0:00 I was thinking today of some elementary things that we need to consider because sometimes we take these things for granted. And you know teaching a a church is not like 0:19 a teacher teaching a class because in a class in school everybody is at the same level. They may all be in first grade or 10th grade, whatever it is. Everybody's at the same level. It's much more difficult to speak to a church 0:39 because people are all the way from kindergarten to college level all sitting in the same room. And you need to picture if you want to know how difficult it is to speak to a church where there are new people coming and we want new people to 0:58 keep coming and there have been people s who've been born again there for 20 30 years all in the same class and then uh those of you who have never stood in a pulpit and not never taken the ministry seriously will understand how difficult 1:13 it is to speak God's word to such a crowd. It's much easier if you're just teaching a Sunday school of children of all age 8 to 10 or teenagers all 15 to 17 or something like that or in a school where everybody's at the same level. So 1:32 I thought of I want to uh try and uh seek God's grace here and the one of the things that came to my mind was to share something about foundation and 1:51 superructure both. So turn with me to Luke's gospel chapter 14 verse of Paul. Luke's Gospel chapter 14. 2:26 Here Jesus speaks about a person who built a house, a tower rather, and he didn't think at the beginning how much it was going to cost. That's in Luke's and chapter is the same chapter where he 2:42 speaks about the cost of disciplehip. But he says here in verse [clears throat] 28, Luke 14:28, when he if anyone when he wants to build a tower, doesn't he first sit down and calculate the cost 3:02 and then when he's laid a foundation, if he's not able to finish, people will make fun of him. This man was not able to finish. So Jesus emphasizes the need of knowing right at the beginning what is the foundation going to cost what's the 3:17 building going to cost and foundation and building. Jesus uses that illustration here [clears throat] and also you turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 at the end of the sermon on 3:36 the mount he says again he speaks of a building and a foundation. Uh anyone who hears these words of mine everyone and obeys them verse 24 hears 3:52 and obeys is like a man a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came, floods came, could not destroy the house. But one who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his 4:11 house on the sand and the floods came and destroyed it. And these words of mine [clears throat] are referring to chapter 5 to chapter 7, what we know as the sermon on the mount. >> [clears throat] >> So 4:30 when we think of salvation, we need to ask ourselves what is it that qualifies us to become children of God? What is the foundation [clears throat] and what is the superructure? So here [clears throat] if you look at 4:50 it the foundation is what is it to build on the rock to hear and obey. So if you only hear [clears throat] and don't obey verse then you're on sand and it says the floods came and destroyed 5:09 it. [clears throat] And these are pretty strong words in chapter 5 to chapter 7 if you read them, you know, amazing standards. He says, for example, being free from the love of money and seeking his kingdom and his righteousness and 5:27 never getting angry and never lusting after women and always speaking the truth and a very high standard. That is the sermon on the mount. That is the life God wants us to live. Now many many people when they have let me tell you something who have found 5:45 these standards too high. They have got around it by saying Jesus did not teach the sermon on the mount for any of any of us to follow but to show us how impossible it is to 6:04 reach the standard. So you might as well not try and just believe that my salvation is by faith and you're justified by faith. So then chapter 5 to7 of Matthew 5 can Matthew 5 to7 can be torn out of your Bible or scratched out. You don't 6:22 have to read it. Now it's unbelievable that there are believers who believe that and I've heard that even Martin Luther taught something like that and most brethren assemblies teach that. I've heard brethren people I was in the 6:38 brethren for 8 years and that's what they said that is impossible to follow what's written in Matthew 56 and 7. So the meaning is Jesus shows us a standard which is absolutely unattainable. So therefore just trust the Lord to forgive you and 6:57 save you. And that is why so many Christians have never taught verse by verse through Matthew 5:6 and 7. Whereas in CFC we have emphasized that from the beginning. I say if you want to build on the rock do what it says here and obey. 7:17 If you want to build on the sand here and give some explanation, clever explanation that it is not meant for us or anything like that and that is the reason for such a lot of shallow Christianity. That's why there are people who tell lies and cheat and still 7:31 feel that they justified by faith and God has accepted them. There are people who fight and quarrel in their homes and they say, "Yeah, we still accepted by the Lord." It's a tremendous deception that's going on around the world. And 7:45 that's why at different times the Lord raised up people like for example John Wesley who stood against this whole system and they used to say that John Wesley is preaching salvation by works. That is the constant accusation that 8:01 anybody who preaches the sermon on the mount is saying he's preaching salvation by works. So you have to be really really bold to stand against that because people will call you a heretic and we like to come back to be at peace with everybody and 8:16 say salvation is by faith. But people like John Wesby were not disturbed. They knew God so well that they continued to preach the truth and they were not bothered by whatever people accused them of. And we face the same things that 8:28 Jesus faced in the first three. First was Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth." And that's very important for us to know. 8:47 And the other temptation we see that when Satan quoted a verse saying you can jump off the roof of the temple, jump down because God's word says the angels will give his charge. The angels are given charge in Psalm 91 to take care of you. It is written. Why 9:06 did Satan say, "It is written." You read Matthew 4? Because Jesus first said, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God when Jesus refused to turn the stones into bread." So G Satan takes the same 9:19 tactic. It is written, "The angels will take care of you." And then Jesus replied saying, "It is also written." Matthew chapter 4 and verse 7, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So what we learned there right in 9:39 the beginning of Jesus ministry