0:07 Okay, we'll There are few questions that were in the box, so I'll try and answer them quickly. Is it possible to enter the new covenant life personally, individually, not without getting married? Of course. The greatest example is Jesus and Paul. 0:23 You don't have to get married to enter the new covenant life, but uh in today's world I would recommend it is better to get married. And ask God to lead you to the right person. Uh because the Bible says 0:43 that uh to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. 1 Corinthians 7:1. And that temptation is much greater today than it was in the 1st century. And that's why I say, particularly because of the media and etc. 0:57 According to the context of 1 Corinthians 11 Oh, okay. According to the context of 1 Corinthians 11 uh when it speaks of the covering over the woman, is it referring only to married women? 1:14 No. It The Bible says woman. So, that applies to 1 Corinthians 11 does not say married women. It applies to all women, just like all men are not to cover their heads, not just married men. It's not that the little children cover their heads. 1:30 Just like boys and grown-up men don't cover their heads. All women, married or single veil their heads. Uh what does it mean that the husband and wife are co-heirs of the grace of life? 1 Peter 3:7. The main important thing there is to 1:49 recognize is you're heirs together. That means a throne which is at the same level, not a throne which one step lower. The throne is the same level. Both husband and wife are sitting on the same throne as co-heirs of the grace of life. 2:05 And it goes on to say there that if you don't recognize first that she's a co-heir you think she's inferior and the second thing is you have to recognize though she's equal to you she's a weaker vessel. Weaker doesn't mean not mean inferior. 2:21 No. A weaker vessel and a husband must live in an understanding way with his wife. Understanding what? Understanding that she's a weaker vessel all the time. Uh recognizing for example that she can't lift as heavy a bag as you 2:38 can. And um she maybe cries more easily, emotionally weaker, and so many other things. If you recognize that the woman the wife is weaker the Bible says your prayers will be answered. And if you don't recognize your wife is 2:53 weaker the Bible says God won't even answer your prayers. Quite a strong verse. So, any husbands whose wives whose prayers are not being answered, that's one place to check up if that's the problem. Here's a a single young man 3:09 who's not yet married. He says, "I think there's a danger in uh saying that a woman is the wife is equal to the husband." Uh because with all the talk of equality seems to harm the reality of uh Christ and the church equal and 3:24 Christ and the church are not equal. You know, when the devil quoted the words to Jesus in the temptation, "It is written." The devil uh said that to Jesus. Jesus said, "It is also written." So, the whole truth of scripture is not 3:41 found in it is written. It is found in it is written and it is also written. There's a balance in scripture, just like the glory of God is full of grace and truth. So, it is written that the church is like the husband-wife relationship is like 3:57 Christ and the church. It's also written in 1 Corinthians 11 like I said yesterday that the relationship is also like Christ and the Father. The man is the head of the woman like the Father is the head of Christ. So, the question is is the Father and Christ 4:12 were they equal? They were always equal, even when he was on earth. But he voluntarily submitted to the Father. The Father didn't force him. No compulsion. It's not by a husband's compulsion that a wife submits. That's dictatorship. That's not 4:27 Christianity. It's communism. But the Jesus joyfully submitted to the Father and that's how it miserable. Okay. Uh If evolutionist asked why God is real, what should I say? Well, Romans chapter 1 says, "Look at the sky." 4:47 We keep our time but the stars are more perfect than the watch I have. You know, if if I ever said that one day there was a crash and a bang and a lot of steel and glass flew around and suddenly there was a watch, nobody would believe it. 4:59 But there are so many foolish people saying there was a bang and a crash and suddenly there were planets that keep perfect time, better than this watch. You got to have more faith for that than to believe that God created it. An 5:09 intelligent person created this watch and an intelligent person created the universe which is far more perfect in time than this watch. Okay. Uh this is concerning a Muslim friend visits my house and wants to pray. Should I allow it or not? What's the 5:24 best thing to do? See, we would not allow idols and things like that in our house and I would say if she she she wants to pray, let her pray quietly. But uh I would say, "Please respect wherever you go." Just like if you 5:39 go to a place where they ask you to keep silent in a public building, you'd keep silent or it says no smoking, you don't smoke. So, in this house, if you want to pray, pray quietly but don't make a noise. That's what I would say. 5:51 And I would use the example of no smoking, no no noise so that we're not being rigid. How to be an example to younger people? To be able to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and study the word 6:06 communication. Come down to the level of people. You have to believe scripture. If we confess our sins, 1 John 1:9 he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we don't believe it uh we can't get 6:20 salvation, we can't go to heaven, we can't be forgiven, we can't experience anything. If you don't believe that God is a loving father um you won't find security. For example, a lot of people think God is a policeman or a judge 6:32 who's flashing his lights and coming behind you all the time to see if you're doing some little slip-up. The danger of such uh the danger of seeing God like that, I think the old covenant, you know, we're talking about distinctive new covenant. 6:44 The old covenant people thought is God like a I would say like a policeman. Always flashing lights and coming behind you. I mean, they didn't have lights those days, but in today's language and waiting to catch you where you didn't stop at a stop sign 6:59 or you turned where you were not supposed to turn or you went over the speed limit and there they flash the lights and you got to pull up. God is not like that. Don't let your children, you as fathers, don't make your children feel that God 7:12 is like that by you being like that. See, the danger is if you worship a God like this you will become like this yourself to other people. The There's a verse in the Psalms which says those who worship idols become like them. And I'd say 7:25 those who worship a God who's not the real God is an idol. That's not the real God you're worshipping. God who's a policeman is an idol. You worship that policeman God, you'll become like that yourself. And many parents are like policemen to their 7:38 children. They're not loving fathers. And no wonder those children go straight. But God's a loving father. He's not a judge. He's going to be a judge one day, but he's a loving father today. Jesus is the friend of sinners. 