In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing our dependence on Jesus. He uses the example of the disciples who struggled to catch fish all night until they finally gave up and Jesus came to their aid. The preacher highlights that it is when we come to the end of ourselves and acknowledge our inability to succeed on our own that God begins to work in our lives. He also emphasizes the futility of trying to be justified or made perfect by following the law, as it is only a shadow of the good things to come. The preacher encourages listeners to embrace the new covenant and find liberation in Jesus.

Let's turn to a verse in Luke's Gospel, in chapter twenty-two. Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty-two. We just sang about the blood of Jesus Christ. There's something that Jesus said here about His blood, which I never understood, even sixteen years after I was born again. And I find that lots and lots of Christians, even born-again Christians, haven't understood. Because the devil has blinded their eyes. We think the devil has blinded only the eyes of unbelievers. The devil blinds the minds of unbelievers, that's true. But he seeks to blind the eyes of believers also from the full truth of the Gospel. When Jesus was with His disciples at the Last Supper, just before He went to the cross, we know He took the bread and said, This is my body, verse nineteen, which is given for you, Luke twenty-two, nineteen. Then, in the same way, He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Now, He never spoke about this new covenant all His thirty-three and a half years, three and a half years of ministry, and He spoke about many wonderful things. But now when He was approaching the cross, He said, This blood, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And as you drink it, you are testifying that you are participating in the blood of Jesus. It is not like the blood of bulls and goats. It is the blood of an everlasting covenant, we read in Hebrews chapter thirteen, verse twenty. Now, how do I say that so many believers haven't understood this new covenant? Because I see so many believers weary and heavy laden under the burden of the law. The law was the old covenant. And if someone were to ask you, any of you are believers, if someone were to ask you, what is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant? I think many of you may not be able to give a proper answer. You may have a rough idea. I could not have given an answer twenty-seven years ago. Covenant means the same as testament. You know the Bible is divided into Old Testament and New Testament. It is the same as Old Covenant and New Covenant. But we don't use those words, testament and covenant, so much these days. We use another word, agreement. It means the same thing. There was an old agreement that God made with man. And that's what the law describes. How man could relate to God. Do this and you will live. Nobody could do it. And to teach man that nobody could do it. God kept Israel for nearly fifteen hundred years under the law to prove that nobody could do it. And the best people in Israel could not do it. They tried but they couldn't keep it. But very few were honest enough to admit it. And those who were honest enough to admit it, God led them into the new covenant when Jesus came. Like the Apostle Paul, he was honest enough to admit it. In one place the Apostle Paul said, According to the righteousness in the law, Philippians 3, he says that, I was blameless. To a high priest once he said in Acts 23.1, I have lived in a good conscience before God until this day. He grew up in a God-fearing family and from childhood he had kept the commandments all the way up to his adult life. He lived with a good conscience. And according to the righteousness of the law he was blameless. But, in spite of that, he says in Romans chapter 7 that when it came to the tenth commandment, he just could not keep it. Because nine of those commandments were dealing with the outside. You could see if a man was not keeping the ninth commandment. But the one commandment was relating to the inside. Why did God keep that as the tenth commandment? To find out how many people would be honest. You know, if a man steals or kills or commits adultery, that's on the outside, it's visible. I mean, you can punish him for it. When it came to the tenth commandment which said you shall not desire your neighbor's wife, how do you find out whether somebody is desiring his neighbor's wife? How can you say, hey, you're doing that? You shall not desire your neighbor's house. How do you find out that? You shall not desire your neighbor's daughter. That's basically what it means to lust with your eyes. How do you know whether a person is doing it? It was inside. And when Paul says in Romans chapter seven, when it came to that commandment, he said, I want to be honest, I found all types of desires inside me. Can you be honest like Paul? Then there's deliverance for you. God has commanded deliverances for those who are honest, for those who will acknowledge the truth about themselves, because He came to call not the righteous, but He came to call sinners to repentance. He did not come for those who imagine that they are healthy. He came for those who knew that they were sick with sin. But He came to establish a new covenant, that that which could not be done under the old covenant can be done under the new. But how? He shed His blood to initiate that new covenant. The Bible says the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. In 2 Corinthians 4 it says that. Blinded the minds of those who do not believe, so that they might not see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So that they might not understand this wonderful gospel. So, first He blinds them to the fact of the mighty power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse them from all sin. And then He blinds them to the fact that through the Holy Spirit they can have power over sin. And a lot of people whose eyes have been opened to see the power of the blood of Jesus, even that they haven't seen fully. How many of you know what the blood of Jesus can do? For example, do you know that there is no expression in the New Testament which says I'm covered by the blood? Christians use it. A lot of Christians use expressions which are not found in the New Testament, because their reading of Scripture is careless. Covered by the blood is the old covenant. Do you know what the New Testament, new covenant equivalent is? Cleansed by the blood. What is the difference? Supposing I had a blackboard here on which all your sins were written down from the day you were born. And I put a sheet over it that's covered. But if I took a wet sponge and wiped out that board, it's cleansed. And there's a lot of