0:08 I want to turn to Revelation chapter 5. This is a picture of heaven. 0:30 Where in verse 9 it says they sing a new song saying worthy are you to take the book to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe 0:50 tongue people and nation. I don't know whether you realize that in heaven those who are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ will be from every tribe 1:10 every tongue every people and every nation. And repeat it again in chapter 7 and verse 9 I looked and behold a great multitude 1:28 which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues again from every tribe people and tongue. There's something that God wants to accomplish 1:52 by gathering people from every tribe and nation. This is possible only in the new covenant. In the old covenant God had only one nation. 2:11 That was the Jewish people. And you know we've talked a lot about the old covenant. For example, in the old covenant they could only get forgiveness of sins. In the new covenant we have more than forgiveness, we have victory. 2:29 And here's another area in the old covenant it was only one community the Jews. And there's something in human nature that likes to be only with one community. Because it's very easy for us. 2:52 It's very difficult if God puts us with so many different communities. But that's how it's going to be in heaven. And those who are happy only with their own community are going to get a tremendous culture shock when they get to heaven. 3:12 And there'll be people from so many communities. And everything that happens in the church is to prepare us for heaven. We become holy because holiness is going to be there in heaven. 3:31 It's being prepared here. We learn to worship Jesus here because we're going to do that for all eternity in heaven. And we have to learn to mingle with other communities that means you got to die to ourself. When I mingle with my own community 3:50 I don't have to die to myself at all. They're exactly like me. They have the same background as me. It's very easy. The reason we don't want to mingle with other communities is because I have to die to myself and that doesn't come 4:06 naturally. So if I want to be prepared for heaven I got to pursue holiness, I got to learn to worship Jesus. And I have to die to myself to mingle with people who are different from me not just in community but in temperament 4:24 and attitude and So if you love yourself you'll only want to be with people who are just like you. And I've been to many churches in the last so many years. 4:42 And I've seen churches which love to be just one community. Now if you go to a country where everybody in the city is one community you can't help it. Like you go to the villages of India all the people are one community one 5:01 language. That's okay. There's no other alternative. But here in the United States you have a tremendous opportunity which those people on the villages don't have of being with people of different communities. The United States is a nation of 5:24 immigrants. I mean originally the American Indians lived here for centuries and then about 400 years ago the people who were being persecuted in Europe and England fled Christians who were being persecuted fled from there and came to the borders 5:42 of the United States to escape persecution. And there was a lot of land here where they lived. And in these last 400 years it's immigrants who have come here from many many nations. And that's the population of this 6:00 country. In every city and what a wonderful opportunity you have in this country to die to yourself and mingle with people of other nations get and get prepared for heaven where there's going to be people from every tribe and nation. 6:19 More than many other countries have. But whether you're availing of those opportunities I don't know. See many people come from other countries to the United States to make money and they are really wholehearted to avail of that opportunity to make 6:34 money. But what about this other opportunity you have in this country to mingle with people of different nations? I've traveled around a bit in this country and I see German churches only German. Hungarian churches only Hungarian. 6:54 Hispanic churches only Hispanic people. Romanian churches only Romanians even though they all know English. Now if it is a language problem and they meet in that language I can understand. But these are all people who live in the 7:08 United States and know English. But it'll be their community. Indian churches only Indians. And then sub languages in India Tamil churches only Tamilians. Malayalam churches only Malayalam. By the way these are Indian languages. Telugu 7:24 churches only Telugu. And this is in this country where everybody knows English. You see how and they claim to be born again. They claim to even be filled with the spirit. But they are not willing to die to themselves to mingle with another 7:37 community. If you don't believe me just go around and see. All white churches all black churches because it's easy to you don't have to die to yourself. We teach the new That is the Jewish system. In the Jewish system only one 7:54 community. And when these Jews became Christians on the day of Pentecost they didn't want to change that. That's why the Apostle Paul had such a battle to say God has broken down every barrier between Jews and non-Jews. When he 8:10 stretched out his hands on the cross he was bringing the whole world together to become one. But you can be one only on the cross. And one the only place where you can be one is if you're crucified with Christ. Otherwise you'll be a person who loves 8:25 your own community and people of your own temperament and your own intellectual level. You'll mingle only with them because it's easy. For an intellectual person to mingle with someone who's never finished high school never gone past fourth grade 8:40 in school he'll really have to die to himself. And that guy in fourth grade will also have to die to himself to mingle with this guy who is post graduate doctor. That is where the body of Christ is built where each person dies to himself 8:55 in some area. That's what I've discovered in 59 years of being a Christian. And the more you resist that the less you will grow and if you find you've not grown spiritually my brother sister it's because of this. So I was thinking of 9:14 you know how many people we are a small church. How many people do you think how many communities do you think we should have in a small church like this? We have Caucasian Americans Romanians 9:33 Indians Nigerians Ukrainians Canadians African Americans Mexican Sri Lankan nine communities in a small church. 