0:18 So, we want to continue our trying to understand what it means for the local church to be and function like the bride of Jesus Christ. And we were looking at 0:35 Second Corinthians in chapter 11 where Paul writing to the local church in Corinth says I betrothed you the church in Corinth to one husband to Christ that I might present you the local church 0:54 as a pure virgin to Christ. And that's the reason why Paul wrote so strongly. You read Corinthians why he wrote so strongly to some of the other letter churches why he rebuked so strongly. You know, when to the Galatians he says, "You 1:12 foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you?" What strong language. It is the strong language of one who loves the people so much and loves the Lord so much that he wants to present to the Lord 1:29 not an impure bride but a pure virgin. And so, when we read Paul's letters like that, you see the tremendous burden he had for every church that it might finally be 1:48 a pure bride of Christ. And particularly when he knows that Satan is always present to try lead them astray not to murder or adultery and things like that which are very obvious, but very subtly 2:08 leading them astray from instead of concentrating on life concentrating on knowledge. It's a very subtle shift because many people they don't understand the difference between going to the Bible to get knowledge 2:27 and going to the Bible to get life. The purpose with which God gave us scripture is not that we might have a lot of knowledge but that we might become more like Jesus Christ. And that was Paul's passion. And 2:46 the way we can be a pure virgin for Christ is if we have that passion to be like Christ. So, I want to turn to the beginning of scripture Genesis and 3:02 let's see something of the heart of God from the beginning. As I said, we can read this Bible for various reasons. And um one of the prayers I have when I go to scripture is 3:22 Lord I want to see your heart when I read this book. The heart of God. So many people when they read the Old Testament get bogged down with so many non-essentials. 3:38 And they try to find I get sometimes emails from people saying what is this verse mean, what is that verse mean, and they bogged down with non-essentials. I say if you go to the scriptures to see, "Lord, I want to see your heart." 3:55 Think of it like this. Think of a relationship between Jesus Christ and us like a man who's engaged to be married to a girl whom he loves very much. Some of us have gone through that experience of 4:15 falling in love with somebody and finally marrying her. And during that period of engagement or courtship, if you if the girl got a letter from her fiance, she's not going to be worried about if 4:37 he misspelled one word or the grammar was not right or uh this sentence doesn't seem to fit in with this sentence. If a girl reads a letter like that, I know she's not in love with that man. She's an English teacher who's trying to 4:54 correct It's better they don't get married. That's how it is to go to the Bible and analyze all these things. But the person who's in love with that man, she don't care about all these things. She's not analyzing. She says, "I see 5:10 the heart of my beloved here." I don't know whether you go to the Bible like that. That shows whether you have the heart of the bride or an analytical approach, the heart of a 5:30 theologian. I don't want to be a theologian. I want to be the bride of Jesus Christ. He came to earth not to win a theologian. He came to earth to win a bride. Remember this. He came to earth and died and shed his blood 5:48 to win me that I might be his bride. I hope you will always see yourself like that. He didn't come to earth to die to make you a Bible scholar. He came to reveal the heart of God to you. 6:05 And when you read the scriptures seek to see the heart of God. It will be completely different. And when I preach I seek to reveal that heart to others. I don't want to present myself as a 6:24 great speaker with nice points. I'm not against all that. I I've done it myself. Well, there are so many preachers who make sure that all the points begin with the same letter of the alphabet. It's called alliteration. Well, it give make gives a good 6:43 impression. But much more than that I feel that when I when I see the preaching of Jesus many years ago I studied the preaching of Jesus. And I said, "Lord I don't want to preach like all these other preachers I've seen on television 7:01 or in public meetings. I want to try and see how you preached in the gospels. That's my example. I want to follow you. And that's one reason you don't see me running around the platform uh while I'm speaking. Cuz I don't picture Jesus 7:20 you know, running around saying, "Blessed are the pure in spirit pure in heart blessed are the poor in spirit." No, I think he was very quiet. It says he sat down on the mountain and said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for 7:30 theirs the kingdom of God." So so many preachers I find today they pattern themselves after somebody they admire. I admire Jesus. Not only in preaching, that's my calling, so I admire him there, but in every area of your life, 7:47 if you look at Jesus, he'll show you, the Holy Spirit will show you exactly how he was. So, when I read the scriptures right from Genesis, I want to see the heart of God there. And the heart of God is a heart that wants to 8:03 restore what the devil has corrupted. We saw Paul saying that I'm afraid that the devil will lead you astray like he led Eve astray. Not to something evil. As I said, if it were to something evil, we don't need 8:23 the Holy Spirit to alert us. I mean, you can be a unbeliever and still stay away from murder. There are many unbelievers who have never committed adultery in their life, never committed murder. And those gross sins. But, 8:39 the devil does not seek to lead Christians into all that because he knows he's not going to succeed in most cases. But, in his very most subtle ways, another Jesus, he'll give you some experience in your body and think, 8:52 "You're filled with the Holy Spirit." And I say, "Really? Evil spirits make people evil. Unclean spirits make people unclean. Holy Spirit should make people holy. Logical. 