0:02 [music] Let's begin with a word of prayer. [clears throat] Lord Jesus, you are the head of the church 0:24 and we never want to forget that. Yes, we want to recognize you as Lord in our midst at this time. And we believe you have appointed each 0:39 one of us to this responsibility. Yes. We don't want to take it for granted. We want to humble ourselves. be more devoted to you. First of all, 1:03 have the ears of our heart and conscience more sensitized to your voice. You understand the dangers we are in Lord [clears throat and cough] when we are in leadership 1:21 with nobody to correct us. nobody to exhort us when everybody living in respect and fear of us. Preserve us, oh Lord, that your Holy Spirit will move in our hearts in such a way 1:37 not just today but every single day. Yes. that we will lie on our faces before you at all times and that we will truly be servants 1:54 washing people's feet all our days. Help us this morning and encourage us and challenge us. We trust you, Father. We want to be like the branch in the tree. Mhm. incapable of 2:14 producing any fruit apart from a constant and open dependence upon you all the time. We know that you are more interested in building the church than any of us are. Yes. Any burden we have is less than 1% of 2:33 what you have. Help us to share your burden a little more. Give us more fellowship with your heart. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. [clears throat] Okay brothers. 2:50 Good morning everyone. Praise the Lord. I want to begin with a little phrase that's found in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 8. 3:06 Matthew 19 and verse 8. here the subject that Jesus was he was talking to the Pharisees and uh the subject is divorce but that's not what we're going to talk about today 3:25 but there's a principle here in a little statement of Jesus which applies to many many areas and to our ministry When the Pharisees said, 3:44 "Why did Mo Moses command verse seven that a woman could be divorced by giving her a certificate?" And Jesus said, "Moses never commanded it. He permitted it." 4:03 verse 8. That is the first thing we need to see. It's very easy to misread scripture to make a permission into a command because it suits us or [clears throat] to alter a peri a 4:25 command into a permission. We have to be careful. But what we need to see here more than that is what Jesus said. If you want to know the truth, go back 4:43 to the beginning. How is it in God's original plan? So the phrase I have in mind is in the last part of verse eight, from the beginning, it has not been this way. Please keep that in mind. From the 5:01 beginning, it was not like this. And there was no permission for Adam to divorce his wife. There were no other women there. From the beginning, it was not like this. And when we think of building the church 5:21 and we see what's happening in the world around today with thousands of tens of thousands of denominations all over the world and new ones springing up all the time and so difficult to distinguish where something is a cult and where people are 5:37 preaching the commandments of men. The phrase that comes to my mind is from the beginning it was not like this. We're talking about the day of Pentecost. I will not be a third class or a 10th class servant. I will not be a 5:54 servant of Christ at all. If I seek to please one man, and that could be a fellow elder. If I seek to please a fellow elder, I'll no longer be a servant of Christ in my church. I will be 6:12 a servant of men. So it's very important to keep this in mind from the beginning. How was it? What is the attitude of the early apostles 6:30 who had walked with Jesus towards their flock? They were very strict. You can see the Apostle Paul when a man fell into adultery in 1 Corinthians 4 sorry 1 Corinthians 5, 6:47 he handed him over to Satan. Can you think what some carnal Corinthians thought about that? What they thought about the Apostle Paul and who probably said, "Well, yeah, he slipped up. It's not so serious. 7:07 It doesn't matter. But Paul was concerned that the name of the Lord had been so reproached in Corinth by that man's behavior that he was led by the Holy Spirit. Obviously, because he wrote that and he 7:24 says, "Put that man outside. Don't spare him." It was standing up for the truth. But that's what saved that man as you read in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 7:43 Not only because Paul was strict, but because the other disciples and the other people who were serious Christians in Corenth and perhaps I think all the church supported Paul and did not even visit this man. They shunned him 8:02 and he was left alone outside. There was no foolish believer there who went and showed some human compassion. And that's why that guy was saved. As you read in 2 Corinthians 2, it requires a real freedom from the 8:21 opinions of men to take a stand in things like this where the purity of the church means everything. And I was going to say a million times more than what people think of us. And I say not a million times more, but everything 8:39 where what people think of us is got zero value. Whether you eat or drink, 1 Corinthians 10 31, do all for the glory of God. 8:56 That must be the passion of our life. God has appointed me in this church to make sure the glory of God is always preserved here. And it doesn't matter what anybody thinks of me when 9:15 that is concerned. I'm not a politician. I'm not a diplomat. That's what we got to say to ourselves. And if you're working with other elders in your church and you find one of them is maybe a bit lenient in a human way. 9:35 Well, then you got to be firm even with that elder and says, "Sorry, I don't agree with you. I love you, brother, but not more than the Lord." The first commandment is not 9:54 love one another. That's the second commandment. The first commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your soul and all your mind. What's left then? It's from that source 10:12 that love for others flows. Never, never directly. If it is just from ourselves, we love one another. There are a lot of people in the world like that. It'll be a club 10:27 or a congregation but not the church. So remember this phrase from the beginning it was not like this. And I pray that we shall hear the Lord saying that to us many times so that he 10:45 corrects the course. I remember when I was in the Navy and if I was on the bridge of the ship which is right on top directing the ship and telling the person who was steering the ship which way to turn and you had to keep watching the compass in those 11:00 days and if the ship you know because the waves and the wind can make the ship move away from the direction. So initially setting the course did not guarantee that you would reach your destination. You have to keep correcting it all the time. 11:20 And this was such a constant requirement that the Navy required us to be on the bridge only for 4 hours. They knew it'd be too much of a strain to go beyond that. Then your watch was over and somebody took over because you had to be constantly 11:35 alert. If you allow the shift to drift away, you're going to end up somewhere else. There must not even be a onederee change of direction. It must be constantly towards the point 11:53 we are to go and if the ship has drifted then we got to change direction so that we are pointing towards our destination and that's how we are to lead the church forward. The captain of the elders are the captains of the church 12:12 and we have to constantly do a course correction if we find that something is coming up which is moving the church away. In the beginning, a lot of people come to a few people come together and we're all going in the 12:31 right direction. But as more and more people get added to the church, we find that not everybody has the same vision. And then some of those people can gradually move others in the church so that the direction of the church shifts. 