Knowing God As Father And Hating Sin

It's good for all of us to know why we are called New Covenant Christian Fellowship. What is it that makes the difference between us and an Old Covenant Christian Fellowship? I don't know whether you, I mean many of you have been in other churches, I've been in lots of them, and I find that many of them, as I see it, are Old Covenant. I'll tell you something very simple.

If you enjoy listening to music more than to the Word of God, you're closer to the Old Covenant than the New Covenant, I'll tell you that. Because there's very little emphasis on music in the New Covenant, almost zero. But in the Psalms, so many times it says about instruments and clapping and shouting and raising your hands and all that.

I'm all for all that, but that's not the major thing for me. In the New Covenant, it says in everything give thanks. That was not there in the Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant, on the Sabbath day, you come and give thanks. That's Old Covenant Christian Fellowship. Clap your hands, raise your hands, get musical instruments, and on Sabbath day, for Sunday for the people today, give thanks.

But in the New Covenant, it is in everything give thanks. Always giving thanks. Let me show you some of those passages so that you know I'm not just saying something, but it's in your Bible sometimes, but you don't notice it.

Let's turn first of all to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5 and verse 18. In everything give thanks. And it doesn't stop there.

It says, this is the will of God for you. Now if God were to tell you, here's something which is my will for you, would you take it seriously? I want to ask you, is this the first time that you are reading this verse? If so, you're forgiven. But if this is a verse you have read, I'm not asking you whether you give thanks in everything, but if you have not even made an effort to give thanks in everything, I'd say you have despised the Word of God.

You know that I speak plainly. I don't smooth things out. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ.

Now do you think that an earthly father would tell his little boy to carry a one-ton weight on his head and rebuke him when he doesn't carry it? I mean, we earthly fathers would never, never give to our children a job they cannot do. We won't rebuke them if they are in the second grade, why they can't do a fifth grade examination? Because they're not in the fifth grade. If you being evil fathers know how to not put heavy weights upon your children, where do you think your heavenly father will tell you to do something he knows you cannot do? That's the way I approach the Bible.

The first thing we need to know about God is that he's a loving father. And that's something we are not established in, I feel. The Bible says in John's Gospel chapter 1 and verse 18, no one has seen God at any time.

None of us have seen God. The reason there are so many religions in the world, because nobody's seen God. I mean, if you go to a country where nobody's seen an elephant or a picture of an elephant, and then tell 10 children sitting in the class to draw an elephant, there is an animal called an elephant in India.

Any of you seen? No, they say none of us have seen it. Have you seen a picture of it? No. Can you imagine what it's like and draw a picture of an elephant? You think even one of them will draw the trunk? Because there's no other animal with a trunk.

So it's like that. If we have not seen, no one has seen God at any time. And through the centuries, different people have tried to imagine what God is like, and the result is so many religions.

All the religions have come because no one has seen God at any time, but some clever guy is trying to express what he thinks God is like, and it'll be like 10 people drawing the end, or a hundred people drawing in a picture of an elephant. It'll be a hundred different pictures, and none of them will be the elephant. So when hundred different people start a religion, none of them are the true religion, and they will all be false.

But it says here, John 1 18, but the only begotten God, Jesus, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. That's a great word. A good teacher in a school is one who can explain to the students how to do addition, how to do subtraction, how to do multiplication.

That word explain is a great word for a teacher. And Jesus came to explain what the Father is like. We can add and subtract because we had good teachers who taught us how to add and subtract.

We know how to write good English because we had teachers who taught us English. I want to ask you, have you allowed Jesus to explain the Father to you? Because it says here, he's the one who explained God what the Father is like. That's why when he told his disciples to pray, you know, I like where this prayer comes in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, by the way, Matthew chapter 6. We shouldn't look at the prayer by itself.

It's the middle of a big sermon that Jesus gave. So whenever you listen to a sermon, any sermon, if you just go to the middle of it and try to listen to five minutes there, you won't understand what he's talking about. So when you read this, for example, Matthew chapter 5, anyone who reads Matthew chapter 5 and comes to the end of it, it's impossible to live this life.

If you have honestly read Matthew chapter 5, and the last sentence is the most difficult one. You've got to be perfect because your Heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5.48. So you come to a situation where you say, how in the world can anybody live this life? And then after that, Jesus reveals the Father.

