0:07 The first words that Jesus spoke in his ministry that's recorded in scripture immediately after his baptism in the river Jordan. I don't know whether you all know what 0:27 it is. the very first words and it was not in a sermon because immediately after the baptism he went into the wilderness to be tempted immediately. 0:46 And the first words written in scripture are words that he spoke to the devil in Matthew 4:4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of 1:05 the mouth of God. Those are the first words. Which means there's something very important about the first words that come out of Jesus' mouth in his public ministry. The first thing we need to see there is 1:25 it is not he didn't say about he wasn't referring to the Bible it says there not the words that proceeded hundreds of years ago from God's mouth through Moses. No, 1:45 we must read carefully. Every word in scripture is important. The word that precedes present continuous tense which means there is a word that's always coming forth 2:02 from the Lord all the time. It's like the oxygen in the air that we breathe all the time. God is always speaking. Whether we hear it or not is another 2:22 issue. But when it says proceeds, it's present continuous tense. And man, if we are to live, we can live only if we receive that word that is proceeding 2:42 from God's mouth all the time. And so in the early stages of our Christian life when we are born again, we begin with reading God's word. That's how we first understand it. And we seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And 3:00 as we read God's word and are filled with the Holy Spirit, we'll begin to hear God speaking on the basis of his word. Of course to our hearts according to our need at each time. This is the wonderful thing of the Christian life 3:19 and [clears throat] it can make a tremendous difference in our life if we develop this habit of listening and reading God's word seeking to hear God speaking to us through it. In that connection, let me read to you to Isaiah chapter 50. 3:38 Isaiah 50 and verse 4. This is again referring to the Lord Jesus. It's a prophetic reference to Christ because in verse six it says, "I gave my back to those who strike me 3:57 and my Yeah. I gave my back to that's referring to Christ and my cheeks to those who pluck out my beard. So we know very clearly that's referring to Christ. So here's something earlier 4:16 referring to Christ. The Lord God that is the father verse 4 Isaiah 50:4 has given me the tongue of a disciple. That means a disciple is one who hears and obeys. So Jesus was saying 4:34 my father has given me a tongue of someone who is listening and obeying and he so that if I if I speak the word that the father gives me I will be able to sustain all the weary people who hear 4:53 me. And that is how the words that Jesus spoke sustained so many weary people and has sustained people through 20 centuries because he heard the father. And when did he hear the father? Verse four, he 5:10 wakens me morning by morning. And he doesn't just wake up. When he wakes up, he wakens his inner ear. Referring to Jesus. Every morning when Jesus woke up, the father woke up his inner ear to listen as a disciple. Now we must apply that to ourselves. We 5:31 are supposed to walk as Jesus walked. I want you to take that verse my dear brothers and sisters of verse four and make it a rule in your life that when you wake up in the morning as we all do 5:49 that you will remember that it is God who woke you up. I mean if you're a child of God that's the way I want to see it. When I wake up finally in the morning, in between I may toss and turn and wake wake up a few times, but 6:03 finally when I wake up in the morning, I want to believe that it's my heavenly father who's woken me up. And he wants me to hear him as soon as I wake up. He wants my year inner ear to wake up also to listen. 6:23 as a disciple means as one who is saying Lord what do you want me to do today please guide me not just to hear for information a lot of people read the Bible and want to hear God in order to get some information or to be able to preach to 6:39 others no this is not he's not it's not he's waken me up to listen so that I can be a preacher no so that I can be a better disciple so that I can follow him today in a better way. I may I may never preach what the Lord said to me that day. I 6:59 found many things the Lord speaks to me. I preach about it 10 years later. It's not something that I have to speak about the same day. But it's something I have to listen to in order to obey. He awakens me to listen as a disciple. A 7:13 disciple is one who hears and obeys. And then it as as it says in verse six, it may take us through a difficult path. So this is the way we must begin our day. So I've often said this to people when you wake up in the morning 7:32 remember it is God who woke you up and the first words you speak before you get out of bed bit must be to your heavenly father. I wish somebody had told me this as soon as I was born again. I missed so much. I had to learn this 7:49 myself. So many things in my life because I didn't have a spiritual father or a godly elder to guide me. Many things in my life I learned over a long period of time, years that are wasted because I didn't have a spiritual father 8:03 or guide. Now you folks are so blessed to have such godly elders who can guide you and lead you. Don't ever take them for granted. Be highly respectful and thankful to any godly elder you have in your church who has led you to the habit 8:20 of listening and following in the footsteps of Jesus. There are many people who don't have it. I didn't have it in my younger days. And so I wasted many years of my life. There's no excuse for any of you to waste even a single 8:32 day of your life because you have godly elders. Anyway, so I began to read the scriptures and I every day in the morning, I used to be in the Navy and first thing I did when I got because I was an officer, I had a room to myself. Uh I would get out of 8:50 bed and kneel down by my bed for 15 minutes or so and pray. And then I would sit at my table and open the Bible and keep a notebook and read and ask God to speak to me. And I did that for six or seven years while I was in the Navy. 9:07 And all those seven years after I was converted, I was in the Navy. Then the Lord told me to leave, quit my job. And in those seven years, I had really come to know the scriptures. I've learned from that that you can be a 9:23 you can be very well versed in the scriptures if you read the Bible every day for six or seven years. Anybody can do it. So I want to share with you [clears throat and cough] some things I learned from the Gospel of Matthew. 