The Blessed Life of the New Covenant — Zac Poonen

We are thankful to the Lord for having given us a very good day yesterday. And it shows us that God is not just interested in giving us sermons. He wants us to have a good time. And He wants the children to have a good time too.

So many people think of Christianity as a boring religion. It's not true. I found it to be exciting. And I've been a Christian 63 years. And in the early years I did not find it exciting. Because I did not know the way of the cross.

The Way of the Cross and the New Covenant

And I did not know the New Covenant. So there is an external enjoyment that the children have here. For those of us who have grown up, we want something more permanent. There are two things you need to clearly understand and experience.

One is the way of the cross. The other is the New Covenant. Those have been the things that changed my own life. When I was born again, almost as soon as I was born again, the only church that was nearby, the Believer's Church, was a church which majored on the study of God's Word.

And I was very thankful. Born-again people, they preach the New Word and study God's Word. And that made me study God's Word in depth for the first seven years of my life. I was very, very thankful. But what they did not preach was the way of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit.

So if you have only a study of the Word, and you keep on listening to messages, good messages, etc., you can end up being very, you know, ill-mannered and in bad moods and lose your temper and those things don't disturb you.

I found that some of the leaders in those churches were like that. Their daily life didn't seem to match up with their emphasis on the study of God's Word. So each church can have major on something. I found among the Pentecostals, for example, they major on times of loud singing and praise on Sunday morning.

And I found they didn't sort of continue throughout the week. Anyway, I was young. I was only 22 years old. And I said, Lord, I don't want to find fault with others. I want to worry about myself. And I wanted to know that life and the Spirit, that's been my longing right from then.

It took me a long time to experience it more and more. But I knew that the secret of Jesus' life was not just that he knew the Word of God. In fact, he didn't have a Bible with him. For 1 ,400 years, Christians never had a Bible.

The printing was discovered only in the 1 ,400s. So if you ever heard the Apostle Paul, they had to sort of remember what they heard. And of course, Paul later wrote it down on parchment. And there may have been a few copies of it.

Nobody had a copy at home. It was too expensive to have a parchment, handwritten letters of Paul. So how did God expect those early Christians to live? It's a good habit to read the Bible every day. But I've seen lots and lots of people who read the Bible every day, who have family prayer, but they lose their temper.

And they don't seem to convict. And then years and years, they've been believers 30, 40 years and still losing their temper. Or they never seem to come to the life where they're always in a good mood.

I don't think they even have a desire to be always in a good mood. They say, yeah, we're on this earth, we have bad moods now and then. Well, don't blame that other guy who says, we're in this world, we just lust after women now and then.

Once in a while, I watch pornography. There's no other way for me to survive on this earth. There's no difference between that guy and the guy who says, I get in a bad mood once in a while. If your problem is a bad mood, his problem is pornography.

You're not allowed to do that. But is that the Christian life the New Testament offers us? No. I want to say, dear brothers, if you are satisfied with anything less than what God has promised in his word, that's all you'll get.

I've observed believers in many countries over many, many years. And I've seen this is true. When a person is satisfied with his current spiritual level, that's all you'll have. Let's see what the Apostle Paul said towards the end of his life.

Well, not exactly at the end of his life, but after he'd been a Christian for many, many years. Philippians 3 and verse, this should be our attitude till we see Jesus face to face. I can say honestly before God, this is my attitude.

Philippians 3. Not that I have already obtained or have already become perfect. Now, I have met certain groups of Christians who boast, I have victory over sin totally. I say to such people, you haven't seen yourself.

That's why you think you've got victory over sin totally. You can have victory over sin in the areas you have light on. Just 10 of your light, 90 of your light, you don't have light. Till you walk with the Lord, God gives you more light, and then you realize that what he boasted about was not true.

So Paul is very honest. He's lived close to the Lord, and he discovered that he was not perfect. Now, I'm sure every one of us sitting here will acknowledge, I am not perfect. But he didn't stop there.

But he says, I want to press on to become perfect. Now, that everybody doesn't say. I think most Christians would acknowledge that I'm not perfect. But they don't go on to say, but every day of my life, I'm pressing on to perfection.

Because I want to lay hold of, it says in verse 12, that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. And I want to tell you, Christ Jesus did not lay hold of Paul to make him an apostle first. That was secondary.