He says, when you are praying, pray like this. In Matthew 6 verse 9, our Father who art in heaven. It's very, very important that we know that our spontaneous, the word that comes out of our mouth when we begin to pray is not Lord, but Daddy.

Anyway, when you're at home in private, I want to ask you, when you pray alone, be honest with yourself. When you pray to God, what is the first word that comes out of your mouth? Oh God, nothing wrong in that. Oh Lord, nothing wrong in that.

He is God and Lord. It's a bit formal. And the Bible says that when the Holy Spirit comes in, Romans 8, it says, he cries out saying, Abba.

Unfortunately, they haven't translated. Abba is to be translated into English as Daddy. Abba, Father.

If you haven't seen that word, let me show it to you so that you don't know it very clearly. Romans chapter 8. This is very, very important because I find lots of Christians, their problem is here, they don't know the Father. They know God.

Romans 8, it says here, when the Holy Spirit comes in, verse 15, Romans 8, 15, you have not received a spirit of slavery, but your spirit of adoption. The word adoption means a spirit of sonship. You're a son, a daughter.

And so that spirit, if it's really come into your heart and filled you, from within, you don't know how to do it. The Spirit of God will force you to say, Abba, or to translate it into English, Daddy, Father, the two different words. If you're Hebrew, Abba, Father.

If you're in India, Abba, Father. If you're in English, Daddy, Father. That's what the Spirit comes in to say.

And I want to ask you, have you felt the Spirit prompting you to call God Daddy? I've been in many churches where all of them pray, Oh God, Lord, there's nothing wrong in it. But if my children one day came to me and said, Mr. Poonen, I'd like to say something to you. I'd say, what's wrong with you? Are you angry with me? Isn't your name Mr. Poonen? Yes, it is.

But you don't call me that. That's exactly what God would say. Just ask yourself, spontaneously, what comes out of your mouth, God or Daddy? Work out your salvation so that you learn to pray to God like Jesus said.

When you pray, verse 9, Matthew 6, 9, Matthew 6, 9, cry out, Our Father who art in heaven, and if it's not coming out from your heart, I'll tell you what you should do. Don't brainwash yourself saying, okay, from now on, where's Zach's at? I must call him Father. No, forget Brother Zach.

Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. That's what's needed. It's not a technique.

When you're filled with the Spirit, Romans 8, 16, what did we read? The Spirit will automatically cry out, Daddy. And if the Spirit is not crying out, Daddy, from within you, I ask you, my dear brother, go and see God to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not trying to teach a technique here.

You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not crying out, Abba, Daddy, from your heart. I was born again many years ago, but I was not filled with the Spirit initially.

In fact, I did not seek to be filled with the Spirit. And then I went to a Pentecostal church after two, three years, and I was completely turned away by what I saw there. All the pastors were lovers of money.

And I said, that can't be the Holy Spirit, whatever nonsense they say there. And I sought God on my own. And when God filled me with the Spirit, it began to cry out, Daddy.

Nobody had to teach me. So pray in this way, our Father who art in heaven. It's so simple.

You go to Scripture and take what Jesus says seriously. Now, in the Old Testament, nobody had the courage or they were not permitted to call God Father. No angel in heaven can go to God and say, Daddy.

Do you realize what a tremendous honor and privilege it is to go to Almighty God who runs this universe and say, Dad, I want to say something to you, just like you'd speak to your earthly father. I wish we could teach our children this from early childhood. You've got a father in heaven.

So much of anxiety and tension. I've often thought, supposing a, you know, sometimes a person's living in a rented house. I've seen this in India sometimes.

He couldn't pay the rent. And the owner sends a court notice and they say, you've got to vacate by so-and-so date. And if he doesn't vacate, they get the police to empty his house.

And I've seen that sometimes once outside a house, all the stuff taken outside the house, the poor guy couldn't pay the rent, all intact, house stuff is out on the road. Poor man. I thought, you know, if some situation like that, if there's a two-year-old child sitting there, sleeping there the previous night, and you wake him up and say, you know that you've got to vacate this house by tomorrow morning.

He said, don't bother me. Go and tell my dad. That is what we should say.

Don't you know this problem? You've got to settle by tomorrow or next week. Go and tell my dad. I'll tell my dad.

I'm not going to wake up at night worried, worried, worried, worried, worried, worried. Because that little two-year-old says, I can't handle that. It's too much for me.

There are many things in life, in this world, we cannot handle. We must cast our burden upon our father. Our father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come and your will be done.

