0:01 And, when people turn the grace of God into licentiousness, it means they have misunderstood grace. It means they've used it like a license to commit sin. Like you get a driving license, 0:19 then you can drive. People think I've got grace now, I can sin. I don't have to be careful about holiness anymore. And their understanding of new covenant grace is that under the old covenant, God was very strict. In fact, a lot of 0:39 people who don't read the Bible carefully think like that. Has God's nature changed in the new covenant that he was so strict about so many things in the old covenant and he's very lenient about all these things in the new covenant? 0:54 That's a classic example of how grace is misunderstood. That's why in the last book of the Old Testament in Malachi, the Lord says, "I am the Lord. I do not change." He said that so that people don't get any idea 1:13 that when you turn that page to Matthew, all of a sudden God has changed. It's very significant that in the last book of the Old Testament, the Lord says in Malachi 3:6, "I, the Lord, do not change." Please remember that when you turn the 1:28 next uh go into the new covenant, that's what the Lord is saying. He has not changed. He's exactly the same in the Old Testament, exactly same in the new covenant, but people misunderstood. They couldn't understand the spirit of 1:41 God. They understood the letter. And that's what 2 Corinthians 3 is talking about. It's a great chapter about the contrast between the old and the new covenant. And let me read a couple of verses. He says in verse 6, 2 Corinthians 3:6, 2:01 "God has made us adequate um as servants or ministers of a new covenant. And this new covenant, unlike the old covenant, is not of the letter, 2:19 but of the spirit. The old covenant was a covenant of the letter. Every little letter important. The new covenant is a letter of the spirit. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now, just like 2:38 the Pharisees took the letter and lived in spiritual death, it's possible for believers today to take the letter of the New Testament books, words here and there, and kill. 2:57 And that's what brings death into a church if you don't understand the spirit. And it's much easier to go by the letter than the spirit cuz you narrow down the letter to one little thing, whereas the spirit applies to a 3:14 lot more than just that. And that's why you found that the Pharisees were constantly in conflict with Jesus about their traditions. For example, I've often wondered why Jesus healed so many people on the 3:32 Sabbath day. Have you ever thought about that? For example, we read in John chapter 5 that he went to the pool in Bethesda, the pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda. Now, that pool, there were people lying there for years. I mean, there was one 3:49 man lying there for 38 years. And Jesus had been often in Jerusalem. Why did he go and heal that person on the Sabbath day? When he knew these Pharisees were so particular about people doing any work on the Sabbath 4:08 day. They'd already criticized him in different places for doing things on the Sabbath day. They would ask, "Why you your disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath day?" Uh you you were permitted to pluck grain when you went through different people's 4:22 fields. That was permitted under the law, but why pick it on the Sabbath day? And Jesus said, "Don't you remember how David went and took the showbread, which, according to the Old Testament law, nobody was supposed to take 4:39 except the priests?" And the Lord said, that's in Matthew chapter 12 when the Pharisees asked him, "Why do your disciples do what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?" verse 2, he said to them in Matthew 12:3, "Haven't you read 4:55 in the Old Testament what David did when he became hungry? He entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread." Uh that that story is in 1 Samuel 21, "which is not lawful for him to eat, 5:13 nor for those who were with him, but for the priests alone." I mean, there was a clear law in the Leviticus that that consecrated bread, which is put in the most holy place, uh not most holy place, the holy place, on the table of showbread, 5:31 nobody could eat it except the priests. And David and his men come to this place where the priests are and he says, "We're hungry. We're dying. Is there any bread?" I want to ask all of you, my dear brothers, 5:50 if you were one of the priests that day in that place, and David came along and asked you, "Hey, listen, we're dying of hunger. Do you have any bread here?" And the priest says, 6:14 "There is no ordinary bread here, only consecrated bread." 1 Samuel 21:4. Would you give that bread? Now, you got to be honest because you've read the scriptures, you know that they gave the bread, but supposing you hadn't read that passage, 6:30 and David had come to you and you were the priest there, and you knew the law very clearly. Nobody must touch that consecrated bread. You You're very particular to keep the law. You would rather let David and his s- fellow men die of hunger. But this 6:50 priest took it and gave it. He gave him the consecrated bread, and that was called the bread of the presence. Um It doesn't say there whether it was right or wrong. So, we don't know whether it was right or wrong, but Jesus came along and said 7:06 it was right. He said, "Haven't you heard? He entered the house of God, Matthew 12:4, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful." Which was not lawful according to the law of God. And Jesus is thereby justifying 7:28 his disciples doing a work on the Sabbath day. And then he said, "I'll give you one more example. On the Sabbath day, the priests break the Sabbath when they go in into the temple." You know, they do work there on the Sabbath day. 7:48 But the law, if you go strictly according to the law, you were not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath day. And then he turned round to his disciple to the Pharisees and said, "You guys who are so particular about nitpicking about these little laws, 8:04 you know what you guys need to learn? Matthew 12:7, if you only had known the meaning of this verse, which is a quotation from Hosea 6:6, 'I desire compassion and not sacrifice,' you would never have condemned these 8:22 innocent people." Who were these innocent people? David, who strictly speaking, violated the law. And the priests who violated the law by keeping the Sabbath. And according to the strict letter of the law, the priests the 8:40 disciples violated the law by parti- taking grain from the field. He said, "The trouble with you people is you got the letter of the law right, but you don't have any compassion." And then he said, "Do you know that 8:57 man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man." And he said, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In other words, man was made on the sixth day, and the Sabbath was made on the seventh day. 9:16 It's very simple, but the meaning is the Sabbath was made to serve man. It's not that God made the Sabbath on the seventh day and said, "Okay, we got to create a man to obey the Sabbath." As if the Sabbath was more important to 9:29 God than man. But a lot of Pharisees misunderstood that. And if you trace the origin of the Pharisees a few hundred years before Christ, the first people, the word Pharisee means separated. The first people who the gathered this group of people were 9:48 people were concerned that Israel was becoming worldly, or the people who came back from the Babylonian captivity. You read in the time of Malachi, they became so worldly. It's true. And here were a group of God-fearing 10:02 people who said, "Hey, we got to preserve some standards here. Otherwise, this nation will go to the dogs." And they started that group which called itself Pharisees. They were God-fearing people and they started out in a wonderful way 10:18 with a really good motive. But like a lot of movements, not only in Israel, but also in Christian history, which started out by God-fearing men who knew God, who preserved wanted to preserve some standards. You go down the 10:32 line a few years, a few decades, 10, 20, 30 years, and that which started out in the spirit has ended up