meaning of that name [snorts] is explained in this chapter. Did you know that? In verse [clears throat] uh Matthew chapter 1 and 1:57 verse 21. The angel told Joseph that your wife Mary will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus because the word f o r for means because. 2:15 Why should you call him Jesus? Because he's going to do something which is not mentioned in these 39 books of the Old Testament. Which is nobody could experience for all these 4,000 years. He will save his people not from hell. 2:32 A lot of preaching of the gospel is Jesus will save you from hell. Do you know that there's no such verse in the Bible? You reach read the whole Bible. There's no verse which says Jesus will save you from hell. It says he will save you from sin. 2:47 And [clears throat] if you're saved from sin, you'll be saved from hell. But if you seek to be saved from hell, you may not be saved. Because the way to be saved from hell is by being saved from sin. So you can't be saved from hell if 3:02 you're not saved from sin. So the name meaning of the name Jesus is savior. Means saved from what? He'll save you from your sin. That comes on the very first page of 3:18 what we call the New Covenant. [clears throat] Let me give you another example in Hebrews chapter 11 and 12. The reason I emphasize this so much has been the main emphasis of my ministry for 47 years. 3:37 And the reason is because I was defeated for so many years even after I was born again. Like many believers, my life was uh defeated not externally. Externally my testimony was perfect. But you know, in thoughts, anger, 3:55 discouragement, condemnation, all these things, judging others, things that other people don't take seriously, gossiping, speaking evil, which most Christians don't even think are serious. I had all these things, 4:11 even though my external life was clear. And [clears throat] it took me a long time to see what sin was, how what the meaning of the name Jesus was. And then I began to see everywhere. I saw the new covenant everywhere. 4:30 So, let's turn to Hebrews 11. It's another place which became living for me. [clears throat] And the Holy Spirit is the one who wrote this book. And I remember when the Lord filled me with the Holy Spirit in a special way 48 4:46 years ago, I said, "If this is really genuine experience of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the New Testament will become a new book for me." And even though I'd read it for 16 years before that, it really became a new book 5:00 when God filled me with the Holy Spirit. You You believe me, if you If you really get filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll see new things in the Bible that you never saw before. I did. In fact, almost all the things I understand today was really after the 5:13 Holy Spirit opened my eyes. Hebrews 11 is full of these fantastic things that it's entirely old covenant. And a person who is challenged by all those external things will only go for external things. 5:32 So, this is all experience of these people who had faith, but their faith was of a different kind. Old Testament faith. It was faith to split the Red Sea and to pull down the walls of Jericho and have a son when you're 100 years old and 5:47 it's all wonderful things. But then at the end of that you read in verse 40 God has provided something better. What's that better thing? Better than everything written in Hebrews 11. The last verse of Hebrews 11 is 6:07 You get excited with all this. I want to tell you God has provided something better. You know how many people Christians are taken up with the supernatural? Healing. The biggest crowds for meetings are for healing meetings and 6:24 99.9% of people never get healed. It's a hoax. I believe in healing. I've experienced it and I've seen people healed, too, but not in these healing meetings. That's not the main thing. If you have a meeting for we're going to 6:40 preach on victory over sin, you won't get thousands of people like that. Even Christians they'll go for a healing meeting, but they will not go for a meeting where they talk about victory over sin. They'll go for some supernatural 6:54 manifestation. Hebrews 11 is full of these supernatural manifestations. And then in the last verse it says God has provided something better. So, it's a person who's not happy with just seeing supernatural things. 7:11 What is that something better? And then for the first time it talks about sin. In the whole of chapter 11 it doesn't say anything about sin. But as soon as it says God has provided something better it says in chapter 12 verse 1 7:28 [clears throat] Let us lay aside every encumbrance and sin. And look unto Jesus. Do you know that that is something better than everything written in the Old Testament? Everything [clears throat] written in Hebrews 11 is better than 7:46 raising the dead, splitting the Red Sea, everything. You go to go to better than everything that everyone experienced in the Old Testament. And that's [clears throat] why Jesus said, "The greatest person in the Old Testament, 8:01 by the way, is not mentioned in Hebrews 11, is John the Baptist." Jesus said that in Matthew 11, "The greatest person that lived up to the time of Jesus was John the Baptist." [clears throat] He's not mentioned here because he never 8:16 did any miracle. But he preached repentance. But Jesus said in Matthew 11, "The least person in the kingdom of God is greater than the greatest person in the Old Covenant." 