When you say to God, to your father, that his will must be done, it means I don't want any sin in my life. Remember, that's what you're praying. I don't want a single sin in my life.

I don't want, it's like saying, I don't want a thorn in my foot at any time. Is that a big demand when I tell you, you should never have a thorn in your foot at any time? As soon as it comes, you pull it out. Well, it's exactly the same way.

I say, you must never have the slightest atom of bitterness against another human being at any time. That's a thorn. Do you have something right now? Do you have an unforgiving spirit towards anybody on earth? You who have been forgiven millions of sins.

You can't forgive somebody, something he did to you or did not do for you or did something for your family or promised you something and did not keep his promise and you still got a grudge against him and you say you've been forgiven millions of sins by your heavenly father. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We're not taking seriously God's word because he goes on to say, verse 12, forgive us our sins exactly as we have forgiven others.

You know what that means? I'm just explaining in English. Lord, let me paraphrase to you, forgive me as I have forgiven others. Lord, you know I have not forgiven that man, so please don't forgive me.

That is your prayer. You're actually telling God not to forgive you. Listen to it again.

Forgive me as I have forgiven that man. You haven't forgiven that man or that woman. You're telling God to treat you exactly like that.

Well, he will not forgive you. I'll tell you this, my brothers and sisters, I've seen through the years many Christians, even NCCF type of Christians and CFC churches are living in a world of delusion. They are fooling themselves.

They get all the right doctrine and they say we are better than other churches and all that, but what about your daily walk with Jesus Christ? Think of your marriage. Is it enough that everybody in the church here thinks that you got a wonderful marriage because they see you coming here happy, smiling and all that, and at home you're always fighting and quarreling with each other? What's the use of that? I couldn't care less what people in this church think about my marriage. I want a happy marriage at home.

Why should, what do I care about whether people think I'm walking with the Lord? Absolutely unimportant. I want to actually walk with the Lord. Let's take our Christian life more seriously.

Beware of putting up a front before others. That's what the word for that is acting. The Greek word for that is hypocrite.

That's a Greek word. In English we say actor. In Greek they say hypocrite.

So if you were to translate that Greek word when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, he said, you're actors, you're actors, all you bunch of actors. You act with the right words when you go to the temple. It's not real in your life.

Why? Because they did not know God as a father. Our father. I want your will to be done in my life in every area.

And I want to forgive others just as you have forgiven me. And how does God forgive? Let me show you. Hebrews in chapter eight.

It's a great chapter. This is where the new covenant is mentioned, especially, and contrasted with the old covenant. There's a passage I always turn to when I say, if you want to explain what the new covenant it is, it is here it is in Hebrews 8 and verse 7 to 13.

This simple passage, Hebrews 8, 7 to 13, is the description of the new covenant. And he says, the first covenant was faulty. Why was it faulty? It's not like a new model of car, because the first model was faulty, they had to produce a new model.

No, God didn't say, oh, I made a mistake the first time. No, the first covenant was not meant to lead people to victory over sin. The first covenant was like a mirror.

A mirror cannot wipe your face. But you need to look at the mirror to see all the dirt on your face. So the entire law was like a mirror.

God said, you watch that mirror for 1500 years. God made Israel watch that mirror. That's the law.

You don't take the mirror to wipe your face. The law cannot cleanse you. It cannot deliver you.

Then Jesus came and showed us how we can be cleansed. So that's why the first covenant was faulty. Because it could not cleanse anybody.

It could show man his fault. Oh, and you read the Old Testament, and you'll easily see what's wrong with you. And the Jewish people saw it.

And they did not meditate on it. They just read, you shall not kill. But someone said, blessed is the man who meditates on the law of the Lord.

And he will get light on it, if he meditates. Whatever he does will prosper spiritually, if he meditates. If he does not meditate, he will just read, you shall not kill.

I've not killed anybody. I've been a Jew for 35 years. I've never killed a single person.

Jesus read that same passage. And when he meditated, as a child, he saw there's more to it than this. Deep down it is, you shall not get angry.

Aha. So that is what the deep down meaning of you shall not murder. That's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five.

You heard that it should be said, you shall not kill. But I say to you, if you're angry, you're guilty. And if you keep on going to angry, you will go to hell.

