0:00 Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters. I want to first of all begin with the verse in Isaiah 55. Please turn in your Bibles. It's good to always come to the meeting with a Bible. 0:19 That's how we become familiar with God's word. And to turn to it every time, we become very familiar with scripture. That's how I became familiar with scripture. So, here it says in Isaiah 55 verse 8 and 9. 0:42 The Lord says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts." Or what the Lord says is, "My way of thinking is not like your way of thinking." All of us got a human way of thinking. We think certain things are important, certain things are not important. That's 0:59 what I mean. What is valuable, what is not valuable. But God says, "My way is not your way of thinking." And if you want to know how much different my way of thinking, God says, is from your way of thinking, it is as high as the heaven is above the 1:13 earth. Verse 9. "So are my ways higher than your ways, and my way of thinking is as different from your way of thinking as the heaven is above the earth." Now, if you take that word seriously, then there's a certain way of thinking we 1:30 have as human beings. We value certain things, we don't value certain other things. And God's opinion of that may be completely opposite. He values certain things that we don't value. So, how can we know God's way of 1:47 thinking about anything? If we are humble, and that's a very important condition, we will go to the Bible which I believe is the only book that is which I would call the word of God. 2:07 And I've read it for 65 years now. And I've proved it to be the word of God. I'll tell you something else. There has never been a situation that I have faced as a Christian, as a born-again Christian, in the last 65 years, 2:26 for which I found no answer in the Bible. There was always an answer for every situation if I knew where to find it. And I would not have known where to find it if I had not had the habit of reading the Bible every single day. 2:44 That's how I began my life from the time I was born again. First thing in the morning, read the Bible. Pray, read the Bible. Even if it's a short time or a long time, and that depends on how much time you have in the morning. 2:58 And because I consistently did that even in the years when I was in the Navy on a ship or on the naval base or later on in full-time Christian work, that changed my way of thinking completely about many, many things in the world. 3:16 And the result was gradually I come to a place of a mind completely free from anxiety. Do you want such a mind? I wanted it. Because there are 101 things in the world that makes us anxious and worried. 3:35 And especially when we have little children. And especially when jobs are uncertain. And finances are limited. To know there is an answer for everything, I would encourage you to read the Bible. And I would say even this, 3:55 if you're a born-again Christian and you've been born again for at least 3 or 4 years, okay, let's say 5 years, and you have not read through the whole Bible, you should go home today, bow down before God and say, "Lord, I'm 4:11 thoroughly ashamed of myself because I've insulted you. I call you my father, but I've insulted you for 5 years by not taking your one letter you wrote to me seriously." I would also say that you don't love the Lord. 4:28 Imagine if you were a bride waiting for your bridegroom to come from a distant land to conduct you to get married to him, and he sends you a long letter. You know how people are engaged and love each other sometimes write long letters. 4:47 And he writes a long letter, maybe 20 pages or 25 pages. He's taken a lot of time to write it. And you leave it lying in the in the drawer and pick up once in a while and read a few sentences. I don't really believe you love him. 5:05 Not at all. If you really loved your bridegroom, you would read it, you'd forget about all your meals and read that whole letter again and again and again and again. That is the mark of a bride. Someone who doesn't do that, I'd say 5:20 she's fallen in love with somebody else. That's why she doesn't care for this letter from her bridegroom. And that is the picture of the Christian. The Bible speaks of a bride and a harlot. Turn with me to Revelation and chapter 5:38 It's the towards the end of the Bible. In Revelation chapter 17 and verse five. It speaks of Babylon the great, the mother of harlots 5:57 and of the abominations of the earth. Now, Revelation is a book full of picture language. But it's got a tremendous message. And this is speaking about the end time where you read in a couple of chapters later how the devil is 6:14 thrown into the lake of fire forever. And how those who did not walk in obedience to the Lord are also thrown into that lake of fire. But here it speaks towards the end of time of Babylon who's called a harlot. 6:32 And then that is contrasted, if you turn the page, to and Revelation chapter 19. Sorry, 21. Revelation 21. 6:54 And verse two. This is the opposite of the harlot. I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband. So, this is in the end of the Bible. 7:11 And these are the last chapters. 17 to 22 are the last chapters of the Bible. It speaks about a harlot and a bride. A harlot means a prostitute. That is someone who claims, like I said, who claimed to be engaged to 7:30 someone who's gone on a long journey and waiting to come back, but doesn't bother to read his letters and has fallen in love with somebody else meanwhile, and that somebody else is the world. Is money. Is all types of is pornography. Getting 7:44 occupied with all that, which means you're not loyal to your bridegroom, who wants you to be pure. So, that's the harlot. So, at the end these two big systems, you know, the harlot is called in verse five Babylon. And the bride 8:04 is called Jerusalem. You see that in Revelation 21 verse 10, I saw the holy city, the Jerusalem. The spiritual Jerusalem coming down like from heaven. Like the bride. So, 8:22 we need to understand which of these two systems are we getting involved in. The harlot is not false religion. False religion does not even claim to be married to Christ or engaged to Christ. A harlot is one who claims to be engaged 8:39 to Jesus Christ. But does not is not loyal to Christ. If they are engaged to some other god, god is not called a harlot, okay? They're married to some other god, fine. They don't even claim to be Christ. They