in the letter. And without compassion, there are all types of things being done according to the letter, and heavy burdens are being put 10:49 upon people. People come to the church and instead of being full of the joy of the Lord, they're miserable. They got it all wrong. In Do you know that in the Old Testament there was a law uh there was an ex- an a law that you couldn't do any work on 11:05 the Sabbath day, and there was one instance where you there was a law that you should not light a fire on the Sabbath day. And you shouldn't do any work on the Sabbath day. We read in Numbers chapter 15 verse 32 that the sons of Israel were in the 11:22 wilderness, and they found a man, one of them, one of their own people, gathering wood on the Sabbath day. He hadn't lit a fire. He was just going around collecting some pieces of wood. Now, would you call that labor? He wasn't working to earn his living or 11:43 any such thing. He was just collecting some pieces of wood. And they found him and they brought him to Moses, and they put him in custody. And the Lord said to Moses, and he asked Moses Moses asked the Lord, "What should we do?" The Lord said, "You 11:57 got to put him to death." All the congregation took him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, just as the Lord commanded Moses. There it is. For a small little thing like that, he was killed. And they understood. 12:15 Yeah, God is strict. You can't do any work on the Sabbath day. Even a simple thing like picking up sticks. And here is Jesus going to the pool of Bethesda and healing a man and telling him to carry his bed 12:34 and walk on the Sabbath day. What should be done to this man who taught other people to disobey the Sabbath? He should be killed, right? Jesus should be killed. You got to understand. Jesus was the one who told Moses 12:55 there. They could not understand the spirit of it. You see instances where Jesus would heal a person in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. This is my opinion. You don't have to take it as God's word. 13:15 Sometimes Paul said, "I don't have a commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion." So, please remember that as as you hear what I'm going to say. Jesus would see a man who's sick and say, "Come to the synagogue on the Sabbath 13:29 day. I'll heal you there." Just to irritate these Pharisees. To deliver them from their wretched bondage to legalism. Because I see so many instances where he do all types of things on the Sabbath day which could have been very well done 13:47 on other days. The pool of Bethesda, certainly. I mean, that was open 7 days a week. He could have gone on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Why does he go on the Sabbath day to heal them? He came here to demolish the religion of 14:03 man, to replace it with the truth of God. To deliver them from the religion of the letter, to bring them to a religion of the spirit. But they never wanted it. And some people, no matter how much Jesus says or any of his servants say, they'll never 14:23 change. The Pharisees never change. They they even after Christianity came, even after the day of Pentecost, they were still trying to bring the law among Christians that Paul had to write a whole letter to the Galatians about it. 14:41 That if you're going to try and have a mixture of law and grace, you'll never be saved. You'll be you'll just be condemned. He says, "Having Did you receive the Holy Spirit?" He says to the Galatians, "by the works of the law 15:00 or by hearing with faith?" He's putting a contrast. "How did God give you the Holy Spirit? Is it because you did so many works of the law or is it was it by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? You began with the Holy Spirit. 15:15 And now are you going to perfect yourself by keeping the law? Galatians 3 verse 3. He says, "Don't you realize the law was only a schoolmaster to lead you to Christ?" Now, the reason I can understand why so many Christians have gone back to 15:31 rules and regulations, because they have seen that people who come to Christ have used that grace, that understanding of grace, to lead them into living a taking it as a license for sin. And they say, "How to stand against 15:48 this? We got to get people back under the law again." That is not the solution. It's to explain to them what really grace is. Bring them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to partake of God's nature. Not bring them back under law. It's not the 16:08 alternative to false grace. It's not law. These are two opposite cliffs. The alternative to false grace is not more rules and regulations. It is bringing people to a genuine fullness of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to deny 16:24 themselves and take up the cross every day, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus, which brings real liberty. It enables us to partake of God's own nature. The most wonderful promise in the entire Bible is that we can partake of God's own 16:43 nature. In one 2 Peter chapter 1, it says in verse 4 of the precious and magnificent promises of God. There are so many fantastic promises of God in the Bible. 17:00 And he says the ultimate purpose of all these promises, and the greatest promise of them all, is that you might partake of God's own nature. That is the greatest gift that God wants to give to man. 17:17 To give him give us his nature. A complete change of nature from within, and this is the purpose of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I'm not surprised that the devil has made 17:36 the gift of the Holy Spirit perhaps the most controversial doctrine in Christendom today, counterfeited and faked the gifts of the spirit and the uh and the gift of the Holy Spirit himself with so many counterfeits so that people 17:53 shy away from it. But if you can see that the whole purpose of God giving us Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is Almighty God himself. Coming inside, if he comes inside me and fills my inner being and takes control 18:08 of my heart, what's going to happen? He's going to communicate his nature to me. And communicate the nature of Christ. And the wonderful thing is, as perfect as the work of Jesus, the second person 18:27 of the Trinity, was on the cross, so perfect will the work of the Holy Spirit be in me if I allow him to do it. A lot of Christians today do not know in experience 18:46 the fullness of the Holy Spirit, because they've shied away from it. They've been afraid of it. They thought, "It'll lead me to that extreme. It'll make me worldly. It'll make my daughters dress in a worldly way." Those 18:58 are all the devil's counterfeits. It's not true. I know what it is to be filled with the spirit, and I'm as much for modest dressing as any of you are. In our church, we do not permit it. I would ask a sister to change her dress 19:16 or not come to the church if she's going to dress immodestly. I remember one sister came to me once, young sister, and said, "Brother Zac, how shall I dress?" And I said, "I'll tell you. And I'm not going to give you rules about the length 19:29 or the width or any of these things. I'm not a tailor. I'm a servant of God, and I'll tell you exactly how you should dress modestly. I said, "If the Lord Jesus was living in the next street to yours, and one day he sent a message to you 19:45 saying, 'I want you to come. We want I want to go for a walk in the marketplace with you today. Come and see me at 10:00. How would you dress to go and see Jesus Christ? To go for with him to the marketplace? 