In this sermon, the speaker reflects on Jesus' teachings in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, known as the Sermon on the Mount. The speaker highlights the challenge of living up to the high standard set by Jesus in this sermon. They express a desire to know how to live according to this standard, as Jesus did not provide explicit instructions. The speaker also references the story of Daniel in the Bible, who took a stand for God's word despite opposition. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the Holy Spirit in helping believers keep God's commandments and bringing about inward transformation.

Jesus must have had a powerful voice to speak to 5,000 people without a mic or anything. Well, praise the Lord. I want to speak on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant. Now, I'm not at all surprised that the maximum confusion in Christendom today is concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I mean, the devil is so smart. He knows what is most important. A lot of Christians don't, but the devil knows what is most important for a Christian. And so, he's got a lot of Christians on one extreme where they're going off on a tangent with some various manifestations which they say are from the Holy Spirit. And then he's got a whole lot of others reacting against that, where the other extreme say, we don't want anything of that. And he's happy with both. Some have fallen over the cliff one side and the others have fallen over the cliff the other side. And the devil is happy with both of them. We don't want to be in either group. But if we read the scriptures and read the New Testament, we can't go astray. God's word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. But we're living in a generation where people are too lazy to study the scriptures. And that's why so many go astray. And that's not the only reason. A lot of us are probably not too lazy to study the scriptures. Our problem may be that we're unwilling to change ideas and opinions that we have had from childhood or for many years because of the particular upbringing we had. See, all of us have been brought up, most of us anyway, have been brought up in a Christian culture and which gave us certain interpretations of scripture. And it's very difficult to change. And I'll tell you this, if you're not willing to change interpretations of scripture that you've had from your past upbringing, I'll tell you, you face the danger of missing out on what God has for you. This is what happened to the Jewish people in Jesus' time. They had a fixed idea of how God has to work. They believed in the coming of the Messiah. The word Christ means Messiah. They all believed in the coming of the Messiah. Why is it when the Messiah came, they couldn't accept him? Not only they couldn't accept him, but they called him the prince of devils. Why was that? It's not because they didn't study the scriptures. They didn't have Christian television those days to lead them astray. They had the Bible, they studied it, but they were unwilling to give up their preconceived ideas as to how God should work. And so when the Messiah came, you know, their idea was, well, the Messiah is going to come, he's going to deliver us from the Romans. The Romans have been ruling our nation for so long and we're slaves here in a sense. We can't do everything, we can't run our own country, but the Messiah will come and set us free. I believe that's one of the reasons Judas Iscariot was disappointed and finally decided to betray him. And when Jesus came with another message that I haven't come to free you from the Romans, I've come to free you from sin. They were not so keen on that. So we can also have certain preconceived ideas concerning what the New Testament teaches, what the Holy Spirit has come to do. And then, of course, we can miss out exactly like those early Christians missed out. See, I grew up in a church called the Syrian Orthodox Church in India. And I was baptized as a child. We didn't believe in baptism in the Holy Spirit. I mean, I grew up in a church where the leaders would pray for the dead and pray to Mary and all that. When I was born again, one of the things I decided, and I'm very thankful, it was 49 years ago, I decided that now I'm going to order my life according to Scripture. And if I found there were things that I had been taught by my church which were not in Scripture, I'd throw it in the trash, except Scripture. And then I joined the Brethren Assemblies and I followed the same principle. Okay, if there are things they teach which I don't find in Scripture, if I find things in Scripture which are not taught there at all, I'm going to go by Scripture. And I want to tell you, this has led to my leaving some churches and joining another and joining another. Some people have told me, Brother Zach, you're such an unstable person. You leave one church and then go to another. I said, I've been unstable all my life. I used to be in first grade. I left that and went to second grade. And then I left that and went to third grade. I mean, my instability started from childhood. I was not like all those