0:18 When I was young, young young Christian, I was so taken up with the tune of a song. I enjoyed singing so much that I didn't think so much about the words. 0:34 It was a nice song and it was more like worldly people sing where they like the tune and they like the melody and not so much the words. But as I've grown in the Lord and more and more and even now when I was singing 0:53 that song, I was not thinking of so much about the melody as much as Jesus himself. and uh singing it unto him. That's become more and more 1:11 the pattern of my singing now and that's changed my whole attitude to singing on a Sunday morning. Now many of you are the young in the faith and you probably make the same mistake that I made in my younger days 1:30 where the tune and the melody excites you more than the words and we forget the presence of Jesus Christ in our midst. I would say when we come together on a Sunday morning or any meeting, 1:49 the most important thing, the most important thing is to recognize what Jesus said. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst. Now, if the governor of Canada was here 2:11 in your meeting sitting right here, even if you only saw his back cuz he sat in the front chair, you would all be very conscious of his presence. Oh, this great man has come 2:29 to our small fellowship on Sunday. It's wonderful. and throughout the service you would be aware of his presence. I thought of that how much more if we really believe 2:48 what is true and that is Christ is in the midst where two or three are gathered together in his name. Gathered together means they are united. They haven't come with strife and conflict and criticism and all that 3:08 against each other. We're gathered together by the Holy Spirit. And I believe you all are gathered together like that. Make sure when you come together there's that there's nothing but love in 3:26 your heart towards everyone. If you want to get the most out of a meeting and if you want Jesus himself to manifest his presence to you in a meeting, even if you're attending it remotely, doesn't matter. The Lord is in 3:45 the midst because the Lord is not limited by space. You can be from the east of the earth and the west of the earth and the Lord is in the midst. And so if your heart is clear 4:01 and your you've confessed all known sin in your life, we can't confess unknown sins that we grow. We discover them. We confess them whenever we discover them. But the known sins, have you confessed them all to the Lord 4:20 and asked him to forgive you and sincerely wanted to turn away from those sins? And secondly, more important that in your heart you don't have anything but love 4:38 towards every other person here. Actually to every other person in the whole world. Because if you have a grudge in your heart right now against somebody in the world that's going to block it won't block the Lord from coming here 4:56 because there there are other people who are sincere but it'll block you from hearing what the Lord wants to say to you. And in God's word, there's life. And you'll miss that life because the devil is always 5:17 very sharp and clever to put some little bad thought or a grudge against somebody in somebody's heart when they come to a Sunday meeting so that that person does not hear what God is saying to them. So I'm saying this from mistakes I have 5:40 made in my own younger days and I'm sorry to say that in my younger days the church I went to they never emphasize what I'm emphasizing right now. They just see well so are we singing well and are we all joining together in the singing and that was 5:55 more important when I see I tell you it doesn't make one difference to me if somebody sings out of tune or does not know the song properly that doesn't bother me you don't know the song just speak the words silently to the Lord 6:11 but what bothers me and what bothers the Lord is if there's in something in your heart that's not right? Some sin that is not confessed, some attitude towards somebody that is wrong. Even if that person is not here, maybe some attitude towards somebody 6:29 who's living in another country or to some relative of yours who cheated you and you got a grudge against him till today you've not released him and forgiven him. Then I want to say to you right at the beginning, you will get nothing from the 6:45 Lord. You'll get a lot of information from what you hear in a meeting. Sure. But that only go to your head when God seeks to speak to the heart. There are many people who sit in a Sunday meeting and they get a lot of information in their head. 7:02 And those who have a great lust to preach will accumulate that information so that they can preach that somewhere else. But when we come to the Lord's presence in Sunday, it's the heart that must be ready. We must prepare our heart and say, 7:19 "Lord, I want to hear you speak to my heart." And the difference is when I hear the Lord in my mind, I only get information. But if my heart is open, my life will be changed. And that's the whole purpose of our coming together. Every time we come 7:38 together, even if I'm hearing the same message for the 50th time, 50th time, it'll do something in me. I'll tell you how I know that. It's possible that I read sections of the Bible 100 times because I started 7:56 reading it when I was 19 and a half. I'm 86 now. I've been reading the Bible for 67 years nearly as far as I can remember every day. And I know the difference it's made in my 8:14 life. It's made me seek God's kingdom first and his righteousness. And it's brought peace and joy into my heart. Changed the direction of my life. kept me even physically healthy. 