0:12 Would you turn your Bibles with me to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 23. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 23. Jesus said here, when the multitudes and his disciples came to him, he said, the scribes, in verse 2, the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. 0:42 Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe. So what Jesus is saying here is that all that they tell is correct. And you do them, you follow them. And Jesus certified their doctrines and said their doctrines are right. But he said, 1:11 do not do according to their deeds. For they say things and do not do them. They preach one thing and they are another thing. Their private life is different, but their public life is excellent. People look up to them and give them honour and all that. 1:37 And they seek that. They seek honourable places, they seek honour, salutation and all those things. And be called rabbi and teacher and all those titles. Jesus certified their doctrines and said they are right. But do not ever 2:00 follow their example. And later on, I mean he kept on telling what all they do. They want to be noticed by men and they want all good places and salutation in market places, in public places and in banquets and all. They need the top seats, 2:26 guest of honour. They want to be called rabbi and father, teacher and all those things. But it should not be like that with you. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. This is kingdom's law. 2:48 And then from verse 13, Jesus had a big confrontation with the scribes and the Pharisees. This is one time, many times he had problems with them. But at this particular time, Jesus had to denounce them and call upon them. 3:14 O's, seven times O's. O's means curses. It's like as if Jesus cursed these scribes and Pharisees seven times. You read that from verse 13 onwards. For all that they were doing publicly, publicly they 3:38 were doing something which was noticed by everybody around but they didn't know what they were doing in their private life. Their private life was like graves, whitewashed graves full of stench and filth, rotten flesh. 4:11 You read that, as you keep reading that you will come to know. O to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He rightly called them hypocrites. Hypocrite is a person who plays a double role. He is one thing outside and another 4:33 thing inside. He is a Christian on Sunday and between Sundays he is quite another man. He is a different person at home. He is a different person in the office. He does all sorts of things and comes to Sunday meeting or at that time on Saturday, 4:54 the Sabbath, they would come and pretend like they are holy people. And Jesus saw through them and lambasted them and strongly condemned their acts. He said, 5:19 you shut off the kingdom from them because you yourself do not enter and you don't allow them to enter. And again he says, O to you scribes and Pharisees, because you devour widows' houses and make long prayers to seek honour and what you shall receive in return. 5:46 He said, you shall receive greater condemnation and you go over land and sea to make one convert and after he becomes a convert you make him twofold son of hell like yourself. He said, 6:06 you blind guides, O to you, O to you, you hypocrites. You tithe mint, dill and cumin but you have forgotten the weightier things of the law, compassion and justice. And you blind guides, you strain out a gnat, gnat means mosquito. You strain 6:36 out a mosquito but swallow camels. He said, O to you, you clean the outside of the cup. That is the testimony of many Christians. He is speaking to us also today. You brothers and sisters sitting here, listen carefully to what Jesus is telling. 7:00 Instead of saying, O to you scribes and Pharisees, you put your name there and say to yourself, you clean the outside of the cup. Your external testimony on Sunday morning is impeccable. Nobody can point a finger at you. 7:18 Everything is perfect. But inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. Robbery means deceiving others by hook or crook. You want to make more money? You make it in an unrighteous way by depriving the poor, 7:47 the widows and the have-nots. And you indulge in self-indulgence. What is self-indulgence? You indulge in things that nobody knows about. Probably your life partner doesn't know what's going on in your life, in your private life, 8:16 in your thought life, how you are. Jesus was not bothered about all these external things that they were doing, trying to impress people. But he was interested in seeing through people's heart and mind. There's a verse in 1 Samuel. It says, God doesn't look like man looks outside, 8:44 externally. He looks at the heart. And the psalmist said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. That's absolutely clear. Clear as it can be. Brothers and sisters, if you are harboring sin in your private life, don't expect God 9:10 to answer any of your prayers. They will not go beyond the ceiling. That's God's word. He said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And the psalmist says, you