Zac Poonen emphasizes the transformative power of the New Covenant compared to the Old Covenant, highlighting that the Old Covenant was limited in leading people to true inward righteousness, peace, and joy. He illustrates this by comparing the transition from British rule in India to the freedom of a republic, stressing that believers often fail to grasp the significance of living under the New Covenant. Poonen urges Christians to embrace honesty about their inner lives and to love the truth, as this is essential for spiritual growth and overcoming sin. He warns against the dangers of self-deception and emphasizes the importance of inward righteousness and a consistent Christian life, which is marked by joy and peace through the Holy Spirit.

Now, in the Old Testament, they had no understanding of the Kingdom of God. It hadn't yet come. John the Baptist came with a message that the Kingdom of God was near. It had not yet come. It's very, very important for us to understand the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant. I would say 95% of believers don't have a clue about that. See, let me use an example. Australia is a part of the Commonwealth and still ruled by the Queen of England. She is the head of this country who appoints a Governor General. Up to 1947, India was also exactly like that. The head, India's head was the King of England. I remember those days. I used to be in Delhi. King George VI was the King of our country. But in 1947, India became independent like Australia and for about two and a half years, the King appointed a Governor General. But in January 1950, India became a Republic. Our connection with the rule of England was gone. It was over. We had our own President from that time till today. Now, if you were to ask an Indian today, do you want to go back to the old days? They'd say no. There were rules in those days which were determined by a government in England. Today, none of our rules are determined by a government in England. We are friends with them. We don't despise them but those rules do not apply to anyone in India. So, there was a period we can say of British rule and no more British rule in India and if somebody wants to do something today, it's no use his quoting the rules that were in force when Britain ruled India. That would not be accepted anywhere. It's exactly the same. There was a time when God had an old agreement with man, an old covenant and mainly with the nation of Israel and he dealt with people according to that. But now, there is a new covenant. So, I'm surprised that Christians don't understand that. That they don't understand that that old period is over. In Hebrews chapter 8, we read that very clearly. Let me read you two verses. Hebrews 8 verse 7 says, if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second covenant. So, the first covenant according to God's word is faulty. There was something wrong with the first covenant. Is that such a strong word, faulty? Does God give a covenant which is faulty? Is that the word of God? It is. Faulty not because God made a mistake. It's not like a company makes a car and then discovers some fault in that and rectifies it for the second model. Not at all. It was faulty because it could not lead man to inward righteousness, to inward peace, to inward joy. That's what God wanted man to have, but it could not lead man to that. The law could not bring a man to the place where God wanted him to be. That was its fault. And so, then you say, why did God give the law? Because he had to show man his sin and enable him to appreciate his sin. I have a strong feeling that you have a cancer that's going to kill you. He says, no doctor, I don't agree with you. I feel perfectly safe. He says, yes, I agree. I have a cancer. But will that scan cure him? No. And you've got a cancer, but some will still fight against it. No, no, no, I don't believe it's a But to those wise people, we have knowledge. God says, okay, now I'm going to need a salvation. And the doctor says, no, I think that you're going to be cured from it. There's some chemotherapy procedure, there's some surgery, and I guarantee you're going to be completely free from it and you're going to have a long, long life. That's a little picture of a second covenant. The first covenant was necessary to show man his sin. And now we need to show man his sin to show him how helpless he was to overcome it. That's why God gave in the old covenant 10 commandments. And I don't know how many of you noticed that in those 10 commandments, the best human being, the most righteous, upright human being, could only keep one of them. The 10 commandments are all listed in Exodus 20. It was the first four commandments in relation to God and one covenant. On the other hand, we've got six commandments relating to man. When it comes to the 10th commandment, which is, you shall not covet a desire. This is not talking about something you do. This is talking about desire. You shall not look at your neighbor's pretty wife and desire her. Do you know what he said when he looked at their own life? I tell you what the Pharisees of Pharisees said. There was one man who was called the Pharisee of Pharisees. That was the Apostle Paul. That means he was a top-level Pharisee. What he said was, In Philippians 3 adverse 6. Philippians 3 verse 6. He said, As to the last part of it, as to the righteousness, which is in the law, I was found brainless. Really, Paul? You mean you couldn't keep all the Ten Commandments? I've seen the passage, but he was brainless. But, he was honest. He says in Romans chapter 7, and verse 7 is how I'll be honest, Romans 7, verse 7, is the last thing we know. I do not know what I'm seeing, except for the law. It's not saying, I do not know about the cancer. I'm just not seeing the scan report. But then it says about the Ten Commandments, I do not have known that desire was also a sin. What do you mean that desire was a sin? He said, I do not know. But according to God's standard, meaning by desire I've got a cancer. The last thing, coveting, the word for covet is the same as lust and strong desire. The law says the Ten Commandments, you shall not covet. And when I read that, verse 8, Romans 7, verse 8, I found coveting broke every kind of lust I was in, inside me. That means I lusted for money, I lusted for women, I lusted for this, I lusted for that. Where were things I lusted after? That was his salvation. That he was honest. There are very few men, even among