0:02 I want to mention what I have said many a time at question answer sessions. And that is there are questions that can be answered by the tree of knowledge of good and evil and questions that can be answered by the tree of life. 0:21 And you know which is more important. Second Peter 1 says that God has given us verse 3 everything pertaining to life and godliness. So and it also says in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 all scripture is inspired by God 0:39 and given to us to instruct the man of God in righteousness of God perfect. So if your interest is righteousness and perfection in your own life and to know God that's a good 0:58 attitude with which to ask questions. Uh I have been in literally 100 or more question answer sessions in many parts of the world and I find there are different motives with which people ask questions. 1:15 Sometimes it is just for information. Adam reached out for knowledge of good and evil and died. He should have reached out for life. The Bible can be a tree of knowledge of good and evil for you. And it can kill you. 1:33 Do you know that reading the Bible can kill you spiritually? It's written there. The letter kills. The spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3. Even the new covenant letter can kill you. If you understand it as a doctrine if you want information 1:52 we must go to scripture to find life to get contact with God to understand the heart of God not information uh concerning things that don't help me towards a godly life. And sometimes people ask a question 2:10 uh for somebody else sitting in the service to hear the answer. It's a indirect way of hitting someone. And I can see that sometimes husbands ask wives like that in mixed meetings where they want their wife to hear something. 2:27 And vice versa. It's not always one way. So sometimes I'm able to discern it. Sometimes I'm not. Okay. So I try to sort out the questions to deal with those which are of primary importance and then the rest 2:44 we if we have time we'll deal with. Um This is concerning what I shared earlier about Could you talk a little about spiritual authority? What authority do church leaders have over our lives? Our church is supposed to function 3:01 democratically where all members have a say in the decision. How do you protect ourselves from church leaders who would abuse this authority? Now we know that there are a lot of churches beginning with the Roman Catholic Church 3:15 and many Protestant churches including Assemblies of God and all where the leaders are elected by vote. All the pastors will vote for their superintendent or top superintendent or the cardinals will vote for the Pope. Now you never find voting in the New 3:32 Testament for selecting leaders. Apostles are not selected by vote. And the elders were not selected by vote in the New Testament. It was an the apostle appointing the elder. And because there is such a dearth of apostles on 3:49 the earth with virtual authority we have to adopt other methods. I not we but uh some churches adopt other methods and then there are problems related to that which there's no answer in scripture because they adopted a method that was 4:05 not scriptural to start with. So I really don't know what the answer is. It's something like um you know these expensive electronic gadgets where they notice that say if you open it up yourself and fiddle around with it 4:19 don't come back and ask for a uh for your warranty and things like that. If you take if you follow the instructions exactly it'll work. So this is the problem with a lot of uh problems in churches today. Our church is supposed to function 4:36 democratically. The church is the closest to authority in a church that we can see in the world is authority in the home because the church is meant to be a family. Israel was a nation under God. But the church is not a nation. 4:54 The church is a family. It's the family of God. A in earthly nations they may have vote to elect a prime minister or a president but in a family no children don't have a vote who's going to be their father or mother. The father and mother are there and the 5:13 children are there and when they take a decision it's the father and mother who take the decision. I mean if you had even three children and you gave father and mother and the three children a vote you'll always be outvoted as the father and mother. The 5:29 children will have their way in every single thing. Where they're going to do what they're going to do, where they're going to go. It'll be always three versus two. And that's why you never give your children a vote in important decisions. I mean small 5:44 things like are you going to this restaurant or that restaurant or where should we go and play today? Those are small decisions you can allow them to vote but in the important decisions in the home how are they taken? How do you take them 5:58 in your home? If you want an orderly home the father and mother decide. And you know children the younger they are the less they understand that decision. Sometimes they question, they can be sour, they can be grumpy. But you say well if you're a good father 6:13 and mother you say we love you but we're not going to yield to you. If you start yielding to your children in what they want you'll have chaos in your home. It's the same thing if you give Remember the church is like a family and 6:26 a lot of them are babies. Uh spiritually speaking. You can't expect babies to vote on things that have spiritual consequences. And once you open up voting to select your elders it'll be politics. There'll be lobbies and people lobbying 6:45 for votes and all types of things and then you have since most churches uh not most churches I believe every church the majority of people in every church are carnal. They are not spiritual. I have never in my life seen a church not even in any of 7:05 the 50 churches I have responsibility for where more than 50% are spiritually minded. And if there's a church like that that's a wonderful church and if your church happens to be like that you're lucky. I'd like to see it. 7:17 But I haven't seen it yet. The vast majority in almost every church are not spiritually minded. And if you give those people who are not spiritually minded who are the majority and a vote you're going to have all types of carnal decisions in that 7:30 church. And you won't be able to get out get away from it. Because you started the ball rolling by saying we're going to vote on everything. Well you can vote on what color the wall should be and what carpet we can get. I 7:42 don't mind all that. But the spiritual decisions in a church like the important decisions in a home are taken by parents. That's the way God has ordained and that's exactly how you know think of an apostle telling a church in Corinth because it 7:58 was a church that that he had planted. He was like their father. That guy who's living in sin with his stepmother I'm handing him over to Satan. Put him out of the church. Would you get a letter like that today from someone? 