Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

First of all, we are going to conduct a little English class. Romans chapter 8. I don't know if the children understood the verse they read today. They memorized. I don't know if the adults understood it. So we look at that verse. Romans in chapter 8, begin with verse 19. What they read was verse 20, with some complicated words which I don't know whether they understood. Romans 8, 19, for the anxious longing of creation, waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. So we will go step by step. The sons of God are God's children, we. But you know that the world does not recognize us as children of God. Some of them think we are a crazy bunch of people. But one day, when Christ comes back, we will be revealed to the whole world that these were my children. They look like ordinary people on the outside. But there was a work done in their hearts which made them entirely different from all the other children of Adam. That's called the revealing or the final manifestation of the sons of God. And then it says the rest of creation, you know, animals, wild animals, the thorns, the thistles and lightning and thunder and all the evil in creation, there is there right now. The tornadoes and all the havoc that came only because Adam sinned. All this chaos in creation was because of Adam's sin. There wouldn't have been any tornadoes or thistles or wild animals or anything. There weren't any even before Adam sinned. But the moment he sinned, creation was subjected to futility. Futility is a word from the word futile. Futile is an English word which means useless. So creation came into a state of futility, means uselessness, not willingly. Not willingly means they didn't choose it. All these wild animals didn't choose to be wild animals and all the vegetation didn't choose to be full of thistles and thorns, not of their own choice. But God subjected it. Man was, you know, man was made the ruler of everything. So when man fell, creation fell. God told Adam, you're going to have authority over everything. When he fell, creation fell. It's just like, you know, if a father goes astray, the children go astray. Children suffer many things because of their parents. The way their parents live affects children. That's what happened to when Adam sinned. All of creation suffered. So it is subjected to this uselessness, not of its own choice. But because of Christ's salvation, there is hope. So that verse 20 actually finishes and subjected it and in hope refers to verse 21. In the hope that creation itself will one day be set free from slavery to corruption. See, man has been, has become a slave to corruption. Corruption in mind and thought and attitudes towards one another. It's all because of Adam's sin that corruption makes chaos and divorce and all types of terrible things in homes and in our work. That's slavery to corruption. It's a slavery you can't escape. But one day we will come into the great freedom when Christ comes back of the glory of God's children. And verse 20 is saying that then creation also, which was unwillingly subjected to this uselessness will also be set free. So it's a glorious hope that creation has. And that's why in fact it says in verse 22 that the whole creation, we don't hear it, but there's a groaning going on in the wild animals and say, we don't want to be like this. And imagine the tiger and lion saying, we don't want to be like this. This is not the way God made us. It's because of the sin of man that we are like this. They're groaning and suffering, but it's like the illustration used as a mother going to give birth to a child and what tremendous joy when the child is born and the coming of Christ and creation is going to be reborn. It's like a new birth. And now it's going through the Holy Spirit, going through the pains of childbirth. One day creation will come into its glory. Now I want to share first of all something about the way God created man. You know, when God made Adam, he says, I want to make him in my image. And God is a trinity of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet one. We can't understand that because we live in a world of addition and subtraction and we say one plus one plus one is three. God lives in eternity where they emerge. It's like if you understand multiplication, one multiplied by one multiplied by one is one. So God is a trinity in that way. Three ones but one like in multiplication, but they are separate individuals. But man is also three parts, not three separate individuals, but the three parts in our being. And many Christians don't understand that. And if you don't understand that, it's like living in the old covenant. In the old covenant, they had no understanding of the three parts of man. They had no understanding of the Trinity. No one, not even John the Baptist, the greatest prophet, knew that God is a trinity. Nobody. They all thought God is one. That's it. But when at the baptism of Jesus, you see for the first time on earth, a revelation of the Trinity. The Father speaking from heaven, this is my beloved Son whom I'm well pleased. The Holy Spirit coming and descending upon Jesus and the Son of God there. The whole Trinity is there. And that's the first time on earth the Trinity was manifested for those who have eyes to see. And subsequently through the when the Holy Spirit came, the day of Pentecost, God gave revelation concerning man being three parts. And that's mentioned if you turn to 1 Thessalonians in chapter 5 and verse 23. It's the one verse in scripture. It's about the only verse that explains clearly that man is three parts. And it's important for you to understand this. There are three parts in you. Spirit, soul, and body. Paul's prayer is, may the God of peace sanctify. Sanctify means make holy. God wants to make holy all three parts of you. Your spirit, soul, and body. He wants to make our body pure. He wants to make that soul inside pure. He wants to make the spirit pure and preserved, complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So this will be sanctified entirely, as it says in verse 23, only when Christ comes again. Then our body will be completely freed from sickness. You know, there are a lot of people who say