Remember, in the Lord's plan for our life, ministry is always secondary to life. Life is more important than ministry. Like you say, health is more important than money. So, Paul had a fantastic ministry, but that was not primary in his life.

He says, I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. So, if I were to ask you, why did Christ lay hold of you? I hope you know the answer. I did not know it when I was first converted, because people didn't tell me.

Now I know. Christ laid hold of my life to make me like himself. Very simple words. To make me like himself. 100%. And once I see that, I say, ministry is secondary. I said, Lord, if you don't want me to preach and make me dumb, I'll be quite happy.

Becoming dumb won't prevent me from becoming like Christ. It will limit my ministry. Fine. You want me to be bedridden? I'm happy. Only thing, I don't want to be a burden to others, so don't make me better.

That's something I constantly pray. I never want to be a burden to anybody else in my life. Financially, physically, or anything, no matter how old I am. But, my passion is not ministry. I do long to spread the gospel.

I do long to see churches built that are reflecting the new covenant. But that's not my primary desire. Underneath it all is a tremendous longing that I have every day of my life. To become a little more like Christ.

And I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters and children. Have this desire in your life. Lord Jesus, I want to be more like you. And if you have a passion for that, more and more the Lord will help you.

That is the main reason why he sent the Holy Spirit. Because in the Old Testament, they didn't have the Holy Spirit. They just had a lot of commandments. Do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this.

And it's very easy for us to listen to messages with the same spirit. But those people listened to the law in the Old Testament. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. And I try to do all that, and I don't manage to do everything perfectly.

But that's not the goal of the Christian life. Because then we are back under the spirit of the law. We are under grace today. And I see that God's grace is primarily to help us to fulfill his purpose.

The Image of God and the Purpose of Creation

When God made man, he did not primarily want a servant. He wanted a son. He wanted a daughter. Not somebody to serve him in the garden. He had millions of angels who served him already. Did you know that God made angels before he made Adam?

And so all those millions of angels were serving God. They could do anything he commands them. They had a lot of supernatural powers. But when God made Adam, it says he made him in his own likeness. That is the first person he created in his likeness.

And I think the devil was the highest angel before he became the devil. He was a bit jealous of that. Why? We angels were not made in his likeness. Why in the world has God made someone in his likeness there?

I'm going to spoil that. I'm going to destroy that. And he succeeded. And you see, for God to make somebody in his likeness, he's got to not make someone like a robot who will obey him 100%, but someone who will obey him out of a free choice.

That means you can't have free choice unless you have the opportunity to disobey. If God says do anything you like, obedience is not tested. But when God told Adam, you see, for example, like I've often said, the planets and the stars, they obey God 100%.

And they've been obeying God for thousands of years. But they don't become sons of God. They don't become Christlike. And God finds no delight in all those things obeying 100%. And it's interesting that there were angels who were obeying him in heaven who were obeying 100%, but God was still not happy with that.

You've got to see. God wanted to make someone like himself. Just like parents want to have children. God is a father. So remember this, my dear brothers. If you want to satisfy God's heart, it's not by reading the Bible every day.

That's a good habit. I've had it for 63 years. I don't despise it. It's helped me tremendously. And ever since I knew the importance of being true to the spirit, that's another thing I seek God for every day.

But I know what delights God's heart is not these daily practices. It is reflecting the image of his son. If you can see, make that the passion of your life. Lord, I want to increasingly reflect the likeness of Christ in my relationship with everyone.

And especially at home with those whom I meet every day. It's easy to be kind and gentle and gracious to people we meet once in a while. There are a lot of unbelievers, atheists, who are very well-behaved.

You meet them once in a while, and they look so nice. They're not always like that. And they're certainly not like that in their home. So we want to be like Christ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 24 -7.

I remember the early days when I was studying the Bible, and I found all these other people around me emphasize Bible study. But even the great leaders who got up and preached in that church, they would lose that temper and get angry at each other.

And I heard it was like that in their home as well. And I said, Lord, there's something I missed here. Bible study is not all. I wanted the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And that's when I began to seek God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism, Death to Self, and the Power of the Cross

And I mentioned this before, the Lord said to me, you cannot have that without the way of the cross. And I saw that when, that's when Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, when he submitted in baptism, you're submitting to somebody else putting you to death.