7:51 When I come to a sinner, I must see he must see me as my as his friend before I can save him. Jesus manifested himself as the friend of sinners before he became the savior of sinners on the cross. How many years he spent showing himself 8:05 as a friend of sinners? So, if you want to save somebody, show him show yourself as a friend of sinners. Not to come down with threats of judgment as soon as you meet them. A friend of sinners. It may take time for him to be saved, but 8:16 be a friend and one day you can present Christ as the savior. See, I find this we're talking about new covenant churches. You know, one of the biggest problems I've seen in new covenant churches self-righteousness. Because 8:33 we know more in doctrine than many other churches No, you're not. You've understood in your head, but your life may not be at that level. And the other thing is because we have such a wonderful fellowship and the sense of a family, we 8:49 can look down on other Christians and other churches. That's self-righteousness. And we can imagine and particularly because we emphasize the inner life very often I find that people who have come from a you know, our church 9:05 comprises of people who come from different cultures. And I find in India, I'll tell you Christian religions, unconsciously some of their old ideas. I've had people come down and touch my feet because that's what they do in Hinduism 9:21 to their parents. That's the how the way they show respect. And I say, "Don't ever do that." That's a mark of worship and we will never allow that. So, there's certain habits like that people have from their old uh religion. 9:35 And for example, many folks, I think a lot of you come from Mennonite backgrounds. Mennonite But what happens is when you come from that background, you can always look with those type of eyes on other people. And you're not being a Christian, you're 9:51 being a policeman there. Because you got you brought in that culture from what I call a non-Christian culture. Mennonite is non-Christian. Hinduism is non-Christian. Islam is non-Christian. Amish is non-Christian. A lot of churches are non-Christian. 10:10 There's no difference between them. Don't call them Christians. man places on value on his Hinduism, he brings it in. Like they won't eat beef. Okay, I'm not here to make him eat beef, but don't look down on other people who 10:21 eat beef. That's what I say. So, don't look down on somebody who does not dress like you do. There's a lot of that in New Covenant churches, and it destroys the person who looks down on them. And the other person who you look down on grows spiritually 10:35 and becomes a disciple. You're the one who's going to lose out cuz you're the one who looks down with judgment. It's a very It's one of the biggest dangers I've seen in New Covenant churches, but unrecognized because you don't think you're so 10:47 modest. So, be careful there. And then, uh, another question is this I really wanted to speak about this more, so I will deal with this. What does it mean when it says 1 Peter 4:17, "Judgment begins from the household of God"? 11:03 I wanted to add a word about worship also. I spoke about a little bit about it and left it there yesterday. What does it mean really to worship? I told you that praise and thanksgiving is very good. I believe in it. I think of four steps in our 11:16 relationship with God. The lowest is prayer. When we pray, then we go to thanksgiving. That's the second step, where we thank God for the answers to the prayer we got. Out of 10 lepers who got answers to prayer, only one came back and thanked God. And 11:35 is it important to thank God? Jesus said, "Where are the nine?" And he says that today also, "Where are the 90% of Christians coming back to thank me for what I did for them?" Haven't you noticed in churches people who announce prayer requests, and very 11:51 rarely do we hear an announcement of that prayer was answered. Have you noticed that? I've noticed that in many churches. Prayer request, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. But I never hear much about that prayer we prayed 2 weeks ago, "It's been 12:03 answered. Thank you very much. Let's thank the Lord for that now." See, 90% ask for prayer, but never thank God. So, that's the second step. Learn to thank God. It's the one of the first steps to backsliding is when you stop 12:15 thanking God. Third is praise. In praise, I'm not thanking God for anything. I'm just praising him for who he is. The angels praise him for who he is. Holy, holy, holy. And, uh, give him 12:32 praise for his being merciful and kind and compassionate, etc. Then, the fourth, the highest level is worship. As I said, worship is in the most holy place of the tabernacle, where you're all by yourself. Only God is there, 12:45 nobody else. Prayer, praise, thanksgiving, you can do with the others, but worship primarily is something between you and God. And basically, if you want to understand what it is, there are I told you Job was the first book of the 12:58 Bible, and then Genesis after that. In both Job and Genesis, you read about two men. One is Job, the other is Abraham. And both of them we read they worshipped God. That's the first time worship is mentioned in the Bible, 13:15 in the book of Job and in the book of Genesis. And you ask yourself, how did they worship God? You know, you read in Genesis 22, God Abraham told his servants, "I'm going up to worship God on top of this mountain." He didn't go 13:27 up there to sing. He went up there to put Isaac on the altar and say, "Lord, I prove to you here that you are more precious to me than the most precious thing on Earth, my son. I would any day offer 10,000 sheep, but I'm offering my son." I'm sure there 13:44 were tears in Abraham's eyes as he took the knife. He lifted up his hand saying, "Lord, I love you. And here's the proof of it." God stopped him. And said, "Abraham, now I know that you fear me." And Abraham called that worship. 14:02 Is that the type of worship you have? Where you've taken everything most precious in your life and laid it on the altar and said, "God, you mean more to me than that." That's not something you can do just by singing a song. 14:15 Most of these songs are just nice melodies and few words. And most of the modern songs are usually about two, three lines repeated about 10 times. I've much more interest in the old songs written by Charles Wesley and Fanny 14:28 Crosby, which had meaning in all of them. Um, I'll tell you why. They never wrote it for money. Today's songwriters all write for money, and that's the reason why they are so shallow compared to the earlier ones. I prefer to sing the 14:41 earlier ones. Now, I'm not telling you what to do, but remember when you sing, it's not the melody. It's not I praise you, I I do this, I do this, this, this. It's the content in what you're saying to God. Remember, you're saying these things to God, and 14:54 you must mean it. You see, for example, I've heard people saying, "Hosanna to the highest." I said, "What does hosanna mean? Do you know what it means?" A lot of you have sung songs with hosanna, but what does it mean? It's a Jewish expression 15:12 saying, "Save us now." He's They sang it when Jesus was came on the donkey. "Save us now, O son of David." They wanted to be saved from the Romans. Or do you really Are you asking God to save you something when you say hosanna? 