that a Christian should never be sick. A lot of people who preach that are sick themselves. And sickness ends in death. Death is the ultimate end. And that's also the result of sin. There's a curse upon the ground. God did not curse Adam. No. The first person he cursed was Cain, not Adam. Because Cain hurt another human being. And that's more serious. Adam only hurt himself. So when Adam sinned, you read in Genesis 3, God cursed the ground. He said, for your sake, the ground is cursed, Adam. But Adam's body was made from that ground. So a curse came on his body. And that's why sickness comes. That's why the Lord told Adam, you will also die and go into this ground from which you are made. So that's why people die. The only reason people die is the curse on our body is not being lifted. And as long as it's not lifted, we'll get sick. It's no use pretending that you'll never get sick. You've got to fool people that you're not sick. Those who say they'll never get sick should say they'll never die, because the curse brings sickness and death. But one day we'll be liberated from it. But there's no curse on our spirit. The other day we looked at this, that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us on the cross. Jesus became a curse for us on the cross. Let me show you that verse. If you don't, you've forgotten where it is in Galatians chapter 5. Sorry, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ has redeemed us. Redeemed is a word which is also not much used in English, but it's like being purchased. You know, in the olden days, people would go to the slave market and buy a person as a slave. And he could set him free if he wanted. He'd say, okay, I pay for the slave. Here's the money. I buy the slave. And I say, okay, then you can go free now. So somebody had to purchase him if he wanted to be set free. And that's what Jesus did on the cross. We were slaves, not to the devil. We were slaves to sin. But Christ didn't have to pay any price to the devil. He owes him nothing. He paid a price to the law of God. The law of God demanded that if a man sins, he should be punished with eternal hell, separation from God. Christ paid the price and purchased us out from that slavery and said, you can go free. It's important for us to understand that so the devil cannot condemn us. A lot of people think, because they don't read the Bible carefully, that Christ paid the price to the devil. He doesn't have to pay any price to the devil. God owes the devil nothing. The devil was defeated on the cross. No price was paid to him. His power was taken away on the cross. And if you understand that, you'll never for one single moment be afraid of the devil. In my early Christian life, I was afraid of the devil. I was wondering what he could do to me. Today, the devil is afraid of me. I say that publicly. The devil is afraid of me. One word in the name of Jesus and he will flee. And I want every one of you to know that, that if your conscience is clear, the devil will be afraid of you. He will not be able to enter your home. He will not be able to touch your children. If you keep your conscience clear, you have authority over him because he was defeated on the cross. And we were purchased from that slavery to sin. And it says in Galatians 3.13 that Christ has purchased us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us. He paid the price. And the punishment that was due to us, he took as a curse. You know what a strong word curse is. And that's why he had to hang on a cross. It says, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. It is written back way back in the Old Testament, that Deuteronomy 21 and verse 23, that anyone who hangs on a cross is on a tree is cursed. That's why Jesus couldn't be killed with somebody cutting off his head or, you know, firing arrows at him or anything. He had to die on a cross because that's the way, that's how a man is cursed. And he had to take that curse which is upon us. And now there is no curse in our spirit. It's gone completely. There's no curse in my spirit. There is one on my body still. And our body will be redeemed only when Christ comes. And so we got to face the fact that as long as we live in this body, the reality is we may get sick. But God in his mercy has provided us with medicines in nature. A lot of these medicines are made from nature, from plants and minerals. Why did God place that medicinal property which we get in antibiotics today, in minerals and plants? That was God's mercy because he knew that man would become sick and let me provide some way for him to be healed from it. And we want to appreciate that. And these crazy people who are, there are some crazy Christians like that who say that we shouldn't use medicine and just trust the Lord for healing. Well, who made those medicines? It's not man. Man can invent nothing. God placed them in the plants and in the minerals so that man could be healed. And if we don't make use of the provision God has made, we deserve to be sick and die perhaps. So that's just the scriptural explanation for the use of medicine. And so that curse is gone. One day it'll be gone from our body as well. But coming back to 1 Thessalonians 5.23, man is spirit, soul, and body. And in the Old Testament, God pictured this with a tabernacle. And I want to explain to you what the tabernacle was like in the Old Testament. It's a picture of man's being, man's total being. The tabernacle was a big compound, a huge compound which is open, a picture of man's body. Inside that compound was a tent with two parts in it, covered, which is the hidden part of us, soul and spirit, two parts. And that was covered. And between the two tents there was a thick curtain just like this. You can't see the other side. Not only can't see, you can't even go that side. Behind the curtain was what was called the most holy place, which symbolized man's spirit. And this side of the curtain was the holy place, symbolized man's soul. And the law for the Old Testament people was you cannot go in there. God's presence was in that place. And nobody could go there. The high priest was allowed to go there once a year, taking the blood of the sacrifice for the sins of the people. But otherwise, God was saying thereby, I'm