See, that's the meaning of baptism. Maybe you didn't understand what you did when you got baptized. But let me tell you now, most of you here are all baptized in water, perhaps all of you adults. What does it mean?

What do you allow in baptism? You allow somebody to push you right underwater. And if he kept you there, you'd be dead. You wouldn't be here today. But then he lifted you up. What is the symbolic meaning of that?

We talked about the symbolic meaning of the Lord's table yesterday. What's the symbolic meaning of baptism? I am willing, Lord, for anybody in the world to put me down to death. I will not fight. I will not resist.

I will die to my self-life. I'm not going to be doormat to let them run over me. But if somebody decides to put me to death in some way spiritually, I'll accept it. I'm not going to fight with them. Because I believe my Heavenly Father will not allow me to stay underwater like that.

That man who baptized me lifted me up. And God is more faithful than that. If I allow someone else to put myself to death, my Father in Heaven will lift me up. You must have this confidence. Why do we resist when people treat us badly?

I don't have the confidence that God will lift me up. That's why I don't take off the cross. The reason Jesus submitted to the cross was He was absolutely sure He wouldn't be dead in the grave. His Father would raise Him up.

And I have that now after so many years of experience. I have the absolute confidence because I've seen that in every single situation. Where people have put me down, God has raised me up. And if I accept it, I resist it.

For example, take the simple matter of getting angry. Why do we get angry? Jesus spoke against it. He said it's so serious in Matthew 5 that He said we can finally take you to hell if it's uncontrolled.

It's because somebody does something or says something that irritates the self of mine. And I've asked myself, when you get angry at a dead man, how is he going to react? There would not even be a change in his expression.

In the early days when I began to understand this, that if I want the power of the Spirit, and I picture Jesus receiving the Spirit when He was baptized, when He submitted to death. And I said, Lord, if that's the way, I want to choose that way.

And I remember one thing the Lord spoke to me very surely in my heart at that time. And the Lord said, as long, you know, Jesus' baptism was symbolic of His accepting death, and the Spirit came upon Him.

And the Lord said to me, as long as you're willing to choose this way, my power will rest upon you. That's what I wanted. But the day you feel, the day you choose to stop walking this way, my power will depart.

So I realize that today. I can experience God's power in my life and ministry for years, and then I can go. I can go if I don't choose the way of the cross. So if you want a home that glorifies Christ, a life that glorifies Christ, a ministry that glorifies Christ, there is no other way than by accepting the way of the cross, which is when God allows people to put you to death inwardly.

You say, okay, I will not resist. So let me show you some verses. You know, in the Old Testament, once a week on the Sabbath day, they were not supposed to do any work. They were supposed to spend their time with God and go to the synagogue and hear the scriptures, etc.

So their life was sort of holy, apparently outwardly holy, one day a week. And the other days, they did what they liked. But in the New Testament, it's so different. Once the Holy Spirit came, there was no such thing as once a week.

That's where the Seventh-day Adventists, some of them are believers, I think most of them are not, because they emphasize that you can't be saved if you don't keep the Sabbath. That's like in Paul's time, some people said you can't be saved if you don't get circumcised.

It's similar. You can't be saved unless you keep the Sabbath. There's a lot of garbage, rubbish. That's not the way of salvation. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. But what changed in the New Covenant is what was once a week, Sabbath, became a perpetual Sabbath.

That means every day of the week, I'm with God. But not in the way of stopping to work, but in the way that I don't believe that I can do that work. Every day, I want to allow God to do His work in me.

That's the meaning of the Sabbath. So, that's the meaning of living by faith. They did not live by faith in the Old Testament. And the finest expression of faith that I have found in the New Testament is John Chapter 15.

It's helped me tremendously in my life and my ministry. This, to me, is the definition of faith. John Chapter 15, Verse 5, the last part. Apart from me, you can do nothing. I want to ask all of you a question on that.

Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that apart from Christ, you can do nothing of spiritual value? Yeah, there are a lot of earthly things you can accomplish. You're very clever, accomplished, capable.

