0:09 There are two words that I have found distinguish the new covenant life from the old covenant life. Now, I need to clarify that the you know, the word covenant is the same as testament. 0:28 [cough] [clears throat] So, many people when we talk about the old covenant being abolished, we're in the new covenant, they wonder whether we have to stop reading the Old Testament. That's not true. 0:44 See, this description of the 39 books as Old Testament is something made by man. You'll never find that God said these 39 books are Old Testament. Nowhere. And uh from [clears throat] the time of Jesus, the books that came after that, 27 books 1:04 are called New Testament, but that's a human description. God never called it Old Testament or New Testament. Let me remind you of that. [snorts] But for our convenience, we refer to it as Old Testament, New Testament. We refer to chapters and 1:20 learn them. The original writings, there were no chapters, no verses. But what we mean by old covenant is the agreement, the word covenant is agreement which God made with Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai. 1:38 And he gave them a lot of laws. And it led to the Israelites living a much higher standard of life than the rest of the world. That's absolutely true. In the rest of the world, there was adultery, murder, all types of things, 1:57 but there's very little of it in Israel because they had the law, and almost all laws in the world today are based on those 10 commandments. [clears throat] But, in the new covenant, Jesus came to show us what God 2:15 originally wanted. Let me show you a verse in Psalm 103. In Psalm 103 in verse 7, it says here, "God made known his ways to the 2:34 to Moses, but his actions to the sons of Israel." Notice the difference between his ways and his actions, or acts. His ways are inward, inner, his thoughts and 2:52 attitudes and purposes, which are not visible. His actions are visible. And because Moses went up to the mountain, he understood God's heart. You can put it like that. What was in God's heart? 3:09 And that's why he was a You almost say he was like an old new covenant person living in Old Testament times, just like there are millions of old covenant people living in new covenant time today. He understood behind the action what was 3:24 God's purpose. Whereas the Israelites could only see the action. And in the old covenant, that's all you could know. So, in the when we come into the new covenant, because the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within, 3:43 the first thing that happens is we begin to understand God's ways, and our inner life becomes more important than our external life. So, I want to say to all of you, one way in which you can discover whether you have come into the 3:58 fullness of the new covenant is can you honestly say that your inner life is more important than your external life. In other words, you're more concerned about what God thinks of you when nobody's watching you than you are concerned about what people 4:17 think of you when they're watching you. In other words, you're more concerned about your life in secret than your life in public. That's one mark of a new covenant person. He's much more concerned. I'm not saying he's perfect. 4:33 He may be slipping up in his thought life still. There may be that occasional word of anger that he speaks to his wife or husband, but that disturbs him. That's the point. If it doesn't disturb him because he says, "Well, nobody heard it." 4:52 then he hasn't understood the new covenant. So, the new covenant person is not one who never makes a mistake. But, if he makes a mistake in secret, it disturbs him. For example, if he had a bad thought when he was sitting 5:06 somewhere or saw something and looked at a picture and a bad thought came into his mind. Nobody even dreamt that he had a bad thought. Nobody would have even imagined it. But, it disturbs him. And he immediately goes to God 5:22 and says, "Lord, I'm sorry. I slipped up there. Forgive me. Cleanse me." Now, an old covenant so-called believer will never do that. He's only disturbed by things that spoiled his testimony on the outside. Oh, somebody heard me lose my temper. 5:41 But, nobody heard me or saw me have that dirty thought. That is the mark of an old covenant person. And we must face up to that and say, "Lord, I am an old covenant person. Please lead me into the new covenant." If you are honest, God will help us. 5:58 But if we keep pretending, "No, no, no, I'm okay." Those are the people I have seen even in many of our CFC churches who hear the truth and hear the truth and hear the truth and never change. Is it possible to for people to hear the 6:12 truth of the new covenant and never change? Sure. Jesus himself says to the churches in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and 3, words directly from the Lord, and at the end of it it says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 6:30 Well, that's not referring to physical ear, which everybody has. Who has a ear in his heart to hear what the Lord is saying, let him hear. So, the Lord recognizes that a lot of people sit in Christian churches are not in the new covenant at all. 6:45 Their external testimony is much more important to them than their private life. Their external words, which they speak, are much more important than their motives. Moses knew God's ways. So, as I was saying, that is one of the primary marks 7:02 of new covenant life, and I hope if you're not there yet, I hope you'll make it your goal. Well, I'll tell you honestly, I was born again, and for many, many years, my external life and testimony was more important to me 7:21 than my inner life. I tried my best, but I wasn't so disturbed if I slipped up in an area where nobody knew as I would be disturbed if I had slipped up publicly. But the time came in my life when I was fed up of that. I said, "Lord, this is 7:40 not what you came to do for. This is the life of a Pharisee. And that's what I am. And the Pharisees were people you condemned like anything. So, turn with me to Matthew 23. You see, we know that the Pharisees are people 8:00 who crucified Christ and Jesus condemned them like anything. He condemned them more than he condemned murderers and thieves. There was a thief and a murderer on the cross. He forgave the adulterous woman. Whom he forgave, there was a five times divorced 8:15 Samaritan woman whom he forgave. But the Pharisees, those are the people to whom he said in Matthew 23, [clears throat] in verse 33, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?" And these were people whose doctrines 8:33 were all correct. I want you to see that. Jesus said to his disciples in verse 1, 2, and 3 of the same chapter, "The scribes and Pharisees, verse 3, whatever they tell you to do, do. If Jesus sanctioned the teaching of the 8:53 Pharisees saying, 'Everything they tell you to do, you can do because what they're teaching is right.' This is like an evangelical fundamental church preaching the truth. There's no false doctrine here. That's That's the Pharisees. Then what 9:08 was wrong with them? Let me show you. In Matthew, further down in that chapter, in verse 25, "You clean the outside, but the inside is full of robbery and 9:26 self-indulgence. So, the outside of your life is clean, but inside, you're indulging yourself. There are many ways in which you can indulge yourself. You can indulge yourself by letting somebody have a piece of your mind in 9:43 anger. You can indulge yourself by lusting after a woman without her knowing it. You can indulge yourself by extravagant spending in money and unnecessary things. There are many ways of self-indulgence. But nobody sees it. 9:58 Because your external life, the outside of the cup is clean. So, the Pharisees did have a clean external life. The problem was with their inner life. It's a mark of a Pharisee even today. There are a lot of Pharisees sitting in 10:14 the church. Let me show you in 1 Corinthians 4 what the Lord is going to judge in the final day. When Christ comes again, and we will all stand before him, every one of us. One place we're not going to escape. 