8:34 What is What is it that can make you greater than John the Baptist? Only one thing. [clears throat and cough] John the Baptist could not get victory over sin in his thoughts. He never committed adultery. 8:52 He never went after money. Uh he was not running after women. He was not running after honor. So many Christians go after all these things. John the Baptist didn't have any of those things. He didn't want the honor of the world or 9:11 the wealth of the world or the pleasures of the world. So in what way is a Christian greater than him? It's only one area. It's the area of sin. And without it being [clears throat] specifically mentioned there, 9:30 I believe that John the Baptist could not overcome sin in his inner life. Because there was no possibility of anybody in the Old Testament overcoming sin in the inner life. So, what I want to say from that is if [clears throat] you are not 9:46 overcoming sin in your inner life and your thought life, you are really an old covenant Christian even if you say I'm a member of new covenant Christian fellowship. You're just fooling people. Is your external life better than John 10:02 the Baptist's? His external life was spotless. How could we be better than him? It must be because our inner life is better than his. No other way. 10:20 God has provided something better for us. And that is [clears throat] we can lay aside, chapter 12, verse 1, every encumbrance and every sin which entangles us so easily. [clears throat] 10:38 And how do we do that? By fixing our eyes, verse 2, on Jesus. [snorts] So, this is the wonderful thing that in the new covenant we have an example, not exhortation, but example. You can hear all the exhortations 10:57 against sin from all the most powerful preachers and you'll still be defeated until you see your example, until you fix your eyes on an example. It was true in my life. I really began to overcome sin when I 11:14 saw Jesus as my example. And for many years the devil hindered me from following because he would always say Jesus is God. I know he's God. I worship him. But I always had the impression that he was God on earth so he could live in 11:33 a way that I cannot possibly live because I'm not God. Till one day God opened my eyes to see that Jesus lived on earth 100% like a man. He was tempted in every single point 11:55 exactly like me. I'll never get tired of saying that because that is what changed my life. Till then, I always had an excuse for my sin. Why didn't Jesus sin? He was God. Why do you sin? I'm a man. 12:14 But once I saw that Jesus was exactly like me, I had no more excuse. He was a man. And not only he was a man, he was tempted in every point exactly like me. That's one of the things in in Hebrews chapter 4 12:33 [clears throat] verse 15. We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but someone who is tempted in every single area 12:53 exactly as we are. What is the sin you fall into most frequently? Jesus was tempted in that area, too. Discouragement, anger, to condemn yourself, 13:12 to look down on others, to judge others, whatever it is, never apologize because Jesus didn't need to because he didn't sin, but we need to. [clears throat] He was tempted in every single point as 13:31 we are, but did not sin. You say, is that just a statement to be taken like that? No. Therefore, therefore what? This uh What is the result of understanding that truth? The next verse, therefore 13:51 let's come with boldness. You couldn't do that in the Old Testament because they didn't have an example. They did not have someone who was tempted in every single point as they were. But now there is one. Therefore, let's come 14:07 to the throne of grace to the same throne of grace that Jesus came to as a man. And Jesus got grace there. We need mercy and grace. Mercy is forgiveness for our past. Jesus did not need that because there was no sin in 14:27 his life. But the grace that we receive is what he received, too. That's how he overcame. That's the point here. Therefore Therefore what? What is it based on? Because he was tempted exactly like us and did not sin. Therefore what? 14:46 Therefore let us go to the throne of grace and get grace to help us when we are tempted. That is our time of need. It's not talking about financial need there. It's talking about context is 15:03 our need is when we are tempted. [clears throat] I want to say to everybody here if you're serious about following Jesus you're really serious and not just singing follow, follow, I will follow anywhere all that rubbish I used to sing for 15:17 years and never practice it. Cuz what did it mean follow Jesus? singing the song in the meeting. But, I realized that follow follow I'll follow Jesus anywhere primarily in the area of temptation. You go and ask in any church where they 15:33 sing that song. After the song just will you tell me what you were singing just now? What are you going to follow Jesus in? Not one of them will say I'm to follow Jesus in overcoming sin. No. A lot of singing 15:51 is meaningless. It's another thing the Lord showed me. You like a tune or you were familiar with the song and you just sing it. For example, [clears throat] uh we sang a lot of songs today. 