When I saw that Rob Rufus had preached this sermon on Sunday 8th June, I was instantly interested from a more objective point of view. But since I first heard the MP3 I am utterly convinced that this is a landmark sermon. It probably will be controversial despite Rob's hope because it is altering 1, 500 years of error. But here it is! If it at least provokes the Church to think and review what we have taken for granted that will be good. But if it sets thousands of millions free from condemnation - even better!
One particular joy was that while I was about half way through transcribing this sermon, I received an email from Todd Woodgate - a member of City Church International. He had completely transcribed the sermon hence I can publish it straight away! Much thanks to him! Even more exciting is the fact that City Church International are using some of Rob's transcripts to translate into Cantonese for the people in Hong Kong. The grace message is getting out!
"We are going to ask a very important question today and I am going to do my best to answer that question. It is a question that is very seldom discussed in much church life and yet it is so important because it has to do with carrying the freshness of God's Presence on your life every day. It is a controversial question - it has caused a lot of confusion and for me personally it has been a journey out of that confusion that has taken me three years. I have not yet felt qualified to speak on this until now. I am going to talk about this issue;When a Christian sins, does that break their fellowship with God, broken until they confess their sin and get forgiveness? And then the fellowship with God that was broken is now restored? I want to ask the question - is that the case or is that more an Old Covenant approach to God and is the New Covenant a lot better than that?
Now because there is so much confusion, I want to put it into a clear context of Bible truth. This is not an opinion I am trying to impose on you. This is a truth that I have agonised over, fought through, prayed, studied, read extensively. I do not come lightly to teach on this subject. This subject is very controversial and it is my conviction that it should be so. I think the reason why people react to this is because of what Adolf Hitler said - that if you tell a lie often enough, eventually most people will believe it. If much of the church has been taught and conditioned on a mixture of Old Covenant and New Covenant for so many centuries then when the truth appears, it is very difficult for us to accept it.
I only embarked on the message of grace with a pure understanding of grace and the New Covenant 3 years ago. Before then I was preaching a mixture so when I first started receiving revelation from God on the New Covenant my heart celebrated and rejoiced but my head was kicking and biting and throwing tantrums! It was a horrible tension where your heart sings and celebrates but your head is going - "It can't be - it can't be!". Your head will go - it can't be even when the Scripture is in front of your eyes and you can see it in context that it is the truth!
So I want to give this a context. If at the end you still believe that a Christian has broken their fellowship every time they sin and they have to restore their fellowship by confessing their sin then I tell you with truth and integrity - you are free to believe that and you are free to continue believing if that's what you want to continue believing. And in this church you do not have to hold my position absolutely. There is freedom in this church to hold different grades of understanding of the truth. We are all growing at different stages and I am not the dogmatic dictator here going that unity is that you all believe what I teach. That is not unity. That is mechanical! Unity is a heart that is so in love with Jesus that we are in love with each other and love is a mature sign. Love can handle difference.
So we don't want uniformity but I want to throw this out and let you look at it and let's study the Word of God and trust God. I want to give two motives for sharing this. I don't want to be controversial. I have had enough fights in the last few months. I am not looking for anymore fights. The number one reason is: 1. I want the Presence of God more than anything else. God knows that's the truth - I am not making it up. I am not trying to impress you. I am not even vaguely interested in trying to impress you about that. I sat on my couch for about 3-4 hours yesterday just Jesus and me. I believe for a long time that prayer is not just me talking to Him - most of prayer should be Him talking to me because it's rude to interupt Him when He talks, with all my prayer requests. So I sat and let Him talk to me, and I really am not boasting in this - I am just saying this. But I felt Jesus say;
"Rob you have really honoured Me. I see your heart. You really truly do want My Presence more than anything else in your life. You are not double-minded on this. You are not pretending on this that it is the truth when it is not".
If you try to pretend to be popular then the popularity you have is merely man patronising you. When you want God's Presence and it is the truth of single-minded integrity of your heart then God will give you a penetrating power of laser-like integrity that will pierce into nations and give you influence with millions of people. If you pretend something then you will be patronised because of the political spirit that wants to fit in with everybody and be accepted by everyone.
The worst addiction in the Church is never preached about by the Church. I have heard one or two other men preach on this addiction. Everyone preaches on drugs, sexual addiction, alcohol addictions but the most damaging, most destructive addiction that the New Testament preaches on all the time is the addiction to the need of people's approval and people's acceptance that conspires with the fear of being rejected that causes us to come under the control of man and forget that the major course of life is to come under the Presence of God.
The ONLY thing that distinguishes you and me from the world is not our morality. There are many moral unbelievers. It is having the supernatural, miraculous Presence of a Living God on your life every day.
God said;
"I know that you want My Presence more than you want success. You want My Presence more than miracles. You want My Presence more than numbers. You want My Presence more than approval or acceptance from man. You have payed a price and I honour you son. I have allowed you to be put on display but I am about to display who I am on your behalf in the nations of the earth".
This message is about the Presence of God. That is my number 1 motive. Motive number two: 2. It is not to encourage Christians to sin more.
I have never met a Christian in my entire 30 years as a pastor that after hearing the message of grace of God - the best I could teach it especially in the last 3 years - that after hearing the wonder that you are accepted and are the righteousness of God no matter what you do, no matter how much you fail, no matter when you fall into sin - you are STILL the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It is not based on your obedience - it is based on the obedience of Jesus Christ.
I have never met one Christian hearing and understanding that by revelation who went on to say; "Isn't that wonderful - now I can turn my back on Jesus, turn my back on the local church, on the Word of God and live a heinous life of indulgence and darkness and depravity". Not one!