15:25 It has been changed into an expression of praise by what? Well, hosanna is not English. You might as well go to the original language what it means. I'm just giving you an example of the blind, foolish way in which Christians, just because everybody's 15:38 singing it, we sing it. For example, songs which uh, call God Jehovah. I've never spoken to God as Jehovah. I've said this many times. Jesus said, "When you pray, call him Father, not Jehovah." Why do people sing songs with Jehovah? 15:53 "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah." I never sing that. I say, "Guide me, O my heavenly Father." Little, little things. You say that's unimportant. If it was unimportant, why did Jesus say, "Stop calling praying like that and start praying heavenly 16:05 Father"? So, you know, the thing is, we take these little things in scripture lightly. I believe that word, "He who takes the least commandment in scripture and ignores it will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5. 16:21 He won't go to hell, but he'll be the least in the kingdom of heaven. But if you take the least commandment and teach people to obey it, you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Do you want to be great in the kingdom 16:30 of heaven? Then take even the least commandment in scripture, in the New Testament particularly, and obey it. Take it seriously. So, God wants you to call him Father, not Jehovah. That may be his name, but you don't call your dad by his name. You 16:46 call him Dad. So, let's take these little things seriously. I'm telling you this because I've seen so many Christians who think, "Oh, that's a small thing." Really? I'm not asking you to be a legalist, to say you can't pluck grain 17:02 on the Sabbath day. You got to find a balance here. I don't want to be a legalist. And one way I'm not a legalist is I don't judge other people. No, I judge myself. I'll come to that, but worship is the clearest word that expresses worship for me is 17:17 Psalm 73 and verse 25. In Psalm 73 and verse 25, the psalmist says, It's really a New Testament expression, New Covenant expression. Lord, there's nothing on Earth I desire beside you. 17:34 Psalm 73:25. When I get to heaven, I want only you. Let me paraphrase it. On on Earth, not I Beside you, I desire nothing. I desire no one. If you can get That's what Abraham said on the mount when he offered up Isaac. And when Job heard that all his 10 17:53 children were dead and all his business was burnt up, it says he worshipped. What is that? He wasn't singing songs. Those are the two expressions of worship in the first books of the Bible. Let's learn something from them. Job said, 18:06 "Lord, you took away my 10 children. You burnt up my business. I bow before you, and I worship you because you are more precious to me than my 10 children." It's not easy to say that. "You're more precious to me than my 18:19 business that I've lost completely." It didn't just go down, I lost it completely. I worship you. You are everything to me. I desire nothing but you on this Earth. That's what Abraham said. That's what Job said. And when you 18:31 can say that alone to God in the most holy place, you are a worshipper. It's not easy to do that in public. My worship is all in private. I seek to worship God every morning where I express to the Lord that he is most precious to me than everything on 18:47 this Earth. And I want to live in the light of that throughout every day. That is the secret of Christian ministry, brothers and sisters. Please be a worshipper. Jesus said, "You shall worship, then you will serve." And when 18:59 we get to heaven, I don't desire anything in heaven but you. I tell you honestly, I'm not interested in a mansion or a crown in heaven. What will I do with a 14-bedroom mansion in heaven? You can have it. I want to be with Jesus. 19:13 What will I do with a crown on my head? I'll throw it at Jesus' feet. I'm not interested in crowns and mansions. I'm interested in Jesus himself. I don't desire anything in heaven but you, Lord. So, I'm not to tell you honestly, I'm 19:29 saying before God, I'm not interested in going to heaven. Honestly, I'm not. I'm interested in being with Jesus, wherever he is. I once told the Lord, "Lord, if you're in hell, I'll be there forever. Eternity, I'll stay there with you. I'm not worried 19:40 about the fires. If you're there, it's the presence of Jesus that makes heaven for me. And that's why heaven has begun for me already. I'll tell you honestly, I live a heavenly life on this Earth because I'm I'm free from anxiety, free 19:54 from tension, I can sleep peacefully, I have a good conscience. All the pressures of life don't harass me and worry me. I know the hairs on my head are numbered and my days have been numbered, everything. I live with Jesus. 20:08 And that is worship every day. And if you can do that, then you don't have to talk about it much. It's it's secret, you know, it's like a love relationship between you and Jesus. That is true worship. So, I want to turn to 1 Peter chapter 4 20:22 now and say a few more words about building the church, which is in the old covenant, as I said, they only built a tabernacle, which was a symbol of the church. And I told you how in a church we are fitted together like the bricks, 20:39 not individual bricks coming together like a pile of bricks. Many churches are a pile of bricks. That's not a house. A pile of bricks is not a house. They can become a house. 20,000 bricks, they can become a house, but that's not a house. 20:53 So, if you have a whole lot of people there who are not built together with each other, it's a pile of bricks. It can be a mega church. It's not a house for God. God wants to build a house. That means people are connected with each other. 