That's in Matthew chapter five. How many of you believe that? How many of you believe that anger is the first step to hell? Do you get angry at home? Do you get angry with some brother or sister in the church because of something they did or did not do? Somebody promised to help you and didn't help you or something or the other, some little thing in your heart against someone, anger? Let me tell you, if you've never heard it before, it's the first of three steps to hell. If you want to read it, you read in Matthew five, verse 22, 23, 24, 25.

It's all there. You're angry, you're guilty before the court. And if you keep on getting angry, you're guilty before the Supreme Court.

And if you go to the third step, you go to hell. That's in the Bible. But where did Jesus get it from? He got it by meditating on the commandment, which said, thou shalt not murder.

He went to the root of it. John the Baptist said, Jesus has come to hit the axe to the root of the tree. The Old Testament is only a pair of scissors.

The cut it off, cut it off, cut it off, don't kill, cut it off. But Jesus said, hit the root, anger. That's what the Sermon on the Mount is.

The old covenant, he said, you shall not commit adultery. I want to say, my brothers and sisters, if the only thing you can glory in is that you have not committed adultery, well, good. But there are many heathen who don't believe in Christ at all, who have not committed adultery.

You are no better than them. Jesus meditated on that verse and said, it means you should not commit adultery in your heart also, in your mind, in your mind. You look at a woman, it could be on a YouTube or a video or on a phone, anywhere.

And you lust after her beauty, or you want to see more of her body to lust after her. You have committed adultery. You don't have to wait, you've already done it.

Repent and go before God exactly as if you had committed physical adultery. And say, Lord, I'm sorry. I went and slept with that woman, forgive me.

Which one? The one on the phone. Lord, have mercy on me. And if you keep doing it, Jesus said, the best solution is pull out that eye.

Imagine Jesus saying that this is such a serious thing, that it's better to lose one eye than to lust. I'm putting in plain terms what Jesus said. Now, the reason I'm saying that, and the solution is not to pull out the eye, because you can lust with the left eye.

Okay, pull out that one. You still lust in your mind, it doesn't solve the problem. But Jesus is trying to tell you how serious it is.

The solution is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to take up the cross every day as soon as you're tempted to go into the ground and die. If you make it a habit in your life, that the Holy Spirit is always going to lead you to die to yourself, not just in that temptation, but in any other thing. When the Holy Spirit prompts you, that chap spoke bad against you, die.

Die. Not only you don't respond to him, but don't even have an inward wrong attitude towards him. That is death.

Dead person is not one who just doesn't speak. If you could look into a dead man's heart, he doesn't even have any wrong attitude towards anyone. It's all gone.

So, if you say, I control my tongue, that is yoga. It's yoga. I didn't reply to him as he spoke to me.

Good. You're a practicer of yoga. What about the heart? There are people sitting in CFC churches who got some grudge against somebody.

Something that happened long, long ago, perhaps, maybe years ago, but they haven't forgiven. And they're sitting there thinking, new covenant Christian fellowship, rubbish. The title is right, but it's not your life.

Dear brothers, I'm not trying to condemn anybody. I'm just trying to say what the Lord told John in Revelation chapter four, verse one, come up higher, come up higher. That's the invitation the Lord is giving to all of us today.

Don't live at that low level. Don't glory in words, new covenant and all that. So here, in this, how does the Lord forgive? That's what I was coming to.

Hebrews 8, verse 12, I will be merciful to their iniquities. That means he'll forgive us. And here's the other part.

I will not remember their sins anymore. So there are two parts to God's forgiving us. One, he forgives and he does not remember.

He doesn't mean it goes out of God's memory. Sure. If you were to ask God, God, you remember the sins I did 30 years ago? He said, sure, it's in his memory, but he doesn't remember means he doesn't hold it against you.

We cannot remove from our memory the evil that other people have done to us. But we can decide, I will not hold that against him. I will not remember that when I meet him.

I won't turn my face away because I remember how he treated me. We should have a heart that's willing to open, be greet anybody in the world. I've got nothing against anybody.

There are numerous people who have done harm to me in my life, particularly because I'm a servant of God and the devils tried to attack me from all types of people, from relatives and enemies and other nominal Christians and born again Christians. And I can honestly say before God, I've got nothing against any of them. I forgive all of them.

I don't wish any evil for them. I even pray that I will see them in heaven. Those people have done harm to me.

I say, Lord, I hope I'll see them in heaven. I'll be very happy. I'll embrace them.

Because I'll tell you why. Because they were not able to harm me. Because the Bible says in Romans 8, 28, God makes everything work for my good.