will not despise a broken and a contrite 9:35 heart. God will not despise a broken and a contrite heart. But a deceptive heart, a proud heart, a heart that seeks to justify itself, Jesus said, it will not be. Such prayers will not even be answered. First, clean 9:59 the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside of the cup may become clean too. Means, you concentrate upon your inner life between you and God and don't bother about anything else. The rest will 10:19 take care of itself. That means your external testimony will be alright. That God will take care of it. That is the meaning of that. You are like whitewashed tombs. Outside you appear beautiful, but inside you are full of dead 10:38 men's bones and uncleanness. You outwardly appear righteous men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. O to you, O to you, O to you. Seven times he cursed them. It seems as though it is very much unchrist-like. 11:00 Christ means we all have a different picture. Most of Christianity has a different picture of Jesus. One of humble, meek and mild, gentle Lamb of God. But we forget the other side of Jesus, who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 11:23 And the day comes, the Bible says, whether you like it or not, every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess. Today they may not be acknowledging that. But when the time comes, every knee will bow, they cannot stand before him, they will have to fall flat before him. 11:48 Every knee will bow down to him and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord of Lords and King of Kings. The only one to be honoured, praised, worshipped and glorified. 12:10 And it is very important for us to see why God is so much interested in our private life. So we turn to Luke chapter 12. In this connection, Luke chapter 12 verse 12:34 2 and 3. Luke chapter 12 verses 2 and 3. Jesus spoke again here to his disciples. He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. See, Jesus was against hypocrisy. More against this particular vice than anything else in people's lives. 13:02 He said, come out clean, be honest, only acknowledge your sin. That's all God wants from you. Don't try to hide things saying, this woman whom you gave me, she led me to sin, she made me eat of the tree. Don't blame other people. Take the blame yourself and get out of that 13:29 spirit of hypocrisy. We all have that, we were born with that. You see, in your own home, children, siblings, you confront one, they will point the finger at the other. He made me do that, she made me do that. She first hit me, he first hit me. 13:50 Things like that. It's inborn in us, we have not studied that. They have not gone to any school to study how to be hypocrite, how to tell lies and how to steal. No, these are all inherited that we need to disinherit. And that becomes possible only when 14:11 we acknowledge our iniquity and come to Christ in brokenness and repentance. And Jesus said here, there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. So we may think that nobody knows what I am doing. 14:32 You know, even Judas did that. So cleverly he hid his sin from the other disciples, the 11 of them. He did it so well that even on the last day when Jesus told this is the man to whom I am giving the morsel is the one who is going to betray me. They 14:54 couldn't believe that. And when Jesus said, whatever you want to do, do it quickly. They thought maybe Jesus is telling him because he was the treasurer to buy something and give to the poor as Jesus would always do that. They had no clue that 15:10 this guy was a crook sitting in their midst. And finally Jesus had to expose, even after he exposed him also, the disciples couldn't believe that he was the one. He covered it up so well. But Jesus says here, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed 15:34 and hidden that will not be known. So brothers and sisters, there is a verse in Numbers 32 verse 23. Easy for us to remember. Three, two, two, three numbers. It says, be sure your sin will find you out. 15:55 Even in the old covenant, the Lord told his people, be sure your sin will find you out. You may try to hide it, but one day or the other, it will come out. You know, however much you try to hide something, you know sometimes you see on the road they put white topping or asphalt, they cover it up and 16:23 a little later you see some tiny plant, some grass or something that sprouts from somewhere. I don't know how it breaks through that cement or that tar road. It comes out. You cannot hide a seed for long. 16:44 I read of some wheat seeds that were there in the pyramid. When they opened up the pyramid, some wheat seeds that were about 3,500 years old, when they put them in the ground, they sprouted. They gave wheat. 17:08 Now there is life in seeds. So what you hear in church and what you read from the word of God, Jesus compared the word of God to seeds. And as you store them in your heart, one day or the other, they will become manifest. 