0:02 In the end of the Bible we find these two systems that you've heard of many times, Babylon and Jerusalem. And uh if you turn there for a moment, 0:22 this is how God's work with us concludes. Every person who calls himself a Christian, he's either going to end up in Babylon or in Jerusalem. Babylon does not 0:41 refer to non-Christians. Because Babylon is called a harlot in Jeru- Revelation 17 and verse 5, Babylon the mother of harlots. 0:59 And in Revelation 21, Jerusalem is called the bride. It's only those who profess that Christ is their bridegroom who claim to be the bride. 1:19 No non-Christian says that Christ is my head or my bridegroom or my savior. So, they're not the bride. So, they cannot be the harlot, either. It's only a person who's engaged to somebody and then plays the fool with other men 1:37 who becomes a harlot. So, what if you're not even engaged to Christ at all? He's not your bridegroom. You can't be a harlot to Christ, impossible. So, it's very important to understand who is 1:53 going to end up in Babylon and Babylon is described in chapter 17 and 18 as something very much connected with money and uh earthly goods, etc., things like that. And I believe there is a two systems 2:17 that go right through the Bible that began right at the beginning. So, when we in our church we concentrate on being free from sin. And it's possible to be free from what 2:34 we know to be sin. And yet I believe end up in Babylon. And I'll tell you why. If you turn with me to Genesis in chapter 4, this is where the two streams began. In Genesis 4 we read about 2:59 Cain and Abel. And from them started two streams that finally end up in the last book of the Bible in Babylon and Jerusalem. And the principle is the same. See, when you come to the end of the Bible and you read about Babylon, 3:18 Babylon is not a irreligious, atheistic group. It's It's very religious. But it's destroyed by God. Whereas Jerusalem is what I'd call spiritual. And we need to distinguish between what is religious and what is spiritual. 3:36 So, in Genesis 4 we read about Cain and Abel bringing an offering to the Lord. And there we see Cain was not an atheist. He was not a worshiper of idols or 3:54 some other god. Cain and Abel brought an offering to the Lord. It says in Genesis 4 and verse 3, Cain brought an offering to Jehovah to the true God. 4:11 And Abel also brought an offering, but the Lord was for had regard for Abel and for his offering. Notice that. It's a mistake a lot of people make, particularly if you're going to Bible schools, 4:30 who think that Abel was accepted because he brought a blood sacrifice. And Cain did not bring a blood sacrifice. But it says here the Lord had regard for Abel and then for his offering. 4:48 See how carelessly Christians Christians can read it. Almost everywhere I've heard in other churches when people speak about this, they say that the Lord had regard for Abel's offering and therefore he accepted Abel. That 5:03 means he offered blood. Therefore he accepted Abel. Because Cain brought of the fruit of the ground verse 3 and Abel brought a sheep. But it's very clear in scripture the Lord had regard for Abel and therefore for his offering. And the 5:19 reason why the Lord rejected Cain was the Lord had no regard for Cain verse 5 and therefore for his offering he had no regard. So in other words, it was the person more than the offering that the Lord rejected first. And when 5:37 the Lord rejects the person, he rejects the offering. You know, Jesus also taught that that you can come with your offering to the Lord and there you remember that somebody's got something against you got upset with somebody, you lost your temper at 5:49 someone. This is in Genesis 5:22-25. And you did not settle it. You did not go and apologize to him. You did not ask his forgiveness. And you come and offer to the Lord, whatever offering it is, you offer a prayer to God, and Jesus said, "Don't 6:04 offer it. Leave your offering there because God hasn't accepted you." So, there's a case of a person, supposing he ignores that command in Matthew 5, uh what did I say? Genesis? No, Matthew 5:22-25. Uh supposing a person ignores that 6:20 command and comes with his prayer, he's wasting his time because God's not going to accept him. I believe there are lots of people who pray, God does not accept their prayer because there's something they have not settled with somebody whom they've hurt 6:32 or they cheated or harmed or some way. And Jesus said it so clearly, "Leave your offering there. Whatever offering it is, your prayer will not be accepted. There are multitudes and multitudes of prayers that Christians pray that never go 6:46 beyond the roof. God never listens to it because there's something unsettled in their life. So, it's the Lord had regard for Abel, that's why he accepted his offering. So, what if when our offering is, we often think of money only, but even a 7:02 prayer is an offering. If you pray, God doesn't even listen to it if He doesn't regard you. So, it's very important to understand why God regarded Abel and He did not regard Cain. So, it says here that I see one difference. 7:19 Cain brought an offering, whereas Abel brought the very best of his flock. So, you can bring an offering, or you can bring the best. And I think Abel also symbolically when he laid the lamb upon the altar, he was saying, 7:37 uh "I give myself here completely to you like this lamb." cuz that's what was symbolized in in the later on in the temple when a person laid his hand on the offering that he was offering up to God. So, here was a person who was giving 7:55 himself completely. And here it was a person who gave an offering. It's not a question of sin here. See, that's why I said, you know, we can concentrate on just sin. Okay, we avoid sin and we think we're okay. But, you know, it's possible for two 8:10 people to really be free from conscious sin in their life as far as they know. They can sit in the same church and be happy that well, I'm not aware of any sin in my life. Good. But, yet the offering you bring to the Lord may 8:25 be an offering. And another person sitting in the church may be one who brings the very best that he has. And there's a lot of difference between the two. Even though both are not aware of any sin in their life. So, it's not just a matter of being free 8:41 from sin. Jesus, when he came to earth, it was not just that he did not sin. Every day of his life he offered himself completely to the Father. There was nothing he withheld from his Father. And that's why 9:00 the Father accepted him. It was not just that I don't sin. I mentioned that because we emphasize sin so much in the church, and that's important. But, what I'm trying to say is it's more than that. Babylon is the princip- is a 9:14 system that emphasizes the principle of the business world. And that's very different from the