But things of eternal value, anything you do, apart from Christ, will not have eternal value. I'm convinced of that, and that's what's helped me to know it. So, the life of faith is the life of perpetual dependence on Him, like it says in the same verse.

You are the branch, and I am the tree. It's a beautiful example, because we see trees and branches all over. If any branch would speak, it would say, I can't do anything if I'm cut off from the tree. Not even for a single moment.

Even if I've been in the tree for 50 years producing apples, you cut me off, I won't be able to produce one apple. So, what is faith? Faith is that branch, depending upon the tree, perpetually, 50 years later, saying, I'm just as helpless today as I was on day one.

I need to receive the sap. There's a little liquid that flows from the tree into the branch. You know, you children, that's how that liquid is what produces the fruit, whatever fruit. All the fruits that you eat come through some branch producing that fruit because of a liquid that flows from the tree into that branch.

That's a picture of the Holy Spirit. You cannot produce anything without that Holy Spirit empowering us for our life and our ministry. We need the power of the Holy Spirit all the time. That's why things changed on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit come to earth. So, this is my definition of faith. To live by faith is to perpetually recognize, I must be in the tree all the time. How to be in a good mood 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

You think it's possible? Impossible. Something or the other will happen to disturb our mood. Now, my next question is, if you abide in Christ, is it possible? If the life of Christ is flowing into you all the time, is it possible?

I believe it is. And that's what we got to learn. Lord, I want that life of Christ flowing into me all the time. My Christian life is not in fits and starts. For some time, I'm very spiritual. And then something happens and I get into a bad mood.

Or I become all worried and anxious for a length of time. And then that problem is solved. And then I'm back in a good mood again. And what's the difference between us and other people in the world? The other people in the world live exactly like that.

Something goes wrong and their whole mood is disturbed. And then everything gets settled all right. And then they're in a good mood again. What's the difference between us and them? Except that we go to church, read the Bible, and claim to have a lot of spiritual understanding.

But daily life is very much like this. It should not be like that. I must be fed up with that type of similarity between my life and the life of people in the world. I say my life must be fundamentally different from theirs.

And that's only possible if I recognize I am a helpless branch. That's what's helped me the most. When it says the righteous shall live by faith, it's not just that I believe that Christ died for me, and he rose again, he's coming back.

That's just intellectual. The Bible says the devils also believe. You think there's a single demon in hell that doubts that Jesus came, that he died, that he rose again, he's coming back? I tell you the devils know the Bible better than us.

And they believe everything written in it. But it doesn't change their life. And we have to remember that it's not by a lot of knowledge of the Bible that we become spiritual. It's by a helpless, perpetual, daily dependence on the Lord.

Walking as Christ Walked

And so, since this is the new covenant life, you have some amazing statements in the Bible. I want to show you some of them to see what a strong, what a way God wants us to live. Let's begin with a statement in Acts 2.

Before that, there are verses. 1 John 2, verse 6. This is exactly what I've just been saying. 1 John 2, 6. We begin here. The one who says he abides in Christ, I think all of us who are adults here say that, I am in Christ.

Okay? What does God expect you to do? Every single day to walk on earth in the same manner as he walked. Do you believe that? Do you believe that's God's will for you? You will almost never hear anybody preach on this verse.

Go and search YouTube and see if anybody preaches on 1 John 2, 6 and tells you how to live that way. You won't find it. Because people don't believe it's possible. They say I believe in the Bible and every word is true, but they don't believe this is possible.

Everyone who says he abides in Christ ought means it's a responsibility to walk in exactly the same way as he walked. And this is not the testimony of some new convert. This is a man called John who was writing at the age of 95, who was filled with the Holy Spirit when he was 30 years old, and for 65 years he walked with God and he writes this.

This is not some young fellow giving some testimony. If I were to paraphrase it, John is saying, brothers and sisters, he won't say little children. That's why he said the worst one. He's only younger than me, John says.

Let me tell you something. From 65 years of my experience, if you say that you're in Christ, you must walk as he walked. Take it seriously, at least from today. Say, Lord, I haven't got there. It may take me a long time to get there.

It may take me years to get there, but I'm going to get there. Determine in your heart. That's what I determined long ago, and that's what made me crave for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And that's when the Lord leads the fullness of the Holy Spirit on the way of the cross.