rock steady people who stay in first grade all their life and are quite happy there. If you find something in God's Word which is not what you always believe, I want to ask you, are you going to be so stubborn to stick to what you believe? Or I'm not saying if you hear it from me. I'm saying if the Holy Spirit shows you something from Scripture. If you're not convinced, you must wait, of course. But if the Holy Spirit shows you something from Scripture, are you willing to follow that? You know, it says in John chapter 12. I don't know whether you remember if you've read these words. In John 12 and verse 42 and 43. This is after the resurrection of after Lazarus was raised from the dead. And many people believed in him. And instead of being excited that somebody was raised from the dead. Now I'm not talking about these uncorroborated resurrections that a lot of people are talking about today which are all fake. I'm talking about a man whom they saw was in a grave for four days and who came out of that grave. This was real. And they wouldn't believe, they wouldn't accept it. It says here in John chapter 12. Verse 42. Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in Jesus. But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him. Lest they should be put out of the synagogue or put out of that church. Because they loved the approval of men more than the approval of God. I believe that there are many things we miss in the Christian life because we love the approval of men more than the approval of God. Because we care more for what will the people in my group think of me if I take the stand. Or what will my friends say or my relatives say. I'll tell you what I decided. I said I couldn't care less what my relatives say. I couldn't care less what the people in my group say. I'm going to go on with God. And that has brought such tremendous results in my life. It's made me an extremely happy person. It's enabled me to be free from bad moods and understand what it is to live an overcoming life and to build the New Testament church. I'll tell you this. God will do that for anybody. But you've got to tell him, Lord, your approval means more to me than the approval of my closest friends, relatives, people in my church, anybody. If God finds one person like that here, I tell you, you don't know what God will do through you. You're limiting God because God's testing you. Do you care for the approval of men? I think of numerous times in my life where he showed me something and then he waited to see what would I do now. Now, he didn't put pressure on me. If I was unsure, I was still studying scriptures, that really true or not, there God can understand. The person is not sure yet. And if you're not sure yet, wait, wait one year, two years. But once you're sure that the Holy Spirit has shown you something, say, Lord, I'm going to stand for that. And I remember when I first understood what it was to overcome sin, not only theoretically in scripture, but practically in my life. I was defeated by anger. I was defeated by dirty thoughts. I was defeated just like any other human being. But I knew scripture said sin will not rule over you. And I said, Lord, I'll keep confessing that till it becomes true in my life. And I'd be defeated and I'd say, but sin is not going to rule over me. Something like God told Abraham he was going to have a son. And year after year after year went by and Sarah would not conceive and he would say, no, but God said, I'm going to have a son. God said, I'm going to have a son. I don't know when it's going to happen, but it's going to happen many, many years. It's about 13 years after he first, it says about him in Genesis 15, that he believed God would make his seat like the stars in the sky. 13 years later, he got his son. So, but he held on. And because he held on to the promise of God, it says he gave glory to God, believing that God is able to do what he had promised. I believe God wants a generation of people like that in the last days who will believe not what they are capable of doing, but that God will do what he has promised. When Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Look at the multitudes of churches we see around us. It's obvious the gates of hell have prevailed against them. There's jealousy, strife, conflict, backbiting, gossiping, lust, and every imaginable evil in churches that preach every imaginable doctrine. And do you believe that Jesus is still building his church here and there? It may not be big and great in the eyes of men, but a church against which hell has got no power. That's the type of church the Lord wants to build in every part of the world, little, little groups here and there. They don't have to be large. They won't be in the big buildings necessarily. But we must believe God is able to do it. When God does his work through human beings, and he tests a person before he uses them. And one of the tests is, will you seek my approval? Are you willing to break with your closest friends? Because I show you something. All the great men of God who led the church forward to recover truth that's been lost from the times of the