We were looking at the two great mysteries
mentioned in the New Testament, and we saw
the first one, 1 Timothy 3.16, the
mystery of godliness.
I just want to say a few words
before moving on to the second mystery, and
that is, there is an opposite or a
counterfeit to everything that God does.
And idolatry and heathen religions that have a
trinity are all examples of these counterfeits.
And just like there is a mystery of
godliness, which is a great thing, the Bible
speaks in 2 Thessalonians 2.7 of a
mystery of iniquity.
The mystery of iniquity is the opposite of
the mystery of godliness.
The mystery of godliness is that Jesus Christ
came in our flesh and lived a pure
and holy life, and now seeks to come
and dwell in us, and through the power
of the Holy Spirit, manifest that same life
of God through us.
That is what God wants to do.
And in the measure in which the Holy
Spirit is able to manifest the life of
Christ through you and me, in that measure,
God has succeeded in fulfilling his purpose.
And in the measure in which you restrict
or hinder the life of Christ from being
manifest through you, in that measure, you are
frustrating the purpose of God on earth.
The mystery of iniquity is where people use
religious language and appear to be leading you
to God.
It speaks here in 2 Thessalonians 2 about
the Antichrist who sits in the temple and
displays himself as being God.
He is filled with the devil, but he
doesn't say, I am the devil manifest in
flesh.
No.
He says, I am God manifest in flesh.
Remember when Eve, we were thinking of that
day before yesterday evening, when Eve was tempted
to sin, the devil didn't say, you'll become
like the devil if you eat that.
You know what he told her?
You'll become like God.
So Eve wanted to become like God.
That's how she sinned.
Do you know that you can sin when
you want to become like God?
When you want to become like God in
having authority over others, ruling over others, making
demands on others, then you sin.
Jesus also came with a message, you can
become like God in humility, in service, in
goodness.
It's a totally different message, even though the
words appear the same.
So here is the Antichrist who displays himself
as God, but he's actually possessed by the
devil.
He's the devil incarnate, the opposite of Christ.
And that's referred to here as the mystery
of iniquity, verse 7, where people use religious
language and appear to be leading you to
God, appear to be leading you to Christ,
use biblical language perhaps, but their life is
not the life of Jesus Christ.
So that's why we have to be very
careful in our day.
If you don't want to be deceived by
the mystery of iniquity, that you don't just
listen to a man's doctrine.
A man's doctrine being right proves what?
The devil's doctrine is right too.
What does it prove?
Does it prove he's worthy of being followed?
Not at all.
What about his life?
In our church, I tell people to use
three tests.
Is a man trying to control your life,
dominate you as an elder or a leader?
Beware of such people.
Stay miles away from such people.
Even if their doctrines are absolutely right, even
if they are powerful speakers, one who's got
the spirit of Christ will never want to
run your life, will never want to control
your life in any way.
He'll only want to wash your feet.
And when you want your feet to be
washed, he won't grab your feet and wash
them, even if you don't want them to
be washed.
There are people who do that, you know,
and say, well, I'm determined to wash your
feet.
I'm a servant.
He's a cult leader.
Don't follow him.
The second thing I say is, is he
interested in your money?
That's the second thing you need to ask
yourself.
Is he always asking you for money?
That disqualifies almost all these television preachers.
Is he interested in your money?
I never see Jesus once asking people to
give him money.
That is Christ manifest in the flesh.
I have believed that, practiced that, followed that
for over 27 years.
I want you to know that any money
you put here into a box or an
offering box may cover the cost of my
travel, but not one cent of it will
be used for my personal expenses.
Not one cent.
I take care of my own personal expenses.
And even Annie's travel, you take care of
that.
From the books and tapes here, I get
nothing.
No royalty from books, tapes, CDs.
Because I don't believe Jesus would have taken
royalty from books and tapes and CDs.
It's a very important area.
Money.
If we are not clear in that, that's
why Paul was so careful.
He was able to tell people, I was
not interested in your silver or gold, or
I didn't want you to give me clothes
or any such thing.
I came to serve you.
He said, nobody will rob me of this
boasting anywhere.
He was very clear on that.
And that's how I've sought to serve, because
I feel that I have to fight against
the spirit of the Antichrist, which seeks to
dominate people, which is interested in people's money.
And that's how our workers serve in India,
in our churches.
I myself have served in my church for
twenty-seven years, never taken one cent from
that church.
And our workers in our churches serve like
that too.
We seek to follow the Apostle Paul in
making tents and earning our living and serving
the Lord.
Any money that's used from church offering is
only used for travel or publication of books
or tapes, etc.
So that we have a very clear testimony,
which is a unique thing in India.
In fact, it's a unique thing everywhere in
the world.
But that's the second thing you need to
ask yourself.
Is that man interested in your money?
And the third thing I ask people to
be careful about is, does that man flatter
you with nice words to win your heart?
Beware of people who flatter you or seek
to dominate you or are interested in your
money.
There could be other warnings.