8:33 Yeah. When your spirit is right, even your body becomes healthy. I praise the Lord that he's done all that. And the Lord does all that so that I can be available to him to offer my 8:50 the strength that he's given me and the understanding and wisdom he's given me to offer it back to him in service. That's what I seek to do. And so I don't mind hearing the same thing again and again. You see, the Bible is not a book that you just read 9:07 once. All the other books in the world, I've read lots and lots of books in my lifetime, secular books, and we had to study them in school and all that and other times also. All of them I read once. I can hardly think of any novel or 9:27 secular book that I've read more than once because it's boring. I I I only know the story. What's there to read against? But I the Bible I've been reading again and again and again for 67 years. And I'll tell you the truth, 9:44 I get new things from it every time I read it. Even this morning as I read I saw something because God speaks through it and God will speak to anyone who's give 10:01 gives time to him to listen. If you don't have time for God and if he's not number one priority in your life then of course you won't hear what God is saying. You'll get information. There are a lot of people who go to Bible school and get information in 10:18 their head about certain facts in the Bible. I'll tell you honestly, I thank God I never went to a Bible school in my life. Not even one day because I don't believe that's the place where you get in from the divine enlightenment that comes from the Holy 10:36 Spirit. So all my life I have sought for light from God through the Holy Spirit. encourage you to read the Bible like that. And so I'm not disturbed when I read the same thing again. I read something in 10:55 the Bible and I know the whole story. I even know the words that Jesus is going to say because I've read it so many times. A lot of it I know by heart. I can know what the next verse is even with my eyes shut because I've read it so many times. 11:12 But I find God speaks to me. If you have a heart that's humble and willing to listen, every single time you read the Bible, even if you're reading that for the 50th time, you'll get something new. 11:30 Believe my testimony. And you come to a meeting and you're hearing perhaps the same message for the 50th time, you'll get something new. I found that and that depends not you know if I go by my head I say yeah I've heard that 11:49 before I've read that before and I come with that attitude I'll get zero but if I want to listen with my heart there's a lot of difference between listening with my mind and listening with my heart listening with my mind is information 12:07 listening with the heart I get revelation revelation from God is something that changes our life. Information only increases my knowledge. Maybe I can preach that to others. But I look for revelation when I read scripture. 12:24 You know, revelation is a word. Revelation on God's word is not something found in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the word is understanding. You read the word, you get understanding. In the New Testament, the word is 12:40 revelation. That means you read the word and God shows you something which is not plainly written there. It's not just something I can understand with my intellect. A revelation. I can think of certain passages of scripture 12:58 that I read for 20 years before I got revelation on that verse. And I it is not some it is not a new verse. It's a verse I had read for 20 years. Suddenly I get revelation on it and it changes my life. See the difference between knowledge and 13:15 revelation is knowledge just increases your um big pile of information that you have in your head. But revelation changes your life. some if I know if I read scripture and it doesn't change my life that's only 13:34 information it's like reading the newspaper or listening to the news information information and you can come to the Bible like that and it doesn't change your life that's why you can have you know a husband and wife who have even family 13:51 prayer reading the Bible together and then the same day they'll be fighting and arguing with each other what did the Bible reading do for zero. They they had more knowledge but they didn't change their life. So whenever you read the scriptures dear 14:14 brothers and sisters even children say Lord speak to me. I want to hear what you have to say. Open my eyes that I can behold something wonderful out of your word. Let me show you this prayer in Psalm 119. It's a Psalm 119. 