0:18 I believe that all of us sitting here really have a desire to please the Lord. Everyone, I mean every single person. Even if you're not born again, if you're here this morning, I believe you have a 0:36 desire to please the Lord. And here's a verse. Verse six. We don't have to do great many fantastic things to please 0:56 the Lord. That's the first thing you need to recognize that God is a loving father. And it says here in verse six, without faith, it is impossible to please God. 1:15 So all that God requires from us is faith. And so often the devil tells us that that is such an impossible mountain to climb. Faith is such an impossible thing. It is not. Can you believe that God loves you? That is faith. 1:33 It's very simple. You know sometimes people have made this such a complicated thing. Faith is such a complicated thing. It's not. It's simply to believe that the creator of this universe loves me. Like when in one of our songs we sing no 1:54 earthly father loves like thee. No mother ever so mild bears and forbears with me as you have done with your sinful child. There's no earthly father who loves like him. And there's no mother ever so mild. 2:13 And if you can believe that your earthly parents loved and cared for you so much all that they did, think of your childhood days when you were helpless and how they cared for you. Do you believe that God in heaven there's no earthly father who loves like 2:30 him? That is faith. It's not faith to do miracles or faith to do fantastic things. It is simply believing that God loves me just as I am. Not after I become better. If you have weakness in sin, think of 2:50 yourself as a sick child. Sin is a sickness. And think of how a mother would love a sick child. Spend more time with that child than with the healthy one. 3:09 And if you can see God like that, it's very important because particularly in a church like this where we preach holiness and righteousness and a high standard, it's very easy to feel condemned. I'm not up to the mark. I'll never reach 3:27 the mark. I'm always being told to press on to something higher. Yeah. The two go together. God loves me and he's also telling me to press on to something higher. Just like your your earthly parents would want you to do well, want you to be healthy, want 3:46 you to do well when you go to school. But they won't condemn you if you fail. They won't condemn you if you're sick. Think of sin like a sickness. How would your parents treat you when you're sick? Would they condemn you for 4:00 getting sick? Even if you did something foolish as a result of which you're sick, a loving father will not condemn you. Because how does that heal you? Even if you've done the most stupid thing and got a lot of sicknesses, 4:14 good parents will really still want to heal you. And I believe I really believe that very often we think that God loves us less than our earthly parents did. Can all of you think back to the way your parents cared for you? I mean you 4:33 are what you are today because a lot of what your parents did gave you an education and took care of you when you were a little baby and so many things and then compare that with God. Jesus often compared God's being a father with earthly 4:51 fathers. That's how he sought to produce faith in people in his disciples. Give you one example of that in Luke's gospel. Luke 11:1. Suppose one of you fathers 5:09 is asked by his son for a fish. He won't give him a snake for a fish, will he? This is such a simple statement. Jesus is a great master at using simple illustrations 5:26 to teach us great truths. And one of them is this. You ask your earthly father when you're a little child. You ask your earthly father, "Dad, I want some fish today." Well, if he can't afford it, you say, "I don't have money for it." But he 5:43 certainly won't give you a snake. That's for certain. Imagine that Jesus had to use such an illustration. Why does he use an illustration like that? Because some people think that God will give them a snake. He will never do that. You ask God for 6:02 something good? He'll give you that. And if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? He has to repeat it because we tend to Why does he have Isn't one illustration enough? If you ask him for fish, he won't give you a snake. Okay, 6:16 Lord, I understood. No, you haven't understood. I have to repeat it. If you ask you, you ask for an egg, will he give you a scorpion? Why does the Lord have to repeat that? because we are so slow to believe that God is a good God. 6:33 And I believe particularly in a church where we preach such high standards of holiness like here, one of the things we can forget that God is a loving father. And I believe we need to come back to that again and again. God is a loving father 6:49 and he cares more for me than any earthly father does. And then he says this in verse 13. If you then being evil, now I know you know these verses many times, but meditate on them. