Last Wednesday, we considered something about the New
Covenant and since I'm going to be here
for a few weeks, I thought I'd take
a series about the New Covenant.
So I'll continue today and then on this
Wednesday and next Sunday and so on.
The reason is because my observation in the
last 32 years that we've been operating as
a church is I've traveled to many parts
of India and been in many churches in
many countries.
This is my personal observation.
I haven't been to every church in the
world.
I've not met every Christian in the world.
But among those I have met, 95%
of born-again believers don't have a clue
about what the New Covenant is.
And even some who understand it in their
heads do not live in it.
I'll give you one example.
If you lived in it, you'd never be
depressed.
It's true.
Never.
There's a command in the Bible called, Rejoice
in the Lord always.
Always means, in today's language, 24-7.
There was no such command under the Old
Covenant.
You never find that in the Old Testament
because nobody could obey it.
Where is it found?
It is found in the New Testament.
How many Christians have you met in your
life who can say, that is true in
my life?
There is my proof.
95% of Christians do not live in
the New Covenant at all.
They know a lot of truth.
Their head is filled with knowledge.
But it's like these babies who've got hydrocephalus,
a huge head and small body.
They don't live long.
I want to warn you, the New Covenant
is not about knowledge.
It's about life.
Many have knowledge, but few find the way
to life.
Many who have knowledge are on the broad
way.
The two trees in the Garden of Eden
symbolize the two covenants, the law and grace.
Who gave the law?
God.
Who planted the tree of knowledge of good
and evil?
God.
Who planted the tree of life?
God.
Who gives grace?
God.
Who gave the law?
God.
And yet he said, if you live by
it, you'll die.
Who planted the tree of knowledge of good
and evil?
God.
And he said, if you eat of it,
you'll die.
Exactly the same.
Those two trees symbolize two principles by which
you can live your life.
And many people say, how can God send
good people to hell?
The point is not whether they were good
or not.
The point is according to God's standard, did
they have life?
In other words, did they live a life
of faith and dependence upon God?
Or were they good according to their own
knowledge of good and evil?
When some people say, think that they are
good, it's because they got two percent in
mathematics in a class where everybody else got
zero or one.
They're good.
Not good according to God's standards.
Not at all.
That's why the Bible says those who compare
themselves with each other are spiritual idiots.
That's a paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 10 verse
12.
Those who compare themselves with each other.
Absolutely foolish.
If you want to compare yourself, my dear
brothers and sisters, let me give you one
bit of advice.
It'll save you from all pride for the
rest of your life.
If you want to compare yourself, compare yourself
with Jesus.
Full stop.
That's it.
And with nobody else.
Many problems in our lives are solved when
we compare ourselves with Jesus.
We never get discouraged.
Because when you look at him, he never
discourages anybody.
So, Adam reached for knowledge and all the
children of Adam reached for knowledge.
Adam didn't die because he killed Eve or
spat on her face or called her some
bad name.
You know why he died?
Because he wanted to have the knowledge of
good and evil himself.
Decide himself what is good and evil.
And when you decide yourself what is good
and evil, you die.
That is the old covenant.
Have you understood the meaning of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil now?
When you choose to decide yourself what is
good and what is evil, you die.
When you decide yourself what television program is
good and what is evil, according to your
understanding, you die.
And unfortunately, your children die too.
Because you make them watch it.
When you decide yourself what books are good
to read and what are not good to
read, you die.
And your children die too.
And you're the cause of their death.
When you decide yourself what type of conversation
is good and what type is bad, you'll
die.
That was Adam's problem.
He wanted, that's what the devil wanted him
to do.
The devil didn't tempt him to murder Eve.
No.
The devil didn't tempt him to tell a
lie to Eve.
The devil is so sharp and so clever.
He told him something which looked so innocent.
Just like he tells you.
What's wrong in knowing good and evil?
What's wrong in yourself deciding what is good
and evil?
Oh, how plausible that argument sounds to clever
people.
And Adam was very clever.
He said, yeah, that sounds reasonable.
Just like you say, and Adam died and
you die.
The law never brings life.
And that's what the Old Testament law did.
It told people, this is good, this is
evil.
Honor your father and mother, good.
Committing murder, evil.
Don't take the name of the Lord in
vain.
If you don't take the Lord's name in
vain, that's good.
If you commit adultery, that's evil.
The whole Ten Commandments is just a list
of good and evil.
It's a tree of knowledge of good and
evil.
What did it bring?
Death.
Then why did God give it?
For a number of reasons.
One, to show man his sin.
To show man that he was incapable of
ever reaching God's standards.
And to show man that you can never
save yourself, no matter how hard you try.
So it is a preparation for grace.
You know, they say when these people who
are lifeguards on the seaside, they are taught,
when you see a man who doesn't know
swimming, drowning, don't go to help him when
he's struggling initially.
