0:07 Let's turn to Ephesians. I want to speak on Ephesians because this is the most spiritual of all of Paul's letters that he wrote. To compare it with all the letters, there's a lot more spiritual truth here than 0:27 in any of his other letters. And in 1 Corinthians in chapter 2, he says um we cannot speak to you as to spiritual men. 1 Corinthians 3:1. 0:46 I brethren cannot speak to you as to spiritual men. But to as to men of flesh and infants in Christ. So, we see here that Paul did not speak in the same way to all the churches or to all the believers. 1:05 He inspired by the spirit, he gauged the spiritual level of each church and wrote letters accordingly. And with the Corinthians, he says, "You guys I can only 1 Corinthians 3:2, I can only give you milk to drink 1:25 because you're not able to receive anything more than that. You just like you don't put solid food in the mouth of a 1-month-old baby, it'll choke to death. In the same way, something similar to that, Paul could not say many things to the 1:41 Corinthians. He says in 1 Corinthians 2, "I could only preach among you words to 1 Corinthians 2:2, only Jesus Christ and him crucified." In In words, all I could teach you folks is how your sins can be forgiven. 2:01 And because you guys are living on sinning and you don't take sin seriously. So, what can I tell you? You're all babies and I can only tell you about confess your sin, repent, accept. And I know you're going to do it again 2:19 next week and week after that even though you've been believers for so many years, you just keep on in that endless circle of sinning and then repenting and asking the Lord to forgive you and sinning and repenting. Never seem to break out of 2:33 that circle. That is the Corinthian church and there are lots of people today who are in a similar condition. Okay? Now, they they are in that I believe they're in that condition because they're satisfied to be in that condition. 2:49 They don't seem to get fed up of living in this endless circle of sinning, confessing, cleansed, defeated again, confessing, cleansed, and never any growth. Now, if we are 3:08 falling in sort of less and less, I mean falling but not in the same old areas, then it is this progress. Just like in a a student who goes to school, they find mathematics in the first grade tough. He finds mathematics easy in the second 3:28 grade tough. In the fifth grade it is tough. In the 10th grade it is tough but at different levels. I mean, if a 10th grade student is finding first grade mathematics tough, that's sad. He can find 10th grade mathematics 3:42 tough. So, spiritual growth is something like that. That we are overcoming a number of sins but discovering new areas just like a person goes into mathematics, discovers new areas of maths that didn't they that they didn't even know existed 4:01 when they were in the first grade. Spiritual growth is something like that where we discover new areas of un-Christ-likeness. I call it un-Christ-likeness rather than obvious sin in our life that we didn't even know existed before. 4:17 Then we are making progress. So, the Corinthians were not like that. But he says to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 6, "But we do speak wisdom among those who are mature." So, he says, "I can't speak that to you 4:34 because you guys are not mature. But we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. But it's a wisdom not of human cleverness of this age, of the clever people in this world. 4:49 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. This word mystery is something that is found only in the New Testament. In our churches, we have spoken much about the new covenant. 5:07 But one of the distinctive features of the new covenant is the word mystery. And a mystery is to define it in simple words, a secret, a divine secret that can only be understood by divine 5:24 revelation. And that's the matter of that's the matter of the spirit and not of the mind. With a clever mind, we can understand the Bible very well intellectually and be completely blind to its mysteries. Mystery is a word which refers to a 5:46 secret. And he speaks here about God's wisdom being a secretive thing, a hidden thing which the entire Old Testament people could never understand. Not because they were not serious disciples. 6:06 According to the light they had, I mean, think of a man like Moses or John the Baptist, for example. I think John the Baptist was far more radical than almost every Christian I ever met in my life. But yet he was under the old covenant. 6:20 Jesus said, "The least person in God's kingdom is ahead of someone like John the Baptist. Not because he's more wholehearted, but because he has opportunity to understand more. 6:39 It's like saying a young boy today can calculate a mathematical problem faster than Albert Einstein. Not because he's clever than a clever than Einstein, but because he's got a computer which 6:57 Einstein never had. So, when the Lord said that the least in God's king- in God's kingdom is going to be higher than John the Baptist, it doesn't mean you are more wholehearted. Like I said, I've hardly ever in my life found a Christian who's more 7:14 wholehearted than John the Baptist. But we have access to so much more. And we can think we are more spiritual because we understand some of these things. We understand many things that Moses and John the Baptist didn't understand. 7:32 It doesn't mean we are more spiritual. And it doesn't mean that we have understood the secrets. See, this verse Psalm 25 says Psalm 25, it says, "The secret of the Lord 7:52 is with those who fear him." Psalm 25:14. This is the mystery. "To them he will make known his covenant." Psalm 25:14. There are two words there, mystery and 8:10 covenant. And they're both revealed to those who fear him. And it goes on to say further down, to the Lord will reveal his will 8:29 to those Uh, sorry, verse 12. "Who is the man who fears the Lord?" Again, that word of fear of the Lord. "He will instruct him in the way he should choose." And the other quality mentioned here in Psalm 25 is verse nine. "He leads the humble 8:48 in justice." So, there are two qualities mentioned in Psalm 25 which qualify us to understand the new covenant and the mysteries in our spirit. Humility and the fear of the Lord. 9:05 Uh, like it says in one of the Proverbs it's in this where it says "By humility and the fear of the Lord we become spiritually wise and spiritually rich." Now, it's possible to know the scriptures, to know the Bible well, to 9:22 understand all the messages preached in our churches well with a good mind. And yet, with that good mind, we may not have a clue about the secrets of the Lord. Or what exactly the new covenant is all about. 