I don't know whether you've read a second
-century book called The Teachings of the Twelve
Apostles.
It's a little twelve-page booklet.
It's not Bible.
It's just a writing that's come down from
the second century.
One of the things that is written there
is that any man who asks you for
money is a false prophet.
That's the way they protected people in those
days, because they didn't have a Bible to
teach people what was right doctrine and wrong
doctrine.
So the only way to protect some fellow
who landed up there and said, well, Paul
sent me, or I was with the Apostle
John for many years, and now I'm a
servant of the Lord, was, the test was,
does he ask you for money?
And the second thing was, does he stay
too long in your house without doing any
work?
Send him out.
These lazy people who come and plonk themselves
somewhere and decide to stay for weeks on
end.
The apostles were very cut and dry about
these things because they wanted to protect God's
people from deceivers.
So there is this counterfeit that is there.
We must face the fact the counterfeit is
there in the world, and we have to
be aware of it, the mystery of iniquity.
It's a mystery because it appears to speak
the righteous language.
I tell you, we have to be very
careful in our day of people who have
the right doctrine.
Look for the life.
Look for humility.
Look to see whether that person has got
the humility and the serving nature of Christ,
whether he wants to be a brother among
you or a Lord.
This is one reason in our church is
we never have any titles.
I say, don't call me reverend or doctor
or anything.
I'm not those things.
You know what I am?
Romans 8.29 says, I'm a younger brother
of Jesus Christ.
I've been predestined to be conformed to the
image of his son that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers.
When I had only one son, I called
him the only begotten.
Now he's the firstborn because I've got four
sons.
Do you know that when Jesus came to
the earth, he was the only begotten.
After his resurrection, he's never called the only
begotten.
He's always called the firstborn.
Why?
Because he's got younger brothers.
And I'm one of them.
And so I said, please call me brother.
Younger brother of Jesus Christ.
Brother.
Don't call me by lowdown titles like reverend
and doctor and pastor and all that.
Give me a dignified title.
Brother.
That's what I want to call you.
Tell me, can you find a bigger title
than this?
Younger brother of Jesus Christ.
Try and find one.
There isn't.
That's why we call one another brother, sister.
We're equal.
We may have different gifts, different functions, but
we're equal.
There is only one head.
Jesus Christ.
Sometimes babies are born with two heads.
You know, they don't live.
They don't live long.
And we have churches sometimes with two heads.
Jesus Christ is one and the local leader
is another.
They don't survive.
No baby with two heads can survive.
There has to be only one head.
Jesus Christ alone.
You know what they sing in heaven?
Thou alone art worthy.
It's not thou and Paul.
Paul is somewhere there in the corner.
It's Jesus Christ alone.
Thou alone art worthy, O Lord.
Think of that.
And the church which leads you to worship
Christ, to be centered in Christ, where every
man, no matter how gifted, is an ordinary
brother.
That's the church I want to be in.
Because that's a foretaste of heaven, where they're
only going to glorify Christ.
And so be careful of any church where
a man becomes very prominent.
No doubt Paul was a blessing.
He wrote at least 13 of the New
Testament epistles.
But that's because God called him for that
type of gift.
And some people have a unique gift.
Like I said, the tongue does all the
talking.
But still, the tongue is as important as
the little muscles and sinews in my body,
which you can't see.
There are a lot of parts of the
body which are equally important.
And without them, the tongue wouldn't function.
So this mystery of iniquity is that which
uses religious language, but which is not motivated
by the Spirit of Christ.
It's not the life of Christ.
And you can sense it.
You know, I believe we must be sensitive
to the voice of the Spirit.
When you listen to a man, I always
tell people in our church, don't just listen
to his words.
You'll go astray.
I believe you'll be led astray into cults.
Listen to his spirit.
Whenever a man speaks, like body odor.
You know how a dog can pick up
body odor?
Much better than we can.
We can also pick it up when it's
bad enough.
But a dog can pick it up.
But body odor is something which we don't
realize.
Like bad breath.
See, I don't realize when I have bad
breath, unless someone is kind enough to tell
me.
It comes out whether you like it or
not.
I mean, bad breath.
That's why we use things to wash our
mouth.
Bad breath comes forth and it's not deliberate.
It's unconscious.
It comes out.
It's like that with our spirit.
You don't realize it, but when you speak
to people, there's a spirit that comes forth.
And if that man is a spiritual man,
like a dog, he can pick it up
immediately.
But since 90% of people in a
church are not usually spiritual, they can't pick
it up.
That's the danger.
And that's how a lot of people push
themselves, build their kingdoms over poor simple people
who get dominated and ruled and destroyed.
We're living in such a time.
I would urge you to be very, very
careful.
Be very cautious.
Don't be deceived just because somebody's got the
right doctrine.
Don't be deceived just because a meeting seems
to be lively.
Drunken parties are lively too.
It doesn't mean God is there.
You know, liveliness and activity, you go to
rock music converts, they make a lot of
noise.
It doesn't mean God is there.
Noise is not the mark of the Holy
Spirit.
