0:20 And this morning I want to turn to the Old Testament to Psalm 120. The things written in the Old Testament are 0:39 for our instruction warning. There are many types of New Testament truths in the Old Testament that we can study with great profit. We don't go too much into it like some 0:57 people do because if we go too much into studying typology, you know, like so many every little detail of the parts of the tabernacle. What I have found with people who do that is they get taken up with 1:15 information and cleverness and clever thoughts. The Bible was not given to stimulate our cleverness. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 11:25, "I thank you, Father. You have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent, but 1:34 revealed them to babes." I found a lot of people who studied Old Testament typology defeated by sin. What's the use of studying typology if it's defeated by sin? The other thing I want to clarify is but we can study a little bit because if you 1:50 read in the New Testament occasionally you see a reference to comparing Ishmael and Isaac as a picture of law and grace and few but it's not much and we must limit ourselves in studying Old Testament typology to the limit that the 2:03 New Testament writers do. The Holy Spirit never inspired New Testament writers to study every detail of the tabernacle. That is all for clever people who get led astray. In the same way, the other thing I need to clarify is some people ask this 2:20 question. Uh brother Zag, you speak so much about the old covenant being abolished and the new covenant now being established. Does it mean we don't read don't need to read the Old Testament? There's a difference between the 39 2:35 books of the Bible which man has called the Old Testament. Please remember that when you read in the first page of your Bible, Old Testament, that is not what God called it. It's what man has called it. Do I believe in the first 39 books 2:52 of the Bible? Yes. Inspired by God. But the old covenant is an agreement that God made with Israel through Moses where you have to pay your tithe and you have to make your sacrifices and you got to go to Jerusalem three times a year 3:11 and um so many things like that. I don't want to go into all the details but since I'm not a Israelite and I'm not a descendant of Abraham and I'm not a follower of Moses, the old covenant is not for me. My leader is Jesus Christ who made a new 3:28 covenant between God and me. And so I'm not in the old covenant anymore. But this tremendous prophet from the 39 books of the old of the Bible which man has called the Old Testament and for convenience sake we call it Old 3:45 Testament but that's not what God has called it and that's why there's so much confusion. Please remember that. So there's a lot in the Old Testament books, 39 books which we can learn from. For example, Psalm 120. This is the first of 15 psalms. Psalm 4:04 120 to Psalm 134, which as far as we know, the Israelites would sing when they traveled from their hometown to Jerusalem. There was a law mentioned in Deuteronomy that the Israelites had to go to Jerusalem at least three times every 4:24 year. They had to meet together three times every year. Uh because God's presence was in Jerusalem when they were not backslided. When they were backslid and they went through an empty ritual which is most of the time. Now how many times do we meet 4:41 with God every year? every day. And uh Jerusalem, the Galatians, it speaks about a heavenly Jerusalem, which is the church. And the church, by the way, is not this building, it's people. And it's good to meet with the people of God. The Bible says, 5:00 "Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but so much the more as you see the day of the Lord approaching." But here was a song they used to sing and um it's called a song of ascense because in the original Hebrew it's got 5:17 something to do the words got something to do with stairs. So it was like ascending up to Jerusalem and there's something we can learn there about our spiritual ascent ascending up to glory let's say and it starts at the bottom and goes all 5:36 the way up to the top. So I thought I would just we would look through this briefly and then you can look at it in greater detail when you are studying on your own. I want you to notice that in the Old Testament they didn't have the light that we have in 5:52 the New Covenant because they didn't have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. That's why they would hear God speaking from the outside. But now the Holy Spirit's within. God speaks to us from the inside. It's far better. So you'll notice some things here as we 6:09 go along. How the new covenant is superior. Let's start with Psalm 120. In my trouble, I cried to the Lord and he answered me. This is where we start. Every human being starts. We are all in deep trouble because of sin. The trouble is not 6:29 because of a recession. The trouble is not because you have financial difficulties or you got a difficult wife or rebellious children. The trouble brother, sister, is because of sin. That's the root cause of all the problems in the world. Once we 6:43 understand that, we'll stop blaming your husband and wife and children and neighbors and X Y Zed. Every one of them said, Lord, the trouble is with sin. They didn't have that light in the Old Testament. I'm in deep trouble. And the Lord 6:58 answered me, but what is the trouble the old psalmist is talking about? Deliver my soul, oh Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. And I want to tell you this. When you read scripture, it gives you a indication of your own 7:15 way of thinking. Now when you are being oppressed by people who are telling lies about you and deceiving you, your prayer is Lord deliver me from these lying lips. And that's what the psalmist is saying. He said, "Lord, all 7:30 types of people around me telling lies about me, spreading scandals about me, deceiving me. Please deliver me from all these people. What shall I give to you, you deceivers with your tongue? You need sharp arrows of the warrior and burning 7:44 coals of the broom tree." That's what you guys need for trying to deceive me. You remember in the book of Isaiah, we read chapter 5. I don't have time to show it to you. Isaiah would say, "Woe unto this group. Woe unto that group. Wo unto the 8:01 drunkards and woe onto those who are covetous and occupy