9:41 So, let's turn to this word mystery again in 1 Timothy in chapter 3. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, it speaks about the mystery of godliness. As I told you, mystery is a new covenant word. Never found in the Old Testament. 10:00 The Old Testament is really a question of understanding, and that's why the Old Testament produced scribes. But Jesus said in some Matthew 13 that the scribe must become a disciple. And so here in 1 Timothy 3:13, it speaks about the 10:18 mystery of godliness being great. In other words, the secret of godliness is a very big secret. It says it's one of the greatest secrets of God. Of all the mysteries of God, the secret of like the Living Bible says, 10:35 the way to live a godly life is not an easy matter. It's a secret that God reveals to the humble and to those who fear him. There are so many brothers and sisters 10:52 who attend CFC meetings regularly and have been in CFC many church many years. But they are still defeated by anger in their homes, still defeated 11:11 by dirty thoughts, and sometimes even defeated with an unforgiving attitude towards someone, or an unwillingness to apologize 11:27 to one's wife or husband. Why is it like that? A lack of humility and a lack of the fear of God. And such such believers can sit in a CFC church for years. 11:46 And come along go along with everybody else and imagine that they are part of a wonderful church until the day they stand before the Lord and discover that they were not better than an a Babylonian Christian. Because they never took 12:05 sin seriously in their life. You know, I'm I'm telling you this after watching CFC churches for 45 years. And all types of believers and I'm not fooled. When I'm not fooled by people pretend to be 12:23 spiritual. It's God gives us discernment. So, it's very important to understand these mysteries. Secrets. So, there are two secrets 12:43 which are called great secrets. One is how to live a godly life. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. And the answer to that it says is in uh knowing that Jesus Christ 13:02 came in the flesh, came like a man with a self-will and was tempted like us in every point. Now, we preach that often in the church and intellectually many people have understood it. But there's a lot of difference between getting a revelation on it. You 13:21 remember what the Lord told Peter when Peter said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, "You're blessed, Simon, because you did not discover that with your intelligence. My father in heaven gave you a 13:39 revelation." How did Peter recognize that this person in front of him was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies, when there were people in Israel who had studied the Bible 10 times more than Peter, who had studied the Bible for 30 years 13:59 more than Peter, and did not see that this was the Messiah? It's not because they were not clever. Peter was not a clever one. The Bible calls him in Acts 4 as one of the uneducated people in Israel. But it was revelation, a very, very 14:19 important word in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you did not need revelation to study the law. You only need to have a good mind. If you're intelligent, you could study the law and keep it all perfectly. But a good mind is not enough. 14:36 In fact, it's no use in the new covenant. It is revelation. And so, the reason why Peter got was because he had a humility about him. And not only humility, a sincerity, 14:54 which made him give up everything as soon as the Lord told him to do something. There was no hesitation to give up his nets or his fishing. See, that's the mark of a godly person. A real disciple is one who obeys instantly. 15:11 Not who obeys after 4 or 5 years. The Lord says, "Give up your nets." Immediately. The Lord says, "Give up some sin." You drop it immediately. That's a serious Christian. Not one who has to think about it. Not one who has to tell the Lord, "Well, 15:24 Lord, I mean, think about it and I'll come back to you." That's why he got revelation. So, I told you there are two great mysteries in the New Testament. Need to understand both. And one is the one we saw in 1 Timothy 3:16, 15:40 the mystery of godliness, the secret of how to live a godly life. And I've really seen through the years, it's really a secret. Many clever, clever people who sit come to our meetings, who listen to all our YouTube messages, never come to a life of 15:56 victory in daily life. They grumble, they complain, they murmur, they love money. They do everything that Jesus forbade. But, they understand the message intellectually so well that perhaps they can even preach it to others. 16:12 The other great mystery is what we read in one uh sorry, Ephesians in chapter 5. In Ephesians chapter 5, he speaks about a husband-wife relationship. And 16:31 verse 30, Ephesians 5:30, "We are members of Christ's body. And for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh." And we think that's refers to marriage. 16:53 He says, "No." Verse 32, "This is a great mystery. I'm speaking about Christ and his church becoming one flesh." Yeah, it is a mystery. The So, the proof of these two that 17:13 we've understood these two mysteries, number one, the secret of a godly life. And the second is the church being built as the body and the bride of Jesus Christ. 