12:49 Certain habits come in. certain things that we had given up come back into our lives. People who had, you know, think of something as serious as this. Believers in our church who had 13:06 completely given up pornog pornography go back to watching it and they won't they won't tell you about it. But you'll be able to sense it without 13:24 their telling you. If you're in touch with the Lord, you won't know anything about people's private sins. The Lord does not reveal other people's sins to us. But you'll see when a person's cooling off, not only in his devotion to Christ, 13:39 when he's probably becoming a bit hard on others in a human way or perhaps becoming very lenient in some areas in a human way, both drifting to the left or to the right. You can sense, hey, something is wrong here. 13:59 I remember in the early days in CFC Bangalore I found a brother was not really seriously following the Lord. Not one of the elders but one of the brothers in the church. I said to him I after the meeting I walked with him. I put my arm around him 14:17 and I said brother I want to tell you something. I can't stop you from falling away from this church or from the Lord. But I'll tell you something because I watch over your soul. I'll warn you about it at least a few 14:34 weeks or months before you actually fall away. And then after that, it's up to you. I can we can do that when the numbers are small. And I could do that only when the numbers were small. When the numbers increase, 14:54 we need other brothers. And other brothers came up as elders and they could help me. But this business of shephering people is not an easy thing. We need to distinguish between a brother 15:13 who's like a sheep that's gone astray, slipped up sincerely thinking the pasture was this side and ended up falling over a cliff. That's one type of believer. 15:31 Drifted away. The other type of believer mentioned in Luke 15 is the prodigal son. He didn't drift away. He rebelled and said, "I don't want any more of this." And went away. And Jesus taught us. You got to distinguish between the sheep 15:50 that accidentally went astray and the son who rebelliously went away and treat them both differently. You go to you got to go after that lost sheep and carry it on your shoulder. however inconvenient that may be and 16:09 bring him back. But the other one, you're not to talk to him or send him any money. Let him starve. [snorts] Let him reach the level of the pigs and then he'll come back. That's the 16:27 love of a father. Very few elders have that type of strictness. because they haven't seen what God is like. This is eternal life that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus 16:45 Christ whom thou has sent. That's how Jesus was. He could turn around to Peter and say, "You are Petra, a small little stone. But on this rock that you have confessed, thou art the Christ, the son of the 17:05 living God, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And Peter, I give you the keys. You can open and no man can shut, and you can shut, no man can open. 17:21 You can bind and it'll be bound. What an authority in the presence of all the disciples. And one minute later or two minutes later to the same Peter, get behind me, Satan. 17:40 To the same person. 2 minutes later. That's how it was in the beginning. He loved Peter so much. It wasn't the wishy-washy type of love that so many Christians have today. It was a strong love 17:59 that desired the best for Peter, that wanted him to be a man of God, that told him, "You're going to deny me three times before the crows and I will not pray that you will not deny me." Let me paraphrase Jesus words. 18:19 You will deny me and you need to fall because you're so proud, Peter. You think you're the best of these disciples, but you're not. You don't realize your weakness. And the only way, I've tried every other way to humble 18:30 you, but you've not been humbled. Now, the only other way, the last resort, the last method that God uses to humble a man is to allow that person to fall into sin, which God hates so much. 18:48 That's not his best method. It's not even one of his methods. It's the last resort. I've tried every other way to humble you, Peter, and you don't succeed, then you've got to fall. That'll humble you. Satan has desired to sift you. And I 19:07 allow Satan to do that so that you fall. And boy, Peter, when you come back after that, you will be another man. You'll never lift up your head again thinking you're somebody. 19:26 You'll bring 3,000 people to Christ with a 15-minute sermon. And not just anybody. 3,000 of the most difficult people to convert. Jews. Try converting one Jew today. 3,000 converted with a 15-minute sermon. And when Peter, when people come up to 19:44 you and say, your fellow disciples come to you, Peter, and say, "Wow, Peter, what a wonderful word that was. You'll shake your head and say, "I know what I did six weeks ago when my savior was being tried." He never forgot that for the rest of his 20:03 life. And sometimes God will allow some thing like that to happen to us where it may look as if God did not stand with us at that time when we fell so deeply. [clears throat] 20:22 Sometimes he may reveal it to others like in Peter's case, like in David's case. [clears throat] I've noticed in some cases God will not allow anybody to know about your fall. I asked the Lord about this once. I 20:39 said, "Lord, why is it I meet I know two believers I know personally what happened. Both fell into exactly the same sin and it was pretty serious. And Lord, you exposed one and you did not expose the other. They 20:58 were both servants of God. One was publicly humiliated because his failure and sin was exposed. The other was never humiliated. Lord, I want to learn your ways. Eternal 21:15 life is to know you and your ways. And the Lord told me then, this is many, many years ago because one was humble and the other was proud. And I never forgot that what the Lord 21:33 showed me. This was way back in the early days of CFCs, 1975 or something or 77 or something like that. [clears throat] [snorts] And I saw how much God values humility 21:52 because that is the characteristic of his son. The primary characteristic of his son which he said to others, learn from me for I am humble of heart. That God values that so highly that he gives grace to everyone who 22:11 humbles himself. and will even cover up the person's failure permanently. So that not even in eternity in heaven will anybody know where that wonderful servant of God fell. 22:30 That is God's way. And God hates pride so much that even if the man is God's greatest servant, he will expose him. This is light and darkness. [clears throat] 22:49 Humility and pride. They are two opposites. From the beginning, that's how sin came. When you think of from the beginning, that phrase from the beginning 23:04 before Adam, sin came through pride. Like the Lord tells the anointed angel who became the devil in Ezekiel 28, your heart was lifted up. Turn for a moment there, please. Ezekiel 23:27 and chapter 28. Can a anointed person lose the anointing? Yes. How did the first anointed person the first anointed person in the universe? 