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts 7:07 to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit which is the greatest good gift to those who ask him? So one thing I learned from that verse is do you know who he spoke to? 7:27 We read here in verse 11:1 he spoke to his disciples is he was one of his disciples came and said to him and then he began to teach his disciples about the Lord's prayer. Now who were these disciples? They were people who had instantly 7:46 obeyed Jesus. When he said, "Give up your fishing." They gave it up immediately. They didn't have to consult anything. They drop their nets and say, "Okay, we're coming." Very few people who obey like that. And think of even 7:59 something more interesting than that. Matthew sitting as a tax collector and writing his accounts and the Lord says, "Drop it." And he doesn't say, "Let me finish this account. Let me tell the authorities." He just drops his pen and walks out. 8:15 These are people who obeyed Jesus instantly and forsook everything. And you know what he calls them? Listen to this. He's speaking to these disciples. Verse 13. If you being evil, were these people evil? You being evil 8:37 know how to get good to your children? What do I learn from that? that even the best human beings, some of these were the best people in Israel who left everything to follow Jesus. He was trying to say that you you've done so 8:52 much, but when you compare to God's goodness, you're evil. That means God is so perfectly white that your white looks black. That's the point. You think your white is white. It's not white. When compared to God's goodness, it looks like black. That is 9:08 how good God is. That's why he uses Jesus didn't think that those disciples are evil. Certainly not. They' forsaken everything to follow him. But he was trying to point out to them how great God's love and goodness is that even you 9:22 folks who are so good when you compare it with God's goodness it's evil. So what I want to ask you my dear brothers and sisters do you believe that? Do you believe that the best and most loving human being supposing you had a 9:36 very loving father and a very loving mother who took care of you and sacrificed everything for you. Can you believe that compared to God's goodness, your your parents were absolutely evil? Then you have understood something of 9:51 God's love and care. And the devil tries to make us forget it. We need to remind ourselves about this frequently. So that's why I use that illustration. If you had an excellent mother and father who cared for you, sacrificed for 10:09 you, did everything for you compared to that compared to God, your parents were absolutely evil. Say that to yourself many times so that you're convinced because I don't know how Jesus tried so much to convince his people, his 10:27 disciples about God's goodness. And it's only that is faith to believe that God loves me even though there's so much imperfection in me. You see, we look at ourselves and this is how can a holy pure God love me? That's the wonder 10:40 of God's love. It got it's got nothing to do with how evil you and I are. Because God's nature does not change depending on who you are. His nature is unchanging. And he loves and he loves and he loves intensely, 10:59 you know. And I believe that when the la one of the last things that Jesus did on the cross was to tell a dying thief that he was going to be in paradise that same day. Can you think of that man? What all he did in his life? He was a thief and a murderer. 11:16 He had killed people. He had stolen. He had made so many women widows by killing their husbands. He had made so many children fatherless by killing their fathers. And he, you know, the Romans crucified only the worst criminals. 11:34 Others were put in jail. And the worst were crucified. And so this guy was one of the worst, one of the worst human beings in Israel. We had done so much evil that even the Romans felt the jail is not good enough for him. He's got to be crucified and 11:51 killed. Get rid of such people. And all he said was, "Lord, please remember me when you come into your kingdom." He didn't make any promise. I'm going to live a if you if I come down from the cross, I live a holy life. Any such thing. He says, "I deserve 12:07 this." Turn with me to that passage, Luke's gospel. Luke 23 and it says here about these people one of the criminals who was hanged there. Now you see they were both criminals both know equally 12:26 evil and one of them turns around and tells the Lord are you are you not the Christ savior yourself and us he's only interested in being saved from the cross and the other you know even before Jesus had said anything to him he turns around 12:42 to the other person and says don't you fear God since you're under the same sentence of condemnation that expression Don't you fear God? Can you believe that this murderer had some little 13:02 atom of the fear of God in him? That's what he uses to his expression to the other thief. How can