But I have met many and I hear of millions who have turned their back on Jesus and have left the local church - not because they are evil people or sinful people or because they wanted to sin - but because they are sincere people and for years the church preached to them the message of the law and the mixture of Old Covenant mixed in with grace to the point that they could not keep the standards and they got to a place where they felt they were such hypocrites and failing so often that the disappointment and discouragement with themselves drove them into the wilderness and they gave up on Jesus although they still love Him in their hearts.
They gave up on Him, His Word and on church. There are millions who have left the Church in the last few years because of one reason - and it is the reason I have just described.
On the other hand every single week by email or by testimony from this church, I hear of people that were once discouraged and felt they couldn't draw near to God and their lives have been changed - it has affected their marriage in a positive way. Their bodies have been healed, they are generous in their giving, they are committed, they want to obey God, they want to live for God, they want to serve God, they want the lost to get saved, they are committed to local church because of this message of the New Covenant.
All through this week I had to fight a demonic attack on my mind - and you must understand if you preach this message it will mean you go through something that Paul the apostle went through. Every attack, every imprisonment, every betrayal stems back to the fact that the religious crowd did not want him to preach this message. All through the week came a bombardment; "You have preached this message enough" - "People want you to move on to something else" - "Change the message - go for something else". Now friends I do not believe that is in the minds of the people of this church. Many of you have said to me;
"Thank you for repeating this over and over because every time I am getting more revelation and more clarity".
If there are one or two who don't want it then find another church but I am on a mission - I am on assignment and I don't need your approval to keep me going! I would rather people leave than take that attitude because we are on a mission and on an assignment.
I do not believe in just preaching - I believe the message must be substantiated by living model. It is no good 3, 000 downloads on our website but people must be able to come to a locality called Hong Kong - City Church International and see a people living out the living fruit of the reality as a testimony of the authenticity and the credibility.
We will get attacked more than anyone else more than anyone else listening because if you can destroy the base or the resource that it is coming from because then it discredits the whole message. If I run out and commit adultery then my Father in heaven keeps me in His arms and will never give up on me but this message will be discredited around the world. If you and I can't be generous in our finances, generous in our love for one another - into this church, financially into this church, generous with our use of time, our accountability, our communication - letting me know when you are going away just like I will let you know when I am going away. Just basic Kingdom ethics, common sense and good manners! If we can't have a passion and a heart for God which we do have here - then this message is just a theoretical thing going over the airwaves.
I would rather close the whole website down and focus all my attention on building this church to be a fully Book of Acts church. It is not the messages out there that count - it is what God is doing here in building this local church.
So let's get into this context here. Hebrews chapter 7. I want you to see that when we come to the Old Covenant, I want you to look for these phrases. "Old order" - "Shadow" - "Weak" - "Useless" - "Obsolete" - "Aging" - "Disappearing" - "Old Order" - "Shadow". That is the message that the Bible describes the Old Covenant. When you come to the New Covenant, look at the words; "New Order" - "Superior" - "The good things that have come" - "The realities" - "The substance" - "A better priesthood" - "A better covenant" - "A better blood" - "A better salvation" - "A superior salvation". Not a salvation that is a little bit better than an Old Covenant salvation but something that is superior than an Old Covenant. So that means the best salvation the Old Covenant could offer is inferior, is a shadow, is not the realities but the New Covenant offers a much superior salvation! The kind of understanding of the rebirth, becoming a new creation in Christ, to be born again in the average Christian in the world today, is nothing more than an Old Covenant - weak and useless salvation with maybe a little bit more slight benefits.
That is NOT what Jesus died for! He died for eternal redemption so YOU can have unbroken fellowship with your Father!
Let's read this; Hebrews chapter 7:12;
"For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also". Then read (v18); "For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness" - THAT is what God says of the Old Covenant.
"(for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God". Say "near to God". That is the purpose of what I am preaching - that YOU will be near to God every day! That you don't meet Him on Sunday and live like a stranger to Him all through the week - that you are near to God - conciously aware of His supernatural closeness!
(v28): "For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever". (chapter 8:6); "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises". (v12 and 13); ""For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear". (Hebrews chapter 9:9); "which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation (or "New Order")".
Say "New Order"! This is an illustration for the present time indicating that the gifts and sacrifices been offered were not able, were not able, were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings. External regulations applying until the time of the new order. Say new order. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here. Because while he is writing maybe fourty years after Christ has ascended so he’s saying the good things are already here. They’ve come.
And in Hebrews ten verse one to four, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. Now once the law was finished - when Jesus said on the cross “It is finished” the law was finished. The shadow was finished. The good things, the realities, the substance came. The law is only a shadow of the good things coming not the realities themselves.
For this reason it can never by the same sacrifices repeated year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they have not stop being offered for the worshippers would have been cleansed once and for all, once and for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Verse eleven: "Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest, Jesus, had offered for all time" - say all time, all time. Not just your past sins. "For all time, one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy".
Verse seventeen. Then he adds: their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, say been forgiven. Everything has been forgiven in Christ. There is no longer any sacrifice for sins. Now these are radical. These are radical statements. These are compelling statements that are inspiring us, urging us and compelling us to leave the old order, the shadows, the unrealities. The inferior, and absolutely and radically without any sense of guilt, without any sense of guilt, any sense of hesitation, embrace the new order. Embrace the realities, the good things, the good things. Embrace it, that’s what it’s saying.
Now, let me quickly remind you of a quick distinction between the old and the new, and give you the comparison very quickly. The law and every one of these have got bible verses. [It] would just take too long to read every bible verse out. But I want you to listen with your heart not your head. Listen with your heart, and let this come into your heart. And process this in your head from your heart. And see how it relates to tomorrow morning when you rush to ….. no, tomorrow morning is a holiday. Good , good , good, good. Praise God. We’ll see how it relates tomorrow as well. Tuesday morning when your rushing and there’s business and there’s demands.
