0:00 In these two sessions I want to continue what we Is this on? Yeah. Okay, I want to continue what we were looking at the last two evenings where Paul said we are not ignorant of 0:17 Satan's tactics or schemes. We saw how in all warfare intelligence about the enemy is of great value in fighting and overcoming the enemy. And where 0:36 the Bible has given us some detailed descriptions of how Satan attacks, it's good for us to study. That's why we studied Satan attacking Eve like a serpent 0:54 with deception and Satan attacking Job like a lion and with persecution. But if you bear in mind that God loved Adam and Eve immensely. God loved Job immensely. In fact, Job got certified was the 1:13 most perfect man on the face of the earth at that time according to the light he had. And that's the one whom God allowed Satan to attack. And we can be absolutely sure that the word of God says God does not allow 1:32 us to be tested beyond our ability. And certainly that's true in our day. If you look at the book of Job, it was an up and down experience where the first two chapters he really rose to great heights spiritually. But by the time he came to chapter 1:50 three, he was all up and down, up and down, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes up, sometimes saying, "Yeah, I know the Lord's in all this. Even if I'm killed, I'll trust him. Oh, my redeemer lives." But then most of 2:06 the time he was down in the dumps criticizing or justifying himself saying, "I was like this and I was like this and why is this happening to me?" Now, that is not an excuse for us today because today we have the Holy Spirit. 2:22 And the author and finisher of our faith is not Job. It's Jesus Christ. And he never had this up and down experience in any attack of Satan. He never questioned his father. 2:40 Sometimes he struggled with perplexity, not knowing the Father's will. And as long as we're in the flesh, we will be perplexed sometimes. Jesus was perplexed in Gethsemane and he struggled He prayed for 1 hour to 2:59 find out the Father's will. So, that teaches me that if you're perplexed in sometime, you don't know what to do, that's not a sin cuz Jesus did not know in Gethsemane what to do for a long time till he finished praying. 3:16 But in both these cases, Adam and Eve and Job, God's ultimate purpose was good. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve failed, but Job succeeded cuz Adam and Eve They We don't know much of their history 3:34 after they left Eden, but they didn't They chose the created thing above the creator. But Job ultimately, we read after all the preachers had finished preaching to him and he was justifying himself before them, finally we read that God himself spoke 3:54 to Job. And you know, God never spoke like the preachers. And that's a tremendous All those who preach the word of God, all of you sitting here who preach God's word, I want to encourage you 4:11 to read the book of Job because those three preachers are characteristic of three types of preachers that we Oh, four of them. There was an Elihu also at the end. They're characteristic of four types of preachers we find today. 4:30 If you read through and study through it, you'll find Eliphaz was the one who talked about visions and dreams and there are preachers who always talk about that. And then there was Zophar and Bildad One was a sort of a legalist, one 4:47 dependent on traditions, and then we had the one who spoke without experience. And Elihu was the young zealot who had no maturity, but he had a lot None of those four preachers could help Job. It's a great study, the book of Job, for 5:04 all those who preach the word of God, how not to help people. And yet we fiery speaker or whatever it is, zealous speaker, and you don't help people to live a godly life. None of them could help Job. And then look at the way God preached 5:22 to Job. It was in an entirely different way. He never told him you're a sinner or your children sinned or talked about visions and all that. He just showed God how He showed Job how great he was. 5:39 And Job just felt humbled and broken because he saw how small he was. And I believe that is the way to preach God's word. When man can be made to see how small he is 5:58 compared to Jesus and almighty God, you have succeeded in doing that. You have the opportunity to make bring him close to the Lord because when he sees that, he says, "Lord, I'm insignificant." 6:16 Oh. Or we can use the other mic. 6:49 There's a tremendous need for power, I tell you, everywhere. Hello. 7:13 Is it okay? Check. How is it? I don't know. And usually we don't know whether we have power, but other people will know. That's the test. If they think you don't 7:35 have it, you don't have it. I think it's all right now. So, what I was saying was when ultimately God humbled Job and the purpose of all preaching is to make man realize how small he is. Job There were two 7:54 Job at the end of chapter 40 and chapter 42. I don't have time to show it to you now. He said, "I'm insignificant." And then he said, "I repent in dust and ashes." If all those who preach the word, if you have succeeded 8:09 in making those who hear you recognize their insignificance before Christ and God and made them brought them to repentance in dust and ashes, you have succeeded in your ministry. If you've only got them to admire you, what a great preacher you are, or 8:27 you've given them some clever thoughts or some explanation of doctrine, all that's great, but prophetic preaching brings people to recognize their insignificance, their nothingness before God, and bring them brings them to repentance in 8:45 dust and ashes. And ultimately God's purpose in Job was to give him what he never had in the beginning. He had tremendous righteousness. He would not lust after women. He did not make gold his god. So many good qualities 8:59 as you read in chapter 29. But one thing he lacked, humility. He was proud of his righteousness. And that's what many Christians lack. Not the day they are converted. The day they are converted, they know they're just sinners. 9:18 But give them a few years in the church and give them a few gifts and understanding of scripture, and then they have a tremendous problem with spiritual pride and they become righteous and proud. They become Pharisees. I've seen that most people who pursue 9:38 holiness end up as Pharisees until unless they look at Jesus and walk with him because if you walk with Jesus, it's impossible to be proud. And if you are proud in any area, you can be pretty sure you're not walking with Jesus. 