17:30 These are the two areas where most of Christendom has not understood how to live a practical daily holy life as described in the Gospels where we stop murmuring and complaining and we pursue up to 17:50 pursue up to perfection in our life. Overcome dirty thoughts and forgive everyone and ask forgiveness from anyone we've hurt and seek with all our heart to be free from the love of money and have the same passion that God's heart 18:06 has to reflect the life of Christ in our daily life and as it says here, to be built together with others. Like when it says here about leaving our earthly connections, what's the meaning of Ephesians 5:31? That man shall leave his 18:24 father and mother and cleave to life. Jesus left his father and came here to become one with us as bride. And he invites us in Luke 14:26 to hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children to be his disciple. Very, very few Christians who take that 18:43 seriously. But the other ones who have understood these great mysteries because they fear God. One of the marks of the fear of God is that I don't have to make the Lord tell me something a second time. Once is enough. I don't need to hear a command 19:03 10 times. I don't even need to hear it twice. I hear it once and even if If me 10 years to get there, I'm going to get there. Those are people who take the New Testament seriously, who take everything that Jesus said seriously, 19:20 who take what the Holy Spirit has said in the episodes seriously. They will come into a life which is way beyond the average CFC church Christian who's understood all the doctrines and who 19:38 apparently is stirred when they come to a Sunday meeting. But it doesn't seem you know I've come across so many people who are who are stirred in a Sunday meeting or in a meeting like this, but it doesn't seem to produce much of a 19:51 change in their life the next day or the next week or the next month. They're pretty much the same. It's like a child who's got a very good teacher in school, but he's still sitting in the same class year after year after year. 20:05 You really need to take it seriously, brothers. The Bible says let a man examine himself. That's something you need to do. Let a man judge himself. That's something we need to do seriously. So, in Ephesians, let me just 20:19 share a little bit about Ephesians. Ephesians is one of the most neatly divided letters of Paul. It's got six chapters in the And the interesting thing is in the first three chapters, there are no exhortations. 20:36 There's not a single command telling us what to do in the first three chapters. Now, if you want to discover a command, you can go there, but it isn't there. The first three chapters of Ephesians are only describing 20:52 what it means to be in Christ. Cuz that's the expression that comes frequently, in Christ. That's the subject of Ephesians in a in in a sense. And then chapter four 21:12 begins with the word therefore. And the next three chapters are full of commands and exhortations. So, you see the balance there. The first three chapters are the foundation of what God has done for us. 21:30 And on that foundation, we build chapter four, five, and six, what we are to do for the Lord. Now, if you go into chapter four, five, and six without understanding properly what what chapters one, two, and three teach you're going to have a lot of problems. 21:46 It's like building a house without a foundation. You don't have a foundation, you're very serious about building a house. And you go into chapter four and you know, chapter four, and five, and six have got some amazing commands. 22:00 It says, for example, in chapter four that we must preserve verse three, chapter four, verse three, preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. It must be a passion of my life 22:20 to preserve the unity of the spirit with every one of my fellow members in the church, with your wife your husband and with everyone in the church in peace. Not just a vague desire, but a passion. And verse I'm just picking out a few verses. 22:39 Verse 15, always speaking the truth in love. It must be my passion to speak the truth, but to speak it in love always. Not seeking to be diplomatic. Because then it says here, we will grow 22:58 up. And along with all the others in the body. And think of some of the other commands here. It says in Ephesians 4:25, "Putting aside all falsehood, never to tell a lie, always speaking the truth." 23:17 Verse 26, "Never being angry." Lest we And if you do slip up, verse 26, before the sun goes down, before you go to bed, set it right. That is the outer limit to ask forgiveness 23:35 for getting angry, before you go to bed. How many Christians live like this? I tell you, if you have a church full of Christians like this, it'd be a very powerful witness for Christ. And he goes on to say, "There must be no stealing." 23:52 And then you may think we don't need it, but if you cheat on your taxes, you're stealing. Or if you take something that doesn't belong to someone, it's not yours, you're stealing. If you borrow something and you don't return it, you're 24:03 stealing. So, these are commands. And then it goes on to say in verse 29, "Let no unwholesome word." In other words, unhealthy word, no unhealthy word should come from your mouth, but only what is good for edification. Because if such words come 24:20 out of your mouth, you're grieving the Holy Spirit, verse 30. "And all bitterness, and all wrath, and all anger," verse 31, "and all clamor, and all slander must be put away from you completely." Now, you see, if there are a number of chairs in a 24:39 room, and I say, "We want to clear all the chairs in this from this room, out of this room." How many are left? Not even one chair. So, when it says, "All bitterness must be put away," how How bitterness should there be in your life? Zero. 24:58 When it says all wrath and anger must be put away from your life, how much must be left? Zero. All gossiping, slandering others, says here when it's put away, how much is left? Forgiving one another, verse 32, exactly 25:15 as God has forgiven you. My heart of forgiveness towards others must gradually become as large as Jesus' heart was on the Calvary's cross, where he forgave people who were 25:32 outright evil to him, killed him, whipped him, beat him, killed him, and did not repent, did not ask for forgiveness. You don't have to wait for anybody to ask for forgiveness before you forgive. And Jesus' example on the cross is 25:51 there. The world is full of people who do not know what it is to ask for forgiveness. When they hurt me, my duty is to forgive immediately. If you just heard that somebody spoke evil of you somewhere, before you find out any more, forgive that person. 