is if you take one scripture by itself without saying what is also written, you can get a wrong understanding. It is written Matthew 4 6 and 7, his angels protect you. Who's quoting it? The devil is quoting it. Can you 9:55 imagine the devil quoting scripture to Jesus Christ? to try and lead him astray. But Jesus knew the scriptures. He said, "No, but it is also to have the right word at that time to speak to the devil. It is also written." So from that what I 10:12 learn is in scripture there has to be a balance and lot of heresies and wrong teachings have come because good Bible teachers have not taught the balance. It is written and it is also written. So it's very important for us in CFC to know 10:31 what is written and what is also written because most of Christian goes off on one extreme this extreme or the other extreme. You take the matter of speaking in tongues. Tremendous confusion because they take some verse which is written but they 10:45 don't see what is also written. They say for example on the day of Pentecost everybody spoke in tonesues. I say but you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and it says that is it not given that gift is not given to everybody. It is also 10:58 written it is not given to everybody. So why should everybody seek for it? And yet in every Pentecostal church that I've heard of everybody's urge to seek for that gift even though 1 Corinthians 12 says very clearly do all have the gift of tongues? No. 1 11:16 Corinthians 12:30 it's given to some. It's like the gift of healing given to some. There's a list of gifts mentioned there and healing miracles. Does everybody have it? No. Tongues is also listed there. Why does everybody concentrate on one? So I'm 11:35 just giving these examples to show that a lot of problems come in understanding scripture if we don't see the balance there is. So in the in the matter of foundation also there is a balance in understanding this foundation. So first let me mention 11:51 what I just told you that after preaching this very high standard in Matthew 5:6 and 7, Jesus said that you can build on this rock if you obey it and if you don't obey it just here you're going to build on sand. So he spoke about the foundation in 12:08 relation to a very high standard. Turn again to Luke 14 which we quoted in the beginning. In Luke 14 there again he speaks about foundation and it's a very high standard again in these two places where he speaks about foundation some at the end of the 12:26 sermon on the mount and in the middle of the chapter on disciplehip it's a very high foundation very high standard rather because he speaks about foundation in Luke 14:29 in the middle of this passage on disciplehip the Three conditions of 12:45 disciplehip are here in Luke 14. Let me mention this. When we started CFC, the very first church 51 years ago in Bangalore, the two sections of scripture we studied intensely for many many 13:01 months was Luke 14 and Matthew 5:6 and 7. We can say the whole of CFC was based on those verses. We also studied Romans 13:13 chapter 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 also to get a balance. So that's what I want to share with you. But interestingly here also when he speaks about foundation just like in the Matthew passage it's a 13:32 very high standard. It's somewhat like the same standard in the sermon on the mount for example Luke 14:26. You cannot be my disciple if you don't hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and your own life. What a 13:48 standard that is. Hate. He does not say love them less than me. He says hate. It's quite a strong word. And secondly, verse 27, you cannot be my disciple if you don't take up your cross every day. 14:06 Hey, Luke 9:23 says, "Every day you don't, you're not willing to die to yourself. You cannot be my disciple." And then verse 33, you cannot be my disciple if you don't give up all your possessions. Think of the standard. Now, you can 14:24 either explain it away or say, "No, it doesn't mean that." And that's what most people somehow explain it all away and completely dilute God's word. This is what many many people are doing. But an honest person will say if Jesus meant 14:41 something else, he should have told us something else. But we must read carefully. We have to balance. It is written, hate your father and mother and wife. Let's take wife for example. Hate your wife. Luke 14:26. 15:00 It is also written, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church. What a high standard that is. So if you don't take both scriptures together, you don't understand this. Or if you just take the other scripture and don't take this, you can't be a 15:16 disciple. In the same way here it says if you don't give up all your possessions, you cannot be my disciple. And yet there are other passages like in 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 12 15:35 where he says in verse 14 parents must lay up something for their children. How can they lay up something for their children if 2 Corinthians 12:14 if they've given up all their possessions. I'm just telling you example of what is 15:47 written and what is also written. So if you don't know what is also written you'll go astray. That's why God has placed teachers in the church. It's one of the gifts which is very much neglected. The Bible says in Ephesians 4 16:05 and verse 12 that the church is built through apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Ephesians 4:11. They equip the saints to build the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:1 and 12. 16:25 So a saint just like a saint is every believer is not an apostle. Every believer is not a prophet. Every believer is not an evangelist. Every believer is not a shepherd. Every believer is not a teacher. So to imagine that you can understand 16:44 the scripture without a teacher is like imagining that that you can teach yourself is like imagining that you can be an apostle as well. You can be a prophet. So here are the reasons why we need to have a balance in our understanding of 17:00 scripture. We have a personal individual relationship with the Lord. But when it comes to being a part of a church, there are people whom God has placed over us to guide us. Elders for example, why should we submit to the elders? 