believers, who are honest. And that is why God allows them to go astray. There are very few women who are honest. But women may not be lusting after men, unless they're abnormal, but they lust after clothes and money and this and that. All kinds of lusting is there. It's not just sexual lust. Lusting for peace, which it is not. It's peace God wants to give you. Lusting for more and more and more and more. You may have enough of everything, have money and everything at home, but you lust for more and more and more and more. It's a sin. Dissatisfaction, lack of contentment. It's a sin. People say, well I'm not saying that, look at God's counterpart. But always honest. I want to say to everyone here, the first step to overcome sin is to be honest about what God's counterpart says about your sin, not what you think about your own sin. I can stand in front of a doctor and say, I think I'm healthy, I look pretty good. And the doctor will say, look at his counterpart, don't just speak of how you feel. You feel good because you know about your condition. I have met numerous people who felt perfectly healthy and went for a check-up with a doctor and discovered they had cancer for four years. How is it they felt healthy for four years? That's one of the deceptive things about cancer. People suddenly have stroke, and they don't realize they have had blood pressure for such a long time. There are many diseases in the body which are called silent cures. They don't even know that they have six. How many of you have had people like that? Some of you have had strokes, some of you have had a heart attack. And they don't know that, they don't know they have had diabetes for years, they don't know they have had blood pressure and cholesterol, high cholesterol levels for years. Because they go to check-up, they felt healthy. That's exactly the condition many of you are in. They say, I'm okay. You're not okay. If you desired to be a sinner, but Paul faced up to the standard God and said, boy, every type of desire was in me and I never even realized it was a sin. A lot of things which I think are not wrong for the body, they are. Much more in human life. And so, when he saw this, you know what he said? He wanted to be free. And he was so serious about it, he said, this lust and desire has made me a prisoner to the law of sin. Have you ever felt like that? A prisoner of the law of sin. You look such a nice believer with a lot of respect and love by other people in the church. You think you're very pure in the eyes of others, you're very pure, and you think your doctrines are correct and you are well. And if only people could know what's going on in your heart, that you are a prisoner, that you would be ashamed if you were in this church and you were part of it, and your friends knew about it. What do you do when you find yourself like that? I find out what one knows. What all goes on, what all thoughts go on. That's just how I practice in my business. Things I have doubtful relation to, to the thought. That's why he says things like that. He says, continue in your deception. You don't care for dishonest people. Such people are destined for hell, even if they are elders or pastors or anybody in the church. Why? Because they're dishonest. I believe anything about hell, because they won't be honest to confess that they've sinned. I remember many years ago, I used to be preaching on Sunday in a Baptist church. I was not the pastor, but I didn't like that title. And I didn't get a salary, because I said I don't work for a salary, I don't serve God for salaries. But I said, I'm a preacher, so I'm not claiming, so I don't claim the truth. But, even when I was preaching, I was defeated by a lot of sins in my entire life. My thought life, and nobody knew about it. It was all inward, you know. This is going back nearly 40 years. And I got so fed up. I said, Lord, this is not right. I'm such a hypocrite. I want you to do something for me. And let me ask you for one thing. I don't want money, I don't want honor. I want you to make my inner life correspond with what I speak. That means, what I speak must be 100% true in my inner life. That's all I'm asking you for. And I felt exactly like Paul says here in Romans 7.24. Romans 7.24. Wretched man that I am. What do most believers say? Wretched man that that brother is, or wretched sister that person is. The day you stop saying that, I am. That'll be the day of your salvation. Who shall set me free from this body of death because of sin? I tell you honestly, I felt exactly like that. Verse 25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So one day, it was one Sunday morning, about 37 years ago. The Lord asked me a question. He said, will you stand up in that Baptist church? This is in Bangalore. And publicly, you know, they respected you so much. You preached to them, blessed so many people. Will you stand up and publicly acknowledge that you're a hypocrite? That your inner life does not correspond with what you preach? I said, yes Lord. I don't care for the opinion of any of those people sitting there. There may be two, three hundred people there. I don't care for their opinion. I will confess the truth. Brothers and sisters, I fooled you. I've not lived what I preached. I'm sorry, I'm a hypocrite. And I said, Lord, I remember that Sunday morning so clearly. I'm willing to do it right today. That was the day God met with me. Filled me with the Holy Spirit. Turned my life around and it has never been the same since. Only one thing. I said, Lord, I'm honest. I want to be honest. Why is that so important? Because in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. These are very important words. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 11. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 11. It says, for this reason. I'll come to the reason in a moment. For this reason, God will send upon people. A deceiving influence. So that they believe what is false. Two questions. The devil deceives me that I can understand. The question is, does God also deceive us? According to this verse, yes. The devil wants me to believe that what is false. That is understandable. Does God make me believe what is false? According to this verse, yes. What is this one condition? Which will make Almighty God deceive me. Which will make Almighty God make me believe what is false. Make me believe that I'm born again when I'm not born again. Make me believe that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit. Make me believe that I'm going to heaven when I'm going to hell. God will make me believe that? That if God is against me, I'm finished. I mean, the devil is already against me. The lust and my pleasure are against me. People may be against me. But if Almighty God is against me, there's no hope for me. And this verse says, this is the most scary verse in the whole Bible. To me anyway. The most scary verse in the whole Bible. That God Almighty will make you believe something false about yourself. That you're a spiritual man when you're not even converted. Make you believe what is false. Now we've got to come to the reason. Whom does God deceive like that? Whom does God allow to believe something completely false? To believe a totally false doctrine that will lead them to hell. I know numerous Christians who've got a false doctrine that's leading them to hell. And they think they've studied the scriptures. They argue with me and they argue with me. I've seen that all over the world. And I know their problem is not doctrine. Their problem is dishonesty. Now I'll show you the reason. Who are the people whom God deceives? Who are the people whom God allows them to believe what is false? Second than previous verse. Second Thessalonians 2.10. Here is for this reason. The next verse says for this reason. What is this reason? It speaks about people. It says in the last part of that verse. They did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. That's the point. Think of that. These are two very important verses. You must never forget them. If you have the habit of underlining your Bible, underline these two verses. And if you have the habit of memorizing, memorize these two verses. Because they are the most important for you. They did not receive the love of the truth. Let's simplify that. They did not love the truth. And to be saved. Now when the Bible talks about being saved. It never talks about being saved from hell. It's always being saved from sin. The first promise in the New Testament. You shall call his name Jesus Matthew 1.21. He shall save his people from their sins. So here it speaks about those who do not love the truth. And do not want to be saved from their sin. If you, if these two things are true about you. One, you do not accept the truth. And second, you don't want to be saved from sin. Let me go slowly on that because these are eternal life and death matters. What does it mean by saying you do not accept the truth about, about what? First of all the truth about yourself. The Holy Spirit, Jesus said in John 14 and 15 and 16, is the spirit of truth. He said he will guide you into all the truth. And if you don't receive the truth about yourself, what is that? That the Holy Spirit, in some situation, however much you may try to justify yourself, will tell you in your heart, that was sinful, what you did. That was a sinful thought. That was a sinful attitude you had towards your wife or husband or to that brother or that sister. That was a false accusation, it was wrong, it was a lie. And you don't accept it. You say, no, no, no, I, you give some reason. It started with Adam. God came to him and said to him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, came to him and said, Adam, did you eat from that tree? There's only one answer, yes or no. But he did not say yes, he did not say no. You know what his answer was? Just like us today, this wife of my Lord, she's the one who's the cause of the problem. And not only that, don't forget, you're the one who gave me this wife. So, maybe 50% of the problem is with my wife. 49% of it is with God who gave me this wife. And yes, 1% is with me, I also ate it. This is exactly how we are. God, why did you bring me into this circumstance? That's why I sinned. So whose fault is it? God's, right? Because you are a holy person. When God brought you into that circumstance, you had to sin. Or God gave you that wife, or God gave you that husband. There, God sees a man is not honest. He will not say, God, this is my fault, I don't blame anybody else. That's why Adam got turned out of Eden. He did not love the truth. The truth is, he opened his mouth, he did not open his mouth, shoved the fruit in, he opened it and ate it. Why blame God or his wife? And I wish I could urge this upon you. The day my eyes were opened to discover the truth in these two wonderful verses, it changed my life. I said, Lord, for the rest of my life, I will love the truth about myself. There are times when the Lord says to me, that was selfish, the way you acted. I said, yes, Lord. The blame is 100% with me. I was selfish. Wretched man that I am, please save me. Or the Lord says, that was a rude way in which you spoke to your wife or to your neighbor or to that brother or that young brother. Go and apologize. I go to that young brother who is younger than my youngest son, and I say, I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you. That was not right. I don't blame circumstances. You know, sometimes people say, oh, I was under such pressure at work. I had such a busy day, that's why I lost my temper. You'll never get saved, brother. You'll have temper till the end of your life, because you justify yourself. You blame circumstances. You blame a busy day at work. Instead of blaming other things, you say, Lord, I've got a wretched, corrupt flesh in which nothing good dwells. That's why I lost my temper. It's got nothing to do with pressure at work. It's not because my wife provoked me. It's not because somebody else did anything. It's my wretched flesh. The day you say that, you're on the road to salvation. But very few believers, and the more senior you are as a believer, the more difficult it is for you to admit that. So you remain defeated with your sin, even though in many other ways you think you're such a holy person. You look down on other people in the church because they don't have the understanding you have of the truth. But look at your defeated life. So those are examples of sometimes the Lord tells me that was pride. Yes, Lord, I'm sorry. That was pride. I don't blame him. That was not the way for me to talk or behave. Sometimes one sentence, the Lord says there was no need to speak that sentence. That was pure pride. Yes, Lord. Learn to say yes when the Lord convicts you. You will come to victory over sin very quickly. Otherwise, I can prophesy you'll be defeated till the end of your life. Some of you are seeking victory for years. Why is it