16:10 Some of them were songs directed to Jesus. You know that. Some of them were general songs referring to what the Lord does. Some songs are directed to Jesus. [clears throat and cough] I want to ask you in those songs directed to Jesus 16:30 were you conscious that Jesus is right now in our midst? Were you talking to him? I mean, if I'm talking to you, I won't be looking somewhere else and concentrating on something else. And I want to talk to you. No. 16:47 But, a lot of singing How do I know? Because that is how it was with me for years. Particularly if it was a song I was very familiar with. I wouldn't be conscious of Jesus being there that I'm talking to him. And only thing is pretty rude if I'm 17:06 talking to you and I don't even look at you and don't even think about you. And that's how I insulted the Lord for so many years. In Sunday morning I insulted the Lord more than on any other day of the week. Because I wasn't even looking at him. I 17:23 wasn't even thinking about him, but I'm singing all these wonderful songs about we worship you and love you and this and that and the other to whom? Whom are we talking to? We're talking to thin air. Because we're not conscious 17:41 of the presence of Jesus. He said even if two or three, forget about 50, 60, two people come together in the name of Jesus, he says, "I'm there." There was a Roman Catholic monk 18:00 who wrote a book called The Practice of the Presence of God. Some of those Roman Catholic saints knew the presence of God better than a lot of Protestants, I'll tell you that. Even though they made the mistake of worshipping Mary and all, okay, forget 18:15 those wrong teachings. But if we don't have a passion to really consciously talk to Jesus himself in our personal life, for example, when you get up in the morning, dear brothers 18:33 and sisters, do you talk to the Lord? Do you feel he's there right in your home? That's the most important thing to do. Think of a newly married couple. As soon as they 18:52 wake up, they think of each other. There's nobody else in the house. And I say, "Lord, that's what I want to be like you." The Bible says we are his bride. Bride is different from wife. [snorts] One day, it says we'll be married to 19:09 him. That's in Revelation 21. That day is not yet come. We are not his wife today. We are his bride. So, [clears throat] I have to be more alert 19:28 to him. It's like a bride who's madly in love with her bridegroom. Waiting for the wedding day. A bride who's waited a long time, who's really in love 19:45 with the one she wants to marry. What do you think she think of first thing in the morning? Her bridegroom. I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, the secret of the Christian life [clears throat] 20:03 is not in singing songs. It's not in coming to a number of meetings. Exhort one another daily. Encourage one another daily lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is a deceitful thing. What do we need to encourage one another 20:21 daily with? I want to encourage you to recognize the presence of Jesus more and more in your home. More and more as you I believe it'll change it'll change the way you speak to your wife. 20:38 Or the way you speak to your husband. If you recognize that Jesus is actually there in your home. In that same room. It's helped me to control my tongue. And control more than more than my 20:57 tongue to control the flesh that seeks to get upset and discouraged and disturbed by so many things which are not serious. There are 101 things that happen in our life which are not serious. They've got nothing to do with 21:15 sin. It can disturb us. It can put us into bad moods. And um can affect us the whole day. Fixing your eyes on Jesus, let us draw near to the throne of grace. 21:35 I believe that is the most important thing. So, [clears throat] in this pursuit of overcoming sin, I had to seek in the Bible cuz my answers are all in the Bible. 21:51 What is the clearest definition of sin? And I had many definitions of sin, and there are different definitions of sin in the Bible. For example, [clears throat] uh it says in 22:08 Romans 14 and verse 23, the last part, "Whatever is not from faith is sin." That's quite a high standard. 