0:00 The words from this song that we read over the past few years has been a a sort of a guide for me to know whether I'm living in the presence of the Lord. So, the way I read it is Psalm 16:11, 0:20 the verse we memorized. In your presence is fullness of joy. I believe that. The Holy Spirit says that. So, I say to myself, anytime in my life when I don't have fullness of joy, I'm 0:39 not in the Lord's presence. That's a fair deduction from that verse. And which means that something has gone wrong. It teaches me that God's will is that I rejoice always like it says in 0:58 Philippians 4:4. Because he wants us always to dwell in his presence. So, if I make that a law or a rule for my life, anytime I lose my joy, even slightly, I will immediately say, "Hey, it's not because somebody else did 1:15 something or said something. It's got nothing to do with anybody else. It's got to do with the fact that somehow I slipped out of the Lord's presence and I'm not in his presence anymore." So, that's the most important thing 1:27 to get back into the Lord's presence. Whereas very often when we lose our joy, we're thinking of blaming somebody else or some circumstance and trying to fix that. What we need to fix is that we're not in the Lord's presence. 1:41 And we turn to that Psalm before that verse 11 comes is verse eight. Which is a prophetic reference to Jesus where it says, "I have set the Lord continually before me." Because in his presence there's fullness 2:03 of joy. So, I've set the Lord continually before me. And when he's continually before me, he'll also be at my right hand, verse eight, and I will not be shaken. When the Apostle Peter spoke about who preached the gospel on the day of 2:21 Pentecost when he spoke about Jesus' life in Acts chapter two, he said about Jesus being nailed to the cross, verse 23 and 24, God raised him up again. And then he quotes this verse, Psalm 16:8. 2:40 He says, "David said about him, 'I saw the Lord always in my presence.'" And verse 28, "You'll make me full of joy in your presence." So, this is how Jesus lived. Peter quotes that verse because he saw it in Jesus' life. 2:58 That Jesus' life was always full of joy, you know, even on the last day when he before he went to the cross, he told his disciples, "My joy I give unto you." He had so much even though he knows he was going to be crucified the next day. 3:15 So, I don't know how many of us take this seriously that if I lose my joy, I'm not in the presence of God. You make it a law for your life, I can tell you your life will be better, your 3:32 home life will be happier and better, your fellowship with other believers will be better. You will stop blaming other people and circumstances and hardly ever get upset with anyone or anything. Because fullness of joy. 3:49 See, it's only if we prove it that we can talk about it. And I can say that for many years I was a defeated Christian. I would be discouraged and I didn't know what joy was and I was born again. I think that's the condition of many 4:01 people. That's gone from my life. I can stand before God and say it's gone from my life completely. Because I took these verses seriously. And anytime I slipped up, I'd say, "Lord, that's not I'm not in your presence. I don't know what's wrong. 4:16 Please show me. I refuse to blame anybody else. I refuse to blame circumstances. I have left your presence. That's why." And when you read the gospels, what the Lord was trying to teach his disciples 4:34 in all those miracles that he did was not how to do miracles because they never turned the water to wine in the Acts of the Apostles. They never walked on water. They hardly ever raised the dead, in fact. Timothy had a stomach problem which Paul 4:50 could never cure him of. He lived with it. God called him, told him to take some medicine. So, that's not the main reason why he did those miracles. But I see the main reason why Jesus did those miracles first of all was an 5:01 attestation that he was who he claimed to be, the Son of God. But also to teach his disciples one simple lesson. I remember uh taking a study of all the miracles Jesus did in the Gospel of John. And my title for that series was, 5:18 "God can solve any problem." That's what he was trying to teach his disciples. There's no problem you can face which I can't help you to solve. That's the essential thing. It's not turning the water to wine or walking on 5:30 water. But whatever problem you're facing, God can solve it. There's absolutely nothing that God cannot solve. Imagine if you are convinced about that in your life. Because many of us we are facing problems all the time. 5:47 Could be sickness, could be problems in related to our work, problems in related to our children or other people or neighbors or colleagues at work. And what is there that God cannot solve? Whenever they came to him with any 6:04 problem, "Lord, there's no food for the multitude." Okay. "Oh, there's not enough wine here and the marriage is going to be a fiasco." Or some blind man or whatever it is, you never find any situation where Jesus scratches his 6:22 head and says, "Boy, that's a tough one. I don't know how to handle that." And it's the same today. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You can go to him with any problem. He would never say, "Hey, I don't know how to 6:31 handle that. That's too tough." Never, never, never, never. So, if I'm convinced of that, I can face the future knowing that my savior, if I really seek to live in his presence, part of the reason why I have fullness of joy is because I see I cannot 6:49 encounter a problem for the rest of my life which God cannot solve. Imagine facing the whole future like that. I don't know what problem I'll face tomorrow, next year, year after now, and year after next. But I'm absolutely convinced my heavenly 7:02 Father can solve it all. There is nothing that he cannot solve. In the Old Testament, they didn't have a savior like this. They didn't have a friend like this. They didn't have a father in heaven. They didn't have someone who told them, 7:17 "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." and things like that. Or I'll make everything work together for your good. Every single thing will work for your very best. There were no such promises in the Old Testament. So, we have not as Christians, I believe 7:33 we're not rising up to the level God wants us to live. Paul did. He lived there. He said, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ." And uh we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. It's amazing the 7:49 statements in scripture which we read, memorize, "In his presence is fullness of joy." And we go on to the next verse next