When Elijah was in the mountain, there was
thunder, earthquake, fire and everything.
God was not in them.
God was in a still small voice.
So we need to develop in these days
a sensitiveness to know what is of the
Holy Spirit, what is of Christ and what
is not.
And the test is always Jesus.
Whenever you see a leader, compare him with
Jesus in the Gospels and you won't go
wrong.
Do you see the spirit of Christ in
him?
Do you see his freedom from the love
of money in him?
Do you see a freedom from the desire
to dominate in him?
Do you see a spirit of service?
Does he consider you equal to him?
These are the tests.
And you can protect yourself from multitudes of
Protestant evangelical leaders who are cult leaders with
right doctrines, destroying lives, building their own little
kingdoms, submitting to nobody, answerable to no one
except themselves, imagining that they are under the
authority of Christ.
God doesn't bear witness to such people.
Where God builds something, where God gives ministry
to a person, he brings him in fellowship
with others.
Even a Paul was in fellowship with Peter.
A Peter was rebuked by Paul and he
accepted it.
This is the fellowship there was among the
apostles.
The elders of churches in the New Testament
were under the apostles.
That's how they were protected.
But today we have a whole lot of
people who are under nobody, answerable to no
one except themselves.
Beware of such people.
I can only warn you.
Whether you listen to the warning or not,
it's up to you, but I've done my
job.
The mystery of iniquity, it's a mystery.
It's a mystery because it appears to be
right.
The doctrine appears to be right.
But it's not Christ manifest in that flesh.
It's the dominating power of Satan.
You know, there's a difference.
Have you noticed in the scriptures, it never
speaks about the spirit possessing people?
Demons possess.
The spirit fills.
Do you know the difference between spirit filling
and demon possession?
The difference is this.
When a demon possesses a person, he controls
that person totally.
The fellow has no control over himself.
He automatically speaks.
He automatically writes.
He does so many things, tears his hair.
He's demon possessed.
When the spirit fills a person, the fruit
of the spirit is self-control.
Galatians 5.23. He has more control over
himself than before the spirit filled him.
For example, he couldn't control his temper before.
Now he can.
He couldn't control his eyes from lusting before.
Now he can.
The spirit of the prophets are subject to
the prophets.
He can control himself.
When I hear people say, oh brother Zach,
the spirit came upon me and threw me
to the other end of the room and
I had lost control of myself.
I said that was not the Holy Spirit.
I don't know what spirit it was, but
it was not the Holy Spirit.
Because if you've got the Holy Spirit, you'd
have control over yourself.
I've heard people say, I was stuck to
the floor.
I couldn't get up.
Well, that was not the Holy Spirit.
If it was the Holy Spirit, you could
have got up.
There are people who say, I was filled
with the spirit and I kept on speaking
in tongues.
I couldn't stop.
Well, that was not the Holy Spirit.
I've heard people speak in unknown tongues.
When the evil spirit is cast out, they
stop.
I've also heard people speak in tongues through
the Holy Spirit.
So there is a difference.
And we live in a day of tremendous
deception, counterfeit.
But if you apply some of these tests
that I have mentioned, you'll protect yourself from
these counterfeits, if you want to.
But if you are after excitement and entertainment,
well, the devil's got everything out there with
a Christian name, with Christian language, with the
right doctrines to fool you.
You'll be a little poorer at the end
of the experiment.
That, of course, but probably a lot poorer.
Somebody else will be enriched at your expense.
But you would have got the entertainment and
the excitement that you wanted.
And you'll finally have wasted many years of
your life and even be lost if you
continue that way.
The mystery of iniquity, beware of it.
The mystery of godliness is that the Holy
Spirit comes to reproduce Christ in us.
In our flesh, we can live an overcoming
life like Jesus lived.
Progressively, like it says in 2 Corinthians 3
18, from one degree of glory to another,
he transforms us into his likeness.
I want to speak about the second great
mystery, and that is mentioned in Ephesians in
chapter five.
In Ephesians chapter five, it speaks about the
second great mystery.
There are only two great mysteries mentioned in
scripture, and this is Ephesians chapter five and
verse 32.
This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with
reference to Christ and the church.
What is that?
Verse 31, for this, verse 30, we are
members of his body.
For this cause, a man shall leave his
father and mother and cleave to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
Referring to husband and wife, but it says
not only referring to husband and wife, but
referring to Christ and the church, that our
relationship with Jesus Christ is exactly like that
of a wife to her husband.
Exactly the same type of relationship.
Is it possible?
This is a great mystery, but it's true.
You know, it says in a little example
of that in one Corinthians in chapter six,
where the same expression is used, the two
shall become one flesh is referred to a
harlot there.
But whether with a harlot or with your
wife, there's a physical union, which makes you
one flesh with your wife.
One Corinthians 616.
Don't you know that the one who joins
himself to a harlot is one body with
her, for the two will become one flesh.
But when you're joined with your wife, that
also, the two shall become one flesh in
exactly the same way.