Christian world. If you turn to a verse that I don't think most of you probably even noticed in the book of Zechariah. Let me show you that. 9:32 It often comes to my mind, this verse. In Zechariah in chapter It's the last verse of Zechariah. See, the last two three chapters of Zechariah refer to the last days when there'll be a battle around 9:51 Jerusalem, etc. Referring to the last days of Zechariah 14:2, "I'll gather the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the Lord will go forth and fight against the nations." Verse three, that's referring to his coming second time, 10:03 verse four, "In that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." It's referring to Christ coming back. And verse nine, "The Lord in that day be king over all the earth." But when that day happens and the pure kingdom of God is established on earth, 10:23 it says here in that day, symbolically, the verse 20, "Even the bells of the horses will have holy to the Lord written on it." In the Old Testament, holy to the Lord was written on the forehead of the priest, the high priest. 10:38 But here it says even the horses are going to the bells of horses, whatever it means symbolically. "And the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar." So, what I'm in practical terms, what that means is 10:55 there will be no difference between the sacred and the secular in that day. Today we call it certain things sacred and certain things are secular. For many Christians there is a division in their life between what is sacred and what is 11:11 secular, what is related to religious work, Christian work, and being upright and all those things, and then the secular work, uh many of them are not so careful to be upright. But in that day, everything will be holy to the Lord. 11:27 There'll be no difference between the sacred and the secular. Even in comes even in Ezekiel saying in the final day it won't be just one small little compartment that's called the most holy place. The whole area will be 11:39 called most holy. Ezekiel 43. But here it says another thing in verse 21. The last sentence. There'll no longer be in the margin of my Bibles a merchant or a businessman 11:57 in the house of the Lord in that in that day. In that day there will be nobody in God's house who's a businessman. A businessman means spiritually speaking one You see the business the principle of business is 12:15 earn as much as as much profit as you can for yourself and spending as little as possible. And that's how every business operates. Expenditure to the minimum, profit to the maximum. That's a principle of business. But there'll be no businessman in the 12:33 house of the Lord in that day. There will There will be nobody who comes to the Lord's house to get any profit for himself. All those people will be eliminated. That's Babylon. Babylon is a system where you see like Cain, what is the minimum I have to 12:51 give to the Lord what I can keep for myself. That's business. But there won't be any businessman in the Lord's house in the final day. Very important to remember that. It's So this has got nothing to do with sin. It's got to do with attitude of 13:08 how we give ourselves to the Lord. What is my attitude to Do I feel that there's nothing I want to withhold from from Jesus. Everything is for him. There are people who are free from conscious sin as I said, but who still 13:27 hold back when they in their giving to the Lord, like Cain. They They give to the Lord, sure. And they may be free from conscious sin, but it's not the best. Many years ago and say the Lord showed me something 13:46 this is I'm going back 55 years when I was just baptized. There's a verse that the Lord showed me in 2 Chronicles in chapter 3, which I've never forgotten. It taught me a very important principle of the Lord's work because that was 14:02 around the time I was thinking of quitting my job to serve the Lord. And the Lord pointed me to this verse in 2 Chronicles in chapter 3 where we read like this. Solomon began to build the house of the 14:21 Lord in Jerusalem. Now, the exact spot in Jerusalem where the house was built, the temple is described as 14:37 Mount Moriah, number one. And secondly, in Mount Moriah the particular place uh which is the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite where the Lord appeared to David his father. 14:56 Now, why is that mentioned here? Why isn't it just mentioned Jerusalem? It was not Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a big city, but it is a particular spot in Jerusalem which even today they call the Temple of the Mount. And 15:13 that particular spot is where the Lord said, "That is where you must build the temple, not anywhere in Jerusalem." It must be in the place in Mount Moriah, you know, is the place where Abraham offered Isaac. And that was 15:30 1,000 years earlier, 1,000 years earlier, when Abraham offered Isaac on the altar, proving to God that that was he was everything to him, like he came like Abel and said, "Lord, you can have everything. Um Isaac is everything to me. 15:48 I can give you 10,000 sheep, but it'll cost me nothing. But when I give Isaac, I give everything." And that spot, the Lord said, "That's the spot where my temple is going to be built. My house is going to be built with people who have 16:01 that spirit, who hold back nothing, like like Abel held back nothing." And it's called the place of where David offered uh offering in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And if you don't remember that incident, 16:18 let me point it out to you in 2 Samuel 24. I remember this so vividly because it's way back in 1962 or '61. I I was baptized in '61, around that time. 1961, '62, the Lord pointed out this to me, and I've never forgotten it all these 16:36 years, because it is very important and significant to me. You know, in 2 Samuel 24, we read of a time when David made the mistake of counting, taking a census of the people. 