Will you lose the conscious presence of Christ, or will you keep the Presence of God? Because there is not a big human effort and a whole lot of rules and dos that you have to to earn the Presence. But the good things to come, the new covenant means that without fasting, without praying, you can have the Presence of God on you.
That when you pray and when you fast which I strongly encourage you to do because I pray hours, some days. And I do fast most weeks at least a day. Not as a have to but as a want to. To sharpen my spirit. To get things off me that the enemy’s trying to put on me. Are you with me? If you get this oppressive thing coming over you, and you just let it come, that’s the spirit of stupid right there. Because you’ve just allowed a poisonous snake of spiritual darkness to wrap itself around your head and then you wait three days to deal with it. Slap it the first slither you feel. Smack it’s head in. Every time I see a snake in my garden I run with a big chopper and cut their heads off. I’ve killed four big snakes in my garden. I don’t care if they’re poisonous or non-poisonous snakes are not allowed in my garden.
And demons are not allowed on my head. Can a devil oppress a Christian? Yes. But can a fly land on a hot plate? No. Stay hot in God. Stay in the Presence of God.
So praying and fasting doesn’t earn you the Presence. You can walk in the Presence every day if you come over by revelation into the new covenant.
And I’ve been pursuing this passionately for three years and I would say that the light is only beginning to dawn in me. So people who think they’ve got this down. Heck now I know all of this. I’ve been pursuing it for three years. Every day. Dealing with controversy, arguments, and bringing counter arguments. It’s preoccupied a lot of my thoughts. And I’m only getting glimpses and insights.
Now come on friends, there’s a journey into this wonderful new covenant geography, the promised land of glory of His daily Presence.
So lets, let me read these to you. Don’t write them down, I’m going to read them too quickly:
1. The law is only a weak and useless shadow. Grace is the reality of the good things
2. The law demands perfect righteousness of you and will judge you and send you to hell if you are not perfectly righteous all the time. And you may try to be righteous for a little while but if you do not keep the law one hundred percent then you’ve got to confess your sin. And if you don’t confess your sin before you die, then in between your last confession you could go to hell.
3. The law demands the absolute perfect standard of God’s righteous of you all the time. Grace gives you God’s free gift of his righteousness for you to stand in.
4. Law says do, do, do. Grace says it’s done. It’s done. It’s done, you’re safe.
5. Law makes you conscious of your sin. Grace makes you conscious of you being righteous in Christ Jesus.
6. Law always condemns you. Grace never condemns you.
Grace lifts you into the cloud of his presence. Into the cloud of his glory. I say with integrity, I walk in His Presence every single day his Presence comes on me. Every day. I’m not talking about I sort of think he’s there, I’m talking about tangible, electrical Presence. The Presence of God every day. And it’s because of grace understanding. Not because of trying to keep the law.
7. The law took the disobedience of Adam and condemned us all. Grace took the obedience of Jesus and declared us all to be perfectly righteous in the Father’s eyes.
8. Under law God says I will by no means forget your sins. Under grace God says I will by no means ever remember your sins again. Past, present and future. Because Jesus didn’t die somewhere in the middle of your life, he died before you were ever born. And he died to cancel all your sins and they’ve all already been forgiven according to what we read in the book of Hebrews. Under grace God says I will never remember your sins.
9. The law is a revelation of how much is wrong with you before God. Grace is a revelation of how perfectly right with God you are. At the cross, Jesus identified with you at your worst so that in Him you can by identified with him at his best.
There is no height into the glory Presence of God you cannot ascend on a daily basis because there was no limit to death and depravity that Jesus refused to descend to on your behalf. The reason why grace brings so much relief to the sole is because grace takes the focus off our unworthiness and puts the focus on Jesus’ worthiness and the glorious fact that we are always permanently in Him.
10. Under law sin abounded but grace has super excessively, more abounded. When your sin and grace meet in the boxing ring, grace triumphs easily every time.
11. The law makes you self conscious, grace makes you Christ conscious.
12. The law makes you ask, “What must I do?” Grace asks what has Jesus done already?
13. Under law, the burden is on you to perform. Under grace, the burden is on what Christ has performed on your behalf already.
14. The law is a heavy burden with a difficult yoke. Grace is a light burden with a yoke that’s easy.
15. The law is a ministry of death. Grace is a ministry of life.
16. The law demands of you. Grace gives to you.
17. The law demands you earn the blessings. Grace has already earned the blessings for you.
Can you just take a little bit more good news, or is it too concentrated, too fantastic? I mean can you handle just a little bit more? Or are your heads going, “My heart’s delighting but my head’s going ….” I don’t know about you but every day I just got to hear this. I want to be fed on this. I say this to myself every day. I am renewing my mind every day. I’m saying at least twenty times a day, “I am the righteousness of Christ in Christ Jesus.”
18. The law demands you earn the blessings, grace has already earned the blessings for you.
19. The law is dependant on you. Grace is dependant on what Jesus has already done for you.
20. You will always fail the law, but grace will always succeed for you.
The law justifies no one and condemns even the best of us. Grace justifies, accepts, and approves even the worst of us. My friends that’s why that old covenant that God’s opinion is it is a weak and useless covenant that’s obsolete, that’s passed away, all the blood they shed, all their confession of sin, all their ceremonies, the worshippers who drew near still felt guilty. Now what’s it trying to say? That under this better covenant, superior covenant, it is absolutely clear that we, as the new covenant people, are never ever meant to fell guilty when we draw near to God. Yet the majority of Christians on the planet regularly fell guilty, regularly feel they don’t measure up, regularly don’t spend time with God.