so holy, none of you can come anywhere near me. And if anybody went in there, they'd die immediately, other than the high priest was allowed to go once a year. So that's the tabernacle, the outer court, picture of the body, visible to everyone, and two hidden parts, our soul and spirit, and a thick veil in between. The soul, body, we understand what it means. The soul consists of our mind and our feelings, our emotions, feelings of joy or sorrow, sadness, excitement, happiness. This is all in the soul. Mind, which is our intelligence, with which we study and understand. That's how you can understand what I'm saying right now. That's how I'm speaking from my mind. That's part of our soul. And there is this curtain between, and then inside is the spirit. And the spirit is our conscience, possibility to receive the presence of God. God doesn't dwell in our body. He doesn't dwell in our soul. He dwells in our spirit. Remember in the old tabernacle, the fire of God marking his presence was over the most holy place, in that inner sanctuary, not in the other two parts, teaching us that God dwells in our spirit. And from our spirit, he manifests himself through our soul and our body. Now this may look all theory, but it has a lot of practical application. I know it's helped me in my life to live a truly Christian life. Because man is supposed to, a true Christian in the new covenant, is supposed to live in his soul, sorry, in his spirit. But most Christians live in their soul. They never become spiritual. You can't become spiritual if you don't live in your spirit. What do I mean by living in the soul? I'll explain that in a moment. Living in your mind and your emotions. Your Christianity is how much you understand of the truth. Your Christianity is how excited you are when you sing or pray or clap and all. This is all, it's okay. In fact, in the Old Testament, it speaks about that clap and dance and sing and all that. They lived in the soul. They praised God in the soul. That was acceptable because the way into the most holy place was closed. Nobody could go in there. There was a veil. They could not worship God in the spirit in the Old Testament. Just like there was no promise in the Old Testament that your sins will be cleansed. The promise in the Old Testament, Psalm 32, is your sins will be covered. Blessed is the man whose sins are covered, Psalm 32, 1. Underneath the sheet was all the sins. But in Jesus came, the sins are cleansed, 1 John 1, 7. The blood of Jesus cleanses, doesn't cover. There's a lot of difference between covering and cleansing. These are some of the differences between Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, God doesn't say, I will not remember your sins anymore. I'll remember it every year. You're going to sacrifice and remember your sins. But now God says, I will not remember your sins anymore. When God says in Hebrews 8, 12, I will not remember your sins anymore, he's not saying I have forgotten them. How can he forget them when you and I remember all the sins we did in our unconverted days? Is God's memory poorer than ours? No. God remembers every single sin in his memory, just like we do, better than we do, because he remembers the things we don't remember. But he says, I choose not to remember them when you have come to me in Christ in the new covenant. And let me give you this warning. There's only one situation, only one situation where God will once again remember all the sins you committed. And that is if you don't forgive somebody. If you do not forgive others, the Bible says God will not forgive you, Matthew 6, 14 and 15. In other words, even though he told you, I will not remember your sins anymore, it's true. But then somebody does some harm to you and you don't forgive him. Or you remember that he did some harm to you or your family 10 years ago. And that comes back to your mind and you say, I'll never forgive him. Okay. God says, all your sins are put back into your account. You remember that story of the man who was forgiven millions of dollars by the king and he went out and caught somebody by the throat who owed him some $20. God and the king said, okay, come back here. Not only do I put all your debt back on you, I'm going to hand you over to the torturers and those are the demons. A lot of people open themselves to the devil when they don't forgive others. That's a clear teaching in Matthew 18. The man was handed over to the torturers and the torturers are the demons. If you want to be free from demonic attack, one of the first thing you need to do is forgive other people completely as God forgave us. And that's something you could sometimes go to stop and think, is there anybody you have not forgiven? In fact, you don't have to wait too long. Right now as I'm speaking and I ask you, is there anybody you have not forgiven? Immediately it comes to your mind. Doesn't it come to your mind? Somebody you've not forgiven? Immediately? Yes, because that is always in your mind. That's why it comes to you right now. I'm not reading your mind, but I know it's there. And that is what's hindering your spiritual growth. That's what's making God remember all his sins against you. That's what's giving the demons of hell power over your life and your family. I don't want the demons of hell to be able to touch my family, me or my children. No, but I have to make sure that God doesn't hand me over to the torturers because I didn't forgive somebody. It's very, very important. But you say that's a terrible thing that fellow did against me or my children. Not worse than what people did to Christ on the cross. The worst sin that anybody committed was not what that person did against you, but the crucifixion of Christ. And as soon as he was crucified, the first thing Jesus said was, Father, forgive them. And the Bible says, follow me. So the first place for you to follow Christ is in forgiving others. We begin there. Then our sins can be forgiven. And if any of you thought your sins were forgiven without forgiving others, let me remind you today they were not forgiven. They were forgiven if you forgave others. You repented and you forgave others, your sins are forgiven. But you can live that blessed life from today. So don't live in just excitement