16:53 And that was wrong in God's eyes because the Lord he was probably boasting in how many people he was king over or measuring the size of his army, which indicated he was trusting in the numbers in his army and not in the Lord. 17:06 And in that sense, it was a sin. It was a sin of not trusting in the Lord. And so they were punished. And a lot of people were killed. We read here in 2 Samuel 24 and verse 15 that God punished them with 70,000 people were killed 17:23 that day. And then the judgment is going to go further and and then David prayed and the Lord stopped it. And then the prophet came to David in verse 18 and said, "Go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah 17:43 the Jebusite." Notice this. That's what you read in 2 Chronicles 3, the same place where the temple was built. You got to understand this. Whenever you read something in scripture like we read in 2 Chronicles 3, you must trace back. I'm just telling 17:58 you a simple principle of Bible study. Don't just read it and move on. You read there Mount Moriah, then you go back to scripture and say, "What happened on Mount Moriah? Why did the Lord choose this place to build his house?" Or you read about 18:10 the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, you go back and say, "What happened there? Why did God choose this particular place?" And if you if the Lord sees that you are eager uh to study the scriptures to find out, you will get a revelation that lazy 18:25 Bible readers will never get. And most Christians are lazy Bible readers. They read the Bible to ease their conscience, but they never take pains to find out why is it like this. And so, I'm trying to show you why the Lord chose that particular spot 18:44 to build his temple because uh it's a it has got an application for us today. The church is the house of the Lord today. So here, we read that David came to this threshing floor and he was going to want to build an altar there. Araunah was 18:58 just one of his servants in Israel. David was the king. And Araunah saw David coming in verse 20 and bowed down to him and said, "Why have you come to my humble home?" And the Lord's and David said because the Lord has told me 19:16 to come here and I've come here verse 21 to buy your threshing floor from you because I want to build an altar here for the Lord to stop this plague. And Araunah, like a true subject of David the king, said "Oh Lord, you don't 19:34 have to buy anything from me. Take it. Please take it freely. It's yours. Here, take these oxen which I have. You can take them freely. And the and the wooden yokes that are on top of the oxen, you can use that to burn the as wood. 19:50 Everything is free. Take it." Now, you know how all of us love to get something free. Even if you don't need it, you pick it pick it up if it's free. That's our nature. And every one of us, without exception. And he was offered something free. 20:06 And David said no. And you want to see why he said no. He said if I take something free from you and give it to the Lord it's cost me nothing. What did it cost me? Even though I kept the word of the Lord 20:26 to do it in your threshing floor, it didn't cost me anything. And he said no, I will pay for it because verse 24, very important words, "I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord which cost me nothing." That is the phrase which the Lord 20:44 impressed on my heart way back soon after I was baptized. It was one of the first words that I heard from the Lord to my heart from scripture. I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. He's not talking about sin here. 21:04 He's talking about sacrifice. The issue in the case case of Cain and Abel was not sin. It was a question of what they sacrificed, what they gave. And for many of us, my brothers and sisters, if the issue may not be sin, 21:20 it's a question of how much you sacrifice. How much of sacrifice is there in your life? Which has got a different answer to how much sin there is in your life. You may be free from sin. There are many people I know are free 21:34 from conscious sin, but whose life there's very little sacrifice. They give an offering to the Lord, but it is an offering. Whereas when Abel gave, he gave the very best. So, when David had the same attitude, he said, "I will never offer to God that 21:49 which cost me nothing." And the way the Lord spoke that to my heart those many years ago, more than 50 years ago, was "All your life," the Lord said to me, "you must never offer to me that which has cost you nothing." And I said, "Lord, please help me. I 22:10 want to keep that all my life, that I will never in my life offer anything to you that costs me nothing." And I'm not talking only about money, you know, in terms of convenience, health, and many, many sacrifices, not just 22:28 money. There could be many, many other ways in which when we give something to the Lord, when we serve the Lord, when we live for him, um we can do the minimum necessary, you know, to keep a good conscience. You don't need to do very much. You 22:43 don't have to sacrifice much to keep a good conscience. If I'm only interested in keeping a good conscience, I can give a little to the Lord and get away with it. But if I want the Lord to be pleased with me, the principle is here. 22:57 What are you offering to the Lord? Anyway, and that is the same thing which was true in Abraham's time. We know we notice from 2 Chronicles 3 the same spot is on Mount Moriah. And Mount Moriah was where God 23:15 had told uh Abraham to offer up his son in Genesis 22. When Abraham it's interesting how the Lord's where and when the Lord spoke to Abraham. Genesis 22. Now this remember if you see the 23:38 timeline this is about 50 years after God called Abraham first. Abraham was about a 75 years old when the he called him out of uh Ur of the Chaldees and the Lord told him give up your family, give up everything here. He was 75 years old 23:58 living a retired life in Ur of the Chaldees probably had built his house and was settled down decided to settle down there and then one day the Lord says quit all this and leave. And he could have said very well Lord I've just settled down here. I've just 24:16 retired and settled built my house and lived here. You want me to leave now? Yeah, leave everything, leave your family and uh come where I'll show you. I'm not going to tell you where I'm going to take you but there's a land I will show you. 24:30 Now I've often thought of Abraham had said at that time Lord I I live for you here. You know what God would have said? He said sure Abraham, I won't trouble you. Stay here. And he would have looked for somebody else. God's work will not be hindered 24:49 because one man disobeys. No, his work will still be done. If one man doesn't respond he'll you somebody else and I believe God would have found somebody else in Ur of the Chaldees or wherever. And told that person, and you'd never 25:01 have heard of Abraham at all in your life. Somebody else would have been the father of Israel. So, there there times in our life where God calls us, and you can miss something. And if Abraham had missed it there, he had missed it for life. 25:17 And it would have been a tragedy. But he responded and said, "Yes." And because of that, though he struggled a lot, he had to give up his comfortable retired life. And uh initially, you read that he didn't take his he didn't obey the Lord fully to leave 25:34 his father behind. He took his father along. I don't know whether you know that passage. Turn with me to Genesis in chapter 11, first. It says first of all in Genesis 12, verse 1, "The Lord had said to Abraham, 25:54 go forth from your country, from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land which I'll show you." Not only give up your home, but give up your relatives. Go