9:40 See the Gospel of Matthew is the very first gospel in the new covenant. It's not the first gospel that was written. It's probably Mark was written earlier but in God's sovereignty he has allowed the gospel of Matthew to be put as the 9:54 first book in the New Testament. And so we recognize that and we want to see what is it that God speaks here. So it begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And many of you just read through that sometimes and get nothing 10:12 out of it. And I'll show you how every word of God is inspired by scripture. And you'll get something if you meditate on it. So let's read through. I'm not going to read every verse, but I want to point out certain things here. 10:30 The entire genealogy is not of Jesus is not given here. That's given in Luke chapter 3. Here it starts with Abraham because the gospel of Matthew was written primarily to the Jews. But the point I want you to notice is you know 10:43 there are certain things you must look for that must strike your mind. Normally in the in a Jewish genealogy they never put a woman's name. You go to Luke's gospel, even Mary's name is not there. That's amazing. They do not. They the Jewish genealogy 11:05 only puts the names of men. And here you see the same thing. Father of so and so, father of so and so, father of so and so. All the men except for the names of four women come in here. And that's significant. So when I see 11:20 something odd like that that in a genealogy where only five name men's names are to be there I suddenly see the names of four women at significant I say okay let me study them 11:35 the first woman mentioned here is verse three Matthew 1:3 Tamar now Tamar by the way I don't have time to turn to the Old Testament. But if you read in the Old Testament, you can read about it in Genesis. I think it's 11:55 chapter 39 where Judah, it says here, Judah had a son had two sons by Tamar. And Tamar, by the way, was Judah's not his wife. It was his son's wife. His son had died. 12:13 This was his daughter-in-law. He had a son through his daughter-in-law. That's a terrible thing. In the book of Leviticus, we're told that that's a terrible sin to have sex with your daughter-in-law. And that's the first thing mentioned in 12:29 the genealogy of Jesus. Uh you know, we would think that the genealogy of Jesus has to be so pure, a very godly, godly people. And here the first thing we read is of a woman who had a child from her father-in-law. That's a genealogy of Jesus Christ. 12:46 I mean, if any of us in our genealogy, it was written that somebody in one of our ancestor had sex with his daughter-in-law. We'd be ashamed of it, but it's put there in the first page of scripture of the New Testament. 13:03 And then we go on and we see another name, another woman, Rahab. Verse 5, Salman was the father of Boaz by Rahab and Rahab, you read in the book of 13:19 Joshua, was a prostitute. How many of you would like if your genealogy was printed out to point that uh to let it be known that one of your ancestors was a prostitute? Remember this is the genealogy of Jesus 13:37 Christ, the son of God. prostitute. And the third woman's name is Ruth. Verse 5. Matthew 15. Ruth is a Moabitete. And if you go to the Old Testament and 13:55 you read in Genesis about where Moab came from, Moab is the father of the Moabites. Moab was a son of Lot, born by Lot having sex with his own daughter. That's worse than daughter-in-law. 14:14 Lot's daughters had sex with the father and the son was Moab. And lo and behold, her name is here. One of the Moabites, one of the descendants of the Moabitete is Ruth. So Ruth traces her ancestor back. Her ancestor was someone who was 14:33 born with Lot committing adultery with her his own daughter. Okay. So you see how uh sex is involved in all these three cases. Illegal sex. And the fourth one, the fourth one is was six Bath Sheba. That's the fourth 14:53 woman. And you all know about her. She was the wife of one of David's soldiers. And David saw she was a pretty woman and called her and raped her and had a child through her and killed her husband and married her. Wow. 15:13 That's worse than all the others. Now the point I want you to see is the only four women mentioned in this chapter all got some 15:30 which is illegal sex or something which should be one should be ashamed of. Now why does the Holy Spirit writing the genealogy of Jesus even mention it? There was no need to mention these women's names. He could have just 15:47 mentioned the names of the father, the son, son, for next son, father, son, father, son. Because in the rest of the chap, rest of that chapter, it's only father and son. Why did he specifically mention these four names of these people who had some 16:04 sexual failure or sin? I'll tell you that's the advantage of meditating on scripture to show right in the very first paragraph of the New Testament that Jesus Christ came to save sinners 16:23 and not the righteous. Before you read that statement later on in Matthew, you can see it in the very first six verses. This is the advantage of meditating on scripture, comparing scriptures with 16:42 scripture, and I'm just showing you one way to study scripture if you're serious. You get such a lot from those first six verses. I get such a lot from that. I said, Lord, you are not ashamed to be identified with the worst sinners of 16:56 all, with sexual sins, the worst type of sin. and to have an ancestry like that and not just to have that but to publicly make it known to everybody. This is my ancestry. I've got nothing to be proud of. I came 17:14 through a line of sinners because I came not to call the righteous but sinners. So I find tremendous comfort in my heart when I read that. It destroys all the pride I can have in my life. which makes me look at other believers 17:34 and think I'm better than them or makes me look down on someone who had a very sinful past or who had a sinful genealogy. It teaches me and Jesus identified himself with the worst of the worst. 