and emotion and we sing wonderful songs. Let's think about this. So, I told you the soul is our mind and our emotions and we can live in the soul. That's not God's will. He wants us to live in the spirit. The Old Testament was full of people living in the soul. You read the Psalms, clapping and dancing and shouting and all types of excitement in the body and in the soul. Stop. They couldn't go into the most holy place. What does it mean to live in the spirit? Now, let me show you this verse in John chapter 4. You'll understand it a little better now when I say this. John chapter 4. I just want to say that if any of you find it a bit difficult to forgive others, ask the Lord to help you. He's a helper. The Holy Spirit is called a helper. He comes to help us obey God's commandments. You say, Lord, it's very difficult for me to forgive that person. The Holy Spirit says, I'm here to help you. Is the load too heavy? Like your father will help you. You're a little boy. You can't lift that load. Dad says, I'll help you. The Holy Spirit comes and says, I'll help you. I'll help you. It's only through the Holy Spirit can you do it. Okay, John chapter 4. Jesus said these words in verse 24. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him not in the soul, but in the spirit. And in truth means in reality. The word truth in the New Testament is reality. The opposite of truth is hypocrisy, unreality. Truth is not like 2 plus 2 is 4. Not that type of truth. Truth is reality. That means when I worship God, it must be real. It means it must come from my spirit, not just superficially. Because a lot of people who clap and sing and shout and dance and all that to praise the Lord, they go home and fight with their wives. They go home and yell at their wives or yell at their husbands. So what was all this clapping and singing out there? Soulish, soulish, soulish. They did not know what it is to, like Jesus said, to worship in the spirit. What does it say here? It says in verse 23, the hour is coming, and that came on the day of Pentecost, when the true worshipers, I want to ask you whether you're a true worshiper. Were you worshiping God today? The true worshipers from the day of Pentecost onwards will worship the Father not in their soul, but in spirit and truth and reality. And the Father is seeking for such worshipers. I remember the day when I got light on this, that my Heavenly Father is seeking not just to forgive sins, but he's seeking all over the world for worshipers who will worship him not with just nothing. He's got nothing against clapping and singing and dancing and all that, but it must come from within the spirit. And I tell you this until I understood that. My worship of God was only in the soul. It was my excitement. My mind was very alert. I could say wonderful things to God, flowery language. Have you heard people pray with flowery language and frequent hallelujahs, and it's all excitement. It's in the soul, it's emotion, it's mind. We need to understand what it means to live in the spirit and worship in the spirit. I'll explain that in a moment, because God wants the true worshipers to go beyond this old covenant worship of emotion and intelligence and intellect to worship in the spirit and in reality, because God is a spirit and those who worship him must. You know the meaning of must? No other way. Must. They say if you want to enter the United States, you must have a passport. Not an option. Whichever country you come from, you must have a passport to enter this country. Or any country. And God says, those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth. You read that and say, boy, how is it all these years I never even bothered to find out what it means to worship in the spirit? I'll tell you. Because the devil makes people read the Bible carelessly. They read legal documents, which they have to sign, 10 times more carefully. They take it to a lawyer. Please explain, what does this sentence mean here in this document? I'm going to sign it. Does it make me obligated to pay thousands of dollars? Please read it out and explain to me, my dear lawyer friend. We are careful when it comes to money. Legal documents, we never sign it blindly. But we read God's word where it says, those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth. We ignore it and go to the next verse. That is the reason for the shallowness and emptiness in a lot of Christians. The thing that changed my life was carefully reading God's word. As more carefully than I would read a legal document. Yeah, I've signed legal documents when you buy a car or you buy a house. You sign a legal document and you buy it from somebody. There are statements there. You've got to be careful what you sign. How much are you supposed to pay? Do you have to give an advance? Do you have to pay something later on? We'd be very, very careful. Is the Bible less important to you than a legal document that only involves money? I'm telling you plainly, my dear brothers and sisters, most Christians do not read the Bible carefully and that is the reason for the shallowness of their life. And they live all their life like that. They'll get tremendous shock when Christ comes again. Many of them will find they are not even children of God. And some others will find they wasted their whole life listening to the wrong preachers, never taking God's word seriously, especially the New Testament. So, these are words that we need to take seriously. First of all, let me explain truth. Truth means reality. Reality means the opposite of truth is a lie. You know that. The opposite of reality is unreality. In other words, if when I sing something, I don't really mean it. It's not real. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. You know, a song like that. You think all those people who sing it mean it? No. They're telling a lie to Almighty God. Many other songs like that. All to Jesus I surrender. Really? I'd say don't sing it. Don't tell a lie to God. Don't tell a lie to people. Don't tell a lie to God. We must be very, very careful about what we sing. I've learned to be very careful about the songs I sing. Even this morning, I was trying to pay attention to the words as I sang, because Jesus is here. He didn't know it. Let me introduce you to the fact that Jesus is right in our midst. He was listening to everything you said. Whether you meant it or not, He knows. I tried my best to mean. I'll tell you honestly, for many years in my Christian life, I used to go to church. I just sang because I liked the tune. Sometimes I didn't even need to look at the words because I knew them by heart. I would sing it, sing it, until I woke up one day and said, Lord, what am I saying? To whom am I saying all this? I began to take it seriously, and it changed my Christian life. I would encourage you all to please take your Christian life seriously. Everything. Take seriously this matter of forgiving others. Don't take it lightly. You know the story of the prodigal son. I call it also the story of the elder son. The story of the prodigal son and the elder son. In a nutshell, you know what that story is? At the beginning of the story, the younger son is far away in some country. The elder son is in the house. At the end of the story, the younger son is in the house, and the elder son is outside. Have you seen the story like that? That's how it is. At the end of the story, the elder son is outside. At the beginning of the story, the younger son is outside. Why was the elder son outside? Because he would not forgive his younger brother. It's the same thing. If you do not forgive your father, your heavenly father will not forgive you. He just could not forgive this younger brother, and he was upset that the father forgave him. He said, how dare you do that? The story ends with that elder son outside the house. That elder son represents all the Christians who will not forgive others. At the end of their life, they are outside God's house. And that wicked man who ruined the father's name and spoiled the father's property, he's come back inside because he repented. And he was sorry for what he did. Jesus once told the Pharisees, you Pharisees who are hard-hearted towards others, the prostitutes and thieves will enter into God's kingdom before you. Jesus said some amazing words like that. So we got to take scripture carefully. Now let me explain what worship in the spirit is. The soul is our mind and our feelings. If I'm feeling very excited, it doesn't mean I'm spiritual. And I'm feeling very dull one day because the weather is gloomy, it doesn't mean I'm unspiritual. No. I refuse to live in my feelings. That's why we say, I refuse to get discouraged. It's just a choice I make. I'm not going to get discouraged. Things may be wrong and my feelings may... Feelings can depend on so many circumstances. It can depend on the weather. It depends on children, what marks they got in school. And feelings are all unreliable. The feelings come and feelings go. But beyond living in the spirit is... In the spirit, the primary part of my spirit is my conscience. To keep my conscience clear is one way I keep my spirit clear. You cannot worship in the spirit. You cannot worship God in the spirit, if your conscience is not 100% clear. In other words, everything that you know to be sin, the understanding in our conscience of what is sin will increase as we walk with the Lord. So you have to live only at your level. What you know to be sin and your conscience tells you that is wrong. If you set it right, you can begin to worship God in spirit. If you don't set it right, no matter how loudly you sing on Sunday, God is not listening. If any of you, your conscience is not clear today, I want to tell you in Jesus' name, the Lord did not listen to what you sang this morning. He did not listen to one word of it. He said, keep your mouth shut, you hypocrite. That's what the Lord is saying to you. Worship in the spirit. Keep your conscience clear. What does that mean? You don't have to die for your sins. Jesus did that. But you have to confess your sin. Your conscience tells you what you did was wrong. Lord, I admit it. Forgive me. Christ died for me. Cleansed. It's that easy. Or you hurt somebody. Your conscience tells you whatever explanation you give, what you did was wrong to that person. The way you spoke to that person was 100% wrong. That's not a way a Christian should speak. And your conscience tells you that. However much you may argue, but he said this, or but she said this, but God says, I don't want to hear all those buts. What you did was wrong. What you said was wrong. That's not the way for a Christian to speak. What should you do? Jesus said, when you come to God with your offering, there you remember that you hurt somebody, your brother, Matthew chapter 5. Leave your offering there. Stop praying. Go and settle that. Then come and give your offering. Come and offer your worship after you settle that. Or if it takes time to settle it, like in Zacchaeus's case, you may have taken Zacchaeus may have taken many years to repay all the debts he owed. Take a decision. Lord, I'm going to do it. And Jesus immediately said, salvation has come to this house. You read that in Luke 19. Salvation has come. It may have taken 10 years for Zacchaeus to pay back all that debt. It doesn't matter. He had to go to find out where's this guy living, where's that guy living. But he was forgiven at that very moment when he decided. So even if it takes time for you to settle something, you go to write a letter to someone or call up somebody, it may take time, doesn't matter. The moment you decide, Lord, I've decided. I am going to ask that person's forgiveness. I'm going to set it right with that person. I wronged that person. I spoke rudely to that person. I have decided to set it right. Jesus says salvation has come. Now keep your word and go and set it right at the first opportunity. That is how I clear my conscience. Let me read to you in Acts 24. Every God fearing man will have this attitude that Paul had. Acts 24 and verse 16. Let's read it. Verse 15. Verse 15. Acts 24, 15. He says, I have a hope in God, which these men also cherish. Not about going to heaven or hell. That's not what he's thinking of. It will ultimately end in heaven and hell. But he says there will certainly be a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the wicked. The wicked are going to be raised up. They're going to go to hell. The righteous are going to be raised up and they're going to go to heaven. So what? You say so what? Paul says, therefore, in view of this means because there's going to be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked and I want to definitely be in the resurrection of the righteous. What do I do? I do my best. That's the first expression you need to understand. He's talking about life in the spirit now. He's talking about worship in the spirit now. I do my best. He doesn't ask you for more than that. He's not asking you for perfection. No. He's asking you to do your best. What should you do? To maintain always. That's the other thing. 