No, he will drag you down.
Let him struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle and
give up and begin to sink.
That's the time to go and catch him
because he's exhausted.
Otherwise, he'll drag you down.
It's true.
You have to wait till the guy has
struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled and
struggled and said, given up, then you go
and save him.
It's exactly like that, that the Lord saves
us too.
We try to keep the law.
We struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle.
And those are honest.
There are very few.
Those who are honest say, I can't make
it, Lord.
I give up.
And the Lord saves them by grace.
But those who are not honest and the
vast majority are like that.
They struggle, struggle, struggle, fail, but they will
not admit that they are failing.
They become hypocrites.
They were the Pharisees who never got saved.
There are multitudes of them in today's churches,
multitudes.
In fact, the vast majority.
There are no Pharisees out in the world
who don't go to the churches.
No, you'll never find a worldly Pharisee.
You'll find worldly Christians, but not worldly Pharisees.
Pharisees are the ones who are knowledge of
the Bible and all that.
But you haven't got a contact with God.
What is the tree of life?
The tree of life is a life of
dependence on God, where his life flows into
you.
Like Jesus said, the branch in a tree,
where the sap, the Holy Spirit flows into
you.
It's not something you produce.
It's not something that you're determined to have.
It's something God gives.
And God gives it to those who are
humble enough to say, Lord, I can't make
it.
I depend on you exactly like that branch
in the tree.
And there's no guarantee that you'll be like
that forever.
After five, ten years, you may think, I've
got enough experience now.
I can pull out from the tree and
decide what's good and evil on my own.
And that's how many believers backslide and die
again.
It's a feat if you remain in the
tree till the end of your life.
If we endure until the end, we will
be saved.
We can.
Isn't it much easier to live in helpless
dependence on God than to try and run
your own life?
Isn't it much easier to be a one
-year-old child whose father cares for you
than for you to run your own life?
That's why Jesus said we must be like
children, dependent on the father, humble enough to
acknowledge that we know nothing.
You find many believers like that?
Very few.
But those are the ones who found life.
Humble dependence on God as a loving father.
That is the new covenant.
And God had to prepare people for many
years to come to that place, particularly through
the tenth commandment.
You know, man could keep all the nine
commandments, but he couldn't keep the tenth.
Because the tenth commandment was you shall not
lust in your heart, and nobody could keep
it.
That's why when Jesus spoke to the rich
young ruler, he listed all the commandments but
left out the tenth.
Have you noticed that in Mark 10?
And the rich ruler said, what shall I
do to have eternal life?
He said, you know what the law says,
you must honor your father and mother, you
must keep the Sabbath, you must honor your
father and mother, don't kill, don't commit adultery,
all the commandments related to man, five of
them.
He said, I kept all of these.
And Jesus purposely left out the tenth.
And when he said, I've kept all of
these, then Jesus said, okay, now I'll tell
you about the tenth.
Give your money away.
He said, no.
That's where they failed.
And that's where you and I fail.
Where we have a lust for something which
God does not want us to have a
lust for.
Could be a woman, could be money, could
be property, could be anything.
Could be your job.
And the only thing we should have a
strong desire for is God himself.
Who keeps the tenth commandment?
Nobody.
And those who are honest enough to acknowledge
that enter into the new covenant.
Nobody else.
Those who pretend that they are keeping it
will live forever under that delusion and fool
everybody else and may end up in hell.
But those who are humble enough to say,
Lord, I can't keep it.
I failed.
No matter how hard I try, I'll still
fail.
I'll be better than others.
I may be better than people in other
churches.
And I may be pretty good compared to
what I was in the past, but I'll
never rise up to your standard.
I give up.
Lord, I want to humbly depend on you.
He forgives us, cleanses us, and leads us
into the new covenant.
So, that's why God allows all of us
to go through a period of struggling under
the law and being defeated, depressed, discouraged, losing
our temper, lusting with our eyes, watching internet
pornography.
All this is evil.
Getting addicted to these things, behaving well in
the church and behaving badly at home.
That's the mark of a hypocrite.
That's the definition of a Pharisee.
One who behaves well in the church and
behaves badly at home.
So, if that definition fits you, you're a
Pharisee.
But the Lord came to save Pharisees if
they acknowledge their need.
Not if they don't.
If you don't acknowledge your need, he doesn't
save anybody.
He doesn't ask you to be perfect, but
he asks you to be honest.
To say, Lord, I'm a hypocrite.
You know that no Pharisee would have been
lost if they had just said, Lord, I'm
a hypocrite.
But it's so difficult to say it.
I mean, do you find it easy to
say that?
Would you get up in the presence of
those who respect you and say, I have
to acknowledge I've been a hypocrite.
Boy, that'll deflate you, but it'll probably save
you too.
That is God's way of salvation.
