Discerning the Spirit of Babylon — Zac Poonen

Babylon as the Harlot and the Bride of Christ

Our subject is discerning the spirit of Babylon and some people may not know why we use the word Babylon because they're not familiar with scripture. But if you turn to the end of the Bible and Revelation chapter 17, it speaks about Babylon as the great harlot, mother of harlots in Revelation chapter 17 and verse five.

So it's a scriptural word. We are using a New Testament scriptural word. It has some connection with the old empire of Babylon run by Nebuchadnezzar, but the Lord is trying to use that as an example to warn us.

And it's called a harlot. The harlot is a prostitute and it's compared in Revelation chapter 21 with the bride in chapter 21 verse two is called a new Jerusalem, not the old Jerusalem which is on earth.

Babylon is the harlot and the new Jerusalem is the bride. And the bride is the disciples of Jesus who follow him wherever he goes. They are described in Revelation chapter 14 as these are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes in Revelation chapter 14 and verses one to five.

So that's the contrast here. And we need to understand what is this harlot or adulteress? A bride is someone who's faithful to the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. And the adulteress of the harlot Babylon is one who claims to be the bride, but is unfaithful.

I mean, if someone is not engaged to Christ, in other words, doesn't claim to belong to Christ, they cannot be a part of Babylon. A person who belongs to another religion can never be a part of Babylon.

Babylon refers to those who claim to be Christians, claim to accept Jesus as their Lord, but are not devoted to him as the bride. And this is described in James and chapter four. If you don't have time to look at these verses, you can just jot them down or listen to this message later on.

But I have to go through it quickly. James four and verse four. Here is how the adulteress, the spiritual adulteress is described here like this. James writes to Christians. Remember, he's writing to Christians here in other places.

He says, many of you brethren, my brethren in chapter three, verse one, chapter two, verse one, my brethren. He's talking to my brethren and to the believers. He says in James four, verse four, you adulteresses.

Now, he's not saying that to the world. He's saying that to believers who don't have the spirit of devotion to Christ like a bride should have to the person she's engaged to. The bride of Christ is a picture of a bride who's absolutely faithful to a person she's engaged to, who's gone on a distant journey, promised to come back and marry her.

But the harlot is one who is engaged, but fools around with others while her bridegroom is away. And this is referred to here in James four, for you adulteresses, and here is the other person who is attracting the bride and making her an adulteress.

It's called here the world. You adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world, that is spiritual adultery. It's described so clearly here. And that is hostility or enmity towards God. So whoever makes himself a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Now, when it speaks about the world, it's not talking about people. The people of the world, the Bible says, God so loved the people of the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish.

But this is talking about a world system where Satan is called the prince of this world. And his aim is to confuse and deceive those who claim to be Christians. He's not worried about those who are already in his hands, unbelievers.

He's concerned with those who claim to be the bride of Christ, to defile them, corrupt them, make their witness ineffective, make them compromise in some way, lose their testimony, go after other things and lose their devotion to Christ.

All types of ways the devil seeks to make them a friend of this world system. When it says the devil is the prince of this world, he's not a physical ruler on earth. He's a ruler of this world system which runs what we see in this world.

So that is what's referred to here. And John the apostle also writes like this in 1 John chapter two. This is, we need to understand this Babylon clearly. 1 John chapter two and verse 15 says, do not love the world.

Loving God Rather Than the World

If anyone, I don't care who you are. Again, he's writing to believers. Chapter two, verse one, my little children. He's writing to those who are born again. He's even writing to spiritual fathers in 1 John 2 .14.

That means not just, there are three types of believers he writes to in verses, chapter two, verse 12 to 14. Those who are spiritual babes, newly converted. Those who have progressed to little young men and those who are spiritual fathers.

1 John 2 .14. Some of you may think you're very mature spiritual father. You say, I'm not a baby Christian. I'm not even a young brother. I'm a mature spiritual father. Here is what the Holy Spirit is saying to you and to me.

Do not love the world. Can a spiritual father love the world? Can an effective preacher love the world? Yes. Anyone can fall into that. If you say, well, I'm beyond that, I'm a spiritual father. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

It behoves us to walk in humility. And when the word of God says to spiritual fathers, love not the world, I want to take it seriously. I don't want to imagine that I can be careless. Jesus was always alert on this earth when he lived on this earth.