17:53 It teaches me another thing. Never to despise any believer whatever their background and whatever their past life may have been like to value everyone and 18:11 not to be proud of the fact that I have not fallen into all those sins because sometimes that can be a subtle pride in us. Oh, we know we didn't come from such a filthy background like some of these other sinners. Yeah, it's there in the back of our mind 18:28 even if we don't express it and we can have a a sort of a hidden pride and that's what hinders our spiritual growth. And I'm really convinced that that is the reason why many Christians, many believers never come to 18:44 a close relationship with Jesus Christ because he is the friend of sinners. And we are not. And so we can't get close to Jesus. You can't get close to Jesus. I'll tell you that straight to your face. If you're not willing to be the friend of 19:01 sinners, if you're going to be the friend of righteous people, Jesus and you will be quite far away from each other. Jesus, there was no sin in Jesus. He never sinned, but he was a friend of sinners. That's my example. I must be 19:15 free from sin in my life, but I must be the friend of sinners. It's a wonderful truth that we can get right from the very first paragraph of scripture. And if you study scripture like this, 19:33 you'll find there's so much in scripture that's hidden there waiting for somebody who God sees is eager to dig it out. Okay, then let me show you another thing. 19:51 The New Testament is full of promises, wonderful promises. The Old Testament also had promises, but the New Testament promises are significantly different. And so, let's go to the first promise in the New Testament. Here it is in Matthew 20:08 chapter 5. The very first promise in the New Testament. Matthew 1 verse 21. Isn't that important? That's the first promise in the New Testament that we should take it seriously. And here is a promise that nobody could 20:27 experience in the Old Covenant. And that's why it is written in the New Covenant. Matthew 1:21, you shall call his name Jesus. Jesus means savior, Yeshua. And the meaning is he will he's savior 20:46 because he will save his people from their sins. That is the first promise in the New Testament. Have you noticed that when you read many of you have read through Matthew 1 many many times. Have you noticed that that is the very first promise in the New 21:05 Testament? And that is the meaning of the name Jesus. that when you pray in the name of Jesus, you pray in the name of Jesus. We ask, we are praying in the name of one who came to save people from their sins. Father, I'm asking for this in the name 21:19 of one who came to save people from their sins. That's the meaning of Jesus. So we can pray with authority. We ourselves want to be saved from our sin. Otherwise, it's emptily using the name of Jesus. The name itself, Jesus. You 21:38 call his name Jesus because he came to save his people from their sins, not forgive their sins. No, no, no, no, no. Forgiveness of sins is in Psalm 103, David says 1,000 years before Christ was born, in Psalm 103, David says, "Bless 21:56 the Lord who forgives all your iniquities. All your sins are forgiven." That's Old Testament. But yet it is not. You shall call his name Jesus because he'll forgive his people from their sins. No, it is he will save his people from their sins. If 22:13 it is if Jesus came only to forgive people their sins, that is Psalm 103, not Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1 is he came to save his people. So Jesus is not a forgiver but a savior. 22:31 And many people call him savior. But I ask him, what have you been saved from? I've sometimes talked to people and said, "You say Jesus as your savior. Has he saved you from your anger?" No. What do you do when you're angry? You ask the 22:47 Lord to forgive you. He forgives you. Has he saved you from lusting in your mind? No, you haven't. What do you do? You ask the Lord to forgive you. Has he saved you from the love of money? No, he hasn't saved you from that. You ask the 23:00 Lord to forgive you. Has he saved you getting getting upset with things when things go wrong in the home? No, he hasn't saved you from that. But you confess and you ask forgive you. I say then be honest and say Jesus is my forgiver. He has not 23:17 yet saved me. He's not my savior yet. He's my forgiver. But people say he's going to save me from hell. That is at the end of your life. I'm talking about right now. He is only your forgiver. Be honest. Don't call him your savior if he has not 23:36 saved you from your sins. You're telling a lie. If you get angry with your wife and your husband, don't call Jesus your savior. You confess it. I know. Call him Jesus is my forgiver. From now on, be honest. Say Jesus is my forgiver. He hasn't 23:54 saved me. I still get upset and angry every day. He hasn't saved me yet. But I want to tell you the good news. He can save you. That's the first promise in the New Testament. We could go on and on. Let me rush. 24:13 There a lot of things we could discover in Matthew chapter 2. I won't go into that right now. There are many precious things there. I'll tell you. I leave it to you to find out yourself. Matthew chapter 3 is the second promise in the 24:25 New Testament. Matthew chapter 3:11 where the same Jesus John the Baptist says I can only baptize you with water but he Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. So once you're saved from your sin 24:44 number one what's the second thing you need to get the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. Baptism is a Greek word which means immersion. It's not sprinkling water on the head. That's sprinkling. Baptism is immersion. 25:01 Just like we are immersed in water in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit when we take water baptism. In the same way, it says Jesus will immerse you in the holy spirit. Not that just that you'll have the holy spirit who 25:14 comes into your heart and proves that you're a child of God. No, more than that. He will immerse you. Just like there's a lot of difference between water being poured on your head and you're being immersed completely in a 25:24 tank of water. World of difference. When it's poured on your head, you just get a little bit of wet with that water. And many people's experience in the Holy Spirit is something like that. Like a little water sprinkled on them. But here 25:38 it says you'll be immersed. That means completely drenched in the Holy Spirit and fire. Why is it some people are always on fire for God? Because Jesus immersed them in the fire. That's why you cannot produce that fire yourself. 25:58 Jesus will immerse you. Whenever you read baptize, read it as immerse. Then you'll understand it better. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. So if you want to be on fire for the Lord all the time, you ask Jesus to 26:14 immerse you in the Holy Spirit, then fire. That's the only way. It's not by worked up zeal that you're going to be fiery for the Lord. So these are the first two promises, the first two things I need to experience in my Christian 26:30 life. I need to be saved from my sin and I need to be baptized, immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire. That's God's will. Okay. Then I want to move on to something else. Uh I could spend a lot 26:49 of time just going through the temptations chapter 4 and of course a lot more in chapter 5, 6 and 7, the sermon on the mount. We have a whole study on the sermon on the mount on our website in a CFC website called All That Jesus 27:07 Taught. We could look into that when you get time. Go to the CFC website and look for all that Jesus taught and you'll see the many things in Matthew there. But I want to move on to chapter 8 after the sermon on the mount. 27:23 In chapter 8, it says Jesus Jesus came down from the mountain after preaching to his disciples and first of all a leper came to him. This the first story mentioned in the 27:41 gospels is of a leper and again a picture of a sinner. Leprosy is one of the clearest pictures of sin where they had to stay away from the people and they were not allowed to mingle with the people and there was no cure for it and Jesus touched and healed 27:58 the lepers and when the man said just said I I I want will you please heal me and Jesus said yeah I want to heal you and he healed him so that's the first thing the Lord does when you come to him as lepers spiritual lepers and he heals 28:15 After that, what is the next thing we read? It's very significant what we read immediately after the healing of the leper. These are spiritual truths in there's a sequence in it. Okay. I come to Jesus as a spiritual leper because of 28:28 my sin and um the lord cleanses away my sin and I'm like a leper who's been cleansed. So what do I do next? We read in Matthew chapter 8 the story 28:46 of a centurion. So each thing there's a something to learn. We learned something from the leper going to Jesus. Now we read something from a centurion. A Roman centurion. This guy was not even a believer. He was not a Jew. He was a 29:02 Roman. A centurion was a man who had 100 soldiers under him. And he was in the Roman military. He had probably a captain over him, on top of him and um he was under the captain and 29:19 he controlled these soldiers. And when the centurion came to Jesus, he came with this request in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 6. Lord, my servant is sick at home, paralyzed. I have a 29:38 servant who is paralyzed at home. Now I see something significant here that a centurion as a Roman soldier. He seems to be a very compassionate man that he cared for his servant. It was probably some Jewish person who was 29:53 serving him. But he had care for a servant who was paralyzed. I mean most centurions would got rid of that servant and say let's get another person. I don't want a servant who was paralyzed. But this person kept a servant who was paralyzed who could 30:07 probably do very little for him. And he says, "My servant is lying paralyzed at home." How many people would keep a servant who's paralyzed? Centurion must have been a good man. And he's fearfully tormented. He's probably 30:23 demonpossessed as well, this um servant. Verse six, and Jesus said to this centurion, "I will come to your house and heal him." And the centurion said, 30:40 "Lord, I'm not worthy." You see some, you know, when you read these things, you see some, if you meditate, you get some qualities about the centurion. First of all, he must be a very compassionate man to keep a servant who's paralyzed and demonp possessed at 30:54 home and not check him out of the house. And even more so that he traveled a long distance um probably some miles to come to Jesus to ask Jesus to heal the servant of his. What a compassionate centurion this was. And he says look at the centur see now 31:14 they see the centurion's humility. He says I'm not worthy that you should come to my house. Roman centurions are usually arrogant people who have just used to giving orders to people. And he looks at Jesus and remember Jesus looked 31:30 like a carpenter. That's what he looked like. He's just an ordinary person. And he says, "Lord, please come and heal. If you say a word, come to my come and say a word, my servant will be healed." And Jesus said, "I'll come and heal 31:46 him." And he says, "Lord, I'm not worthy." You see the humility of the centurion also there. So many good qualities in this centurion. I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. See, I find that the Lord always takes 32:10 note of those who are humble. God gives grace to the humble. He's delighted when he sees someone who is humble. We sometimes take it for granted. Of course, Jesus should come into my house. Come to my heart. But here's the 32:24 centurion who says, "I'm not worthy that Jesus should come to my house." Do you recognize that we're not worthy to have Jesus come and dwell in our heart or in our home? I feel like that all the time. I'm not deserving or worthy that the son of god 32:42 should come and dwell in me or dwell in my home or no the centurion was like that. So he says don't come to my house lord because I'm not worthy that you should come to my humble dwelling. Just stand here and speak the word 32:57 and my servant will be delivered. He'll be healed of his paralysis and he will be delivered from the demon. And he says, "I know because I'm saying in verse 9, I am a man under authority and I've got soldiers under me and I've got 33:13 authority over them." Now listen to this carefully. I am a man under authority and I've got authority over soldiers under me. And when I say to a soldier, "Go," he goes. When I say to another, "Come," he comes. Or I say to my slave, 33:27 "Do this." And he does it. And he says, "I know Lord Jesus, you've got that type of authority too." If you say from here to that demon, go, he knows. He knows that that that demon will go. 33:44 Or to the paralyzed man, be healed. He knows he'll be healed. That was faith. But what I want you to see here is this word authority and the this matter of being under authority comes right there in the 34:03 beginning of the gospels that Jesus had authority because he was under authority. That's what the Roman centurion now you see Jes the Roman centurion did not know anything about father son