0:18 Brothers and sisters, it's wonderful that I'm living halfway across the other side of the world from you. But it's amazing the technology that God has arranged in these last days for the spread of the gospel that wherever we are in the 0:38 world, we can talk to each other. I believe this is one of the provisions God has made because he wants the gospel to be spread everywhere. He wants the standards of his word to be 0:56 maintained in every church. And that's why God has invented this even this technology where we can not only speak to each other but see each other. So I want to read first of all in 1:15 Matthew's gospel chapter 24. Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 24. This is very relevant to the time in which we are living. Matthew 24:7, nation will rise 1:38 against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And uh in various places there'll be famines, earthquakes, but all these things are only the beginning of births. And then it says in certainly 1:58 this is happening in many countries. They'll deliver you to tribulation. You'll be hated by all nations because of my name. And that can happen in India you know is if you're going to be faithful to Christ we have to face the 2:14 possibility that with the rising nationalism and the pursuit of religions which are against Christ Christianity there can be persecution of some sort or the other. There are in the 2:33 parts of India many Christians have suffered a lot. So at that time it says many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise. Sin will 2:52 increase and then the love of many will grow cold. But verse 13, the one who endures in love till the end will be saved. That's a very important verse because for many people salvation is 3:10 just you come initially to Christ. Many of you have accepted Christ and you're born again. But what does it mean to endure till the end in love? because he's speaking about loves growing 3:29 cold. It's not that you lose your love. I don't believe any of you have lost your love for Christ or will lose your love for Christ. But I believe that every one of you, including me, if you're not careful, we are in danger of that 3:49 initial love getting colder as time goes on. And one indication of that, please listen carefully. One indication that your love for 4:06 Jesus is growing cold is that you don't take sin so seriously as you did once upon a time. I I've been a Christian now 66 4:24 years. And if I'm not taking sin more seriously this year than I was last year, then whether I know it or not, my love for Christ is getting cold. I will not be able to endure in love until the 4:43 end. It's very clear. It's because lawlessness means sin. In verse 12, when sin increases, the love of many people will grow cold. The reason is that a lot of things which once upon a time we took very 5:01 seriously, maybe you don't take so seriously now. For example, I know a lot of people who many years ago before there were cell phones and before they had access to computers, they would never watch a 5:22 dirty picture because there was no possibility of seeing it. They were very careful with their eyes. They wouldn't go to cinemas that would pollute their minds. But as time has gone on and the devil 5:41 has used so many gadgets that are available nowadays to pollute our minds with filth. The love of many Christians has grown cold. So dear brothers and sisters, ask 6:00 yourself, has your love grown cold because of being drawn to something in the world? Maybe it is sexually polluting images that come into your mind. That's what I said. Particularly through the advent of those cell phone 6:19 and laptop computers, it's very easy for people to sin and especially young people, they're losing their love for Christ. You cannot be careless with sin and love Christ at the same time. It is impossible. It's like a, you know, the 6:36 seessaw. Children sit on a seesaw. One side goes up, the other side goes down. It's like that. If you allow sin to come in, one side goes down, the other side goes up. It's like 6:54 that. Sin can drag you down. And it's only the love of Christ that can save us from sin. We all we are all tempted in 7:11 various ways. Even something like anger, if we allow anger to be taken lightly, I want to encourage all of you in your homes to aim for a life of zero anger. Lord, I want that. That is that 7:32 is the proof of your love for Christ. Lord, I love you so much that I don't want to give the devil any room in my life. See the Bible speaks of a harlot Christianity. Harlot Christianity is 7:50 that which claims to be devoted to Christ but is also interested in something in the world. Please turn with me to one John and chapter two. How shall we endure in love for Christ 8:12 until the end? It says in 1 John chapter 2, do not love the world. Verse 15, 1 John 2:15. Do not love the world nor the things in the 8:29 world. Because if you love the world, the love of the father is not there at all. So the way the devil seeks to rob us of our love for Christ is not by stopping us from going to 8:47 church. He'll allow you to go to church regularly even to come for special meetings like that like this and give you the impression that because you're doing that you love the Lord a lot. No, you don't prove your love