Revelation On God’s Mysteries

If you want to understand the difference between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant, which is one of the main things we stress in our churches, you need to make a study of words that are found in the New Testament that are not found in the Old Testament. Commands that are found in the New Testament that are not found in the Old Testament. Promises that are found in the New Testament that are not found in the Old Testament. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And if you only hear another brother explain these things to you, it may reach your understanding. And you may think, yeah, I got it. You haven't got it. You've understood it. You need more than that for it to change your life. And that is the reason why some brothers and sisters have sat in our churches for 25, 30 years and still have not come to victory over sin. They still fight and quarrel in their homes. What's the reason? Because there's no inner hunger after God themselves. They are happy to sit in a good church, listen to good messages. And I can tell you this, you are going to have a tremendous shock when Christ comes again. And I have a fear that some folks who come to our conferences may not even be in the kingdom of God. Anyone who's a hypocrite, anyone who's pretending to have a life which he's not really longing after within, he's not going to be anywhere near God's kingdom. We live in a day when the whole world can be described in two sentences, both found in the New Testament. That's how I've looked at it. Romans, let me just show you those two sentences. One is Romans chapter 3, and verse 18. This is a description of the entire world, and I'm sorry to say this is the description of all nominal Christians, and this is the description of thousands and probably millions of believers. Romans 3, 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is no reverence for God in their eyes. That describes the whole world. There is no fear of God. They do and say things without any thought that God is listening, God is there. They have to give an account for every single word that they speak. Jesus said that in Matthew 12, read verse 34 to 38. He said that every single word, careless word we speak, we will have to give an account in the day of judgment. I'm absolutely convinced that 99% of born-again believers do not believe that. They do not believe that every single careless word they ever spoke, they have to give an account in the day of judgment. They speak careless words, they don't even repent of them. Husbands and wives speak careless words to each other, they don't ask forgiveness. Many, many husbands and wives, they never ask forgiveness from each other. There is no hope for such people. If a person doesn't ask forgiveness when he's done something wrong, according to my opinion, the person is not even born again. Can you married people tell me when was the last time you asked forgiveness from your husband and wife? Can you brothers tell me when was the last time you asked forgiveness from somebody for what you did wrong? Think back, are you born again? That's what I mean, there is no fear of God before their eyes. We say things wrong, we do things wrong, and we are too proud to say, I'm sorry, that was my mistake, please forgive me. I said yesterday that one of the primary marks of a born-again person, we read in Ezekiel 36, you will loathe yourself, you will hate yourself for the evil that you have done. Do you find something like that? That is the mark of a man who fears God. The closer we come to God, the more we see sin in ourselves and less in other people. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, it was around maybe 20 years, 15-20 years after he was converted, and maybe 15 years after he was converted, he said, I am the least of all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15, I think it's verse 9 or 10. Five years later, he wrote Ephesians, and he says in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 8, I am the least of all the believers in the world. See how he went down from the least of all the apostles. He's now felt five years later that he's the last and least of all the believers in the world. Go another five years, and he writes 1 Timothy and 1 Timothy 1 15, he says, I am the chief of all the sinners in the world. Was he becoming a greater sinner? No, he was getting closer to God. The closer we get to God, the more sensitive we become to small little sins. And our heart is very sensitive. When the heart gets hard, we don't feel any sensation. Look at the soles of your feet and compare that to the sole of the feet of a newborn baby. If you take a pin and touch the sole of your feet, you don't feel any pain. It's become hardened through the years. But if you were to touch the sole of the foot of a newborn baby, immediately it'll react. Blood may come. Or you can poke the sole of your foot with a pin and no blood will come. That is a picture of how our conscience gets hardened through the years. And one of the great works of the Holy Spirit is to make us more sensitive. And if you're not becoming more and more sensitive to sin, number one possibility, you're not really born again. And number two, if you are, you're not growing. For me, I have come to the conclusion there is only one mark of spiritual growth in my life that I discover sins this year that I never knew were sins in all my previous 71 years. New areas. Have you discovered some new sin in your life that you did not know up till last year that you discovered in 2011? I can tell you. I can tell you sins I discovered in 2010 that I never knew were sin in the years before. That's how I know I'm getting close to God. It's been my longing for many years. And I