10:31 It's the judgment seat of Christ. [clears throat] And it says here in 1 Corinthians 4, the reason why we should not judge or condemn other people now. The word judge means in the New Testament condemn. Because there's a right type of 10:49 judgment, which is discerning error. That type of judgment we need, otherwise we'll all be deceived. There are fake preachers, false manifestations of the Holy Spirit. If you don't discern that, you'll be deceived. But the judgment that where you condemn 11:06 somebody and sentence somebody in your mind, we must avoid. Judge, condemning, and sentencing people is the job of the judge. And only God is a judge. But I can discern what's right and wrong, and I can say, "Well, I don't 11:21 agree with that." And I would not follow that preacher because he's a fake. That type of judgment is needed, otherwise we'll all be deceived. But condemnation, it tells us here, verse five, 1 Corinthians 4:5, why we should not pass a judgment in that way 11:39 on other people. The reason is, we don't know everything about their life. Don't go on passing judgment before the time. It's almost like saying, you guys who have a itch to judge people, 11:57 a great itch to judge people, just hang on. The time will come when you can judge as much as you like. But, that time has not yet come. He's not saying you can never judge. Just wait. Be a little patient, and you can judge people as much as you like. 12:13 And that is when Christ comes again. Because when Christ comes, in other words, he's telling us, when Christ comes, go and judge as much as you like. Because in that day, he will show you not only the outer life of this person that you saw. 12:30 And on a video screen, the Lord is going to display everything that a person did from the time of his birth. And that video screen will replay his whole life, his whole life from the time of his birth, which includes what normal videos 12:47 cameras cannot record, thoughts, attitudes, motives, are all recorded on this video tape of our memory. See, nobody will be able to dispute that video tape in that day. 13:06 Because it's his own memory replaying it. And uh I'll come back to this in a moment. Turn with me to Revelation in chapter 20, where it says that. In Revelation in chapter 20, it says here, in verse 12, I saw the dead, the great 13:30 and the small all standing before the throne. And the books were opened. Another the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which are written in the books. Now, if you have a margin in your Bible like I have, 13:49 it says the in the original, it's not books. It's scrolls. You know that these type of books are available only in the last 5-600 years. Printing was discovered only in the late 1400s. So, when it talks about a book in the Bible, it's talking about a 14:07 scroll. It's like a long parchment that's rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled. And then you roll this side if you want to read the next chapter, you roll some more. And it's rolled all the way to the end here. And if you want to go back, you roll 14:21 this. If you want to go forward, you roll this. So, it's it's a scroll. The nearest thing that we can that we have seen of a scroll today is a video tape. A video tape is like a scroll. If you've seen these old video tapes, 14:36 it's all wound up on one side and then it winds and goes to the other side. And as it goes around the other side, this side gets opened up and and it's played on a screen, you see all that's happening. [clears throat] So, we can say the video tapes are 14:50 opened. And it's the video tape of our memory. From the time we were born, there's a tape that's running in our memory. You know how you can recollect something I can recollect things I did when I was 10 years old. 15:08 Good and bad. I can recollect I can't recollect everything because a lot of our brain cells are dying, but it's there. It's recorded there. It's all there. I've heard of people operating on the brain of 15:27 a person and touching some part and suddenly the guy remembers something he never remembered all his life. It's there. Everything that you ever did, that you ever said to anyone in private or in public, every thing that you 15:43 thought, every attitude that you had from the time of you were born towards your parents or neighbors or relatives and every little thing you did in secret, every word you spoke in anger or bitterness and every gossip you engaged 15:59 in somewhere, and every everybody you cheated with money, all the unrighteousness you did with money, and which you thought you escaped, nobody ever found out, and it's it's all there in your memory. And we can say it says here that books 16:17 were opened, they were judged according to what is written in the books. This means God just presses the rewind button when we're all standing there, and then the scroll on the screen for the whole world to see will be my life 16:31 and your life, and I cannot say I didn't do that. It's your own video tape playing it. You can't say I never had that attitude. Sure you did. It's your own video tape recording it. And what did we read in 1 Corinthians 4? 16:47 Then you can judge me. Because then you get the full picture. Right now you're seeing only 10%. What you see in another person is only 10%. I want to tell you even those who are married for many years, you don't see everything in your husband 17:03 or wife. A lot of thoughts that go through their mind, you don't have a clue. Attitudes, you don't have a clue. But in that day, everything will be played back. And it says the dead will be judged according to what was there. 17:22 Now, why does God do it? There is a proverb in court circles even in this world which says judgment must not only be done, but must seem must be seen to be done. And that's why when a judge writes a judgment, they're usually about 500 17:41 pages of it. Uh for something because he has to prove this is the reason why I'm sentencing this guy to 10 years in prison or whatever it is. It must be seen to be done. It's not just that I've got it all in my mind, the judge says, I think he's guilty, 10 17:57 years in jail. No, he's got to write it all down. Judgment must not only be done, but seen to be done. And so when God sends people to hell in the final day, uh nobody will have a question, why did that guy go to hell? Well, when you see his video tape, you 18:13 say, you yourself will agree with God, say, yeah, he deserves it. And that's the day when Jesus said, many who are first will be last. Some who are last will be first. In other words, many who stood up there in the front as 18:28 great preachers and great Christian leaders, and when you see the video tape of their private life, you'll be absolutely shocked to see, wow, was he like that? Well, I'll tell you something. Spirit-filled people who have 18:45 discernment will recognize such preachers even now. They will sense in their spirit there's something wrong with that guy. You may not be able to explain it. And that's how the Holy Spirit tells you there's something wrong there, be 18:57 careful. Don't listen to him anymore. But in that day, you know, vast majority of Christians have no discernment, they just swallow anything anybody says. And just if he quotes a verse of scripture, they swallow it. But in that 19:10 day there'll be no doubt. Even the person with least discernment, when he sees the video tape, he'll see this guy was an absolute crook and a deceiver. So, that's what it means. Many who are first will be last. They'll be way down 19:24 at the end of the line and they'll be going to hell. You know, Jesus said in one place in Matthew 7 that people are going to come to him and say, "Lord, we did miracles in your name." Turn with me to Matthew 7. I point out these verses to you so that 19:40 you know these are not just my bright ideas. So, that you know it's in scripture. And it's good for you to know where it is. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 7. And uh verse 21 onwards. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the 19:59 kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father. And many will say to me, important word there is many. Not just a few people. [clears throat] Many means maybe 10 million preachers will come to me in 20:18 that day. It's probably a understatement. It'll probably be much more than that. 10 million or 100 million preachers. Preachers will come to me on that day and say, "Lord, we preached in your name. We cast out demons in your name, not in 20:37 some heathen god's name. We did miracles in your name." And the Lord will look at them after playing this video tape of their the entire world as an audience. You saw this guy's life, his private life. You saw 20:54 his attitudes, motives. How he swindled poor people of money with all his preaching on telling people to give money. And [clears throat] yeah, he did certain miracles because I had given him certain gifts. Do you know that [clears throat] when 21:10 God gives a gift to somebody, he doesn't take it back? Supposing you gave somebody a birthday gift, and afterwards he became your enemy. Would you go back and say, "Hey, return that birthday gift I gave you 10 years ago." 21:24 You don't We don't even do it as human beings. God gives a gift to somebody, he doesn't take it back. He gives a man a gift to preach, he doesn't take it back. It's scary. The greatest proof of it is the devil himself. When God created him as the head of the 21:40 angels, he had more supernatural powers than any angel. And when he sinned because of pride, God took away his anointing, but he didn't take away his gifts. And that's why the devil can do so many supernatural things. You read in the Bible that he could send 21:58 fire from heaven in the days of Job. Just by the way, the first person who sent fire from heaven was not not Elijah who brought it down. The devil brought fire down on Job's animals and all that, and he he had power to tear down houses in which Job's children 22:15 were staying. He had tremendous power. Where did he get it from? He certainly didn't get it after he fell away and became the devil. He got it before. So, God doesn't take away a person's gifts. So, just because you can preach well, 22:30 doesn't mean you're spiritual. And just because somebody can preach well or heal the sick, it doesn't mean he's spiritual. I'm not fooled, because I know that many, many people, millions of people in the final day who heal the 22:41 sick, will be sent to hell. Because when the videotape is played, it says the Lord is saying verse 23, "Depart from me. Get away from me." What is the reason? You lived in sin. You practiced sin. So, you'll discover in the final day 23:01 that the important question will not how much you preached or how little you preached. Not how much you How many miracles you did or how many demons you cast out, but what was your attitude to sin? That is going to be the most important 23:16 and only question in the final day. And you know, like in India we have in the end of school year we have a thing called a final examination. It's not like that in all schools, but in India a final examination at the end of the 23:31 year is very, very important because whether you get promoted to the next class or not is dependent on your results in that final examination. And this is the final examination. When Christ comes back. And so when children are studying for 23:48 the final examination, uh we tell them study for the subjects that are coming in the final examination. Don't study politics because that's not coming in your final examination. I mean, it would be good to know a lot of 24:00 things in the newspaper, but that's not coming in your final examination next week. Study for physics or science or math. That's what's coming in your final examination. So, here's the final examination when we stand before the 24:11 Lord. Study for that. What's your attitude to sin? Not how much did you preach. Not how much of the Bible did you know. Not how many miracles you did. No, not how well you sang or how many musical instruments you can play or cannot play. 24:28 No. What is your attitude to sin? That's the only thing that's going to matter. So, now we can turn back to 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 5. So, don't go on passing judgment before the time because I found the vast majority of 24:48 believers, the vast majority that I've met, if they see a television preacher preaching powerfully and doing some what I call apparent miracles. A lot of it is just illusions like these magicians. And you get fooled by that. 25:06 Don't be deceived. Don't It's not time to judge. You will see in the final day that a lot of those people are going to hell. But I sometimes ask believers, "How many of you believe that man whom you see on Christian television, apparently a 25:22 world-famous preacher, is it possible that he'll go to hell?" I think the vast majority of believers will not dream that that man will go to hell. That's how deceived people are. You mean that man's going to hell? I like quite likely. 25:37 Look at his attitude to money. Look at the number of people he's taken money from to build his fancy palace somewhere. Yeah. It'll all be disclosed in the final day. It's better to know it now. Why is it better to know it now? So that you don't 25:51 get fooled by that man. It's very, very important. In that day, here's what the Lord will bring to light. There are two things mentioned in verse five, very, very important. These are the subjects coming for the final examination. 26:06 One, the things hidden in darkness. That means the areas of your life which other people knew nothing about. Can you think of areas in your life which other people sitting here or your relatives, even your closest family 26:24 members, know nothing about? All the times you cheated in examinations, all the wrong things you got by deception, and uh the number of people you took advantage of and you never got caught, crimes for which other people were 26:44 caught and you never got caught. You thought you were lucky. You're not really lucky. Uh there's another judgment yet to come. And nobody escapes that one. A lot of people who escape things on earth don't escape the final one. 26:58 And a lot of you know, for example, I've come to see that a lot of crooked, evil people somehow escape by bribing the judges or by using political pressure or getting pardoned by some president or there's so many ways you can get out of 27:18 it on the earth, but the final judgment there's no pardon. There is no forgiveness beyond this earth. It's appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. So, the only time you can ask repent and ask for forgiveness is in this in this life. 27:34 You can ask for it the last minute. Like the thief on the cross. So, you can do it, but don't wait till the last minute. Like people who say I will repent at the 11th hour usually die at 10:30. So, they never get to the 11th hour. 27:48 So, it's better to repent right now, not wait till the last minute. You know, it doesn't work like that. It's very, very important. The things hidden in darkness. What does that mean? The way you speak to your husband and wife at home. 28:07 Your attitude to them. And uh your pride. It's a hidden thing. Your jealousy. All that gossip which you won't do in the church, but we you'll do with your husband and wife at home. 28:27 You say, "Oh, that's okay." Well, it's all going to come to light. It's all on the video tape. There's nothing which is not recorded on that video tape of our memory. Absolutely nothing. It's working 24 hours. And the other thing that God's going to 28:42 reveal is the motive of men's hearts. See, one is the things in darkness which is our thought life and our attitudes towards people and unrighteous things we've done which nobody knows about. The second is our motive. In other 29:02 words, maybe something