17:18 Shouldn't we just be connected to Christ? Do you want anyone to come between you and Christ? They can we can use an argument is there a mediator between you and Christ? No, there is only one mediator between God and man Christ Jesus. Then why in the 17:31 world do you need to submit to an elder? These are the reasons these are just examples of where people can be imbalanced. But I don't believe all of you are we have had a more teaching in scripture that teaches all all these things. So in 17:45 that connection I want to share something with you about foundation. Romans is probably the gospel which the episode which explains the gospel more clearly than any other writing of the 18:02 apostle Paul. And God had given Paul an understanding of the gospel and that is explained so clearly in Romans. It starts with all have sinned Romans 3 and verse 23 and come short of the glory of 18:21 God. Now there are many things you can get just from one that one verse. Every single human being has sinned. It doesn't matter which family they are born in. Your being born in a good God-fearing Christian family does not give you any 18:40 advantage when it comes to salvation except that you can hear the gospel from childhood. But as a person, you are as much a sinner as that person who is brought up in a thieves or a murderer's family. 18:56 Just the same, all have sinned. And what is the definition of sin? There are many definitions of sin. In one place it says if you know what is good and you don't do it, that's sin. But the best definition of sin is in 19:15 this verse. Please remember this. The best definition of sin is in Romans 3:23. All have sinned. And what is the definition of sin? coming short of the glory of God. That's it. It's in that verse. 19:34 I never saw it for so many years, even though it's written. It just shows how we can be so blind to what we read. I don't know how many of you knew before today that the best definition of sin is coming short of the glory of God. 19:47 Is it only now that you knew about it or did you know about it earlier? I'm sure you read that verse many times. That is how we don't we not we don't get light on scripture. Here is the best definition of sin I found in the whole Bible. 20:02 Coming short of the glory of God. That's the definition of sin. What is the glory of God? That's the next question. John 1:14. The glory of God was seen in the life of Jesus Christ full of grace and truth. 20:21 So the scriptural definition of sin according to Romans 3:23 plus John 1:14 is anything less than the life of Jesus Christ is sin. So everyone has come short of that. That is God's standard. 20:40 That's why we all need salvation. And salvation is to free us from sin. What does that mean? It doesn't mean just stopping telling lies and stopping lusting after women and means much more than that. It means being free 21:00 from everything in our life that is contrary to the life of Christ. That is why the Christian life is a progressive growth [snorts] in being more and more free from sin. And a person who's not working out his 21:20 salvation is not really going to he cannot claim to be a disciple. So when you understand this, did you get it clearly? Sin is Romans 3:23 coming short of the glory of God. The glory of God, John 1:14, is seen in the life of Jesus 21:37 Christ. So any area in your life which is not like the life of Christ, you're a sinner. not a sinner but your li it is there sin in your life which has to be eliminated. We have forgiven all our past guilt in a moment when we come to Christ but sin is 21:53 still there in us and growing in grace is to be more and more free from the uncristlike areas in our life and that is a huge area and we get little by little light on it. It's like the education we get in school 22:12 and college and post-graduate study. That's a good example of how we get more and more light on the sin in our life. And if you're serious about it, you can grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. That is true spiritual growth. 22:30 And if you're not doing that, you're like a child who's always failing in the same class. Many believers are like that. All they know is I can confess my sin and be forgiven by the Lord. Like sitting in the kindergarten I I know 22:47 very well BAT is bad and CAT is CAT. 2+ 2 is 4 and 3 - 2 is 1. I can spend 20 years in the kindergarten class and that is the condition of many many Christians. Whereas you would not be happy if your child sat in the same class even for one 23:06 extra year. Even if they're in the eighth grade, you'd want them to go to the ninth grade next year. You need to let them know more. And if we take that as an example of Christian growth, we must be knowing more of the Lord this 23:24 year than we knew last year. Can you honestly say that? Dear brothers, sisters, I'm not trying to bring anybody under condemnation. I'm trying to challenge you to God's highest. That's what we have done in CFC for more than 50 years. Always 23:41 challenging people to God's highest in every area. It's like when you put a child in a school, why do you select the best school? Why do you select the best school for your children? Because you want them to get a good education. 23:58 If you when you select a hospital to put your family member for treatment, why do you select the best hospital? Because you want to get a good treatment where they'll be completely cured. But when it comes to a church, school, hospital, 24:11 church. Why is it when people choose a church, they don't choose the best one? Any church will do? Oh, my father went, my grandfather attended this church. My forefathers always attended this church. Who says that when it's going to school? 24:25 My forefathers always went to this school. So, we'll send a child to that school. That mean a third rate good for nothing school today. They don't say that. Oh, my forefathers went to this hospital. It's a third rate useless 24:38 hospital which is so much advanced hospitals have come since that time. They never say that when it comes to education or medical treatment because they want they love themselves so much. They love their children. They want a 24:51 good education. They love their own health. They want the best hospital, the best education, best school. But when it comes to church, any odd church will do. That shows the good for nothing third rate Christianity that so many people 25:05 have. And that is why in every generation God has had people who stand against that system and start a new church. In every generation almost God has raised up new churches and it is only for those who are fed up with the 25:21 low standard churches they see around them. But some people are satisfied with the low standard churches. You go to the third rate useless schools today in India or anywhere there are students sitting there. You go to the third rate 25:33 hospitals there are people in those hospitals too. People who can't afford a better treatment. So you go to the third rate churches there are people sitting there too. Which do you want? If you want I always tell people if you want the best 25:48 education for your children and the best treatment and medical treatment for your family members why don't you choose also the best church. available in your locality. If not, you're a hypocrite. Your Christianity is worth zero. Then I say 26:03 you're more interested in earthly education and physical health more than you are in your spiritual life. If he's to be consistent, he will say, "I will choose the best school for my children's education. I will choose the 26:16 best hospital for my family's treatment, and I'll choose the best school." In other words, I'll do some research and find out which is the best school. Don't you do that for your children? When you go to a new place, I'll do some research 26:29 and find out which is the best hospital. I can get treatment for my family. Don't you do that when you somebody seriously sick in your home with some very serious disease? How many Christians do that type of research when 26:41 they want to find a church? That is a sad thing. Anyway, I just said that in passing. So, this is where we begin. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's our starting point for every human being. And then it finally ends up 26:59 in U. See, for example, at the end of Romans chapter 8, Romans 8 and verse 37, look at this fantastic position of triumph. Starting off in Romans 3:23, all have sinned and come short of the 27:18 glory of God. The same person who came short of the glory of God. Now you see in Romans 8:37 his testimony in everything we are more than not just a conqueror but more than a conqueror through Christ who loved us. 27:37 What a fantastic change starting at one end reaching the other end. This is the gospel of given in Romans chapter 3 to chapter 8. And then he says in nothing can now separate us from the 27:54 love of Christ. And then he says in Romans in view of this Romans 12 in view of this fantastic gospel that we've just heard from Romans 3:8 I urge you present your body a living sacrifice to God. You know what a sacrifice means? A 28:13 sacrifice is you. It costs you something to make a sacrifice. And one of the big complaints that the Lord had against God's people in Malachi chapter 1 is that they were make offering cheap sacrifices. When a person gives 10% of his money to 28:31 God, that is a cheap sacrifice. God says, "I don't want your 10%. I want you to acknowledge my lordship over all of your money 100%. I'm not asking the Lord say I'm not 28:49 asking you to put all that 100% in the offering box, but I'm asking you to allow me to have lordship over 100% of your money. That I will tell you how to spend your money, how to use your money, what you should buy, what you should not buy. You 29:06 can keep it in your bank, no problem. But the Lord must determine how it is. That is through surrender of giving up all your possessions as it says in Luke 14:33. That's just one example. Presenting our body as a living 29:19 sacrifice. And the ultimate result of that is found in Romans 16:20. See, this is the final end of the gospel which started with all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 16:20. God crushes Satan under our feet. 29:38 Satan crushed Adam and Eve under his feet in Genesis chapter 3. Both of them he crushed in one blow. And now the gospel brings us to the place where this one who crushed our forefather under his feet, we have 29:56 crushed him under our feet. That means there's no area in our life or in our home or anywhere where Satan has any power. What a fantastic gospel this is. So I want to share something from Romans 30:14 chapter 4 because you know we have spoken so much about perfection. pressing on to perfection in the church which is pressing on to perfection is like building the superructure very important 30:31 but it's possible that many in CFC have not understood the foundation properly so I want to share something today on Romans chapter 4 what is the foundation is the foundation being free from sin 30:50 How are we? How do we lay a foundation for our Christian life? Romans 4 and 5 speak about being justified, declared righteous by faith. Now, it's possible for a Christian, particularly in CFC, to go straight from Romans chapter 3, all have sinned from 31:10 come short of the glory of God, straight to Romans chapter 6. That is Romans 6:14. sin shall not have dominion over you. You'll get into a lot of problems if you do that. If you skip Romans 4 and Romans 5. 31:29 And I feel that has happened to some people in our churches. Because Romans 4 and 5 does not speak about works. It speaks about being declared righteous without works. We need to understand that. That is the foundation for going on to 31:48 Romans 6:7 and 8. So I want to read to you the language in the King James and New American and all is a bit heavy. I want to read to you Romans 4 from the Living Bible. Romans 4. I'm just going to go through 32:09 it quickly. taking Abraham as an example and the Holy Spirit takes Abraham as an example for our being justified by faith. So he says humanly speaking about Abraham the founder of our nation. What were his experiences? I'm reading from 32:28 verse one in the living Bible. What were his experiences concerning being saved by faith? Listen to this. Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? very important for CFC believers to hear. Was it because of his good deeds that 32:45 God accepted him? If so, he could have something to boast about. There are people in CFC churches who boast about how good they are compared to others. But from God's point of view, verse two, 33:02 Abraham had no basis at all for pride. Do you feel that all of you have no basis for pride even though you're living a very good life compared to other people or compared to people in other churches? 33:19 So verse five did uh verse three sorry the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and that is why God canceled his sins and declared him not guilty. But you say verse four, didn't he earn his right to heaven by all the good 33:37 things he did? No. For being saved is a gift. If a person could earn it by being good, then it would not be free. Do you get that argument? If a person could earn his salvation by being good, then salvation is not a free 33:57 gift. But it is a free gift. Please absorb these truths. It is given to those who do not work for it. Now, this sounds as if this is contrary to everything we have heard all our 34:16 life. But if you don't have this foundation, you'll go astray. But God declares sinners to be good in his sight if they have faith that Christ can save them from God's wrath and judgment. Do you ever preach that 34:38 or do you preach that God will declare sinners good when they are actually good? Verse six, King David also spoke about this. Not only Abraham, he describes the happiness of an undeserving sinner who is declared 34:57 not guilty by God. I'm reading it in the living Bible because I believe it makes clear something in our own language which is a little more complicated in other versions. The Living Bible was written by a very godly man called 35:17 Taylor and he was a extremely Ken Taylor. I met him personally. He was a extremely godly man, a very very humble man. You know, I'm not surprised that God gave him understanding of how to he he actually wrote the living Bible for 35:33 his own children to explain the Bible to his children because he felt that the King James version and all was very difficult for them to read and understand. So I believe God's given him great light in putting in simple words 35:46 in our language the truth of the Bible. So let me read. King David spoke of this. the happiness of an undeserving sinner who's declared not guilty by God. Verse six, and he says in verse seven, "Blessed and to be envied are those whose sins are 36:03 forgiven and put out of sight." Verse eight, "What joy there is for anyone whose sins are no longer counted against him by the Lord." For the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and that is why God canceled his sins and declared him not 36:22 guilty. We have almost never heard much of this but this is the foundation. You can't get to Romans 6 7 and 8 before you get through four and five. And I felt that this is part of the problem in some of 36:42 our churches. maybe because we have not emphasized it enough. Okay, we go further in Romans chapter 4 and let's go to Romans chapter 4 and verse 9. 