apostles, have been men who were willing to stand alone. And it's when they were willing to stand alone that God added to them. Just like Daniel in Babylon. When he looked around at all those people sitting at the king's table, all the Jews who were compromising God's word because they said, well, we don't have to take that so literally what it says in Leviticus 11, that you can't eat this food and can't eat that food, etc. But Daniel said, well, you fellas can do what you like, but I'm going to stand for God. I'm not going to take part of this. I'm not going to disobey God's word. It may be a small commandment. It's not something big like the Ten Commandments. But this food and wine which is provided here, God's word says I shouldn't take part. The young 18-year-old Daniel and he took a stand. What was the result? Out of that crowd, there were three people who didn't have the courage to take a stand on their own, but who came out. How do we find in the midst of a great crowd, maybe two or three, who don't have the courage to take a stand for the Lord on their own? The only way to find them, if there is one Daniel who's standing there and saying, well, I'm going to take a stand. It looks as if there's nobody. That's fine. I'm willing to stand against all of you. I'm going to stand for God's word. And when you take a stand, you'll find out of that crowd come two or three or four or five or six. That is the way God builds His church. And that's why I believe God's looking for people like Daniel today, who will not compromise in the standards of God's word in any area. So concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I want to show you two things. First of all, the first time that Jesus spoke about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the very first time he made references to it earlier. But the first time he actually said that I'm going to send the Holy Spirit when I go is in John 14. And I want you to notice two things that he mentioned there, which are very, very important concerning. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant. In John 14. He began by saying. In verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now I want to begin there. In the Old Testament, it was not like that. In the Old Testament, God wanted his people to obey his commandments, sure. But it was not, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. It was, if you fear me, you better keep my commandments. Particularly Deuteronomy 28. Where he said, if you don't keep my commandments, you're going to get madness, plague, blindness, defeat by the enemies, debt and all types of problems, financial difficulties, etc. So you better keep my commandments. Or he said, if you want to be blessed, if you want to be prosperous, if you want health and if you want children and prosperity, keep my commandments. So it was not, if you love me, keep my commandments. It was, if you want material, physical blessing, keep my commandments. If you don't want sickness and problems in your life, keep my commandments. And they kept it. I mean, that's the way we bring up our children. But here it was, if you love me, keep my commandments. And the commandments of Jesus were a much higher standard than the Old Testament law. And to keep those commandments is very, very difficult. It's almost impossible to keep the standard that Jesus taught, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. He said in the Old Testament, it was written, you shall not commit murder, but I say to you, don't get angry. Now you know how difficult it is to stay away from anger. When Jesus spoke against anger and compared it with murder in the Old Testament, I look at it like this. How many people were you permitted to murder in the Old Testament? Or how often were you permitted to murder somebody once a year, say, or once in two years? Was that okay? How many times am I permitted to get angry? Once a year? Once in two years, perhaps? Do I think I'm a pretty good Christian if I got angry just once in two years? If I yelled at my wife in anger just once in two years? Would you be considered a good Jew if you murdered somebody just once every two years? Do you see how many people haven't taken the commandments of Jesus seriously? And that's why they think they're pretty good Christians. Even the holiness groups that talks about being entirely sanctified. You know, these holiness groups that started two, three hundred years ago, they discovered after a while that they were sinning. And so they started calling sin mistakes. That is a clever way of getting around it. But the problem is the blood of Jesus Christ doesn't cleanse mistakes. If you say it's a mistake, you've got to live with it forever. If you confess it as a sin, it can be forgiven. And that's how a lot of these holiness groups went into deception. We don't have to deceive ourselves. If you got angry, just call it a sin. Then it can be cleansed. If you lusted after a woman in your mind, call it adultery. You can be cleansed. But if you don't, you'll never know victory over sin. We've got to be honest. Jesus compared anger with murder. And if you love me, keep