20:03 In such a way that he could walk beside you pride proudly and say, "This is my sister." Without being ashamed. How would you dress? That is the way you should dress all the time. Not just when you come to a church 20:23 service. Some of those young girls may be going to school or college or some of them go to work. I said, "That's the way you should dress everywhere. Don't you need Jesus to be with you when you go to school or college or work? Sure, you need him more 20:36 there than when you come to a church service. That's the way you should dress all the time because we want to be with Jesus all the time." I said, "That's the rule. Follow that rule and you'll never go wrong." I'm not going to 20:50 come and come with a measuring tape to check whether your dress is modest. No. You know, the Pharisees had rules like that. In the book of Nehemiah chapter 13, it says he would not allow anybody to lift a burden on the Sabbath day. 21:08 So, that was a big thing for the Pharisees. They began to analyze, "What does it mean to lift a burden on the Sabbath day?" And I'm I want to show you how ridiculous tradi- I mean, history tells us some of the traditions these 21:20 Pharisees had. They said, "Lift a burden." What is the weight of a burden? How do you define a burden? How many grams or kilograms is a burden? And they began to def- define the weight of the sandals you should wear because 21:38 every time you walk on the Sabbath day, you have to lift your sandals. Is that a burden or not? So, they specified your sandals must weigh less than so much. And then it's okay. And then another law was that you should not work on the Sabbath day, but can you 21:52 make a Gentile work for you? Cook your food for you? No. You're not supposed to make You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath day and you're not supposed to get the benefit of somebody else's work either. Otherwise, they could have just employed 22:08 Gentiles to do all the work on Sabbath day, cook and everything else. No, you were not supposed to do that either. So, then the argument came as to "What if a hen lays an egg on the Sabbath day? Can we eat it? Can we get 22:19 the benefit of someone working on the Sabbath day?" Do you see how this thing goes down to nitpicking to small small little things? Is it like this? Is it like this? And the end result was like Jesus said in Matthew 23, "You lay heavy burdens on 22:35 people and you don't lift any of it yourself." And you know, these are people who had a real desire to keep Israel from worldliness. But it ended up with being a doctrine of hell. A doctrine of hell. It's like that. 22:55 Something that Jesus detested. Touch not, taste not, handle not. All types of rules and regulations. And I believe that's one reason why when Jesus began his earthly ministry I mean, I've often thought about this. 23:16 If I were planning the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ I think the first miracle I would have him to do would be some spiritual miracle like raising Lazarus from the dead or something like that. That would have been number one on the program. 23:30 I certainly would not have planned such a worldly miracle like producing 600 L of wine at a wedding. I mean, is this the type of miracle you begin your earthly ministry with? Producing 600 L of wine? Why did he do that? 23:51 Have you You know, you've got to understand the mind of God. All God the Father planned the earthly ministry of Jesus and he planned that his first miracle It says he began to show forth his glory in Cana of Galilee. How did Jesus begin 24:09 to show forth his glory? John chapter 2. And he manifested his glory with this beginning of his miracles. John chapter 2 verse 11. How would you manifest the glory of God the beginning of your miracles the first 24:27 great ministry produce 600 L of wine? I don't think any of us would have chosen that to be the first miracle. Do you see how God says, "My ways are not your ways? My way of thinking is completely foreign to yours. You've got a narrow-minded 24:44 understanding of religion and godliness. Yours is all rude. Touch not, taste not, handle not." And Jesus started them with that miracle to demolish a religion of rules and regulations. Did it mean 25:03 that he tolerated sin? There was no man who walked on this earth who hated sin as much as Jesus who raised the bar on the 10 Commandments that high that he said "If you lust in your heart after a woman 25:22 you've committed adultery." Nobody ever taught that. You can't say that he tolerated adultery when he forgave the woman caught in adultery. He wasn't tolerating adultery. When he had compassion on that five times divorced woman 25:42 in Samaria, he wasn't tolerating divorce. Malachi chapter 2 says God says, "I hate divorce." And a few verses later he says, "I'm the Lord. I change not." Divorce and remarriage are totally against God's will. Jesus spoke about 25:59 it. But there's a difference between establishing God's standard and dealing with human beings. People were more important to Jesus than laws. Man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. Man was not Did God make laws and then 26:21 say, "Okay, let's make some man to keep these laws." No. He made man and then made the laws. And the laws were for man's protection to prevent him from destroying himself. But the Pharisees converted it into a big burden. 26:37 And that's why they began to nitpick about small small little things. This is the area where we have to we have to understand the spirit of Christ. Do you remember once he said words like this. "Truly I say to you." John 6:53. 26:56 "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves." And he repeats it in the next verse. "You got to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have eternal life." And he repeats it a third time. "My flesh is 27:13 true food and my blood is true drink." And a fourth time. Verse 55. "If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you abide in me." As if once was not enough. Four times. And people heard it and they said, "Boy, this is cannibalism." 27:33 And it says here that when people heard this, they said, "This is a difficult statement." And Jesus was conscious that his disciples were grumbling. Did he explain it? Did he explain, "Hey, hey, I want to explain to you what I didn't really mean 27:49 my physical flesh. I'm not asking you to eat this." He never explained it. Have you ever wondered why he didn't explain it? When all these people were offended and it says in verse 66, "Many of his disciples" disciples, not Jews, not 28:01 Pharisees many of his disciples withdrew and did not walk with him anymore. How many? It says many. What an opportunity to just explain, "Hey, hey, come back. Come back. You didn't misunderstood me. I was not telling you to eat my flesh and drink 28:19 drink my blood." No explanation. You got to understand the Lord's ways. He said "The words that I speak to you." Verse 63. "Are spirit and life. 28:39 But there are some of you who do not believe." The Lord sometimes would deliberately say things and allow some people to fall away because he knew that they were not serious disciples. 28:58 But Peter stayed on. And he tells Peter Now, he tells the other disciples, "Do you also want to go away?" And Simon Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? These words you've spoken are words of eternal life." Now, I'll 29:15 tell you something. If you had gone to Simon Peter at that time and said, "Hey, Simon, tell me what you what Jesus mean." He would have said, "I don't know." If one of these other guys who withdrew had come later in the evening to Simon 29:26 Peter's house and said, "You didn't leave with us. You stayed on. Why do you stick on with this man who said you got to eat his flesh and drink his blood? Can you explain what he meant?" You know what Simon Peter would have 29:38 said to them? He's "I'll tell you honestly, I'm as ignorant as you are. I can't understand it. But I'll tell you one thing, I've seen this man. I've seen his life. And maybe things he says which I can't understand, 29:55 but I know he's a man of integrity. I know he's a man of purity. And I'm convinced he's the Messiah. So, I'm not going to leave him just because he says something that I can't understand. I've got a lot more trust in him than in you 30:11 who are so particular about your laws. Peter's confidence was in the person. Jesus sees sought to draw people to him not by finding out whether they understood what he said. By they were drawn to him by his life. Christians so often argue about 30:30 doctrine. But doctrine is only a seed. I know in India as we have preached an overcoming life and freedom from law and rules in order to be truly under grace, we have steered away from false grace 30:50 and the counterfeit gifts of the Spirit and sought to really be filled with the Holy Spirit and have the genuine gifts of the Spirit. There have been a lot of people who have criticized us very severely, called us