you have not been able to control your tongue? Why is it you are not able to control your thoughts? I'll tell you how I got the victory. By being honest. Lord, that is the truth. And he will test you a number of times to see whether you acknowledge the truth about yourself. Love the truth. And the second place is loving the truth about God's word. When you see something in God's word and that is different from what you have understood for many years, you must be willing to change. Oh. I'm not saying just because you read one verse. Some people just take one verse and the truth is not in one verse. The truth is in the whole scripture. There are 31,175 verses in scripture. The truth is in that. Most false doctrines are based on one verse. Take one verse and produce a doctrine out of it. It's the best way to go into error. Almost every false teaching in Christendom is that people take one verse here and one verse there. That's it. They don't take the whole of scripture. Particularly in the New Testament where truth is clarified. There was truth in the Old Testament but in the New Testament it's like these projectors where, you know, it's all hazy. That's Old Testament. Then you focus it and it's sharp and clear. That's how it is in the New Testament. The knowledge of God was out of focus in the Old Testament and Jesus came and the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. It was really focused. Many things became clear in the New Testament. For example, there was no knowledge of the Trinity in the Old Testament. It got focused after the coming of the Holy Spirit. And whenever God shows us something in scripture if I'm willing to love the truth and set aside and acknowledge humbly I was wrong. For example, I'll give you one example. When I became a Christian I grew up with the Brethren and Assemblies and I read their books I heard their teachings and I believed with all my heart that Jesus Christ will come and take us up secretly and then there'll be a seven year period of tribulation and then he will come publicly. I believed it, I preached it for about five years after my conversion. But by the time I studied and studied and studied and studied the scriptures thoroughly and I discovered there's not a single verse in the whole Bible that teaches that. I said okay what does it teach? I studied it in depth and I discovered that Jesus will come and take us up but he's after the tribulation. So I began to preach it. Now I might as well tell you that 95% of believers don't believe that. But that is the truth. And I studied the whole book of Revelation there's a book of mine there called The Final Triumph. It's verse by verse by verse every single verse in the book of Revelation. That's just one example. I said I'm going to love the truth even if it is unpopular. It's very easy to believe the truth if that's the popular thing accepted by 95% of Christians I'm not interested in what 95% of Christians believe. Joshua and Caleb believed on the borders of the land of Canaan what 600,000 people did not believe. They were the only two people who believed. We can overcome the giants. The same thing happened when it came to God showing me that no sin will rule over me in my life. 99% of Christians did not believe that whom I met, believers. They said no we are human we always lose our temper we always lust and we always commit sin. The important thing is doctrine doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. I said no the important thing is overcoming sin. And when I saw that and I said Lord I want this life. There was a question the Lord asked me way back in the beginning it was 36 years ago. Will you stand for this truth even if nobody else in India believes it? I said sure. If I've seen it in the word I'll stand for it even if nobody believes it. I'm the only one who believes it. I believe because it's in the word of God. I love the truth. I want to testify for the glory of God. God fulfilled that truth in my life. So I'm telling you of my experience if you want truth to be fulfilled if you want God's word to be fulfilled in your whole life love the truth. When God shows you sin in yourself love the truth. Don't love the sin but love the truth and acknowledge that that was sin. And don't blame anybody else. Don't blame your parents. Don't blame your wife. Don't blame your neighbor. Don't blame your circumstances. Don't blame that I was having a headache and that's why I lost my temper. No. It is this flesh that made me lose my temper. No circumstance. Nothing. God's grace can overcome anything. And love the truth when you see in the word of God something different from what you have believed. Accept it and don't say oh that's a small commandment. Small commandment? You know what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5? Let me tell you what Jesus said about small commandments. Matthew 5 verse 19. Matthew 5 verse 19. If you cancel one of the smallest commandments not the small commandment. Go through the Bible and find the smallest commandment in the New Testament. I challenge you. Go through the New Testament and find what you think is the least important commandment in the New Testament. Whatever it is. Find it. And you disobey that one. And you teach other people oh that's not important. You will be called He doesn't say you'll go to hell. No no no. Punishment is not hell. You will go to heaven but for all eternity you will be the least in the kingdom of heaven. How many of you want to be the least in the kingdom of heaven for all eternity? You say oh I've made it to heaven. Is that all you want? You want to get there as an ungrateful wretch who sought the honor of men more than what God has said? I'm not saying that you must not keep the big ones. You must keep the big ones and go all the way down to the least ones. But whoever keeps the least commandment and teaches other people the least commandment he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Because it's not a question of whether the commandment is big or small. The question is who gave it? It was given by almighty God. And if it's given by almighty God I don't care whether it's a big commandment or a small one. I keep it. I'm just mentioning to you that it's a serious thing to ignore even the least commandments. I mean you know. You've read the New Testament. Try and find what you think what you so far in all the things you've read in the New Testament. What do you think is the most unimportant commandment of