9:10 But, it doesn't work like that. In most churches, they say evil spirits make people evil, unclean spirits make people unclean. You receive the Holy Spirit, you'll feel tingling in your body and speak in tongues. How does that work? 9:24 We mixed it all up. I'm not against physical experiences. I'm not against speaking in tongues. I've spoken in tongues for 42 years, and I thank God for the gift. But, that is not the mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit. 9:38 The Holy Spirit, I'll tell you, fills our heart according to Romans 5:5, with a fervent love for God and love for one another, love for others, especially for those who hate me, those who speak evil of me, those who curse me. 9:55 That to me is the mark I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It's a great verse. To me, that's the verse that indicates I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. And it 10:12 also shows me how I can be filled with the Spirit at one time and not be filled with the Spirit at another time. If I just lose that love for somebody who treats me badly, I don't have to worry about him. I got to go to God and say, "Lord, 10:31 I could love I could not love that man. Please fill me with the Spirit again. Somehow something leaked out." Do you ever think of it like that? When you lost your temper at someone, do you go to God and say, "Lord, what he did against me, which made me 10:49 lose my temper, is not the important thing. I lost the fullness of the Holy Spirit at that moment. That's what disturbs me, Lord. I want you always to be able to say about me, 'This is my beloved son, 11:08 in whom I'm well pleased.' Make that your goal. 'This is my beloved daughter, in whom I'm well pleased.' That's I'll tell you honestly before God, that's my passion. I want my heavenly Father to look down at me 24 hours a day 11:27 and say, "This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased." That means if I slip up, I get up immediately. Just like if Just like if I slip on the road there, I I won't wait even 1 second. I get up immediately. That means 11:38 if I slip up uh maybe spoke a rude word somewhere, immediately I get up. Getting up means confess to God, "Lord, I'm sorry. I slipped up there." And confess to the person to whom I spoke that rude word, not 1 hour later, 11:54 immediately, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." If you are like that, to your wife, to your husband, to people at work, to your subordinates, then you are really got a passion that 12:12 your heavenly father should be pleased with you. Otherwise, my dear brothers and sisters, let me speak the plain truth to you. Don't let the devil deceive you into thinking that you're a wholehearted Christian. You are not. 12:30 When you fall into sin, you don't get up immediately. That's the proof. You don't confess immediately to God. You don't ask forgiveness from the person you hurt immediately. You are not wholehearted. However many people in the world think 12:48 you're wholehearted, you are fooling yourself. It's very simple. Do you do that if you fall on the road? No. There you get up immediately. You're more concerned about your physical getting up than your spiritual getting up. 13:06 I'm telling you the truth. And this teaching is not mine. It's according to God's word. So, I see God is a god of restoration. And I see that in the very first chapter of scripture where 13:25 God created something, it says in verse one, God created the heaven and the earth. And just by the way, I just want to say a word about creation and evolution. I believe in creation. 100% 13:44 But I do not believe like all these creationists that the earth the heaven and earth were created in seven days, six days. No. I believe what it says in Genesis 1 verse 1. It was created in a moment. Like it says in Hebrews 11. 14:02 In a moment, in the beginning God created the heaven and earth. He did not take six days to do that. What he took six days to do was to remake the earth which is corrupted by the fall of Lucifer, the head of the angels. 14:22 And that's what happened between verse one and two. You need to understand that. Why is it not written here? Why is it written in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14? Because this book was not written for angels. This book was written for man. 14:39 So the fall of the angels is mentioned later on, but it happened here between verse one and two. And I'll tell you why. Because it says in verse two, the earth was formless and void, empty. God never makes anything formless and 14:53 empty and dark. Some people believe that. There's a lot of so-called creationists who believe that this perfect almighty God created a formless empty dark earth. Rubbish. James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift comes from 15:12 the Father. There's nothing imperfect from him. And there was nothing imperfect here in verse one. How in the world did it become imperfect, formless, shapeless, empty, dark. In verse two, God never does anything like that. 15:28 It's because of sin. And that's why we know that the devil came there. He was the head of the angels and he fell. And just like when Adam fell, the earth was cursed and there were wild animals and thorns and weeds. In the same way when the head of the angels 15:47 fell between verse one and two, immediately the earth became shapeless and empty and dark because that's because uh Lucifer, the head of the angels, lived on the earth. We read that in Ezekiel 28. He was in the garden of 16:01 Eden. There was a garden of Eden in Genesis chapter one verse one before you read of it in word chapter three. You read that in Ezekiel 28 that he was in the garden of God. And when he sinned, the earth became shapeless, empty, and void. And what 16:18 what do we see? Immediately immediately the spirit of God moved. There was no delay. As soon as God saw this thing has happened like this, 16:35 he began to move to do what? To restore this corrupt earth and make it so beautiful that at the end of chapter one he could say it's very good. That is a message to us. There's a parable in Genesis chapter one of man 16:54 created perfect by God. And the devil comes and makes him dark, empty, and lose the shape, the image of God, gone. And immediately the Holy Spirit comes to work to remake us into the image of God. And 17:13 not only the Holy Spirit, the word of God as well. There are two ways in which God remakes us through the Holy Spirit and God's word. We see them both here in verse two, the Holy Spirit in