false prophets, heretics, and all that. 31:08 And we said we will not open our mouth. Let them say what they like. They've said things against us for 30 years in India. We said we will let our life speak, not arguments. And the example I use is when you have a seed, you guys say that your doctrine is 31:27 better, my doctrine is bad. Your seed is good, my seed is bad. Okay. How shall we find out? Shall we put these seeds under a microscope and analyze it? That's how people do it. This verse, that verse, the other verse is like 31:41 putting seed under a microscope and analyzing it and see what comes out of it. I say, "No, that's not the way. You sow your seed and I'll sow mine. You sow it in your church and I'll sow it in my church and let's see after 10 31:53 years whose harvest is better." And that's exactly what happened. I mean, we've been going 35 years now. And not only in one place, God's planted churches in 40 50 places. And what is their testimony today? Never once in 35 years has anybody been 32:13 able to find anything against our life. And they say the harvest is good, but the seed is bad. It's crazy. You mean you guys sow good seed and get a bad harvest? They have divorces in their church, they have fighting and quarreling and 32:31 divisions and splits and all types of things, but they say the seed is good. It is not. And here you come into our midst and you say all our doctrine is wrong, but look at the look at the happy homes we have. Look how we live together in unity for 32:47 so many years. Is that good or bad? And so, that's how Jesus shut the mouths of people. They could not say anything against his his life. He could stand before people and say, "Which of you can convince me of sin?" And so, if we if we want to follow 33:05 Jesus, we need to see this because this was the great conflict in the days of the apostles, too. The Jewish people came and said, "We got to make all these rules and regulations, otherwise we will not be able to keep these Gentiles holy." 33:19 And the Apostle Paul said, "No, I'm going to put my foot down and say we're going to stand for the grace of God, not the false grace, but the true grace." And it was only a remnant that found it, you know, in the Jesus said that there 33:33 would be only a few who find the way to life. But you know, in certain scriptures, it's very easy for us to see inconsistency. Now, I respect a man who sincerely holds a different view from me. I have no problem with it. If he loves the 33:48 Lord, I know a lot of people who love the Lord who sincerely hold a different view from me and I believe that maturity is to love a brother who has a different view, but not if he's inconsistent. Inconsistent means he's a hypocrite. 34:02 He's a liar. But if you're consistent in with all scripture, then it's okay. For example, let me give you one example. I say Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 5 about two types of adultery. 34:21 I call it adultery number one and adultery number two in the Sermon on the Mount. And at the end of that sermon, he said in Matthew 7, "If you hear my words and do them, you will build on the rock. If you hear my words and don't do them, 34:37 you'll build on the sand." Very clear. Okay. Now, listen to adultery number one and adultery number two. Adultery number one, Matthew 5, verse 28. Everyone, 34:57 whoever he is, particularly referring to men, only men, who looks on a woman to lust for her, I mean, he hasn't said anything. He hasn't gone and touched her. Uh this is even less than internet watching pornography on the internet. 35:14 Watching is you're using your eyes. Here it is in the heart. You're not seeing a woman naked. You're You're just looking at a pretty woman and lusting. There's a verse in the Old Testament in Proverbs 6 which says, "Do not lust 35:29 after her beauty." Jesus is quoting something like that. You've already committed adultery. Already. Adultery number one. I want to ask you, 35:46 do you hear much preaching on that? I've hardly ever heard preaching in my younger days on adultery number one. Now, we go to adultery number two. Everyone who divorces his wife, that's verse 32, Matthew 5, except for 36:04 the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery. If you marry a divorced woman, he commits adultery. That's adultery number two. Do you hear about that? Oh, you say, "We hear plenty about that." Why do you hear so much about adultery 36:20 number two and so little about adultery number one? Isn't that a bit inconsistent? I'm not supporting adultery number two. I believe in adult I believe adultery number two is a sin. It's wrong to divorce. It's wrong to remarry. I preach against it and I stand 36:38 against it. And in all these 35 years, we have never tolerated it in our church. Never. But we have equally, just as much in 35 years, preached against adultery number one. That's my point. 36:57 That's what I mean by consistency. In your church, if you preach against adultery number two 10 times and you preach on adultery number once on one adultery number once in a blue moon, you are inconsistent. Why is adultery number two more serious 37:13 than adultery number one? And there are a lot of men who keep on committing adultery number one who are denouncing people who commit adultery number two. Who said your adultery number one is a little better than adultery number two? 37:31 That is the hypocrisy that Almighty God sees. The devil sees it and laughs at it. Almighty God says, "You guys who put burdens on others and don't lift it yourself." You say, "I'm not divorced." Right. But do you commit adultery number one? 37:49 You who preach that others should not murder, do you do it yourself? Romans chapter 2. You who preach that others should not commit adultery, do you do it yourself? Except that your adultery falls under category number one and his falls under 38:01 category number two. Did Jesus say category number two is more serious than category number one? The whole purpose of prophetic preaching is to expose the hypocrisy of believers who take firm stand in one area, but not 38:20 in another. I believe we must be compassionate, not tolerate. There's a difference between being compassionate and tolerating sin. We cannot tolerate sin in the church, but we must be compassionate to sinners. That's how Jesus was. 38:38 His standards were the highest in every area. Every single area. He said you got to love all your enemies. He said you got to forgive every single person, every single sin they've committed against you. That's a pretty high 38:52 standard. The one thing about Jesus was he was consistent. Everything, the standard was the same. There was no partiality. You got to tell your son adultery number one is as serious as 39:10 adultery number two. And in your church, you are to preach as much against adultery number one as against adultery number two. We should not I'm not saying we should stop preaching on one of them. I'm saying we should preach equally on both 39:26 of them. It's like two legs. Why should one leg be shorter than the other? That's why we're imbalanced. That's what I mean. Legalism makes people blind to the inconsistencies in their own life. I believe in obeying scripture, 39:52 but I don't believe in putting burdens on people. I don't believe Jesus ever did that. He always said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." That's what I preach. In the Old Testament, it was not like that. That's one of the big differences in the 40:11 new covenant and the old covenant. Old covenant obedience was what I call the chocolate and the stick. Deuteronomy 28, the whole chapter, the first 14 verses was, 40:30 "I'll give you a chocolate if you obey me." And the remaining 54 verses was, "I'll give you a stick if you don't obey me." Basically, that's in a nutshell. How Old Testament, just like we I mean, that's how you bring up your children, right? Little 40:45 children are not under grace. They don't fear God. They got to fear their dad. Because they don't know about God yet. A little 2-3 year old doesn't know anything about God. He's got to fear his dad and mom. Um and you say, "Listen, if you disobey 41:00 me, you'll get a spanking. If you obey me, I'll give you a reward." That's exactly how God dealt with Israel under the old covenant. The old covenant obedience was an obedience of the chocolate and the stick. If you obey me, 41:18 "I'll bless you this way. I'll bless you that way. I'll make you prosperous. I'll do all that and you'll be the greatest nation on the earth, etc." Deuteronomy 28, but if you don't obey me, you'll get madness and sickness and 41:29 blindness and uh you'll be defeated. You'll be in debt. You'll have financial problems, all types of things. And the Israelites tried to obey out of fear of punishment and hope of reward. 