If I could be in God’s eyes and see what God sees and God had to ask the entire body of Christ, “Is Jesus your first love? Do you love him more than anything else? Do you spend much time… because he is your first love, do you make every opportunity to be with him, to love him, to worship him?”
The majority of Christians would have to say I wish it was but I haven’t spent any time with Jesus, any time in the word of God, week by week by week because I don’t know his address because I feel too condemned to come near him. That is absolutely evidence that they are not living in the better, the good, the substance, the superior. And my desire is to see every one of you every day in the Presence of God. Amen?
Going through your hard times, going through your difficult times. Going through the times when you think I’d just rather die and just go home. I can’t take this another day. Knowing your presence is my ever present help in a time of need. You are the glory, you are the lifter of my head, I will find my comfort in you, Lord, and everything you comfort me in, I will be a comforter to others. Even my test and trials are training me to be a better comfort and a better blessing to people around me who are going through hard times. So Lord, I want to make best use of this trial and this difficulty and this hard time because while I’m going through it you are training my to be a better more compassionate comforter of people around me. So instead of getting bitter, you get better, amen? And the only way to do that is to live in the Presence of God. Friends, Christianity is not about psychology. It’s not about I’m going through hard times so give me good psychology, give me good principles. Give me good ideas how to be wiser. How to cope with my depression.
Friends, I want to tell you, that’s what the world has to do, we have the Presence of God available every day. In his presence there is fullness of joy. In his Presence there is fullness of joy, and there are pleasures at his right hand for ever more. It’s in His Presence. I can tell you if you could see me sometimes you would pray for months without stopping once. You would see the strain, the drain. The horror of just got this email, this has happened, that one’s done that, this just happened, this…. And you would just see the pressure of the enemy’s trying to stop me preaching this message. You would see the horror in my face, and it stays there only ten, fifteen, twenty minutes sometimes.
And then you would see me go into my room, and you’d see me come out half and hour later or an hour later and you would see my eyes shining. My yoke is easy, my burden is light because I went into the Presence. I didn’t go into a psychologist office to give me academic, psychological principles, because this is not about psychology. This is about the spirit realm, and we have to walk in the Presence of God every day. If you take the grace message without taking the Presence, you will be helpless victim to endless sinning. But grace gets you into the Presence so you can overcome sin.
Come one now, are you with me? Now, let’s look at … Trying to close. First John chapter one. Let’s go to the only verse in the entire new testament that speaks about confessing your sins. So lets go to that scripture now, and lets talk about that because I’ve hinted at this scripture a number of times, and I’ve told you that this epistle of John was written to both Christians, and Christians that were coming under a teaching of a people the were called the Gnostics. Gnosticism in the Greek, Gnosos is the word in English for knowledge. Gnosos. Epicgnosos is knowledge and experience.
And so the Gnostics where a people the were claiming elitist knowledge. And they were claiming that there is no sin in the world, that sin doesn’t exist, which is a total lie. And they where in this church that John’s writing to and they were effecting the believers there. And so they did not believe that Jesus had to die on a cross. They did not believe in the blood of Jesus. They just said Jesus was not born through a virgin. They were teaching that Jesus came from the spirit world as a spirit being. As some kind of a guru type spirit being like a new agers would teach. And that this Jesus did some miracles and then he just disappeared. And they were saying you don’t need to be saved, you don’t need the blood, you don’t need to confess your sins to get saved because there are no sins. And some of the Christians were beginning to believe this. And so John is writing to rebuke these Gnostics, and he writes very challenging statements to these Gnostics at the same time he’s trying to comfort the believers so that they don’t get insecure.
And so if you don’t understand that, when you read first John, you’ll get totally confused with the book. But you’ve got to understand the context who it’s written to. And when he is writing to the Christians, he will say to my dear children. And he will address them as his dear children and he will tell then how secure they are in Christ. And then he will tell the others how insecure and they need to get saved because they sin does exist and there is a wrath and a judgement coming for those who do not come into salvation. Can you say Amen? And so he’s warning them, he is teaching them specifically, that you do have sin, and sin is real, and if you to be saved to be born again, you need to confess your sins.
So having said that, let me just say this to you. I want to tell you my colours. I want to nail them to the mast. I going to tell you where I stand. I guess you’ve got it already.
Under the old covenant you only got forgiveness after you confessed your sin, and even after you confessed your sin and got a covering of temporary forgiveness, you still felt guilty and condemned. Under the new covenant, you do not ... let me put it this way, under the new covenant, you got completely forgiven of all unrighteousness, the day you confessed you are a sinner that needs to be saved. On that day, God forgave all your sins, past, present and future, and he wiped out and cleansed all your unrighteousness, alright? The day you got saved. You were never meant to feel guilty again. Guilt does not make you live a holy life. Condemnation cripples you and makes you more vulnerable to keep on sinning, grace empowers you to have victory over sin.
Can you say Amen? Actually, I don’t like sin. I don’t know about you. I don’t like it. I love Jesus. I want to live holy. I want to live obedient. Can you say Amen? But I’m not there one hundred percent yet so thank God I still have access into His Presence even when I mess up.
Forgiveness under the new covenant is not dependant on what you do but on what Jesus has already done completely once and for all. Under the law, under the law, your sin would cause broken fellowship with God, and you would have confess your sin under the law to restore your fellowship. As a Christian in the new covenant, if you do sin, you do not have to confess your sin to be forgiven. That’s it folks, if you sin, you do not need to confess your sin to be forgiven. You are already forgiven. So you can talk to the father about your sin if you want, but not in an attitude of begging and pleading and confessing and being morbid in the hope of getting him to forgive you because you are already forgiven.