you did that was good but the motive was evil. [clears throat] For example, preaching a sermon, very good thing to do, but if my motive is to make money for myself, it becomes evil immediately. It's like 29:26 putting a poisonous animal, poisonous creature into a good dish that you prepared. You cooked a nice dish and then you put a poisonous animal and creature into it. It spoils the whole thing. That's exactly what happens, you know. 29:42 It can be a wonderful sermon, but the motive was I want to get money or I want to get some honor. I want people to appreciate me. In other words, I don't want to point to Christ. I want people to see me, be drawn to me. There are multitudes of 30:00 preachers like this. Multitudes, multitudes. In fact, the vast majority like this. They compete with one another even in churches to show that I can preach better than that guy. Can you imagine coming into the church of God and trying to show that you're 30:14 better than somebody else? It happens. It happens in the best of churches. Or I can sing better than somebody else. Very, very difficult to In our church in Bangalore, in all our 30:31 churches, CFC churches, we never allow anyone to sing a solo because I've seen almost every single person who sings a solo is not trying to glorify Christ. He's trying to tell show you what a good voice he has. And I tell you God couldn't care less 30:47 for somebody's voice. We are here to glorify Christ. The motive that can be a wonderful song, so moving. But what's your motive? What's the motive of all these Christian hymn writers who write these 31:06 modern songs? These modern songs, you know, which are about three, four lines that you repeat 10 times. Um What is the motive with which they write? I mean, there are only three or four lines in it. But the guy earns so many thousands of 31:18 dollars for that because every time anybody sings it, they got to pay him something. Not like these old writers like Charles Wesley and all who never made one cent from their songs. Fanny Crosby, the blind songwriter, she didn't write 31:32 for money. All this is going to come to light. I'm telling you the truth. I'm just preparing you for the final examination. So you don't get a surprise on that day. And don't worry if other people get a surprise, at least you should know. It's 31:46 my responsibility as a preacher of God's word to make sure that all those to whom I preach are not surprised in the day of judgment. That's what I often say in my own home church. I say something you may think I'm very hard on you sometimes, but in the day of 31:59 judgment you'll thank me for telling you the truth and when you see the condition of a lot of other people who listen to these other preachers who didn't tell them the whole truth. The motive of your heart. Sometimes, you know, you can say 32:13 something very nice and there can be a sting in it. You know that. We've all done it. Motive. It's going to happen. [clears throat] You say something to your husband or wife and there's a sting in it. That'll come out in the and when your 32:29 tape is played. Maybe you can justify yourself now with various excuses, but in that day there'll be no room for excuses because even the hidden motives will be exposed. Very very important, brothers, um to [clears throat] 32:47 be ready for that day. [clears throat] Let me show you what the Apostle Paul's attitude was because he knew that day is coming. Turn with me to Acts chapter 24. Acts of the Apostles chapter 24. 33:14 [clears throat] Paul was standing before the governor Felix and giving his testimony. And he said, "I want to tell you there's one thing I'm absolutely certain about. I'm absolutely 100% certain 33:33 there will be a final examination." That is 1 Corinthians Sorry, Acts 24. Acts of the Apostles 24 and verse 15. [clears throat and cough] He's turning to the Jewish people and saying, "I have a I have a hope in God that these Jewish people who are 33:52 accusing me" Paul was a Christian being accused by those Jewish people. "They also believe in a resurrection and I also believe in resurrection. And I believe that there will be two resurrections. I I know it's the Bible teaches that in 34:05 Revelation chapter 20. There'll be two resurrections. Not all human beings will be resurrected at the same time. When Christ comes, it says the dead in Christ will arise. What about all the others in the grave? They will not 34:20 arise. Their resurrection will be at another time. But there will be a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the wicked. And Paul says, I know which resurrection I want to be in. I want to be in the first resurrection, 34:40 not in the second one. And because I want to be in the first resurrection, [cough] [clears throat] there's something I do. I do my best, verse 16, to always maintain 34:57 a blameless conscience before God and before men. That is the way you and I can be prepared for that final examination and to make sure we'll be there in the first resurrection. I say that. 35:15 I'm absolutely certain, verse 15, there'll be two resurrections, one a resurrection of the righteous and one a resurrection of the wicked. Because none of us know anything about eternity and the future except in the Bible. There's not a book in the world 35:29 that tells us about the future accurately except the Bible. If you don't know it, you don't know anything about the future. And thank God he's told us what's going to be in the future. There's going to be a resurrection of the righteous and the 35:38 wicked. And in view of this, I say with Paul, I can say this honestly today, it was not true in the early days when I was born again. I was careless [clears throat] in the early days after being born again, after being saved. 35:56 I was careless with my conscience. And the reason is I never heard strong preaching. I never heard I never had a spiritual father who would [clears throat] pull me up and say, "You're wrong." I listened to preachers who just tried 36:15 to keep me happy and collect my tithes. [clears throat] That's all they were interested in. So long as the offering was okay, they didn't worry about where people were going, whether they were hell or to heaven, or if they just accepted Christ, 36:28 that's it. Now, you can go [clears throat] to Paul and say, "Hey, listen, Paul. I thought to be in the first resurrection, all you need to do is accept Christ. And Paul, you did that 25 years ago. Why do you need to worry 36:39 about doing all this? So, you Paul, don't shouldn't you be saying like this, "In view of the There's going to be a resurrection of the righteous. Thank God, I'll be in it cuz 25 years ago I accepted Christ." Is that what he says here? 36:53 Now, you may have got that theology from somebody. Why don't get correct theology from scripture? Look what Paul says. In view of this, I do my best to keep my conscience absolutely clear 37:12 at all times. Always means 24/7. In other words, if I did something wrong today, I don't wait to settle it tomorrow. I may not live till tomorrow. I It's like if a thorn gets into your foot, you don't wait till tomorrow to 37:27 pull it out. If dust gets into your eye, you don't wait till tomorrow to wash it off. Small things like what affects our body, we act immediately. Why don't we act immediately when we our conscience convicts us of something? 