9:55 So, today we want to look at Satan tempting Jesus in Matthew's Gospel chapter 4. Satan's tactics we saw with Eve, we saw with Job. And we want to look at it 10:15 how it was with Jesus. God's ultimate purpose in temptation is always for our good. You read in the end of the book of Job that God gave him double of what he had in the beginning. And he gave him a humility which he did 10:30 not have at all in the beginning. He had all the other good qualities, but he lacked humility just like a lot of believers I've met, upright, righteous, holy, but lacking humility. And then they lack the most important thing 10:46 uh of all. The greatest mark of a holy man is that he's humble. Jesus said, "Learn from me." So, ultimately God gave Job double. And the purpose from there we learned that the purpose why God allows these hedges to be opened up and for Satan to 11:04 come and attack us is to help us to have double spiritually today of what we had in the beginning. Every true man of God will acknowledge that they would not have become what they became if it were not for trial and temptation. 11:23 So, don't run away from it. The Apostle Paul once prayed that a thorn in the flesh, I believe with all my heart it was a sickness. And um he asked God to remove it. And God didn't remove it. He prayed and prayed and prayed. 11:42 Finally, God said, "I'll give you something better. I'll give you my grace." And Paul became rich in grace because the sickness humbled him. The sickness kept him on his in on with his face in the dust. 12:00 And most great men of God uh you may not know about it, but they've had some physical infirmity or something that keeps them down. God gives them a thorn in the flesh in some way to keep them down in their face in the dust lest 12:20 they be ex- like Paul says, be exalted above measure because of the abundance of revelations they get or the abundance of results they get from their ministry. And so, God does something for them. If you find that God is doing something 12:36 like that with you, it's it's to make you richer. I believe the only one who walked on this earth who never needed a thorn in the flesh was Jesus himself. Because he walked in perfection right from childhood. Nobody's ever walked like that. 12:53 Because Jesus had the spirit from birth. None of we were born again so many years and we've got a history of having lived in sin and selfishness and pride for so many years from the time you're children. But we can still walk as Jesus walked in the 13:09 conscious area of our life. Jesus was perfect conscious and unconscious. 90% of our life we are unconscious of. There's a lot of unchristlikeness in our life which we're not even aware of. And that's what keeps us humble. If you 13:27 can recognize that 90% of your life you're not even aware the things you're doing wrong. It's only 10% that you see. It's like an ice cube that floats in a glass of juice. It's only that 10% that you can see. But if you slice off that 10% then 13:46 you'll see a little more. You slice off that, you see a little more. That is sanctification. You deal with conscious sin, then God will reveal to you some part of that 90% that's hidden. And then you deal with that. But if you 13:59 don't deal with conscious sin, you'll remain ignorant all your life about other areas of unchristliness and you can think you're pretty holy, but you're not. You're just deceiving yourself. There are multitudes of Christians like 14:11 that. There is no such thing as instant sanctification where that ice cube completely disappears. We'll have the flesh, unconscious sin, till Christ comes again. It's only when Christ comes again that that flesh disappears completely 14:26 and we're made like Christ completely. But until then, if we deal with conscious sin, we can discover other areas. And that is what temptation accomplishes. If I were to use a a picture, a graphic picture. In our unconverted state, 14:45 our heart, which is different from our flesh, is like a black circle full of sin. And the day we are born again, Christ comes in in the center of this black circle is a small little white circle. Christ has 15:04 come in. But there are whole areas of our life, well, a lot of it we are unconscious of, which are sinful, selfish. Usually, by sin I don't mean adultery and murder and where maybe we have finished with external sin. I'm talking of the much 15:23 worse things than that, such as pride, selfishness, hypocrisy, bitterness, jealously, dirty thoughts. Believers have all this. Inward filthiness of the spirit. So, that black circle is there in the 15:42 middle. Christ has come. And now, when we are tempted, we can think of attacks on the outer rim of that white circle. Satan is permitted to attack new areas. And if we fight and overcome, that white circle becomes a little 16:02 bigger. We've got light on certain areas. We've overcome. And then the attack continues on the rim of this new bigger white circle. New areas of temptation. And as we are faithful, how long it takes for that white circle 16:19 to become bigger depends on you. If you're utterly faithful, it happens soon. If you're sort of slack, sometimes you are faithful, sometimes you're sluggish and go back into sin, and then you fight again, and then you hear a 16:33 come to a conference or get all stirred up and fight for a few days, then back into sin, then it'll take a long while. So, it's not a question of time. That's why you find some believers who've been just believers 3 4 years and 16:45 they've progressed a lot more than other people who've been believers for 40 years. It's nothing to do with time. It's got to do with how faithful we are on that outer rim of that circle where we're being tempted. God's purpose in it is that that circle 16:58 will grow wider and wider and wider and wider. And now, let me tell you what happens finally. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nothing of the flesh can enter into God's kingdom. 1 Corinthians 15 says, "One star differs from another star in 17:15 glory." Let me show you that verse if you are not familiar with it. 1 Corinthians 15. And the last part of verse 41, "Star differs from star 17:32 in glory." 1 Corinthians 15, verse 41. You want to change? I'll take all this. Take on the clip. 17:58 Okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah. "Star differs from star in glory." 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 41. Next sentence, "So also is the 18:20 resurrection from the dead." "Star differs from star." You know, you look in the in heavens at night, all stars are not equal brightness. They've all got light, but they're not equally bright. And it says, "So also is the resurrection from the dead." 18:36 That when we are raised from the dead, we're all going to be like Jesus, but the degree of brightness is going to be different for all eternity. I believe that with all my heart. That is the reward God gives for faithfulness on 18:49 earth. It's a very serious thing. My reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be. And it will not be a temporary reward like some crown on my head or a mansion and these are all pictures the Lord uses. 19:05 Uh what what are you going to do with a 14-bedroom mansion in heaven? I'm not interested. You can have it if you like. What are you going to do with 10 crowns sitting on your head? We're going to cast it all before Jesus. What is the 19:15 reward God is going to give us which is going to have you value for all eternity for your being faithful in the time of temptation on earth? We are not faithful because we want a reward. Those who work for reward are going to miss it. 19:34 That's the meaning of the parable where, you know, the parable of the laborers who came and worked for a contract. And the the difference between the first three four groups and the last group was the last group did not work for a 19:47 contract. All the others worked for a contract. And they didn't get their wages first. The group they were not made any contract. They just came and worked. And Jesus said in that in reply to Peter who said, "What will we get who have forsaken 20:02 all?" And Jesus said, "Be careful. Don't work for a reward." And that is the meaning of that parable. So, we don't work for a reward because then our motive is completely wrong. We serve because we love Jesus. We serve because we've been forgiven so much. 20:20 We serve because everything we have belongs to God in any case and we recognize that. But, the fact is God still gives a reward because he's righteous. And especially those especially those who have worked for no reward on Earth. 