That's why he never sinned. Do not love the world. If anyone loves the world, listen to this. Don't care you're a new believer or a spiritual father. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.

And what is the world? The lust of the flesh. It's not the people. It's the lust of the flesh. 1 John 2, 16, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. All this is not from the father, but it's from the world.

And this is going to pass away, verse 17. And the opposite of that is, here's the bride in 1 John 2, 17, those who do the will of God. So the contrast here is between the Babylon, those who indulge in the lust of the flesh, which is usually all types of sinful pleasures, and the lust of the eyes, which refers to adultery, and the boastful pride of life, which is seeking honor.

And this also includes, lust of the eyes also includes the love for money. We look and see things and we want to buy them. All this is going to pass away. And the one who does the will of God, that's the contrast.

Those are the people who constitute the bride of Christ. That's just a little brief introduction. Now, when we trace this back to the beginning, we'll see, it's a very subtle thing. Way back in the beginning, when God created Adam, he sent him into a garden and there were two trees mentioned there were thousands of trees in the garden of Eden, but two trees particularly are mentioned.

The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life

One is the knowledge, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the other is the tree of life. Now, there's nothing wrong with knowing good and evil. We know that, we teach our children from the time they are born to know good and evil.

Why did God forbid that? Very important to understand it, because the origin of Babylon is also here. Here are two trees and one leads on finally to Babylon in a very subtle way. This is not obvious sin.

Obvious sin is what we saw in 1 John 2, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. But here you see a contrast in the beginning of the Bible, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.

What do you see at the end of the Bible? Babylon and Jerusalem. How does it end up there? The choice is to have knowledge of spiritual things, knowledge of the word of God and know life. There is a knowledge which just remains in our mind, which is part of our soul.

Such a person is a soulish Christian, not a spiritual Christian. A spiritual Christian concentrates on life, that knowledge leads to life. See, knowledge is like food. Food is very important. We cannot grow without food.

We don't have life without food. But if you eat food and it never gets digested and never gets converted into blood and flesh and bones, you die. You can eat as much as you like, but you die. That is what knowledge does.

Knowledge is like food. If it's not digested, if the Holy Spirit does not break it down and make it part of our inner life, of our spirit, our heart, it ends up as knowledge and we end up in Babylon. It doesn't look so dirty as sexual sin.

It doesn't look so dirty as the love of money. It doesn't look so dirty as pride, but it leads to Babylon just as much. Knowledge. Many Christians who are fairly clean morally, who are not running after money and who are not seeking honor also end up in Babylon because their Christianity is all in their knowledge.

Even those who speak about forgiveness or justification, even some who speak about victory over sin, it's not in their life. They are proud. How can a man speak about victory over sin and be proud? He's got to be crazy.

He's full of the greatest sin of all. The first sin that came in the universe, pride. And here he's proud. Maybe he's not proud of worldly things. He's proud of his Bible knowledge or perhaps he's proud of his spirituality.

That is Babylon. To have a good moral life and to be proud of it is Babylon. We read that in 1 John 2, 16. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So knowledge, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8, pops up.

Whereas love builds up. The primary mark of life, the primary mark of spiritual life is fervent love for God and for Jesus Christ. And leading on to loving one another in the church, as Jesus loved us, and loving everyone in the world as ourselves.

At least a willingness to love everybody as ourselves. It doesn't mean we've got to help everybody, but an attitude, for example, to ensure that there is not a single human being against whom I've got hatred.

There's not a single human being whom I despise. That's knowledge. You know, knowledge puffs up. And whether it's Bible knowledge or scientific knowledge or earthly knowledge, it can puff up a Christian and he becomes a part of Babylon.

It's a very subtle thing. Many Christians think, I'm not a part of Babylon. I'm in a good church. Oh yeah? It's not a particular church that is Babylon. It's a spirit that can be in a person. You can be sitting in the best church in the world and be a part of Babylon.

Yeah, it's an individual thing. You yourself choose whether you want knowledge or you want life. For example, when you read the Bible, I'm sure most of you read the Bible, are you seeking for knowledge or life?