buy more and more real estate. There's no place for poor people and all that." Everything he said was 100% accurate. Then in the next chapter, chapter six, he sees the Lord 8:16 and he says, "Woe is me." That's the mark of a man who has seen God. He doesn't say, "Oh, what a wretched wife I have." He says, "Oh, what a wretched man I am." "Oh, what a wretched 8:35 woman I am." If you're not saying that, I would say in Jesus name, you have not met the Lord yet. The more frequently you meet with the Lord, the more frequently you say that, "Oh, wretched man that I am." Not in a gloomy, depressed type of way. I've seen 8:50 people who say, "Oh, wretched man that I am. Oh, wretched woman that I am." They're always gloomy and depressed. Jesus wasn't gloomy and depressed. Paul who said that originally was not gloomy and depressed. He was a man who says 9:00 rejoice in the Lord always when he was lying in a stinking dungeon of a prison. That's because he stopped looking at other people and seeing how wretched they were. He saw himself but he saw himself cleansed in the blood of Christ. 9:12 And so he was rejoicing. So when you read Psalm 120, you can either think of the lying lips of other people and other deceivers who are causing you trouble. then you are an old covenant person. But if you become a new covenant person, you read that psalm and 9:28 say, "Lord, the big problem is my lying lips. My deceitful tongue, the way I live as a hypocrite, giving people an impression about myself, which is not true. I'm a deceiver. Lord, deliver me from this wretched deception in my spirit and 9:46 the careless way in which I use my tongue. The way I hurt people with my tongue, not worried about others. Brother, you're on you're in the new covenant. It's a very simple way to find out whether you're living in the old 10:02 covenant or new covenant. Do you see your own sin or do you see the sin of others? Very simple test keeping ask keep asking yourself every day. The world is full of people who see sin in others, in their wives, in their neighbors, in their 10:19 boss, in other people, in the church, in the elders, in every Tom, Dick and Harry except in themselves. Old covenant was like that. The wonderful things when Christ comes into our life is we get light on ourselves like Isaiah and say, "Woe is 10:36 me, oh wretched man that I am." But it doesn't take us to gloom. No, because we read in Isaiah when he said that, as soon as he said that, the fire of God came from heaven and cleansed away his sin and anointed his tongue. 10:53 And the Lord said to him, "Go now and speak for me." Can you speak for God? Yes. When you acknowledge that your lips have been unclean, when you've learned to control your tongue, you can be the mouthpiece of God. I'm absolutely 11:12 convinced that the reason why many people are not the mouthpiece of God is because they're not careful with their tongue the rest of the time. They're always blaming others, criticizing others and well then you waste your earthly life. I mean you 11:27 could have been a servant of God for many years. I don't mean stand in a pulpit. A servant of God may never stand in a pulpit sometimes. You can be a servant of God as a mother. Speak God's word to your children every day as a 11:39 sister to all the sisters who come to your house. Instead of gossiping to them, you can speak God's word to them. If only God could see that you control your tongue a little bit. If only you could say like this, "Oh lying lips 11:50 inside my mouth. Oh deceitful tongue inside my mouth. What shall I give you? You deceitful tongue. I want to burn you up with burning coals from a broom tree." He's not talking about other people's tongue. He's talking about his 12:01 own. Oh God, woe is me. It's the words of Isaiah. for I surgeon but he's not thinking of himself unfortunately because I'm living with these wretched people around me I'm dwelling in the midst of terrible neighbors and kear I'm thinking he's 12:15 thinking of his wife and neighbors and oh lord all these people around me too long my soul has had its dwelling with those who hate for peace hate peace but I'm for peace when I speak for war when you make that new covenant you see your 12:28 greatest need is in yourself and begin with the tongue because the Bible says if a man knows how to control his tongue. He's a perfect man. You read that in James 1. When I read that verse, let me show you that verse. James 12:44 chapter 1. I don't know how you react to it. I'm sure you read it many times. But how did you react to it when you read this? It says first of all in James 1 in verse 26, if a man thinks he's religious or 13:02 spiritual as we'd call it and cannot control his tongue, he deceives his own heart and his religion is worthless. And then when you come to chapter three, it says there we all stumble. Verse two, sorry, we all stumble in many ways. But 13:22 if a man does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man able to bridle the whole body. Put these two verses together. If a man cannot control his tongue, his whole Christianity is word zero. If you don't know how to speak to your 13:38 husband and wife in a gracious way, your Christianity, spiritfilled, speaking in tongues, call it what you like, is word zero. And you won't hear it in many pulpits. You'll hear it here. And secondly, this is all scripture. 13:53 If a man can control his tongue, he's a perfect man able to control his whole body. He want to control the lust in your flesh. Brother, control your tongue. You'll be, it says, you'll be able to bridle every desire in your body. I want 14:13 to bridle the desires in my body. Don't you don't you say, "Oh, God, how can I control my eyes?" I'll tell you. Start controlling your tongue. It's easier to control the tongue than the eyes. Very difficult to control the eyes. Control 14:26 your tongue. But if God sees you're not bothered about controlling your tongue and when you slip up with your tongue, you don't even confess it. You don't confess it to God. You don't confess it to man. God says you can cry for 50 14:38 years to control your eyes. You'll never do it. But I see you're not serious. Sometimes our problem is not solved by tackling what we see is the problem. But somewhere else the problem the root of the problem lies somewhere else. So I 14:51 want to encourage all of you if you read these verses in James and see it seriously. When I say Lord I want to be a perfect man. We have in front of this pulpit. Let's press on to perfection. Where shall we start? With our tongue. 