come with me alone. And you know, he didn't go with the Lord 26:11 alone. It says here that Abraham and Nahor, it says verse 31 of chapter 11, Terah, that's Abraham's father, took Abraham his son, and Lot, the son 26:29 of Haran, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughter-in-law, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldees. Now, that was completely wrong. Because God had told him to give up his father and come. He was not supposed to take Lot with 26:42 him, either. He had a lot of problems because he disobeyed the Lord in that small thing. He had problems with Lot. He had problems with his father. Just because he did not obey the Lord in one simple thing. The Lord said, "Leave your 26:55 father, leave your relatives, and come with me." It's very clear in Genesis 12:1. The Lord had said that to Abraham, but he allowed his dad, you know, sometimes we can love our relatives so much that we allow them to influence us in 27:12 things when the Lord is calling us some other direction. Our dads can have ambitions for us which are outside the will of God for us. My dad had an ambition for me when I joined the navy. 27:29 He wanted me to go to the top. And uh but when the Lord called me, I said, "That's it." I didn't even consult my dad. I said, "I'm quitting." I informed him later. But I discovered that if I want to follow Jesus, I must not allow any of my 27:44 relatives or anyone to come between me and what the Lord is calling me. And the thing is you can miss out. I'm not saying that you'll go to hell. But to tell you quite honestly, I'm not just interested in going to heaven. 27:56 This is the honest truth. I can say that before God. I'm not interested in going to heaven. I'm interested in fulfilling God's will here before I go. That's much more important for me, not somehow scraping it into heaven. 28:09 Um I don't I want the Lord to say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant." when I see him. And not, "Oh, well, you managed to get here, is it?" Not that. That's not what I want to hear. I hope all of you want to hear the Lord 28:22 say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant." So, Abraham made that mistake. And so, as you know, he had a lot of problem with Lot, but what did he do with his father? You know, God couldn't do anything for Abraham. So, finally, God killed his 28:38 father. You read there. In Genesis 11:32, Terah died. And then Abraham, verse chapter 12:4, went forth after his father died. So, 28:57 if it doesn't happen one way, he'll do it another way. He will still separate you from your relatives. And that's what he did. He knew that God knew that I can do nothing with this man Abraham till I separate him from his father. He 29:10 wouldn't do it himself, and I have to do it for him. And God killed his father. And that was it. And then they moved on. So, we read finally, 50 years after that, when Abraham is 125 years old, Genesis 22:1, 29:28 God tests Abraham. When does God stop testing us? 50 years after you're converted? And God going to test you? Sure. He tested Abraham about 50 years after he was first chosen from Ur of the Chaldees. 29:46 And God tested Abraham, Genesis 22:1. And he called him Abraham, and he said, "Here I am." Now, take your son, and you know, this is in the middle of the night. Here was Sarah was sleeping somewhere, and Abraham was sleeping, and God called 30:02 Abraham, and Abraham comes out and says, "What is it, Lord?" Very often, God may say something to you which he doesn't want your wife to know. Because your wife may not be willing to do what God's telling you to do. 30:25 And so, we know it was at night because we read in the next verse, verse three, Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took his two young men. What the Lord told Abraham was in verse two was, "Take your son, whom you love." 30:38 Why does he mention, "whom you love"? He emphasizes that I know you love him. I believe that Isaac probably around 25 years old at this time had virtually become an idol for Abraham. If you get a son when you're 100 years old, it's almost 30:52 certainly be your idol. If he's your only son. And he had to drive away his other son which was born through Hagar. Now he's left only with Isaac and the Lord emphasizes, "I know this is the son whom you love." And I believe the meaning is you love in 31:07 an idolatrous way. He's more important to you than me. There, way back 50 years earlier, it was his father who was important. Now it is his son. And God wants God detached him from his father by killing his son killing his 31:25 father. And now God says, "I'll detach you from your son by killing your son." God's very jealous. There's a verse in James 4 which says he's jealous for our spirit. What that means is God is just like a husband who doesn't want his wife to 31:41 have an interest in anybody else. Just me. It's called a godly jealousy. Paul calls it a godly jealousy in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3 2 and 3. He says, "I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy." It's the same we read in James 4 4 5 and 31:58 6 that the spirit of God is jealous for our spirit. So God was jealous for Abraham that he wanted to possess him exclusively and I believe those are the ones who allow God to possess them exclusively that become part of 32:17 Jerusalem and not Babylon. So he said, "That's why he emphasized this son whom you love. Take him and put him as a burnt offering on the mountain which I tell you." Now there were many mountains around there and the Lord could have told him to take a 32:31 mountain nearby, but no. He told him to take him to a mountain which is verse 4 says, "On the third day Abraham reached there." Three days journey to that place where he had to offer his son. Why? I learned something else there from 32:48 these little things in scripture. If you meditate on scripture, you learn something. And that is that God doesn't force you to just suddenly take a decision without thinking about it. You know, Jesus said, "Sit down and count the cost." 33:04 When he talked about discipleship. "Sit down and count the cost." In my meetings, I never tell people stand up and come forward. I say, "Sit down and count the cost and come back and tell me 1 week, 2 weeks later whether you want 33:22 to make a decision or not." Because a lot of these decisions which are taken, I mean, this is my conviction, which are taken by evangelists who say, "Come on, stand up now and come forward and sign the decision card." Those guys haven't counted the cost. 33:38 I remember of visiting a place in India where uh some big evangelist from the United States had come and had meetings. And hundreds of people were had signed decision cards and come forward and all that. And I knew the person 33:55 who was appointed to do the follow-up of all these decision cards. And he told me