8:18 What would you do if somebody else who's not a member of your church and not an elder wrote a letter like that to you? Paul was not a member of the church in Corinth but he was an apostle who planted it. That's the authority the apostles had. 8:29 They could hand a person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so the spirit would be saved. And 1 year later when Paul writes 2 Corinthians the problem has been solved which is not solved all that time. You see the advantage of having a 8:42 apostolic authority is there the problem is solved. In the second letter to the Corinthians the guy is back in the church as a good brother. So that's the advantage of authority. So that type of submission is the right thing but not democratically voting. How 8:58 to protect ourselves from church leaders who abuse that authority? Where you don't have an apostolic you know when the in Corinth let's take Corinth again. There was a family in Corinth. Wonderful family. Do you know their 9:13 name? Chloe. You read about it in 1 Corinthians in chapter 1 about this wonderful family called Chloe uh who wrote to Paul 1 Corinthians 1:11 who wrote to Paul saying Paul we have a lot of problems in our church. There's a guy living in sin with his 9:30 stepmother. People are taking each other to court. Everybody's getting up and speaking in tongues and creating confusion here. At the breaking of bread there's all types of confusion. People bring their own food and they don't 9:39 share it with their um with the other believers. And there's questions about the resurrection whether this going to take place or not. All types of confusion about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and many other things. I've taken the 9:52 matter to the elders brother Paul but they don't seem to be able to do anything about it. So, I thought I'd approach you since you're the father who founded this church. You know, I want to meet Chloe when I get to heaven and thank him and shake 10:05 his hand. Because of him, we got the letter to the Corinthians. Paul says that. That wonderful chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. You know who we got to thank for it? Chloe. So, there was a brother who had the sense when there was a problem the local 10:23 church with the elders couldn't handle to write to someone who was over the elders, who had more wisdom. And who could solve all those problems. Second Corinthians is a wonderful letter. We wouldn't even had had Second Corinthians if it were not for Chloe. My 10:38 grace is sufficient for you. You'd never have heard it if brother Chloe had not written to Paul. Because there'd be no Second Corinthians if there was no 1 Corinthians. So, there is how we deal with elders who abuse their authority. 10:52 Uh elders aren't their authority is not absolute. It says in 1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul told Timothy, you can receive an accusation even against an elder. But make sure that there are at least verse 1 Corinthians 1 Timothy 5:19, there are at 11:07 least two or three witnesses. If two or three people in a church complain against an elder, that's ground for two is enough ground for taking up and finding out is there some truth in it. It may not be truth in it. There may be 11:20 truth in it. So, there needs to be some authority that protects the people in a church from elders abusing that authority. And if there is no apostle over your church, if you're an elder brother, it's good to seek 11:40 for counsel from someone who's got a little more experience and who's godly and who's got no private agenda. Um etc. What authority do church leaders have over people's lives? In everything related to the church, absolute authority. 12:00 In things not connected with the church, no authority unless they ask for it. For example, somebody wants to move residence from this to another town, he doesn't have to consult the elder. He's going to should I take this 12:12 job or that job? He can ask for advice, but he doesn't have to listen to the elder saying, "Thou shalt Thou shalt not." Or whom to marry or There are so many areas which concern our private lives. If you want advice, you can go to an 12:25 elder if you have confidence in him. And I have said to people in our own churches, you know, elder is a relative statement. That means you're elder compared to all the others in your church. This is all it means. It doesn't mean you're very 12:37 mature. I remember when my children were small and my wife and I would go out visiting someone for a couple of hours, I'd tell my oldest son, probably 10 years old, "You're the elder brother here now. If there are any problems, 12:51 you you handle it till we come back." But what what maturity did he have at the age of 10? Compared to the others, he was an elder. And very often, I have said that to our elders who are in new churches, I've said to them, "Remember, a one-eyed 13:06 man is king among the blind. So, you have a whole lot of blind people in your church. You are one-eyed, so you're the elder brother there. So, if you ever move residence to another church where everybody's got two eyes, 13:21 you'll be the youngest brother there even though you were once an elder brother. It's relative. So, that is what an elder means. He may not have wisdom. And I say, "If one brother there does not have confidence in his local elder in con- concerning a 13:37 personal decision, I've always advised them, write to another brother somewhere else, another town. Uh brother, I'm considering this matter in my life. What should I do? Please give me some advice." But in local church matters, 13:50 you've got to submit to the elders of the church. If they say the service is at 9:30, you go at 9:30. And um anything related to the church, you got to submit to the discipline of that church. I mean, it's a simple thing like if you 14:03 walk into a house where everybody takes off their shoes because of the carpets, going I mean, you do that. You don't get into an argument there about whether it's right or wrong to take off shoes. You submit to the authority of that 14:15 church. That's common to that house. It's common decency. Whatever they rules they follow in that house, it's not your house. And if you go to another church and that's the way they do certain things there, you do that unless you feel that 14:28 strongly against scripture, then don't go there at all. But um the authority that an elder has is over things related to the church. And if in a church they say, "This is the way we do it." That's the way you do it. See, for example, 14:46 this matter of forcing others. Can an elder force others in the church? Uh how do elders do this while being true shepherds and forcing spiritual decisions and standards? Well, I'll tell you what. Let me take some practical examples. In our church 14:58 in Bangalore, uh this is we teach that the sisters should veil their heads. Um but here's a sister who comes in and doesn't veil her head. I don't say a word to her. And um first of all, she may not be a member. She may have be a visitor. 15:15 They're welcome to come for years. I have no authority over them. And even if they become members, I assume that they don't have light on that matter. So, I will not say that she's disobedient. That's what some people say, "Oh, she's 15:31 disobedient." She's not disobedient. She doesn't have light. Or you know, some churches have rules against women wearing pants and things like that. I've never followed those rules. I've said that women must be modestly 15:43 dressed. That's all. I don't decide dress fashions and things like that. I don't believe that 18th century dress fashions for women are spiritual. I I say you must be modestly dressed and that's because the scripture says that. 15:59 So, if a woman if it's a sister in the church who came modestly dressed, I would if she's got a father, I would speak to her father. If she's got a husband, I would speak to her husband. If her she's coming on her own without 16:13 father or husband, I would call her aside and speak to her as a father. And I would say as I would speak to my daughter and explain to her, you know, men have a problem. Maybe you don't realize it. Again, I will start with the assumption 16:28 that she's not guilty. Even in the human courts, they say that. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. So, we start like that. I mean, she's not guilty. She doesn't know. She's just been in the world and that's what she's 16:39 seen everybody else do and she doesn't think it is. So, I will explain to her lovingly, compassionately, that maybe you don't realize this, but it's a problem for others. So, may I request you at least when you come to church 16:53 uh service to be modestly dressed. And if she asked me what it means, I could be speci- more specific. And um if she's a visitor, I wouldn't say anything because I don't want to uh make her stop coming and go to some other church where she'll never hear the 17:13 gospel. Let her come. I mean, if it's a prostitute, I'd like her to keep coming and get converted. But if she's going to be a member of the church, then I'd have more responsibility and I would say, "Please I would suggest 17:25 that you dress modestly everywhere you go. When you go to work at as well, but uh at least when you come to the church, we want you to be modestly dressed." So, I would enforce that and if uh she's got a spirit of rebellion 17:37 against that, again, I would speak to her very lovingly, "Sister, we we're having a problem with you are keeping on coming dressed like this. So, may I request you and if you're not happy with that, then we we're sad, but we'd suggest you find 17:52 another church." I would even say that. But that would be the last resort. So, we do enforce certain standards. And uh if a person is causing rebellion, I remember one chap who came to our church. He was not even a member. He was 18:06 a visitor. And because he knew that we were very loving, generous people, he would secretly go to different people whom he felt had a lot of money and ask them for money. And uh I heard about it after some time. And I spoke to him and I said, "Listen, 18:25 we don't encourage this in our church. People go around secretly asking people for money. Uh and I said, "If you do that if I hear that you're doing that again, I'll have to announce your name from the pulpit and warn people against you. 18:40 So, please don't let uh make me do that. If you come here, we've got certain standards." He just disappeared. He never came back again. Well, God bless him wherever he's gone. But we do enforce standards in our church when it comes to holiness. 19:00 But we always start with the assumption that the person is ignorant. I'll never forget when I was teaching one of my children mathematics one of the junior classes and I was getting impatient with him. I himself was I think it was my oldest son. Probably 19:19 he's 8 or 9 years old. And I was getting impatient that he wasn't understanding something. Then he began to cry. And uh he said, "Dad, we haven't learned that in school yet." Then I began to cry. What a fool without finding out first whether he's 19:40 come to that chapter. I was forcing him. There I learned something there. I've learned a lot in dealing with my children as to how to deal with the church. I look at the people in the church like my own children. I say, "How would I deal with this 19:57 situation if it was my son?" And uh I say I therefore I say I assume from the beginning they haven't learned it yet. Uh so, let me first of all start with instruction and not rebuke. So, that's the way to do it. What is the meaning of the body of 20:16 Christ? Is there one body? Why a local church? Well, I I want to share more about that tomorrow, but I'll just mention briefly one thing. And that is the Bible speaks about the worldwide body of Christ in Ephesians. And it speaks about the local body of 20:34 Christ in 1 Corinthians. We are all members, if you're born again, you're a member of the worldwide body of Christ, many of whom are already in heaven. You'll never meet them till you get there. So, oneness with them doesn't mean anything great. It's like 20:51 that little couplet I heard long ago. To dwell in love with saints above, won't that indeed be glory? To dwell in love with saints below, that's a different story. But 21:10 but we got to dwell in love with saints below. Uh So, we're thinking of the It's only when he says all men will know you're my disciples when you love one another. Well, it's great to love Peter and Paul and all who are up there whom I may 21:23 never meet. Or even great to love the brothers and sisters in Argentina and China whom I never meet. But who are your biggest problem? The ones whom you meet every week, right? To dwell in love with saints below. So, there is a necessity for a local 21:39 expression of the body of Christ wherever we are. That is the will of God. Uh how important is it to have a brothers meeting in a fellowship uh where only brothers meet? I think it's important because there are certain things we talk only among brothers. 21:55 Particularly sexual matters with the young people. I take many times when I speak to young brothers alone, we can't talk about it in a mixed meeting. I talk about sexual problems that people have. Young brothers have problems with 22:08 masturbation and um lustful thinking and internet pornography and all which a lot of sisters don't understand. So, there is a need for that for speaking about such things plainly. And then uh leadership. There's no use talking 22:23 about leadership in a sisters meeting or to s- where sisters are present. It's mainly brothers. You know, how how can you be a good father? There's a tremendous problem in the world today with fathers not being good fathers, 22:35 father-son, father-daughter uh closeness, bonding. Very important. The Bible says in the last days they're going to be a distance between fathers and children. And the church is to bring them together. That's my understanding of the 22:49 last two verses of Malachi, the last two verses in the Old Testament. Fathers and children have got to c- come together. So, that's one thing we speak among brothers and the right attitude towards wives like we've spoken of today, 23:01 which we speak in a brothers meeting. Um I mean, if you seek if you speak about those things in a sisters meeting, you may find your wife telling you, "Hey, didn't you hear what brother Zach said?" I don't And uh we don't want 23:16 homes run on that basis. Did you hear what brother Zach said? We want um people to recognize what the limits of their authority are. All of us have a boundary. So, brothers also need to realize their boundaries. Sometimes you got wrong 23:31 understanding of authority. We have a boundary. There are My wife has a boundary. My children have a boundary. For example, uh I believe we need to discipline my our children, but I never used to discipline my children in the presence 23:45 of visitors. Because that would be a double punishment. First the punishment and then the humiliation. I wouldn't even punish my children in the presence of the other children. I would take them to another room, discipline them separately. 