24 hours always means 24-7. It's a very well-known expression 24-7. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always. What do I do my best? Like the worldly people say, I do my best to make more money. I do my best to get a good job. I do my best to get a good house for myself. I do my best to get good education for my children. All types of things. He says, I do my best to keep my conscience spotless, blameless, absolutely without spot. Like a bride being careful about her white dress as she walks up to the wedding. There's a puddle along the way. I don't want any splash to come and dirty my dress. How careful that bride will be walking in a white dress through a dirty road. I do my best to keep my conscience spotless. And if a spot comes, cleanse it away immediately. Repent, confess it in two directions. Before God and before men. Like the two arms of the cross. Before God and before men. So, because there's going to be a resurrection of the righteous, I want to do my best to keep my conscience absolutely clear before God and before men. If you do that, your conscience will be clear. And that's the first step to living in the spirit. Very simple, the first step. Keep your conscience clear. The second thing I want to say is about this veil, which prevents you from going into the life in the spirit. I told you the tabernacle, one part is open like the body. The tent covers two parts. First part represents the soul. And the third part represents the spirit. God dwells in the spirit. But there's this curtain in between. Now, you want to understand what this curtain is. It's called a veil. And you remember when Jesus died on the cross, that veil was torn from top to bottom. Not from bottom to top. It's not some man who tore it. Very clearly it says, you read the description of the crucifixion in Matthew 27 and John chapter 19 and Luke 23. There is a description of the crucifixion. The veil was torn from the top to the bottom and that curtain was opened. The moment Jesus died, when he said it is finished. Something happened at that moment that opened up the way to the God's presence and opened up the way for man to live in his spirit. That curtain between soul and spirit was torn. What does that symbolize? Everything is symbolic. Hebrews is the book of the Bible which explains the symbols of all these Old Testament pictures. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter into this inner sanctuary, into the most holy place, into that spirit, that area that represents the spirit, we have boldness to enter. Why? First of all, by the blood of Jesus that is cleansed, not covered, but cleansed, removed, blotted out all our sin. Number one. And by a way that Jesus inaugurated through the veil, this curtain, you are approaching this curtain now. It is called a way that Jesus opened up through the veil into life in the spirit. And what is that veil? That veil is called his flesh. Now the word flesh is used in two ways in the New Testament and in the Bible. One is this flesh. This is part of our body. But it's used in another way also. And that's the way it's used over here. And I'll explain it to you from Galatians chapter 5. Galatians 5 17. If you're a careful student of scripture and you compare scripture with scripture, you will understand. God's called me to be a teacher of the word. And so I explain it. Galatians 5 17. The flesh sets its desire against the spirit, fights against the spirit, fights against the Holy Spirit. Who is fighting against the Holy Spirit? My body? My body is not fighting against the Holy Spirit. And it says the spirit is fighting against the flesh. Is the spirit fighting against your body? No. So flesh has got another meaning in the New Testament. Something that the Holy Spirit is fighting against. And something that's in me that's fighting against the Holy Spirit. What is it that fights against the Holy Spirit? And what is it that the Holy Spirit is fighting against? If you understand that, you'll understand what it means for this veil, this curtain that represents the flesh which was torn. And it is something that Jesus had also. It says in Hebrews 10 20, the veil that is Jesus' flesh, not his body, but his own will. You know what Jesus tore every day of his life? His own will. 33 and a half years he tore his will to pieces till finally when he died on the cross, the whole thing was ripped apart. See John chapter 6. John chapter 6 verse 38. You know what an autobiography is? An autobiography is where a man writes his own life story. A biography is where somebody else writes your life story. An autobiography is where you write your own life story. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote biographies of Jesus. In John 6 38 is an autobiography where Jesus writes about his own life. 33 and a half years what did he do? Here it is in one sentence. I came from heaven never to do my own will, but always the will of the Father. That is the biography, autobiography of his life. If you were to ask Jesus, Lord tell me in one sentence how you lived on earth. I never did my own will, always did my father's will. His own will. He had a will. You see that in Gethsemane. Father not my will, but thine. That will was crucified. That is the rending of the veil. That is called his flesh. His flesh was crucified. That means his own will was always put down, put down, put down. Whenever he was tempted to do something which he knew the father did not like, he crucified it. Tempted to be bitter against the people who crucified him, he put it to death. When people called him the prince of devils, he was tempted to retort and he crucified it