17:27 They will do their work in you. But if you keep on trying to suppress them and try to kill them, then nothing will happen in your life. But allow it, allow the word of God humbly, allow the word of God to do its work in you. 17:51 We read of an instance, see one man's sin can cause so much of damage to a family, to a church, or to a nation. And we read about that in the book of Joshua, after the people of Israel came out of 18:14 Egypt. Their fame spread all over because of the mighty things that the Lord had done for them. And the surrounding nations, when they heard the way God brought them out of Egypt and dried the Red Sea and dried the river Jordan and made them cross over that and they subdued some kingdoms 18:45 and they knew that God was with them and they knew that God was giving them the victory. And their heart, it says, melted like water. The surrounding nations and their kings. And they became so afraid of the Israelites that they had no courage to face them. And 19:07 then you know about the conquest of Jericho. They followed the instructions of the Lord. First six days they went around, one round each day. And on the seventh day they were supposed to go seven times and they went seven times and they had to blow the trumpet and give a big shout 19:27 of victory. And the walls of Jericho fell flat and they entered into the land and they conquered it. But there was a condition which the Lord had given them that in verse 17 of chapter 6, Joshua, there was a ban. The Lord had told them, be careful when you enter 19:51 Jericho. When you go to conquer that, be careful everything there is under the ban. That means everything belongs to the Lord. And you have to keep only silver, 20:11 gold, bronze and iron, steel items that you can take it into the treasury of the Lord and all the rest you have to mercilessly slay them and burn them up. That was God's command. 20:33 And then they got the victory and they came out and after a few days, Joshua tells in chapter 7, he sends some men from Jericho to a nearby place called Ai, A-I, which is a small place to conquer. And first he sends some spies and the spies go and spied the 20:59 land and came back and said, it's a very small place. I don't think we all need to go there. Just about 3,000 of us should do. And Joshua said, okay. And 3,000 men went and people of Ai, they chased them and drove them out of the thing and about 36 people were killed from Israel's side. 21:24 And it was a defeat. First time Israelis got defeated and Joshua tore his robes and fell before the Lord and said, Lord, what has happened? Why did you do like this? What will others think of your great name? And then the Lord says to Joshua in verse 10, rise up. Why is it that you 21:55 have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant. Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before the enemies. And he said, there is sin in the camp. And said, there is some items which were under the ban has been stolen and kept hidden in the camp. 22:22 And then he had to be singled out. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family and person by person. See it is important when you read the first verse of chapter 1. It says, 22:44 the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban. And for Achan, the son of Kamri, Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zehra, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban and therefore the anger of the Lord burnt against the sons of Israel. See, 23:09 the scripture doesn't say that just a man, his name was Achan. And it doesn't stop there. It gives his ancestry, his father's name was so and so, his father's name was so and so. Three, four generations name comes like that. Then you know that this is a fellow. 23:32 There may be other people of the same name. But in scripture you see his father, his father's name, his grandfather, great-grandfather, like that, that lineology comes so that you will not miss. Supposing there are two Jacobs or two, say, Achans. 23:55 So people may get confused. So the Lord makes it very clear that which is this person, whose father was so and so, whose grandfather was so and so, his great-grandfather was so and so. That's very clear even when we read about genealogy in the Bible. 24:12 It gives very clearly. It just doesn't say that so and so, so and so, so and so, like that. So and so begat so and so, so and so begat so and so. You can trace the lineology back to Abraham or back to Adam. So it's like that. So when finally this man was found out in verse 20 or rather verse 19, 24:40 Joshua said to Achan, my son, I implore you, give glory to God, the God of Israel and give praise to him and tell, tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And then Achan answered Joshua and says, 25:00 I have sinned against the Lord. See, because now he is caught, he is confessing. You know, many people, when they go to the police station or even to court, sometimes when it is made public and witnesses are there, evidence is there 25:23 and it is proven that the man is guilty, then they break down and start crying. What's the use of crying then? Because you are caught, you are crying. But if only you had cried before you were caught and acknowledged, things would have been different. 