9:53 What does that prove? I think Jesus wants to build his body here. And demonstrate what we're going to see in heaven. From every tribe, tongue, and nation, people worshipping the Lord. And I believe we have a great 10:15 opportunity for that here. It's unique. I tell you it's unique. If you don't believe me, go to some other church and see how it is. Sure. And very often what happens is when people don't like that, all the people of one community will 10:34 pull out and meet entirely on their own. They leave the church. And go and look at that church, it'll all be one community. Every single person. So, the divisions are not based on 10:53 doctrine always. We can give doctrinal excuses. The real reason is pride in one's community. I don't want to go to a heaven where there's every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. I'd like to go to a heaven where 11:11 everybody belongs to my community. But I'm sorry, there is no heaven like that. That's back to the old covenant, the Jews, the Jew Jewish system. But the new covenant is different. When Jesus stretched out his hand, I said, he 11:27 brought the whole world together on the cross. I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, have you been crucified with Christ? Or do you come to church just to listen to good messages? Be stirred up intellectually, emotionally a little 11:46 bit. And um but stick to what you are. I've tried to understand more and more of what it means to be crucified with Christ. All of us belong to a particular community. I belong to a particular 12:03 community, but I died to it completely. It does not make the slightest difference to me today. I can say that before God. What a person is, I can fellowship with any Tom, Dick, or Harry, or whatever other his name is, from any 12:21 community in the world. And he can fellowship with me if he dies on the cross, too. That's how we become one. Otherwise, I want to say to you, our oneness is going to be superficial. 12:37 Friendship. We'll be like a club. The same thing with being intellectual. I mean, if I'm intellectual, I can't take any credit for it. I was born that way. And if someone is not so intellectual, he doesn't have to be ashamed of it. He 12:57 was born that way. But I can say that I have died to that. I fellowship in India with people who cannot read or write because they didn't go to school when 13:15 they were children. Because I can speak their language, I can fellowship with them. And I love to fellowship with them. And I learn things from them that I cannot learn from many intellectual people who are not crucified with Christ. 13:31 If you're crucified with Christ, then it doesn't matter whether you're uneducated or highly educated. All can minister to me. But if you're not crucified with Christ, you'll have we'll be selective 13:50 in our fellowship. I only want to fellowship with either people of my community or people of my intellectual level. And I've discovered that is one of the reasons why some people never never grow spiritually. I see them 20 years later, 14:06 spiritually, they're in the same grade. They haven't overcome any more sins. They're defeated by the same old sins they were defeated by 20 years ago. And they haven't taken advantage of what is God has provided for them in the 14:19 church. It's wonderful to see in the scriptures that we are not in the new covenant. We're not in the Jewish system where everybody was a one type. If we say that we all came from Abraham, 14:38 Isaac, and Jacob, that qualified you to be in that system. It's a hereditary thing that we come with a certain community. I suppose all the Jews had the same color of skin and they all looked alike. And um they're all pretty clever, 14:55 intelligent, because the genes they received from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are I mean, even today you see they're some of the cleverest people in the world, but that's not the basis. They were the people who killed Christ. Don't forget. 15:07 With all their religion and with all their intelligence, when the Son of God came into their midst, they called him Beelzebub, prince of devils. That's how blind you can be if you live under the old covenant. But once you're crucified with Christ, 15:26 you come out of that system. And it doesn't matter who you are. Like I say that there was a time when I was in Adam, and I had all the bad qualities of Adam. You know, looking down on others, 15:45 despising people who are not like me, intellectually or community-wise or anything. And um all the effects of that curse. But one day the Holy Spirit took me out of that tree and grafted me into another tree called 16:03 Jesus Christ. And I got another nature, another set of values. I began to look at people differently. The Bible became a living book. And I decided to stay there, crucified 16:22 with Christ to everything that is of Adam. You probably don't realize how many things within you you glory in because of your culture, community, 16:39 intellect, language, so many things. And all those things will leave you with Adamic qualities that hinder you from following Jesus. You have to die to them when you come to the church. 