37:01 Now then the question is, is this blessing given only to those who have faith in Christ and keep the Jewish laws that is of circumcision and all? Or is this blessing also for those who 37:21 don't keep the Jewish roles but only trust in Christ? What about Abraham? Verse N, the last part. We say he received these blessings through faith. Was it by faith alone or because he kept the Jewish rule, the rules of the of the 37:38 Jews? For the answer to that question. Now, this sounds like a legal argument, but it's good that the Holy Spirit puts this in Romans chapter 4, and I feel that we really need to meditate on Romans 4. It's a foundation for overcoming sin. 37:57 Romans 6. So the answer to that question verse 10 is when did God give this blessing to Abraham? Is it before he became a Jew before he went through this circumcision? It wasn't until later on verse 11 after 38:20 God had blessed him that he was circumcised. Now why does the Holy Spirit bring all this type of argument? Is it a waste of waste of time that the Holy Spirit has written something like this in scripture? He takes a simple thing like this that 38:33 God gave a promise to Abraham that he was declared righteous before he did circumcision. So the circumcision ceremony verse 11 was only a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared 38:49 him good in his sight before the circumcision ceremony took place. And verse 11, last part. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who believe and are saved without obeying any of the laws of the Jews. 39:09 We see then that those who do not keep these rules are justified by God through faith. To be justified by God through faith is the foundation on which we build the overcoming life of victory over sin. This is what I'm 39:29 trying to emphasize. That's what we see here. And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those verse 12 of those who have been circumcised like the Jews. So they can see from his example that it is not this ceremony that saves them 39:48 because Abraham found favor with God by faith alone before he was circumcised. He the Holy Spirit takes that remember this is not Paul writing is the Holy Spirit writing through Paul. So we need to take it seriously. 40:08 It is clear then verse 13 that God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not because Abraham obeyed God's laws but because he trusted God to keep his promise. Wonderful truth. 40:26 So verse 14, if you still claim, this is important for us, very important, read carefully. Romans 4:14. If you still claim that God's blessings go to those who are good enough, 40:45 then you're saying that God's promises to those who have faith are meaningless and faith is foolish. But the fact of the matter is when we try to gain, listen to this, when we try to gain God's blessing and salvation by 41:01 keeping his laws, we always end up under his anger because we always fail to keep them. The only way we can keep from breaking his laws, listen to this. The only way 41:19 we can keep from breaking laws is when you have no laws to break. So God's blessings are given to us by faith. as a free gift. We are certain to get them whether we 41:38 follow the Jewish customs if we have faith like Abrahams. For Abraham is the father of all of us when it comes to these matters of faith. Remember so many things written about Abraham is not just for the Jews. It's written for us believers. Romans chapter 41:57 4 is not a chapter written for Jews. It's written for you and me. That is what the scriptures verse 17 mean when they say that God made the Abraham the father of many nations. That God will accept all people in every 42:14 nation who trust God as Abraham did. And this promise is from God himself who makes the dead to live again and speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already passed. 42:33 Verse 18. So when God told Abraham that he would give him a son and would have many descendants and become a great nation, Abraham believed God even though such a promise just could 42:51 not come to pass in his present physical condition. But because his faith was God was so strong, verse 19, he didn't have to worry about the fact that he was too old to be a father at the age of 100 and his wife Sarah at 90 43:10 was too old to have a baby. But Abraham never doubted. He believed God because his faith and trust grew stronger and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened. He was completely sure verse 21 43:32 that God was well able to do anything he promised. And because of Abraham's faith, God forgave his sins and declared him not guilty. Now this wonderful statement that he was 43:50 verse 23 that Abraham was accepted and approved through his faith was not just for Abraham's benefit. It was for us too. assuring us that God will accept us in 44:06 the same way he accepted Abraham when we believe the promises of God who brought back Jesus our Lord from the dead. He died for our sins and Jesus rose again to make us right with God filling us with God's goodness 44:25 in chapter 5 verse one. So now here's the conclusion of this long section on Abraham. Chap chapter 4 is all about Abraham relating to us. He's called the father of faith. That's why the Holy Spirit takes 25 verses 44:43 just to explain that. Now why did I read all that so slowly? because I feel that we have not emphasized that sufficiently for many believers in our churches and it's possible that many of you who are 45:03 hearing this are have not really taken this chapter seriously and have probably tried to jump from chapter 3 to chapter six. Chapter six is sin shall not have dominion over you because you are under grace. So it's almost as though chapter four 45:22 and five are unimportant. But I believe chapter four and five is a foundation for chapter 6, 7 and 8. So that's why in the beginning I spoke about foundation and superructure. Don't skip the foundation