Amen? So when I sin, I don’t crawl on the ground like and old covenant and put sackcloth and ashes on my head, because there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus because the issue of sin and death is not in operation anymore for the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from death following sin. And death means separation from God. So when I sin, I say, I can say;
"Father I just thank you I have open fellowship with you and there is no separation and nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ. I thank you I’ve got as open fellowship with you right now, just after the sin as Jesus has with you Father. Now Father I really want to say I’m sorry about that. I don’t like that. I really don’t like that. And I repent. You know repent means to change your thinking. That’s all it means. And Lord I pray for grace to get victory in that area".
Are you, are you with me? Or at other times, to be honest, after I’ve sinned. I deliberately, just say;
“Father, I just want to thankyou that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And I want to thank you Father that through the blood of the better covenant with the good things and the substance that I am under the good covenant now because I’m not under the inferior one, I want to thank you father that in that covenant you have made me perfect forever, and you have already forgiven all my sins and you remember them no more. Even if I told you about my sins it’s news to you. And you don’t fell angry because you were angry at my sins once but you burned it all out on a cross on Jesus Christ in my place so even when I talk to you what I’ve just done, there’s no anger form heaven because anger has been poured out in fullness on the person of Jesus Christ".
Ok. Now lets read this first John. Did I say go to first John? Let’s just go there, ok. I believe that he’s writing this to Gnostics and to Christians who are hearing the Gnostics and he’s saying that sin exists and they need to get saved. Let’s read verse eight; "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". That’s written to these Gnostics. Verse nine;
" ... if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He will forgive us our sins, and purify us from ..." - how much? - "All unrighteousness".
Now folks, last time I checked, all mean all. In the Greek it means all. In the Hebrew it means all, and in English it means all. To be purified from all unrighteousness means there is no unrighteousness in your past present and future that has not been purified they day you said, “Father, I will not deceive myself anymore. I am a sinner. I am not right with you. I need to be born again, I confess that I’m a sinner.” And God says, “I am just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”
The Christian does not live from confession of sin to the next confession of sin. The Christian is called to live from faith to faith.
Romans one verse sixteen and seventeen says “A righteousness from God is revealed that is from first to last.” So you are always the righteousness of God according to Romans one sixteen and seventeen. But now, stay with me for a few moments and I really will be closing. Lets just pretend.
Let’s play, play that you are required to confess your sins under the new covenant. I said pretend. Under my thinking anyway. I just want to give a counter argument maybe for those who say we do, we do need to confess our sins in order to get forgiven and get our relationship, or our fellowship restored back with God. Ok. Let’s look at it like;
If you are going to believe that then I ask you, please out of integrity and consistency, be consistent. Don’t just confess the sins that you believe are the big ones.
Because if you go to France and if you go to Holland, they have different views of what the big ones are based on cultural taboos. I mean the Dutch pastors, when they saw the German pastors drinking wine, their cigars nearly fell out of their mouths. And that’s a fact. Not on our trip. If you go into German churches where people love God, I’m talking about on fire, German churches, they will, at the end of the service, have a jug of beer together. I know of a preacher… I went to preach at a conference there, and the guy was drinking beer while he was speaking. Now I don’t particularly encourage that. I can see Jon’s eyes are shining.
But then I can tell you that I am not exaggerating. I know places in the United States of merica, and I’m not making this up, that honestly believe if a Christian has a drop of wine or a glass of wine, they are not saved, they are going to hell. So, in the church world, you’ve got these extreme cultural taboos of what is big sin and what is small sin. And the biggest sin that everyone doesn’t see is pride and self righteousness. So if a person is going to be. Sorry. I just want to say that people who believe that, they must be consistent. And whatever you think and estimate are the big sins, don’t confess only those, you must confess the little sins because it’s the little foxes that destroy the vine?
Because if you believe that any sin, any sin that you do, breaks your fellowship with God, and you can only get that fellowship back once you’ve cried and wailed. If you really believe that, then be consistent.
Now the Bible says in Romans fourteen that what ever is not of faith, is sin. I’ve quoted the verse exactly as written. "What ever is not of faith, is sin". So you have to monitor second by second am I doing this with faith or not. Am I going to work with faith. Anything. It says whatever is not of faith. It’s speaking about eating there. If you eat without faith he’s saying, then it is sin. So you’ve got to say, “Did I come to church with faith this morning, did I worship with faith, do I, do I, do I believe for my children with faith.” Because any moment you feel I wasn’t doing that with faith, you have sinned, you need to stop whatever you are doing because God has cut himself off from you, and you’re in a precarious place now because I don’t know what going to happen if something if you suddenly…….fell over the top of a building and land …killed you and you didn’t get a chance. Oh, Lord I sinned there, I didn’t have faith.
Where do you go? Well, under an old covenant, you go to hell. Under law you’d gone straight into hell if you haven’t confessed your sin. Then Bible also says that worry and anxiety is sin. So every time you get worry or anxiety do you stop and say, “I confess the sin of my worry. I confess that I didn’t do that with faith”.
Now I ask you, be consistent with this ... Don’t just confess the big ones.
And let me ask you this, What kind of bondage comes into the life of a Christian if they believe this to it’s true logical extreme instead of just dabbling in the big sins but not being honest about consistency? What will be the bondage that comes? Let me tell you the bondage. You will be confessing sin all the time and guess where your focus is. You. You’ve left the new covenant pattern, you’ve gone right back under inferior, not the reality, you’ve gone into the shadow, you’re drawing near to God constantly with a guilty heart, constantly confessing sin, but never having the boldness to stand before a blind man and say eyes open, deaf hear. You want to leave that to other because you think how could God use me because I could be cut off from God because of my sin.
That’s old covenant thinking. Under the new covenant, when you confess your sins and declare, “God I’m a sinner”, he’s faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All unrighteousness. You walk in His Presence. You walk in His Presence. If you’ll read chapter two verse one and two, you will say there that John says, “My dear children, I write this to you that you do not sin, but if you do sin, you have an advocate that speaks to you to the father in my defence.”