Verse 17, the one who joins himself with
Jesus is one spirit with him.
We're not one flesh with Jesus, because it's
not a physical union, but we are one
spirit.
But the union of our spirit with Christ
is very similar to the union of a
man and a woman.
See, when a man and a woman joined
together in physical union, they are one flesh.
The man doesn't become the woman and the
woman doesn't become the man.
They still remain man and woman, but they
are one flesh.
And when I joined with Christ, I don't
become Christ and Christ doesn't become me.
He's Christ and I'm a sinner saved by
grace, but I'm one with him.
We have to be careful.
Stay within the limits of Scripture and you'll
be all right.
When we use our reason, like Eve used
her reason, we go astray.
But this is a wonderful mystery.
This is a great mystery.
But I'm speaking concerning Christ and the church.
Jesus Christ, the head and the church, the
body.
Ephesians chapter 5.
Husbands ought to love their wives, verse 28,
as their own bodies.
So the relationship between a husband and wife
here is pictured like the head, the husband,
and the wife, the body.
The head, the brain.
That's what it means when it says the
head and the wife is the body.
In the same way, Christ is the brain
and the church is the body.
We are related to him, connected to him
spiritually, just like a wife to her husband.
And we are to be subject, and it
uses the picture of the body here.
That means we are members of his body,
verse 30.
So our calling today as the spiritual body
of Christ is similar to the calling that
Jesus had when he came in a physical
body to the land of Palestine 2000 years
ago.
What did Jesus come to do in his
physical body?
Why did he come from heaven?
I want to show you the one verse
that I have found which explains it better
than anything else, which sums up in a
nutshell everything that Jesus did in 33 and
a half years.
When many people, you ask many people, why
did Jesus come to earth?
They'll say he came to die for our
sins.
Actually, that was just one day of his
33 and a half years.
Tell me what he did for the rest
of his life.
Well, he was born in a stable.
Okay, that's also one day.
But can you tell me in one sentence
what he did in 33 and a half
years?
Which includes everything, being born in a stable,
growing up as a carpenter, submitting to Mary,
dying on the cross, raising from the dead.
Everything is summed up in one sentence in
Jesus' own words.
John chapter 6, verse 38.
And I've never found a better verse than
this to explain the ministry which Jesus fulfilled
when he was here on earth.
Why do we need to see this?
Because this is our calling as a church.
We are one flesh with him.
We are one spirit with him.
Jesus said in John 6, 38, I've come
down from heaven, in a nutshell, my entire
life, never to do my own will, but
the will of him who sent me.
Why was he born in a stable?
Because he didn't choose his own will.
The father's will was that.
Why did he, why was he a carpenter
for maybe 12 of his 30 years?
Because that was the father's will.
It wasn't his choice.
Why did he go out to preach only
for three and a half years?
It was the father's will.
If he had to die for the sins
of the world, why didn't he die decently
in a corner instead of dying in such
a horrible death on a cross?
That was the father's will.
There was only one factor that determined everything
in Jesus' life.
What is the will of my father?
And you remember that great agony that he
went through in Gethsemane, where he pleaded with
the father that, father, please take away this
cup from me.
And the father said, no.
He prayed again.
Father said, no.
He prayed for one hour, prayed a third
time.
Father said, no.
What was it that Jesus dreaded so much?
What was it he, he certainly wasn't physical
death.
I mean, I've heard of martyrs who went
to the Roman Coliseums when they were going
to be eaten up by lions and who
sang praises to God and sang hallelujah while
their head went into the lion's mouth.
Amazing boldness.
And I can't imagine that Jesus was less
bold than them.
No, he was not afraid of physical death.
Not at all.
He'd have been willing to die a million
physical deaths.
He's the one who gave courage to the
martyrs.
And he certainly was very bold himself.
But there was one thing that Jesus dreaded,
dreaded, dreaded, dreaded, dreaded terribly.
And that was what he valued most in
his life.
Fellowship with the father, which he had experienced
from all eternity.
He was not interested in comfort, money.
He was not interested in the things that
many Christians are interested in.
He was not even interested in being a
leader of a group like some Christians are.
He was not interested in any of those
things.
He was not interested in having a ministry
like some Christians are.
Don't think you're very spiritual if you're interested
in the ministry.
I want to tell you that.
Don't think you're spiritual if you're interested in
being a leader.
You're carnal like any other carnal adulterer.
Jesus was not interested in these things.
A spiritual man is interested in only one
thing.
Fellowship with God.
He's not interested in ministry.
He's not interested in leadership.
He's not interested what people think about him.
He's not interested in anything.
He's interested in fellowship with God.
And if that's all you're interested in in
life, you're a spiritual man and woman.
Otherwise, you're not, no matter what you think
of yourself, no matter what other people think
of you, no matter what other people in
your little group think of you, you are
not a spiritual man.
So Jesus was only interested in fellowship with
his father.
That's all he had.
That's what he had from eternity long before
there was a world or heaven or earth
or angels or anything.
He had fellowship with his father from all
eternity.