verse three, the word of God. Throughout every day 17:29 you read the word of God came. First day, second day, third day, fourth day. Like Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And it's that word of God and the operation of 17:44 the Holy Spirit that changed that corrupt shapeless Earth into something so beautiful that God could look at it and say, "Very good." And I believe God did it day by day by day to give us a message that I'm not going to change you like that in one 18:00 moment into the likeness of Christ. I will change you, but I will change you day by day by day by day until one day you'll become like me. That's the message. Otherwise, God could have remade the whole Earth and heaven in a moment. He doesn't need 6 days. 18:17 There's a message in that for you and me. Don't get discouraged if the first day the work is not complete. There is another day coming. Don't get discouraged if the second day the work is not complete. If you wholeheartedly cooperate with God every 18:32 day. Because remember, God examines his work at the end of every day. At the end of the first day, he examined his work and he said, "It was good." He examines his work. At the end of the third day, it was 18:52 good. The end of the fourth day, it was good. Not perfect yet, but up to what I wanted to do, good. That is God's will for each of us. That each day of our life, as he examines how we have lived that day at the end of our life end of the 19:08 end of the day rather, good. Where you slipped up during the day, you confessed it immediately. You set things right with God and with man. You sought with all your heart to be free from self-centeredness, to die to yourself and to live for 19:26 Christ. You were not perfect, but you repented of that. And you judged yourself and purified yourself. At the end of the day, God says, "Good." I want God to say that to me at the end of every day. And if there's anything not set right by 19:45 the end of the day, I want to set it right before I go to bed. You know, in Ephesians 4 it says, "Don't go to bed angry." It's a good word for husbands and wives. Even if you haven't got victory over 20:03 anger, don't go to bed angry. Ephesians 4, let me read that verse to you. It has a connection with Genesis 1. At the end of the day, God has to say it's good. And if you want us God to say it's good, it says here, Ephesians 4 20:23 and verse It's talking about how we speak to one another. Ephesians 4:25. "Lay aside all falsehood, speak the truth each one of you with the neighbor." That means speak in love to one another because we are members of one another, 20:39 especially husband and wife. "If you're angry, don't sin." There is an anger which is not sin. And that is the anger that Jesus manifested when he saw people making money in the name of religion in the temple. An anger that made him whip them all 20:59 out. The anger that Jesus had when he saw the Pharisees unwilling to allow a man with a withered hand to be healed. It says looked at them with anger and said, "You care for your donkeys that fall into the pit and you don't 21:12 want this man to be healed?" That type of anger was right. There's an anger that is sinful. When they slapped Jesus on his face, if he got angry, that would have been sin. He never sinned. He never got angry. They called him devil. He didn't get 21:29 angry. What I learned from that is be angry and don't sin. Where my concern is for the glory of God in a church, in a situation, to be angry is right. But if I'm angry because somebody spoke evil of me 21:48 or did harm to me or to my family or spoke badly to me or hurt me, that anger is sin. Wherever any anger is centered around me, it's sin. But anger that concerns the glory of God is right. So, that's how I understand that verse. 22:06 Be angry, but I don't want to sin. In any case, don't let the sun set on your anger. Sunset was the day in those days sunset was the time people went to bed. Today we have electricity, so we'll sit up till midnight, but those 22:21 days when the sun set, it was God's signal, go to bed now. Wake up at 5:00 in the morning when the sun rises again. So, what he's saying is when you go to bed, make sure you're not angry. I wish I could say that to every husband 22:36 and wife on the face of the earth, especially believers. Even if you had some tension during the day, what does it say in verse 25? We are members of one another. Has there been a dislocation of one member? Put it back in place. 23:00 Was the bone broken? Put it back in place. Set it right. A broken bone takes a long time to be joined, but a restoration between a husband and wife 5 seconds. Don't leave it like that when you go to bed. 23:18 Don't go to bed angry. And not only with husband and wife. Don't go to bed angry with any brother or sister. If that guy's angry with you, you can't help it. But you make sure you have no anger against that person. See, God does 23:34 not hold you responsible for the way another person in the body of Christ behaves towards you. That's a great relief to me. He does not say be at peace with everybody. What does it say? Let's read carefully. 23:52 Romans 12 verse 18. It's a very interesting verse. Romans 12 verse 18. It does not say be at peace with all men. That would be a command that is impossible to obey. What does it say? 24:11 If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. That I can obey. As far as it depends on me, I want to be at peace. But what can I do the other guy doesn't want to be at peace with me and the 24:29 Bible says be at peace with everybody? I would have been struggling under an impossible burden. Lord, I can't be at peace with him. He doesn't want to be at peace with me. And the Lord says, "No, I haven't told you. I've told you as far 24:41 as it depends on you. If possible." Do you know that this is the only command in the Bible where it says if possible? Nowhere does it say if possible don't kill anybody. If possible don't commit adultery. If possible, don't tell lies. 25:01 If possible, don't let any bad word come out of your mouth. No, those are all absolute commands. Let no evil word come out of your mouth. There's no impossible there. It's not possible because you don't humble yourself. It's not possible 25:17 because you don't get grace. God gives grace only to the humble. But when it comes to peace with all men, even peace with your marriage partner, there