0:00 There's a lot of difference between speaking in a church where people see you and we can I can see them and speaking in a screen. So those of you who feel free, you can help me by turning on your video 0:19 so that I it doesn't look as if I'm looking at a blank screen so that I can see your beautiful faces and be encouraged that you are paying attention. If you got small children who will run around, please keep the video closed. 0:39 That's okay. But if you are adults in the room then you can by keeping the video on you will be more careful to recognize the presence of the Lord even though we are separated by distance that 0:58 the Lord is still there in your room and in my room and in between us. Distance is no problem for the Lord. So, as I said, if you feel free, please turn your videos on. Thank you. Those who have done it, thank you very 1:15 much. I have often said that the first two promises in the New Testament are very, very important. The Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament. 1:32 And so we believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the order in which the books should be there in the New Testament. I've heard that James was the first book in the New Testament written. But yet the Holy Spirit in his sovereignty has 1:49 put Matthew's gospel as the first book in the New Testament. So, and in Matthew's gospel, the very first two promises, you've often heard me say this. For those who have not heard it, please bear with me as I repeat certain things because I always 2:06 find that there are younger people in the church, newer people, and some people who are not as sharp and brilliant as some of you. And so, we have to bear with the weakest and the least intelligent and the one with the least memory. So, that's why I keep 2:21 repeating things. We think of some who are children spiritually and physically who need to hear something again and again. So if you have heard this 10 times, bear with me because think of there are others here who are probably 2:34 hearing it for the first or second time. Matthew 1:21, Jesus will save his people from their sins. Whenever a church loses sight of this first promise, it has already begun to go go astray. 2:52 The first promise is not he will forgive their sins. Forgiveness of sins is an Old Testament blessing. They did not see Christ die on the cross. But you and I also have not seen Christ die on the cross. They looked 3:10 forward to the death of Christ. We look backward to the death of Christ. What is the difference? Neither of us have seen Christ in dying on the cross. They looked forward in faith. We look backward in faith. And that is how David could say in Psalm 3:29 103. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who has forgiven all your iniquities. Psalm 103:3. All a ll. every one of their sins were forgiven 3:45 1,000 years before Christ. So that's not a special New Testament blessing. Not only that, let me show you another verse David wrote in Psalm 32 and verse one. How blessed is the man 4:04 whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Now covered means you take a sheet and cover up something that's written down on a tablet. Cover 4:23 up the screen with a sheet or a cloth. Sin is covered. But you lift the sheet, the sin can is still the what's written on the what's on the screen can be seen. If I can cover the screen right now with a cloth, I won't be able to see anything. But if I lift 4:39 the cloth, I can see everything. So when it says the sin is covered, it's just covered up like that. But if you lift it up, the sin is there. But in the New Testament, it says our sin is cleansed. 1 John 1 17 and 9. The blood of Jesus 4:57 doesn't cover our sin. It cleanses us. Means it blocks it out. That means it's wiped out. The screen is wiped out clean. The blackboard is wiped out clean. And you lift the cloth, there's nothing there. It's a tremendous 5:12 difference between Old Testament forgiveness, Old Testament cleansing and New Testament cleansing. Very very important for everyone in the church to understand. But then the problem comes of keeping on sinning. They kept on sinning in the Old 5:30 Testament. And is there to be no difference in the New Testament that New Testament believers will also keep on sinning, keep on sinning and like Psalm 103 and s Psalm 32, Lord, thank you for covering my sins. Thank you for forgiving me 5:44 endlessly and not only every day but many times a day. There are many Christians who live in 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And they need 6:02 that verse sometimes 10 times a day. Can you say that such people have experienced the first promise in the New Testament? He will save his people from their sins. No. Salvation from sin is not 6:22 does not remove make us victory over all sin in our life in a moment because we are born of Adam. We are totally unlike Christ. Not just unlike but totally unlike opposite like the north and south pole. Complete opposite. 6:40 In Adam we are the exact opposite of Jesus Christ. And it is a tremendous miracle when God promises that he will make us like Christ. It's like bringing the South Pole to the North Pole. Impossible humanly speaking, but that is the miracle God is seeking 6:58 to do. To make something black, white, totally black is going to be made totally white. That is God's aim for your heart. And my heart, many Christians live so much in the mind. The Bible says there's a difference between soul and spirit. In the Old 7:17 Testament, they had no dis understanding of soul and spirit. They only had body and soul or body and mind. People knew there's a body and there's a mind. Even the word conscience is never found in the Old Testament. Conscience, 7:33 it's translated as conscience once in 1 Samuel 24:5 in the King James version, but in the original Hebrew, it is not conscience. The word there is heart. I don't know why they translate it as