And now he faced the prospect of a
three-hour break in that fellowship on the
cross if he were going to take our
sins, the punishment of our sins.
Only three hours.
You and I have had break of fellowship
with the father for days on end.
It never bothered us.
So long as we had money and comfort
and a good bed and good food, it
didn't matter if we didn't have fellowship with
the father, but not Jesus.
He wouldn't want to break a fellowship with
the father even for one minute.
You know why?
Because he had the divine eternal perspective, which
realized that fellowship with the father is the
only thing worthwhile.
We haven't come there.
We still think a comfortable bed, good food
and sex and money and all the enjoyment
of luxuries of life are also necessary.
Jesus knew they were not.
He knew the only thing necessary for man
was fellowship with the father.
He had the right perspective.
And the more you come to that place,
the more spiritual you are.
And the less you have an interest in
all these vanities that the world offers you.
A lot of people who think they're spiritual
are not spiritual.
Like I've often said, my dear brother and
sister, you are not as spiritual as you
think you are, unless you value only fellowship
with the father as the only thing you
want in life.
Everything else, ministry, having a little church to
run, to get some little ego satisfaction, all
this is garbage.
It is.
Fellowship with the father is the only thing
a spiritual man desires.
And beyond that, what God gives him, opportunity
to serve other people, he serves them and
moves on.
But these are not the big things for
him.
And God has shown me that more and
more in my life.
And I praise the Lord, it's liberated me.
Ministry is no longer important to me.
When I was a young man, it was.
I wanted to impress.
I wanted to do this, that and the
other.
No longer.
I'm not interested in writing books or making
tapes or ministry or traveling or even having
a little church.
I've told the Lord, I say, Lord, if
one day you paralyze me and make me
lie down on my bed and I lose
my voice, it won't make any difference to
me.
I still love you with all my heart
and fellowship with you.
Nobody can take that away from me.
If somebody locks me up in an Indian
jail for preaching the gospel and I sit
there for 20 years.
Fine.
If that's the will of God, that's perfectly
okay for me.
Well, we have persecution coming in India.
There's a real possibility of such things happening.
That's fine.
Nobody can take away from me what God
has given me through the Holy Spirit in
Christ.
Fellowship with my heavenly father.
That is what Jesus was afraid to lose
in the garden of Gethsemane.
He pleaded with the father, isn't there any
other way?
Isn't there any other way?
And father said, no.
If you don't face that and come back
to heaven, you can come back.
No problem.
But nobody will be saved.
That was a struggle.
I see the love of Jesus for me
in Gethsemane, long before he went to Calvary.
I see him in that moment choosing a
way which was the greatest agony for him
and saying that for the sake of that
fellow who's going to be born in India
in the 20th century, for his sake, I'll
do it.
For my sake, for your sake.
He chose to go that way.
And I say, Lord, thank you.
I'll never forget it.
That you chose three hours of agony, which,
you know, you and I will never know
what that agony is.
If you want to know what that agony
is, you've got to spend eternity in hell
to understand it, to be forsaken by God.
Jesus experienced hell for three hours.
But because he was an infinite being, not
a finite being like created beings, in three
hours he could experience concentrated eternity in hell.
Infinity multiplied by three is finite being multiplied
by eternity.
It's very simple mathematics.
He experienced he experienced eternal hell because he
was an infinite being.
Three hours was enough.
And to experience it, you've got to go
to that man who spends eternity in hell
and ask him to tell you what it's
like.
That's what Jesus experienced on the cross because
that is the punishment for sin.
And by the time the cross was over,
he had finished.
He said it's finished.
I've taken the punishment.
After that, the Bible says he descended into
Hades.
That's not hell.
That's just the place of departed spirits, mistranslated
as hell in different places in the King
James Version.
He was in paradise with the thief, proclaiming
to the people on the other side of
hell that they were defeated.
Satan was defeated on the cross.
So he came to do the father's will
on earth, whatever the cost.
And now we have become one spirit with
him.
What is our calling?
To do this, to live the same way
on earth.
Then we are his body.
Never to do my own will, but the
will of God.
Do you know that the members of my
body?
Now, I want to say this to only
those who are serious about not who want
points for sermons.
Some people listen to me to get points
for sermons, which they want to go and
preach somewhere else and get honor.
I'm going to say, I'm not talking to
such people.
I'm talking about the people who are not
even interested in an intellectual explanation.
I'm talking to people who are interested in
following Jesus day by day.
It means self-denial.
It means dying to your rights and your
reputation and your honor and your own will
every day.
Do you know that every part of this
body never does its own will?
My hands have done the will of my
brain for 62 years.
From the time I was a little baby
to now, it's never once have they done
their own will.
They have voluntarily surrendered their will to the
will of the brain.
The head.
Every part of my body has functioned like
that.
And that's why my body has never fought
with itself.
My right hand has never slapped me.
My right leg has never kicked my left
leg in anger.
Amazing, isn't it?
For two people to live in fellowship like
that for over 60 years.