15:05 Psalm 121. We go to the next one. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. from when shall my help come in? The you know the Israelites had when they backslid they used to uh have their worship of their idols and all on top of 15:20 the mountains. They had their altars to their gods on their highest mountains. And the psalist is saying are those gods going to help me? Those idols up there going to help me? No. I lift up my eyes to the mountains. From whence shall my 15:36 help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth, not from those idols on top of the mountains. Dear brothers and sisters, we must have a testimony to a people who do not worship the true God that our God is 15:53 not like the false gods. Our God is not like the idols. Our God is a God who can actually help us. Do you remember how the heathen came up to Abraham and said, "We've seen God is with you. Yeah, they must be able to see that our 16:13 God, our help comes from the Lord. Verse two, who made heaven and earth, not from some mountain, not from some idol, not from, we can also look at mountains as big shots on the earth, influential people. Can some chief minister help you if you 16:30 have a problem or a big police official help you perhaps when you get into trouble? Where do you look for help? Tell me honestly, when you get into trouble, what's your first reaction? 16:47 Call up one of the elders of the church. You'll always be dependent on them all your life. Then no wonder you don't grow. There's nothing wrong in asking the elders for prayer. There's nothing wrong in asking influential people you know to 17:02 help you. But woe unto you if you depend on them. Even when we are sick, by all means go to a doctor, get the best treatment, get the best hospital you can afford. But that your dependence be on God. My help comes from the Lord. 17:18 When I'm sick, I'll go to a doctor. I'll go to a hospital, but I trust the Lord to heal me. I can ask human beings to help me, but I trust the Lord ultimately. Human beings will let me down. And there are certain problems, no human being can help me. My 17:30 help comes from the Lord. It's an attitude. The Bible says Jeremiah 17:5, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his arm." That's why I'm scared to trust in men. That's why I'm scared to trust in doctors. That's why I'm scared to trust 17:46 in medicines. That's why I'm scared to trust in influential people whom I know who can help me. Because there's a curse. A curse. It doesn't say it's bad. Not bad. It's cursed. Jeremiah 17:5 to lean upon men. To ask a man for help is okay. 18:05 Sure. Jesus asked a man to provide a room for them to have their last supper. There's nothing wrong in asking. But to depend to lean upon someone, there's a curse on it. And I do not want 18:22 the curse of God on my life. So if I depend on something earthly and not on the Lord, the Lord says, "Okay, try." Those who lean upon Egypt will fail. It'll be like a broken reed. You lean upon it and you'll collapse. Ask 18:40 people who have trusted men. Dear brothers and sisters, early in life, learn to trust in the Lord. This is the song of a sense. We're climbing up. My help is in the Lord and he will not allow my foot to slip. Verse three, he 18:56 who keeps me will never slumber nor sleep. He will not allow my foot to slip slip. You've heard me say this. When I was a child, I used to say I got victory over sin. When I grew up and became a man, I put 19:14 away childish things and I say Jesus kept me from falling. Is there a difference between saying I got victory over sin and Jesus kept me from falling? World of difference. It's true. He got victory. But when you say I got victory, the emphasis is on 19:32 the I. When you say Jesus kept me from falling, the emphasis is on Jesus. What he did for me, he can do for you. It's not because I grit my teeth. He will not allow my foot to slip. Oh boy. I can tell you 19:51 when I see people slipping around me, I say, "Lord, it's you who keep my feet from slipping. I cannot take any credit or glory to myself. I keep my face in the dust. You keep my feet from slipping because when I sleep, you don't sleep. 20:07 When I'm dozing off, you don't doze off. You're watching me. When some Hmon is plotting to hang me, like in the book of Esther, God deals with that Hmon. When some Herod is plotting to execute 20:26 Peter in Acts 12, God delivers Peter. He never slumbers or sleeps. Put your trust in this God. The God who lived in Morai's time is the same today. And the God who lived in Peter's time is just the same today. And we are to be a 20:43 living testimony to that truth that our help comes from him. The Lord is our keeper. And he will protect us. Verse seven, from all evil. And I don't believe evil is people physically hurting me or even killing me. That's not evil. If somebody kills 21:01 me, is that evil? No. I to go straight to heaven. Is sending somebody to heaven evil? No. Uh that's not evil. Evil is sin. Evil is yielding to the devil. Evil is watching internet pornography. Evil is looking at dirty pictures. That's evil. 21:17 Being persecuted, that's not evil. That's an honor. To be killed for Christ's sake. That's an honor. That's not evil. I don't say, "Lord, protect me from evil." I've never prayed, "Oh, Lord, don't let anybody kill me for 21:29 Christ's sake." No. Keep me from evil. You got to identify what evil is. Otherwise, if you think those other people are evil and you need to be protected from them, you're a follower of Moses. It's good. Old covenant is better than 21:45 no covenant. But I say new covenant is better than old covenant. So, and the new covenant person when he says, "Lord, protect me from evil," he's not thinking of this person, that person, and the other person. He's thinking of sin. The Lord will guard 21:59 your going out and coming in. Right? Let's go to Psalm 122 now. I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." And as I said earlier, this is not the house of the Lord. This is a meeting place. The 22:15 house of the Lord is people. If we were to meet in a in a garden, the house of the Lord would be there. If we were to meet in some cave like the early Christians had to meet, the house of the Lord would be there. It's people. I was 22:30 glad when this when I got an opportunity to fellowship