0:00 [Music] So, I want to share with all of you something that I've shared before in many churches. And if you've heard me, you've probably heard it before, but 0:17 it's good to hear it again. I find a lot of Christians after a while, they lose their grip on the Christian life. They don't seem to have a solid gra grip. The Christian life is climbing 0:34 like climbing a mountain and you're climbing from one cliff to another. If you lose a solid grip somewhere, you come all the way down to the bottom. And I've seen that happen to Christians. So, it's very important 0:53 to have a solid grip on the Christian life. See, if I hold this with five fingers, it's difficult for anyone to take it out of my hand. I can hold it with two fingers, too. 1:12 But it's easily pulled out. The more fingers I add, the stronger the grip. And I want to use that as a picture of our grip on the Christian life. So what is it that holds this? First of 1:31 all, I have the palm. Without the palm, it I can't hold it. And then I have five fingers. So that's what I want to speak about. We use this as an illustration. Jesus always used examples and illustrations. And I found in my life that examples and 1:51 illustrations help me greatly to understand the truth. In fact, whenever I read the scriptures, I to try to think of a picture that helped me to understand that truth and it makes it so much easier to understand. And I can see 2:05 why Jesus constantly used parables and examples. So for those of you who have never heard this before, please pay attention. Those who have heard it, please listen again and get a solid grip in the Christian life. It never hurts us to hear 2:24 something again and again. We read the Bible again and again and again. And I read the Bible now. I don't know how many times I've read the Bible. Every time I get something new and to encourage you to believe that we can get 2:37 something new, I let me give you one example from scripture of something that I got in the recent past. I read in Matthew chapter 12. Let's begin there. I'm just using an example here and then we'll go into what I want 2:57 to share with you. Matthew's Gospel chapter 12. Here we read of a time when Jesus was casting out a demon and somebody who was both deaf and dumb. 3:16 Matthew 12:22, a demon-possessed man was brought blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, and he could speak and see. And the crowds were amazed and said, "This is the son of David." But the jealous Pharisees 3:34 said, "No, this man is telling the demons to go because he's the ruler of demons and the demons have to obey the ruler and Jesus is the ruler." So when the ruler says go, they go. See how they twisted it? They couldn't believe it was God 3:51 commanding the demons to go. He's a ruler of demons to fool people. And then what did Jesus do? You know, it's a very serious thing to call Jesus the devil. I mean, is there a greater sin than that? In the Old Testament, when 4:10 um Miriam, the sister of Moses, criticized Moses, she got leprosy. So, if somebody calls Jesus the devil, what should they get? In the Old Testament, once some young men made fun of Elisha, saying, "Oh, you're a bald 4:29 head. Go up like Elijah your master went." They made fun of him. And you know what happened? Bears came out of the forest and ate them up. That's how God judges those who make fun of his servants. What should Jesus do of 4:45 someone? What should God do to someone who called his son the devil? Miriam got leprosy. Those people who criticized Elisha got death through eat being eaten by bears. What should people get who call Jesus 5:04 the devil? You know what they got? Forgiveness. That is the difference between old covenant and new covenant. When people call you names or hurt you, what should they get? leprosy, 5:22 death, or forgiveness. That depends on whether you're an old covenant person or a new covenant Christian. Not only forgiveness, Jesus used the occasion to say something more. 5:41 He said in Matthew 12, the same chapter, and verse 32, look at this verse. It's an amazing verse. 32. Now he's not not talking about the Pharisees only. He says in the whole world, whoever whoever means everybody in the whole 6:00 wide world speaks a word against the son of man. That's talking about the future. Not just this one event where you call me the devil. In the entire future for the next 2,000 years, anyone anywhere who speaks a word against me, 6:18 what is he going to get? Read there. Forgiveness. This is what I call this is what revelation I got some year a year or two ago. Future forgiveness. Have you ever heard of future forgiveness? I never heard anybody preach on it in my 6:36 life till God showed it to me here. Jesus forgave people who had not yet sinned against him, who were going to sin against him, speak evil about him, uh all types of things. And you know, in these 2,000 years, many people have 6:51 spoken evil about Jesus. Way back there, Jesus forgave them. Now, that doesn't mean that they will escape judgment. You know, on the cross of Calvary, which is the greatest sin ever committed on this earth, the greatest sin 7:09 committed on the earth, the cross of Calvary. As soon as that cross was put into the ground, immediately Jesus said, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." Jesus was forgiving them as a man. 7:29 But do you know that in every crime that people do against you, there are two sides of forgiveness, like the cross, vertical and horizontal. Jesus on the cross was not hanging there as God. 7:47 He was God, but when he was hanging on the cross, he was hanging there as a man. A man who was taking the punishment for our sin. As a man, he took the crime. took the punishment as a man. He forgave them. But that didn't mean God hadn't for God 8:07 had forgiven them. No, Jesus forgave them. See, when somebody comes and say slaps my face, he has committed sin against me and against God. Because you're not supposed to hurt another human being. 