my commandments. So I've got to begin there. Because, you know, it's in the next verse, verse 16, that he spoke about the giving of the Holy Spirit. And that's why I'm connecting the two. If we understand scripture in its context, we won't go astray. If you're like a lot of Christians who just pick out a verse from somewhere and try to live on that, you'll build a cult. And you'll go astray. Cults are built on one verse, taken out of context. So we need to understand the first time Jesus spoke about sending the Holy Spirit is in John 14, 16. I will ask the Father, and He'll give you another helper. The NASB is called a helper. Or as those who study Gleek say, it's the word parakletos, which means someone called alongside to help me. I'm like a little child who can't go over this fence. My dad picks me up and puts me over the fence. That's what the Holy Spirit does. Someone called alongside to help me. A helper. In the King James Version, it's called a comforter. But that word, you know, a lot of words in the King James Version don't mean today what they meant in the 16th century. Like charity. If you speak about charity in India, anyway, it means giving money to the poor. Well, that's not the greatest thing. The Bible says when it speaks about charity in the 16th century, it meant love. We use the word love today. So comforter doesn't mean, you know, consoling a person who somebody died in his family. That's not the meaning of comfort. It meant in the olden days from the word fort, which is in the middle of comfort. F-O-R-T. Something that strengthens you. Something that helps you to accomplish what you couldn't accomplish before. It's like the power that came to Samson to destroy God's enemies. For us, it's an inner power. So, a helper. So, in the context, what was Jesus talking about? Let me read it like this. Verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And you folks, he's talking to the disciples of the Last Supper. Remember, only 12 of them sitting there. And he said, you have heard me, what my commandments are. You mustn't get angry. How often? Never? Or most of the time? You mustn't lust after women. How often are you permitted to... How often is a Christian, a good Christian, a so-called spirit-filled Christian, how often is he permitted to lust after women? You can answer that question very easily by asking, how often were the Jews permitted to commit adultery? Once a year? You see how most Christians have never taken those fundamental teachings of Jesus seriously. And yet they think they are very good Christians. Many of them call themselves spirit-filled Christians, just because they speak in tongues. That's fine. I believe in speaking in tongues. But what about not lusting in your mind? What about overcoming anger? What about loving your enemies? If you got 10 enemies and you love 9 of them, you haven't obeyed God. If you love me, keep my commandments. I could list a number of commandments like that. If you love money, you can't love God. And when you take these commandments seriously, you find they are not difficult to accomplish, they are impossible. Not difficult, but impossible. So, here you are listening to Jesus saying, if you love me, keep my commandments. And you say, Lord, I really love you. And I believe most of us sitting here, hopefully all of us, really love Jesus. The best you know how. Otherwise you wouldn't come here. Some of you have traveled long distances, more than 24 hours to get here. Doesn't that indicate a hunger? It certainly does. I believe you love Jesus. And I think those disciples love Jesus too. They said, Lord, we want to keep your commandments. And even as you've heard these little things I've shared right this morning, I believe the hearts and most of your hearts, the desire is, Lord, that's the type of life I want to live. I never want to commit murder, and I never want to get angry. I never want to commit adultery, and I never want to lust in my mind even once. I believe that's the desire of your heart. But you say, Lord, knowing my nature, I'm born again, but Lord, I've got this flesh in which dwells nothing good. I'm corrupt inwardly, I'm ashamed to let other people see what goes on in my thoughts. I'm ashamed to let other people know how I talk to people at home, or perhaps in some of my financial dealings. A lack of straightforwardness. Lord, I want to keep your commandments. How to do it? That's a cry of my heart. Is there a cry in your heart? When you hear this standard of Jesus and say, Lord, how shall I keep it? You know, when Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, I read it like this. I read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. If I'm absolutely honest, like I was saying just now, compare murder with anger. If you're never permitted to commit murder, you're never to be angry. Love all your enemies, bless those who curse you, and all your prayer life must be secret. Nobody must know anything about, you must try your best anyway, that people don't know anything about your prayer life, or how often you fast, or what you give, or anything. It all must be secret, and many, many things. Do not be anxious. Just think of that one commandment. It's a commandment, by the way, in Matthew 6. Three times, at least twice there, or two or three times in Matthew 6, at the end of that chapter, he said, don't be anxious, don't be anxious, don't be anxious. How often does the Lord have to say that to us? Now, if you're not familiar with that, let me show you that. It's in Matthew 6, verse 25. Do not be anxious. Matthew 6, 25. Verse 31. Do not be anxious. Verse 34. Do not be anxious. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not be anxious. How many times am I permitted to steal? How many times am I permitted to murder? How many times am I permitted to be anxious? I'm not trying to bring anybody under condemnation. Please understand me. The ministry of condemnation is an Old Testament ministry. The ministry of the New Testament is a ministry of glory, of hope. But we got to see our need first. And I'll tell you, what I have seen, one of the greatest needs among Christians, is for them to face up to the fact that they have not taken God's word seriously. They have taken the words of Jesus lightly. If you want to overcome sin, you first got to take the words of Jesus seriously. Otherwise, like Abraham, when God said, you're going to have seed like the stars in heaven, he said, okay, I'm going to produce them. And he produced an Ishmael. And he produced an Ishmael. And for 13 years he thought, this is the one through whom my seed will be like the stars in the sky. God said, no. Once he pleaded, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. And God said, no. We can produce something which we think is Christianity. Is it the type of Christianity spoken of in Matthew 6? Do not be anxious. Do not lust. Do not be angry. It isn't. It's some third rate Ishmael which is better than the 10th and 100th rate Christianity we see around us. And because it's better than that, we say, this is holiness. It's holiness compared to what? It's holiness compared to the useless Christianity we see around us. But God says, no. That's an Ishmael. It's a product of your determination. It's the product of your ability, Abraham. Or put your name there. I won't accept it. But Lord, it's so much better than what my life was before and so much better than all these other Christians. True, but I will not accept it. Because it's your work. And no flesh will glory in my presence, the Lord says. It has to be the work of my spirit. You know, there's a lot of difference between improving our nature and partaking of God's nature. World of difference. Improving our nature is Hinduism. I get a newspaper in India and every day there's an article there on Hinduism. And it's all about improving one's life. It sounds so similar to what a lot of Christians believe. But Jesus did not come to improve our life. He didn't come just to raise our moral standard to a little higher. The Lord did that. The Jewish people, their moral standard came much higher than the standard of all the nations around them. That's not what God was after. And that's why it says in Hebrews 8, the old covenant was faulty. Not because God made a mistake, but He gave it for another purpose. To show man his sin. That was never meant to accomplish what God wanted to accomplish. It did accomplish something. It made the Jewish nation the most morally upright nation on the face of the earth compared to the corrupt nations around them because they had the Ten Commandments. But that was not God's plan. It was an Ishmael. In Galatians 4, we read very clearly that life under the law was Ishmael. Even though they had a very good moral life. There was something else God had in mind. Something which was supernatural. The Old Testament and the New Testament are compared in Galatians 4 to Ishmael and Isaac. And the difference between Ishmael and Isaac was Ishmael was the product of Abraham's ability to have a child. He was 86 years old, but he could still have a child. And he produced a child. He didn't need God's help. But by the time he became 100, 99, he couldn't do it. His ability to produce a child was over. And he became as helpless as Sarah was. And then, when he had a child, it was God's work. And God would get all the glory. You see, at 86, it was difficult. At 99, it was impossible. And then when it was 100, it was done. That's God's usual way of doing it. As long as you think the Christian life is difficult, you've got to wait, brother. Maybe you've got to wait 10 years, 13 years. I don't know how long. It depends how long you take to discover that the Christian life is impossible. The three stages in God's dealings with us is difficult, impossible, done. Difficult, impossible, done. So, if you're still in the in-between stage of difficult, impossible, you've got to hurry up and come to the place where you realize it's impossible. Now, how many of you think that living a life without ever committing murder, well, that's pretty easy. Supposing you should never commit murder from now to the rest of your life. That's okay. I can do that. I mean, a murderer may find it a bit difficult, but most of us would find it pretty easy. Or if you're