26:10 If you want to investigate, that's up to you. I don't usually investigate. I just forgive and leave it. It's very, very important, my dear brothers. I believe there are many people who will not make it into God's kingdom 26:24 just because they haven't forgiven somebody. Because I believe what Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but his word will not pass away, that if you don't forgive others, you will not be forgiven. It's very clear in Matthew 6, 26:39 verse 13, 14, 15. If you don't forgive others, you will not be forgiven. And so, can you imagine if somebody dies in that condition? Dies. All of All of some accident or something happens, and he he's never forgiven somebody, and he 26:54 dies. Where's he going to go? If you're a Roman Catholic, you've got some theory that says you go to some place called purgatory, where you'll be purged for a few years, and then you'll ascend into heaven, which is absolute 27:08 garbage and nonsense. It is appointed unto men once to die. Hebrews 9:27. And after that, the judgment. Jesus told a true story, a true story, not a parable, of a rich man who died, and immediately he went to hell, before 27:27 the doctors checked up and found he was dead. He was already in hell. When they were singing his praises at the funeral, because he was a big man in the synagogue, he was the man was already in hell. Immediately. 27:47 And that poor Lazarus in that story, true story, immediately went into paradise. It's immediate. And they are aware where they are. The rich man was aware he was in hell, immediately. When a man dies, he immediately goes to paradise or to 28:07 hell. That's the one place, it's not a parable, where Jesus spoke clearly what happens to a person when he dies. And so I say, think what happens to a person who has not forgiven someone. And God's word is fulfilled, if you 28:22 don't forgive others, your heavenly father will not forgive you. What's going to happen to that person? This has become such a burden on my heart that I keep on preaching it regularly now. Many times I add this on to my messages. 28:36 Dear brothers and sisters, make sure that you have forgiven everybody for every single thing that anybody's ever done against you. First of all, start with your marriage partner. Have you forgiven completely every single thing that you don't bring up 28:51 those things? Sometimes, you know, husbands and wives when they have a fight, they bring up things that happened in the past. You can't avoid having them in your memory, but if you bring it up and speak about it, it is a clear proof 29:09 that you have not forgiven that person. As I said, please understand, you cannot remove things from your memory. You will remember things that you did 50 years ago. You will remember people what people did to you 60 years ago. I can remember, 29:25 but I can honestly say before God that there's not a single human being on the face of the earth whom I have not forgiven. Very honestly, I'm a servant of the Lord, and the devil has targeted me for more than 50 years through human beings, and many people 29:40 have troubled me, but every one of them is forgiven. I fear God. And it's not a great action of mine to forgive others. God's forgiven me millions, and I've forgiven somebody a few cents. That's how it is. You know the story where Jesus said of a 29:58 man who was forgiven millions, and a little bit he couldn't forgive somebody else. That moral of that story is to teach us that the greatest sins that somebody Please listen carefully. The greatest sin that somebody has done against you, 30:14 can you think about it in your life? is a few cents compared to the millions of dollars God's forgiveness of your sins. If we have not seen the largeness of God's forgiveness towards us, it would be very difficult to forgive others. 30:34 You know, Paul felt he had been forgiven so much. Now, Paul was a man in one he says he kept the entire law. Never killed anybody. Never committed adultery in his life. Honored his father and mother. 30:53 All those 10 Commandments externally, he kept all of that. And yet as he walked with the Lord, he became so aware of sin in his heart that he felt he was the greatest sinner of all. He said, "Among all the believers, I'm 31:09 the least of all the saints." He says here in Ephesians 3. Because he was aware of how much he had been forgiven. Very important, not to be condemned because all our sins are cleansed in the blood of Christ, but aware of how much 31:24 we've forgiven. If you're aware of it, it'll be the easiest thing in the world to forgive somebody immediately. And I'll tell you one mark of that. In your conversation with that person, you will never bring up that thing 31:38 you've forgiven him all for. In a bitter way. If there's something that person has to settle with you, that's up to him. If he doesn't settle it, leave it. See, settling matters between people is for fellowship. You can't have fellowship with the 31:58 person if he does not settle certain wrong things he's done. Jesus So, we need to understand this, the difference between forgiveness and fellowship. Let me clarify that. In Matthew chapter 6, this is a very important subject, that's 32:17 why I just want to take a little time on it. Uh Ephesians 6, sorry, Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Verse 14. Now, if you ask most Christians "How can my sins be forgiven?" They'll 32:36 always quote 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins. Correct. But how many will also quote Matthew 6:14? But if I forgive others, my father forgives me. You got to quote both verses. 32:53 How do I know I'm forgiven of all my sins? Number one, I've confessed it to the Lord, 1 John 1:9, and I'm walking in the light, 1 John 1:7, so the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sin, but also because Matthew 6:14, I've forgiven 33:10 others. Don't miss out that. Then the Father will forgive you because if I'm not forgiven others, Matthew 6:15, however much I may confess my sin, 1 John 1:9, I will not be forgiven. Because it's a clear condition. Your heavenly Father will not forgive 33:28 you. And it's terrible if a person dies in that condition. And since we don't know how short our life is, and we don't know when we will depart this world, we must live every moment of our life having forgiven every single human being on the face of 33:46 the earth. There are people who have not forgiven their dead parents. Parents died long ago. Maybe the parents were very evil to them or did deprive them of so many things or were partial to some of their other family members. 