23:59 Because they have a boundary, a boundary of self-respect. Even a child has got a sense of personal dignity. And we must not tread into that boundary. Uh a wife has a sphere of responsibility in the kitchen perhaps, where I shouldn't 24:12 interfere. And so, it our authority is not absolute. Just like an elders authority is not absolute in the church. So, we can discuss these things in a brothers meeting. How does one get a sensitive conscience? I have back if it was one sentence 24:28 today, but it's been desensitized knowing what is wrong, but not really bothered much about it. How can you change to get the sensitivity back? See, my personal belief is that conscience is the voice of God in every human being. It's the thing 24:43 which animals don't have. That's why dogs and all are not religious. But human beings, even if they are barbarians, they have a sense there's a God. They think it's the sun or something maybe on top of that mountain that's God is there. Or they got all 24:59 these wrong ideas. But what is it Why is it dogs and cats and all don't feel like that? They don't have a conscience. Conscience is the voice of God within a person making him aware that he's responsible to a creator. But 25:14 the sensitivity of that conscience depends on our upbringing. A person who's grown up in a head-hunting tribe will have no problem about cutting off somebody's head. But the same way among, you know, uh where a person's grown up with 25:27 parents who are drunkards and watching pornography, they won't have a such a sensitive conscience as much as children growing up in God-fearing homes. But once we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes in and we're filled with 25:39 the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit begins to make that conscience more and more sensitive. And the illustration I use often is a of a defective weighing machine. Here is a weighing machine that you put 1,000 lbs on it and the needle 25:53 doesn't even move. That's the condition of a lot of conscience when they are dead. With great struggle, you have to commit some terrible sin before the conscience begins to register. But then you come to Christ and lo and behold, one day you find the 26:11 conscience moving even with 100 lbs you put on it. Something has happened. You shouldn't stop there. You work, you study God's word, fear God, obey the Holy Spirit, the conscience, the needle begins to move now with 1 lb. Can you beat it? 26:28 Which wasn't registering even at 1,000 lbs earlier, and then a little later it begins to register ounces and small small fractions of an ounce. This is sanctification. This is spiritual growth. If your conscience is more sensitive today to 26:43 something than it was a year ago, you're growing spiritually. You don't have to measure it every day. You don't measure your child's height every day. Uh you'll get into a panic. You'll think it's not growing. But if it's not growing in a whole year, 26:57 you know there's a problem. So, I believe it's good to ask ourselves, "Have I discovered something un-Christ-like in my life in the last 1 year which I was not aware of all my life?" You're going in the right direction. 27:11 Supposing you did have a sensitive conscience once. Usually when the first If a person's really radically converted to Christ, usually there's a terrific turning from sin at that point. What happens, what makes them go downwards to a desensitized conscience 27:26 is usually fellowship with other believers who are in a backslidden condition or a church that doesn't have any standards on holiness. They sit there year after year after year and they say, "Oh, everybody else seems to be 27:41 watching dirty movies. I suppose it's okay. Uh maybe I was too strict about these things. I enjoy them now." And that's usually why that gets desensitized. And if you If you're mingling with godly people and you're going to a church which is preaching the 27:56 highest standard of holiness, that won't happen. But unfortunately, there are few like that because most pastors and elders want their numbers to increase. And so, they lower the standards. So, I believe it's possible to come back 28:11 if you stop looking at people and start looking at Christ again. I remember when I was a young man and I didn't find many people whom I could look up to as examples to follow. This is the word the Lord gave me in my heart. 28:24 If you find someone who is like me, follow him in the areas where you see him like me. But if you don't see anyone like that, follow me. That's what I got. So, if I if I look at a man in whom I can see something of Christ, I follow him in that area. 28:42 But in my situation, if I find nobody like him, then I follow Jesus directly. So, I always have somebody to follow. It's good if I have a human example because that's flesh and blood, it's more easy to understand. But I'll tell you, in my life for years 28:58 and years and years, I longed to find a Paul to whom I could be a Timothy. I never found one. So, I had to struggle and struggle in a lot of things I had to learn directly from scripture. And struggled, and so I was defeated for 29:15 so many years, and I never found anyone who could tell me the way out of it. Like wandering in a wilderness for years and then But uh I mean, if you have somebody in those I mean, there was no such thing as CDs and internet and 29:29 anything I could have in those days way back in 1960. So, 50 years ago. So, I think today people are a lot more fortunate in the sense that even if you don't have a a leader right there, you have access to godly ministry through CDs and the 29:45 internet. So, you can sensitize your conscience. How can a person be filled with the Holy Spirit? What is the process by which you want to say is it prayer, repentance, just faith? I find the best passage to answer this is 30:00 John 7:37-39. This is the passage to which I turn most people to when it comes to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Um let me tell you something which is my basic principle of Bible study and understanding doctrine. 30:19 Um It has helped me, and if it helps you, well and good. Through the years of my Bible study, I have come to discover one thing. You can There in the New Testament, there are historical sections and teaching sections. In the Gospels, 30:39 there are historical sections and teaching sections. The teaching sections is the teaching of Jesus. The historical sections are all the things that he did. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He walked on the water. He fed the 5,000. Those are events. And 30:51 then you have the teaching sections like the Sermon on the Mount, etc. In the rest of the New Testament also, you have historical sections like the Acts of the Apostles, particularly. And then you have all the teaching sections 31:03 from Romans to Jude, and Revelation is a lot prophetic about the future. So, what I've come to see is you are not We are We cannot base a doctrine on the historical sections of scripture. If you do, 31:21 you'll have confusion. And a lot of people who would base their doctrine on some historical section of scripture, I can prove to them because I know the scriptures that they are inconsistent. Our doctrines must be based on the 31:37 teaching sections of scripture. That is the teaching of Jesus and the epistles. You can rely on them 100%. But if you go to the historical section, Jesus walked on water. What doctrine do you get from that? Or Jesus went to a man who was buried 4 31:52 days ago and raised him from the dead. What doctrine do you get from that? Or Jesus went to one place, he healed everybody who was sick. You get a doctrine from that? You can be unrealistic in your teaching if you get try to get doctrines from 32:07 there. Or I remember Take a Take a thing like this. See, there are there are certain groups of Christians who believe that everybody should speak in tongues who's filled with the Holy Spirit. Where do they get their doctrine from? Not the 32:25 Not the teaching sections of scripture, because the teaching section of scripture, 1 Corinthians 12 says, "Do all speak in tongues?" And says also says to the Corinthians, "I wish you all spoke in tongues," which is the clearest proof that they did not 32:36 all speak in tongues. And it doesn't mean they should, because earlier on in 1 Corinthians, Paul said to the same Corinthians, "I wish you were all single like me." Nobody seems to go to that scripture. This is the same Paul who said seven 32:50 chapters later, "I wish you all spoke in tongues." He was saying, "It's a good thing, but I realize that some of most of you are called to be married. So, many God may not give the gift." But the same You know, people argue this 33:03 with me. They say, "Brother Zach, it says in Acts 2:4, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spoke in tongues." I say, "Right." It says in Acts 2 44, "that they sold everything and they had everything in common." One common purse. 