He doesn't save those who are high up
in their own thinking, but those who come
down to earth and acknowledge their failure and
their sin.
And that's why in preparation for this message
of the new covenant, God sent a prophet
called John the Baptist.
You know, as soon as the pages of
the Old Testament are over and you come
to the pages of the New Testament, you
see this prophet coming straight away.
And this prophet was to prepare people for
receiving Christ and to enter into the new
covenant.
And the message of this prophet is the
message that we need as a preparation to
enter into the new covenant.
So that's why it's very important to understand
the message of John the Baptist, because that
was the preparation for Christ.
And that is the preparation for us also
to enter into the new covenant.
So let's turn to Matthew's Gospel in chapter
3, where we read of the ministry of
this man called John the Baptist.
For nearly 350 years, Israel did not have
a prophet, or perhaps 400 years approximately.
Malachi was the last one.
And you know, he said that the last
word he spoke in his prophecy was curse.
I'll smite the land with a curse.
That was the last word God spoke for
400 years.
So that's why they had something to meditate
on for 400 years.
It was this.
I'll smite the land with a curse.
That's how the Old Testament ends.
And then comes this prophet, John the Baptist.
And he says, repent.
Verse 2, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
I want you to notice two things there,
which you may not have noticed before.
Repent is a 180 degree turn.
It's turning right around from your old direction.
It's not 25 degrees.
It's not giving up, just gambling and drinking
and dancing and things like that.
Okay, that's good.
That's not repentance.
Repentance is a 180 degree turn.
There are a lot of things you can
give up and not fully repent.
There are a lot of things you give
up.
You give up smoking.
Well, that's bad for you in any case.
Good thing you give it up.
Drinking, that's bad for you in any case.
Good sin is basically wanting your own way.
That's one definition of sin.
My will.
And if you want to know what God
thinks of your will.
You know, our personality consists of our intelligence,
our feelings and our will.
But our will is what we really are.
Because it's with our will we choose to
do certain things.
And if you want to know what God
thinks of this thing called my will, the
Bible calls it the old man, by the
way.
God killed it on the cross.
The old man that was crucified with Christ
on the cross.
If you never got a revelation on it
till today, here it is.
It is your self-will.
You're wanting your own way.
When it says in Romans 6, our old
man was crucified with him, wanting your own
way was crucified with Christ.
God condemned it to death, telling you what
he thinks of your will.
All you got to do is agree with
him.
Romans 6, 11 says, reckon yourself to be
dead.
That means, let me paraphrase those words for
you in Romans 6, the whole of Romans
6.
You can take time to read it sometime.
Because that's the secret of the new covenant.
You're wanting your own way.
God thinks it's good for nothing, must be
put to death.
Lord, I agree with it.
I accept it.
That is to be crucified with Christ.
Then what do we do then?
Lord, I want your will in my life.
That is repentance.
That is why John the Baptist says, I
baptize you unto repentance.
And that's why in Romans 6, crucifying the
old man and burying it is called, is
testified to in baptism.
There's a close connection.
Many people go through baptism without knowing what
it means.
It's just a ritual for them.
You are testifying there that your old man
was buried, that you don't want your own
will.
I mean, you think, go to the cemetery
and see how many people are doing their
own will over there.
Not even one.
They're finished with doing their own will.
They're finished with wanting their own way.
Once they died, other people decided where they
would be buried, how they would be buried
and whatever.
They're finished.
My question is, have you died?
In the Old Testament, you didn't have to
die.
All you had to do is listen to
some preacher and go and try and improve
your life a little bit after that.
And you can come to CFC and listen
to some preacher and improve your life after
that.
You'll just be an old covenant Christian.
But if you die to your will, you'll
be a new covenant Christian.
So, repentance means a death to your will
because it's our will with which we chose
to fight with people, to argue with people,
to shout at people, to shout at your
husband, to shout at your wife and whatever
you do, and to be nasty and bitter
and gossip.
It's all your will.
You choose your will.
I'm going to do that.
Even people take advantage of the blood of
Christ.
Oh, well, I can always go to God
and ask him to forgive me afterwards.
Amazing.
They treat the blood of Christ like tap
water.
I can always wash my hands.
It's so.
Can you imagine a greater insult than treating
the blood of Christ like soap?
Ah, it doesn't matter.
I can always wash my hands.
Would you dirty your hands if soap cost
100,000 rupees a little bar?
No, you'd be more careful.
When we value the blood of Christ, we
are more careful with sin.
It's easy to repent.
It's easy to repent when you see the
price that Jesus paid to save you from
your sin.
The fundamental problem with the vast majority of
Christians, and I say even here in CFC,
is you have not valued the blood of
Christ and seen what price he paid to
save you from your sin.
I didn't see it for many years after
I was born again.
I was careless with my words.
I used to be angry at home with
other people.
