No Condemnation Now I Dread! (A New Book by Ryan Rufus)

I can't think of a better way to begin a review of a new and wonderful book by Ryan Rufus (pastor in City Church International in Hong Kong) - "Extra Virgin Grace" - than with the favourite lines of a well known hymn;

"No condemnation now I dread - Jesus and all in Him is mine!

Alive in Him - my living Head and clothed in righteousness divine!

Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own!

Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own!".

The hymn has to be heard to be appreciated so I've put the link to the video here of it being sung on the BBC programme; "Songs of Praise". I didn't post it - because I wish the gathered singers looked more happy! I can't sing this hymn without crying! The point is this;

"No condemnation now I dread! Jesus and ALL in HIM is mine! ... clothed in righteousness divine!".

These truths form the very essence of Ryan's new book; "Extra Virgin Grace". He writes in the foreword;

"My conviction is that free people will free people. Therefore the greater the freedom we come into the greater the freedom we'll be able to bring others into. The essence of freedom is to know that you are 100% set free from the law and are 100% righteous in Christ - 100% of the time. Bondage is to believe that you are still under the law and not always righteous".

It's so simply obvious. Why haven't we seen more conversions? Because we're not truly free and the answers are here! Ryan writes;

"Get ready to be armed with a key that will unlock many difficult Scriptures and distorted doctrines. What is this key? It is the key of discernment between the gift of righteousness and self-righteousness".

There are many different topics addressed in the book but the "golden thread" (as C H Spurgeon called grace) runs through it all giving the book such amazing unity. A couple of thoughts about this great book.

1. Ryan writes strongly.

I have no shadow of doubt that this book will offend some. But this strength is required! Ryan's father - Rob Rufus - wrote in the foreword;

"Intellectual preaching from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has flooded this world and drowned entire nations in religious lies. These wholesale deceptions that have grossly misrepresented the true loving nature of God require and demand to be confronted with concentrated pure grace clarity. This book does that. Any sincere seeker will find the truth in these pages extremely emancipating. The grace revolution is accelerating. The earth is groaning for this message".

It is my suspicion that your reaction to this book will actually mark out where you are at in your spiritual walk. If you are offended because all your spiritual disciplines and righteous deeds are called "nothing" - then there it is. But if you are filled with hope and wonder because you see hope - then you are indeed a "sincere seeker" as Rob writes!

2. Ryan writes compassionately (as a true pastor).

His chapters 12 and 13 on "Rest" are the most loving compassionate chapters I have ever read on this. So much of Christianity these days is focused on "work" and "mission" and driving to see the lost saved. Of course this is true and must be done - but Ryan writes so rightly that you will accomplish far more if you are rested and sane - than exhausted and weary!

The reader knows that those under Ryan's pastoring (and I know this is true of CCI) will not be constantly made guilty by "applications" after sermons that demand more of them. "Come to the prayer meeting .... give more ..... do this .... do that". I know for a fact that there is no such guilt-driven exhorting in the church and we too are allowed to enjoy this!

3. Ryan writes as a teacher who writes what he lives not just what he believes.

So many books I've read are by men and women who don't really write with conviction. Especially those who are striving to "live more holy lives" under God! They come up with ideas and lists of "daily disciplines" to live more Cross-centred lives and so on. But there isn't a real heart of conviction there - because deep down, they too must admit; "I've blown it". Ryan's book is amazing because you read it and know he has begun to experience the thrilling joy of the freedom that grace brings. And it makes you want to experience that too! This book rings true!

4. Ryan isn't afraid to dispel wrong historical teaching!

My favourite chapter in this book is chapter 6 - his treatment of the Sermon on the Mount. I must admit as I have taken my baby steps into the gospel of grace since I encountered Rob Rufus properly in 2007, I have been worried by the Beatitudes and their implications for the Christian life. Many of the books in my library on the "Sermon on the Mount" take this historical approach that Ryan dispels.

For example, the great Dr Martyn Ll0yd-Jones wrote his collection of sermons on the Sermon and the book opens; "The Sermon on the Mount is not a code of ethics or of morals; it is a description of what Christians are meant to be". And that's how I've always read it!

Ryan writes masterfully however - going through each of the Beatitudes and explaining in context what each actually means. Here's a segment about the Sermon on the Mount;

"Matthew 5:1–7:29 is the "Sermon on the Mount". Is this sermon in-tended for the church? Absolutely not! It's intended for the self-righteous. It‟s a pre-salvation preach that exposes self-righteous pride and performance and reveals the need for God's righteousness as a gift through faith in order to see the Kingdom and become children of God ... He wasn't preaching to a church. He wasn't preaching to born again believers. He was preaching to Jews where the climate of the day was a striving for righteousness through works.".

So what do the various points Jesus makes in the Sermon actually refer to? For example Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God". Ryan said;

"Jesus wasn't saying that keeping most of the law is good enough. He was saying that if you want to live by the law then you can never break it. Not even once. The smallest transgression of the law brings about impurity in your heart and means you‟ll never see God. So if your “seeing God” is based on the purity level of your law keeping, then you better make sure you‟ve kept the law 100% of your entire life. Anything less and you‟re doomed! If that sounds rather extreme it‟s because it is. It‟s because it‟s meant to break down self-righteousness".

Here is a brief synopsis of each chapter and what it brings in Ryan's words;

Chapter 1: The Olive Tree vs. the Fig Tree.

The Olive Tree represents Christ, His gift of righteousness, faith, grace, The Spirit and the New Covenant. The Fig Tree represents flesh, self righteousness, works, legalism, human effort, unbelief and the Old Covenant. This chapter is a call to the Church to not repeat Adam and Eve‟s sin of trying to be more like God in eating from the Fig Tree but to rest in the Olive Tree and see the fruit of grace manifesting in your life.

Chapter 2: Re-defining What Renewing The Mind Is.

Renewing your mind is essentially about learning how to surrender your mind to your reborn spirit so that you become “spirit-led”. Transformation is becoming “spirit-led”. When you are led by your reborn spirit in fellowship with the Holy Spirit then you will walk in the perfect will of God manifesting all the riches of your salvation here on earth.

Chapter 3: A Moment Within God’s Eternal Grace Covenant.

If you‟ve ever struggled with understanding why God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden or why Israel suffered for so long under the Law covenant then this chapter is for you, and makes it very clear. You‟ll discover how grace has always been Gods intent for relationship with Him and how the Law is but a brief moment in time and for a very clear and specific purpose.

Chapter 4: The New Way Of The Spirit vs. The Old Way Of The Letter.

The letter is a religious system of external pressure and motivation to get you to serve God whereas the spirit is an internal transformation and empowered ability to serve God. Under the letter you are forced to serve God. Under the spirit it becomes your desire to serve God. For born again believers it is no longer,“Do this in order to be blessed, or don‟t do that in order to avoid punishment.” Now it is, “This is who you truly are, perfect and complete in Christ” and “This is what is available for you now, a miraculous and victorious life!”

Chapter 5: Galatians 5 Explained In Context.

Because of the confusion around this chapter, many Christians have been taken into fear and legalism, but this is a glorious chapter that God is once again shining His brilliant gospel light on to reveal what it truly means to walk in the Spirit.

Chapter 6: The Beatitudes Are For The Self Righteous!

Matthew 5:1–7:29 is the „Sermon on the Mount‟. Is this sermon intended for the church? Absolutely not! It‟s intended for the self righteous. It‟s a pre-salvation preach that exposes self righteous pride and performance and reveals the need for God‟s righteousness as a gift through faith in order to see the Kingdom and become children of God. Unless you really understand grace, don‟t go near the Beatitudes. They will mess you up! Teaching the Beatitudes to Christians produces legalism and religious pride or condemnation in them.

Chapter 7: Re-defining What Holiness Is.

Holiness has got nothing to do with sinning or not sinning. If that is what we think, then we think that we are the cause of our holiness. There is only one person who is the cause of our holiness and his name is Jesus Christ! And if you are in him, then you are holy. You don't have to try and be holy or get holy, you are holy!

Chapter 8: Hebrews 12: Understanding God’s Disciplines Through Grace.

Many people read Hebrews 12 in a very negative way that causes fear in their hearts and in the hearts of others. But actually these verses were written to encourage believers and fill them with confidence. What is fundamentally important to see when reading Hebrews 12:5-11 is that firstly, it‟s not God doing the chastising and secondly, that the chastising was not coming because of moral sins but because these Hebrews were standing for the Gospel!

Chapter 9: Romans 5, 6, 7 & 8 Unlocked.

I believe these four chapters are the bedrock chapters of understanding grace. They form a solid foundation of what the Gospel is, and will give you confidence to stand in the grace of God. The more you study them and understand them, the more you will be able to look at other verses that seem to pose a “problem” for grace, that contradict grace, and unlock their true meaning.

Chapter 10: Hebrews 5 & 6: The Impossibility Of Losing Your Salvation.

To fall away means to spiritually die again. If Christ can‟t die again and we are united with Christ, it means that we can‟t die again. If we can‟t die again then it means that we can never fall away! I believe this Scripture is written to show the Hebrews, and us, how perfect our salvation is and how impossible it is to lose it, based on the fact that Christ can never die again! And it‟s written to help us come into an amazing confidence that God is for us, always relates to us through grace, and therefore we can walk intimately with him with boldness and confidence in this life.

Chapter 11: The Theology And Experience Of Rest.

Rest is about knowing where you are seated and why you are seated there. You are seated with Christ on his throne because you have become his perfect and complete righteousness. You are not standing and working but are seated and resting. And the Holy Spirit doesn‟t just want you to know where you are, he wants you to experience where you are.

Chapter 12: More Gets Done When You Rest!

When we‟re not living in the sweet spot of resting in the finished work of Christ, life seems harder, ineffective and frustrating. But when we live from a place of rest we find life becomes increasingly more enjoyable and effective. God wants us to live from the sweet spot. He wants us to enter his rest and live from that place.

Appendix: Keywords and Scriptures in Context.

This chapter is more of a study tool to help you unlock certain Scriptures rather than a read-through chapter. It focuses on a number of words like: sin, faith, lust of the flesh, fear of God etc that usually get interpreted incorrectly and explains their proper meaning. This chapter isn‟t thorough or in depth but will certainly assist you in your own studies by triggering helpful patterns of thought.

A New Exposition of Hebrews 6:1-2

I am currently glorying in transcribing Rob Rufus's keynote session at the Glory and Grace Conference in Hong Kong from 2010. He spoke on Hebrews 6 - what he correctly identified as a "trouble" passage for many New Covenant believers. And I must admit - I have struggled as I have worked through the passage to get my head around the new teaching and revelation that Rob brought to it.

It all makes such perfect sense! But my entire Christian upbringing and background scream against it.

So what I have done for the purposes of the "Grace and Glory Blank Bible" is to separate and identify Rob's teaching on each of the "foundation verses" in Hebrews 6:1-2. I have previously always thought of these verses as being foundational for Christian belief. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones even taught a series inspired by these verses on Christian living. But Rob shows clearly how there is a different and wonderful freeing slant that true New Covenant belief brings;

"Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment" - Hebrews 6:1-2 (English Standard Version).

"Hebrews 6:1 is NOT the elemental teaching to put the church on. It will make the church dull if you put the church on that.

Repentance from Dead Works:

So I am going to show you - repentance that leads to death, or repentance from dead works. Repentance from dead ceremonies, or repentance from dead works - is doing things to earn God's favour. Doing things over and over again to get God to love you. The question under the law - was; "Lord - am I pleasing enough to you?". The question under our High Priest who represents us is; "Father - is Jesus pleasing enough to you?". The answer is obviously; "Yes!". Then we are okay - because we are in Him! Repentance from dead works is literally trying to do good things to get a result of God liking and loving you. We are not to be living our lives constantly in repentance; "Oh I did that; I am sorry". We are not to live in this constant state; "I did this; I did that; I am so sorry!". That is Old Covenant.