to the Lord by 9:01 coming to a meeting. You prove your love. You prove your love for the You prove that you love the Lord by not loving the world because these are two opposites. See verse 15, it speaks of love for the world and love for the 9:19 father or love for Christ. The two cannot exist in the same heart. It's like saying you love your wife and you love another woman also at the same time. Or if a woman says, "I love my husband, but I love another man also." That's not 9:38 possible. In marriage, God intended that a woman should marry only one man. Even a slight interest in her mind towards another man is a form of 9:55 adultery. You know that. And we I mean even non-Christians know that a non-Christian husband will not want his wife to even be slightly interested in another man. Forget about Christians, non-Christian husbands. They 10:14 will not want their wife to be interested in another man. So we we understand in marriage the importance of being absolutely true and faithful as a sister to to the husband you're married 10:32 to. You would not even think of becoming friendly with another man. Apply that to the Christian life. What are the other things that seek to draw away? What is the other man that's trying to draw us away from 10:51 Christ? None of us will follow the devil. The devil doesn't try to attract us. It is the devil tries to draw us away from our love for Christ by love for the world. That's what we read in 1 John 2:15. Do not love the world or the 11:08 things in the world. Because if anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. And love for Christ cannot be there if you're supposed to be the bride of Christ and you're looking at something in the world that draws 11:21 you. And I'll tell you honestly, my dear brothers, this is a constant battle in the early days. But if you really win the battle, you can come to a place where your heart is at rest and where you're finished with any possibility of loving the world. You can 11:39 come to that place. One of the main things in the world is money. We all need money to live in this world. But that is the means by which the the devil draws us away 11:59 from love for Christ by first of all being unfaithful with money and then beginning to run after it. We need money to live. There's no 12:17 doubt about it. And there's nothing wrong in having a large bank account. Let me tell you that don't think if you have very little in your bank that's a proof of your love for Christ Jesus had a savings bank you know it was the banker was Judas's 12:35 car the banker was a crook but Jesus and where did this money come from there were a lot of people in Israel who were very thankful for Jesus for healings or the message they heard and they loved Christ and they would give money and Jesus 12:53 would tell them to give it to Judas. He's the treasurer. And there was a huge amount of money in that bag that Judas had. How do we know that? Because Judas was always stealing from that bag. And even when he stole something, 13:12 the bag was still so full that none of the other disciples could guess that he was stealing. If there was very little money in that bank, in that bag, if Judas was stealing something, everybody would know, hey, how did the 13:28 money come so little? But there was so much money in that bag that people were giving to Jesus that Judas could put his hand and take out a lot and still it looked such a big pile. Now, what I'm trying to say there is that if you have a lot of money 13:46 in your bank, that doesn't mean you love the love money. No, if God has blessed you with that, that's fine. Loving money is when that becomes more important to you than Jesus Christ. And one way to detect that is if 14:05 your mind is frequently on even though you have enough, you earn enough and yet your mind is frequently on wanting to make more and more and more and more, much more than you need. And that that's one way the devil's leading a lot of people astray today. To 14:24 save for the future is a very good thing. In fact, the Bible says that a person who doesn't save money for the future is more foolish than the ant that crawls on the floor. There's a verse in Proverbs chapter 6. If you don't know 14:40 it, let me turn you to that verse. Proverbs chapter 6. Some of you may know it, then maybe some of you don't know it. Let me read it to you. Proverbs 6:6. Go to the ant, you lazy 14:59 man. Observe her ways and be wise. It doesn't have any ruler, but it prepares its food in the summer. And listen to this, gathers provision in the harvest. Why does the 15:15 ant gather food stuff in harvest time? Because it knows that very soon it's going to be cold and the harvest is over and winter may come and there may not be any food available. So it's caring for its little ones by 15:34 storing up food for the future. And the lesson there is to teach us to save something for the future. There's nothing wrong in having a good savings account. But the warning is don't love 15:53 money. So turn with me to Luke chapter 16 and verse 13. This is one of the very important verses that not taught in many churches. If I want to endure in love for Jesus Christ until the end, here's something I'll have to be 16:12 very careful about. Luke 16:13, "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. 