Rude.
Oh, how it has changed since I saw
the price Jesus paid for my sin.
There is a verse of a hymn, a
poem, that I repeat to myself many times,
which goes like this.
Ever when tempted, make me see.
Beneath the olive's moon-pierced shade, my God
alone, outstretched and bruised and bleeding on the
earth He made, and make me feel it
was my sin, as though no other sins
were there.
That was to Him who bears the world,
a load that He could scarcely bear.
That was to my sin, that was to
Him who bears the world, a load that
He could scarcely bear.
Lord, make me see that.
That was written by Frederick Faber, the man
who wrote, My God, How Wonderful Thou Art.
You know, if there's anything that's helped me
to repent, it is seeing the price that
Jesus paid for my sin.
When I was born again, one of the
first things I did frequently was meditate on
the cross of Calvary, because that's where God
manifested His love.
There was no such thing that people could
meditate on in the Old Testament.
They could only meditate on the law.
Wonderful things in the law, but nothing like
the cross of Calvary.
Think what we can meditate on.
It changed my life to meditate on God's
love for me, and as I meditated through
the years, I began to get revelations on
what Jesus suffered there, which I never heard
or read in my whole life.
I mean, I never knew that Jesus suffered
three hours of hell on the cross when
He was forsaken by God.
It became a revelation to me.
What do you think that made my attitude
to sin?
When I realized that I crucified Him.
Like they sing in that chorus or song,
I hear my voice among the mockers saying,
Crucify Him, Crucify Him, and I hear my
voice there.
Have you heard your voice saying, Crucify Him?
Have you heard it?
It will really change your attitude to sin.
The New Covenant has all got to do
with sin.
And in that connection, let me turn you
to Matthew chapter 1.
As soon as you finish the pages of
the Old Testament, and you come into the
pages of the New Testament, the very first
promise, which is never found in the Old
Testament.
Three quarters of your Bible is the Old
Testament, but you don't find this promise there.
It could not be found because nobody could
do it.
Matthew 1.21, You shall call His name
Jesus, for He will save His people from
their sins.
First promise in the New Testament.
Now today, there are many preachers, Christian preachers,
who are telling you, come to Jesus and
He'll make you rich, He'll give you a
house, He'll give you a car, He'll give
you a job, He'll give you this, that,
and the other.
Well, you won't hear that from me, because
I'm not interested in enlarging my congregation.
I'm interested in getting people to be disciples
of Jesus Christ.
I'm trying to show people the narrow gate
that leads to life.
Not to increase the size of my church.
It's all honor-seeking.
And so, I preach what the New Testament
says.
Come to Jesus and die to your self
-will.
And He will save you from your sins.
Which is the most important thing to be
saved from.
It's good to be saved from poverty, but
it's not the most important thing.
I can live with poverty, I'll tell you
honestly.
I have done it also, the early days
of our marriage.
But I can't live with sin.
I can live with sickness, but I can't
live with sin.
Health and wealth are not the most important
thing to me.
Holiness is.
Because Jesus didn't come to make me healthy
or wealthy, He came to make me holy.
That's why the first promise in the New
Testament has got nothing to do with health,
nothing to do with wealth, nothing to do
with comfort, nothing to do with your getting
a job, nothing to do with healing your
backache, but with saving you from your sin.
And I'll tell you something else.
God is so good.
When we seek His kingdom first, that's in
Matthew 6.33, and His righteousness, that means
His holiness.
I say, Lord, I want to be holy
as You are.
Some of these other things that the Gentiles
eagerly seek after get added Enough money to
live.
That's all I want in any case.
Enough health to live and move around.
That's all I want in any case.
I never pray, Lord, make me as strong
as I was when I was 30 years
old.
Give me the same clear vision I had
when I was 10 years old.
No, I never pray such things.
I pray, Lord, give me enough money to
live, and give me enough health to do
Your work.
If I have a few aches and pains,
and I get a little weaker in my
body, that's okay.
But save me from sin.
There should be no smell of sin in
my life.
There should be no smell of selfishness or
pride, or the love of money or bitterness
in my life.
Nobody should ever see me in a bad
mood 24 hours of the day.
I never want to be in a bad
mood.
I want to be a blessing to other
people.
How can you be a blessing to other
people if you are in a bad mood
sometimes?
You think you could ever catch Jesus in
a bad mood?
Do you believe the Bible says in 1
John 2.6, you can walk as Jesus
walked?
That is the New Covenant.
If you want a definition of the New
Covenant, life, it is 1 John 2.6,
walking as Jesus walked.
If that's not your goal in life, I
want to say to you right now, you
will understand everything I say, but you will
never in a hundred years enter the New
Covenant.
But I can tell you another thing.
All those here, it doesn't matter who you
are, even if you have converted yesterday.