34:02 The parents are dead and gone, they still haven't forgiven them. Can you think such people are believers? Far from it. So many people who are divorced, maybe they were treated badly by their marriage partner. Fine. But if you don't forgive them, you will 34:21 go to the same hell that your marriage partner has gone to. We got to take this very seriously. This is not true in the Old Testament. Because to whom more is given, more is required. We read in 1 Kings chapter 2 that David 34:39 died without forgiving someone who cursed him. Not someone who tried to kill him, but someone who cursed him. He died without forgiving that person. But David went into God's presence. To whom less is given, less is required. 34:57 We are living in the New Testament age. I want to say to you, God requires far more from you and me than he required from anyone in the Old Testament. There are many things he overlooked in the Old Testament. There are preachers today who fall into 35:11 adultery and quote David. I say, "Hey, if you're living in the old covenant, that's fine. But if you're living in the new covenant, you cannot quote David fell into adultery as a leader and still continue to be the leader. No, 35:26 sir. I would never allow an elder brother in a CFC church who has fallen into sin of adultery as an elder to be reinstated to that position. Christianity is full of pastors who do that because they've no understanding of 35:45 God's standards. They quote David. Well, you might as well marry eight wives like David had. Why don't they quote David there? They're people are selective. They go to the Bible to find which how can I condone and condone my 36:00 sin by quoting some example in the Old Testament? Why don't they go to Jesus and see if Jesus did it? Why don't they see Paul or Peter did it? No. They're always looking the Bible which is meant to teach us to be holy, they go into it to find an excuse for 36:15 their sin. And their judgment is just because God will say to them in the final day, "You did not read my word to find out how to be holy. You read my word to find out some excuse for your sin. Be careful that the devil doesn't 36:31 deceive you. So, it's very very important, brothers and sisters, that we forgive others. So, so very important. And that's why I quoted that in relation to Ephesians 4. So, as I was saying, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1 begins with 36:45 therefore. Therefore, all that comes later on about how husbands and wives must behave with each other the wife submitting to the husband and the husband loving his wife as the head of the wife, like I've said many times 36:59 there are different types of heads in the world, head of a country head of a department head of an organization. That's not the type of head a husband is supposed to be. He's not the head of a department in the sense I'm the head of this home. 37:18 There's another head that's spoken of, and that's the head of the body. This this head that Ephesians 5 speaks about. Now, many husbands behave like the head of a department or head of a country in the way they relate to their wives. 37:35 But, what about this head? This head does control every part of the body but at the same time it is so sensitive to every part of the body that if you get a little injury on your hand, immediately the head does something 37:53 about it. Imagine if you get a cut in your hand. You do something about it. That is the type of sensitivity a true Christian husband has towards his wife's needs. A sensitivity to his her need even if she doesn't talk about it. 38:12 It's quite a height to come to to be the head of your wife. Then imagine a a couple like that who has such a sensitivity to the wife and the wife so eager to submit to such a husband. What an example. That is a home that God delights in. 38:31 You hardly ever find such homes even today in this new covenant age. But that's what he's looking for, my dear brothers and sisters. You who have a family, please see that God from heaven is eagerly looking to find such a home. 38:46 That's what Ephesians 5 is all about. And then he speaks about bringing up children. That's another thing. Ephesians 6. It's all based on the Ephesians 4:1, therefore. If you have got your foundation chapter 1, 2, and 3 right, 39:02 therefore, parents, fathers, not parents, but fathers. Ephesians 6:4, bring up your children in two things, instruction of the Lord and discipline of the Lord. See, it's unfortunate that there are 39:23 people who have come to CFC who have come late in life and their children have gone astray. And they were Christians, but they were in some useless church that never taught them how to bring up children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 39:42 What can they do now? They can only repent and pray that God will somehow bring those children back and God can do it. I encourage such parents to pray and never give up. I always say to such parents, you and your wife kneel down every day 39:54 and pray for at least 5 minutes and say, "Bring those Bring my children back." And God will do a miracle. But, what about those who are who have come to the Lord and come to RLCF or a CFC church when they are newly married? 40:09 I see you got your whole life in front of you. From day one, from the time your first child is born, you can bring up that child in the instruction of the Lord, teaching that child God's word. Don't leave that task to the Sunday school. 40:27 I never left the task of instructing all my four sons to the Sunday school. I said I didn't care what they learned in Sunday school. My job as a father was to make sure they knew the word of God before they left my home. 40:45 They all left my home when they were 18 years old to go to college. I had a task laid out before me. You have a task laid out before you. Your children are not going to be with you forever. From day one, instruct them in the word of God. Teach 41:03 them to pray from a young age. Discipline them just like the Father disciplines us. Hasn't the Father disciplined you? I know that my heavenly Father has disciplined me so many times. Because that's the way he puts me on the 41:18 right path. That's not an indication of his anger with me. Revelation chapter 3 verse 17 says, "As many as I love, I discipline." That's a great verse. In my younger days, if you ask me, 41:37 "How do you know that I'm sorry, Revelation 3:19. Revelation 3:19, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and I discipline." Revelation 3:19. In my younger days, if you ask me, "How do you know that Jesus loves you?" I'd say, "Well, he died for me on the 41:57 cross." Today, I'm a more mature Christian. If you ask me, "How do you know Jesus loves you?" I