week. And this verse is not fulfilled in our lives. So, I want to encourage you to take these words seriously because 8:06 I'll tell you, I read the Bible for 16 years and I never took these words seriously. But I got so fed up with my defeated life at one time. And I said, "Lord, I really want to come to the life that Paul had." In the midst of all his persecutions and 8:22 imprisonments, he said, "Rejoice in the Lord always." He wrote that from a prison, Philippians 4:4. "In nothing be anxious." That was written from a prison. It's amazing. And I said, "Lord, if that man could live like that, why can't I?" 8:38 Even if you don't believe that Jesus was like us, Paul was certainly like us. We can live like him. And so, I just thought I'd share that with you. I was on my heart this morning afternoon is concerning two 8:58 what I would call commandments in the Old Testament. One was two very important commandments. In fact, they were so important that if you didn't do them, you'd be cut off from God's people. One was circumcision and the other was 9:12 keeping the Sabbath. They were so very, very, very important. And I'll show you two verses in that connection. First is Genesis in chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. 9:31 These were commandments given to Israel. They are not for us Christians. But everything in the Old Testament had a spiritual meaning and that's what I want to emphasize. Genesis 17, the Lord gave this commandment to Abraham. 9:48 And verse 11, "You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be be the sign of the covenant between me and you. The sign of the old covenant between God and the people of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their 10:06 descendants, was circumcision. And if uh if a person was not circumcised was 14 17:14 he shall be cut off from my people. He has broken my covenant. 10:25 It was that serious. You could not be part of God's people in the old covenant if you were not circumcised. And the other one commandment was the Sabbath. And I want to give you one example of 10:44 somebody who broke the Sabbath. They were not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath day. They were not supposed to light a fire. They were not supposed to do any type of work. But listen to this. Numbers in chapter 15. 10:59 Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, verse 32, Numbers 15 and verse 32. While the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man among them gathering wood on the Sabbath day. He didn't light a fire. 11:16 He knew that you're not supposed to light a fire. He just gathered the wood probably to for the next day. And they found him gathering wood. Brought him to Moses and Aaron and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what 11:33 should be done to him. Is it serious? I mean, when the Lord said you should not do any work on the Sabbath day, did it include just picking up pieces of wood? And then the Lord um this because it had not been Then the Lord 11:47 said to Moses, listen to this, verse 35, the man shall surely be put to death. And the whole congregation It's not not an easy way to be to put to death. The congregation must show that they agree with God by taking stones and stoning him to death outside 12:05 the camp. And the whole congregation It's amazing how obedient they were. They took him outside the camp and stoned him to death. What was his crime? He picked up some pieces of wood on the Sabbath day. I'm just trying to show you how strict 12:26 God enforced this matter of doing any work on the Sabbath day. And it being really got instilled into the minds of the Jews I heard of a Jewish person somewhere in the United States who uh would have to get a Gentile from next 12:45 door to come put on the switch in his house cuz he's not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath day. If it was a Saturday. It was so drilled into them that I don't do any work on the Sabbath day. So, here are two commandments in which 13:01 God was so strict. You'll be cut off from the covenant. You'll have nothing to do with God's people if you're not circumcised and if you pick up sticks on the Sabbath day, you do you do some work on the Sabbath day, you are cut off from the 13:15 So, these two commandments must have a very very equivalent must be of some equivalent importance to this in this New Testament meaning. So, that's what we want to try and understand. I just wanted to show you how important it was in the Old 13:32 Testament first. So, in Hebrews chapter 8, we read this verse. Though we are not under the old covenant which is God what God gave through Moses and the law yet the Old Testament is 3/4 of our Bible. Don't forget that. 13:52 And the Old Testament has not been abolished. The old covenant, the agreement between God and man has been abolished but not the 37 books of the Bible. In fact, just by the way for your information, there's no place in the Bible which says 14:07 the 37 books uh sorry, 39 books are the Old Testament. Man has just put it there. The Bible has 66 books. You won't find a single place where it says the first 39 books are Old Testament. Try and look for it. So, that's why a lot of people get 14:26 confused between Old Testament and old covenant. It's basically the same word, covenant and testament. It's the covenant that God made with man that's been abolished. But the Old Testament is a part of the Bible, what we call the Old Testament, 14:38 those 39 books are part of the Bible. And there are a lot of things All scripture is inspired by God and given for our instruction and we can learn from that. That's why we look at these two instances of circumcision and Sabbath. 14:52 Now, Hebrews chapter 8 it says here that these gifts and commandments of the law in the last part of verse 4 speaks about those who offer the gifts according to the law and all of that which is by is a copy 15:11 and a shadow of heavenly things. So, a lot of those things in the Old Testament are a shadow of the reality which is up in heaven. And that's why Moses was warned by God when you make the tabernacle, make sure 15:30 you make everything exactly according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. Don't alter it saying this may be this may look better. No, because it's a pattern of something in the heaven. And if you change it, you will violate 15:44 you'll go against the pattern in the heaven. That's the point here. So, I mean, Moses would have been trained in Egypt how to make pyramids and all. He could have made a 10 times better tabernacle if God had left it to him. 15:56 But it would not have been a pattern according to the it wouldn't have been according to the heavenly