25:45 That happened to Peter and that happened to Judas. You read that in 26th and 27th chapter of Matthew. Towards the end of 26th and towards the beginning of 27th. Peter, he didn't speak a word. When the cock crew the third time and 26:08 Jesus looked at him with compassion, not with the look that I told you so, he broke down. It says he wept bitterly and then found mercy. Whereas a few verses down in 27th beginning, you read about Judas. When he came to know that Jesus 26:34 was condemned to death, he went to the Pharisees and he confessed, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. Take this money, threw those silver coins and then he went and hanged himself. He made confession, he made restitution, but he didn't find mercy from the Lord. We may think 27:05 that at the 11th hour I will come to the Lord, I will repent. Like the thief on the cross repented. Brother, sister, you do not know what tomorrow holds. You do not know whether you will go out back home safely. We do not know what the next moment holds for us. 27:28 But we think that we are going to live long and we will repent at the 11th hour. Like somebody said, you may die at 10.30, be careful. And this man he said in verse 27, you see the progression of sin here. 27:49 He says to Joshua, I sinned against the Lord and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight, then I coveted. This is how sin starts. 28:15 First he saw with his eyes, then he coveted in his heart, then he stretched forth his hand and took it. Just like Eve, she looked at the fruit, it was good to look at, beautiful. And her mouth was watering, she coveted. 28:42 She stretched forth her hand, took it, ate it and gave it to Adam too. The same thing here. The progression always comes through look, through covetousness and then through an act of grabbing or committing sin. 29:05 And then you know what happened, rest of the story. Because of one man's sin, the testimony of Israel was spoiled and they had a great defeat, that too from a very small village kind of thing. This big great army of Israel got defeated by a small place called Ai. 29:30 And dear brothers and sisters, it is one thing to acknowledge with our mouth but it's quite another thing to set our attitude right. God looks at the heart more than he looks at your words and your actions. Peter didn't confess. 29:59 Peter didn't make any restitution like Judas did both. But he was broken. He cried out bitterly in repentance, that's why he was restored and was made the leader of the apostles on the day of Pentecost. 30:21 He was the one who took the stand and said you are the ones who crucified the Lord. Dear brothers and sisters, God speaks to us through many ways. Through his word, through his messages, through his messengers. In the church we are warned but still I don't know how many people just come to 30:47 Sunday meeting for the sake of coming without practicing it during the week. If only dear brothers and sisters you take God's word seriously every time you hear it and you apply it to your life and you allow God's spirit to transform you and change you from 31:12 glory to glory. It will go well with you but if you just come here to warm the seats and to ease your conscience that you went to church today, God help you, my dear brothers and sisters. This was what was the sin of these scribes and pharisees. They were one thing on the Sabbath, 31:37 they were quite another thing. They didn't want to give up their self and their will to the Lord. God wants to break a person but we keep resisting and resisting and resisting. And some people sitting here, 31:58 I am not talking about outsiders, sitting here for decades, they are today as they came decades ago. It's a very sad state of affairs when we look at certain individuals and certain families. 32:18 There is absolutely no growth, God is not bearing witness, God's blessing is not there. You may be prospering financially, that is not the mark of God's blessing. That you are being broken, you are contrite, you are humble, you are allowing God to work in you, breaking your 32:40 will and making you like Jesus little by little, day by day, more and more like him. If you are not allowing that and you are sitting on your throne without letting the Lord occupy that, you are sitting as Lord of your life. And your testimony at home has not changed, 33:04 your children have not seen the growth in you, your life partner has to bear with you year after year, decades after decade and you are still like that, what shall we say? Brother, best that you go and scratch out your name from the commitment list or whatever list it 33:28 is there and go and join somewhere else, because the more you hear in this place, more will be required of you. That is God's law, to whom more is given, more will be required. And you think I am not speaking to you, I am speaking to you only. After the message 33:53 if you come and ask me, brother, what are you talking about to me? I will say yes, of course, we don't talk here to these empty chairs, to the people sitting on these chairs, to you my brother, my sister, we are talking to you. We are not talking in the air, 34:16 so that on the day of judgment your blood will not be on our hands. We are making it very clear to you, don't you despise God's messages and God's messengers. 