23:46 The anointed cherub. Verse 14, you were the anointed cherub. Verse 12, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, 24:04 anointed cherub. How did he lose it? He could not submit to authority. That's all. He wanted to be something himself. If God can receive worship, why can't I? 24:31 And it says here, your verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, your wisdom, and your position. Today you apply that 24:53 Your heart was lifted up because people see you are so Christlike in your conduct. You're so anointed in your ministry and you have such Bible knowledge. 25:10 Wow. You can even quote the Greek and the Hebrew and nobody sees it. Everybody in your church sits in awe of you. 25:28 The great man of God, who's got such a Christlike life, who's brought up his children so well, who knows the scriptures so well, and whose every message of his is 25:46 challenging and a blessing to us. And you meditate on all that. Oh yeah. The devil will allow you allow you to meditate on it. He wants you to. And you lift your face from the ground, from the dust, 26:08 just a little bit in the beginning. But it's just a matter of time before you are no longer washing the feet of the disciples. No, be careful dear brothers. 26:30 There are a number of times in Isaiah we find this phrase coming. you know, Isaiah uh chapter 40 onwards is really it's very interesting. Isaiah's got 66 chapters just like I mean that wasn't 26:48 divine inspiration the division of the chapters but I think there was something in the sovereignty of God there 66 chapters are like the 66 books of the Bible and Isaiah the first 39 chapters are really old covenant stuff and the next 27:03 27 chapters like the 27 books of the New Testament are new covenant stuff from Isaiah 40-6 and Isaiah 40 is about John the Baptist and that's the beginning of the new covenant and then number of times in Isaiah in those chapters you read this 27:21 expression Isaiah 42:1 for example behold my servant [clears throat] in whom my soul delights I put my spirit upon him that's a prophetic reference to Jesus Christ but when it says behold my servant it 27:39 means look carefully at my servant That's how we are to be servants. Look carefully at my capital S servant. We are not capital S servants. We are small S. 27:57 But look at my capital S servant. The Lord says, "My soul delighted in him. Twice I said about him." God says, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Don't ever compare him with Moses or Elijah or anybody else. This is my son. 28:16 Listen to him. That's what they heard on the mount of transfiguration. Behold my servant. And so many wonderful things. If you take all those places where that comes up, you know, verse two, Isaiah 42:2, he 28:33 will not cry out or raise his voice or make his voice heard in the street. That's not the way his he did not uh impress people with loudness and shouting and frequent hallelujah and occasional bursting out into tongues and 28:50 all that. That's not the how he impressed people. It's all these modern gimmicks that today's preachers have. Don't ever admire any of them. Steer clear of them. Behold the first servant. He will not cry out or raise his voice. 29:07 There was a an anointing in him in Jesus that did not need to do anything spectacular. The Holy Spirit moved in a way that people were convicted. 29:26 There's some wonderful things about this servant. [snorts] Verse three, he was very tender with the bruised reads in his congregation, in his church, in his group. 29:44 There are bruised reads in our churches and there are rebellious prodigal sons and you need to have discernment to distinguish one from the other. We got to break the prodigal sons but 30:01 not the bruised reed. And if you don't know h how to distinguish that if you have one policy yeah we must be gentle and kind to everybody you'll never be a servant of God. Jesus knew 30:19 how to deal with a five times divorced Samaritan woman. And you read that passage in John 4 when he said to her, "You've had five husbands and the one you're living with is not even your husband." She knew it was true. She said, "You're 30:42 a prophet." That didn't puff Jesus up. and don't let it puff you up if anybody calls you a prophet. And then she changed the subject. Uh she said, "You know, you your people 31:01 say you must worship in Jerusalem, but we say it must be in Samaria." She was changing the subject from that awkward questioning about her marriage relationships. And I see this wonderful spirit of Christ. 31:19 He did not say, "Hey, hang on, hang on. Let's talk about your who you're sleeping with." He left it. That is wisdom. He would not break a bruised reed. We need to know where to be silent, 31:38 not to embarrass a person. I believe I'll see that woman in heaven. I don't have any doubt about it. That day itself, God used her to bring the Samaritans out to meet him. 31:56 God's ways are not our our ways. He would not break a bruised reed. But you know to be like that you have to be always sensitive to the Holy Spirit. If we think yeah yeah I have enough experience. Many a time I fall on my face before God 32:19 and I say Lord 45 years ago you filled me with the Holy Spirit and you filled me again and again but I don't know. The more I come closer to God, the more 32:38 I discover how little I know [snorts] and how much of unconscious uncristlike things there are in my flesh that I need to work out my salvation 32:53 from every day. It's very important for us to live before God's face like that. Always challenged by the example of John who walked with 33:11 Jesus for 65 years filled with the spirit and when he the one who on whose breast he leaned at the last supper when he sees him in revelation one he falls at his feet. No question of leaning on his breast now 33:28 falls at his feet like a dead man. And that's where we must be all the time. And then the Lord anointed him and gave him words for every single church 33:46 according to the need of each church. and he'll give you two the word for your church according to the need of your church which may be different from the need of some other church but you'll get it only if you're on your 34:02 face before the Lord and the Lord even gave him a word for the elders of each church and gave him a vision of heaven and gave him a vision of the future. Yeah, he was so overwhelmed by the 34:26 presence of God. I [snorts] was speaking the other day to at the NCCF meeting how you read that John towards the end of Revelation you read he fell down and worshiped the angel 34:43 or he was going to do it twice. First in chapter 19 and later on in chapter 21 and you and I wouldn't do that would you? He wouldn't worship any man. 35:00 We've got a doctrine right. So right that we could even correct the mighty apostle John. John, that's not what you're supposed to do. You know, don't you know it says in Colossians what Paul wrote that we're not to worship angels. 