you speak to somebody like this? Don't you fear God since you're under the same sentence of condemnation? That's the first thing he expresses is 13:18 asks the other person to fear God. And the second thing he says is he admits I deserve this punishment. We are suffering justly. We are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done 13:36 nothing wrong. I think he must have known something about Jesus because Jesus was going around all over Israel preaching and teaching and doing miracles and he must have heard about him without a doubt. And he says this 13:48 man is how did he know who this person was? I'm sure he knew something about him. It was not just another criminal hanging there. He wouldn't have said these things to say because it was very common thing to see criminals hung on 14:00 the cross. But this man knew that this is not a criminal. This is Jesus. This man has done nothing wrong. There are certain things we see in his attitude there. He was obviously sorry for the way he lived and he had some fear of God. 14:20 And so he says, "Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Just remember me." He's not asking him to take him to heaven. Just remember me. And Jesus said, "Truly I say, today you will be with me in paradise." What did he know about divine truth or 14:41 sanctification or justification? He knew nothing. It was a heart that God saw there. And I see I learned something there. And I think of that expression he used. Don't you fear God? 15:00 Fear is a the word fear of God is better understood as a reverence for God because fear sometimes is brings us the thought of being afraid. God doesn't want us to be afraid of him. Not at all. The word fear is don't you reverence 15:17 God? Don't you have a respect for almighty God? That's what he was telling him. So in the Old Testament, the main emphasis upon for the Israelites was to learn the fear of God. 15:36 It was like, think of this verse that I've often quoted in Proverbs chapter 9. Proverbs 9 and verse 10. The fear of the Lord or let's read it as 15:52 respect and reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom because fear always gives us impression of somebody you got to be afraid of. That's not the meaning here. The meaning is respect and reverence. You're not afraid of your parents. You 16:11 should not be. But you must respect your parents. And when it comes to God, you must not only respect but reverence him because he's the ruler of this universe. But you don't have to be afraid of him. Nobody needs to be afraid of God. 16:27 But we have to respect and reverence. And so the fear of God means respect and reverence for God, which I'll tell you is lacking in the world today. It's lacking among Christians. But it says here and I put it like this. 16:41 The respect and reverence for God verse 10 is the ABC of wisdom. In other words, that's the kindergarten lesson. When you go and join school, you go into the kindergarten. You don't go to the second grade or fourth grade. No, you go to the 16:56 kindergarten. And I really believe that many Christians, the reason they don't grow is like a kid who's sent to school and instead of being humble enough to go to the kindergarten, he wants to sit in the third grade or something and he doesn't 17:13 understand a thing of what's being taught there. He can't even read the book in front of him cuz he never went to kindergarten. He never learned to read ABC. He never learned that BAT is bad and CAT is CAD. and he's sitting in 17:24 the third grade trying to listen to all the things being taught over there. I really believe that is the problem with many many Christians and possibly with you. Ask yourself, have you sat in the 17:40 kindergarten enough and learned reverence for God? That's the ABC of wisdom. You need to repeat yourself. Repeat to yourself that the reverence for God is the ABC of wisdom. I've said this before and I want to 18:00 repeat it. The big difference between today's Christians and Christians in 2,000 years in the New Testament age and those Jewish people who were the first people to hear the gospel from Jesus. The big difference is for example 18:18 the disciples Think of those, forget Judas, but the other 11 disciples. When Jesus spoke to them, they had only learned reverence for God for 30 years. Some of them were 27 between 20. I think all of those disciples were between 27 18:36 and 30. And all their life, they never knew anything about grace or any such thing. They never even knew heard that word in the Old Testament. But they did learn fear of God, reverence for God, reverence for God, reverence for God, 18:52 all for 27 years. If that was the ABC of wisdom, that's what their parents taught them. And then all of a sudden they come to Jesus who tells them how they can be forgiven and can be happy in the Lord and overcome sin and have righteousness 19:07 in their life. And they came into that so quickly on the day of Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They