37:45 Because even though we say we are believers, we act like unbelievers. My body is more important than my conscience. Is your body more important than your conscience? Then you're an unbeliever. Or at least you're acting like an 37:59 unbeliever. A truly born again Christian will say, "Okay, I want to keep my body fit, but my conscience is much more important than my body." You can have cancer and AIDS and still go to heaven if you repent. [clears throat] 38:17 But you can't have sin on your conscience and go to heaven, even if you're in the prime of health. I do my best to keep my conscience blameless not only before God but also before men. See, every sin that we commit is against 38:34 God. Every single thing. Thought, attitude, motive, word, action, everything is before God. But some sins are also towards men. For example, if I slap you, that's a sin against God but it's also a sin against you. 38:53 If I cheat you, that's a sin against God and also a sin against you. So then I have to settle it with God and with you. I have to apologize to God and apologize to you. But if I only had a dirty thought, then I apologize only to God. 39:10 So, I must see the sins which I've committed only against God. If I had a wrong attitude, that's only before God. I confess to him. But if my action or word affected another person in some way, I have to apologize that 39:28 person. Now, I would say as a general rule, we have to be careful here that we set matters right. We we don't have to torment ourselves about things we did in the past week which we cannot settle. You know, sometimes a man's converted 39:47 when he's 40 years old and he's done so many wrong things in his life to so many people. I've had people come to me and say, "Brother Zach, how in the world will I settle all those things to those people?" Okay? I said, "I'll give you a verse to 40:02 comfort you." Turn to Acts chapter 17 and verse 30. You know, there's an answer in scripture to everything, by the way. I've been a believer for 59 years and I've faced numerous complicated circumstances in my life. 40:20 But I'll tell you my honest testimony. I have never never found a situation in my life for which there is no answer in the word of God. But I I must know where to find it. That's why one of the first things I did after I was born again was to study the 40:36 word of God intensely. The result is in almost any situation, immediately some word of scripture comes to my mind giving me a solution to that problem. So, here we read in Acts 17 and verse 13. God overlooks 40:55 your times of ignorance. But now that your time of ignorance is over, he's telling you to repent. So, when you apply that to your life, there are times in our life when we were completely ignorant of God's ways. We didn't know 41:11 what to do. And a lot of us did a lot of wrong things. Some of those things we can set right. I mean, I remember before I was converted, I cheated the government of taxes and things like that. I paid it. Paid it back. I said, "Clear it." 41:29 But there's certain things which you do, you cannot set right. Think of a man's gone and committed adultery with somebody. How can you set that right? He can apologize to that person, but beyond that he can't undo what he did. 41:46 So, there's certain things you cannot undo, then you should not torment yourself for year The devil would like to torment you year after year after year, "See, you did that. You did that. You did that. You did that." But if you can't do anything about it, 41:59 God understands it. God understands what you can do and what you cannot do. You don't have to torment yourself. So, when we say that we must have a clear conscience before God and before men, I must um add this clause to it saying that 42:14 God understands what you're able to do if it's overlooks a lot of things that you did in your ignorance, but now he tells you to repent now that [clears throat] you've got light. And there's a very comforting verse I often give to people concerning things 42:30 which they cannot set right. You may find it helpful to you in many situations. Second Corinthians in chapter 8. Second Corinthians in chapter 8. There are many, many situations where I found this verse has helped me. It's good to know the scriptures. 42:49 And you know what I did in my the first Bible I had? Um, I did not know anything of the Bible when I got converted. I was born in a Christian family, but I hadn't read the Bible even once till the age of 19 when I got converted. I I knew 43:04 Jesus died for my sins and all, but I hadn't read through the whole Bible. So, there was a lot of things in the Bible when I read it I was learning it for the first time. So, because I wanted to get back to those important verses, I would underline 43:17 in my first Bible important verses or highlight it in some light color so that I could find out. My first Bible was full of highlighting and marks that But it was so helpful for me because it solved so many of my problems. 43:33 And here's one of those verses, 2 Corinthians 8:12. If the readiness is present, that means the willingness. You're willing to do God's will. Then God accepts you Let me paraphrase it. According to what you're able to do, 43:50 and not what you're not able to do. [clears throat] What you can do and not according to what you cannot do where God knows it's impossible for you to do something and he doesn't torture you saying, "Oh, well, I won't forgive 44:03 you till that is set right." When he knows you cannot set it right. I'll tell you one extreme case that happened in India. It's a truth true situation. A man wrote to me. He was a very very poor man. He was a laborer somewhere. 44:16 This is many many years ago. And he wrote to me saying, I had never met him. He just probably read some of my writings and he wrote to me, "Brother Zac, I have a question. I'm a very poor man." And he told me how little he was 44:28 earning. And he said, "I have cheated people of 30,000 rupees, which is a huge amount of money for him at that time, 35 years ago. And he [clears throat] says, "How can I return it? I earn so little." 44:45 So, I wrote to him based on this verse. I said, "Can you return 10 rupees a month?" It's like if you have a debt of $30,000, can you give $10 a month back? That means you deny yourself 10 rupees a month and send it back. 45:03 And I told him, "I have calculated it. It will take you just 250 years to clear your debt if you pay back 10 rupees every month. You're not going to live 250 years. You'll probably die in the next 10 years." He was already an old man. 45:18 But do you know, when you stand before the Lord, the Lord will account it as if you paid your whole debt. God is so good because he accepts you according to what you're able to do. But if you don't even pay that 10 rupees, 45:33 then it'll be another story. You could do it and you didn't do it. So, the question is not what you're not able to do. Don't torment yourself saying, "I can't do that. I can't settle that." There are 101 things you may not 45:45 be able to settle, but what about the things you can do? Do that. Keep your conscience clear before God and before men. And remember what I said, one of the main words of the new covenant. Number one, 46:03 inner life. Inside. Old covenant was outside. You look at the 10 Commandments. Uh Maybe I should show it. The 10 Commandments are listed in Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, you read the 10 46:22 Commandments. [clears throat] And uh and I'm the Lord your God, verse two, who brought you out of the land of You 46:40 shall have no other gods but me. You shall not make an idol. Verse five, you shall not worship an idol. And uh You shall not take the name of the Lord 46:58 your God in vain. Verse seven. Number four, you got it? That's the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The fourth one is verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I want you to notice one thing. 47:12 All these are external. You shall not make an idol. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. I'm the Lord your God, that's what it begins with. You shall not make an idol. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You 47:28 must keep the Sabbath day holy. And number five, honor verse 12, honor your father and mother. It's external. And number six, verse 13, you shall not murder, external. Number seven, you shall not commit adultery, external. Verse 15, 47:48 uh number eight, you shall not steal. And number nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Notice, it's not you shall not tell a lie." Cuz it's impossible under the old covenant to overcome telling lies. I mean, 48:01 believers find it difficult. But, bear false witness is referring to in the court. When you go to the court, your hand is on some holy book. Don't bear false witness against your neighbor. Nine commandments, everything to do with external life. 48:20 But, at the end, just to remind people, don't think you've attained to God's standard just because you keep those nine, because you can't keep those nine. The 10th was inward. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife 48:40 or his house or anything belongs to your neighbor, your neighbor's daughter. Every girl who walks down the road is your neighbor's daughter. You must not desire. Every picture that you see of a woman on a computer screen, anywhere, it's 48:58 your neighbor's daughter. If you desire something there even in your mind, you've sinned. Who could keep it? Nobody could keep it in the Old Testament. Nobody. Now, have you noticed in Mark chapter 10, when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, 49:19 Mark's Gospel chapter 10, and he said, in Mark 10:17, "Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? There's no one good except God." "You know the commandments." Notice the commandments he mentioned. 49:36 Read carefully, verse 19. "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honor your father and mother." I mean, he didn't have to mention about idols and taking the name of the Lord in vain. That was 49:51 all Jewish people were very careful in that. It was the other ones related to man that people were careless. What about the 10th commandment? You shall not desire. Why didn't he mention that? Have you noticed it? You read the scripture carefully, you 50:07 discover Jesus did not even mention the 10th commandment because no use mentioning it. Jesus knew that nobody could keep it. So, Jesus stopped at the ninth commandment. Don't bear false witness. And the man said, "I have kept all these 50:22 things from my youth." If Jesus had included the 10th commandment, that fellow could not have said it. Jesus stopped there. He said, "Have you kept at least the first nine?" "I've kept it." Okay. Now, go and sell all that you have. He was 50:37 not willing to do it. So, there you see that Jesus recognized that nobody could keep the 10th commandment. Now, you see another example of that in Romans chapter 7. Romans 7, you know, Paul was the man who once stood before him. 50:53 Uh a judge. In Acts 23:1, he said, "I have lived with a good conscience all my life." Just like that rich young ruler, I've kept all these commandments from my youth. The second fellow who said that was the Apostle Paul. 51:08 In Acts 23:1. Now, this Apostle Paul who had kept a good conscience all his life, he says in Romans chapter 7, and uh he says, "The law is spiritual." Verse 14. But, he says here, 51:29 "When the When I got the commandment." Verse 9. "Sin became alive." It's sin that made the commandment live. And which commandment is he talking about? See verse 7. What What about Is the law sin? No. 51:46 "I would not" Romans 7:7, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. And he's not talking about the nine commandments, he's talking about the 10th one. I mean, the first nine is like I can understand, but I did not know 52:04 that desiring in your heart was a sin. [clears throat and snorts] I would not have known, he says, that desiring. The word covet is to desire or to lust, it's all the same meaning. The law has said, "You shall not lust." 52:19 Boy, I didn't know that was a sin. I thought going and committing adultery was sin, but here it's saying, "You shall not lust." So, when Jesus said lusting is a sin, it's just you meditate on the law, you get it. But to Jesus was only explaining 52:33 the 10th commandment, it was not some specially new law. But sin, listen to this. This is you see the honesty of this man, Paul. When I read that commandment that you shall not lust, I was honest with it, and sin produced in me lusting of every 52:53 kind. So, you say, "Paul, you mean your mind was so filthy?" You you who said I've lived with a good conscience all my life in Acts 23:1. You were only keeping the first nine commandments, right? Absolutely right, 53:10 Paul says. When it came to the 10th one, I just could not keep it. Not just one type of lust, it says your lusting of every single kind. I lusted after money, I lusted after women, I lusted after position, honor. I lusted after every single thing 53:26 you can lust after. He's [clears throat] just being honest. And I died. But that is the requirement of the law. And I couldn't keep it. The law is holy, verse 12, but I couldn't keep it. 53:43 And so verse 11, it killed me. I thought I was alive till I read the 10th commandment and I saw what a sinner I was. But that's not the end of the story. But he says something wonderful happened through the death of Jesus Christ and 53:59 the gift of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:2, the law not the law of the 10 commandments which Moses gave, another law, the law of the Holy Spirit. And the law of the Holy Spirit is not 1,000 commandments. No. The law of Moses was actually 613 54:21 commandments, 10 of which he just read. The law of the Holy Spirit is, it says here, which is life in Christ Jesus. That set me free. So he's not end of the story is not in Romans 7 54:38 and verse 9 saying I died. No. He's just telling us the route he went through. He finally comes to the place where he says, "The Holy Spirit set me free." Because what the law could not do, verse 3, listen to this very important verse. 54:54 What the law could not do. What is the the law could do? The law could keep him make him keep nine commandments. What is the law could not do? The law could not make him keep the 10th commandment. That's the only thing. 55:10 I know a lot of Hindus, non-Christians, who keep the nine commandments. They don't worship idols, they don't commit adultery, they don't murder, they don't steal. A lot of upright people. But there's never a human being who's 55:23 kept the 10th commandment. But here the Lord says the Holy Spirit came and set me free. And what the law could not do that inner life, the Holy Spirit came inside and did it. This is the wonderful thing about the new covenant. 55:42 It changes your inner life, gives you victory inwardly. Dear brothers and sisters, you want to enter the new covenant? Seek for inner purity. Don't be satisfied with the outside of your cup being clean. 56:00 The vast majority of churches, and I tell you I've heard preaching from every single denomination, from Catholic to extreme Pentecostal, everything in between. Hardly anyone talks about the inner life. It's all the external life. 56:18 You're externally okay, well, that's an old covenant life. That's not the new covenant life at all. The law it says the law kills you. If you The law of the Holy Spirit has set me free. That's why I believe that speaking in tongues is not the evidence 56:35 of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of the Holy Spirit filling a man is he's set free from this inner lust. If that hasn't happened, I say you need to seek God and say, "Lord, I want to be really controlled by the Holy Spirit." Again, 56:47 the spirit-filled life is the spirit-controlled life. That means the Holy Spirit is in the driver's seat now. Until now, you were in the driver's seat. Now, the whole You hand it over the driver's seat to the Holy Spirit. He controls your tongue, he 57:00 controls your eyes, he controls your thoughts, he controls your attitudes, he controls your hands, he controls everything. He's in the driver's seat. If you're controlling your eyes and you're controlling your tongue, brother, 57:09 sister, you are in the driver's seat. No matter how much you say you're filled with the spirit and no matter how many tongues you speak in. You've got to let the Holy Spirit get into the driver's seat. And when the Holy Spirit set me, it says 57:24 here that what the law could not do, God did. So that, listen to verse four, Romans 8:4, that requirement of the law can now be fulfilled in us. What is the requirement of the law? You shall not lust. He says that in the previous chapter. 