0:00 Praise the Lord. The purpose of our coming together as a church is a number of things. We come together to give glory to God's name. And to give Him thanks as we have done right now. 0:21 But also to hear His word so that we come into the fullness of experiencing all that Jesus Christ provided for us. For many Christians that I have seen around the world, it is, my sins are all forgiven, I'm on my way to heaven, praise the Lord. 0:42 But if you read the New Testament, there's a lot more than that. The Bible speaks of Jesus having inaugurated a new covenant, which was different from the old covenant that God made with Israel. So I want to speak a little bit about that. 1:01 And I've titled my message, The Believer and the Triune God. Now why do I say that? Do you know that under the old covenant, they never knew God as a trinity? You read the entire Old Testament, and nobody ever speaks about the three persons in the Godhead. 1:25 There are people even today, among Christians, who don't believe there are three persons in the Godhead, believe it or not. They were living in the old covenant. In the old covenant, there was only a knowledge of God, but not in His three persons. 1:39 There were many things about God they didn't know. They never knew how much He loved us. That was revealed on Calvary. But when Jesus came, right at His baptism was the first time that you see the trinity. The Father speaking from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, the Son of God, being baptized in the water, and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. 2:07 There you have the whole trinity. And when Jesus was about to ascend to heaven, He told His disciples, when you go into all the world and make disciples, you've got to baptize them in or into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 2:30 Those are almost His last words. So in other words, wherever you go, it's not just enough to make them disciples. Baptism is important. And it must be into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So right from day one, every believer was to know about the trinity. 2:51 And in the Acts of the Apostles, when it says they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, a lot of people confuse that. Let me give you a little principle of Bible study that I've discovered after 57 years of studying the Bible. 3:05 And that is, never get a doctrine from a historical event or section of the Bible. Jesus healed everyone. If you make that a doctrine, you're going to live in a world of unreality. Because the fact of the matter is, Jesus does not heal everyone today. 3:25 He can, but He doesn't. For various reasons, I'm not going to go into that. That's just one example. How you can take a historical statement and make a doctrine out of it. Or Acts 2.4. They all spoke in tongues. There again, you can get a lot of people into bondage. 3:41 I believe in speaking in tongues, but it's not for everyone. God determines whom to give it to. Another historical statement is, they baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. It's a historical statement. The commandment is what we must go by. 3:59 If you replace the command of Jesus by a historical statement, you're going to get into confusion. So when I baptized in India, if I only baptized people in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a non-Christian, he could go home and his Hindu father could say, that's okay. 4:18 Father, Son and Holy Spirit is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. You haven't changed your religion, you're still a Hindu. Because they have a trinity in Hinduism too. Everything that we have in Christianity is counterfeited by the devil. 4:29 The Egyptians have got a trinity, the Greeks have got a trinity. The devils counterfeited everything. So when I baptized a person in India, I baptized him in the name of the Father and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, not any other heathen trinity and the Holy Spirit. 4:49 So, historically, I mean as a record, you could say I baptized in the name of Jesus Christ because I was identifying the Son as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now more than that, that's just a statement by way of fact. In the Old Covenant, they were under law. 5:06 And I find lots and lots of Christians still live under law. The law demands. Whereas love invites. Under the law, the commands are always, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. But when you read the commands of Jesus, notice this difference. 5:29 He never says thou shalt, thou shalt not. Try and look for those verses in the Gospels. He doesn't say that. He says, if you love me, keep my commandments. If any man wants to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me. 5:48 It's an invitation. It's not a demand. You must do it. So, the reason why I say that is because I find a lot of Christians look at the New Testament like demanding certain things from them. And the result is, you know, we become like the God we worship. 6:11 And if your God is one who demands, you will be like that yourself. You will make demands on your wife. You will make demands on your husband. And this is the number one reason for miserable marriages. Because they worship a God who demands. 6:32 And who expects implicit obedience. And that spirit of inviting that Jesus has, is not there. That's just one thing I want to say. Under the law, there were commands that God gave. 6:52 But no enablement to keep them. Whereas under grace and love and the new covenant. Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. We work together in trying to keep this commandment. Again, if you're under law, we will give commands and not work together. 