pattern. If we recognize that principle that so many things taught in the New Testament also, we may think oh, there's 16:06 a better way to do that. There's a better way to conduct our meeting. There's a better way to do things in the way the Holy Spirit has shown in the New Testament. You see for example, there are many things we do which many other 16:21 churches don't do. For example, we don't have a pastor because in the entire New Testament, no church was no pastors appointed in any church. So, we say okay, if that's a pattern of the heavenly thing, we want to follow 16:31 it. Every church had elders. Why don't we follow that? We try to follow that because we say it's this. We don't want to change something if it's some if it's got something connected to heaven. I mean, our own mind may say this is a 16:43 better way. But I say I don't want to use my own mind. If Moses had done that, there would be no It may have looked a more fantastic tabernacle if he had done it according to the tech uh the engineering ability he learned in Egypt. But the glory of 16:57 God would have been missing. That's what's happened in so many places where people have gone against what scripture says. Looks nice, but the glory of God is missing. Beautiful tabernacle. Only thing missing is the glory of God. Beautiful church, 17:09 glory of God is not there. The presence of Jesus is not there. When people come to the meeting, they don't go away saying, hey, we met with the Lord today. The Lord spoke to our hearts. That's not there. We sang well. We had a great The 17:19 music was great. Folks who played the instruments were all great. What's the use of that? You didn't meet with the Lord. He didn't speak to you. He didn't challenge you. He didn't convict you of sin. He didn't show you how you can be an overcomer. 17:30 What is the point of having that Sunday meeting at all? So, it's very very important. So, coming to the meaning of these two uh rituals or commandments, circumcision first. What does that mean? 17:48 Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3. He speaks in verse 2 about a false circumcision. Beware of those of the false circumcision. And that is those who just believe in the external ritual, 18:07 the external form. He says that's not the main thing. That symbolizes something which is a true circumcision, verse 3. We are the true circumcision. And what is the mark of those who are in 18:24 the true circumcision? We worship in the Holy Spirit. Now, worship in the Holy Spirit is different from praise in the Holy Spirit or thanksgiving in the Holy Spirit or praying in the Holy Spirit. Praying is one level. Thanking God is 18:39 another level. Praising is another level. And worship is a much higher level. Most Christians know about prayer. Some know about thanksgiving. A few more know about praise. And they call praise and thanksgiving worship. It's not. 18:56 It's different. Prayer, prayer, thanksgiving, praise, worship. Worship is a altogether different level. It's the fourth floor. You can climb up to the third floor and say, this is worship. It's not. You missed out one floor completely. 19:11 That's what happened to most Christians. I used to call praise and thanksgiving worship. So, I missed out on the fourth floor completely because I thought there is no fourth floor. This is it. No, so it speaks about worshipping in 19:25 the Holy Spirit which is different from praying in the Holy Spirit and thanking in the spirit and praising God in the spirit, worshipping in the spirit. I don't have time to go into that right now. And glorying in Christ Jesus. And here 19:41 is the mark of true circumcision. We put no confidence in the flesh. The false circumcise or the old circumcision which commanded by God, was a cutting off of the flesh and casting it off. It was a physical cutting off of the 20:00 flesh and casting it off. Now, in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, the word flesh had only that meaning. Physical flesh. You cut a person's flesh. But, in the New Testament, the word flesh has got another meaning, 20:17 which is the main meaning in the New Testament. And that is my self-will, myself. It's called the flesh. And you get a little understanding of that when you turn to See, when it says, "No confidence in the flesh." You need 20:32 to understand what does it mean? It's not talking about the physical flesh that I don't have any confidence in my hands or my physical flesh. See, Galatians in chapter 5. Whenever you Whenever you come to a difficult verse in the Bible, don't skip 20:47 over it. There's a great truth that you might miss out there if you skip over it. But, if you stop and try to understand it, uh you may discover something which is So, if you If you see something doesn't seem to fit with 21:07 you what you understand, you got to stop there and see there may be something here which is hidden which I got to discover. I remember uh many years ago, I think uh more than 40 years ago, was a friend of mine who used to work 21:21 for Kodak, photography company, which is a big company those days. And he was in the research team. And they were He was doing an experiment with something. And he was in the research team, and the answer he was getting didn't seem to fit 21:38 with what he thought it should be in this research. So, he was tempted to fudge and just make it fit so that it looks okay. But, he was honest and he said, "I won't do that." And so, he went away for a while and thinking, "Why didn't that work like 21:53 that? Why didn't it fit like that?" And while he's away, he got a brain a brain wave that hit him some said, "Hey, maybe it's because of this." And so, he came back into the research lab and did that experiment again and tried it 22:09 again. It didn't fit And he discovered something as a result, which was a new discovery for Kodak in which they used for a number of years, which they would not have discovered and he would not have patented if he had just fudged the result and 22:24 made it look right. So, I thought of that in relation to scripture. That sometimes you see something doesn't seem to fit exactly, and you somehow manipulate it and make it fit. You'll miss out something completely what God wants to show you there in 22:38 scripture. See, like for example, all those who are Calvinists who say that God foreordained us from eternity. I believe that with all my heart. I was foreordained from eternity, chosen before the foundation of the world. 