So those guys who the world says it was harm, but it turned out for my good. People who took me to court because I stood against their wrong doctrines. It made me a stronger Christian.

I have nothing against them. People who spread all types of stories about me. I forgive them.

Good. It's good that people have a lesser opinion about me because otherwise, in the church, so many people think I'm a great preacher or prophet or something. So it's good some other people put me down.

It's good. Everything is for good. Everything is for your good.

If some people are thinking very highly about you and speaking highly about you, let's balance that thing by a whole lot of people speaking evil about you. Good. Love them.

Bless them. Why do you always want to have high opinion about you spoken by everybody? Ignore it. Ignore it.

Can you live like this every day, brothers? This is why we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I will not remember their sins anymore. That is how I must forgive others.

Now stop for a moment and think of somebody who did some harm to you or your children. Sometimes we get more hurt if somebody's hurt our children. I want to ask you, can you say honestly today about all those people, whatever harm they did, I don't care what it is.

I will not remember it anymore. Do you have the habit of going to talking to other people about it? This is what somebody did to my son. This is what somebody said about my daughter.

Then you're not trying to forget it. You're trying to etch it into your memory by repeating it. The more you repeat to other people what harm you feel somebody did to you, you're doing two things.

First of all, you're etching it into your memory by repeating it to this person, that person, that person. You're keeping on etching it. He did this, he did this, it's in your mind.

Secondly, you won't be able to forgive that person because it's etched so much into your mind by your repeating it, repeating it. On top of that, you have spoiled that person's mind and made him have a bad attitude towards that person. You have not only ruined yourself, you've gone and ruined other people as well.

You think this does not happen in NCCF and CFC churches? I don't know all your lives, but I know it happens in many people I've met in other CFC churches, and I'm sure it happens here too. I will not remember. Father, forgive me my sins exactly like I have forgiven others.

That is God's will, and if we are like that, commands like, in everything give thanks, it'll be possible to do it. Not only in everything give thanks. It says in Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5, verse 20, always giving thanks in every matter and all the time.

That means I must never have an unthankful attitude. It's not that I'm opening my mouth and saying thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. It's not that.

That means I have a thankful attitude towards God all the time, and I have a thankful attitude towards, let's start with everybody in this church before we graduate into loving the outsiders and the enemies and all that. That's a higher level. Let's start with kindergarten stuff.

To love your enemies is going to 10th grade, but let's start with kindergarten stuff. Kindergarten stuff is to love everybody in your home church. If this is your home church, to love every person here as Jesus loved you, to forgive every person as Jesus forgave you.

Let's start there. Don't try to jump to 10th grade before you pass kindergarten. Kindergarten is begin with love one another as I've loved you.

Then we can go to love your enemies and it's all postgraduate stuff. The trouble with a lot of Christians is they're trying to do postgraduate stuff and they haven't passed kindergarten. So start with kindergarten.

Seriously, I mean. Lord, I want to love everybody in my local church. How? The way you love me.

I want to forgive everyone in this local church the way you've forgiven me. Some of those things you imagine that people have done you harm. It may not be true.

So many things. The devil is a master accuser. You think he speaks the truth when he accuses? No.

Well, look at all the misunderstandings that come between husband and wife. All of you are married here. Tell me, haven't you had misunderstandings as husband and wife? Who brought that? And later on, after some time, you discover that all those thoughts you had about your wife was completely wrong.

She never had such thoughts. Or about your husband. Then who put those thoughts in your mind? The devil.

He's an accuser. He doesn't always speak the truth. He's a liar.

Jesus said he's a liar and an accuser. So don't believe all those thoughts that come into your mind. Your wife did this because of this reason.

Or your husband did this because of this reason. Garbage. That's not why your husband or wife did it.

Put a good motive to it. Or maybe they made a mistake. It was not deliberate.

Ignore it. Forgive. Forgive.

Dear brothers and sisters, I believe, I tell you, if you take some of these things seriously, your life will be changed completely. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The ultimate purpose of Christ in coming to this earth was not just to forgive our sin, but something positive.

He goes on in Hebrews 8 to say, I'll write my law in their hearts and I'll have fellowship with them as father and son. They shall know me. It's a great word in Hebrews 8. After forgiving their sin, it says in Hebrews 8, they shall all know me personally.

Hebrews 8, 11. They won't have to teach one another like in the Old Testament. They will know me.