Those are the two trees. This book, the Bible, can be a tree of knowledge of good and evil, or it can be a tree of life to you. The choice is yours. If you use only your mind to study or to a Bible school, study, study, study, use a lot of commentaries and this, that, and the other, concordance, which is all good.

I use concordances myself. But if it's only going to remain in the mind, I'm going to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not the Bible knowledge, perhaps, the tree of Bible knowledge. The Lord told Adam, if you eat of that, you'll die.

And it's true even today. The pursuit of knowledge, any type of knowledge by itself, without life, brings death. There's nothing wrong in pursuing knowledge. I want to pursue knowledge that is essential for me to live on this earth.

I want to pursue the knowledge of the scripture. I've been studying the Bible for more than 61 years. And even today, I say, Lord, I don't want to study this book to get knowledge. I don't want to study this book to preach.

I want life more than anything else. That's what I want to pursue. That's how I stay away from Babylon. So this is the first thing I want to warn you, dear brothers and sisters, very lovingly and humbly, I would urge you, when you read the scriptures, when you hear a message, don't think of, ah, I understood something.

Some people think like this, especially those who are preachers. Ah, I got a point to preach in my next sermon. Is that why you're listening to God's word in a sermon or reading the Bible, to get a point to preach for your next sermon, to get honor for yourself?

That is Babylon. When you preach to get honor for yourself, that is 100 Babylon. We are supposed to preach to point to Christ, to draw people away from ourselves to Christ. We have to point to him so that people don't see us.

That's the spirit of the bride, pointing away from ourselves. So that's the first place where we see this contrast, knowledge or life. Go on to chapter four. We read about the first sin committed outside the Garden of Eden.

After Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden, we read of Cain and Abel presenting a offering to God. And there again, you see a contrast. And there again, you see the spirit of Babylon in Jerusalem, the harlot and the bride.

Why did the fire of God fall on Abel's sacrifice and did not fall on Cain's sacrifice? That's what disturbed Cain. Why is God accepting Abel? The way God manifested his acceptance in Old Testament times was a physical fire would fall on the sacrifice, as you read in Leviticus and other places.

So here, the reason why is not because, like some preachers teach, that Abel brought a lamb, a blood offering. There were offerings given, ordered by God, which did not have blood. For example, grain offering was a Thanksgiving offering.

What Cain and Abel were bringing was not a sin offering. They were bringing a Thanksgiving offering for the way God blessed their labors. Cain was a farmer, so he brought a lamb. Abel was a shepherd, so he brought the grain.

Absolutely right. Abel was a shepherd, so he brought the lambs, a lamb, rather. But what was the difference? Cain, Genesis 4, 3, brought an offering, A-N, an offering. Abel was for, brought the best of his flock.

Here again, you see Babylon and Jerusalem, or the harlot and the bride. There are Christians who bring an offering to God, A-N, some offering, some 10 or whatever it is. The question is not the quantity.

No, it's not talking about quantity. It's the lamb that Abel brought here may have been very small compared to the huge amount of grain that Cain brought. It is not quantity at all. It was an offering, whereas Abel brought the best.

So here are two types of Christians. Some will bring an offering to ease their conscience. Oh, I have to give something to God. I call them the minimum Christians. By that, I mean their whole attitude to Christianity is what is the minimum I have to do to please God?

What is the minimum I have to do to go to heaven? What is the minimum I have to do to have my sins forgiven? That is called an offering. It always ends up in Babylon. The other Christians like Abel who says, Lord, what is the maximum I can give you in this one earthly life I have?

You don't have to be a full-time Christian worker. The apostle Paul was a businessman who served the Lord. He was a tent maker. He was not a full-time Christian worker. He earned his own living and supported himself.

And he even supported some of his coworkers. He was an amazing man, an example. He says, follow me as I follow Christ. He didn't bring an offering. He brought the best. He gave his life to God and he said, I don't want to be like one of these preachers who are paid by others and look around for somebody to give money.

These preachers who always send out prayer letters to get money from different places. He said, I don't want to be like that. He never sent out a prayer letter. He never asked people for money. He supported himself because he wanted to give the best.

He says, as a servant of the God, I have the right to be supported because Jesus said the laborer is worthy of his heart. But he says, I don't use that right. He was following a savior, Jesus, who gave up all his rights when he came to earth.