41:46 All legalistic obedience is out of fear of punishment and hope of reward. And there are Christian preachers preaching that today. One of the favorite verses of Christian 42:03 pastors in many denominations is Malachi 3:9, "You are cursed with a curse because you have not brought the tithe into the house of God. You're robbing me of the tithe." And that's the stick. If you don't bring 42:23 your tithe, you're cursed. But if you bring it in, here's the chocolate. I'll pour you out a blessing until it overflows. Malachi 3:9 and 10. Do you know the number of believers who have come to me and said, "Brother Zach, 42:36 what do you say about this? This is in scripture. And our pastor preaches it regularly." I said, "Please tell him it's in the Old Testament. Doesn't he know where Matthew begins? Doesn't he know that Malachi is in the Old Testament?" 42:50 What did Jesus say? "If you love me, not if you're afraid of me, not if you're afraid of punishment, not if you want a reward, obey me." No, John 14:15 is very clear. "If you love me, keep my commandments." You see how he 43:07 switched from old covenant to new covenant. How shall we bring the people in our church to obedience? Shall we do it by the spirit of the old covenant or the spirit of the new? The spirit of the old covenant is, "Brother, sister, 43:26 if you don't obey, you're going to face it. Punishment. If you obey, we'll reward you." There are a lot of ministries on television who say, "Come and give us your money to our ministry. Here is an example of somebody who got a 43:43 promotion in his job, or got a car, or better house because he gave money to our ministry." The hope of reward. It's it's a teaching trying to bribe God to give me something. And I'm amazed that so many millions of Christians are 44:00 fooled by this. Tithing was an Old Testament law. You never read about it after the day of Pentecost. There is no such commandment. People talk about Abraham giving a tithe. Nobody told him to tithe. He could have given 20% to Melchizedek. It 44:18 was a free, voluntary gift. Whether he gave 10%, 20%, 50%, it was up to him. It does There's no law. And how are we supposed to give in the New Testament? There's a very important principle which applies to all of our giving 44:35 if we are to be free from the law. Second Corinthians in chapter 9 and verse 7. When it comes to giving, it says, "Let everyone Second Corinthians 9:7 do exactly as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly, not under compulsion, 44:55 because God loves a cheerful giver." That is new covenant giving. God loves a cheerful giver. So, it must not be grudgingly. It must not be because of some threat or under 45:15 compulsion or a hope of reward, but cheerfully. Lord Jesus, you gave me everything. How shall I withhold from you? People say, "What percentage should I give?" I'll tell you, as much as you can give cheerfully. You say, "I don't feel like giving 45:32 anything." Don't give anything. Be happy. I heard a story once of a little girl who was sent to the Sunday school class by the mother. And the mother gave her um 45:51 $5 bill to put in the offering and a $1 bill to buy some candy on the way home. And when she came home, the mother asked, "Did you put the $5 bill in the offering box?" Said, "Mommy, I wanted to do that. 46:10 I had it all ready to put it in, but the Sunday school teacher said, 'God loves a cheerful giver.' And I felt I could give the $1 far more cheerfully than I could give the $5, so I put the $1 in and I bought $5 worth of candy on my way 46:26 home." Do you know that girl had more light than most Christians? That was absolutely right and God was delighted with her. And God didn't withhold any blessing from that child because she put $1 in. 46:43 God doesn't want reluctant people giving money to him. Never. I mean, I preached this message for 45 years. More than 45. All my life, I've never believed in anything other than cheerful giving. If you can't give cheerfully, 47:01 God doesn't want anything from you. And not only money, obedience. God loves a cheerful giver of obedience. I told you earlier about the sister who had jewelry. I could have easily told her my conviction and say, "Hey, this is it. This is how we do it 47:19 in our church. And if you want to be a part of our church, get rid of it." It would have been a dead work. Do you know in the Old Testament, there were no dead works? It Everything was good works or evil works. That's it. There was no third 47:35 category. Everything you did was good according to the law or not according to the law. That's it. There was no in-between category of neither here nor there. But the moment you come into the New Testament, there are three categories. There's good 47:51 and evil and dead works. What are these dead works? Dead works are, in a nutshell, good works done with a wrong motive. That's one category of dead works. 48:12 Or good works done grudgingly. You give money grudgingly. That's a dead work. Or you obey grudgingly. It's a dead work. It's obedience, all right, but it's a dead work. Or works done with a hope of, "I'll get a 48:33 reward from God. I'll put some money in the offering box. I might get a promotion." And that's as bad as saying, "Lord, here's some money from you. Help me to win the lottery." It's crazy. It's a dead work. 48:51 Anything which is done grudgingly or with a wrong motive. For example, preaching. Preaching is a wonderfully good work, but it could be a dead work. If I preach for money, many of you may not be preaching for money, but you could be preaching for 49:09 honor. Not money. You say, "We are NOT LIKE THOSE PASTORS who preach for money. We only preach for honor." What's the difference? What's the difference between seeking honor and seeking money? In my eyes, absolutely no difference. That guy who 49:26 preaches for money and this person who preaches to get honor in his church are in exactly the same category as far as I'm concerned. Both are doing dead works. He's got enough honor. He wants money. Maybe you got enough money, but you 49:40 don't have enough honor, so you seek honor. It's wrong. It's 100% wrong. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Even if you eat or drink, how much more preaching, do it for the glory of God." That's the only reason, because I love 49:57 Jesus, I want to share his word. Not because I'm going to get something out of it. I remember years ago when I was meditating on the three temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness. And I said, "Lord, there must be And 50:13 these are not kindergarten temptations." Jesus was tempted at different degrees all through his life. Kindergarten temptations he must have faced when he was five. Temptations to lust after women and all, maybe at 13, and he finished with it 50:29 very quickly. And by the time he was 15, 16, he was probably overcome that completely. He wasn't struggling with lust all the time till he was 30. You know, when you're faithful in an area of temptation, you can finish with it, you 50:41 move on to higher things. Just like a student is struggling with multiplication at one stage, and then he learns multiplication, he has no problem with that, he's going on to higher things, long division and things like 50:53 that. It's like that in overcoming temptation. Don't think Jesus is always struggling with all the wretched lust that we are struggling with. He was tempted in it, he was faithful in it, he finished with it, he moved on to a 51:04 higher class. So, I knew that those three temptations which he he was tempted with in the wilderness, there was something deeper than what you read superficially. These were temptations at the PhD level. Postgraduate level. It was not 51:22 elementary temptations. There was more to it than just turn the stones into bread. So, I said, "Lord, I want you to tell me because I want to have light on these temptations so that I don't fall into them myself." Man, I took a long time meditating on 51:37 those passages. Many times when I read scripture, I come to a verse In the olden days, my aim was to read a chapter a day. As I've grown in maturity, I sometimes come to a verse and I'm stuck. It's like a stoplight, a red light there 51:57 saying, "Don't move." And I read and read and read and read just that one verse. I haven't gone beyond that verse in the whole day. That's my Bible reading for that word day, one verse. And the next morning, I open the scriptures to go on, 52:12 and the red light is still there. I can't move on from that verse. And that's happened sometimes two, three times. There are times when I've said, "What book shall I read now, Lord? Jeremiah? Okay, I finished Jeremiah, what shall I 52:26 read now again? Next? Jeremiah? Have I finished that? What shall I read now? Jeremiah, the third time? I see you got something to say to me perhaps through this prophet." His ministry was to save Israel from going to Babylon. 