The word know is one of the most intimate words in the Bible. Adam knew his wife. It's a relationship a man has with his wife that he cannot have with his own father or his mother or his children or anybody on earth.

It's the most intimate knowledge in the Bible is called a man knows his wife. And that is the word or a wife knows her husband. That is the word used here that I all shall know me.

Verse 11. God wants to have such an intimate relationship with me, just like I have with my wife, more than I have with my wife. Do you know that, dear brother, sister? That is God's will for us.

The devil's robbed us of so many things. I believe the devil's robbed Christians of so many things, which is their inheritance. Like if your dad wrote an inheritance for you in a will, and some crooked lawyer cheated you of it.

That's exactly how I look at so many Christians, so defeated in their lives when God has written an inheritance for them that sin will not rule over you. That's written in their will. God wrote for us and some cheap crooked lawyer like the devil has cheated us of it by saying, no, no, no, some sin will rule over you.

You can't get victory over all sin. No, no. Some bad habits you've had from childhood, you will always have them.

Garbage. That is to rob you of your inheritance. So my desire is that we shall come into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ.

And I'll tell you why, because when I meet the Lord face to face, you know, the Bible says that when we meet the Lord, we're going to have a wedding. We're going to get married. And it says in, let me read this to you in Revelation 19, verse seven, when Christ comes again, it's going to be a wedding day.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready. That's all I've been trying to do today. Trying to get you to make yourself ready for the marriage, to get your clothes spotless white, because it says here, she was given a dress, bright and clean, which is the righteous.

What is that dress? It's not the righteousness of Christ. On earth, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, but this is something different. It is your own righteousness.

It says there, the righteous actions of the believers, of the saints. I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That's the way God accepts me.

But then being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, I do certain righteous actions every day on earth, forgive people, love people, be kind to somebody, help somebody, pray for someone, a lot of righteous actions. That's my dress. And it says, those are the righteous acts of the saints with which I'm clothed in the final day.

I hope we won't go naked on that day. We better hurry up and stitch our dress. It's not a religion of works.

It's by faith. Without me, you can do nothing. I cannot stitch this dress without the Lord.

I've always said, we're like the branch in the tree. Without me, you can do zero. But Paul also said, with Christ, I can do all things.

That's the other side of the coin. Some people only look at one side of the coin. I can do nothing without Christ.

What about the other side? I can do all things with Christ. A one-sided coin is a fake. So, this is the righteous acts of the saints with which I'm going to be dressed.

And I think of a bride going up to the wedding. And supposing she has to go through a very muddy, slushy type of road to the wedding, and she's got a white, clean dress on. How careful she'll be.

Take off her shoes, first of all, so that the shoes don't get muddy and dirty. And so carefully she'll walk. She won't be running across the slushy.

She'll be careful with each step, pulling up her skirt, or sari, or whatever it is. And making sure no dirt comes onto her dress. Because she doesn't want to stand on the wedding day with all that dirt splashed on her dress.

Think of that picture when you walk in this world. You don't want that little bitterness sticking like some dirt into your dress in the final day. You don't want that unforgiving attitude that you had towards somebody sticking there.

Or some gossip that you passed on to somebody else. Or some evil that you spoke about someone to someone else. It dirtied your dress.

Before the Lord comes, repent. Not only repent. Repent, not just ask God to forgive you.

Repent means, Lord, I don't want to do that again. I'm sorry I did that to this person, and that person, the other person. But I never want to do it again in my life to anybody, any Tom, Dick, or Harry.

I want to live a clean life. I've done enough sins in my life I don't want to do anymore. You're forgiving me enough, Lord, and I want to please you at least the rest of my life days.

You know, that's how we are to meet the Lord. So let me turn you also to 1 John and chapter 2. It says in verse 28, we know that the world is divided into believers and unbelievers. Everybody knows that.

There are born-again people and those who are not born-again people. But do you know that among the born-again people, there are two categories? All of us are hopefully born-again here. But among us, there are two groups.

And it says here, little children, verse 1 John 2 28, referring all born-again people are called little children, abide in Christ so that, see now, it now describes the two types of believers that will be in the last day when Christ comes. One group of people, when the Lord comes, say, praise God, Lord, I'm ready to meet you, confidence. And another group of believers, these little children, will shrink away, Lord, hang on, hang on, hang on, don't come.

I'm not ready. I didn't know you were coming so soon. Shrinking away in shame.