see that that is the mark of God's blessing. I see there's only one mark of God's blessing on my life. It's not the effectiveness of my ministry. There are a lot of people whom God blesses in their ministry, whom he's not happy with. Many of them will stand before him in the final day and say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We planted churches in your name. We did miracles. We did this, that, and the other. We evangelized. We went here. We went there. And the Lord said, depart from me. Your followers will live in sin. Is it possible? But those people, they healed the sick. They did miracles. They prophesied. Their ministry was blessed. But their life was not right. I don't want to be in that category. And so, I see that the mark of God's blessing in my life for myself is that he gives light to me on unchristlikeness in little, little areas of my life. You know, little bits of anger, which never are seen in words or even in my face, but which I'm retaining. The Lord says, get rid of it. A little grudge against somebody, a little prejudice, a little judgmental spirit, a little pride in something which I think I've accomplished. So many things like this, a lack of discipline in the way I live, things like this. And the result is a life of daily repentance. And this became true in my life once I discovered that God's ultimate goal for me is to make me like Jesus Christ, completely. Romans 8, 29 says, God's ultimate destination for me is to make me like Jesus Christ. We have all known that in theory. You've heard me preach on it many times. But if you are gripped by it, you will long to be a little more like Jesus Christ every day. A little more gracious, a little more pure, a little more holy, a little more humble, a little more light on yourself, and a little more light on the arrogant statements we make about our spiritual development and growth. That will bring a deep repentance that can only come if we fear God. The fear of the Lord is the ABC of wisdom. So the whole world can be described, as I said, in two sentences. There is no fear of the Lord before their eyes. And the second statement is in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 21. They all seek after their own interests. You put these two statements together, Romans 3, 18 and Philippians 2, 21, and you have a description of the whole world. And I'm sorry to say you have a description of most born-again believers. They all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. And everything they evaluate, how will this affect me? I remember some years ago, I went to Dubai, and there was a multi-denominational meeting, and I spoke to them of believers. And I said, brothers and sisters, I will tell you things that no preacher who comes to Dubai will ever tell you. Because all those guys come to collect your money. I haven't come to collect your money. I don't want your money. I'll tell you the truth. It says in 1 Corinthians 10, 31, that whatever you do, do all for the glory of God, even if you eat or drink. In other words, if you guys decided to come to Dubai, if you're a born-again Christian, you should have come here seeking the glory of God. Lord, I want to glorify you, and I think I'll do that best if I go to Dubai. Can you honestly say that was the reason? You came here to make money. So what should I tell you? Go back to India? No. There are many people in India who love money also. Changing your location won't help you. Every beggar in India loves money. Have you ever met a beggar who doesn't love money? I haven't met one. Love of money is deeply rooted in our flesh. But I said, confess your sin. It's like if a husband and wife, before they got married, they had sex with each other. The problem is not solved by just getting married. They have to confess their sin when they got married and say, Lord, we're sorry. Before we got married, we had sex. That's a sin. Forgive us. I'm not saying you should separate, remain married, but confess your sin. In the same way, I said, you guys don't have to leave Dubai, but confess your sin that you did not seek the glory of God. You sought your own and came here, confessed that sin, asked God to forgive you, and then live here and say, Lord, I want to seek the glory of God for the rest of my life. That's the way to do it. God's not asking you to change your location, but he wants you to be honest. And I'll tell you something, my dear brothers and sisters, God loves honest people. It's one of the first things I discovered in my Christian life and that's helped me tremendously. You can go to God and if you're 100% honest and say, Lord, there I sought my own. I'm sorry. You know what will happen? He'll give you a little more light on one more layer of that onion called self-seeking and you'll be able to peel off one more layer of the onion of seeking your own. You wouldn't have finished with it. It'll take a lifetime to finish with seeking your own, but you'll peel off one more layer, one more layer, one more layer, and the end result will be that you will get revelation on the nature of God. You will partake of his nature. His Holy Spirit will be able to possess every area of your inner being, fill every area of your inner being that you confess and acknowledge where your unchristlikeness lies. My definition of sin is anything unlike Christ. That is sin. And the only person who can say there is no sin in me is the one who has become totally like Christ. There's nobody like that on the earth. The Apostle Paul said at the end of his life, I'm still pressing on. And therefore, for me anyway, my entire life's journey is a constant daily, daily, daily, daily discovery of areas in my life that are unchristlike, which I repent. I peel off that layer of the onion and it's