and try to build something and that could be the 45:42 reason why as Christian life is a bit shaky. I my life is firmly established on chapter 4 and five and that's why I don't shake. I believe in Romans 6:14 sin shall not have dominion over you. I believe in Matthew 56 and 7 as uh that's 46:01 the only way I can build my house on the rock if I obey those verses. But I don't get into condemnation because I've gone through Romans 4 and 5. I have a foundation. My building is not shaky. Do does your building shake sometimes 46:18 when you read some scriptures and wonder is this true of my life? Do you know my brothers and sisters that God wants all of us to have perfect security in Christ so that we live without doubting our salvation 46:34 be absolutely sure my heavenly father has accepted me I don't have any doubt about we want our young children also to know that that they accept Christ that Christ has accepted them we children must not grow up tormented 46:52 I'm I'm not perfect here, not perfect there. They need to understand Romans chapter 4 and chapter 5. We have Romans 5:1. We have been made right in God's sight by faith in his promises. And we can have real peace with God. 47:11 Not because of what we have attained to, no, but because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. I fear that for some of us our peace comes thinking of what we ourselves have accomplished in our life. 47:29 How much we have grown in our Christian life. That is a danger for number of people in our CFC churches because we are trying to put the found the building in the foundation. No, you know, I remember in the the 47:50 construction of buildings in India, I haven't seen so much here in the US, but in India, I've seen construction even our own CFC building and all. I've seen they take huge concrete 48:07 blocks for the foundations with a lot of steel and cement and so solid you you it's almost impossible to break it. But when they building the superructure they put all types of bricks which you can just hit with one broke and it 48:23 breaks melted cement. There's a lot of difference between the type of material used in the foundation and in the superructure. So it's very different. So if we don't get our foundation right, we're going to have problems with the superructure. If 48:43 you try to build a foundation with the same type of bricks, I remember seeing one house where the they were laying a foundation with concrete in India. And because it was a little uneven, they put some bricks in there to level 49:03 it up with the rest of the foundation. And I and I told those people, "This is going to be dangerous. Later on, it'll be covered up and the building will come, but underneath a few bricks which will be washed away with the water and the building will sink." 49:19 So I told them, "Hey, you better put concrete there. Bricks are okay in the superructure but not in the foundation. I actually saw this and they listened to me and thankfully it was in our area in Bangalore. The found building lasted a 49:37 lifetime otherwise I'm sure that would have that one part would have sunk if I hadn't told them. So it's like that Romans 4:5 are the foundational. So that's what we're looking at. 49:55 Our faith, Romans 5:2, our faith has brought us to the highest place of privilege because we stand confidently looking forward to actually becoming everything that God has in mind for us. It's not because of the type of life we 50:12 are living. Our faith has brought us to this place. Okay. Now Romans 5 and:e3, we can rejoice also when we run into all types of problems and trials because we know they are good for us. 50:31 They help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character, helps us to trust God more. And each time we use it until finally our hope and faith becomes strong and steady. Then what happens is we are able to 50:49 verse five, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens. We know all is well. How dearly God loves us and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his 51:03 love. See, all I'm doing is reading scripture very slowly in language that we can understand because there's a lot of stuff here which can sound very legal to us. Let me continue. When we were utterly helpless, verse 51:23 six, with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time, died for us sinners who had no use for him. Even if we were good, we don't we would not have expected anybody to die for us. But God showed his love for us by sending Christ 51:41 to die for us while we were still sinners. Verse 8 and verse 9, Romans 5:9. And since by his blood he did all this for us as sinners. Listen to this. How much more he will do for us now that he's declared us not guilty. Now he will 51:57 save us from all of God's wroth to come. I wish I could get this verse into the minds of every young believer, every young child who's trusted Christ. Let me read it to you again. Listen all of you who are new believers or young 52:14 people, listen carefully. Jesus, God's word says, "Since by the blood of Jesus Christ, he did for us sinners all this forgive us. how much more he will do for us now 52:30 that he has declared you not guilty. He will now save us from all of God's judgment and wroth anger that is to come. Because when we were his enemies, God brought us back to himself by the 52:50 death of his son. What amazing blessings he has for us now that we are his friends and he lives with us. Listen to that again. When we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by God sending his son to die for us. 53:08 What more blessings he have for us now that we are his friends, not his enemies, and he's living with us. So we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because of what Jesus has done for us and dying for us making us the friends 53:24 of God. I believe that everyone every believer needs to know I'm a friend of God. Now do all of you know that or do you always live feeling there's something wrong in my life so God must be angry with me. I know the way I lived 53:39 like that for years. It was a miserable life. We need to encourage one another. Brothers, sometimes we are afraid to preach these things because we say, "Oh, if we say this, people will begin to take sin lightly." But because they don't understand these 53:55 things, they fall into sin again and again. But if they understood this, they'd have a solid conviction that I am accepted by God. Then they can go into Romans 6, sin shall not have dominion over you. Then people can say, "Oh, brother Zach, this 54:09 is what so many other churches preach. We are also preaching that." No. The problem with many other churches is they stop in Romans chapter 5. They don't go into Romans 67 and 8 like we've gone. That's the problem. So I'm not saying we 54:25 should stop at Romans 5. We go to Romans 6 and shall not have dominion over you. For you're not under law but under grace. We