and holy spirit or anything about the trinity. Even the disciples 34:18 didn't know anything about the trinity then but the he recognized something in the bearing of Jesus that this was a man who had authority. He recognized that you know military people those who are in the military usually recognize people others who are 34:37 in the military. There's something about the bearing of a man who's on the military. He's got an authority over him uh in his bearing himself and that's because he's for years and years he's been trained to have authority and 34:53 be under authority. So he knew that Jesus was like that. So I want to say a few words about this matter of being having authority and being under authority. Why did the Roman centurion have authority? Like he would tell us verse 9 to a soldier go 35:12 and a people person would go and if he told another come and he would come. How did he have that authority to tell these people that they would obey him instantly? Because he was a man under authority. Verse 9, there are two things in verse 35:29 9. I'm a man under authority. That means he had a captain or a general over him and because he was under authority obeying that person 100%. Therefore, he had authority over others. And when Jesus heard this, listen to 35:47 this verse 10. He said, "I have never found such great faith with anyone in Israel." Right at the beginning of the gospels, you find this amazing story of a man who 36:06 had authority because he was under authority and therefore had tremendous faith as well. So I see there that great faith is always connected with being under the authority that God has appointed. And Jesus says, I have not found such 36:25 great faith in any of the Jews here. This man is a gentile, a Roman, and he has more faith than all of you. So, I learned something from there. Faith is one of the most important things in the 36:44 New Testament. It's not emphasized so much in the Old Testament. So, I learned something from here. How can I have this great faith that like this man had? And I believe it is through being under authority. And that's something that our generation 37:07 of Christians need to learn. When we say we want to follow Jesus, we accept Jesus as our savior and we want to follow him. How are we to follow him? Are we going to first follow him by following him in the way he preaches or the way he cast 37:26 out demons? Yeah. Yeah. We would all like to follow him in those areas. But when you look at the life of Jesus, he did not begin by healing the sick and casting out demons. How did he begin? One of the first 37:46 statements mentioned about Jesus in the gospels before he started his ministry. Turn with me to Luke chapter 2. Luke's gospel chapter 2. We read that he was lost in the temple 38:11 and that is his father Joseph and Mary forgot about him and went back and found him talking to the priests. This is in Luke chapter 2 and verse 46. They heard they s saw him sitting in the temple 38:30 listening to the priests there and asking them questions and all those scholarly priests when they heard Jesus they were amazed at his understanding and knowledge of the scriptures and the way he answered some of their questions. 38:47 Now, how that he was only 12 years old, remember? How did he know the Bible so well that he could teach some of those scholars sitting in the temple who had studied it for years. I believe it was because he didn't come 39:06 from heaven with the Bible in his head. No, he was born just like any of us with no knowledge at all. It was knowledge that he acquired by the age of 12. So then I use my imagination and say well I presume that maybe from the age of six 39:19 or seven he started going to the synagogue in Nazareth and asking the rabbi there to read some scripture for him and um the rabbi would read something delighted the rabbi was delighted this young six-year-old 7-year-old is coming to me to read the 39:33 Bible and he would open the Bible and read a little bit and then Jesus would say stop let me meditate on that he'd go home and come back the next day and Rabbi can you please continue from where you left off yesterday. He did that for 39:45 five or 6 years every day. By the time he was 12 years old, he really knew the scriptures. And that is how we can know the scriptures too. That's the first thing I learned when I became a Christian. That the way Jesus 40:04 if I want to follow Jesus, I'm going follow him here. First of all here what he did between the age of 5 to 12 he went there was no printed Bible those days if he had a printed Bible he'd have read it at home but he had to take the 40:18 trouble to go to the synagogue get the rabbi to open up the the scroll of scripture and read it take that home in his mind meditate on it come back the next day and read some more what diligence for a six-year-old boy and by 40:32 the age of 12 he knew it so well that he could question the teachers and I said Lord you came as a man I don't believe you came with supernatural powers you came and you being an example for me I can follow you and I believe that if you 40:47 could know the scripture in six or seven years by constant study I with a Bible in front of me can definitely know the scriptures and that is how I started studying the Bible when I was 19 years old 19 or 20 years old and by the time I was 41:01 26 years old I really knew the scriptures because I believe that Jesus could know it by the in six years so can I. So I say if you have been a believer for five or six years and you don't know the Bible I'll tell you what you should go to God 41:19 and say Lord I'm thoroughly ashamed of myself. I don't I have a Bible with me and I don't take double to meditate on it and study it every day and you Lord Jesus you did not have a Bible and you went every day to walk to the synagogue 41:33 asked the rabbi to open the scroll read the scriptures meditated on that remembered it went home meditated and came back the next day asked him to read out the next passage wow help me to follow you Lord many of us say I want to follow Jesus follow him 41:51 here in the study of the scriptures in meditating meditating and knowing it so well in 6 years that you could even share it with others. Okay. What's the next thing we read here in Luke 2:51? 