2nd Chronicles chapter 36 verse 15 onwards, it says here, And the Lord, the God of their fathers, 34:57 sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. God had compassion on His people and His dwelling place. God is a compassionate God, that is one side of the coin. And you need to see 35:19 the terror of the Lord on the other side of the coin. And it says here, But they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against the people, until there was no remedy. 35:46 See, a time will come in your life, my dear brothers and sisters. It says in Proverbs 29 verse 1, He who is often reproved and stiffens or hardens his neck shall be cut off suddenly without any remedy. So time will come when you will be cut off and there will be no time for you to repent. 36:15 I heard recently when I went to another place, there was a rebellious man in a church there and the elders had warned him often. He didn't listen to that. He kept on being rebellious against the elders in the church. And God has His timetable. God is gracious and merciful up to a 36:40 certain point. After you cross that line, God's mercy cannot reach you. God's mercy seat will be judgment seat. And I heard that man was standing on the road somewhere, not on the road, somewhere on the footpath in a 36:58 safe place. Some vehicle came and just banged into him and finished him off. I am not trying to frighten you. I am trying to tell you that you do not know what the future holds. But you should know who holds it. 37:20 And it says further in Romans chapter 8. The word of God is very clear. Romans chapter 8 verse 13. We all need to know this properly. 37:52 Romans 8 verse 13. It says, if you live according to the flesh, you must die. Did you hear that? This is the Holy Spirit speaking to His church. If you live according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit 38:18 you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Does that remind you of something? Where somebody said, you shall not die. And somebody else said, you shall surely die. You read that in chapter 2 and chapter 3 of 38:38 Genesis. Where God said to Adam and Eve, you shall not eat of this particular tree. The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you shall surely die. The Lord said, but in the third chapter, when the serpent speaks to Eve, He says, 39:02 you shall surely not die. And what we read here in the New Testament. If you live according to the flesh, she lived according to the flesh. Her flesh wanted to eat that. And she ate it and she died. They both died that day spiritually. Not physically. But it says, 39:24 one day with the Lord is a thousand years. And one thousand years is one day. And none of them, there are so many people who lived 700, 800, 900 plus years. But nobody lived beyond that to one thousand years. And they all, I mean, these two died spiritually that day. And almost, 39:54 they completely lost the fellowship with the Lord. And my dear brothers and sisters, there is a paraphrase in Colossians chapter 3 verse 5. It says something like this. Mortify, that is kill the members of your earthly body. To sexual immorality, 40:17 impurity, lust, evil desire and greed. Which is idolatry. Greed is idolatry. You may say, I don't worship idols. Idols need not be necessarily of wood or mud or stone or metal. 40:41 But it can be so many things which take the place of God rather than God himself. Then those things become my idols. It may be your beautiful look. Or the color of skin. Or maybe your family background. Or maybe your education or your job. 41:04 So many things. Or maybe your bank balance, your riches and wealth. That may be your idols. But if you put them under the feet of Jesus and say, Lord, when this breath departs from this shell, I will become dust. I will go back to dust from where I was taken. Like anybody else. 41:29 Even the dog becomes dust and man, king also becomes dust. In the same earth, they both go back. So that we need to realize, my dear brothers and sisters. One last word. Let's turn to Proverbs 23 verse 13. Proverbs 23 verse 13. 41:51 Always remember this. Keep this word in your mind. Proverbs 23 verse 13. It says, he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. If you are trying to conceal your sin, one way or the other, 42:14 from the eyes of men. Be sure, the word of God says, you will not prosper. It is not talking about material prosperity. It is talking about spiritual prosperity. That you will not take part of the divine nature. You will not become more and more humble. And 42:33 gentle and meek. And more full of love, joy, peace, patience. All those ninefold fruit of the Holy Spirit. They will not be manifest in you. Instead, something different, just above that verse. In Galatians 5. All the works of the flesh. Those will be manifest in you 42:59 more and more. If you don't take heed to yourself and to your spiritual prosperity. But he who confesses his sins. It is not only just confessing and forsaking. He who confesses and forsakes his sins will find compassion. 