14:38 This whole psalm is about God's word. The whole psalm is about God's word. I want you to look at one verse, verse 18. Psalm 119 and verse 18. It's a very good prayer 14:58 to have in your heart, even if you don't repeat it with your mouth when you come to God's word. Open my eyes, Lord, that I may behold or see some wonderful things from your word. Ask 15:17 and you will receive. And Jesus once said, "You don't have because you don't ask." I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, have you ever prayed that prayer? Lord, open my eyes that I may see something wonderful in your word 15:35 which I've not seen till now. Something that will change my life. Something that will change my family life. Something that will make me love my husband and my wife more than I do today. something that will give me greater 15:51 wisdom to bring up my children in the right way. Something in your word that will help me to be more firmly connected to my brothers and sisters in the church. Show me something more of the humility 16:09 of Jesus Christ. I keep praying that even now I've seen a lot about the humility of Christ, but I keep praying more and more and more. Lord, I want to see your humility because that is a great secret of Jesus life. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:5, God gives 16:27 grace to the humble. Everybody doesn't get grace, but the humble get grace. And the humbler you are, the more grace you grace is like water. And you know when there's a rain, if you find the rain falls, you'll all find find the water is 16:42 all accumulated in the lowest part of the ground. If in a field some parts are lower than the other, the water all go always goes there. The lowest part is flooded with water. Or if up and down road you find water is accumulated in the lower part of the 16:57 road. It's like that the Holy Spirit moves and wherever he finds people who are really humble, he moves there and that's where they get the maximum revelation. So if you pray you say Lord with my mind I can understand a lot but I want to see 17:16 something. Open my eyes the eyes of my heart to see something. Not just understand in my head but to see something. And there you don't have to be clever. You need to be clever to understand. But to see something in terms of 17:35 revelation, you don't need to be clever. Because turn with me to Matthew's Gospel and chapter 11 and verse 25. This is a interesting 17:52 verse. Jesus said, "At that time Jesus said, I praise you, father." He was praying to his father in heaven. Lord of heaven and earth, you hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and 18:09 the clever. And you reveal this truths to little infants. Infants are even smaller than babies. There really like a newborn baby, an infant. What does all of you grown up people, what does an infant have that you don't 18:27 have? Have you asked yourself why does the Lord say God will reveal certain things to infants? Then I ask myself, what is it an infant has which I don't have? It's not cleverness. I'm clever than infants. I'm 18:46 even clever than little children. Intelligence, I've got more than infants. Knowledge, I have more than infants. Experience, I've got more than infants. But what is it that infants have which we adults don't have? 19:04 Humility. You see a little two-month old baby lying in a cradle. Do you think it has got any high thoughts about itself saying, "I think I'm pretty smart. I think I'm good-looking. See, everybody's admiring me and saying nice 19:23 things about me." Is that baby excited about all the nice things people say when they look at a baby? You know, you look at a baby and say, "Oh, what a lovely baby." And does the baby get a little proud inside his heart? Not at all. Not at all. 19:38 If somebody said something like that about you or me, get a little puffed up, but not that baby. It is so completely free from the opinions of men. And Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like those little infants. 19:57 And if you come to the Lord like that, God gives his grace to the humble. Grace is more important than knowledge. Grace is a word not found in the Old Testament. It's a New Testament word because grace came through Jesus Christ. There was no 20:16 grace in the Old Testament. There was mercy in the Old Testament. Yes, which is forgiveness of sins. But grace is different. Romans 6:14 is a great verse. You know that verse, Romans 6 and verse 14. It's a word that changed my life 20:35 many years ago. Romans chapter 6. To me, it's one of the most important verses in the New Testament. Romans 6 and verse14. Sin will not rule over you. Will not be 20:54 master over you. That is my greatest need. My greatest need is not Bible knowledge. My greatest need is not to have a good job. My greatest need is not to have a good income. All that is necessary for life on the earth. But the greatest need, number one 21:13 need, I want to overcome sin in my life. Because that's what Jesus died for. Jesus didn't die for me to get a better job. Jesus didn't die to give me better health. Jesus didn't die for anything other than to deliver me from sin. 21:30 So Lord, there's so much sin in my life. I want to be free from sin. And it says here, sin will never rule you when you come under grace. But if you live by rules, the law, law means rules. I go to church and I hear a meeting and say you shouldn't do this 21:49 and you should do that and I try to follow the rules and I can never follow all the rules in scripture and I give up and maybe I can keep it few days you know like people make a new year resolution from the 1st of January 22:05 that lasts about till the 6th of January or so and then it's over then we are back to the old life again but Grace enables a person to overcome sin. That's what it says here. And it says you're not under the Old Testament, but 22:23 under the