came into a godly life. It's because they had this background of 30 years of learning to reverence God and fear 19:21 him and respect him. Whereas today's Christians and Christians for these 2,000 years, the first thing they hear is not reverence for God. What is the thing that's being preached in most churches today? God forgives you. You love him. Just say you're sorry 19:39 for your sin. He'll forgive you. He died on the cross for you. That's the first message they hear. That's not the first message that those disciples heard. The first message those disciples heard was not God loves you. First message they 19:52 heard was for 30 years they heard you must reverence God. Reverence him, respect him, respect him. They learned the ABC so well that when they came to hear about God's love, they could really embrace it. I want to say to you my dear brothers 20:07 and sisters please consider that this may be the reason for so much instability in your life and this may be the reason why you never seem to come to a life of overcoming some of the bad habits you have the thought patterns 20:20 that you have the language of anger and that we never seem to overcome because we didn't start with the reverence for God we jumped into third or fourth grade without learning the ABC so it's never too it to say Lord teach me reverence for you. 20:38 Teach me to respect you to respect your word. I really believe that is the greatest need. If you ask me what is the greatest need among Christians, it is respect and reverence for God. I see the extreme cases of people in the 20:53 charismatic and Pentecostal movement who have pretty close to zero reverence and respect for God. The way they sing and talk about God as if he's an old buddy of theirs and slap him on the back, that's not the way we come to God. God, 21:08 we must come to God with reverence. And I see very little of that in the way a lot of people even sing. So we need to learn what it means to reverence for God. And so let me just share you something with the Bible says, 21:27 turn with me to Isaiah chapter 11. You know that Jesus himself had to live in the re in reverence for his father. This is the amazing thing from childhood here it's talking about Jesus in a prophetic reference saying 21:46 a chute will spring from the stem of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David and Jesus was called a son of David. So this is referring to Jesus that a chute will spring that is referring to Christ and a branch from the roots will bear 22:02 fruit. Referring to Jesus and on this Jesus the spirit of Jehovah will rest upon him. The spirit of the Lord will rest upon this Jesus and give him wisdom, understanding, 22:18 advice, counsel, strength, knowledge, and the spirit of reverence for God. So the Holy Spirit is called a spirit that brings reverence for God. So if you're filled with the Holy 22:38 Spirit, you'll be filled with a tremendous reverence for God. But I don't see that in a lot of people who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They seem to have a lot of irreverence for God. The way they conduct themselves, 22:53 then I know that's not the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will bring a reverence for God. It's called a spirit of reverence for God. I is that the Holy Spirit that you're seeking to be filled for? Many of you have prayed, "Lord, I want to be filled 23:12 with the Holy Spirit." I hope it is this spirit. The spirit that will bring a tremendous reverence for God in your life. I know that's what the fullness of the spirit brought in my life. Much greater reverence and respect for God and his 23:29 word than I ever had before. That means we take seriously the thing that God says that is a mark of respect and reverence. The way you respect your parents is by doing what they say, taking seriously 23:47 what they say. So if the Holy Spirit has filled me, he'll bring a reverence for God and his word in me. And there are you know in the re book of revelation you read of the sevenfold holy spirit and all those seven characteristics are 24:06 mentioned here. First of all he's the spirit of Jehovah spirit of god he is the spirit of wisdom spirit of understanding spirit of counsel and strength and knowledge and fear of the lord. Those are the seven that's the sevenfold spirit. And out of all those 24:23 seven characteristics he emphasizes one and that is he will delight in the reverence for God. So again out of that seven he emphasizes one. The Holy Spirit brings all these qualities and of course we would like to have wisdom and counsel 24:42 and strength and all. A lot of people are seeking I mean if these qualities were put before you which would be the one you would spontaneously want strength wisdom be able to give advice to others counsel knowledge no 25:01 it says here that the Jesus would delight first of all in reverence for his father dear brothers start with that and one mark of reverence for the father. He will delight in reverence