If your goal in life is to walk
as Jesus walked, you will understand and live
in the New Covenant pretty soon.
It may take time, but you will enter
it.
For the rest, you will just increase in
knowledge.
Because God is the rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him.
And the Bible has told us what we
are to seek Him for.
His name is Jesus, who came to save
us from our sins.
And the Bible says, every prayer we pray,
we must pray in the name of Jesus.
Right?
So imagine praying a prayer like this.
Father, in the name of Jesus who came
to save me from my sin, please give
me money.
Let's have a prayer like that.
In the name of Jesus who came to
save me from my sin, give me a
bigger house.
I'll tell you what you should pray in
the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus who came to
save you from your sin, Lord, save me
from my sin.
The other things will be added.
And I'm not telling you theory.
I've experienced that for 40 years.
Shall I tell you boldly, with Jesus Christ
standing right in front of me as a
witness.
For 40 years, I have never gone after
money.
Not once.
Not in my secular work.
Not in my Christian work.
And Lord, you're a witness to what I
say right now.
I've never starved.
My children have never starved.
I pursued holiness and I found God has
added all the other things.
The same thing we found in our church.
We don't send reports anywhere.
We don't send photographs of our work.
So many people ask me when I travel
different places.
Brother Zach, do you have some needs in
your church?
I say no needs.
Absolutely none.
God meets all our needs.
Won't you tell us?
No, I won't tell you.
Sorry.
People have asked me, Brother, if you want
to give me some money.
Well, that's up to you, but send it
to the church.
But I'm not going to tell you what
our need is.
I say that only to God, because I've
said it only to God for the last
41 years.
I mean, if your father is the richest
man in the world, can you imagine some
beggar on the street asking you, do you
want some money?
And you say, can you give me those
two pies from your tin can?
This is how a lot of Christian workers
are.
I'll tell you why.
Because God is not their father.
Some imaginary God is their father.
My God is the real God who rules
heaven and earth, who says all the silver
and the gold is mine.
My dear brothers and sisters, the new covenant
is the reality.
If you're eager, you got to repent of
your old way of life.
The old things you pursued.
And say, Lord, I don't want to pursue
them anymore.
I want to turn around from that and
seek your kingdom and your righteousness all my
days.
You will not be a loser.
I tell you that.
You'll be a loser if you seek after
other things.
Never get into debt.
I can stand today and say, in 67
years, I've never been in debt a single
day of my life.
I've never bought things on credit.
If I can afford it, I buy it.
If I can't afford it, I don't buy
it.
That's it.
And I'm a very happy man.
You tell me all of you fellows who
are in debt for this, that and the
other, whether you are happy, whether you can
sleep peacefully at night.
You can't.
Because you crave for things you did not
have enough money for.
Ah, little more there, little more there.
Oh, it's tragic.
Have you heard that old Russian story of
one of those Russian kings who one day
said, I'm going to have a competition here
that all those who start at sunrise and
start running and cover a huge circle of
land by sunset, they can have that land
freely.
Boy, wouldn't you like to take part in
that race?
And that was this guy who started running
at sunrise to get as much property as
he can.
Ran and ran and ran and ran and
ran and ran and came pretty close to
sunset.
And there was that other bit of property
also he wanted to get.
I mean, he had already got square miles.
He wasn't satisfied.
He wanted that other bit of property.
He was exhausted about to fall, drop down.
He said, I've got to get that other
bit.
And he got that other bit just before
sunset and dropped dead.
And they say, how much land does a
man need when he's dead?
Six feet by about two and a half
feet.
That's what he got.
I've seen people like that.
That little bit more.
You know what regret you're going to have
when you reach heaven?
Because you did not put God first.
You did not put his kingdom first.
Who are the ones who enter into the
new covenant?
Those who say, God, you're going to be
first in my life.
You're going to be first in my life.
There's a verse in Deuteronomy which is paraphrased
in the Living Bible as God teaches you
to tithe your income to teach you to
put God first.
To put him first in money matters.
A man who has not put God first
in money matters, let me say to anyone
of you, has not put God first anywhere.
Don't fool yourself.
Don't fool yourself that God is first in
your life if God is not first in
money matters.
God is not the one who determines every
area of money matters in your life.
You're fooling yourself when you say, but I
go to church.
So did the Pharisees.
But I read the Bible.
So did the Pharisees.
But I fast and pray.
So did the Pharisees.
And they all went to hell.
There's nothing that tests our devotion to God
like our attitude to money.
There was no verse in the Old Testament
that said you could not love God and
money.
That is a New Testament verse.
It's a New Covenant verse.
You can't enter into half the New Covenant
and neglect other parts of the New Covenant.
That's what Jesus said about people who've taken
a new patch of cotton cloth not shrunk.
You know how cotton cloth has to be
put in water and shrunk.