16:31 And the two masters are God and money. So think of that word devoted to one. So if I want to avoid love of money, I have to be devoted to Jesus Christ. Not just have a casual love for 16:48 him, but to be devoted means I'm 100% taken up with the Lord. Just like Jesus told, I must uh you know, you got to hate your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and children to be a disciple. That doesn't mean I have to literally 17:04 hate my father. What I mean is that in relation to our love for Christ, our love for all these other people must be almost nothing. And the illustration I've always used is if our love for our parents and wife and children and all 17:22 must be like the light of the stars. And when the sun comes up, you can't see the stars. The stars are there but you can't see them. So our love for parents, wife, children must also be must be like that. I love them but when it comes to 17:41 Christ, he's supreme. And we have to check that all the time in our hearts. When I was going to get married to Annie before our marriage, I told her, I said, "You will always be number two in my heart. You'll 18:00 never be number one. Christ is always first in my heart. And I want to be number two in your heart. I don't want to be number one." We've been married 57 years and I still tell her the same thing today. I want to be number two in your heart 18:17 and you're number two in my heart. Christ will always be supreme in my life and I will not allow anything else to come between me and my love for the Lord. And because of that Annie and I have a very very happy 18:35 marriage. Our home is like a foretaste of heaven with no raised voices, no anger, no bitterness. It's it's just a foretaste of heaven on earth. And the only secret is I say you got to put the other person as number two. In the same 18:51 way everything else must be number two. Money, job, everything. Lord Christ is first and nothing is going to come between me and the Lord. If you're like that, my brother, sister, you live the most useful life 19:08 that you can ever live on this earth. your one of the tests is where is your our mind all the time. There are many people who already have so much money and they're always thinking how to make more, how to make more, how to make more. That's fine. Let 19:27 them do that. But don't tell me that such people love Jesus Christ. Forget it. They love money and they must live for that. That's fine. But a person who loves Christ, I've thought about business people, you know, business people are always occupied with 19:43 money. They have no time for other things. Sometimes they neglect their family. And I say, "Lord, can I love you like that? I want to love you like that." Where other things fall into a lower level. And I believe that there are many 19:59 ways in which the devil seeks to draw us away from that. You look at the examples we have in scripture in the right at the beginning of the church. You see this example, many of you know about it, but let me point it 20:19 out to you in Acts chapter 5. There was a bornagain Christian couple baptized in the Holy Spirit. And there was a time when we read here 20:36 that there was a wonderful love people had for each other. I want you to see in Acts 4:34. Acts 4:34. There was not a needy person. People who owned land and houses were selling them and bringing the 20:54 proceeds to the apostles so that it can be distributed to the needy people. Can you imagine a church like this where they said, "Oh, there are some poor people in our midst. I think I'll sell my house and give that money 21:11 to the apostles to distribute to those needy people." Because there was so many poor people in the early church in Jerusalem. And the rich people decided, I'm ready to sell my house. Jesus said, "All men will know you're my disciples 21:24 when you love one another." And those days, they really loved one another. I mean imagine to love the brothers in the church so much that you're willing to serve sell your house so that those people can have some money to live. That 21:39 is a fantastic love they had. And then there was a couple there who wanted the reputation of being wholehearted but they were not wholehearted. It's very easy to come to a church like CFC and you want to get a reputation 21:57 that you're wholehearted, but you're not really wholehearted, but you want to give people the impression you're wholehearted. And that was Ananas and Safh. We read in chapter 5:1, they also joined up and they also sold their 22:14 property and everybody thought, "Wow, Ananas and Safara, wholehearted Christians. They've also sold their property, had to help the poor people, but they kept back some of the money. Now, there's nothing wrong in keeping 22:30 back. The Lord never said there's no law in the New Testament that you've got to even give 10%. But they kept it back and they brought only a little bit and gave it to the apostles, pretending that it was the whole thing. And Peter, what discernment 22:45 he had. Look, look at what he says to Ananas in verse Acts 5:3. Satan has filled your heart. Who is this? A Hindu man or a non-Christian man or a Muslim or an atheist? No, he's a 23:05 Christian who's taken water baptism. And Peter says, "Satan has filled your heart to tell a lie to the Holy Spirit." He said, "When you did not sell this land," verse four, it was yours. 