42:09 He went to Nazareth and he was subject to Joseph and Mary. subject to his earthly parents whom God had appointed certain earthly parents to I mean they were his um earthly 42:26 guardians I would say and he was subject to them that's all it's written all that we know about Jesus from the age of 12 to the age of 30 was he was subject to Joseph and Mary listening Joseph died perhaps by the time Jesus was around 18 but he was 42:45 subject to Mary subject to earthly authorities for 18 years. In fact, all those 30 years and then of course we know he was a carpenter also working to earn his living. But just this part he was under authority continued in subjection to 43:03 them. Luke 2:51. He was under authority for 18 years and not a perfect authority. Joseph and Mary were not perfect. They were far from perfect. Sometimes we say, "Well, I'll submit to this elder if he's a 43:22 perfect brother." But there's no perfect brother on the earth. And Joseph and Mary were certainly not perfect. And God sent his son to and told him to submit to imperfect authority for 18 years. 43:41 Some of you who are quick to criticize elders in your church saying they're not perfect. You'll only submit to your perfect authority. You're not following Jesus. Jesus was submitted to imperfect authority for 18 years. That's where God 43:54 tested him and that's how he came out with a great authority. Then you can go back to the centurion's words. I am a man under authority. You remember what we read in Matthew 8. Therefore, I have authority. That principle. I'm under 44:10 authority and I have authority. Jesus was under authority for 18 years, 30 years actually, all the way from he was he was a child. Then he went out and had authority. So I want to say to you my brothers 44:30 and sisters the reason why many Christians don't have spiritual authority today in their life why the devil can harass them in their home and trouble them in so many ways and they don't seem to have any authority over the devil's activities in 44:45 their home in their life is because they themselves are not willing to be under authority. Look for authority wherever you go. All my life before CFC started, CFC started 50 years ago. Before that, I was 45:03 always under some authority. I submitted to authority all to from the time I was born again at the age of 19 and a half all the time till I was 35 and a half, 16 years. I had God never gave me authority over anyone. But I was subject to authority 45:23 wherever I went to whatever church or most of the time it was imperfect authority. People who did not understand the new covenant. God said keep your mouth shut and obey. Then sometimes I would be misunderstood, falsely accused 45:37 and I was once misunderstood in a church and they would not in a church where I was speaking regularly and because of some misunderstanding they did not allow me to speak in that church for years. And the Lord said, "Keep your mouth shut 45:53 and don't defend yourself." And he tested me to see whether I'd obey that. So I kept my mouth shut. And I did not defend myself. And after he tested me, then he started CFC and gave me authority, spiritual authority. 46:11 Now I'm convinced that many many young people do who should develop to become godly men with authority one day are not developing because they don't submit to authority in their younger days. They don't submit to their parents. They 46:26 think they know more than them and they think their parents are dumb or something like that. Even if your parents are unconverted, they may not be able to guide you spiritually. But the Bible says only your father and mother 46:42 and Jesus did that otherwise he would not have exercised the authority he had. Your husband for the Bible says wives submit to your husbands. Your husband may not be a spiritual man. Submit to many wives think well I know 47:00 more than my husband. Okay. Jesus knew more than Joseph and Mary didn't he? Did he submit to them or did he say to Joseph and Mary, listen, I know more than you. Don't try to tell me what to do. That's the attitude of some 47:14 wives who think they are more spiritual than their husbands. I have zero respect for such wives. Zero meaning zero. They have not understood the ABC of the Christian life. I have seen some smart young people who think they know more than their parents. 47:32 Okay, you do perhaps, but you still need to be subject to your parents in authority. Otherwise, God will never back you up. I want to tell you that I am a man under authority. Therefore, I have authority. Do you know what the first sin in the 47:48 universe was? The first sin in the universe was when God created the universe, he created some angels. And you read about the head of the angels in Isaiah 14. 48:06 In Isaiah 14, there's an angel who's called, we don't know his name. He's called the star of the morning in Isaiah 14:12. And that phrase star of the morning is um 48:23 in the Hebrew it's h or shining one. And in the Latin into which the Bible was first translated, the start of the morning in Latin is translated as Lucifer. That's how we get the name Lucifer referring to the devil. That's not his 48:39 name. The devil's original name is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. He's known as the star of the morning. Anyway, let's call him Lucifer since he's known like that. Now you, 48:53 it says here in verse 13, Isaiah 14:E3, you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will ascend. Verse 14, above the heights of the clouds, I will make 49:12 myself like the most high God. That was the first sin that came in the universe. It was a sin of an attitude, not a sin of action, not a sin of word, not a sin of deed, 49:29 but of an attitude. First sin in the universal sin of attitude. I will be in in his mind. It says he said in his heart, verse 13, he didn't speak with his mouth. The first sin in the universe was something that came in the heart without opening 49:48 the mouth, without an outward action. Just a thought that came in his heart which he chose. I will ascend. I will go up. That is why when Jesus had to bring salvation, he said, I will go down. That is the opposite of what Lucifer 50:08 became the devil in that moment. He decided, I'm going to ascend. I will ascend. Verse 13, I will raise my throne. And verse 14, I will ascend. I will make myself like the most high. But the Lord says you'll be thrown down 50:25 to hell. Verse 15. So because sin came by a created being wanting to go up and up and up and up to be like God, salvation had to come by God coming down and down and down and down and down. and becoming like man. 50:45 That's the only way salvation could come by defeating the spirit that wants to go up and up and up and up. Now that spirit that wants to go up and up and up, climb higher and become great is all over the world today. The devil has infected all 51:00 human beings with that. Everybody wants to show that I'm better than the other person and climb over others and speak in a way that they want to show that I'm cleverer, better, superior to these people, men and women. That's the spirit of the devil. 