7:15 Husbands who expect their wives to do things and never help them. Parents who tell their children to do something and never teach them how to do it. Or work together with them. They're under law. Their God is like that. 7:27 They never experience working together with Jesus. Jesus helping them. And it's as if the Lord has just told them to do something and they're left on their own. Now, if we enter into the new covenant, all that changes when we come to know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 7:46 And that's what I want to share with you. Let me show you first of all a verse in John chapter 17. Here is another word that many Christians don't understand. Eternal life. For many people, eternal life means to live forever. 8:04 But people who go to hell live forever too. But they don't have eternal life. What is the scriptural definition of eternal life? The one that Jesus himself gave in John 17 and verse 3. And if you don't have this, you don't have eternal life. 8:22 Let me tell you that. Eternal life is a gift of God through repentance and faith. But John 17 verse 3 says, This is eternal life. This is Jesus' definition. That they may know you. The only true God. And Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 8:43 And that if you read the whole section there for chapter 14 to 17 is through the Holy Spirit. So eternal life is knowing God. Knowing God is different from knowing about God. You may know about the governor or the president. 9:00 But you may not know them personally. There's a lot of difference between knowing about someone and knowing him. Many Christians know about God and about Jesus Christ. But they know him personally, intimately. Let me tell you something else. 9:17 If you read the Old Testament, the word know is a special word. It's used in the relationship of a man. The physical relationship between a man and his wife. Adam knew his wife. And they had a son called Cain. It's used to speak about that most intimate physical relationship between a man and a wife. 9:39 You apply that to the spiritual realm. To know Jesus Christ is to know him in our spirit, intimately. As intimately as a husband and wife know each other. Anything less than that is not eternal life. Let me show you another verse in 1 Timothy in chapter 6. 10:02 You know there's so much we miss if we don't read the scripture carefully. Here's another thing. 1 Timothy in chapter 6 and verse 12. 1 Timothy 6.12. Paul's writing to Timothy. He was already about 45 years old and been with Paul for maybe 25 years. 10:22 Wholehearted person. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 6.12. Fight the good fight of faith and take hold of eternal life. What does that mean? Was it because Timothy was not born again? The guy's been with Paul for 25 years. 10:41 Paul says he's my finest co-worker. I mean if you got a letter like that from Paul and you were there saying take hold of eternal life. What would you do? You read that verse I'm sure. If ever you read 1 Timothy you came across that verse. 10:57 Take hold of eternal life. What did you do when you read that verse? You just ignore it? You say I've already got it? You've already got it. There's no need to take hold of it. But when you realize that eternal life is not just living forever. 11:14 It is knowing God like Jesus said. Personally. Knowing Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's something you've got to take hold of more and more and more and more and more. So let me break that down. First of all knowing the Father. 11:34 This is something unique in the New Covenant. Not knowing about the Father. But knowing the Father. I shared a little bit about that last month when I spoke here. In the Old Covenant nobody, nobody means nobody, could ever call God Father. 11:55 Nobody could look up and say Father. Because they were not sons. Did you know that no one could be a son of God until the day of Pentecost? Great prophets like Moses, Samuel, Elijah, the greatest, John the Baptist. 12:16 None of them could look up to heaven and say, Dad. He was not their dad. He was Almighty God. And they were his servants. They were his prophets. They were his servants. But Jesus came and brought us into a relationship, Almighty God, that he became our Father. 12:41 It's like a master becoming a father. It's like one who was a servant in the home suddenly becoming a son. I wonder whether we've seen the privilege we have compared to all those Old Testament people. That's why Jesus once said concerning John the Baptist, he said he was the greatest under the Old Covenant. 13:03 But he said, I don't know whether you've noticed this verse, let me show it to you. Matthew chapter 11, when he was speaking about John the Baptist, he said, John the Baptist was the greatest person that ever lived under the Old Covenant. 13:16 Has not arisen, Matthew 11, verse 11. There has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist. But, but what? The one who is least in this New Covenant Kingdom of Heaven is greater than him. Now think of this. In the entire history of the world, right from Adam up to Jesus, the greatest was John the Baptist. 13:42 And then he says, the least person who enters into God's kingdom, they didn't have God's kingdom or the kingdom of heaven in the Old Covenant, is greater than he. Why? Because a son is greater than a servant. Today, I've heard many people talk about so-and-so as a servant of God, as if that's a great thing. 14:02 And then you look at somebody else and say, oh, he's only a son of God. What do you mean? If I were to introduce you to my, in my home saying, this is my servant and this is my son, who would you think is greater or more important? 14:15 We sometimes think a servant of the Lord, wow. Oh, I'm only a son of God. We've devalued this. We haven't understood the value of being a son of God. We inherit, a servant doesn't inherit things. A son is a servant as well. 14:30 But he's a son, first of all. Because God has become our father. And all that that involves. In John 17, 23, we see an amazing verse, which I personally, after studying all the 31,175 verses in the Bible, I consider this to be the greatest verse in the whole Bible. 