0:00 Hopefully. What is commitment to a local fellowship or church? How should we stay away from other fellowships and churches? A church 0:19 a local church that believes they are the only believers in the world is a cult. Let me say that in the beginning. There are groups like that who think that anyone who doesn't belong to our group is not a believer. I would stay away from such a group. 0:36 But it is not God's will that 50,000 believers in one city all meet in one church. The Lord never said all men will know you are my disciples when you meet in one building. All men will know you are my disciples when you love one another and I can love 0:53 people in another church even if I don't agree with them. There are many believers in other churches. I know there are believers in the Roman Catholic Church. I would not be a part of a Roman Catholic Church because I disagree with 1:05 their theology. But if I meet a believer in a Roman Catholic Church, I would be happy to fellowship with them on a personal basis. But at the same time we must not treat churches in our town like restaurants. One day I go to one restaurant and I 1:23 like the food there. I go to another restaurant. I I've no commitment to a restaurant. And a church must be like a family where even if the food is not as good as a restaurant I stay here because my family I mean nobody leaves their home because saying 1:40 mom doesn't cook as good as that restaurant out there. You can't go and live in a restaurant. A church is a family and we must belong to one family because in a family there's a responsibility. It's You can't just get up, eat your 1:55 food and go away. You can do that in a restaurant. In a family you got to help with the washing up, cleaning up, responsibility for paying the rent, so many things. So that's what develops us. I can say without any hesitation 2:10 that people who are not committed to a local church their spiritual growth is definitely hindered without any doubt. I'm saying this after 50 years of observing people in many many different churches. But those who are committed to a local 2:23 church even if it's not a great powerful wonderful preachers over there they grow spiritually because of commitment. You know, it's like the body learning to function together. So it's very important because the Lord wants 2:39 a local expression of his body to be in different places. How can there be a local expression of a body if they don't see something working together? And so even those who are pursuing a holy life the devil may say, "Well, you're living 2:56 a holy life. That's good enough. It doesn't matter where you go. Go wherever there's the best preacher." So one day the visiting preacher's over here, I go to this church. Another week of visiting preacher's over there and I go to that church. 3:07 I can tell you right now you'll never grow spiritually. You live in a self-deception. You'll be accumulating a lot of knowledge in your mind but you will not grow spiritually. Spiritual growth comes not only from good food spiritually but also from 3:21 commitment to a local church and nowadays in the days of the internet you can hear a lot of good messages just by going to the internet. You don't have to go to listen to a visiting speaker over there. But commitment to a local church and 3:33 growth with others in a fellowship you cannot have over the internet. So however much you may listen to good messages you will not grow unless you're part of a local church. It's God's will that in every place there should be some 3:44 local fellowship even if it's just a few people. Okay, how should we understand the heart of God when we read the Old Covenant and see a relationship that is not there in the New Covenant. Was there not hints or prophetic pictures even in the sort of 3:58 life we see in Joseph? Certainly. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a list of many godly men. We considered Abel this morning. An example from the Old Testament. A good example and like that Joseph an outstanding example Daniel 4:14 David in his early days and many other examples like that in the Old Testament. John the Baptist a great example. So we can learn from these examples but remember they did not have the resources we have. They could have been more wholehearted. 4:28 I believe many Old Testament Christians were far more wholehearted than today's Christians. But they didn't have the resources. So we have greater potential. For example, Albert Einstein was perhaps the greatest mathematician 4:42 of the last 100 years. But I can do more with a computer today than he could do. Not because I'm cleverer than him. He didn't have this resource that I have. So we have the Holy Spirit today and somebody far more wholehearted than 4:59 us could not achieve as much as we can because of this the power of the Holy Spirit we have. So that doesn't mean we don't learn anything from from those people. We can learn a lot from many aspects of their life. Particularly Joseph's uprightness in the 5:15 sexual area. Outstanding example for all young people. Man who was in a far country away from his parents, no Bible, no fellowship no meetings, nothing. He had the fear of God. Most important requirement. How do you tell tell the difference 5:29 between counterfeits of the Holy Spirit and a good trustworthy church? If you can see that the ideal spirit-filled person was Jesus Christ. You cannot go wrong there. My example of a spirit-filled person is Jesus Christ. 5:44 Always full of the Spirit. And I see the things he does and the things he did rather and the things he didn't do. So when I see things like today people falling on the ground, somebody touches them, fall on the ground and they say that's the Holy Spirit. 6:01 I immediately compare it with Jesus. You know, I call Jesus my spiritual dictionary. Just like if I read an English word which I couldn't understand I pick up a dictionary, find out what's its meaning. In the same way when I see something 6:15 my spiritual dictionary is Jesus. So is this a manifestation of the Holy Spirit? And I look at Jesus and I find him never pushing people down. He always pick people up. People were lying down he made them get up and walk. 6:29 And here I see people doing the opposite of that. Putting people down. I said there is a word in the Bible for the opposite of Christ. You know what it's called? Antichrist. That's right. So and the other thing perhaps you folks in 6:42 the West don't understand it as much as we do in India. In India if you show your feet the bottom of your feet to somebody it's a way of insulting him. Uh it's one of it's a great insult to show somebody the bottom of your feet or 6:57 your shoes. In the in the Bible everywhere you find people worshiping God by putting their head down before when they fell down they fell down head first, bow down to God. This is the opposite of that and I I can imagine the devil having a big 7:11 laugh and saying, "God, do you see what these fellows are doing? They're showing you their feet. You think they're worshiping you? Far from it." It's a tremendous amount of deception. Um this so-called holy laughter, people 7:23 falling down and laughing. Can you imagine Jesus lying on the ground here and laughing and laughing? I cannot by any stretch of my imagination. So I say that's not the Holy Spirit. If you want to do it, you do it. But I do not believe that's the Holy 7:35 Spirit. It's making a deception of God um of God's work. Uh if you look at the internet among the Hindus in India they have groups called uh laughing clubs in India. They are there. They feel laughing is