conscience. But the word conscience is 7:47 never found in the Old Testament but it comes about 27 or 28 times in the New Testament. It's a very very important word in the New Testament. And the conscience is part of our spirit not our soul. In our soul, we have a 8:06 mind and our emotions and our will. And the will is the door to the spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot penetrate into your spirit until you yield your will. 8:25 Merely understanding everything in the mind will not open the door of your heart or your spirit. Heart and spirit can be used alternately in the same way interchangeably the it's only when your will is yielded that is what the Bible says the veil was 8:44 rent in the temple when Jesus died what is that veil which Jesus tore tore tore for 33 and a2 years it was his will John 6:38 says he came from heaven never to do his own will but the will of the father that is the complete biography 9:03 the autobiography of the life of Jesus. He said with his own words, I've come from heaven not to die on the cross. That's what a lot of people think. What he said was, I come from heaven never to do my own will but to do the will of my 9:17 father. In one item of that was dying on the cross. For many Christians, Christ dying on the cross is about the only thing. And for some people, it's Christ dying and rising from the dead. But that's not what he came to earth for. 9:33 If that was the reason he came to earth, God could have made Jesus just like Adam a full-grown man and he could have made another man and Jesus could have come into that body and gone and died on the cross. He need to live on this earth 9:47 only for one day to die on the cross for our sins. Have you ever thought why the father made Jesus live on earth for 33 and a2 years and to start life as a little baby and and to work as an ordinary workman, 10:07 a laborer in a as run his own carpenter shop, earn his living, live with four difficult brothers and two difficult sisters. Some of you who have difficult siblings, Jesus had much more difficult siblings than you. It says they never believed in him. I'm 10:23 sure they teased him and troubled him all those 33 years he was in 30 years he was in their home. Why did God allow that? That was not to die for our sins. That was to 10:38 make him an example for us to follow. So Christ came to earth not just to die for our sins. He came to show me how I should live on earth. That is why the he hardly ever used the words believe in me. He did say now and then believe in me. But the word that 10:58 Jesus mostly spoke to people was follow me. And Paul took up that in one Corinthians 11:1 and says follow me as I follow Christ. Do you know in the Old Testament nobody could say follow me. Have you noticed that? Read through the whole Old 11:16 Testament. Not Elijah, not Moses, nobody. The first time you hear a man, Jesus said, "Follow me." And apart from Jesus, the first time that you hear a man, a human being saying, "Follow me as I 11:33 follow Christ," it's Paul. And he set an example for you and me to be able to say to others, follow me as I follow Paul, as I follow as I follow Christ. That is true Christianity. 11:51 It is not I'm going to heaven because I believe Jesus died for me. The sinner's gospel. It's not even the gospel. Gospel means good news. What sort of good news is this that saved me from a pit? You see, sin is like a sewer. 12:09 You know, when you flush your toilet, everything goes into a sewer and there's a pipe that flows through the city. And all of us have not just fallen into that sewer. We have lived in that sewer all our life from the time we are born 12:25 again. That's what sin is like. And if you don't see living in sin like living in a sewer all your life, getting angry, getting upset, having bitterness and unforgiving attitude and lusting after women and telling lies and loving money. 12:41 Yes, loving money is living in the sewer. You won't hear that in other churches because the pastors themselves love money. It is living in the sewer. When you lust with your eyes, that's living in the sewer. Think of that. 12:59 I have a use this example also. It's like putting your I mean we it's difficult to describe sur because most of us have never seen a sur in our life. But think of a toilet an unflushed toilet. Haven't you all seen an unflushed 13:13 toilet? Now think if you would put your head right inside that and drink up that water. It's a horrible picture. Oh, you say, "I wish we'd have the same reaction to sin." I wish we'd have the same reaction every 13:31 time a sinful thought comes into your mind. I wish we'd have the same reaction every time you speak an angry word. I wish you'd have the same reaction when you gossip and backbite and speak evil of others. That is putting your head 13:45 inside the toilet, an unflushed toilet, and licking up the water there. Dear brothers and sisters, I've spent my life particularly the last 50 years in 13:59 CFC preaching in exactly this way. And that is why we have preserved CFC through the years. A few here and there have fallen away. A few elders also here and there have fallen away. We can't protect everybody, but the Lord has 14:17 protected thousands around the world. and especially among very very poor people who are most of you are all educated you've got college degrees and all most of my work and Annie and I have worked among the poorest villages in 14:33 India that's where we spent 40 years of our life every year we would go to those conferences and and he would conduct medical clinics there for 25 years for those poor people who don't even have a pharmacy in their village, leave alone 14:52 any doctor, and we could help them and lead them to show them that there's a way of life. And I it's so wonderful for me to see some of those people who can't even speak English properly now become amazing Bible teachers who can 15:10 teach you and me. That's what