52:44 And the Lord said to me, "I want to save my people from going to Babylon. That's why I want you to read that book." Okay. So, I got stuck in Matthew chapter 4 trying to meditate on this. What does it mean? And this is the light I got on it. 53:03 Jesus had received a supernatural anointing 40 days earlier after his baptism, supernatural ability. And the devil knew that to do miracles like even turning stones into bread. I mean, the devil wouldn't ask him to do something he knew he couldn't do. He 53:21 won't ask you to turn stones into bread. That's not even a temptation because he knows I can't do it. But Jesus could. So, he tells him, "Turn these stones into bread because you got the ability, you're the son of God." 53:36 If you're the son of God, turn the stones into bread. And why did Jesus say no? Because he said, "And this is the message that came to me. Um I will not use the supernatural ability God has given me 53:55 to get any personal benefit for myself. I will not use the supernatural ability God has given me to turn stones into bread to satisfy my own need. I will not do it." Now, how does this apply to me? 54:12 God has given me a supernatural ability to speak his word. I know it's not my own ability because I knew what I was a little boy. I was so scared to stand before people. I couldn't speak in public. I know it's a supernatural ability. 54:27 And the Lord said, "You must never use this ability to get gain for yourself, to make money for yourself, to get honor for yourself. I mean, people may give you money, they may give you a few gifts here and there, but that's not what you should be 54:42 seeking. You should not be interested in it. It's just It should be just the same to you whether people give you honor or don't give you honor, whether people appreciate it or don't appreciate it, whether they come and say thank you or 54:52 don't say thank you, whether they give you money or don't give money, you're completely free from it. You must never use the gift I give you to get any personal gain. If you write books, you must get no profit from it. Zero royalty. 55:07 In everything, what I give you freely must be given out freely. Don't use the gifts I give you for any personal benefit. I got that out of that first temptation. But I see Jesus using that power to produce bread for 5,000 once, 5,000 men and many women and 55:25 children. He had the ability, but he would use it for others. But he would never use it for himself. Boy, what a light I got on that. I said, "Lord, now I understand. You have given me supernatural ability to bless other people. 55:44 But I must get no benefit out of it for myself." So, if I preach and I seek something for myself in it, it's a dead work. The message may be wonderful, but it's a dead work, and that's why you suddenly find a lot of preachers who preach 55:59 wonderful messages becoming very carnal. Some fall into adultery. Some become dictators. You know, those who are hard, dictator type of leaders. They don't look as bad as those other preachers who fell into adultery. In 56:16 God's eyes, they are just as bad. When a preacher uses his power I know in my life how easy it is. I mean, I've been an elder over many churches for 35 years, and I know how easy it is to use the authority the Lord has given 56:33 me and the respect that people have for me in so many places to control them, to tell them what they should do, to control them because they respect me. I know they'll do exactly what I say. And I can get a 56:50 a a carnal delight in seeing them obey my word. It's carnal. I said, "Lord, I'll never do it." People come to me sometimes say, "Brother Like, I'm in this situation, what shall I do? Tell me what." 57:09 I say, "I can give you my advice. I can tell you what I would do if I were in your situation. But that's because I have faith for it. Maybe you're not at my level of faith. How can I ask you, who's in second grade, to live at my level of faith? 57:26 Maybe I'm in the sixth grade. You're in the second grade, you must live according to your level of faith. And here's my advice, but dear brother, don't do it. Please take this advice before the Lord and seek his will. The Lord wants you to have a direct 57:43 connection with him, not through me. I'm not a secretary. And if the Lord gives you freedom to do it, then do it. Otherwise, you don't have to do what I say, and I will not be offended if you don't do what I say. And that's not all. 58:00 If you don't do what I say and you make a mess of your life, and you come to me after you made a mess of your life, I will never tell you, "I told you so." Those words will never come out of my mouth. I'll help you get out of that 58:13 mess. That's the spirit of Christ. Or if you don't obey me this time, and next time you come a year later for some more advice, I won't ask you, "Why didn't you give me Why didn't you take my advice last year?" That is all controlling people. There 58:28 are a lot of preachers like that who control people. Very subtle ways in which elders control people. And they get a delight over it. I say, "I'm your servant. I'm your brother." I get all that from that one temptation. 58:42 You see the advantage of getting stuck in a verse for a few days? Yeah. We get light on it. I don't want to control people. I don't want And I've used an illustration. My my mind thinks in illustrations. And I find I understand truth much 58:59 better, and I'm able to communicate truth much better when I use an illustration because Jesus was a master at that. I say, "I'm like, you know, in these Sometimes they have marathon races in cities, Boston Marathon and London 59:12 Marathon, and they run through the city, a marathon race. And there are people who helpers who stand by the roadside holding glasses of water, cups of water for these thirsty runners. And I said, "That's my function as an 59:28 elder brother. I'm here, you're running the race, I'm here to My advice is like a cup of water for you for your thirst. And you come by and offer you I offer you this glass of water and you say I don't want it. You come back after one round after half 59:46 an hour I'll again offer it to you. I won't hold my hand back and say you didn't take it from me last time. I'm not going to give it to you now. I'll give you advice even though you didn't take it last time. Some of you are elders. 1:00:02 Are you a servant? Or are you a lord? You find some delight in the fact that people submit to you. You should put the fear of God into you that anybody submits to you. You should put the fear of God in so many husbands who are lording it over 1:00:21 their wives saying the Bible says the husband is the head of the wife. The Bible says wives submit to your husbands. Where does it say that? Let me read the full verse. I'll give 1:00:45 you a new Bible. Husbands be subject to your wives in the fear of Christ. Next verse. Wives be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. Is that in your Bible? 1:01:05 It is. I'll show it to you. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 21. Delighted to see all the husbands looking up that verse. Tell me if I read it right. 