New Testament. The law is referring to the Old Testament. Grace is a New Testament word. And he says if you come under grace and come under grace, you know, sin will not rule over you. See, for example, all of 22:39 you are sitting under the roof. There's a roof on top of your head. And because of that any amount of rain or snow outside, it will not fall on you. Some of you may be in towns which are pretty cold and maybe snowing outside, 22:56 but not a bit of snow falls on your head. Why? Because there's a roof over you. I picture it like that. When you're under grace, sin cannot rule you. Sin cannot control you. 23:14 It's a tremendous promise. Sin shall not be the master. You know the our biggest problem is that from the from our childhood, sin has been the master in our life. Even when we say Lord Jesus, you're my 23:31 Lord. Sin has still been the master. How to get rid of it? You know we hear of different countries that fought for independence. India fought for independence from many 23:47 many years from the British and finally we got independence in 1947 and became a republic in 1950. America fought for independence in the 1700s and they got independence in 1776 24:07 became a free country. There are different countries that have been ruled by other countries and Kenya, Uganda, Tangana. These countries were all ruled by the British and they broke free and became independent. Now we need to break break free from the 24:27 power of sin. This has ruled all human beings from the time of their birth. But some have broken free. And it says the only ones who break free are those who come under grace. Grace means sin will not rule. It will not be the master 24:43 over you. You will be the master over sin. I want to ask you my dear brothers and sisters. I'm not trying to bring anybody under condemnation or judgment. But I ask you in humility and love, has that happened in your life? 25:02 Has that happened at least in some areas in your life where sin cannot rule you anymore? Have you got control over your temper, your anger? Have you come to the place in your life where 25:18 you never speak with anger to anyone? You can speak strong words to your children when they don't obey you. But anger is another thing. Sometimes children don't listen if you 25:37 don't speak strongly. But anger is another thing. Anger comes from a certain hatred. We won't admit it but it's a anger which makes me say who is this person to question me. When a husband gets speaks strongly to his wife 25:55 in anger is because he feels I'm the head of the home here and how dare you do that or how dare you speak to me like that. How dare you not do what I told you to do or sometimes the wife can feel that way too. Some wives are pretty strong and can be angry 26:12 with their husbands. I told you so many times to do this or to get this and you haven't done it. We can be like that with our children. And our children grow up seeing daddy and mommy getting angry with each other and they learn it. 26:30 What a wonderful thing it is. Now I'm not talking as one who's never failed. My own married life was like that in the beginning. No different. But I can honestly say before God, it's just it's gone from my life completely. 26:45 Anger has gone away. We are living in heaven already in our home. But it did not come in one day. We had to take the cross in our life in our life and die to self every day and ask God for grace and humble 27:05 ourselves. And as grace came upon our life gradually the light became brighter and brighter and brighter in our home and the darkness disappeared. That's a wonderful thing when that happens in your home and in your heart 27:20 so that in our thoughts and everything else darkness goes away. And that's the greatest blessing we can give to our children. We want to give our children a good education. Excellent. I tried my best to give all four of my 27:35 sons good education and for that you know my wife and I were extremely poor. We lived when we were because I had given up given away all my life's earnings when I resigned from the Navy. I gave it all away for God's work and I 27:53 started my Christian life before my marriage with zero in my bank account. And when I got married, I told my wife that I want to tell you I've got zero in my bank account and I'm not joining any Christian organization. I don't get a 28:07 salary. I'll have to trust God to provide my need. My father gave me a little bit of an inheritance which was a help. So I lived on that like Paul stitched tents to earn his living. I took the little money that my dad gave 28:23 me and invested it and little by little by little that grew and that's how we supported ourselves all our Christian life till today. And uh it was not enough for me to for for example own a car. I rode a scooter in India for 42 years because I couldn't 28:43 afford petrol for a car. But we survived all right. We had no complaints about anything. And we could never take our children out to a restaurant. Not even once. We could not afford it. We could never take our children out for a vacation to some 28:59 tourist place. Never. Not even once. But that's okay. It doesn't matter. We could we'd visit our my parents and his her parents during our holidays and there are many things we could not afford. We could not afford grand clothes and all 29:14 for our children. That's okay. They had