That is the mark of a man who belongs to the bride. He doesn't claim rights. He doesn't say, I have a right to this. I'll tell you, the bride of Christ has no rights. If people take away rights from me, he says, okay.

I'm not going to get offended. I'm not going to get hurt. He may be the most respected person in the church. If somebody stands up to his face and insults him, he bows his head and forgives him. That's a true servant of God.

He does not seek to exalt himself. He doesn't like some of these big preachers nowadays run away from the platform as soon as they finish speaking because they're too big to talk to ordinary people. They may be a big preacher in the world, but they are part of Babylon.

Don't be deceived by all that. Jesus never ran away after he finished preaching so that he could not talk to ordinary people. He didn't go around sitting around with the big shots of the chief priests and carried on all after his message.

He was mingling with ordinary sinners all the time before speaking, after speaking, all the time. In fact, somebody like Nicodemus could come and disturb him in the middle of the night. How free do you feel to go to somebody's house in the middle of the night and then knock at the door and say, I want to talk to you?

That's a man of God who has given people the impression, you can come and disturb me anytime. If I can help you spiritually, come in the middle of the night, I'll wake up and sit and help you. That's the spirit of Christ which Nicodemus sensed.

And he went to him, otherwise he would not have gone. He was a respectable rabbi. He knows that he shouldn't go and disturb other rabbis in the middle of the night. But he says, Jesus was different. He gave people the impression, I'm here to serve you anytime you can disturb me.

That's the spirit of the bride of Christ, same spirit as Christ. So we see these two examples, knowledge and life. And here you'll give the minimum. What is the minimum I need to do? For example, what's the minimum I need to do to have a good testimony in the church?

Maybe you want to be a part of a church and you want to find out, what is the minimum I have to do to remain as a good member in the church? Do I have to come to so many, try two meetings a week? Okay, I'll come for two meetings a week.

Do I have to pay a certain amount of money in the offering box? Do I have to take some small responsibility? I'll do that, but I'm gonna live for myself the rest of the time. The fundamental principle of a person who's part of the harlot Babylon church is that deep down in his heart, self is in the center, not Jesus Christ, not the kingdom of God, but how can I advance myself?

If I can use religion to advance myself, let me do it. See, let me give you the example of, you know that Jesus drove out some money changers and the sellers of sheep and all from the temple. Why did he do that?

Do you know that they were doing a very good service? I don't know whether you realize that. They were not there just to make money. Of course they were making money, but they were saying there are all these people, Jewish people coming from far places like Galilee and other parts of Israel, coming all the way to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice to God in the Passover time.

And there was three times they had to come to Jerusalem. And instead of bringing their sheep and oxen all the way from their place, which is a nuisance, I mean, to travel all the way bringing your animals for sacrifice with you, these merchants, these businessmen said, hey, you don't have to bring them.

We'll give them to you here. We'll sell you these sheep for sacrifice. They were not selling sheep for food. They were selling sheep and doves and all for sacrifice, for a religious purpose. And he says, we'll give it to you here.

The only thing, we have to charge a pretty high commission. And they were making money in the name of Jehovah, in the name of God from those poor people. And Jesus said, he chased them out. He says, this, my house is the house of prayer, not a place for you to make money.

Do you know that Jesus never went to the marketplace in Jerusalem and chased anybody out? There's nothing wrong in doing business. There's nothing wrong in selling sheep or goats or anything you like in the marketplace.

But don't do it in the name of God. If you do anything in the name of God, it must be for zero profit. That's the principle. Anything you do in the name of God must be for zero gain for yourself. You don't use the power of God to gain something for yourself, never.

That is Babylon. When the Lord called me to serve him full-time when I was working in the Navy in India in 1964, which is a long, long time ago, 56 years ago, one word that the Lord spoke to me at that time very clearly was from the first temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness.

Refusing to Use Spiritual Gifts for Personal Gain

In the first temptation in the wilderness, you read in Matthew chapter four, the devil came to Jesus and told him, well, you've just been, let me paraphrase his words. A few days ago, 40 days ago, you were anointed with the Holy Spirit and power by God in the River Jordan.