difference between being covered and being cleansed. When you put the sheet over it, you can lift it up, it's still there. It's covered, it's like sweeping the dust under the carpet. It's there, but it's not visible. The Bible says in Psalm 32, Blessed is the man whose sin is covered. That's all that the blood of bulls and goats could do. Cover sin temporarily, sweep the dust under the carpet, sweep the sins of man under the carpet until Jesus came. Kept under the carpet, covered. The blood of bulls and goats covered it. But there was always the remembrance of it. See what it says in Hebrews. I believe the problem of many people here is that you have not understood what the blood of the new covenant is. That's the reason for a lot of depression. That's the reason for a lot of condemnation. That's the reason for a lot of discouragement. Now let me show you in Hebrews chapter 10. Once you understood this, you can be free from this condemnation spirit, the spirit of discouragement permanently for the rest of your life. It did for me. I used to be a depressed, discouraged believer for so many years till I understood the new covenant. Hebrews chapter 10 says, The law was only a shadow of good things to come. It wasn't the real thing. Please remember my brothers and sisters, the law was only a shadow. Like a photograph. How much can a photograph of food satisfy your hunger? It will only make you more hungry. You go to these restaurants and there are these appetizing pictures of chicken and fish and all types of things. Does that satisfy your hunger? It just makes you more hungry. That's what the law was, a shadow, a photograph of the good things to come. Don't ever seek to be justified by the law or sanctified by the law or made perfect by the law because it is not possible. Because it says here, they could not make perfect those who draw near. But in verse 3, in those sacrifices under the law there is a reminder of sins year by year because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Do you remember the sins you committed 10 years ago? I don't mean in terms of memory, but you feel sometimes a bit guilty about them. Memory we can never do anything about. Things that we have done 40, 50 years ago or as long as you live, you remember because it is in your memory. But it being in your memory need not make you feel guilty if you are cleansed. I want to ask you whether you feel guilty about sins that you have confessed to Christ more than once. You don't need to confess more than once. God's got good hearing. He confessed it once, he heard it. But we confess it again. We think that the more we confess it, the more God is going to forgive us. Jesus said when you pray, don't be like the heathen who think they will be heard for their much speaking. God doesn't hear you because you speak a lot. God doesn't hear you because you confess your sins 25 times. Why do you remember with guilt the sin that you committed last week? Shall I tell you why? You have not understood the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. And you have committed a terrible sin of equating the blood of Jesus with the blood of bulls and goats. That could not take away your sin, but reminds you, reminds you. It says there is a constant reminder, reminder. Oh, you are a sinner, you have done that, you have done that. That is what the devil does. It says he is an accuser. How do we overcome that? The Bible says in Revelation chapter 12, when the devil accuses, there is only one way to overcome him. Revelation chapter 12, the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down. Verse 10, the last part. Who accuses God's people day and night before God. And they, that's God's people, overcame Satan because of the blood of the lamb. Not the blood of bulls and goats. How do you overcome Satan's accusation? Here it is speaking about accusation. Day and night. Who is the one who accuses you day and night about your past sins? The devil. How do you overcome him? Only by the blood of the lamb. Not by saying, but I'm going to do it better in future. No, by the blood of the lamb. And I want you to see the mighty power of the blood of Jesus. Tonight, in a way that you have never understood it before perhaps. The Bible says in 1 John and chapter 1 and verse 7. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, himself is in the light. We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Cleanse means it's wiping it out from the blackboard. Wiping it out from that board. And you don't even know what was written there before. Erasing it from that videotape. You know, God's recorded on a videotape every single thing. I mean, metaphorically speaking, as picture language. Everything from the time you were born, a tape is running in your memory. Of everything that is committed, that you ever did. And here is, in God's record, that which you confess is blotted out. If you come to God as a sinner. We don't have to confess every single sin that we ever committed in our life because that's impossible. I must have committed a million. How in the world can you ever confess those? When the prodigal son came back to the father, did he make a list of all the sins he had committed? No, he didn't. You know what he said? Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. That was it. It was over. Immediately he was forgiven. The ring was put on his hand, new clothes were put on him. And he was made to sit because it was a genuine repentance. He turned around. See, there we see what repentance is. Repentance is not weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping. Some people weep and there is nothing wrong in weeping. I believe there is sorrow in repentance, that's included, but that's not repentance. That may be the result of repentance, but that's not repentance. And some people think that they've got to cry a little more in order to have their sins forgiven because, you see, the blood of Jesus in their mind is not enough. We've got to cleanse our sins with the blood of Jesus and some of my tears. And more of my tears are there mixed with the blood of Jesus. My sin will be cleansed. That is an insult. You don't overcome Satan with your tears. You can weep. There's nothing wrong in that. Blessed are those who mourn. They'll be comforted, but your tears don't add one bit to the cleansing of your sin. I'll tell you that. That is 100% with the blood of Jesus Christ. And what is repentance in the story of that prodigal son? He turned his back on his father and went away to the far country and lived there using all that his father gave him, just like many of you have done and I have done. We use the help that God gave us to live for ourselves. We use the eyes God gave us to sin. We use the tongue God gave us to sin. We use the faculties and the money God gave us and