simple clothes. It's okay. But we taught our children to love Jesus Christ and to read God's word. That is the most important thing. So many other parents can give their children so many things 29:31 in the world but the children don't love Jesus. what's the use? And so we must have our priorities right. So it's very important, dear brothers and sisters. And when we finally leave this earth and get into God's presence, 29:50 I believe every one of us, one of the things we will do is we will look back over our life. How did I live? Not from the day I was born but from the day I got understanding about Jesus. Okay. From the day I was born I did not 30:07 know the truth when I was born. And even though my father was a believer took us to church I I got received Christ only when I was 19. Even though my father was a believer and took us only to a good church from the time I was born. 30:23 But still I responded to Christ only when I was 19. But from then that is nearly 67 years my life changed completely. Little by little it's like a child growing. You don't suddenly become mature. But little by little more and more truth began to 30:39 come into my life. And one of the greatest truths that came to my life about 50 years ago was that I sin does not have to be my master. Romans 6:14. If I really come under grace, no sin will rule over me. It's like 30:59 saying you're sitting under a roof now. Not one drop of rain will fall on you. You're absolutely sure of that. But if there's a hole in your roof, then the rain will come. Grace is like that. When it says Romans 6:14, when you're under grace, 31:18 sin cannot rule you. Sin cannot sit on your head and control you. Sinner cannot come into your mind and tell you what to do because you're under grace. But when grace is not there, the Old Testament, grace was not, nobody 31:35 had grace. John 1:14 says grace came through Jesus Christ. That's why nobody in the Old Testament could have victory over sin. Jesus once said that John the Baptist was the greatest prophet. And do you know what John the Baptist 31:53 did towards the end of his life? He was the one who baptized Jesus. He saw the Holy Spirit coming on Jesus. The voice from heaven saying, "This is my son." Such amazing things. You'd think that man would never have a doubt for the rest of his life. Yet we 32:10 read one day Herod imprisoned him because he was rebuking Herod. John the Baptist got imprisoned and John the Baptist sat in prison and he wondered why is Jesus with all his almighty power not delivering me from prison. 32:26 You know sometimes we say God is almighty why doesn't he do this for me? Why doesn't he do that other thing for me? Why does he not give me a promotion? Why doesn't he heal the sickness? John the Baptist was like that. He sat in 32:36 prison and say if Jesus is almighty why is why am I sitting in a prison? I should be free and he began to have a doubt. This man who saw heaven open and the Holy Spirit coming on Jesus, he sends two of his disciples to Jesus and say, 32:52 "Are you really the Messiah?" Can you imagine John the Baptist asking that question after seeing heaven open and the Holy Spirit coming on him? You and I don't ask that question. Lord Jesus, are you really the son of God? 33:11 I'm sure you you and I have never asked that question. John the Baptist who saw we've never seen heaven open and a voice from heaven or anything, but we still believe in Jesus. John the Baptist saw all that and he still questioned, "Lord, 33:23 are you really the Messiah?" You know why? Listen carefully. He was not under grace. He was under the old covenant. He was the greatest man of God under the old covenant. But the moment the Holy Spirit came on the day of 33:42 Pentecost, he's called the spirit of grace in Hebrews. He brought grace. Grace is different from mercy. Mercy is forgiveness of sins. It deals with our past. Grace is relates to the future to overcome sin. We need mercy because 34:01 we've all failed. And we'll need mercy till the end of our life because we're not going to live perfectly. But in the new covenant, we can have grace so that become more and more grace and become greater and greater overcomers in our 34:14 life. And our home becomes more heavenly because grace is there over husband and wife, father and mother. And little by little as the children grow up, grace comes upon them. We must long for this. And what is the qualification to get 34:30 grace? Turn with me to 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. This is a universal law of God. That means it applies everywhere at all times. 34:48 Something like the law of gravity. You know the law of gravity. Anything you drop will fall to the ground. It will not remain suspended in the air. If it's got any weight in it, not like a balloon or something, but anything with 35:07 a weight, it drops. Drops. It's a little stone, it drops. If it's a big rock, it drops because there's a law called the law of gravity that's always pulling things down, down, down, down. Now if you use that as an illustration, 35:25 grace is the opposite of it. Pulling things up and up and up and up. That when sin is pulling you down, grace is pulling you up. Then what happens? Like you look at an airplane. Do you think the law of gravity operates on an airplane? 