21:05 And that's the difficult part. To collect bricks is easy. That's what a lot of people are doing. Get get sinners into the church and most of them are not even properly converted. But if you want to build them together, you've got to make them decide disciples 21:17 and then connected with each other. Jesus said people will know you are my disciples when you love one another. Not when you become a mega church. So, there's so many things today which I see are 100% Babylon. What Revelation chapter 17 and 18 talk 21:32 about, a huge structure in connected with politics and money and all that and one day God is going to destroy it. It's a harlot. The true church, the bride of Christ, is devoted to Jesus. It's a love relationship with Jesus Christ where he 21:48 means more to them than anything on this earth. A lot of people who say they are born again, they cannot say that Jesus means more to them than everything else. So, in 1 Peter 4, we speak of see of this expression, the family of God, the 22:02 household of God. And that's what the church is. It's a beautiful expression. The household of God or the family of God. And one mark of the family of God is mentioned in 1 Peter 4:17 and that's how you know, one mark, not the only one, by 22:20 which you can know whether you're part of the family of God. Judgment begins there. They're not judging those non-Christians. They're not judging people in those other denominations. They disagree with them. Yes, I don't mind expressing my 22:37 disagreement because it's their disagreement is not with me. I'm pointing out their disagreement with scripture. I said, "That's not the way Jesus did it. That's not the way Paul did it." I said, "I'm not saying I disagree with 22:49 you. I'm saying you're not following the scriptures." That I need to do till the end of my life. But I don't judge them. See, the word judge is misunderstood. Because do you know that Jesus Here it says, "Judgment must begin at the 23:02 household of God and it begins with us first." Look at that little expression. Me first. Isn't that what the whole world says? Me first in everything. The 23:22 principle of the worldly person is me first. In everything, I think of how is it going to affect me? How is it going to affect my family? All our decisions are based like that. If I go here, if I live here, if I do this, if I do that, if I take that job, 23:37 if I go how will it affect me? Me first, except in judgment. There the world says others first. The only place where people in the world put others first is in judging. They're very quick at judging everybody else. In every other area, it's me first 23:53 because the world is upside down. Jesus comes and makes us right side up. Like they said about the early apostles, they turned the world upside down. Actually, they turned the world right side up. So, when it becomes the opposite of the 24:05 world, then what happens? We put others first in everything except judgment. There we put ourselves first. That's true conversion. Conversion means I was upside down all my life. Now I'm right side up. Till now I was always putting me first 24:23 in everything except judgment where I passed my opinion on every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I gossiped and spoke evil and all that and the other. And now the Lord has turned me right side up. Some people have not been turned right side up. 24:34 They're sort of 45° or 90°. It's got to be turned completely up right side up so that now I put others first in everything except judgment where we put ourselves first. That is the mark of the household of God. And some of you brothers who've 24:50 been sisters who've been in in so-called new covenant churches for long, ask yourself whether you've got here. Can you honestly say that you have you judge yourself first and not other people? In your conversations as husband and 25:07 wife, who do you judge first? When you talk about other people, I mean. We have a long way to go to be the household of God, to be the church. But if you follow it and you teach other people in your church to follow it, it'll be very difficult. 25:22 You'll never get a whole church to do it. They'll always There was a Judas Iscariot even in Jesus' church and there will be Judas Iscariots in your church. There are a lot of them hanging around. There was a Demas among Paul's 25:33 co-workers who went after money and you'll have Demases in your church. But in the church, there must be a core, what I call a church within the church, which is the real church. And that's the church against which the gates of hell 25:45 will not prevail. The rest are fringe people sitting around on this and the others, but it's like Gideon had 32,000 people in his army, but the battle was won by 300. What percentage that is? 300 out of 32,000 is one in a thousand, not even 26:02 1%. .1% .1 one in a thousand. That's how they won the battle. You remember when they went to the borders of the promised land? 12 people went to spy the land and two of them said, "Let's go in." They're the only ones with God. You always find 26:18 throughout scripture God is not with the majority. The majority of Israel rejected Jesus. 12 people followed him. God was with those 12. In Noah's time, eight people were with God. The majority of the world were wrong. Throughout scripture, the 26:37 majority is wrong. These mega churches are wrong. These small little groups that are putting Jesus first and making disciples, that's the right one. And if you're wise, you'll be where God is moving and not something that is impressive in the eyes 26:52 of men. So, coming to this matter of judgment, you know, Jesus told us in relation to judging others, first of all, let me start with that. Should we judge others or not? There is a right type of judgment and a wrong type of judgment. That's what I want to 27:07 show you. So, I don't want to be foolish in saying we must not judge anything because if you're a person who doesn't judge anybody, never discerns anything, you'll go astray into false doctrine quickly. There are so many fake preachers today, 27:22 so many demons coming as angels of light, as the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, that we have to judge. Is this a real angel or a demon? You know, there are many churches where people testify that I saw an angel the other day and then next Sunday somebody 27:37 says, "I saw two angels." They're all demons. They're all demons. I have no doubt about it. Because when Paul went to the third heaven, he said that I heard unspeakable things. I'm not even supposed to speak about it. That's the mark of a man who 27:50 has really seen the angels and gone to heaven. He's scared to speak about it. But these people who boast about I saw three angels and I saw two angels and Jesus came and sat next to me, they were thoroughly deceived by the devil. 28:01 Don't be fooled by all this conversation. I went to heaven and came back and then here's what I saw. And they write a book about it. Paul went to really went to heaven in 1 2 Corinthians 12 and he said, "I heard unspeakable things which a man is not 28:17 permitted to speak." Read that in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Not permitted to speak. How do these people write books about it? They didn't go to the real heaven. They are people people with wild imaginations. There are people who can shut their eyes and go to 28:31 heaven for 10 minutes quite easily. There are people like that. I don't have that type of imagination, unfortunately. Or fortunately, I don't have that type of imagination. But if a man's really gone to heaven, I tell you he won't be 28:41 able to talk about it. It's very clear in 2 Corinthians 12. A man is not permitted to speak about it. So, I'm all I'm saying is don't be fooled by all these things. But there is a right type of judgment, which is discerning. Here's the thing, when I 28:56 read when I see a book written by somebody, I'm going to judge that. I said, "That guy did not go to heaven." You can say what you like because I judge him by the standard of scripture. And I'm not fooled. It's because the 29:07 devil knows that the vast majority of Christians today don't know what's in the scripture. They know what's in the news. They know what's a lot about the movies and the movie stars, but they don't know what's in the scriptures. And 29:17 so, the devil knows he can fool people left, right, and center. It's very important in our churches, new covenant church, where we learn to have discernment. So, that is the right type of judgment we must have. And Jesus said that in John chapter 7 29:38 and verse 24, the last part, "Judge with righteous judgment." Many people only know the verse where Jesus said don't judge Matthew 7:1. But they don't know the other verse where Jesus said judge. Like I told you the whole truth is not contained in it 29:56 is written but in it is written and it is also written. A good teacher will show you it is written and it is also written. It is written in John 7:34 do John 7:24 do not judge. It's written there John 7:24 do not judge. 