0:19 Praise the Lord. We're thankful that God has given us another week and another day. We don't take anything for granted. The last two Sundays we were looking at a very important word in the New Testament called grace. 0:39 Much misunderstood. Misunderstood only because of one reason. That people don't study the Bible carefully. They've got some favorite verse and take just that. You know, like I was saying 0:57 in that study on grace that like there are seven colors in the rainbow and seven colors in white. The Bible the grace is called a manifold or many colored grace of God. And if I take just one segment I can be completely wrong. 1:12 Just like saying red is white. Or blue is white. Even though those are a part of white. So that is the mistake we find with a lot of people who have misunderstood grace. And this is very important because our salvation is by grace. If you don't 1:27 understand it properly you don't have salvation or you imagine you have salvation but you don't have it. Where do we read about grace? Only in the Bible. There's no other book in the world that can tell us what grace is. 1:43 And so I want to encourage you if you um are serious about it listen to those two messages again. They're available on YouTube. If you go to YouTube and um in the search column on top if you put 2:02 Zac Poonen the true grace of God you'll hear both those messages there. The second important word is in the New Testament is faith. There is not very little about mentioned in faith about faith in the Old Covenant even though they lived by faith as we read in 2:19 Hebrews 11. And there are many important things we can learn from that. But in the New Testament it's emphasized a lot. Believe believe believe. And just like we saw Peter in his first letter says 2:38 this is the true grace of God. In the second letter in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 1 he says Simon Peter 2 Peter 1:1 as bondservant 2:58 and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours. Think of these two expressions that Peter uses. One is what we looked at last time 1 3:15 Peter 5:12 the true grace of God. And then he talks about faith as not those who just believe but those who have received a faith which is of the same kind as we have. 3:32 So there is a faith of another kind. How do you know whether you got this faith of the same kind as Peter had? You may imagine. The only way to know it is check up with scripture. Like I've often said if you don't if you 3:50 got the Bible in your language and you don't study it you deserve to be deceived. You deserve to be deceived if you got the Bible in your language and you don't study it. So 4:10 and we can't do a comprehensive study of faith because a lot of aspects to it but I want to tell you some of the most important things. So that we don't fool ourselves that we believe when we don't really believe. One of the first things I want to say is 4:29 that in most of our preaching and understanding we have imagined that faith is something we have in our mind. It means we believe certain things and that's faith. That is an intellectual faith which is not spiritual faith. It's not the same 4:48 kind of faith. Peter was not a very clever person. Most of us are cleverer than Peter. Faith in the New Testament and in the Old Testament is in the heart. Which is very different from the mind. The mind is a part of our soul. 5:05 The deepest part of us is not our soul. It is our spirit. And faith is in our heart our spirit. God does not dwell in the soul. You read in the Old Testament that God dwelled in the most holy place of the tabernacle. Not in the holy place or outer court. 5:24 The outer court the holy place most holy place corresponded to man's body soul and spirit and God dwelled in the most holy place. That's why our spirit is very important. One important aspect of our spirit is our conscience. 5:39 There's a very close connection between conscience and faith. Let me show you that in 1 Timothy in chapter 1. 1 Timothy in chapter 1. This is Paul writing to Timothy when Paul himself was 5:58 maybe 65 years old walked with God for 35 years. And he's writing to a man who was his closest co-worker. And he tells him in 1 Timothy 1 19 um in 18 he's speaking about keeping a fight a good fight in the last part of 6:16 verse 18 and then 19 he says keep faith and a good conscience. And some have rejected a good conscience. And suffered shipwreck of their faith. Now you know what a shipwreck is. It was 6:37 a good ship but it got wrecked on the rocks. That means there was nothing left of it. So here are people who had faith and then lost it completely like a shipwreck. What is the reason? They 6:54 did not care to keep a good conscience. Used to go together faith and a good conscience. And he says among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander verse 20 whom I've handed over to Satan. So they'll be taught not to blaspheme. 7:11 Here are Hymenaeus and Alexander who were good members of the church that Paul had planted with had faith at one time but a little by little by little they neglected to keep a good conscience and they suffered such shipwreck of the 7:29 faith and began to go around from house to house to try and destroy other people's faith just like their own faith was destroyed. And you know what Paul says? I have handed them over to Satan. Can you imagine handing over one who is a believer who 7:48 was a believer at least to Satan because he's going around confusing other people and leading them in that downward path that he himself has gone. You know, I'll tell you one thing about people like the Apostle Paul. They took 8:06 their Christianity very seriously. They didn't have this idea of a gentle and mild Jesus who never hands anybody over to Satan. Do you know that it is a God of love who sends people to hell? You know it's a God of love who made 8:20 hell and who sends millions of people there? So let's not have a wrong idea about God or about Christianity or a true servant of God. A real apostle can actually hand people over to Satan even today. And God will back him up. 8:39 He doesn't do it carelessly. I mean Paul didn't just do that to anybody who was upset with him. There were people who persecuted and uh you know, troubled Paul in any ways. He didn't hand them all over to Satan. He was not concerned about himself or 8:52 