for 25:19 the father and as a result he will never make an assessment of anything by what he sees. He will never make an assessment or take a decision by what he hears. So I learned something from that 25:39 that if I really reverence God, I won't just believe what I see and I won't believe everything I hear. I'll say hang on, there may be another side to it which I haven't heard. I just heard one side of it from this person 25:57 but there may be another side which I haven't heard. See most of us we pass judgments on the basis of what we hear or what we see. You see I saw it with my own eyes. Well our eyes are deceptive. I believe um 26:13 one reason why people were fooled by the sun rising in the morning and moving. For thousands of years man thought the sun is moving. And it is only when he studied science that he discovered that the earth goes around the sun. Now the 26:28 earth rotates on its axis and I believe the sun moving in the sky is one of the clearest proof God gives to all human beings ever made. Don't believe what you see that sun is not moving. And these people who say I believe what 26:42 I see. So one of the marks I've taken this seriously and I didn't take it in the early days. I'm sorry to say because nobody taught me this. I wish somebody had taught me this right in the first year I was converted. The spirit of you need the spirit of the 26:58 reverence for God that you will never judge by what your eyes see or your ears hear. It would have it would have saved me from so many false judgments I made about other people. You ask yourself my brother, sister, even with people within 27:13 the church, you hear something about someone and you tend to believe it. You say, "Well, this brother is a very reliable person. He couldn't be telling a lie." Yeah, he may not be telling a lie, but either you may have understood it 27:26 wrongly what he said or he may be only telling you one part of the truth. See, you know, if you studied science, you know that white, the color white has got seven colors, which the seven colors of the rainbow are what make white. If any 27:45 one of those colors is missing, it's not white. You have to have all the seven colors to get white. So if a person says this, this this this, it's still not white. It's only if he's 28:01 mentioned all seven colors, it's white. I hope you understand what I'm saying. But otherwise, what he said is partially true. Red, yellow, blue is all part of white, but it's not fully white. And then I see it as red, yellow, blue, green. But it's 28:19 that's not white. I got to see the whole seven to get white. So truth is like that. I use that as an illustration of truth. What you've heard is partial truth. This partial truth, this partial truth is still not the whole thing. And 28:32 that's why it says he will not judge by what his eyes see or his ears hear. Now if you have never done that till now and I don't think all of us have done it till now we can start say Lord help me at least from now on to have a little 28:47 more reverence for you and that reverence comes not by singing in a very pious way on Sunday morning. You know that reverence comes by saying Lord I want to know my limitations my my the limitations of my intellect and my 29:05 mind that all that I see may not be the full truth and all that I hear may not be the full truth. So help me to receive it but not pass a judgment. Wait till I have more understanding. 29:23 And if we just follow that simple principle, I believe we will judge each other much less. We will judge people much less. Even our enemies, we don't have to judge them. God is their judge. Very important. And imagine imagine your 29:41 children growing up in a home with a father and mother. They see the father and mother don't judge anyone. Can you imagine what godliness your children will grow up to? It'll be absolutely amazing. See what it says in the book of James. 30:04 James chapter 4. It's a very strong word that he calls believers. James is writing to believers and uh he was a very strong preacher. 30:25 Let me first of all see James 1:2. Consider it all joy my brothers. Who is he writing to? My brothers. I just want to show you that at the beginning. And then he calls them in James 4 30:41 verse4. You adulteresses. Wow. My brothers, you adulteresses. Have you ever heard anybody preach like that? Inspired by the Holy Spirit. You think that guy is not inspired by the Holy Spirit to call believers adulteresses? 31:01 This is inspired by the Holy Spirit. You adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God, enmity towards God? And then he goes on to say in verse 11, don't speak against one another, brothers. 31:21 If you speak against a brother or judge your brother, you're speaking against the law. But there is you're judging the law. If you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. I haven't fully understood that verse even 31:33 now. When I speak against somebody, how do I judge the law? Well, I believe it. And it says here, there is only one judge, the one who's able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge your neighbor? 