replaced with the life of Christ. This is God's will. So, if that is the world, as I said, there's no fear of God. They all seek their own. That is the definition of darkness. Darkness is no fear of God. Darkness is only seeking your own. Then what is light? Light is the opposite of that. A tremendous reverence for God. How can you say I'm getting more and more light in my life? Many people, when they say I got more light, what they mean is they got some bright idea from scripture. They're talking about intelligence. It's like some scientist discovers some new theory. Or it's like a little boy discovers that two times two is four. He got some light on it. That's the way some people read the Bible and say, I got something. You haven't got light on anything if you haven't got light on your selfishness. You haven't got light on anything if you haven't got light on your lack of reverence for God in your life. So, in the New Testament, there is a word that Jesus used when he spoke about building the church. Jesus did not come here just to save sinners. Yes, that's true. He did not even come here to make sinners holy. That's also true. He came here after saving them, making them holy, putting them together and building a church. A new wine skin. The new wine first and then the new wine skin. It's no use trying to emphasize new wine skin. Oh brother, we want to build a church in our locality. Have you got any new wine first? What's the use having an empty wine skin even if it's a new one? We've seen a lot of people through these years who come here and they are gripped by what they see here, the fellowship and the quality of life and the ministry. And they say, oh brother Zach, we want to build a church where we are. Well, I say brother, start with a new wine. Don't start with a pattern. People look at the pattern and say this is what we want. We want to reproduce the pattern over there. Well, if you have the new wine skin, it's an empty hollow wine skin. That's not God's will. We've got to get the wine first, the life of Christ. You've got to have a passion for the life of Christ. Then God will create a new wine skin in which that can be poured. So Jesus spoke about building the church. The first time he ever used the word church is in Matthew 16 and verse 18. And it's very interesting that that's the first time, not in the first time, but there in connection with the word church, he uses another word, which is a distinctively a New Testament word called reveal, revelation. In the Old Testament, it was understanding. In the New Testament, it was revelation. That's why in the Old Testament, you had scribes. Scribes were people who studied the scriptures. But Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse 52, the scribe must become a disciple. Matthew 13, 52, the scribe must become a disciple. That's what I say to many of you. I fear that many of you are becoming scribes who have a knowledge of what you hear. You hear come to the conferences, you listen to the tapes, and you get knowledge. You're like all these multitudes of preachers around the world who go to the CFC website, listen to all the messages, and they've got notes for their next Sunday's meeting. Well, I've got no objection. They can do that. But they are scribes, and they will produce scribes. Only disciples can produce disciples. People have asked me, Brother Zach, can we preach the messages we hear from you? I said, yes. I don't have any copyright on it. What God has revealed to me, I share with others. But you must live it first, then you can preach it. But if you preach it without living it, you will destroy yourself. You're welcome to preach every single sermon that you ever heard me preach, but live it first, or seek to live it, then you can preach it. Otherwise, it's understanding. In the Old Testament, it was understanding. But in the New Testament, like we read, the scribe must become a disciple. And the disciple needs revelation. There were no disciples in the Old Testament. No disciples of Jesus anyway. And they didn't speak about revelation. Maybe a few rare people like Moses and Daniel got a few revelations, David a little bit. In fact, that word comes only about twice in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, revelation is a very important word. And I believe this is the reason, as more and more I've thought about it, why is it, Lord, that so many people who seem to have understood what we have taught through many years, don't seem to know you as Father? In the way you have revealed it to me, they seem to be so anxious and tense and grumble and complain. They don't know the Father. And why is it so many of them think they're building a church and it's just another congregation? And the answer I got is, they don't have revelation. They understood everything in their head and they're thinking they can go out with that head knowledge and know the Father and build the church. It's not possible. Matthew 16, 18, he said, on this rock, I will build my church. The Roman Catholics say, Peter is the rock. I say to you, you're Peter, upon this rock, I will build my church. The Protestants don't have an adequate explanation for that verse. They say, no, Christ is the rock. Because Jesus said, Peter said in verse 16, Christ, the Son of the living God, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's right. Jesus said, on this rock, I will build my church. But there's one thing they leave out, even Protestant Christians, and that is verse 17. Matthew 16, 17, blessed are you, Simon, because flesh and blood or human cleverness did not give you this revelation. My Father in heaven revealed me to you. On this rock, this revealed Christ, this Christ whom you saw by revelation in your heart, on this rock, I will build