told, you should never commit adultery from now on to the end of your life. Well, you say, I never committed adultery till now. I'm not going to do it. Or even if you have in the past, you say, I can do that for the rest of my life. Fine. But if the Lord were to tell you, you're never to get angry from now to the end of your life, is that difficult or impossible? Or if you say that, I'm never to lust with your mind for the rest of your life, no matter how old you are, or you're married, doesn't make a difference. It's impossible. Do not be anxious. So when I read the Sermon on the Mount, I saw all these commandments. The same God who said don't commit murder, said don't be anxious in the New Testament. Why wasn't do not be anxious put as one of the commandments? I mean, God could have made 11 commandments. Do not be anxious. Or 12, do not be proud. Or 13, do not be selfish. Why didn't these commandments get added on in the Old Testament? Is it because God was not interested? Is it because God was not bothered whether people were anxious or proud or selfish? Or don't be a hypocrite. Why is it Jesus brought all these things to the fore in the New Testament? God knew it was no use giving it to them in the Old Testament, because nobody could keep it. He just put one commandment there in the 10th commandment just to show people that you'll never make it. Even if you keep the other 9, you'll never be able to keep the 10th one, which was actually don't lust. It was there. It wasn't Jesus who first taught it. It was there in the 10th commandment. You shall not desire your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's daughter. Every woman on earth is my neighbor's wife or my neighbor's daughter. True. I'm not to desire. That's what Jesus expanded and made more clear in Matthew 5. It's really impossible. And the amazing thing I saw in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus lays this wonderful standard and says if you live like this, your house will be built on the rock. This is the narrow way that leads to life. That's it. He never tells me how to live that life. Imagine showing you a wonderful standard of life and saying, okay folks, that's it. Why did he leave it like that? I say, when I come to take the Sermon on the Mount seriously and I come to the end of it, I say, Lord, you didn't tell me how to live this. That's what I want to know. Do you find a cry like that? Have you found a cry in your heart like that when you have read Matthew 5, 6 and 7? If you haven't, it's because you're satisfied with mediocre Christianity. See there, now we can understand what Jesus said in John 14, verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. It's impossible, Lord. Okay, here's the next verse. I'm going to pray the Father. He's going to give you a helper. A helper for what? Not a helper to do miracles or speak in tongues. A helper to keep my commandments. That's the context in which Jesus first spoke about the Holy Spirit. If you understand that, many of your problems and confusion concerning the Holy Spirit will disappear. It has for me anyway. But it doesn't mean that I ignore. It doesn't mean that I don't value the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I need the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I started praying for the gift of prophecy. By prophecy I mean doing exactly what I'm doing right now. Preaching God's word to edify, exhort, encourage, challenge, comfort people. I started praying for it when I was 23. I still pray for it. Because I want to keep God's commandments. And one of His commandments is go and make disciples in every nation on the face of the earth. How in the world can I do it if I don't have His gifts? So we're not against the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But to me I see the gifts of the Holy Spirit as part of obeying God's commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. We'll come to that later. But if you love me, keep my commandments. And I see how impossible it is. And the Lord says, don't worry. I'm praying to the Father. And He will give you another helper to keep my commandments. So I see the whole of the life and ministry God's called me to as keeping His commandments. What is my life? Keeping His commandments. What is my ministry? Ministry keeping His commandments to build His church, to bless others, and to make disciples of all nations. And I need desperate help for this. I can't do it. If I try to do something, it'll be an ishmael. And I don't want that. So He says, He'll give me the Holy Spirit. He'll give me the supernatural ability, the Holy Spirit to help me. Now, these are the two things I wanted to mention. Two things concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit that Jesus mentioned right at the outset. One, verse 16, He will be with you forever. You see, it wasn't like that in the Old Testament. The Spirit would come upon Samson and the next day, He wouldn't be there. The Spirit would come upon David or the Spirit would come upon Saul and the Spirit would come upon Gideon. And then after a few days, Gideon is making idols. Can you believe that? This