Faith towards God:

I want to say that faith in God of the Old Covenant is completely different to faith in God in the New Covenant. Old Covenant faith is me trying to please God. New Covenant faith is something God gives to me and something that Jesus has on my behalf. Jesus has faith for you. And Jesus has faith IN you ... The Old Covenant had great emphasis on faith in God. The New Covenant's emphasis is on God's faith in you and for you. The Old Covenant lays the burden on you to have faith in God. The New Covenant lays the burden on our Great High Priest to have great and perfect faith on our behalf so you are not examining yourself all the time to see if you have faith - but your eyes are on Jesus all the time - the author and perfector of faith.

Baptisms:

Now what about baptisms? Surely that is a New Covenant thing. Of course baptism is New Covenant. We are baptised in water not to get our sins forgiven. You don't bury people to kill them. You bury them because they are already dead.

So when you are baptised in water as a believer in Christ that is not to get your sins forgiven - it is because your sins HAVE been dealt with! Baptism into the body of Christ and baptism in the Holy Spirit. This word "baptism" (you can check it out in the Greek) it is talking about water purification ceremonies done by the Old Covenant people. It is to wash sins away. It is to be done regularly because you are constantly feeling condemned so they go through washing rituals.

Laying on of Hands:

What about the laying on of hands? Listen - laying on of hands on the sick to impart healing is New Covenant stuff. He isn't talking about that! He is talking about the great type of the High Priest of the Old Covenant laying his hand on the scapegoat! And transfer the sins symbolically (only symbolically - not literally) and then let it out into the wilderness and that was symbolical covering.

The Resurrection from the Dead:

What about the "resurrection from the dead Rob? Are we not going to be raised from the dead in the New Covenant?". Of course we are going to be raised from the dead in the New Covenant! But the Old Covenant is - if you are good enough, one day you may be raised from the dead. One day! You don't know for sure, but if you are good enough - one day you will be raised from the dead and then you will go to heaven and you will experience life. He is saying - stop teaching that stuff. Tell them according to Romans chapter 6 and many other passages - you were united with Christ in resurrection! You were raised with Christ! Romans 6 says we were raised with Him so that we may know new life with Him - we are already seated in the heavenly realms!

Eternal Judgement:

Eternal judgement was finished at the Cross! Gone forever! People need to know that! Never again will they be judged by the Father - He took an oath in Isaiah 54; "Never again will I be angry with you - I swear by Myself, I will NEVER withdraw My love from you, I will never rebuke you, I will never condemn you, I will never take My covenant of peace from you - I swear by Myself!".

Reference: Rob Rufus - "Hebrews 6:4-6" - Glory and Grace Conference 2010 - Hong Kong.

Grace and Glory Conference 2010 - Session 2 - Rob Rufus

This is the 2nd session of the 2010 Glory and Grace Conference held in Hong Kong preached by Rob Rufus;

"Looking through the lenses of the Cross"

I want to talk on the wonderful Cross this afternoon. There is so much Scripture we could read but we are going to read just one verse. 1 Corinthians 1:17;

"For Christ did not send me to baptise but to preach the Gospel - not with words of human wisdom - less the Cross of Christ be emptied of it's power".

It is an astounding insight to me that the Cross can be emptied of it's living power! As soon as we rely on human wisdom or intellectual power - we empty the Cross of it's supernatural content. Later in this chapter Paul said that God will frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.

Intellectual preaching of the Cross is no gospel at all!

Paul said he wanted to know only Christ and Him crucified. Preaching and demonstration of His power so that men's faith would not rely on man's wisdom.

The scandal of the Cross is it's simplicity. The Cross is so simple - it confuses clever people.

Yet the Cross is the wisdom of God. The Cross is profound! The Cross is deep! Yet it is in simplicity - we preach the Cross and we believe on the Cross of Christ. When the Galatian church started leaving the Cross and going into Moses law like many Christians today - for them the Cross is just that baby thing. It is for immature believers. Paul wrote a letter immediately to the Galatians and all his apostolic passion and in the complete absence of political correctness or diplomacy - he said; "You foolish idiots! Who has bewitched you?! Christ was clearly betrayed before your very eyes as crucified!".

I want to ask you unreflecting idiots - does God move among and do miracles because you obey the law or because you believe the message of the Cross?

Paul is making it very clear that when the Cross of Christ is not central to all we preach - the power of God stops moving in the church and through the church!

When we repent of our intellectual arrogance, and understand that the Greeks want great philosophy and the Jews want signs and wonders and the world is divided between those that are brain-centered and those are that are intuitive and feeling-centered - and the answer for that is not to flatter this side or that side but to hold our line boldly and preach the message of the Cross that is foolishness by the arrogance of this world's standards - but it is the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of God is what I want. The wisdom of God and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible says that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. The Cross is the lense that we must look at life through. When you look at principalities and powers through the lense of the Cross - you see them only defeated! You see the devil so small and the ruling spirit over Hong Kong is the Holy Spirit! All others were triumphed over at the Cross! Jesus took no prisoners.

He stripped them all of their authority, disarmed them, when you look at people through the lense of the Cross you see objects of God's love and affection. When you look at sickness through the Cross you see that all things are possible, when you look at the nations through the Cross, you KNOW it is possible to disciple nations! China can be discipled by the gospel of grace! Australia can! Africa can! All the nations will be! There will be cultural changes in government and education through the Cross.

Will all the world obey God? No. Will evil get worse? I don't know it can - but possibly. But this I know - that the greatest sign of the end of the age - the greatest sign of history being summed up at the consummation of the ages is not a temple on the Rock in Jerusalem! It has got nothing to do with "666" or the Anti-Christ! In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said in answer to the question what will be the sign of the end of the age - the gospel will be preached as a sign to all nations and then the end will come!

The greatest sign at the end of the age is a restored gospel of the Kingdom.

You say; "Rob why are you preaching with such intensity - can't you just chill and relax a bit?". No - it is because the Cross does that to my blood. Everything from the Old Covenant has to come through the lenses of the Cross. It changes before it goes into the New! Every church needs to have the lense - the filter of the Cross in place! There are certain night clubs that you cannot get into unless you have something to get in there with. There is a bouncer in the door that won't let you get in.

The Cross is God's defense to protect the Church from the ministry of death!

2 Corinthians 3:7 says the law is a ministry of death!

The law was meant to kill us and crush us and curse us and condemn us and pour wrath on us and stir up more sin in us! How many pastors in their right minds would let THAT into their congregation? Any preaching designed to perform and deserve is preaching the Law!

I don't care if you don't dress up in Levitical priestly clothes and don't say "Moses said ..." - when we preach to believers that we have to earn and deserve the blessing - we are preaching the Law. We heard this morning - preach the gospel of grace and stir believers to respond with faith and the power of the Cross will be released.

The Cross is the bouncer that won't let Old Covenant truths past through the Cross into New Covenant without them being changed.

Circumcision comes to the Cross and praise God - it doesn't get through easily! At the Cross - the bouncer made it irrelevant to have the snip on the tip! They used to snip on the tip and through it away - they never stuck it back on again with glue. Circumcision comes to the Cross and it changes as it comes through into the New Covenant! Now it is not the snip on the tip - it is circumcision of the heart!

Colossians chapter 2 says that old sinful nature which is really a nature of unbelief in the goodness of God - a nature driven to rebellion against God through unbelief in His goodness - that old nature was cut away, circumcised and thrown away - never to be brought back!

The power of the Cross removes the sinful nature from the unbeliever and gives us a new nature which is righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

A nature that does not want to sin! A nature that is just like Jesus! Identical to Jesus! That is powerful! A watered-down or powerless preaching of the Cross has produced millions of counterfeit conversions.

The Cross produces radical salvations! The curse of the law comes through the Cross and says; "I want to get into the New Covenant!". The Cross says; "No! I cancel you! You will not condemn God's people! You will not manipulate them with guilt! You will not control them with religious demons! It is for freedom that Christ has set you free! Stand free and refuse to submit to a yoke of slavery!".

What is the yoke of slavery Rob? Very simple: it tells us right there in the chapter before. Slavery is bondage from Mount Sinai. Paul goes on in that same chapter of Galatians 5 and says in verse 4 if you Christians already in Christ seek to be justified by the law then you have been alienated from Christ and you have fallen from grace! Grace is infinitely higher than the law because if you go back to law, then it means you have fallen to something low down and it means that someone hasn't been safe-guarding you with the bouncer of the Cross! Or you haven't been safe-guarding your own heart because the Cross and power will never let the law through that has been cancelled theoretically and potentially - there is now therefore NO condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus!

Every Christian should be dancing their way through life with NO condemnation! I just went into a trance there. I just saw multiple millions of believers in Christ dancing their way through life without condemnation! I saw one billion, 400 million Chinese experiencing what is God's heart before time began to hear this gospel and not an inadequate or false gospel mixed with law and grace.

To mix law and grace is to preach NO gospel at all.

For if law can get through the Cross, then it is not the cry of the Cross of Christ that is being preached. Colossians 2:14 said God cancelled the law at the Cross! To preach what has been cancelled - the Holy Spirit will not help you. The Holy Spirit will not help you preach something the Father cancelled at the Cross! The world is under the law - not those in Christ. To preach the law to the believers is to preach with whatever power it is - but it is not God. It is the power of human wisdom emptying the Cross - it is the power of human ability and the power of devils and witchcraft. The Cross is not baby steps towards some maturity.

The Cross is only one step. It is God's one-step programme. We didn't take that one step. God took that step. It was a divine loving step in Christ Jesus through the Cross. In that loving step He came right to us - so all the fullness of Who God is stepped through that Cross towards us totally available to us! And He didn't wait for us to have enough faith to step through the Cross to us. We heard this morning that before we had any faith God absolutely and fully in Christ Jesus stepped towards us through the Cross and everything God is - is with us right now. When God stepped through the Cross in fullness to us - all the heavens were opened.

The height, breadth, depth and length of heaven was open to us believers in Christ!

So when you hear believers today praying these kind of prayers; "Oh God rend the heavens and come down!" - I think God goes; "Eh? I have ripped the veil, I have ripped the heavens and stepped towards you through the Cross - I am here fully!". To say; "God rend the heavens and come down is an insult to the Cross!".

It is not judgement on my condemning anybody. I have been preaching a mixture of law and grace.

But the fact is that the majority of the body of Christ on the planet today is under performance pressure - is a sign to me that the Cross has been emptied of it's power.

Every imaginable idea by God's people - every formula is out there on the market. God stepped through that Cross in Christ Jesus towards us and He took an oath in Isaiah 54. I am paraphrasing it but it is true to Scripture;

"I take an oath that I will never step back away from you through the Cross backwards - in all My fullness I am here with you all the time whether you can feel it or not - I am here! In fullness! With you".

Who hasn't sinned in the last 3 weeks? Not once! Glenda keep your hand down!

God's Presence is as much with you when you fail, mess up or make a mistake or even sin. We do not encourage sin. It is just silly to sin. It is not what our new creation nature wants. But we are all learning to walk this walk. And it is not our sin, our short-comings and our failings that causes Christ to be alienated from us. It is coming back under law.

People said when these great revivals came to the end, it was because there was too much sin. Friends - revival started in times of terrible sinning! Legalistic religion stirs up sinning! It is when people come back into grace that the power of Christ is operating in their lives - that is revival!

And the church would never need another revival if they would just stay in the power of the Cross!

It is like you want to get every pastor on the planet and say "Listen - there is a way for us to stay in the flow of God's Presence and power!". We are taking about 70 leaders away after this conference and we want to learn from each other the wisdom of how to administrate local church in grace. It is like Andrew Wommack said this morning - people get into extremes of both sides. This message of the gospel has to be so protected that local churches flourish in this gospel! We don't want to end up like the Galatians or end up like the Corinthians! People in grace are starting to say - listen I can be undisciplined, I don't need to go to church or read my Bible - just live loose! That is not the Cross!