the time God gave us to sin. And that's what that prodigal son did. He took everything that the father gave him and spent it on himself. And a day came when he came to his senses and he turned around. That was repentance. He repented long before he reached his father. He turned around and he put his back to the far country. He faced his father and he had repented. That's all that repentance means. It's turning around and saying, Lord, it's not saying to God, I will never sin again. Nobody can ever say that. I can't say that today after 42 years of being a believer. It is saying to God, I don't want to sin again. You see the difference between the two? Not, I will not sin again. That's impossible to say. But I don't want to sin again. We all know how to walk because we're not babies. We know how to walk, but how many of you can say today, I will never fall anymore in my life. I mean physically fall. Can any of you say that? You can walk as you go out of this. You can fall down as you go out of this tent. How can you say you won't fall again? That you won't trip and fall. We can certainly say, I don't want to fall again. That I agree. That's all that God demands from us when we repent. To repent is to say, God, I dishonor you with my sin. And I never want to sin again. I've taken all the good things you gave me and I used it on myself. I lived for myself. I lived for sin. I'm really sorry. There may be tears. There may be sorrow. That's okay. But that turning around, you have repented. And you believe that the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, cleanses your sin. God's Word says that. And the Holy Spirit witnesses to your heart that that blood cleanses you. That He took the punishment. He took the guilt. And we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb in this way, that when the devil accuses me of sins that I've, of my past life, or of the sins that I've committed, which I've confessed to God, I say to him, the blood of Jesus has cleansed me. You can't accuse me with that. You can't weigh me down. And the Bible also says in Romans, in chapter 5, and verse 9. Romans, chapter 5, verse 9, it says, we are justified by His blood. That means God does such a work in our heart by the blood of Christ, that it is as though I have never sinned in my whole life. That's the power of the blood of Christ. And I believe every one of you must know that. Otherwise the devil will condemn you with something in your past life that he'll worry you with and harass you. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, whether the world through Him might be saved. The spirit of condemnation is not from God. If you hear a message that condemns you, probably that preacher is not even saved. Or if he is saved, he is a legalist who doesn't know God as a father. Or he may be saying it right and you may be understanding it wrong. There could be a number of reasons. But condemnation is never from God. The Holy Spirit does not condemn. Many people ask this question, How can I know whether that voice in me is from the devil or from the Holy Spirit or myself? Is it possible to know? Yes. The devil condemns. The Holy Spirit convicts. And there's a lot of difference between these two. It's very important for us to understand. It's like if my little boy is doing his math homework and he got a sum wrong. Condemnation would be to say to him, You are useless. You're good for nothing. You'll never do anything right. You're always doing your sums wrong. Haven't I told you a thousand times how to do it? A lot of parents will speak like that because they're in fellowship with the devil. That's how the devil speaks. You're useless. And they call them all types of names that for some reason make that poor boy so condemned. You ever hear a voice like that? That's the devil. But how would a loving father A loving father wouldn't pretend that math sum is right when it's wrong. He'll say, Son, you made a mistake at step number three. Okay? You can do it again. Let's do that again. I'll help you. Step number three. You see there what you made a mistake there. Just correct that. You'll get the sum right. And that boy's got hope. Otherwise he feels I'm useless. I'll never do good in math in all my life. That's the difference between condemnation and conviction. And because some of us here have unfortunately have had fathers or mothers who spoke so harshly to us we've got this image of God also like that. I want to tell you if your parents were like that they were a pathetic representation of God. God's a loving father. He will never condemn you. He'll convict you. Sure. And he'll not only convict you he's the God of hope. He'll tell you how to do the sum right. He'll tell you how you can come out of that mess you got yourself into. You think there's some mess you can create that God cannot get you out of. You go outside sometimes on a starry night and see the mighty universe that God created. Millions of stars. And if you were to look at this universe from God's viewpoint even the whole solar system sun, moon, stars all put together is a wee tiny dot in the universe. And if you look more carefully at that wee tiny dot you see a still more tiny dot revolving around there called Earth. That's Earth. And if you look at that planet Earth and look more carefully you'll still see a really wee tiny dot called you. And that you you're thinking ooh what big problems I have which this almighty God cannot handle. You gotta be crazy. Is that really true? That this almighty God who spins universes and planets can't solve that little problem you have? Ooh what a mess I made of my life. That's because we don't think God is so great. There's a verse in Psalm 50 which says God said you thought I was somebody like you. You thought I was somebody like you. A lot of believers think God is like them. He isn't like you. He's almighty all powerful omnipotent He fills the universe with a wee tiny dot called you and me moving around in the space of the Earth. All your problems can be summed up into a wee tiny dot. And don't think this almighty God can't handle it. It's like a small ant trying to carry a wee tiny bit of food and thinking that even a man wouldn't be able to help him carry that weight. What's that weight? Just lift it with a little finger. That's about the proportion of God in us is far greater than a man and that ant. But for that ant for that little ant that wee tiny morsel of food which is so small is such a heavy burden. That's how the devil makes us feel a heavy burden. God's come to help us to cleanse away our sins to blot out the memory of the past. Now I want to turn to Hebrews chapter 8 and show you something about the new covenant. In Hebrews chapter 8 we read you remember you know there are two chapters when you get time you must read. Can