This sermon emphasizes the importance of specific prayers and faith in receiving from God, highlighting the need to be honest about our struggles and to believe in God's ability to work in our lives. It contrasts the principles of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, focusing on the power of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to live a victorious Christian life. The message encourages believers to seek the true Gospel of the Kingdom, which brings transformation and freedom from sin, rather than just material blessings.

We turn again today to continue our study and all that Jesus taught as we look through the Gospels. We turn today to Matthew's Gospel chapter 9 and verse 27. As Jesus passed out from there two blind men followed him crying out and saying have mercy on us son of David and after he had come into the house the blind men came up to him and Jesus said to him said to them do you believe that i'm able to do this now another passage of in the another gospel which describes the same incident says that he first asked them what do you want me to do for you and the first you know they had said have mercy on us they could have said well we want you to have mercy on us no be specific what exactly do you want me to do for you that's very important we know the bible speaks about prayer and supplication there's general prayer have mercy upon us and there's specific prayer those blind men said we want our eyes to be opened in other words you know to have mercy upon us is sort of a general prayer but the lord says acknowledge your condition and be specific lord i am blind lord i'm a slave to internet pornography lord i'm a slave to hatred or i'm slave to bitterness whatever your problem is lord i have a lot of jealousy unless we are specific you know we like to be a little holy and say lord i like to be free from all sin and the lord says which one have mercy on us what do you want me to do for you lord i'm blind here this is the area where i'm constantly being defeated be specific with the lord always god loves those who point out exactly what they are where they are failing and that's the first principle the general prayers really take us nowhere so once we have made our specific request known to god we still don't get it till there's one more step and that is he asked you asked us do you believe that i am able to do this now notice the question it is not do you believe that you can have you can do this do you believe that i can do this for you and they said to him yes lord there again what do we learn from this about jesus the same principle of faith that we've been considering in all these episodes that we have studied these two chapters he's always looking for faith he's amazed when he sees faith he is disturbed when he sees unbelief saddened when he sees unbelief and always encouraged whenever he says faith and he encourages people saying your faith has saved you you were healed because of your faith and again here asking them do you trust in me do you believe i can do this for you there are many promises in scripture you can look at some of those promises and say impossible well what about opening the eyes of a blind man impossible they've never in their life these blind men have never ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of blind people in their entire life they were trying to believe for something that everybody in israel considered impossible but they said yes lord we believe you have the power we wouldn't trust these pharisees but we can trust you and they got what they wanted and jesus said be it done for you according to your faith again the same principle that we considered in an earlier episode that is not according to your desire and not according to my desire for you but according to your faith so how much are you and i going to receive from god let me make this clear how much are you going to get from god not according to how much you want not according to how much god wants to give you but according to how much you'll believe that can god can do for you it's a principle there's no religion in the world that teaches us except true faith christianity that we receive from god not according to our desire not according to god's desire our desire may be huge god's desire to bless us may be immense but we don't get anything according to your faith i mean if god wants you to bless you like rivers of living water flowing through you that's his desire it certainly is his desire because we read that in john 738 still all you get may be only a cup of water because that's the measure of your faith you don't believe that rivers will ever flow through you because you see oh i'm so weak i'm so insignificant you keep looking inside it would be like these blind men looking say we struggled lord for so many years to see but we have not succeeded those things are unimportant lord said do you believe i can do this for you you know he's not looking at their ability he's asking them whether they trust his ability and that is faith do you believe that the lord can do this for you if he's promised it in scripture there are many many areas where this is application be done for you according to your faith think for example if one of those blind men had said lord i believe you can open one eye i'm not so sure whether you have power to open both but i believe with all my heart you can open one eye he would have gone out with one eye open and the other guy if he had said i believe you can open both eyes lord he'd have gone with out with two eyes open and you see this is what's happening in christianity some believe only one part some believe another part and it becomes two groups one is the one-eyed denomination the other is the two-eyed denomination there are two different denominations what is the difference one had a little more faith to believe that god could do something he has promised for example there's a command in philippians 4-4 which says rejoice in the lord always and you know what always means 24 hours a day seven days a week and let's say those who don't rejoice at all are like blind people and those who rejoice always are the ones with both eyes open now the lord says to blind people who do not rejoice always do you believe i can do this in your life do you believe that i can bring you into a certain quality of life where you will rejoice always 24 7 and you say well lord i'm not so sure whether you know my temperament is so moody and i'm a melancholic i don't think i can rejoice always he'll do that most of the time that's fine what's the answer of the lord according to your faith we run to you you will rejoice most of the time another person says lord i'm more moody and more melancholic than that guy but i believe you can do this for me he rejoices always he comes into a glorious life where he's never in a bad mood never discouraged always rejoicing what is the difference between the two this second guy's temperament is worse but he came to a higher life because he believed that god could do it do you know my friend there could be