his name. But wherever he saw that people were denying the Lord or leading people away from true faith he actually handed them over to Satan. It's a pretty serious thing. So faith and a good conscience. And I want to say to you if any of you are not 9:09 keeping your conscience absolutely clear let me warn you. You are in danger of having a faith which is not the same kind of faith that Peter had. Now you may not hear such things in other churches because most preachers don't study the 9:27 Bible carefully but you'll hear it here. I always say I've I've mentioned this before how there was a brother here who I had to speak some strong things to and who said Brother Zac is a very hard man and I called him and said brother I love 9:43 you. And whatever you may think about me right now at the judgment seat of Christ you'll thank me for telling you the truth straight to your face. When so many other people are cursing their pastors at the judgment seat of 9:58 Christ for deceiving them. You will turn around and thank me. And that's one of the things we seek to do in our church. We seek to proclaim the whole counsel of God without diluting it, without watering it down so that all who hear 10:14 and obey will have great joy at the judgment seat of Christ. You know, in 2 Peter 1 where he speaks about the same kind of faith as ours. He says at the end of it in 10:32 verse 11, 2 Peter 1, he speaks about having the same kind of faith as ours. And he says, "If you continue with these things verse 11, 2 Peter 1:11, in this way you will have an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and 10:51 Savior Jesus Christ that will be abundantly supplied to you." In the KJV, it says you'll have an abundant entrance. You'll have a wonderful entrance into God's kingdom if you take seriously this matter of having the true grace of God 11:07 and the same kind of faith the apostles had which is described so clearly in the New Testament. And one of those factors in that is a good conscience. That is why we speak so much in this church about keeping a good conscience at all 11:23 times. Don't judge other people. Judge yourself. Cuz you don't know the standard of conscience of others. But you know the standard of your own conscience. And if you're really walking with God, your conscience will become more and more 11:42 sensitive as we grow in the Lord. Like I've often said, our conscience is like a weighing machine. A weighing machine where the needle doesn't even move. And when you're unconverted, you can put 1 ton on it. It's dead. Then we get converted. And the Holy 12:02 Spirit comes and the one of the first things he does is he makes our conscience sensitive. And then the needle begins to move, maybe when you put 500 lb on it or 500 kilos. But as you walk with the Lord, the needle begins to move when you put 100 12:19 kilos. You walk some more with the Lord, the needle begins to move when you even put 1 kilo. It's amazing. A needle that wouldn't even move with 1 ton is now moving with 1 kilo. The conscience is becoming more and more sensitive. And gradually as you walk 12:33 with the Lord, the con- the needle is moving when you with 1 g and 1 mg. It's moving. You're growing then. The mark of spiritual growth is your conscience is becoming more and more sensitive to sin to anything that's un-Christlike. 12:51 And that is how you know you're growing in faith as well because faith and a good conscience go together. If your conscience is not becoming more and more sensitive and you're falling into the same old things that you're always falling into 13:06 or you're falling into things that you never did before or you find that now after so many years of being a Christian, you can do things which you never did when you were first converted. For example, you can see certain types 13:19 of movies today which you couldn't would never see when you were first converted. You know your conscience is going in the other direction. And that's because your faith is going in the other direction, too. These are warning signs. 13:30 You know, doctors tell you to look for warning signs of sickness of diabetes or blood pressure or heart problems. There are warning signs. And people If you neglect them, neglect them, neglect them, then one day suddenly the guy dies or has a stroke. 13:46 And the doctor says, "Well, I told him. I told him to look for those warning signs, but he said it'll never happen to me." Those are the famous words of many people that will never happen to me. The same thing many people say in the 13:58 Christian life. That's why I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, take God's word seriously. Keep a good conscience if you want to have genuine faith. And make sure that your conscience is becoming more and more sensitive and not 14:11 less sensitive to what it was before. All of you know how your life was when you were first converted. Forget your unconverted days. What happened when you really got converted or you experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit? 14:25 That's so important. And what happened to your conscience at that time? I know what happened to mine. It became extremely sensitive. The needle started flickering with little things that it wouldn't flicker with before. 14:38 And I never want to go back. I never want to go back to those days where heavy weights would not move the con- move the needle. I want to ask you straight, is that happening to you? If so I'd say watch the warning signs. 