1:01:23 Ephesians 5:21. Is that a verse for husbands or not? Husbands be subject to your wives in the fear of Christ. Did I misquote it? I did not. The whole section on subjection 1:01:44 begins with be subject to one another. In the fear of Christ. Having given that introduction then he says wives you must be subject like the church is to Christ. 1:02:03 And the husband must be the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. There's a mutual subjection. That's how the section begins. Now how am I to be subject to others? Elders be subject to 1:02:21 the brothers in your church and younger be subject to the elders. Be What does it mean when it says be subject to one another in the fear of Christ? For example, I'm a father. How am I going to be subject to my children? 1:02:38 That applies to fathers. How shall a father be subject to my children? I'll give you an example. If my children disobey me when some guests are sitting visitors are sitting in the sitting room 1:02:54 I will not punish them publicly. Because that will be a double punishment. The punishment plus the humiliation before others. When I punished my children, I would not even punish one boy in the presence of the other three boys. 1:03:11 That would be punishment plus humiliation, double punishment. I'm subject to them in the sense that I recognize a boundary around my children that they have a dignity as human beings. I must preserve that dignity, punish 1:03:26 them, but not humiliate them. Not give them double punishment. And I always sought to follow that. And in that sense I was subject to my children I would say okay after the visitors leave we'll settle accounts. We're going to settle the accounts. 1:03:41 You're not going to escape that, but I will not humiliate you now. If they were doing something naughty, I'd get them to stop it or take them into another room. A wife has got a dignity about her, too. There's a boundary around a wife and I'm 1:03:59 not supposed to tread into her boundary. I'm not supposed to act as if I'm lord of all and I must give her freedom. For example, if she decides to cook something or do some things in a certain way in the in the kitchen. 1:04:15 Fellowship is the most important thing between husband and wife. With rules and regulations and this type of legalistic attitude will bring death into a home. That I'm the head, you better listen to me. I remember a very godly man who I knew. 1:04:36 He had a very orderly mind. Everything was his whole way was everything if he shoes in a proper place, clothes hung up properly, everything perfectly. His his locker and his cupboard was perfectly arranged. And in the wonderful 1:04:52 plan of God he gave him a slipshod wife. This is great. God does things like that so that both can be sanctified. The slipshod wife can be sanctified and the meticulous husband can also be sanctified. So he 1:05:11 his wife would wash the dishes and their plates would all be in disorder. The spoons and forks would all be mixed up. It's not all in separate compartments. Forks, spoons, knives all mixed up. And plates all different sizes all sort 1:05:26 of look so odd. And this brother one day when he was washing up at the kitchen sink he washed up. And here was the wisdom of that man. 1:05:44 He put all the plates in the slipshod way that his wife did it. And he put all the forks and spoons and plates all mixed up in different little compartments exactly like his wife did it. So that when his wife came and saw 1:06:01 supposing he had done it his perfect way his wife would have come there and seen it and got discouraged. I can never do it like my husband. Look at the wisdom of that man. He said I don't want my wife to feel bad that she can't do it like me. 1:06:19 There's nothing holy about putting plates in that order or nothing holy about putting all the forks in one place. It's convenience. It's not holiness. And so he did it in such a way that his wife would not feel awkward or 1:06:31 inconvenient and they had wonderful fellowship. Which was more important? An ordered kitchen with a discouraged wife or a kitchen in chaos but wonderful fellowship between husband and wife? I know what I choose. Fellowship. 1:06:49 Do you have fellowship or you always finding fault with the little little things in others? Do you recognize that some people take a little longer to get light on something? I remember once in my house I was walking with my 2-year-old son 1:07:08 um many years ago up the steps going upstairs. And I was in a rush to do something and I he was holding my hand. And the Lord said, you know, if you want you can run up quickly. He'll come along slowly. Or you can hold his hand and have a little 1:07:27 fellowship with your 2-year-old son and walk up slowly. Which do you prefer? I said I think I'll have fellowship with my son. The work can wait a little. So I walked up slowly with him. My who I'm impatient to run up, I've got 1:07:44 to slow down. And as I went up the stairs, it's a wonderful thing when you obey God in these small little voices he speaks to you. When I reached the top he said that's how you need to be patient with some people in your church. 1:08:02 I would not have heard that word if I had run up. And I learned a lesson. There are people who are little slower at learning certain things than you are. Can you be patient with them? That's the difference between a teacher 1:08:21 and a father. I work with about 70 elders in our 50 churches. And the main message I we have meetings with them seven eight times a year. And I keep telling them this, dear brothers be fathers. Don't be teachers. We got 1:08:37 enough teachers in the world. 10,000 teachers, one father is better than 10,000 teachers. We don't need so many teachers. I'm a teacher and God's given me that gift. But I'm also a father. I'm a father much more than a teacher. 1:08:50 Teaching God's word is necessary, but now in a day when we have CDs and DVDs and all that, we don't need so many teachers. A man can sit and listen to a DVD and he's got enough teaching better than the best teachers around. 1:09:01 What we need is fathers. You can't get a father on a DVD. You can listen to a teacher on a DVD and get teaching, but how do you get a father over a DVD? A father has to be there physically. You got to be fathers, brothers. 1:09:13 And that's the most important thing. If your folks don't understand something, tell them to watch one of these DVDs or put on the internet and watch something from our website. But fathers, you can't get that over the internet. You got to 1:09:24 be there as a father. And I said I'll explain what the difference is." Here is a student who's very bad at mathematics. And the teachers gets tired of this one student who's lagging behind, always not able to understand. Finally, 1:09:44 after trying for the umpteenth time, he says, "Get out of my class. You'll never learn anything. You're good for nothing. I don't want you to come back to my class." And the poor 10-year-old boy goes weeping home. And dad says, "What's the matter, son?" 1:10:05 He said, "The teacher kicked me out of the class." "Why?" "Because this It's not his fault. I tried. I tried. I could not understand this mathematics problem. Dad, I tried. Honestly, but I couldn't understand it." And he's weeping. 