35:44 Do you think the law of gravity is trying to pull that airplane down? Yes. Sure. All the time. And that's how now and then you hear about a plane crash. How did that happen? Gravity pulled it down and the pilot couldn't control it. It went down 35:59 crashing. But there's a principle by which that plane gets lifted up in the air and it overcomes the law of gravity and it stays up there for hours. can go right 36:17 around the world up in the air. Even though gravity is pulling it down, pulling it down, pulling down all the time, it flies there and we all have such confidence in a plane that we get into that plane without any fear knowing 36:30 that this plane will overcome gravity all the way to our home. You can trust a plane. Can't you trust the Holy Spirit that he can give you grace when he's given you a promise? Yes, 36:50 trust him from today that with grace sin shall not rule over you. As long as that plane is following the principles of flight, gravity cannot pull it down. The same thing in our life. 37:08 1 Peter 5:5, the last part. God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. God is always opposed to the proud. 37:29 He's the enemy not of sinners. No, no, no, no. God is not the enemy of sinners. He loves sinners but is the enemy of a proud person. Whether that proud person is a sinner or whether that proud person calls himself a bornagain Christian. 37:48 Don't you think there are some proud born again Christians? Oh yeah, I've seen a lot of them. I was born like that myself. Even after born again, I didn't get understand humanity straight away. God is opposed to the proud. But see the 38:04 rest of that sentence. He gives grace to the humble. I told you if you come under grace, sin will not rule over you. But God doesn't give his grace to everybody. He gives his grace to the humble. It's like water. the water will flow down to the lowest 38:29 place. Everywhere in the world, it's like that. And grace is like that. Grace will always look for who is the humblest person here. Grace goes to him first. Who is the humblest person in your church? You don't know. I don't know. 38:45 God knows. Grace will go to him first. Just like water will look for the lowest place and flow down there. And that high place say I want some water too. It doesn't come there. God gives his grace to the humble. 39:04 My dear brothers, keep these two verses in mind. 1 Peter 5:5, God gives grace to the humble. And Romans 6:14, that when you come under grace, sin will not rule over you. What are the two verses? 1 Peter 5:5, God gives grace to all humble people. 39:21 And Romans 6:14, if you're under grace, sin will not rule over you. So if you find in some situation, some sinful habit, you're trying to overcome it, but you're not able to overcome it. What shall you say to yourself, don't 39:38 say the sin is too strong, don't say the power of gravity is too strong. That airplane that's flying in the air does not come over some country and say, "Oh, uh, I'm flying over England now. The gravity is too strong here." No, it can 39:51 fly over any country. So don't ever say sin is too strong. Grace is stronger than the greatest sin. But be honest and say why did I fall into sin there? Only one reason. 40:07 God saw some pride in me. I need to see what that was. Lord, where was I proud? I've sometimes gone to that. I remember in the olden days when I didn't have understanding clearly on this but I knew that God gives grace to 40:21 the humble and if I slipped up and fell somewhere like I got a little angry somewhere or said something rude to somebody I would go before God alone and say Lord I'm sorry tell me of course I would apologize to that person also but I'd say Lord please 40:36 show me where did I become proud I didn't ask the Lord why didn't I didn't overcome sin I knew that I didn't overcome sin because I didn't get grace I also didn't ask the Lord why I didn't grace that also I knew because I was 40:49 proud somewhere I didn't know it so what I asked was not why did I fall into sin not why did I not get grace I asked the question where was I proud and then the Lord would show me something that maybe happened the previous day or sometimes the previous 41:06 week where I got a little puffed up maybe through some accomplishment of mine or something I did and I looked down on somebody else that's pride and I became puffed up and the result was grace departed from me. That covering went away and sin came and 41:25 pulled me down. I kept on saying that every time I fall fell and gradually I discovered how to remain in humility all the time. That's my greatest advice to you my brothers. None of us like to be dirty in our body. 41:44 Would you like to have You don't want dirty hands when you eat food. You don't like to be dirty in your body. I don't want to be dirty in my soul. That's much worse. I don't want to be dirty in my soul. I don't want to be dirty in my body. 42:03 And so the only way is if I must be under grace all the time. You you you take a shower to get rid of dirt. If you had a worked in the mud or something, you go and have a wash and clean yourself. Much more we need to clean ourselves because 42:21 the world is a filthy place. Sin is all around and it's very easy to get polluted. So the secret is there. God gives grace to the humble. And the other blessed thing I want to 42:37 say this also that when you get two really humble people together they become one. They get united. It's like heat that melts the two pieces of iron. It makes them one piece. You know iron is so strong it you try 42:56 and put two iron together. Even you stick it with gum it'll separate. But if you melt it, melt two pieces of iron in a furnace, it becomes one. So solid, one piece. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost. 120 brothers and sisters 43:15 were meeting together in an upper room in Jerusalem and they humbled themselves. They waited for 10 days in prayer and the Holy Spirit fell upon him. It was like a fire from heaven. You know, John the Baptist said, "Jesus will baptize you in the 43:32 Holy Spirit and fire." So, the Holy Spirit was like a fire and these 120 pieces of iron. That's what those people were. Strong pieces of iron that could not be together. Those disciples were always arguing who is the greatest. They 43:47 were not one with each other. But when they fire came on them, all of these iron pieces melted and they became one piece, became one body. That's called the church. the body of Christ where everybody's been melted by the fire of God and made 44:06 one. Husbands and wives become one and brothers and brothers become one, sisters and sisters become one. And there's a unity and fellowship which is not produced by just discussing doctrine. You know, are we all agreed in 44:18 doctrine? Are we united? That's not what they did that day. They love Jesus and the Holy Spirit came as a fire upon them and melted them and broke down their self-will. So when Jesus said that it's impossible to 44:37 follow him, you know the well-known verse in Luke 9:23, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. It's very interesting that there's only one thing that Jesus said we must do 44:55 every day. That's in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23. You try and read the Bible and see if there's any other place where Jesus said you must do something daily. Daily. 45:13 We tell people you must read the Bible daily. Very good habit. I do it. But the Bible, printed Bible was available only for the last 600 years. The first 1400 years after Jesus, there was no Bible. The printing was not available. Printing 45:33 was discovered in the 1400s. So printed Bibles are only 600 years old. So how can you read the Bible when you don't have a Bible at home? So 1,400 years, you could not tell people to read the Bible daily because nobody had one. 45:49 They had to try and remember what they heard in the church meeting about what the apostles preached or something like that. But today so much easier. We got a printed Bible with us. So, but there's something else Jesus said we must do every day. Luke 9:23. 46:07 Whoever wants to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross daily. More important than reading the Bible. Reading the Bible is important, but more important than that is to take up your cross daily. The cross is an instrument by which 46:28 people are put to death. If you if you were living in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, it was a very common sight to see people carrying a cross. Not just Jesus. Many criminals also, they crucified them. And you'd see the fellow carrying the cross along the road 46:44 and you look at out of your window and you know he was not going on a picnic. He was going to be killed. He was going to die. So take up your cross means you're on your way to die. Are you ready to die to self? Take up your cross every day. Which 47:02 means I took it up yesterday but that's not good enough for today. I must remind myself I have to die to myself today also. take up your cross daily. So every day I need to remind myself Lord I want to follow you today and I 47:17 cannot follow you unless I die to myself every day. So from today onwards, I almost said from tomorrow onwards, no, from today onwards, if you find yourself in a situation 47:35 where you are tempted to get angry or upset, ask yourself, how will a dead man react to this situation? That's what I ask myself. What does it mean to die daily? Okay, somebody's angry with me. What if 47:53 I'm dead? How will I react? I know the answer. Or we are all tempted to pride. That's another thing. Supposing somebody praises me and says, "Oh, brother Zach, you're a great prophet, man. You're a wonderful preacher." 48:10 How how does a dead man react? No change of expression. On the other hand, after that, next time somebody says, "You're good for nothing. You're useless. You're a deceiver." No reaction. I tell you, it's wonderful to be dead to 48:28 self. Jesus said, "Take up your cross daily." That's the meaning. Ask the Holy Spirit. Why does God give us grace through the Holy Spirit? To die to myself every day. 48:44 Death is not something we love. But supposing I guarantee that every time you die there'll be a resurrection. Would you be willing to die then? Oh yes, definitely. If you assure me there'll be a resurrection. I say sure. 48:59 I volunteer to die because I want to experience a resurrection. That's exactly what happens. Jesus died. He rose again. And every time you die to yourself, you will have an experience of the resurrection life of Jesus coming in 49:15 you. I'm telling you that from my experience for nearly 50 years. You cannot produce the life of Jesus yourself. No matter how hard you try, you can try and imitate it, but you can't produce the real thing. The real thing comes when you