33:20 Why don't you follow that? Oh, no, no, no, no, they don't follow that. I say, "You're inconsistent. You're a hypocrite. You take one what verse you like and you leave out what you don't like." Now, if I go to some other group 33:31 where they live as a community, they'll quote Acts 2:44 to me. "Doesn't it say Acts 2:44 that they had all things in common?" I say, "Yeah, but before you get to 44, go to verse 4, which says they all spoke in tongues." 33:42 "Oh, no, no, no, that's not for us." You see, inconsistency Inconsistency Inconsistency I say, "You guys are hypocrites without knowing it. Thank God that I came and showed you your hypocrisy. Don't get angry with me. I'm 33:54 just trying to help you out." It is because they follow the historical sections of scripture for a doctrine. But if you follow that, you'll find Paul circumcised Timothy in Acts of the Apostles. What do you do with that? 34:11 And worse than that, Paul had a fight with Barnabas. What do you do with that? Or Paul shaved his head and paid for some other fellows to shave their head, too. It's all in Acts of the Apostles. What do you get out of that? There There was 34:22 a period of transition. And you cannot get doctrine from historical sections of scripture. A lot of people who preach on healing say, "Jesus healed everybody. You can all be healed." Where do you get that doctrine from? Show it to me in the 34:35 epistles, I'll preach it with all my heart. But you don't show it to me in epistles, and just show it to me um in the Acts of the Apostles or in the teaching sections of scripture. Uh I'm just mentioning this as a matter 34:47 of Bible study. People ask me, "Brother Zach, why don't you preach a message on healing?" I say, "You show me one message that Jesus preached on healing in the entire New Testament, I'll preach it." You show me one sermon in the epistles 35:00 where the apostles preached on healing, physical healing, I'll preach it. But you're asking me to preach what is not preached by Jesus or the apostles. I won't do it. I say, "What I see today is what I see in the Gospels is Jesus never 35:17 preached one sermon on healing, but he preached but he healed thousands." Today we have thousands of sermons on healing and hardly anybody healed. It's exactly the opposite. And there's a word in the Bible for the opposite of Christ. You know what it's 35:29 called? Antichrist. Okay. Now, how shall we know when we are filled with the Holy Spirit? John 7:37-39 is the passage I go to because you know, there's a lot of controversy over this phrase baptism in the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a Greek word. I wish they had 35:45 translated it immersion. That's all it means. There would have been no child baptism in the world if those King James Version translators had been honest and translated immerse instead of inventing a word called baptism, 35:58 which is a Greek word imported into the English language. Immerse them wherever you go in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's all it meant. Immersed in the Holy Spirit. You can be immersed by being dipped in a river or water like 36:10 water baptism, or you can be immersed if you stand under a waterfall. This is the river of God falling from heaven is the Holy Spirit. I come under that, and that's by humility. God gives his grace to the humble. I'm constantly drenched, and I want to 36:24 be drenched all the time. If I move out, I become dry. I become dry in my life, and I become dry in my ministry. But if I stay under the waterfall, I'm drenched and fresh all the time. That's where I want to be in my life and 36:37 in my ministry. So, John 7:37-39 says, "If anyone is thirsty," it doesn't matter who you are. Number one condition, you've got to be thirsty. Thirsty means not just Uh would you like a glass of water now? Sure. But it costs $10,000. Would you like it? Oh, 36:54 no, not that. I'm not that hungry thirsty. See what thirst means. How thirsty are you? Now, if you had wandered in the desert for 7 days without water, I reckon you'd be willing to pay $10,000 for a glass of water. Cuz otherwise you'd die. 37:12 That's thirst. Thirst means how desperately thirsty are you? And I see that. Many people are thirsty, but not thirsty enough. They can get along without it. Lord, if you can fill me the spirit, well and good, but I'm not I'm not all 37:28 that desperate. I've got a lot of other things to do. And I find I been carrying on pretty well in my Christian life without it, so I suppose it's okay. Well, you'll never be filled. I remember when I began to seek God, I 37:39 was so desperately thirsty. I said, "Lord, I don't think I can continue in the Christian life." I even wanted to quit the ministry. Because I didn't have that power and anointing. I was I said, "Lord, I can't continue like this." And that's thirst. 37:54 Secondly, faith, verse 38. "Who believes in me." Do you believe? Can you believe that if you ask your father for a fish, he will not give you a snake? It's as simple as that. That if you ask your father, he will give good things. He'll give the Holy 38:10 Spirit to those who ask him. That's faith. And I got a little definition of faith myself, which has helped me a lot. If it helps you, take it. And that is I don't have a verse for it, but I think the principle is in scripture. 38:27 Faith is to believe that God is more eager to bless me than I am to be blessed. If I'm asking for something God has promised, he is more eager to give that to me than I am to give. Very often, people seek for the fullness of the Holy 38:43 Spirit, and they feel they've somehow got to twist God's arm and convince him that I deserve it and all. I say, "That's not faith." You think uh you are more eager to be blessed than God is to bless you. You got to come to faith. 38:56 You got to come to the faith, which means that you believe God is more eager to bless you than you are to be blessed. God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit than you are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's faith. 