Imagine not wanting to meet the Lord. All their life, they said they wanted to meet the Lord. But when the Lord came, they don't want to meet Him because they discovered that their garment is dirty.

They heard numerous messages in the church, at least in this church, and they didn't take it seriously. And the Lord comes, shrinking away. They're almost saying, Lord, don't come, hang on.

Can you come tomorrow, please? You remember how Jesus said, in the day the Lord comes, if you're out there in the farm, you should not have to go home to apologize to your wife. He said, if you're upstairs in the roof of the house, you should not have to go downstairs to apologize to your wife. You should not have anything to settle at any time.

You shouldn't have to go to office one day and say, and the Lord has come and I didn't settle something at home. Our life must not be like that. Every single moment, our life must be clean.

That's the meaning of walking in the light. I have nothing to settle. When Christ comes, I don't have to shrink away in shame.

And for that, it's 1 John 3, 3, I must keep on purifying myself till I reach Christ's standard of purity. Is this important? Let me give you Paul's testimony. Acts chapter 24, referring to the coming of Christ.

Acts 24. He says, verse 15, Acts 24, verse 15. He says, I have a hope in God, which these people also have.

What is that? I mean, it's not that Christ will come again. The Jews did not believe that. But the hope, which is, there will certainly be two resurrections.

Are you sure of this? Are you sure there will be two resurrections? Not one. A resurrection of the righteous, and some years later, a resurrection of the wicked. Those who walked in the light, those who did not walk in the light.

Those who are ready to meet him and those who shrank away from him in shame. You say, so what? Okay, Paul says, because, let me paraphrase his words, verse 16, because there's going to be two resurrections, and I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, I do my best. I don't sit back and say, oh, he was born again.

I accepted Christ 20 years ago, so I'm going to be in the resurrection of the righteous. Paul doesn't say that. That's the type of cheap salvation a lot of people are preaching today.

Paul says, I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, so I do my very best to keep my conscience blameless always, 24-7. I don't boast that 10 years ago I accepted Christ. No.

So many shallow, hollow Christians that only boasted so-and-so date I accepted Christ. Their conscience is not clean today. They don't believe in the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked.

They automatically think, I'll definitely be there. My brother, sister, let me tell you, you won't be there if you don't keep your conscience clear. Paul said, I do my best to keep my conscience always clear.

The word always, very important word. I do my best. The two phrases there you must not forget.

I do my best always to keep my conscience absolutely blameless in two directions, with God in my thought life, my attitudes to people, in my motives. That's only what God can see. It must be clear there.

And then outwardly before men also, the way I've treated them, the way I've not forgiven them, said it all right. I want to keep my conscience absolutely blameless because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. Paul took his Christian life seriously.

He said, it's like a race. And he said in 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 9, he said, I run in such a way, 1 Corinthians 9, 26. 1 Corinthians 9, 26.

I run in such a way with an aim. Everybody who's running, even if it's a marathon race that runs 26 miles through many, many different roads, there's still a direction in which they're going. You can't just take any turning.

There's a path marked out for these marathon runners on the road and they have to follow that. He says, I've got an aim. I want to reach the finishing line of this marathon race.

The Christian life is a marathon race. I'm looking unto Jesus. I run this race and I discipline my body while running and I make it my slave.

That means I don't do what my body wants to do, but I tell my body what it should do. So that, because if I don't discipline my body and the lusts in my body, it says, I can, I, the great apostle Paul, verse 27, can preach to others. And when I reach the finishing line, God will say, disqualified.

Imagine Paul being disqualified. He lived with that fear. I, the great apostle Paul can be disqualified.

If I don't discipline myself and make my body my slave. The Christian life is not a picnic. I'll tell you that.

Nowhere does it say that. It's everywhere in the New Testament. It's a battle.

It's a warfare and we have to fight it with all of our hearts. And I'll tell you this, we can win because the Holy Spirit comes to help us. You can live a life where you will immediately apologize as soon as you know you've hurt somebody.

Possible? Yes. I do that. God is my witness.

If there's one word you said to hurt your wife, you'll apologize immediately. You won't wait till the next day. I always keep my conscience clear.

Look at all these people who call themselves believers and go fighting with each other in their churches and all that garbage. They are not Christians. I believe they are heathen.

They don't know what true Christianity is because they've been fed on a false Christianity for so many years that they don't even take their Christian life seriously. They don't even take sin seriously in their life. That is why we say we are a new covenant Christian fellowship.

May God help us all. Amen.