8:24 Every sin has got two elements. one against God and one against the person you hurt. If it's just a dirty thought, then it's only against God. But if it's with somebody else, it's horizontal and vertical. And Jesus forgave them. 8:41 God didn't forgive them because God can forgive only when a person repents. Jesus forgave them without repentance. Please understand this. I don't have to wait for somebody to repent to forgive him. I follow Jesus 9:00 saying as soon as I know somebody did against me, forgiven. But that person who did harm to me, I forgiven him. I have released him. And I say, God, I have no charge against him. He will still be punished by God for hurting one 9:19 of God's creation. Not because I am a servant of God, just because I'm one of whom God created. God has created everyone in his image. And if anybody hurts you, God has to punish him. So this thing of future forgiveness is a 9:34 wonderful thing that the Lord showed me. So I said, "Lord, I want to follow you." And I said Lord I have say this anyone who says or does anything against Zak Punan from now till the end of time 9:52 right now I'm forgiving him. I said that quite some time ago. So next year or later this year if somebody comes to me and says you know brother Zach that those fellas wrote some bad told some lies about you in an article. Really? I said last year I 10:08 forgave them. And he can't understand that. What do you mean last year you forgave them? They did it only last week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I forgave them last year when I to said to the Lord that anybody who ever speaks 10:21 anything or does anything against that is forgiven right now. That's what Jesus did. So when we talk about walking in the footsteps of Jesus, here is one very very good thing that everyone sitting here can practice. If you're a child of God, if you're not a 10:40 child of God, then you receive Christ into your heart right now. You become a child of God. And one of the things you can do is to follow in Jesus footsteps to forgive people for future sins and then stick to it. 10:57 Maybe you go away from this conference and you hear pretty soon. Wait till we don't have to wait till next year. Maybe next next week somebody does something against you. Can you immediately say, "Hey, I forgive you at the conference." 11:10 By the way, four or five days ago I was at a conference and I forgave you what you were going to do. Now, it's a wonderful life to always live with a forgiven forgiving spirit to every human being. I'll tell you something. 11:28 That's the best thing you can do in your own interest. You'll sleep more peacefully at night. Your health will be better. You'll spend less on medicines. You won't need to go to the doctor so much. I'm not saying you'll never get 11:43 sick, but you'll be far healthier than you would be otherwise. Justice is with one action. Don't say it if you don't mean it from your heart. So before you say it, think of the worst 11:58 things anybody can do to you and say, "Lord, I don't care. I know one thing that nobody can do anything to me without your permission. I'm a child of God. Nobody can do anything to me without your permission. 12:16 And therefore, if they do it, you permitted it. I forgive them right now for the entire future. Believe me, you'll sleep more peacefully at night and you will not worry about what somebody's scheming against you or 12:34 planning against you. You won't have to worry about it all. Now, let me come to this matter a matter of solid grip on the Christian life. Number one, you must know God as a father 12:49 who cares intensely for you personally. Jesus used this example. See in Mark chap Matthew chapter 7 verse 11. 13:13 He uh don't not at verse 11. Start at verse 9. What man is there among you? Or what woman? If a son asks for a loaf of bread, will he give him a stone? All of you fathers and mothers here, 13:32 even if you have a disobedient son or daughter, if they ask you for bread, will you give a stone? No. If they ask you for a fish, mommy please give me a fish, daddy please give me a fish, will you pick up a snake and give 13:46 it? No. And then he says, if you being evil, that what does that mean? If you being evil, I think most of us sitting here are basically good people. I think all of us. But even us good people, Jesus says you 14:02 evil. Why does he say evil? Because you know sometimes I thought uh a painting I saw the background was white and then I discover when comparing it with pure white it's not really white. It was a shade of white much less 14:20 than pure white. And so when God sees a good father he compares us with our heavenly father and he says boy that's he's not good. Compared to the goodness of God listen to this. Compared to the goodness of God, the best father and 14:38 mother on earth, the best one is evil. Then you see how good a God our heavenly father is. If the best father and mother is evil, how good God is. Please be established in this truth concerning yourself. I'm 14:57 not talking about somebody else. I'm talking about you. You're not perfect. I know that. I'm not perfect, but I've got a father in heaven. And if you've ever asked Jesus to come into your heart, you got a father in heaven, too. 15:15 And that father is such a good father that the best father on earth is evil. Did you have a good father? If you did, praise God. God is a million times better than your dad. That's the first truth. 15:34 You must be gripped by the palm. I have a father who is so good that the best father on earth is evil compared to him. I keep repeating that because I find that Christians don't get gripped with one statement. And they need to 15:52 hear I believe what Charles Finny once said that that most Christians don't understand the truth until they hear it 10 times and he said it from many years of experience and I I know from my own experience how sometimes 16:08 in the past anyway it's gone from my life more or less now I used to be anxious about something and I saw in scripture don't be anxious you have a father in heaven. I heard that so many times but I still didn't get gripped by 16:21 it. So I want to request all of you to pray and say Lord please help me to be established in this one truth before I go away from this conference that I have a father in heaven who loves me so much despite all my weaknesses despite all 16:38 the mistakes I've made he loves me and his love is so great that the best father on earth is an evil father compared to him now I really believe that many many of you if you knew it, you would sin much less. I'm absolutely convinced because 16:57 you know you won't like you won't feel like hurting such a good father who's so good to you. I mean that's how I see it myself. So this is number one and many people have a question about receiving the Holy Spirit. 17:16 You hear so much about we need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And many people pray. I remember one brother told me in India, "Brother Zach, I have prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit 17:30 for 40 years regularly and God has not filled me." He didn't believe what I'm just going to show you. Turn to Luke's Gospel 11. All of you who have a doubt whether God 17:50 will fill you with the Holy Spirit, here's the verse you need to read. Verse 13, Luke 11:13. If you being evil, first of all, let me ask you 18:13 to whom was Jesus speaking? Whenever you read Jesus saying you, go back, go back, go back, go back and find out who is he speaking to. And you have to go all the way back to verse one. And there you see he was speaking to his 18:31 disciples. You mean his 12 disciples were evil? Maybe one of them was. The other 11 were not evil. But he summed up all of them and said, "All of you are evil, but you give good gifts to your children. 