You don't do that and stitch it to
an old washed cotton pant or something and
then you wash it, it tears.
Because a new cloth shrinks.
What Jesus is saying, you can't take...
I like this part of the New Covenant.
I like that in my life.
And this other thing and I get four
or five patches of the New Covenant and
try to patch it to my life which
loves money and wants things of the world.
It doesn't work.
Jesus said you've got to throw away the
whole old garment and get a new one.
I'll tell you, you won't be the loser.
Your children won't be the loser either.
No, you must be a living testimony at
the end of your life that those who
seek the Kingdom of God first have all
other things added to them.
That was my longing years ago.
I said, Lord, I want to end my
life demonstrating to an unbelieving generation that those
who seek the Kingdom of God first and
His righteousness have all other things added to
them.
And then as time went on, I had
one more goal.
I said, Lord, not only that.
I want to raise up at least a
few other people in my life before I
die who also have that testimony.
Not just me.
Who also can say, I sought God's Kingdom
first and His righteousness and things went well
in my life and my family.
I began to see a little bit of
it.
I say to all of you young people,
make that your goal.
Don't make it your goal to be the
biggest person in the world or the richest
person or any such stupid thing.
But that at the end of your life
and you are beginning your life now.
And if you don't have the right goal
now, you'll go astray like some of the
older people you see around you.
Don't just drift along in life.
When I was in the Navy, you know,
there used to be strong currents and winds
in the sea.
We used to see sometimes a big piece
of wood lying in the sea.
It had no sense of direction, but it
was moving.
Sometimes it would move in this direction.
And then the waves would change and move
in the other direction.
And that reminds me of a lot of
Christians.
They are moving, but there is no sense
of direction in them.
It's like a bit of driftwood.
Here, there, everywhere.
You don't know where they'll be tomorrow.
You don't know which shore they will land
on.
I don't know.
But our ships were not like that.
We didn't let the ship drift here, there,
everywhere.
No, we'd be in a collision.
We determined, I've got to get there and
I've got to get there by tomorrow evening
at 4 o'clock.
That's it.
And we got there by the next evening
at 4 o'clock.
Because we decided, we are going to fight
these winds and waves and get where we
want to go.
The new covenant is for people like that.
Not those who are just drifting along with
the currents of the world.
You know, whatever people say and all.
No.
You must have a sense of purpose in
your life.
Repent means you turn around from that selfish,
self-centered way of life and say, Lord,
You are first in my life.
The other thing I want to show you
in Matthew chapter 3.
There are two things I want you to
see in that verse 2.
One is repent.
Repent means turn around.
You see, unfortunately, this word repent, it's not
understood properly in English because we don't use
that word much.
Most people don't know what repentance means.
You ask the average Christian what repentance means.
Oh, I should feel sorry for my sin.
I must weep a little.
I must feel bad.
No, no, no.
That's all the extras.
But what is real repentance?
What is at the heart of it?
What is at the core of it?
Even the Malayalam translation is not good.
The Hindi translation is not good.
The best translation I found is in Tamil.
Manan Tirambal which means your mind must turn
around.
That is repentance.
You have a different direction your mind is
thinking.
You think in a different way now about
sin, about God.
It's a 180 degree turn.
That's repentance.
And if we, you know words like this,
repentance, baptism and all.
We don't understand what it means because it
doesn't, we don't use those words in regular
language.
Do you understand the word immersion?
You all understand that?
That is baptism.
They should have translated it like that.
But they didn't.
That's another story of religious deception practiced from
the 17th century onwards to promote sprinkling of
children.
I won't go into that now.
But these are words, repent.
It's another word like baptism.
Most people don't understand.
What does repent mean?
Have you seen it?
See it today as an about turn.
180 degrees not 90 degrees, 180 degrees.
Lord my all those values I had are
changed.
Now how do you know what your values
were?
Your values are the values of the world.
Look at any worldly person and see what
he is eagerly seeking after.
You know I like that phrase in Matthew
6.
The phrase that Jesus uses, Matthew 6 it
helps me.
Verse 32, Matthew 6 32.
The Gentiles means the non-Christians eagerly seek
for these things.
It's not just the 2-3 things listed
there.
There are many things that non-Christians the
world eagerly seeks.
I've tried to make a mental list you
can write it down also if you like.
Of all the things which the world non
-Christians eagerly seek.
You don't need me to tell you.
You know what people in the world seek.
Money sex comfort pleasure sinful or otherwise position
power to have a name even after one
is dead that one was a great man.
Is there anybody in the world who doesn't
seek for these things?
I mean even a beggar he would have
the opportunity to seek for these things.
Bigger house better car, more cars etc.
They seek after these things.
Some of these things are sinful some of
them are not.
But the world eagerly seeks after these things
and the Lord said don't do it.
Let these be added to you as you
spend your time eagerly seeking verse 33 kingdom
of God and holiness.