with one of God's people. That's the meaning here. Are you glad? Are you glad when you can meet with a brother and talk about spiritual things? I was glad when they said to me, "Let's 22:49 go to the house of the Lord. Let's have some fellowship. And our feet are standing within your gates, oh Jerusalem." Jerusalem is a picture of the church. people again people church that is built compact together to which 23:00 the tribes go up to give thanks to the name of the Lord for their thrones are set for judgment thrones of the house of David when David sat on his throne or Solomon sat on his throne he would judge that woman who came and that woman who 23:13 came which is your whose child is it I'll tell you but in the New Testament when we set up thrones for judgment we set up thrones to judge ourselves first that's the house of God. 1 Peter 4:17. I want you to be familiar 23:29 with this verse. If you want to be a part of God's house, if you want to be a part of this church, an effective part of this church, here is the way. It's not by getting your name in the telephone list. It's by doing what's 23:44 written in 1 Peter 4:17. And even if your name is not in the telephone list, if you do 1 Peter 4:17, you'll be in the house of God. What is that? Judgment must begin in the house of God. 24:02 It must begin with us first. That's it. You need to read that much. That's enough. What is the mark of the house of God? Is a place where judgment begins with us first. God is my witness that I have judged myself 24:20 for nearly 35 years. I never did it much in the olden days. I judged a lot of other people. Unfortunately, in my early days, I did judge myself plus other people. But gradually, I'm coming to the place where I say, I just want to judge myself. I 24:36 don't want to judge other people because it's none of my business. God can do that very well without my help. Did you know that God can judge other people without your helping him? that when he sits on the throne as a judge, he he doesn't want your advice. 24:48 Thank you very much. He can do it. Say thank you. Thank you for what you're saying, but I don't need your advice. I can handle that without your help. Thank you. I don't need your opinion about that person which you're airing to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I 25:00 know exactly. And I know certain things which you don't know and I don't judge so harshly as you do because I see certain things which you don't see. You know, it's a terrible thing for a judge to give a false judgment. 25:16 Think of judges who condemn somebody to be hanged and after he's hanged discover some evidence that the guy was not guilty. Boy, I if I were a judge there, I'd never forgive myself for the rest of my life. I got a fellow hanged 25:32 because to the best of the evidence I got, I thought he was guilty. And later on, some evidence crops up that he's not guilty. scary. Okay, we're not sitting in thrones like that. Thank God being judges. But most human beings without being 25:51 appointed judges by anybody do become judges of most people around them especially their close friends and relatives. True. Have you judged anybody in Argentina? Tell me. Have you judged anybody in China or Russia? Have you judged anybody in Delhi 26:08 or Bombay or let's come closer home in Bether perhaps or Chik Balapur. Have you judged anybody in Chikalapur? No, it's in Bangalore and not even in Bangalore city. It's closer home that we judge people. Thrones are set for judgment. 26:30 The household of God judgment begins with us first. I told you the other day how for many years I had this verse in front of my table. I don't need it anymore because it's written in my heart now. The happiest people in the world 26:43 are those who judge themselves always and never judge others. I sat and looked at that verse for about 25 years. The happiest people in the world are those who judge themselves always and never judge others. And it was a 26:58 mountain to climb. I didn't get there overnight, but I decided I'm going to reach the top of that. I do not want to judge others because I don't know all the details. I see 10% of their life. Even if I live with them, and if you 27:12 don't live with them, you probably see 1% of their life. What type of judge would it be who judges others get based on 1% of the evidence, he'd be thrown out of this judge seat by any government? We need to be thrown out. 27:26 Say, Lord, I'm sorry. I've judged people knowing 1% of their life. And let me tell you this, if you live with me 24 hours, you know 10% of my life. Got it? If you live with me 24, that's people who live in my home know 10% of my life. 27:43 If you see me only occasionally like this in the meeting, you know 1% of my life. And you got to be a real idiot to judge anybody after knowing 1% of their life. Wouldn't you agree there? What would you think of a teacher marking a question 27:59 paper that a student has answered examination paper and looking at 1% of it and deciding what marks to give? Such a teacher should be thrown out. What about you? I'll tell you one person about whom you know 100% at least not 100% but quite a 28:17 lot and that's yourself. Even ourselves we know very little. That's why Paul says, "I don't even judge myself fully because the Lord knows things about me. But as far as I can see, I cleanse myself so that I can be free from all filthiness of the flesh 28:32 and spirit, perfecting holiness." So that's where the thrones of judgment are to be set. Right? Let's move to Psalm 123. To you I lift up my eyes, oh you who are enthroned in the heavens. Now it is not for looking up to the Lord for help like 28:48 in Psalm 121. Here it's looking to the Lord now as a the eyes of a servant. Look to the hand of the master verse two saying master what do you have to tell me? There's a beautiful paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4:2. I don't have time to 29:05 look up all these references right now and I'll tell you them. You can look it up later. It says in the King James version is moreover it's required of steward stewards that a man be found faithful. The Living Bible paraphrases 29:16 it as the most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. The most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. And u you know people who say come on do 29:34 something for God and you try to do something for God. Do you think one angel in heaven is telling