probably think Christ is a deceiver and 8:57 all that. So, they can't be part of the harlot. But it's one who claims to say Christ is my bridegroom. I'm waiting for him. But meanwhile plays the fool with the world. That is the harlot, and it's very important to understand this because the Bible ends 9:15 with these two. And the harlot is called Babylon. And the bride is called Jerusalem. I mean, these are symbolic words. So, finally Babylon is destroyed. It says in uh 9:33 chapter 18 towards the end of that city it says the end of that chapter verse 21, a strong angel Revelation 18:21 took up a big millstone and threw it into the sea 9:51 and said Babylon the great city will be thrown down and will not be found any longer. So this whole religious system that calls itself Christian but is not loyal and faithful to Jesus Christ in their personal private life. 10:08 It consists of people this is they are not talk we're not talking about non-Christians. No, no, no, they cannot be a part of Babylon because they don't even they don't even claim to have anything to do with Christ. They 10:19 they say Christ is a false teacher. They don't consider Christ as God or any such thing. It is those who claim that I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ, I love him and all that but the right words and language and all maybe 10:31 they go to some church as well but they are they don't have the attitude of uh intense loyalty to him like a faithful bride in their private life. That is Babylon. It says here verse 21 is like a big millstone it is finally thrown into the sea 10:50 and it will not be found any longer. And when that happens you know what they say in heaven? It says when this happens 19 chapter 19 verse 1 a loud voice from heaven said Hallelujah. Salvation power belong to God because 11:10 his judgment upon the harlot verse 2 has finally come. Many Christians say Hallelujah. We sing it in our songs sometimes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And uh again, if you read the Bible, you will discover something and if you don't know 11:27 it yet, let me tell you today. In Hallelujah comes many times in the Old Testament, in the Psalms especially. But listen to this. The first time the word hallelujah comes in the New Testament, you know when it is? 11:45 It's here, when Babylon is destroyed. It doesn't even come before that. So, I decided I want to follow the New Testament. I'm not an Old Testament Jew. I read the Old Testament, but it do Old Testament has only got pictures of the 12:01 New Testament. I'm following Jesus. And in the New Testament, for myself anyway, I'm I see I say hallelujah to see Babylon destroyed. And I'm a whole heartedly devoted to see that Babylon is destroyed. 12:19 And so when I say hallelujah, I'm not just thinking of God on the throne. Yes, certainly. But, the fact that this corrupt religious system, which calls itself Christianity and is not true to the Lord Jesus, is going to be destroyed one day. 12:37 And I say hallelujah. I'm 100% for it. And that is the basis on which we started the first CFC church 50 years ago in Bangalore. We said hallelujah, Babylon is going to be destroyed. We do not want to build another Babylon. 12:55 There are multitudes of churches which are part of Babylon. So, why is there this difference between the bride and the harlot? In the Old Testament also, if you read there are certain passages where the Lord speaks to Israel 13:15 and says, "You're like my bride, but you've played the fool with other idols and following after Baal and other gods. And how can you say you're my bride? You're a harlot." So, we need to understand what the difference cuz I know I certainly don't 13:30 want to be a part of the harlot. I want to be part of the bride in the final day when Christ comes again. Let me show you another verse in Revelation and chapter 19 and verse 7. This is speaking about the coming of Jesus Christ, which 13:44 everybody all Christians are waiting for. Revelation 19 and verse 7, let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to God because the marriage of the lamb has come. The bride has been the harlot has been destroyed, we just saw earlier 14:02 in chapter 19 verse 2, the harlot has been destroyed. Hallelujah. So, that hallelujah is for the destruction of Babylon. And here's another hallelujah in the last part of verse 6. 19:6. Hallelujah, because now let us rejoice. 14:18 There it was let us rejoice that Babylon is destroyed, but now it's let us rejoice verse 7. The lamb's marriage has come. He's getting married to the bride. And it has given her clothes to her clothe herself in the fine linen. 14:33 And the fine linen verse 8 is the righteous acts of the saints. It's a holy bride that Jesus is coming for. Not a Christian who plays the fool with sin and cheats and tells lies and keeps going back to the Lord, "I'm sorry, Lord, I 14:52 cheated I cheated on taxes, but please forgive me or I did this thing wrong. I got a grudge against that person, but that person so evil, what to do? I got a grudge against that person, but please forgive me, your blood cleanses me." 15:03 That's part of the harlot. Let me tell you that, however much you may claim the blood of Christ, that is the harlot. The harlot is one who plays the fool with sin and takes advantage of God's goodness and says, "Yeah, it doesn't matter if I 15:15 sin because the blood of Jesus is always there to cleanse me." That is the spirit of the harlot. It's like a a married engaged girl saying, "Yeah, it doesn't matter. My my my bridegroom is so kind. If I fool around with other men now and then and 15:30 go and sleep with them now and then, it doesn't matter. My bridegroom loves me so much." Well, I want to tell you, you're going to get a big surprise when Christ comes again. It's my duty as a servant of the Lord to show the light 15:45 make the light bright upon the truth. And you know, the early apostles were not appreciated for that. They got persecuted. Even many Christians did not were not very happy with the way they proclaimed the truth. 