18:50 How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Let's go back to verse 11. If one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, will he give him a snake? 19:09 If he's asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? And in another place it says, if he asks for bread, will he give him a stone? If you're a father or mother and a hungry son come, a daughter comes to you and says, "Mommy, daddy, please give me 19:24 a slice of bread." What will you do? Will you make him ask and ask and ask and ask and ask and then give him a stone? No. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy 19:44 Spirit to those who ask him? Now why do we doubt? Because we depend so much on feeling. I want to feel it. We live by faith, not by feeling. I remember when God filled me with the spirit the first time. I never felt 20:03 anything. But I saw the results in my life in the days to come. Don't wait for feeling. Believe that your heavenly father who saved your soul, who made you a child of God, 20:19 is better than the best earthly father. And when when you if you had a good father when you were young, when you went to him and asked him for something, did he treat you in such a way that you to keep on asking him? No. 20:34 But in the reason why God tells us to consistently pray it's because of our own limitation, not because God is reluctant to give us. He wants us to break through the limitation of our flesh. That's why Jesus also had to pray 20:53 consistently. It's not because God is reluctant to give. It's because he wants us to break through and become free. But remember this, God is eager to give the Holy Spirit to 21:12 every one of his children. Please believe that one truth and say, "Lord, I believe when I ask you for this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, you will not say no to me. I don't know how or when you'll do it, but I believe 21:27 you're my father." Never, never doubt. If you have sincerely turned from your sin and said, "Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. You died for me on the cross." I want your children to listen to this. If you have come to Jesus and said, "Lord, I'm a sinner. I 21:45 know you died for my sin on the cross. I want to give up my sins. I may struggle to be free from it, but I want to give it all up. I want you, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart. Be my savior." That moment he will come in. God will become 22:01 your father. And you can from that out that day onwards look up to heaven and call God daddy. I call God dad. Every morning when I get up, it's the first thing I do. Dad, thank you for another day that you've 22:18 given me. And every day I pray, dad, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Every day, it's not just a once-forall thing. Every day, fill me, Lord, with the Holy Spirit. I cannot live this life without the power of the Holy Spirit. You've 22:35 often heard me use the example of a branch in a tree. Every day the sap, liquid sap flows from the branch, from the tree to the branch and these beautiful apples, oranges and mangoes come on that branch. It's from the 22:54 liquid that comes through. It's a picture of the Holy Spirit coming through the tree into the branch. The branch can produce nothing if it's cut off. Even if it produced apples for 50 years, dead. I need to be always there. 23:12 God is a loving father. I wish I could convince everybody here that when you go away from here, you'll never for the rest of your life doubt that because you received the son of God as your savior, God became your father 23:29 and he's a very loving father. Okay. Then the other thing I got to hold this thing with my thumb and to me the thumb which is very important part of the grip you know you can grip things with four fingers you can grip even with two but the thumb is 23:47 a very important it's very difficult to count with just the four fingers thumb is almost primary once you got the palm there the thumb and to me the thumb symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin 24:05 That's number one, the father and then the blood, the first finger. Because if we don't have the blood of Christ cleansing us, we can't even proceed. We have to clear the past record before we can move forward. 24:21 There's a debt we all owe to God. Every time you commit a sin, it's like a debt. You committed a crime and It may be unconsciously you did it or consciously but we are always 24:40 not coming up to God's standard and if we don't come up to God's standard that's sin. Here is a definition of sin. If you want a definition of sin here it is Romans chapter 3 and verse 24:57 23. All have sinned or in other words come short of the glory of God. I don't know what pass marks are 25:14 in the schools in the United States. In India schools pass marks are 40%. If you get 40% you pass. You get less than 40% you fail. In God's class, 25:29 pass marks are 100%. If you get 99, you failed. That is sin. Romans 3:23, all have sinned and come short of 100%. All of us, the best human being 25:51 has come short of 100%. The terrorist come short of 100%. Maybe the terrorist got zero and you got 90, but both of you come short of the glory of God. That's why you got to say the terrorist failed and I failed. We're both sinners. 26:09 You may be better than the terrorist. You can boast that I got 90% more than that terrorist who got zero. It's okay. But you both came short of the glory of God. He needs to be saved and you need to be saved. And that is why it's good 26:22 for us not to compare ourselves with others and think you're a better sinner than that person. What's type of boasting is that both of you have failed. You come short of the glory of God. To sin is to come short of God's 26:35 standard. Recognize this. Don't have any other definition of sin to say, "Well, I'm not so bad a sinner as he is." Okay? And none of us got 90%, by the way. Maybe the terrorist got zero. And you with all your effort you 26:51 probably got about five. That's all. Don't think you came anywhere near 90. And me too. We have come terribly short of the glory of God. And the only and we have done it so many times. We've come short of the glory of God. And here's this wonderful news. 27:09 1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And verse seven, if we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all 27:29 sin. Do you know what walking in the light means? In very simple words, it means being 100% honest. We cannot be 100% pure. 27:45 We cannot be 100% like Jesus Christ. Even truthfulness, it's very difficult to be 100%. But to be truthful about our sin, we can be 100%. 