all? Which has got nothing to do with your salvation. Yeah. Your attitude to that commandment is the way by which God tests whether you're going to be the least or the greatest in God's kingdom. So this verse is very very important. So once we take that attitude we say Lord I'm not interested in just your righteousness on the outside. I'm interested in the righteousness on the inside. So I told you about one word that characterizes the New Covenant compared with the Old Covenant. What is that? Inward. As opposed to outward. Pharisees you clean the outside of the cup but in the New Covenant my children will have the inside of the cup cleaned. So that is the first thing that makes you a New Covenant Christian. The inside of your heart is clean. Not that you don't commit adultery but that you don't lust after women. Not that you don't kill but that you don't get angry. It's all there in Matthew chapter 5. Not that you speak the truth when your hand is on the Bible but that you speak the truth all the time. You never tell a lie. So it's the inner life that matters. It's not that you're nice to people and say praise the Lord. What is your inner attitude towards them when you're not talking to them? That is what determines whether you're a New Covenant Christian. And I've discovered that most so called born again believers living in the Old Covenant, they're happy with their external life. And they don't even seem to bother about their inner life. What is the Lord going to judge when he comes again? Let me show you. 1 Corinthians 4. It says in verse 5. 1 Corinthians 4, 5. In the middle of that verse. When the Lord comes, he will bring to light two things. What is he going to bring into the light? Two things about your life that nobody knew. One, the things hidden in darkness. That means all those secret things you did in your life in the darkness which nobody in your church knew anything about. That is what the Lord is going to bring into the light means, to use a modern illustration. He's going to put it on a video on a screen and show a video of what? Of all the things you did in darkness in your life which not even your wife knew about. Your husband didn't know about. All the secret financial dealings which were unrighteous. It's all going to be displayed. Everything. All the secret sins you did in darkness. The unrighteousnesses. Every one of them. Secondly, he's going to disclose the motives of men's hearts. Everything in my whole life. For example, he's going to show you, not what I preached. He's going to show you why did Zachary preach? Why did he come to Melbourne and preach? He's going to show you. Did he come here to make money? Did he come here to get somebody's honor? You don't know that. I can fool you. I can... You're already impressed with what I speak. The Lord is not. He says, why? Or, you know, people sing. Why do you sing? Not how well you can sing. How well you can sing, people appreciate. Why do you sing? Is it to show people how well you can sing? Or is it to glorify me? In that day he will show. If you're living for the honor of men, you'll be now concerned, what do they think about me? What do they think about my sermon? What do they think about my singing? What do they think about me as a leader in the church? In that day, the big question will be, why did you do it? Why did you do it? Why did you say that? Why did you act like this? Why did you do this? Why did you give that money? Was it to get some honor for yourself? You're a very generous person. It could be so many things. The motive. So I say there are two things that are going to come up in the final day, which nobody knows today. The things that I do in darkness, and the motives of my heart. So if I believe that that is what is going to come in the final day, those are the things I should be preparing for. Supposing, in a school, the teacher says, tomorrow you're going to have two tests. Geography and history. What will you be studying today? Mathematics? English language? No. Geography and history. And supposing the teacher says, in this school, let's say, okay, let's say two other important subjects, like mathematics and science. Okay, the teacher says, in this school, 99% of your marks will go for mathematics and science. And 1% for all the other subjects. Every other subject, social studies and history and geography, all 1%. Mathematics and science 99%. Tell me, what subjects will you study the most for that examination? I don't think you'll be studying the other subjects. You know that even if you get 0 in the other subjects, if you get 100% in the others, you get 99%. And that's what you parents will teach your children, say, hey, my boy, my girl, maths and science is going to determine 99% of your results. Concentrate on that. So I'm telling you, there's another test coming, 99% of it is going to be determined by what are the things you did in darkness, subject number one. What are the motives with which you did things, subject number two. Why in the world, then, are you concentrating so much on, what did people say about me, what did they think about me, and this, that, and the other? You think that's important? I'll tell you that doesn't even count for 1%. That is 0! You love the truth? It will not allow you to be deceived. And that is why it says in the same verse, don't judge other people now. Do not judge before the time. We all have a tremendous lust to judge others. He's like this and she's like this. Brother, you don't know. Because you don't know 99% of his life. You don't know the things he's doing in darkness. You don't know the good things he's doing in darkness. You don't know the bad things he's doing in darkness. You don't know the motives of his heart. We have the habit of always putting the worst motive for other people. If he does a good thing and we don't like him, we'll say, ah, he's doing it for honor. You don't know. It says, don't judge. One day you'll have plenty of opportunity to judge when God shows you the complete story of that man's life. So, it's the inner life that's going to be judged on the final day. It's the inner life that God brings us to in the new covenant. Inward righteousness. Not outward primarily. You know, everything in the Old Testament is outward. Outward temple. Outward priest with outward clothes. It's not the outward clothes that determine a holy man to be. You know, there are some churches where they put a robe and hang a cross around the neck and all that. God doesn't care