If your heart doesn't beat with a passion to see the nations saved then you haven't understood grace! If the Bible isn't alive to you then you haven't understood grace! If local church isn't exciting to you then you haven't understood grace!

"But Rob I don't want to go to church that mixes law and grace!". We don't want "Grace Pharisees" who are so judgmental about everything - but if you can't a church that preaches the Cross in power then start one! There are enough of us to come help you! You can be a man or a woman, or any colour, it doesn't matter if you are not a preacher - start one! And if you are not stupid or a grace Pharisee then we will come help you! Anywhere in the world!

God's people have got to be assured of this. It is a one-step programme. There are no backward steps. Galatians 2, Colossians chapter 2 and Ephesians chapter 2, Romans chapter and Romans chapter 8 tells us why God will not step back from you. He is stuck with you even when you mess up and sin sometimes! On that Cross Christ was not crucified by Himself! Jesus said; "Take up your Cross and follow Me". Deny yourself - self-righteousness, religious arrogance, hypocrisy and come to Me those who are heavy laden and I will give you rest for My yoke is easy and My burden is light! Come to Me! And every person on the planet - the Bible says in those verses - we were co-crucified with Christ. We were co-buried with Christ, we were co-raised with Christ! We were co-ascended with Christ! We were co-seated with Christ in the heavenly realms! We are co-equal heirs with Christ!

God cannot go anywhere without you! For Christ to step away from you - He has to step away from Himself! 1st Corinthians 6:17 says;

"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him".

So everywhere God is - you are there! When your shadow heals the sick, it is no big mystery! When your words carry miracle life and power - it is no mystery! You start this Christian race at the finishing line as a winner.

The spirit of suicide and the spirit of demonic religion is one and the same thing. Religion is occupied with trying to get us to die to ourselves.

"Come on - die to that flesh. Die to yourself!". If we believe that then we are admitting that Jesus didn't really die on the Cross. How can you die to yourself - when you have already been fully crucified with Christ? He fully died on that Cross! And your old sinful nature fully died on that Cross! And you have fully been raised from the dead in Christ! How can you die to yourself? "Rob I have heard Paul say - I die daily". Probably Tuesday morning, God allowing - I want to take Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 6 and in two sessions unpack those two chapters. We are going to hit verses 4, 5 and 6 in Hebrews 6. It says that those who fall away, it is impossible to be restored to repentance. We are going to show how many lies have been preached through not reading Scripture in context.

When Paul said; "I die daily" - he was not contradicting when he said; "I have been crucified with Christ". When Paul said; "I die daily" - he was not talking about his old nature having to be crucified again. The context was persecution for preaching this gospel. It caused him to be lashed many times and rejected by false brothers and imprisoned and go hungry, naked and sleepless. Let me promise you this - if you preach the gospel Paul preached, not in an arrogant way there will be things coming against you and attacking you and THAT is what Paul is talking about. Some days you will feel like you are dying!

For me resurrection is not a doctrine anymore! It is a daily life necessity! All the intense attacks are absolutely worth it to preach this gospel! This gospel is worth it! Come on - let's give the Lord a shout in this place!

Imperfect Faith Can STILL Bring You Face to Face with Jesus!

I'm back! My apologies for the long break - I can no longer let life interfere with the power of the teaching of grace and glory! This sermon was preached by Rob Rufus

"Let’s open to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. I am so excited about this message that I have just got to control myself. We are getting an increasing number of emails from around the world from people thanking us for our stand on grace and some emails you think are exaggerated. The gratitude has shifted from simply thanking me to thanking the people of City Church International. There are tens of thousands of people out there realising it is not simply about preaching a message but a message being embodied and incarnated in a people.

The price you pay to stand for a message of grace when there are anti-grace spirits – grace-hating spirits that want to discourage and confuse us and cause difficulties are realising that the price we are paying is producing life for the churches out there.

There is an apostolic thing Paul speaks about where he says; “We die daily that you may experience life”. We are experiencing life here in abundance but there is a price in our stand that is causing thousands of people around the world to take hope and come out from guilt, condemnation, law and bondage into freedom of grace in Christ Jesus. People are moving from a mixture of Old and New Covenant through the finished work of the Cross into the liberty of the blessing of the New Covenant. So they are getting revelation – a theological revolution. Churches and regions are being changed! Our 5 and a half years has literally impacted nations around the world. I can’t read all of them to you because they speak of details and I don’t want to reveal their names. Years of pressure, performance and guilt – and they all speak about coming into the freedom found in Jesus Christ! And they all mention you guys!

I want to talk about how imperfect faith – even imperfect faith – can bring you face to face with Jesus, into supernatural encounters with the Presence and power of God.

I want 2nd Corinthians to be a foundation to what I say;

2 Corinthians 1:2-4; “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of all mercies and the God of all comfort … that we may be able to comfort those who are in trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”.

Within your sorrow is a seed that becomes the life and key that unlocks other people out of the pain of their problems.

If we don’t understand that the pain we go through and the sorrow we experience are to gain deeper intimacy with the comfort of God, that we would see our calling is to comfort people in their troubles by the comfort we receive in our troubles. If we don’t understand this then sooner or later we will allow our troubles and sorrow to define us. When we allow trouble to define us we become melancholic, morbid and very negative people.

The way to make the devil pay for the trouble he puts on you is to see your troubles as becoming a seed of grace that you can sow into someone else’s life.

Many people are within you that will benefit from the comfort you experience in your trouble and your understanding of the goodness of God to bring that comfort into their lives.

When a woman has a baby, she forgets the pain because inside that pain is a treasure that is given to someone else.

If we forget this then we think that pain, sorrow and difficulties are there to just to talk about all the time. That is like a mother getting off the birthing table and disregarding the baby there and going to the phone and calling all her family and friends and relatives and telling them about the terrible pain she has been through without once mentioning the baby! She has forgotten that the pain is not about trouble itself, but within the trouble is a seed of grace for someone else. In your trouble there is a life-saving seed of grace for someone else.

I have been counselled in the lowest moments of my life by two groups of people. Those who have ideals, never been through trouble or pain and have lots of Bible verses to quote and lots of inexperienced knowledge. When you have come out of their presence you feel worse! The other people bear the scars of pain, disappointment and difficulties and when they comfort you they sow seeds of grace into your life so you are freed up from self-pity, discouragement, deception that was trying to take you out in your disillusionment.

We are a people that don’t teach that if you have faith you will not go through trouble. Paul the apostle went through all kinds of troubles but he said; “These are working for me an exceeding weight of glory! Compared to the weight of glory they are building up for me – these troubles are light and momentary afflictions”. So we don’t say if you have faith, you won’t go through trouble. We are saying if you have faith you will find the God of all comfort in your trouble that will make you a humble, tender-hearted person that will sow grace into other people’s trouble.

Turn to Mark chapter 5. Let’s bow our heads in prayer – I can really sense the Presence of God here and the presence of angels. When Glenda was getting up to give the announcements I could feel the angelic presence in this room.

“Father we want to thank You for assigning angels to minister in this room – the ministers of winds and fire – we ask they would refresh the people of God. We want to thank You for Your greatest and most wonderful gift – Jesus Christ Your Son. Every spiritual blessing we have is in Christ Jesus. We thank You that every promise you have made to us are YES in Christ Jesus. Holy Spirit we invite You to come and reveal Jesus in this place, reveal Your glory – that we would know that abiding place of intimacy – that we in our sorrows would be able to discover the seed of grace to sow into other people’s lives here in Hong Kong and around the world”.

I want to read this passage in Mark 5 because it is my favourite passage for speaking on the transference of the anointing. But I don’t want to look at it from that point of view today, but a different point of view and I believe some gold nuggets will come out of this today that will bring you into a greater place of intimacy with Jesus Himself. I will draw your attention to certain phrases and words and will comment on them.

(v21); “21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. 22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet 23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse”.

The Bible honours doctors as do we but here it didn’t work for this dear one.

27 “When she heard about Jesus”

That is the pivotal phrase for this message. She had never met Him or been in His meetings, she had just heard about Him.

“She came behind Him”.

Also very important – she didn’t come in front of Him to His face. She came behind Him.

“In the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him”.

She came behind Him but now was before Him.

34 And He said to her, “Daughter”.

That is identity.

“Your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

The Greek is literally; “Go into peace”. “Soterio” – completeness, salvation, protection. Go into peace – you have been made well. God wants to make your emotions, your soul, your spirit, your finances, your relationships well. Go into soterio “daughter”. Your faith has made you well!

35 "While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James".

Very pivotal – only Peter, James and John.

39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” 40 And they ridiculed Him.

What does Jesus do with people who ridicule His faith?

“But when He had put them all outside He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age”.

The lady who had the bleeding, had it for 12 years. The little girl was 12. It is not a coincidence.

“And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat”. (chapter 6:56); “Wherever He entered into villages … they begged Him that they could touch the hem of His garment and as many touched Him were made well”.

Now in the previous chapter we saw thousands touching Him and none were healed or experienced what this one woman experienced. The seed of her 12 years of sorrow became a sowing of grace into multitudes of thousands of people that found a way to touch Him differently to the way they had touched Him before. God hasn’t caused any tragedy or trouble in your life – it is the devil behind that. He turns that sorrow into a seed of life that unlocks someone else out of the pain of their problems. She had never met Him or been in one of His meetings. Many who read the gospels (and I have thought this) if only we could have been on the earth when He walked it and could have been in His meetings and heard His gracious words from His mouth or seen His face as He spoke of the love of His Father and the Kingdom coming to earth! Oh if only I could have heard Jesus speak and been on the front row within touching distance!

This lady was in none of His meetings and had never met Him – only HEARD about Him! What could she have heard? Never anything about the Moses law concerning Him. John 1 says the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Leviticus 15 says any woman any woman with an issue of blood is forbidden from going into a public place. The sentence is immediate stoning and Jarius – the synagogue ruler – had authority to exercise that and he was right there next to Jesus. Leviticus says a woman going into a public place makes everywhere she goes unclean and everything she touches she makes unclean. But this woman touched Jesus in her unclean state and was healed! What did she hear about Jesus?

She would have heard that this rabbi was touching unclean people.

Lepers were being touched by Jesus and being healed. Under the law leprosy was considered unclean. Jesus touched lepers and laid His hands on lepers and they were immediately healed. Jesus went into the synagogue where a woman was bound over for 18 years with a demonic spirit and the synagogue rulers were teaching the law to her – and the law was telling her you are crippled because you failed the law. Jesus came in and called her a daughter of Abraham – because 430 years before the Law Abraham was a covenant of grace! He said; “You are a daughter of Abraham – you ought to be healed on the Sabbath day”. He laid His hands on her and she straightened up. She would have heard that Jesus laid His hands on a prostitute called Mary Magdalene and when Jesus laid His hands on Mary, the Bible says seven devils came out of her and she was set free from prostitution. She would have heard some marvellous things.

Now – when the crowd was touching Jesus, why weren’t they healed? Why weren’t they changed or benefited? They hadn’t heard about Jesus the way this woman had heard about Jesus. They would have heard He was a rabbi and was demanding you keep standards to earn and deserve.

But when they found out that an unclean woman actively breaking the Levitical law touched Him and was healed, the multitudes from that day began to touch Him in a different way – and you could say that the seed of her sorrow was a seed of grace that influenced thousands of people to get healed in the very next chapter!

The more people that touched Jesus differently, the more people will see that the seed of our sorrow is becoming a seed of grace to touch thousands of churches around the world and touch thousands of people in Hong Kong. It is very important that people hear about the true Jesus. A lot of people struggle to have faith for healing. I am not sure if I even understand faith anymore. Kathryn Kuhlman had a ministry that got far more people healed and some of the worst crippled people and blind people – thousands of them. She said;

“I don’t understand faith but I know my wonderful Jesus suddenly comes and fills the room and people get healed without me even praying for them!”. I don’t think it’s about faith for hearing as much as hearing about the true Jesus.