31:52 Okay, even if you don't understand verse 11, let's understand verse 12. There is only one judge. Do you believe that? That God has appointed only one judge in this universe. That's himself. He's He's the one who gave the law 32:10 and he's the one who judges. I think we need to pray, Lord, let me get so saturated with this truth. Let let me let this truth grip my mind so thoroughly in my heart that there is only one judge in this universe, Almighty God. And I am not one of them. 32:29 I'm not even a junior judge. There is only one judge. Who are you then? Verse 12, to judge your neighbor. Jesus, you are to be my witnesses. I'm not to be a judge. I'm to be a witness 32:47 to the love of Christ and to the message of Christ. And if they don't obey or they do something wrong, there is a judge who will take care of that. I don't have to do anything. I don't even have to pass an opinion. You see in a in a court 33:04 Jesus said your witnesses. Think of a court where the judge is sitting there and you go there as a witness. You don't have to give any advice to the judge what he should decide on. I go there as a witness. Which means I saw this. I 33:18 heard this. I don't know whether it's true. Judge, you decide. Jesus said you are witnesses for me. I'm to witness about Christ. That's one of the things that the Lord has been speaking to my own heart. Do not judge. And you know where that 33:37 verse comes. If you turn with me to Matthew's gospel and chapter 7, sometimes we see a verse and we don't see the context in which it comes. Matthew's gospel chapter 7 verse one, do not judge. It's 33:58 all of a sudden he says this but it comes at the end of I mean not at the end but towards the end of ma the sermon on the mount and there are so many things that he said in Matthew 5 and 6 that are meant for us you know 34:15 starting with blessed are the poor in spirit and many many things you read Matthew 5 and 6 very very important commandments for us and at the end of it he says don't judge judge anybody else whether they are obeying this these 34:32 commandments or not. Is that guy poor in spirit? Matthew 5:3. Don't judge. Is he hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Matthew 56. Don't judge. Is he recognizing his responsibility as 34:50 a light of the world? Matthew 5:14. Don't judge. Has he overcome anger in his life? Matthew 5:22. Don't judge. Is that guy lusting with his eyes? Matthew 5:28. Don't judge. Is he 35:07 loving his enemies? Don't judge. Is he praying in order to get honor from people? Don't judge. Is he giving money in order to get honor from people? Don't judge. All these I'm just reading Matthew 5 and 6. At the end of all this, he says, don't judge other 35:24 people whether they're keeping those commandments or not. And we can make a list of whole the whole Bible. Don't judge. Just judge yourself. See whether you're keeping it. Life will become extremely simple if we take this seriously. 35:42 Because he said that by the standard by which you judge other people, you will be judged. And this is particularly in our in our home where we see each other very closely. Husband and wife 36:00 don't judge each other. He may not have the light you have. She may not have the light you have. So that itself that's one of the things the Lord has showed me that all believers are at different let's say in school there are only 12 grades but in 36:20 Christianity there are probably 1,000 grades from kindergarten to the top and each person is at a different grade I mean depending on how much they've known the Lord and how much they've grown. So you may be in a higher grade 36:35 than that other person. Say you're in the 25th grade and that person is in grade number six. Obviously, he won't know the things you have learned already. So, it's like if an older son of yours questions his younger brother, why 36:52 doesn't he know this? That that guy is in five grades below him. How can he know? So, if I look at other believers and say, the Lord's taught me certain things, but maybe he hasn't come to that grade. How can I judge him? Even Almighty God does 37:06 not judge him. A teacher will not give a question paper of a higher grade to a child in a lower grade. That's the mistake we make when we judge others. How do you know that that person has got all the understanding you have? Maybe he 37:19 doesn't. That's why the Lord says be merciful. Always assume that he doesn't know that. That's why he's doing something wrong. But it's because he doesn't know it. He doesn't know it's wrong. And one day, 5 years from now, you'll 37:33 discover some things you're doing today were wrong. If you're grown, if you're growing, you will definitely discover. I tell you this, definitely by next year, this time, if you're judging yourself, you will discover that 37:47 some things you did today were wrong. I've discovered that. I've sought to get a promotion every year. Don't you want your children to get a promotion every year? I say, "Lord, every year in my life, I want to discover something 38:03 that I did not see was wrong last year." Have you discovered something this year that you did not know was wrong last year? Then you're growing. It's like a child goes to the fourth grade and says, "Boy, mom, I learned something today 38:17 that I did not even know last year." Right? Next year they learn something more which they didn't know this year. This is spiritual growth. So don't judge. Don't judge because that person is not in your grade. Maybe he's at a lower standard or grade. 