you remember this? Exodus chapter 20 that's the old covenant the Ten Commandments. And Hebrews chapter 8 that's the new covenant. Sometime when you get time sit down they're not long chapters. It's just about 15 verses or so in Exodus 20 and another 13 verses here in Hebrews 8. Very small chapters. You can read them both in less than 5 minutes. But there you see the old covenant summed up under the law and the new covenant. There's a new agreement God has made with man. You know in India we were ruled by the British like you're ruled here in Canada. But we became independent in 1947 and we became a republic in 1950. So the king or queen of England was no longer our head. And when England ruled us in India there was a there were certain rules there was a certain constitution. And everybody had to follow it. I lived for eight years under that. And we were ruled by that agreement that Great Britain had made with India which was one of our colonies. But then when we became independent in the republic we made a new constitution. A new agreement. And what did we do with the old one? What do you think we did with it? We threw it out. And the new one was not a little patch up of the old one. No. It was not just that we took a few things and passed it on to that old one. It was completely new. And that's the picture of how God has made an old agreement with man and he's made a new agreement. Now why would anybody in India today want to go back to that old agreement which was made to the British before 1947? No. We don't have we don't need that. We're under a new agreement. I can't understand why people go back to the old agreement God made under the law. I find that even lots of preachers don't know anything about the new agreement. Now let me tell you something about the old agreement because I tell you this prosperity gospel and this health gospel which so many people are preaching has come out of that old agreement and is deceiving lots of people. It's not found in the New Testament. It's found in the Old Testament. And people go to the Old Testament for their own benefit. You know how this prosperity gospel came up? I'll tell you. When many many preachers became particularly in the last 30-40 years after the charismatic movement started there were many people who preached tithing and a lot of people began to give their tithes and many preachers in the last 40 years became extremely wealthy. If you read if you go back to the lifestyle of preachers in the last century and all they were not rich. Charles Finney was one of the greatest evangelists that North America has ever seen and he wasn't a rich man when he died. But that's not true for a lot of evangelists today. And Charles Finney had power which hardly anybody has today. The devil has somehow led people astray and money became a very big thing and preachers were delighted that people started tithing and they began to become so rich in the last 30 years at the expense of poor widows and poor believers and when they became rich they had to justify this wealth and what did they do? They went to the Old Testament to all those promises that God will make you rich and said this is it. God blessed us because we are serving God and we become very rich. And that's how this whole deceptive prosperity gospel came. Now I wonder why all these so called prosperity gospel preachers don't come to the poor villages of India where people eat one meal a day come and teach them prosperity. No, they don't come there. They come and charge 10,000 dollars a night in places where people are wealthy enough to give such a collection in one night. It's a deception and what surprises me more is the number of believers who sit with their open mouth and believe all this is from God. It's not from God at all because they haven't understood the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. Where in the world did Jesus say all that in the new covenant? Where in the world do you find Jesus and Paul and Peter rolling around in such wealth? Far from it. Paul worked with his own hands so that he wouldn't depend on anybody. That's how he served the Lord. But you know there's a lot of things that can change in our life when we come into the new covenant. And a lot of preachers don't like to hear it because it will demolish their financial empires and everything else thoroughly. But and it will liberate the people from their hole that they have over there. It will set people free into the glorious liberty of the children of God. If you understand the new covenant. I know that's what it did for me. It will deliver you from depression, gloom, self-condemnation, feeling unworthy and useless and everything once you understand the new covenant. Ok, now let's go back to Exodus 20. You know what it... The ten commandments were basically two statements. Thou shalt Thou shalt not. That's all. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. Thou shalt not make any idols. Thou shalt not take this Lord's name in vain. And thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy. Thou shalt honor thy father and mother. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not... so on. It was all You must not do this but you must do this. You must not do this and you must do this. You must not do this and you must do this. And the entire Old Testament law was like that. Ok? Did it succeed? Today we have churches that don't stop with ten commandments. They got so many rules. You must not do this and you must not do that and you must do this and you must behave like this and this is what you must do and that is what you must do and this is what you must not do. And we keep all those laws. Does it liberate us into the glorious liberty of the children of God? No. It doesn't. There are rules concerning food, rules concerning dress and rules concerning this and rules concerning the other thing. It's back to the law again. Now come to the new covenant. Listen, Hebrews 8. Let's get liberated. Verse 7 If that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no reason, no occasion sought for a second covenant. If that first covenant was perfect there was no need for God to make a second covenant. Then why did God make a second one? Did He make a mistake when He made the first one? Not at all. God never makes any mistakes. It's not like some new model of car that God rolled out because the first one had some defects in it. No. God made that first covenant and kept man under it for fifteen hundred years to teach him you can't make it this way. And then when man had learned that lesson at least we hoped God hoped man would learn that lesson but two thousand years of church history proves that man has not learned that lesson. Man still goes back under the law even though God said it's finished. Now read Hebrews 8.7 onwards. Finding