say, "He reproves me. He rebukes me. He disciplines me. He gives me a sickness sometimes if I've up somewhere. And I lie in bed, 42:15 I say, "Lord, what is this what is this spanking for?" And he'll tell me. I said it right. Are you without discipline? Then Hebrews 12 says 42:34 Hebrews 12:8, then you're not a legitimate child of God. You're an illegitimate child if you don't have discipline. Every true child of God gets discipline. When does the discipline stop? I know when it will stop for me. 42:50 When I have become 100% like Jesus Christ. All discipline will stop in my life. I will not have any discipline in heaven. But until I leave this earth, I need discipline because there's some area in my life still un-Christ-like. I need to be 43:05 rebuked by the Lord. I need to be disciplined by the Lord. And I want to tell you, when you read the scriptures, if all you get is comforting, encouraging messages, and never a word of rebuke, I'd say you're not hearing 43:15 God at all. God certainly encourages us every time you read the scriptures. But if you only get encouragement, and you never get a word of rebuke, brother, you better get your hearing fixed up. You're not hearing properly. 43:33 You're using your imagination to imagine that God is saying nice things to you. The world Christian world lives in that deception. So, God speaks to us, "Bring up your children in the fear of the Lord." There's absolutely no excuse 43:48 for our children going astray, especially if you are a family that's married and come to the church as a new family, and your children are small. I want to tell you in Jesus' name, there's absolutely no excuse for your children to go astray 44:01 when they grow up. Yes, they'll go through ups and downs, and especially in their teenage years and their early twenties. There may be ups and downs. Some have it and some don't have it, but by the time they've grown up, 44:16 they will follow the Lord. That is God's will. And we can do that and that's And the other thing mentioned in Ephesians is a warfare with Satan. Ephesians 6. You know, this is all based on that therefore in Ephesians 4:1. 44:31 All that follows in chapter 4, 5, and 6. And finally, to stand against Satan. And to overcome and having overcome everything, it says here, finally to stand. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 13. You'll be able to resist 44:54 the devil and having done everything, having overcome completely, you stand firm. We're not going to be pushed down by the devil. We're not going to be afraid. But I remember years ago, I've said this often, I repeat it again. 45:10 Years ago, the Lord said to me, "If you want to fight against these evil rulers, Ephesians 6:12, make sure that you will never fight with flesh and blood. Never fight with a human being 45:28 if you want to fight the devil." And I've taken that seriously. I have to rebuke many people in the churches sometimes. I've had to rebuke many elders 45:47 in different churches. It's my responsibility. But on a personal level, that's that's church. But you have a responsibility as a church, just like you have to rebuke your children when you're a father. Or if you're an off- you're an officer 46:00 in a factory, you're to rebuke your workers. That's not wrestling with flesh and blood, but when it comes to your personal matters, never wrestle with flesh and blood. Don't fight with people over money, property, things like that 46:18 that concerns you. Give it up. God is able to give you much more than this. You know, so many Christians have a grudge against somebody or their family who cheated them in some way or the other. I want to show you something from the 46:38 Old Testament. In 2 Chronicles 25, it's a word that God spoke to my heart many years ago and has blessed me tremendously whenever somebody has cheated me or taken advantage of me in some way, which has made me suffer 46:55 personal loss or financial loss. All of us will go through such circumstances where because of somebody's treatment of us, we come come into some financial loss. What should you do? This is from 2 Chronicles 25, verse 5 47:12 onwards. Uh there was this king of Judah, you know, the Israel was divided into two nations. You know, after Solomon's time in the time of his son, Rehoboam. One consisted of 10 tribes, which is the northern kingdom of called Israel. 47:29 And the other was the southern kingdom of Judah, which consisted of consisted of Judah and Benjamin. And Amaziah was the king of Judah, verse 1, 2 Chronicles 25:1. And he was going to battle against the enemy. 47:49 And he gathered all the soldiers from verse 5, from Judah and Benjamin, all those above 20 years old. And he had 300,000 people. And he said, "That's not good enough. I need a bigger army to fight against the enemy." So, 48:03 what did he do? He hired There were people who were willing to fight if you paid them. Mercenary soldiers. He hired from the northern kingdom 100,000 warriors. But the northern kingdom were full of idolaters. 48:23 Judah did not have so much idolatry. Northern kingdom were full of idolatry. So, man of God came to him in verse seven and said, "Don't take people from the army of Israel. Because the Lord is not with them because they're idolaters. But if you do, you'll 48:40 be defeated." But he had already paid them. As you read in verse six, 100 talents of silver. Now, I don't know how much it costs to hire 100,000 soldiers, but it must be a few millions of dollars. Imagine a man having spent millions of 48:59 dollars to get something. Pay somebody. And the Lord says, "I don't want them." And you know, you're not going to get that money back. It's lost. Now, if he tells them, "No, we don't want you to fight with us." They'll say, "Fine, we'll just keep the 49:15 money." And so the man of God said to him, and Amaziah said to the man of God, "But verse nine, what shall I do for the millions of dollars I've already given?" And look at his answer. The Lord 49:34 can give you much more than this. I'll never forget it. Nearly 55 years ago or nearly 60 years ago the Lord spoke that word to me. Don't fight with people for money. 49:55 The Lord is able to give you much more than this and I can tell you my 60 years of experience since I got that word, I obeyed that command never to fight with people for money for myself. And I can also testify the Lord has 50:10 given me much more than what I have lost through somebody taking something of mine. Take it seriously. God is never fight with That's what you read in Ephesians 6. Don't struggle with flesh and blood. 