28:02 Lord, I have sinned. It is my fault. Even when you u get into an argument or a discussion with somebody else with your wife and you may say there's so much of fault in him or her but even if there's 99% of the fault in 28:20 that person there's 1% in you as well. There's never an argument when one person is 100% wrong. I must acknowledge my sin. Forget about the others. If I walk in the light, verse seven, it means to be absolutely 28:39 honest. Isn't it good that the only requirement for forgiveness is total honesty? There's one thing which even the prostitute and the thief and the murderer can be honest. What did the dying thief have as a qualification 28:57 when he was hanging on the cross? He had hurt so many people, killed so many people, cheated so many people. But in the last moment of his life, he was honest. I've sinned and he was forgiven immediately. 29:17 That is the meaning of walking in the light to be honest. So if you cover up something that won't be forgiven. If you say no no no no but it was this was the reason why I did it and that was the reason that why I did it. So often 29:33 when we uh try to prove that we were not so bad we say this is the reason that is the reason you'll never be forgiven brother sister the more you try to justify yourself in some wrong action that you did it because of that this I did that or 29:49 because of this I said that well you can keep on going you won't be forgiven that's all. You may prove that you're right, but you won't be forgiven by God. To be forgiven by God is you confess your sin. If we n verse 9, confess, 30:06 walk in the light. Say, "Lord, I'm sorry. Maybe he was 90% wrong, but I was 10% wrong, too. I don't I can't confess his sin, but I can confess mine. I did wrong. I'm sorry I did wrong. Please forgive me." and be quick to do 30:23 it. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you immediately. And not only cleanse you, I want you to turn to Romans. In Romans chapter 5, it says in verse 9, we are justified by his blood. 30:43 Now, many of you who know that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. Did you know that the blood of Jesus also justifies you? Just the word just is another word for the word righteous. To be just is to be righteous in 31:00 English. That's the meaning of being just righteous. Justified means declared righteous. So when you're cleansed by the blood of Christ, you're not, for example, if I committed a sin today, I told a lie and I say, "Lord Jesus, I'm sorry. I told a lie. 31:20 Heavenly Father, I told a lie. Please forgive me." I honest. It's my fault. I don't blame anybody else. I'm forgiven. The blood of Christ not only blotted out and there's no record of my having that sin is is blotted out. It's not there. 31:36 Not only that, the blood does such a work of cleansing in my life that God says I look at is look at you as if not just as if you never sinned. That itself is a great thing. I used to think justified means God looks at me as if I've never sinned in 31:54 my life. But I discovered it is more than that. He looks at me as if I was righteous from the first day of my life. From the time I was born, imagine if I had lived a life where from the moment I was born, I was absolutely 32:13 righteous in my thoughts, in my words, in my deeds, in my actions, in my motives, in my attitudes, everything. I was absolutely righteous. That's what the blood does to you when it cleanses you. That's the meaning of justified, 32:30 declared righteous as if you were righteous from the first day of your life. Some of you are perhaps hearing that for the first time. It's a wonderful thing, the blood of Christ. That is why we consider the blood of Christ very 32:44 precious. And don't delay. As soon as you're aware of something in your life that is impure, wrong, hurt somebody. Say go to the Lord in your mind immediately. Don't delay. Don't wait till the evening. There are people 33:03 who say before you go to bed, sit down and think of all that you did. I don't wait and sit down at night and think about it. If I sinned at 10:45 in the morning, before 10:46, I've confessed it. It's gone. I'm declared righteous. Please follow 33:15 that principle immediately. If a thorn gets into your foot, you don't wait till the night to pull it out. Immediately. Within one minute, it's gone. If an ant is biting your hand, you tap it off immediately. You don't wait till the end of the day. 33:29 everything immediately. Lord, I'm sorry. And don't blame the other person. Don't ever say, "I did this. Lord, but but but but this that person did this." You'll never be forgiven. If you want to be forgiven, just take the blame 100% and say, "Lord, I'm 33:45 sorry. That's my mistake." What was his part in the mistake? That's for God to deal with him. God's dealing with me. I don't have to accuse somebody else. So if you want to be have a wonderful life, learn to confess immediately and 34:05 believe, walk in the light. The blood of Jesus forgives you, declares you righteous. And I got one hand around grip to grip my the Christian life. The second is the word of God. When the devil came to Jesus 34:27 and said, "Turn Matthew chapter 4 and verse four, the devil came to Jesus in verse three and said, "Turn these stones into bread because you're hungry." And Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man 34:44 shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth." He quoted the word of God. Exactly. That is a quotation from the Old Testament verse in Deuteronomy 8:3. How did it come to Jesus' mind? Listen 35:03 to this. In the moment a temptation came, Jesus quoted that word. You know why? Because from childhood Jesus had memorized many passages in the Old Testament. One 35:20 of the verses he memorized was man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Deuteronomy 8:3. Just like in our churches we teach people to memorize the scripture with the reference. 35:37 Well, in some way Jesus memorized the scripture. You don't need to remember the reference to know the scripture. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And when the devil tempted Jesus, he was remember Jesus 35:52 lived on earth as a man. And the devil says, "See, you're going to die. Turn those stones into bread." And Jesus immediately is reminded by the Holy Spirit. That's a wonderful thing. The Holy Spirit will remind you not of 36:04 verses you have never memorized. No, no, no. If you've not memorized it, it won't come back to you. But if you have memorized it at that moment, the Holy Spirit will bring it back to you. Remember what you memorized five years ago. Man shall not live by 36:21 bread alone, but by every word of God. The spirit of God brings it to your memory and you quote it to the devil. Gone. Then the devil comes with another temptation. Jump off the temple. Oh, the devil says, "You're quoting scripture." 36:36 Okay, I'll quote scripture to you. Be careful. The devil quoted scripture to Jesus Christ. You think a agents of the devil will not quote scripture to you to deceive you? This is the verse that teaches me that the agents of Satan can sit in a church 36:53 and preach God's word as preachers in the pulpit to deceive you. Don't believe every preacher who quotes the word of God. The the devil quoted scripture to Jesus. It is written. You know when Jesus said it is written, the devil said, "Aha, okay, I'll give 37:12 you it is written. Jump off that temple roof because it is written his angels will charge over you." And then Jesus said, "But it is also written." Verse seven, on the other hand, it is also written, you shall not put the Lord your God to a test. So that's 37:31 the other thing we learn here in this temptation that the word of God has got a balance. When the scripture when the devil quotes a scripture, he may quote a scripture to deceive you. You should know the other scripture 37:45 which balances it. Otherwise, you'll be like a bird with one wing. When a bird flies with one wing, it just go round and round and round and round and round. But Jesus put the other wing on and then the bird could go straight. It is written. It is 37:59 also written. And that is why it's so important to develop the habit of reading the word of God every day. And I remember the first Bible I got, whenever I found a wonderful promise that blessed my heart, I'd get a red 38:17 pencil and underline it because there are so many verses in the Bible. And if I underlined a few here and there, I could pick them out. suddenly open the Bible and pick out those wonderful promises that I through the years underline very good habit 38:36 because otherwise I may sometimes I know it's somewhere there and I can't find it but because I've underlined it I can find it very easily. So you may find sometimes preachers quoting a verse to you and it may not be the 38:53 full truth. It's one wing. It is written. Then remember that the devil quoted scripture to Jesus. You must you must know it is also written. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. There are many situations like this. 39:09 I've had people quote scripture to me. Even child baptism, you know, there are people who baptize children and uh they say Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to little children. So why can't we sprinkle that child and 39:28 make it a child of God? Jesus said children are kingdom of heaven. But no g I said it is also written Jesus said repent and be baptized. I quote another scripture that you can't baptize before the child is repented. the child has not repented. 39:45 He doesn't even know what you're doing to it. You're sprinkling some water on his head, calling it baptism. So, you quote another scripture and you find you're protected from deception. So many people are deceived because they don't 39:57 know the other scripture which balances the scripture the deceiver is quoting to you. So, the word of God and the word of God is like a sword. You saw yesterday in the movie of the pilgrim pilgrim's progress the only 40:17 thing with which the devil could be driven away was the devil was the sword. The de pilgrim took a sword and the sword is the word of God and he saw the devil fleeing. The sword is the one weapon God has given us. The word of God that even the 40:34 devil will flee. If you read in Ephesians 6, it tells us all the armor God has given us against Satan. Have you noticed one thing in that? 40:52 Every bit of the armor is for defense, protection, except one. The sword is for offense, to fight. Listen to it. Ephesians 6:14 the your breastplate of righteousness 41:12 that's protection feet short the gospel protection 16 shield of faith for protection helmet of salvation for protection those are not from weapons attack we don't 41:28 attack with a helmet or shoes or with breastplates But then the sword of the spirit, verse 17, that's the only weapon for attack. All the other parts of the armor are for protection, protection, protection, protection, and 41:45 one weapon for attack. There's one sword God has given us to use against Satan. This is talking about our struggle verse 12 against Satan in verse 10 to 12. There's one weapon God has given us to fight against Satan, the sword of the 42:01 Holy Spirit, which is the word of God. And Jesus used it. And when you use God's word against Satan, you know what happens? See James in chapter 4. 42:19 James 4 verse 7. Submit to God. Resist the devil and he'll go away. Is that what it says? Read carefully. 42:36 Submit to God. James 4:7. Resist the devil. He doesn't say he will run away. He will flee. If you know English, flee is a much stronger word than run away. Flee is the guy running for his life. 42:54 Can you picture the devil scared of you? Can you picture Satan scared of you? Running away from you. Whereas all your life you thought you have to run away from the devil. The Bible pictures the devil running 43:12 away from you. Submit to God. Resist the devil. quoting the word of God as the sword of the spirit. He won't walk away. He won't run away. He will flee. 43:30 He'll fly away from you. Why is the devil harassing some of you so much? You don't memorize scripture. You don't quote scripture. You try to resist him with all your knowledge. No, no, no. I didn't do that. Don't try other arguments of the devil. 