14:55 That God loves me as much as he loved Jesus Christ. That is the greatest truth I have found in scripture. John 17 and verse 23, it says, I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me. 15:14 And when people hear me and see me, they must know that God sent Jesus Christ. And that God loved me as much as he loved Jesus. I want to ask you whether you have seen that. Seen the importance of the way you live and the way you speak, 15:35 the way you relate to people. People must see you're a loved person. You're someone who's tremendously loved. By Almighty God. And they will see that when they see a security in your life. When they see that you're secure in yourself. 15:54 That you don't feel inferior to anyone. That you don't act superior to anyone. Because you're secure in your Heavenly Father. You're different from others. Others may have more than you, but you don't envy them. Others have less than you, you don't look down on them. 16:11 Because you realize that your Heavenly Father has determined what you are to be. There's a security in knowing God. That God loved me as much as he loved Jesus. There's a tremendous truth in this. Because there's so many implications of this. 16:27 If God loves me as much as he loved Jesus. He will do for me everything that he did for Jesus. That's what I mean by knowing the Father. If you don't believe that, you don't know God as your Father. I mean, you may know about him. 16:41 You may repeat the prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name like a parrot. But you don't know God as your Father. I did not know. I'll tell you honestly. I received Jesus Christ as my Savior in 1959. When I was 19 and a half years old. 16:59 But for 16 years after that, 16 years after that, I was sincere, wholehearted. I avoided so many sins and all that. But I never knew this intimate relationship that God is my Father. And so what was the result? I'll tell you what was the result in my life. 17:18 I was frequently discouraged. I was very insecure. I always wanted to prove myself to people that I was more than I really was. I wanted to act holier than I really was inside. When I preached, I was not seeking to help people. 17:39 I wanted to impress them. That's the mark of an insecure preacher. An insecure preacher is always interested in impressing, impressing. How people are impressed by my message. I was like that. I don't judge people. I mean, I was like that for years. 17:56 But I got so fed up of that type of life. And I said, Lord, you've got to meet with me. And God met with me in a fresh way and filled me with the Holy Spirit. Sixteen years after I was converted. I had experienced that fullness before as well. 18:10 But it was a renewal at that time. And then one of the things I said to the Lord when he filled me up fresh with the Holy Spirit was. I said, Lord, if this is a real infilling of the Spirit. When I read the Bible, I'm going to see things in it I've never seen before. 18:28 Even though I had already read it for sixteen years and studied it. And I have to say I did. For example, I discovered that Jesus came not only to forgive my sins, but to save me from my sins. Sin shall not rule over you. 18:43 For you are not under grace. I never knew grace properly before that. I knew grace as forgiveness. But I never knew grace as help to overcome every sin. Help to overcome my anger so I don't get angry again. Help to overcome lusting after women so I don't lust with my eyes. 18:58 Help to overcome bitterness and complaining. And all the sins that plague Christians who claim to be born again. The Lord says in Jeremiah 29, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29, 13. 19:19 And it's because I did not seek the Lord with all my heart to be free from sin in my inner life that I was defeated. I just accepted it as normal because people around me were sinning and it was normal. 19:40 And I thought that's about the best there is in the Christian life. This endless cycle of sin, repent, ask forgiveness, be cleansed, sin again, repent, confess and ask forgiveness and go endless like this year after year after year after year. 20:00 If Christians are honest, I believe 90% of them will say that is their life. But I want to say that's not meant to be their life. Christians are slaves who should be kings. They are bound who should be conquering. But I never knew that till I began to seek God with all my heart. 20:22 You shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Think of the things we pursue on earth with all our heart. Think of businessmen who work day and night to improve their business and dream about it at night as to where they can open new stores. 20:41 Etc. Think of the growth of the growth of the stores like Walmart that started so small and people who dream to make it bigger, bigger, bigger. There was a passion. I don't find that type of passion among many Christians. 20:55 I find a lot of Christians are just happy. They go to church on a Sunday and sing a few songs and they live a reasonably good life. But defeated like everybody else in most areas and they're very passionate about making more money. 21:11 That I've seen. It's very unfortunate. But it's the truth. There was an infidel in France in the 18th century called Voltaire. He was an atheist. He didn't believe in God. And he looked around at the different denominations of Christianity. 21:28 There were in the 18th century Protestantism and Calvinism and Lutheranism and the Catholicism. And he looked at them and he said, he examined them and he said, they've all got different doctrines, these Christians in different groups. 21:40 But when it comes to money, they've all got the same religion. He said, they all run after it. This is an atheist observation of Christians. I want to ask you, if an atheist observed your life, would he say that you were different? 