50:29 And that's what the Lord said to me. Then you'll be able to conquer demons. You know, I used to go to Pentecostal churches, not go, I used to visit. And I used to see some of these Pentecostal pastors trying to cast out a demon. 50:43 And they would scream and yell and shout and stamp their feet and spit and poke. What all I said, they're going for hours. And I said, "Lord, when I read the scriptures, I never see Jesus casting out a demon like that. I never see Jesus saying more than one 51:02 sentence. He never had to say it twice. Once. Get out of him. No shouting, no yelling, no screaming. And I said, "Lord, what these people are doing is so completely contrary to Jesus. And I have a word for when somebody does something contrary to 51:20 Jesus, I call that the antichrist." You know what antichrist is? Anything that Christ would not do. The opposite of Christ. So, when, you know, uh 45 years ago when we started CFC and you go into the villages in 51:39 India to preach, non-Christians who go to temples and get demons inside them, and they come to the church. What they need is not counseling. What they need is deliverance. If you don't deliver them from a demon, any amount of counseling them doesn't 51:56 help. The guy's got a demon inside him. And so we had to cast out demons. And how am I going to do it now? With all this yelling and screaming? No. I said, "Lord, I want to do it the way Jesus did. One word and it should go." You remember 52:11 once the disciples tried to cast out a demon like that? And they couldn't cast it out. You read. And Jesus came down from the mountain in Matthew 17. And they asked him, "Lord, why couldn't we do it what you did with one word?" 52:26 And the Lord said, "You have to fast and pray for this." Not fast and pray at that time when you're casting out a demon. You should have done that before. You come come into that situation already having fasted and prayed in your 52:40 life. Why do we fast and pray? Because we set things right in our life between us and God and have an absolutely clear conscience. And um we are right with God and then and I can testify to you till today 52:56 every single demon that was cast out in all these years was cast out with one sentence. Never more than that. And no shouting. I remember once casting out a demon with 53:13 a whisper. And the man was about 35 ft away from me, 30 or 40 ft away. And the demon left. What I'm saying is there's only one condition. Not just fast and pray. Maybe two. Don't struggle with flesh and blood. 53:33 Ephesians 6:12. Ask yourself not just about casting out demons. You find some stronghold the devil has got in your life. Some stronghold the devil has got in your family. And you're not able to extricate yourself on push the devil out of that 53:51 situation. Maybe you're praying. Maybe you're fasting. Good. But also stop struggling with flesh and blood. Make a decision in your life that I will never fight with a human being about anything. I don't even fight about doctrine. 54:10 Sometimes people send me emails and I know this chap is not wanting to know the truth. He just wants to get into an argument with me about some doctrine. I don't reply. I trash those emails. You know, I can sense whether this guy 54:27 wants an answer or whether he's starting an argument. I've had people come to my house like that. Who want to discuss a matter and I say I tell them, "Listen, if you want me to teach you what scripture says, I'll teach you. 54:46 But if you've already made up your mind and you've come to argue with me, I'm sorry. I'm not going to argue with you." I remember once a man came to me from some Pentecostal church and said, "Brother Zach, I want to talk 54:57 to you." I said, "What do you want to talk about?" He said, "I want to talk to you about take being healed without taking medicines." I said, "I take medicines when I'm sick and I get healed. And I believe in Jesus also. I pray." 55:10 He said, "No, we shouldn't take medicines. We must only pray." I said, "Listen, I'm not interested in this discussion. If you want to talk about Jesus and the word of God, I'm ready to talk." And then within 5 minutes, they go back 55:23 to that subject. I said, "Next time you go back to this, I'm sorry. I'll have to open the door and ask you to leave." Cuz I do not believe in argument. And I'm sorry to say he again went back to it and I had to open the door and ask him to leave. It 55:36 was of those rare instances where I had to ask a man to leave my house, but I would not struggle with flesh and blood. But do you think he left me alone? No. He wrote a letter to me about not taking medicines. And when I saw his handwriting the next 55:52 time, I never even opened the letter, just trashed it. It's amazing how many Christians are ready to argue with you. I refuse to struggle with flesh and blood because I want to reserve all my energy for the devil. I will not allow a person to come and 56:08 fight with me because it requires two hands to clap. And if I refuse to clap with him, then there's not going to be any fight, no matter how much he yells and screams. So, I refuse to I give you this simple principle, never 56:23 fight with your wife or your husband. You will lose strength with the devil. You want the devil devil out of your home, don't fight with human beings. Fight with the devil because all the fights with human beings are started by the devil. 56:38 You remember the time when when David was a young boy and he says a lion came and grabbed one of the little lambs in my flock and took it away. What did David do? Did he go to the lamb and give it a lecture, why did you go away and all 56:54 that type of stuff? No. Did he fight with that lamb? No. He fought with that lion and released the lamb. That's the lesson there. When you see people under the grip of evil, it's the lion, the devil behind it that 57:13 we have to fight with, not with the person. Many children who are under the bondage of Satan, you need to release them from Satan's power, but make sure you don't fight with flesh and blood. So, I was just mentioning a few things that 57:29 I found in the latter half of Ephesians. But, what I want to conclude by saying is all of that is based on your being established in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. I'm not going to study 1, 2, and 3 with 57:48 you now, but take time to study chapter 1, 2, and 3. There's not a single exhortation there, no command. It's just telling you what God has done for you. Let me give you a few examples. It says here, first of all, Ephesians 1:4. 