16:04 And even in the end of the first century, when the book of Revelation was written, we read of John the Apostle being asked by the Lord to write to seven churches. These are churches of people who are they're not Jewish people. They're 16:24 churches who started off with being born-again people. It says, for example, the church in Ephesus was one where Paul started it. And he was there for 3 years. And it was a very good church when Paul was there. He preserved it in purity. When you have 16:42 a man like Paul who is straightforward and speaks the truth, he kept the church pure. But in Acts chapter 20, he warned the church, "Be careful because wolves are waiting to come in to grab you sheep." And the same church, 16:59 30 years later, the same church in Ephesus, Paul had died. And about 30 years after Paul's death, the Apostle John is still alive. He writes to the same church in Revelation chapter 2. "You have left your first love. Revelation 2:4. 17:19 It had become a harlot. What does it mean left your first love? You were in once upon a time you were in love with Jesus Christ. Now you're after somebody else. Therefore, repent. Verse 5. Repent means turn around. I'll still forgive you, the Lord says, 17:39 even though you fooled around with other men. I'll forgive you if you repent and give up that and come back to me. See how good God is. Most men if they discovered that the girl they were engaged to was fooling around with 17:51 other men would say, "Listen, I don't want to have anything more to do with you. I'm finished with you." But see how good the Lord Jesus is. He said, "I'll give you one more chance. Turn back to me." But they did not turn back. 18:08 And so what would have happened in Ephesus? A small group would have come out and said, "You guys can go your way. We're going to Maybe five or 10 people came out and started another church who wanted to be devoted to Jesus Christ. 18:23 So, how do we know which is this church that's going to fall and crash? It says Babylon the greatest fallen like a big uh rock fall like a big building falling down crashing down. That's what we read in Revelation 18. 18:41 A big building crashing down. Well, there is a picture of that that Jesus gave. Then you'll understand it. Turn to Mar- Matthew chapter 7. When you compare scripture with scripture, we discover what this Babylon is. What is this big building that comes 19:01 crashing down that we read in Revelation 18? Here it is in Matthew 7 verse 24 to 28. 24 to 27. Here again, you have Jerusalem and Babylon, really. And you know, these are the last words of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon 19:20 on the Mount begins in chapter 5, goes on through chapter 6 and 7. And at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Now listen to this. There's a contrast between two types of people. One is called a wise man, and the other is called a foolish man. 19:37 One is Jerusalem, the other is Babylon. One is the bride, and one is the harlot. So, what is the characteristics of the bride? The one who hears these words of mine, verse Matthew 7:24, and does them. Not just hears. 19:56 Now here, all all of us are hearing. But how many of you going to go home and do it? That's another issue. All of us here, we are hearing. But here's one who hears and does. That is the person who's wise man who 20:14 built his house on a rock. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and slammed against the house. It did not fall. Unshakable Jerusalem. The bride. On the other hand, verse 26, here's a person who hears these words 20:34 and does not do them. Now this is not referring to non-Christians. Non-Christians don't come to church and hear God's word. These are Christians who go to church regularly, and hear my words. They hear the words of Jesus from the pulpit, or they read 20:50 the Bible every day, perhaps. The only thing is they don't do them. They read it to ease their conscience. I read my Bible today. Or I eased my conscience, I went to church on Sunday. But they don't do what the Bible says. 21:06 The difference between the two is not that one went to church and one didn't go to church. No. Both went to church. It's not that one read the Bible and the other didn't read the Bible. Both read the Bible. It's not that one 21:17 believed in Jesus, the other didn't believe in Jesus. Both believed. The only difference between these two people was one obeyed what he heard and the other heard but did not obey. And I believe in every meeting and possibly in this meeting. I don't want 21:33 to judge any of you. I don't know you most of you and I don't know your private lives. But in most congregations there are two groups of people. All here. Some take it seriously, go home and do what they heard. Others 21:52 Yeah, I ease my conscience. I heard it. They've increased in knowledge. They haven't obeyed. That's the foolish man. That's Babylon the harlot. And then it says this man built a house on the rock or on the sand. And the rains and the floods came and 22:09 the house fell. And you see the same expression as you read in Revelation 18:27, "Great was its fall." That's what's mentioned in Revelation 18 about Babylon. "Great was the fall of Babylon." So when you compare scripture with 22:25 scripture you get the answer of what Babylon is. What is that Christian structure which is going to collapse? People who hear the word of God and go home and don't bother to obey it. Maybe in their family life. If a husband does not seek to love his 22:46 wife as the Bible says or a wife does not seek to submit to her husband as the Bible says or parents who don't bring up their children in the fear of God like the Bible says or children who don't bother to obey their parents like the Bible says. 23:06 They hear them, but they don't obey. Their house will fall one day. Now, we may say, "Well, I don't think so." Well, that's why I started with Isaiah 55. God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts. The way I think is different from your 23:23 way of thinking." So, if you accept the word of God and then the Bible is the word of God, you will take this very seriously. So, what is it that makes the difference? Let me show you another example of the difference 23:40 in earlier on in chapter 7. In chapter 7, Jesus said in verse 13, "Enter through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the broad that leads to destruction, 23:59 and many enter through it." So, that teaches us that most people in the world are headed towards destruction. Most Christians are headed towards destruction. Because it's a very narrow gate, and I believe it's so narrow that only one person can 24:17 go in at a time. It's like these styles in the some airports where you go through one at a time. And two people can't go. You can't even take your wife or child through it. You got to go one at a time. Kingdom of God is like that. 24:36 You can