good for health and 7:51 they come together and laugh and laugh and laugh exactly like these um um so-called Christians doing the same thing. It's not the Holy Spirit. It may not be an evil spirit sometimes. It may be just your human emotion. At times I get a thought of jealousy and 8:09 although I don't entertain it I feel it is sin. How do I get rid of it? One of the very important things that Christians who are seeking for victory over sin and a victorious life must recognize is the difference between temptation and 8:22 sin. A thought is a temptation. If I reject it immediately I have not sinned. How did the devil tempt Jesus? Turn the stones into bread. It was a thought flashed into Jesus' mind. Jesus said no. 8:41 Jump off from the roof of the temple, commit suicide. Thought. Rejected. It says the devil took him to a high mountain. He Jesus was not in a high mountain. He was in the wilderness right up to the end of the temptation. It was 8:54 in his mind that the devil took him to a high mountain and showed him the glory of the world. There is no high mountain there where you in Israel where you can see the glory of the world in any case. Uh in his mind he showed him and said, 9:05 "I'll give this to you if you worship me." Jesus rejected it. There was no sin. So if you get a thought and you reject it it's not a sin. It's when you cherish it and accept it even in your mind that you sin. And we have to battle it. 9:22 It says if by the Spirit Romans 8:13 you put the deeds of the body to death you will live. So God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death these thoughts of temptation. How do we find out our ministry in the 9:39 church that we are called to lead? First of all, make sure your motive is the glory of God. And that the name of Christ will be honored. It's very very important. Motive is the most important thing. Man looks on the outward appearance, 9:55 your service, but God looks at the heart, the motive. So, if our motive is right and say, "Lord, I want to glory glorify you." And make sure you're not in competition with anybody. See what is the burden in your heart. The burden in your heart is usually 10:09 an indication of the ministry God has given to you. And also, that's one part of it. The second part of it is um I may want to do something and I'm not very clear in my mind if this is God's will. There's a process of trial and error 10:24 by which you try something and you don't seem to see any fruit in it. And then you move into something else you discover, "Oh, this is my ministry." When I was converted, I didn't know much about the Bible, but I knew that Jesus 10:34 was my savior and I could tell people about the gospel. So, my earliest attempt at ministry was evangelism. I'd stand in the streets and preach the gospel. And then in 2 years, I covered every street in the town I was living 10:47 in. Preaching in every nook and corner. And giving out tracts in the buses and trains and But I found literally no results. And I knew that God didn't bear witness to it. I was not called to be an evangelist. But this around the same time, during 11:05 the week, I would teach the word. And I found tremendous fruit in that. And then I knew that that is my calling. So, it is a trial and error process. How can I overcome being somewhat afraid to know God's will or hear from him in certain areas 11:24 because I fear it may be very painful or difficult. Well, this depends on your knowing the nature of God. Do you remember the story of the man who gave certain talents for people to use while he was away? And he gave man one talent or one piece 11:42 of money. And that man buried it and didn't use it. And when he came back, he told the master, "I knew you were a hard demanding man." That was his problem. He There are people who think of God is a very hard demanding God who's a 11:59 spoilsport. Who's out to mess up your life. If you ask him to choose for you the girl you should marry, he'll pick out the ugliest girl in the world and say you got to marry her. And if you ask him to tell you which job you should 12:13 take, he'll pick out the most low lowest paid job uh that the most difficult job and give you that. You know where these thoughts come from? The devil. Would you Would your own loving father ever do that to you? No. Well, God is a million times better 12:28 than the most loving father in the world. He's not a spoilsport. He He'll give us the best possible life. If we submit to his will. And we So, it's our understanding of God's nature, how much he loves me. He wants the very best. But he does want me 12:48 to go through to work hard at it. For example, our children studying for examinations in India. Um it's it's so employment is so difficult. It's so difficult to get jobs that parents push their children to work hard in their examinations so they get a good 13:04 complete a good course and get a good degree so they can get a job. And why do the parents urge the child who's probably not serious about it? Come on, sit down and work and do your homework and study hard. Because in the long term, that child is 13:18 going to be thankful to the parents that they we went through that hard way. But if a parent said, "Oh, do what you like. You don't want to study for your And later on, the child's I've seen cases like that. And all their life, they're struggling 13:31 to find a job, struggling, struggling, struggling. They get married and lifelong struggle because in the early days, they did not have a little discipline to work hard. Whatever job it is, I mean, even if you're going to be a 13:40 plumber or a carpenter or anything. To learn a trade, you got to really work hard. And so, just because something is painful or difficult doesn't mean it's bad for us. We understand it in many areas. For Take the matter of surgery. 13:55 If the doctor says, "You got a cancer, but I can cure you of it if you let me cut your stomach open." You ask, "Is it going to be painful?" Well, of course it will be. It'll take a long time for you to recover from it. Why do you go through it? Because you 14:07 know in the long term, it's for your benefit. So, we should not be afraid if we It all depends on whether you trust the doctor. He's a loving man. Can't we trust our heavenly father? Okay, if I desire to live in the most 14:20 holy place and I seek to live hidden with God alone. How do I know that I'm not deceiving myself? I don't want to live in the outer court life and think I'm in the holy of holies. Well, I believe it'll you will come to know through a 14:34 uh It's very difficult to describe um your relationship with God deepening. I The only way I can picture it is a husband and wife. How do you know whether your relationship with your partner, your married person, is deepening and getting closer? It's 14:50 very difficult to describe it. But you know by whether you want to spend time with your wife when you're not doing anything else. Then you know that you really love her. You want to be with her or you say, "I'm pretty bored with my wife. 15:05 I want to go and spend time with my friends." But then you know that you don't really love her at all. So, if you're eager to have the presence of God and you want it, you want it more than anything else, you won't be deceiving yourself. And 15:19 you'll find also the result of it is in spiritual growth in your life. You're able to overcome sins that you couldn't overcome before. And revelation on God's word. When you come into God's presence, he reveals things in the word. I don't 15:32 mean bright ideas. A clever mind can give you bright ideas from scripture. And