my church. You know, the apostle Paul said in Galatians in chapter one, we know that he saw Jesus on the Damascus road. That's how he was converted. But that was outwardly, with his physical eyes, he saw Jesus in glory, a vision, and he was converted. But there's something else that happened in the succeeding days after that, that is mentioned in Galatians 1, 15 and 16. God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son inside me. That is another thing. He gave me a revelation of Jesus Christ inside, in my heart. That was a revelation of who Christ was. And then, he went out and built the true church. Many, many people have not seen the revealed Christ. They have seen Christ hanging on the cross, the external Christ hanging on the cross, who rose up from the dead. And you tell this person, do you believe you're a sinner? Yes, you believe you're a sinner. It's all in the head. You believe he died on the cross. I feel that many of you have responded like that. It's good. But your life is so shallow, because you've not sought for revelation in your heart. You cannot say that the Father revealed Christ in me. That makes a world of difference. Blessed are you, Simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. My Father in heaven revealed. It says in Matthew chapter 11, that, I don't know whether you believe this, Matthew 11 27. See this little statement in the middle of that verse. No one knows the Son, except the Father. Do you believe that? No one knows, knows in the real deep sense of knowing Jesus, except God the Father. And God the Father can reveal the Son to Peter, to some others. Why didn't he reveal the Son to the Pharisees? Why did the Pharisees think he is bilgeable? It's possible to say, I've accepted Jesus as my Savior, because externally, I know I'm a sinner with my intellect. I know I'm a sinner, and I know that he died for my sins. I accept him. There's not much change in your life. Your attitude to sin doesn't seem to have changed much, because the Son has not been revealed in you, because you're not interested in revelation. You have to have a hunger for revelation. You have to have a reverence for God to get revelation. You have to consider it more important than everything else in the world to get revelation. Another thing, it says here, further down in Matthew 11 27, no one knows the Father, except the Son, and those to whom the Son reveals him. Has Jesus Christ revealed the Father to you, or did you hear some nice messages in CFC explaining how God is a Father, how your earthly fathers care for children, so like that God will care for you, and you brainwashed yourself to believe. It's all in the head, and you go away from the meeting, God is my Father, and some problem arises, and you're anxious, and tense, and grumble, and complain. You didn't get any revelation on God as a Father, not at all. It didn't change your life one bit. What a work the devil has done by making people think that it's all in the head. In the Old Testament it was there, and that's why the scribes who studied, studied, studied the scriptures, finally killed Jesus Christ, and that's why you hear of pastors who preach, and preach, and preach, and preach, and then commit adultery, and that's why you read of, you don't read of it, but there are many, many people who think they have understood all about holiness, and all that, who have sexual fantasies, and live with dirty thoughts, and fight with their husbands, and wives, and pursue after money, and never fulfill their function as a part of the body of Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, don't let the devil rob you of your inheritance. That's all I say. Paul believed in this so much, when he was writing to the Ephesian Christians, he told them, there are some amazing things which I want to tell you, Ephesians chapter 1, but I'm praying for you. I'm praying that the God of our, Ephesians 1 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. He's not saying to the Ephesians, please read my letter 10 times, study it, analyze it, divide it into subtopics and topics, like they do in Bible schools, and you'll understand it. That's not the way, that's why Jesus never sent his disciples to a Bible school. In the entire Old Testament, no prophet, no true prophet came out of a Bible school. There was a great dearth of prophets in the Old Testament. The reading, Samuel's time, there was no open vision, there were no prophets, and I think sometime during that period of Samuel's lifetime, somebody started a Bible school, I don't know who it is, probably Samuel, because he thought he could train prophets, and you read about them in 2 Kings, about, they're called the sons of the prophets, that means Bible school students, and they went through their Bible school, got their degrees, and came out and prophesied in the king's court, they were the false prophets you read about in the Old Testament. All the false prophets came out of the Bible schools in the Old Testament, and they opposed the true prophets of God, like Elijah and Elisha. I believe you will discover in the final day that no true prophet of God ever came out of a Bible school. They learned at the feet of Jesus, they lived before him, they got revelation, because the Bible school fills your head with knowledge. You can study, analyze Ephesians, and never be a prophet, you'll be a scribe who can explain Ephesians, and explain Peter, one Peter, that poor fisherman wrote something, and today people are getting PhD degrees studying one Peter, which Peter himself will be surprised if he reads all those theses these people are writing on letter, by a simple letter that he wrote. They don't have revelation, and you can get up in your church and preach so many things on these different