tell people to follow you, but they can't come with you. They have to follow you and go through single file. The way is the gate is narrow, small. Narrow gate that leads to life. And it's not only a gate. It's not that I come through the gate 24:55 and that's it. No, because life is at the end of the gate and the way. Jesus said in verse 14, "The gate is small, and once you get through the gate, what happens? There's a way. A narrow way. You finally come to life. So, where is life? Life is not as you 25:14 soon as you enter the gate. Life is, as you enter the gate, you're born again, you accept Christ as your savior, you turn from sin, and then you walk, and you reach. Life is at the end of it. Now, even though these words are so 25:33 plain, yet we find in Christendom it's hardly ever taught as it is. And the result is so many people are living in a world of deception. And I believe all the preachers are to 25:52 blame, really. But then the people are also to blame, because they've got a Bible as well. Why do they have to listen to the preachers? They've got a Bible. That is why I have often said that if you have a Bible and you can read, 26:09 and you don't read it, now listen carefully, you deserve to be deceived by the devil. You deserve to be deceived by the devil if you have a Bible in your own language and you don't read it. Now, somebody who doesn't have There are 26:30 many languages in the world where there's no Bible. For those people I can feel sorry, and I don't believe God will judge them, because God is a righteous God. He won't ask that person who never had a Bible in his language, "Why didn't you 26:44 follow the Bible?" He'd say, "Lord, I never had one. Nobody translated into my language." But we're sitting here, we can't say that to the Lord in the final day. So, it's a very serious thing when we have the Bible in our own language. It's 26:59 a big responsibility we have. I I think of it like if two people are working in a company and they're dealing with finances and one man is sent to the store to buy with 10 rupees in his pocket and another man has got to go out and 27:18 buy 10 million rupees worth of stuff. They've both got to come back with different quantity of material. To whom more is given, more is required. Those are the words of Jesus. And I believe that's one of the great dangers 27:34 of coming to a church like this where we are constantly hearing God's word in its entirety repeated again and again and again and we think we're blessed to hear it. Absolutely right. We are blessed to hear the whole truth 27:52 of God again and again and again, but don't forget it's like you're accumulating more and more and more and more knowledge that you're going to have to answer to God more and more and more and more for all that you've heard. 28:05 It's a very serious thing. It's a tremendous privilege. I thank God for the privilege of knowing God's word because it's straightened out my life. It's straightened out my family life. It's made me handle finances improperly. 28:19 It's kept me free from debt all my life and it's blessed me in 101 ways. I mean, it's given given me health. That my wife and I been married 56 years and never had to go once to a hospital with any type of sickness. It's all 28:34 God's goodness. We obey God and it blesses us in a thousand and one ways. But, we don't take advantage of that. If God's given us that life, it is to live for him 100%. So, what I say is it's a very blessed life if you obey 28:49 everything in scripture. It's a narrow way, but it's a very blessed way because Jesus will walk along with you all along that way. For me, it's a very wonderful thing when I wake up in the morning, first thing in the morning, 29:01 to be able to talk to my savior, first thing, to talk to him face-to-face, and to have his word coming into my heart. This is the way life has changed for me, and I want to encourage you to follow it. So, what is the reason why 29:18 this difference has come between these two types of Christians, some going through the wide gate, some going through the narrow gate? Well, let me try and explain to you. When Jesus gave his commission to the disciples in the last days, 29:37 I mean, sorry, the last day of the last days of his life on earth, he gave them a commission. And you read that in the last four verses of Matthew's gospel. Turn to Matthew 28. 29:57 And Jesus came the 11 disciples, verse 16. Matthew 28, the last five verses. Matthew 28:16, the 11 disciples came to Galilee, and they saw him, verse 17, and they worshipped him, but some still doubted. And now listen to this. This is called 30:17 the great commission. The last words of giving a command to the disciples what they should do from now on before Jesus comes back. This is what you have to do. First of all, he told them, "All authority, verse 18, in heaven and 30:36 earth has been given to me." All my work for the Lord is based on that verse. I'm serving someone who's got all authority in heaven and earth. When I quit my job in the navy, 30:54 when I was called to quit 60 years ago, this is the verse I based my life on. All authority is given to my Lord in heaven and earth. I'm following one who's got all authority in heaven and on earth. Otherwise, I'd be very insecure. 31:12 See, so much of insecurity comes because I don't know, can the Lord handle the situation? I don't have money, can the Lord handle that? I'm out of a job, can the Lord handle that? I'm sick, can I the Lord handle that? So many problems in Christians' lives 31:28 because they don't believe that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to the Lord. Well, if you don't believe it, you don't get it. It's like you somebody sends you a check for $10 million. Well, that's a wonderful thing. 