21:54 Would he say that you were different? That's the challenge that came to me when I read that. I said, if an atheist could look into my financial affairs and all my private life and everything else, would he say this Christian is different? 22:04 He's not running after money. Jesus said there's only two gods. God and money. True God and money. When you know the Father, you become secure. He says, you know that God takes care of all your needs. Wealth does not mean having a lot of money in the bank. 22:25 The richest person in the universe is almighty God. He doesn't have a bank account. He doesn't have a wallet. But he's the richest person in the universe. Why? Because he has no lack. He has no need of anything. The richest person in the world is the one who has no lack and no need of anything. 22:44 And who's not hankering after something. God is not hankering after anything. And Jesus said, if you seek God's kingdom first in your life, you'll be like that. You won't have to hanker after things, be worried about something, anxious about something. 23:00 Everything you need will be added to you. Your life will be relaxed and secure because you know God is your Father. Because he knows that he loves you as he loved Jesus. And when I look at Jesus' life and I see it not only as his life, but I say, this is how God loves me. 23:19 You remember the time when Jesus was speaking in the synagogue and he had just begun his sermon and they got so angry with his saying that God would bless the Gentiles as well, that they pulled him down from the pulpit and wanted to take him to the cliff in Nazareth. 23:35 You read that in Luke chapter 4 to throw him down and all you read there is, I mean, how would you feel if 200 people grabbed you to throw you down a cliff? Jesus was so much at rest. You know what it says there? He just quietly walked through the midst and went away. 23:53 I said, God, my dad, you love me like that. One day if 200 people grab me and want to throw me on a cliff, I want to have that confidence in you that you love me like you love Jesus and I can walk through that midst without fear. 24:08 There was never a time that Jesus was in a panic. There was never a situation where he had to scratch his head or say, oh, I wonder what I'm going to do now. Because he was secure in the love of his father. This is what it means to know God. 24:23 This is what it means to know the father. And my dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, let me tell you, this is your inheritance. This is how you're supposed to live. The devil has robbed you of your inheritance. He's cheated you like some crooked lawyer, cheating you of your inheritance. 24:41 And you're living at a much lower level when you shouldn't be living there. The Lord says to you today, come up higher. There's much more I have for you, my son, my daughter. Don't let the devil rob you of what Christ purchased for you at such tremendous cost at Calvary. 25:02 I'm saying this because I lived so defeated so long. And I knew that to live a life of constant discouragement and depression was not God's will for me. To murmur and complain and to have demands on people and to be upset when those demands are not met was not the way God wanted me to live. 25:26 And I got fed up of it. If you're not fed up of it, you'll remain there. There's a story that Jesus once said about a widow. You read that in Luke 18 who went to a judge and said, my enemy is taking advantage of me. I get the picture of a widow whose property, the neighbor was an enemy, was just encroaching more and more upon the property, moving the boundaries and taking over her land. 25:49 And she didn't know what to do. She had no male member in the house. So she goes pleading with the judge. You read in Luke 18 and bangs at his door, wakes him up at two o'clock in the morning and disturbs him, disturbs him. 25:58 And the judge says, I'm not going to do anything. Finally, he gets so upset that he's being disturbed by this widow. He's okay. I'll let me do something for her. And do you know what the widow pleaded for? Give me justice against my enemy. 26:14 Those are her words. She wasn't asking for anybody else's property. She was just saying, what is my property? Don't let the enemy take it away from me. And Jesus said at the end of that, if an earthly judge can do that for a widow, don't you think your God will do that for those who cry 26:37 day and night to him? Luke 18 and verse 7. Luke 18 verse 7. Shall not God bring about justice for his elect, that's you and me, who cry to him? 26:59 Why do they cry to him day and night? Because they are desperate to live a life that glorifies God. And they look at their life and their inner life, their thought life, their home life, and they say, oh my father, it's not glorifying you. 27:13 The enemy is taking advantage of me. The enemy is coming into my home. The enemy is messing up my relationship with my wife and husband. The enemy is messing up my children. The enemy is messing up so many things in my home. 27:25 Give me justice. He says, will not your father give you justice if you cry day and night? Will he delay long over them? He will not. Verse 8 says, Luke 18 verse 8. I tell you, he will bring about justice for them quickly. 27:43 But, when the son of man returns, will he find anybody with such faith on the earth? Will he find you like that? Who's got faith that my father in heaven will give me justice over my enemy Satan? That he will have no power over me, or over my home, or over my children? 