is no command saying it must be there. If possible, as far as it depends on 25:36 you, you make sure there's no anger in your heart. You can't do anything about the other person's heart. Do your part to keep the body united in your marriage and in the church. It's all got to do with your heart. As 25:55 far as it depends on you, so in other words, you have to judge yourself. Lord, is there a wrong attitude in my heart? How can I preserve this unity at the end of the day, like we read in Genesis 1, for God to say, "It's good." 26:15 He cannot say it's good if there's some bitterness left in my heart towards somebody, towards anyone, at the end of the day. And that's a very important aspect of oneness in the body. We are talking about oneness 26:33 in the body of Christ. And Paul wrote these strong words to the Corinthians, I told you, saying, "You, Corinthians, I want you to be a pure virgin for Christ." And let me show you one of the other strong things that he wrote to 26:48 them. To the Corinthians, where he wanted to preserve them. Second Corinthians chapter 2 is There was a man there in the church in Corinth who fell into terrible sexual sin. 27:06 And the elders in the church in Corinth were so lax and loose in their attitude. They didn't They didn't discipline him. And Paul had to write a strong letter and said, "Put that man out of your church." Is that an act of love? 27:25 Put that man out of your church. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to say that. And Paul went on to say he had apostolic authority. It's amazing the authority God gives to apostles. Paul said, "I am handing that man over to Satan." 27:43 Can a man hand another man over to Satan? An apostle can. You read that in 1 Corinthians 5. I hand him over to Satan not for him to go to hell. No, no, no. I want to hand him over to Satan so that 28:00 Satan gives him some sickness or some problem in his life that will torment him that he will finally turn to the Lord. That's the purpose in 1 Corinthians 5. So that he may be saved. He says in 1 Corinthians 5. So he says when he's put out of the 28:20 church, "I want all of you people in the church not to have anything to do with him. Don't visit him. Don't go and comfort him because then he'll never come back to the Lord." And they obeyed. They didn't have this false sense of 28:36 love saying, "Paul's hard on you, brother, but I'll be compassionate towards you." That's how we destroy God's work. These Corinthians obeyed Paul and they kept that man at a distance, never visited him because he'd been 28:48 disciplined. What was the result? That man repented. That was Paul's aim, that he would repent and come back. And so now he writes to them, to the Corinthians, see verse six, 2 Corinthians 2:6, 29:07 "Sufficient for such a one is the punishment that was inflicted by the majority." What is the punishment? You never visited him. But there was some There was a minority that were foolish and tried to show a human love to that 29:25 person, but that did not affect God's work. The majority said, "We have nothing to do with you." It's very interesting to read scripture. What we call love sometimes is not love at all. We destroy people. But the majority here listened to Paul 29:42 and they kept him at a distance and that was a punishment that he could not have fellowship in the church. And now he says that the man has repented. Now you should forgive him. He's repented. He's turned around 30:01 because of the attitude of the majority towards him. He's turned around. Now forgive him and comfort him, otherwise he'll be overwhelmed by sorrow. And now, verse 10, "If you forgive anyone, I forgive him also." Now listen to this. 30:17 If we don't forgive Now, taking that stand in discipline at that time was right. Now he's come back, you must forgive him wholeheartedly, ignore the mistake he made, forgive him for what he did wrong, welcome him as a brother in Christ. If 30:31 you don't forgive him like that, verse 11, "Satan will take advantage of you." And we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes. So, what we learn from that verse is that when you don't forgive somebody, Satan gets an advantage over you. Did 30:51 you know that? Forgive him. Because if you don't do that, Satan will take advantage of you. Read verse 10 and 11 together. An unforgiving attitude towards somebody brings a break in the 31:11 body of Christ. I told you how the Satan We read that how Satan came and drew Eve away from simple pure devotion to Christ. And as soon as that happened, a separation came between Adam and Eve. And I told you the very 31:29 next thing you see Adam doing is pointing his finger at Eve and saying, "God, she's the cause of all the problem." I sometimes wish you could see a painting of that. Adam pointing his finger at Eve. 31:49 A scene that has been repeated thousands of times in human history between husband and wife and wife and husband. She. He. I wish I could put that in every home. And say that's how the devil comes. 32:08 Get rid of it. Let me show you this verse in Isaiah 58, beautiful verse. You know, the Bible is a wonderful book. You missed out on a a lot in it if you don't study it. Here's one of those wonderful verses which you may have missed out on. 32:31 Verse 8, your light will break out like dawn. Isaiah 58 verse 8. Your righteousness will go before you, verse 8. The glory of God will back you up. Will take care of your back. Isn't that wonderful? People say, "Please protect my back." He says, "The 32:50 glory of God will take care of your back." And you will call and the Lord will answer immediately. As soon as you cry, Isaiah 58 verse 9, the Lord will say, "Here I am." Do you find that type of experience when you pray? 33:06 You pray and the Lord says, "Yes. What do you want?" He says, "But you got to do one thing. You got to remove this point pointing of the finger at others." You notice that? 33:22 Get rid of this pointing of the finger. Isaiah 58:9, "Then the Lord will listen to you immediately." Now you know why the Lord's not been listening to you. Remember this picture? 