23:23 Nobody asked you to sell it. And even after you sold it, the money was still yours. Nobody's asked you to bring it. But why do you pretend that you're giving everything when you're not giving everything? In a church like 23:41 CFC where we have certain standards, we don't ask people to sell their house or property or any such thing. But we do ask people to be wholehearted Christians. Not in terms of money, but to put Christ first in every area of their 23:58 life. That is the standard we have. You can have, as I said, you can have a lot of money in your bank like Jesus had in the bag. But that's not the point. We can give people the impression that we are wholehearted and serious in wanting to live for Christ 24:15 when in our private life we are not. That is ananas and safara and the judgment is so severe that ananas dropped dead right there and they buried him. A little later his wife comes along and she never knew what happened and 24:33 Peter asks her a simple question. did you sell this land for this amount of money you brought here? She knew that was not true. She said yes. Told a lie. And immediately she died as well. You know, it's amazing if that continued in the 24:53 Christian church that would be hardly anybody left. But God stopped it because right there the standard was so high that you could not come to the church and pretend. The point is not a question of whether we 25:12 sell our property or give money. The point is pretending to be wholehearted when we're not pretending to be radical Christians. That's the great danger. So brothers and sisters, uh I 25:34 was just saying how wonderful it is that we can see each other across halfway across the world and it's come to an end. So everything on earth is like that. We can't trust a single thing in this world and that's the lesson we can learn 25:48 from this breakdown here. But Jesus never fails. That's the great joy we have in whatever situation we may face. His love for us will never fail and u internet may fail and everything else may fail but his love for us will never 26:07 fail. So we were thinking about people who are not honest when they come before the Lord pretending to be totally dedicated like Ananas and Safh. That is one of the great dangers. 26:25 Dear brothers and sisters, I say this in love to all of you in CFC. Learn a lesson from Ananise and Safara. They they were not unbelievers. They were born again. They were baptized in water 26:44 and they were accepted. And they even went and sold their house. So imagine why would a person go and sell his house? They went and sold their house when they saw everybody else selling them and and they did bring part of maybe they brought 50%. You sell your 27:02 house and bring 50% to the Lord's work. That's you'd say that person's a wholehearted Christian. But the danger was he was they were pretending and it was such a serious sin that God judged them. So what do we learn from 27:18 that? What is the first sin that God judged in the early church? Hypocrisy. pretending to be spiritual when you're not 27:36 spiritual. Wanting a reputation from others that you love Jesus so much that you're willing to sacrifice this or that when it's not really true. And I want to say my dear brothers and sisters that is a danger that every 27:52 one of us face till the end of our lives. will face it to pretend before others that I more spiritual than I really am. And that is what Ananas and Safara did. They wanted to pretend that they 28:10 were more spiritual than they really were. And that's a danger that every one of us face. And so these things are written in the scriptures for our instruction so that we don't fall into the same trap as they 28:28 do. So the solution to this is to have a secret life before the Lord all the time to keep our conscience absolutely clear before the Lord. That is the most important thing. You know Jesus once 28:47 said in Luke's gospel, let me read that to you. Please turn with me to Luke's gospel and chapter 11. Luke 11 and verse 29:05 34. The eye is the lamp of your body. And the eye is referring to your conscience here. If your conscience is clear, your whole body will be full of light. Luke 29:22 11:34. But if the conscience is bad, your whole body is full of darkness. The most important thing that we have to guard in our life is our conscience. And that's what we learned from the story of Ananas and Sapra. 29:42 They they told their conscience to keep quiet. Their conscience must have told them when they went with that money. You're pretending. You're telling a lie that you're giving all the money when you're not giving. And Peter said, 29:56 "God doesn't want all your money. God doesn't want one pisa from any of you, but don't pretend." Why do people pretend? Why do any of Why would any of you be tempted to pretend to be more spiritual than you really are? Why would you be tempted to 30:15 pretend that your home life is much better than it really is only for the sake of honor? Honor from other believers. And when we seek honor from other believers, I told you the relationship between us and Christ is like a bride to the bridegroom. Christ 30:35 is a bridegroom. and we are the bride. It's like a woman who wants