28:03 This is your inheritance. This is what it means to know God as a father. Who fights for us, who cares for us. We're like little children. I mean, if a father sees his little two-year-old being beaten up by some big man, 28:17 what will he do? He won't just sit back and watch it. No. He will run to his defense. And I often think of myself. I'm 76, but I still think of myself as a two-year-old sitting on my heavenly father's lap. I say, Lord, I'm insecure without you. 28:36 But perfectly secure. But I'm sitting in your lap. I always want to be there. I have a father in heaven. You have one, but you don't realize what a privilege it is. He loves you as he loved Jesus. Everything that he did for Jesus, he will do for you. 28:55 You remember how, when Herod was planning to kill Jesus as a baby, long before the soldiers could get there, God warned Joseph to take Jesus away from there. You think God will warn you like that? When the enemies of the gospel come to try and harm you? 29:14 He's done that for me. I've experienced it. Exactly like that. Yes, if you trust God. You know, the thing is, we cannot experience these things if you don't trust him. If you think God is up there and he's not really bothered about all your problems and all the things you're going through, 29:31 well, you won't experience it. According to your faith, be it unto you. You don't believe that God loves you as he loved Jesus. He will not do for you what he did for Jesus. Okay, according to your faith, be it unto you. 29:41 You'll be very, very miserable. But that's not the new covenant life. We can know God as a father who loves us as he loved Jesus and be secure like Jesus was. That's number one. To know God as a father. Then we know the triune God, secondly. 30:04 I hope you're clapping because you've got gripped with that truth. And secondly, to know Jesus Christ. What does it mean to know Jesus? It's an intimate knowledge of Jesus. Because it's like the first person of the Trinity is our father. 30:23 Jesus is described in the scripture as our bridegroom. The relationship is like a husband to a wife. It says in Romans 7 about our being married to Christ. That's a relationship in Ephesians 5 as well. Like a husband loves his wife, like Christ loved the church. 30:40 The relationship is so intimate. It's the closest relationship on earth. Husband and wife. In other words, Jesus wants to be one with me, as intimate with me, as a husband wants to be with his wife. And just like a wife would share everything with her husband. 31:00 The husband, it says about husbands, that they must live in an understanding way with their wives, recognizing they are weaker vessels. I believe the Lord lives like that with me. He lives in an understanding way with me, 31:14 knowing that I'm a weaker vessel. And he cares for me, provides for me. And I can share everything with him. And we do everything together. That's the way a husband and wife should do it. Together. Sin came in the Garden of Eden, 31:32 because Eve decided to do something on her own. A lot of problems when you start doing things on your own. The same thing in the Christian life. So to know Jesus is to see that he wants me to work with him together. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 31:50 And that's a picture from in the villages in India. We see that frequently. A yoke upon two bullocks as they plow a field together. And I picture this. A senior bullock teaching an inexperienced new bullock how to plow a straight furrow. 32:07 This is the picture I have of Jesus. And the yoke is upon his neck and mine. And the Lord says, let's do it together. It's wonderful. Everything the Lord says, don't try and do it alone. Let's do it together. You can do nothing without me. 32:20 Anything that you think you can do without me will finally amount to nothing. Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He got under the yoke. And that's one of the wonderful things I've discovered in everything. 32:34 Take the matter of preaching. You see, I started preaching about 50 years ago. A little over 50 years ago. But I remember in the early days it was such a struggle to preach because I had to impress people. It's always a struggle when you have to impress people. 32:52 And it was a struggle. It was something like getting water out of a mostly dry well. Drawing it up. Pumping it up. But I read in the scripture that our life must be like rivers of living, water flowing out from within. And I said, Lord, I want it like that. 33:11 And I realized that the Lord would help me. If he had not called me to be a preacher, of course, then he wouldn't help me to preach. He'd help me to do whatever he called me to do. If you're called to be a mother, he'll help you to be a mother. 33:23 He'll work together with you to be a mother and be a first class mother of as many children as you have. In my case, he called me to be a preacher. So, he worked together with me. And I tell you, it's made all the difference in my life 33:35 when I decided to work together with Jesus in sharing his word. I said, Lord, you know the people. And I remember the Lord said to me as I was seeking how to be effective. The Lord said, first of all, you've got to love the people you're speaking to. 33:55 If you despise any of them, I won't give you my word. You've got to love them. You've got to love all of them, whether they are rich or poor or whatever their social level, whatever their understanding, lack of understanding, 34:12 you've got to love them. So, if your heart is filled with love for my people and your heart is filled with my word, I will always give you a word for my people. And I've seen that through many, many, many years. So, I want to say to all of you, 34:30 whenever you share a word with someone, I don't mean just from a pulpit, even if you're talking to someone who's visiting your home and you want to help them or counsel them, here's the first thing, fill your heart with God's word. 34:41 That's something you've got to do consistently. Every day, meditate on God's word and let it fill your heart. And then, love the person you're serving. If your heart is filled with God's word and filled with love, Jesus will work with you 34:56 and your service will be a cooperative service. It won't be all alone. You'll never do it alone. God, I want to tell you all of you, dear brothers and sisters, that there's nothing in your life that the Lord wants you to do alone. 