and said you're forgiven. He never did his own will. That is called the way of the cross. You've heard people think about the way of the cross. The way of the cross is not a physical thing where you carry a cross like this. That's easy to do. It's something far deeper than that. It's called, we read that in Hebrews 10 20. Turn back there again and you'll understand it a little better. Hebrews and chapter 10 and verse 20. This new and living way which he inaugurated. You know sometimes you hear of a new road being built and some big shot comes along and cuts a ribbon and inaugurates that road. Says all of you can walk on this now. That's inauguration. On the cross Jesus inaugurated a new and living way through the rent veil. I'm repeating this again and again because some of you are hearing it for the first time. And if you already know it then I'll praise the Lord. Be patient. There are others here you don't know it and need to need to understand it. But I want to make sure by the end of this session everybody knows whether you're going to live like that. I don't know. But you'll at least know how you should live if you want to live in God's presence. This veil was rent. That means Jesus never did his own will. Never never never. And that veil was rent and it's called a way. The way of the rent veil. The way of never doing my own will but always doing the will of God. And that's a moment by moment thing. You're tempted to lust at someone with your eyes and you immediately crucify it. You have gone inside to life in the spirit. You're tempted to retort in the same way somebody spoke to you and you crucify it. You enter into life in the spirit. You're tempted to write to somebody in a rude way. The spirit says no. You do not write like that. You write in a more gracious way. You're entering the spirit all the time. It's a living way. And if you want to enter into this living way you have to say no to your own will. It's man's self-will which Jesus also had which he rent for 33 and a half years with hundreds of thousands of temptations. You know how we are tempted morning till night to be selfish, to be proud. When you're tempted to be proud about some accomplishment of yours put it to death immediately and say well God gave me the ability to do that. I can't take any credit for it. Sometimes we think of doing it only the next day. Oh boy I was proud the whole of yesterday because of what I did. You know why it is like that? Because that's how we are in the beginning. Children have to learn the ABC. You take a child who's never heard anything about ABC and you take him to school one day. Say someone who grew up in the slums who never knew there's such a thing as the English language. He's taken to school one day and the teacher writes A. This boy says what is that? I said letter A and this is B and this is C and little by little he has to be that has to be you know teaching a child the alphabet. It takes ages to pronounce it right, to write it in the right way. It's like that learning to live in the spirit because we are ignorant. We are illiterate when it comes to living in the spirit and we have to learn it and it has to be repeated and repeated and repeated. That's why I'm repeating it. This is what life in the spirit is and you know how when our children have you seen your children trying to write ABC in the beginnings all out of proportion and someone may put the C the other way and the E the other way and all but they will learn. They will learn. You've got to correct them each time. No, not like that my boy. Not like that my girl. This way, this way, this way and that is how the Holy Spirit tries to teach us the alphabet of God. Not that way, this way. Say no to your own will here. Say no to your own will here. You say this is going to be such a burden. You mean I've got to live all my life like this? That's exactly what the child says. You mean I have to use this language all my life? I've always got to know how to write C and how to write E and how to write. I ask you older people, is it a burden to you today? No. It's so easy for you to read a book because you have done it so many times. You know A to Z without any problem by repetition, repetition, repetition and it's exactly the same way you become experts at reading now. You read effortlessly. It will be that way. You will effortlessly put your own will to death one day if you work at it but if that child is lazy and does not work on its A, B, C even after 20 years you're writing C crooked and it didn't work on it and if you're not working on it every day to putting your self-will to death after 20 years you'll still be struggling with losing your temper and getting upset and loving money and doing everything that's contrary to the will of God even though you come to RLCF for 20 years. I'll tell you that. It doesn't change by coming to this church and getting a good reputation in this church as a holy brother or holy sister. It's by obedience and obedience is not easy. For example, it says I told you about lusting with the eyes. It's not easy to put it to death if you've been always doing it and now you've got to start putting it to death every time you're tempted you say no, no, no or even when you're not looking just in your thoughts something comes up and you've got to put it to death but I'll tell you this just like that child learns to write the alphabet freely you will also learn to put it immediately to death this new and living way you'll be not crawling along it you'll be running along it one day but it's not easy. For example, is this easy to obey? Wives be subject to your husbands Ephesians 5 22. Go and ask any wife is it easy to be subject to your husband? Why? Because the husband is your head exactly like Christ is the head of the church. Now the number of wives sitting here you answer this to yourself. Do you believe that you're you have to submit to your husband just like the church submits to Christ? How does the church submit to Christ by the way? How is the church supposed to submit to Christ? Once in a while after a long argument okay I'll do it. That's a poor church. That's a poor Christian and okay in the beginning is like that I say we take time to learn to write ABC so in the beginning a