51:19 Jesus came to save us from that. And that is why the first commandment God gives to children is obey your parents. Honor your father and mother. The first commandment he gives to wives is be subject to your husbands. Respect 51:36 him. There's no salvation outside of submitting to authority. When you're under authority, you can have authority. When Jesus finally concluded his ministry on earth and just before he ascended to heaven, you know what he 51:52 said in Matthew chapter 28 and he he when he was sending his disciples everywhere. He didn't say there's a great need in the world so go and preach the gospel everywhere and make disciples. That's not what he said. Why did he tell people go and make 52:11 disciples of all nations in Matthew 28:19? Please turn with me. Matthew 28:E 19. Today people say there's a great need in Africa or China or India or somewhere. Therefore, go and make disciples. No, it's not like that here. 52:32 See the reason. Therefore, go therefore. Therefore means wherever you see the word therefore you must look find out what it is therefore. Wherever you find the word therefore see what it is therefore. Why is it there? Verse 18. 52:50 All authority. There you come again with that word authority. All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Therefore go. Lord. There are needy people in India, needy people in China, needy people in those islands, therefore 53:06 go. No, no, no. That is how people say it today. Okay, you can go on that basis, but that's not the basis Jesus said. He said, "All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Therefore, go." And I'm very thankful. See, I've been serving the Lord for 60 53:25 years now, full-time Christian work. And I did not step out because there was a need somewhere here or there. I stepped out only because Jesus Christ called me and said to me, "All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. You go and 53:39 make disciples." That's what he told me 60 years ago. And that's the thing I seek to hear today also. And that's why I do what I do. It's not because there's a need. It's because all authority in heaven and earth is given to my Lord and Savior. 53:54 And he has told me to go and I do it. And nothing can stand against me as long as I'm backed by his authority. That's the only way I would ever dream of serving the Lord. If I go by need, there's a need here, need there. The 54:11 world is full of need. I'll be I'll go crazy because there are people who inviting me here, inviting me there all the time. I'm invited all over the place and I say no, I can't go. I'm under the authority of the Lord. He tells me to go 54:22 somewhere, I go. I'm man under authority. That's when I go somewhere I have authority to speak. Everywhere I go to speak, the Lord sent me to go, he gives me a word. He gives me an authoritative word and it doesn't my age doesn't matter. 54:40 I'm 86 years old. But God gives me word to speak and he can give it to you my brother. That's my reason why I'm preaching this message is to tell you that you can have authority in your life if you will be under authority. Remember the first sin 54:54 in the universe was that a created being was not willing to subject be subject to authority. Okay, our time is running out. Let me go to the next. Let's come to the first sin in the human race. We saw the first sin in the 55:13 universe which is in the angels. Okay, let me ask you a question. I don't know how many of you will get the right answer. God created Adam and Eve and he gave Adam as a head over his wife Eve. 55:30 What was the first sin man committed? The human human being Adam or [clears throat] Eve among human which was the first sin a human being committed? I tell you for years and years and years I did not know. I had the wrong answer 55:47 and most people most Christians have the wrong answer. Now I'll tell you and I'll show you what was the first sin that the human beings committed. It was not eating of the tree of knowledge of good 56:03 and evil. That was the third sin. Now I'll tell you the first sin. The first sin was Matthew Genesis chapter 3. When the devils came in a form of a serpent in inside a serpent and spoke to 56:23 the woman Genesis 3:1, "Oh, has God told you not to eat of the garden fruit from the any any of the tree of the garden?" And the woman began to converse with the serpent and the serpent had a discussion with Eve and and Eve got tempted. 56:42 What was her first sin? As soon as the serpent began to tell her to do something, she should have told the serpent, "Hey serpent, God has given me an authority here standing next to me." We read in verse six that Adam was 57:00 standing right next to her. [clears throat] He wasn't somewhere else in the garden. Right next to her, Adam, her husband was standing there. She should have said, "You serpent, God has given me an authority. My husband, let me ask him. 57:16 So the first sin committed in the universe in the human race rather was a lack of submission to authority. She did not submit to the authority of Adam who was given to her as her head. Okay. Now what is the second sin? 57:39 The second sin was when Adam saw Eve talking to the serpent, he did not intervene and said, "Hey, keep quiet. Don't talk to that serpent." He did not exercise his authority as the head. Even though God had appointed him 57:58 as the head of the home. There are many husbands like that today who just allow their wives to do whatever they like and don't exercise authority as the head of the home and the wife takes over the home. There are preachers who allow the wife to take 58:11 over the the church. We read of one elder in the church in Thotira in revelation chapter 2 where the Lord has to say to the elder of the church in Thotra you have allowed your woman to become a prophetess in your church she was the authority in 58:29 that church elder's wife you see that today also in some places and that brings chaos and confusion into a home and chaos and confusion into a church where a woman becomes the authority that's why Paul says do not allow a woman to even speak 58:45 in the church. Yeah, many people don't understand that. And that was the second