39:06 And it took me some time to get there because I grew up in a denomination that never preached it. They said I got everything when I was saved. Well, I believed it, but it didn't seem to be working in my life. I said, "Lord, 39:19 rivers of living water is certainly not flowing out from me. That I can be sure." I'm not blessing people. I Leave alone making other people fresh, I'm not even fresh myself. I'm so dry most of the time. How can I say rivers of living water are flowing 39:33 out from me? Um most of the time my even my ministry in those days was like I I don't know whether you've seen it. In India, we have a lot of villages where they have a thing called a hand pump. Where a a little pipe goes down into the water 39:46 deep in the ground, a deep well, and you pump and pump and pump and there's with this lot of struggle a few trickles of water come out. That's how my ministry was. You struggle, struggle, struggle and a few trickles come out. Anything but rivers 39:58 of living water. A river is not pumped. Nobody pumps a river. God just it just flows. It's the work of God. And I longed for a life like that where I would be full of joy almost without effort, where peace would reign in my mind and I 40:18 could love people who hated me. And I could minister almost without effort. It was like a river. I said, "Lord, is there such a life possible?" Yes. God is eager to give that to you. I thirst for it. Do you want it? Do you 40:33 want it desperately? You believe God will do it for you? He'll do it. Okay, this other is um You spoke of having a relationship with the Lord that resembles two earthly lovers who gaze at each other in delight. How can one become a worshiper like 40:50 that? See, I have to be careful in saying that. I mean, I mean, took it as an illustration, but don't carry it too far because it's not that human type of love that we have for Jesus. See, a lot of these sentimental songs 41:05 written today by half-converted cowboys who used to sing who used to write love songs in their olden days and now instead of the girl's name they put Jesus. That's not That's it's a sentimental frothy superficial type of 41:23 emotion. That's not the type of love we have for Jesus. It's not a fleshly thing. Jesus said, "If you love me, you keep my commandments." That's how we show our love for Jesus. And uh you know, I see it more in the old songs written by 41:38 Charles Wesley. And can it be that I should gain an interest in my savior's blood? Died he for me who caused him pain? Me who pursued him to death? Who shouted, "Crucify him!"? He loves me. 41:56 Amazing love. How can it be that my God shouldst die for me? That type of song. I wish we would sing it more in our churches. I tell you I believe today's generation is losing something by singing a lot of frothy superficial 42:14 songs which just says, "I love you. I love you." and sing that 10 times. There's no depth I find to it compared to those old-time songwriters and I find the difference was those guys didn't write it for money. Today there's a lot of songwriters 42:26 making millions through their CDs and their songs. You you ask yourself, here's a preacher who preaches for money and here's a preacher who doesn't preach for money. Who do you think is likely to have a word from God? You know the answer. The one who doesn't 42:39 preach for money. Here's a songwriter who wrote hymns like Fanny Crosby, 9,000 hymns, never got made a cent out of it. And here is some people who write these three-line songs and make millions. Who do you think is more likely to have 42:52 a inspired song from God? I know. I mean, you may not agree with me in your generation, but I know and I know what has brought me to devotion to Christ. It is not these new songs. There are a few of the modern songs written in the last 43:06 20, 30 years are really good. They are very rare. But some of those old-time songs, I feel sorry for a church that does not sing that. And unfortunately, we have a generation growing up that doesn't even know those songs 43:21 are so blessed to me. I know so many of them by heart. I sing them when I'm in the shower. I sing them when I'm traveling and they bless me like anything. And I feel sorry if a generation grows up and doesn't know those things. So, 43:34 we're talking about a devotion that comes out of reverence. I think the last prophet who spoke about these things was Tozer. A reverence for God. That's the type of devotion. It's a reverential love for God. Not a frothy superficial thing and it 43:54 comes by meditating on how much Jesus loved me. And meditating on how much I have been forgiven. Only two things. 1 John 4, I don't remember the exact verse. We love him because he first loved us. I think it's verse 19. 44:11 And then Luke chapter 7 towards the end of that chapter, he who is forgiven more will love more. So, these are the two bases on which we love Jesus. I meditate on how much he loved me. I meditate on how many sins I'll tell 44:25 you honestly, I frequently try to remember all the sins I've committed from as far back as I can remember. Unconverted days, converted days. I'm not guilty of even one of them. I don't feel guilty because they've all been cleansed, all been forgiven, 44:41 blotted out. God will not hold any of them against me, but I remember them deliberately so that I can love Jesus better. Without feeling guilty. If your past sins make you feel guilty, don't try to look back. But once you're sure of what 44:58 the blood of Christ has cleansed you and justified you, look back because it says in 2 Peter 1, I think it's verse 9, that if you forget your purification from your former sins, you'll become blind. Now, I don't want to be blind 45:11 spiritually. That's what's helped me to love Jesus. Meditate on his love for me on the cross and how much I've been forgiven. That's how we love the Lord. This is a question concerning whether a disciple of Christ can be 45:29 possessed by a demon. I'm sorry to say that a lot of Christians are being deceived by charismatic teachers. I don't mind mentioning that. Some of them very fine teachers in other areas, but teach that a believer can have a demon. It is absolute nonsense. 45:47 Christ and a demon cannot live in the same heart. They cannot live in the same house. What fellowship has Christ with a demon? With Belial? It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Then you say, "How is it there are cases of in meetings where believers are de 46:06 demons are cast out of believers?" I'll tell you. The guy was never properly converted. He was not born again. And that's the case with a lot of people who claim to be born again today because the message of repentance is missing 46:19 from today's gospel. And therefore, people just believe, only believe, only believe. Look at that song, "To God Be the Glory, Great Things He Has Done." Wonderful song. Except one line I don't agree with. The vilest offender 46:34 You know that song? Who truly believes that moment from Jesus pardon receives. Wrong. You know how we sing it in our church? The vilest offender who truly repents and believes, then he receives pardon immediately. But not if he 46:51 doesn't repent. We don't mind if the meter is a bit disturbed in that singing if so long as we get it right theologically. We don't want anybody to go away thinking that he just believed and he is saved. He's not saved. 