58:05 God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. I'm going to give you a foundation for all the things I spoke today from chapter 4, 5, and 6. It's based on this foundation. Recognize that you were chosen in Christ 58:23 before God created the universe. I said before Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. What was before that in the beginning? And this may sound blasphemous, but it's not blasphemous. It's the Father, Son, 58:40 and Holy Spirit, and me. In his mind. You believe that? I believe it in Ephesians 1:4. I was not an afterthought. It's not in 1939 when I was born that God thought about me. No. 58:59 He thought about me before Genesis 1 verse 1. That's what it says in Ephesians 1:4. He chose me in Christ before the worlds were created. That is why he could crucify my old man 2,000 59:18 years ago on the cross. How could he do that when I'm born only in 1939? How could he crucify my old man 1,900 years before I was born? Only one way. Because I was in his mind long before Christ came to the earth, 59:36 long before Christ was crucified. So, he could put me in Christ, my old man was crucified there. Yeah. Be established in this. And recognize that he chose us and also Ephesians 1:3. He has blessed us already 59:58 with every blessing of the Holy Spirit in heavenly places in Christ. Now, if that was written in the Old Testament, it would be read like it would read like this. Blessed be the God of Moses. That would be Old Testament. 1:00:15 Who has blessed us with every earthly blessing of healing and prosperity in earthly places, in Canaan, in Moses. You see the difference? But with us he has blessed us with every blessing of 1:00:32 the Holy Spirit in heavenly places in Christ. Now, I need to be established in this. And then he goes on to say in Ephesians chapter 2, we were dead in sins, verse 5, but God raised us up, Ephesians 2:6, again, because we were in Christ before 1:00:51 the world was created. We were crucified with him and when Christ came out of the grave 2,000 years ago, verse 6, we came out of the grave with him. And when Christ ascended and sat in the heavenly places, we are there in the heavenly places with 1:01:10 him. If you're not established in these truths in chapter 1, 2, and 3, you will not be able to live the life described in chapter 4, 5, and 6 about being free from anger and being um being the type of husband and wife you should be and resisting the devil 1:01:27 and everything else. Remember, it is based on chapters 1, 2, and 3. Take time to meditate on chapters 1, 2, and 3 and see if you believe. You don't There's not a single command in 1, 2, and 3. It's what God has done, but it does not 1:01:41 become yours until you believe it. And it goes on to say here that he has placed us in Christ in the heavenly places, blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And now we need to be filled with the 1:02:00 Holy Spirit. That's what Paul's prayer is. There are two things he prays here. One is I pray Ephesians chapter 1. I pray verse 1:18 that you will get the revelation chapter 1 verse 17 and 18 1:02:18 from the Holy Spirit. The spirit of revelation. Ephesians 1:17. That's the first prayer. Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to give me revelation. I remember very clearly I read the Bible, studied it for 1:02:41 16 years or 17 years. And I still remember the day in my home. I even remember where I was sitting. And suddenly I got a revelation on the new covenant. It wasn't 1:03:02 the result of study. It was just God revealing something in my heart. And my life changed. The spirit of revelation. Fear God and walk in humility. He will give you revelation which is a 1:03:21 million times greater than understanding. So, the revelation of the Holy Spirit is one. And the second is Ephesians 3:16. The power of the Holy Spirit in the inner man. There are two things we need to get from the Holy Spirit. 1:03:38 One is revelation on the scriptures and what God has done for me. And secondly, power through the Holy Spirit in my inner man to live according to that revelation. Then I can go to Ephesians 4, 5, and 6. It's a wonderful book, Ephesians. 1:04:02 And if you want to see how I studied it in my early days, let me show you my first Bible. This is how I studied Ephesians 55 years ago. Every page was like that. 1:04:21 That's the next page. I'm not saying you got to do that. But I said, "Lord, I got only one life. I want to know your word because it's the only way I can live a worthwhile life on earth." And I'm glad I studied the scriptures 1:04:39 like that 50, 60 years ago. It changed my life. It's made me live a useful life. Dear brothers and sisters, study the word of God intensely. You don't have to make all the notes I made. I mean, God's called me to be a teacher, so I need to do more than you, 1:04:58 but you need to pray that God will give you revelation on these things. And let God see that you're a student of his word to get revelation. Log off the internet 1:05:15 and read the word of God more. There's nothing wrong in the internet. I look at the internet myself to see what's happening. Like I often say that Jesus knew that a tower of Siloam fell and he knew how many people died. 1:05:30 And so he was in touch with the local news in Israel. And so we need to be in touch with the local news, but that should not be the main thing. We must know his word in these days. The people who know their God will be strong in the last days. Daniel 1:05:49 11:32. It's a word that often comes to my mind. It's referring to the last days in Daniel 11. And there it says in Daniel 11:32, the people not who know God's word, the people who know their God through his word, who know their God, 1:06:06 who get revelation, will be strong in the last days. And it says there they'll do exploits for God. That's how it is in the King James version. The people who know their God will be strong and do exploits. Why can't you be like that? 1:06:22 Don't have such small thoughts about yourself and say, "I'm nobody." Well, we are all nobodies. But with God on our side, and if he supports us by the Holy Spirit, you can do exploits for God. God bless you. 1:06:40 Amen.