books of the Bible, if you don't have revelation, it's useless. Paul doesn't say study this and read this so many times, he says I'm praying that God will give you the spirit of revelation, otherwise you'll understand zero, and I pray verse 18, not that your mind might understand, but the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that's a difference between your mind understanding and the eyes of your heart being enlightened, so that you can know the mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead, verse 20, and put everything under his feet, and gave him to be the head over you, the church. I know the many years in my life, after being born again, many many years, when I went by, when I did not value revelation, I grew up in an assembly where we studied the Bible, like we study books of geography, and history, and chemistry, and could understand everything, you can get a degree in that, you can get a degree in chemistry, or geography, or Bible, just got to study it, and have a good mind, but Jesus said in Matthew 11 25, I thank you father, you have hidden these things from the clever, and the intelligent, those of you who are clever, and intelligent here, you think that's a help to you, no it's a handicap, I'm clever, and intelligent, unfortunately, but I consider it a handicap, and I go to God, and say Lord this is all right, if I'm doing business in the world, this is all right, if I'm studying some earthly subject, but when I come to the Bible, this is a handicap, because I have a tendency to depend on my brain, to study the scriptures, and I'm not in, I want to come, Jesus said, revelation is given to babes, Matthew 11 25, I thank you father, you've hidden these things from the clever, and intelligent, and revealed them to infants, and I said Lord, I want to be like a infant, when I come to you, scripture, then I saw Jesus, then the son was revealed in me, the church, as the body of Christ, was revealed inside me, boy what a difference, between revelation, and then you can begin to build it, it's like God has given you the pattern, inside of how to do my work, you know in the old testament, I showed you yesterday, let me show that to you again, Ezekiel 36, how if you really have come in touch with God, and the Holy Spirit has come in, one of the results will be, Ezekiel 36 and verse 31, you will detest yourself, in your own sight, for all your sins, I want to ask you my brother, sister, was there ever a time in your life, when you said about yourself, oh wretched man that I am, how shall I ever be free, from this unchristlike habit I've got in me, whatever that unchristlike habit is, whether it's your tongue, or your eye, or your thought, or whatever it is, have you ever cried out like Paul, oh wretched man that I am, if you have never cried out even once like that, I'll tell you honestly, you need to be born again, I cried out like that many many times, when God has given me a revelation of myself, it's exactly like, I've had exactly the same experience as John, seeing Jesus and falling and say, oh God I'm the worst sinner in the world, oh wretched man that I am, how shall I be free from this, I loathe myself in my own sight, all of us have had plenty of experience at pointing at other believers and saying, oh wretched that wretched person, and that wretched person, and this wretched wife, or this wretched husband, that's the mark of the world, mark of a godly man, he says, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death, shall I wish a blessing for you in the coming months, that you'll have many such revelations of your own wretchedness, as you see the glory of Jesus Christ, it has never discouraged me, I don't get condemned, I get encouraged, because when John fell at Jesus feet, Jesus lifted him up, and I've experienced that again and again, when I see my own wretchedness and fall at his feet, he lifts me up, and I get a new area of cleansing and victory, and life becomes progressively better, a new understanding of the body of Christ, so in relation, that is in relation to our personal life, in relation to the church, the Lord tells Ezekiel further on, you know chapter 40 onwards, chapter 40 onwards is a description of the new covenant church, and in this new covenant church, there's some wonderful truths there, I don't have time to tell you of all of them, but he says in Ezekiel 43, about the glory of God, filling the house, verse 5, the spirit, the Holy Spirit, Ezekiel 43,5, the Holy Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the house, something, a revelation from God, and the Lord said to him, son of man, this is the place of my throne, where I place the soles of my feet, it's a vision of the church, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever, and he says, there's a counterfeit church also, those are the people who, verse 8, set their threshold by my threshold, and their doorpost beside my doorpost, with only the wall between me and them, this is Babylon, Babylon is pretty close to Jerusalem, there's a wall, just a wall between them, they put their door next to our door, they put their threshold just next to the Lord's true church threshold, and it's so close that people coming into the church can enter through the wrong door, that's deception, they put that door just next to mine, that's the way of the devil, make it look so similar, use the same language, but it's not the same, who are deceived, God will never allow those who love the truth to be deceived, 2nd Thessalonians 2, verse 10 and 11 says, if you love the truth, and you want to be saved from sin, you will never be deceived, but if you don't love the truth, and you don't want to be saved from sin, God himself will deceive you, you'll see these two doors, and you'll go in