I believe this woman had imperfect faith – how do I know that? She came behind Him, not to the front of His face. Under the law you couldn’t see the face of God. Moses said; “God – show me Your glory!”. God said; “No man can see My face and live so I will hide you in the cleft of the rock and will walk by and you will see My hind parts”. She had imperfect faith – she came to His hind parts. She heard about Jesus and touched Him and the next minute she was healed, and the next minute He was calling her to His face. Through grace God in Christ came to reveal His face to humanity. Imperfect faith came to touch His hind parts like Moses. But once she was healed, she was called to His face and when she looked into His face the first thing she heard was “Daughter”. God said “Daughter”.

I also know something very special here – we must understand something. What we say about Jesus. People think I criticise everything that moves under the sun and some have called me a divisive man. Someone has to get passionate! Someone has to get stirred up and a righteous anger because multitudes of mesmerised, hypnotised Christians sit in pews having been sold a bill of lies Sunday after Sunday, century after century with arrears of doctrinal deception about God. We have got people saying that God makes you sick to make you more holy! People want to know why we don’t see more healings – we have got hundreds of years of the traditions of men that have deceived people into unbelief and have misrepresented Jesus. The devil is behind it! “Did God really say?”. I have done all the things wrong and have preached things wrong and have misrepresented God in my past.

But when I came to Hong Kong I was determined to faithfully reveal the New Covenant and the true nature of God where the people of God are in New Covenant and no longer under law and are in 100% grace and grace alone with no condemnation to those that are in Christ. I said I am going to do that God no matter how much I am mis-understood and I am going to hold my line".

Quickly go to Romans chapter 3:3-4. “Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true and every man a liar”. What is so important today is that we need to see there is a difference between facts and truth.

So many people in the church are believers in theory. But the reality is that the administration of their life is closer to a practical atheist. There is very little in these Christians lives that you have to say they are solving problems through faith. They are solving their problems by “what is” and are dealing with “what is” by “what is”. So they are multiplying their problems.

This creates so much controversy and pain and I wanted to deal with this so sensitively and I just don’t have the time. Let me say I am dealing with this from a sensitive heart.

The fact is that you may have sickness in your body. The truth is that by His stripes - you WERE healed. The fact is you may be in financial debt - the truth is that at the Cross He has ALREADY redeemed you from the curse of poverty that the prosperity of Abraham may come upon you. The fact is that you may have sinned and done something seriously wrong - you may have failed God - that is the fact. The truth is you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

There is coming a defining and dividing dispensation in our time of the people of God who chose to be wrapped up in the facts or be wrapped up in the truth. If you focus on the facts then you will chose the things that are to nullify the things that are. But if you focus on the truth then you will chose the things that are not to nullify the things that are. You will seek the covering presence of the cherubims and the glory to get into the Presence of the God who calls things that be not as though they were.

I want you to look in John chapter 8 very quickly. Any fact that does not line up with the truth of God’s Word is a fact waiting to be nullified by the things that are not. I want you to look quickly at John chapter 8. I want to show you that Jesus constantly spoke about the two worlds - the superior world of heaven and the world that is from below that is temporarily corrupted by satanic deception. Satan has a system of politics, economics and education of doing things and God has a heavenly system of doing things and He says - let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we begin to get into the world’s system, we begin to try to deal with problems of what is - by dealing with what is.

Jesus says here - in John chapter 8 and verse 23; “I am from above, I am not of this world”. If you go to verse 28, Jesus said; “I am the One I claim to be … but speak what the Father has taught Me … He has not left Me alone”. That is the key theme of what I want to talk about in the coming weeks. He has not left me alone. “The truth will set you free”. What will the truth set you free from? It will set you free from the facts. Are you wrapped up in the truth of God’s Word or are you wrapped up in the facts? Now we are not to deny the facts - we have to face the facts and recognise that they are there. But we are then to look on the things that are unseen and get wrapped up in the truth.

It is not a waste of time to be lying on the floor soaking under the manifest glory of God - it is not a waste of time to go into the secret place and let God love you and manifest His glory over you and saturate you so every cell in your body is vibrating with eternal life, divine virtue and divine quickening of your mortal body so that God can then do the things that are impossible to do.

I wonder has God really called us to have faith for miracles? Or has He called us to have faith to surrender our whole life to come under His hovering Presence? Because when you want to have faith for miracles, it puts all the pressure on you to have faith. If all you are saying is; “God I know I can have faith for Your manifest Presence” - then the God who does miracles does the miracle.

I can’t do the miracle and neither can you. What do we need to have faith for? His hovering Presence. God has to come out of the invisible and manifest tangibly. No miracle can happen unless the Presence of God manifests tangibly in reality so that your very physical body can feel His Presence. Go to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32 is God’s announcement of the superiority of the New Covenant. Most of you have heard me read this and quote it but I want to read it again. Verse 40. We no longer earn or deserve the blessing, Jesus Christ earned the blessings on our behalf and redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessings may come on our lives through faith and faith alone. So Jeremiah 32:40 says; “I will never stop doing good to them”. How long is never? Does never ever run out? “I will rejoice …”. The Hebrew word means; “To turn and twist with deep emotions of ecstasy and joy in doing us good”. V41 again.

Let me put these two verses together - then the will of God is to NEVER stop doing you good! 24/7 every second He wants to do you good! How does He do us good? With rejoicing! So if He never wants to stop doing you good then it means that He never wants to stop dancing with deep emotions and twists and turns and ecstasy in doing you good. The greatest fun God gets - is doing you good!

Why do so few Christians feel a consciousness that the Creator is not remote and a distant deity but He is a very engaged Being that is literally dancing over me and you with ecstasy and deep feelings of wanting to do us good and never will stop doing us good? How come that is not reflected in the life of the church?

I think it was when Jesus said - your traditions have nullified the Word of God. I don’t think people believe this. I don’t think people have the faith to surrender to the covering Presence of the God that calls the things that be not as though they were. I think people have got caught up in rituals and religion and ceremonies. Religious principles and protocol - but have we got caught up in revelation and eternal intuition and insight into this God dancing over you all the time? We have been told that when God manifests over us it is a sovereign initiative and there is nothing you can do about it and He will just come. Now the gifts of the Spirit operate as the Spirit wills but I am not talking about the gifts here today. Jeremiah 32 is not God talking about the gifts - it is God talking about Himself dancing over you all the time!

Some of you have heard my account of when I went to Brighton two years ago and I was invited to be the main speaker at a conference for about 5000 leaders. The weekend before the conference Terry Virgo invited me to come to the church he is based at that he has planted - it is quite a large church - and minister Sunday morning and Sunday night. So I preached Sunday morning and came back Sunday night and it was packed out. People had come from all over and they had brought lots of sick people and I preached again in the evening but realised I had to pace myself because I had to preach seven times in the week to thousands of people. At the end of the evening service I thought I had to get out of the door and then saw this long queue lining up and the first one had crippled hips and I just knew that it was not going to happen. I couldn’t do it. Someone said “Will you come over?” and as I am walking over I suddenly felt over my physical body, my head and everywhere the dancing God. He was wanting to rejoice over doing me good and anyone that got into my radius.

Any time you watch a DVD of an evangelist or a preacher and see someone bringing them out of the wheelchair with boldness and no lack of confidence - anytime you see that, don’t think that is their natural temperament. They are under something. I am tired of ministering to broken lives if I am not under something. It is just flesh and religion. “Come out in Jesus Name!”. “I am not coming out”.

As I got closer I could just feel the intensifying dancing of a God who just wanted to do me good and anyone around me - this God of perfect love. I walked up to the first lady and I said; “Lady what do you need?”. That’s all I did. I didn’t put my hands on her or pray and I felt this all around me. She started to describe her symptoms and about 30 seconds into her describing the symptoms (I had said nothing - just fixed my eyes on her) she started shaking. I hadn’t prayed for her, hadn’t said “In the Name of Jesus” or put my hands on her and she started shaking and vibrating and then she falls over! I just was standing there listening to the symptoms. A minute or two later she got up and her hips were totally straight. I said “Next!”. 20 people - about 8 out of 10 - the exact same thing happened. I never prayed for them - it was effortless! I didn’t have to speak! While giving me their symptoms they were healed!

I think that is closer to the Jesus ministry than what I see. Mark chapter 1 He walked into the temple and a demonised man started screaming. “Aaagh why have You come before our time?”. He hadn’t preached yet! Shut up - and come out. They marvelled at His authority.

In Eastbourne in southern England quite recently I went to speak at a conference there with Glenda and Millie was there. On the last night I was tired. The pastor came and in the large hall there was a bunch of people there who had the worst crippling conditions I had seen. I know if you are trying to get cripples healed and that thing is not over you - it is shocking. You are trying to pretend you know what you are doing but you don’t have a hope of getting them healed! You can go through the religious formulas and pretend something has happened but everyone with the know-how knows that nothing is happening. It is almost disgusting and discrediting the real ministry of Jesus!

So I walk over there and as I get closer the dancing God comes over me. Suddenly I am not Clarke Kent - I am now Superman. But it is not me! As I am walking it is getting stronger and stronger and I see this woman who is crippled and as I get closer and closer the demons start screaming; “Aaagh leave us! Leave us!”. Literally! And they are out. They are gone. She topples over and gets up healed. Everyone I step towards are healed. Many of you saw the DVD I brought back of dozens of people. One lady was so crippled she couldn’t pick up her child - and her husband had to leave his career to look after her children full time. She went down under the power and the next morning she came dancing into church.

How many of you think this is the love of God - how many of you think it is shocking and disgusting that we do not see more of these things?

Because of the traditions of men! Let me tell you honestly and vulnerably - I have been doing this for 30 years. I want to tell you what I have just described today has only happened to me maybe about 100 times. I have daily anointing! I am not talking about anointing here or the gifts of the Spirit but God coming. Actually He is not coming - He is always there. But why isn’t He always manifested? He said I will never stop doing you good - I will rejoice and dwell to do you good! If I can come under the dancing God all the time then maybe you and me can start approximating the promise of John 14:12; “Anyone who believes in Me .. And even greater works”. Acts 10:38 said that God anointed Jesus with power and He went about doing good and healing ALL. If Jesus could go about any time of day, any second if anyone touched Him in the crowd, anyone that asked for healing, He could give healing on the spot!

I suspect that Jesus walked under the glory Presence of the Father all the time! The religious world has told me that any time He comes and does that it is just a sovereign mood of God. I think you and I have got something to do. I am now convinced that the will of the Father by the witness of the Spirit in my heart - the inheritance of every person that says Jesus is my Lord are meant to walk for most of our time under the manifest Presence.

I have said before that you wouldn’t be able to get to sleep it is so powerful. If you have never experienced this I wish I could put it on you today because you can never describe it - you don’t know what it is like to walk up to crippled people without that and know the fear that comes over you. The terror of knowing you are going to disappoint them. You have no idea what that is like if you havent done it. Neither do you have any idea what it is like when you are moving towards them and He comes over you - there is NO fear just utter, reckless boldness! You just know that nothing can get in the way, just an invincible sense of God over you.


People have watched people with that power over them and when they don’t have that power have tried to copy as a formula and have tried to pull people out of wheelchairs and then they just fall on the ground. When you are under that power you do things that you would never do. You are not copying. You are not mimicking someone else under the power - just because God is on you! Maybe it will lift slightly in intensity every now and again so you can relax a bit but I believe it should be there on call so quick! Imagine how your mortal body would be renewed in your youth with resurrection life. The grey hair turned dark again! Cellular regeneration! Rob how do you live in that all the time? You want to know? There are people who lecture in Harvard on how to run a business who have never run a business. You have theology professors teaching on the gifts of the Spirit in seminaries who have never moved in the gifts of the Spirit.

You cannot give away what you don’t have.