He does not say to them, “go confess your sin if you sin”, he says there is an advocate who is constantly bringing his high priestly superior blood before the father and none of your sin can even penetrate into the heaven. It is dealt with, it is gone, you’re under a new covenant. You have open fellowship before the father.
Look what he says here, let me tie this up quickly. First John two verse one and two. And I wish I had time to go about having communion services. See how time goes. See how much …I get once a week. And most Christians away, in this church, thirty percent of the year on Sundays. How can we grow and advance, friends? There’s so much controversy. We need clarity and hours to teach. For some of you hear this message you get lights come on. Then the question comes. The Devil says, “Yeah, but what about that”. Say “shut up man”. I wish that I could teach this in parts of China where I’ve been. Every service is started with searching your heart to see if their is sin and confessing it. And I think, listen, you’re talking to Moses, not to Jesus. And you look so holy and zealous but it’s absolute nonsense. And I’m not judging or criticizing. My hearts breaking.
And then you see believers before the communion, “If I take part in an unworthy way, I could die”. Well, my moma didn’t raise a fool. If there was any chance of me dying, I would never eat communion, never. If I thought there’s some sin I haven’t confessed, wah. It’s a very opposite. The way to….. The unworthy manner he is talking about is not discerning the body of Jesus, by his stripes you were healed. This blood has forgiven you forever. That’s why sickness and disease is on the church because they don’t see the good news of the body and the blood.
And I know I’m mad and crazy, but when I see pastors doing this to their people, It takes all my discipline to stay seated and leave that service crying because I want to jump up and smack the guy right out of the pulpit and say, “How dare you put this on God’s people, this is disgusting”.
You got all these zealous Chinese people that are so regimented and they respect authority and they are under that authority and they just following it. And year after year with legalistic determination they just keep going and going. And I just think God loves them. He wants someone, some apostles or prophets or people to break the spirit off the church in China, and liberate the underground church, and liberate the church in Hong Kong because the people are zealous. The people want God. They want God, They want God. Nothing wrong with the Chinese Christians.
Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, the problem isn’t in the church, it’s in the leadership. And I’ve been a leader and I’ve been a part of the problem so I’m not judging. I’m just saying, “Oh God, you’ve got to have the guts to preach this message to it’s true extreme.” We are not trying to cause trouble, but if the trouble comes, we didn’t create it. It was hidden there, in dormancy, and the light just exposes the problem, didn’t create the problem. And the controllers don’t want this message, because they know this message will demand of them to be servants of the church, equippers and trainiers and empowerers of the people of God. Not that the people serve them, but they serve the people. Come on now, can you say amen.
Now look at first John chapter one still. And I do, for the third time, want to bring this to and end. Alright, now John is still speaking here, no I’m in Peter, sorry. Let’s read verse seven; sorry, sorry, First John chapter one, and I want you to see here that John is being consistent, he is offering the message of salvation. I read you verse eight and nine first but I want you to see the message of salvation that John’s speaking about. Verse seven:
"But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies or cleanses us from all or every sin".
Notice it’s the blood that cleanses us from every sin, not your confessing. Notice in the Book, the New Testament, three quarters of this New Testament was written by the apostle Paul. Three quarters of it. Three quarters of the New Testament. And all his letters were clearly written to the saints, to the believers, to those that are in Christ.
If this doctrine of confessing your sins to get your fellowship restored was that important, then why does Paul not refer to it not even once. And three quarters of the New Testament and every single letter he writes and it’s not referred to in any other place in the bible. I openly challenge you to bring me verses in the New Testament that in proper context are teaching new covenant Christians to confess their sins to restore their relationship to God.
Even when the Corinthian born again people were going and having sex. And I say that because it’s there. Sex with the pagan temple prostitutes. Paul was saying you’re joining Christ to the Devil. And he does not tell them to confess their sins, he says to them, “Don’t you know that your bodies are temple of the holy spirit.” In other words, “Don’t use the temple of the holy spirit to be joined with demonic powers.” While you’re doing that, he’s saying the Holy Spirit’s in you, he didn’t leave. Can you get that? Radical stuff, friends, radical stuff. Not once did he teach on confession, not once. Of sin. It’s not there in the New Testament, it’s not there. Yet it’s taught in about ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent of churches.
Are we deceived? Or are we just part of the edge of a growing revolution of revelation in the earth on the wonder of this great gospel and how great it is.
Now it says, “If you walk in the light as he is in the light the blood of Jesus and purifies and cleanses you from all sin, every sin.” Now people preach in wrongly. They say, “If you walk according to the light.” He didn’t say, ”If you walk according to the light.” He said, “If you walk in the light.” Walking according to the light means walking morally and ethically. Well then you’d better walk morally and ethically as God walks morally and ethically because he said, “If you walk in the light as God is in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin.” Number one, does God need to be cleansed from all sin? No. If you walked in the light as morally as God walks in the light, you don’t need blood.
So, most times the New Testament talks about walking in light or walking in darkness, it’s not talking about walking in morality or immorality, it’s talking about walking in truth, or walking in ignorance.
In Isaiah chapter nine, you can check that from verse one to seven, the prophet Isaiah speaks about the region of Naphtali, and Galilee, Capernaum. And he says, “Those that have walked in darkness have seen a great light.” The next verse says, “For his name should be called counsellor, wonderful,. Mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace and the government shall be on his shoulders and of the increase of his government, there will be no end.” He’s talking about Jesus. He talking about people walking in ignorance of God’s grace. The Jesus comes and in Mathew four fourteen, the new testament fulfils and confirms Isaiah nine is talking about the coming of Jesus, the coming of grace, and those that have walked in darkness have seen a great light. The Saviour arrived.