22:25 Faith is dependence upon God. And to say that if I live my life without recognizing my dependence upon God, I'm living in sin. I may not even be I'm not even realize it. 22:45 You know, there are people who live in such filth, in slums, that they don't realize that they stink. Someone who's living in a much healthier surrounding comes there and immediately stinks. But the guy living there, he doesn't 22:59 even feel he's stinking cuz everybody's stinking around him. And I believe that's how it is. We can be We have no faith, but we don't even realize we're sinning. We don't realize we're stinking. Because we are surrounded by people who 23:14 are not living in this constant dependence upon God. Sin is for them as murder, adultery, telling lies. That's Old Testament. They Most Christians live by the 10 Commandments. They are living by the 10 Commandments. They're not living by the standard of 23:32 sin that Jesus spoke about. So, I wanted to find out what is sin in the New Testament. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Or 1 John chapter uh 1 John chapter 2 And verse 4, sorry. 1 John 3 verse 4. 24:03 Sin is going against the law, the last part of verse 4. Here's a standard that the law is given. I disobey it, that's sin. It's consciously going against something I know to be wrong. Or 24:22 I'm trying to get a definition of sin. James chapter 4 That's That is speaking about uh sins It's conscious sin. I know this is wrong. The law has told me The law in my heart has told me that's wrong. 24:40 And I do it. It's sin. But then there's another type of sin mentioned in James 4. uh Verse 17. Sorry, this is similar. The one who knows the right thing to do This is the same thing, sorry. But does not do it. 25:00 That is sin. I know this is the right thing to do, but I don't do it. It's sin. I know this is the wrong way to speak to somebody, but I still speak that wrong way to your wife or husband or anybody. I still speak it. It is sin. 25:15 He knows the right thing to do. It's not that you don't know it. I know that's the right thing to do, and I still do it. That's sin. But there's another definition of sin which is higher than all this. There's sin which is conscious, 25:35 and there is sin which is unconscious. But the highest definition of sin that I found is Romans chapter 3 and verse 23. Now, the reason why I went in this pursuit is I must know what to avoid if I'm to stop 25:54 sinning. If I'm serious about stopping to sin, I must I mean, for example, you go into a country and you don't want to ever violate a law. You're driving, for example, in India we drive on the left side of the road. Here 26:05 you come on the right side drive on the right side of the road. You must know the laws, otherwise you'll be violating it without even knowing it. So, you must know what is the law here. What is sin? So, here is Romans 3 and verse 23 which 26:18 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That I have found is the finest definition of sin in the New Testament or in the whole Bible. 26:33 It is coming short of the glory of God. That is sin. Conscious, unconscious, all included in this statement. So, then I wanted to discover I'm talking about my own journey of discovery. 26:53 What is the glory of God? And for years and years and years, I used to think that must be some bright light in the Old Testament. The glory of God came on the temple. I would read that in every time I read about the glory of God being 27:05 manifested in the Old Testament, it was like a bright fire or something. And I [clears throat] wanted to investigate and see what Is that what it means? That's again an Old Testament concept. But I tell you, 99% of Christians, if 27:22 you ask them, "What is the glory of God?" That's what they'll say. They have never bothered to investigate what is the meaning of that expression. I used to tell my children when they were in school, "If you come across a 27:34 word in your English language book you don't understand, please put the book down, take a dictionary immediately and try to learn the meaning of that word. That's That's what I always did. And that's how I improved my English. 27:49 And that's how when I whenever I I do the same thing with the Bible. I read somewhere a reference being quoted in an article, and I don't know that reference, I'll put the article down and turn to the Bible and look up the 27:59 reference. That's how I got to know the Bible. That's if you want to know the Bible, that's the way you have to do it. If you want to know English, that's the way to do it. When you come across a word you've never heard, take a dictionary. 