43:20 You want to find mercy from God? Compassion and forgiveness from God? Come to him in brokenness. And in sincerity. And acknowledge, only acknowledge your sin. Then you forsake that. Ask the Lord to help you. Not to do it anymore. 43:46 But to give you grace. We read that memory verse in Titus 2. Verse 11. The true grace of God teaches you how to live righteously. And in this world in a godly manner. If God's grace is upon you. It will not be upon everybody. 44:08 God's grace will be only upon those who humble themselves. The word of God is very clear. God gives his grace to the humble. Not to the proud. The humble are the ones who acknowledge their sins. Confess it and forsake it. 44:26 And seek to do God's will. Those are the humble people to whom God gives grace. So that in the days to come their life will become better and better. God gives greater grace. More light to them. So that more can be cleansed. 44:42 And more of Christ can be mine. And yours. And that verse in Romans 6.14 it says. When you are under grace. You are not under the law now. You are under grace. When you are under grace. Sin shall not be master over you. Sin will lose its power. 45:06 And grace will lift you up. Above your sins and above the flesh. And God will give you victory. That is promised to us. Don't you lose your birthright. My dear brothers and sisters. I would like to read a verse. 45:29 John 3. John's gospel chapter 3. Verse 19. 19 Jesus said something like this. And this is the judgment. That the light has come into the world. And men loved the darkness rather than the light. 45:50 For their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light. And does not come to the light. Lest his deeds be exposed. Deeds should be exposed. Verse 21. But he who practices the truth comes to the light. 46:15 That his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought. In God. Jesus had a burden here. I was listening to daily devotion today. Brazzac was explaining in Hebrews 5. By this time you should have been teachers. 46:37 You are not accustomed to words of righteousness. That means we all like to be babies. Would like to drink milk. We like wonderful messages of God's love. Yeah, of course. That's very very important. 46:58 Unless we are established in God's love. Secured in God's love. It's very difficult to progress. But here what Jesus was saying was. Practice the truth. The one who practices the truth comes to the light. 47:19 But how did we enter into a covenant? Or rather relationship with God? How we are born again? We are born again when we came to the Lord and said. Lord I want to be honest with you. That is what Jesus was saying. 47:39 The one who practices the truth comes to light. What is the truth? Truth is being honest. See why Pharisees had difficulty in hearing Jesus? Why Jesus had problem with Pharisees? In fact one place he said. 48:00 Look at these prostitutes. And tax collectors will enter the kingdom of God before you. That is so hurting for them. Why they had so much conflict? Why it was difficult for them? The secret is here. Even myself. I would like to judge myself. 48:21 Because we are naturally pretending people. Nobody need to teach us to pretend, tell lies and act. Being hypocrite, being religious. These are all same. If I am religious, I am hypocrite. I am pretender. 48:42 I act. I am nice, gracious on Sunday. When something pokes on Monday, the real me comes out. That is natural. We don't have to lose heart. When I see the scripture, there is a balance. I don't have to lose heart. When the Lord speaks to me, 49:02 John you are not spiritually minded. You are not practicing the truth. I say, Lord, you said come to me. My burden is light. My yoke is easy. Lord, I come to you. Yeah, then practice the truth. Practice honesty. What was Achan's problem? He hid something. He pretended 49:27 as though there was nothing. That, God did not. I was really taken aback when I was reading that. Achan hid something. That is his problem. But, why Israel was defeated? See, these are all 49:48 symptoms. God wants even the leader to take it more seriously. This matters. Not to compromise. That means, see when I have problem in my family, it is only symptom. There is something between me and God. 50:09 It is just coming up. A symptom is coming up in the family. And, symptom may come with my finance. These are all symptoms. Oh, I will fix brother. I will fix this financial problem. I will fix this family problem. I know, I know what to do. But, the thing is, it is not dealt. 50:28 See, that is Achan's problem. He hid something and thought that everything will be okay. But anyway, the Lord had mercy on them and dealt with the situation. So, that is how brothers and sisters, practicing the truth is very important. 50:43 When you are born again, it says in 2nd Corinthians. It is a well-known verse, 2nd Corinthians 5, 17, which we always read. How did we enter this covenant relationship with God? What is the entrance? Entrance is total honesty. Chapter 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. 