20:39 That's why I say to you, brothers and sisters, don't envy those Christians who work for a reward on Earth. They'll miss it when they get into God's kingdom. And that reward need not be money. I don't think most of us serve the Lord 20:54 for money. Maybe there are a few who do. But, we can serve the Lord for honor. Which is just as bad as serving for money. We can long to be appointed an elder 21:11 or to be invited as a speaker somewhere. You haven't understood God's ways. Jesus had no lust to be invited as a speaker in any synagogue. He was happy to speak on the streets. He was happy to speak to individual Nicodemuses and 21:28 divorced women on a sitting beside a well and he wasn't here seeking anything. And that's that's our example. So, the purpose of temptation is that this circle may grow wider and wider. We become more and more like Christ. 21:44 And when Christ comes back, all that black part will drop off. What will remain is the white part. And it's going to be different with each believer. One star differs from another star in 22:03 glory. So also is the resurrection from the dead. That's why our life on Earth is so important. I'm not talking about forgiveness. I'm not talking about going to heaven. If that's all you're interested in, 22:22 I tell people in our church, "Don't waste your time coming to this church. Go somewhere else. Don't waste our time. We're interested in pursuing godliness, in pressing on to perfection, in climbing the mountain and reaching as 22:37 far as possible to that peak of Christ-likeness as possible before Christ comes again. Not for reward, but because Jesus died and gave his life for us. And because we owe everything to him and because to begin with everything we have 22:52 we got from him. We owe him everything from the day we were born. We cheated him and robbed him of that all the years in our unconverted days. Finally, we woke up and came to our senses and gave our life to Christ. And now we recognize everything belongs 23:08 to him. Do you? I'll tell you this. Many people have differed with me. I'll tell you that openly. On my teaching that you'll have regret for all eternity, not just for a few days. 23:27 Yeah, the the tears will be wiped out from your eyes. That's all fine. But, it's impossible it be totally unrighteous for God to tell us that he's going to give us a reward for faithfulness and then 23:46 that reward is just going to be for 5 minutes. What sort of reward is that? In other words, it doesn't matter whether you're unfaithful or not on Earth. God's going to make everybody equal. It would be something like in a examination in a 24:02 class, say students in the fourth grade, and one person doesn't study and gets all his um mathematics problems wrong or one or two right. Another person has worked hard and got all the problems right. And the teacher says, "Well, I'm just a good 24:18 teacher. I'll give you all 100%." What would you think of such a teacher? You see, that's totally unrighteous to put this person who worked hard and got all his problems right in the same category as the other one who's got only 24:31 one or two. But, that's a lot of people accuse God indirectly of that. That in eternity we're all going to be the same. I don't believe that. One star differs from another star in glory. So also will be the resurrection from the dead. It 24:43 says, let me read to you in James chapter 1 verse 12, "Blessed is the man who perseveres when he's tempted. Blessed Blessed for what? For 5 minutes? We don't get much blessing on Earth in terms of earthly blessing. We don't want 24:57 it. We do get spiritual blessing. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial and temptation, James 1:12. Because once he's been approved, that means once he has passed the test. In the margin of my Bible it says, "Once 25:13 he has passed the test." And there are a number of tests in this spiritual development. He will receive the crown of life. That's a reward. A crown of life. Think of that. It's not a physical crown. There's no 25:33 physical crown that can be a crown of life, tree of life, crown of life. Which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So, who's going to get this crown of life? Those who overcome in temptation or those who love him? 25:49 Can you get the answer? Who is it? The sentence says, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under temptation because he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him." What that means is the proof of your love is that you 26:07 persevere in temptation. It's the same Both are the same group of people. They're not two different groups. Those who love him persevere under trial. When you don't persevere under temptation, you do not love the Lord. That's why temptation is so important. 26:23 It's a test, according to this verse, of whether you love the Lord or not. It's not how emotional you feel when you sing these songs on Sunday morning that prove your love for the Lord. That can be a deception to live in our 26:36 emotions. It's when your will is yielded, that's when the veil is rent. It's when your will is yielded in the moment of temptation and I say, "No to my flesh and yes to the Lord." That's where I prove my love for the Lord. You do not 26:50 prove your love for the Lord when you sit in a church service on Sunday morning. You prove your love for the Lord on Monday when you're tempted in your place of work or even Sunday evening when you go home and you're tempted with situations in your home, 27:01 with the way your wife talks to you or your husband talks to you or when things go wrong. That's where you prove whether you love the Lord or not. It's It's one of those great deceptions of today's emotional Christianity 27:15 that makes people feel you love the Lord because you feel so emotional when you sing a song or when you see a movie about Jesus being whipped and beaten and crucified. Um and they can think, "Boy, I really love Jesus." I remember seeing movies of I 27:32 can say honestly say every time I saw Jesus whipped and crucified in a movie, I really wept. But, I the next day I was just the