a lot of people preach bright ideas from scripture. The difference between a bright idea that you get from God's word, from a clever mind, and revelation that comes from the 15:45 spirit is this that revelation changes your life. Bright ideas don't change your life. They just give you points for another sermon. That's all. So, if all you got is a point for another sermon, that's just a bright idea. 15:58 But if it is revelation, it would change your life in some area. So, these are different ways by which we know we're living in God's presence. How can I die to myself when my pride and self is constantly standing out? These two things that are mentioned 16:12 here, pride and selfishness, they are the two sins that will, I feel, remain with us till we die. But if you're working on your salvation and cleansing yourself, it'll become less and less and less and less. I compare pride 16:27 to a massive onion. Selfishness, another massive onion. You peel off a layer, it becomes thinner. You peel off another layer. In some situation, you get light on it. And you cleanse yourself and little by little by little that pride and 16:40 selfishness become less and less. And In other words, you're becoming more Christ-like. More humble. More God-centered. More concerned for others and not occupied with yourself. You will always find, if you're honest, you'll always discover some situation 16:59 where you were a little proud or a little selfish. But it will be layer number 23, not layer number one. If you're always working at layer number one, there's something wrong. We'll be discovering more and more of hidden, subtle areas of 17:14 selfishness or pride in something you said or something you didn't say, etc. So, as you see it, you can only die to that which you see. When I die to, for example, the Lord shows me sometime, "Hey, that was a very selfish thing you did or said just now." 17:31 I say, "Lord, I go and apologize to that person." That's one way I die to myself. Uh to my pride as well. And I get some light on that. I'll be more careful next time. What is the meaning of purifying ourselves? See, there's two type of cleansing 17:45 mentioned in the scripture. One, the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin, which is committed sin. I can never cleanse myself. Only God has to do it. Through the blood. But cleansing myself, there are a number of verses. Second 18:00 Corinthians 7:1. We cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Second Timothy 2, if a man cleanses himself, he'll be a vessel unto honor. Uh and um 1 John 3:3, if we purify ourselves as he is pure. That's the cleansing that we do 18:16 ourselves. That is not from committed sin, which God cleanses me, but from sins within my flesh, habits, which I need to cleanse myself from, which I progressively get free from. Both these cleansings are needed. And uh for one, we need mercy. For the 18:33 other, we need grace to overcome those sins. And God can help us through his spirit to die to ourselves. As a leader, how should we find out about personal life of the church members and help them in their broken relationships? 18:49 I don't think you should ever be curious about people's private lives or personal lives. And even when people come to you and want to confess their sins to you, I usually discourage them. I say, "Listen, I'm not a Roman Catholic priest for you 19:06 to come and confess your sins to me. Go and confess it to the Lord. And if it's between you and the Lord, confess it to him. If you sinned against me, confess it to me. But all your private sins, I have no interest in listening to them. Go Go to 19:20 Go and tell the Lord about it. I have no interest in knowing about the private sins of anybody in my congregation. My calling as a leader is to help them in their personal life to have some assessment of their spiritual 19:33 condition. And that can come through personal conversation. And um if you have a church where you have opportunity for people to share a testimony or you can find out when they'll share their testimony or if they keep quiet 19:49 uh what their spiritual state and God gives you that discernment. It's very difficult to define that. But a a leader, God, if you're walking with the Lord, he'll give you discernment. And uh, you may feel that somebody's 20:02 slipping up. And God himself will expose certain things to you. And so that you can help them. And if it's broken relationships in a family if you love them enough God will you know, people sense that you love them enough. 20:21 They will come and share their problem with you and try to say, "Please help us in this situation." I feel very often people in a church uh, may feel that the leader points out certain sins but does not love them enough. 20:37 Like, you know, as parents, our children must know we love them immensely. Then they will believe that what we are telling them is for their good. People in our church must feel the same way about us. I've corrected so many people in our church very 20:52 strongly. My own children and even elders. And they love me immensely for it because they know also that I'd sacrifice anything for them. I'd anything for them and they've I've even helped them with their financial difficulty. They know that I 21:08 care for them. And so if we they see love and um, compassion then you'll be able to correct them. I've been reading the Bible for some time. I'm seeking to see the glory of Christ in it so as to follow him. Please advise. 21:24 It's only the Holy Spirit who can show you the beauty of Jesus. And there's no technique for it. But if you if you go to the Bible and say, "Lord, I want to see the glory of Jesus here. I want to be more Christ-like." And I want to 21:40 become more like him. I want to follow in his footsteps. Please show me those footsteps. Show me the hidden life of Jesus how he lived on this earth. I want to live like that. I believe the Holy Spirit can show you. Little by little, not every day 21:55 necessarily in some fresh revelation. But sometimes maybe long after you read the Bible, suddenly something may flash into your mind. The Holy Spirit reminds you or in a particular situation where you're facing a temptation. 22:09 This is how Jesus would react. There you're seeing the glory of Jesus based on what you read in the scriptures last week perhaps. Should we assume that every command Jesus gave to his disciples applies to everyone? No. I mean, but you know, you mean you got 22:25 enough common sense to know where it was a personal command just for them. For example, he told the disciples, "Don't go to the Gentiles. Just go to the nation of Israel and preach to them." And he gave them a commission to raise 22:38 the dead. Roman I might say Matthew chapter 10. As you go, raise the dead. Cleanse the lepers. You know that was for them. But uh, when it comes to the general teaching like in the sermon on the mount, you know, that's for everybody. 22:52 And one there's some specific to them. That's it. But are all disciples called to make disciples? I believe so. There's a verse which many Christians like to quote. I see it hanging on the walls of some homes. "Lo, I'm with you always." 23:09 You know where that is? It's in the last verse of Matthew. "Lo, I'm with you always." We like to have that. But do you know to whom Jesus said it? It's like when you get a check, you got to first check is it in your name or not 23:23 before you get excited about the amount of the check. It may not be in your name. So, "Lo, I'm with you always." A fantastic check. But here's the full verse. "Go into all the world. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them 23:39 to do everything I commanded you and lo, I'm with you always." So, it's for everybody. Going you know, going to the all over the world for you may just mean going next door or to your relatives or you know, it doesn't mean the other side 23:56 of the world but the world is all around you. In your office, anywhere. Uh, can you define soul and spirit in more detail? There's a little book of mine there called Living as Jesus lived. There's a whole chapter there on soul and spirit. And 24:11 three chapters following that on what soul is and spiritual service is. Uh, why do we see so many demon-possessed people in the New Testament but not in the Old Testament? They were in the Old Testament, too. But nobody could cast out a demon in the 24:27 Old Testament. Not even John the Baptist, no prophet. Because uh, they were not given that authority by Christ. And the devil was going to be defeated only after Christ came. So, Jesus is the first person in the Bible who cast out demons. 24:45 But there were demons in the synagogues. We read once when Jesus preached in a synagogue one guy with a demon interrupted and said something. He was sitting comfortably there as long as the Pharisees were preaching. But as soon as 24:59 Jesus preached the demon got all worked up. So uh, in the Old Testament you never read of anybody confronting Satan. Nowhere. Um, the first person who directly confronted 25:18 Satan was Jesus Christ in the gospels. And after that, the apostles and we are called to confront Satan and resist the devil. And he'll flee from us because they didn't have the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. So God does not allow us to be tempted 25:35 beyond our ability. I mean, if the devil was permitted to attack people like that in the Old Testament, they wouldn't have known what to do with it. So, they were he was restrained. But there were demon-possessed people right 25:46 from the beginning. I think in the days of Noah when it says the sons of God, referring to the angelic beings saw the daughters of men and lusted after them and had sex with them. Angels can't have sex. It's impossible. 26:04 They don't have a body. What I believe that verse means in Genesis 6 is they possessed men. And through men who yielded their bodies to them they satisfied their lust for pretty women. Okay. What's the definition of the word 26:21 grace? The best definition is what you read in Hebrews 4:16. "Let us come to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need." Beautiful. It's a biblical definition. "Help in time of need." 26:40 And if you look at the previous verse, Hebrews 4:15, it's referring to temptation. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are and did not sin. Therefore let us go and find grace to help us in our time of need, which is temptation. 26:57 So, that is the primary uh, purpose of grace. To more than a definition, the purpose of grace is to help us in our temptation. And the other word I would quote is 2 Corinthians 12:9 where it says, "My grace is sufficient 27:12 for you. For my power is made perfect in weak people." That means it is God's power to help us in our weakness. And that makes us sufficient for every need that we can ever face in our life. Any trial, any sickness, anything. 27:28 I mean, the sickness may not be healed. Like in John Paul's case, the thorn was not taken away. But he was given grace to live with it and overcome it so that it didn't hinder his life or ministry. Definitions are not as important as 27:43 being availing of that grace. It doesn't matter if you don't get an accurate definition. But we must avail of grace. How often should we sit with our children for teaching time? There's no law on that. It depends on how much time you have. And each 27:58 different parents have different time time available. Sometimes it's only the mother who has time. Uh, but we must sit with our children and teach them the word of God. Preferably every single day. You know, a little bit 28:11 of time. And even if it's around the dining table. When we're sitting around the dining table, we can share. It doesn't have to be in a formal time of family prayer. Um, so whenever we get time and as much time as we get. 28:26 And then get them to read the Bible on their own as well. I got a picture Bible for my children when they were small so that they could get read the facts of the Bible. And then we could talk about it when we're on the dining table where 28:42 you know, when they were young, they don't understand the deep truths in scripture but we can encourage them to know scripture by asking them facts of the Bible. And if they're reading there, you know, ask them, "Who was Moses' mother?" 28:55 Do you all know? So, now those are type of questions you don't need to be a deep scholar to understand. You just need to read Exodus and you know it. So, once they you challenge them on it, what used to happen would they would look try to look for 29:11 something where they could catch me and find something which I didn't know the answer to and that way we both improved our knowledge of the scriptures. Uh, like I remember one of my sons once asking me "Dad Joab David's general in his army was 29:29 Joab. How was he related to David?" I said, "I'm sorry, I don't know." I know he was the son of Zeruiah but what does that mean? He said, "Zeruiah was David's sister." Oh. Then I looked up the scripture and I it was right. 29:48 Joab was his nephew. So, little things like that, you know, it creates an interest and they they study it more if they know that they got one up on their dad in some situation. And uh then as an interest comes in scripture, 30:05 they begin to read it and then you can lead them more and more to understand the deeper truths of scripture. The main thing is to create an interest in this book. That was my aim. I must get my children interested in this book 30:17 because it's changed my life. Can you lose your salvation? This is a big dispute in many Christian circles. There is Sorry? Children, okay. 30:54 Yeah. Where scripture is silent, you know, my principle in teaching scripture is this. Where the New Testament emphasizes something strongly, I emphasize it strongly. Where the New Testament speaks about something very little, I speak about it 31:09 very little. Where the New Testament is silent, I'm silent, but I give my opinion, like 1 Corinthians 7. Paul says concerning this matter of marriage of virgins and all, I give my opinion. Uh it's not the Lord's commandment. So, 31:25 there are three levels. And so, this is an area of the questions you asked when should a child be taught to ask Jesus to come into his heart or baptized or take communion? There's no scripture, but I believe that children can receive Christ at a very 31:41 young age. I knew one missionary lady who came to India who said that she received Christ when she was 3 years old. She was European. And when at the age of 5, when she heard a missionary from China speak in her church, she got a call to 31:58 go to China. But she went there 30 years later. So, I I can see that God can speak to people at any time. And um from the earliest childhood, from the time they begin to understand, we must tell them primarily about their conscience. 