30:14 But in the second part of the same verse it is written judge. So which are you going to obey? I want to obey both. It says don't judge according to appearance. No. That I don't want to do. But do judge with righteous judgement. I want to do 30:31 that. If you only do the first part you have disobeyed scripture. It is written it is also written. So Jesus himself told us to judge with righteous judgement. And there he's giving us his own example. You turn to me with me to 30:43 Isaiah chapter 11. Which teaches us how Jesus judged and that is the way we are to judge. When we live in a world where all types of people there are counterfeits and many other things like that. You know it speaks here of the spirit of 30:59 the fear of the Lord in Isaiah 11:2. The last part the spirit of the fear of the Lord will rest upon him. A lot of people speak about this reverence for God. One mark of reverence for God not the only one. I told you one mark of reverence for God 31:14 is giving up everything like Abraham offered Isaac. And God said now I know that you reverence me. God will say that to you when you say to him Lord you are more precious to me than anything on the earth. He'll say now I know that you 31:25 fear me. I've longed to hear God say that to me every day of my life. Lord I want you to say about me now I know that you fear me that nothing at any time will be more important to me than you. That's how I started my Christian life 31:39 and that's how I wanted to be continuously. Then I know I'm not backsliding. The day that comes in your life when something or someone become more important than Jesus Christ your backsliding has begun. You may not be committing sins but 31:53 something maybe your job maybe your house some person maybe your wife or that boyfriend or that girlfriend or that other thing has become more important to you than Jesus himself. Maybe a doctrine maybe your modest way of dressing has 32:08 become more important than Jesus himself. You are an idolater. Let me tell you that. There are idolaters sitting in new covenant churches where something has become more important than Jesus himself. And they judge others by their standard. 32:25 So here we read he will delight in the fear of the Lord Isaiah 11:3. Please keep this in mind always. How do I show that I really reverence God? I'll tell you. Isaiah 11:3 He will not judge by what he sees or what he hears. 32:42 What is standard? It's talking about Jesus. He would not judge by what he saw. It's what we read in John 7:24 don't judge by appearance. He was preaching what he had practiced. He saw something say no I reserve my judgement. I will 33:01 not pass a judgement. He heard something no I won't pass a judgement yet. You know these high courts and all in India sometimes they take three four years to judge a case. And then when the judgement is passed it's only 500 pages the judge has 33:18 written down this is why I've come to this conclusion. But you go to believers they don't wait five years less than five minutes they pass the judgement there's no 500 pages maybe two sentences that's all. This is my judgement. 33:32 Isn't that amazing? How in an earthly thing these people take so long to really understand but we pass judgement so quickly. Jesus said he'd never do it. It doesn't mean he doesn't judge. He does judge it says in verse four with 33:46 righteousness he will judge. It's exactly what we read in John 7:24. He will not judge by what he sees he saw something he said maybe maybe there's something I didn't see very clearly there or maybe I haven't seen everything. I haven't seen all aspects 34:03 of the situation. I saw one thing. Or I heard something I haven't heard the whole story. I heard one part of it. I heard chapter 20 but I haven't heard all 100 chapters so I can't judge yet. In the Old Testament there was a law that God 34:21 gave in Deuteronomy on how to judge. It was in relation to if somebody said hey that guy is a false prophet in Israel they were saying something about somebody. Okay supposing a prophet arises 34:40 Deuteronomy 13 verse one a prophet arises and does some things or your brother or your sister entices you verse six. And or you hear verse 12 this is what I want to show you. You heard with your ear that 34:58 somebody is saying like this that there's some worthless men verse 13 who have gone around and leading people to go to idols. Don't judge. You must see that it's one of the most thorough verses in the whole Bible about how we 35:13 should judge. He must investigate number one search out number two inquire number three inquire thoroughly number four this is Deuteronomy 13:14. If it is true number five 35:31 and the matter is established number six and you are sure it has been done number seven. Then go and strike. This is old covenant. You heard something this thing is chapter is teaching everything sure. 35:50 Look how strongly he tells you to investigate and inquire thoroughly and make sure it's true make sure the matter is established. Then go ahead. So there is a need for judgement but not just by what our eyes see or our ears hear. If you follow this 36:05 simple rule dear brothers and sisters if you follow this simple rule you'll be saved from a lot of problems in your home and in your church. I read something the other day which was very interesting. An elderly couple 36:25 very old and the husband was concerned that my wife is probably losing her hearing. So he was concerned he said maybe I should get a hearing aid or something. So he went to a doctor and the doctor said listen give a test. You stand 20 36:39 feet away from your wife behind her and say something. See if she can hear you. Go to 10 feet say the same thing. When her back is turned to you see if she can hear you. Go five feet. Test then you can then come back and 36:56 report to me. So the next day while his wife is cooking something he went behind her 20 feet and said darling what are we having today for lunch? No reply. He was concerned 10 feet. Darling what are we having for lunch? No 37:12 reply. Five feet. What are we having for lunch? No reply. Then he tapped her on the shoulder. He said darling what are we having lunch? She shouted saying for the fourth time I'm saying chicken. You're getting deaf darling. You better 37:28 get your ears tested. What's the moral of the story? Judge yourself. Don't judge somebody else. The problem may not be with the other person. I'm sure you'll never forget that. Something said in a humorous way we 37:47 never forget. But there's a lot of truth in that. So 1 ourselves first. And that's and how do we judge ourselves? First we must do it the way we see in 38:06 scripture. Okay I'll show you how it is in scripture one example from the Old Testament and then in the new. Isaiah and chapter five. Isaiah chapter five. Isaiah is a prophet who was pronouncing 38:28 a judgement on all these people and what he said was right. Verse eight woe to those who add house to house field to field and verse 11 woe to those who rise up early in order to get drunk. And verse 18 woe to those who drag 38:45 iniquity telling lies and verse 20 Isaiah 5:20 those who call evil good woe unto them woe to 21 woe to those who are wise wise in their own eyes woe to this this is group and everything was inspired by the Holy Spirit. What he said was right. 