same, defeated by sin. And I realized through the years this is a deception. It's in the moment of temptation that I 27:46 prove whether I love the Lord or not. It's the moment of temptation that Jesus proved whether he loved the Father or not. So, turn to Matthew chapter 4 and see the devil's tactics with Jesus. Matthew 4, there were three temptations 27:58 here and I want you to see them. It's interesting that the first temptation to Eve came in relation to the body, food for the body, the needs of the body. It could be food. It could be sex. 28:16 It could be sleep, laziness. It's related to the body. And the first temptation that came to Jesus in the wilderness, Matthew 4 and verse 3, was also related to the body. A lot of our temptations are related to the body. 28:35 Sexual temptation, temptation in relation to food, to meet the needs of the body in ways that God has not permitted. Even to um look with lust is a sort of meeting the needs of the 28:53 body. You know, there's a verse in Proverbs which says in um chapter 6, 29:10 Proverbs 6, verse 25, speaking in verse 24 about an evil woman who's got the spirit of an adulteress. And an evil woman who's got the spirit of an adulteress is usually seen 29:30 in the way she dresses immodestly to provoke men to lust. I believe all godly sisters should ask their husbands or their fathers whether they are dressed in a way 29:48 that would provoke men to lust. Don't ask your mother. Don't ask your sister. They don't have the eyes of a man. Ask your father. Ask your husband. They have the eyes of a man and they can tell you immediately whether your dress is provocative. 30:06 And listen to them if you're a godly sister. Um otherwise you're an evil woman. Provoking other people to sin. I mean there's enough sin in the world. Why do you want to add to that? And if God judges that woman, that man 30:20 for looking at you and lusting, he's certainly going to judge you for the way you dressed. Without a doubt. You can justify yourself in a many ways, but um God is righteous and it says here in verse 25 to all men, "Do not desire her beauty in your 30:38 heart." He's not saying do not desire her body. You may not desire her body. Do not desire her beauty. That's a higher standard. Don't keep admiring a pretty woman. 30:57 She can catch you with her eyelids. And because of a harlot, a man is reduced to a loaf of bread. Can a man, verse 27, take fire into his heart and his clothes not be burnt? So be careful. So it's in relation to the body that we 31:16 are tempted, that Eve was tempted, that Jesus was tempted, that we're tempted. And blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation and determines that he's going to prove his love for the Lord when he is tempted. When you are tempted with a pretty 31:33 woman, your love for the Lord is being tested. Whether you know it or not, when you were tempted in the past, you were constantly You said you were a believer and God was saying, "Okay, I want to find out whether you love me." Where did 31:46 he tempt you? Not when you sang those songs. The Lord's not fooled by all that. You're fooled, but God isn't. He tested you with allowing a lot of pretty women to pass by you. He was testing you to see whether you love the Lord or not. 32:00 Have you failed? Never mind. The times of ignorance God overlooks. The question is what are you going to do about it in the future? Your past is under the blood of Christ. What are you going to do in the future? That's the question. 32:17 Jesus was tempted because there was a need in his body. He hadn't eaten for 40 days and the pressure was so great. If you had not eaten for I mean, you know, you those of you who fasted, it's very good to fast because um we know how 32:34 strong uh how love for food is. And if you fast for 1 day, you'll see longing for food. 2 days, 3 days. Imagine 40 days of fasting. A tremendous longing for food. It's something like 32:52 the longing for sex. It's it's a man being tempted. I mean, Adam and Eve were tempted when they were not hungry. Jesus was tempted at a much higher level. All the temptations that came to Christ were at a much higher level than you and 33:11 I are tempted. He was tempted in all points as we are, but at a much higher level. Because he came from a place of total purity. We've lived in the slum all our life. We are used to these dirty surroundings. He came from perfectly pure surroundings 33:26 and found this wretched slum repulsive. It was much more difficult for him. And here he was tempted far stronger than Eve was tempted with the desire of the body. And the devil says See, the devil's smart. He's watched man for 4,000 years 33:46 before Jesus came and he knew that the desires of the body are great source or great opportunity to tempt people. He knows that. He knows how much men love people love food and how much men love sex. And he knows this is the area where I can I 34:04 don't call I don't care what they call themselves believer. I don't care whether they call themselves spirit-filled, speaking in tongues, or doing miracles or not. I know that I can tempt them in the area of sex and they 34:15 will fall. Are you going to prove that you're in a different category? That you love the Lord at least from today onwards. And the devil says, "Oh, some of these men think that because they're married, they won't fall. Aha, I'll teach them." 34:34 Some of these think think people think that because they're 40 or 50 years old, they won't fall. Remember, David fell with Bathsheba when he was 52 years old. I'll tell you when you're safe. When the last nail has been hit on your 34:51 coffin, you're safe. We got to be watchful till then. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. That's the one who doesn't fall. And so this desire, "Turn these stones into bread." And the temptation here is 35:10 "What's wrong in using this mighty anointing that God gave you 40 day 40 days ago?" You know, Jesus was anointed there. "What's wrong in using this the power God has given you to satisfy your need? You're not stealing anybody else's 35:27 money. You're not stealing anybody else's bread. There are thousands of stones in this wilderness. What's wrong in turning one of these stones into bread and satisfying your need? You have the power. Your father gave it to you 40 days ago. 35:42 If you're the son of God, turn these stones into bread. Prove that you're the son of God. You know, um the devil tries to question us also. Are you really a son of God? Are you really a daughter of God? Many times he 36:01 It's It's It's interesting that he came to Jesus with that those words, "If you are." I'm not sure whether you are. He comes to us like that also. He You think you're a son of God? I doubt it very much. And then we begin to doubt it, too. 36:16 It's one of the things we must be Jesus never had any doubt. And I want to tell you that the Holy Spirit can make us as sure as Jesus was that I'm a son of God. I'm a daughter of God. I can say that. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. I 36:35 am a son of God. Because the word of God tells me and the Holy Spirit confirms it in my heart. Do you have that assurance? You can have it. God doesn't want you to live with this uncertainty all your life. That's how you fall in temptation. 36:53 And if the devil comes to you and says, "If you are a daughter of God," you say, "Yes, I am." If you're a son of God, you say, "Yes, I am. I don't have any doubt on that score." Are you perfect? No, I'm not. But I'm a son of God, all right. 37:08 Why? Because God says so. He's declared me to be his son. Well, if you're the son of God, why not use the power God's given you to get something for yourself? The anointing. Do you know how many people have been tempted like this? 37:26 Use your privileges as a son of God to get some benefit for yourself. India and America, too, are full of preachers who are tempted by the devil. 37:44 God's given you an anointing. Use it to make money for yourself. Use it to collect money from poor people who will benefit from your preaching to build a nice big house for yourself. 38:03 To get an expensive car or a jet plane for yourself. After all, God's anointed you. Get some benefit for your body and comfort. Do you know that millions of people have fallen for that? Jesus said, "No. 38:21 I will not use the power that God has given me to satisfy my own need." I remember years ago when I started preaching, the Lord said to me through this very temptation, "You will be tempted. Overcome. You are never to use 38:40 the power and gift I gave you to get anything for yourself. Not money, not honor, not fame, not control over other people. Nothing." 38:59 I said, "Lord, please keep me faithful. Keep me from falling." You know, God gives you acceptance before people. You may not want money or honor. You may just have the satisfaction of with so many people listen to you, they'll do 39:15 exactly what you say. And you got a secret satisfaction out of that. We're to get nothing, but the same Jesus, he used that power to produce bread to feed 5,000 people once who needed bread. And that's what I learned that the 39:34 anointing God gives me must be used to bless others, not to get any benefit for myself. That is a true servant of God who walks in the footsteps of Jesus. There are many people who start like that. 20 years later 39:53 they are not like that because they see everybody around them getting a benefit from their anointing. They say, "Why should I be left out, man? Everybody is in this by getting a benefit. I seem to be the only one. I might as well get into the join the 40:05 club as well. Get into the bandwagon and get whatever benefit I can." It's a real temptation. If you turn your eyes away from Jesus and look at people who are not following Jesus, I guarantee you'll fall. Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord. Never 40:20 mind if people whom you respected have fallen away. God still has a few on the earth who are faithful to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Don't ever seek to satisfy to get any benefit for yourself from the anointing and power God gave you. 40:39 That it was meant to bless others. God will take care of your needs. So, he said, "No. I will not do it. I will not use a part because God hasn't told me. A man lives by every word from God's mouth. God hasn't told me to turn the stones 40:56 into bread. I'm not I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to take any any advantage for myself. God, you know, people provided. I'm not saying Jesus never took any money. We read in Luke chapter 8 certain rich people gave Jesus 41:09 money and he took it because he needed money to feed those 12 disciples and some of them had families back home like Peter who needed to send money back home. Otherwise, how would they live? They'd given up their fishing. 41:20 So, it's not that he didn't receive, but he never used his power to get. There's a difference. To draw to himself. People Jesus was honored highly, but he never sought for it. That's the point. He never let anybody know his needs. 41:39 Once when all people went back to their houses in the last chapter in the last verse of John 7, he just went and slept in the under the trees in the garden in the Mount of Olives. We read in John 7:53 in the next verse. 41:57 Everybody went to their own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. He wouldn't even tell somebody, "Hey, would one of you have a bed in your room for me to sleep?" What's wrong in that? What's wrong in a preacher who's poured out his 42:09 heart preaching asking somebody, "Hey, do any of you guys have a spare bed in your house?" No, he wouldn't even ask for that. It says, "Everybody went to their own house. Nobody bothered about where the preacher was going to stay." 42:17 He went and slept under the trees. That's how he lived. He never asked anybody for anything. He trusted his heavenly Father that what he needed his Father would give. Are you like that? Can you trust your Father? God brings us into situations 42:35 where we're tempted and it's a temptation of can you trust your Father? Can you imagine Jesus going to somebody and saying, "Hey, listen, can you lend me some money? My Father sort of let me down now. I don't know what happened." 42:49 I can't imagine Jesus going to somebody like that. His Father took care of him. I want to tell you my brothers and sisters, there are different situations where God tests us. I know my wife and I've been tempted early tremendously in 42:59 the early days. We had a lot of poverty, but God never forsook us. Those were tests to see, "Are you happy with what I've given you? I will never let you be tempted beyond your ability. Are you happy or do you look for demand? Do you run to 43:17 Egypt for help or do you turn to me?" That's Satan's tactic. Bring you into a situation where you use God what the anointing God's given you for personal benefit or you run to man for help instead of trusting God that he will see 43:34 you through that. Think of the numerous instances in the past where instead of going to God, you went to man. The end result was you got your problem solved, but spiritually you became a poorer person. Was it worth it? 43:54 It wasn't. These are the things that bring us loss for eternity. Let me show you verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it says, "There is only one foundation." Verse 11, "That is Christ." 