14:55 Is it happening in your married life, in your relationship with your husband, wife? Is it happening in your relationship with other brothers and sisters? Are you being influenced by brothers and sisters who are trying to lower 15:11 your attitude towards sin? You're in danger. That's all I can say. God gives freedom to people even to go to hell. Now, I want to say in this church we give complete freedom to anybody who wants to go to hell. But God doesn't let anybody go to hell 15:29 without a warning. And we won't let anybody go to hell without a warning. But God doesn't stop anyone. Neither will we. That's your choice. And if you have sat here and listened to God's word straight and strong for so many years 15:45 and you missed the best well, you really have nobody to blame but yourself. So, I want to turn to the great chapter on faith in Hebrews chapter 11 and 12 and see something about, you know, there's more mentioned about faith in 16:02 these two chapters continuously than probably any other place in the New Testament. And so, even though it's referring to Old Testament people because it's mentioned in the New Testament I want to take 16:19 uh some of these examples and see how even though their faith was not in Jesus Christ or in receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit the reason why it is put in the in the New Testament, Hebrews 11, is to show us 16:37 that there was something in their faith that we can imitate. So, the very first thing it says in Hebrews 11:1 about true faith the same kind of faith that the Apostle Peter had 16:56 is that it is the assurance of things hoped for. That means what we don't have yet. And the conviction of things which we don't see. In other words, faith is a deep conviction that the things which I can't see 17:14 are more real the things than that which I see. You know, the Bible says that we shouldn't sleep spiritually. You read that in 1 Thessalonians 4, Revelation. Don't be asleep the Lord comes suddenly. And I've meditated on that. What does it 17:32 mean to be asleep? When we are asleep we're dreaming. And in our dreams, we could be 10,000 miles away from where we are sleeping. We're somewhere else. And we think it is real. It's very real. 17:55 Some dreams are very vivid. A lot of these people who say they had visions of heaven and talked to different saints, they're just got a vivid imagination. They got They call that dreams reality. That's all. They're not telling 18:08 lies, but they don't differentiate between dreams and reality. So, when we sleep those are that that world in which we are living in our dreams appears to be a real in the real world around us where we are lying down in our bed is not 18:25 visible to us. So, that is what it means to be asleep spiritually. When we are asleep this unreal world around us, we think it's real. And the real world, which is the world of eternity and heaven is very unreal. 18:44 And so, when I live and act as though this world is the real eternal thing, I'm asleep. I'm living in my dreams. When I'm awake I see the real world. And the real world is eternal. The things which are not seen. The things which are yet to come. And 19:04 that's what it says the first thing it says about faith is the conviction of things which are not seen. That's a mark of a man who's spiritually awake. He lives by faith. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God. 19:21 So, that even the things that are visible you know, we are so much in contact with visible things. But But what Paul is saying is do you know that all these visible things were originally made from invisible things? There was nothing there. There was only 19:39 God. And from invisible things, he made what is visible. So, what is invisible was first. And that's that's real. So, So one mark of faith that we see things which others who live aware of the world around them can't 19:58 see. I mean, if your faith is in God is only seen in something visible like God gave you a house or he gave you some healing in your body or he gave you some a good marriage partner. Things which every Gentile in 20:18 the world is seeking after. Those are the proofs that God gave you something. I'll tell you 10,000 Hindus and Muslims who got better houses than you who made more money than you, who are healthier than you and who probably got more good-looking 20:32 partners than you got. What about their faith? That's not the mark of faith. You're fooling yourself if you think these are the marks of God's blessing and faith. Whenever you think God has blessed you with something, ask yourself 20:45 is that something an atheist also has without who doesn't even believe in God? Then that's not the result of God's blessing. God's blessing must be something which the non-Christian and the atheist cannot get. It's not house. 21:02 Non-Christians get that. Job, marriage, money. What is it that a non-Christian or an atheist cannot get? It's being changed into the likeness of Christ. That is the one mark of God's blessing. And that is the proof that we have 21:21 got a real faith that our life is being changed into things which are invisible. Okay, now we come to the example of Abel. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. Through which he obtained the testimony 21:39 that he was righteous. And God testified about his gifts. Now, we got to read this very slowly. I want to read it again. Slowly. By faith 21:57 Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain. Through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous. God testified about his gifts. His gifts. He testified about his gifts. He says 22:16 there's something about Abel's gifts which I really appreciate, God said. Which he couldn't say about Cain. And therefore he was declared righteous. And therefore through faith even though he's dead, he still speaks. So when you read a verse like that in 22:36 the New Testament, if you're a serious Bible student you'll go to Genesis 4 and say, "What was it that Abel's gifts that God testified to?" And we don't want to read things into scripture which are not there. 22:55 It's a very favorite habit of people who have a particular theology already made up in their mind. And then they wherever they go in scripture, they see that. It's something like if I wear red colored glasses, everything is red. If I 23:10 wear green colored glasses, everything is green. And I find that with a lot of Christians. They've got a particular color of theology. And everywhere they read in the Bible, they see just that. You got to take off those colored glasses 23:23 and read it exactly as it is without adding anything, without subtracting anything. I want to read something to you and you'll discover something. Genesis 4 It says here she gave birth to Cain and Abel for 1 and 2 and verse 2, Abel was a keeper of 23:43 flocks. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Cain was a farmer and Abel kept flocks of sheep. And we read finally in verse 3 and 4, they brought brought an offering to the Lord and very carefully, it was not a sin 24:02 offering. There were many types of offerings that people were commanded to bring in Leviticus. There was a sin offering which always had to have blood in it. And then there was an offering for Thanksgiving. For example, tithing was 24:16 an offering. When people brought 10% of what they um reaped in their fields, it was a Thanksgiving offering. There was no blood in it. They brought grain and wheat and maybe potatoes or whatever. That was an offering acceptable to God. 24:34 So Cain and Abel were bringing a Thanksgiving offering to God out of gratitude for God blessing their farm or their flocks. And naturally if you brought 10% of what you're working with, if you're if you've got flocks, you bring 10% of the sheep. 24:53 If you have farm, you bring 10% of the grain. There's nothing wrong in that. It's not a sin offering. So Abel brought it says here uh uh first of all, Cain verse 3 brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. Cuz that's where he was 25:12 working. And Abel in his part brought of the firstlings of the flock and of their fat portions. And then it says the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering. For the man and for his offering. But for Cain and for his offering, he 25:27 had no regard. And when you come to Hebrews 11, it says Ab- Abel had faith. So we can learn something about faith from this. Now, the traditional Christian interpretation of those who read with colored glasses is that Abel brought blood. 25:45 And Cain did not bring blood. Now, the reason why that theology has become very popular is because is this one saved, always saved, you know, and also once you brought the blood of Jesus, it doesn't matter how you live. 25:59 So long as you bring the blood of Jesus, that's all God sees. He doesn't look at your life. He doesn't bother about anything else. Well, you can believe that if you like, but I can guarantee you'll go to hell if you believe that. 26:10 I don't devalue the blood of Jesus. But there are multitudes of people who believe in the blood of Jesus. All the 1 billion Christians in the world believe in the blood of Jesus. But they're not all going into God's kingdom. I might as well tell you that. 26:25 Didn't you believe in the blood of Jesus before you were born again? I did. I never doubted it. If you'd ask me when I was 10 year was 10 years old and I was not converted are your sins forgiven? I'd have said blood of Jesus. 26:40 Not a doubt. But my life was not surrendered to the Lord. And you know that, too. It's a very dangerous theology. What was it that made a difference between Cain's offering and Abel's offering? They were not bringing a sin 26:55 offering. They were bringing a Thanksgiving offering. The difference was this, and I want you to see this. Cain brought an offering. A N. An offering. Abel brought the best. There's a difference between bringing an offering 27:15 and the very best of what you have. Great deal of difference. One is to ease your conscience that you gave something to God the creator. And the other is because you're devoted to someone. You know, there's a difference between 27:37 a gift that you would give to a beggar and a gift that you would give to your wife or husband. I hope there's a difference in your life. You may be a kind person who gives gifts to beggars, but how much will you give? But if you want to buy a gift for your 27:59 wife or husband whom you love so much what would you do then? Even if you go for a wedding to somebody you love someone you love very much and you take a gift how much would you spend on that gift compared to how much you would spend on 28:19 a gift that you want to give for your wife or husband? There's a lot of difference. Why is that? Because you value your partner much more than those other people. It's not that you don't value them. Of course, you love 28:37 that person whose wedding you're going to and you may love that beggar. But not as much. For example, your father your father has sacrificed for years and years in poverty to help you to get a good education and to get a good job. 28:56 How would you you know, take a gift to him? You wouldn't get something cheap. But people who build a whole house for their parents it's an expression of their love. You wouldn't build a house for a beggar. 29:14 You wouldn't give a house as a gift in a wedding. But you would do that out of gratitude to your parents. Or you may build one for your wife. That it all depends on our attitude to the person we're giving the gift the type of gift we gave. And so, an 29:33 offering it's okay. You gave a wedding gift. But there's a difference between giving the very best. That's what when it says God testified about Abel's offerings that's where his faith was shown. 29:49 His faith was shown in a deep intense love for God who had blessed him. Tremendous sense of gratitude that made him look over his sheep and say, "I've got to take the very best to God." 30:08 Not something cheap. Now, that's Genesis. Now, when you come to Malachi, which is the last book in the Old Testament, you see how the religion of Israel had degenerated so much that the Lord has a complaint against 30:29 Israel on this very matter. He says, "You ask You say to me This is the last part of verse six, Malachi 1:6. Oh priests who despise my name. Now, is there anybody here who's 30:47 despising the name of the Lord Jesus? Despising the name of the Lord Jesus? And you ask this question in verse six, "How have we despised your name?" And the Lord says, "I'll tell you how you have despised my name. 31:05 You have given me old food. Defiled food. You have brought the worst eight, the blind as a sacrifice. You brought the lame. In other words, 31:24 he's telling them, "When you brought a sheep to me, it was one of those blind ones, which was a bit of a nuisance to you in any case. Now, when you brought a bullock to my offering, you brought that lame bullock, which was a problem to you in any case. 31:35 You offered it. Of course, you gave an offering, a n offering like Cain. But not the best like Abel. God could not testify of their gifts. And he calls it despising my name. What do you learn from that, my brother 31:55 or sister? That when you give an offering to the King of kings, you're despising his name. You may think that you reverence the name of Jesus so much. You sing so wonderfully about it in the meeting. But the test is not 32:14 how well we sing about Jesus. What offering do you bring him? That's the first mention of faith in Hebrews 11. By faith Abel brought a better offering than Cain. Why is that mentioned as a mark of 32:32 genuine faith? And the Lord says here, "Would you offer this to your governor?" Verse eight. I mean, even just forget God. Even if the governor of your state came to your house, would you give him something cheap? 