Is it possible for Jesus Christ to reproduce
in his spiritual body what he has already
done in my physical body?
Isn't this a miracle, the way God has
made my body that my brain controls everything
and every part is genuinely concerned in the
other part?
This is a mystery.
The devil says impossible.
Okay.
If you believe the devil, according to your
faith, be it unto you, it will be
impossible in your life.
But if you believe God, if you believe
that this is what Jesus came to do,
if you believe that this is what Jesus
came and died on the cross to accomplish,
it's a mystery.
I agree, it's a mystery.
That I don't question.
It's a great mystery.
It's one of the true great mysteries in
the New Testament.
The church, the body and the bride of
Jesus Christ related to him just like a
wife to a husband.
Becoming more and more intimate with him.
Not seeking to take the glory away from
her husband.
A true wife always works behind the scenes
to promote her husband.
That's how church does, to promote Christ, to
lift up Christ, not herself.
Be careful of a man who's trying to
lift himself up.
Steer clear of him.
No matter what his doctrine, steer clear of
him, he'll destroy you in the process of
destroying himself.
Steer clear of such people.
There are lots of them floating around.
Little heads, big heads, all seeking to promote
themselves.
But in the church, there is to be
only one head, Christ.
You need to be ministered to by a
man who will draw you to Christ and
not to himself.
A man who will connect you to Christ
and pull out.
You know, one of the best examples, this
is what the Holy Spirit does, by the
way.
You know, it says in John chapter 16,
the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 14, speaking about the Spirit when he
comes, Jesus said, he will glorify me.
He will take of the things that are
mine and disclose them to you.
He will not glorify himself.
Verse 13, he will not speak on his
own initiative.
The Holy Spirit will not speak of himself.
It says he will glorify me, not himself.
When a man is filled with the Holy
Spirit, he will not speak about the Holy
Spirit.
He will speak about Christ.
That's what it says here.
I am so scared of these meetings where
they talk about the Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit,
Spirit, Spirit.
There's no Christ.
Beware of a Christless Pentecost that a lot
of people seem to be having today.
It's a counterfeit Pentecost.
It's a counterfeit baptism in the Holy Spirit,
which does not make Jesus glorious in your
eyes, because the Holy Spirit does not speak
of himself.
He speaks about Christ.
He lifts up Christ.
He draws you to Christ.
And he hides himself, just like Jesus, when
he was on earth, he pointed to the
Father.
When the Holy Spirit has come, he points
to Christ.
This is how the Trinity is.
They don't point to themselves.
That's why I say you be careful of
a man who is lifting himself up.
A spirit-filled man, light filled with the
Holy Spirit, will naturally point you to Christ,
because that's what the Spirit does.
And so the most spirit-filled meeting is
a meeting where even if the Holy Spirit
is not mentioned, you will see Jesus more
clearly and be drawn to him.
This is the test, because that's what Jesus
himself said.
I tell you, if you followed these simple
teachings of Jesus, we would be saved from
all deception.
You know why believers are deceived?
Let me tell you in one simple sentence.
They are too lazy to read the Bible.
They're too lazy to read the Bible.
They want to be spoon-fed, spoon-fed,
spoon-fed.
And there are multitudes of deceivers who are
ready to spoon-feed them with the wrong
thing, which will promote their own kingdoms, build
their own financial empires, satisfy their own egos,
that they've got a little group of people
following them and their peculiar teachings.
Beware of these people.
Anyone who does not connect you to Christ,
steer clear of him.
Steer clear of him.
I used to say, stay a million miles
away from him, but I discovered that the
whole circumference of the earth is only much
less than that.
So you can't stay a million miles away,
but stay as far as away as possible.
Stay as far away as possible from these
people.
There are lots of them floating around the
world today, and particularly in our day.
They are proud, they're selfish, they're self-centered,
but they talk the right language.
And they talk clever stuff, which sounds very
much like the real thing, but it's the
mystery of iniquity at work.
The mystery of the church is being one
body with him, his bride.
Anyone who ministers to you in a way
that your bridal relationship with Jesus Christ is
enhanced, is being led by the spirit.
That's like saying, if you see a husband
and wife, anyone who helps them to come
closer to each other is led by the
spirit.
Anyone who tries to come between them to
separate them from each other is led by
the devil.
Even in a human marriage, what God has
joined together, let no man put us under.
I would never in my life want to
come between a husband and wife.
Never.
I've seen preachers who, because of the power
they have through their ministry, and I know
I can exercise that too if I want
to, but I won't.
It is to, you know, you can exercise
power in your ministry where people see you,
they are so blessed by you, that they
respect you, they admire you, they'll do anything
you say.
And you can use that power in a
wrong way.
I've seen how women are attracted to certain
preachers.
I've had married women in our church come
to me and say, Brother Zach, oh it's
so blessed to hear what you say.
It's so wonderful, and my husband doesn't appreciate
all these things.
And I'm not fooled by all that.
I know there's a demon lurking there.
I mean, not she's a demon, but somewhere
in that vicinity, there's a demon.