after a number of months going around all these people that hardly any of them were following the Lord. And I learned something about all these 34:14 people who signed decision cards and come forward and make decisions, so-called decisions for Christ. And he said people came forward with all types of reasons that they he asked them, "Why did you go forward there?" And one of them said, "I wanted to have 34:27 a closer look at the evangelist. You were as far away from him." So, and these are they they come forward. What do they What do they lose by signing a decision card? Nothing. And in India and all in the poor places, they may think I'm going to get some 34:40 benefit. If they got my address, perhaps he'll send me some money. So, it's a deception. So, Jesus said, "Sit down. Don't stand up. Sit down and count the cost. Whether you want to be a disciple or not. And you don't have to decide today. Take 34:56 1 month to decide or 1 year, but count the cost and then decide." And this is what why why God told Abraham, "You take 3 days to think about it." And um decide whether you want to pay this price or not. Do you want to pay the price? 35:20 And Abraham had 3 days to think about it as he walked down. Remember, he's going to kill his son. He knows in 3 days I won't see the son anymore. Is it worth it serving such a god? That was the question in his mind. Is it 35:34 worth it serving such a god who's already taken me away from my relatives and my father and and even Lot has been separated from me, and now he's going to take away my son? And at the end of 3 days, when he walks up Mount Moriah, 35:48 he has decided it is worth it. It's worth serving a god who demands from me everything I have, including my father and my son and everybody else. And you know what he calls it? This action. Very important Very interesting to see. 36:06 What Abraham calls this action of offering up the most precious thing he had on earth, in fact, everything. When he reached the mountain, he told the young men, verse 5, who were with him, "You all stay here with the donkey. I and my son 36:25 will go up there, and we will worship. He was going to have a worship meeting there. That's the first time in scripture the word worship comes. I believe there's a thing called the law 36:45 of first mention in scripture. The first time the word faith comes in Genesis 15, very interesting. The first time the word worship comes the first time the word phrase fear of God comes. 37:03 Worship is not singing songs. It's not raising hands and getting excited emotionally. Abraham was not going up there and sing songs to God, no. I'm absolutely convinced that the vast majority of believers 37:22 today don't have a clue what real worship is. They have an understanding of what the old covenant in the Psalms calls worship, you know, bang the timbrel and beat the drums and sound the trumpet and clap your hands and okay, okay, but new 37:40 covenant worship I'm convinced that the vast majority of Christians do not know what it means. And I myself did not know what it meant for you many years till I did one thing and I can encourage you to do it. 37:57 I took a concordance. The concordance is a book, in case you don't know what it is, where every time a word, it's like a dictionary but it's not listing meanings. It's a list of where all a particular word occurs in the Bible. 38:16 You know, if you go to faith, it'll show you all the references from Genesis to Revelation where faith comes, or grace. So, I wanted to look up the word worship. Where all in the Bible does the word worship come? Then I could distinguish between Old 38:33 Testament worship and New Testament worship. Yeah, there is Old Testament worship. Most of 99% of what goes on in Christian today's churches today is Old Testament worship. Just like 99% of Christians are living in Old Covenant religion, defeated by 38:50 sin, and no sin has dominion has dominion over them. And when I studied what the New Testament spoke about worship, now this is not my opinion. We all of us have gotten our own understanding of what certain words mean. For example, you could sometimes think 39:08 that a uh an English word means something, particularly a word that you've never heard before. I remember once hearing an English word called serendipity. Have you heard the word serendipity? And I thought I knew what it meant. It 39:25 didn't mean what I thought. And I I had to go to a dictionary to discover what does serendipity mean. It doesn't come in normal English conversation. Or Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is a German word, it's in English. What does 39:41 it mean? It's like that. I really believe for many people you need to understand what worship means. So, I went to the dictionary and discovered the meaning. So, I took a concordance and it says, "Where all does worship occur in the New 39:55 Testament?" And I discovered it was not what Christians were calling worship. Not even one reference was referring to this clapping hands and shouting. That is in the Psalms, it's Old Covenant worship. It is not New Covenant worship 40:11 at all. And then when I went back to Genesis 22, the law of first mention, where worship is mentioned first, I saw worship is not clapping hands and singing songs. It is offering to God that which doesn't cost me, that which cost me everything. 40:28 It's offering to God the very best in my life. That's why you read about people like Job when they worship God, he fell down on his face. He He lost his 10 children and he lost his um business and I believe Job is the first book of 40:44 the Bible written because it was written 500 years before Moses wrote Genesis. So, in a sense, the word worship occurs first in God's writing in the book of Job in the book of Job. And in Job chapter 1 it says, "When Job 40:59 lost all his children and all his property he fell down and worshiped God." There again, this principle is the same. Lord, and you know what he said to God? He said, "God, I came to this world naked. I had nothing when I came, not a stitch of 41:12 clothing on me. And when I go, I'll go naked. All Whatever you gave, you had every right to take away. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Praise the Lord." That is worship. Where I can offer everything to him. It's the same principle I see with 41:28 uh Abraham and Job. So, when Abraham laid Isaac on the altar, he had no idea. We know the end of the story, but Abraham did not know the end of the story. As far as he was concerned, he was offering and he said, "I'm never going 41:39 to see Isaac again." I'm sure there were tears in his eyes when he took that knife up to kill his son. And he raises the knife and God says to him, "Stop." And he said, "Go. Don't kill your son." It says in 41:57 verse 10, "He stretched out his hand and took the knife." Isaac was tied up there on the altar and he's was ready to kill him. God said, "Stop." It's the last minute. He I want to see he says, "I want to see whether you really 42:14 put me first in your life. Am I more precious to you than the most precious thing on earth?" That's worship. Am I more precious to you than the most precious person or whatever you value on earth? And Abraham with tears in his eyes said, 42:33 "Lord, I'll prove it to you. Here it is. I'll prove to you that you are more to me than everything on earth." And God said, "Stop." He can kill a ram. Took a ram and said, took a ram and sacrificed instead of Isaac. And see what the Lord says. It's an 42:50 amazing statement. Verse 16, the Lord said to the Lord appeared a second time to Abraham and said, "By myself I have sworn because you have done this thing. Because you did not verse 16 withhold your son, your only son from me." 43:09 So almost says the Lord is saying, "There's no limit, Abraham, to how much I'm going to bless you now. You're going to be known for generations and for centuries around the world. In your seed, the whole world will be blessed 43:26 because you did not withhold your best from me." That's the spirit of Abel. It's the spirit of Abraham. It's the spirit that you read in Hebrews 11, we call the heroes of faith who gave everything. And he says here, 43:46 "I will greatly bless you because of one thing." Here's another thing that you see here for the first time. "Because you have obeyed my voice verse 18. 44:03 The Lord said to him, "Now I know that you fear me. And so I will greatly bless you. And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies, verse 17. 44:22 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed. If you know what I said earlier was in verse 12, the middle of verse 12, now I know that you fear God. See, that's another expression. What you read in verse 12, fear of God. 44:41 How do I prove that I fear God? Is it only by staying away from sin? Yes, that's one proof. And by the way, this is the first time in the Bible that where God says about somebody, "I know you fear me." 44:59 First time, it's a certificate. Now I know you're a fearer of God. That's what the margin of my Bible says, you are a fearer of God. And I say to myself, can God say that about me? It's It is not that Abraham stayed away 45:15 from sin. Like I said from the beginning, you can stay away from sin and still not be a fearer of God. Having a good conscience by itself is not enough. That's good, it's a first step. But it's when we 45:33 say, "I will not withhold anything in my life from God. He can have everything. I'm willing to be detached from everything." You know, that's what Jesus said in Luke 14:33. You cannot If you want to be my disciple, you cannot possess anything. 45:52 You must possess nothing. You can have things, but you can't possess them. You must be willing to give up everything for me, whatever I ask you at any time. All that you have must be in an open palm, not not something you cling onto. 46:09 Now, I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, I've seen many people, I mean, we've been working with this message for more than 40 years in different parts of India. And I've seen people who are very sincere and so seeking to be free from 46:22 sin. But somehow the blessing of the Lord does not seem to flow through them like rivers of living water. They're just satisfied keeping a good conscience, regularly attending a church, and being happy that I'm part of a new 46:37 covenant church, and everything's okay with me. It's not meant to be like that. John 7:38 says that out of every believer rivers of living water must flow, not just through one or two. And if you have a if you really have a 46:54 passion that that verse John 7:38 must be fulfilled in your life, that he who believes in me, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. We know the other passage which says he who believes in me has eternal life. 47:09 We all accept that, very happy to hear that. I believe in him, and I have eternal life. But it also says in John 7:38 that if you believe in rivers of living water should be flowing out from you. So, if I ask a person, do you have 47:21 eternal life? They say, "Yeah, I believe in the Lord. I believe what the Lord says. I have eternal life." I say, "What about rivers of living water?" That's also promised to everyone who believes in him. Yes, it's not some special category. He 47:32 who believes in me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Are they flowing out from you? And most people say, "I don't know." I say, "Why are you so laid back about that? Why are you so laid back about the fact 47:47 that rivers of living water are not flowing out from you? Would you be laid back if you were not if you were unsure about eternal life? It must be our passion that what God says in His word is fulfilled in our life. See, God is a rewarder of those 48:04 who diligently seek Him. If you are If you are half-hearted and lazy about seeking anything in Scripture, we'll never get there. Even overcoming sin. I will not get there if I if I'm sort of laid back about it. I got to be 48:17 passionate and say, "Lord, this means more to me than everything else." Like the widow who went to the judge and said, "Give me justice against my enemy. He's encroaching into my territory. Drive him out." And he go She keeps on pestering that 48:31 judge. You read in Luke 18 day and night. The judge said, "Okay, I'll do it for you." And then And the Lord said, "Don't you think God will do that for you?" So, that that's the principle. Everywhere Jesus taught that He said 48:44 about the man who went to his neighbor's house for to get bread for his visitor and knocks and knocks. And the neighbor says, "Please, don't disturb me. I'm in bed. My children are in bed." How many of us would keep knocking in a house 48:56 like that if we heard that from from inside, "Don't disturb me anymore." We'd give up and go home. But not this guy. He says, "I don't care if I have to wake you all up. I've got to get that bread." And at the end of that parable, Jesus 49:10 said in Luke 11, "If you pray like that, if you knock like that, it'll be opened to you. If you ask like that, you will receive. How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him like that, 49:28 who knock like that? And I've discovered through my life and meeting different people that the only ones who experience that level of the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their life are the ones who keep knocking like that and who keep 49:40 asking like that and who are determined to get it no matter what the cost. And you be like that, brother sister. There's no partiality with God. God is the same. He's your Father. But everybody doesn't get the same amount 49:53 from God. Cuz if I'm satisfied with what I have, that's all I'll have. So, here we see God said, "Now, your fear of me there's no limit to what I'm going to do for you." Now, this fear of God and worship that we see here, I told you it's the first 50:12 time it occurs in the Bible. Turn with me to the book of Job. You find those same two words come again in the book of Job. And Job is the first book of the Bible written. It was written before any of the other books, 500 years before 50:29 uh Moses wrote Genesis. And it's always struck me that when God wanted to write a book about for man, he did not begin with the creation of the heaven and earth, even though that comes in Genesis. 