so many things in your life which god has promised in his word which you have not experienced because you don't believe god can do it for you you're always looking at your own ability can i accomplish this can i achieve it sin shall not have dominion over you as god's promise and you look at yourself and say can i overcome this that's not the question the question is can god you believe god can do it for you or not not whether you can accomplish it so if you can understand this fundamental principle not how much you can accomplish but how much god can accomplish that's the basis of faith that's one of the big differences between law and grace if you look at the law let me point show this out to you in exodus chapter 20 the law said thou shalt thou shalt not i am the lord your god exodus chapter 20 thou shalt have no other gods but me thou shalt not worship idols thou shall not take the name of the lord thy god in vain thou shalt keep the sabbath day holy thou shalt honor thy father and mother you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal this is all exodus chapter 20 up to all the way up to verse 17 you shall not covet your neighbor's wife etc it's all you shall not you shall you shall you shall not you shall you shall not all ten commandments are like that what you must do and israel tried to do it for 1500 years and they did not succeed to keep it all they could keep some of them but james chapter 2 says if you keep most of them and miss out on one of them it's as you're as guilty as those who disobeyed everything it's like whether you have one hole in a vessel or 10 holes in a vessel the vessel is useless so whether you disobeyed one commandment or 10 commandments you're guilty now in the new covenant it's entirely different if you compare what we just read in exodus 20 with you shall you shall you shall not with hebrews chapter 8 where it says the old covenant has been abolished you see chapter 8 verse 7 the new covenant has been established because the first was faulty and the old covenant is obsolete verse 13 ready to disappear and he says now i'm going to make a new covenant verse 8 and look at the terms of this new covenant there is no you shall you shall not that's the big difference notice the 10 commandments let me repeat oh full of you shall you shall not you shall you shall not the new covenant is verse 10 hebrews 8 10 i will i will i will i will verse 12 i will i will between verses 10 and 12 where the new covenant is described there are five times god says i will when this new covenant is prophesied in the old testament in the book of ezekiel and chapter 36 notice how it's put there in ezekiel 36 he says verse 25 this is a prophecy of the new covenant i will sprinkle clean water on you you'll be clean that's speaking about the cleansing from sin symbolically using the example of water i will give you a new heart verse 26 ezekiel 36 26 i will put a new spirit within you i will remove the heart of stone from your flesh i uh and i will give you a heart of flesh i will put my spirit within you i will cause you to walk in my statutes and then you will automatically as it were be careful to keep my ordinances so as you see these promises in ezekiel 36 and verses 25 to 27 and it's fulfilled in the new covenant it's god saying i will that is the point i want you to see in matthew chapter 9 in the healing of the blind man this is the most important thing not how much can you keep the commandments you shall you shall not you shall you shall not people go to church meetings nowadays and all they hear is commandments this is how you must live you must not do this you must not do that you must do this you must do this it's all good the new testament has commandments but the point is how are you supposed to keep them see commandments are all good it's like having a whole lot of gadgets in your house supposing you have a refrigerator a freezer an air conditioner a washing machine a dryer and there are many many electronic gadgets electric gadgets like that they're all useful extremely useful and you compare that with another man who has none of these gadgets in his house you think you're much better off than him are you if you don't have electricity your state is just as bad as that other man who doesn't have those gadgets so here's one person who's got so many wonderful laws like these gadgets but he doesn't have the power of the holy spirit and here's another person who is a non-christian and non-jewish person who's got no laws no commandments he's in the same condition as this man who's got these commandments or these gadgets what is required is the power of the holy spirit this is what was missing in the old covenant under the law this is the main gift in the new covenant it's not just a new technique it's the holy spirit and if we have not understood that we have not understood the new covenant at all and therefore it is not surprising that the devil has made the subject of the holy spirit the most controversial in christendom and it's not surprising that in the area of the ministry of the life and the gifts of the holy spirit you have the maximum amount of counterfeit there is in any area of christianity it's in the area of the ministry of the holy spirit why has the devil made this the area of controversy why has he made the maximum number of counterfeits in this area because it's only things that are valuable that are counterfeited nobody counterfeits brown paper or newspapers people counterfeit diamonds and gold so if you find a lot of counterfeits of the ministry of the holy spirit and the gifts the holy spirit you can be pretty sure that the original must be pretty valuable but i'm sorry to say that more than 90 percent of what you see is counterfeit today so you've got to be very careful and how to distinguish the counterfeit from the real in india if you got a currency note and you don't know whether it's counterfeit or real you take it to the reserve bank of india the authority that issues the notes they will tell you immediately whether it's real or counterfeit go to the source the reserve bank of india in the same way if you want to know whether some manifestation you see is of the holy spirit or not go to the scriptures see whether jesus did it see whether jesus taught it see whether the apostles did it see whether the apostles started those that is what i call the fourfold test did jesus do it did he teach it did the apostles do it did the apostles teach it if the answer is no on all four counts forget it it's questionable what is that the holy spirit would have been done either by jesus or the apostles at least taught by jesus or the apostles if you don't follow that rule i can guarantee that you'll be deceived i can give you written guarantee you will be deceived the word of god is our guideline so keep that in mind this is the principle do you believe that i am able to do this for you and it says here they said yes and again you find this simple principle of jesus not wanting them to tell others about it he says in verse 30 see here let no one know