22:53 But, I'm not a Calvinist. I believe in 1 Peter 1 verse 1 and 2, which is I was chosen according to his foreknowledge. That's the one verse, 1 Peter 1 in verse 1 and 2, which most Calvinists won't touch cuz you got to fudge it a little 23:05 bit to make it fit in with the other verses. What is a difficult verse? But, the truth is there. If you want to understand it, you must have the sovereignty of God. You must also understand 1 Peter 1 verse 1 and 2 that we're chosen from eternity, but 23:18 according to the foreknowledge of God, God who could see the future. That's just by the way. But, here we read in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17. I was talking about the flesh. The flesh sexes the fights against the Holy Spirit, and the Holy 23:34 Spirit fights against the flesh. It's not my body the Holy Spirit fights against. It's something else in me that the Holy Spirit's fighting. And if you want to understand the meaning of flesh, you got to see it right here. It is something the Holy 23:49 Spirit is fighting in me all the time. So, if I understand that, I'll understand what the flesh is. And these are in opposition to one another, the Holy Spirit and the flesh. So, my flesh is something which is 100% against the Holy Spirit. 24:07 There you get an understanding of my flesh. It's not my body. My hand is not against the Holy Spirit. My eyes are not against the Holy Spirit. It's something else in me which is 100% against the Holy Spirit and which the Holy Spirit is 100% 24:22 against. If you understand that, you understand what the flesh is, and you'll understand what circumcision is, cutting off of the flesh. I'm just going step by step so that all of us can understand. And then you'll understand what it means 24:41 when it says Jesus came in the flesh. He didn't come in sinful flesh. There was no sin in him at all. But, he came in the flesh. And all these things will fit in if you understand what flesh means. So, many years I tried to say, "Lord, 24:59 there's something here which I need to understand." It's not on the surface. You got to dig deep in the scripture to understand. You got to meditate, live before God, and be absolutely honest, and get rid of all preconceived 25:12 doctrines that I've inherited from my parents and grandparents or church I belong to. If If I have If I'm not willing to break away from inherited theological traditions, I'll never understand the truth. I really believe that 25:26 many Christians miss out on God's will because they've inherited certain theological traditions from their church. They won't That is more sacred to them than even God's word. If Martin Luther had followed that principle, we'd all be 25:41 Catholics today. And if John Wesley had followed that principle, there'd be no preaching on holiness. But, thank God there was through the years and centuries men who had the courage to stand against the established system and say, "God's word 25:54 says something else." Like Martin Luther said, "God's word says we are justified by faith in Christ, not by putting money in the Catholic offering box. No. So, if I understand this, what flesh mean, what does it mean when 26:13 it says Jesus came in the flesh? I got to understand what flesh is. Let's see John chapter 6. John's gospel chapter 6 and verse 38. 26:39 John 6:38. Jesus is saying why he came down from heaven. When he came down from heaven, he came in the flesh. He didn't have the flesh up in heaven. No. God is spirit, and Jesus was equal with the Father from all eternity. 26:54 Second person of the Trinity. But, one day he came in flesh. That's when he came down to the earth. And he says, "When I came down to the earth, I decided never to do my own will, but always the will of the Father. 27:13 I came down from heaven never to do my own will." You see that the last day of his life in Gethsemane, Father, "I really don't want to drink this cup. That's my will." You are If you were to uh go to Gethsemane and say, "Lord Jesus, what is 27:28 your will right now? I don't want to drink the cup." Are you going to do that? No, I'm going to do the Father's will, whatever it is. I'm just trying to clear in my mind what is the Father's will, and I'll do that. And if it's painful, it doesn't matter. 27:41 I'll still do it. So, you see that there was a conflict. It says he prayed for more than 1 hour. He wasn't praying about anything else. He It says he said the same words. Father, "Not my will, but thine." 28:00 You know, it was not like that in heaven. He didn't have the flesh in heaven. In heaven, for all eternity, Jesus could say, "I do my own will." Because it's the same as my Father's will. No conflict. My will is the same as my Father's will. 28:16 I do my own will. You see, if you and I agree on something 100%, I can do what I want to do because it's the same as what you want to do. Do you agree? Jesus could do what he wanted to do because it was the same as his Father's 28:27 will. But, the moment he came to earth in the flesh, could say, "No. I can't do my will anymore. I have to do my Father's will." Shows that there was a difference. So, his self-will, he said, "I will not do it. I will not 28:45 do my will, but I'll do the Father's will." That is what is the flesh. And that is what the Holy Spirit is against. The Holy Spirit is against my doing my will. My self-will is another definition for the flesh. And circumcision is to cut that off 29:03 completely, not partially. They were very careful that uh in the Old Covenant that the circumcision had to be 360°. Not 90° circumcision or 180° circumcision. It had to be 360°, completely. Otherwise, it was a partial 29:22 circumcision. It was not not acceptable. I have no confidence in the flesh means all round I say no to my own will. And that is the way to follow Jesus. 29:40 There is no other way to follow Jesus. I I there are people who have tried to make easier ways, but they're all a deception. If you turn to Luke chapter 9 and verse 23, Jesus said so clearly, "If anyone wants to come after me, if 30:00 anyone wishes to come after me, the rule is absolute. Anyone, anyone, anyone. He must say no to himself. He must deny or crucify or put to death his self, his flesh, 30:19 and then take up his cross, die to himself, and follow me." That is the absolute, unchangeable law for anybody who wants to follow Jesus. So, how is it there are so many Christians who think they're following Jesus who do not say no to their own 30:34 self-will? Do you know how many times self-will is the cause of clash between husband and wife at home? What are the causes of all the clashes in husband and wife? It is self-will. My will, it's two people with a strong 30:54 will trying to live together, and they always have clashes. And the only way for them to become one is if both are willing to be crucified with Christ. There's no other way. All the marriage techniques and counseling in the world 31:09 will not solve the problem. But being crucified with Christ will solve it immediately. And that's not a once for all event, because he said Jesus said, "Yeah, you've got to do it every day, daily." In other words, if I died to myself 31:22 yesterday, that was good enough for yesterday, but not for today. I have to take up my cross daily. Now, these are the verses which for many years I never heard it being preached in hardly any church. How many times have you heard 31:39 consistent preaching on taking up the cross every day? If it's something you've got to do every day, don't you think there should be a lot more emphasis on it in Christian churches? How much emphasis there is in nowadays on healthy foods. 