fault with that covenant He says the days are coming when I will effect a new covenant. And verse 9 this will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them out of Egypt. You know at Mount Sinai the Ten Commandments. They did, verse 9 they did not continue in my covenant. They could not. Is there any man who's kept the law? No one. They could not keep it. Then God explains the new covenant. Now this verse 10 is the new covenant with the old covenant. And I guarantee that some of you are going to see something you've never seen in your whole life even though you've read Hebrews 8 so many times. Please see what is this new covenant. I want you to see from verse 10 to verse 12 two words that occur very frequently. I will put my laws into their mind. I will write them upon their hearts. Verse 10 I will be their God. I will verse 12 be merciful to their iniquity. I will remember their sins no more. Can you see a fundamental difference between Exodus 20 and Hebrews 8 now? Have you seen a fundamental difference between the old covenant and the new covenant? The old covenant is you shall not, you shall not, you shall not. And the new covenant God says I will, I will, I will, I will, I'll do it. You could never do it yourself. And when you see that you'll be liberated. Do you know the last miracle that Jesus did before he went to heaven? You read about it in John chapter 21. It was his last message. The miracles in John's gospel were called signs. A sign is where the miracle has got a message. That's the meaning of a sign. That last miracle was when the disciples went fishing. One, after the resurrection John 21, they went fishing maybe 6 o'clock in the evening. And Jesus knew very well that they would never catch any fish that night. Why didn't he come at 6.15 in the evening? And tell them, listen fellas, you'll never make it. You know why he didn't come at 6.15? Because they wouldn't have believed him. Then he said, no Lord, we're experts, we can do it. That's why he didn't come. So, they tried. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, six hours, it's midnight, and they've never had such a bad day in all their life. Eight hours, ten hours, four o'clock in the morning, still no fish. And why isn't the Lord coming? Why is he allowing them to struggle and struggle and struggle and fail and fail and fail exactly like he kept Israel under the law century after century after century for 1500 years failing, failing, failing, failing, to teach them one lesson, you can't make it. Without me, you can do nothing. That was the lesson God wanted Israel to learn. And that's the lesson that Jesus wanted those disciples... He said it in John 15, verse 5. They'd heard it. They'd heard it a few days earlier. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. But it's one thing to know it in your head, it's quite another thing to experience it and prove that it's true. And that verse, that thing that he told them at the Last Supper in John 15, without me, you can do nothing, and which they didn't believe, they thought they knew it. We all know it, don't you all know, without Jesus, you can do nothing? But you still try. And you try hour after hour and day after day and year after year, and you fail, just like those disciples, trying, trying, trying, trying, failing, failing, failing. And when did the Lord stop? When they had learnt the lesson. When is the Lord going to stop with you when you've learnt the lesson? They came to the point by about five o'clock in the morning when they said, we give up. They hadn't come to that point at two o'clock or three o'clock, they said, let's just, four thirty, they said, let's try once more. Okay, go ahead. Five o'clock, they said, no, it's useless, let's go home. Then the Lord came. They had come to an end of themselves. Their confidence in themselves had come down to zero. That's the time when God begins to work. And then Jesus said, He first asked them a question, and who said Jesus didn't have a sense of humor? He asked them, well, fellas, have you got any fish? He knows the answer. You went out fishing, you thought you were experts at that. Have you got any fish? That honest reply. Have you succeeded with all these years of trying to overcome your temper and the lust of the eyes and love of money and bitterness? Have you succeeded, boys? Have you got any fish? Have you got anything? Have you overcome your gloom and your discouragement? Have you learned to rejoice always? Be honest. No, Lord. Say, we haven't got anything. We tried, but we haven't got it. Now the Lord said, cast your net on the right side. And it says they hauled up so many fish, they couldn't pull in the net. And they came home and they counted 153 it says large fish. How much does a fish of this size cost here in Canada? Imagine getting 153 of them in one catch. And that's what the Lord said. I came to give you life, to give it in abundance. But we have to come to the end of this old covenant. Yesterday I was telling you about the 38 years. The man was in pool sitting beside the pool for 38 years, which is a picture of Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 38 years. It was totally 40. For the first 2 years the Lord was leading them to the borders of the promised land. I want to show you a verse which you may not have noticed in Deuteronomy in this connection. Deuteronomy chapter 2 it says the time that it took us Deuteronomy chapter 2 verse 14 the time it took us to come from Kadesh, Barnea until we crossed the brook Zirid to go over to Jordan was 38 years. That's the period that lame man was sitting in Bethesda. And listen to the second part of that verse. Until why 38 years? Because that entire generation of the men of war had to perish. Do you know the meaning of that spiritually? That all that human strength and capability in you men of war has to perish. Has to die. Till you say Lord I cannot make it. Every single one of those 600,000 men of war in you have to die. And if it takes 38 years, so be it. If it takes 38 years, if somebody is more wholehearted and finishes in 38 days, so be it. You get through sooner. If you come to the end of yourself after one hour of fishing, the Lord will come after one hour. If you come to the end of yourself after 11 hours of fishing, the Lord will come after 11 hours. If you come to the end of your fishing after 11 years of fishing, He'll come after 11 years. That's up to you. It's up to you as to when you realize, I cannot make it on my own. That's the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Thou shalt, thou shalt, and the Lord says, I will. I'll do this. Now let's get back to Hebrews chapter 8 and see how wonderful this New Covenant is. Hebrews 8, 13, when He said a New Covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now, please listen