16:58 By all means, use your intellect when you're doing your work. When I was in the Navy, I was a Christian, but I felt I must do my work absolutely faithfully, better than everybody else on the ship, to show that Christians do their work 17:16 better than everybody else. And God gave me grace for that. And I believe it should be like that. Whatever work you do, you shouldn't be slipshod or careless or waste time. You must do your work faithfully in any office, 17:31 any store, any place you work. That's our testimony as a Christian. But when you come to the church, I leave all that outside the door. It's not my intellect that determines what I am in Christ. Here I have to be crucified to 17:50 everything of Adam. And let the life of Christ come through me. I want to say this, my brothers and sisters, because I believe the life of Adam, the what we call the flesh, is suppressing so much of what the Holy Spirit wants to 18:08 communicate in us. And it could be many of these areas that I just mentioned. In this new covenant system, one of the most important things is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 4 18:27 to the devil in verse 4. A very, very important principle. Man shall not live by bread or food alone, but on every word 18:45 that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Not a few words. Not a few favorite verses that I have memorized. No. You know how careful people are today on diets? I must have this much of 19:04 vegetables, I must have this much of carbs, I must have this much of fruit. And I must not have too much of sugar and etc., etc. Good. I try to follow it myself, because I want to be healthy. I don't want want to die early, not because I love this 19:23 world, but because if there's something more I can do by living one more day for Jesus Christ, I want to live that one more day. That's the only reason. I don't have any love for this rotten old world. I remember reading years ago 19:40 that if you die because you went preaching the gospel in some place where you got a sickness, or you die because people killed you for preaching the gospel, as a young man, you can stand before the Lord faithfully. But if you die because you ate too much 19:55 or you ate the wrong type of food and because of that you die early and you stand before the Lord, what will you say? What will I say? Lord, I ate too much of the wrong type of food. That's why I could not serve you for 20:11 another couple of years on earth. I'll be ashamed and I'll have and once I get to heaven, I can't live my life again. That's why I take even my eating seriously. Because I want uh to live as long as possible to serve 20:30 God and to bring people to Christ and to draw Christians closer to Jesus Christ. That's what you're supposed to do, too, not just me. All of us are witnesses for Christ. There's not a single person in the body of Christ 20:47 who can say, "I've got nothing to do." Is there any part of this body which has no function? Maybe not all are the tongue like me, speaking, speaking, but there are many other functions you can fulfill. So, why do you want to leave this earth 21:01 so soon? Why do you want to leave before you fulfill that particular function which God designed for you when you were in your mother's womb? You must say, "Lord, I want to fulfill that and I want to be disciplined." 21:20 Man and how? Not by food. Man shall not live by food, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So, in other words, okay, I notice here in the United States people are very disciplined in their food habits, excellent. What do you 21:35 replace it with? Every word. Not food, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And that's where you can lack discipline. You may be very disciplined in food habits, good. What about being equally disciplined in 21:55 getting to know the scriptures? So, I want to show you this slide which is up there a moment ago. That Can you just put that slide up there? Yeah. There's something God wants to give you from his hand, his word, 22:13 every single day. Treasures. And if you come in humility, that's the picture from Pilgrim's Progress, where pilgrim who became a Christian is traveling with a sword and on to heaven 22:32 and he's receiving the word of God every single day. Keep that picture in your mind always. And ask yourself when you go to work in the morning, have I received something from God? Ask yourself before you have your breakfast. 22:48 Have I received something from God today? Did God stretch out his hand like that to give me something? But I had no time for him. Keep that picture before you. I was too busy. I stretched out my hand to eat food. And here was God waiting from the time 23:07 he got time I got up. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. My dear brothers and sisters, repent. There's only one word I can say to many 23:24 of you, repent What do you preach to the unbeliever? Repent from sin. I say repent from not receiving the word of God every day. It's a sin. It's the first word that Jesus spoke, the very first word. 23:44 You read it after his baptism. The very first word he spoke was, "Man shall live by every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God." So, you must begin the day with the word of God. And one reason I wrote that book Through 24:06 the Bible, that commentary, I'll tell you, because I heard too many people say, "The Bible's heavy. It's boring. I can't understand some parts of it." I said, "Okay. Lord, help me to give them something 24:24 that won't be difficult to understand, that won't be boring. And that's not the Bible. That That's something I wrote as a human writing. The Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit. But I believe the Holy Spirit helped me to write that Through the 24:38 Bible, too. And if you read it, it'll drive you to the Bible. Because every page has got something from scripture. So, the ultimate purpose is not that you get stuck with my commentary Through the Bible, but that through it you will go and find the 24:57 Bible more interesting and more challenging and you'll be encouraged as you read it yourself to go and find treasures in scripture. So, I have encouraged people I've encouraged everybody in our church, get a copy of that Through the Bible. 