47:04 And therefore, this guy who imagines that he's converted, one day he's got a demon. He was never converted. And I also believe that a person can receive Christ and fall away. Hebrews 3 verse 12. Take heed, dear brothers, 47:21 lest there be in you an evil unbelieving heart and falling away from the living God. I've got a whole article on that called eternal security. If you go to our website cfcindia.com, right on the first page you'll see that. 47:34 Eternal security. You can read it. Uh where I've dealt with all those verses. That's the reason why they get demons. So, I don't believe we should torture believers with saying their sicknesses are due to uh demonic attack or this spirit or that 47:50 spirit. I believe that demons can cause sickness. The clearest example is Job. The God allowed the devil to give him a sickness, but he healed him. And Jesus sometimes cast out a demon and a person was healed. So, there are cases 48:06 like that, but very rare. There are a few. We must not dub all sicknesses as demons. It's wrong. My own conviction, I don't have a scripture for this, but I think about 80% of sicknesses in the world are due to the fact that the earth is 48:23 under a curse. And that's why there are thorns. That's why there are mosquitoes. And just because you're a believer doesn't mean thorns won't poke your feet. It does not mean mosquitoes don't come into your house. If you don't 48:37 believe it, come to India. You'll see that. Uh it doesn't matter whether your house is a believer or an unbeliever's house, the mosquitoes come flying in. So, because we're under the curse, uh the flu, because you got the flu from 48:50 somebody doesn't mean you sinned. We're living in a world which is under the curse. That's why we have pain. And here is a proof. We perspire. Do you know perspiration is because you're under the curse? Your body is not 49:02 being redeemed yet. And the greatest proof of all, we die. You because you're under the curse. The body Our spirit has been redeemed, but not our body. We must not forget that. Did Christ purchase redemption for my body on the 49:17 cross? Yes. But I haven't got the benefit of that yet. One day he will come. My body will be exactly like his. I'll have a full head of hair, by the way, in that day. And I won't even be wearing my glasses in heaven. It's amuses me when I see 49:33 uh healers wearing glasses. I say, "Is that something he can't God can't do? It's also a sickness, by the way, losing hair and many things like this. So, don't say that all sickness There is a certain amount of sickness, I said 80%. 49:49 Then there's a lot of sicknesses which are due to wrong attitudes. You haven't forgiven somebody, you're always full of anxiety, tension, you love money, or so many things like that which causes tension and sicknesses and ulcers and 50:01 wrong attitudes to people can cause eczema and arthritis. Not all eczema and arthritis, no, but sometimes because of wrong attitudes. A lot of it is hereditary. You can have cholesterol, high cholesterol, because it's hereditary. 50:14 You can have different sicknesses because it comes down. It's like physical features. We look like our parents, and we inherit certain other things also hereditarily. You can't say it's got to do with sin. But some which are due to sin, if we get 50:28 the rid of the wrong attitude, you can be healed. I'll give you one example in my own life. Years ago, when I was before my marriage, when I was didn't even know about victory over sin. I had to go in for a small surgery in a 50:43 hospital, very minor surgery, but they had to put me under anesthesia for it. And when I came out, this is going back 1967 or '68. I found it a few days later, terrific pain down my hand, which is very painful, and I went to a 50:59 neurosurgeon, top neurosurgeon. I said, "What is this?" He said, "This could have been that when you were under anesthesia, they may have jerked your head back, and you didn't feel the pain, and some nerve got pinched or something. I 51:13 don't understand what exactly, and that's the cause of this." And he says, "You got to live with it. There's nothing you can do about it." Boy, did I get angry with that doctor for being I was a believer, and the doctor was a 51:29 believer, too, but I wrote him a stinker of a letter telling him what I thought of his carelessness. Uh I thought, "Boy, I got to live with this." And that was just a few months before I was going to get married. I was really upset. 51:46 And soon after I wrote that letter, the Lord spoke to me. Said, "He didn't do it deliberately. Even if he did it deliberately, you should forgive him. How much more when he didn't do it deliberately? Write a letter apologizing for your 52:00 previous letter." I wrote it immediately. I said, "Brother, I'm really sorry. I want to take back everything I wrote." And you know, in a few days, I was completely healed. I've never had a problem till today. No amount of injections and pills or 52:17 painkillers could have gotten rid of it. I know there are sicknesses that will go when you have a right attitude, when you forgive people, when you love them, when you stop having jealousies and bitterness. But that's not 52:30 that does not apply to 80% of sicknesses on earth. So, if you find the balance, it's okay. But don't condemn people. And this business of generational curse, another bit of absolute trash. Generational curse? There was a time when I had generational 52:46 curse in my unconverted days, when I was in Adam. Not only for my grandfather and ancestors, all the way down to Adam, I had a curse which came down to me. But one day, the Holy Spirit cut me off from that tree called Adam, and put me into another 53:01 tree called Jesus Christ. I became a branch in this tree, and I look into this generation, there's no curse there. He took it all away on the cross. There's no such thing as generational curse for a truly born again Unfortunately, we have to use that 53:15 expression. Truly born again believer. Can you explain the difference between a connection between John 20:22, where Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and Acts chapter 2, where they were filled with 53:29 the Holy Spirit? We must not try to read too much into that period of transition. Were the disciples born again? Was anybody born again before the day of Pentecost? See, in a transition period, there were many things which don't apply to us 53:47 today. For example, they had to wait 10 days for the Holy Spirit to come, but never after the day of Pentecost. So, today when people tell people to wait, well, if you got to wait, it's because you haven't surrendered all, and God is 53:58 waiting. But those days, they had to wait because God's time for pouring out the Holy Spirit had not yet come. So, it's no use taking that verse and say, "Go and tarry for the Holy Spirit today." That was if you were living before Pentecost. 54:11 You never after that do you find anybody be asked to tarry. Open your being. The moment you surrender all, you receive the Holy Spirit. See, like the burnt offering, the moment the last bit of the burnt offering is put on the altar, the 54:22 fire came. But if they held back some part of the offering, the fire didn't come. So, if there is a waiting, the waiting is on your part, not on God's part, that you haven't surrendered all. So, uh we shouldn't read too much into that. 54:36 But my own personal conviction is this is very difficult. I've been struggled with understanding of theology of the Holy Spirit for many years, and I'll tell you honestly, I haven't come to a clear definition of these things, and that is 54:48 understandable because we are dealing with the person of God. How can my small little cup contain this ocean that is God, and try to define it and explain it? It's almost impossible. So, I don't try to explain it. I said, 55:01 "The important thing is experience." I'll tell you honestly, I don't know how know how my digestive system works, but it works. Uh here's a doctor who can explain the digestive system perfectly, but maybe his digestive system is not working. 