51:11 The old things passed away. Behold, the new things have come. What is that old thing? Old thing of pretending, self-seeking. That is gone. That is what it says in 2nd Thessalonians 2. That is what God is trying to point out. Maybe I will read it in the living Bible. 51:36 2nd Corinthians 2, verse 10 says, He will completely fool those who are on their way to hell because they have said no to the truth. That is, no to honesty. You know, church is a place where there should be total honesty. 51:59 But we are not honest. It is a work in progress. We are walking toward the truth. That means the walking toward total honesty, transparency. Because that is the path to enter into relationship with God. But if the church loses that, 52:17 the honesty and total transparency, and there is no hope for people. Because outside the church, everything is flattery, pretence, religiosity, acting, seeking their own benefits. That is why there is no gate there. The gate is in the church. 52:37 But if that is lost, that is what Satan is targeting. Satan is targeting all the churches that if the pretence comes, religiosity comes, and hypocrisy comes, that's all. It starts with the leader. If the pretence and hypocrisy comes, and it spreads to church, and the church, all the gates 52:59 are closed, God's presence is gone. That is what we need to fear. Even in the homes, if father, head of the family, loses that path of seeking total honesty, fighting against religiosity. This is what it says here. See, they have said no to the truth. 53:20 They have refused to believe it, and love it, and let it save them. See, those who do not love the truth so as to be saved, means that is gone. I want to be saved from religiosity, Lord. See, I don't say, I don't act as though I have come out of religiosity, hypocrisy. 53:40 No, not at all. Lord, I so much, I have pretence. I want to fight against it. Give me, give me the love for the truth. If something is shown to me, I want to take it. Even it may come from my wife or my children. In the church, when I read scripture, it can come anywhere. But I should have guts 54:02 to accept it and acknowledge it. That's how we enter into relationship with God. It is a growth, continual growth. As much we become more transparent and love the truth so as to be saved, then my relationship with God keeps increasing. Then I get truth. 54:20 That means true Jesus. See, that's why I think 1 Corinthians 11 says, Paul was concerned about, you have another Jesus. You have another gospel, different gospel. What is the different gospel? There is no honesty. There is no dealing with 54:42 sin of pretence and religiosity. When that happens, we get some other Jesus. That's what verse 11 says. So God will allow them to believe lies with all their hearts. It's in the living Bible. With all their hearts they believe the lie. It can happen to me and any of us. We don't have to fear. 55:06 Only thing is Jesus said, oh prostitute, for prostitutes it's easy. Oh, how come? For the Pharisees it is difficult. Am I willing to acknowledge my condition to God? And I am desiring to be saved from that? Then I don't cover up anything. 55:30 See, like I have heard many times elders saying, if someone comes with a problem, husband and wife or any other problem, if they are honest, it's easy to deal with it. If they are trying to cover up, they don't disclose, then it is not easy at all. It is impossible. 55:47 Even for God. That's the reason, I don't know, maybe more than 90% people go to hell. They may have whatever, they cover up. They don't come to God and acknowledge. They know, but they pretend. They don't want to come to truth. 56:02 That's what Jesus said. They don't. They are afraid that, oh, it will be exposed. Oh, my true condition will be seen by everybody. Then they will not receive salvation. That's what Jesus said. The pretence is something which is like a giant. We need to have a heart and mind to 56:22 fight against it. If we seek the truth from the innermost being, maybe I should read that verse. I think Psalm 50. The day I was reading, I was so blessed. It's a well-known verse. Psalm 51. It says, the Lord desires truth from my innermost being. See, 56:48 it says, verse 6. Verse 6 says, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden parts thou wilt make me know the wisdom. Purify me with his soul. I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 57:12 See, this is what, see, like David was desiring a relationship with God. We must desire a relationship with the true God. Then we will be ready to acknowledge our condition and come into that kind of relationship. But the path is the honesty. We have to have a mindset to walk in total honesty before God, 57:41 acknowledge, and then we will slowly grow into that true relationship with the Father. May the Lord help us. It's a very important word, because we can slip into some kind of a notion that, oh, God is okay. God is a loving Father. He's like a grandfather and all that. 58:01 But no, the reality of the truth is that God wants us to be true to Him. Then we will come into a better relationship. May the Lord help us.