I don’t want people giving me information on the Kingdom - I am sick and tired of Bible information. I know the Bible pretty much well from back to front - but my biggest need right now is to learn from someone who has got the goods. It is a sign of hunger that you say you want to know - but to tell you the truth, I don’t really know. I have never met a person who does know. Except One. This is what I suspect He is whispering to me (and I am just giving you my suspicion). Two words; “Total surrender to the Holy Spirit”. Not less of me and more of you. NONE of me and ALL of you! Every part of my life, everything that I am - whatever you want me to do and give up - everything I surrender. I want to be branded by your jealous love and possessed by your jealous love. Rob how do you surrender?

How do you come to that place of surrender? I don’t know but this is what I suspect - you have to become so disillusioned with your failures to get the sick healed and so horrified at the lack of knowledge of the revelation of God chosing the things that be not to nullify the things that are and so horrified with your failure. You have to come to the end of your reputation in the eyes of men and so utterly embarrassed. I think you have to go through pain and try to get the sick healed and misunderstood and accused by those who didn’t get healed that it was your fault and you are a failure. And live with the rejection and misunderstanding. You have to live with the agony and lay on your face at night and say I am a failure in so many areas of supernatural ministry.

Dear Jesus all I have left is my love for You and if you can take that and take something that is not and nullify the things that are then I offer my body and soul and spirit as a living sacrifice that something I have only seen 100 times will become something that happens all the time. That the millions in Hong Kong do not need to be deprived of a church that has fully surrendered. I know not everyone wants to surrender like that. The vast majority of Christians are more caught up in the things that are and more caught up in their careers.

I can't describe to people the pain and rejection I have walked through in the last few months - the rejection involving thousands of people, people we have known for 25 years, the lies and cold shoulders. That could make you paranoid and reactionary and bitter or it can backfire on the devil and precipitate in you a face on the ground, a laid down lover that surrenders all. I live with eternity with nothing and surrender. We have to be emptied of every fleshly delusional arrogance and pride and all controversy against God and come to trust Him. When you sin and make mistakes and lose your temper, you look to God who chooses the things that are not to nullify the things that are. His grace to me is abounding - He will never reject me or disapprove of me - He is for me! What can be against me? He so sees you as precious that He doesn’t want you to have any idols or distractions - He wants you because you are such a jewel and precious. He wants you completely! And we don’t!

We think we have surrendered all but we have had hostility and defences and complaints and pride and self-promotion against Him! But pain takes that away. It either makes you bitter or makes you better. Every time Satan comes, he comes to make you bitter. If you chose to use the things that are to make the things that are then you are going to get bitter. But if you get revelation to use the things that are not and get into the Presence of the Living God who uses the things that be not as though they are then this good God will manifest His dancing over you. And when you walk through a place that place will be benefited because you were there. People in your radius will feel the unseen world touching you.

Close your eyes - He is here now.

Kathryn Kuhlman used to say “God isn’t looking for golden vessels or silver vessels - but yielded vessels”.

Foundation Stone Teaching on Righteousness!!

After a few months of quiet on the "Rob Rufus - Grace and Glory Blog" - it's back to more and more glorious business as usual! I've just finished transcribing Rob's five part series on "Established in the Gift of Righteousness" that he begun in January 2009 and I cannot recommend it enough. It certainly has finally made me "see the light" personally into the glories of the promises of the Word of God and is reaping fruit in my life that I couldn't have dreamed of. For a year that started off so badly with work and everything, I am amazed at how quickly God can turn a situation around!

Here they are;

Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 1

Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 2 - ("How to Increase in the Blessing")

Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3 - ("The Law is Not Based on Faith")

Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4 - ("How to Fly Your Life by the Instruments of Grace")

Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5 - ("Living Free from Fear of Judgement")

I also wrote out the transcript of a glorious sermon last year while I was on holiday in Lanzarote that I was struggling to get typed out. Last night I finished it as well and it complements this teaching so well.

Here it is;

"Sonship vs Christianity".

I am running out of adjectives to describe the preaching that is coming out from City Church International in Hong Kong! But surely the proof of good preaching is in the fruit it bears. Intellectual, academic preaching is all well and good - but I sat under it for the last 30 years of my life and found myself helplessly struggling with issues. I stand as a personal testimony that far from this preaching encouraging antinominanism - this preaching on the gift of righteousness is actually increasing love and affection for the Lord as well as opening my eyes to see the utter inadequacy of law to accomplish any holiness in life.

Established in Righteousness - Part 2

This is the second in the series "Established in Righteousness" preached by Rob Rufus at City Church International in Hong Kong. The sub-title is:

"How to Increase in the Blessing".

"We are in a series - number 2 - of being established in the gift of righteousness. I want to talk this morning on how to increase in the blessings of God. I really believe God intended for us to live incredibly joyful lives! That doesn't mean He guarantees that in this world we won't have some serious challenges - in fact Jesus promises us that - so you should put it on your fridge as one of the promises! "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all". Jesus said in this world we will suffer tribulation but be of good cheer - I have overcome the world.

(1 John 5:4) says; "This is the victory that overcomes the world - even our faith". So faith is important!

There is an attitude I believe we should have that no matter what the challenges - I can win every time. There is not one battle I need to lose because we have unfair advantages! I am convinced that many, many Christians struggle with living happy because secretly they don't like themselves. Now this is off the point (I want to talk about blessing and how to increase in the blessing) but I feel like God is stirring these things up in my heart this morning! These things come to mind!

Some years ago living in Oz and I had something in my life that I didn't like. I had something in my life and I really began to believe that my intensity and my passion must really look weird to people and so I didn't like that about myself so I took 3 days off and told Glenda I was going to a place outside Adelaide and I was going to pray for 3 days. I didn't tell her what I was going to pray for - she thought I was going to pray for revival but I was actually going to pray that God would deliver me from my intensity and passion. I spent 3 days and 1 day I fasted and went without food and tried to manipulate God to deliver me from me!

Not knowing He had wired me this way - because in His original design and intension - I would fit into the purpose I had to fulfill. Not everyone has to be intense! I repented and cried out; "God take this intensity away! It must be so exhausting for people to put up with as a pastor!". At the end of 3 days I drove back up to Adelaide in the Friday afternoon and went straight to a prayer meeting at Coastlands Church. As I walked in there was a prophet there who didn't know me at this stage. He has since come to "Glory and Grace" - but at that stage he didn't know me well and says;

"Rob - the Lord says to you that He loves you and He doesn't want you to apologise for your intensity".

I am quoting it exactly! So I began to realise - enjoy yourself! Sometimes no one is going to do it for you! Have you ever gone through a time when no-one is celebrating you? Hong Kong is not self-friendly. Hong Kong will make you feel like you should crawl on the ground like a worm in the dirt and you shouldn't say; "I'm on the bottom - but the bottom is on me". That is the spirit that is operating in this place! It will suck your self-image and inner sense of security and your sense of well-being celebrating; "I am special and precious in the Father's eyes" because we have listened to so many lies!

When we perceive someone as important - if they reject us then we assume that is because there is something in us that is perhaps not likeable! A parent, a school teacher, a pastor, a boyfriend or girlfriend - hopefully not a husband or wife! But when someone important to us rejects us - the devil begins to make us believe that there is something about you that is not likeable because if someone important doesn't like you then you are not likeable and how, therefore can you like yourself?

Jesus was the most wonderful and glorious Person that walked the earth and many rejected Him and He stayed completely secure in His Father's love.

Often when people reject you it is because there is some fear on the inside of them and has got very little to do with you.

We listen to the devil's lies too often. I have got something very important to preach but I want to get this out the way because if you don't like yourself then stuff will just go over your head and you get happy for a little while in the worship and then go out and spend 2 or 3 hours out there and you are with yourself again. That's why in Hong Kong people love noise, they will make radios play, noise in their ears when they walk in the country park.

They don't want to think of the realities of who they are because they don't like themselves so they don't want to meet with themselves. Someone who likes themself enjoys absolute silence and hours on their own with God because they enjoy their own company. If you don't have places of silence and peace and rest and celebrating who you are and letting the Father love and Jesus love you and the Holy Spirit put His arms around you and affirm you and endorse you and approve you then your identity is in other people's approval and that makes you vulnerable to compromise your call in God, compromise your commission in God - all to get people to like you.

Jesus couldn't get everyone to like Him because He was on a mission to do what His Father called Him to do. He wouldn't let Peter distract Him when Peter tried to stop Him going to the Cross, He said; "Get behind Me Satan!". He had a mission and if people didn't like Him, He would still stay on focus with it. Many Christians today sell out and compromise because they want people to like them. That is Satan's biggest tool and weapon against you. Every morning the devil accuses the brethren. He has got a list of all your faults. Now often when he points them out he is telling the truth in a way - but he is lying!

Because you can tell the truth in a way that is a lie. He is pointing out your faults - you've got a mess in this area of your life - relational problems in your marriage, financial problems, sick problems, sin problems, character issues and he will point them out every day! If you don't like yourself you will suck all that stuff in and believe the lies. You need to talk back to the devil!

And say; "Mr Devil - you think I've got problems? I recognise I have got a few messes here but let me tell you - you've got serious problems. I will tell you what the Bible promises. Jesus said at the Cross that you are condemned. The Bible promises you are heading for the bottomless pit. Now the Bible promises ME that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!". Then you will hear the tone in his voice change and he will sulk. I have heard the devil sulk!

And he will say; "Okay yere - but you've got still messes in your life!". You can then say; "Oh thank you so much Mr Devil for reminding me of how good God is because even with these messes in my life God loves me and sees me as righteous ALL the TIME!".

Why does the Bible invite us to come and drink the new wine? Maybe God is just cruel! I don't know - I've never seen people drink and drink and drink and stay sober, morbid, unhappy and critical and grumpy! People drink to get rid of their sorrow! Now the Bible invites us over and over again in many passages to come and drink of the new wine. The reason is because it tastes so good?! It makes you happy?! And not only does it make you forget your problems - trust me this is true whether you believe this or not - not only do you get drunk in the new wine and forget your problems but your problems start going away!

All because of the power of the new wine!

Last week we did Isaiah 53 and 54 and we saw the incredible oath that God swore regarding the New Covenant - that He will never be angry again and never withdraw His love and never withdraw His peace and establish you in righteousness and no weapon formed against you will prosper - every accusing tongue will fail because your heritage is of the Lord and your righteousness is of Me says God!

In Isaiah 55 God invites us as the New Covenant people to come and drink the new wine! He is basically saying in that passage that drinks are on the house!

You know what most Christians do?! Say that it's too early to drink! It's only 11:00! Well God will will say to you from Acts 2 - they had been drinking from who-knows-when but they were drunk at 09:00 because when they came out of the Upper Room and people said; "These people are drunk with new wine!". Peter said; "They are not drunk as you suppose but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel - in the last days I will pour out My Spirit".

Please don't tell me that the Holy Spirit has been poured out in a place where you have got conservative, cautious, self-concious, introspective, analytical, critical people! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE HAPPY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE UNINHIBITED! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! It's not too early - it's too late! It is a SHOCK that we are still sober!

I was drunk at 04:00 this morning - and at 05:00 I was so drunk in the Holy Spirit and then I came to church and sobered up! Because I had to get with Christians - no just joking! Why is it acceptable to sulk and be grumpy in church? Why?! "Well we've got so many problems". Why did you stop drinking?! Have you ever seen a drunk who is aware of their problems? They drank because they had problems and now they can't remember their problems and their happy! The problems don't go away until they sober up and then the problems are stil there. But for you and me - we are meant to stay drunk and happy and joyful in the Holy Spirit!

How do you drink Rob? Well you can't think and drink at the same time! I double-dog dare you today instead of thinking to stay drinking in the Holy Spirit. Do your thinking later! Reason with God according to the revelations you receive today!