39:00 Nothing wrong in what he said. Then one day chapter six he says I saw the Lord. Till then he had heard what the Lord wanted him say. What he said was right. All those woes were correct. Then one day I saw the Lord and as soon 39:20 as he saw the Lord this woe came upon him. Verse five woe is me. This guy who was pronouncing woe on all these people suddenly said woe is me when he saw the Lord. There we learn how we are to judge ourselves. It's not by 39:36 looking inside no. I never look inside. I know in my flesh dwells nothing good. should I look inside? I already know it. I look at the Lord and I see that part of me that he permits me to see right now where I can cleanse myself. I can't cleanse my 39:54 entire flesh in a moment. It takes a lifetime. But if I look at the Lord, he'll show me that part of me where I'm unlike him where I can judge myself and cleanse myself and move forward. It's a development. You turn to the new book of Revelation. 40:12 And John was going to write about all the problems in the churches. Five of those seven churches were pretty bad. But before the Lord asked him to write to all the elders saying, "This is wrong with you. This is wrong with you. You got a name that 40:27 you're alive and you're dead. And you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You have left your first love. And you got somebody who's loving money like Balaam in your church. And you got a wife who runs your church, 40:39 Jezebel." These are some of the things the Lord told the elders. But before God commissioned Jesus commissioned John to write that, he gave him a revelation of himself. That's chapter 1. That's why it's called the Revelation of 40:56 Jesus Christ. That's the first verse in the It's a Revelation of Jesus Christ. A lot of people look at the Book of Revelation as a Revelation of the future. I say, "Hang on. Why not give it the title that John himself gave in the 41:08 first verse? A Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave. And the first thing he sees is Jesus himself in the midst of the churches. Each church was a separate lampstand. As you read there in verse 41:26 12, he stood in the midst of seven lampstands. In the In the old Jewish system, they didn't have seven lampstands. They had one lampstand with seven branches. That's a denomination. These seven churches were not a denomination. They were seven separate 41:41 lampstands. That's distinctive of the new covenant. The seven-branched Jewish lampstand of the old covenant became seven separate lampstands and Jesus in the middle with him directly connected to each of them. Each church 41:54 was independent. There was no denomination in the early days. It's all the work of man. Whether it's Roman Catholic or Assemblies of God where they elect the top leader. That's not according to the scripture. And he had to see Jesus in the middle of 42:09 the church. And he fell down. And it says in verse 17, "I fell at his feet as a dead man." He bowed before him in worship. And he saw his own need. That's That's why he fell into the dust. He'd been He was the one who leaned upon 42:25 Jesus' breast 65 years earlier. But he didn't dare that do that now. He fell on his at his feet like a dead man. And I believe my brothers, those of you who preach the word of God, this is the best way to get the message 42:40 that you have to preach to your church. This is how John got his message. This is how Isaiah got his message. You read in Isaiah 6, after he saw his judged himself, the Lord cleansed him and said, "Okay, go and preach this 42:52 message." The same thing here. John fell at his feet and worshipped him. And then he said, "Okay, go and give this message to the churches." So, we first judge ourselves and then share the word to others, whether it's in personal conversation 43:10 or in a church. I never preach what I've not judged myself in. I say, "I don't have to be a prophet to know the things you're tempted by cuz I'm tempted by the same things." And so I can speak about it. You think, "How in the world did he know?" He knows 43:26 because he's tempted by the same thing you're tempted by. We're all human. We're all descended from Adam. And the wonderful thing is that Jesus was tempted like us, too. So, he went through temptation to become our forerunner. 43:42 He could not be our forerunner without facing temptation and overcoming all of them. And now he appoints me as a mini forerunner for people who look up to me. How shall I lead them? Just by studying the Bible? No. That's important. Just by being 43:59 anointed with the Holy Spirit? That's important, but that's not enough. I need to study the scriptures. I need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Then I need to see myself and judge myself and cleanse myself so that I have something 44:10 to give to others. Then the Lord will say, "Okay, go and tell them what you have judged in yourself." You can never tell people to be free from the love of money. Listen to this, unless you have first seen the love of money in yourself. 44:25 I saw it in myself first before I ever started preaching on it. And I'll tell you I saw this in in the uh how I prayed to the Lord in Luke chapter 18, we read of a man who loved money called Zacchaeus. Luke chapter Sorry, not 18. Luke 19. 