wife has to learn how to submit and it'll be with a lot of argument and tension but maybe after 10 years okay learned it you'll learn to write ABC takes time to learn the alphabet as the church is to Christ because so also as the church verse 24 it's very clear exactly like the church is subject to Christ so also the wives must be subject to their husbands in most things no no no I read it wrong in everything you like that how many of your wives are excited to read that wow what a wonderful life I can be subject to my husband in everything just like the church is to Christ it's not exactly exciting but it's the way your will is crucified is the way to live inside the veil is the way to life in the spirit I mention this because this is the thing we deal with every day wives and husbands wives and husbands you can take it or leave it the Lord doesn't force you you can eat the forbidden fruit which is rebellion against your husband just like Eve did God didn't stop her God won't stop you but you see the result with Eve that'll be the result in your life shallow superficial Christian life worthless it's quite a high standard and now that the husbands are all excited that I'm preaching that let me say a word to the husbands God doesn't leave the husbands alone I'll tell you this the task for the husbands is 10 times more difficult verse 26 25 husbands love your wives exactly like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her wow Christ died to win his wife he gave up everything so that he can be the head of his wife husbands are you willing I tell you the command to wives is easier to be subject that means your husband says do this I do it husband says don't do that I don't do that that's easy but to love with the sacrificial love where you in the secret realms of the mind are denying yourself denying yourself in order to love your wife it's much more difficult and just like Christ wanted to do this so that this wife can be cleansed and one day verse 27 so that he can present the church to himself without spot or wrinkle in all her glory holy and blameless verse 27 imagine the calling of a husband to present his wife one day to God saying Lord I did my best to present my wife to you as a holy spotless blameless woman and I did everything possible in my life to deny myself and to exhort her and encourage her so that one day she'll be without spot blameless what a calling everything the new testament teaches is impossible without the holy spirit's help and we are not going to reach there overnight that's why even Paul says I'm not yet perfect but I'm pressing on to perfection we all start at the starting line of the marathon race but 10 years later you should not be at the starting line that's all I'm saying I'm not saying have you husbands reached the finishing line no we haven't none of us have reached I have not reached it I'm not asking whether your wives have reached the finishing line no I know you haven't all I'm asking is are you still at the starting line are you still the stubborn wife you were on the day you got married are you still the unloving husband you were on the day you got married or have you made some progress towards perfection towards the finishing line that's all I'm asking Paul himself said I'm not perfect but I'm pressing on and if you can say I'm not perfect period that's not good enough I'm not perfect but I'm pressing on I'm seeking to love my wife as Christ loved the church I'm seeking to be subject to my husband as the church is to Christ you're on the right path and you can live in the spirit because you in in that path every husband who wants to love his wife like Christ loved the church will have to deny his own will in 101 areas or a million areas but as he does that he'll go that will is torn the veil is torn he gets into the spirit and it's not easy for us wife to submit to the husband as the church is to Christ but as she does that as she does that the will is torn and she lives in the spirit you know what will happen you will enter into a life where you're completely free from gloomy from gloom and discouragement and bad moods and it'll disappear from your life I'll tell you it'll disappear from your life I was subject to tremendous discouragement at bad moods before I knew this new and living way through the flesh I lived in my soul but I was born again constantly defeated constantly repenting asking God to forgive me till I understood that Jesus was tempted like me and opened a way for me to go into his presence the veil is rent you can ask the Lord to explain it more to you our time is up otherwise you could go on and on it's a wonderful life inside the veil and let me tell you most Christians are living this side of the veil they live in the soul their excitement their emotions but that's up and down one day you're up on top praising the Lord and excited the other day you're down in the dumps it's not like that once you get through the veil in the spirit it's a steady life but constantly going up not perfect but constantly climbing there is no going way up and way down let me encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to make this more clear to you than I could make it I admit that it's not easy to explain it but I'll tell you every single person even a young person born again yesterday I'll tell you in Jesus name if you seek the Holy Spirit to show you this life he will show it to you day by day and your life will be changed your married life will be changed gradually your home will become a foretaste of heaven I guarantee that let's pray Heavenly Father I pray that you will make these things real in our life Lord help us to live inside the veil to walk the new and living way and when the spirit fights against the flesh help us to work with the spirit and crucify the flesh our self-will so that Christ can be manifested in us and through us Lord I'm not able to explain this when I pray your Holy Spirit will be explain it in a way beyond our human understanding explain it to our spirit so that it will become real in the lives of everyone who is longing after you you said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied and where you find such hungry hearts today Lord please satisfy them we pray in Jesus name amen