38:35 So don't judge. While you look at the speck in your brother's eye, you don't you worry about yourself and judge yourself. It's one of the great truths that we need to be sure of. So when we look at other people, the one thing I 38:51 must remember is I must not judge. And the other thing the Lord says is don't accuse. And that's for that I want you to turn with me to Revelation and chapter 12. If I fear God, reverence God, I will not 39:15 judge the other person. You will not judge your wife why she does certain things which you never do because you got more light or why she doesn't do something which you do. She doesn't have light or the other way around. Don't judge your 39:34 husband. Maybe he doesn't have light on something that's why he does certain things a certain way. There'll be so much more peace in the home if a husband and wife recognize maybe my partner is at another grade. How can I judge? You wouldn't expect a 39:50 little child to know. We're all at different levels. And so don't accuse. Don't judge and don't accuse. It says in Revelation 12 and:e 10 that Satan has got a title. The first title is given is verse 9. He deceives the whole world. middle of verse nine, he's 40:08 the deceiver of the whole world. And the second title given to him in the middle of verse 10, he's the accuser of believers. He deceives the whole world and accuses believers. So when I accuse a believer, 40:25 I'm holding hands with the devil. The devil says, "Great, let's hold hands and accuse this guy." When you accuse your wife or you accuse your husband, do you know that when you did it in the past, you were holding hands with the 40:40 devil? Did you know the devil was so delighted that you were doing that and he gave you a little more, few more points to add to your accusation? And you thought it was your cleverness. It wasn't. It was the devil just feeding 40:57 your mind with a few more accusations. When you accuse a brother or a sister, who do you think is feeding your mind with all those accusations and gives you more and more material to point out in the other person? You think it is your sharp mind. It's 41:15 not your sharp mind. The devil is the accuser of believers and he delights in finding all types of faults and believers. It says here that he accuses them before God. Imagine he dares to accuse believers before God. Why won't he accuse them to you? 41:34 So these are two things that the Lord's been emphasizing to me for some time. Don't judge others and don't accuse them. Just judge yourself. And you've heard me say this before. I want to repeat it again in 1 Corinthians 41:49 11. It blessed me tremendously. If we judge ourselves rightly, we will never be judged. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 31. For many years, I have taken that word 42:08 seriously that if I judge myself rightly, that means I don't judge others. I judge myself. Lord, show me the areas in your my life that are out of alignment with 42:24 your perfect will for my life. I will not be judged. And that means it's quite a fantastic promise that when all even believers are going to be judged in the final day, it says before the Lord for all the things they did which they never set right in their 42:44 life. If I die with a lot of things not set right in my life, I'll one day have to answer for it before God. There's no doubt about it. But I will not be judged in that day if I judge myself now. So I don't want to be judged in the 43:01 final day by Christ. So I judge myself now. You know the Christian life becomes extremely simple when you follow one exhortation. I'll give that to you. 43:20 It's a little phrase in the middle of a verse. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 4 in the King James version. And it says, "Who are the terribly evil people 43:38 mentioned here in one verse?" 1 Peter 4:15. Murderer, make sure that none of you suffer as a murderer, thief, evildoer, or a busy body in other people's 43:55 matters. It says in the margin of my Bible, one who oversees other people's affairs. I'm not appointed as an overseer for other people's affairs. 