35:16 Specifically says that. And here you go doing that. Yeah. You can correct people's doctrines which are slightly wrong, but you may not experience the overwhelming sense of God's presence 35:34 that John experienced. And I want to say there could be people whose doctrines are slightly wrong compared to the correct doctrines we have in our churches. And yet those brothers may be so much more living in the 35:53 presence of God than we who are got crossed our tees and dotted our eyes so that we don't make any mistake in Indian doctrine. Beware of that. I don't mind if I discover when I stand 36:11 before the Lord that some of my understanding of minor doctrines was an error won't disturb me at all. Minor ones if I dwelt in the presence of God constantly every day and was overwhelmed by that 36:30 day by day. Seek that my dear brothers. It doesn't matter if you make a little mistake like John did. He fell down to worship an angel because he and the thing is he was so overwhelmed by the presence of God that 36:48 he didn't even think what he was doing. O you know when Paul says I am the chief of sinners we know that that's what we should be saying but we say that because we know 37:07 that's what we should be saying as [snorts] humble people but John Paul didn't say that oh I got to say something humble so I will say I'm the chief of sinners no he was so overwhelmed by the holiness of that he spontaneously said Christ Jesus 37:26 came to save sinners and of whom I am chief. He's writing scripture and he just wrote it. That was not a calculated statement to impress anybody or to say what is right. 37:46 It was he was so convinced of the reality of it. God doesn't give us that type of revelation often, but I hope you've got it at least once. There have been a few occasions in my 38:05 life. I mean, theoretically, I know all the time, every day, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm glad to say it. But there have been a few occasions in my life and I've been so overwhelmed by the presence of God that I really felt in my heart I must be 38:24 the greatest sinner in the whole world. There cannot be anyone worse than mercifully. We don't have that too often otherwise we'd get discouraged. But I hope you've experienced that at 38:41 least once or twice. You know, when Isaiah saw the glory of God, nobody had to tell him, "Hey, listen. You know what you're supposed to say that woe is me for I'm a sinner." That was not a verse he found somewhere 39:01 in Deuteronomy. Moses said it and so I better say it, too. No, it was the spontaneous result of his being taken up with the presence of God. I don't think I say I had that 39:19 experience frequently. Maybe once maybe John also his experience of seeing Christ like that was not every day but if you have never had in our life 39:38 [snorts] anything of that type of overwhelming sense of the presence and none now let me explain I'm not talking about some light or some these things that Pentecostals speak about. I'm not talking about all that rubbish. 39:53 I'm not talking about angels and light and all. It's you don't need any of that. You can be fooled by light. The devil comes as an angel of light. So that's not what I'm talking about. 40:10 But a sense of God's presence that makes you put your face in the dust. It's I find for myself one of the best times to do that is early morning or if I wake up in the middle of the night. Those are some of my most precious times 40:28 alone with God. The whole world is asleep. My wife is asleep. It's just God and me. It's almost impossible to get a time like that at any other time. Even when you don't have children like 40:47 in my case at home but there all alone with God take some of those times precious times [snorts] it you will not suffer if you lose an hour of sleep I'll tell you that you'll be blessed 41:06 in the presence of God to be overwhelmed you can't manufacture it no don't try to manufacture it tomorrow morning it won't work. You say, "Lord, it's it's you know the the law the rule is this." 41:24 Jeremiah 29:13, one of my favorite verses. [snorts] You shall seek me with all your heart and you will find me. And that law applies to everyone. You seek the Lord with all your heart and you'll find him. 41:43 You don't let it manufacture anything. You will experience what Isaiah experienced, what John experienced, and it'll make you a humbler and a more effective servant of God. 42:01 You will have the word of the Lord in your mouth. You will experience what it says in one Peter. and chapter 4 1 Peter 4 and verse 11. 42:22 [snorts] Whoever speaks, let him speak as if God himself is speaking. Is there a greater challenge than that 42:41 for your sermons? I stand in awe when I read that verse. When you stand up there or nowadays when you sit in a Zoom meeting and speak and people listen to you, it must be 43:04 as though God himself is speaking. Who is sufficient for these things? Like the apostle says [snorts] 43:23 some time ago God gave me a revelation years ago on what gold, silver and precious stones was to build with gold, silver and precious stones and what wood here and straw was. What are the three things 43:43 which are gold, silver, and precious stones? And what are the three things which are wood, he and straw? And God gave me that revelation actually while I was in the middle of a message from 44:01 Romans 11, the last verse. From God, through God, and to God are all things. And the Lord showed me that is gold, silver, and precious stones. Whatever in your life originates in God, 44:19 from God is done through God's power, the power of the Holy Spirit, and is done for the glory of God from God through God to God. That's that'll be gold, silver, and precious stones for all eternity in the day of judgment. The fire can never burn that 44:38 up. But what is from man, what originates in your bright clever mind, bright ideas, what you read in some book, what you heard, some preacher you admire did and you try 44:58 to imitate him from man, through man. You've studied hard and you've worked hard. And I'm not saying we should not prepare our messages. Sure, a lot of people who 45:15 don't prepare what they have to say end up wasting people's time wandering from subject to subject and boring people. But it must be through the power of the Holy Spirit from man. Through man means through my own cleverness and ultimately 45:32 to man. to man means I congratulate myself at the end of it. Wow. Oh, that was a good message I preached, right? From man through man to man, it'll be 45:52 one day, however good that message was, it will be wood, hay, and straw burnt up for all eternity. So 1 Peter 4, we see the same thing repeated here. If you look carefully, from God, through God to God, whoever 46:10 speaks, it doesn't matter who you are. However you've been a Christian for 50 years or you've been a Christian for two years, you're serving God today. You're preaching the word. Whoever speaks, it must be from God. Speak as though God 46:23 himself is speaking. And it must be done through God. Verse 11, 1 Peter 4:11, "By the strength God supplies, and it must be to God so that God may be glorified in all things." The words of Peter agree with and align 46:40 with Paul's words in Romans 11:36. Um, let me go back to another thing. We saw that expression from the beginning. It was not like this. 46:59 Turn with me to Genesis in chapter 1. In Genesis chapter 1, we read of we're 47:18 talking about from the beginning. What Jesus said from the beginning, it was like this. When God made man in the beginning, he created man in his own image. Genesis 1:26 and 27. And he gave him authority. 