43:48 resist him with the word of God and say, "It is written, Satan, it is written, you were defeated on the cross." Whenever I ask a person to receive Jesus Christ as their savior, and then I tell them, "Now you're 44:06 delivered from Satan. Now tell the devil just like you prayed to Jesus just now and asked him to come into your heart and always tell this new convert. Now tell the devil, Satan, you were defeated on the cross because that's how I can get that person 44:23 to be bold against Satan. I remember one lady came to our house brought by someone else who was unconverted lady and my wife and I were sitting there and I was I told her the same thing. ask Jesus to come into your heart. I said, "Tell the devil, you were 44:41 defeated on the cross." And she turned around and looked at me with a strange look and said, "I was not defeated on the cross." It was a demon inside her speaking to me saying, "I was not defeated." That was not the woman. There was a demon inside 45:00 the woman. So when a demon speaks to me, I speak to the demon. So I didn't stop speaking to the woman and I spoke to the demon. You demon that you were defeated on the cross. Get out of her right now in Jesus name. One sentence. The demon left. Then 45:17 I told that lady. Now tell the devil you were defeated on the cross. And she said it immediately. She could not say it as long as the demon was inside her. The moment the demon was gone. Less than 5 seconds later, she could say it. 45:34 You were defeated on the cross and she was liberated. It's so important to tell the devil that he was defeated on the cross. I want to ask many of you will say you're born again. Wonderful. Have you ever told the devil, Satan, you 45:50 were defeated on the cross, you cannot touch me. Have you ever told him that? If not, start telling him that from today. You cannot touch me, Satan. I belong to Jesus Christ. It says in 46:06 Revelation chapter 12. Good to know the scriptures. Revelation chapter 12 is talking about Satan in verse 7 onwards. The dragon, it's called Satan. And they overcame the dragon. Verse 11, by the 46:25 blood of the lamb. That's number one. And by the spoken word, they quoted God's word. And it says the word of their testimony. They quoted God's word as a testimony. To whom did they give their testimony? 46:44 To Satan. Now I hope many of you have given your testimony in a church or somewhere that Jesus accept has accepted me. I accepted Christ. Wonderful. How many of you have given your testimony to the devil? I don't mean declaring your whole 46:59 testimony to the devil. He knows it all. But quoting God's word as a testimony. Satan, you were defeated on the cross. You cannot touch me. I am a child of God. If you have never said that to the devil, tell it to the devil sometime 47:13 today when you go home. Satan, you cannot touch me. I'm a child of God. And you were defeated on the cross. My savior defeated you. You cannot touch me. So that's the word of God. Then thirdly, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes within us to bring 47:34 the presence of God and the presence of Christ into us. And the Bible says we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. That just means that every compartment in our heart must be open to the Holy Spirit. Now many people are confused by 47:53 receiving the spirit and being filled with the spirit. I want to explain it to you today so simply that you'll never forget it for the rest of your life. Let me show you first of all Romans chapter 8 and verse 9. 48:18 You're not in the flesh but in the spirit. If the spirit of God dwells in you if you do not have this Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ dwelling in you, you don't even belong to him. When you receive Christ, when you say, 48:31 "Lord Jesus, come into my heart." Let me explain to you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is three persons. It is the Holy Spirit who comes in. When you say, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart." It's the spirit of Christ that 48:45 comes into your heart. The Holy Spirit comes in and when he comes in, it says in verse 15, the last part, he cries out from inside, "Dad, father." Aba means dad. The Holy Spirit has come in. But I picture your heart like a house with 10 49:01 rooms and you invite the Holy Spirit to come in. He comes into one room, forgiveness of sins. You got it? That room is lit with the light of God. You're absolutely sure your sins are forgiven. But there are other nine rooms that are still 49:18 dark. Have you received the light? Yes. Are you filled with light? No. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Yes. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? No. Here is where many Christians are confused. They say, "I don't need to be filled 49:33 with the spirit. I received the spirit." It's like saying, "I've got light in my house." No, brother. You got light in one room. Nine rooms are dark. You have received the spirit. I know you have received Christ into your life, but 49:43 you're not filled with the Holy Spirit because there are areas in your life you have not healed. And I'll tell you, the Holy Spirit comes to you and says, "Can I sort out your finances? Can I go through your account books? Have you 49:56 cheated anybody? Have you returned the money you cheated?" No, that room is dark. Have you borrowed money and not returned it? Oh, that room is dark. Then he the Holy Spirit comes to another room. Let me see what all magazines you 50:12 read. What all books you read? What all internet sites do you go to? What do you look on the internet? Ah, you look through all this. I can't fill that room with light. The Holy Spirit wants your mind to be pure. So that room remains 50:25 dark because you want to keep on watching things God does not want you to watch on the internet. That room remain dark. I'm not saying you're not a child of God, but you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. Definitely not. 50:37 Or the Holy Spirit says, "Let me check your attitude towards your relatives." You got some grudge against that person because he cheated you. You got a grudge against your mother-in-law because she treated you badly. There's no light in 50:49 that room. God wants you to forgive everyone. So, you go area by area by area. You receive the spirit, all right? But you're not filled with the spirit. And you'll never be filled with the spirit till you set all these matters 51:00 right. Straighten out your accounts. Forgive everyone. forgive your mother-in-law and forgive all those other people who hurt you. Little man, the Holy Spirit says, "Can I check through the books you read, the magazines you read, the sites you visit 51:13 on the internet, many, many areas of your life? Open up everything to the Holy Spirit. You'll be filled with the Holy Spirit." So that's very important because when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we have power against Satan. We have power in 51:32 our Christian life to be a witness for Christ. The spirit of God will give you boldness to witness for Christ. That's number three. Then number four is the way of the cross. Jesus said, "If you want to follow me, you got to take up the cross every day." 51:52 Luke 9:23. If anyone will come after me, Luke 9 verse 23, you must take up your cross. Not once for all, every day. There are some things you can do once for all. You get a birth certificate. You were 52:10 born on a certain date. The hospital or the government gives you a birth certificate. You don't have to get it every day once because you were born declared. Or there may be certain vaccinations like a vaccination against tuberculosis. 