28:10 So much easier today. Go to Google, you'll understand immediately what's the meaning. So, if the Lord sees I mean, it doesn't matter if you don't improve your English so much, but if you don't understand the God's word clearly, 28:24 you're going to lose a lot. You won't lose a lot if your English is not that good. But So, I began to think, "What is the glory of God?" And that's also going not going to the Old Testament. And I found a definition of that in John 28:38 chapter 1. John chapter 1. The glory of God is here described not as some bright light, something more practical, down-to-earth. John 1:14, the word that is God God is 28:59 called a word in verse one, became flesh referring to Jesus. And there we saw his glory. The glory of God we saw in Jesus Christ. With a balance of grace and truth. There was a balance 29:17 in Jesus' life of strictness and mercy. Not just one. It was both there. He was not only strict, he was not only merciful. He was not only grace, it was truth. And that 29:36 that is the glory of God. So I saw the definition of the glory of God is the earthly life of Jesus, the way he lived. So I got my definition of sin finally. Anything that comes all have sinned and come short of the 29:54 glory of God means all have sinned and are not living like Jesus. That's the definition of sin. They have come short of that standard. And once I got that standard, I said, "Okay, I got to work towards that. Is that possible? 30:13 We read that in Hebrews 4, let us draw near to the throne of grace so that we can receive grace to help us in the time of temptation. So I realized the reason I'm falling is because in the time of temptation, which is my time of need, 30:32 I'm not going to ask God for grace. I thought I can make it on my own. I've got verses in my Bible and in my mind and you know, the Old Testament [cough] [clears throat] how do they keep themselves from sin? See Psalm 119. 30:53 This is how they kept themselves from sin in the Old Testament. Psalm 119 verse 11. This is David. Your word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin. That word was the 10 Commandments. But even with that, David disobeyed the 31:12 10 Commandments. He committed adultery, and then to cover up that adultery, he committed murder. So, it didn't really help him, the guy who wrote this. He He wrote this. I mean, he didn't realize how he slipped up later on. Well, I'm not going to 31:29 judge David. He didn't have the Holy Spirit. He didn't have Jesus as an example. So, we cannot compare ourselves with him. But that was all there was. They They tried to remember, "What did God's word say?" And it is all external in the Old 31:44 Testament. For example, there was no word in the Old Testament that you shouldn't get angry. "Thou shall not get angry" was not 11th commandment. "Thou shall not lust with thy eyes" was not a 12th commandment. Those things 31:58 were just not there. Because people couldn't make it otherwise. They They would never be able to do it. So, David says, "According to standard of your word, I I don't sin against God. I treasure God's word, and I don't sin." 32:13 [clears throat] So, it was that external word, the 10 Commandments, which was God's the standard. And I want to you to be honest and ask yourself, is that your standard? How do you say you want to stay away from sin? You hear in 32:31 this church constantly about not sinning and staying away from sin, but what your standard of sin? Once you realize it is the life of Jesus, you'll it will completely change your attitude and you'll feel so helpless. 32:50 Say, "Lord, I cannot live this life." That'll be the day of your salvation. When you realize you cannot live this life. That was the day of my salvation. When I realized I cannot live it. No matter how many good resolutions I 33:12 make, no many how many no matter how many times I pray in some stirring meeting in a particular Sunday meeting I got challenged and or some message I heard challenged me. I cannot make it. I cannot even make it by constantly 33:28 listening to one new message every day. I've had so many people write to me, "Brother Zac, your message just challenged me and I listened to them. Some say I listen to it every day." But, I say, "Don't help you." The challenge is not enough. 33:44 You have to allow the Holy Spirit to fill your life and show you Jesus, the reality of Jesus example. And like the helpless branch depending upon the tree, it's my favorite example. 34:03 The branch in the tree. I cannot do anything without being in there all the time. 50 years of experience won't help me. If I'm cut off, I'm as good as day one. So, [clears throat] constantly depending upon the Lord, the 34:25 only this is impossible. It's not by thinking. I used to think in the I got to constantly remind myself. There were books I read about every 15 minutes trying think about the presence of Jesus. These are all techniques of 34:37 psychology. I mean if that was a secret, it'd be somewhere in the Bible. It'd say, "Every few minutes think about the presence of the Lord." No. This is a branch connect itself to the tree every 15 minutes? No. It's all the time in there. 34:55 Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing." As the branch cannot produce any fruit without being in the tree, you can produce nothing. And if I want a life of constant victory in my words thoughts 35:14 the way I speak to people especially at home the way you speak to your marriage partner every day the way you speak to your children you children if you're serious about victory over sin, the way you speak to your parents 35:32 and to each other. If I'm serious about victory in that area or in my place of work where all are all unbelievers and I cannot lose my testimony in the church if I sin in my place of work cuz nobody knows me there. 