47:39 It says in verse 28, see what God said to Adam directly. Be fruitful and Eve. Adam, multiply, fill the earth and rule. God's given you elders authority to rule as a servant 47:59 over the church. Rule over the fish, the birds, every living thing. I have given you everything. It's something like God has said to you, I appoint you as an 48:17 elder in this church. Something like that. And the day you were appointed as an elder, verse 31, it was very good. It was I hope it still is. You were a humble brother that day. 48:36 When you were appointed as an elder, you really felt you didn't deserve it. It was very good. I hope it is still like that today. But the secret of remaining there in that position always is what happens on the seventh day after you hear all these 48:54 wonderful things. I've given you authority and everything's under your feet and everything is good. Not only good, very good. Genesis 131. Then the Lord says, okay, now I don't want you to go out and work for me. Hang on. 49:08 There's a lot of work to be done in the garden, in the church, but that can wait. the seventh day. Genesis 2:2, how was it in the beginning? He completed his work and he rested. 49:25 And that was Adam's first day. Like the very first verse of Genesis, in the beginning, God. Four words. In the beginning, God. Adam was also taught 49:42 in your work. In the beginning, God, not the church, not the ministry, not the sermon you have to preach, not the people you have to shepherd. In the beginning, God. 49:59 So, Adam, you got to spend one day with me. That's the difference between law and grace. In law, you work for six days and then you have a Sabbath. In grace, you begin with the 50:16 Sabbath on the very first day. One day you shall rest and that rest will continue in your spirit throughout the remaining six days as you work. Those who work under the law is different. They worked without any rest 50:35 for six days and struggled with bitterness and complaints and grumbling and all types of things. And God said, "That's not the way. The work in the garden can wait, Adam. You got to have a relationship with me." 50:54 And that's what I want you to spend your the next 24 hours. I want to put something into your mind that should characterize you. Not just for these 24 hours of the seventh day, but all your life live in my presence. All your work must 51:11 be done from this position of a Sabbath rest. [snorts] That's why Jesus spoke so much about this rest. Very important words. I think some of Jesus most important words were in 51:31 Matthew chapter 11 from the beginning. It was this way. Matthew 11 verse 28. Come to me all who are weary and heavy 51:48 laden and I will give you I'll bring you into the Sabbath rest which God wanted Adam to have. That verse is quoted so much to unbelievers. But Jesus spoke this to his disciples. 52:13 His disciples who need to come to him and find rest. And I tell you today it is elders who need to come to him and find rest because many are weary and heavy laden with so many burdens. Some of them they shouldn't be carrying 52:37 so many things on their mind. Some are thinking how to make a little more money here and there. That's their burden. Some are worried about this anxiety and the other anxiety. To be concerned is okay. 52:56 To be concerned about our children is okay, but to be anxious about them is not. Be anxious for nothing. Be concerned. Sure, there's need to distinguish between concern and anxiety. You're not a good father if you're not 53:09 concerned for your children. But you're not a good child of God if you're anxious about that. Be anxious for nothing. Make your request known to God. Come to me. There is no other place 53:26 where you can get that rest. Psychology will teach you to find rest in some technique or training your mind to think out certain things. And there's so many things psychology teaches. I've often I I preached a message on 53:43 this once. It's there on YouTube. How music, money, and psychology have replaced the Holy Spirit. You can go to YouTube and listen to it sometime. Music, money, and psychology have replaced the Holy Spirit. So make sure that your rest is not a 54:03 rest that comes through psychology. But that comes as a result of coming to Jesus. Come to me and I will give you rest. It's not by some technique of training your mind to think in certain directions or any such thing. It's not by physical exercise or any of 54:22 this rubbish. It's by come to Jesus and I will give you rest. All the other rest is will disappear. We need to keep coming to him all the time. again and again and again and again. And that's not all. If you want this 54:43 rest, he expands on it. Take my yoke upon you. I love that. I always am encouraged by that. You know, there are two pictures that I love in my mind. One is which I often use the branch in the tree. Without me, you can do 54:59 nothing. as the branch remains in the tree and produces fruit almost effortlessly. When I look at Jesus' life, 55:16 I don't find him struggling to do a miracle or struggling to preach a sermon or struggling even to feed 5,000 people. I mean, if [clears throat] you try to do it without God calling you, of course, 55:35 you'll be struggling. But where he knew he was called to do something, he wasn't struggling. The only time he struggled was when he had to face hell for 3 hours for my sake. Then he struggled because he had to 55:55 break fellowship with the father. Not because he was not willing to suffer hell for me. He'd be gladly go a million times there because he loved me so much. But father, you mean my fellowship with you will be broken for 3 hours? 