52:27 You get it as a child once a day. It's called the BCG vaccination. Get it once over. You don't have to get it again. But receiving Christ, he comes into your heart once done. But following Jesus, 52:44 take up the cross. Verse 23. Every day. Every day. Listen to this. If anyone, anyone, you or anyone, yes, it applies to you and me, wants to come after me, you want to come after Jesus, right? Luke 9:23, you must 53:02 say no to yourself. Yourself wants to do something and you know in your spirit God wants you to do something else. What should you do? Yourself says, "I want to do this." And God says, "No, you got to do this." You say, "I can't forgive that person. 53:20 It's terrible what he did against me. God says you must forgive that person. Say no to yourself. There are two voices in your heart. Self saying I want to do this and God says no, you got to do this. Which voice will you listen to? 53:36 You're born again. But here is another room in which the Holy Spirit wants to come, but you won't let him in. I'm not saying you lose your salvation, but you won't be filled with the spirit. You won't grow in the Christian life. 53:49 You're crushing the voice of God. God says, "Forgive that person." You say, "No, what a terrible evil he did to me." The Lord say, "Not as bad as crucifying the son of God." What what did the evil did that person do to you? Was it worse 54:03 than killing Jesus Christ? No. Forgive him. Then deny yourself, the voice of yourself. Take up the cross means die. Put that self to death and follow me. You know, God opened my eyes to the way 54:20 of the cross when I was 23 years old. It completely changed my attitude and I began to meditate from that day onwards on what it means to take up the cross. And here is how I understood it. I've said it many times. How do I know whether I've died to 54:37 myself alive unto Christ? When Jesus died, I died with him. Paul said, "I was crucified with Christ and I rose up from him." And now it is no longer I but Christ that lives in me. You know Galatians 2:20, I have died with Christ. 54:53 I've risen up. Now it is not me but Christ. Zak Punin is dead. Christ is living. How do I know whether Zakunin is dead or not? Okay, I imagine Zach Punin is dead over there. Somebody comes and calls me, you're an idiot, you're a fool, you're a good for 55:10 nothing, you're a rascal. No change in my expression. I'm done. You look at a dead man. Do you think he'll change his expression by whatever evil thing you tell him? Do you get disturbed when somebody speaks evil about you? You need to die, brother. You 55:26 need to die, sister. You keep a grudge against him because he did all that evil. You think that dead man keeps a grudge against somebody? Even if somebody went and kicked him, you good for nothing fellow and kicked that man, he's dead. No response. 55:42 That is the proof of whether you've taken out the cross and died. Whatever evil other people do you to do to you, if the dead man's got some money in his pocket and somebody goes and takes away the person, walks away with 55:55 it, the dead man doesn't respond, he's dead. Also, supposing you go to that dead man say, "Boy, I've never seen such a godly person like you. You're such a saint." No change. He's not brightening up to hear that. Do you get all excited when 56:15 somebody says, "Oh, you're such a saintly person, sister. You're so nice. S you're so Christlike." That person don't they don't change. Do you get affected when people say sweet things to you, nice things to you, and say you suddenly becomes that person's 56:30 friend. Die die to the criticisms and the praise of people. That is the way of the cross. die to your own will. It's very easy to find out we're not dead. When people criticize us, when people praise us, we can discover very quickly whether we are 56:48 dead or not. Take up the cross every day. You took it up yesterday, that was good enough for yesterday. Yes, you know that yesterday's breakfast is not good enough for you today. That's why you have breakfast or lunch every 56:59 day. You got to die to yourself also every day. Take up your cross daily. There's certain things you do once for all. receive Christ, you're born again once for all. It's like birth. You don't get don't get born every day once. But 57:14 dying to self every day. It's the one thing that Jesus said do daily. Many preachers tell us read the Bible daily. That's good to say. After the year 1500 AD, you could tell people read the Bible daily because the Bible was available in 57:34 the market. Before 1500 AD, there was no Bible. What's he telling somebody who lived in the third century, read the Bible daily? He doesn't have a Bible. So if Jesus gave a command on earth when he came to earth, read the Bible daily. 57:48 They'll say, which Bible? We don't have any Bible. Bibles were printed only in 1492 or something, the first Bible in the world. But one thing preachers tell you to read the Bible daily. Very good habit. But Jesus said take up the cross daily. The 58:03 only thing Jesus said do daily was to die to yourself. I'll tell you, God opened my eyes to that. 19 63 was more than 60 years ago. It changed the direction of my life. I understood what it means to die. 58:23 And I saw that baptism is actually a picture of death. When Jesus went down into the water, he was saying, "I am allowing other people to put me to death and bury me." When John the Baptist immersed him, he was symbolically saying, "I'm willing to let 58:40 people crucify me, put me to death." And when he was raised up, it was God raising him up from the dead. That's the symbolism of baptism. Not only that, Jesus submitted to that death. He allowed John the Baptist to push him into the water. God raised him 58:58 up and said, "This is my beloved son in whom I'm pleased." That's what I want to hear. If I submit to death, somebody treats me badly, I die. I don't respond. Somebody praises me, I don't get affected. I die. I don't respond. I 59:14 don't get excited. He doesn't suddenly become my special friend just just because he called me a prophet or something like that. No, I've I've died. He can call me the devil or he can call me a prophet. is the same to me. 59:26 Can you say that it is the same to you when somebody praises you and criticizes you is exactly the same to you that your reaction will be the same? No. You get drawn to the person who praises you. You get turn away from the person who 59:38 criticizes you. Brother, you got to die. When you die, it won't make a difference whether somebody praises you or criticizes you and say, "Lord, I want to work on it till I come to the place where it's just the same to me whether 59:50 somebody criticizes me or praises me." just the same to me whether somebody calls me the devil or calls me a prophet then you have really died examine yourself most of us have not died and that's why there's no resurrection we can't have 1:00:06 the resurrection life of Jesus without going into the death of Jesus die with him you will live with him why don't we have the resurrection power of Christ over all sin and evil and everything else because we're not willing to die 1:00:19 there is no resurrection without death. There'll be a wonderful resurrection for everyone who dies. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. I'm not crucified with Christ. I don't live. So that is the next thing, the cross, 1:00:37 the way of the cross every day. Another thing, it is on the cross that Jesus defeated Satan. And when you're on the cross, you will defeat Satan, too. He'll have no power over you. It's not just that he'll run away from 1:00:54 you. He'll have no power over you at all. Okay. The last one, very important, the body of Christ. After having all done all these four things, knowing the father, it's an individual thing. I know the father even the other fellow 1:01:13 does not know. The blood of Christ is personal. Cleanses me. The word of God is personal. helps me against the devil. The uh the Holy Spirit comes and fills me dying to I choose to die to myself. Now 1:01:32 there's something I have to do with my brother, my sister, the body of Christ. I have to get united with other people who are not perfect. I have to be united with imperfect people as a body of Christ. I am an imperfect 1:01:49 person. I have to be united with imperfect people. We are all such individualistic people that we don't like to mingle with others. I like to run my own life. And that's why my brother, sister, you will spend your whole life as a useless good for-no 1:02:08 Christian going to heaven accomplishing zero for God. Maybe you get to heaven, but you'll get to heaven and the Lord will say, "Yeah, you're saved, but you made it here by the skin of your teeth. You didn't accomplish anything for me on 1:02:23 earth because you never mingled with others. You never became a body with other members of my body. You are an individualistic Christian. You wasted your earthly life. I came to earth not to save individuals and take them to heaven. I came to earth to build 1:02:40 a body. I want to ask you, my brother, sister, are you a part of the body of Christ in your local town. If not, I'll tell you why. Because you're self-centered. You don't want to be inconvenienced. You 1:02:59 know, when you're in a body, imagine 10 people inside a room. You can't do what you like because there are nine other people. If you're all alone in the room, you can do what you like there. do everything, nobody to interfere with 1:03:14 you. But you know when you get married, how you suddenly your life gets constrained. How is it life is so pleasant when you unmarried you could go into your room there's nobody else there but now when you go into your room there's somebody 1:03:29 else there who's got a will of her own just like you and the clash begins. Imagine if you have 10 other people there who all are born again but none of them are perfect just like you're not perfect 10 imperfect people put them 1:03:43 together in a room they'll have wonderful fellowship if they have taken up the cross they'll build the body of Christ if they've taken up the cross if they haven't taken up the cross they'll be fighting tooth and nail with each 1:03:55 other that's how a lot of Christians are that's what happens in a lot of churches that's why in CFC we try to build the body of Christ by saying, "Know the father, be cleansed in the blood, read the word of God, be filled with the Holy 1:04:12 Spirit, die to yourself daily, then you will build the body of Christ." That's what we have preached in CFC for 50 years and we have seen the body of Christ built in 100 churches in 17 countries. 1:04:32 God did it. No man. And God can do it in your town if you're willing to know the Father, be cleansed in the blood, read God's word, be filled to the spirit, and die to 1:04:50 yourself, you can build the body of Christ in your locality, and your grip on the Christian life will be absolutely solid. May God help you. Let's pray. God's word never comes to condemn us 1:05:13 only to encourage us and challenge us. Do you feel overwhelmed and say, "I can never live this life." And God says, "I know you cannot live this life. That's why I've given you my Holy Spirit. 1:05:29 to help you to live this life. God will supply you with the electricity to run the light and to run the fan and to run your refrigerator and to run your air conditioner. He'll supply the electricity, but you must be willing to let him 1:05:47 install it in your house. You cannot produce it. You don't produce electricity for your house. The electric service supplies the electricity service supplies it to your house. God can supply power to your house that can lighten up your house, 1:06:07 brighten your house. Ask him to fill you with the Holy Spirit and say, "Lord, I've been living a lone individualistic Christian life till now. It's just I and my wife and my children. I don't want anybody to inconvenience 1:06:24 me." But Lord, I missed out something and I'll discover in eternity that I missed out the most important thing of all. You wanted to build the body of Christ in my town and that's why you kept me there and I never took it 1:06:38 seriously. Forgive me, Lord. I've cut my eyes open today. I'm not going to be the same from today. Lord, help me. It's too overwhelming to imagine that I can be a member of the body of Christ in my locality. That I can see a little body formed in 1:06:54 my locality. I can hardly believe it. Yes, it'll be possible. I believe you today. Come to the Lord with faith. Don't come in unbelief. Maybe you do belong to some church. God bless you. I hope that church is building the body of Christ 1:07:12 and not something for its own name. Heavenly Father, I pray that not a single person sitting here who heard the word of God today will miss out on any one of these five 1:07:30 matters so that they miss out on having a solid grip on the Christian life. Help us all, Lord, everyone. We don't want to miss any one of these five. Thank you, Father, 1:07:47 in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. [Music]