And so I always tell this sister, Sister,
you please listen to your husband.
Go home and listen to him.
He's a good man.
And then she'll come to me another week
and say, oh Brother Zach, that was wonderful
what you shared and all that.
I say, Sister, listen to your husband.
You should listen to him.
After two, three weeks, they learn they can't
try these tricks with me.
I am in the business of joining these
people together, whom God has joined together.
I'm not interested in getting that woman's admiration.
I'm sorry.
I'm not a servant of Satan.
I'm a servant of God, who's joining people
together.
I've seen lots of preachers who don't do
that.
Lots of preachers.
They say, well, what to do if people
admire me?
Well, you should push them off.
That's what I do.
Push them on to Christ.
Get them closer to their husbands if they're
women.
Get them closer to Christ, not to yourself.
How to do that?
Well, correct them, rebuke them.
They won't get attached to you then.
They'll get attached to Christ.
They get attached to you because you flatter
them.
Oh, Sister, is that right?
Oh, I'm so glad that I've been such
a blessing to you.
And you talk like that and they get
more attached to you.
Give them a word of correction.
They won't get attached to you anymore.
That's what I do in my church all
the time to brothers and sisters.
I do not want anybody attached to me.
I want them to be attached to Jesus
Christ.
I'm a member of the body.
Till my dying day, I'll be a member.
I will not be a second head competing
with Christ in the body of Christ like
so many leaders.
Don't be one.
And don't follow one like that unless you
want to destroy yourself.
This is a great mystery that Jesus has
given us such a tremendous privilege to function
on his behalf, to lay hands on people
in the name of Jesus.
What an honor!
Don't ever take advantage of it.
Walk in humility.
It's a tremendous privilege to be able to
walk on this earth as the representatives of
Jesus Christ, to take his name upon us.
Do you know the very word Christian, which
has been abused, misunderstood, and degraded, devalued?
Do you know what it means?
Shall I say it reverently?
Reverently, don't misunderstand me.
It means Mrs. Christ.
When did my wife get my name?
When she married me.
You know when I'm supposed to call myself
a Christian?
When I'm married to Christ.
Unworthy, wretched sinner that I am.
Christian.
That devalued name has got such dignity about
it.
If only you understood it.
And the devil is determined to degrade that
name, devalue it, because he wants to devalue
and degrade Christ.
It's a great honor to be called a
Christian, to be the bride and the wife
of Jesus Christ.
That's what Ephesians 5 says.
It's a mystery.
And woe unto that wife who tries to
push her husband down to promote herself.
There are a lot of Christian leaders doing
that.
Our job is to hide behind the scenes
and promote Christ, like the Holy Spirit does,
to lead people to Jesus.
And do you know the result of what
we have seen in our own labors in
the churches in India over the last 25
years?
20 years, that the first seven years God
kept us in one place, consolidating the work.
In the last 20 years, we moved out
and God's raised up all these churches all
over.
You know the wonderful thing we have seen?
Because we have deliberately pushed people onto Christ
and refused to let them lean on me.
Well, initially, you know, there's the initial stage
for one year or so when a baby
has to drink milk from its mother.
People are dependent.
But as soon as possible, we teach them
to be on their own.
Do you know what's the result of that?
Leadership has come up so quickly in church
after church after church.
Godly brothers who are gripped by the same
thing, who would never have become leaders if
they had been dependent on me.
I pull out.
I go away from there.
And I don't write letters to them all
the time to control them.
I say, you grow.
That's the church.
That's how the Apostle Paul did it.
He went to establish churches, appointed leaders and
moved on.
Then he established another church, appointed elders there
and moved on.
And when they had a problem, of course,
they consulted him.
And he gave them advice, sorted out their
problems.
Little babies have problems.
They get sick, they get a cough and
a cold, they get a fever, they get
chickenpox, all types of things.
And we're there to help them.
So little children, little churches also have such
problems, teething problems and all types of things.
And we're there to help them.
That's what the apostles were around for.
But the apostles were servants.
They never got people attached to them.
They connected people to Christ.
And this is how your personal relationship must
be.
You, even if you were born again today,
you must have a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ, exactly like a member in the body
to the head.
Don't let anybody come between you and Christ.
Don't let any pastor or leader or anybody
come between you and Christ.
I'm sorry to say that there are some
people who come between people and Christ.
And I'm not talking about the Roman Catholic
priests.
I'm talking about the Protestant popes who are
more dangerous than the Roman Catholic one, who
make themselves out to be a little one
who can find God's will for you and
prophesy what you should do.
Please steer clear of these Protestant popes who
call themselves prophets.
Please steer clear of them.
I'll tell you this.
You don't need a mediator between you and
Christ.
This little finger does not need anything between.
When the head says to this little finger,
move, it moves.
It doesn't.
There's no mediator between the head and this
little finger.
Even my last little toe, so far away
from the body, it can move under direct
command from the head.
It does not need a mediator.
You don't need a prophet between you and
God.
You don't need a pastor between you and
God.