go to Romans chapter 8 where life in the Holy Spirit where all things work together for our good and we trust him. 54:43 It's a wonderful life. Romans 6:7 and 8 and Romans 12 we present our body as a living sacrifice and come to know the perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 all that comes but many believers have a problem with there because they're not properly 54:58 founded in Romans 4 and 5. This is why I'm taking time with these chapters. So let me read a little further. Verse 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. It spread through the whole world. So everything began to grow 55:15 old and die. And we know that it was Adam's sin that caused all this. And people were sinning right from the time of Adam until Moses. But God did not in those days judge them guilty of death because he had not given 55:33 them his laws until Moses time. So when they their bodies died, it was not for their own sins since they themselves never disobeyed any law of God. They didn't eat the forbidden fruit as Adam did. But they were guilty because they were 55:49 in Adam. What a contrast between Adam and Christ who was yet to come. What a difference that is between man's sin and God's forgiveness. Verse 15. Because with through one man, Adam, death came to all people through sin. 56:05 But through one man, Jesus Christ, forgiveness came to many through God's mercy. Adam's one sin, verse 16, brought the penalty of death to many. While Christ freely takes away many sins being by giving us his glorious life, 56:23 the sin of this one man Adam caused death to be king over all. But all who take God's gift of forgiveness are kings in life because of Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam's sin brought punishment to everybody, but Christ's 56:41 righteousness makes us right with God. So verse 20, the ten commandments were given so that all could see the extent of that failure. But the more we see our sinfulness, the more we see God's abounding grace forgiving us. 56:59 Once upon a time, sin ruled over all men and brought them to death. But now God's kindness rules over all men, giving us the right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay. After hearing all 57:17 this, what is the thought that comes to your mind? Oh well then it doesn't really matter if you sin. That's exactly what he says in the next verse. Chapter 6 verse one. Oh, well then shall 57:36 we keep on sinning so that God can keep on showing us more and more kindness and forgiveness? Of course not. Should we go keep on sinning when we don't have to? Since power was broken when we became Christians and we were 57:52 baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ through his death, the power of your sinful nature was shattered. This is the Romans 6 is now the thing that we keep on preaching in the church. Your old sin-loving nature verse four 58:06 was buried with him and by baptism you've now verse five become a part of him so you died with him. Your old evil desires verse six were nailed to the cross so that your sin-loving body is not under sin's control anymore. You don't have to be a 58:24 slave to sin. Once you were dead to sin, you when you were dead to sin, you are freed. When once you have died to sin, you are freed from his allure. And your sin loving nature died with Christ. And when Christ rose from the 58:38 dead, verse 9, will never die again. He died to end sin's power. So look upon your verse 11, your old sin nature as dead, unresponsive to sin, alive to God. Don't let sin, verse 12, control your body any longer. Don't give into sinful 58:58 desires. Verse 14, sin need never again be your master because you're no longer tied to any laws, but you're free under God's grace. Dear brothers and sisters, now that may have sounded very heavy what you heard today, 59:16 but I believe it is very very important for us to recognize that we don't start with Romans 6:14, sin shall not have dominion over you. And if you're not experiencing an overcoming life in your life, it could be that you're a bit shaky in 59:35 your foundation. You're being very careful in the material you're using for the superructure to deny yourself, take up the cross and follow Jesus and to live an overcoming life and try to have a good family life and all that. But 59:50 your foundation may be a bit shaky. You're not sure whether you're you're not absolutely sure. I have been accepted as a child of God in Christ. I have been placed in Christ and I've been accepted. His righteousness has become 1:00:06 my righteousness. Even while I'm still not perfect, I'm far from perfect. I've been a Christian now 67 years. I tell you, I'm far from perfect. The closer you come to God, the more you see of sins that you never knew 1:00:23 were sin. I see sins, understand sin today, which I never knew was sin few years ago. So we need to be established in the fact that I've I've been accepted by Christ. And I feel that all our believers and especially our young people need to know 1:00:43 when they ask come to Christ in sincere repentance. Lord, I'm sorry for the sins I've committed in my life. I believe you died for the punishment for all my sins and you rose again from the dead. Come and live in me and blot out my past. And 1:00:58 he God Jesus does it and he accepts us and he becomes our savior. God becomes our father and I need never doubt that I don't have to live in condemnation. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's how it comes 1:01:15 in Romans chapter 8. So ever anybody has condemnation something is wrong. You go back to Romans chapter 4 and 5. Again I say this because I believe there are many believers in our church who may be living under condemnation. Maybe you 1:01:30 have grown out of it. Praise the Lord. If you have then this message is for some other people here who I feel have not become free from condemnation. So I hope that is something that will you will remember and if you did not 1:01:47 understand it all please go back and read and meditate on Romans 4 and 5 again and say Lord make the truths in this chapters real for me so that I can enter into the life wonderful life 1:02:02 described in Romans 6 7 8 12 a wonderful life. So that's what I was right at the beginning I spoke about foundation and superructure. So 1:02:22 some some of the things you've heard may sound new to you but that could be because we've not sufficiently preached on Romans 4 and 5. We've not sufficiently meditated on it. I feel that u you know as our churches 1:02:42 have grown we had sometimes forgotten the fact and I think all of us elders have probably failed there also we forgotten the fact that there are new people coming up in our churches who did not hear all that we taught earlier 1:02:57 you see so we must always remember that this there are people in the kindergarten all the time in our church and we taught the kindergarten class 10 years ago. Wonderful. And