25:14 And may people are poor in India, I say, "Listen, I can give it to you. If you don't have the money, I'll give it to you. But I want you to know the scriptures." We're not making any money out of it. All the books that I write, I don't I 25:29 don't even get one cent of royalty from it. My only desire Paul didn't get any royalty out of the letters he wrote and they're more important than my books. We don't do these things for money in our church. But we want everyone to know God's word 25:44 because I know that that will help them. Even now at this age, having studied the scriptures so much, there are times, I'll tell you, when I've sought God for guidance for some earthly thing. I need some 26:00 guidance concerning what to do. And I go to my daily portion in the Bible that day and God speaks to me directly, specifically. And I say, "Boy, what I would have missed 26:20 if I hadn't gone to the scriptures in the morning." And if you have a computer, you can have the scriptures on your computer. I have it on mine. So, that every now and then when I'm answering an email or something like that in between, I can click on the 26:38 Bible and go to a verse and I have it there in 10 translations, so that I can look up all the 10 translations. And now you have it on your phone. Do you look at it now and then? Think of some of you who are 26:55 texting so much. Texting here and texting there and reading this text and that text. Can you spend 5 minutes or 10 minutes of all that time trying to hear God through your phone? God wants to text you on that phone. 27:15 It's in your Bible on your phone. Do you look up that text? Or do you only look up the text from your friends? Why not when you pick up the phone, realize God has also texted me something today? It's there. 27:33 Why don't you develop that habit? Keep that picture in your mind always, receiving God's word daily. God's hand is stretched out. Be willing to receive it. Okay, you can turn that off. It's very, very important, dear brothers 27:50 and sisters. Let me show you a verse in Isaiah in chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse four. In the middle of that verse it says, 28:09 "God wake wakes me up every morning." I look at it like that. When I wake up in the morning, sometimes it's early, sometimes a little later. Sometimes at 3:00, 4:00. And I say, "God, you woke me up. There's something you got to tell me." 28:25 You know, like Samuel, the little boy Samuel who read in the Old Testament, when he woke up and he heard the voice saying, "Samuel, Samuel." And if you have ears in your heart, when you wake up in the morning, you'll hear God calling your name, 28:44 whatever your name is, once, twice, thrice, calling you. You don't hear it. Because your mind is filled with other things of the world that you have to do. 29:03 I'll tell you something. Even if you're selfish, you'll do those things in the world much better if you listen to God first. I found that in my life. He wakens me morning by morning and he 29:21 wakens my ear to listen as a disciple. Lord, what do you want me to do today? Not as a scholar. No, he doesn't waken my ear to fill my head with knowledge. He doesn't waken me up in the morning to 29:39 give me a sermon to preach to the church so that I can get some honor for something I shared. Garbage. Anybody who shares God's word for honor, it's garbage. It's It's like eating garbage. No, he wakens me to hear as a disciple. 29:59 That means the Lord's trying to tell me what I should do that day. And he doesn't speak to me just in the morning. It's He wakens me my ear in the morning, the ear of my heart, and it's open throughout the day. He can speak to me when I'm when you're 30:14 driving the car. He can speak to me you speak to you when you're having a shower. If you have a ear to hear. People say, "I don't have time." You take a shower? What do you think about then when you're there? How can you say you don't have 30:33 time? What about when you're traveling? Sure, pay attention to the road and there's so much of little little bits of time that we have. If you have the habit of hearing, you'll find that God is more than eager to 30:52 speak to you. And yet there are believers who go by months on end without ever having heard God's word at all. Think of it like this. If the local city council said, "We're going to distribute a hundred 31:17 dollars every day to those who come to our office at 6:00 in the morning." Ooh, can you imagine the line that'll be there? Can you imagine how rich you'll be by the end of the month? And 31:37 if the city council also says there'll be no line because we're going to have a thousand counters open. So, as soon as you come, you get the money and go. You don't have to wait even 1 minute. What if God says, "I got many counters open. 31:56 You can come immediately. You don't have to wait in the line to hear me speak to you. As soon as you come, you can hear what I have to give to you, which is worth more than a hundred dollars." Oh, if I were to ask you a question, how 32:11 many of you believe that God's word is more important than a hundred dollars? Oh, we'd all raise our hands. But you act like that every day? I'm challenging you, brothers and sisters. I'm