35:11 Everything. Even your secular work. The Lord wants you to bring him along and work with him. He will help you in your secular work too. One of the wonderful things I discovered after seeking God like this, I discovered in scripture 35:27 that Jesus loved me so much. We already saw how much the Father loved me. Jesus loved me so much that he became a man just like me and was tempted just like me in order to be an example to me. 35:49 That is an amazing truth. You know, I feel, if you look at earth from heaven, earth will look like a slum. A filthy, dirty slum or a sewer. That's what this earth looks like because it's so full of sin. And here we are living in this. 36:10 In the midst of this muck. And for the Lord to love me so much to come and live in this muck just like me and live a pure life so that he can be an example to me. It's amazing love. And the Lord says, I did that to show you that it's possible 36:29 in the midst of that muck and filth all around you to live in purity. That's the thing that really helped me. I'll tell you my honest testimony there. Like I said earlier, I was defeated in so many areas even after being born again 36:45 for so many years. And I was ashamed to let people know it just like many of you are defeated but ashamed to let people know it about how you're defeated in your home life and your language and your thoughts and everything else 36:59 and your attitudes to people and the murmuring and complaining and grumbling and many, many other things. I was like that. But I said, Lord, I know this is not the way I'm supposed to live because never mind, people don't see it. 37:14 Maybe I can keep a good front before people and impress them that I'm living a pretty good life. But who am I fooling? I read in the book of Job which I believe is the first book of the Bible. Job lived 500 years before Moses 37:28 who wrote Genesis. So Job is the first book of the Bible and what I read in the book of Job is not what people thought about Job but what did Satan think about him. You know, when God was talking to Satan and I can imagine Satan was saying 37:46 God, look at all those hypocrites on earth who claim your name but look at the way they live and God said, that's right but have you seen Job? There was one man he could point out to Satan and Satan had observed Job's life so carefully 38:00 and that's what I discovered. The important thing is not my testimony before people. my testimony before Satan when God can point me out to Satan and say have you seen him? Have you seen the way he lives? 38:21 Have you seen how he lives at home? Have you seen how he speaks to his wife? Have you seen how he handles money? Have you seen how he handles the different trials in life? You don't see that. Most of us see only 10% of each other's life. 38:37 It's very easy to impress others with 10% because 90% they don't see and very often we are thankful they don't see the 90% because we can keep up that front. But you know the devil sees except our thought life the devil sees 100% of our life 38:51 and are you satisfied that people have a good opinion about you? When the devil can keep on taunting God about you and saying that person who appears so holy in church God see how he's living at home. See how he handles money in the office. 39:10 See how he gets upset when everybody else is having road rage on the road. He's also having road rage. What's the difference between him and all the others? You think the devil doesn't see that? You think you're alone in that car? 39:21 No. The devil's watching you. Why? He's not watching you for any other reason than to point you out to God and say you claim that that person is your child. But he's behaving just like any rotten old unbeliever. Devil says just like one of my children. 39:38 What's the difference between him and your child your children and mine? Look at the way he behaves. And I say Lord I don't want to bring dishonor to your name. The prophet Nathan once came to David and said because you committed sin 39:54 with Bathsheba the expression he used there in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and 12 is you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. You have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. 40:14 Of course he was only talking about earthly enemies. But I've often thought of that expression in relation to my life. The enemies of the Lord today we are living in a spiritual realm in the heavenly places the demons and the devil. 40:27 Is there anything I do in secret in private which gives the enemies of the Lord occasion to blaspheme and say God this guy claims to be your son not only that he claims to be a preacher look at the way he lives look at the way he speaks 40:44 I don't want to do it. and Jesus therefore became a man like me tempted like me in every area so that he could be an example for me. Turn with me to Hebrews in chapter 4 and verse 15 it's talking about Jesus 41:04 as a high priest Hebrews 4 15 we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in other words we have a high priest who can sympathize with us in our struggles in our weaknesses you know where we are weak in temptation 41:20 that's the area where we are maximum weak but he was tempted listen to this in all things as we are little expression tempted in all things as we are yet without sin if you can remember that and be gripped by it 41:41 tempted in all things not just tempted in all things as we are yet without sin everything I am tempted with he was tempted with not only that in the same way I am tempted and he did not sin the next verse verse 16 therefore what 42:00 very important to know therefore let us also draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we can receive mercy which is forgiveness for our past sins which Jesus didn't need but find the same grace to help us 42:21 in our time of temptation in our time of need memorize these two verses