32:49 Would you offer some cheap thing to him? I want to show you a verse in the Old Testament in 2 Chronicles. See, the 33:06 things in the Old Testament are pictures from which we can learn if we want to learn. The Old Testament temple that Solomon built was a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ, which we're building today. 33:25 Today, it's not a temple, it's a church. And by church, I mean people. Our life we're building up. When we live before God, we are building a small part of the church in our own life. And along with others, the CFC is not 33:41 the whole church. Even all our CFC churches are not the whole church. If you count all the CFC churches we have, it's still a teeny-weeny part of the whole Church of Jesus Christ, which comprises of people in many denominations 33:56 and in many parts of the world where we don't even know people who love the Lord perhaps a lot more than we do. So, but this small part that we are a part of, we have to make sure it's of the right material. So, 34:13 in 2 Chronicles 3, we read about They couldn't build the temple anywhere they liked. You know that? God had told them it must be in Jerusalem and not just in Jerusalem, the exact spot in Jerusalem where the temple had to be 34:30 built was pointed out by God. Not just Don't just find any convenient place and build your temple there. No, no, no, no, no. There's a specific spot I have chosen. And there is This is a message to us. There's a particular place where you can 34:47 build a church. And when I say place, I mean spiritually. There it was physically in the Old Covenant. Today, what I'm talking about is a spiritual place where we can build the church. If you're not in that spiritual place, 34:59 you can't really be a part of that living church. So, this had to be in Jerusalem. And the Lord said, "This has to be Here is the particular spot in Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 3:1, identified as Mount Moriah. And 35:17 in the exact spot in Mount Moriah is the place where the Lord appeared to David where David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. That's where he began to build. Now, when you read that, if you're a 35:34 student of scripture and not a lazy person who does not care to understand the mind of God. If you will earn your bread by the sweat of your brow, God told Adam. And I've told people who study the Bible, you will never get bread from the Bible 35:52 without the sweat of your brow. You got to work hard. You got to study. You got to compare scripture with scripture. When you read Mount Moriah, you have to say, "Mount Moriah, what was significant about Mount Moriah?" When you read about 36:04 the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, you say, "What was significant about that?" That's the way to study the Bible, slowly. And it doesn't matter if you don't go go past that one verse for one week. But you learn something. But if you 36:15 don't read Just read through, you can live 20 years without even knowing the significance of that one important verse. Well, Mount Moriah, first of all, you read in Genesis 22, is the place where God told Abraham 36:32 to go and offer his only son. He had already sent away Ishmael, his first son. Now, he had only one son, Isaac. And that was God's gift to him. God said, "Take him and kill him as a sacrifice for me on Mount Moriah." Genesis chapter 22 and 36:49 verse two, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him on one of the mountains which I tell you." And Abraham rose early in the morning. He didn't even discuss it with Sarah. 37:06 Can you imagine what he would have happened if Abraham had told Sarah, "I'm just going to kill my son. I'm going to Moriah to kill my son." He'd never got There are some sacrifices you have to make without telling your wife or your 37:20 husband. Just maybe they're not spiritual enough to understand. That's what I learned from there. Sometimes we have to walk secretly before God's face. Your wife is spiritually minded, that's wonderful. But I think Abraham sensed, and you got 37:36 to sense whether your husband and wife can accept something. And Abraham sensed Sarah can't accept it because she hasn't heard God directly like I have heard. So, he took Immediately in the morning, he got up and he said he's going. 37:51 And he took some servants with him. And then it says they walked together and finally, we read here Abraham told his young men in verse five. This is very important to read this. He told the young men, "You stay here with the donkey. 38:09 I and the lad will go up there over the mountain and we will worship." What did he say? Not I'm going there to kill my son. I'm going there to worship. You know, that is the first place in the Bible 38:28 that the word worship comes. And there's such a thing as the law of first mention in Bible study. And that law is look for the first time a word appears in the New Testament, and it's very significant. The first time 38:47 fear of God is mentioned in the Bible is in relation to sexual sin in Genesis 20. Look it up sometime. Where does God test our fear? In the sexual area in our thought life. If you're careless there, you don't fear 39:07 God. That's it. It's the first time the word fear of God comes in relation to sexual sexual sin. The first time the word believe comes is when Abraham said, "Amen." When God said, "You're going to have children like the stars of the sky." 39:23 Something impossible. He believed. He believed because God had said it, even though it looked impossible humanly speaking. The first time the word worship comes. You know, we use the word praise and worship, praise and worship, praise and 39:37 worship. I never get tired of telling people 99.9% of Christians don't know what worship is, even believers. They use so many words without 39:54 understanding what it means. Worship is one of them. And if you don't believe me, the Lord told woman in Samaria the time has now come hour is coming and now is 40:14 when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit, not like old covenant worshipers. Not like they did in the Psalms. I don't go to the Psalms to worship. I'll tell you honestly. I don't object to other people doing it 40:28 because they are living under the old covenant. I say, "Fine, if you want to live under the old covenant, go ahead." But I've given up with the old covenant, not the Old Testament of the Bible but the old covenant way of worship, the 40:39 old covenant way of living, the old covenant way of sacrifices. I read the whole Bible but the old covenant way of worship is finished with me because Jesus said the hour is now come when there's a new way of worshipping in the spirit. 