56:11 And the angels come and say, "But Lord, it'll be restored. I know it'll be restored, but I don't want my fellowship with my father to be broken even for one second." That's why he was troubled. I heard that more than 40 years ago. 56:29 Once in prayer, the Lord showed me what Jesus went through in Gethsemane. And I said, Lord, make me like that. Make me like that. I don't want to be a great preacher. I don't want to be an elder. I don't want to plant churches. Those are all 56:47 secondary to me. I want to fellowship with my father. I want to fellowship with you in such a way that I don't want to break that fellowship even for one second. I want that spirit you had in Gethsemane which you had all through your life. 57:06 Isn't there any other way you had to sweat great drops of blood? And the only reason he accepted it finally that break of fellowship was because he loved you and me. No other reason. So 57:29 I I I like that you know I have to stay like the branch always dependent. No branch is struggling to produce fruit. Nowhere in the world does a branch struggle to produce fruit. It's effortless. Struggle is when it's not properly 57:46 connected to the tree and the sap is not properly flowing. Then there's a struggle. And the other picture which I have in my mind is this Matthew 11:29. The yoke I mean if you've been in farms in India 58:05 I don't know whether you see can see it in now in the United States but in India many places two bulocks two oxen under a yoke plowing together. It's a beautiful picture [snorts] perfectly going plowing the field walking together together. I don't think 58:25 they started like that. All oxen have to be trained. They don't like horses have to be tamed. Oxen have to be trained. So, and that was a very common sight in Israel. That's why Jesus used that example. Take my yoke upon you. Do you see those 58:41 two oxmen how they keep step and go? And what a perfect furrow they have made and plowed the field. You can do that if you allow my yoke to be upon you. You're not going to do this alone. No, we're doing it together. 58:59 But you're not the boss. You can't turn when you like or slow down when you like or run ahead when you No, you can't. You got to keep pace with me and you got to go in the same direction. You got to be sensitive to Every time I 59:16 turn, you got to turn with me. This is the senior ox telling the junior ox, my yoke is on. You remember, if I quicken my pace, you got to quicken your pace. You can't lag behind there. And if I slow down, you can't run ahead. 59:32 You got to keep pace with me and be sensitive to my slightest move to the left or right. This is the meaning of take my yoke upon you and learn from me. You're not the teacher. Don't live as if you don't have a 59:49 teacher. Learn from me. Be sensitive in your conscience. Oh, how important it is to be sensitive in your conscience. You say, "Can we know like that?" You can know it. I'll 1:00:05 tell you. If you're sensitive to sin, if you're sensitive to the smallest sin, if you're willing to apologize to your wife as soon as you spoke one unkind word, not angry word, one unkind word, 1:00:25 one. You apologize. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken like that. [snorts] I tell you, you'll be amazed how God begins to speak to your conscience when he sees you're so sensitive. When you're willing to go to a younger 1:00:44 brother and apologize. When you're willing to go to a younger brother to restore fellowship, when you feel he's offended, you'll be amazed to see 1:01:03 how God will reveal his will to you and his mind. It's worth it humbling yourself. God gives his grace to the humble. I'm not saying you humble yourself in order to get something from the God. The moment you do something for reward, it's 1:01:21 gone. You ruin the whole thing. So don't follow what I'm saying. Ah, then I can get something from God. No, go to God and say, Lord, I don't want anything. I just want to humble myself because that's the right thing to do, 1:01:38 not for any reward. I'm not trying to do bargain with God. If I humble myself, will you do this for me? No, no, no. because it is the right thing to do. Learn from me for I am humble in heart. How is he? He says in John 5:1 19, I 1:02:01 don't do anything myself. I keep listening to the father and I'm prompted by him. [snorts] I remember reading in [clears throat] the biography of Hudson Taylor, that great man of God who went to China, trusting God for all his needs, not only 1:02:18 for his needs, but the needs of many missionaries in China. It's quite something to live so many thousands of miles away from people who are supporting you financially and to care not only for you but for all the other missionaries there. Amazing man. 1:02:34 And there were lot of need for finances there and he trusted God for it. I I remember one story which is something like this that said there was a desperate need for some money in the mission you know that constant need for 1:02:48 money and mission work and Hudson Taylor was praying Lord you need you know we need this by tomorrow or in a couple of days and we don't have anything right now to meet that need and just before that need had to be met an envelope 1:03:04 arrived with a check the next day. Amazing answer to prayer. But the thing is there were no flights in those days. That mail had been posted 3 months ago in England and came by ship. That's the miracle there. And here is Hudson praying and it's 1:03:27 already 3 months ago got it before they call I will answer to arrive just in time to answer his prayer. But Watson Taylor says this is what I remember his saying. He says in my younger days as though God showed me clearly this is 1:03:46 what you got to do. This is what you got to do. Yeah. Do this. Do this. But as he says as I've grown older I feel I'm in a fog I don't know what to do. [snorts] One would think that's a sign of 1:04:05 backsliding. No, it's a sign of maturity. I found exactly the same. I remember my early days as a Christian, even the early days when I was serving God, specific direction. Do this from scripture. Do this, do that. Even when I had to get married or leave 1:04:23 the Navy to serve him, it was clear word do this, do that or go somewhere or when should I take my train to go back here this date. And now I don't see a word. Sometimes I Lord give me a word and I open the Bible. 1:04:42 I get nothing. In the olden days I used to get it. He doesn't lead me like that now. Then I remember Hudson Taylor's words and with the picture the Lord gave me 1:05:00 was when a child is 2 or 3 years old you tell him brush your teeth change your clothes time to go to bed take a shower every little thing. When that child becomes 20 years old you tell him almost 1:05:19 nothing. He has come to know his father's mind. So the mark of maturity is not specific every little thing God tells you. When Jesus says the son can do nothing except what he sees the 1:05:36 father do. It's not that the father is dictating things from heaven. When you're young, yes, brush your teeth, change your clothes, go to bed. But as you grow up, less and less and less and less and less. And when you're 1:05:50 20 years old, your mind is so renewed. Romans 12:2 that you don't hear the perfect will of God, but you prove Romans 12:2. You 1:06:08 yourself prove it. Have you seen Romans 12:2? The mind is so conformed to the will of God that you prove you yourself evaluate two three courses of action and say this 1:06:27 is it. Whereas when you're younger you had to hear God saying no go and brush your teeth now. No, don't wear this shirt. Wear this one. [snorts] But not now. You look at three shirts and say, "I 1:06:46 think I'll wear this." You haven't heard any word. You prove the perfect will of God. That's a mark of maturity. Behold