31:45 And you frame it up and hang it on your wall and admire it every day. You can be as poor as any beggar. You got it there. And there is $10 million in that guy's account. That's something like that. All authority in heaven and earth is 32:03 given to me, the Lord says, and I'm your savior. You read that and frame it up and hang it on a wall. And you live with all your problems and live in debt and fighting with people and strife and quarrels and all that. Why? 32:19 Well, you can't avoid other people coming and fighting with you, but you don't have to fight with them. Many years ago, the Lord told me that I must never fight with human beings. Never. Now, I did not know that in the early part of my Christian life. 32:39 I was born again as I told you 65 years ago. But, I was ignorant. I hadn't read the Bible. I started reading the Bible after I was born again. And the preachers who taught me in those early years did not teach me some things that I 32:56 learned myself from the Bible. For example, never to fight with a human being. No preacher told me that. And so, I would end up arguing and fighting with even believers. Like perhaps many of you do. Till one day, I'll tell you what the 33:14 Lord showed me nearly 50 years ago. Ephesians 6 and verse 12. It's a great verse. He says, "Our fight is with whom? 33:30 Our fight is not with human beings." Flesh and blood means human beings. Our struggle, our fight is not with human beings. But, with these evil rulers and forces. This is talking about satanic demons and forces in the heavenly places. 33:50 Spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. See, there's a atmosphere is filled with demons under the control of Satan. And you know, that's uh that's how we get tempted. And that's how people are possessed with demons. Even in Jesus' time, there'd be 34:10 people possessed with demons would come screaming to him. And Jesus would just tell them to get out of that person and the person would leave. So, he's The Lord showed me that my struggle was with demons, not with human beings. 34:27 And I found in many places that I traveled in India, particularly in the villages, there were actually demon-possessed people. Just like in Jesus' time. And what they needed was not counseling. You can't counsel a demon-possessed person. 34:48 What that person needed is deliverance. There's a difference between counsel and Counseling is trying to explain scripture. There's no use explaining scripture to a demon-possessed person. Waste of time. There's a demon inside. You got to cast 35:01 out the demon first, then explain the scripture to him. So, that's what I had to do. I had to first cast out the demon from that person. I remember once when I was speaking to a a believer who had backslidden, and they belonged to an assembly, 35:20 the Brethren Assembly, where they don't believe in casting out demons. And this is one of their sisters, married woman. She's living next door to a temple, and they I don't know whether she ate something from there or something, but 35:33 end result was she got a demon. And so, these brothers don't do casting out demons, so they contacted me and said, "Brother Zach, can you come and please pray for this lady who's got a demon?" So, I went there, and I found some group of Christians yelling 35:51 and screaming over there trying to And that's where some people try to cast out demons, yell and scream. I never see Jesus doing that. So, I told this brother, "I don't know who's got the demon here. Please ask these people to vacate before I 36:03 before I deal with this person." So, they asked those people to leave. Then I was alone with this sister, and this brother, and I think her husband was there. And I said to her, "Ask Jesus to come into your heart." And a voice comes out of her mouth 36:24 saying, "Tell her, don't tell me." This is a woman saying, "Tell her, don't tell me." It was another person inside her. A demon. And I realized that. I said, "You demon, get out in the name of Jesus Christ right now." Left. 36:44 Not even 1 second. Okay, then I said, "Now, sister, ask Jesus to come into your heart." She said, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart." Changed. Completely, immediately. And years later, I checked up, how she getting on? She's getting on fine. 37:02 Now, any amount of counseling would not have helped that woman. Now, that's just one case. There are many other cases like that we became across. I remember one somebody brought somebody to our house for prayer. I thought, well, they want 37:14 to accept Christ, maybe an unbeliever. So, the sister brought this other sister sitting there, and my wife and I were sitting there, and I I said, "Now, accept Jesus into your heart, and tell the devil you were defeated on the cross." I tell people to 37:28 say that. So, that they get emboldened against Satan. And she turned and looked at me and said, "I have was not defeated on the cross." Oh-ho. Who is this talking now? I was not defeated on the cross. The devil himself speaking out of this 37:45 woman. I said, "You demon, the devil was you were defeated on the cross. Get out of her right now in Jesus' name." Left. And I said to that one, "Now, say, 'Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Satan, you were defeated on the cross.'" And she 37:59 said it. What she needed was not counseling, but deliverance. And the Lord said to me, "If you want to serve me in this land, you have to stop fighting with human beings. Otherwise, you will have no power against the devil." That's from this verse. 38:16 Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. And the Lord said, "If you start fighting with other believers and start fighting with your relatives and start fighting with human beings, when you confront those demons, those 38:28 demons will laugh at you. You'll have no power over them." I said, "Lord, I give you my word, I will never fight with human beings. If they rob me and they steal things and we've had people we know who came to enjoy our churches and 38:46 uh then finally got offended with what we taught and some of them were elders, walked away with church money and walked away with church property. Two buildings that we built in India with church money, they walked away with 39:00 it. The Lord said, "Let them go. Don't fight with them. This verse, our struggle is not with flesh and blood." I said, "Take it. I will not fight with you. My fight is only with demons and the devil. I will not fight with my relatives, I 39:19 will not fight over money, I will not fight over property. I will not fight if people insult me or tell all types of lies about me. I'm not going to waste my time justifying myself. No, no, no, you're wrong. I'm not uh going to a court of law over 39:31 anybody. Now, the reason I say this, my dear brothers and sisters, is because ask yourself one question. Do you fight with human beings or not? First of all, begin at home. Do you fight with your wife? You will not be able to fight with 39:49 demons, then. Forget it. You'll spend your life fighting with your husband. You fight with your husband or your wife, you'll spend your life fighting with the wrong person and wake up in eternity when Christ comes back and find you're not with him 40:02 for eternity. This is serious business. You may say you don't think so, fine. God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways." So, be very careful about this. Don't get into conflicts with human beings. 