You are a priest.
You can have a direct connection with Christ.
And I'll tell you this.
If I did have to have a mediator,
I would choose Mary.
Because at least she's a holy woman.
This pastor, I don't know whether he's holy
or not.
But thank God, I don't have to have
a mediator.
But I'll tell you honestly, if I didn't
need a mediator, I would choose Mary any
day.
Because she was a holy woman.
I wouldn't choose this fellow roaming around calling
himself a prophet.
I don't know what his private life is
like.
Mary is not interested in my money.
That's for sure.
But the wonderful message of the gospel is
you don't need any mediator.
You don't need Mary.
You don't need that pastor.
You don't need a prophet.
Go directly to Jesus Christ.
There is only one mediator between God and
men.
The man Christ Jesus.
You are connected to him.
That is true Christianity.
You must develop a bridal relationship with Jesus.
A relationship like the members of the body
to the head.
A relationship like a woman who's deeply in
love with a man.
Madly in love with a man.
Always wanting to be with him.
That's the type of relationship you must have
with Christ.
Always wanting to do things together.
Marriage counselors say the secret of a happy
marriage is do things together.
I say, certainly with Jesus Christ it's like
that.
Do it together.
When you're sitting and watching a television program,
don't watch it alone.
Watch it with Jesus Christ.
And if he says, no, I don't want
to watch that.
Turn it off.
Do you want to do it alone?
The secret of a happy marriage is what?
Do things together.
Will you follow that the next time you
go watching some movie on television?
I don't know.
It sounds wonderful here in the meeting, but
this is the secret of a godly life.
This is a great mystery.
People want religious language.
They want to live as they like.
When they sit in front of the television.
When they are doing 101 things during the
week.
I say, brother, sister, you can do what
you like.
But you'll never be a godly person.
Not in a hundred years.
Until you learn to lay down your will.
That thing which you want to do so
badly.
Which you have done so much and enjoyed
so much.
You're going to give it up from now
on.
Because you want to do everything along with
Jesus.
One last thing.
Do you know what the opposite of this
mystery is?
That's in Revelation chapter 17.
Just like there's an opposite of the mystery
of godliness and the mystery of iniquity.
There is an opposite of the mystery of
the church.
And that's the mystery of Babylon, the false
church.
It says in Revelation 17 of Babylon, the
harlot.
You know what a harlot is?
A harlot is one, supposing here's a young
girl who's engaged to be married to a
man who's gone on a long journey.
And says, just wait, be loyal to me.
I'll come back in a couple of years.
You must marry me.
I love you.
And she writes all these love letters to
him regularly.
Particularly on Sundays.
I love you so much.
And all this type of stuff.
I surrender all and all that.
But during the week, she's fooling around with
other men.
What would you call such a young girl?
That's why the Bible calls Christians harlots.
James chapter 4.
James says, you adulterers, adulteresses.
Know ye not that friendship with the world
is enmity with God?
You send all these love letters to God
on Sunday.
You sing so many songs to him.
But how do you live during the world
during the rest of the week?
You live for money.
You live for yourself.
You live for entertainment.
You live for the unrighteous things that worldly
people live for.
You sit listening to all that rock music,
inspired by demons, involved with drugs and witchcraft
and all that.
And you say you're devoted to Jesus.
Rubbish.
That's Babylon.
Has got the right language and all that.
But it's harlot.
Harlot.
The spirit of harlotry.
We're living in such a day.
You know what the Lord's word is to
people in Babylon?
Come out of her, my people.
Come out of her.
Revelation chapter 18.
It says, come out of her, my people.
Verse 4.
That you don't participate in her sins and
that you don't receive her judgments.
If you participate in her sins, you will
receive her judgments, no matter how much you
call yourself spiritual Christian or speaking in tongues
or whatever you like.
If you got the spirit of the harlot
in you, the spirit of loving the world
and trying to love Jesus at the same
time, it will not work.
This is harlotry.
And this is the message that is being
preached around the world today.
Yes, you can be a Christian.
You can go to heaven and you can
also enjoy all the things in this world,
just like any worldly person.
You can live for the world, enjoy yourself
and spend your life doing your own will.
And at the same time, you can go
to heaven when you die.
It's a lie.
It's a deception.
It's the same old lie of the devil,
which he told Eve in the Garden of
Eden.
You will not die spiritually, he said.
But she died.
And so will you, if you listen to
the devil.
True Christianity is a serious thing.
It's being discipleship.
It's being a disciple of Jesus, being his
bride, being part of his body.
May God help us to live according to
that light.
Let's pray.
While it's about in prayer, I want to
invite you to respond again to the word
of God that you have heard today.
You want to live a godly life?
Do you want to be part of his
church?
Body of Christ?
Member of his body?
In a bridal relationship with him?
The choice is yours.
God never forces anyone.
He invites you to be devoted to his
son and not to any man.
To function as a local church in your
locality.
To be an expression of that body of
Christ.
Heavenly Father, help us each one to walk
in the light of your word.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.