33:41 Adam pointing his finger at Eve. And you pointing your finger at someone. And you pray and the Lord doesn't say, "Here I am." You pray again. You pray for years. Nothing happens. Because that is the spirit of 34:00 accusation. And Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And he got you to cooperate with him. Satan is the great finger pointer. And it says we got to overcome that. 34:19 Turn with me to Revelation chapter 12. In Revelation chapter 12 we read the one who points the finger. Revelation 12:10 it says about 34:39 You know, this talks in verse 9 about the devil who is called in Revelation 12:9 the dragon, the old serpent, the devil, Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. The deceiver of the whole world is also 34:57 called in verse 10, the last part, the accuser of the brethren. He deceives the world, but he accuses the brethren. It's a title of Satan, by the way. Deceiver of the world and accuser 35:15 of believers. Who accuses them to God day and night. He's a full-time worker. 24 hours he's on the job. Always the looking out to see did 35:40 somebody slip up? God, see that? The guy says he's your child. That woman says she's your daughter. Look how she's talking now. Look how he's talking. Look how they are behaving. The accuser of the brethren. And it says in the next verse, but the 35:58 overcomers verse 11, overcame him. Do you want to be an overcomer? Overcome this accusing spirit that is in you. We've all got this poison that came down from Adam. Adam's nature 36:17 is in our children. Adam's nature was in us when we were babies. All of us, when we were children, have pointed the finger at somebody else. Mommy, he hit me. She did that first. We've done it from childhood. Where did we get that pointing finger 36:35 from? From Adam. The accuser. He got into Adam and made him accuse his wife. And he's moving around churches today to make sure they don't become a pure virgin for Christ. 36:54 As long as the spirit of accusation is there found in anyone in the church, that church is not going to be a pure virgin for Christ. That's why Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Forgive. Otherwise, Satan will get an advantage 37:10 over you." And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb. That sin has been cleansed in the blood of Christ. I I I want to remove this accusing finger so that when I call out to God, God says, "Here I am." Remember that 37:29 verse in Isaiah 58? You'll call to the Lord and he'll say, "Here I am." When you get rid of this pointing of the finger. Always remember that verse because that's the accuser of the brethren. He's always looking to see somebody 37:41 wrong, something wrong in someone. Do you have sharp eyes like that to look to see who did something wrong and a tongue that is loose after that to go and tell other people instead of overcoming Satan. So, 38:00 this is what we need to bear in mind when we think of building, doing our part to build the body of Christ. Let's turn back to Genesis chapter 1. We were there how I told you at the end of each day God should be able to say 38:20 good. Not perfect yet. It'll need a few more days. End of the first day, good. I noticed something interesting. When you read scripture carefully, you notice that in the second day 38:39 it says he separated the heaven from the earth, the waters above the heaven and the waters beneath. And then that is the only day where I don't read it's written it is good. 38:58 And I wondered about that because all the other days he said it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good. But the second day somehow it got left out. And I thought there must be a reason for it and I I don't know the full answer, 39:08 but I think maybe because that's where Satan is in the heavenlies. The Bible says in Ephesians 6 that Satan and his demons are in the heavenlies, in the second heaven. The third heaven is where God dwells, where we read in 2 Corinthians 12 39:25 Paul was caught up to the third heaven. The first heaven is space that we see. Between the two is the second heaven where Satan dwells. And that's the reason why it is not said it is good because there was something that was not good in the 39:37 second heaven. But otherwise every day I see this, God's seeing it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good. And finally, what happens on the sixth day? On the sixth day it says verse 27, man is finally in the image of God. 39:56 And that's where we're going to end up. If we allow if we judge ourselves every day and allow God to say it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, good. It'll take more than six days, but many hundreds of days, but one day if we 40:11 purify ourselves as he is pure we will be like him. Made in the image of God. And then man and woman in fellowship with each other without anybody pointing finger at each other. God says, "Very good." Verse 31. That's wonderful. 40:33 And that's the goal towards which you're going. So this matter of ending each day without anger, let me just say a few words about that. If you turn with me to Matthew's Gospel chapter 18. Matthew 18. 40:56 There's a very important lesson that Jesus taught the disciples here. I've heard it said, I don't know whether it's true, that the Jewish rabbis in Jesus' time taught people, 41:15 "You must forgive people at least three times." And beyond that, you do something about it, but three times forgive them. So Peter decided to be better than the rabbis and says to Jesus, "Lord, we are your followers, right? 41:35 Should we forgive our brother seven times?" And he expected Jesus to say, "Wow, Peter, that's great. You're better than the rabbis." But he doesn't say that. He says, "Not seven times. 41:51 70 * 7." And in Luke chapter 17, he speaks about it in one day. Can you imagine forgiving a person 490 times in one day? There are only 24 hours a day. So 490 times in 24 hours about 20 times 42:10 every hour. So it's like something like somebody comes and yells at you and you say, "Okay, I forgive you." He says, "I'm sorry." 3 minutes later, he comes and yells at you again and says, "I'm sorry." Okay, forgiven. Another 3 minutes later, again. In 1 42:28 hour, he's yelled at you 20 times and said 20 times, "I'm sorry." What are you supposed to do? Forgive. It says here, it's very interesting to see that in Luke 17. Turn with me to 42:47 Luke 17 for a moment. Then come back to Matthew 18. Luke 17. "Be on your guard," it says. "If your brother sins seven times a day," as Luke 17:4, "and he returns to you seven times saying, 'I'm sorry,' forgive him." I like what the apostle said. 43:08 "Lord, please give us more of faith to believe this guy's really sorry when he comes seven times in a day to say, 'I'm sorry.' It's pretty difficult to believe it. Increase our faith." So, anyway, coming back to Matthew 18, 43:23 Peter said, "How many times shall I forgive my brother?" "Seven times." And Jesus said, "Not seven times, but 70 * 7." And then he tells a very interesting story, which it is very, very important for you and I to understand. 