50:48 Job was written 500 years before that. And when God wanted to write a book for man, he said, "The history of how the earth was created can wait 500 years till Moses comes. Let me write about a man who fears God first." 51:08 So, the first book that God wrote for man in the Bible is about a man who feared God and turned away from evil and who was a worshiper. Notice these phrases, the fear of God and then worship, which we saw in Abraham in Genesis 22 comes here in Job as well. 51:25 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name Job, was blameless, upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. And the Lord said to Satan, or Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that he's a man who fears God and turns 51:39 away from evil?" You know, Satan is called the accuser. And I'm sure even in those days he was accusing people who claimed to believe in God to him saying God, look at these fellows over there there there there who say they 51:51 believe in you and look at their lives. They live so much for themselves. And God said, I agree. I agree. I agree. But have you seen Job? There are not many like that whom God could point out and even today there are not many whom God can point out. But we 52:07 should be among those few whom the Lord can point out and say, Have you seen the midst of all of compromising, backslidden Christianity? Have you seen that one? Have you seen that man? Have you seen that woman? Have you seen that family in the midst 52:21 of all the compromising worldly families that aren't Christian? Have you seen that church in the midst of other churches? The Lord pointing us out to Satan as a man who fears God. And you know, God allows Satan to test him and he loses all his children 52:38 and all his property, as you know the rest of the story, in one day. And when the news came to Job that he had lost all his children and all his property in a moment, the very first thing Job does is verse 20, Job 1:20. 52:55 He tore his robe, shaved his head. He was sorrowful. Naturally, if you lose all your children, you are sorrowful. But he fell down and worshipped. Notice those two things again, the fear of God and worship that comes in 53:06 Genesis, in Abraham's case, that comes in Job, in Job's case. And he said, Well, the Lord has every right to take away what he gave me. I had nothing when I came and I'll have nothing when I go. And for the short time in between, he's 53:21 got every right to give me something and take it away. That's a man who fears God who does not feel that I have a right on something. I have a right on nothing. Here's a man who's given up his rights. I don't have a right for anything. 53:39 Jesus lived like that on the earth. He didn't have a right to be respected by people. He didn't have a right that people should do this or that for him. He had a right for nothing. The world is full of people who feel they have 53:50 rights. A Christian one who says, "I have no rights. I'm a servant of God and so I have no rights for anything. The people they get away, I'm not going to fight with them." And it's amazing how God will honor and take care of such people. God will 54:07 not forsake such a man. Did he forsake Abraham? Did he forsake Job? Their memory lives up to today. And the memory of a man who lived like who lives like this will continue through generations. I'm not talking about great ministries. 54:24 No, there are many famous preachers on earth who are very famous and well-known in Christendom. I don't believe they're going to be at the top of the line in the day of rewards in God's eyes. No. They got their reward here. 54:43 They become famous preachers and famous this, that, and the other on earth. But it may be someone else whom we don't know, someone who is not so famous on earth who gave the Lord right to have everything in his life. Who said like David, "I will not offer 55:03 to God that which cost me nothing." Those are the ones whom the Lord approves of. That's the opposite of the spirit of business. I I read that verse to you in Zechariah. They'll They won't be any more businessman in the house of the 55:17 Lord in the final day. That last verse of Zechariah. There'll be no more businessman. There will be nobody on in the church in that day who's thinking, "What can I gain by coming to the church?" But rather what can I give? 55:35 I want to ask all of you. I know you haven't come here to get money. We face that in India. People come to church to get money. But that may you haven't come for that. But have you come for something else that you can get for yourself? 55:54 This is a good church where I can bring up my children in a good way. There's a good atmosphere here. And this is the place where I like my children to grow up. Aha. Is that why you come to this church? Lord, I've come here 56:14 to be a worshiper. Not in think in terms of what I'm going to get. I did not seek that when we started our church. But as a byproduct my all my children were blessed. But that's not what I the reason why we 56:34 started our house church. No. If that becomes your aim in life you'll be a worshiper of your children. There are people who choose that. There are various reasons why people choose a church. Parking lot has got more space. 56:49 I don't have to look for a parking lot if I go to this church or um they they they've got a good children's program. I go there or something like that. Lord, I want to be a worshiper. I want you to be everything in my life 57:03 and I will not hold anything back from you. I don't want any rights. You I don't want to love my father, son, daughter, wife, anybody more than you. You're everything to me. I don't want to love my job or my money, anything more 57:14 than you. And I'll tell you something. Do you think God will make you lose when you put him first in your life? I have tried for more than 50 years to put God first in my life and I'll tell you something. I've lost nothing. 