32:16 Listen to that conscience. You've done things against your conscience. That makes you a sinner. And you can explain how, you know, when you do something wrong, it has to be corrected. If you steal some money, you have to 32:26 return it. Use examples like that. And therefore, when we have done something wrong against God, he has to punish us for it. And Jesus took that punishment for us. And help them to see that and how Jesus rose from the dead. It's 32:43 amazing how, you know, we begin to think, how can children believe all this? And it's amazing to see how children do. It's God puts into their heart that faith. Faith is a gift of God. I believe that without any doubt. And 32:57 so, from the earliest age, whenever they can understand, you must ask them, Lord Jesus, ask Jesus to come into your heart. And there'll be a time when they themselves realize and say, hey, I know Jesus has come in. And then you know it's real. 33:14 Now, they'll make mistakes just like we make mistakes. And you should not jump on them and it's a foolish parent who's will now tell the child, hey, you accepted Jesus in your heart uh yesterday and you can't behave like that 33:25 today. That's sure to drive them away from the Lord permanently. Never say that as if you never made a mistake in your life after you accepted Christ. And some parents are very bad that way. So, we must encourage them and tell 33:40 them, hey, we we slip up, but we're going to get up. You're like you're like a child learning to walk. And so, when should they be baptized? See, we don't want children to take baptism because of peer pressure. Others are getting baptized, so I want 33:56 to get baptized. They they shouldn't think there's some virtue in that baptism other than obeying a commandment of the Lord. You don't become more spiritual when you go into the water. But it's an important step of obedience. 34:09 But it's good if they understand it before they do it. The same way with communion. It's good if they understand it before they do it. Not understand all the depth of meaning in it. But uh if they can say, yes, this means my 34:22 old life is finished and I'm publicly saying to everyone and to the devil, I'm finished with you. I'm finished with my old life. And each parent must decide themselves for their child what is the right age when I can feel 34:36 that they the child can be baptized. And so, what I do in our church, if the father is a believer, I tell the father, you get into the baptism tank and you baptize him because you take responsibility for that. You know that child better than anybody 34:49 else. Get into the water and baptize him. Um then they take the father also takes it more seriously then than if they put the responsibility on the pastor or the elder. Um so, I wouldn't specify a time. I know my own children were baptized when they 35:05 were 16 or 17. I wanted to be absolutely sure that they knew the Lord and they were choosing it themselves that later on in life they don't regret it saying, hey, my dad pushed me into the water too soon. Or, you know, sometimes parents can 35:19 want their children to get baptized for their own testimony. Say, oh, my children are all baptized. Well, I couldn't care less for that. I wanted them to have a relationship with God, which is more important. But then I also in the summer of our 35:31 churches, people get baptized when they are 11. I say, fine. If you're sure, I will not make a rule on this for anybody. Each parent must decide for himself. The same thing with communion. You feel that In our church, we 35:45 do not encourage people to be take communion before they are baptized. Uh there is no law on that a person can be born again without taking baptism. I know that. But um if they are not baptized, I say, why aren't you baptized? You should be 36:02 baptized. Cuz it's an obedience to God. And uh so, I would encourage children to take part communion after they are baptized. How to deal with the way of the cross in corporate situations, which is very competitive? See, 36:20 uh when you think of Jesus was also a businessman, a carpenter. He was not the only carpenter in Nazareth. He had to earn his living as a carpenter. There must have been other carpenters in Nazareth and he had to compete for his 36:34 business. But he did it in a healthy way. He wouldn't try to undercut somebody. And he wouldn't tell any lies. He wouldn't you know, if a table was cracked, he'd tell them it's cracked. You got to pay less for it. So, I see that in every area Jesus is an 36:53 example that I can honor God in whatever job I'm doing, even if it's in a competitive business world, believing that God will bless me. I know people in my own church who are doing business in different fields and God has blessed them 37:10 immensely. You know, people didn't like the strong preaching that our church preached in many areas like you hear me speak. And this is what we we preached the same thing 40 years ago. And a lot of Christians around us, 37:24 it's interesting, the Hindus and Muslims didn't hate us as much as the other Christians because they were being exposed by the type of Christianity we preached. Uh but we had a brother in our church who made furniture. But he was so upright in his business 37:41 that all these people who called us heretics, when they wanted a job done, they'd come to him cuz they know that he did it right on his job. So, the the testimony was so good that he earned his living, very very good living thereby. 37:55 So, I believe God honors us. Uh you mentioned you'd be happy to be in hell if Jesus is there and the boiling oil wouldn't bother you. What more on a lighter note? Was that more on a lighter note to explain how much you enjoyed presence presence of 38:09 Jesus? Because Jesus I think was not simply warning us, not unless he's against hell. Sorry if this is a dumb question. No, no dumb questions. Don't worry. Uh well, it was I was only trying to say that physical discomfort, if I were to 38:25 put it that way, would not hinder me uh from being in the presence of Jesus. If Jesus was there, physical discomfort wouldn't bother me. Because the presence of Jesus would more than make up for it. Um that's what I really meant by that. But you know, 38:42 Jesus also was used some strong expressions. Have you heard uh him talking about swallowing a camel? Is that in your Bible? It's a pretty extreme expression. If you went up to Jesus and say, what do you mean by swallowing a camel? Who can ever 38:56 do that? Or a log in your eye? Have you ever tried having a log in your eye? Jesus was a master at using extreme statements like a log in your eye and swallowing a camel because that's the way he emphasized the point. So, I learned to emphasize points 39:13 from Jesus, by the way. In strong expressions. Uh could you please Okay, this is about body, soul, and spirit. And it's it's there in that book I mentioned. Uh you said Jesus said, depart from me 39:32 and go to hell. Why didn't you Why didn't you say eternal punishment as the scripture says? I don't see much of a difference between the two. When the rich man died, he went to a physical hell. And he was there. And finally, we read in Revelation chapter 39:52 20, hell is thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is different from hell. Hell was thrown to the lake of fire. To me, it is the same thing. It's really the same thing. Uh on being a compromiser and being gracious and tolerant, how do you 40:10 expound the difference? I think Jesus was very gracious, but he was never a compromiser. The glory of God was seen in Jesus full of grace and truth. And whenever we present truth, it must be presented graciously. But grace must not be so strong in us 40:30 wrong understanding of grace so strong that we don't stand for truth. Grace and truth, real grace will always include truth. And if it's scriptural truth, uh spiritual way, it'll be always presented with grace. And the example I use is if truth can be 40:43 compared to the bones in our body and grace to the flesh, our physical flesh, I mean. It's because we have bones and flesh that we don't repel each other. If a person was only truth, it'd be like a skeleton. And you don't exactly feel like 41:02 embracing a skeleton if he walks up to you in a dark night. And that's how the Pharisees were. They were like skeletons moving towards people and people ran away from them. Jesus had as many bones, spiritually speaking, as the Pharisees 41:16 and more than them because he had all the truth. But how were people attracted to Jesus? Because he was not a skeleton. The bones were covered over with grace or our flesh, which uh made them come close to him. So, grace and truth must go together. 