1:10:22 And the dad says, "Don't worry, son. I'll teach you. Come sit with me." And he tries to explain to him 1 hour one-on-one. He says, "Dad, I still can't understand it. It's too tough." "Never mind, son. Tomorrow's another 1:10:40 day. We'll try again tomorrow." The dad comes back from work. "Come, son. We're going to start off again." Another 1 hour, 2 hours. "Dad, I still can't understand it." "Never mind, son. Tomorrow's another day. We're going to do it again 1:10:54 tomorrow." And he works with his son day after day after day after day, and maybe after 2 3 weeks, son says, "Dad, I got it." That's a father. A teacher is impatient. Many times God has told me, 1:11:16 "Don't have the attitude of a teacher towards the people in your church. Be a father. Be patient. Some will take a little longer to understand certain things. If a sister comes into our church and does not veil her head, in our church 1:11:33 everybody veils their head in the services, I will immediately assume she's not heard the truth. Not she's rebellious. Why should I assume the worst? I'm a Christian. I want to assume the best. 1:11:51 When I go into the slums in India, and I see a boy who doesn't know English, he's 10 years old and he doesn't know English, I don't judge him. My little kid learned English when he was five. He His parents never taught him. 1:12:09 I got to be compassionate. This sister who comes was probably in a church where they never taught her anything. The pastors did not teach. So, I shall be patient. Maybe it'll take 6 months for her to understand like this 1:12:23 boy. Am I going to be a teacher or a father there? I remember when somebody here asked me, "Brother Zach, why is it in your church you don't teach all the sisters to veil their head 24 hours of every day?" 1:12:42 Somebody sent me an email once and said, "Why is it in your family picture your wife's head is not veiled?" I said, "Because I don't want to add to scripture. It says a woman should have her head covered when she's praying or prophesying. It 1:12:59 doesn't say 24 hours, so I just want to obey scripture. It says it's dangerous to add to scripture. So, I don't want to danger last verse in Revelation says don't add, so I don't want to add. I said, 'That's why. Whenever they pray and prophesy, I tell 1:13:11 them you must cover your head.' But they say, 'The Bible says we must pray always.' Oh. So, I replied to this man with an email, 'Does your wife wear Does she pray in her bed at night when she wakes up in the middle of the night? Does she veil 1:13:31 her head when she's asleep?' Cuz you know, I pray when I wake up in the middle of the night." And she said He said, "Yes, my wife veils her head when she's asleep in bed." I said, "Wonderful. I said, 'Does she pray in the shower? 1:13:49 Does she veil her head when she's in the shower? Or she's not supposed to pray there. Pray always, it says. I said, 'I have no objection to your views. I said, 'Just be consistent.' Okay, what about the men? I said, 'Men must also pray always. 1:14:07 Right? Then they must never cover their head. They must not never wear a hat in the snow. I said, 'I've got no objection with your convictions. I have a problem with your inconsistency.' Then I meet another group of people who 1:14:22 never veil their heads. They come and tell me something else. Uh a lot of people in the charismatic churches, they say, 'Oh, the Bible says a woman's hair is her covering.' Really? I said, 'Then all your men should be shaved 1:14:38 cuz they're supposed to be uncovered.' I said, 'It's fine. If you hold one view, be consistent.' There's inconsistency in legalists. I have no problem with people who hold another view, but I have no respect for people who are 1:14:53 inconsistent. And then I was discussing with this other brother, and I said, 'You are so particular that sisters should veil their heads, but I don't see your sisters veiling their head at all. 24 hours, they cover 10% of the head at 1:15:10 the back and call it veiling their head. That's not the head. That's 10% of their head. Do you believe in a 10% obedience?' But I said, 'I'm not going to argue with that because I'm not a nitpicker. I'm not a legalist. What I say is, 1:15:28 'In the very thing that you condemn others, you are condemning yourself.' Cuz the answer, it's so hard. You can't cover the whole head. Oh, there's so many rules and regulations. Love 1:15:46 is the fulfillment of the law. I believe in modesty. I believe in the obedience to the scriptures. But I believe in what it says in Romans 14. Accept 1:16:04 the one who is weak in the faith, not for the past purpose of passing judgment on their opinions. One man has faith that he can do this. Another man who's weaker does not have that faith. Let not the one who does this regard 1:16:23 with contempt the one who does not do that. Who are you? I'm reading scripture. Who are you to judge the servant of God, another person? He's not your servant. She's not your servant. To his own master, he stands or falls. 1:16:42 For the kingdom of God is not eating or drinking. The kingdom of God is not whether you veil your head 10% or 100% or whether you veil it when you 24 hours or when you prophesy. The kingdom of God is eating and drink. It's righteousness 1:17:00 and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It's coming into a life of righteousness. In the Old Testament, they had righteousness, but not righteousness with joy. It was righteousness with a long face. In the new covenant, it is righteousness 1:17:15 with joy in the Holy Spirit. It's a delight to do the will of God. I said, "Are you producing people in your church who delight to do the will of God? Happily, cheerfully, cuz God loves cheerful givers. Or are you producing 1:17:34 people who are scared? If I do it slightly differently, the elder will jump on me. Question me. Are we building the kingdom of God? Joy in the Holy Spirit. 1:17:53 There's a wonderful verse in Psalm 16:11, which has been a guideline for me for many years. In God's presence, there is fullness of joy. At his right hand, there are pleasures forevermore, or eternal pleasures. For myself, anyway, this is how I take 1:18:11 it. Whenever there is not fullness of joy in my life, I know I'm not in the presence of God. In his presence, there is fullness of joy. Anytime in your life 1:18:30 you have grumbling, complaining, criticism, hard hardness of heart, no joy, and whatever you may say to justify yourself, you are not in the presence of God. 1:18:50 If you're upset with some brother or sister because they didn't do it right, and there's no fullness of joy in your heart, you are not in God's presence. You can be standing for right in a wrong way. It's a dead work. You're standing for what is right. 1:19:07 I know times when I punished my children in anger. The punishment was right. The anger was wrong. And you know what I would do? I couldn't control myself. I I I didn't grow up with victory over sin. I came to Victory over sin many years after I was 1:19:24 born again. But I knew it was wrong. I would lock myself up in the restroom and weep after I punished my children. I'd say, "Lord, I'm sorry. I did it wrong." I punished them is right, but the anger 1:19:44 was wrong. Help me. I really want to overcome anger. And you know the number of times it happened? Not once or twice, many times. Till my children caught on to it. I remember at my 60th or 70th birthday, one of my sons got up. 1:20:02 Dad used to punish us, but he'd always rush to the restroom after that. And I we knew what he was doing there. And that's what made us respect him. That he was a man who lived before God. I told my children as they grew up, I 1:20:18 said, "You didn't have a perfect father, but you had an honest one who admitted where he was wrong. And when you become dads, you won't be perfect. Be an honest father." I have the joy 1:20:36 of having four sons. All of them are born again, filled with the spirit, following the Lord, preaching God's word. They've all married God-fearing sisters. They have grandchildren and they're 1:20:54 teaching those my grand their children now the word of God and every one of them has turned to me and said, "Everyone, Dad, you're my hero. I want to bring up my children the way you brought me up." I didn't do it perfectly. 1:21:13 But I tried to bring up my children with righteousness, with joy, with cheerfulness, not with hard rules and regulations. If they slipped up, I would be a father, not a teacher. And I follow the same principle 1:21:32 in the every church God gives me responsibility. I believe that's what the Lord wants to see in all of our churches. May God help us. Let's bow our heads before God. Call upon the Lord when he is near. 1:22:01 If you heard him loud and clear, then he must be very near to you right now. Don't resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Say, "Lord, I want to respond. 1:22:21 I want to live a spirit-filled life of righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. Help me, Lord, to live in the true grace of God and not with legalistic attitudes. 1:22:40 And above all, help me not to judge others, but to judge myself. Thank you, Father. Help us to walk in humility all our days. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