the approval of some other man. Think if your wife is interested in the opinion of some other man and not you, her husband, what a terrible thing that is. And so when a 30:55 believer is not happy with just Christ being happy with him, but wants the opinion of others, that's like an unfaithful wife. That is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is I'm trying to get the approval of others. That is being unfaithful to my husband. This is 31:15 Jesus Christ. Isn't it enough that my husband says he's happy with me? Why would a woman who's married to a man want the approval of another man? Please think about this seriously. Many of you are married. If your wife is interested in the 31:34 approval of another man, what would you think about it? She's unfaithful, even if she's not gone and committed adultery. That is what hypocrisy is. When I want to pretend before men that I'm very spiritual, I'm unfaithful to Jesus 31:54 Christ, then I don't love him. The whole of the Christian life centers on loving the Lord with all our heart. And we read in one John and chapter one one John in chapter 32:11 4 and verse 19 we love him because he first loved us. That's a verse that's helped me a lot. How can I endure in love until the end? How can I preserve myself in a fervent love for the Lord? Here is a 32:29 secret. We love Christ because he first loved us. I am very thankful that when I was born again in 1959, God turned my attention to the love that Jesus had for me on the cross. And I felt that if I could meditate more 32:48 and more on the love of Christ for me then spontaneously love will come in my heart to him. Love is not something we need to work up. You know how when a couple are really in love with each other really think of a young couple 33:06 really fervently in love with each other they can't even think of other things. That young woman loves her husband so much, devoted to him. And there are cases like that of people are so devoted they'd even lay down their lives for 33:20 their husband. People who you read of stories of people who love one another and run away from their homes. I say, Lord, I want to love you much more than that. If a woman can love a man so much as to sacrifice so much and go with 33:36 him, our love for Christ must be much more than that. We love him because he first loved us. So I want to tell you what I discovered in the early my early part of my Christian life to meditate much on the love that Christ had for 33:55 me. And I want to encourage all of you to do that. You'll become a very devoted Christian if you take time to meditate on how much Jesus loved you. the price that he paid on the cross to deliver me from my 34:13 sin. For those of you who do not know, I want to repeat what I've said many times that physical death is not the punishment for sin. If you heard me say it before, you 34:30 hear it again. Jesus dying on the cross is not the punishment for our sin. He cannot take the punishment for my sin by dying. Because all of you know what is what is the punishment that God gives to people who live in sin 34:49 finally. It is to go to hell which is a lake of fire where they are separated from God forever and ever and ever and ever. That is the punishment for sin. The punishment for sin is to be cut off from God 35:08 forever. And then I understood that is what Jesus experienced on the cross not physical death. See the first three hours he was not bearing our 35:25 sins. The next three hours on the cross he was bearing our sins. That is why during the next three hours everything became dark in the earth because Jesus was cut off from the 35:43 father. It's such a we cannot even understand how it is. is something like having your head cut off. The Bible says God is the head of Christ. And when he's cut off means it's like having the head chopped off for 3 hours. That's the 35:57 thing that Jesus just did not want to go through. He did not want to be physical death. He would be willing to die a thousand times for us but to be cut off from the father. He said, "Father, isn't there some way out of this in 36:11 Gethsemane?" He prayed. And dear brothers and sisters, there you see the love of Christ, I I don't think I can explain it to you, but I remember the Holy Spirit explained it to me so wonderfully once that I was really moved that Jesus loved 36:28 me so much. That is what changed the direction of my life. When I realized that if he loved me so much, what am I going to live for? I'm not going to live for this rotten old world. I want to love him in return and I want to spend 36:42 all my life devoted to him and to serve him and love him. And I pray that every one of you brothers and sisters will be like that. That you can say I love him because he first loved me and then all the things in the world will 36:57 not look so attractive anymore. The first book in the Bible, as I've often said, is not the book of Genesis. by the book of Job. I want you to turn for a moment to that book. Please turn 37:14 with me to the book of Job. The reason I say that is because Job lived 500 years before Moses. And Moses wrote the book of Genesis. So the first book that was 37:33 written in the Bible was the book of Job. not Genesis. So when God was writing the Bible, it's interesting to see that he first did not