41:33 The glory of God was seen in Jesus full of grace and truth. And God will give us wisdom in each situation. Compromise means where you uh you know something is wrong and you still don't stand up for it. Stand up for the truth. You know 41:52 something is truth and you don't stand up for it. It doesn't mean that we have to go around exposing all the errors that we see in other people. Jesus didn't go around exposing errors. There was a time and a place for him to 42:02 speak against the Pharisees and Sadducees, but he didn't walk into every synagogue and try to say, "You fellows are all wrong." That's crazy. So, it's the Holy Spirit lead you in each situation. Yeah. Yeah. 42:46 Yes. The very first very first act of humility is to acknowledge you're a sinner. Otherwise, you can't be saved at all. And that's very difficult for some people. I mean, Adam found it difficult when God asked him, "Did you eat of the tree?" 42:59 Right from that day onwards, it's always putting the blame on somebody else. The difference between the two thieves on the cross, one said, "Get me down from this cross." Meaning, "Okay, I've committed some crimes, but not bad enough to be crucified. Maybe a 43:13 few years in prison." But the other thief, he said, "No, I deserve this. I don't blame my parents. I don't blame anybody else for bringing up bring me up badly. I deserve this." Jesus said, "You're ready for paradise." Because he was humble enough to 43:27 acknowledge his need. So, for right from the beginning, it's humility that enables us to acknowledge we're sinners. We can't save ourselves. That's also humility. All my good works are like filthy rags. That's humility. 43:41 Right on to the very end, God gives his grace to the humble. How do I know my place in the body of the church? I think I've already answered that. How do I know if I've missed God's will for my life? See, I want to tell you something. We 43:55 should never uh look back over our life and say, "Oh boy, I wish I had done this over there. Uh did I miss God's will over there?" That's holy that's a way of condemnation, discouragement. And so, put the past behind you. Say, "Lord, I 44:13 can't do anything about those things." So, I can learn lessons from that. You see, we I made a rule in our church back in Bangalore in India saying, "In this church, we'll never talk about the past mistakes anybody made." 44:28 Cuz that only makes them feel miserable. But we will learn lessons from the mistakes we made so that we don't repeat it in the future. So, we're not going to torment ourselves or anybody else with our past mistakes cuz that doesn't 44:41 help us one bit, but we want to learn from that. Did I act foolishly in some place? Fine. Let me learn from it that I don't repeat it again somewhere. But not to condemn myself and uh say, "Oh, did I miss God's will there?" 44:54 You see, even in marriage, imagine if you a lot of people are converted were converted after their marriage. What are they going to do about you know, did I marry in God's will? It's completely out of the question. God overrules all that and ignore it. 45:13 And say, "I'm going to start from the day I'm converted. I want to learn some lessons. I'm not going to look back over the past. It's cleansed in the blood of Christ." And it's amazing how I've seen in so many cases people who are unconverted and got 45:26 married and then they got converted. And so many hundreds of cases I've seen where the wife comes along. It's almost as though God allowed you to marry the right person even when you were unconverted. Uh that you came along and they both 45:42 became believers and they're following the Lord now. So, there's a sovereignty of God in all this which we cannot uh fully understand. So, you know, we think mathematically, this is if I made a mistake in step number three, I can never get the right 45:58 answer. Finally, that's true in mathematics. But it's not true in the Christian life because you see the example of Paul who messed up 30 years of his life going the wrong direction, even killing Christians. And do you know what he says at the end 46:11 of his life? "I finished my course." You know, how in the world can a man finish his course who messed up 30 years of his life? Cuz God made allowance for that. God I made allowance for that for so many years this guy's going astray. 46:23 Okay, doesn't matter. I'll start from here. So, it's amazing what God can do. The sovereignty of God can do amazing things. And so, if you sit in regret over your past, you'll mess up more of your life. But if you say, "Lord, okay, I can learn 46:38 lessons from the past, but I'm not going to sit and regret." There's a beautiful verse I always encourage such people with, Acts 17 verse 30, which says, "God overlooks the times of ignorance." And our times of ignorance can be a huge area even 46:54 after we are born again. We never knew that there's a life of victory over sin possible. That's a period of ignorance. God overlooks it. But now that you got some light, repent. So, let's look at our life from now into the future 47:08 and never in the past. Can you lose your salvation? As I said, this is a big question. I just want to read this verse in Revelation chapter three, verse five. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase 47:27 his name from the book of life. Is that an empty threat that Jesus gave? Or these are the words of Jesus, Revelation 3:5. I believe Jesus gives no empty threats. It's possible for a person's name to be erased from the book of life. 47:47 He's speaking in human language for us to understand. But I understand that mean that person can lose his salvation. Or Hebrews 3:14, "We become partakers of Christ if" there's a big I F. 48:03 "We hold fast the beginning of ours assurance firm until the end." What if you don't hold fast the beginning of our salvation assurance firm until the end? Then we don't become partakers of Christ. So, that's all I would say. 48:23 Now, some churches, as you say, argue that such people are never saved in the first place. Those are all because they're trying to preserve a theology. It's better to take scripture exactly as it is written. What is the evidence that God is backing 48:36 us personally and backing us as a church in fellowship? It's very difficult to say, but I think that, for example, if I'm defeated by sin in my life, I would say that's because I didn't get grace cuz the Bible says, Romans 6:14, "When you're under grace, 48:53 sin cannot rule over you." Then I go one step further back and I say, "Why didn't I get grace?" God gives his grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5. So, then why did I get defeated by sin? Because somewhere back there, I was not 49:08 humble. So, I didn't get grace. So, I was defeated. So, if I go back and set that right and I say, "Lord, where was I not humble? Was there some area where I just got puffed up?" And the Lord will show me. I repent. I get one more light. One more 49:21 layer of that onion of pride is peeled off. And I seek for grace and I say, "Lord, I want to remain in humility all my life." So, that is personal life. I believe the only way we can know God is backing us is that we overcome 49:35 sin. And as a church I would say that it's not by numbers. Not at all. It's by the quality of fellowship in a church if that's improving. That is indication that God is with you. If you go by numbers, I think the Islamic fundamentalists will beat us 49:53 outright. They got a lot more followers than any Christian group. Or the Roman Catholic Church. But it's not numbers. It's the quality of life in a local church that indicates that God is really bearing witness to this church. 