man who was clothed with the Holy Spirit went out and defeated the Midianites. He finally collected money from people and made an idol out of it. Gideon. But it's not like that in the New Testament. In the New Testament, your Christianity will be consistent. You're gonna be consistent. You're not gonna be one thing on Sunday and another thing on a Monday. No. He's not gonna be with you on Sunday and absent on Monday. He's gonna be with you forever. He's gonna be with me when I'm praising Him Sunday morning. He's gonna be with me when I go through those difficult times on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. He's gonna be with me all the time. My Christianity is not gonna be a Sunday thing. You know, in the Old Testament, the Lord said, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And there are Christians who emphasize that one day must be holy, you know, Saturday or Sunday. I say, which day are you supposed to be holy? Which day of the week, tell me, are you supposed to be holy? Then you understand what the Sabbath is all about. Every day is a Sabbath for a New Testament Christian. Which day are you supposed to be holy? Remember, the Sabbath day is the day you're supposed to keep holy. Live a holy life. Which day is that? For me, seven days a week. And that's why it says in Hebrews 4, there remains a Sabbath for the people of God who haven't understood it. A life of rest. The Holy Spirit will be with you forever. That's the number one thing we need to see. That is not a power that helps me to, you know, get all excited and emotional in what they call a worship meeting. What many people call a worship meeting is not a worship meeting at all. It's a praise meeting, a thanksgiving meeting. But because people don't know the difference between praise, thanksgiving and worship, they call it a worship meeting. Anyway, that's another subject. But what many people think is that it's in a meeting where we're working everybody up with music and emotion. There the Spirit will come and He'll bring healing. Do you know the number of deceivers who are there on Christian television who are fooling people with this type of message today? And a lot of people see that. They sense, hey, this doesn't sound right to me. But they're afraid to speak because they've been threatened with verses like, don't speak against the Holy Spirit, you'll never be forgiven. Don't touch my anointed. And all these verses. Well, I've got a verse for all of them. I say, the Bible says, don't believe every spirit, little children, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God. 1 John 4, verse 1. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world way back in the first century. So I want to test everything because I don't want to waste my life down a path of deception. So, the Holy Spirit will be with me forever. How do I know my Christianity is genuine? Because it is the same whether it is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. In other words, I'm the same when I stand with others praising the Lord on Sunday morning and I'm in the same mood on Monday afternoon or Tuesday evening. Maybe not in my feelings, but in my spirit, I'm rejoicing in the Lord. I mean, is God on the throne only on Sunday morning? God's on the throne when I'm going through difficulties. I face trials and temptations in my life. Don't ever think that I don't. Anyone who serves the Lord faces more trials and temptations than anybody else because the devil is after them. But I'll tell you something. What I say in those kinds of situations, I say, God is still on the throne. My sins are all forgiven. The blood of Jesus cleansed me completely. The devil was defeated 2,000 years ago. Christ is coming back. And those things never change. No matter how I feel right now, it makes no difference. And I quote the word of God and I overcome. You can do that. So what I'm saying is the Holy Spirit has come number one truth. If you can understand this, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He's come to lead you to a consistent Christian life where your life will be the same Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all through the week. And it gets better and better and better. It says in 2 Corinthians 3.18 that the Holy Spirit will show us the glory of Jesus and change us from glory to glory to glory to glory because He's going to be with me forever. Let me show you that passage. 