write about the heaven and earth being 37:52 created. He first wrote about a man who loved him with all his heart. Imagine when God was looking down on earth, he found one man who loved him with all his heart and God said, "I'm going to write a book starting with 38:10 him." So, the Bible began with the story of one man who loved God with all his heart. And what does that teach us? That that is what God is looking for even 38:27 today as he looks out at this crowd of you sitting there in CFC. I believe he's looking for those in sitting here who will say, "Lord, you are first in my life. You're number one in my life. Everybody else will be number two. 38:46 My job will be number two. My wife will be number two. My son and daughter will be number two." I have said that to the Lord. I said nobody will come between me and you. You are first in my life and I will serve you and your work is 39:02 fundamental in my thinking and anyone who comes between me and that I'm going to push him out of the way. I'm not going to love my wife more than God and I'm not going to love my children more than God. Nobody. The result is I I have a I I 39:19 have a very happy walk with the Lord every day. I want to encourage you if you find that you're you're backsliding so often. Come back to this. You don't need the Bible. Job did not have a Bible. But I want to show you something 39:35 of this way Job lived, how he showed his love for the Lord. What? How could God tell Satan, "Have you seen a man?" Job 1 vers8. Have you seen my servant Joe? When I was a young Christian, I 39:53 read this and I asked the Lord, "Lord, can you point out me? Can you point put my name there and say to Satan, have you seen my servant Zach? Have you seen my son?" I say, "Lord, I want you to be able to say that to the devil that you 40:11 can boast about me to the devil." I want to ask you my brothers and sisters, some of you may be seeking the approval of other people in CFC. I hope people in CFC will admire me. You get up and preach sometime and you hope that 40:26 people will admire your preaching. That's all garbage. Can God say something? Can God point you out to the devil and say, "There's a young man. There's a young woman whom I'm proud of because they love me with all their 40:46 heart. So I want to show you something about Job. How he proved his love for the Lord. And you can prove your love for the Lord like that too. I told you the love of the world takes away our love for God. You cannot love God and 40:59 the world at the same time. And all the temptations in the world are the way by which our love for the Lord is robbed. And why does God allow these temptations to exist? So that he tests your love for him. I want to tell you the way your 41:18 love for Christ is tested is by all the temptations in the world around you. And when you say no to those temptations, you say, "Lord, that's how I prove my love for you." To come to the church and saying, "Lord, I love you 41:31 with all my heart." To sing is very easy. But in my daily life, I prove my love for the Lord by saying no to the things of the world, to no to unrighteous, no to telling lies, no to cheating, etc. So, let me give you a picture. Turn with me to Job 41:49 chapter 31. This is a very interesting chapter. Job chapter 31. It describes the life of a man. Remember a man who did not have a Bible, who did not have a 42:06 church, who was all alone, who did not have any fellowship. Picture yourself like this. Supposing you're living in a place, you don't have a Bible and you never read a Bible and you're all alone, no church, no 42:25 fellowship, all alone. And he says, what does he say? Lord, I know how much you hate lusting with the eyes. So I, Job 31:1, I made a covenant with my 42:44 eyes. How can I look at a pretty young woman? Where do we find people like this? This is a man who had no Bible, no Holy Spirit. You know what he had? He had a fear of 43:02 God. That's all. Right in the very first verse of the Job, it says, "A man who feared God." A man who feared God. And I believe that is a thing that's lacking in so many Christians who sing songs and 43:22 uh know so much of the Bible. Let me read to you. There was a man called Job who feared God and turned away from evil. That is the very first verse of the book of Job. He feared God and turned away from 43:41 evil. That was the proof of his love for the Lord. So when we come to the end of time, how shall I prove my love for the Lord? By fearing God and turning him away from evil. Just turn back to Job 1 vers1. There was a man in the land of Jo 44:01 whose name was Job. Job 1 verse one. He was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. He had no Bible. He did not have the Holy Spirit. He did not have fellowship. He never went to a meeting. He had no 44:20 preacher preaching to him. But he had something which many today's Christians don't have. The fear of God, a reverence for God. And that reverence for God was so great that he turned away from evil. He turned away from evil when 44:39 nobody was watching him. He turned away all the time. Now turn back to Job 31. This is what made him say in Job 31:1, I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then can I look at a pretty girl? I'm married. How can I look at 44:58 some other girl? I want to ask you brothers, are you like that? And he says, "If," verse 9, "if my heart has been enticed by some woman, let God punish me. It'll be such 45:16 a lustful crime." Verse 11, "and it would be an iniquity that the judges should punish me for." Now, remember, this is a man who's doesn't have a Bible. He's never heard about Jesus. He did not have the Holy Spirit. 