35:49 Nobody from the church knows me there. But if I'm serious about living before God's face I'll say, "Lord, this is impossible." That's what will drive us to seek for the power of the Holy 36:09 Spirit. So many people have asked about how can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? Jesus said only one thing. If anyone thirst let him come to me. And that thirst is, you know, he he said earlier about those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 36:27 Not just who have a weak desire. Yeah, it's a I think it'd be very good if we can overcome anger in our home. Our home will be more peaceful. Yeah. It's not that type of desire. It's a desperate hunger and thirst of a dying man 36:42 who's not had any eat or drink for number of days. Starving. [clears throat] Crying out, "I want some water. [cough] I want something to eat. I haven't eaten for days. I haven't drunk any water for days." That type of thirst. If anyone thirst, 37:02 Jesus said, "Come to me. I'll from your innermost being, the Holy Spirit will flow out." I'm absolutely convinced that that is the secret of having the power of the Holy Spirit to live an overcoming life. And [clears throat] 37:20 I pray that every one of you will come into that life. It changed my life completely. It changed my ministry. It changed everything about me from what my previous Christian life was. And it it doesn't mean I become like Jesus. No, 37:38 in fact, I became more aware that I was not like Jesus after I came into this. The Holy Spirit, when he fills you, he'll make you more aware how unlike Christ you are because you see a whole lot of new areas that you never saw before. 37:57 You enter into a new world. You know, I compare it to before that I was like a baby in the womb. Limited to the mother's womb and its eyes are open and I think it can hear sounds and all, but it's a very limited. And then one day it comes born and it 38:14 comes out to another world and says, "Wow, I didn't know there was a world like this." It's something like that when the Holy Spirit fills us, it's our understanding of sin is just like a baby inside the womb. It's all you can see, that little area. 38:30 This is sin, this is sin, these sins which some decent person in the world also recognizes as sin. But, when the Lord opens our eyes, it's like that baby coming out into the world saying, "Wow, I didn't realize there's a 38:43 huge big world out here." That sin is a much, much bigger thing. It's something like that. And then, I won't discourage you. It'll make you more cast upon God. To be constantly cast upon God by the Holy Spirit, he makes us cast upon him 39:00 all the time. That is the life of faith. That is the faith the Bible speaks about. The righteous shall live by faith. Not only saved by faith. The righteous shall live by faith. I want to encourage you, my brothers and 39:20 sisters, to pursue after this. I don't believe you can ever get into this life by somebody laying hands on your head or You can [clears throat] Laying hands on a head is okay for a ministry to be gifted with some gift. Paul laid hands on Timothy. 39:35 It didn't give Timothy victory over sin. It enabled Timothy to have a ministry. Yeah, that can be there for a particular task in God's church. There is a place for the laying on of hands. But, that'll never lead anybody to 39:51 victory over sin. And that is the number one thing in the New Testament, to overcome sin. Without that, the new covenant is worthless. Let me show you one verse. Two verses, first of all. Romans [clears throat] chapter 6, my 40:09 favorite verse. Verse 14. Sin shall not This is an absolute statement. shall not not should not No. Many people preach saying sin should not 40:28 rule over you. Good. That will reduce people sinning to some extent. Sin should not be your master. But that's not what this verse says. This is not a command. Sin should not be your master is a 40:47 command. And I say, "Lord, don't give me such commands. I can't keep it." The Lord says, "I won't give you a command. I'll give you a promise." Isn't that better? Sin shall not be master over you. Ah, Lord, that's much better. 