So I want to talk about increasing in the blessing. How many want to receive more blessing in their lives? Do you know that there are people who have a problem with Christians getting blessed? It's like; "Ah there they go again - running after the blessing". Who said anything about running after the blessing?! God said that in 2009 the blessing will run after you! The Bible says that blessing will come on you and overtake you! "There's too much blessing - we've got to try and get away!". No it will keep coming and overtaking you! There is a real potential to live like that this year! But Rob - isn't the blessing bad? No the curse is bad!

Let me put it very simply. BLESSING = GOOD. CURSE = BAD!

I believe God wants to bless us so much in 2009 that it will actually embarress some of us! If you ask yourself why you are so embarressed - it is because you are thinking that; "I don't deserve this!".

Then God will show you more and more grace - that it has got nothing to do with us deserving it and everything to do wth us believing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

God said to me this week; "Go and study all the famines in the Bible and every famine - those people that had faith in the goodness of God got more and more wealthy during the times of economic downturn than those who did not have a covenant or faith in God". Isaac saved during a famine (Genesis 6) and in that year he had a hundred-fold and multiplied his wealth!

The Hebrew word for "blessing" is the word "favour of God" which actually means "to be envied"!

The Philistines envied Isaac because he got so wealth in a time when others were going down and he was going up in financial abundance. That is because he was the seed of Abraham and Galatians 3:29 says; "If you are in Christ then you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise". The blessings are meant to come on us and overtake us! We are not called to run after blessings! I have lived with Glenda for 34 years as my wife and she knows that I have never run after blessing or pursued blessing - I pursue Jesus and the reality of the New Covenant.

But in the revelation of who Jesus is and the revelation of who I am in Christ - when you get established greater and greater in the revelation that you are the righteousness of God then the blessings start coming on you and overtaking you!

God says for 2009 that this will make every other year look like POVERTY compared to this year! This is an amazing year and He says I want to bless City Church International people so much that the fear of God will come on the city - the fear of God will come on nations when they hear how God is blessing us! This is scary stuff to say because if I am wrong then it looks like my credibility is going down the line. But I am telling you - I felt God say this and this fear of God is not a "run away and hide" sort of fear. It is a reverential awe and wonder at how awesome is this God - wow! Look at the blessing on that church! We want that! Not one person without a job! Everyone getting promotion - everyone getting double portion! Everyone like themselves! Everyone full of joy - everyone in blessing on their marriages and blessing on their children! Blessing on their finances!

Blessing is the power to succeed - it is the empowerment to succeed!

Go to John 1 and if you haven't got there by now then don't try. Let's look at the revelation of God's Word. I believe that theology brings reformation to a way that we think - good theology positions us to receive a constant sustainable flow of blessing. You can come to a meeting and someone can say exciting things but without any good theology in it - they can preach from the Readers Digest and preach from the latest movies and do it so enthusiastically but without clear biblical theology - there will be no sustained blessing.

When you are sitting in a service and the Word of God is coming - 10, 20, 30 minutes - you are sitting there with something renewing your thinking and positioning you to see an increase of the blessing. It isn't a guru coming and laying his hands on your head and abracadabra - go and be blessed! That is not how it works in the Kingdom! You will get a blessing that is temporary and you will walk out but your thinking will still be stinking thinking.

You need to change the way you think - start liking yourself and start believing you are no longer under that Old Covenant - you have come over into a superior better covenant with a superior mediator Jesus Christ!

(John 1:16 and 17); "One blessing after another". Isn't that amazing that the law was given but grace CAME? The law was given - that's impersonal - it is a powerless moral structure. It tells you what to do but doesn't help you do it. It judges you, it curses you and makes you concious of sin and makes you hate yourself. That's why religious people hate themselves even more than an atheist does. Even though an atheist believes he is a product of impersonal time - impersonal chance - impersonal matter - all organising itself in an impersonal way that somehow became a personal complexity - thus contradicting the 2nd law of thermodynamics. The atheist believes that he came out of a swamp gas and is the product of a frog but still has more value in that existential insanity than a Christian who does not understand grace but is under law.

The law was given but grace came in a Person. So many are living in the absolute shallows of grace - they have hardly got their little toe wet and they are still too worried that they are being too indulgent. "One blessing after another" - ah no not another one! Yere another one and another one! The active word there is "received". You lay hands on some Christians and they don't know how to receive the anointing! They starting shouting; "Yere! Amen!". Just shut up and receive! You can't transmit and receive at the same time! Receive! That is the operative word. They received blessings - one after another.

We need to develop in 2009 a receptive attitude - an attitude of receptivity to the goodness and blessings of God. Let's get out of this thing - well I've got enough now! My job pays for my rent, food and travel. That is like living in slavery! The land of "just enough"! God is El-Shaddi - the God who is "more than enough"! Blessing after blessing after blessing! God wants to bless us so that the nations will fear Him!

God wants to release millions of dollars into this church so we will invade the nations and so we will bless! Money says to land; "I can buy you!". Money says to buildings; "I can buy you!". Money says to missionaries; "I can pay you". Money says to the poor; "I can feed you". Money says to the wealthy that God is not against money - He is against the love of money. I don't love money - I love Jesus! I tell you people in this hour who are not greedy are going to be entrusted with the stewardship of great wealth because we will not consume it upon ourselves but release finances to feed the poor and help as the economic downturn gets worse - we are just going to get better!

God will bless your job and bless you with FAR MORE than just to pay your rent! We are not going to finance the gospel in these last days just by salary! Salary will not be enough! It's got to be more! You will find money just coming in - all your richest uncles and aunties are going to die!

Having a receptive attitude means to be living with a confident expectation of good coming into your life. Every day I have got to discipline my mind to stop the negativity, the foreboding, the sense of dread, the sense of this could happen or that could happen, or that loved one could die, or this may happen. This could happen to my church or that could happen to me. I have got to live with a spirit of receptivity - a confident expectation of God that I have come into fulness of grace and from that fulness of grace I am receiving one blessing after another!

Well how do we go into the increased blessing? "Well Rob I have got the answer for that - we have to pursue righteousness. We have to pursue being more righteous. And if we can reach a certain level of obedience and holiness and righteousness then God will bless us!". (*City Church begins booing and cat-calling at this point and shouting "No!"*). You are too well taught! Who is your pastor in this place!? His Name is Jesus and the Spirit of God! If you pursue trying to be more righteous - if you pursue righteousness then that is stupid! The way to get more blessing is contrary to this world's system of economics. It is ridiculous!

The way to get more blessed is to do the opposite - you do not pursue righteousness. You simply stop trying and you submit to God's gift of righteousness and get established in that revelation.

If you try and pursue being righteous enough to get the blessing then every time you hear a promise that it is God's will to bless you then your whole thinking will go something like this - alright I had better get right with God to get that blessing. You know how your mind works if you monitor it! I hope you are monitoring it because if you don't monitor your thinking then you are passive and the devil loves you. He can lay all his lies on a passive mind! I tell you - I have been into this revelation of grace for some years now and there are still vulnerable moments when I hear a great promise of God of a blessing and think; "Well I had just better get right with God!" in some area of my life otherwise I am disqualified!

THAT is pursuing your righteousness and not submitting to His gift of righteousness.

The Bible says in Proverbs 10:6; "Blessings crown the head of the righteous!". In many places where you say that people look at their life if there is financial debt or relational problems or sickness issues in their life that are re-occuring - the first thing that someone who is not established in the gift of New Covenant righteousness thinks is - look at all the problems in my life - obviously I am not righteous enough so God can't crown my head with the blessing because He only does that for the righteous and look at the problems in my life so obviously I am not righteous enough!

No, my friend, if you are in Christ then you can't improve on the righteousness you have got because it is absolute, infinite and perfect righteousness - it is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! The reason those problems are going on is not because you are not righteous enough in Christ - it is because you are still pursuing your righteousness and trying to be right with God by your behaviour and by your good works!

It is a big step to make this move out from the boat of religion and walk on the waters of grace and start seeing blessing after blessing flowing in your life. Go to Romans chapter 9.

I woke up yesterday morning and heard the audible voice of God say to me; "Rob - are you pursuing righteousness or submitting to My gift of righteousness?". I said; "Well Lord I am not pursuing righteousness!". He said; "Son you still are in some areas". I was shocked!

I thought hey - I am the faith and grace preacher! He said;

"No there are still areas in your life and in your thinking where you still think I am not good enough for that or not good enough for this". So I repented! He said; "Now you ask My people at City Church International". So I am going to obey God. City Church International - are you still pursuing righteousness? Or are you submitting to God's gift of righteousness?

(Romans 9:30); "What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it - a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel who pursued a law of righteousness have not obtained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as it were by works - they stumbled over the stumbling stone". Then chapter 10:3; "Since they did not know that the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own - they did not submit to God's righteousness". Think about this.

Last week we read from Isaiah 54:14 - that God said I will establish you in righteousness and you will have nothing to fear - terror will not come near you, tyranny won't come near you - anyone that attacks you will surrender to you and no weapon formed against you can prevail - you will be established in righteousness! Now you know He was not talking about your being established in our righteousness but established in Isaiah 53 - the death of Jesus on the Cross in His righteousness. Israel tried to establish themselves in their righteousness by keeping the law. (v4); Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes!

Now go back to (v33) because we didn't read that. "As it is written; 'See I lay in Zion, a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame". What is the Spirit of God talking about there? What is this stumbling stone? He is Jesus! This stumbling stone is Jesus!

There are religious people zealous and pursuing their own self-righteousness and trying to be good enough to get the blessing and position themselves to be right with God so God can bless them and they are so busy doing this that they are stumbling over the revelation of grace and are constantly falling but it says here - those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame!

What is this issue of shame? In religious communities if someone had to get up and say; "I am the righteousness of God" - the religious community would make them feel shamed. The religious community would say; "Blasphemy!" and tear their clothes! Blasphemy?! How DARE you say that?! That is the stone the religious world stumbles over and so when people feel that pressure, they say; "Oh no - you are right - I am not the righteousness of God". And they stumble over that stone and go after trying to improve themselves and become better in order to get the blessing.

Paul the apostle was the Pharisee of Pharisees, he was driven to get righteousness by law but he encountered Jesus Christ in a supernatural way and from that day he was established in the revelation of righteousness so from that day he could say; "I am trusting in the Lord - I am not ashamed to say in front of all my Jewish countrymen - I was a Rabbi of Rabbis, a Pharisee of Pharisees, everything that Israel would want in a man - born of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day - according to legalistic righteousness - I am faultless'. He says; "I count all of that dung and all rubbish that I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own that is by the law but a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ that I may know Him" (Romans 1:16).

If you are struggling to rest and submit to God's gift of righteousness - if the struggle comes on your mind now and again - "How can God bless me when I know I've got something wrong in my life?" - just think of Paul and the transition he had to make from Pharisee of Pharisees - king of all kings regarding legalism - what happened to him that he could come to the place where he could say; "I am not ashamed" of this gospel! That is a radical transition that gives everyone hope in this place. (Romans 1:16-17); "Salvation" means "soterio" and that doesn't mean going to heaven. It includes that but it really means; "peace, protection, prosperity".

What do we live by faith in? We live by faith in the fact that we are the righteousness of God - that this is a righteousness that is from God revealed - not from man or revealed by the keeping of the law. It is a righteousness from God revealed in the Gospel and people who believe this righteousness - that they are the righteousness of God and don't stumble over the stumbling stone but believe they are the righteousness of God and are not ashamed to say that boldly and confidently - to them, the power of protection, peace and prosperity comes to those people that don't stumble!

Notice he says it is "by faith from first to last". This isn't just justifying righteousness. This is the righteousness that you come into the Kingdom in and it is the first thing you believe and it is the last thing you believe at the end of your life - you never go back to saying; "I will add another kind of righteousness to the righteousness I have found revealed in the Gospel". I don't pursue any other righteousness because that is the stumbling block! I am not going to be put to shame!