through Babylon, because it's just next to each other, this is the one verse that says that Babylon's door is just next door to Jerusalem, if Babylon's door was a hundred miles away, there's no danger of somebody going there, but people are seeking for Jerusalem, and they see these two doors, they look so similar, painted alike, and look so alike, and they're going through the wrong door, they put that threshold just next to mine, that door post just next to mine, with only a wall between them, and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations, you read in Revelation 17 about Babylon, mystery Babylon, full of abominations, this is it, but as for you son of man, verse 10, please describe to my people the true church, let me paraphrase it, please describe to my people the true house of God, why, so that they may be ashamed of what they have built, which they call the church, what they have built with impurity and strife, and they have dared to call it the church of Jesus Christ, that they may be ashamed, let them measure what they have done, verse 10, with my plan, and this is a very important condition, verse 11, if they are ashamed of all that they have done, then show them the design of my church, but if they are not ashamed, they say, oh well, we are human, it'll be like this, don't show them the plan, let them live in that delusion that they are building the church, but if they are ashamed, we saw in Ezekiel 36 about being ashamed of our own way of life, here it's being ashamed of the church we have built, we need to be ashamed of both, if it's not according to the pattern, if my life is not according to God's plan, if the church I'm building is not according to God's plan, you say, well, little minor modifications, it doesn't matter, who said that, where in the, let me take a very simple example, where in the New Testament do you find any leader of a church being called pastor so and so, they never appointed pastors in the early days, they appointed elders, you say, oh, that doesn't matter, that's right, you're not ashamed, you will never know the pattern, in the early church they said, because the woman is the glory of man, she must cover her head, but they say, oh, that is according to the culture of those days, that's right, you're not ashamed, you will never know the pattern of the true church, it could be little things that God tests us on, I'm just giving you some examples, an elder, if a man's children are not being brought up properly in his house, he should not be an elder in a church, do you know that I have removed elders from all churches whose children are not godly, I said, brother, you're not fit to be an elder, sorry, but there'll be only one elder in the church left, better one elder than to have two with somebody whose children are ungodly, but look at the multitudes of churches there are with pastors whose children are wayward, do you think they care for God's word, oh, no, we are smarter, but brother, then there'll be nobody, nobody close down that church, rather than disobey God's word, or don't call it a church, say, this is just a meeting, it's not a church, we're not qualified to be a church or elders, it's just a meeting, we're trying to encourage one another, that's fine, but don't call it by that holy name of the body of Jesus Christ, where do you find people who are so radical, I'm looking for them, I find a few here and there, thank God, if they are ashamed, show them the pattern, where are the Christians who seek for the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit, say, Lord, we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, otherwise we cannot serve you, even Jesus needed to be anointed with the Holy Spirit before he went out to his ministry, even though he lived as such a holy life, where are we, do you think people are seeking earnestly, oh, well, I tried, brother, I prayed a few times for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, didn't get it, never mind, I've got many more important things to do, you're not ashamed, you'll never be baptized in the Holy Spirit in a hundred years, forget it, you'll just be one who warms the seats every Sunday morning by sitting there, you'll never be an effective member of the body of Christ, I never knew what it was to be an effective member of the body of Christ, till Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit and fire, and the reason that I sought it was, I say, Lord Jesus, I'm not better than you, you never dared to go out into your ministry till you were anointed with the Holy Spirit, who am I, you lived a holy life for 30 years and you didn't dare to go out in the ministry till the Spirit of God came upon you, I wouldn't dare to do not only the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I don't dare to stand in a pulpit a single time without seeking God to be anointed afresh with fresh oil, not with 30 years old oil, fresh oil, to be anointed with fresh oil, do you seek that, you see desperately need for it brother, that's what we need to build a church according to the pattern. Revelation, in the New Testament, the Bible speaks about mysteries, Ephesians chapter 3, Paul says, not only Christ was revealed in him, we saw that in Galatians chapter 1, we need two revelations, one is Christ was revealed in him and the other he says in Ephesians 3.9, to bring to light the administration of the mystery, which was hidden in God who created all things, he says earlier in verse 4, when you read you can understand my insight into this mystery of Christ, verse 5, which in other generations was not made known, but now by revelation of the Holy Spirit has been made known to his holy apostles and prophets, but the holy apostles and prophets got that revelation to share