31:57 Don't eat, you know, trans fats, and don't eat too much sugar. So much emphasis, and we are so careful to see the things that are harmful for our body, but the things that are harmful for our spirit, we don't seem to take too seriously. And 32:15 the only book that can tell us what's harmful for our spirit is the Bible. So, it's total circumcision is I am going to put my flesh to death every day, and that's why as why we why we preach this so often. I remember when 32:34 I was about 23 years old, I was seeking God for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I was in the Brethren Assembly. I got converted when I was 19 and a half, 1959. And the first thing I needed to learn was to take water baptism, because I 32:51 came from an Orthodox church where I was sprinkled as a baby. And so, once I got light on water baptism, I took water baptism. And in the Brethren Assemblies, I was taught to study the scriptures. I really thank God for that. 33:06 But they never taught me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They said that's all happened, you know, that our spirit to do it. I think, well, I said, "Okay." I was a new Christian. I was young, and 33:18 I accepted it, but somehow there was a lack of power in my life. And however much I convinced myself I got it, I got it, I got it, I didn't have power in my life. I was scared to give a witness for Christ. And I didn't have power when I sought to 33:32 witness for Christ. And I saw a lot of other people around me also, a lot of people didn't seem to have that power of resurrection that Jesus spoke about. The meetings I went to were like, you know, the Saturday on which Jesus 33:46 was buried in the grave. Can you imagine how the Jesus how the disciples met around? A lot of the church meetings were like those Saturday meetings when Jesus was buried in the grave, all looking gloomy and What a different meeting it was on 33:58 Sunday after the resurrection. And I said, "I want that type of meeting. I want to be in that type of meeting where everybody is delighted Jesus has risen, man. He's conquered the devil. He's conquered sin. He's conquered death. He's conquered 34:08 everything." But it wasn't like that, and that can only come if you are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings the reality of these things into your life. So, I began to seek God for the baptism 34:19 in the Holy Spirit. Call it what you like. Fullness of the Holy Spirit is equally good for me. Uh fullness of the Holy Spirit. And I went to a Pentecostal church, cuz they said those are the guys who talk about this. And to be totally honest, this is 1963. 34:37 And that guy asked me to repeat some hallelujah number of times, and I said, "I'm not going to do that. That's not what the apostles did on the day of Pentecost. This is all manipulation. I will not submit to it. I want a genuine 34:49 endowment of power from on high. If I don't have that, I don't want anything just to I'm not trying to get a testimony that I was filled. I want power to be a witness for Christ. So, I decided not to go there again. I just It was a lot of noise there. I 35:04 wasn't interested in noise. I was interested in power. So, I came back to my room. I was in the naval base those days. And I said, "Lord, that's not what I want. I don't want a lot of noise. I don't want a lot of excitement. 35:19 I want power in my life to be a witness for you." And I began to search the scriptures in an amazing way, the Lord gave me a revelation which I've never heard before. And when I looked at the baptism of Jesus, when he was anointed, 35:37 even he needed to be anointed. How much more me? Uh Jesus was born of the spirit the day he came to earth, but was anointed with the spirit 30 years later. Something happened. He didn't become holier in his 31st year than he was in his 29th 35:54 year, but he had power to do things he never did for 30 years. 30 years he never cast out a demon, never healed the sick, never preached powerful sermons. Now it all came. All of a sudden, it was not a gradual process. It was immediate. 36:09 So, I saw this There's something in this. The same thing happened to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. So, when I looked at the baptism of Jesus, the Lord showed me gave me a revelation on that. Jesus submitted to John the Baptist putting him under the 36:28 water. Now, putting him putting a person under the water is the way to kill somebody, by the way. You know, this waterboarding they torture people with, is actually threatening the guy, "You're going to die now." So, this is 36:47 sort of permanent waterboarding baptism. And when you read Romans 6, that we are buried with him by baptism into death, so what Jesus I saw that what Jesus was submitting to there was, I am willing 37:04 for people to put me to death, physically, on the cross later, but prior to that, myself, you can put it to death by insulting me, by spitting on me, by calling me Beelzebub or prince of the devils, or calling me a demon-possessed person. 37:22 They called him all types of names. "You're a Samaritan. You're a demon-possessed person." I'm willing to let people insult me, do anything to me, offend me, uh ignore me, put me to death. And he would not resist John the Baptist 37:36 baptizing him. That is the meaning of baptism. I submit, and God allows somebody else to put me to death. I will accept it, because I know God will raise me up from the dead. That's the meaning of being brought out of the 37:52 water. I'm sure God will raise me up, just like he raised him up from the grave. Every time somebody puts me to death, I I submit to it, because I believe God will raise me up, and I'll experience the power of his resurrection in a 38:05 spiritual way. And then the anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon him. And what the Lord spoke to me, I have never forgotten for the last 55 years. The Lord said to me, "If you choose this way of death to 38:24 self, my power will rest upon you always in your life, when you preach, whatever you do. But the day you decide not to go this 38:41 way, my power will depart." So, I learned something, the close connection between the way of the cross, of death to self, and the Holy Spirit. And I believe this is what many people who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit have missed. 