43:42 The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, and you know the king is God himself, who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. And we are his slaves. And like we read in 2 Corinthians 5, we have to give an 43:58 account of what we did in our body. So, this is picturing that. And there was a man who was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And in the margin of my Bible it says that is 44:16 the margin of the NASB 10 million dollars. Wow. 10 million dollars. And it's just I mean today it may not be much for many people but 44:34 think of the value of 10 million dollars 2,000 years ago. What was it? A few hundreds of billions of dollars. That's a picture of how much we owe God for our sins. It's a massive massive amount, trillions that we owe God. 44:53 And he had the man did not have anything to pay. And the Lord commanded him to be verse 25 to be sold along with his wife and children. And he has to make repayment. And the man falls down before him and says, "Have patience with me. 45:13 I will repay you everything." Stupid response. You think you're going to repay a trillion dollars? He's never going to be able to do it. And the king knew that. And the Lord had compassion and released him. 45:31 And forgave him his debt completely. Imagine forgiving trillions of dollars. Forgiven. And that slave went out and found someone 45:49 who owed him a hundred denarii. Now it doesn't tell me exactly how much that is in terms of money but I think it would be something like $20. Here is somebody who's been forgiven 46:07 trillions. And he finds somebody who owes him $20. And says, "Pay it back." And that man said the same thing to him which he said to his king. "Have patience with me. I'll repay you." 46:25 He says, "No. Sorry. I cannot forgive you." And he threw him in prison. Verse 31, his fellow slaves heard that. They saw what happened. They were grieved and they came and reported it to the king. 46:43 And the king called him back. Now, here comes this big question. If God forgives you once, can he put all those sins back on your head again after having forgiven you? Many people will say, "No." I say, 47:02 "Yes." And my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. It's in the book. Whatever ideas you may have about God, do you know that God never says, "I have forgotten your past"? 47:20 Never. What he says in Hebrews 8:12 is, "I will not remember. I choose not to remember your past when you repent and put it under the blood of Christ. I haven't forgotten it." How can God forget 47:37 the sins I committed 60 years ago? I remember it. Does God have a poorer memory than me? Ridiculous. If I can remember all the foolish, stupid things I did in my past life, how can you say that 47:55 God doesn't know it? He remembers it very well. But when he says in Hebrews 8:12, I will not remember, he's saying I choose not to remember it because you have repented of it, because you asked me to forgive you. It's forgiven, and I 48:11 will not remember it. Every time you come before me, I will not look upon you and say, "Ah, that's the guy who did all that." No. I will look at you as if you had never sinned in your whole life. It's not that he's forgotten, but he's 48:27 chosen to look at me as if I had never sinned in my whole life. Now, this is a very liberating truth here, if you want to understand it. We're thinking of building the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. Many people say, I've heard many 48:42 preachers say this. It's wrong. When you forgive somebody, you must forget what he did. That's impossible. And whoever says that they've forgotten is a liar. I can tell him to his face, "You're a liar, if you say that you've 48:57 forgotten the evil other people did to you, even if you forgave them." Because we have no control over our memory. We have a control over our will. I can choose to forgive somebody, but the thing will not go out of my memory. 49:11 There are many people who have done evil to me. I have forgiven every single one of them. I can say that before God. There's not a single person on Earth whom I've not forgiven. But do I remember what they did? Sure. But if I meet them, will I hold that 49:27 against them? No. I choose not to remember. I forgive them exactly like God forgave me. How does God forgive me? He says, God says, "I remember, but I will not I choose not to remember it." So, when I see a person who's done me 49:43 some harm, I can I may remember what he did, but I choose not to remember, and I treat him how does God treat me? As if I'd never sinned. I want to treat him as if he had never sinned against me. That is how we are to forgive. So, I say that don't live with 49:58 a guilty conscious. Oh Lord, I still remember what he did. You will remember all your life. But don't hold it against him when you meet him or her. That's all that God expects. But if you don't forgive that person, you're actually catching him by the 50:16 throat. It says here, he threw him in the jail and and um this man was summoned by the king. And listen, I want to see two or three things here, very very important, especially for those who are sitting 50:36 here who may not have forgiven somebody who hurt you in the past. Can you think of somebody who hurt you really badly in the past? And I'll tell you what is more hurtful. 50:54 If somebody hurt your son or daughter, that's even worse than hurting me. Somebody did some terrible thing to your son or daughter or to your wife or husband. And I'm sure you can remember 51:18 such people right now as I'm speaking. I want to ask you a straight question. Have you said before God, "Lord, I forgive that person completely. I have forgiven him in your presence. 51:40 I can't do anything about my memory, Lord, but I have forgiven him. I do not hold it against him. He cheated me. Maybe somebody cheated you of your family property. Forgive him. God will give you something better. Maybe somebody harmed you in a way that 52:02 the effect of it lasts on you till now. Forgive him. Maybe the doctor made a mistake in the operation. And you can't forgive that doctor. 