44:45 There was a man called Zacchaeus who was a tax collector and who was a crooked tax collector, made a lot of money for himself. But he was He had a little desire in him to He heard about Jesus and some little s- you know, spark of righteousness 44:59 became in him. He said, "I better meet this man. I want to meet him." He probably wanted to repent all of his years of cheating others. But others didn't know that. They all despised him. But I I love this. Jesus was walking 45:12 down the street. How Jesus was in touch with the Holy Spirit is always challenging me. He'd walk down the whole street. And as a man, remember, he was not doing this as God. He gave up his powers of God when he was on earth. He was God, but he didn't use 45:26 his powers as God. It's like a rich man who does not use his He's a billionaire, but he doesn't use his ATM card. He lives simply with poor people. That's how Jesus lived. And uh he walks down the street. And the Holy Spirit says, "Stop." 45:41 And he stops. And the Holy Spirit says, "Look up in the tree there. There's a man there. His name is Zacchaeus." You know, Jesus experienced that as a man. Many people believe that's impossible for us. 46:00 If you believe Jesus did everything on earth as God, the only thing he did on earth was God as God was accept worship and forgive people's sins. We can't do that. But the rest he lived in on earth as a man. Led by the Holy Spirit. I've been 46:14 challenged by this, how the Holy Spirit would one day tell him, "Go to Syrophoenicia." He doesn't know what's waiting there. He goes. He walks 70 miles. Goes there and finds a Canaanite woman whose daughter is demon-possessed. 46:30 And heals her. The next morning the Holy Spirit says, "Go back." He walked 140 miles to help one non-Jewish woman free her demon from her child. I was so gripped when I read that. You know, I always look at a map at the 46:46 back when I see if Jesus traveled from one place to another because I learn something. How much he traveled to help one person. I said, "Lord, make me like that. Make me willing to walk 100 He didn't have a chariot, by the way. 46:57 Make me willing to walk 140 miles to help one person. I want to be like you." A lot of us say we want to be like Jesus. There are plenty of opportunities here. The Holy Spirit will take of the things of Christ and show it to you if 47:08 you're serious. If you don't see these things, dear brothers, sisters, consider the fact the Holy Spirit does not believe you're serious about becoming like Jesus. Otherwise, anything he showed me, he'll show you. Okay. 47:22 So, he goes down with Zacchaeus to Zacchaeus' house. And is a amazing word. I don't see it anywhere else in scripture, this statement. As they were going to the house, it says in verse 8, Zacchaeus stopped. Have you seen such an expression 47:36 anywhere else in the gospels? As far as I know, this is the only place. He stopped. He came in front of the gate of his house and he stopped. And then let me paraphrase what he said. He said, "Lord, you can't enter this 47:48 house." Like the Roman centurion. Yeah, I'm not worthy to have you in this house because this house has been built with a lot of money that I cheated from others. It's not a holy place. I cheated people, made money, and I built this house. You can't come 48:04 here before I settle something." So, at the gate, he stops and says, "Lord, I calculated the interest. I stole it from people so many years ago, so I have to pay them back four times. When I calculate the interest, it's 48:22 become like that." He calculated the rate of interest and all that. And he was a clever man. "I give back four times. And then, Lord, there are a whole lot of others I've cheated. I don't even know where they are. But I'm not going to keep it in my bank 48:37 account and say I don't know where they are. It's not my money. It's unrighteous. I will give it to the poor." You know that all the money in the world ultimately belongs to God. 1 Corinthians 10:26 says that everything on the earth 48:52 belongs to God. So, all the money ultimately He's the ultimate owner of all the money in the world. That's why he takes it all away from us when we die. Just by the way. That's why you can't take it with you because it's not yours. It's a loan. All 49:04 the money you have on earth is a loan. When you die, your pockets are empty because he's the ultimate owner of everything. And so, when I don't know where I have to give it back, I've always tell told people, "Give it to God." 49:19 In those days, it was give it to the poor. In these days, I say, "Put it in the offering box." That's what I've told a number of people who wanted to make restitution and don't know where to give it. And Zacchaeus did that. And then see 49:29 this verse. Jesus I don't know how many years it took him to repay all that money. But Jesus said, "Today salvation has come." That means he accepts you as soon as you make the decision because he knows you're sincere even though he 49:45 knows it may take 10 years for you to settle all those problems that you caused in your unconverted days. I love that. He doesn't wait till Okay, Zacchaeus, when you paid the last cent, then I'll tell you you'll be saved. No, I love Jesus here saying 49:59 this. Today salvation has come to this house. And when the Lord sees that sincerity in my heart, even if if it takes me years to settle all matters, he'll say, "Today salvation has come." Praise the Lord. But then here's the best part. 50:14 The Son of Man, you've often heard this expression, verse 10, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." And who was lost here? Someone was lost in the love of money. So you can read it like the Son of Man 50:30 has come to seek and to save those who are lost in the love of money. And I read it and I said, "Lord, that's me." I remember that many years ago I read that and I said, "Lord, that's me. I'm lost in the love of money. Will you 50:42 seek me and save me from it completely so that it's gone out of my life just like I want to be saved from every other sin, gossiping, backbiting, hatred, anger, love of money. Deliver me from it." I'll tell you this to anyone sitting 50:57 here. If you're serious about it, you acknowledge your sin, he will deliver you. You cover it up, he who has sinned will not prosper. You read that in Proverbs. But he who acknowledges it will find mercy. And in the new covenant I'd say he'll 51:14 also get deliverance. That's what it means to judge yourself. There's a lot that we have to judge ourselves in. And the more you judge yourself, the more you'll be able to build a church. That's the household of God, a group of people who judge 51:26 themselves. I remember a man once came to me at the end of a conference in India. He said, "Brother Zac, I'm fed up with this Pentecostal church I'm going to I want to join your church." I said, "Please don't join our church. 51:37 You'll get fed up with us also in no time because we're not perfect. I say, "Come and join us when you're fed up with yourself, not when you're fed up with church X or Y. We are a bunch of people who are fed up with ourselves, our defeated lives. 51:55 If you are fed up with yourself, come and join us. We'll help one another to cleanse each other. That's the church, a group of people who are fed up with their own defeated life, who are fed up with anything slightly un-Christ-like in 52:10 their life. I'm fed up with any Sometimes I see something un-Christ-like in some area God shows me, I get I hate myself for it. And I see what it what Jesus meant when he said, "He who hates his life will find it." When I 52:25 hate that self life of mine, God gives me eternal life. That's what that phrase means. That's how we build a church. And if you can gather together people in your locality who are fed up with themselves, who will judge themselves, you can build a church 52:41 if you if you're the first example in that. That is Christian leadership. To be a forerunner, to be tempted and overcome, to judge yourself, to be exemplary in judging yourself as God gives you light. This is the way to leadership. It's not 52:57 just being able to preach and things like that. A lot of people can preach. Politicians and others can speak much better than us. But judge if we judge ourselves, we can build a church. Okay, folks, thank you for listening all 53:10 these days. I hope you've been blessed as much as I've been. I preach to myself as much as I preach to you. God bless you all. Let's pray. Thank you, heavenly Father, for this days that we've been together. 