the other angel hey Gabriel go do something for God man? No, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. What does Gabriel do? He 29:50 doesn't run around heaven doing something for God. He waits before God and say, "God, what do you want me to do?" That was a thing that changed Paul's life. The road to Damascus said, "Who are you?" First question, I'm Jesus. First thing we need to know is to 30:07 know the Lord. Second question, what will thou have me to do? Only two questions. All your life is solved. Who are you? Jesus, I want to know you more and more all through my life. Second question, what will you have me to do, 30:21 Lord? It was the only two questions Paul asked on the Damascus road and he kept asking them to the end of his life. What will you have me to do? Now I'm in prison, Lord. I didn't want to come here, but I got thrown into prison for 30:34 preaching the gospel. What do you want me to do? Write a few letters. Okay. Thank God he listened. It's wonderful. I remember many years ago I learned from one or two godly men, one whom I knew, one whom I'd only heard 30:53 about how they would listen and wherever they went, there would be a church planted. They would move, move, move, move. And I said, "Lord, this is the best way to serve you." Not running around doing something for God, but waiting on you as 31:12 the eyes of his servant look up to the master and say, "What do you want me to do? The Lord is looking for those who will wait on him and who will do the work that he gives them and the and the lot of work that he doesn't give them leaves it alone." How 31:32 could Jesus say at the end of his life in John 17:4, "I have finished the work you gave me to do." He hadn't been to China. He hadn't been to Africa. Wasn't there needs? Weren't there needs in China and Africa and India? Plenty of 31:44 need. Jesus says, "My father never told me to meet that need. That's all. He'll take care of that." The father told me to do certain things here. He told me to stay at home for 30 years. I stayed at home for 30 years. He told me 31:58 to preach for three and a half years and heal the sick and cast out demons. I did that such a short time. Three and a half years. You mean your ministry is over? It's all my father told me to do. Father, I finished the work you gave me 32:08 to do. Now glorify me. And he went. Have you learned the lesson? You can't do things for God with your cleverness and intelligence. There are enough people in Christendom who tried to do that and make a mess of their lives and the work of God and everything 32:26 else. No, we look to the Lord our God. Be gracious to us. Verse three. Okay. Go to Psalm 124. See, we are climbing. Remember this is a song of his sense. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, verse 32:46 two, then they would have swallowed us alive. We would think that if a man serving a god, we don't have any opposition. I'll tell you this, opposition is our salvation. The thing that kept us close to God in the early days was persecution. 33:03 The early days of this church, we were opposed and hounded and criticized and called heretics, false prophets, and every imaginable name. Men rose up against us. It's good for us. Protected us, made us cling to the Lord. 33:19 When David was running from cave to cave to cave, just running away from Saul who was persecuting him, he never committed adultery. You know when he committed adultery? When he was a king and he was living in a palace and he'd stopped going to 33:35 battles. Now ah he says now I can send my juniors to fight the battle. That's when he fell. when men rise up against us and they still do. There are a lot of people still opposing us here and there and on the internet and etc. God bless them. I 33:53 feel sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for us. They would have swallowed us up alive. The people who tried to oppose us when their anger was skinned against us. It would have been like waters that would have engulfed us. Verse four, but bless 34:06 the Lord. Verse six, who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. They would have liked to tear us apart. But you think the Lord will let his servants be torn apart by their enemies? Oh no. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the hunter. 34:25 The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord. So the Christians who follows Jesus in his ascending way will find persecution. But he trusts the Lord to deliver him. Psalm 125 says, "Those who trust in the Lord 34:40 are like Mount Zion which cannot be moved. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people. In the midst of all this attack from enemies, we are unmoved because we trust in God. Those who trust in the Lord, not 34:58 those who look for human ways of escaping. Those who trust in the Lord as the mountains around Jerusalem cannot be shaken. Even the earthquake doesn't shake it. So the Lord surrounds his people and like Mount Zion which cannot 35:11 be moved that we stand strong. It says here in verse three, the scepter, the rod of the wicked will not rest on the land of the righteous. It may hit the righteous man, but it will not rest there. No, God will take it away. He allows the 35:31 wicked to persecute the righteous. And one reason like I told you just now is so that the righteous don't put forth their hands to do wrong. I told you how David did wrong. When he faced facing persecution, dear brother, sister, thank God when 35:47 your life is a struggle and when you have difficulties, when you have trials, when you have problems, when you have health problems, financial problems, thank God for it. That'll make you cling to God and you're not likely to sin. 35:59 No, it's when we stop facing problems and life becomes easy and get plenty of money and riches and wealth and health. That's the time you sin. So the Lord allows the rod of the wicked. It will never rest on us, but it may hit us occasionally. And that also 36:16 is to prevent us from putting our hand to do wrong. Thank God for it. And we need that always in our climbing a ascending way. The devil's always there to knock us down, to push us down. But the Lord allows us to face trial and 36:31 opposition. I can personally say that the thing that's helped me tremendously in my life to cling to God has been opposition, persecution, misunderstanding, trial, difficulty, problems, etc. Do good to Lord to those who are upright 36:50 in their hearts. The only thing I need to watch is that my heart is sincere and upright. then the Lord will take care of all those. But if you're a believer, verse five, and you turn aside to crooked ways, if there's some crookedness in your heart, 37:04 brother, then the Lord will lead you away with the doers of iniquity. So you have a choice in this ascending way. It doesn't matter if the rod of the righteous hits me. I say, Lord, that's only to keep me from doing wrong. David 37:17 said, "Let the righteous man slap me. It'll be like anointing oil upon my head. Would you allow a righteous man to slap you? Would you get offended if a godly man 37:34 gives you a word of rebuke? It's like oil upon your head to keep you from doing wrong. Blessed are you if you have a man of God like that to tell you when you go do something wrong. 