52:21 Because the effect of it lingers in your body till now. Forgive him. You'll experience miracles. I've experienced it myself. I remember years ago 52:41 it was before I was married. It was way back 50 years ago. Where I went in for a very small very minor operation where they put me under general anesthesia. And 53:04 I felt okay. But a few days later I found a tremendous pain down my arm all the way down. Severe pain and I wondered what happened. I went to see a neurosurgeon. 53:23 And he asked me he said oh, did you did anybody put you under anesthesia recently anywhere? I said, yes, somewhere else. I had to go for a minor operation and ah, and said, well, I'll tell you what happened." 53:43 He said, "When they lifted you off from the operating table, they were not careful." "Why is Was it a proper hospital?" I said, "No, it was a small village hospital." "Ah," he said, "the people there they didn't lift your head properly when 53:58 they took you off on the operating table and your head head must have fallen backwards and hurt the nerve there and that's affected your arm. You'll have to live with this for the rest of your life." And I was going to get married in a 54:15 couple of months after that. Can you imagine how I felt? I had no victory over sin those days. And one proof of that was the way I wrote a letter to that doctor. Um I wrote a real stinker to him. Because I was mad. 54:40 And um I said, "Thank you for the wedding gift you gave me. Pain in my right arm for the rest of my life." He was a believer, by the way. And after I posted the letter, I think the next day the Lord said, "That's not the way any child of mine 55:00 should write or speak to anybody." I repented. I said, "Lord, I'm sorry." The Lord said, "Write another letter apologizing for what you wrote." Before he got the first one. I wrote the second one. 55:21 I said, "Brother, I wrote that in a moment of anger. I'm really sorry. You didn't do it deliberately. Please forgive me for writing. I love you as my brother in Christ." And I completely forgive him whoever was the uh 55:40 attendant in that I don't know who it was in that operating theater. And lo and behold, a few days later this pain disappeared completely. And I never had a problem for 50 years. Do you believe in miracles? It wasn't any injection, any number of 56:01 injections and physiotherapy would not have cured me. Forgiveness cured me immediately. This is real life. What I had done against God was a million times worse than what that person accidentally did 56:21 against me. And I couldn't forgive. I get upset. Has that happened to you? To any of you? Have you suffered because of the mistakes somebody else made and that affects the loss in your home or in 56:38 your life or in your children or in you? We live in a fallen world. All around us people make mistakes and some of those mistakes can hurt us. I heard the other day of I read of a someone who 56:58 backed out his own car in the driveway and didn't realize his little child was behind the car and ran over the child and killed it. How do you feel after that? Can you forgive yourself after accidentally killing your own 57:16 child? Carelessness. You can do nothing about it. We live in a fallen world, brothers and sisters. Don't expect perfection in this world. You'll make mistakes that may hurt your own children. That will hurt others. Others will make 57:34 mistakes that hurt you. And some of those effects of some of that may be permanent. But your unforgiveness does not have to be permanent. You can forgive. Think of the story. You must be thinking that you committed 57:51 very few sins against God for you not to forgive somebody. When you realize that your debt to God is so immense, I believe the problem with many of us is that we haven't seen how serious sin is. I see two pictures in the Bible which 58:08 show me how serious sin is. Two pictures. One is the Garden of Eden where man was thrown out for one sin. And the other is Calvary's cross where almighty God with all the wisdom he had could find no other way 58:27 to remove our sin except by allowing his own son to come and die that terrible death on the cross. That shows me how terrible sin is. He didn't die on the cross to heal me of my sicknesses. He didn't die on the cross to make me wealthy. All these 58:42 foolish things people preach. He died on the cross for my sins. Christ died for our sins, period. Not because of my poverty, not because of my sickness. He died for my sins and I need to see how serious it is. I can forgive. Now, 59:01 when this man did not forgive in the story, I want you to notice these three things. First of all, the king called him verse 32 wicked. You wicked 59:20 slave. Do you know what God calls anyone here who has not forgiven somebody. You wicked man. You wicked woman. It's not me. This is God 59:38 speaking to anyone here who has not forgiven somebody something the equivalent of $10 when he's forgiven you trillions. You wicked person. I don't want God to call me a wicked person. But an unforgiving spirit makes 59:57 you a wicked person. If you remember what your wife or husband did in your past life and you keep that memory before you and hold that unforgiving attitude, you are a wicked person. I don't care how spiritual you think you are. 1:00:15 I don't care which church you belong to. New Covenant Church, doesn't make a difference. You're a wicked person. Because you will not forgive somebody some petty little thing compared to petty compared to how much God forgave 1:00:30 you. And the second thing I want you to notice here is verse 34. God is angry with you. There are a lot of people who say God will never be angry with you. He's sad. Certain times he is sad, I agree, when 1:00:48 you slip up and fall. I tell you, if you slipped up and fell into adultery God won't be angry with you. He'll be sad. You repent, he'll forgive you. But if you don't forgive someone he will be angry. 1:01:06 Verse 34, the Lord was moved with anger. I never see Jesus angry with someone who committed adultery. That woman caught in adultery, the Lord says it's okay. You slipped up, don't do it again. Or the murderer on the cross, 1:01:26 he's not angry with him. He doesn't say, "You wicked fellow, you murdered so many people." "You'll be with me in paradise because you have repented." But someone who doesn't forgive others, God is angry with every such person. 