not rebuking you. I'm 32:29 challenging you. Just like you tell your little children to eat those vegetables and not keeping ice not keep eating ice cream the all whole time. Eat what's good for you. Just like you've try to feed your little baby who's no interested perhaps 32:46 in the food on that I mean, they have an interest in drinking milk when they're a baby. After a little while they grow to 2 years old or something, they're not much interested in food. But you keep them at the table. That's what I'm trying to do right now. 33:00 Man shall not live by bread alone. So, that's the first picture I want you to never never forget. Take 15 minutes a day. If you find the Bible's heavy, read through the Bible. And get to the Bible. And get to know God's word. And I tell 33:18 you, if you discipline at least from today onwards 15 minutes a day, in 1 year, I guarantee your life will be changed. And you'll see the truth of what I'm trying to tell you now. The second thing which I want to tell you, I want to show 33:33 you from I want to tell you something about the devil. You need to know about the devil because we read as soon as God created man and woman, the next thing you read in the Bible is about the devil. Genesis chapter 3. 33:51 How he came and separated man from God. How he came and separated man from his wife. And made them accuse each other. We need to know about the schemes of the devil. Let me show you a verse in 34:11 2 Corinthians in chapter 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11. 2 Corinthians 2:11, we read, 34:29 "So that no advantage should be taken us of us by Satan. We are not ignorant of his schemes." We are not ignorant of his tactics. When I was in the military, I was taught 34:48 one of the important things in warfare is to know your enemy. Know what he's capable of. Know what tactics he employs to defeat you. Know where all he's got his enemies the 35:08 where all he's got his stationed his soldiers. And see if he's sent some of his soldiers pretending to be your friends onto your side as spies. Be alert to the schemes of Satan of the enemy in warfare. It's the same the 35:25 spiritual life. We must not be ignorant of the schemes of our enemy, the devil. To weaken us. To destroy us. Why has God allowed that? So that we can become strong. If you don't face resistance in your 35:47 life, you'll never be strong spiritually. I thank God the Lord of my spiritual strength has come. Knowledge of God has come through resisting Satan, resisting the lust in my flesh, and building my spiritual muscles. 36:05 Those who are too lazy to do that, they become fat, obese spiritually with no strength even though they're eating God's word day by day by day by day by day. So, we first spoke about feeding ourselves on the God's word. 36:20 What's the next thing you tell your children? You need to do some exercise. Not sit on that sofa like a couch potato and keep eating potato chips the whole time and watching television. That's not the way you're going to be 36:35 strong. You eating all that good food, then you need to do exercise. And that's the next thing we need to do. Know how to resist the devil. So that he can flee from us. And in that process of resisting the devil, we'll be 36:47 strong. And when we are strong, we can help others. There's a lot of weak people around us. And if you're a weak person, you won't be able to lift them spiritually. Only a strong person can lift a person 37:08 up. Think of somebody fallen down. And you're so weak and helpless, you're not going to help him. The world is full of people who have fallen down spiritually. And we can pass by them. We can't help them. My dear brothers and sisters, ask 37:24 yourself, how many people have you helped spiritually in the last 1 year? How many people have you lifted up? I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm challenging you for the next 1 year. Don't let the future be like the past. 37:44 Know the schemes of the devil. And beware of them. Number one. Isaiah chapter 14, we read, how the devil became the devil. He was 38:05 the head of the angels. We don't know his name. He's called Lucifer, which means just means morning star. But let's call him by that name. We don't know what his real name was. And he says here in verse 12. Isaiah 14:12, 38:23 "How you have fallen from heaven, oh morning star." You know, the angels are called stars in the Bible. That that word morning star is translated in some verses as Lucifer in the King James version. That's how the name Lucifer comes. 38:42 "You have been cut down. Why?" Verse 13, "Because you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven. I'll raise my throne above the stars of God.' Verse 14, "I will make myself like the most high God, but you will be thrust down to 38:59 hell." So, here was the highest of the angels wanting to rebel against the authority of God and saying, "I'm going to push God down and go above him. I don't want to be here submitting to God all the time." 39:17 That was the origin of sin in this universe. Know the schemes of the devil. Rebellion against authority. The first sin in the universe was not adultery. Was not murder. Was not was not 39:36 murmuring. Not grumbling. Not complaining. Not love of money. All these things we talk about, they're all in the New Testament. But those were not that was none of those were the first sin in the universe. The first sin that made the highest 39:50 angel into a devil in a moment was rebellion against authority. That's why when God sent Jesus to be the savior of the world, he had to do the opposite of that. He submitted 40:10 to authority of the heavenly father in everything and even when it was difficult. And I'll tell you one of the most difficult things that Jesus had to do, which many don't think of, it was not going to the cross. It was taking up the