55:15 It's possible, also. So, the important thing is not explanation, but experience. I'd rather be humble than know the definition of humility. So, it's like that in one of these some of these areas. Uh I believe that if a man doesn't have the 55:30 spirit of Christ, he doesn't even belong to him. Romans 8:9 is very clear on that. And which means that um when I receive Christ into my heart, the spirit is there, but I may not be filled with the Holy Spirit, which is another thing altogether. 55:47 And a human illustration that I use Remember, every illustration is limited, so don't stretch it beyond its ability to It's only to help understand. If my heart is like a house with 20 rooms, and I turn on the light in one room, 56:02 I can say there is light in the house, but it's not filled with light. But if all the rooms are filled with light, I'm filled with light. So, when I asked Jesus to come into my life, I asked him to come into one room, the room of guilt because of my sin. He 56:17 comes in. Who comes in? Have you ever thought of that? Jesus is in heaven. He's never come back to earth. And you never read in the scriptures any person being told, "Ask Jesus to come into your heart." Try and look 56:35 through the scriptures, it's not there. Nowhere. They were told to believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. Every time. Believe in Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit. So, I understand from that that when we ask a person to receive 56:55 Christ, we're asking him to receive the spirit of Christ. Exactly like those early Christians asked people to receive the spirit. So, when a person receives Christ, he's receiving the spirit of Christ. Christ himself is in heaven, at the right hand 57:07 of the Father. So, if a person's really born again, he has the spirit, but he's not filled with the Holy Spirit because maybe he's not yielded every area of his life to God. Jesus comes and knocks at one door and say, "Can I come into your television 57:24 room? Look through all your DVDs and CDs." And I say, "Lord, don't disturb me there. Just forgive my sin." Okay, he's a gentleman, he doesn't walk into that room. "Can I look at your library, the books you're reading?" No, Lord, don't disturb 57:36 there. There are some things will disturb you. He doesn't come out being There are a lot of Christians like this who have not allowed Christ to come into What about your finances? Can I come and look at all that? No, no, no, Lord, don't disturb me 57:47 there. Lot of areas in our life we don't want yield. Are you willing to be a part of your local church where there is no Jew or Greek or, you know, we have Indians who come to America and started church of Indians. Where's that in the scripture, a church 58:07 of Indians? I remember when my boys came to the United States, I said, "Never join an Indian church, please. There's no such thing in scripture. Every church is a local church." An Indian church is a club of Indians. There are lots of them like that in 58:25 India, I mean, in America, but I you will never grow spiritually if you join an Indian church. Join a local church, which means a church that comprises of people in the locality. And I told them, "What would you think if a whole lot of 58:38 Americans Americans came to Bangalore in India and had a church just of Americans?" The Indians would think they're the most conceited lot of people. Who do they think they are? Can't the Indians join that church? No, this is for Americans. 58:52 I said, "It's the same stupidity that a lot of Indians do when they go to America and start an Indian church." There are lots of them, by the way. According to language. And these people speak English, but they still gather together with people of 59:03 their own language. It's a cult. It's a club. Such people will never in a hundred years build the body of Christ. There are lots of groups like that. That is not the church. So, go to the scriptures, and you'll find 59:19 that Christ brings us all into one body. When is our righteousness a filthy rag, and when is it a work of righteousness? When I think that my righteousness will make me acceptable before God, it's a filthy rag. When it is something produced by my own 59:35 effort, it's a filthy rag. When it is produced by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, it's a work of righteousness. How would you advise us to study the Bible book by book or topical? Both. I have studied book by book and I've studied topically. 59:53 When people have asked me, I said, we have a lot of free resources in our website. Read go through the 70 hours through the Bible, which is there, which will give you an overview of the whole Bible. And then go to the verse by verse 1:00:06 studies in the New Testament. Spend 15 minutes a day at least. Or half an hour. You won't suffer by waking up 15 minutes early or going to sleep 15 minutes late. Uh reserve that time to study the word. Take a little notebook and write down 1:00:20 what you as you hear. Make your own notes. I'm not saying just hear what is spoken on this on the internet there, but ask God to speak to you something more than what you hear there. And if you go through systematically in 1:00:33 3 or 4 years, you can cover all that material there. We have on the internet and you'll really come to know the Lord and not just know the Bible. That would be the best way. Uh can a Christian lose his salvation? Explain biblically. I say that's that 1:00:47 article is there on eternal security. Um are we predestined to be sons of God or do we have to free will to choose? You have absolute free will to choose. Whether you want to accept Christ as your savior or not. But a million years ago, 1:01:07 a million years ago, God knew what decision you would make today. Whether it would be yes or no, because he knows the future. And if he saw that you were going to receive Christ, he would he chose you. That's what it says in 1 Peter 1 verse 1:01:23 2, 1 and 2. You were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. You were chosen, right? But you were chosen by God according to his foreknowledge. It's not that the Lord picked out a few names from a hat and said, "These guys are saved and 1:01:36 all the rest go to hell." That is absolute nonsense. Rubbish, to use Paul's word. People ask me, "Why Brother Zac, why do you keep saying you use the word rubbish?" I said, "Paul used it, inspired by the Holy Spirit in Philippians 3." 1:01:49 He said, "Everything outside of Christ is rubbish." So, that's why I say everything outside the New Testament. Okay, I'll ask this one last question and then we'll close for the today. How can we obtain this gift of speaking 1:02:01 in tongues? Is it necessary? If it were absolutely necessary, God would have given it to everyone. But he hasn't. I know very godly people who don't speak in tongues at all and some in history that mean fantastically godly men like 1:02:14 John Wesley and others who didn't speak in tongues. So, it's not absolutely necessary. But if God wants to give it to you, don't be against it. That's all I say. God wants you to have it, you'll have it. One last question, what is the role of 1:02:29 the Old Testament in the life of follower of Christ? We can learn how God dealt dealt with the Israelites and there we can learn how God deals with people even today. There are a lot of lessons we can learn. The law and the covenant under 1:02:44 the law is abolished, but not the book of the old books in the Old Testament. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we seek to understand your mind in your word, 1:03:03 please give us wisdom. Each one. And help us as a result of understanding your word to be more wholehearted disciples. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