In First Peter chapter one verse nine and ten, Peter calls salvation this, “You were called out of darkness into his marvellous light.” Verse ten says darkness refers to a people without mercy, light refers to a people who have found mercy. Isaiah sixty verse one, announcing the coming of the new covenant, “arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of god rises upon you.” If you walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses, purifies us from all sin.
If you walked in the light in terms of God’s morality, then you wouldn’t need the blood to cleanse you. But if you walk in the light of the truth of Jesus Christ, and the new covenant. And you understand this new covenant. And you’ve come into it, and you’ve confessed I’m a sinner. Now I repent of the law, I repent of self righteousness, I repent of trying to do what is right to earn my way to heaven. I say I’ve sinned, Lord I admit it to you. From that moment, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin and all unrighteousness. This is it. The Greek tense. If you go read the Greek tenses. Cleanses you, purifies you. The Greek tense. Check it yourself of you don’t believe me. The Greek tense means present continuous tense.
The blood of Jesus Christ is continually cleansing you from all sin.
So let me close with this for the definite last time. There was a little boy that lived in a poor village in a dilapidated hut and his parents could not pay for any toys or things for him to play with. So every day he would go out into the forest and he would play with things he could make and sticks and stuff. And one day he found this incredible gemstone. Shining, beautiful, attractive, just gleaming with internal light, reflecting. And he played with it all day. So he was just so entranced by it. But he realized, when I go home, there’s no where to hide this gemstone in my father’s hut. So he hid it in the ground in the mud. The next day he came back, took it out, and to his horror, of course, now it’s covered in mud, it’s dirty. It’s not shining, there’s no gleam, there’s no glory. So he had to walk to the river, and wash it and wash it, and wash it and eventually it had that beautiful gleam again and he was so happy. End of the day, had to hide it in the dirt again. Came back.
Next morning. All dirty, had to take it, wash it. And he went through this process over and over again. And one day, the idea came to him and he went over to a water fall and he wedge this gemstone between two rocks in the center where the main flow of the waterfall was. And all through the night there was a continuous present tense washing of the stone so when he came the next morning, and picked up the stone, it was shining in all it’s beauty.
The first half of that story describes the old covenant people. Getting. Sinning. Dirty. Cleansed. Restore fellowship. Dirty, cleansed. The last part of that story describes the new covenant. You are righteous forever. The blood of Jesus continuously cleanses and purifies you from all sin. So every second, every moment of every day, you are absolutely clean, and pure, and righteous before the father. That’s why some of us are shocked when the anointing comes on us just after we’ve made a mistake. Because, you see, the father sees you all the time as clean and as holy.
Give up trying to maintain your forgiveness by your efforts and just let the extravagance of God’s waterfall of forgiveness just flow over your life. Your faith for the miraculous, your faith to believe God, if you will understand, “I am so perfectly clean and righteous all the time.” So every time I pray. My prayers are one target with God. And He hears me every time for his ears are over the prayers of the righteous. And I am the righteousness of God through the obedience of the one man. I am forever in right standing with the Father.
Folks, I have watched this with tragedy for years. That Christians with long term sicknesses and illnesses. If they don’t get healed after months. I guarantee you. I’m telling you stuff you already know. They begin to question their own hearts and search for if there’s any sin they haven’t confessed. Is this true or not? I know one of my closest friends who is such a good man. And even he, when he didn’t get healed over months began to… He said, "Rob, I’ve checked to see if there’s any sin anywhere in my life that I may confess it that may be blocking my healing. I just feel like falling down and crying. I’m not senior enough to tell him that I don’t believe that.
When they lowered a paralyzed man through the hole in a roof, into the presence where Jesus was, they were wanting healing. And Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Before he said, “Arise, take up your bed and go to your house.” Because he knew the paralyzed man’s faith would have been paralyzed if he thought there was any blockage because of sin in his life.
There are a thousand reasons the devil will give you on a daily basis why you can’t come into the Presence of God and enjoy fellowship with His Presence. And they all will come out of that old covenant shadow, inferiority, obsolete, weak and useless covenant. While Christians stand in a superior covenant of the good things, and the substance made perfect forever, in a process of being made holy, but are perfect forever, cleansed of all unrighteousness. Blood continuously cleansing them from all sin and every sin.
And they buy into the lie of a devil that has been triumphed over at the cross. And disarmed at the cross. It’s got to stop on our planet.
Let this church fully buy into this message, let this church rise up in bold, reckless abandon faith in this message. And we will see an explosion of God’s power and liberty, and freedom that will add momentum and credibility to hundreds of thousands of downloads going on to our website. It will smash right through Hong Kong and break up into China.
And the most so called, so called, ordinary ones amongst us will be preaching to the masses. There are ordinary ones. This little lady here is going to preach to thousands of people. I can tell you that’s coming. But you see it’s more than just sitting and saying, oh Rob’s on that subject again, taking a few notes. It’s you imbibing this. Which I know you are. Getting full of this. It’s understanding it. It’s going home, asking for more revelation. Til the day comes when God pushes a button and you step on a platform, and the lights are on, and you’re ready to go. But if we say this is a nice ride, while I live in Hong Kong, it’s convenient to come to this church, at least stay positive, one day I’m going, and I’m going to leave.
No folks, that’s not. We are about destiny, we’re about assignment. We’re about authorization, activation, to see the kingdom of heaven come, to see to breakthrough come. To bring the sick, and the broken, and the lost to our healing meetings and to see over those meetings God’s hand of power move over people because we have a congregation who believes.
There’s open fellowship twenty four hours, every second, every moment before God. We are walking under open heaven, open fellowship in our God, come on, shout unto God. Give Him a praise. We praise you, Lord, we worship you today in Jesus’ name!