57:30 It's really true. You put him first in your life and seek his righteousness. And all the other things will be added. God is a good God. He's not a spoilsport. He's not trying to make life miserable for you because you gave everything to 57:47 him. On the contrary, your life will be more relaxed, you'll sleep better, and you'll be healthier, and everything will go well in your life. Because you decided to put God first because you decided that you'll never offer to God 58:04 something cheap. You will never offer to God that which cost you nothing. And the wonderful thing is that's where the house of God was built. So, what I learned from that is that today the church is the house of God, and it requires people with that spirit 58:22 that I just described today to build the true church of Jesus Christ. And if you don't have that spirit, I hope you'll have it. Because if you don't have it, I don't believe you can corrupt the 58:39 church by sitting here. But you can miss out on something. Like I often say back in my hometown in Bangalore, I said, "If you come to this church," I tell the people who come cuz not everybody who comes, you know, a lot of 58:56 people come to listen to my message. They don't come to follow the Lord. They say, "Oh, we hear a good message here. I'd like to come and hear this." It's not boring. It's interesting. I say, "If you come with all those 59:08 reasons, you're going to miss out on something." We preach the highest standard possible according to God's word in this church. And I say, "If you listen to that, and you don't want to live up to it, it's serious. Your responsibility before God becomes 59:24 more. In that case, if you're not serious about obeying, I tell people who come to our church in Bangalore, I say, "You better find another church. You'll be safer there." You know why Ananias and Sapphira were killed? Because 59:41 they were hypocrites, not because they didn't give their money to God. God's never interested in anybody's money. But they pretended, when everybody else was giving everything, they pretended that they were also giving everything. 59:54 That was their mistake. There was a big line of people standing there bringing the proceeds of everything that they sold, and they gave it and left it there and at the foot of the apostles were all standing there, and Peter was there, and 1:00:07 Ananias came in that line. He didn't open his mouth. He just came and left that money there and went away. And as he went back, Peter said, "Come back." The Holy Spirit prompted Peter to call Ananias back. And he only told him one thing, "Why 1:00:23 have you decided to tell a lie?" Ananias could have said, "I didn't open my mouth." You can tell a lie without opening your mouth. Why did you tell a lie to the Holy Spirit? Turn with me to Acts of the Apostles chapter 5. If you haven't seen it, 1:00:45 it's a great example of how you can tell a lie without opening your mouth. Acts of the Apostles chapter 5. A man named Ananias and Sapphira sold a 1:01:05 piece of property and kept back some of the price with his wife's full knowledge, and brought a portion and laid it at the apostles' feet. That's all he did. He didn't open his mouth. If he had only opened his mouth and said, "Hey, Peter, 1:01:19 I know the others are giving everything, but my wife and I decided we can only give 50% of the price we got for the sale of our property. We've kept 50% back. They would have lived a long life, but they kept quiet and they died. 1:01:38 Can you tell a lie without opening your mouth? Here it is. "Ananias," Peter said, "why has Satan filled your heart to tell a lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price?" He could have said, "I didn't open my 1:01:49 mouth, Peter. I didn't say anything." But this is not a court of law. This is the church where you speak without opening your mouth. You have told a lie without opening your mouth. You pretended when you sat in the midst of wholehearted people that you 1:02:05 were also wholehearted. That's the meaning. You come into the midst of a wholehearted church and thereby you pretend that you're wholehearted when you're not. Now, if Ananias and Sapphira had done that in the church in Corinth, 1:02:20 nothing would have happened. They would have lived They would have lived a long life there. But they were doing it in a church where people were serious, radical, wholehearted Christians in Jerusalem, and it was the wrong church for them to 1:02:33 be in. That is why I said I've said to folks in Bangalore, I said, "If you come to this church and you're not serious about following the Lord, I would urge you, for your own salvation, go and sit in some other church. Don't come to a church pretending that 1:02:47 you're wholehearted when you're not. You're welcome to come in order to be wholehearted, but be honest. Don't pretend. God hates pretense. The first sin judged in the early church was this, hypocrisy. Pretending to be wholehearted when 1:03:01 you're not. Pretending to be serious when you're not. The house of God is built in the place where people say, "I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing." Not just I'm free from conscious sin. Good. Step one. 1:03:19 But now let's come to the place of offering to God that which costs us something. And I believe that that is what the Lord is saying to all of us at this time. I was seeking the Lord saying, "Lord, 1:03:37 what shall I share today?" And this is what the Lord laid on my heart. And I pray that it will blessing to you. That you will all become true worshipers. May we worship in spirit and in truth. 1:03:54 And not just with emotion and our mind with words. But with this attitude saying, "Lord, here's my worship." Like the psalmist said in Psalm 73:25, "Lord, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there's nothing and no one I desire on 1:04:12 earth but you." If I have you, I have everything and all the other things are extra. That is the exclusive way in which the Lord wants to possess his bride. And we are building the bride of Jesus Christ here. Uh we're not here to judge one another. 1:04:32 That'll be another sin if I judge you. I'm not here to judge anybody. Cuz I don't know. Most of us we we don't know 90% of each other's lives. God knows it all. And I pray that we should live before his face and become true worshipers. The 1:04:45 Lord can say to us, "Now I know that you fear me because you have not withheld even this from me." May God help us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow before you, we pray that 1:05:06 you will keep reminding us in love and lead us on so that we don't miss out on the very best that you have planned for each of us. You know, you had fantastic plans for Job and for Abraham which got fulfilled because they responded wholeheartedly to 1:05:23 you. And I know that you got fantastic plans for every single person sitting here this this afternoon. Every single person without exception. And I pray that none of them will move into eternity and discover that they missed out on your perfect 1:05:40 will for their life because they clung on to something. Give us grace, Lord, to forsake it all and follow you. Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