44:13 But on that foundation, that means we are saved. Found the foundation here is not the foundation mentioned in Matthew 7, which is the foundation of obedience to sermon on the mount. Here it's talking about basic forgiveness of sins. 44:26 In that area, there's only one foundation, Christ. But on this foundation, we build every day of our life from the day you were born again, every day of your life you've been building. You know, the devil offers you a rotten 44:45 brick. A rotten brick. In India, our houses are built with bricks. And I've seen these masons uh picking up a brick and tapping it with a trowel and they throw it away. It's not good. Pick up another brick. I said that they tap it and say, "Is 45:05 that a good one?" They put it in. The devil offers you a lot of rotten bricks to build your life with. And unfortunately, a lot of believers accept them. Take care how you build. The last part of verse 10, 1 Corinthians 45:22 3:10, "And let every man be careful how he builds on this foundation." His sins are forgiven. Christ is his savior. He's a child of God. Now he's building. Are you careful how you're building? And he says you can build either with 45:38 gold, silver, and precious stones. Verse 11 12. Or you can build with wood, hay, and straw. Now, if you have $10,000, you can get only very limited amount of gold, precious stones with that. 45:56 But you can get a huge pile of hay and straw with $10,000. So, if you're the guy type of person who's interested in quantity, you'll go for hay and straw. If you're the type of person who's interested in quality, you'll go for gold and silver, precious 46:14 stones. If you're the type of person who wants a large church, you'll go for hay and straw. If you want you're the type of person who wants a quality church, you'll go for gold and silver, but it'll be very little. Size-wise, you'll just be so small 46:28 compared to this huge mega church that somebody else has built. And in our life, too, each man's work, verse 13, will one day become evident. And in that day, this is interesting, God is not going to test by using a tape 46:47 measuring tape to see how high and how wide and how broad is the structure. He's going to test by fire. Now, if God were going to use a measuring tape in that day, I would go for wood, hay, and straw any day. But he's not going to use a measuring 47:01 tape. He's going to use fire. And if I he's already told me that he's going to test it by fire, then I better go for gold, silver, and precious stones because there'll be nothing left if I use wood, hay, and straw. The fire will test not the quantity. Oh, 47:14 boy, it's so clear. Not quantity. Verse 13. Quality. Quality. God is going to test the quality of each man's work. Not how much you knew the Bible because then the devil would get first prize. But the quality of your work. How much 47:33 did you obey the scriptures? How much did you obey the scriptures? The quality of each man's work. And now listen to this and tell me whether you'll have regret for eternity or not. If a man's work remains on it, that means it's gold, silver, and 47:52 precious stones. There are no ashes. It's a small structure, but it's a pure solid structure. He receives a reward. Eternal reward. There are no temporary rewards in heaven. There are no rewards that, you know, perish after a while. If God gives a 48:07 reward, it's eternal. And then there are other people whose work is burnt up because they were on they were for quantity. They were trying to impress people with great things, giving people an impression of holiness, wood, hay, and straw. 48:25 And the fire tested the whole thing. It's burnt up. But listen to this. Verse 15. But the person himself goes to heaven. He doesn't go to hell because his sins are forgiven. So, here are two people in heaven. 48:46 Both are in heaven. Their sins are forgiven. But one has got a reward because years and years and years he spent faithfully overcoming temptation, seeking for quality, quality, quality in his life, quality in his ministry, 49:00 quality in his church, quality, quality, quality, quality all the time. And another person was there who said, "Oh, it doesn't really matter. My sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven. It doesn't really matter if I 49:11 slip up here or slip up there or slip up uh 10,000 times. It doesn't matter. I just go to Jesus and ask him to forgive me." And he stands before the Lord stripped of everything, burnt, his work burnt, he his ministry, he was seeking popularity 49:25 and trying to compete with other churches and trying to show that his church was great and all that. And he sees all his work burnt up. And that other the has got an eternal reward and he's got nothing. Are you trying to tell me that chap will 49:40 have no regret? I think of myself. Supposing I stand there and I say, "I'm waiting for the Lord to test my work." And the whole thing is burnt up. I don't know about you, but I'll have tremendous regret. Not just that I didn't get the reward. 50:00 That's not the point. Not that I won't have a crown on my head. Forget a crown. I'm not interested in a crown or a mansion. I'll tell you where my regret will come from. Listen. Lord, you gave everything for me when you came 50:16 to Earth. You gave your life for me. You denied yourself. You lived faithfully all the time for me. You bore the shame of sinners and the ridicule and the attacks of Satan for me. And you gave me one life on Earth to prove my love for you, and I lived 50:34 selfishly. That's where my regret is going to come from. Forget about the reward. Oh Lord, can you give me another life to go back and show my love for you? Sorry, son. You have only one life. If you wanted to prove your love for me, 50:51 you had one life to prove it. It's not a question of reward. It's a regret because you did not love the savior like he loved you. You loved sin more than him who died for your sin 51:09 in the moments of temptation. I'm sorry that my old days ignorance I lived in sin, but no more. There's a song a verse of a song I always often sing to 51:27 myself. It's written by Frederick Faber, the man who wrote My God, how wonderful thou art. One line of it says, "Ever when tempted, ever when tempted, 51:47 make me see beneath the olives' moon-pierced shade, my God alone outstretched and bleeding on the Earth he made. 52:07 And make me feel it was my sin as though no other sins were there. And that my sin was to him who bears the world a load that he could scarcely bear." 52:26 I sing it so often to myself. Lord, let me see it was my sin. And that was a load you could scarcely bear, you who could bear the load. It's made me hate sin like anything. I'm surprised at believers who take sin 52:45 so lightly, who can sin, ask the Lord to forgive them, go back and sin again, have bitterness against people, unforgiving attitudes, keep on sinning sexually in their thoughts, physically even. I'm amazed at it. I say, "Are you folks 53:01 believers? Do you do do you know that Jesus was killed for your sin? You want to crucify him all over again?" I'm amazed. Are you building with wood, hay, and straw? Be faithful in the moments of temptation. The second temptation that 53:17 came to Jesus was tactic of Satan. "Jump off from the roof of the temple and claim the promises of God. Do something spectacular, stupid, and claim God's promises." Here's a promise. The devil even offered a promise. Do you know the devil knows 53:35 scripture better than anyone else? If he could quote a scripture to Jesus, he'll quote it for you to you. He will quote scripture to lead you into sin. That's what we see that tactic number two. Quote scripture to lead people into sin. 53:51 Quote scripture to build a cult and not a church. He's doing it all the time. Don't think that if there's a scripture quoted, ah, that could be the devil. That's why it's me You need to know the Bible because there's another scripture 54:08 that balances it. The devil said, "It is written." Because Jesus first said, "It is written." The devil said, "Oh, this is the It is written type of person. Then I'll adopt his tactic. It is written." Are you the It is written type? He'll come 54:22 to you with It is written. Because you're the Bible type. The other guy who doesn't care for the Bible, he doesn't tempt him with that. But he knows that you're the one who looks for a verse for everything. He'll give you a verse. 