Now the religious world may shame me and attack me and attack the grace message and even lie about you and even if you make a mistake they will love it and pounce upon your mistakes and say; "THAT is because of the grace message!". But even though you may be accused of things and maybe you do things wrong that the religious world tries to make you ashamed of - if you trust in this gift of righteousness - in the eyes of God you will never be put to shame by your Father.

Every time you get sin going on in churches that peace, grace and law abide - they mix grace and law, Old and New together - there is lots of sin going on in those churches but every time someone sins and it is exposed, they say; "It's not our fault - we also preach law - we balance grace with law". Legalistic churches - sometimes people are sinning a lot more than in grace churches but when they sin the preacher doesn't get the blame because he preached law to them! He told them not to! But in grace churches when they sin? "Ah it is the grace message". I want to say to the legalistic churches; "Have a look in your back yard!".

I know churches where grace was preached for a long time and people got established to a degree in grace and the level of sin was pretty low. Then other preachers came in and began to preach; "Do better, try harder, hasn't Jesus done enough for you?!". And they manipulate people with what Jesus did at the Cross. "You owe Him something now". No - you DID owe Him something and then He cancelled everything at the Cross!

Now you don't have to have a whole load of "have-tos" but a whole load of "want-tos"! I want to love Him! I want to serve Him! I want to pray! I want to give! I want to be generous! Because - I just want to!

These guys come in and preach "have-tos" and if you want the blessing then try harder and I see adultery come into those churches and see unmarried couples begin to sleep together and I want to go back and slap those leaders and say; "Go back to preaching what Paul preached - stop trying to put law on the people to stop them sinning!". I guarantee if you have got two glass houses in the street and the first one has got no signs up on the outside and little boys come outside and will not even notice the first glass house. But the second - big signs say "Do not throw stones! Do NOT throw stones at the glass house!". Everything in me - the law stirs up sin! Go to Romans chapter 3. I love the law of God. The law of God is wonderful but I love it for what it was written for. The law was never written to give you the blessing!

Obeying the law was NEVER in God's mind! God never gave the law to make you holy - never! It was written to make you feel like hell! It was written to make you feel like a worm in the dust! It was written to silence all our arrogance to God and all our self-righteousness. It was written to make you concious of sin and once you realise that you are so ugly in your arrogant religious self-righteousness then you repent of pursuing a righteousness of your own and submit!

You stop stumbling over the rock and submit with all my imperfections!"I thank You that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!".

And when you do that, the peace of God comes, the power, fullness of grace - one blessing after another! You start hearing God's voice a lot easier! (Romans 10:4) - Christ is the end of the law. Once you realise the law is useless and can't save you - it is powerless! Paul says in Romans 7; "the law taking advantage of your sin deceived you even further". The written code stood opposed to you and God cancelled it at the Cross in Christ Jesus on behalf of the believer. Once you come to Christ that is it. No more law for you! No more measuring up. Jesus measured up for you and you are complete in Christ! You are the righteousness of God in Christ!

(Romans 3:19); "Whatever the law says - it says to those under the law". Thank God I am not under the law in Christ! This is what it says to those under the law (although it won't say it to you!); "So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God". That's why no one will get to heaven by their own righteousness. (v20) - Therefore noone will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law we become concious of sin. But now a righteousness from God APART FROM THE LAW has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

Go to Romans 5:17; "If by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive (there's the active word again - active expectation of good) God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness".

That is so important! "Gift!". The gift of righteousness reigns in life through the one Man Christ Jesus. Now this is the problem here and this is how the devil is arguing this with false theology.

This is a gift of righteousness. The Greek tense is the present continuous tense. So God sees you CONTINUALLY as righteous!

Rob - what happens if I sin? Well shock of all shocks! Like I said last week - if the main purpose of Jesus dying on the Cross was to stop Christians sinning, then I reverently say this - He failed. Because I don't know one Christian on the planet who doesn't sin. But if the main reason why Jesus died on the Cross was so that our sin will never be imputed to us - so that our sinning will never be charged against us - "there is now therefore NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus" - if the main reason He died was so my sin and sinning will never seperate me from God again then He was an utter success.

Jesus died on the Cross to lift condemnation completely off His people and when condemnation is lifted completely off His people then you are empowered to have greater authority against sin.

Some of the most obedient people on the planet today - the most holy, humble, pleasures to be with are people who are honest and transparent about their weaknesses and their short-comings and their failures and they are trusting in the grace of God and loving God and they know how many times they fail or make a mistake - yet they know they are still the righteousness of God!

Some say; "No you have got the robe of righteousness on and if you sin there are stains on that robe". What a disgusting blasphemy. How do you think that the righteousness of God can be stained by your sin?! No - Jesus was stained with your sin on the Cross once and for all time to make you perfect forever and no stain can stick to the righteousness you have!

Now if you are self-righteous then your sin adds all kinds of stains but you don't have any righteousness you have because it is a righteousness that is perfect because that's the one revealed in the Gospel. People say; "Oh yes we know it's a gift and you get a gift - Jesus come into my life". That's justification. But any sin you do after that you are no longer righteous and you have to confess your sin and repent and then you get your righteousness back. Well that's the problem isn't it - you get your righteousness back!

Well that's the problem - you will get your righteousness back! No - Romans 8 says no condemnation and nothing can seperate us! Nothing! Not your sinning! Your sinning seperated Jesus! "My God, My God - why have you forsaken Me?". So you will never be forsaken! If you confessing every sin was keeping your righteousness and open fellowship with God then you are in big trouble because you don't even know all the time when you sin. Because you have the religious sins of some cultures. God talks about being critical self-promoting, gossip.

Anything that is not of faith is sin!

So if being cut off from God happens because you haven't confessed your sin then every Christian on the planet is already cut off from God! Then they say; "Ah well we're cut off from God but we will go to heaven when we die hopefully". Oh pleaseeeee! This is a gift - it is not the reward of your obedience. It is a gift of Jesus' obedience on your behalf. Go to (v19);

"For just as through the disobedience of the one many, many were made siners so also through the obedience of the one man - the many (are imputed) or made righteous".

This is a fascinating thing that people say; "Yes you are righteous when you first get saved and then after that you have got to maintain your righteousness". We need to go back to the great preachers of 100 years ago - Charles Haddon Spurgeon and all who preached Colossians 2 that says; "And Christ forgave all your sins - at the Cross cancelling the written sins - at the Cross cancelling code".

When did Christ forgive all your sins? Before you had committed ONE! When Colossians 2 says past tense; "At the Cross, He forgave ALL your sins". Under the Old Covenant and under the Law you only get forgiveness when you confessed! In Christ - when did He forgive your sins? At the Cross you know what modern evangelicals believe? He only forgave your sins from the day you got born again to the day you got saved. Then after you got saved if sinned again then your righteousness is no longer as shining as it was before. WHERE do they get that theology?! If He can forgive all your sins from the day you were born to the day you got saved but can't forgive your sins after you got saved - then I would rather get saved the second before I die!!

He forgave ALL your sins at that glorious Cross! Gone! Blotted out! Finished! The sin issue is not even an issue anymore! The Father is not relating to you on that - you are the righteousness of God! This righteousness is NOT a reward of your obedience! It is a gift from God! That we submit to! We do not pursue it - we submit to it and we say; "I agree God! I am righteous in your sight forever!".

It is through the obedience of the one Man. Now it says through the disobedience of the one man, many (that is everyone) were made sinners. In other words Adam's disobedience brought condemnation and made you a sinner. You are not going to hell because of your sin - you are going to hell because of Adam's sin. People say; "That's not fair - if I want to go to hell, I want to go for my sin! Why should I go to hell for Adam's sin?".

Well God set it up as unfair because you are not going to heaven because of your righteousness or because of your obedience. You are going to heaven and you are righteous through a gift through the obedience of the one Man. Before you were in Christ and when you are in Adam and his disobedience - you are made a sinner and you were condemned by Adam's disobedience. Did you sin all the time? No! Everyone of us before we were Christians did good things. We fed the poor and gave to the hungry. Rock stars get philanthropic and give money and help and do good things. I did good things before I was a Christian!

My good things that I did were righteous acts but I could not "righteous" away my sinhood because I was in first Adam! Now they say that you are in the obedience of the last Adam - Jesus - and you have HIS gift of righteousness. You are meant to be able to "sin away" this righteousness but you can't "righteous" away your sin-hood in first Adam!?! That is blasphemy and what they are saying is that first Adam's disobedience is far more powerful than last Adam's obedience.

Now we are righteous and we have got to perform righteously? Well that means you have got to add to God's righteousness and how will you be established in righteousness if you don't know where God's righteousness ends and your performance of righteousness begins? On what are you established?

The Gospel is not about you changing. The Gospel is about how GOD changed the way He relates to you from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

When I say "Old Covenant" I mean the law covenant of Moses - I don't mean Abraham. As I keep saying and people are saying around the world now - the Gospel is not about right living. My dad was an atheist most of his life and he lived a better moral life than most Christians. But he was on his way to hell - till I led him to Christ! The Gospel is not about right living. Buddhists live good lives as do Muslims. Atheists lead good lives and so do religious people and Hinduis! The Gospel is about right believing.

"For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed to all who believe - it is by faith from first to last".

Right believing will progressively lead to right living.

I think some people have come into our meetings and heard what we are saying now and say; "Is this a bunch of immoral people and are they all committing adultery all over the place?". I have been married for 34 years and Glenda and I have never committed adultery and never want to. I am too frightened of Glenda and will never do that! I want to live a life of integrity and authenticity - I want to obey God and lay my life down and die for Him if I need to. But no guilt! Just freedom and joy and getting drunk at 04:00 on a Sunday morning! When I do make mistakes I just thank God that I am the righteousness of God!

Go to Galatians. Obviously we are repeating and reinforcing things. I want to teach on how to hear God still and teach on the high priestly garments of Jesus and on the Benjamin generation - a prophetic word on that! But God said to start the year off by going back and reinforcing and establishing the foundations. If I have found God saying; "What are you pursuing Rob?" then I realise I hear a promise and think "okay I have got to do a bit to qualify mysefl a bit more" - then I know that some of you think that way. It is more than just hearing; "I am the righteousness of God" - it is being established in it that when the devil comes and says; "Now that sin you did there - that's it - God has had enough, no more blessing" - you will be so established that you will find that the funniest thing you have ever heard!

You will fall on your back and scream with laughter that the devil thinks you can "sin away" the obedience of Jesus - that means I couldn't "righteous" away my sinhood when I was in 1st Adam! Ha ha! You think I can sin away Jesus' righteousness?! Ha ha! Devil - what a joke! I AM the righteousness of God - no weapon can prevail against me! From the fullness of His grace I am receiving one blessing after another - hang around devil! Wait and you will see! Hang around here long enough and you will see the blessing!

I remember when we first got saved and we were university students at Rhodes and came into Christ and saw something of grace and we were living - every day I had to trust God for money. I knew this God was good. I would run up the forest - any excuse I could get. Before I was saved I was in the pub all day and then I got saved and any gap I had I am up into the bush to meet with the God I loved!

At the end of the day you can't just learn from hearing a preacher - you have got to meet with this God.

I would go meet with this God I loved and I got to know Him in the forests. That's where faith comes! I remember telling a cynic that every day I live by faith and have to believe God for money. Every day to live as a student! My wife had a baby and I had no income! While I was telling him the story this Afrikaan came up to me that we hardly knew at all at this time and he said; "Here this is for you - the Lord told me to give you this". Then he walked off. The cynic is looking at me and I just told him how God keeps providing and his eyes were coming out on stalks!

I opened the packet and money came pouring out! I felt like saying; "I told you so!". Our faith has grown since those days - one blessing after another! From the fullness of His grace.

You have got to like yourself and have this attitude that God likes me and He wants to bless me! I want to say to you - God loves you! He loves you! God doesn't want to bless you just so you are a greater minister! God wants to bless me because He loves me! Just because of the heaven of it - He loves me! He sees you as righteous!