45:34 No Bible, no knowledge about Jesus. Calvary has not yet come. But one thing he had a tremendous reverence for Almighty God. The fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. The fear of God is the secret of the Christian 45:53 life. And that is the thing that is lacking in so many believers today. If you want to endure in love for Christ until the end, let me say to you, my brothers, it's not by singing songs. It's not by singing songs, brothers and 46:08 sisters. Is by fearing God and which makes you never do anything which your conscience says is wrong. You will not raise your voice at home against your wife or husband because you fear God. And he says here further how he treated if the how he 46:33 cared for the poor people and he says further in verse 24 Joe was a very rich man very very rich man but he says in verse 24 if I have put my confidence in my 46:53 gold or my trust in my gold and if I become proud because my wealth is so great then verse 28 I would have denied God. Imagine a man says if I put my trust in gold this is a man who has no 47:11 Bible who doesn't have the Holy Spirit who knew nothing about Jesus Christ. He says, "If I put my trust in gold and I become proud that my wealth is so great, then verse 28, that is a sin that calls for 47:28 judgment because I would have denied God above." I am amazed at his attitude towards God. Let me give you another example. Verse 29. 47:44 If my enemy was killed and I rejoice in that or if I'm happy when some evil befalls somebody who hates me. Yeah. Then he says, "God has every right 48:03 to judge me if I rejoice verse 29 that my enemy suffers." As long as we live in the world, so many people will harm us. But if there's a joy in your heart that that fellow is now suffering 48:21 because he's harmed me. Job says then I have no right to say that I love God. I when I read the example verses like this in the book of Job, I'm so challenged in my heart. I say, Lord, where am I compared to this 48:39 man? How you could test him? You could test him by taking away his 10 children in one day. Turn back to Job chapter [Music] 1. How shall I endure in love for the 48:58 Lord until the end? Job chapter 1. Within a period of time of about 5 minutes, he hears that all his 10 children are dead. Now we can read that and not think about it. Think if one of your children is 49:16 dead. First thing you go back home today and you get the news that one of your children is dead. What a shock that will be. Think if you go back home and you discover that all your children died in some in some 49:35 accident. Think if that happened. I mean put your imagine your how will you react to it. You know what Job did? He heard that all his 10 children died. It says there, "Your children was Job 1:18, your 49:55 sons and daughters were all eating and drinking in a house, and a great wind came, Job 1:19, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and all of them died. And Job arose." He didn't complain against God. 50:14 This is a man without a Bible, without a knowledge of Christ, without the Holy Spirit, no fellowship, nothing, no church, never gone to a meeting. He gets up, he falls down to the ground and worships. And what does he say? What did I have when I came into 50:30 the world? Nothing. I came as a helpless, naked baby into the world. And one day when I die, I shall leave this world, everything behind. Everything I had on this earth, the Lord gave me. I did not produce it. The Lord gave 50:48 me 10 sons. I didn't get it by my cleverness. And if the Lord decides to take it away, praise the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And it says in verse 22, Job did 51:03 not sin, nor did he blame God. Have you ever blamed God, my brother, sister, for something? Have you ever said, "Lord, why did you do this? Why did you allow this to happen in my life?" We have a Bible. We have a church 51:22 fellowship. We have the Holy Spirit. Some of you say you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And so many things like this. This man puts us to shame. And God has put this book in the Bible to show us how without all these 51:39 things uh with the fear of God, with a reverence for God, we can come to the life that Job had. So that when we have the Holy Spirit and we have the Bible and we have fellowship, how much higher our life should be. There's a great need. What I'm trying to 51:58 say is there's a great need for repentance. There's a great need for all of us to fall down before God and say, "Lord, we are fooling ourselves that we love you. We love you so little. This man puts us to 52:17 shame. I want to love you more." And then the next thing that happens to this man is he gets sick. I believe he got leprosy. That's what Satan said. Okay, he's lost his children, but everybody loves their own life. Touch his body and 52:34 then let's see. And God allows Job to get leprosy. All the boils come up in his