40:21 Very, very important. And I find even Christians even are arguing. I remember even arguing about scripture. I said if a person comes to understand scripture, I don't mind spending hours explaining scripture to him. But if he's come to argue with me just 40:39 to convince me about something, then I say I don't want to waste my time arguing with you. I remember one Indian man came to my house in Bangalore. And he was from some Pentecostal group that believed that everybody should be 40:54 healed. That Jesus not only saves us from sin, but heals every sickness. I said it's not true. I'm wearing glasses and that's still clear proof that I'm not healed of my eyesight. Are you telling me to get rid of my glasses? 41:09 And some of these people who preach holiness by the way where preach healing also wear glasses, but they don't see the they don't see the hypocrisy in it. So I said listen, I'm not going to argue with you about it. But he was convinced he must have 41:23 convinced me. And I say listen, if you want to talk about Jesus and the word of God, fine. You want to talk about this favorite subject of yours healing, I believe in healing. My wife and I have experienced supernatural healing ourselves, but I 41:35 don't believe that every single sickness is going to be healed. No. So I said when you talk about the Lord, he talked about the Lord for 2 minutes and switched back to healing. I said listen, I never turn anybody out of my house, 41:49 but if you're going to talk about this all the time, I have no time to talk to you. I said let's you are I are Indians. Let's talk about cricket. Who's That's a subject on which we will agree, right? Who should win? Should India win 42:02 or Pakistan win? So let's talk about a subject to agree. No, but he switched back to healing. I said listen, I have to say goodbye to you. I'm sorry. I don't turn people out of house, but I have no time to argue with human beings about this type of 42:15 stuff. I'm just telling you I've tried to take seriously in my life refusing to fight with human beings. And it has protected me and saved me from unnecessary problems and made me strong in fighting against Satan. I don't mean 42:35 only casting out demons. That is one That's a simple thing. I'm talking about something more serious. That is building the church. The true church of Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Matthew 16 and verse 18. Do you know this is the 42:51 first time in the Bible the word church comes? I told you the first time the word hallelujah comes. You're learning something's today. The first time the word hallelujah comes is when the false church is destroyed. What is the first time the word church 43:07 comes in the Bible? The first first time Jesus spoke about it in Matthew 16 and verse 18. I say to you Peter and Peter has just got a revelation in verse 16 that Christ is the son of the living God. And Peter said, "Ah, you got revelation 43:25 that I'm the son of the living God. On this revelation of Christ as the son of the living God, on this rock I will build my church." That's the first time the word church comes in the Bible. The first time Jesus speaks about the 43:40 church. And immediately after that he says the gates of hell that is the powers of spiritual darkness, the powers of the devil will not be able to overpower this church which I'm building. So, the first time that Jesus spoke about the church 43:58 he immediately spoke about conflict with Satan. Not this individual casting out demons, that's one thing. This is more serious. This is when we try to build the church as a body, the devil is going to fight tooth and nail 44:16 to prevent that body from being built. And dear brothers and sisters, you and I are called to cooperate with Jesus Christ our head to make sure the devil does not get in between us to prevent this body from being built. 44:34 And I'll tell you how he'll come between us. Keep a little bitterness in your heart against somebody, the devil's got in. Keep a little bitterness or some grudge in your heart against your husband or wife or some brother whose face you 44:46 don't like or some sister who you don't like the way she talks or some a silly little thing, and the devil's got in there, and you will be an instrument in the devil's hand to hinder God's work. Please do not be an instrument in the devil's hand to 45:02 do to hinder God's work. If you want to go that way, I humbly request you leave this church and go somewhere else and go and do all your confusion there. We're trying to build the body of Christ, and we want people to be free from grudges, complaints, 45:18 grumblings, fightings, quarrelings, and especially fighting over money. There's no place in the church for all that. Jesus said, "All men will know you're my disciples when you love one another." The law in the church of Jesus Christ is 45:32 l o v e, the love of Christ. If I don't want to live by that law, it's like whe- where do you drive? Always, you know, in India we drive on the left side of the road. Here in America, you drive on the right side of the road. You always drive on the right 45:48 side of the road. Otherwise, you'll have a collision. It's like that, the law of love. That's the only track I must be on. If I remain on that track of love, I'll never have a collision with Satan. Now, I want to protect myself and my 46:05 family from collision with Satan. And every church I have responsibility for, I want to protect it from the collision of Satan. So, I'm determined like you are determined to drive only on the right side of the road, I'm determined to 46:20 live on the track of love. And I look for that, you know, you look for the line on the road. Now, I say, "I want to keep this side of that line always." And spiritually also there's a line in your mind and in your spirit 46:39 and you know when you've crossed it. You know, you have you have these automatic cars nowadays that can detect the line on the road. It's amazing. I saw it for the first time in the US. I had never saw it in a car in the US in 46:54 America in India. It detects that line and automatically steers away. It's amazing. What a wonderful thing that is. And I believe it's like that when you cross over outside of love, the Holy Spirit will immediately tell you, "You're going astray. Turn 47:11 back." My question is, do you listen to it? That automatic system in the car obeys. But many Christians don't obey. When they get a witness in their spirit, that attitude of yours is not of the love of Christ. 