40:54 Have you ever asked God, "What does it mean to worship in the spirit?" It's uh that's another message you could look up sometime in the Bible, phrase Thanksgiving praise and worship on YouTube, I mean. Thanksgiving praise and worship. 41:11 Thanksgiving is thanking God for what he's done for me. Praising is praising God for who he is. That's most of what most churches do on Sunday morning. Very good, we need it. I believe in Thanksgiving. I believe in praise. What I'm saying is that is not 41:26 worship. And all these songwriters who use worship, worship, worship, they don't have a clue what worship is. I'll tell you why. Cuz they haven't read their Bible. And if you don't believe me take a concordance and look up the word 41:41 worship in the New Testament. It will change your complete understanding of worship if you're willing to sweat a little and get a little bread from the Bible. The first mention of worship is when Abraham went to the mountain not to 41:58 sing a few songs to God and clap his hands and raise his hands like we do. He went up to the mountain to give the very best that he had to God, not an offering. But the best like Abel. He was following in the footsteps of Abel. 42:15 He could have given 10,000 sheep on that mountain, it would have been an offering. But when he gave Isaac, Isaac was more precious to him than even Sarah. When he gave Isaac, he gave the best. He gave everything. He would rather have 42:35 given himself. And God was testing him. Do you worship me? You got to kill your son. And you know that he didn't really God didn't want him to kill his son, he just was testing him. And as Abraham lifted up the knife to 42:55 kill him the angel of the Lord stopped him and said in verse 12, "Don't stretch your hand on your son. Don't do to him because now I know that you fear God." You know that is the first time in the Bible 43:13 that God himself gives a certificate to a person. You fear me. The first time fear of God is mentioned is in relation to sexual sin in Genesis 20. But the first time God gives a certificate to a man saying, "Now I know that you fear me." was when a man gave 43:30 not an offering but the very best that he had. I want to ask all of you sitting here can God give you that certificate? Remember, this is linked to faith. By faith Abel offered his best and God testified to his 43:52 offerings. God testified to Abraham's offering. Here. Has God testified to your offering? Then you know whether your faith is genuine or not. See, all these things are done in 44:10 secret. Jesus spoke much about that in Matthew 6. He said you pray in secret, your father will reward you openly. You fast in secret, your father will reward you openly. You give money in secret, God your father will reward you openly. That's 44:26 why in this church we've always encouraged people to pray in secret don't make a big noise about it, fast in secret and give in secret. That's why we don't pass a bag around. Because we want people to obey God's word, which says give secretly, give 44:44 cheerfully. But the reward will be open. The reward will not be secret. It's not God I give to God in secret and God rewards me secretly. No. Matthew 6 is very clear. Three times he says there you do this in secret, your father will 44:58 reward you openly. In other words when people look at your life they will be amazed. Your life will be such a tremendous blessing to others. Now there are a lot of people who 45:17 imagine that their life is a blessing. I think a lot of Hindus and Muslims and atheists and a lot of I think the Prime Minister of India and different political parties and election time they put big advertisements in the paper 45:34 saying how they have been a blessing to so many people. It's very easy for Christians also to deceive themselves by imagining just because some people appreciate them. I need a certificate from God first of all that he is happy with my worship. 45:51 And ways for me to check up in my own life in secret have I offered the best? Let's go to the second mention of the place where the temple was built, the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. That is in 2 Samuel 24. We're trying to understand what faith 46:13 really means. What does it mean to give the best offering? What does it mean to have a faith where God testifies to our offering? 2 Samuel 24 we read of a time when God told David through a prophet in verse 24:18 46:31 2 Samuel 24:18, "Go and erect an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." And David did that. He went up to that place and Araunah saw the king coming in verse 20. And he said, "Why are you coming?" And 46:43 king said, "I want to buy verse 21, this threshing floor from you cuz I have to build an altar here." David did not know that God had in mind this is the place where the temple is going to be built. And Araunah said, "Oh, you don't have to 46:58 buy anything from me." He said, "Take it, whatever you want. Please take all the oxen free. And all the threshing sledges and the yokes, is the wood. Take it all free and offer your offering. Oh king, you're my king." And may the Lord accept you. And look at 47:14 these beautiful words that David said "No." Now you know, brothers and sisters how we all like to get something free. Right? If there are books that are free, even if we don't want them, we'll pick them 47:32 up. And books that are more useful to us if they cost 20 rupees, we may not buy them. That's how we are. We like to get something free. And that's why there's a big rush for people accepting forgiveness of sins because it's free. 47:51 We like to go to a church where they don't don't take offerings. It's free. We get so much blessing free. Wow, what a church to belong to. You know who's the loser? You. David said, "I will not take it free." 48:10 That's where the church is built. Where a man says, "I will not take it free." I will surely pay for it. And this wonderful expression, "I will never offer to God that which costs me nothing." He told Araunah, "If I take it free from you and 48:28 I give it to God, what does it cost me? Zero." I want to give you a testimony. I was converted, I was baptized about um 1961, 52 years ago. And there was a verse the Lord gave me. It is this verse. 