57:41 That requirement can now be fulfilled in us. This is the new covenant. Then we can obey the 10th commandment. If There's a big if. You walk day by day according to the Holy Spirit. That is why Paul says, I keep my 58:00 conscience clear 24/7. He's not saying he never slipped up. He slipped up, he immediately sets it right. Let me give you an example of that. Turn with me to Acts chapter 23. See, we must not have wrong ideas of the victorious life as if it's a life where 58:18 you never make a mistake where you never slip up. Acts 23 is a perfect example of it. This is the Apostle Paul standing before a judge and saying, brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day. For 30 years 58:37 he was a Jew, not a Christian. But even as a Jew, he lived with a good conscience according to the nine commandments of the law. And then he says, after becoming a Christian, I still live with a good conscience. That means 58:51 if I slipped up, I immediately confessed it to God and man. And he says, I lived with a good conscience. And what is the next thing that happens? The high priest This is very interesting. It's almost humorous. Slaps him. Tells somebody to slap him on 59:04 the face. And immediately Paul loses his good conscience. Do you see that? He turns to the white high priest and says, you whitewashed wall, but God will smite you. Now, we know that's a sin because when Jesus was slapped, Jesus did not reply like that. 59:21 And anything Jesus would not do is sin. Please take that definition of sin. And Paul said, And he's about 55 years old now. He's been a Christian for 25 years. But what does he do? He immediately sets it right. He set his conscience right. That's how 59:39 he kept a good conscience. And that's how you can keep a good conscience, too. So then you say, "What does it mean to have victory over sin?" I'll explain it. When a little child falls, let's say a 10-month-old child is falling, falling, 59:52 falling, falling, falling 100 times a day. You can say that's a picture of no victory. Defeated, defeated, defeated, defeated, defeated, defeated. But one day that child learns to walk. And so you look at that 2-year-old child 1:00:06 is not only walking, it's running. All of us have learned to walk, but is anybody here who can say, "I will never trip and fall," even physically? No. [snorts] You can trip on a stone outside and fall right here. But you have learned to walk. You can't 1:00:22 say just because you tripped up once I haven't learned to walk. But that child who's falling repeatedly, that child has to say, "I haven't learned to walk yet." That's the difference between victory over sin and the occasional fall. 1:00:35 We have learned we have come to a life of victory, but like Paul here, he may slip up. He may speak that rude word, but you'll immediately apologize. You know, when I meet married couples, newly married couples, I tell them, 1:00:53 "You want a bit of advice? Be quick to ask forgiveness from one another and be quick to forgive one another. Keep that in your life and in 50 years from now or 100 years from now if you live, be quick to ask forgiveness and be quick 1:01:12 to forgive. You will need that word all your life. Don't delay it. But if you examine yourselves, you married people, you'll find how difficult it is to go to your partner and say, "I'm sorry for what I said just now, what I said 10 seconds ago." 1:01:32 Not what I said day before yesterday, that's easy. But, what I said 10 seconds ago, I'm really sorry for that. There's a humbling there. You'll go to God and confess, "Oh Lord, I'm sorry for what I spoke to my wife just now." 1:01:47 Now, how is it that you can go and confess to a holy God and not confess to an unholy wife? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? You can confess to a holy God, "Oh Lord, I'm sorry for what I did." But, this unholy wife, you can't ask her 1:02:00 forgiveness. I'll tell you what what it proves. It proves that your repentance is not genuine. You're fooling yourself when you say you're repented and go to God, because you cannot go to a holy God and say you're repented if you can't go 1:02:15 to an unholy human being and ask forgiveness from there. The proof that I can go to a holy God and ask forgiveness is proved by the fact that I can go to an unholy human being like myself and ask her forgiveness. I'm sorry. 1:02:29 I want to encourage you. Maybe you never heard all this in all your married life, you better hear it now. Be quick to ask forgiveness, 24/7. Keep my conscience clear before God and men. So, people whose marriages I've conducted, I see them 10 years later, I 1:02:46 ask them, "Are you quick to ask forgiveness? Are you quick to forgive?" And they say, "Okay." I say, "Keep it up." And some of them are honest, they say, "Yeah, brother, it takes a little time." I say, "Okay, work on it. Make that 1:03:00 time shorter and shorter and shorter till it comes to zero." The time between the action and the asking for forgiveness. It's very important. I keep my conscience always clear so that I can stand before the Lord on the final day. 1:03:14 In Matthew chapter 18, There's another thing that we need to bear in mind. This is not asking forgiveness, but giving forgiveness. That's also important. Matthew 18, Jesus spoke about 1:03:34 a story. Peter came and said, "How often shall Let's my brother owe? How often should I forgive my wife? Seven times a day?" And Jesus said, "70 * 7." 1:04:00 There's another scripture where I think it's Luke 17 or 18 where it says in the same day, seven times 70 * 7. Forgive. And then he gives an example. This is a parable. It's a very important parable. A king suddenly counted his slaves. 1:04:17 And one of the slaves owed him 10,000 talents. Now, that's a huge amount of money. It's 15 years wages, it says in the margin of my Bible. Wages of 15 years. How much do you earn in a month? Multiply that in a year rather. How much do you earn in a year? 1:04:36 Multiply that by 15. That's what this guy owed. It's a huge amount of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And he says, "Please have mercy on me." Verse 16, "Have patience with me, I'll pay you." Where is he going to pay that much? He 1:04:50 was just bluffing. But the Lord said, "Okay, forgiven. Go, freed." Now, he goes out and he finds his fellow slave who owed him a small amount of money. 1:05:06 Just a very small amount of money. He's already been forgiven hundreds of thousands of maybe millions of dollars, and this [clears throat] guy owes him $20 or $100, something like that. And he catches him by the throat and 1:05:22 says, "Pay back what you owe." And that chap said the same thing to him that he had said to the king, "Have patience with me. I'll pay you." But he was unwilling. Verse 30. He said, "No, I'm not going to forgive you." He takes him to the court, gets him 1:05:37 locked up in prison, and some of the other slaves saw what had happened, and they came to the lord and reported, "Do you know what this guy did who you forgave so much? He put this other fellow in jail for not paying his him his debt." 1:05:53 So, the lord called him back. Verse 32. "You wicked slave, I forgave you that massive debt just because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave 1:06:11 in the same way that I had mercy on you?" And the lord was moved with anger and handed him over to the torturers and said, "You've got to pay back all that I forgave you." Now, my question is this. First of all, 1:06:28 does God unforgive what he already forgave? A lot of people will say, "No." I want to tell you he does. Here is the [snorts] clearest story. He forgave this man a massive debt, 1:06:45 sin, millions of sins. That guy went out and wouldn't forgive somebody else some small sin he committed against him. And he God says, "Okay, all those millions of sins that I forgave you 20 years ago, they are back on your head 1:07:00 now. You got