for all that. It's the inner life. But the Old Testament, you know, the priest had a special dress. It was all outward. The temple was outward. The sacrifices were outward. The dress was outward. The rituals were all, that was the main thing, all outward. In the New Testament, everything is inward. The sacrifice is inward. You make a sacrifice for the Lord, you don't tell anybody about it. It's all inward, hidden. And holiness is inward. Righteousness is inward. Everything is inward. Purity is inward. The second word, I'm going to tell you two words that characterize the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. One is inward, inward, inward, inward as opposed to outward. The other word is always. Always. Rejoice in the Lord always. The Old Covenant was rejoice in the Lord on Saturdays. Sabbath day, rejoice in the Lord. So, the Old Testament, they would come and clap and shout and sing and raise their hands and yell and blow their trumpets and use every other instrument, praise the Lord. They said, fine, Sunday we can go back to the old life of sitting and quaggling at home and living for money and everything else. And the six days that was over, then Saturday again comes along again. Rejoice in the Lord one day of the week. New Testament is changed to always. Rejoice in the Lord always. The Old Testament, you have to do God's pleasure on Saturdays. You have to walk in God's will on Saturdays. If you don't believe me, turn to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58 and verse 13. Isaiah 58, 13. On the Sabbath day, on the Sabbath day, which is Saturday, you turn your feet away from doing your own pleasure on my holy day. Do what you like six days of the week, but on my holy day don't do what pleases you. Call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord. And honor that one day. Desist from your own ways. Don't seek your own pleasure on the Sabbath day. The other days you can do what you like. Don't speak your own word on the Sabbath day. Speak whatever you like six days of the week. Then you will delight in the Lord. Verse 14. And I will make you right. That's all that God required in the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Here it was. You speak, don't speak your own word one day of the week. Speak only the Lord's word. The New Testament we read in Colossians chapter 4. Colossians in chapter 4 and verse 6. Let your speech be with grace always. See the difference? Old Testament they praise the Lord once a week. You could speak whatever you like six days of the week, but the seventh day be careful with your speech. But in the New Covenant, always be careful with your speech. Philippians 4.4 Rejoice Philippians 4 verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. There it was one day a week. Praise the Lord, say hallelujah, shout unto the Lord, lift up your hands. When? Sabbath day, when you come into the temple, when you come to the synagogue. Here it is always. So, when a Christian thinks that Sunday I will shout praise the Lord and all that, you know, I've been into some charismatic churches where the leader would say, come on, smile, be happy. For how long? At least for the next two hours. After that you can go home and do what you like. Brother, that's the Old Covenant. Raise your voice and shout and praise the Lord. I remember when a man from a Pentecostal church, I've probably said this before, came to our church once and said, brother, you don't have the Holy Spirit in this church. I said, really? How do you know? Do you live in our home? Do you see how we live? No, he said, there's not enough noise here in the meetings. I said, ah, your trinity is Father, Son, and noisy spirit. My trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Your spirit makes you noisy. My spirit makes me holy. Please look up the Bible and see which trinity is in the Bible. You see how we got wrong understanding of what the Holy Spirit does? We believe that evil spirits make people evil. We believe that unclean spirits make people unclean. But we believe the Holy Spirit makes people noisy. No. He makes people holy. Isn't it so simple? Even a child can understand that. Why don't you give an eight-year-old a question? Son, evil spirits make people evil. Unclean spirits make people unclean. Tell me what the Holy Spirit makes people. Even I'm so holy. How is it believers who have been believers so long don't understand that? Believers say, no, the Holy Spirit will make people speak in tongues. Where do you get that from? It's so simple. The Bible is not written for clever people. It's written for babes. So, always, that's the word in the New Covenant, always rejoice. Always speak with grace. There are many other words like that in the New Testament. Or, never be nothing. Philippians 4 6, for example. Philippians 4 6. Be anxious for nothing. That is, never be anxious. Always be at peace. That was not possible in the Old Testament. Why? Because, I told you, the cup is like this, and the Holy Spirit is being poured over. Now, the cup is pouring, and the Holy Spirit is being inside. From inside, I have righteousness, peace, joy, in the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, impossible. So, the test of whether you have entered the New Covenant or not, is these two words. With these two words, you can examine your life, and, if you love the truth, God will lead you to this. If you don't love the truth, you say, no, no, no, I'm alright. It's like the doctor giving you the scan, and showing your body riddled with cancer, and you say, no, no, no, I'm alright. Who's going to be the loser? Not the doctor. You. So, the truth is this. Ask yourself, in the light of these two words, inward, and always. Just two words, you can examine your life. Is your holiness outward, or inward? Number one question. Is the love that you show to so many people, just outward, or inward? You know, we can show a lot of outward love to people, and fool them that you're very loving people, and inward, you don't care for them. How many people we say, brother, I pray for you. Absolute lie. Do you pray for them? But it's such a pious thing to say, oh, brother, I pray for you. Don't ever say that if you don't keep it. You're a liar. You know, I have traveled to so many meetings and countries, and hundreds of people I meet, and they all come to me and say, brother, pray for me. Do you think I can say yes to all these thousands of people who tell me in different countries, pray for me? I already