to this. This is Scripture. How many of you know that the first covenant is obsolete? Do you know it's obsolete? Do you know that, that entire teaching of trying to struggle and struggle to keep it in your own strength is obsolete? Why are you still following an obsolete covenant? That covenant that taught you that if you do all this, you'll become very wealthy and very healthy is obsolete. Why do you let some preacher fool you with it? He has made the first obsolete and whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Many people don't want it to disappear. And all these people who preach the old covenant to you and get your money and become wealthy through it, tell me how many of them lead you to victory over sin? The old covenant could not lead anybody to victory over sin. You know that David, when he got up in the temple three thousand years ago and he sang the Psalm 103 there, blessed the Lord, O my soul who, what all does he do? Forget not all his benefits. Read it sometimes, Psalm 103. Forgives all your iniquities, that's old covenant. Heals all your diseases, that's old covenant. Crowns your life with good things, that's material blessings, that's old covenant. Forgiveness of sins, healing from sickness, material prosperity. That is Psalm 103. Three thousand years ago, David sang it. What is it he could not say? Bless the Lord, O my soul who gives me victory over the lust of my eyes. He couldn't say that. Who gives me victory over my uncontrolled temper. He couldn't say that. He couldn't because he couldn't get victory. He could get forgiveness. He'd do it, get forgiveness. Do it, get forgiveness. But the new covenant is better. How is it better if you keep on doing the same thing and get forgiveness and you're no better than David? Sin shall not rule over you because you're not under law but under grace. That's Romans 6.14. Sin shall not rule over you because you're not under the old covenant but under the new covenant. Turn for a moment to Romans 6.14. And I believe this is so simple that I could get a child sitting here to give me the answer to this very simple question which I'm going to ask you right now. You don't have to know anything beyond this verse to get the answer to this question. Okay? You don't need to know any other verse in the Bible except just read this one verse and give me the answer to this question. Romans 6.14. Sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace. The law is the word for the old covenant. Grace is the word which symbolizes the new covenant. There was no grace in the old covenant. Many people define grace as God's unmerited favor. That's also one of these unscriptural definitions that we have learned and remembered by heart through the years which is never found in scripture. Do you know the Bible says in John 1.17 the law came by Moses but grace came by Jesus Christ? That's in your Bible. John 1.17 the law came by Moses but grace came by Jesus Christ. There was no grace in the world till Jesus came. But there was a lot of unmerited favor. Noah got the unmerited favor of God. Abraham got the unmerited favor of God but they didn't get grace. Unmerited favor? Every human being. Which person got the merited favor of God? Is anybody like that? Everything is unmerited. Even that heathen fellow, the health he gets is the unmerited favor of God. Sure, the sun shining on that atheistic farmer, that's the unmerited favor of God but that's not grace. No it isn't. Grace comes through Jesus Christ. So grace is not unmerited favor. Unmerited favor everybody in the world has been getting since the day Adam fell. But grace, okay. So here's my question. Let me read the verse again. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under law but under grace. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under law but under grace. Now it's very simple question. There's no catch in it. How do you know that you are under the law? What's the answer? Sin has dominion over you. Very simple. That's all there is to it. Some of you thought you were free from the law. No sir. You are not. Sin has dominion over you whether you know it or not. You are struggling under the law. That's why sin has dominion over you. How do you know you're under grace? Sin does not have dominion over you. It's that simple. The Bible is a very simple book. It was written for children. Jesus said, I thank you father that you have hidden these things from all the clever and intelligent people who go to seminaries and derive complicated explanations of simple verses and you have revealed them to be who just take it as it is and experience it as it is. Grace is such a powerful force. It begins with the forgiveness of sins but goes on to deliver man from sin's power. It's not the same as mercy. Mercy is an old covenant word. Grace is new covenant. You know that for 16 years after my Christian life I did not know the difference between mercy and grace and I guess more than half of you sitting here don't know the difference between mercy and grace unless you've heard one of my tapes perhaps. What is the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is forgiveness. It deals with our past. Grace is more than forgiveness. We have forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1 according to the riches of His grace but it goes on from the past into the future that sin does not rule over me because I'm under grace. You know we have missed something. The devil has blinded our eyes to the power of grace. We thought grace is God's unmerited favor. Where did you get that? You got that from some book. It's not in the Bible. Make a decision today that I made 40 years ago that I'll never believe anything that anybody says unless he can show it to me in the Bible. And you'll save yourself from a lot of false understanding of what God is like. Forgiveness goes on. In grace we get victory. And the Bible says in Hebrews if you turn back one page to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16 we read there let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. And when you come to the throne of grace you get two things. You know what you get? Mercy and grace. You get two things. You may have come away with only one so far, but you could have two. You could have both. And that's why you feel your Christian life is incomplete sort of. Supposing I bought a very expensive two-volume encyclopedia for you. And I sent you a gift coupon and said you can just go to the shop and pick it up. And you go there and come home with one volume. When you begin to refer to these things you feel a bit incomplete because it's only A to L and you've got some word beginning with M or N and it's not there. Something's missing. And you wonder, here, what's wrong? Do you feel like that in your Christian life? Something's wrong. Because you didn't get that second volume. It's paid for and you can go back and take it. It's not only mercy but grace. It's not only the blood of Jesus Christ as the power of the Holy Spirit. Both. The blood of Christ cleanses us in God's mercy. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace that empowers us to be overcomers, that fills our nets with fish. Not only the blotting over to the past but the empowering for the future. That is the new covenant. I want you to turn back to Hebrews chapter 8. Look at this wonderful verse. I will be merciful to their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. That's God's promise under the new covenant. I will not remember your sin anymore. It's gone. Justified. Cleansed. Blotted out. God says, don't ever talk about it again. It's gone. The blood of Jesus has justified you. The blood of bulls and the blood of Jesus has cleansed it away. There is no memory of it anymore. You remember what you did 20 years ago? That's because it was a memory. But in God's record it's blotted out. One moment you come before God and say, Lord, I'm sorry, I really repent. And it's gone. It's amazing how God blots out. Let me show you one example in the Old Testament. Turn back to the book of Job. In Job you read about Satan accusing Job before God, just like he accuses us. But Job lived before Moses. No mention of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob in Job. Did you know that 65 books of this Bible have some reference to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob or some connection with it except one book? The only book in the whole Bible which has no reference or no connection to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob or anything that descends from Israel. Every single book except Job. Job lived before Moses and if he lived before Moses, then this book is the first book of the Bible that was ever written because Genesis was written by Moses. That's very interesting. I never realized that myself until a few months ago that this was the first book of inspired scriptures. Okay. Now, in the book of Job, you find that Job says some wonderful things about God. I'll just show you some of them. First of all, when he lost all his children and all his property, he said in Job 121, The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Praise the Lord. For a man to say that just when he heard that he lost all his children and all his businesses, that really means something. And he worshipped. It says he fell down, verse 20, worshipped. Then, in chapter 2, he gets all that sickness boiled from head to foot. And what did he say now? Now he's lost his children, he's lost his property, and he's lost his health as well. And what does he say now? He says, well, chapter 2, verse 10, we're supposed to receive good things from God and we're supposed to receive a few bad things as well. Adversity, suffering. We're supposed to receive a little suffering as well. What's wrong in that? And he says Job didn't sin, verse 2, chapter 2, verse 10. But, once you come to chapter 3, on up to chapter 31, the pressure became too much for him. He begins to say things like, now you see it different. Chapter 3, verse 11, why didn't I die when I was born? And chapter 7, he says, my life is so miserable, verse 4, that when I lie down, I say, when will I get up? But the night continues, he's suffering, suffering the whole night, and he says, when will the morning come? And he says in verse 11, I'll speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. And he says, God, chapter 9, verse 17, bruises me with a tempest. He multiplies my wounds without any reason. He's punishing me. I'm not guilty, verse 20, but he declares me guilty. Here is the sound of the voice of a rebel. He's not the same old joke of chapter 1 and 2. And he says, I know, verse 28, that you will never acquit me. And he goes on. Verse, chapter 10, verse 14, if I sin, you take note of me immediately, and you will not acquit me. And he goes on saying some terrible things like that. Chapter 19, he says, my breath is offensive to my wife, verse 17, young children despite me. He's complaining against God. Chapter 16, verse 11, God hands me over to ruffians. He tosses me into the hands of the wicked. I don't have time to show you all that. But he goes on on that note. God, you've been unrighteous. You've done a lot of things against me. You set me up as a target for you to fire your arrows at. And finally, when God spoke to him, he got so humbled. He says in chapter 42, verse 6, verse 5, Lord, till now I heard all these preachers preaching about you. I heard of you by the hearing of my ear. But now my eyes sees you. And listen to this. This is wonderful. I retract. That's how it is in my NASB here. I retract means I take back every wrong thing I ever said. And I repent in dust and ashes. One sentence. And you know what God said about him after that? The Lord then told these three preachers, he told Eliphaz in verse 7, my wrath is kindled against you and your enemies because you have not spoken about me what is right like my servant Job had. Now do you think Job spoke the right thing about God? How could God say that my servant Job spoke the right thing? I'll tell you some of the good things Job said. He said in Job chapter 13 verse 15, though he slay me I will trust him. He said in chapter 19 verse 25, my redeemer lived and one day he will stand on this earth and even if worms consume my body it will be resurrected and I'll stand before him and I will see him face to face. He said an amazing thing. He said in Job 23 verse 10, a paraphrase of that is he knows every detail of what is happening to me. In another place he says I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. He said some good things. Those were a few jewels in the midst of a lot of rubbish that he said about God. And with that one sentence he took back all that rubbish that he said in those months when he was suffering and what did God do? He blotted it out. And if you were to see Job's record in heaven today, you won't find these verses that you find in your Bible. It's in your Bible but it's not in God's record. Just like you have the description of David's committing sin in your Bible but it's not in God's record in heaven against David's life. This is such a wonderful thing that when you repent and you take back, Lord I'm sorry for what I did, immediately it's gone. Why in the world do I find everywhere believers depressed? Oh, no assurance that their sins are forgiven. No assurance that God has accepted. I want you to know my brothers and sisters, God has been the devil, reminding you, reminding you, harassing you, because he doesn't want you to be happy. I want you to go from here if you have really turned from your sin. Now, if you're