53:28 I pray the effect of it will last unto eternity in many places in many lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. 53:53 Uh I just want to say thank you on behalf the local church here for taking the time to come. I'm mindful of the fact that the even though it uh we make sacrifices, I think most of you may have made larger sacrifices financially, time-wise. 54:11 Uh we'll be home and sleeping in our own beds tonight. For some of you, you won't you'll be sleeping tonight in a car on your way home. So a lot of you have made a lot of sacrifice and I want to leave you the word of encouragement. For years I longed for 54:25 the opportunity to hear these truths on a consistent basis uh and to have fellowship with other brothers and sisters who were keen on going this way, had seen the the uh distinction, the distinctiveness of the new covenant 54:42 and weren't going to just settle in the plethora, the abundance of mainstream Christendom that we see around us and made it their passion. I longed for it for years. There were years that I did long for it, too. Did not long for it. But the time 54:58 came when something happened where the seed of messages I'd heard for years, from the time I was born really, started to actually bear fruit and result in a uncontrollable hunger to give up whatever. Uh and I think around 2004 or so I 55:17 thought that meant moving back to India, something which 10 years ago I would never have done. Didn't want to live in India. And uh and then the Lord opened the door for to plant me here in this place. But I say that to say if if you're 55:33 hungering for that as well, and that's why you're here, to see the new covenant life lived out in your in your own life first of all, in your simple, pure devotion to Jesus, to see that new covenant life lived out in your marriage, 55:50 to see that new covenant life lived out in your home with your children, and to see that new covenant life lived out in a local expression of the body of Christ. No matter how long it takes, and no matter how discouraging it can seem that 56:04 it's taking a long time, don't ever give up. For me, it was like wandering in a desert for many years. And I would come across these mirages. You know what a mirage is? It looks like an oasis. And you get there and you thought there was going to be 56:21 water, but there's no water. And I found that many of these mirages, myself included, consisted of people uh pretending to drink water. You sit there and say, "I I have some of this water." Or you open a faucet and nothing comes out. 56:40 And the time came when I was honest with myself to say, "Lord, I am not tasting of the water that you promised me. You said that if anyone thirsts and comes to you, you would give water and they would never thirst again." And 56:52 that's not true in my life. And I said, "Lord, where is it?" And for years I wandered like a man in a desert. And I'll tell you, the Lord has planted me in an oasis today. This is the word um my dad and mom gave me when I 57:07 left home years ago. Where should I go for church? The I'm leaving CFC Bangalore that I grew up in and loved and I can't take it with me to the US. But the one thing that my dad told me that back then that I've never forgotten 57:23 was this, "Look for the place that will lead you to life." That's what I mean by a cup of water. Look for the place where you can say it's actually working. I'm experiencing fellowship with my wife, my husband, my children, and with 57:40 other brothers and sisters, and it's working. A little bit at a time. Sometimes you might only be able to see the progress a year at a time or a month at a time. You know, we heard about day-by-day progress. Sometimes it takes a while to 57:54 get there. But be honest with yourself and assess your true spiritual condition in your own life, your marriage, and in your home, and in the fellowship you have, and be willing to forsake it all if that's what it takes 58:10 to experience the real water. And I'll tell you this, I'm experiencing it in this local fellowship here, and there are various other fellowships here that uh represented here that can testify to that. Perhaps you can as well. Not here 58:25 to tell you whether you are or not, but I'll tell you I am. And the Lord's answered the cry of my heart to experience that. And I say that because I as I've talked to some of you, I sense many of you are in places where you're hungering for it. 58:38 The Lord perhaps is starting to has pulled you out of denominational organizations and maybe you're just meeting a handful of you, two or three families or something like that. Don't settle. No matter how long it takes, don't 58:54 settle for the mirages. Don't settle for anything less than the true oasis. Seek for that place which will lead you to life. And those come from John chapter 6 which where Jesus told I think uh we heard about John 6 earlier 59:11 also. Jesus told the disciples after many of them had left, "Hey, do you guys want to leave too as well? Are you kind of tired of this speaking about the new covenant? Or are you kind of feeling like it'll never work?" Um and the Peter said something very, 59:25 very interesting there. If you read it at the end of John 6. Lord, you could look me in the eye and use the word Satan. And I can't leave you because I have finally found a place where I'm tasting water. And that's the church where you can be 59:41 reproved, rebuked, corrected, disciplined, and you'll never want to leave because you're tired of all the other places where they'll tickle your ears, scratch your back, make make you feel good, but you leave empty and unchanged year after year. 59:57 And today I'm in a place where I open myself up to correction and rebuke and instruction through my dad, but also through my fellow brothers and sisters here in this church. And no matter what, I don't want to leave cuz I'm tasting 1:00:13 the true water from heaven. And our hope is that through us as well as the Lord makes it rivers of living water that flow out of our innermost being, we will touch the community around us. There's more that can be said on this, 1:00:27 but just wanted to say that as a word of encouragement to to you all. Uh and we hope that you'll come back and bless us and that by God's grace more and more in this country and the and Canada as well. Are some of you from 1:00:40 Canada here and Norway and other countries as well that the Lord will build local expressions of his body. That's our goal that you don't just leave this place having heard some good messages. Okay, thank you again.