cross inwardly 40:28 as a little child, as a little boy, being subject to Joseph and Mary for 30 years. Says in Luke's gospel chapter 2, that he went down to the house to his 40:45 house and he was subject, Luke chapter 2 and verse 51, he went down to Nazareth and he was subject to Joseph and Mary for 30 years. You want to know how how difficult it is 41:06 for a child to obey his parents? You know from your own children. And especially for someone who was perfect like Jesus Christ, having to submit to imperfect people like Joseph and Mary, I'm sure many of the decisions that Joseph and Mary took 41:24 were wrong. Just like you and I have taken wrong decisions in our life, but the perfect boy saw that and he would not despise them. He just obeyed because he had come here to overcome sin. And sin came through rebellion against 41:42 authority. So Jesus would submit to authority. And that's why the Bible says the first commandment for children as soon as they are born, as soon as they come to an age of understanding is honor your father and mother. Children, obey your parents. 42:00 It's no use teaching your children physics and chemistry and mathematics if they have not learned obedience to parents. Parents have been a total failure if they have not taught their children obedience, obedience to God 42:18 and obedience to parents. And all they did was teach them good manners to say thank you and sorry and get honor and teach them science and mathematics and so many other things. And the most important thing they leave untouched 42:35 and those children grow up to serve the devil. Very serious. I understood this before I was married. And that's why I decided when I had children, I'm going to teach them to obey me whether they 42:55 like it or not. And if they have to be punished, they'll be punished because I want to deliver them from the devil. I wanted to deliver them from that spirit of rebellion in the world so that they can come under the full 43:15 blessing of Jesus Christ that comes through submission to authority. And once they learn submission to authority in the home, the next place they have to learn submission to authority is in the school. To teach them not to speak evil of their 43:33 teachers, to teach them to submit to their teachers and respect them, not make fun of them. Obedience. And when they finish there, when they go to work, to teach them to submit to imperfect bosses. There is no perfect boss 43:48 anywhere in the world. The example is Jesus who submitted to imperfect Joseph and Mary. Submit to authority in the office. And then when they come to a church, submit to the authority of the elders in the 44:06 church. So if I can accomplish this, I've trained my children for the world. And if you've accomplished that, you've trained your children for the world. Otherwise, you got to bow down and say, "Lord, I've been a failure 44:24 as a parent." Start in the home and then in the school and then the place of work and in the church. These are little things, but we are not ignorant of the schemes of the devil. That's why the Bible says, "Wives, be subject to your husbands." 44:42 Then you can overcome Satan in your home. Because the great sin by which sin came into this universe was rebellion against authority. Another tactic of Satan because we don't want to be ignorant of 45:03 the schemes, turn with me to Revelation in chapter 12. The devil is given a title here. He's called the accuser of the brethren in verse 10. Revelation 12:10, "Satan, 45:22 the accuser of the brethren." That is one who speaks evil of others. Accuses. What he says may be true because it says he accuses them to God. He can't go to God and say, "God, Zach murdered somebody yesterday." 45:42 He's he's not such an idiot. He's quite a clever person, Satan. He can only accuse any one of us to God about what is true. But it is still accusation. So this the tactic of Satan is to infect you with that spirit 46:01 of accusing your fellow believers. You say, "But what I say is true." Exactly. What Satan says is true. He doesn't tell a lie to that God. But the motive is the important thing. 46:19 The motive is to tear down that person. And I want to tell you, I call this the Lucifer ministry. The Lucifer ministry is where you go tearing down other believers, 46:37 speak evil, speak evil. Speak evil and this happens especially when somebody leaves a church. Then Lucifer takes over and he begins to use those people to speak evil of this person and that person in the church and this person and 46:54 that person. It's this Lucifer ministry. You know, it says here in Revelation 12 that when Lucifer came down from heaven, I was thrown out of heaven, he didn't leave alone. It says here that in verse 4, he swept away 1/3 of the angels of heaven. 47:10 They're called stars here. There were millions and millions of angels in heaven and when Satan fell, when God cast him down, by then he had gathered 1/3 of those millions in the same spirit of rebellion against God. I can imagine then he went around 47:29 talking to different angels in heaven say, "What do you think about this the way heaven is run?" And some angels say, "Ah, I'm quite happy. This is a wonderful place." Oh, Satan says, "No. Lucifer says, there's no use talking to 47:40 him. Let me go to somebody else. Go to another angel." Another angel says, "Yeah, I'm a bit unhappy." Ah, this is the one. He's got one. Here's one person who's a little unhappy with the government of heaven, with the administration of heaven. 