41:07 I thank God that he didn't tell me sin should not be master over you. He says, "Sin shall not be master over you." Then I say, "How, Lord?" "I'll give you grace. I'll bring you under grace." That's what that verse says. 41:25 You've been living under under the law. What do I I say, "I'm not under the 10 Commandments." No, but you made some rules for yourself. In NCCF, there are certain standards of life. It's not the 10 Commandments. It's a little better than 10 Commandments. We 41:38 don't do this. We don't do that. We don't do the other thing. Etc. etc. You're following all those laws. You're under law. And you keep all those laws and you have a very good testimony. He's a good brother, good sister in NCCF. 41:54 Not necessarily before God. Are you happy with a good testimony in this church that people think you're a wonderful brother? Maybe you share wonderfully and you've got some clever thoughts that impress people. They say, "Wow. 42:10 What a blessed message that was that brother gave or My brother sisters die to all that. There's only one solution. Die. Die to the reputation you have before others in this church. Be like a dead man. That's the only way I can picture I 42:32 found it helped me to picture what is it What if I were dead here? Would I be bothered about what anybody in the world thought about me? I said, "Lord, make me like that. I want to live before your face. Dead to the world but alive unto God." 42:47 What does he think about me? I remember as a young man Anyway, this verse is "Sin shall not be master over you because you're under grace." That's the only way. That means I'm receiving grace. This branch in the tree is getting grace and grace and 43:02 grace. Sin cannot rule over me. So, I can't get any take any credit for it. The branch cannot boast, "Huh, I brought for 20 apples. That branch brought only 10." Those are all artificial apples. 43:21 Not real ones. Real ones no branch ever boasts. It says, "The tree sends us up and however much fruit he brings it's up to him." There's no glory. You cannot glory if the work was done by somebody else. If you go around distributing a cake 43:42 here that somebody else made, you can't take any credit for credit for it. Somebody else made it. If it's very tasty, yeah, that that guy made it, not me. It's like that. You cannot re- get in think highly of any overcoming sin in your 43:58 life once you come under grace because you know that it wasn't you. There is an overcoming sin by gritting your teeth and determining and controlling yourself. That's Hinduism. 44:14 That is psychology. It's yoga. I'll tell you there was a brother in who came to our church in India who practiced yoga as a Hindu before he was converted. And you know he said, "I overcame anger before I came to the CFC 44:34 as a Hindu." He said they taught us in yoga how to control your tongue and he didn't control the anger in his heart. Oh, no. That he learned only after coming to CFC. But he didn't he didn't yell at his wife. But isn't that a very good thing if a 44:52 man never yells at his wife? Yes, excellent. But it could be Hinduism. He had it. And he was honest enough to say, "I I got it before I came here. But when I came here I discovered that anger is not something from the mouth. You know that verse in 45:09 Ecclesiastes 7 which says, "Anger dwells in the heart of a fool." So, I'm saying how I'm just saying that we should not deceive ourselves. Sin shall not rule over you 45:28 because you're under grace. The other verse I want to point out to you is 1 Peter in chapter 1 Peter chapter 4. Again, here it is another verse which 45:49 talks about finishing with sin. Just like Romans 6:14. Christ suffered in the flesh. Arm yourself with For same purpose because if you suffer in the flesh, you cease from sin. What does that mean? It doesn't mean getting a sickness. 46:09 It doesn't mean getting persecuted. Because he's not talking to about this physical flesh. He's talking about that inward self life which the Bible calls the flesh. A suffering there which I choose to accept will make me stop sinning. 46:30 Oh. This is the second verse that tells me how I can finish with sin. I already saw Romans 6:14. That's God giving me grace, but here's something I have to do. I have to be I have to be arm myself. This is an armor against sin. 46:49 I have to determine in my heart that I have chosen the way of suffering in the flesh because it'll help me to stop sinning completely. And that's what made me pursue finding out what does it mean to suffer 47:07 in the flesh. Suffering leads to death. So, it really means dying to that which rises in my flesh within my will wants to respond in a certain way when I'm tempted, whether it is 47:27 to be tempted with a dirty sexual picture or in anger against someone who has provoked you in your home perhaps or in an office or There are different things that provoke this flesh and if I'm willing to suffer there 47:45 and die it's not just this. I need grace. But it's a cooperation. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you." One end of the yoke is on your neck, one end of the yoke is on my neck, and I walk with Jesus and I can be an overcomer. 48:08 If that is not clear to you, I believe God meant it like that so that you will not get the answer from Zac Poonen. You will go to the Holy Spirit now and say, "Lord, I'm totally confused by what brother Zac said today." Good. 48:23 And now go to the Lord and ask him to explain it to you. He'll explain it to you 10 times better than I can. God bless you.