I don’t care of you fall back into an old habit. I don’t care if you do something you don’t want to do and you do it. I don’t care if you had a bad attitude. I don’t care if you have a bad feeling. I don’t care how bad your sin was, get up, you’re under a fountain. When you fall, when you fail under that fountain, the fountain does not fail, it keeps coming over you. You are clean, you are righteous in Him. The more you believe this, the more victory you will have over sinning. Come on, now, say Amen. Give Him a shot just for the heaven of it. Stand up. Stand up. Let’s just stand, come on, lets just stand. Let’s stand, let’s stand. Let’s shout unto God with a voice of triumph.
Ryan, won’t you come to the drums. The musicians come up. Let’s just rub it in for a few minutes before we have some coffee and tea. The ministry team will be ready to pray. Adam, you’re in charge of that, eh. The ministry team, you guys ready to go? Ok. Fantastic. All right, let’s, let’s, let’s. I don’t know what you guys got there but I just think…. Let’s sing that first…. I just think we need to sing…. Something really up beat, you know….what’s that?
Let’s lift our hands and say, Lord, I want to walk in your presence. Every day, open fellowship, open fellowship, open fellowship Lord. I want to see your face, Lord. Lord, you are beautiful. Let’s sing that tune, Lord You are beautiful. More precious than anything else. We want your Presence more than success. More than man’s approval. More than numbers, more than fame. We want your presence, Lord, every day of our lives. Come on guys, let’s lift our voices and say, Lord, we want our presence every day, every day. Hoooo! Come on guys, let’s cry out to God, every day, every day, every day.
Lord, we break the spirit of old covenant mentality. We do that with authority with the new covenant authority because it’s passed away, it’s obsolete, it’s illegitimate. It was finished when Jesus said, “It is finished.” And we break this influence off every member in this church, every one listening to the podcast. In the name of Jesus, we break the spirit of old covenant condemnation and confusion. We declare that no one in this church be a stranger, be a stranger to God. We declare that no one in this church worship, worship, from afar. Worship from an awkward distance. So that every member, every person in this church would be those that guard your presence is reality on a daily basis. In Jesus’ name.
We decree and declare that the anointing get so strong on us as a gathered people one that comes in who’s a stranger to god, they will walk instantly into the into the power of revelation and encounter the living God in a new covenant way. In Jesus’ name. Give the Lord a shot in this place. God’s breaking things off.
See right now that we can consecrate ourselves, let us commit ourselves, yield ourselves to the presence of God, to who God is. And folks, this is a very different context than in meetings I’ve been in years ago where there was a demand to consecrate yourself. Go to the missions field, do this, or do that. There’s always an atmosphere of guilt and obligation and well I’d better if I want to make God happy, or they guy up front happy or….. But this is a completely a different atmosphere, a different context, a different culture. The more the father reveals grace to me I say, Lord anything you want, I’ll do it, Lord. I’ll go live anywhere. I’ll go anywhere. I’ll give up anything. I’ll take on anything. I don’t care how much I suffer. I don’t care who rejects me. I know how brief this life is, I have eternity in mind. Your Presence is more important than anything else. But that good news is that with the Presence comes.
When you say Lord, I give my false dignity, my false dignity, my excuses about my temperament, and I’m just shy, and I’m not expressive. When you give up all of those excuses and say, Lord, I give up anything as long as I get you in exchange. If I get your presence, then anything is worth it. And you’ll be amazed if you get his presence. And I’m not talking about an occasional anointing on Sunday, I’m talking about you, individually, get God’s presence in exchange. I’m talking about every day.
When you get His Presence, everything he has comes along with his presence. And then the things that you said I’ll give those up, they come with his presence. His favour, His blessings, His resources, His signs, His wonders, His miracles, His healings.
I know the beginning of this year in Phuket, God said, “This will be the year you will see an increase of the lost being saved and being added to this church.” He said, “It will not come in the early part of this year, but it will happen in this church.” And I believe that God wants to put a holy, liberating, releasing, urgency in our hearts to reach out to the lost. I’m not saying this because Reinhard’s [Bonnke] here, I was only in one meeting. And I’ve heard him many times before. I’m saying this because it is the spirit of God.
We have to recognize the church is not a pleasure cruise. It is a rescue boat. We are on a rescue mission. And there are people around us we are still ignoring. We tried to witness to them . they rejected us. We’ve got reach out because of a consecration that comes out of grace not guilt. Not obligation. Just lift your hands one more time with this awareness. As you lift your hands now, I hundred percent guarantee the day will guarantee come, you will die, and you will leave this earth, and you will stand before this glorious king. The question will be, “What did you bring into eternity?” And the only thing we can take into eternity is people that we have lead to Christ. God help us.
I thank you Father it’s not through fishing with one fishing pole. Some of us are good at individual fishing. But collectively as a local church we can be good in our unity pulling the net in together and sharing in a common reward of souls that come into the Kingdom. Lord, would you anoint us this day with an anointing to see the lost saved and added to this church. Not just saved just to wonder into the wilderness somewhere out there, but saved and added to this church. Anoint us today with that divine enabling. Lord as we are freed up from constantly looking inward, focusing on ourselves and sin, now we are free to stand under a waterfall of forgiveness and be cleansed all the time by grace. Help our focus to be of ourselves on you, Jesus. And on the harvest that is white and ready to be harvested by the millions all over Hong Kong.
We thank you for the two thousand saved last night in Hong Kong. We thank you for the testimony of Barry’s healing. We thank you for the testimony of what Randy and Angela have told us. These miracles we thank you. We ask, Lord, give us your presence, each one, and everything that comes with your presence. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Give the Lord a clap and just one more shot in this place. We thank you Lord, we thank you Lord.