die to yourself and 49:34 the Holy Spirit produces the life of Jesus in you. That is called grace. So dear brothers and sisters, I've been speaking to you for nearly 1 hour now. Thank you for listening patiently. I don't see any of you losing your 49:51 attention. Praise the Lord. I pray that you will be gripped by what you heard today. And it'll change your life and more than just your life. It'll change your family life and your church life. That you'll become more one with each other wherever you 50:06 are. That it'll make you one with other believers. that the Lord will make you one with each other. That's what he wants. A body is not an arm lying there and a leg lying there and a nose lying there and a hand lying there. No, a bodies all 50:23 of them are together. You go to these anatomy laboratories in medical colleges, you'll find a hand lying there and a leg lying there and a different parts of the body because that's those medical students are studying the human body. Dead bodies are 50:38 cut up like that. But that's not a real body. A body is where all are connected together. The hand and the legs and the eyes and the ears are all working together. I pray your churches will be like that. Not just that you come and sing together 50:53 and listen to a message together, but you feel I'm one with the other brothers here and sisters. And I'm not trying to show that I'm better than that person. Is there any part of your body that's trying to show I'm better than that 51:06 person that other part? No. See, for example, the eyes can see things that the hand can never see. The eyes not boasting, hey, I'm better than you. No. Or the hand saying, I can do things that the eyes cannot do. There's no boasting 51:20 in a real body. Every part is happy to be itself. God has made you one part in the body of Christ. Be happy with that. Fulfill it. Don't compare yourself with other. Don't compete with others. Lord, let me do my part. Be a faithful witness for you. 51:38 God bless you all. We have a long way to go before Christ comes again. And there's a way that we have to walk. Jesus said there's a Let me show you this last verse and then we'll close. Matthew chapter 7. 51:56 Matthew chapter 7 and verse 14. Even a small boy or girl can answer this question. How do we reach life? The answer is there. Is it only through a gate 52:18 or is a gate plus a way to reach life? Life is at the end. The gate is small. The way is narrow that leads to life. The tragedy in a lot of Christianity is they only talk about the gate. 52:36 You accept Christ and you're born again and you come into life. I say no. No, the gate is important. But you get into the weight in order to enter the way and the way leads to life. Isn't that clear? The gate is small and 52:54 the way is narrow that finally leads to life. It's like saying suppos supposeding you're running in the Olympic Games and you're running the marathon race. You come to the starting line. Good. I mean to be selected to represent your country in the starting 53:07 line of the marathon race itself is a great honor. Imagine if you were selected to represent your country to run the marathon race in the Olympics. Boy, that's a fantastic honor. But you've only come to the starting line. Don't 53:20 stand on the starting line forever. Run so that you come to the finishing line. And there's a big 40 kilometer track there called a marathon race. The Christian life is like that. You come to the gate that means you got selected. That's a great 53:38 honor to be selected by Jesus to be his child. Then there's a way we run the race. The Bible says in Hebrews 122, let us run the race because there's somebody who's gone ahead of us. Jesus has gone ahead of us running the race. He's 53:52 called the forerunner. the one who ran in front of us. He didn't come to the gate and stand there. He ran the race for 33 and 1/2 years and finished it and said follow me. So let's do that. Let's say Lord I want to follow 54:08 you. I want to die to myself every day. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Fill me with the Holy Spirit and I want to follow you. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. So think of whatever the Lord has spoken to you and ask the Lord to impress that 54:23 on your heart. And Jesus said, "Forgive us our sins as we have forgiven others." So it's very important when you ask the Lord to forgive you to ask yourself, have you forgiven everybody else? As you bow in prayer, can you think of 54:39 anybody you've not forgiven? Have you forgiven your wife? Have you forgiven your husband for all the stupid things they did? or your neighbors or relatives or somebody who cheated you. Have you forgiven everyone? Then you can pray, 54:50 "Heavenly Father, forgive me exactly as I have forgiven others." That's important. Otherwise, God doesn't listen to your prayer. Yes, Lord, please forgive us as we have forgiven everybody. And cleanse us in the blood of Jesus 55:07 from all sin. And help us from today as we've got light to die to self to seek the power of your Holy Spirit to die to self so that your grace will always be upon us so that we can finish the race successfully 55:25 before Christ returns. Help every one of these dear brothers and sisters. I believe they're all sincere. I believe you'll encourage every one of them. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