See there's a law in God's dealings with
man that it's only those who seek Him
with all their heart.
Jeremiah 29 verse 13.
Who seek Him with all their heart who
will find Him.
The others won't find Him.
So if you didn't find Him it's because
you didn't seek with all your heart and
you didn't seek with all your heart because
you didn't think it was so important.
You know people who don't seek for the
fullness of the Holy Spirit with all their
heart chances are they'll never be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Do you think God's going to fill somebody
with the Holy Spirit who doesn't value the
Holy Spirit?
Do you think God's going to lead somebody
into the new covenant who doesn't value the
new covenant?
You've heard me use this example.
If you lost 50 paise a coin I
used to say 5 paise now 50 paise
is just about the same value.
If you lost 50 paise a coin in
the night when you're walking along the grass
somewhere and you discover it 5 minutes later
how long will you spend looking for that
50 paise a coin in the grass in
the dark?
What do you say?
5 hours?
1 hour?
15 minutes?
I doubt even 5 minutes.
Why?
After all it's only 50 paise.
I can't spend all my time looking for
that.
But supposing your office had entrusted you with
200,000 rupees in cash which you have
to take somewhere else tomorrow and in your
hurry you misplaced it somewhere how long would
you spend looking for that?
15 minutes?
Say oh it's only 200,000 rupees it's
ok.
You see the difference?
You take leave the next day from work.
You won't sleep the night.
You shall seek me and find me says
the Lord when you search for me with
all your heart.
When you treat God like a 50 paise
a coin, no wonder you don't find him.
When you seek for the fullness of the
Holy Spirit like a 50 paise a coin,
no wonder you don't get filled with the
Holy Spirit even after 20-30 years of
praying for it.
I tell you, you won't find it in
the next 20-30 years.
You don't understand and enter into the new
covenant life even after listening to it for
20 years, well you won't enter it for
the next 20 years because you're treated like
a 50 paise a coin.
When it becomes everything to you.
You know why Sadhu Sundar Singh had a
vision of Jesus when he was 14 or
15 years old that turned him from his
religion to Christ because he was so desperate
to find God.
So desperate.
His mother used to take him to a
little guru as a young person and he
wanted to know about God God and his
mother died and he didn't know which is
the true God and he said I'm so
desperate, I've got to find you before 5
o'clock this morning otherwise I'm going to
put my head on the rails now, don't
say things like that because we've got more
light than he had in his day but
he was not one who knew the Bible
suicide is not the answer I'm just trying
to say how desperate he was and I've
asked myself, have I ever sought God so
desperately that I'd rather die than not get
to know him Boy!
If I did, maybe I'll also be having
visions like Sadhu Sundar Singh and you will
too You see how weak our longing for
God is and we wonder how these great
men of God lived the life they lived
accomplished what they accomplished why God gave them
gifts to serve him which he never gives
you and you always excuse yourself by saying,
ah, but I don't have that gift well,
that's because God didn't feel you were worthy
enough to give it to that's all you
can excuse yourself all your life like that
but you may discover in heaven that God
wanted to give you some gifts but you
never sought him wholeheartedly for it.
The Bible says, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts
that's the verse 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1,
earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
A person who is earnestly desiring something else
not surprising he doesn't get spiritual gifts because
he's not so passionate to serve God How
passionate are you to serve God?
Lord, I can't serve you without the supernatural
gifts of the Holy Spirit I remember when
I started preaching I'd never, I was scared
to stand in public, I was never took
part in public speaking competitions in my life
I was just shy and reserved and withdrawn
you think I'm bluffing, it's true ask people
who knew me when I was 15, 16,
17 and I was so reserved and shy
and timid and when I got selected to
the National Defense Academy, my classmates said, hey
you going to defend our country?
that's what they said, that's what they thought
of me but when God filled me with
the Holy Spirit, it was completely different it
changed me, it says, you'll be turned into
another man that's the answer I would not
dream of trying to live on this earth
a single day now without being filled with
the Holy Spirit I'd never dream of getting
into a pulpit to speak for even 5
minutes without being filled with the Holy Spirit,
I'd waste people's time and I'd waste God's
time and I'd waste my time and I
don't want to do that it's serious business
you think a surgeon who's doing a delicate
brain operation in a theater is doing a
more important job than I'm doing here you
got to be crazy to believe that the
maximum he can do is kill that man,
if I don't preach the true truth I
can send people to hell that man may
die and go to heaven if I don't
preach the truth up here, clearly people can
go to hell, believing me I'll make sure
nobody goes there unless he chooses to go
there himself, dear brothers and sisters, the new
covenant is a wonderful life you can enter
into it, there's no partiality with God, and
you don't need to be educated, Peter didn't
come first in his class, he probably failed
in a few classes, he was a fisherman
but he entered into the new covenant, and
you can it's not how clever you are
it's got nothing to do with clever, you
can be clever like Paul, he came first
in his class he can be a child
of God too, you can be clever or
stupid, it makes no difference, you got to
have a heart that longs for God it
doesn't matter what your head is like the
second thing I want to show you here
is repent and the kingdom of heaven that's
the second thing I want to say about
the new covenant the new covenant is about
the kingdom of heaven and not the kingdom
of earth so when John the Baptist got
up and said, turn around he was talking
to people who for 1500 years from the
days of Moses had heard about a kingdom
of earth you got it?