sin. First was that Eve did not submit to authority and the second was Adam did not exercise his authority. The third sin was that Eve took the fruit and ate it. And the 59:02 fourth one was that Adam also ate it. So I hope you've understood that the first sin in the universe was a lack of submission to authority and the first sin in the human race was a lack of submission to authority. And so Jesus in 59:17 order to save us from the sin came and subjected himself to authority for 30 years to show us that is not a shameful thing to submit to imperfect authority. To submit to perfect authority everybody can accept. But to submit to imperfect 59:32 authority, Joseph and Mary, Jesus the perfect person submitting imperfect authority. That is why he had such a fantastic ministry of authority for three and a half years. And that is where God will test every believer to see whether they will be 59:48 subject to authority. Then they can have authority. And that's why the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 13 to all believers, Hebrews 13, it says, "And to all believers," 1:00:05 Hebrews 13:17, very important word for all believers. If you're part of a local church, please listen to this. If you are a lone wanderer, I have nothing to say to you. You should belong to a church. God doesn't want lone 1:00:20 wanderers. You should belong to a local church. God is not gathering individual believers. He's bu Jesus said I'll build my church and church consists of number of believers who have come together. Even if it's two or three 1:00:36 and it says in a church there must be a leader. Hebrews 13:17 Hebrews 13:17 obey your leaders and submit to them. What is that? authority. Submit to authority 1:00:55 because those elders are watching over your souls. One day it says here, your elders in your local church will have to give an account for you to God. Listen to verse 137. Hebrews 13:17. When you stand before the Lord in the 1:01:14 final day, he's going to call your elder of whichever church you belong to. He say, "Come here. Let me ask you about this this person here, this this young man, this young woman, this brother, this sister. Tell me, did he submit to 1:01:30 your authority?" And it says here, "Let those elders be able to give an account for for you in that day with joy and not with grief." So that in that day when you stand before God for judgment the thing God is 1:01:48 going to test is not whether you committed adultery or told lies first of all he's going to check did you submit to this authority because you they will have to give an account for you and God calls the elder and said how did this brother behave in 1:02:05 your church how did this sister behave and if they can do this with joy and the Lord can if they can say to the Lord Lord, he was such a wonderful brother, wonderful sister. They submitted 100% to me as an elder. Then 1:02:25 they can do it with joy. But it says here in verse 17, they can also do it with grief where they they can't tell a lie to the Lord. They to say, Lord, I'm sorry to say they were a bit rebellious. They thought too much of themselves. 1:02:43 And they wouldn't listen to me. They thought they were very clever. You know, even if the elder is younger to you in age, if God has put him as an authority, you got to obey him. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 about 1:03:04 dealing with some people who are older than him. Treat them with respect. But they had to submit to Timothy as the authority. So this is not something we can take lightly because it says in that final day when you stand before the Lord he 1:03:20 will check up with your elder how you how you behaved in church they e they will either do it with joy or with grief and if they to do it with grief listen to this supposing the elder is going to say Lord I'm sorry to say 1:03:38 they were pretty rebellious or they never had any respect for the eldership. It will be unprofitable for you. Hebrews 13:17 there the question is not did you have dirty thoughts or did you tell lies or did you steal money? No, those things 1:03:54 will come later. How did you relate to your elders? So right from the beginning you see the principle of authority is so important. So when you study scripture carefully, we discover so many things which we would not have known otherwise. 1:04:13 It's wonderful. God took me through 16 years of my Christian life being subject to imperfect authority in many churches. I had a gift to speak and people were so jealous of that that they would not let 1:04:32 me speak. They would suppress me. And the Lord said, "Keep your mouth shut." And I kept my mouth shut. They accused me falsely. And the Lord said, "Keep your mouth shut." I kept my mouth shut. Be under authority. And I submitted to 1:04:46 these imperfect elders in many churches for a number of years. Then one day, God anointed me and gave me authority. When I was 35 years old, 16 years, I never had it. I was just 1:05:05 taught to be subject and to obey whether they did right or wrong. I had to submit to authority. And now when I I didn't understand it all, but I knew that the Bible said I must submit to my elders. So I did it. And I'm very thankful 1:05:22 and I want to encourage all of you. You young people, respect your parents. Be subject to them. You brothers and sisters in churches, be subject to your elders. Even if they are imperfect like Joseph and Mary. If Jesus could subject himself to Joseph 1:05:41 and Mary, you better submit yourself to imperfect elders in your church. And I'll tell you, God will see that and the blessing of the Lord will be upon your life. And one day, he'll give you authority, too. Yeah. Let's pray. 1:06:04 Bow your head for a moment and ask the Lord to show you and speak to you at least one thing that you learned from the meeting today. Say, "Lord, please show me how you identified with the worst of sinners in Matthew's Gospel chapter 1." 1:06:23 You see, nothing to glory in. identified with the worst of sinners in your genealogy and how you submitted to authority in your in your home. How you broke that spirit of rebellion that was there in Lucifer 1:06:42 and Adam and Eve. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. There's so much in the scriptures, little things that we don't see. Thank you. your Holy Spirit comes to open our eyes. Help us to walk in the light you give us. Father, 1:07:00 I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you brothers and sisters for listening patiently. God bless you. [music]