that revelation with the saints, of course today's people don't even believe in apostles and prophets, that's a sad thing in Christendom today. I often ask Christians, what is the foundation of the church? Many people say Jesus Christ, you got to show me scripture, in 1 Corinthians 3 we are told about the foundation of our life, 1 Corinthians 3.10, there's no other foundation that anybody can lay than Jesus Christ, that is the only foundation for a godly life, Jesus Christ plus nobody, you don't need to be connected to any man, but when it comes to building the church, turn to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are part of God's household, that is God's house, that's the church, and that is built, listen carefully, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, are you being built on a church which is founded on apostles and prophets, or you are like one of these modern Christians who say I don't believe in all that, I have only one person who is my leader, that's Jesus Christ, you sound very spiritual brother, but it's not according to scripture, this church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, but Jesus Christ was the chief cornerstone, you know in those days when they built a house, the first thing they laid was the cornerstone, the cornerstone had to be absolutely perfect in three dimensions, 90 degrees, and they put that in the corner, if that was even one degree crooked, the whole building will grow crooked, if that was on the horizontal level, if it was one degree out, the whole building will go crooked, it had to be perfect, 90 degrees in the vertical, 90 degrees in the horizontal, 90 degrees in all three dimensions, got to be perfect, and that's what Jesus was, and the apostles and prophets put their stones in line with that, that's how they built it, and there was the big foundation, Jesus Christ the cornerstone, and all the apostles and prophets on this, the church was built, of course in the early days that was those first apostles and prophets, but we read in Revelation chapter 2, when only John was alive among the first 11, the Lord tells Ephesus, you have tested those who claim to be apostles and found them to be false, what is the need to test, if there was only one apostle left, God has given to the church, Ephesians 4.11 it says, after he ascended up to heaven, Ephesians 4.10 and 11, he gave apostles, those are not the apostles he appointed on earth, after he ascended up to heaven, he gave to the church apostles and prophets, and that is for the building of the church, we read, today we have individual people who say, yeah, yeah, I know, I've gone to this meeting, I've read this book, I've read that book on house churches, and this church, and that church, and they try to build the church, and it's absolute chaos, because they don't follow scripture, there are two great mysteries spoken of in scripture, a mystery is a secret that only God can reveal to you, and if God doesn't reveal it, you won't know it, and there are two great mysteries mentioned in scripture, there are many mysteries, mystery of iniquity, mystery of Babylon, mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 13, but great mysteries, only two, the first great mystery is 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, great is the mystery of godliness, the great mystery of how one can live a holy life, a scribe can never understand it, it's a mystery that God will reveal to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are not at all satisfied with being defeated by any sin, who are not only seeking to overcome dirty thoughts, what about if you have a dirty dream, now a dirty dream is not conscious sin, let me put your mind to rest on that, you get dirty dreams, because in the past you had dirty thoughts, Jesus never had a dirty dream, because he never had dirty thoughts, if you fill your mind with dirty thoughts that goes into your subconscious and it comes up when you're sleeping, like you know when food that's too much you vomit it out, it comes up like that, you fill your mind with dirty thoughts, it sort of regurgitates and comes into your mind at night in a dream, it could be panicky dreams, because you're filling your mind during the day with panicky thoughts or dirty dreams, what is your reaction when you have a dirty dream at night, theologically you can get up and say, oh well that's unconscious sin, if you are really pursuing after righteousness, you'll get up and weep on your pillow and say, oh God why in the world did I have that, I hate it, I know it's unconscious sin, but I hate it because that means somewhere in the past I got a little polluted in my thought life, I want to hate that, not the dream, I'm not feeling guilty about the dream, but somewhere in the past I was a little unfaithful with my eyes or my thoughts and that's the reason I got this, Lord I repent of it, I hate it, I want to get rid of it, that's a godly man, oh wretched man that I am, not who comforts himself theologically and says, that's unconscious sin, it doesn't matter, such people will never understand godliness, will never build a church, I'll tell you that, they will talk about theories, there are very few godly people on earth, in my lifetime I've met very few who are even interested in that level of godliness, it's all superficial godliness that most people have, theories, great is the secret of godliness and the answer lies in Christ who came in the flesh, that's why I say I do not have much time to listen to people who have not understood that Jesus came in the flesh and was tempted exactly like me and did not sin, he was tempted many a times when I've been in my younger days, I remember tempted severely in different areas, I would say to myself, Lord Jesus