54:34 "It is written." And if you don't know the scriptures, you will not be able to say what Jesus said, "It is also written." "On the other hand, it is written." Verse seven. 54:52 The whole truth is not contained in It is written. The whole truth is contained in It is written and It is also written. It is written and on the other hand it is written. Otherwise, you won't get the whole truth. And multitudes of cults have been built 55:12 on one verse. Multitudes have gone astray quoting one verse of scripture. Led astray by the devil who quoted verses to them. So, don't think because you got a verse to support what you're doing, what you're doing is right. 55:31 You can claim claim promises which you think are for yourself. I've known people who claim promises for healing and don't take any medicines and don't go to doctors and they die. Who would have lived if they'd gone to a 55:45 doctor or a hospital. They didn't die in the will of God. They died because they were led astray by the devil to quote some promise. "By his stripes I'm healed. I don't need medicines." It is also written, "Take a little wine 56:02 for your stomach's infirmities." Or let me paraphrase that. Take a little medicine for your stomach's infirmities. Or whatever other infirmities you have. If you see scripture with scripture, you find there's a balance. 56:18 And that is why I say the devil's got a heyday today because he need knows multitudes of believers don't know the Bible. Most churches in the United States today people do not bring a Bible to the meeting. They think they know it. 56:37 I've read this for 50 years. I'll tell you honestly, I still don't know it properly. And I meditate on it every day of my life. I still don't know it properly. The more I know it, it changes my life. I I can't understand how people can 56:51 treat this so lightly. Even the guys who say King James version is the only one. They don't carry it with them all the time. They don't know it. They don't know what the Bible says. They don't obey it. What are they fighting for? A version 57:04 or obedience? If you don't know the Bible, this teaches us the devil will deceive you. Do something spectacular. His temptation was, "You know, if you jump off the temple from there and you descend unheard because his angels will guard you, 57:21 you everybody say, 'That must be the Messiah.'" That's another type of temptation that comes. Do something spectacular. It comes to uh preachers. Say something that'll entertain people. Do something spectacular. All these 57:41 healing uh crusades as they call them, public meetings. This is the same temptation. Do something spectacular. Bring that person before Yes, you could hear only uh 50% in your left ear, right? Now you can hear 60%. Praise the Lord. 58:02 Dear brothers and sisters, this lady could hear only 50% in her left ear. Now she can hear 60%. Can you imagine Jesus doing things like that? He always told people, "Don't don't tell anybody. I'm so happy that you were totally 58:19 blind. Now you can see. But don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody I did it. I care for you, not for that everybody should think I'm a great healer." That's the difference between today's healers and Jesus Christ. But do you see it? 58:34 A lot of people don't. They're blind as a bat. I want to say to you if you want to save yourself from deception, compare every preacher with Jesus Christ. See if he's got the humility of Christ. See if he's approachable. See what his 58:50 attitude to money is. See if he quotes scripture or is teaching psychology. We are living in days of tremendous deception. See if he says It is written. It could be the devil saying It's written. You must know It's also written. And if 59:04 you don't read the Bible, you won't know what's also written. If all that you know the Bible is what you hear and from television preachers and some preacher who preaches something from the pulpit without quoting scripture, 59:16 you know why there's no letter to the Bereans in the scriptures? Because it says in Acts 17, "The Bereans searched the scriptures any with any preacher came and preached to them." Acts 17. Even when the Apostle Paul came 59:27 and preached, they say, "Praise the Lord, Paul. Good to hear you. We'll check up in scripture and get back to you next week whether we believe you or not. Imagine. That's why Paul never had to write a letter to the Bereans because they 59:39 checked up like that with even with the Apostle Paul, they checked out with everybody. Show it to me in scripture. Whenever anybody tells you anything, show it to me in scripture. And even then say, I like to check that. I want 59:51 to find out if something else is also written in scripture. So, be careful. The devil's tactics are like that. He came to Eve with saying, is it It is God has God really said? Number three. Verse nine. The devil showed him all the 1:00:07 kingdoms of the world and said, all these I'll give you if you fall down and worship me. Do you want something in the world? Do you want money? The devil says, I'll give it to you. You have to compromise a little. 1:00:26 You'll have to cut corners. Maybe cheat the IRS a little bit. You'll have to maybe tell small white lies here and there. If you're a businessman, you'll have to say this product does great things which it doesn't do. But I'll give you money. 1:00:46 Just bow down a little bit. Doesn't matter if you cheat a little bit. You can always ask Jesus to forgive you. But you made your money and you got your forgiveness as well. Wasn't that smart? You cheated somebody, you made your 1:00:58 money, then you asked the Lord to forgive you. You're cleansed. You'll discover when you stand before the Lord how much you lost. You probably may never stand before the Lord. You may be lost in hell before that. All this I'll give you if you fall down 1:01:13 and worship me. Remember this, my dear brothers and sisters. The devil offers us everything in the world. Money, honor, sex, position, fame, whatever you want, everything that the Gentiles seek after. But he says, you'll get it. 1:01:35 You have to bow the knee a little bit to me. And that's how you get it. Do you want it that way? You can get it. Jesus said, no, thank you. I don't want it. I'd rather starve. I'd rather die 1:01:55 than disobey God. It says he resisted sin unto blood. Hebrews 12:4. He says, none of you have resisted sin unto blood. That means the meaning of that verse is his attitude to sin was, I'd rather die than sin. I'd rather die than displease my father. 