47:30 You see that line? That attitude towards your wife, towards your husband, towards that brother, towards that sister is not the spirit of Christ. The way you're gossiping, the wrong attitude you have is not the spirit of Christ. You're crossing the 47:42 line and you say, "I don't care if I'm crossing the line." My brother, sister, you are in great danger. You're in danger of destroying yourself and in spiritually I mean, you may make a lot of money in your job. 48:00 That's okay. The devil's not bothered. He He doesn't mind He's not bothered how much money you make in your job or how much you advance in your job, so long as he can destroy you spiritually and in the process destroy your family. 48:13 By destroying your family, I don't mean they get cancer or something like that. Your children will be destroyed spiritually in the long run. That's what I mean by destruction. There are many people who got cancer who go to heaven. 48:28 But there are people who have been destroyed by the devil by an unloving attitude, by grudges and complaints who end up in hell. So, Jesus gave this How shall we build the church? Now, we can have our own ideas about how shall I build a church? 48:45 Well, go back to the first verse I read. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. So, when I see in Matthew 28, let's turn back to Matthew 28 where Jesus said all authority, verse 18, is given to me 48:59 in heaven and earth. I can say this is the basis on which I quit my job 60 years ago to serve the Lord. All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples. And this is the commission which the Lord has given 49:19 here. It's for you. It's for me. I took it seriously. Jesus Christ has got all authority in heaven and earth and he tells me to go and make disciples in every nation. Now, I can't go to all the 200 nations in the world, 49:34 but I can go to a little, you know, my little corner, wherever God takes me. And when I go to these nations or to a small village in India, perhaps, which is where I went most of the time. What should I do? I must make disciples. 49:50 Not people want to go to heaven. I don't go to these places where I preach the gospel and say, "How many of you want to go to heaven?" I never ask that question. I mean, it's only an idiot who wants to go to hell. Every sensible man will want to go to 50:07 heaven. That doesn't mean they all will will go to heaven. In fact, Jesus said the way to life is so narrow that very few find it. So, what I tell them is not, "Do you want to go to heaven?" Jesus said, "Go and Jesus didn't say, 50:21 'Go and find people who want to go to heaven.'" He said, "Go and make disciples." A disciple is a follower. So, my question to people is, "How many of you want to follow Jesus Christ?" And there's one condition for following 50:37 Jesus Christ, to be a disciple, one primary condition. And I'll tell you what that is. Turn with me to Luke chapter 9. And verse 23. "If anyone wants to come after me," 51:07 Luke 9:23. Number one, "Say no to himself." That is very, very difficult. Now, many people say, "No, here's a decision card. Write your name and your 51:26 address and say, 'I have accepted Christ.'" Any idiot can do that without wanting to follow Jesus. That's all many people are told. Just sign a decision card. Okay, brother, you're on your way to heaven. Rubbish. They are being deceived. Jesus said, "If 51:42 you want to follow me, number one, say no to yourself. Deny yourself. Take up your cross, which means die to yourself. Deny yourself, die to yourself. Then you can follow me. If you don't want to do that, you cannot follow me. 52:01 You say, "Well, I don't think so." Okay, God says, "My ways My thoughts are not your thoughts. The way you think is not the way I think." How do I know the way God thinks? I go to the Bible. And I find Jesus was consistent, always. 52:15 You cannot follow me if you first don't say no to yourself. Let him say no to himself and then die to himself, take up the cross, and follow me. That is how a person becomes a disciple. 52:32 Disciple is one who follows the Lord. And I say this is the big difference between Christians and Christians. There are Christians who say, "I believe in Jesus." And there are other Christians that are small number who are seeking to follow. 52:47 Maybe they sometimes trip along the way, but they're following. I'm not saying they're perfect. Sometimes they slip and fall, but they get up. Sometimes they slightly go off the track, they immediately repent and come back. 53:01 No Christian is perfect. But there are some Christians who are seeking to follow and some Christians who say, "I believe in Jesus. I took baptism a few years ago. I'm on my way to heaven." My dear brother, sister, let me warn you. 53:15 Don't wake up in eternity and get a shock that you're not in God's kingdom at all. You will definitely be in God's kingdom, no matter how many mistakes you make in your life, no matter how many times you slip up and fall, if 53:28 your fundamental desire is to deny yourself and follow Jesus Christ. The people who deny themselves follow Jesus make hundreds of mistakes, but they They up and follow. They get up and follow. They get up and they pick up 53:42 again and run. They're going to enter God's kingdom. They're not perfect, but they are pressing on towards perfection. They want to follow Jesus. They are so grateful to the Lord for having come down to this earth to this sin-cursed earth, 54:02 taken our humanity, and suffered and died for their sin. Then they say, "Lord, we really want to follow you." These are not full-time Christian workers. No. They are people in secular jobs, but they follow Christ. They will not 54:22 compromise and tell lies. They'd rather lose their job than tell a lie. I remember once in the navy, when I was I was only 23 years old, but I was a committed Christian. And I was in charge of 54:39 all the boats in the naval base. And um any officer could take a boat if they wanted to go for a picnic with their family, but pay the cost of the diesel in the boat, and there was a particular rate for it. You pay it and you can use the boat. 54:58 Officers were permitted that. But when the commanding officer used the boat, you were not supposed to charge him. You were supposed to tell a lie and say the captain went to inspect the harbor. 