my servant. This is how we are to live, dear brothers. And this is how we can live in the 1:07:05 Sabbath rest of God at all times. This is very important. Come to me. Learn from me for I am humble and gentle. Humility is in our relationship with God and gentleness is in our relationship 1:07:23 with others. Learn from me. Humility and gentleness. Now don't try to get the dictionary meaning of either word. [clears throat and cough] The dictionary word of humility, meaning 1:07:41 of humility is not what Jesus is talking about. Is Jesus humility. The same with gentleness. Jesus was the gentlest man on earth. When he took a whip and chased all the sheep out and turned the tables of the 1:07:59 money changers, there was no man as gentle as he was on the earth because he was humble first. The glory of God burned in him. Such a passion for the glory of God that he didn't care for the opinions of men. 1:08:18 He didn't whip the people. No, no, no. He was gentle. He whipped the sheep. Don't misunderstand. He did not use the whip on any man. He doesn't use it today and we must not use it either. 1:08:36 He never used the whip on a man. Learn from me how I am humble and how I'm gentle in heart. And when you do that, Matthew 11:29, you will enter into the Sabbath 1:08:54 that Adam entered into before he could work for me. That's Matthew 11:29. you will enter into that same Sabbath and live before me. And then [clears throat] when you go out, that is the seventh 1:09:14 day. On the eighth day, Adam went out into the garden to work. And then when you go out, Matthew 11:30, you'll find that my yoke is very easy. And doing my work is a very light burden. There's nothing heavy about it. 1:09:33 It's not a burden to serve the Lord at all. I've seen [snorts] pastors and missionaries in India who served the Lord 20 30 years who got so many complaints 1:09:52 against their co-workers and they look such disgruntled people and feel that God's placed heavy burdens on them. I've done this and that and the other. They feel God has let them down. [snorts] I've been serving the Lord full-time for 1:10:11 54 years. I have no complaints. I'm the happiest person of all. Supremely happy. And I'm not trying to impress anyone. It's absolute truth. Proverbs 14:14 in the Living Bible, the 1:10:30 godly man's life is exciting. It certainly is. Has been for me. You will find rest. You live in the Sabbath. You live in the presence of God. My yoke is easy. If you find the yoke is a heavy, there's 1:10:48 not the yoke of Jesus. You taken some other yoke upon you. Dear brothers, let me speak plainly from the beginning. How was it with Adam? How was it with the apostles 1:11:08 from the day of Pentecost? Do you find it difficult to work with one of your co-workers? Peter and John were the biggest opposites personalitywise. Peter was the extrovert, quick to jump into the sea if that Jesus was on the 1:11:27 shore. John was the person, hey, hang on. Let's let's row the boat to the shore and meet him. And u Peter was the one who preach, hey, if everybody denies you, I'm not going to deny you. John was not so sure. But after the day of Pentecost, the very 1:11:47 next thing you see is Acts 3:1, Peter and John walking toward in the temple to pray and healing the blind man, healing the lame man. That's what happens. We when the yoke is on our neck, it's 1:12:05 easy to live and work with others. Turn with me to Hebrews in chapter 4. And please take this word very seriously. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 9. 1:12:26 Hebrews 4:9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Have you entered into it? There remains a Sabbath rest. 1:12:45 Go back to the beginning. what Adam experienced before he served the Lord. The Sabbath rest in which Jesus spoke about in Matthew 11:28-30, which makes his yoke easy and his burden light. 1:13:03 That Sabbath rest is for you and me. How do you know whether you have entered into it? Verse 10. The one who has entered this rest has ceased from his own works. 1:13:21 He doesn't have any bright ideas that he can glory in. He rests from his works just like God did from his on the seventh day. Therefore verse 11, let us all be 1:13:40 diligent to enter into that rest. It's not automatic because some will fall and fail because of their human strength and they need to be broken like Peter. 1:14:00 Then they need the word of God verse 12 to come and divide verse 12 all their sooulish activity all their sooulish way of serving God their sooulish 1:14:19 passion as an elder to do things for God the word of God is to come and separate all that so that you can enter into There's so many stimulations of the mind 1:14:37 and the emotions which is the soul which today Christians think are the moving of the Holy Spirit. It's not only in Pentecostal charismatic circles can be in our midst too. Maybe not with shoutings and hallelujah, but 1:14:57 with clever thoughts and expressions. Just as much the moving of the soul as those excited stirrings among charismatics. The word of God is to divide between soul and spirit. When it is of the spirit, 1:15:20 you cannot take any credit for it. That's for sure. If you can take credit for what you've done, it's pretty much certain that it's of the soul. It's from man, through man, and to man, it'll perish one day. It be burnt up. 1:15:38 But if it is of God, you cannot as you cannot even touch it. You can't see. It's like I use the illustration of if somebody baked a cake and you happen to go around distributing it to the friends who came and somebody turns around you and say, "Oh, brother 1:15:55 Zach, that is a fantastic cake you cooked. You made or you baked." You won't take the credit for it. You say, "I didn't do it. I'm just disagreeing what somebody else made." If your work and the word you share is 1:16:13 all from God, that's exactly how you'll be. The cake was baked by somebody else. I'm only distributing it. And it won't be a pious humble statement you make. You'll be really convinced about it. When you distribute that cake, 1:16:31 you know very well you didn't bake it. You have no doubt in your mind about it. It'll be exactly the same when you got a word from God. You have absolutely no doubt in your 1:16:46 mind that you didn't bake that. There remains a rest for God's people. Hebrews 4:1. Let us fear. Let us fear. 1:17:04 The apostle doesn't say you must fear. However senior an apostle he may be, he includes himself. Let us fear, lest this promise is given to us of entering his rest. 1:17:23 And some of you miss it throughout your life. Tragedy. Are you only living to go to heaven when you die? No. It shouldn't be like that for any of us. My dear brothers, I plead with you. 1:17:41 Make John 17:4 your goal when you come to the end of your life to say, "Father, I have finished the work you gave me to do." That's what Jesus said at the end of his life in John 17:4. Father, I have finished. I've glorified you by 1:17:59 finishing the work you gave me to do. There's one way you can glorify God. finish the work God gave you to do and forget about other things whether you finish them or not is not important. Paul could say that at the end of his 1:18:12 life even though Paul messed up 