37:52 Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. This is coming back from the captivity of Babylon. We know that Babylon is a picture of the false church, corrupt Christendom that 38:08 doesn't have the values of the new covenant that does not honor God. The Lord brought us out of that. We were like those who dream and say, "Lord, it's wonderful. You delivered us from Babylon. Our mouth is filled with laughter. And the people in the nation 38:24 said, "The Lord has done great things for us. And Lord, restore our captivity. Deliver us from all captivity. I'm not s I'll tell you honestly, I'm not satisfied that that I just got out of Babylon, a corrupt system. I've got a 38:38 something worse within me called the corrupt flesh. I want to be delivered from that captivity every day." Don't rejoice that ah I have a member of CFC now. Good church, good reputation, good holy church. Brother, you'll be the biggest 38:51 backslider in this church. If you don't see, there's another corrupt flesh inside you from which you need deliverance every day. No matter how spiritual you are, I've been a believer 50 years. I have a corrupt flesh in me 39:04 that I live in fear of every day. And if you fear, you will not fall. The one who thinks he stands, I'm all right, will fall. But in order to come into this deliverance from captivity, we got to do a little weeping. We got to wet our pillows at night. 39:23 Have you ever wet your pillows at night with tears? Not tears that you shed for yourself. Oh, all people are treating me and all people are saying bad things about me. Rubbish. Finish with all that. But Lord, how I let you down today. That 39:37 thought that came into my mind didn't honor you. That word I spoke, that rude word, that angry word, forgive me, Lord. I want to ask you whether you have ever wept on your pillow at night for things, for sins that nobody ever saw. 39:52 You'll be a man or woman of God in no time. But if you don't weep at night, you just come here and sing praises to the Lord. You can be a backslider like other Christians. Those who sow in tears, verse five, will reap with joyful 40:06 shouting. Blessed are those who mourn. They shall be strengthened. Comforted means strengthened. They who go forth weeping, weeping, carrying the precious seed of God's word will come again with a shout of joy. If you see 40:20 people today rejoicing with sheav, it's because they wept in secret. They didn't weep in front of you to get your honor. You know how if you see a preacher weeping in the pulpit, you all feel a little sad. No, some people are temperamentally like 40:39 that. They weep easily and some people can manufacture tears just to order. I couldn't do that even if I tried. I'm not interested. But I believe we must weep a lot in secret. In secret. Jeremiah said, I will weep in 40:59 secret for you. Jeremiah 13, I think it's verse 17. I weep in secret. Those who weep like that will have plenty of sheav. Your father will reward you openly. Psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I think he's 41:18 talking first of all of our labor in our business. You know, we build a physical house. We build our house in the sense of we do some work. If you're doing business, those people those days they're work. They didn't work in 41:30 offices and factories. They worked in the fields to build a house and to earn money. If the Lord doesn't bless your business, you're wasting your time. If the Lord doesn't bless your family, you're wasting your time trying to build it. 41:46 Depend on the Lord. The Lord and the labor in vain who build it. I've always I do a little business myself. Done it for more than 30 years to support my family. And I've always said, Lord, your 42:02 work will always be first in my life. There are times when I've traveled out in the Lord's work as a result of which I have lost many thousands of rupees, once 80,000 rupees because I was not here to deal with a particular 42:20 transaction that needed to be done at that time. And I said that's fine. Your work is more important to me than any amount of money. Money will never be important to me. God's word, God's tested me on that. I'll tell you. 42:34 I went for a conference and I somewhere in India somewhere and I came back and I discovered, oh, I lost so much money. That's fine. And I said, Lord, why did you allow that? Test me. And by the way, the Lord said, didn't you pray the other 42:49 day? You wanted to be freed from the love of money. Oh, that's why you Thank you. Thank you, Lord. That's okay, man. You're answering my prayer. And the Lord test tested me without allowing me to know what was the result 43:01 of my visit to that place to see whether I'd be just happy that I served the Lord even if I got nothing for it. One and a half years later when I was at another place uh two brothers came up to me and said brother Zach do you remember when 43:16 you came for that conference that place? I said yes I remember that very well. I didn't tell them why. And they said we got saved in that conference. Oh said, praise the Lord. Was that worth 80,000 rupees? Tell me. Would you pay 40,000 rupees to take one 43:33 person to heaven? But the Lord did not allow me to know that for one and a half years to see whether I would just rejoice in him and not even rejoice in souls being saved. I said, "Lord, you're my you're my joy." I thank God for the lessons he's taught 43:50 me. The Lord builds the house and I will not put my business first at any time. Never. And I'll tell you this, I've not starved. My children have not starved. God's taken care of me and my family because I decided I'm going to build the 44:06 Lord's house and he'll build mine. He's waiting for you to rise up early, to retire late like all these businessmen around the world, work hard and all that. You need to get some sleep. It says in verse two, God gives us sleep. 