55:18 So, he could take out the boat for a few hours. He went for a picnic, but you can't write that. So, what happened when I became the boat officer and the captain wanted to take the boat, I sent him a bill. He never got a bill in his life. 55:35 And now the captain is too senior a man with four stripes on his shoulder to come and talk to me with only two stripes. So he sent his second in command, a three-stripe commander, to me. And that man asked me, "Lieutenant 55:48 Poonen, why did you send the captain a bill?" I said, "Sir, he took the boat for a picnic." And he said, "Didn't the previous boat officer tell you what to write in such situations?" I said, "Yes, sir, he told me, but I'm a 56:03 Christian and I can't tell a lie." You know what happened? I got transferred in half an hour. I praise the Lord. So what if I got transferred? So what if some inconvenience? So what if I In the final at the end of the year they have 56:20 to write a report about me. I'm probably they wrote some stubborn rebellious officer or something like that. That's fine. So what will happen? I won't get a promotion. I was not interested in a promotion. When I joined the Navy, I was. I was not 56:34 a Christian When I joined the Navy, I wanted to go right up to the top and be an admiral. But once I became a Christian, I discovered I can't get there because I have to compromise in so many things. I would have to tell lies here and 56:46 um things like that. So you may find in your job also sometimes you have to do something wrong and then your Christianity will be tested there. What is more important to you? The kingdom of God or your earthly job? I said, "Lord, the 57:01 kingdom of God is first for me." And if you are like that, my brother, sister, God will use you in such an amazing way that when you stand finally with Jesus in heaven and you look back over your life you say, "Thank you, Lord, 57:18 that I lived a worthwhile life on earth, not just becoming a big man and making a lot of money and enjoying myself, but being a bright light for you and and being part of your church which you were building where the devil could 57:34 not get a foothold in me. You know, when you compromise in some area in your life, you can say the devil's got a foothold in you. This is what it means to be a disciple. It's the most wonderful life. Then we can build a church. That's what 57:49 we've sought to do is make disciples. Those who want to follow Jesus. So, I don't ask people, "Do you want to go to heaven?" I say, "Dear brother, sister, dear friend, do you want to follow Jesus? Do you want to accept him into your life 58:02 and make him Lord of your life?" Those are the type of people we're trying to gather together. It'll be a small number. Jesus said the way to life is narrow and very few find it. So, I don't expect the whole world to come 58:13 rushing for such a message. No. But, I've seen something in these years now as we have seen the church built in many, many countries. We've seen some wonderful people who are really seeking to follow the Lord. Lives transformed and when your 58:30 life is transformed, gradually your family's transformed. And you'll you'll raise another generation of people who want to follow the Lord as well. And that's our calling. But, remember taking up the cross means dying to myself. 58:48 That means in different situation I used to ask the Lord, "What does it mean, Lord, to die to myself?" And the Lord would say to me, "Imagine what it is if you were physically dead." So, that's where I picture it. Dead to self, I would imagine, for 59:02 example, if I'm lying physically dead here, dead body, completely dead. And somebody comes and says, "Zac, you're a good-for-nothing, useless fool." No change in my expression. If there is a change in my expression, then I'm like these children playing 59:20 dead. I get up and say, "No, I'm not." So, if you react to somebody calling you bad names, you're not dead. If somebody says some very grievous thing about you or your family and you get disturbed by it, you're not dead. 59:37 That's what the Lord taught me. And I said, "Lord, I want to live by that. I want to forgive that person and I don't want to have any wrong attitude towards him. I want to die." At the same time, if somebody comes and says, "Brother 59:49 Zac, I think you're the greatest prophet in the world." No reaction. See, a dead person not bothered by praise or by criticism. That's one way you discover whether you're dead or not. That's the test I've applied to myself anyway. 1:00:06 Sometimes we discover we're not dead. We do get a little puffed up by some praise and I said, "Lord, I'm sorry. I wasn't dead there. I want to die." Or sometimes we do get a little hurt and offended by what somebody said to us. 1:00:19 Lord, I'm sorry. I wasn't dead there. I want to die. And over a period of time as you practice this death to self, you'll come to the place, believe it or not, you'll come to the place where criticism, rebuke, insult just 1:00:34 like they say, flows off over you like water on a duck's back. The duck if you pour water on a duck, it'll feel the water but when you touch the skin of the duck, there's no it's not wet. So, somebody hurts you, you feel it but 1:00:49 it doesn't disturb you. You carry on because you're following Jesus. This is the Christianity the Bible speaks about and that's the church that Jesus is building against which the gates of hell will never prevail. So, I realized that not many people are 1:01:06 going to be attracted to this message. I mean, I knew that right in the beginning. And I remember in the early days when we started the work, people would come and people would go and people would come and people would go. 1:01:16 I said, "Fine. The church is the Lord's and I'm The Lord will never ask me one day, 'Why did you get only so few people?" He'll never ask me that. I know that. Supposing I spend all my life to build a church and only 10 people there. 1:01:29 And the Lord says, "Why only so few?" I said, "Lord, I preached the truth and the rest were not interested." He will never never ask me why so few. But if I didn't tell people the truth, the Lord will ask me, "Why didn't you 1:01:43 tell them the truth?" So, my brothers and sisters, you and I are called to be witnesses for Christ. Make sure you're a faithful witness to the truth. Amen.