48:50 "I will never offer to God that which costs me nothing." And the Lord said to me, "That's how you must live. Never give me an offering that costs you nothing." It's good to give offerings to God. 49:09 But let it cost you something. Otherwise, it'll be like Cain's offering. And I decided that day and to the best of my knowledge, I have kept that 52 years. I have never given an offering to God, whether it's money those days I used to give 50% of my 49:28 income for God's work every month. I'd give because it cost me something. I would never buy new clothes for myself and if something got torn, I would stitch it and wear it even though I was a naval officer. I said, "Lord, I will not offer to you 49:42 that which cost me nothing." I would spend hours and hours and hours after my work studying the Bible cutting down on my sleep because I would not offer to God that which cost me nothing. I would be I forsook promotion if 50:01 it meant that my witness for Christ would hamper my promotion, fine. I'll be a witness for Christ. I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing. And I could I don't want to talk about it. It happened so long ago that I can talk 50:13 about it now. And then as I came out into full-time Christian work 47 years ago I said, "Lord, I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing. I will not preach for money. I will not use the gift God's given me to make benefit for myself." Do you know 50:28 where I got that from by the way? From the first temptation which came to Jesus in the wilderness. Where the Lord where Satan told the Lord "You're anointed now, right? 40 days ago you were anointed at Jordan. You got power. 50:44 Use that power to satisfy your need." Jesus said, "No." Later on he used that power to make bread for 5,000 but never for himself. And the Lord spoke to me from that. "I have given you an anointing. Never use it to make money for yourself. 51:02 Use it to bless other people." I said, "Sure. God help me to be faithful to that till the end of my life." It's a sin. Most preachers don't understand it. If God gives me something, it is not something for me to get benefit for 51:17 myself. It's for me to bless other people with. And I said, "Lord, I'll I'll follow that. I will not offer to you that which cost me nothing. If I serve you, it must cost me inconvenience. It must my body may ache, but I must serve you. I I can't think of 51:34 a single Wednesday meeting that I've missed here unless there was something else that I had to travel somewhere or come back from somewhere, but I remember days when I was having fever and it was time for 6:30 for the meeting 51:50 and I knew that if I go to the meeting they'll ask me to speak. I'd get up from my sick bed, come to the meeting, and go back and my fever would be gone. I want to ask you. I'm not just I'm only saying that as an example. Sometimes 52:04 Paul spoke about what all he did as an example and a challenge to others. But I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters, if you, anybody here, and there's no respect of persons with God if you decide in your life, even today, forget 52:17 the past that from now on you're never going to give to God that which cost you nothing, he will use you to build a church. Not just to have little meetings that you think are blessing people. A lot of people have little home meetings in 52:29 their house here and there. It never builds the church. It's just a little club of people who study the Bible. I've come across a lot of them like that in the world. There's no sacrifice in their life. I've In the last 47 years of Christian work, 52:42 I have seen a lot of Christian workers in India. Multitudes of them. I'll tell you honestly, there very, very few among them I respect. And that's because most of them, 95% of them that I've met have not made a sacrifice. 53:01 They never had a good job that they gave up to serve the Lord at a lower income. I want to meet people like that. Christian workers who had a good job gave it up came down. My own income dropped 85% when I decided to serve the Lord. 53:17 I meet very few people like that. Most of the Christian workers I meet went straight out of school. They had no job. They decided to go to Bible school and became pastors. And they're earning sometimes 10 times what they would have got if they're in a 53:30 secular job. Is that a sacrifice? When Jesus came to earth to build the church, he sacrificed. He gave up something. Just like Abraham, like David like Abel. I want to say that that is the basis of faith. 53:48 There's a lot more to it. But if we really want the faith of the same kind that Jesus had which says in Hebrews 12 that we look unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. The author of our faith means if I take 54:06 up a book here and say I wrote this book, I'm the author. That means I wrote every page in it. That's the meaning of author. So when it says in Hebrews 12:2, we look unto Jesus the author of our faith I want to ask you did he write every word of the faith 54:23 that you have in your heart? Or is it a faith that you yourself wrote what you think is faith? I want Jesus to be the author of my faith. Every thing that I call faith in my heart must be written by Jesus. And that means I look at his life 54:42 and I see his entire life as a life of sacrifice. He never made demands on others. He didn't just sing songs on the Sabbath day in the synagogue like we come. Let me ask you. I believe you do give an offering to the Lord. I mean a offering of time 54:58 when you come and spend two hours here on Sunday morning. You could have spent that watching television. But are you offering to God that which cost you something? I believe many of you give money for God's work. And particularly in a church like this 55:16 where we have no paid workers every cent that you give goes 100% for the