about this and it says here in verse 30 he sternly warned them where in the world you find a so-called healer today sternly warning people don't let anyone know that i prayed for you and you were healed you see how little there is of the spirit of christ in today's so-called healing ministries almost all of it is counterfeit the real healing ministries are being conducted today by people who are mostly unknown unheard of not the big names that you hear of i believe jesus heals the sick even today he does but not by these well-known so-called healers but by people who are unknown who don't want their name to be known just like jesus don't tell anybody about it i'm happy that you're healed jesus was happy that those blind people had got vision that's the spirit the spirit of christ in a really anointed man and as they were going out we there was a dumb man demon possessed was brought to him here's another case of somebody who was in need dumb and he says after the demon was cast out and again i believe jesus cast out the demon with one word be gone get out of him today we say in the name of jesus because it's only his authority with which we can do that the dumb man spoke and the multitudes were marveled said nothing like this has ever been seen in israel but the pharisees were saying he cast out demons by the ruler of the demons and jesus just ignored that and went on we read another passage that he did forgive them he said have you spoken a word against the son of man you're forgiven in matthew chapter 12 you read that see jesus was not disturbed by people calling him the ruler of demons or being in league with satan he didn't disturb him one bit i find so many christians are disturbed if somebody says hey you're in league with satan if you do this or say this you're being satanic it disturbs them but jesus was not he lived before his father and they didn't bother him what men thought about him like i've often said the opinions of men are fit for the trash can whether people say speak highly of you or ignore you or think less of you or speak lowly about you throw it into the trash can it's not worth anything the opinion of man is worth nothing good and bad and that's another thing we can learn from the example of jesus verse 35 and as jesus was going about all the cities and the villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom healing every kind of disease every kind of sickness is amazing his healing ministry every kind of sickness every kind of disease proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of heaven see this is what john the baptist came proclaiming there is a heavenly kingdom that christ has come to proclaim not this earthly kingdom that you fellows have been occupied with for 1500 years that moses has promised to bless you with that god will bless you with prosperity and healing and be the highest of the nations etc none of all that but a kingdom of heaven where heavenly things become more important in your life that is the kingdom jesus proclaimed it's called the gospel of the kingdom of heaven is very rarely preached today in fact is the opposite that's being preached in most places today the old gospel of deuteronomy 28 if you pay your tithes and you do these good things god will bless you materially he will heal your sicknesses and if you don't do it you'll get sick and you'll be poor that's the old gospel which he gave to israel an earthly gospel of an earthly kingdom that tells you about property they had property in canaan here today's false prophets tell you that god will bless you here and give you this property here etc etc i'll give you money or a promotion that's not the gospel of the kingdom of heaven the gospel of the kingdom of heaven is that here on earth you can have a heavenly life a life of peace and joy and if you believe him he'll do it for you he will do it for you that's the king the gospel he preached and seeing the multitudes who had not heard this gospel and there are so many like that today he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd it's exactly the same today there are multitudes and multitudes of even so called christians who have heard about the forgiveness of sins some who even speak in tongues and they remove their ornaments and they think they are very holy but they haven't overcome sin jesus didn't come to get us to remove our ornaments jesus didn't come here just to make us wear white clothes jesus didn't come here just to forgive our sins the angel said in matthew 1 21 he will save his people from their sins that's the gospel of the kingdom not he make you prosperous and he'll make you healthy he'll provide you all your earthly needs but he'll make you see god's kingdom first and his righteousness that gospel is hardly heard and multitudes are therefore downcast distressed because a lot of these people who have taken off ornaments and speak in tongues and make a lot of noise in their meetings they're sometimes so discouraged the husband and wife yell at each other at home that's not true christianity that's not the gospel of the kingdom you don't have the kingdom of heaven in their homes in the kingdom of heaven people are not shouting and yelling at each other what sort of home is this where the father and mother speak in tongues in the meeting on sunday morning and shout at each other in their mother tongue on sunday afternoon that's the a counterfeit complete counterfeit and 90 percent of people who say the claim to be filled with the spirit and speak in tongues are living like that that's not the gospel of the kingdom the gospel of the kingdom includes tongues and prophecy and healing and all these gifts but it enables us to control our mother tongue also makes us free from anger depression gloom jealousy bitterness because heaven is free from these things makes us pure freezes from internet pornography that is the gospel of the kingdom multitudes don't experience that they are distressed downcast so jesus looked at his disciples and said the harvest is plentiful i want to say to all of you look around the world today christian world and see the number of people just like this distressed downcast and like sheep without a shepherd most of the shepherds just want to fleece the sheep of their wool they don't want to feed them in green pastures they just want to take their money that's they're not shepherds they're hirelings who are out to get whatever they can from the sheep hireling is only interested in taking the sheep to the slaughter and making money out of that sheep a shepherd isn't certain feeding the sheep and so when the harvest is plenteous and true workers who are like shepherds for these poor flock are few what should you do don't run out and say i'll be one of them no no no pray pray to the lord of the harvest that he will send out workers to the harvest only he can send them out we can't we can't say okay i'm going to go out and i'm going to serve the lord god is to send you he is to equip you bring you into the new covenant yourself and then send you out we'll continue in our next episode