Let's go to 2 Scriptures - what are you relying on and depending on for the blessing? I want to tell you with authority and with full persuasion that the vast majority of people in Christ in the earth do not have clarity on this and still have ambiguity and confusion and are still not established. They kind of think they are righteous in Christ but they kind of think they are disqualified for the blessing and have to try and keep the law a little better. In City Church International we are not going to have that mix of stinking thinking! We are going to stick with the Scriptures!

We will cover some of the certain verses - the "difficult verses" such as James 5; "Confess your sins to one another". But Rob - you just said that you didn't have to confess! We will cover that. We will cover all of those difficult Scriptures and you will get so excited! You will believe even stronger! You can't depend on even mix a little bit. You can't depend on your righteousness and His a bit. You can't pursue your righteousness to be qualified for the blessing and submit to His righteousness! It is one or the other! That's why some Christians are only blessing partially - they partially believe grace and partially believe law!

When you move over from law to grace fully - you will come into the fullness of the blessing of God.

(Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing a law are under a curse for it is written; cursed is everyone who doesn't continue to do everything written in the book of the Law".

If you are thinking that praying one hour extra a day will give you the blessing then you have MISSED it! If you want to pray for an hour then pray for an hour - I love praying for hours!

(v11); "Clearly no one is justified by God through the law because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith - on the contrary the man who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a true' - He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit".

Now it doesn't make any snese to say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law - to say that if I break the law and fail the law then God won't curse me if I keep the law 100%!

If Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law that means even when we fail at times and fall short of the law there is NO CURSE coming our way because Christ has redeemed us from law's curse by satisfying the integrity of the High Court of Justice in heaven - He was cursed in our place with the curse of the law that we deserve - He was cursed so that the blessing given to Abraham could come to the Gentiles by the promise of the Spirit through faith!

It is so clear! There is no ambiguity - except the religious world blurs it on purpose to keep control over the people of God with guilt manipulation.

What are we depending on? Your behaviour? Or are you depending on your faith in Jesus behaviour?! If you are depending on your behaviour then you are pursuing a righteousness and establishing a righteousness of your own - which will bring the curse on you. The curse of the law - but if you are in faith that you have a faith righteousness that's not based on your fluctuating performance but your faith in the performance of Jesus Christ who performed perfect obedience for you then you will be secure.

I don't have to have perfect faith in first Adam - I was born into this world into the lineage of first man and I was born into his disobedience.

No matter how many good things I did - all my good things were like filthy rags - I could not "righteous" away my sinhood in first Adam! But to come out of first Adam took faith and I have to believe that there is a righteousness I cannot sin away ever - it is from first to last - a righteousness from God that is not a reward for my obedience - it is a GIFT for my faith!

(v5); "Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?". Paul told them that he clearly preached the Cross and revelation of righteousness. (v6); "Consider Abraham - he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness ... those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham - the man of faith". (Romans 4:3); "What does the Scripture say? ... faith is credited as righteousness" = right standing with God. How do we increase the blessing in our lives? (v8); "Blessed is the man who's sin the Lord will never count against him!". He is not counting your sins! There is no sense of heaven going; "I saw that! I saw you!". No all He sees is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
(Deuteronomy 28) - this is a famous Scripture of blessings and curses that is often read out in churches but not explained clearly enough. The context is that God is going to announce to Israel the blessings and the curses. I will not read all the curses to you - they are too depressing. The curses are poverty - you can NEVER say that poverty is a blessing! I highly respect Francis of Assisi and his poverty oath but he was walking in the lights that he had. He was an awesome man of God but in Deuteronomy 28 poverty is a sign of the curse. There is a great controversy about what is called the "prosperity message".

I am not preaching it - I am preaching the Gospel which INCLUDES prosperity because God made Abraham very rich! The controversy with the prosperity message is that in some cases it was preached wrong because they did not understand law and grace. So the inference in the prosperity message is that if your life is right - do good and get good. Do bad and get bad. Which is the law! The prosperity message will sound like this - if your life is right and you are praying enough and giving enough and going to church enough and reading your Bible enough and living righteously enough then the Lord will bless you! Well what does that say? To those that aren't blessed and who do have poverty and are poor and are suffering? Well it must be because you are so sinful! No.

Many of the people who preached the prosperity message went into debt and borrowed so much money they were living in false prosperity. Many of them have disappeared off the face of the earth. You would drive to church in a big car because I am prospering! What are you trying to say to people? This car is a sign of my right doing and that produces arrogance and pride and shame and pain in the people who are in places where they are disenfranchised and don't have access to banks and loans and opportunities. We preach that this message will help people in India, Africa - anywhere in the world where they will stop putting the law on people and saying; "Your good acts and living obediently enough will get you prosperity and your good health and your blessing is a sign of you praying enough and being holy enough and giving enough and jumping through all the right steps and hoops".

No! There is just one step. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you are the righteousness of God from the fullness of His grace, we have received one blessing after another! You can tell that to poor people in Africa and if they stay in this message and hold on and get through all the stuff that we have got through and evey spirit that has tried to hinder this message and stop us believing this and making us feel afraid if we believe this - that this is a false gospel and we must be deceived! No - the one that has the law in it - Paul says if anyone preaches a Gospel with alw in, may he be doubly condemned! This is the Good News! This is the New Covenant! This is Jesus!

The other one is the false one and I would rather be criticised by man than doubly condemned by God for preaching a gospel that has the law in it!

When we see someone in poverty, we don't say; "That is your sinful life - you sowed and now you have reaped!". That is an Old Covenant teaching and when you read sowing and reaping, you had better read it in it's context and make sure you are not transferring Old Covenant sowing and Old Covenant reaping into New Covenant.

Everything from the Old Covenant must go through the Cross! If it passes cleanly through the Cross the apostles make very little comment on it but if it doesn't pass cleanly through the Cross then the Jewish apostles make commentary on it and re-interpret Old Covenant truths into higher revelation New Covenant truths.

Like I said on Thursday night Old Covenant was a "snip on the tip" - it didn't pass cleanly through the Cross so Paul says; "Our hearts are circumcised" - the re-birth! He uses the words; "the circumcision of the heart" - that old nature has been cut out and the new creation nature of Christ is put in.

Sowing and reaping - I am not getting what I sow! I am getting what the Father sowed in Jesus on my behalf.

Now Galatians 5:6 says "Don't be deceived ... whatever a man sows to the flesh, he will from the flesh reap destruction". Read the context! Don't read the NIV - read most of the other translations when you read Galatians. It says "flesh" not "sinful nature". The context is clear - what is "flesh"? It is not just "sinful nature" - the flesh is my human effort - my sweat - my trying to keep the law - my trying to earn. He said; "You have given up on the Spirit and gone back to human effort. You are trying now in human effort to be good enough and you aren't believing what Abraham believed and believing you are righteous. Now you are trying to get righteous and you pursuing righteousness instead of submitting to what you got as a gift".

That is the flesh! He said; "I am warning you - if you keep sowing to that human effort - that law-keeping stuff, you will reap from it destruction! But if you sow to the Spirit - which is the revelation of righteousness in Christ - from the Spirit you will reap eternal life!". Eternal life is not living forever! People will live eternally in hell as well. Eternal life is a quality of life - the life of God lived now in the flesh in this body!

Your house didn't burn down because you sowed something bad 3 years ago! When Jesus died on the Cross, He caused a total crop failure of every negative seed I have sowed and every bad thing I have done since getting saved! I am not waiting for a bad harvest to catch up with me!

People are looking over their shoulders thinking, "I didn't forgive enough or do enough - I was bitter - I did wrong there!". That is still Old Covenant thinking! Under the Old Covenant you only get forgiveness as you forgive others! That is Old Covenant! The New Covenant (Colossians 3:13) says; "Forgive one another just as Christ HAS forgiven you!". He has TOTALLY forgiven you past, present and future and it is not conditional on you forgiving others - it has already taken place at the Cross!

You can't mess it up! You have got full forgiveness! And because I know that even if I don't forgive them I am still already forgiven past, present and future then that empowers me to WANT to forgive them. People fear; "If I don't forgive them then God will not forgive me and He will hand me over to the tormentors". That is Jesus preaching before the Cross and before the New Covenant! That is a terrible motive! I forgive so easily because I have been totally forgiven by the Father and nothing bad I am sowing out there can get me to reap bad stuff today.

You may as well go and join a Buddist church if you are going to do the sowing and reaping thing - that is totally Old Covenant! (2 Corinthians 8); You have got to re-think traditions of men.

Now let's read Deuteronomy 28 - ready for a revelation? If the majority of Christians were believing the truth they would be drunk in the joy of God and would be blessed and would be walking in confidence and would be so happy and would love themselves and forgive everyone and wouldn't hold grudges or be analytical or self-concious! The traditions of men have been nullifying the power of God's Word and some bulldozers in Hong Kong has to start announcing the good enwsin Jesus Christ and break through all these strongholds and wrong ways of thinking. There are seminars that you can go to that will turn you into a inward looking maniac! Analysing everything that has been causing the problems in your life!

There is only one thing causing the problems in your life and that is unbelief that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

The devil has got people running back into their mothers womb and running down this formula and that and taking you there and into your past. Your house burnt down because you didn't tithe! If I was a psychiatrist then I would do a thesis on Christians!

The religious traditions of men is the worst cause for mental health problems!

Here is God about to give the law - curse and blessing. Israel were slaves in Egypt and were under bondage. The Bible says in Exodusthat God remembered His covenant with Abraham. What is the covenant with Abraham? Grace and faith and no law! There was no law under Abraham! When Israel was in Egypt there was no Moses hearing the law at Mount Sinai. No law between Adam and Moses! Just a covenant of grace with Abraham! So He stirs up Moses to go to His people (Exodus 3:13) and say; "I am speaking on behalf of Abraham (covenant of God) and He will bring you out of Egypt with signs and wonders and miracles, and open up the Red Sea". They murmered and complained and sinned yet God turned the bitter waters sweet with the wood - the symbol of the Cross. They complained of not enough food and He brought down manna from heaven. And He never judged them! Why? They were under Abraham and under grace. They are sinning and yet God sees them as righteous in Abraham and in grace and in that covenant.

They do wrong and wrong and wrong and eventually Galatians 3 says that because of the sin of UNBELIEF - they did not believe in the grace of God! - God said "I will give you the law so the transgressions will increase".

So God brought the law to them and He gives them the opportunity to receive the law and the people should have got up as one and said; "We repent oh God! We don't want the law! We don't want to be blessed according to us keeping the law! We want what Abraham got! Abraham got blessed through faith in your goodness and we want that!". They didn't. They said to God; "Everything you tell us to do - we will do". Moses was still getting the law on Mount Sinai when they were already worshipping a golden calf.

Once the law came, curse after curse after curse came to Israel. From the time of Moses till the time of Christ redeeming Jew and Gentile from the curse; "ALL who will believe". (Deuteronomy 28:2); "You wanted the law? Not grace? Right you got it!". (v1); Can you see a problem in that? The Lord said "IF you obey these laws and commands THEN I will fully bless you". It is not about how much you try or how good your intentions are. It is to FULLY obey. That is 100% and there is no room to drop! (Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse". (Deuteronomy 28:15); "IF ... all these curses will come and overtake you". We have read today that there is good news!

ONE fully obeyed on our behalf. One fully did it as last Adam on our behalf. One FULLY redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessing given to Abraham can come tous. That means that NONE of the curses in Deuteronomy 28 belong to us - not even one. Christians should not be living under any curse of poverty, sickness, disease or broken relationships. Many Christians are living under the curse as people not in Christ because they are trying to pursue righteousness rather than submitting to the gift. None of the curses belong to us but ALL the blessings belong to us because in Christ we have FULLY obeyed the law! God wanted to relate to His people on grace and faith - not on our performance but HIS!

Now the day that any church moves into this level of blesssing then the world will know about it. And why not us!?! 2009 is the year - we are positioned for it!