work of God, not 99%, 100%. How much do you give? You get a lot of benefit, of course. And you've been blessed. But you don't get the higher blessing 55:35 where Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. And I believe many people have missed out on that. I've always sought the higher blessing. I said, "Lord, I will not got a lot of blessing through receiving. But I want to give. I want to give my 55:52 time sacrifice." Do you ever serve the Lord when it's inconvenient? Do you ever try to serve the Lord when your body is full of pain and aches and say, "No, I've got to do it." Go out and do something or you serve when it's convenient and 56:07 when it's when your body is not aching? If I served the God when my body was not aching I would have finished serving the Lord ages ago. Dear brothers and sisters 56:23 God will not allow you to suffer loss if you put God first and seek his kingdom first. To seek his kingdom means to make him king over your life. Say, "Lord, all that I have is yours." The faith that Jesus writes in my heart 56:39 as the author. I want to just show you one verse in closing and we can look a little more at it on another Sunday. In John 17, we look at this verse in closing. John 17 We read here about Jesus 56:58 speaking to the Father at the end of his life. And he says, "I have verse four, I have glorified you on earth finishing the work you gave me to do." Now I've often said to people, my dear brothers and sisters, when you come to 57:12 the end of your life don't tell me how much money you made. Don't tell me what a big house you built. Don't tell me how much you accomplished in terms of worldly things. But can you say I have finished the work 57:31 my Father sent me on earth to do? Do you know when you were born? God sent you on earth to do a particular task. Not just to go to meetings and share a few words with you, but something specific. And if you want to do that, 57:47 you have to give to God that which cost you something. It may cost you your reputation. Jesus is called a man of no reputation. How much are you willing to lose your reputation with your relatives and your friends because 58:06 they call you a fool for Christ's sake. Are you willing to look like a fool for Jesus Christ's sake? To lose your reputation. That's something more precious than money for some people. Many people that Christianity, they 58:18 won't sacrifice their money, they won't sacrifice their reputation. Like Cain, they'll give the minimum offering to God. I always say Cain was the minimum type. What is the minimum I have to do to go to heaven? What is the minimum I 58:32 have to give in CFC? What is the minimum I have to do? And Abel was the exact opposite. God's done so much for me. What is the maximum I can do for God? What's the maximum I can give for him? I believe if God were to come here and 58:49 divide this church, he divide it like that. There's a minimum group and a maximum group. I don't know who they are. But you know whether which group you belong to. I finished the work you gave me to do. And how did he do it? We read here in 59:02 John 17 in verse 10. The faith that Jesus had he said to his Father, "Everything that is mine is yours. And therefore everything that is yours is mine." You know, this is the wonderful exchange that takes place in our life 59:19 when we come to God and give everything like Abraham. God says, "Everything that's mine is yours." You give 10% to God, you get 10% from God. That's why your life is so pathetic spiritually. That's why you never get 59:37 victory over sin. Because you're the minimum type. That's why your children go astray. Because you're so careful and calculating in the way you give to God. You say this beggar has come, I have to give him something. Let me calculate. 59:54 Shall I give him 5 rupees or No, 10 rupees a bit too much. I think I'll give him 5 rupees. So, we come to God and we calculate. How much shall I give for God's work? How much shall I put in the offering box? I calculate and say, this this this I 1:00:06 think I'll give this much. Exactly like a beggar. And you expect to have a rich spiritual life? Not in a hundred years. You think you're building the church? No, you're just probably going to Bible study meetings, maybe taking Bible study 1:00:19 meetings. And you think you're serving God? Witnessing to a few people and some people came to the same third-rate type of salvation that you have yourself? And you think they're born again? I wonder whether you'll meet them in God's 1:00:30 kingdom. You'll certainly meet people in God's kingdom if you teach them to give what cost them something. To give like Abel and not like Cain. By faith Abel gave and God testified to his gifts. By faith Abraham gave, God testified to his 1:00:50 gifts. And it should be written about us, by faith we gave our life to the Lord, God testified about it. Not that we sang songs on Sunday morning and other people testified about it. I pray that we shall have what Peter 1:01:02 says, the faith of the same kind as ours. That led Peter to sacrifice everything, even his job, his fishing, and finally I tradition says that when they were finally going to kill him, they said, "We'll crucify you like we crucify like your savior was 1:01:21 crucified." And Peter said, "I don't deserve to be crucified like my savior. Please put the cross upside down." So, they crucified him upside down because he didn't feel that he deserved to be crucified in an upright cross. 1:01:36 Boy, they offered to God that which cost them something. Let's follow in their footsteps. That's real faith. You will definitely have an abundant entrance into God's kingdom if you have that type of faith. If it's not that type of faith, 1:01:51 then I don't know. All the best, but I don't know. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that you look at the heart, man looks on the outward appearance. We all look very holy, 1:02:13 but you know those who have determined in their heart never to give you that which cost them nothing. You've given us so much. Many of us foolishly assume that we deserve it or that it is a result of our hard work. 1:02:32 But a few of us acknowledge it is all your gift. And therefore you deserve the best from us. Help us to be in that number all our days. Never to backslide from that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