Hebrews 4 15 and 16 I will tell you in my life these are the verses that led me to a life of victory over sin when I discovered that Jesus was tempted 42:37 exactly like me to know Jesus we must know the father and know the son and I want to know Jesus as one who was tempted like me so as a young man when I came into this discovery I was around 35 then tempted with all the passions 42:52 of young men at that age and when I was tempted I would say Lord Jesus when you were in Nazareth as a young teenager or in your early 20s you were tempted just like I am being tempted now I want to know 43:13 what you did and I want to do the same thing because you overcame you got help from the father I want the same help from the father in any temptation and I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters that you should not 43:32 give in and say there is no hope there is no way of coming into a victorious life there is the devil has robbed you of an inheritance here Jesus Christ your savior came to earth as a man just like you not just to die for our sins 43:48 that's one part of his ministry but to be an example to us so that in our daily life when we are tempted we can say Lord you were tempted you can sympathize with me in my weakness and you have set an example for me what does it mean 44:04 when it says let us run this race looking unto Jesus Hebrews 12 verse 1 and 2 the author and finisher of our faith who carried the cross every day and finally reached the throne of God what does that mean in Hebrews 12 1 and 2 44:18 let us run the race looking unto Jesus looking unto Jesus what as not just one who is at the throne of God now but before that it says there who endured the cross on earth in the time of temptation he denied himself and he says to us 44:35 follow me there's a lot of difference between believing in him and following him the word that he used most frequently is follow me follow me so let me use an example supposing an angel from heaven came to earth who wanted to teach you 44:52 swimming in a swimming pool and he flies across and says follow me and say hang on I can't do that that's very impressive I can admire you but I can't follow you so if I live look at Jesus living a perfect life without being tempted 45:07 by me without being pulled down by temptation I would have to say I can admire you Lord but I can't follow you because you are not like me you lived on earth as God who can never be tempted who can never sin but was he like that 45:23 God cannot be tempted it says in James 1 where it says very clearly in scripture Jesus was tempted he didn't give up deity he was a God on earth that's why people worshipped him and he accepted it but he gave up the privileges of God 45:36 he never used them he never used his heavenly credit card to get something for himself on earth he lived like us with our limitations so that he could be an example for us and say I used only the resources you have and I overcame 45:56 I overcame anger I overcame bitterness I overcame murmuring complaining lusting with the eyes love of money jealousy everything and you can also according to your faith be it unto you so that's what we see in Jesus as our example 46:14 there's a little hymn that I wrote when I was gripped by this truth can you put it up there on the screen when I was gripped by this truth I just want to read that to you this is in 1977 when these truths gripped my heart 46:32 when bowed with burdens and with care your soul is in despair you don't have to fear God is very near he loves you as he loved his son and he will help you too just trust his word of promise and he will see you through and then the chorus 46:52 this is the good news good news means gospel this is the good news what God can do what he did for Jesus he'll do for you with mighty power he'll strengthen you there is no end to what God can do and then the next verse 47:09 though sin and evil fill this world and you are overcome yet God's word is true Romans 6 14 sin cannot reign over you and when temptations pull is strong God's grace will be your stay so you can walk like Jesus in victory every day 47:30 and the next verse when pain and sickness even our physical needs God cares for us when pain and sickness come to you and touch your loved ones too God knows how you feel he has power to heal your father will provide your need 47:46 he's faithful and he's true and listen to this wonderful truth and as he cared for Jesus he will care for you and then the last verse what a glorious comfort this if you have come to know Jesus not only as your Lord but your elder brother 48:03 too for all God has is now your own and he won't let you go and now that God is for you who can be your foe amen that I was inspired to write that hymn 48:26 by this truth that gripped my heart that God loves me as he loved Jesus he'll do for me what he did for Jesus he'll care for me as he cared for Jesus that Jesus is not only my Lord but my elder brother this is the new covenant 48:38 and I want to really urge all of you to enter into this then thirdly to know God know Jesus as the son of God and to know the Holy Spirit why do you think there's so much confusion concerning the baptism in the Holy Spirit 48:55 or the fullness of the Holy Spirit or the ministry of the Holy Spirit and christen them today why so much counterfeit because the original is very valuable people don't make counterfeit brown paper or toilet paper people make counterfeit gold 49:12 counterfeit diamonds counterfeit I don't think anybody even bothers making a counterfeit one dollar bill only a hundred dollar bill see people don't make counterfeits of something which is cheap and worthless they make counterfeits 49:27 of what is valuable so if there are people say oh there's such a lot of counterfeit gifts of the Spirit ah then the original must be really valuable sure I was turned off from so much of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my younger