those people have come to 10th grade now. But if you 1:03:15 keep reaching to them, the new people who coming to kindergarten are hearing the 10th grade stuff and then they can get disturbed and say I can't live this life and they get discouraged. Particularly our children. I'm really burdened about the young 1:03:29 people. Those who are 10 years old, 12 years old, 13, 14, 15 who are coming into our church and they hear all this and say when will I ever come to this life? It is impossible. They get discouraged. What did you hear when you first heard 1:03:42 the gospel? If you had heard all this, you would have been discouraged too. And that is why I felt burdened today that I must get people to understand Romans 4 and 5. How God forgives us freely in Christ. He accepts us. He welcomes us. We are 1:03:58 his children. Salvation is a free gift. He if he confess our sins, he accepts us immediately. He doesn't torture us to keep on living in uncertainty, uncertainty, uncertainty. No, I'm a child of God. You must know if you have 1:04:15 come to Christ in sincerity. I want to say everyone listening to me today, especially you children and young people who are sitting and listening to me, please listen to me. If you have sincerely to the best of your knowledge 1:04:27 come to Jesus and said, "Lord, I'm a sinner that I believe you died for me on the cross and rose again from the dead and I've asked you to come into my heart. I want to tell you in Jesus name, you are a child of God. And don't let 1:04:39 anybody make you doubt that anymore. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. I've been a Christian for 67 years. I'm not perfect. I'm pressing on. I may be a a little higher class than you are, but I'm not perfect. I'm pressing on to perfection. You're 1:04:54 pressing on to perfection. And if I'm ahead of you, it's because I accepted Christ 67 years ago. It's like somebody who went who joined school 10 years ago is ahead of you in the 10th grade and you're in the first grade. 1:05:07 That's all. There will be people ahead of you always in the church. But they also started where you started. So I want to think and speak especially today to those who are uncertain about the foundation of their life. I want you to 1:05:19 be sure that from today onwards you will not live in doubt anymore and you won't condemn yourself and you don't won't get discouraged. Remember this this board that I have in front of my table which I always show to people. 1:05:38 You see that no entry roads. What are they? self- condemnation, discouragement. Whenever you find yourself condemning yourself for something or getting 1:05:56 discouraged, see this sign. You'll have a collision, an accident if you go past this no entry sign. And you probably already had a few collisions when you disobeyed this no entry sign and went through this. I've been a believer 67 years. I keep 1:06:14 this in front of me. saying Lord I never want to go that way to remind myself and I say I would ask you to remind yourself never go into that road of self- condemnation or discouragement that is not God's will 1:06:31 for you God wants you always to be encouraged in the Lord and so Let me conclude with Romans chapter 8. 1:06:48 This is where we're going to end up in Romans 8:37. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. Overwhelmingly conquered because of him who loved us. Not because of what I have determined to be. That 1:07:08 overwhelming conquering position is because of him who loved us. because he loved me and gave himself for me. Because of that, because of that, I am 1:07:28 and there's no condemnation. I'm accepted in Christ and I have no discouragement because I see myself as in Christ always. And I want to encourage all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, to please go through all that I read, read it 1:07:47 again. Spend some days in Romans 4 and 5. Don't skim through it and just one day you read it. I would encourage you to spend a whole week just reading Romans 4:5 in every possible translation you have. I try to read them in a number 1:08:02 of translations so that I get the full impact of what the Holy Spirit's trying to say in that. It's the foundation for the life of victory. Romans 6:14, "Sin shall not rule over you because you're not under law but under grace and the 1:08:18 life in the Holy Spirit that you read in Romans chapter 8 where we read we are more than conquerors. We overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us." Okay? And if there are things here which you could not fully understand, good. 1:08:35 that is probably enable you to be cast upon God and get his holy spirit. God wants you to be dependent on his holy spirit. He's very jealous that you should be dependent on his holy spirit. Let me conclude with that verse. 1:08:50 Turn to James and chapter 3. Sorry, James chapter 4. James chapter 4. 1:09:16 It speaks here about James chapter 4 and verse 5 God. The last part, he jealously desires the spirit that he's made to dwell in us. 1:09:37 Not the Holy Spirit, but our spirit. Just like a there's a good type of jealousy. A wife is a husband rather is very jealous that his wife should not be interested in any other man. Must be exclusively for me. Is it wrong 1:09:56 for a husband to feel that my wife must be exclusively for me? Must not be interested in any other man even slightly. Nothing wrong in that. That is true godliness. A wife should have no interest in any other man except her husband. And a 1:10:11 husband must be very jealous that her wife should love him like that. And that type of jealousy is mentioned here in scripture. And he says the God is very jealous that he wants that spirit within us to be his alone. He jealously desires this 1:10:28 human spirit to be his alone which he created within us. And when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says in 2 Corinthians and chapter 11, 1:10:48 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 2. 2 Corinthians 11:2. I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy. See that word jealousy again this is a good type of jealousy is the type of jealousy a husband has that his wife should not be interested in anybody 1:11:07 else. I'm jealous for you because I betrod you to one husband Christ and I want to present you as a pure virgin. Paul is jealous that this bride of Christ should should be exclusively for Christ should not be interested in anybody 1:11:22 else. This is the type of relationship Jesus wants to have with us. It's a wonderful relationship. I'm so happy that I have this type of relationship with Jesus where it's exactly like a wife to a husband. And as much as a husband cares for his 1:11:40 wife, Jesus cares for me. That's the way he cares for you, my brother, sister. Be devoted to him. He's accepted you. Rejoice in the fact that he's accepted you and you're married to him. And don't let anybody shake that faith in you. 1:11:56 Amen.