body. And do you know what he says? His wife said, "Why don't you curse God 52:54 now?" Job 2:9. And Job says, "You foolish woman." Now, I'm not saying you should speak to your wife like that, but he was a radical man. He loved God more than he loved his wife. And what he was saying 53:12 is that is a foolish thing to say. That's what I I think what he meant. He was not saying that his wife is a fool, but he's saying, "See, you are speaking like a foolish woman speaks. You're not a foolish woman, but you're speaking 53:26 like a foolish woman. My dear wife, that's not the way you should speak. How do foolish women speak? Curse God and die. Look at all the suffering you're having. Job, you're so faithful. And look at the answer God Job 53:44 gives. When God blesses us, we accept it. Then if God punishes us, can't we accept that also? Verse 10, last part. When God does something good, we accept it. When God punishes us, accept that 54:02 also. Then Job did not sin. Twice it says here, Jo chapter 1 verse 22, Job did not sin. Chapter 2, the last part of verse 10, Job did not sin. I'm absolutely challenged by this. You know the example some we are more challenged 54:21 by examples of lives of godly men more than just by words of scripture. I must say I'm tremendously challenged by the life of Job. And I say Lord I know so much more than him. I know the Bible. I know about Jesus dying on the cross. My life should be much 54:41 more than his. Praise the Lord. I pray that we shall learn to love the Lord with all of our hearts and fall before God and say, 54:58 "Lord, here is a man who loved you. He had so little knowledge of you and he loved you and today you have given us so much. I want to endure in love until the end." Lord even if I can't preach will you say all of you say this to the Lord 55:14 in your heart Lord I can't preach I can't sing I don't have much gift I don't have much money also to give you but I want to love you with all my heart that's what God wants in any case he wants us to love him with all our heart 55:29 like Job did and in your secret life when nobody's watching you to be absolutely faithful with your eyes that you don't lust with your eyes after women to be absolutely faithful with your tongue husbands and wives that you don't get 55:43 angry with each other. Say, "Lord, I want to love you with all my heart. I'm willing to suffer anything to deny myself so that I will bring peace in my home by denying myself." Are you willing to prove your love for the 55:58 Lord? By denying yourself. Sometimes the husband may be a bit upset. Sometimes the wife may be a bit bit upset. But you say, "Lord, I'm going to die. I'm not going to find fault. I'm not going to criticize I want to be a testimony for you. I want 56:14 to shut the mouth of the devil when the devil begins to accuse. The devil is looking all over the world to accuse Christians. See God, he he tells God, see how that person is behaving over there. See how that sister goes to CFC, 56:30 but see how she's talking in her home. That brother goes to CFC, but see how he is conducting himself in his office. And see what he's doing now. see what he's watching. See that young person goes to CFC, but look at what he's watching on 56:43 the phone. Now, that's what the devil is telling to God. Let us shut the mouth of the devil that he'll never be able to make any accusation against us anymore. Meditate on the love that Jesus 57:03 had by dying on the cross for you. That's what I did. Meditate on how he was willing to experience hell on the cross for you so that you might never experience hell. That's the thing that I always 57:22 remember. Jesus was willing to experience hell on the cross so that I might never go there. I say, "Lord, that makes me owe my whole life to you. Even if I spend a 100 years, 200 years serving you, it will not be enough 57:38 because you've done so much for me. Let's bow our heads in prayer. I hope beyond my few words, I hope Jesus has spoken to your heart. I love you brothers, all of you, sisters, every one of 57:54 you. And I long that every one of you will have such a reverence and love for God that when you one day when Christ comes back and you stand before him, you will have no regret for the way you lived. Don't seek the honor of men. 58:14 Don't seek the honor of CFC people. That will not help you in the final day. That's all empty and hollow. Say, "Lord Jesus, I want you to approve of my life. I want you to put your stamp of approval on my life. That's the only 58:34 thing I want. Please help me. I want to love you. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for me. I want to love you with all my heart." All of you young people, I wish you would be gripped at this young age like I was gripped at a very young 58:48 age to live totally for Christ. And today as I look back I have no regret about the way I have lived. I wish I had done more for the Lord. Heavenly Father, please take these feeble words and by your Holy Spirit apply it 59:06 to everyone. We want to remain faithful to the end. If a man like Job could do that, how much more we can do it with the with the word we have and Holy Spirit and fellowship and so many things. Give us grace, Lord. We want to 59:25 be true to you. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