50:08 Is a church a part of Babylon if it pushes tithing heavily and operates in a pyramid structure with a one-man leader? Uh when is a church simply in error versus part of Babylon? See, thankfully, we don't have to judge 50:26 which church is a part of Babylon except our own. If you are in a church, ask yourself whether your church is part of Babylon because I'm not here to say this church is Babylon, that church is Babylon. None of my business. 50:40 God is the ultimate judge. It's like asking people asking me does did he go to heaven? Did he go to heaven? I say I don't know. I'm not a judge of all those things. I know there's only one way to be with the Father. Jesus said, "I'm the way, 50:50 the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." I'm absolutely sure on that. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you can be saved. The same So, I don't not here to judge different people. I'm not here to judge 51:02 different churches, but I'm certainly keen on ensuring that the church I have a responsibility for, I'm a part of, should not finally end up as a part of Babylon. And Babylon has got two big factors in Revelation chapter 51:15 17, politics and Revelation chapter 18, money. Wherever a church is very involved in politics and money, it's going in a dangerous direction. Churches with friendships in political circles invariably end up in Babylon. 51:34 And churches that have a heavy emphasis on money, where money is a big thing in the church, it usually ends up in Babylon. They got to be very careful. But as I said, not to judge others. We are to warn everybody, but we are to 51:49 judge only ourselves. Yes. I'm sorry? Yeah, yeah, sure. See, I don't think you you should base 52:41 marriage on does a person understand every thing in scripture? But is there a fervent love for Jesus? But if a person is very strong on some issue uh which they hold like a fundamental truth like Jesus Christ is God and we must all 52:59 be vegetarians or something like that. I think you'll have difficulty living with such a person. So, uh but uh it's just a view. I want to be vegetarian myself. I say, "Go ahead. You eat vegetables and I'll eat meat in the house. No problem. We can love one 53:17 another and live together." It's a question of how strongly they hold to a particular view. That's the thing you need to see in marriage. And when you say non-essentials, each person has a different idea of what non-essentials are. 53:31 That's the problem. So, in in a church, I would say if somebody comes to my church and is beginning to preach that we can never lose our salvation, I would very gently ask him to sit down. Even in the middle of his message, I'd 53:47 say, "Brother, we don't" Or I would just say, "Brother, we don't believe that here in this church. I'm not saying you're not a believer. It's not my business to judge that. But uh please recognize we don't believe that." 53:58 And I would not hesitate to correct such a doctrine publicly because if I keep quiet on it, people in the church, younger believers can assume that I agree with it. So, the leadership has to be careful. But if someone believes that in his 54:12 church, I wouldn't drive him out of the church right away because they come to the church to be educated. And over a period of time, he may understand the truth. So, it's all a question of whether someone preaches that from the pulpit 54:25 or if he's privately going around sharing that, then I'd ask him to please be quiet on that. Don't circulate a doctrine in this church which we don't believe in the leadership. If you feel very strongly on it, there are other churches that 54:35 believe that. I think you should go and join one of those. Yeah. Okay. Uh there are many false apostles going about my in supernatural power that really is Is it from God or a demon? You know, I have already answered that 54:53 falling down and jerking and shaking. How can we tell if it's I think I've answered that that Jesus is our example, the one who's filled with the spirit. James 4:11 says not to speak against another. Does this mean slander or we 55:07 shouldn't warn the flock about wolves? How is this not slander if we mention names like that? God is not the author of confusion, so how can we know the difference between slander and making mocking the wolves and dividing? 55:22 Okay. If you have heard my sermons and there are about a thousand of them on YouTube, you'll never hear me mention anybody's name of any false teacher or preacher. I've never done it. People ask me why. I say because Jesus never did it. Jesus 55:39 is my example in preaching. I never hear him mentioning Annas or Caiaphas or any of the false teachers of his time. And so, I don't do it. He always spoke in general terms, Pharisees and Sadducees and hypocrites. You have 55:55 people who have make the outside of the cup. So, I speak in general terms of people who cheat people or enforce tithing or uh fake miracles and things like that without names. The only place where I find names in the New Testament is when Paul writes to 56:09 Timothy about Hymenaeus and Philetus and different ones like that, Alexander the coppersmith. And I say, "There you must remember that was not a letter written to a church. It was written to a close co-worker. So, when I'm with my close 56:22 co-workers, my fellow elders, then to them I will mention names. Be careful of this person, that person, the other person, which I would never speak in public. So, that's what a pattern that I have followed in this area. We must uh expose 56:39 false teachers, but supposing you may I'll tell you the danger of mentioning two or three names. Supposing I mention two or three names, there may be 20 other names which I haven't mentioned, and they'll think, "Oh, then the others are okay. 56:52 Zac only mentioned these three." So, how do I know? I don't even know the list of false teachers. But if I proclaim in a general way, "These are the characteristics of these people," then they can discern for themselves, 57:03 those who want to hear. Uh what does it mean to be without spot or wrinkle? It says in Ephesians 5 that Christ will present the church to himself uh without spot or wrinkle. Uh and that is the state of perfection, just like 57:18 Christ himself, which is going to happen finally one day in the future. We haven't yet got there. And uh do you believe Titus 1:6? Elders' qualification. It says in Titus chapter 1 verse 6, a man must be above reproach, the 57:35 husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. In order for an elder to be qualified, should his children be believers? Are all of your children believers? By God's grace and mercy, 57:50 all my four sons are believers. They are married believers. And they're seeking to follow the Lord