39:00 Maybe they've got a fullness of the Holy Spirit, but they divorced it from the cross, from the way of the cross. What God has joined together, let no man put asunder. The Holy Spirit's fullness and the way of the cross go together, and I see that 39:14 in the baptism of Jesus. It's when he submitted to death to self, the Holy Spirit came. So, this matter of cutting off of the flesh, and having no confidence in the flesh, is very closely connected with being filled with the Holy Spirit. 39:30 So, it's very, very important. That's why circumcision was so important in the Old Testament. They said, "If you're not circumcised, you will be cut off from my people. You will not enter into the covenant." So, when you apply that to us in the new 39:44 covenant, it means that if I don't take this seriously, this going the way of the cross and cutting off confidence in self, putting my flesh to death in the different situations when I'm provoked, when I'm tempted, when I'm tempted to pornography, 40:00 watch pornography. I I see old flesh again, my old self will saying, "I'll look at that." And what do you do? Put it to death. Run away from it. When I'm tempted to respond in the same way somebody speaks to me in anger or 40:16 evil or any other way, submit like Jesus did. Let Let that fellow bury you. Let that fellow kill you. Let him put you to death. There will be a resurrection. I guarantee that you'll experience because God will never allow somebody to 40:31 put you into that water without pulling you out. Definitely, I've experienced it again and again and again and again. When Paul said, "He connected these two, you know, the being conformed to his death and the power of his resurrection." 40:45 See Philippians in chapter 3. Some of these verses come to light when you understand this. Philippians in chapter 3, he says in verse 10, "This is the You mean Remember, he's writing this when he's just about 6 7 years before he 41:00 died. And he'd already served the Lord for 30 years. And he says in Philippians 3:10, "My great passion in life is to know the Lord more. And to know the power of his resurrection, and I can know that only if I have fellowship in his sufferings 41:16 and I'm conformed to his death." You see the connection there? He's not talking about being crucified. Paul was never crucified. He's talking about this death to self, this circumcision, which he spoke of earlier in chapter 2. 41:32 He's explaining it here, the this death to myself, being conformed to his death. Jesus died for 33 and a half years to himself. Otherwise, I can't He can't ask me to follow him. What does he mean when he says, "Take up your cross and follow me"? 41:52 That means he also has taken up the cross. Otherwise, how can I follow him? It's like uh he's not going to make it more difficult for me than for him. It's like, you know, this egg and spoon race. Okay, you carry an egg and run. I'm going to run without 42:10 it. But you come with an egg and a spoon and follow me. How can I do that? I can't run as fast as you. I've got to carry an egg and a spoon, and you're just going to run without it. So, if Jesus didn't have to take up the 42:21 cross, how can he say to me, "Take up your cross and follow me"? It's ridiculous. He did take up the cross himself every single day. That's why he says, "Every day you can follow me." And that is being conformed to his death 42:36 and fellowship of his sufferings, where I cut off all confidence in my flesh and I say no to myself. You can meditate on that. It's a very profitable line of meditation because the power of the Holy Spirit lies along this way. 42:49 Don't forget it. And the second thing is the Sabbath. I want to go to that now. The Sabbath is another thing which is a very important law in the Old Testament. God taught them so clearly right in the wilderness by putting that fellow to death who just 43:05 went and picked up sticks. Absolutely no work. Zero. When I say zero, I mean zero. Okay, it's explained in Hebrews chapter 4. You know, all these things which are very important in the Old Testament are explained in the New Testament. For example, the 43:20 veil that was rent in the temple, in the tabernacle, explained in Hebrews 10. It's We'll look at that another time. But Hebrews chapter 4, it says here, "There is a life of rest." He's speaking first of all Let's begin 43:40 in chapter 3. Um Who are the ones verse 16, Hebrews 3:16? Who are the ones who provoked God? Those who came out of Egypt. And how did they provoke him? By not entering Canaan when he brought them to the borders of Canaan 2 years after 43:56 leaving Egypt. And he was angry with them for 40 years. And they sinned. And verse 19, they could not enter the land of Canaan because of unbelief. What is the unbelief? They believed the giants were stronger than God. Believe that. 44:14 That's why they didn't enter in. Joshua and Caleb were not more powerful than those giants. They just believed our God is more powerful than these giants. And the others looked at the giants and said, "We can't conquer them." 44:27 They thought they had to do it in their own strength. No, Joshua Caleb said, "No, God is more powerful. This is the God is on our side. They'll be like bread for us." That's what he said. So, it was unbelief that prevented them 44:38 from entering Canaan. And that entry into Canaan and living in Canaan is called a life of rest or a land of rest. Cuz you go on to say this is this entering They were not able to enter verse 19. They perished in the wilderness. And the next verse says they 44:53 could not enter into his rest. So, Canaan is called entering into his rest. You say, "What connection has that got with the Sabbath?" Yeah, it says in verse 4, chapter 4 verse 4, "God rested on the seventh day from his works." And this passage, verse 45:12 5, "They shall enter into my rest." So, the land of Canaan, entering into land of Canaan was like an entry into a life of rest. And it's connected with the Sabbath in verse 4, "God rested on the seventh day." And then it says in verse 9, "There is a 45:30 Sabbath rest for the people of God as well." What is that? A life of rest for God's A life free from unrest, agitation, getting disturbed in my spirit. That's 45:51 unrest. There's a life of rest for God's people. What a wonderful thing it is to live like that in a world full