They do go together. So, when we come to that life, now we can turn to the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2. How did Jesus live? He who says he abides in Him must walk as he walked. How did he walk? Chapter 2, Verse 25.

David says of Jesus, I saw the Lord always in my presence. He always lived in the presence of his Father. That's why he never did anything wrong. He's always, the Father was there before him. I've often said to married couples, how do you talk to each other when you're all by yourself?

Be honest. Nobody else is listening. Maybe one day when a lot of things went wrong in the house, or in your work, how do you talk to each other? You say, well, because of the pressure. Okay. On that particular day when there was a lot of pressure, things went wrong, supposing Jesus physically came to your house and stood between you, then how would you talk to each other?

Would you still make the excuse, because of the pressures of work, I had to speak to my wife or my husband like that? No. The presence of Jesus would immediately make you change your tone of voice. Why?

If a believer from the church came to your house, you'd change your tone of voice. Leave alone Jesus himself. So when we say the Lord is with us, do you really mean it? I'm asking the hard questions I asked myself.

And I said, Lord, it's not true. But I want it to be true in my life. I want to see the Lord always in my presence. It'll take time. It took your little child a long time to walk. It took it even longer for it to run.

It took a long time for you to earn your living, to get a job. Everything in life takes time. It may take time for me to come to the place where the Lord is always in my presence, but you'll never get there if you don't aim for it.

There's some saying that if you aim for the stars, at least you'll reach the top of some mountain. So aim for, Lord, I want this life where I'm always in the presence of the Lord. Think of that word, always.

Following Paul’s Example of Christlikeness

Then turn with me to Acts chapter... You know, God has set the apostle Paul as an example for us, just like Jesus. I think that's because when we say, follow Jesus, that's too high a standard. But you know, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. He said, follow me. Is it right for a man to say, follow me? If you don't know that verse, look it up. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. Follow me as I follow Christ. Jesus said, follow me, period.

Paul did not say, follow me, period. He said, follow me as I follow Christ. And the picture I get is a mountain, say the highest mountain in the world, 30 ,000 feet. Jesus has reached the top. And his footsteps are there in the snow.

And Paul says, I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus. I'm only maybe at 1 ,000 feet. A long way for me to reach 30 ,000 feet. I've not reached there. But I'm following Christ. Now he says, you see my footsteps behind me?

Now you may be at 100 feet. See my footsteps, Paul says, and you'll be able to follow Christ because I'm following Christ. And those of us who are older and mature parents, that's what we've got to tell our children.

Learn, daddy and mommy are an example for you, how we should speak, how we should behave. And as they grow older, how we should handle money, how we should be upright, how we should forgive others, how we should love those who hate us, how we should stop gossiping, backbiting.

Follow me. Every father and mother should be able to say that to children. Follow me as I'm following Christ. See my footsteps. We're not perfect yet. We haven't reached the top of the mountain. That's what I mean by being perfect.

But we're moving on. We're not in the same place we were in last year. We moved a few steps further than we were in last year. It's a little better. Not perfect yet. Next year it will be still better.

But it won't be better if I'm not pressing on. So Paul is an example. Let's learn something from his life. How to live always in God's presence. See what Paul says in Acts 24 and verse 16. I do my best.

It's a beautiful expression Paul says. It doesn't say I'm perfect. But I do my best to maintain again that word always. What does he do his best always to have? A conscience without blame. Before God and before men.

You see there are certain sins we commit only before God. Like in our thoughts. You have a thought. You haven't hurt anybody. But you sin before God if it's a bad thought. If it's a dirty thought. A sinful thought.

Or you have an attitude towards somebody which even your husband or wife can't see. It's an inner attitude. A prejudice against God. A sinful attitude. I want to have a clear conscience before God. Or you're doing something with the wrong motive.

Nobody sees it. The action itself is excellent. And people appreciate you. But you've got a wrong motive. That's a sin before God. Or you become a little proud that people appreciate what you have done.

Oh, people think highly of me because I did that. Or I preached that sermon which blessed them. And that little inner pride has come to me. I'll tell you honestly. And I fight it and I hate it as soon as I see it.

And it gets better and better. Like I say with Paul, I'm not perfect, but I'm pressing on. Believe me, I'm pressing on. And if you do that, you'll go higher and higher in the mountain. But if you don't do that, you'll be stuck in the same place year after year after year.