as well. But that is uh I give glory to God for that. It's God's mercy. I wouldn't say that a person is disqualified from being an elder. Uh the 58:08 reason is why I compare Titus with 1 Timothy 3. I compare scripture with scripture, and there it says he must be one who manages his household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. So, therefore, I assume it's referring 58:23 to children who are living in the home of the elder. Once a child has left the home, and then if he doesn't believe, I would not disqualify him from being an elder. Uh I wouldn't stretch that. But I would say, and I've done this 58:38 also, I've removed elders from some of our churches where I find the children living in their home are got a bad testimony. But if they are, you know, on their own, they're earning their own living, and um grown up, I wouldn't put them I wouldn't 58:56 disqualify an elder on that account. But I would still say that if you train up a child in the way he should go, he will not depart from it when he's old. They may go through a few ups and downs. I remember I was in another place where 59:11 they asked me this question, uh at what age will they finally come back? I said I said to let me be very merciful. And let me read that verse like this. Again, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, "This is my opinion. Don't quote me." 59:28 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's 30 years old, he will not depart from it. Give him time because they may in their teens and their early twenties they go through certain ups and downs and we have to 59:41 make an allowance for that. Some children go smoothly through, some go through ups and downs and sometimes the ones who go through ups and downs turn out to be far better believers than the ones who just have a smooth sailing and are 59:52 pretty proud of their smooth sailing. Should separation of the church and state be in the life pursuing a holy God or will the Lord do the separating? Separation of church and state, I don't know how it affects us. I don't think we should 1:00:08 personally uh this is again my personal conviction. I have felt that in India where the choice is between one Hindu and another Hindu in time of election and who's to be the minister I can't choose between either of them. 1:00:26 So I say I'm going to cast my vote in the prayer meeting. Uh pray to God and say, "Lord, influence the election so that we have the right people in power." So that's how I believe the church has got a uh influence over society. 1:00:45 I remember once This was in 1977, I think. Just give you one instance of how I was away from I was up in the north of India preaching somewhere and coming back from there one day I saw a vision of of the one who was the second most 1:01:03 important cabinet member in India's India doesn't have a president, they have a prime minister. So he's the second most important person in the government. And he was a strong Hindu. And I didn't know what it meant. I saw 1:01:16 picture in before my eyes different Indian faces and uh I heard a voice saying the power to free these people is in the church. And I saw this man's face and I didn't know what to do. So I knew that God had given me this 1:01:31 picture for some reason. So I decided to pray. I I'm not a politician, I'm not for this party or the other party. I just prayed with that person in mind and most of the time I didn't know what to pray. So when I don't know what to pray, I 1:01:42 pray in tongues. I pray in tongues, by the way, only in private, never in public. Uh it's a help when I don't know what to pray for. I didn't know what to pray for for this man, against him, for him. So I prayed in tongues concerning him 1:01:55 and I shared that with the others in our church. And the next day after that, he got a heart attack. Oh. So then No, I didn't give him the heart attack, don't And I didn't pray for that, either. I was praying in tongues. 1:02:11 And then after a while there was a It was a coalition government with two parties joined together to run the government and there came a division there between him and the prime minister. Then I knew something was happening as a 1:02:27 result of my prayer. I was praying with the few believers in our church. I continued to pray and every time something came up in the newspapers that people were trying to bring these two factions in the government together, 1:02:38 again the burden would come on me to pray against it. Now I knew that I had to pray against this. And so they never got united. Eight months later uh one of the members in parliament got up and wanted to pass a law to ban the conversion of people to 1:02:58 Christianity in India. And they could not pass that law because the government was divided. Then I knew why God made me pray for that eight months earlier to bring that division there so that they would not 1:03:18 pass this law banning conversions in India. And that was 1977. Till today, they've never been able to pass that law that bans conversion to Christianity all over India. A few states, individual states, three or four have passed it 1:03:33 but it's never been passed all over India. So that's just an example of how the church has a power to control When it says pray for those in authority, it's not just a pious Lord bless them, but we can influence the government if we 1:03:50 have faith. Okay. Can a godly man get a tattoo? Well, you know the answer to this. It's in the New Testament, there's an answer to it. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, whether you eat or drink or get a tattoo or whatever you do, do all 1:04:09 to the glory of God. Whatever you do, it says. Whatever you do, that includes every imaginable question. Do all to the glory of God. I don't see by any stretch of my imagination how you can 1:04:27 do that for the glory of God. So I wouldn't get it. I wouldn't reject a person who has it. That's not my business to do that and judge him. But if he asked me, I'd say, "Can you glorify God with that in some way?" Okay. In fact, that 1 Corinthians 10:31 1:04:43 is an answer to many, many questions. See if you can do that for the glory of God. Uh This is a question about It's not a very clear question about miracles and baptism. Sorry, I can't understand this question. Okay. 1:05:00 Any other questions or shall we close? I have baptized people a second time. 1:05:25 One where somebody came to me and said, "I was only 14 years old and um my dad was very eager that we should all get baptized and got baptized. It was more peer pressure." I asked them one question, "Were you born again or not?" 1:05:38 Not whether you were a wholehearted Christian. Because our understanding of wholehearted Christian can become better and better as we go on. As far as you know, had you given your life to Christ? Not were you perfect. Had you come to the starting line of the 1:05:52 race? If you had, then even if you're immature, you don't have to be baptized again. But if you feel that you are not at all converted it was just peer pressure, then I have baptized them again. The second ex- example is where some 1:06:07 people were baptized in the name of Jesus. You know, there are groups of people who don't believe in the Trinity. They baptize in the name of Jesus, they say uh the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Jesus. I say then I would baptize you again 1:06:22 because you have indirectly renounced the Trinity. And um John's epistle says that's the spirit of the Antichrist to renounce the Trinity. So I would baptize you again. Those are the only cases where I've done it.