to pay up for that." He unforgives. He cancels that forgiveness. But a lot of people say, "Hey, but the Lord says in Hebrews 8:12, I will not remember your sins anymore." Correct. Read it carefully. He doesn't say, "I've 1:07:18 forgotten your sins." No. If he had said, "I've forgotten your sins," then he can never bring it back. He says, "I choose not to remember," which is quite different from I've forgotten. God has not forgotten the sins I committed 60 years ago. 1:07:34 I haven't forgotten them myself. Don't tell me God's memory is worse than mine. He remembers every sin you committed, even the ones you're forgiven, but he says, "I choose not to remember. When I look at you, you repented of it, you 1:07:47 asked Jesus to cleanse it, it's cleansed in the blood of Christ. When I look at you, I don't look at you as ah this is the guy who did that thing." No. I look at you as one who's not sinned. But I remember it very well. 1:07:59 And if you for don't forgive somebody, all of that, I'll put it back on your head. That's what Jesus said, "My heavenly Father," verse 35, "will do the same to you." To whom is he talking? Is he talking to unbelievers? No, we read verse 21, he's 1:08:18 talking to Peter. Peter is one of his finest disciples. He's telling his disciples, you and I are his disciples, he's telling us, "My heavenly Father and your heavenly Father will do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his 1:08:32 brother from his heart." What is the same thing God will do to us? Number one, he'll put all those sins we committed all our life back on our head and say, "You're guilty." And secondly, verse 34, he'll hand us over to the demons. 1:08:50 The torturers are the demons. He will say, "Okay, Satan, you can go ahead and do what you like with this guy." You know, just like God allowed Satan in the book of Job, to okay, you can destroy his property, destroy his children. 1:09:04 Touch his body, but don't take his life. God gives permission and here it says God will allow the devil. I'm absolutely convinced in my mind that some sicknesses that people have are because they haven't forgiven somebody. 1:09:21 I don't have the slightest doubt about it. Whenever people ask me to pray for them for their sickness and before I lay hands on them and pray for them, I always ask them only one question. Have you forgiven everybody who has hurt 1:09:35 you in your entire life? Your father, your mother, uncle, aunt, people who cheated you of your family property. I don't care what it is. I'm not just saying have you nominally said to them forgiven. No, it says here verse 25, "Forgiven them from your 1:09:52 heart." [clears throat] Or say, "Forget it. I don't want to even think about it." It's not there in my mind anymore. I put it away. I don't care. I want to ask everybody sitting here, forget about all the others. Have you forgiven every single person 1:10:09 who did any harm to you in your entire life from your heart? If not, I want to say to you your heavenly father will do the same to you. He's your heavenly father, but he'll do the same to you that he did to this guy. He'll hand you over to the torturers and 1:10:24 maybe some of your sicknesses are because of that. And any amount of pills and injections and treatment will not cure you. You got to forgive first. You got to forgive. That's happened to me. I remember I mentioned this before once. I had a 1:10:42 injury in my hand once when the doctor was careless. Before my marriage, this is 51 years ago. And when I discovered that this happened to me, this nerve injury because of what the doctor's carelessness. I wrote a very rude letter to him. He 1:11:01 was a believer. I wrote a very rude letter to him. And as soon as I posted it to mailed it and came back, the Lord said, "You shouldn't have written that letter." "Write another letter in asking him to forgive you and forgive 1:11:16 him." I said, "Lord, I'm sorry." And I wrote a really repentant letter to that doctor. [snorts] And you know, I had gone to a neurosurgeon and that guy had examined [clears throat] me and said, "This You got to live with this for the rest of 1:11:32 your life. It's a nerve injury. It'll never be cured. Sorry, this doctor was careless in the way he handled you." And I wrote that letter and said, "I'm sorry, brother. I really feel bad that I wrote like that to you. You didn't do it deliberately. 1:11:50 It was accidental. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I withdraw all that I wrote in my previous letter." You know what happened? In a few days, I got healed. I've never had that problem for more than 50 years. I don't believe I ever will. 1:12:08 It's amazing. God proved to me way back then the power of forgiveness. Don't ruin your life. Don't ruin your health because of an unforgiving attitude. It always pays to forgive others. Even if you don't do it because you want 1:12:25 fellowship with God, at least do it for the sake of your health. That's second best reason. The best is, "Well, I Lord, I want to fellowship with you." You cannot fellowship with God. It is impossible. Impossible if you haven't forgiven 1:12:41 somebody. Even if it's your wife. Or your wife's parents, the way they cheated you. Or your wife's relatives who cheated you. It It matter who it is. Maybe some stranger, maybe your neighbor or your boss or I don't care who it is. 1:12:57 That inner life that only you know whether you're forgiven from the heart. And I'll give you one more example. I thought I had forgiven somebody. This is another case where I somebody had done some harm to me and I said, "Lord, 1:13:09 I've forgiven him." And I really forgive him from my heart. [clears throat] And then a little later I heard that something bad happened to him and I felt a little happy. And the Lord said, "Are you happy?" I said, "Yes, Lord, I'm happy that 1:13:21 something some evil befell that person." And the Lord said, "That proves you did not forgive him from your heart." I got light. Then I discovered that if you have if you wish some evil for someone who hurt you, that is the clearest proof 1:13:40 that you haven't forgiven from the heart. So, nowadays when I forgive somebody, I go one step forward and say, "Lord, please bless them mightily and bless their children and help them to do well and help them to prosper." 1:13:51 I want to make sure that and I mean it from my heart. And if I hear that, I'll rejoice. Yeah, we learn through our mistakes. That's a wonderful thing. I told you there are two words in the new covenant. I spoke only about one of 1:14:09 them. In our life. The second word is the word always. In our life, always. In the Old Testament, you rejoice. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is a Sabbath day, by the way. And let us rejoice and be glad in it. 1:14:25 Today we are in a perpetual Sabbath. Every day is a Sabbath. We rejoice in the Lord always. We forgive always. And uh in everything give thanks at all times. Pray, as we read just now, without ceasing. 1:14:45 That's new covenant life. In everything give thanks. Rejoice always. So these are the two words of the new covenant. Inner life is more important than the outer. And the second is it's not just occasionally but consistently. 1:15:00 All the time, 24/7. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us we pray with power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us within. 1:15:18 That we never never never forget the few things we heard today. And give us faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, honesty to acknowledge where we have come short. You We know you love honest people. And that if we are honest you will lead 1:15:38 us into this godly life. I pray [clears throat] it will be true for many who are sitting here who I believe are really sincere. And otherwise they wouldn't have come to this church. Help them, Lord, to come into this life 1:15:50 so that you can build a strong body here that testifies to the truth of this new covenant life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