of unrest, to be at rest in our spirit all the time. There is a rest for God's people. But it says here, "Let us fear." Verse 46:06 1, 4:1, "That we don't enter into that rest." "Let us fear." Is he talking to unbelievers or believers? He's talking to believers. He's talking to people who came out of Egypt. They put the blood on the door. They were baptized in the Red Sea. They 46:22 received the baptism of cloud, which is a picture of the baptism of Holy Spirit. They still did not enter into rest. He's referring to us. He says, "Let us fear lest in your life you don't come into this life of rest." Just like those 46:40 Israelites who didn't enter into Canaan. And it says here, "There is a Sabbath rest for God's people." And we must be diligent, it says, to 46:56 enter into this rest. Let us fear let lest we come short of it. Verse 11, "Let us be diligent, work hard to enter into this rest." So, it's not something that you just sit back and say 47:16 it'll happen. "Let me work hard." Verse 11. To enter into this rest. Say, "Lord, I don't want to I want to understand this. I want to understand this and what this entering into rest is. What does it mean to come into this 47:31 Sabbath rest in in my heart, which is for the people of God?" And he says, "This is uh if Joshua, verse 8, had already given them rest in Canaan, why is it that God speaks of another 47:51 rest after that?" You know, after they entered into Canaan, the Lord told them in Hebrews 4:3, which is a quotation from the Old Testament, "You shall not enter into my rest." That is Psalm 95. And again, he fixes a certain day. So, he says, "If 48:11 Joshua, verse 8, had given them this rest, why should he speak of another day of rest after that?" That is a rest for God's people. It's a prophecy in the Old Testament that the entry in Canaan was only a picture. There is a rest for God's people. 48:26 So, that's what we need to understand in the Sabbath. If you go back to Matthew chapter 11, we begin to understand this verse. Matthew 11, verse 28 and 29, where Jesus spoke about this rest. 48:44 "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Twice he speaks about that rest. 49:03 It's a life where inwardly I'm never, believe it or not, where I'm never disturbed or in a panic inwardly. It's a life of rest. It's an amazing way to live on this earth. That's how Jesus lived. He was perfectly at rest no matter what 49:21 happened anywhere around him. You remember in the Garden of Gethsemane how Peter got all upset and took out his sword and chopped off somebody's ear. Jesus was at rest. Peter, I have a feeling that Peter wanted to actually hit Judas Iscariot's 49:38 ear, but being a fisherman he didn't know how to use a sword. He swiped somebody else's ear. That poor man, Malchus. So, Jesus picked up the ear and healed him. But Jesus was at rest. He said, "Put your sword back." 49:55 I don't see Judas Iscariot here. I see my heavenly father having sent a cup. But you know what he said there? The cup which my father has given me. That's what he said in Gethsemane. "Shall I not drink it?" 50:14 I said, "Lord, was it the father or Judas Iscariot who gave it to you?" No, Judas Iscariot was only the mailman. It came from my father. It's wonderful to see that when a Judas Iscariot comes to betray you or harm you, he's only the mailman. 50:31 It's the father who sends it. That difficult what you call a difficulty or an opposition or whatever it is. Jesus was at rest. He says, "Follow me. Take my yoke upon you and you'll find the same rest for your soul." It's wonderful to be able to experience 50:48 this in the trials of life. You know, God allows us to face trials to show us that he can still those storms. I thought of supposing it was written in the scripture 51:07 uh Jesus got into the boat and went to the other side of the lake and it was perfectly calm. There were no problem. We reached the other side. That's a boring story. Even the Sunday school children say, "We're not interested in listening to that." 51:20 But if they read there was a storm and the waves were coming into the boat, it's going to sink and Jesus stood up and still. Uh that's something to listen to. So, what sort of passage do you want through life? That's it's written about your life. He 51:33 had smooth sailing all through his life. He had no problem with his work. He had no problem with his home. No problem with his neighbors. No problem financially. No problem with sickness. Absolutely nothing. He had smooth 51:42 sailing all through his life. Of course, he lived 50 years and he learned nothing of God's power. But he reached the other end. I don't want that. To tell you honestly, I don't want that. I want to say storm, Lord. Maybe storm 51:56 this month, next week, continuously. And every time Jesus will still the storm. That's for sure. God can solve every problem. I believe in the Lord who can still the storm. See, there's no I remember hearing about competition for 52:14 a painting competition for a picture of a rest. I don't know whether you've heard this. There's so many people put pictures of a calm sea, not a ripple on it, a nice sunset, pictures like this. Everything calm. And none of them got 52:31 the prize. And the one that got the prize was the chap who drew a painting of a terrific storm all over and a little hole in a rock where a bird was just sitting in happily. That is a picture of rest. And that's the one that got the prize. 52:51 And I can believe that. All those other things where everything's calm, it's not I mean, that's not how the world is. We face problems all around us. And Jesus come to me, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. That again is the same. The yoke is the 53:08 cross. You take my cross like I took it. And you will find rest in your soul. You will not be disturbed and upset. You will not be anxious for anything. I don't know how to explain it, but I believe you've got to experience it to 53:27 realize it. And in connection with this I would also read what it says in verse 25. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you have hidden these things from the clever and intelligent people who try to understand 53:39 what this rest is. But you revealed it to babes. If you come to the Lord like a babe, say, "Lord, I don't know what this rest is, but I want to have it in my life." And if it's a passionate desire of yours, and you're willing to take the yoke of 53:56 Jesus. See, this yoke is something the disciples understood easily because they saw the farmers in Israel plowing with two oxen. And there was this wooden yoke on both of those oxen. And if they if a senior ox had to teach and 54:15 say one ox died and they got a junior ox now to teach that junior new ox how to plow a straight furrow, the senior ox would say, "Okay, take my yoke upon you." Symbolically. And the yoke is on the senior ox and the junior ox who doesn't 54:31 know head or tail how to plow a straight furrow, and the senior ox is at a saying, "Learn from me. Walk at my pace. Don't rush ahead. Don't run back. Stay back. Walk in step with me. Go in the direction I'm going. And then in a few years you'll be an 54:47 expert at plowing a straight furrow." That is the picture here. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me how to go absolutely straight without any crookedness in your life. And you will find rest in your life. That means I 55:03 I must say, "Lord, I want your will in my life. I don't want to go here and there where I feel like I want to be yoked to you every single time. I don't want to go anywhere where I cannot go without where I have to go without you." 55:15 I don't want to sit and watch a television program where I can't have Jesus sitting next to me watching it and enjoying it as much as me. I mean, if he has to get up and go when I turn on that channel, I say I want to get up and go too or turn off that 55:31 channel. This is what it means to have the yoke of Jesus upon you. I read a book and I come to a page and I say, "Hey, I can't imagine Jesus looking at this picture on this page." I shut the book and throw it away or I say, 55:42 "No, I don't want that." To have Jesus with me all the time. All the time. I went once to a village in not a village to one part of India where there was some born again Christians, but they all used to smoke cigarettes. 56:00 Now, that's unusual because in most other parts of India we believers don't smoke cigarettes. But in this particular place it was sort of out of the way in the hills and not many preachers had gone there and whichever preacher went there was 56:12 probably smoking cigarettes himself. I don't know. So, they all had that habit. But they were good Christians. So, I didn't know how to tell them this is bad. So, one day I was seven days meetings there and I this guy was translating for me 56:27 into the local language. And I said, "See, whatever you do you must do with Jesus. For example, I said if you're smoking a cigarette, you know how people they smoke a cigarette, they always take out and offer you one. So, next time you 56:39 take out a cigarette, offer one to Jesus. Say, 'Lord, this is really this is really filter cigarette. This is special. You must try it.' And if you think he will smoke it, go ahead and smoke it. But if you think he'd say, 'No, thank 56:53 you.' You don't smoke it. Don't smoke a cigarette without Jesus." The next morning or next evening when I came to the meeting, uh this translator of mine said, "Brother Zac, I've given up smoking cigarettes." I said, "Really? I never told anybody to 57:09 give it up." "No," he said, "I tried offering a cigarette to Jesus and he wouldn't accept it, so I decided I'm going to give up." See, that's the thing. That's taking the yoke. He took it seriously. I don't want to do something which I can't do in 57:24 fellowship with Jesus Christ. I don't want to go and visit some place if I can't take Jesus with me there. No. Whether it's a movie theater or any place. I don't want to I don't want to watch something on my computer screen and 57:39 Jesus sitting next to me says, "Hey, I'm not interested in that." If he gets up and goes, I'm going to turn off that computer. I don't want to watch it. This is what it means. Take my yoke upon you. Just walk with me. Don't go ahead 57:52 of me. Don't go behind. Go with me everywhere. And your life will be one of rest. Now, I can tell you from my testimony, that's exactly what happens. And his yoke is easy. His burden is light. It's not a heavy burden to give up 58:06 pornography. It's not a heavy burden to stop watching filthy R-rated movies. No. No, it's not a burden at all. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Problems arise for those people who go to places where Jesus would not go. 58:22 Sit watching things that Jesus would not watch. Do things that Jesus they cannot do in fellowship with Jesus. And what a wonderful thing it is to be at rest all the time. See, I've taught in all the churches that if your heart is not at rest, you 58:38 must not open your mouth and speak. Because that unrest will come forth in something you say, even when you're preaching a sermon. One of the most important things I ensure when I get up to speak in a meeting is my heart is at rest. 58:55 If my heart is not at rest, I can have all the knowledge in the world. I will not edify people. Something will come out. Maybe one sentence which is not spoken from rest. So, I've taught in our churches at home, for example, 59:12 if you're agitated in your spirit, husband and wife, zip your mouth. And unzip it only after you've come to rest. Even if it means you keep quiet for a half a day and your partner wonder what wonders what's wrong. You're in unrest. That's all. 59:31 But you don't have a clash. You don't have a fight. It's a simple principle. When I'm at unrest, keep your mouth shut. Whether it's in a house or in a meeting or any situation. 59:48 No, I'm not at rest now. I I remember the early days when I tried to follow this rule. It took me a little time in a meeting sometimes to come to rest but because I was in charge of the meeting I could continue the prayer time until I 1:00:02 came to rest. And everybody wonders why we're having a long prayer time today. Long prayer time is because brother Zach has not come to rest in his spirit yet. And he can't he's not fit to speak yet. And I came to rest and I said, "Amen. 1:00:15 Okay, now I'll get up and give the word." But in the early days it's like that. It takes a little time but over a period of time if you work at it you're at rest all the time. You're never at unrest. All the time you live in a perpetual 1:00:29 Sabbath. And you know, you don't even spiritually speaking you don't even pick up sticks. You don't You're not in unrest about anything. You obey that law. There is a Sabbath rest for God's people. I want to encourage you brothers 1:00:48 and sisters to pursue this. To have no confidence in the flesh and you enter into God's rest. It is for every one of us. In His presence there is fullness of joy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please apply these truths. They are wonderful theories 1:01:06 but make them apply in our life, Lord. Show us that they are that we can experience the reality of these truths every single day of our life. Bless everyone here, Lord, we pray experiencing this. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.