1500 years, every preacher they ever heard, every
prophet they ever heard, had told them if
you follow God, you'll get a land for
yourself I know you were all slaves in
Egypt, but you'll get a land, and when
you get into that land, God will give
you plenty in your fields you'll prosper in
your fields and you'll get plenty of money,
and all your earthly enemies will be killed
whoever they are and you'll have these are
the things people want, all my earthly enemies
should be killed or they should suffer at
least and I should have plenty of money
and a land and a house that's what
they said, you'll have all this and you'll
also have plenty of children, because people don't
ask for that nowadays, but that was also
part of the promise many things like this
earthly, earthly, earthly, earthly and then John the
Baptist comes in, a new prophet with a
new message turn around from this kingdom of
earth pursuit for the kingdom of heaven it
hasn't yet come, but it is near it
is near it hasn't come they locked up
John the Baptist they usually lock up people
who preach like that it says in chapter
4 verse 12, people don't like that type
of preaching if John the Baptist had gone
to Herod and said God will make you
rich brother Herod, God will give you health
and bless you do you think Herod would
have locked him up?
he preached against his sin it's not popular
to preach against sin, neither then nor now
so when he got locked up, you know
what Jesus did?
Jesus said, ok verse 17, I'm going to
preach the same thing verse 17, repent for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand as
soon as one voice is silenced there's another
voice all these 2,000 years it's been
like that every voice that tells people to
seek God's kingdom is silenced, either by death,
because nobody lives forever somebody preaches it for
many years and dies, God raises up another
voice, somewhere maybe just one voice saying turn
around from the kingdom of earth everybody's preaching
the kingdom of earth, kingdom of earth kingdom
of earth we have floods of voices today
they're telling us about earthly experiences and earthly
blessings and earthly things, Christendom has got no
shortage of it, if you don't believe it
go and turn on Christian television and see
every single preacher is preaching that or they're
asking you for your money, one of the
two where are the people who are telling
you to turn from that and seek holiness
first where are the John the Baptists but
God will always have a voice, I'll tell
you that in every generation you can silence
it or it may be silenced by death
but God will raise up somebody else it'll
always be true, God has never left himself
without a witness in two thousand years and
those who have ears to hear will respond
to that voice so remember these two things
about the new covenant and they're both linked
to each other and we'll think more about
it further this week in the coming weeks,
it's a turning around from the earth and
having my own way to seeking God's will
and seeking the kingdom of God first and
His holiness and those who were interested in
it responded, there were very few remember at
the end of the preaching of the greatest
preacher that ever walked on this earth Jesus
Christ, he did not have a mega church
of thirty thousand people he had a hundred
and twenty people waiting for the Holy Spirit
on the day of Pentecost, that was the
coming of the kingdom of God the kingdom
of God came on the day of Pentecost
Jesus said that, let me show you that
verse, in Mark chapter 9, we'll close with
that Mark chapter 9 verse 1 Jesus said
truly I say to you there are some
people standing here not everybody some will die,
but some who are standing here will not
die until they have seen the kingdom of
God after it has come with power that's
not referring to the day when the kingdom
of God floods the whole earth no, it
was the day when the kingdom of God
first came to earth and some of those
people standing there did not die till the
day of Pentecost came couple of years later
within those two years some people died, but
not everyone, that's what he was saying that
came on the day of Pentecost that power,
which is mentioned here, is the same power
that Jesus spoke about in Acts 1.8,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you and
you will receive power when you connect it
with Mark 9.1, you realize it is
power to live for the kingdom of God,
power to seek the kingdom of God, not
power to get a name for myself as
a preacher or a healer or any such
thing no, but to enter God's kingdom and
to lead others into God's kingdom do you
want this life?
I hope you do well, you are all
invited if you are willing to pay the
price let's bow our heads for a moment
of prayer please be reverent in God's presence
and if God has spoken to you I
want to invite you to respond to what
you have heard respond to what you have
heard we shut our eyes only to avoid
being distracted so that you can concentrate on
things that God wants you to deal with
in your life Lord I want to live
a worthwhile life on this earth I have
only one life and a lot of that
life is already over at least of the
years that are left to me Lord help
me to live for the things that are
eternal we pray in Jesus name Amen