1 Peter 4:15. And imagine that a person 44:14 who is trying to judge other people is put in the same category as murderer, thief, and evildoer. Four categories of pe evil people mentioned here. murderer, thief, evildoer, and one who's busy body in other people's matters. Do you know 44:28 how many believers are busy bodies in other people's matters? Why are they doing that? And why this other person I none of your business? Don't be a troublesome medddler. Don't be a busy body in other people's matters. A lot of husbands and wives sit 44:42 at home and our busy bodies and the affairs of so many other people in the church or other people here, there, and everywhere. We disobey that command every day. Perhaps remember from today when you do that you have classified God classifies you in 44:59 the same category as murderers, thieves and evildoers. Do not judge, do not accuse. Judge yourself and you will not be judged. Let me turn you back to what we read in Isaiah 11. 45:21 The spirit of the fear of the Lord when it is upon a person. Isaiah 11 and verse 2 and three. He will delight in the fear of the Lord. Delight in reverence for God. And when he delights in reverence for 45:38 God, he will not judge. So to me that is a test of whether I reverence whether I really have the fear of God or not. I will not judge. I'll have a low estimation of myself. Lord, I'm not qualified because I don't know your standards. 45:57 I don't know whether there's another reason is I don't know whether in this person who's done something terribly wrong there is a repentant heart. That's how Jesus looked at that thief on the cross and he could see with 46:11 supernatural Holy Spiritgiven discernment. He could see in the heart of that wicked murderer, the thief that there was a repentant heart. That's the only reason why Jesus could say, "You'll be with me in heaven today." He could see inside that. 46:29 The same with when he looked at the woman caught in adultery and was brought to him to be stoned. There was a law Jesus himself had given that law to Moses. When Jesus was in heaven, he gave the law of Mo Moses. The law he gave, 46:43 you read that in uh Exodus and Deuteronomy that a woman who commits adultery must be stoned to death. That is a law he gave and he's broughten the people bring the woman before him and what is the end of that story? 47:00 He says you can go. How did Jesus say that? because he saw he had the fear of God and he would not judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard that she had committed adultery. No, he wouldn't judge by that. The Holy Spirit gave him supernatural discernment 47:19 that inside this woman, it's not true of every woman who commits adultery. No, but inside this woman, there was a really repentant heart. So Jesus said, "You can go." That's how the Lord judges. So different from us 47:38 that he could see that woman caught in adultery who deserved death and he said no you can go because he saw a repentant heart there. Now he wouldn't say that about every woman caught in adultery. He didn't say that about the other thief on 47:49 the cross. But when a person delights in the fear of the Lord, God gives him discernment. That's how Jesus had that supernatural discernment to know whom to forgive, whom not to forgive. And how 48:08 he could turn around to the Pharisees who looked who looked so much more righteous than that woman caught in adultery and condemn them saying, "How will you escape the damnation of hell?" People who looked so righteous on the 48:23 outside. So what I learned from these instances is that a lot of people look very holy on the outside and they'll never escape the damnation of hell and a lot of people who look very evil on the outside like the woman caught in 48:35 adultery or the thief on the cross who was so wicked outside. They are qualified for God's kingdom. Those are warnings I see from the scriptures to teach me that don't judge by what you see. You could be wrong. Jesus who had that perfect 48:54 revelation from heaven knew where a person stood because God looks at the heart and not at the outward actions. Now I don't think I've been able to convey God's burden in a proper way because of the limitation of my mind and 49:11 my language. But I pray that you will ask God to show you what he's been showing me more and more clearly. Don't judge. Don't accuse because you're holding hands with the wrong people, with the devil himself. 49:29 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray you'll help us to reverence you. have a reverence for you in the way we see that Jesus had to have 49:48 discernment, supernatural discernment. We're not called to judge anyone or accuse anyone. Help us, Lord, from this day that there'll be a distinct difference in everyone sitting here in their 50:07 attitude to judging others and accusing others, including me. Help me Lord to we press on to perfection in this area. We're not going to reach there tomorrow. But if we press on, we believe we'll get there the way you want us to be on this earth 50:24 as godly people who reverence you and fear you and have learned the ABC of wisdom. Help us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