44:20 And I'll tell you something else. If you have a good conscience, that's the best pillow to sleep on. If you find um it difficult to sleep, try try this medicine, good conscience. Go to bed with a good conscience. You'll get very 44:39 good sleep. I was looking on the internet once um uh you know and I saw there against my name help to sleep I said help to sleep Jack and I went to that site it's a site 44:58 which describes all types of medicines for people who have sleep problems you know how Google search picks up everything and one of the things written there was one person said I find that I get the best sleep if I put my 45:11 headphones on and listen to brother Zach's messages they give me a pleasant sleep and I go to bed I said great it's God's word it's not my word really then it speaks about family life that's the other home we have to build children 45:27 verse three are the gift of the lord look at every child you get as a gift of the lord boy or girl in India unfortunately we have a preference for boys but girls are also the gift of the lord don't forget The fruit of the womb is his reward. And 45:42 we must make our children, listen to this, verse four, like arrows. Every child of ours must be like an arrow that we're going to fling at the devil. And I'll tell you something, you can't keep that bow arrow in the bow forever. 45:58 You got to let it go. Some parents are so clingy to their children. Oh, don't leave us alone. We're getting older. Please take care of us. Let them go. Let them go and fire away at the enemy. God will take care of you. Don't worry. 46:13 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior. I've learned to release my children long ago. Cuz I want them to fight the devil and I want to want to keep on holding them. What do you do with an arrow in your bow? Fire it. So are the children of one's youth. How 46:30 blessed is the man who has such a quiver. They will not be ashamed when they speak their enemies. 128 speaks on like that about a the home. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. His home will be like a his wife will be 46:44 like a fruitful wine. Children like olive plants. You know to have children who fear the Lord is a wonderful thing. If you're a man who fears God, you should long that all your children should fear God as well. Number one, 46:57 fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There's no use teaching them English ABC if you don't teach them spiritual ABC, the fear of the Lord. If you don't teach them from childhood to honor their parents, to speak respectfully to dad and mom, and to 47:12 speak respectfully to every older person, and to stop speaking evil of other people in the church, etc. Teach them the fear of the Lord, and you'll be blessed. You'll have them sitting around your table fearing the Lord themselves. 47:27 and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem and see your children's children. Verse 6, we go to Psalm 129. It seems as though in following this ascending path to the Lord's the Lord's highway, it is a highway in the sense that it goes higher and 47:44 higher and higher all the time. Persecution never stops. I don't believe persecution is going to stop for me or for our church. No matter how far we progress, there'll always be somebody who is jealous. Most of the persecution is because people are 48:01 jealous that God's blessing you in some way. They're jealous of you. There numerous people who are jealous of God's servants and jealous of a church that God is blessing. And it's jealousy that provokes them to persecution. 48:16 Even Pilate could recognize when the Pharisees brought Jesus, he ah these guys are jealous of this man's ministry. That's why they're trying to tear him apart. That happens. It's happened. It's been the fate of every true servant of 48:29 God. But you can ignore it cuz God will be a helper. Many times they persecuted me. Yeah. Many times from my youth, but they never prevail against me. And we have even wonderful promise in Romans 8:28. God will make everything work for 48:41 our good. He'll never prevail. It'll work for my good. The Lord will cut the cords of the wicked. Verse four. And he will deal with all those who hate Zion. We don't have to do anything. the Lord will deal with them and so on. 48:57 Let's go to Psalm 130. Another thing that we never stop in our ascending path is Lord keep me from sinning. Like Mother Teresa said, 49:18 temptation is like fire. Temptation is like fire. Even if you're a 100 years old, it can burn you. I've never heard a better definition of the danger of temptation than that. Fire. You're 100 years old. It can burn 49:37 you. Watch. Watch. So, we need to cry out and say, "Lord, hear my voice. Be attentive. If you mark iniquities, Lord, there's forgiveness with you." Verse four, that you may be feared. Why does God forgive us? So that we fear him? He doesn't 49:54 forgive us so that we can play the fool with sin. No, it's one of the most important verses in forgiveness in the whole Bible. Why does God forgive us? He forgives us so that we may fear him even more. So please remember that the next time you 50:08 ask God for forgiveness, in the early stages of our Christian life, we ask God for forgiveness because we want to go to heaven. But as we grow on go on in the Lord, we ask for forgiveness and we say, "Lord, let this forgiveness make me fear you 50:25 some more than I've ever feared you before." Do you pray like that on the ascending path? That's how we pray. And I wait for the Lord. And I wait for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. It's also waiting for the Lord's return. When I 50:42 read about the terrible things happening in the world around me, I say, "Lord, come Lord Jesus." When I see poor children being exploited. When I see young girls being kidnapped for prostitution, I say, "Lord Jesus, come." When I see unrighteous, 50:55 ungodly people flourishing and, you know, wicked people harassing the righteous, I say, "Lord Jesus, come." I believe we should be praying that prayer, the last prayer in the Bible. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. My soul waits 51:07 for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Psalm 131, a good warning as we go higher and higher and higher. A big danger is pride. Many of you have been in the church here 25, 30 years. You know what your danger 51:24 is? You can begin to think now I'm a senior brother. Uh-huh. I'm not like these young fellows who joined yesterday. I'm a senior brother and senior sister. That'll be your doom. Do you remember those people who came to work at 6:00 in the morning 51:43 and when the time came for wages and the master gave you know this Matthew 20 he paid the fellows who came and worked for 1 hour. Do you know what their words were? How can you make us equal to these people who came one hour ago? Is there 51:59 any of that spirit in you? How can you make me a senior brother who's been in CFC for 25 30 years equal to this fellow who came yesterday? How can you give him a ministry when I have been here 30 years? It's because of that 52:14 attitude that God will never give you a ministry even in a 100 years. Say, Lord, my heart is not proud. I don't want to involve myself in matters too great for me or things too difficult for me. Many people put their heads into 52:27 things that don't concern them at all. Don't be a busy body in other people's affairs. We need that warning even when you reach near the top. Lord, I don't want to be a busy body in other people's affairs. I don't want to have another 52:39 person's ministry. I want to be satisfied with the ministry you gave me. I want to be satisfied in the circle in which you put me. I want to stay within that boundary like a weaned child. We need to be like a weaned child. You know, when a child 52:51 has been on his mother's breast, baby drinking, drinking and ringing, then you try to take away that child from the mother's breast to feed it solid food. In the beginning, it's a bit restless and cries for this mother's breast 53:01 again, mother's milk. Then finally, it comes to rest. Have you come to rest? Are you one of those restless people? Like a weaned child rests against his mother without being restless. My soul is like that. I trust in the 53:15 Lord. Psalm 132. Here we speak about David. See about David's burden to build the house of God. Remember, O Lord, David's behalf, his affliction, how he swore to God. Listen to this. And think of it as building the church. He's talking about 53:32 people who have ascended this high and who are saying, "Lord, my burden is to build the church. I will not enter my house. I will not lie on my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place to 53:45 build the church. That's my burden. Oh Lord, don't turn away your face from anointed." Verse 10, help me to build your church because that is verse 13. What the Lord has chosen for his dwelling place. Today the Lord has chosen the church to be his 54:01 dwelling place where his resting place is forever. I don't know how many of you have that burden. I remember reading many years ago this word in Ephesians 5:25. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And I say Lord I want to love the 54:20 church and give myself for it till my last breath no matter how much pain inconvenience sickness anything I will give myself to build the church and I will not seek anything in return because that's how you gave yourself. That's what it means 54:37 to follow Jesus. Ask God to give you a burden like that. Psalm 133. And in the church, how good and how pleasant it is. See, we're standing near the top now. We're almost reached the top. Brethren dwelling together in 54:55 unity. Unity, fellowship, not uniformity. Uniformity means, you know, like school uniform. Everybody looks alike. Military uniform. Everybody's alike. We behave alike. We talk alike. No, no, no, no. That's computerized robots. We are all 55:12 different. We're all different. You and your wife will be different. You and your co-workers will be different. But there's not uniformity. It's unity. There may be many areas where we are different. But we're united. Husband and 55:26 wife are united. Brother and brother are united. Sister and sister united. Are you striving for this unity in your home, in the church? Because it is there. Verse three, that the Lord commands the blessing. It's in the place of unity where two or 55:44 three are gathered in my name and they agree together. They shall ask for anything it'll be granted them by my father. And finally, what is the ultimate purpose of God? 56:00 I'll tell you to make us worshippers. ultimately for Psalm 134 to stand day and night for all eternity to raise our hands in submission. It's 56:18 an expression of submission and trust. Lord, I trust in you. I submit to you. I lift up my hands to worship the Lord. To bless him. To bless the Lord means to worship him. Psalm 56:37 Revelation 22 it says his servants will worship him and serve him. The ultimate purpose of God is to make us worshippers. Jesus said that to the woman of Samaria. The father is seeking all over the world for those who will 56:54 worship him in spirit and truth. It's like the father searching. Searching. When I read that verse, I said, "Dad, please find me as one of those whom you're searching for. I don't want to be a preacher. I want to be a worshiper." Believe me, 57:10 brothers and sisters, a lot of people think of me as a preacher. You may think of me like that. I don't want God to think of me like that. I want God to think of me as a worshipper. That's what I want to be any day. I'm determined to be a worshipper. 57:29 Even if I lose my gift of preaching or say if I become dumb or can't speak or it's okay. Nobody will stop me from being a worshipper because I don't need to open my mouth to be a worshipper. I don't need to have speaking ability or 57:42 anything. Some of you who envy others, oh, I wish I could speak like that. I wish I could do that. What's stopping you from being a worshipper? That's the greatest thing you can be on this earth. That's the ultimate height. 57:56 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you will help each one of us as we climb this hill by the mighty power of God as we go up and up and up and up. Help us never to 58:14 backslide. Help us to press on so that we shall see you with joy when you arrive and not be ashamed when you come. so many temptations around us to be sidetracked. Protect us, preserve us along this path. 58:30 We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