1:01:41 And the third thing I want you to see here is he hands such a believer over to the torturers. Verse 34. The torturers are demons. Does God hand over one of his children 1:01:59 to demons? I told you how Paul did that in 1 Corinthians 5. "I hand him over to Satan." Well, here it says God hands over that person 1:02:14 to tormentors to torment that person. Perhaps the reason for some of your sicknesses that are never healed are here. That you haven't forgiven somebody. 1:02:35 And the tormentors have got a hold of your body and are tormenting you day and night. You can take any number of pills and injections. You can go to any number of healing meetings and get men of God to lay their hands on you and pray for you, you will 1:02:51 never be healed until you forgive. I'm not saying that is the cure for all sicknesses, don't misunderstand me. But I'm absolutely convinced that is the cure for some sicknesses. I don't have a doubt about it 1:03:09 because I experienced it just as I just told you in my own body. And I'm sure there are many other people who are being tormented. They can't sleep properly at night. Their mind is tormented with something or the other. 1:03:25 Why not do the simple thing? Go to God and say, "Lord, I forgive that person. And that other person, I forgive that person. And that other one who did such terrible 1:03:43 evil to me that effect of it is still in my body. I forgive that person. That person who troubled my child, poor innocent child, I forgive that person. He doesn't deserve forgiveness, but Lord, I didn't deserve forgiveness 1:03:58 either when I came to you. You forgave me. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive. Go through the list till there's not one person left. All are forgiven. And see the Lord saying to you, 1:04:18 "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. Man, you're free from your sickness." It can happen. It can happen. The last verse, verse 35, "So shall my heavenly Father 1:04:36 do to you." What will he do? He'll call you wicked? He'll be angry? And he'll hand you over to the torturers. "So shall my heavenly Father do to you." Who is he talking to? Verse 21, Peter. He's talking to Peter. 1:04:56 Don't forget that. "So shall my Peter, so shall my heavenly Father do to you." Look who he's talking to. Picture in your mind, Jesus, Peter. "So shall my heavenly Father do to you if any of you disciples don't forgive your 1:05:12 from your heart. That is the important thing. I remember years ago when I didn't have light on all this. Days when the new covenant was a strange doctrine for me. And but I knew I had to forgive. 1:05:34 And there was one person who did some harm to me and I said, "Lord, I forgive him." And later on when I heard that something bad happened to him, I felt a little happy. The Lord said, "Are you happy?" 1:05:55 I said, "I'm sorry, Lord. I am happy." And the Lord said, "You have not forgiven him from your heart." I said, "Thank you, Lord, for that revelation. I'd only forgiven him with words." What a revelation it was. I'm glad I 1:06:16 discovered it before the tormentors got at me. I said, "Lord, I want to forgive him from my heart. I want you to bless him. I don't want to be happy if something bad happens to him and I don't want to be sad if something good happens to him. 1:06:34 Both ways, it works both ways. I want to release him. And I will pray that you will bless him. You not just forgive. If you want to forgive a person from your heart, go one step further and pray that God will bless that person. 1:06:54 Pray that God will bring him to salvation. Bring her to salvation. That's the greatest blessing. Pray that you will see that person in heaven. And pray that he'll be a disciple of Jesus. Then you know. and pray that you'll be 1:07:09 happy when something good happens to that person and you'll feel really sad if something bad happens to him. Then you know that you've forgiven. You can't do that without the help of the Holy Spirit. That's why you need to say Lord 1:07:24 give me the fullness of the Holy Spirit in my heart so that I can forgive. And let's start Let us start What did Jesus say? You shall be witnesses first of all in Jerusalem then Judea then Samaria then to the uttermost parts 1:07:40 of the earth. So before forgiving all the people in Argentina, let's begin with forgiving the people in our own house. The people in Argentina can wait. In our own house and then in our local church. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria that was 1:08:00 like that in concentric circles that we forgive everybody. And from our heart and pray that God will bless them and ask that God will give you grace never to go digging up those graves. Do you know there are many grave diggers among 1:08:15 believers? Grave diggers are those who say I've buried that. I won't talk about it again and then a few years later or some real provocation comes you go to that grave and dig it all up again. Don't be a grave digger. Forgive from the heart and ask the Holy 1:08:34 Spirit to help you. This is what will make us dependent on the Holy Spirit every day. You can't live one day without it because you can forgive and keep that attitude for 10 years and all of a sudden something can happen 1:08:45 that will make you become a grave digger again. Lord, I need the power of the Holy Spirit every day. I need to die to myself every day. You cannot afford to live one day without the cross without the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. 1:09:03 Heavenly Father, please help us to take seriously what we have heard. I want to just take a few moments, my brothers and sisters, while our heads are bowed, and your head is bowed before the Lord, 1:09:21 silently say in your heart, "Lord, I forgive that person, and that person, and that person." And begin to Jerusalem, then go to Judea Samaria, and those you can remember, and say, "Lord, I want you to bless them. 1:09:38 I want you to bless them, Lord. Do good to them. Help me not to hold it against them, even though it's in my memory. I know it'll remain in my memory forever, but I don't want to hold it against them. I don't want to point the finger and be 1:09:55 an accuser of the brethren anymore. Help us, Lord, each one to go this way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