playing the fool with God, this message is not for you. But if you have really turned from your sin and come back to God and said, Lord, I've said some hard things against you in my life, but I take them back. I repent. I want you to know that the blood of Jesus cleanses you. Never again insult God by saying that your sins are not forgiven. God said it. And when God says something and you don't believe it, you're calling God a liar. That's very, very important. This is the foundation for the Christian life. God's saying to us, your entire past life is blotted out. All those hard things you said against me, all those wrong things you did, it's all blotted out. The only things that are left are what are right. And one other thing I encourage people to do when they come to Christ is what you heard earlier, the first part of this meeting. To renounce every known or unknown contact you ever had with Satan in your past life. Sometimes it's known, sometimes it's unknown. You may have got your palm red or read what the stars foretell, some astrology, some Ouija boards, something or the other, something in your younger days, known or unknown. To say to the devil, I renounce it in Jesus' name. I renounce every known or unknown contact I ever had with Satan. And to say to Satan, I don't belong to you anymore, Satan. You have no power over my life. I belong to Jesus Christ. Let me show you this verse in closing. Revelation chapter 12. It says here, Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. How did they overcome Satan? Please listen carefully. By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. This is not talking about our testimony in the meeting. This is not talking about getting up and telling people how you were saved. This is testimony to the devil, telling him that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you. Have you ever told the devil that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all your sins? If you have not done it, tell him tonight. Tell him straight to his face that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all your sins because you have repented. Tell him to his face that you don't belong to him. Tell him to his face that he was defeated on the cross two thousand years ago. Why are you hesitant? I remember once somebody brought a cross two thousand years ago and she shouted out, I've not been defeated on the cross. That was a demon inside her. Now I had to speak to the demon. I said, you're a liar. You were defeated on the cross two thousand years ago. Get out of her in Jesus' name. And the demon left. And I said, now say, Satan, you were defeated on the cross two thousand years ago. She said it. And I discovered that day that the devil doesn't like to hear that he was defeated on the cross two thousand years ago. And I'm determined to remind him of that every day of my life. Do that. That's got nothing to do with you. It's got nothing to do with me. I didn't defeat Satan on the cross. It was Jesus who did it. It was our Savior who did it. Tell him. Tell him that he was defeated. Why do you celebrate, why does every country celebrate an Independence Day? Yeah, many countries. We celebrate Independence Day in India regularly. A time when we were free. There is an Independence Day. We were freed from the dominion of Satan. Why did the Lord tell the Israelites on the fourteenth day of the first month, every year you must celebrate this. What did they celebrate? The deliverance from Egypt. Pharaoh will no longer rule over our forefathers from that day. And I want you, my brothers and sisters, to remind the devil as often as possible that he was defeated on the cross two thousand years ago, that you belong to Jesus Christ. Maybe he had a hold on your life in the past, but he's got no more hold on you. That's the way to rejoice in the Lord. The devil can't put depression on you anymore. You don't need anybody to lay hands on you. You don't need anybody to pray for you. You can pray yourself. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whatever you want to be saved from. You want to be saved from depression, from gloom, from all that condemnation and heaviness that the devil's put upon you for so many years. Believe in the blood of Jesus that has cleansed you. Believe that God has become your Father. Come to Him and say to the devil, I don't belong to you anymore. Let's bow our heads before God. Now I want you to do that right now. Right where you're sitting, say to the Lord, Lord, the best I know how, I repent. I turn from everything that I know that's displeasing to you in my life. I never, never again want to doubt the fact that your blood has cleansed me. I believe there's only one way of salvation. Jesus died for my sin and rose again from the dead. His blood cleanses me, that blood of the new covenant that doesn't just cover up my past sins. It's cleansed, blotted out, never again to be remembered. Let the devil remember it as much as he wants and I'm not going to remember it because God doesn't remember it. Thank you Lord Jesus. I never want to displease you in my life again. I want to please you. I may slip up, forgive me Lord, but I don't want to displease you. I want to please you for the rest of my life. I want to live for you. I want to make Jesus Lord of my life in every area and I want you Lord to fill me with the spirit of joy, the spirit of assurance that I've been forgiven. I believe your word. I resist Satan in the name of Jesus Christ and say this to Satan. Satan, I renounce every contact I ever had with you, known or unknown, in Jesus name. In Jesus name, I renounce it. I don't belong to you Satan. You can't touch my body, you can't touch my spirit. I'm cleansed in the blood of Jesus. I've been redeemed, bought by the blood of Jesus and I'm a child of God and Satan, you've got no right over me from this day onwards. Thank you Lord Jesus for setting me free. Say that to the Lord. Heavenly Father, I pray for everyone who's prayed that prayer here now. I pray that you command deliverance for them. Satan, I command you in Jesus name, take your hands off all those who've responded to God this evening. You've got no right to touch them. I rebuke you Satan in Jesus name. You demons, demons of fear, demons of insecurity, demons of condemnation, I command you to take your hands off God's people this evening in Jesus name. Lord, I pray, Lord Jesus, bring the peace of God into their hearts and the joy of the Lord to every heart this evening. A deep repentance and sorrow for sin, a sorrow in many hearts that they've insulted you so many years by not believing your word, that the blood is cleansed. I pray they'll walk out from here with the joy of the Lord in their hearts, free from the devil, free from condemnation, free from their sin. Thank you Lord. in Jesus name.