30 years of his life doing things that none of us have ever done, murdering Christians and imprisoning them in spite of the fact he messed up 30 years of his life. In the remaining 37 years, he completed the 1:18:30 work the father gave him to do. That's our encouragement that even if we have messed up many years of our life, if a time comes in our life where we turn wholeheartedly to him in repentance, we can still finish the work 1:18:46 given us to do. Repentance is the secret. Never stop repenting. That is my advice to you. God is my witness. Every day of my life, I repent. I don't miss a single day. I repent every day of my life. And I 1:19:05 will continue doing it until Christ comes again. And I'll tell you why. One simple reason. I have not yet become completely like Jesus Christ. That's why I need to repent. Because I have this hope in me that I 1:19:23 will be like him one day. I purify myself as he is pure which means I repent every day. That's what John says in 1 John 3:3 and 4. Sorry 2 and 3. So if there is a promise of entering into 1:19:41 his rest let's not miss it. And the illustration of the Israelites not entering Canaan is used here. They missed it because they didn't believe that God would do it for them. They trusted in their own strength. The branch in the tree, I cannot 1:20:00 produce. I The branch says, "I've been in the tree for 50 years, but I can't produce any fruit even today. I'm as helpless today as I was the first day I bore fruit." We never become so senior 1:20:19 that we're not dependent on God like the f first day in our life. Think of the branch and think of the yoke. Keep these pictures in mind always in our meetings. 1:20:40 Let me add one more word. 1 Corinthians 14. [clears throat] [snorts] All of us are involved in church meetings and we really want to do our best. I 1:20:59 believe all of you brothers, I really I'll tell you honestly before God, I respect every single one of you. [clears throat] I know you all and I respect every single one of you. And I say [clears throat] that 1:21:22 this is what we should desire in all of our meetings. 1 Corinthians 14 that at the end of a meeting people should spiritually speaking verse 1:21:39 25 fall on their face and worship God and say hey God is here God is God was certainly there in our midst in today's meeting not that was a wonderful sermon. 1:21:59 Oh, I didn't understand. I never saw that interpretation in that verse. Don't let that excite you. [cough] That's human [clears throat] cleverness. Oh, that was a fresh interpretation of that verse. Thank you very much. 1:22:15 That's [clears throat] not what we glory in. Those are clever minds. [clears throat] All your cleverness cannot bring the presence of God into a meeting. And that's what ultimately matters. Not what people thought of your message, 1:22:31 brothers. Throw that in the trash can. Did they meet with Jesus? Even if it was after you finished preaching, somebody else shared and that's when they met with Jesus. Praise the Lord. 1:22:49 Wonderful. It wasn't through your fantastic message. It was through that other brother who got up and spoke for 2 minutes. Oh, wonderful. [clears throat and cough] I want people to meet with the Lord when they go away from the meeting. We met 1:23:02 with the Lord. The Lord was here. That is the only meeting that we can say you know from my earliest days somehow I had a burden to build a new covenant church. I mean almost from before I left the 1:23:20 Navy when I read the New Testament I found the new church is so different from what I saw in Christendom when I was 24 years old and [clears throat] I never experienced it for the next 10 years but it was in my heart. It's like 1:23:35 a baby I carried in the womb for a long time before it came to birth. But you [clears throat] had to car you had to carry something as a burden in your heart for it to really be fulfilled. [clears throat] It's very different when you inherit 1:23:50 something. You know, people have worked hard to build up a fortune. It's different from those who inherited something. [clears throat] You inherited, you inherit something, you don't value it as much as your dad who worked hard to [clears throat] get that 1:24:04 fortune. [cough] It's the same here. [clears throat] And my desire always was I I said, "Lord, what is the mark of a new covenant church?" And I studied the pattern that you don't have pastors, you have elders and the meeting is like 1:24:20 this. Different people must share not just one person. All these things [cough] and the Lord [clears throat] said it's not these. This is a pattern. The tabernacle was there with a pattern. And yet you read in Ezekiel the glory 1:24:37 had departed. [clears throat] The pattern was there. Every bit of that tabernacle was exactly the way it was. Yet even Eli's time they knew that Kabad, the glory had gone. 1:24:56 There are many churches with the correct pattern where it's kabad is written over it. The glory is gone. What is it? It's not the pattern of the meetings or whether you have a song first or a song hymn and message and then another song. That's not that's 1:25:14 it's all right. You do it whatever way you like. But at the end of it, people fall on their face in their heart and say, "I met with the Lord." Maybe it was a pastor who preached. Okay. Did they meet with the Lord? Yeah, I believe in pattern. I believe 1:25:37 the tabernacle must be exactly down to the last detail as God has commanded it. But that's not the main thing for me. The main thing is the glory. If the glory is departed, what's he gloring in the fact that the boards and 1:25:51 the curtains are all the correct shape and the correct color. Never. I never want to glory in that. I want to see is the glory of God here, brother. Or did we follow a particular pattern, a CFC pattern? Trash. The glory of God. Coveted. Coveted. You 1:26:11 seek me with all your heart, you will find me. That's what we should long for. Let me conclude with one verse 1:26:27 in Philippians. I don't have much time to talk about this. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 9, Paul says, the Philippians 1:26:47 are wonderful Christians. He says in verse three, I thank God for my remembrance of you for your verse five participation in the gospel. They were the only church that sent money to Paul to support him. And he says, "I have you in my heart." 1:27:07 And with this wonderful church, he says, "I'm praying something for you." Verse 9, "You guys really love one another. That's great. [clears throat] But I pray that your love will abound more and more in discernment. [clears throat] 1:27:26 Love without discernment is not very profitable. It can hinder the work of God. Many people think love is the great thing. Yeah. Your gas tank must be full of love, 1:27:48 but wisdom, discernment must be in the driver's seat. Very important. Let wisdom and discernment drive the car. A car where the gas tank is full of love. 1:28:07 You can be full of love, but if you don't have wisdom and discernment, you will still hinder the work of God in your life and in your home and in your church. I pray that your love will grow in real knowledge of God 1:28:25 and all discernment. [music]