Now you've got power. Now you've not been eating for 40 days, you're really hungry, and you can use your power to turn these stones into bread and satisfy your hunger. You know, even if you don't eat for three days, it's tough, you feel really hungry.

Imagine going 40 days without food. Jesus was hungry. And the devil said, you're not stealing anybody's food. You're not asking anybody for food. You're using the power God gave you not to make money.

No, no, no. Just to make a little bit of bread to eat. It sounds such a good thing to do. But Jesus said, no. He said, I haven't heard from the father to do that, so I won't do it. He did not use his power to make bread for himself.

But at other times, we know he made bread for 5 ,000 people, 5 ,000 men and many women and children, 10 ,000 people. Another time he made for 4 ,000 people, multiplied the bread. He had the power to make bread.

And he made it for others, for thousands of others, but he never made it for himself. That's the word the Lord spoke to me. And the way the Lord applied it in my life was, I have given you an anointing to preach.

That's not your own ability. I know it's not my own ability because I was a very shy young man. I've never taken part in any public speaking in school or in the military academy or anywhere. I was very reserved and not at all the type of person who could be a preacher.

But God anointed me with the Holy Spirit. And the Lord said, I have given you power. I'll be with your mouth and I'll give you words to speak. But you must never use the gift I gave you, that I give you to get anything for yourself.

Jesus never used the power to make bread for himself. You must never use the gift I give you to make money for yourself. You must never use the gift I give you to get honor for yourself or anything for yourself.

It must be all for Christ, not 90 for Christ, all for Christ. I'm not saying you cannot receive a gift. Jesus received the gifts. We read in Luke chapter eight, verse three, but he was not dependent on them.

He was not looking for it. He was not preaching for money. He was not preaching for honor. So that is Babylon, where you do a right thing and you're doing it for yourself to gain something for yourself.

This is what the Lord told me when I started writing books. In the world, people write books to become millionaires. They get money, royalties. Christian preachers write books to make money. You must never write a book to make money.

That's why we publish all our books at Christian Fellowship Center Bangalore and I get zero royalty from it. I don't want it. The apostle Paul is my example, who said, follow me as I follow Christ. That's what I've supported myself all these years that I've been serving the Lord.

So I see very clearly so much of Christendom today is in the spirit of Babylon, seeking gain for themselves, preaching for honor, preaching for money, writing books for money. This is Babylon. So if you keep this in mind, we'll understand a little bit of where this all leads.

The Last Days: A Form of Godliness Without Power

Let me just show you another passage in 2 Timothy and it'll become clearer. 2 Timothy in chapter three, Paul is speaking here about the last days. And we're living in the last days. And he says here in 2 Timothy three, in the last days, difficult times will come.

Or as the living Bible paraphrases it, it will be very difficult to be a Christian in the last days, not because of persecution. No, that is also true. But here he's referring to the fact that there are people who will have a form of godliness.

Verse five, this is why it's gonna be difficult to be a Christian in the last days. Listen carefully, because around you will be Christians who have an appearance of godliness. The form of godliness is the doctrine.

Those who have the right doctrine, those who preach the truth. We're not talking about people who preach error. We're talking about people who will preach the right form of godliness, but lack the power.

You remember what I said about the two trees in the garden of Eden? It's the same thing here. These are the two trees, 2 Timothy three five. The tree of knowledge, the form of godliness, Bible knowledge, exact, correct doctrine, but no life, no power to live that godly life.

So that's right here. Babylon and Jerusalem are right here in 2 Timothy three five. A form of godliness without power. And in other words, they'll be talking about Jesus. They may be their full-time workers preaching about Christ, and maybe they become famous in that city or town or worldwide or whatever it is, but it says there are four types of lovers mentioned in verses one to four.

Read carefully. Four types of lovers. The only correct one is the lover of God. The lover of God is the bride of Christ. The other three lovers are part of Babylon. And they are, verse four, lovers of pleasure.

Lovers of sinful pleasure, of sexual pleasure. Preachers who fool around with women, not their wives, and who commit sin, but hide it so that nobody knows about it. And they get a name as a great preacher, but in secret, they're living in sin.

100 Babylon would be judged by God in the final day. God is no respecter of persons. God doesn't care whether you're world famous or anything like that. He looks for purity. Many who are first will be lost in the final day.

So lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This is the contrast. Babylon consists of Christians who love sinful pleasure more than they love God. Who love pleasing themselves more than pleasing Jesus Christ.

Pleasure, to love pleasure means to please yourself. It could be sexual pleasure, it could be any type of thing. You know, the Bible speaks even about gluttony as a sin. Philippians chapter three, it speaks about those whose God is their stomach.

People whose God is their stomach. Have you ever thought of that as a sinful thing to make, that gluttony could be a sin? To eat to live is right, but to live to eat, that's completely wrong. It says in Philippians three about those whose God is their stomach in Philippians 3 .19.

So that's another type of pleasure we've got to be careful about. A true Christian follows Jesus and he's disciplined in his life. Discipline in the use of his time, discipline in the way he spends his mind and discipline in the way he lives his life.

I'm not saying that he has no time for relaxation. It's perfectly all right to relax, to play games with our children and to go outdoors, to go for a walk, to go for a picnic, all that is okay. Provided our aim in everything, like it says in 1 Corinthians 10 .31.

Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. That's a true disciple of Jesus. You say, is it a high standard? Certainly is. Should we aim for that? Now, I can answer that question when you say, you mean all of us Christians should aim to live for the glory of God?

Let me ask you another question. You answer that and then you'll get the answer to this one. Do all of you want to be in perfect health or would you like to have a little bit of sickness? I don't mean too much sickness, just 1 or 5 sickness.

How many of you would say, yes, I love 5 sickness. Not even one. I'm 81 years old, but I don't love sickness. I'll tell you that. I don't want to be sick, not even 1%. I love health. I love health 100%.

If so, I want to live for the glory of God 100%. I want to do everything for the glory of God. Why is it that every one of you will love health, physical health 100%, but not spiritual health 100 What do I mean by that?

When your conscience convicts you about something, it's like a sickness. It could be a cancer, serious sickness, or it could be an injury, a broken bone perhaps. Now, whether it's a cancer or a broken bone, every one of you will seek to set it right in some way possible.

Nobody says, oh, I got cancer. It's okay, let me live with that. No, you won't say my bone is broken. Let me leave it like that. Let me leave my hand hanging around like this. No, we fix it immediately.

We don't wait. We go to the doctor, we go to the hospital. We love health so much that we fix anything, even a small injury in our hand. We go and put some medicine or a Band-Aid or something there immediately.

Immediate Repentance and Spiritual Health

That is how much we love physical health. And I wanna urge you, my brothers and sisters, it's very simple to live the Christian life. Love spiritual health in exactly the same way. Is that too much? Supposing I were to say to you, I'm gonna give you some instructions on how you can be 100 healthy.

Would you like to listen to that? Oh, yes. There's not a single person who does not wanna be 100 healthy. But I'm sorry, I'm not a dietician or a doctor. I can't give you that instruction. But I can tell you how to be 100 spiritually healthy.

And if you claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and you're not interested in being 100 spiritually healthy, I wanna say to you, you've got the spirit of Babylon in it a little bit, and you just leave it like that, it'll grow.

You know, the giants in Canaan had little children, and they would grow up to be giants unless you kill them as well. That's why the Lord said, don't only kill the giants, kill their little children. So the principle there is, there are small sins in your life.

The Bible says in Psalm of Solomon chapter two, take care of the little foxes, get rid of them, get the little one, not the big ones, the little ones, the small little sins, the small little scorpion crawling around in your house, the small serpent, small one, not big enough to run away fast, small one, kill it while it is small.

So what does that mean? It means that as soon as you're convicted in your conscience about something, you immediately set it right. You don't wait. What do I mean practically? You suddenly realize that you spoke rudely.

To your wife five minutes ago, and you're aware of it. Maybe your wife is kind enough to ignore it, forgive it, doesn't say anything, smiles at you, but you have still hurt her. You must ask her forgiveness.

Otherwise, don't just go to God and say, Lord, forgive me, that's good. But you know what Jesus said in Matthew five verse 23, 24? He said, if you have hurt your brother, don't go to God and ask his forgiveness first.

Go to your brother, ask his forgiveness first, then come and bring your offering to God. And if I don't ask forgiveness from another person, that verse is teaching me that I should not go to God at all.