2 Corinthians 3. This is one of the clearest verses concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the entire New Testament as I've studied it. 2 Corinthians 3.18 Number one, He shows me the glory of Jesus and number two, He changes me into that likeness. I wish He'd do it in a moment, but He doesn't. I mean, don't all of us wish that we could have suddenly be changed into the likeness of Jesus. We'd all become perfect in a moment. Why is it that He doesn't do it in a moment? Because of the fact that God has given us a free will. And He wants us to choose consistently every day. Lord, when things are difficult, I choose You. When things are easy, I choose You. When I can make money, I choose You. When people are treating me badly, I choose You. I'm making those choices and every time I make a choice, the Holy Spirit can change me a little more into the likeness of Christ. That's why Jesus said, you've got to take up the cross daily. To take up the cross daily means every day I say yes to God's will and no to my will. And so here it says, He changes us, 2 Corinthians 3.18, from one degree of glory to another to another because He's going to be with me forever. My Christian life is going to be consistent. It's not in a good mood today and a bad mood tomorrow. No, that's not consistency. That's like Samson who had the power one day and the next day he had no power. We're not to be like that. Number one truth about the Holy Spirit, He's going to be with me forever. All the time. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Holy Spirit is going to be with me 24-7 and He's going to lead me from one degree of glory to another. Now this is different from the Old Covenant. Do you know when the glory shone upon Moses' face? How many of you know why He covered His face? I read it in the Old Testament and I always saw He covered His face because He didn't want people to get scared looking at Him. Well that was one reason but the New Testament here says another reason. It says He didn't want people to see that underneath this veil the glory was slowly disappearing. It says that in 2nd Corinthians 3. Here, verse 13. Not like Moses who used to put a veil over His face so that the sons of Israel might not see the end of that which was fading away. I mean, you wouldn't like other people to see your glory fading away, right? Supposing you have built up a testimony in the church and then you've done some terrible things at home or in your place of work where it doesn't look so glorious. You don't want anybody to see it, right? Moses was exactly like you and me. There was a glory underneath that. Moses knew it was slowly getting less and less and less and less. I don't want people to see that. I don't want people to see how I behave on Monday. Let them see how I was on Sunday. That's Old Covenant. Because the Holy Spirit was not with them forever. I mean, the glory of God shone upon Moses when he was on the mountain face to face with God. But after he came down, it slowly faded away. But it's not like that in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant, it increases. That's why it says we can keep our... With open face. With an unveiled face, 2 Corinthians 3. I don't have to hide anything in my life. With an unveiled face. Because the glory is increasing and increasing. You can come and look at my private life. You can see me Sunday morning. You can see how I live it at home with my wife. You can see how I bring up my children. You see everything. You can see every area of my life. Come and investigate my finances. See how I handle money. See what I think about money. Open face. Nothing to hide. Because the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. That's number 1. And connected with that is number 2. The second thing Jesus said in John 14. 1. He will be with you forever. He helps us to keep the commandments. To be with us forever. And verse 17. John 14, 17. The second great truth. He is now with you. The last part of verse 17. And on the day of Pentecost. He will be in you. Now He is with you. But He will be in the future. In you. And that makes a world of difference. Having Him with us and having Him in us. As long as Jesus was with the disciples. He could not make them one. After 3.5 years of preaching to them. Being an example to them. Showing miracles. He could not make them one. They were still competing. Who is the greatest on the last night. But Jesus said after I go. Something wonderful is going to happen. Here He said that in verse 12. You are going to do something greater. Than I have ever done. And that is. You are going to make people one. What I could never accomplish. In all these years. Is going to happen because. On the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit will come in. And when the Holy Spirit comes in you. You will no longer be fighting. As to who is the greatest. You will be wanting to serve one another. And you will become one with each other. Like the members of a body. See the members of my body are linked inwardly. Because you are connected to the head. It's not an external connection. My left hand doesn't work with my right hand. Because it's tied together with ropes or anything. It's an inward connection. And that's what makes us one. The Holy Spirit will be in you. So I want you to remember these two things. But three things really. First of all. The Holy Spirit has come to make us keep his commandments. And that he will be with us forever. So that our life can be consistent. And he's going to change us inwardly first of all. From the innermost being the rivers of living water will flow. Jesus said in the Old Testament it was poured. And it was from the outside. But in the New Testament it's going to be from inside. So much for a little foundation to what we're going to think of in the next few sessions. Let's just pray.