1:02:12 I don't want all these things. Think if there's anything in your life that you've pursued after, which you got by just a little bit of compromise of your Christian convictions, a little bit of compromise about what the Bible teaches. 1:02:28 You got a little entertainment out of movies with Jesus would never sit and watch with you. I'm not totally against movies, I'll tell you that. But I'm certainly against anything which I could not have Jesus sit with me and 1:02:41 watch throughout. Right from beginning till end. And if Jesus is not happy to sit with me and watch that, I don't want to watch it, no matter how much good there is. If there's 5 seconds of poison in it, I don't want it. 1:02:58 People are usually poisoned with a full glass of good milk with a drop of poison. That's how they poison people. Nobody poisons people with a full glass of poison. The devil's wise. What do you want? You want some entertainment? 1:03:15 Because you want to relax. And you have to bow the knee a little to the devil to get it. Thank you, I don't want it. I don't want anything which makes me feel I have spoiled my conscience here. Did I make a little money? I don't want 1:03:36 that money. Do you ever pray, Lord? I used to pray like this, Lord, if by some mistake where I don't know somewhere I have acquired money in a wrong way. 1:03:52 Please show it to me or somehow make it make me lose it. Is there some place where I should have paid some tax to the government which I haven't paid? Please, I don't know where it is and I don't know maybe I don't know all the rules 1:04:10 and laws. Maybe I've done it, but I don't want to stand in the final day before the Lord with one cent that was not righteously earned. I want to be totally upright. Because it's not worth it to get anything in the world 1:04:26 by bowing the knee to Satan. I remember many, many years ago, you know, in India, the telephone services are all run by the government. Not by private companies, even today. There are a few private ones today, but not in those days, it was only the 1:04:42 government and all telephones in India were run by the government. And I remember I prayed this prayer. Um Lord, is there some money perhaps I don't know, maybe I owe to the government somewhere which I'm totally ignorant of. I've tried my best to pay 1:04:56 all my taxes uprightly, but maybe somewhere I didn't know the rules and maybe I withheld from the government some tax. If so, just make make it go out of my bank account or somewhere in some way. I remember this very vividly. 1:05:10 And I was making an international phone call. And you know, the Indian phone system is not always electronic those days. It was mechanical. And when I put the phone down after the call and I picked it up, the dial tone hadn't come back. 1:05:25 It was as I was I was still connected. And I was keeping on paying for all that time. And I didn't know what to do. How to close this call? I put it up, down, put it down, it didn't get disconnected. And I was paying for an international 1:05:39 call. Then I had to run to some other person's house and phone from his house and call the exchange and say, please disconnect this phone. By that time quite a bit of time had gone. And I paid a huge amount for that call. 1:05:58 And I was reminded. Ah, I must have been owing the government some money somewhere. Thank you, Lord, for taking it out of my account. I didn't blame the telephone company. I said, praise the Lord. I was so desperate, I'll tell you 1:06:16 honestly, I was desperate that I did not want to stand before the Lord uh with something that didn't belong to me. Are you that desperate? If the Lord were to come suddenly, would somebody here say, Lord, you can't take him yet, he owes me some money. 1:06:32 How can you take him away before he's returned his money to me? Pay your debts. Don't let some credit card company stop you from being raptured when Christ comes. I'm serious. Are you going to stand before the Lord with some credit card 1:06:50 company accusing you? Saying, this guy you raptured him, you're taking him to skin him, he hasn't paid my debt. Don't bow the knee to the devil. Say, Lord, I live with less. I don't want many things in the world. But I will not bow the knee to Satan. 1:07:08 There are many tactics Satan employs these days. Let's live in fear, humility, and ask God for grace. I'll tell you this. If you refuse to bow the knee to the devil at any point, don't think you'll starve. I've never starved. 1:07:25 Never in my life, even in times of poverty, I've never had to miss a meal. Maybe in a simple meal, but I never had to miss a meal. My children never had to starve. My children never had to miss out on their education or I mean, we couldn't always 1:07:40 buy them new clothes for their birthdays. That's okay. What does it matter? We'd buy them clothes when their clothes wore out. That is good enough. But they were never naked. All the fancy things that other people could buy for their children, we 1:07:53 couldn't buy. That's okay. But they grew up, they grew up to love the Lord. That was the main thing. So many things, you know, we try to Oh, that person has it, I must have it. Who said that? That's the way the devil gets a foothold into your life. That 1:08:08 person's got it, you must get it. Think of that. They've got that and you got to use a credit card to get it. Maybe that person could afford it. You can't. Why not give thanks and say, Lord, this is what you've set for me, 1:08:20 it's fine for me. You've drawn a small circle around me. I'm happy to stay in that circle. I'll show you one verse in closing. Ecclesiastes and chapter I think it's chapter 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse eight. 1:08:51 The last part. A serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. A wall is the boundary God has drawn around you. It has many applications. Your wife, that's a boundary. If you go outside of that and touch somebody else's 1:09:10 property, a serpent bites you. Your income, that's a circle God's drawn around you. And you say, I'm not satisfied with that. That fellow's got a bigger circle. Well, he can afford more things. My circle is this small. And I break out of my circle 1:09:27 with debt. With for something which I could live without very easily, a serpent bites me. And just one more thing, in the Hebrew language in which this was written, the word for debt is exactly the same 1:09:45 as the word for a serpent's bite. That's interesting. Don't let the devil tempt you. These are the tactics of Satan, 21st century. I'll give you everything. Just bow down to me. Ignore some of these scriptures. And 1:10:03 just bow down to me. And do you know that the moment you bow the knee to the devil, you can get a lot of things, but you'll never be the same anymore in your Christian life. You'll wonder why you're defeated by sin here, defeated by sin there, why this 1:10:16 problem has come, that problem has come. Because you allowed the devil to come into your home. You're the one who opened that door for him there. We're not ignorant of Satan's tactics. Let's pray. Heavenly