Defeated in the same place year after year after year. It's like your children sitting in grade 1 for 20 years. You wouldn't want your child to sit in grade 1 for 20 years. You wouldn't want your child to sit in your grade 1 for even one year more.

One year is the maximum. The next year they should be on. You don't want your child to sit in the same grade for two years. Well, we shouldn't be in the same place virtually for two years. We should be moving on.

And the way he says is, I keep my conscience blameless always. That's something we can easily do. It's not like asking us to jump over a 10-foot wall. All it means is if a thorn gets into your foot, pull it out immediately.

Is that difficult? Is that an impossible command? If a speck gets into your eye, get somebody to blow it out. Pour some water and put it out immediately. Don't keep on. Keep it there. As soon as you get hurt with a thorn, pull it out immediately.

That's what I see as a blameless conscience. I'm pricked by a thorn in my skin or by the Holy Spirit in my conscience. Set it right immediately. Have you ever waited whenever you got pricked by a thorn for time?

You say, let me think about it. Meditate on whether I should remove it or not. Or argue about, well, somebody pushed me, and that's why that thorn got into me. It doesn't matter who pushed you. The thorn is not in your foot.

Don't blame anybody else. Get rid of it. Even if an ant is biting me, I get rid of it. I don't allow that ant to remain there. Keep your conscience clear 24 -7. Always means 24 -7. That is how we can live in God's presence all the time.

It's not that difficult. But determine that you want this life. Let this be a day when your life is turned around. Say, Lord, I'm going to pursue this life. Even if it takes a long time to get there, I'm going to get there.

And never give up. Don't change your mind one week from now. I'm going to keep my conscience blameless before God. That's one. And before men. That means if I hurt somebody, I want to apologize to that person as soon as possible.

Can you remember when was the last time you said sorry to somebody? Or to your wife? Or to your husband? Can you think of times when you knew you should say it? And you found it so difficult for those words to come out of your mouth.

Can you think of such a time? And you claim to be a better Christian than those other Christians in the denominations who are not born again. You say, I'm a born again Christian. Better than those who are not born again.

I find it difficult to say sorry to my husband or to my wife. I struggle with it. I'll tell you the truth. You will not be able to live in the presence of the Lord always. You just won't. You can listen to any number of sermons, but you will not live in the presence of the Lord always.

You've got to humble yourself. Keep your conscience before God. That's easy. It's very easy to confess our inner sins to God. Nobody knows about it. Now, one would think that it should be more difficult to confess a sin to a holy God than to confess our failure to another fallen human being like myself.

That person is a fallen human being and I'm a fallen human being. It should be easy to confess our sin to each other because we are both in this low level. But we think we can confess to God Almighty who is so holy.

We are fooling ourselves. We think we are confessing to God. If you find it difficult to confess to a human being, I would seriously question whether your confession to God is genuine. How can it be that you can't confess to a fallen human being like yourself?

You say you're confessing to a holy God. There's a lot of Christians fooling themselves and I don't want to fool myself. I don't want to one day stand before the Lord and discover that I fooled myself for most of my Christian life.

That's why I speak these things straight. And I'm speaking things I've discovered in my own life. Dear brothers and sisters, if you cannot confess to man, to a human being, ask yourself whether you're really confessing to God or just saying some pious words.

And that's why you keep on falling into those sins. Those same things come in your thoughts again and again and again and again and again. Because you're not really confessing to God. You're just thinking that you're confessing to God.

Because it's a silent thing, you think it's real. No, it's not. The test is can you confess to a human being who is sinful? So that's another always. Let me go to another verse. This was not possible in the old covenant.

In the old covenant, it was once a week, seven. One day a week, just keep your life holy. In the new covenant, it is a perpetual Sabbath every day. Always, always in the presence of God. Here is another New Testament passage.

This verse is only found in the New Testament. You will not find it in the Old Testament. Keep your conscience always clear. Never in the Old Testament. Impossible. Because they didn't have the Holy Spirit.

That's why I say most Christians are living in the Old Testament. They're living just as if they didn't have the Holy Spirit. They imagine they have. Okay, take another verse. 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5.