days 49:43 as a born again Christian because I saw extremes I saw people who talked about the gifts of the Spirit and they were such lovers of money I said they can't be servants of God no I saw a lot of people who speak in tongues 49:56 who would just be demanding money from their poor congregation their focus is always on money and I said that cannot be I mean you're focused on money when you're unconverted but when you're filled with the Spirit you've got to be more like Jesus 50:11 and Jesus never spoke about money it's amazing so I got turned off from a lot of these things about people who talked about the Holy Spirit and counterfeit gifts and when people said they were speaking in tongues it just appeared to me 50:25 like a little babbling two or three syllables back and forth and I got completely turned off and after many years of my own defeated life I saw that the answer was in the Holy Spirit and the Lord said to me don't let your understanding 50:43 of truth come as a reaction to the extremes of error that you see in others but let it come from your study of the New Testament so I realized my understanding of the Holy Spirit's ministry was coming 51:03 as a reaction to the extremes of error I saw in certain groups and certain people so I decided to go to the scriptures and I saw a weak person like Peter who would deny Jesus even before a sermon goal suddenly transformed into 51:22 a powerful apostle and pointing his finger at the chief priest and saying you denied the Holy One I said Lord I want that type of boldness and I began to seek God for the baptism in the Holy Spirit baptism just means immersion 51:39 there are two ways you can be immersed one is in a tank or a river you go down and baptize in water the other is if you stand under a waterfall you get immersed as well so the Holy Spirit is pictured like a waterfall and this is 51:52 this is what Jesus said this is the last words to his apostles before he went away wait till you are endued with power from on high you shall receive power so I wasn't seeking particularly for any gift except prophecy which is preaching God's word 52:09 which I wanted to because that's what God called me to but I said Lord I want power I want power and I began to seek God and I had this unbelief this thing in the back of my head unbelief wondering whether God would give it to me 52:24 and I was praying with a brother and he said to me Zach it's unthinkable that God would call you to serve him and refuse to give you his power there's a simple statement like that delivered me from my unbelief more than 40 years ago 52:39 and I said thank you Lord I believe I believe you'll baptize me in the Holy Spirit fill me with the Holy Spirit right now and he did and I believed and I thanked him he also gave me the gift of tongues to speak to communicate with God 52:54 I use it only in private as a private love language between me and my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ but I found a great release in my ministry as well and I discovered that to try and serve God without the anointing and the baptism 53:13 in the Holy Spirit is like thinking that I can do it and it's not something this is another area where I disagreed with a lot of my dear Pentecostal fellow believers and that is it's not a once for all event I discovered 53:28 just like you need to fill your gas tank in your car regularly not that it was filled 10 years ago I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time so I seek God every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit 53:42 makes me sensitive the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity on earth just like the second person of the Trinity was on earth for 33 and a half years the second person of the Trinity right now is in heaven 53:54 the first person of the Trinity is in heaven the third person of the Trinity is the one on earth right now and he wants to come into all our lives we've all received Christ and when we receive Christ the Spirit of Christ 54:07 the Holy Spirit comes in but into one room the guilt room where he removes the guilt of our sin through the blood of Jesus Christ but then there are other rooms in our heart for example he knocks at the door 54:27 and says can I enter into your television room and sit with you and tell you what programs to watch and what not to watch can I look through your DVDs and ask you to throw away certain movies that you shouldn't be having in your home 54:39 and you say Lord please don't come into that room it's a bit embarrassing just forgive my sin the guilt room I want you to flood that with light okay he's a gentleman he will not walk in where he is not welcome then he says 54:55 can I come into your finances room and check up how you're earning your money is it all upright and righteous and not only that I want to see are you generous with your money or you're miserly and tight-fisted and you say 55:06 Lord don't come in there because I'm embarrassed about some of the things you may discover can I look through your library the Lord says and the type of magazines and the books you read you say no Lord don't come in there 55:17 we have shut so many doors in our heart and cry out oh God fill me with the Holy Spirit you won't be filled in a hundred years because you bolted so many doors but if you open those doors the Holy Spirit is more than eager 55:33 to come flooding them that's the reason why so many people pray and pray and pray and pray nothing happens or they get some emotional experience some tickle down the spine and say I got it what did you get if you really got it 55:48 you'd be more like Christ in the coming year and your wife will say darling you've become more Christ-like in the last one year what happened that is the test the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ and makes us like him thank you for listening brothers and sisters 56:08 I pray that you will know God Father, Son and Holy Spirit