when you were in Nazareth, you were tempted just like this and what did you do? I want to do the same thing, I want to walk in your footsteps, give me the power of the Holy Spirit, that's how I overcame, the revelation that Christ was tempted exactly like me in every area changed my life, changed my family life, I who was a slave to discouragement, frequent anger and rude words to my wife and all that, they disappeared. Dear brothers, I started out in the pit just like the rest of you but Jesus keeps me from falling, that's my testimony, he can do for you what he did for me but you got to be honest, you should not pretend to be holy when you're not, cry out to God and ask Jesus to show you how he was tempted like you but did not sin, ask him to fill you with the Holy Spirit, ask him to give you revelation, you can understand it with your head now as I've said it, many of you have understood it in your head for years, Christ was tempted like me, you get all the right answers, you take all the right answers but you're defeated by sin, which shows you haven't understood the mystery, you're a scribe, now ask God for revelation on that which you have understood for so many years, some of you may have understood for years that Christ was tempted like you but why you defeated them, it has not become the secret of godliness, you're defeated by sin, ask God to show you, it is the first great mystery we need revelation on, the second great mystery is in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 32, it says, this mystery is great but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church, the second great mystery is the church, it's a mystery, I don't expect people to understand it who don't fear God, I don't expect people to understand it who don't, who's seeking their own but it's a great mystery that God can reveal to us, God revealed to Paul this mystery, a mystery in which it says here that there is no Jew or Gentile, all are the same, you say what's the great mystery about that, you know one of the great privileges we have had in Bangalore is that we have in our church right almost from the beginning people of completely different communities who in the world cannot get along with each other, when we started brother Ian and I, we were, it began with us and I don't know whether you know, I belong to Malayali community, he belongs to the Anglo-Indian community and you can look throughout India to see how much cooperation there is between Malayalis and Anglo-Indians in any area, see if they do business together, see if they appreciate one another, you'll never find the Malayalis have got their own club and the Anglo-Indians got their own club, this is one bunch of Pharisees, there's another bunch of Pharisees and in the wonderful plan of God he brought us together and united us with deep respect for one another and then added to our number people from all types of communities, now unfortunately our dear brothers in Tamil Nadu don't have that privilege because they're all Tamilians in every church, our dear brothers in Kerala don't have that privilege, you go to Kerala church they're all Malayalis, we've had that privilege in Bangalore but where we come together in a conference and we learn to appreciate one another of different communities here, you find like in the last Kerala conference, three or four Tamil brothers were the main speakers, go all through Kerala and see if that happens anywhere else, it doesn't happen anywhere else, you go to Tamil Nadu, all the main big speakers in Tamil Nadu are Tamilians, but the Tamilians welcome me, how is that? This is the mystery of the body of Christ, where there's absolutely no difference, if you look at a person according to his community, pray for revelation on the body of Christ, if you look at a person according to intellectual level, pray for revelation that in God's eyes there's no difference between this and that, dear brothers and sisters, it's a mystery, many others don't have this privilege, I've gone to Romania, everybody in the church is a Romanian, they don't get a chance to find out the mystery of the body of Christ, but think of the privilege you have when God puts you together with people who are completely different from you in language, culture, community, intellectual level and you seek fellowship with people who are at a lower level than you, how many of you brothers and sisters sitting in Bangalore seek fellowship with the poor brothers from Tamil Nadu who come, some of you are Tamilians, but you're not willing to speak Tamil to them, I'm not a Tamilian, I learned Tamil to speak to them, it's part of the body of Christ, you seek fellowship with them, they have enriched me so much, but you with your high intellectual level, why is it that so many years your life is so shallow, you need revelation on the body of Jesus Christ, it's a wonderful thing, God has called us to build the church of Jesus Christ and it can be only built through revelation and that can come if we humble ourselves and revere God and say Lord we want to satisfy your heart and build what something according to your plan on this earth and God will help you wherever you are, let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us revelation we pray in the areas where for years we have had only intellectual understanding and where the devil has fooled us to think we have understood something when it is only intellectual and our life remains unchanged, our church is not expressing the mystery of the body of Christ, please have mercy upon us each one, many of us here are seeking to build the church of Jesus Christ, it doesn't look like that at all, but help us in the days to come to build the body of Christ, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.