47:53 And so like that he goes around. "How many of you are against the administration of heaven?" And believe it or not, he got 1/3 of those millions. "I don't like the administration in heaven." And God didn't do anything. God was just 48:13 silently watching. Silently watching while this Lucifer ministry went on and on and on and on and on talking to different people, rejecting some people because they were happy to be there under God's administration, and rounding up the people who were 48:28 unhappy with God's administration. Finally, he got the number, 1/3. And God watched the whole thing and in a moment cast them all out of this third heaven. And those people became the demons today who wandering around the earth 48:44 possessing people. If you know where want to know where they came from, this is where they came from. That is Satan's tactic to gather people in rebellion against God and then they all become accusers. Accuse, accuse, accuse. 49:00 And he's doing that today. He's doing that in Christendom. He's not doing that with non-Christians because they're already in his lap. They're already part of his family. He's trying to destroy people in the church with the spirit of accusation. 49:16 "Have you heard this about this person?" Tear that person down and and if you hear that and you go and tell somebody else, you're handing holding hands with Satan and Satan says, "Hold hands with me. Come on. Hold hands with me. Let's just 49:31 go and accuse that other person over there." And you say, "Sure, Satan." You don't realize what you're doing. You're holding hands with the devil. And he's doing it says here in Revelation 12:10, 24 hours. Did you read that? 49:45 Revelation 12:10, 24 hours he's doing this. And he's got all the millions of demons assisting him, but he's also got a lot of unbelievers, and unfortunately, he's got some believers also. The Lucifer ministry of rounding up 50:02 people by accusation, speak evil of them, speak evil of a child of God. Speak evil of that child of God because he doesn't agree with me, or you don't like something in him. You don't like something in him, so you accuse him, accuse him, accuse him, go 50:16 whispering, whispering, whispering to different believers, gather them all on your side, round them all up, and God is just waiting. God's waiting to just reject you totally, finally. Be careful, my brothers. Let's not be 50:29 ignorant of the schemes of Satan. But there is another ministry going on in the heavenlies also. You read about that in Hebrews 7 and verse 25. In Hebrews 7:25, it says here it's called the ministry of 50:47 intercession. This is the opposite of accusation. Satan is 24 hours trying to find people to accuse, accuse, accuse, accuse. And I just said, "Always you know, if you want to find fault in a person, it's very easy." It's like that story I heard of a 51:03 teacher who once held a big white sheet in front of a big white board with a small black mark in the corner, and he told all the children in this class, "Please write down what you can see." And everybody's got sharp eyes, and they 51:18 all wrote down the paper, "I can see a small dot in that corner." And he collected all the papers, and the teacher said, "All of you wrote, 'I can see a small black dot in the corner.' None of you wrote, 'I can see a big white board.'" 51:37 Which is bigger, that small black dot or the big white board? And the teacher was trying to point out to the children, "You see how our eyes go for not the big white board, but that one black dot in somebody's life." And the 99% of his life which is good, 51:54 you ignore at that moment because you see that one black dot. And Satan has infiltrated your mind to give you the spirit of the accuser. Be careful. Don't be ignorant of his schemes. But Jesus, it says here in Hebrews 7:25 52:12 is always making intercession for the saints. When he sees sees a spot in that white board, Jesus comes quickly and wipes it out with his blood. That's another ministry. You see an example of that in Zechariah 52:33 chapter 3. It's good to know the schemes of Satan. In Zechariah chapter 3, we read of Joshua, who's a picture of a believer, standing before the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse 52:53 him. There it is. Satan waiting to accuse this believer because Joshua, verse 3, was wearing filthy garments. That means there was sin in him. Tell me, which believer is there who doesn't have some sin in him? Nobody. The only man who walked this earth 53:11 without sin was Jesus Christ. Every one of us has got some un-Christ-likeness in our life, and if you want to find fault, you can find fault. You may have 10 times or 100 times more un-Christ-likeness in your life, but you'll still still pick on 53:27 that one little thing that you see in that other person. Forgetting that you got a 100 times more un-Christ-like areas in your life. That's how Satan is. He's full of sin, but he tries to pick on one sin in somebody's life. 53:45 Joshua was clothed with filthy garments. And Satan is standing there to accuse him. Picture this in your mind. Here's a believer. Satan standing there to accuse him, and the Lord standing on the other side, the advocate. Here's the accuser 53:57 and the advocate, Jesus. The Lord saying to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, Satan. I have plucked this brand out from the fire." And then he said, "Put on him, verse 4, remove his filthy garments. He's cleansed in the blood of 54:12 Christ, verse 4. The iniquity is taken away. I'll clothe him with beautiful clothes, that is the righteousness of Christ." That is what Jesus is doing as the advocate, interceding, wiping out that spot, praying instead of accusing. 54:30 And here's the wonderful thing I want you to see. When Zechariah, who writes this, saw this as a young man. We know he was a young man. You don't have to be a very mature saint to do this cuz you read in Zechariah 2:4, he was a young man. Zechariah was a very 54:46 young prophet. And when he saw Jesus clothing this person, he joins up in that ministry of what I call making your brother glorious. He said, "Lord, verse 5, not only a festal robe, put a beautiful turban on 55:06 his head. Make him glorious." You see the opposite of the ministry of accusation is not just keeping quiet. It's helping your brother or sister to be a better person. Why not get engaged in that ministry from now on? Don't you think you have spent enough 55:26 time accusing, finding fault? One last verse. 