know their names. You know what I say? I pray for you right now. And if you tell me your name, and the Lord reminds me of you sometime, I will pray for you. Whereas other preachers, we say, oh, sure, I'll pray for you. And we say, oh, brother, Zach doesn't pray for us regularly. Only this other guy says he prays for me. He's a liar. I'm just telling you the truth. I'd like to know whether that guy is praying for you every day. I don't want to tell you a lie. I'll pray for you right now. Because I may not remember. I may not even remember your name next time I see you. You know, we want to get such honor from people for our spirituality and say all types of biased things like, I'll pray for you and all that. Dear brothers and sisters, I'll give you one bit of advice. Be 100% truthful. Love the truth. Don't tell a person a lie. Don't say you'll pray for him if you never pray for him. I say, brother, I can't. I say, brother, hundreds of people ask me to pray for them. I can't possibly do that. I'm one human being. That's the truth. But even as a person I know very well, I still say, brother, I can only pray for you when the Lord reminds you. I've got hundreds of people. How can I pray for all of them? I don't have time to do nothing else. I just want to be honest. I don't want to be pious and give you the fool you by trying to get an attachment to you by saying I'm praying for you. These are the areas where Christians are thoroughly dishonest. Small, small things. We don't tell big lies. It's these small, small things. I'm very careful, for example, when I sing a song. If you love the truth, you'll never be deceived. You all sing that song, All to Jesus I Surrender? How many times have you sung it? Do you really mean it? All to Jesus. And the way everybody sings it, you say, boy, this is the most fantastic group of believers in the world. They've surrendered everything to Jesus. There should be a revival in this city. Because these hundred people have surrendered everything to Jesus. At least that's what they're singing. And they're not singing to man, they're singing to God. That's why I often say Christians tell more lies on Sunday than any other day of the week. And they tell their lies to God. Have you seen this other song? Take my life and let it be. Consecrated Lord to thee. There's one beautiful line in it. Take my silver and my gold. Not a mite will I withhold. Ah! Boy! There's going to be a revival here. And the Lord says, they don't mean it. I know they don't mean it. They've told me those lies for years. Don't say it if you don't mean it. Keep quiet when those others are singing that line. Say, Lord, I'll tell you honestly, I can't give you all my silver and my gold. I'll give you a little bit. While others are singing take my silver and my gold, you sing a little bit of my silver and my gold and I'll give you. Be honest. I tell you God will love you for your honesty and He'll lead you to all the truth. Many, many things. It's like these, you know, we make such fantastic statements. It's like this boy who was in love with a girl saying you know how they speak, I love you so much I'll cross mountains and rivers and barbed wire fences to come and meet you and I'll see you tomorrow if it doesn't rain. Laughter This is exactly how we talk to God. This, this, this, this all fantastic things and then well I didn't go to the meeting today because it was raining. This is how we, you think God is fooled by all this fantastic words. Dear brothers and sisters love the truth. There's a life of inward peace and joy and victory that God can give us if first step is being honest and say Lord I want this inner life. I don't care what people say about me. I want this inner life before you, number one and secondly, I don't want this up and down type of life where one day I'm up on the mountain, next day down in the dumps. I want a consistent Christian life where I'm an overcomer when people are watching me, where I'm an overcomer when people are not watching me, where I'm an overcomer on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday every day. When somebody asked me, Brother Zach, why did you start a new church in Bangalore? I have already hundreds of churches, why another one? What is the difference between your church and other churches? I said okay, first of all I'll tell you the areas where we are not different. We are not perfect. There is no perfect church in the world. Ours is not perfect. We are pressing on to perfection. We are not completely free from hypocrites. We've got hypocrites in our church too. Every church has got hypocrites. I've never seen a church without hypocrites. Jesus Church had one hypocrite among the twelve people sitting there. You can't be better than that. But there's one difference in what we preach. I said for most churches, Sunday is the important day. For us, the important day is Monday. And Tuesday. And Wednesday. And Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday afternoon also. How you behave at home, and how you behave in the office, and how you behave when you're in your car driving and all the fellas are all violating the laws in front of you. That's the place where we want you to behave like a Christian. And on Sunday morning, we are only encouraging you to be a Christian the rest of the week. So we are not much bothered whether the music is good or you know, it rained and whatever, a lot of things went wrong or the mic didn't work. These things don't bother us. These are the things that disturb other people. We are not bothered. If the mic doesn't work, we just shout a little louder. If the music was wrong, so what? It doesn't matter. God's not disturbed with that. But we want to make sure you live properly on Monday. That's the most important thing. Is that how it is in your church? Is that how it is in your life? What is the most important thing? We've got so many wrong values. You know, when people conduct a wedding, in my church, I tell them, listen, let 101 things go wrong on the wedding day. Rain, thunder, and everything messed up. The person who was organizing the reception didn't bring the food on time, came 3 hours late. It's all unimportant. 99% in a wedding is did you marry the right person? All the other things are 1%. Unimportant. Did you marry the right person? Did you marry a godly woman, a godly man? So like that sometimes we have got to be concentrated on the wrong, unimportant things and get all disturbed because of that. The important thing is how we live always. What is our inner attitude always? What is my thought life like always? For example, Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Verse 2. Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things that are on the earth. Now we must be honest. God loves honest people. If you don't love the truth about yourself, God will allow you to be deceived. Keep that in mind. Is your mind set on the things above? He's not saying you should never think about the things on the earth. But where is it set? You know, it's in English, it's a very clear word. Set. And one of the best illustrations I've found of it, which I've often used is you think of a rubber band. Supposing the top of this mic is heavenly things and this this top of this pulpit is the earthly things. If I tie the rubber band to this top of this mic, this is the heavenly part. I have to think about earthly things for many hours in a day. I have to stretch this rubber band to the earth for eight hours a day at least for my work. I have to concentrate on my work. Maybe working in a factory, maybe teaching in a school, maybe working in a hospital as a nurse or software programming. I have to stretch it to be occupied with that. As a mother you have to stretch it to take care of children, changing their diapers and giving them a shower and cooking their food and going to the store. So many earthly things. I stretch it, stretch it. I need to sleep. But once that is all over, when all my earthly activities which I have to do as a father or a mother or a breadwinner is over and the rubber band is released, it springs back to heavenly things. That means when my mind is not... I finish all my earthly work it springs back to the things of heaven. If your mind is like that your mind is set on the things above. Even though you may have spent 15 hours stretched to earthly things, it's okay. One day I was very busy, 15 hours stretched to earthly things, another eight hours sleeping, etcetera, 23 hours gone, but I thought one hour free. It sprang back to heavenly things. Now most believers, it's not like that. The rubber band is tied to earthly things and it's stretched for two hours on Sunday for singing and thinking about heavenly things and we have special meetings like this on Saturday to stretch to 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock to these heavenly things. And then once that's over, back to earthly things most of the time. How can I make more money? How can I do this and how can I do that? Such a person, his mind is not on heavenly things at all. He hasn't even bothered about this verse. Now if you love the truth, even if you think this is one of the least of God's commandments, it's not. It's one of the most important of God's commandments. We will discover so many verses in the Bible, which we haven't even taken seriously. What does this verse mean? Do I have to do it? This is the Christian life. In the New Covenant, in the Old Covenant, it was not like that. The Old Covenant was set your mind on earthly things. Make sure your crops are good. Make sure your cattle are being taken care of. Make sure you go to the temple and once a week, set your mind on things above, heavenly things and don't do any earthly work and pray and read the Bible and etc. Not in the New Covenant. The New Covenant is always, even my earthly things must be done with a heavenly mind. That means in my work, I will never do anything unrighteous because heavenly thinking determines my, the way I work. I will never cheat another person. I will never try to push another person down, etc. My heavenly mindedness affects everything I do on the earth. I treat my wife in a heavenly minded way. I treat my husband in a heavenly minded way. I seek to bring up my children with a heavenly mind. Everything is governed by this and I don't judge other people. I don't judge other people by my standards. So many things like this. Righteousness and peace and joy. Even in the Old Testament, there was a little warning about this. I want to show you a wonderful verse. I don't know if you noticed it. In Isaiah 64. Isaiah chapter 64 and verse 5. Have you ever seen this verse? Isaiah 64 verse 5. Isaiah 64 6, everybody knows. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. But 64, our righteousness is like filthy rags and we know that we are unclean. God cannot accept us. But look at 5. God needs those who rejoice in doing righteousness. Not those who do righteousness. But those who rejoice in doing righteousness. I'm thrilled that I can do what is right. I'm thrilled that I can avoid sin. I'm thrilled that I can do what is pleasing to God in this situation. I'm excited that I can love my enemies. And I'm excited that I can bless those who curse me. Somebody cursed me and I said well praise the Lord. Now I can I can bless him. He's my enemy. Great. I can love him now. Excited about doing righteousness. Rejoice. God meets with such people. I remember when I read this verse. I said Lord, my Father how I want you to meet with me. God said I'll meet with you if you rejoice in doing my will. Not just if you do it. How much delight you get when you ask your son or daughter to do something and he with a long face he said okay mommy I'll do it. If you don't find joy in a child like that how excited you are if you have a child who says sure mom I'm glad to do it. Don't you think God finds the delight in people who say sure Lord I love my enemies. You told me to love all my enemies. I'll do it any day. You told me to do good to those who hate me. I'll do it any day. You told me to forgive those guys who hurt me. I'll forgive them wholeheartedly. The new covenant is a wonderful life. Now when you see this you say how can I come to this life? There's only one way. Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's the secret. The power of the Holy Spirit. And that's why the devil has done such a tremendous work in making the doctrine of the Holy Spirit the most controversial doctrine in Christendom today. Do you know there are people who deny that the Holy Spirit is a person? They deny the Trinity completely. Supposing I come to you and say Daniel Bridget I don't even believe you exist. You don't exist? You treat him like a non-entity. I don't think this is a greater insult than that. To come up to the Holy Spirit and say I don't believe you exist. You don't exist. That human being exists but you Holy Spirit you don't exist. I don't know how God would react.