1 Peter. I like this verse. 1 Peter 4:3. In your past life, 55:51 let me paraphrase it. You have spent enough time committing sin. That's what he's saying. You feel you're not spent enough time committing sin? You have spent enough time. The past is sufficient to commit sin, 56:09 to do the word, do the things that the non-Christians do, ungodly people do, all the evil things, accusing, criticizing, murmuring, grumbling, complaining. Enough, brother or sister. Your past life, you've done it enough. It's the 56:26 garbage bin is full and overflowing. Why do you want to add to that now in future? Why do you want to do that? Why not get engaged in this ministry of making our brothers and sisters glorious? Okay, you see something wrong in them. I'm not 56:43 saying it's not there, it is there. Pray for them. That's what Jesus does. It says he's Hebrews 7:25 says he's interceding for them 24 hours. Just like Satan is accusing them 24 hours, he's interceding for them 24 hours. And I want to say to 56:58 you, my brothers and sisters, all of us are going to be engaged in one of these ministries from now onwards. The choice is yours. You saw Joshua standing there, Jesus on one side, the devil on the other side, one accusing, the other 57:17 clothing the person in beautiful dress and interceding day and night. A ministry of accusation and a ministry of intercession, a ministry of making your brothers and sisters glorious. Let those who have this Lucifer ministry 57:31 of accusing, finding fault, pointing out in order to tear down, you know, people can sometimes speak evil about somebody to destroy him, spoil him, pull him out of some church, make him join their group or something like that. 57:50 Never never get involved in it, brothers and sisters. I have never I've been we've been planting churches, CFC churches, for 43 years. Let me say this before God. I have never in my life even once asked anybody to join our church, any of 58:09 our churches. That is not my ministry. If somebody's happy in some other church, I say, "Sit there." I'll preach the word of God. You decide whether you want to be a part of our fellowship or not. I believe that if I try to get people into 58:26 my church, I will get the wrong people. I will preach the gospel and invite them to come to Jesus. That's all. Like John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let him increase, and let me decrease." 58:41 And then if that person chooses on his own to join our church, I say, "Welcome." "Him that cometh to me I'll not cast out," Jesus said, "and I will not cast out either." And all that the Father gives to us will come to us, and I'm not interested in 58:57 one more person than that. So there's one last picture. I must show you that before I go. I showed you them. I must show you this picture. Can you show me the second one? Okay. Here are the demons whispering accusations. Here's 59:16 a Christian going forward. You see those demons whispering things in his ear? I hope this is the second picture you'll always keep in your mind. When you hear those whisperings, remember this picture. Telling you something evil about 59:31 somebody, telling you to get angry with someone, telling you to accuse someone, telling you to do hurt somebody or pull down somebody or murmur about something or be upset about something. To get upset with your wife perhaps. 59:49 Whenever you're tempted to get upset with your wife, remember this picture. Whenever you're tempted to get upset with your husband, remember this picture. I hope this picture will remain in your mind. It's not It's not from your own mind. 1:00:00 No. It's these demons that joined up with Satan and are whispering, whispering, "Hey, this this this this this this." Never forget it. Sometimes a picture is more than a thousand words. So, there are two pictures you saw 1:00:19 today. One is receive the word of God every day from Jesus. He's stretching out his hand. You missed it many many days of your life and you've become a very poor person spiritually because of that. Don't miss out on riches from today 1:00:38 onwards. Secondly, that's the first picture and this is the second one. Listen and resist the devil and he'll flee from you. When you hear it, listen to God and don't listen to the demons. It's a contrast, these two pictures. One, God 1:00:55 trying to say something to you, you listen to that. The other hand, you refuse to listen to the devil speaking to you. If you listen too much to the devil speaking to you, when God is trying to speak to you, you will not be able to 1:01:07 hear him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word that guides us alright. We don't have any enemies in the world. 1:01:25 Our only enemy is the devil and we want to resist him. We don't want to ever to be engaged in a Lucifer ministry of rounding up people or accusing people. Gathering people in rebellion. Let others do it, Lord. We will never 1:01:42 never do it. We're not even going to spend our time accusing our enemies. God, you will take care of them. We want to spend our time praying for the saints, encouraging them, helping people to follow you more closely. Help us. Forgive us our past 1:02:01 failures. All of us have failed miserably in this area in the past, but we want to be more faithful in the days to come. We may not overcome these habits in one day, but we want to press on that in a few weeks or months, it's gone 1:02:15 completely from our lives. Help us to pursue this path of overcoming. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