God can do when we preach against sin. those two first two promises and the second promise is Matthew 3:11 he will immerse you the word baptiz is unfortunately misunderstood because it's 15:29 not an English word it's uh if I use a Hindi word or a malalum word you won't understand what it means it's exactly like that baptize is a Greek word we don't understand it you got to translate it if I were to use 15:48 a Hindi word and you had to translate it into English. So baptize has to be translated and they did not translate it and the reason they didn't translate it was very interesting that they were you know the Bible is called the King James 16:04 version the first one and King James was a person who was a head of the Anglican church which did not practice baptism by immersion they sprinkled babies and called it baptism. So the people who translated the Bible felt, boy, if we translate this as 16:23 immersion, King James will cut off our heads, saying you're going against church traditions. So they did a very clever thing. They couldn't translate it as sprinkling because that would be a lie. So they invented a word in the English language 16:39 called baptism which nobody understood. Supposing I say you understand it English it's an Indian word it's exactly like that when they use the word baptism 16:59 nobody understood what does this mean so they assumed oh this must be referring to the sprinkling of babies that's how for years and years people have understood sprinkling of babies as baptism what a fantastic work of deception 17:16 the devil has done with just that one word and you have millions of people today sprinkled as babies and disobeying God's word which says you must believe and then be baptized I'm just giving you one example so here Matthew 3:11 you 17:29 must be immersed in the Holy Spirit not sprinkled with the Holy Spirit no you must be immersed like baptism is not sprinkling baptism in the Holy Spirit is not sprinkling it is an immersion in the Holy Spirit you know What happens when a person is 17:45 immersed in water? What happens? You can't even see him. He's completely buried under the water and a person who's really filled with the Holy Spirit will be like that. When a person is partially under the water, you can still see a part of him. 18:03 But when he's completely immersed in the water, you can't even see a hair on his head. It's like that when people allow the Holy Spirit to come into their life, it's like going partially into the water. So, you can still see quite a 18:16 bit. Lot of people who are born again, they have received the Holy Spirit. Sure, they've received the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 says, "If a man has not received the Holy Spirit, he's not even born again." The moment you're born 18:26 again, Christ comes into your heart. How? He's in heaven. Christ is in heaven. Through the Holy Spirit, he comes into your heart. But it does not mean you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you know here it says you'll be 18:40 immersed in the Holy Spirit. Can you all tell me many of you have read the New Testament when did the disciples disciples of Jesus when did they receive the Holy Spirit? Tell me if you know the scriptures if 18:59 you read it carefully. You just have to read the first five books of the New Testament to know the answer to that. If you've got as far as Acts of the Apostles, you know the answer to that. When did the apostles receive the Holy 19:16 Spirit? Well, let me tell you. John chapter 20 on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. John 20:1 19 in the evening on the first day of the week. John 20:1 19 19:34 Jesus came and stood before them and said, "Peace be with you." He always brings peace. Please remember my dear brothers and sisters, if Jesus is in your home, there will be peace. If there's no peace in your home, please 19:51 say to yourself, Jesus is not here. You can put a board on the wall saying Christ is the head of this house, but he's not there. Because wherever Jesus comes, the first word he says is peace. And you know that the presence of Christ 20:09 is with you. If you have peace in your conscience, that means your conscience does not disturb you about anything. That's peace. If your conscience disturbs you about one thing, you don't have peace. Then you can imagine that Christ is with 20:26 you. He's not. Peace be with you. And then you know what he told them on the first day, the day he rose from the dead, verse 22, John 20:22, receive the Holy 20:44 Spirit. Jesus was up there in heaven when he with the father said, "Let there be light." In Genesis 1. And when Jesus and the father and the holy spirit said, "Let there be light." 21:02 Light came. You read that in Genesis 1. Now Jesus is on earth and says, "Receive the holy spirit." Did those 11 disciples receive the Holy Spirit or not? Of course. Just like light came in Genesis 1 when Jesus spoke those words, they received 21:21 the Holy Spirit. That is when they were born again. They were not born again on the day of Pentecost. They were born again on the day Jesus rose from the dead because that day was 21:38 the beginning of a new age, the beginning of the new creation. And just like Adam was made on the first on the sixth day, the first week of creation here Jesus was starting a new creation. 21:56 And then Acts chapter 2, it says in verse 4, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 20, they received the Holy Spirit. No, John 20, they received the Holy Spirit. Now they were filled with the Holy Spirit. That means the spirit of 22:13 God controlled their whole being. But that was not just once. You read again in Acts chapter 4. In Acts chapter 4, it says, "They were all filled with the Holy 22:31 Spirit." Again, in verse 31, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4:31. Acts 4:8. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit. But you say, "Hey, Peter was filled with the spirit. Holy Spirit on act in chapter 2. Does he have to be filled 22:48 with the Holy Spirit again?" Yes. He was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2:1. Acts 4:8, he had to be filled with the Holy Spirit again. And a few days later, Acts 4:31, Peter was there. He was filled with the Holy 22:59 Spirit again. You mean you had to be filled with the Holy Spirit again? Just you you were filled with the Holy Spirit yesterday and you're filled with the Holy Spirit again? Yes. And what about Paul? When was Paul filled with the Holy 23:11 Spirit? We read in Acts chapter 9. Ananas Acts 9:17 came to Paul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord has appeared to me and has sent me." Acts 9:17. 23:31 The Lord has sent me to you that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul received and was filled with the Holy Spirit immediately. As soon as Ananas came and prayed for him, that did not happen when he saw Jesus on the Damascus road that time he 23:48 sort of got converted. But then he got filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts some days later when Ananas came and prayed for him. But that wasn't the only time. Later on you read again Paul Acts 13 verse 9, he was filled with the Holy 24:04 Spirit again. And then later on in Acts chapter 13, Paul along with all the others in verse 52 were filled with the Holy Spirit again. Yeah, when you get time, you can listen to this message again, look at those references again and see the number of 24:20 times they were filled with the Holy Spirit. So being filled with the Holy Spirit is not a once-for-all experience. And it is not the same as receiving the Holy Spirit. You are born again, then you must be filled with the Holy Spirit 24:31 again and again and again. And I'm sorry to say that your leader or leaders have not taught you that in your church to urge you to seek for that. And that's been part of the problem. You try to live the Christian life with your 24:50 knowledge of the Bible. There are people who know the Bible better than you and me. But if they're not filled with the Holy Spirit, they cannot serve God. Do you know that the scribes and Pharisees knew the Old Testament much better than the 25:04 disciples even on the day of Pentecost? Who was who was there in Jerusalem who knew the Bible the best? The scribes and Pharisees who called Jesus the devil and killed him. What does that teach us that you can be a great scholar of the Bible 25:19 know it through and through and still think that Jesus is the devil? That is amazing how blind you can be when you're a Bible scholar. But you won't be blind when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. I spent years studying the Bible cover 25:36 to cover. I've read it again and again and again again. As soon as I was converted when I was 19, I read through the whole Bible in 8 months. I understood very little of it. But then I studied, studied, studied, studied. 25:49 But I was defeated by sin. With all my Bible knowledge, I was defeated by sin until God filled me with the Holy Spirit. Then things began to change and I had to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. So that's the second 26:01 promise in the New Testament. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. The first is not he will forgive you your sin. He will save you from your sins and he will immerse you with the Holy Spirit and fire and the two are 26:14 connected. You cannot be saved from your sin without being filled with the Holy Spirit constantly. That is the great need my dear brothers and sisters. And one mark of being filled with the spirit, one mark. It's not healing the 26:32 sick or raising the dead. All those 120 people who were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost did not raise the dead or heal the sick. That is a special ministry God gives to some people. They were didn't all become apostles or 26:47 prophets, but it helped them to be holy. What does it say? A person who is a how should a Christian walk on earth in the new covenant? That's written very 27:03 plainly in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6. 1 John chapter 2:6. This applies to anyone who says I am in 27:22 Christ. Christ is in me and I am in Christ. I think all of you are listening to me are saying that. Okay. Then this is verse is for you my dear brother, my dear sister and you young people, even you children. If you have received Christ into your 27:41 heart, this verse is for you. Don't just think this is for the older people. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6. Anyone who says that he is in Christ must must 28:01 walk as Jesus walked. That means he must live as Jesus lived. That one verse is enough to challenge you for the rest of your life. If every day I have this verse in front of me, 28:20 I say I am in Christ, then today I must live as Jesus lived. Walk as Jesus walked means live as Jesus lived. Imagine having this verse in front of me every day. If you sit in front of a computer, you have that on top of your 28:34 computer. I say I am in Christ. Then today I must live as Jesus lived. I must speak as Jesus spoke to everyone. I must think as Jesus thought throughout this day. And if I keep looking at that, looking 28:51 at that, and looking at that, I'll be convicted. And day by day, I'll become holier. Because we need to be reminded. Our memory is so poor. We remember the evil that other people 29:10 have done against us for years. That is how corrupt this flesh of Adam is that we still hang on to unfortunately. But thank God the Holy Spirit has come to help us to overcome the flesh and to put the actions and the thoughts of the 29:30 flesh to death. I must live as Jesus lived today. I must speak as Jesus spoke to everyone today. To unbelievers, to believers, even to hypocrites. 29:49 I must speak as Jesus spoke. I must be gentle like he was with the woman caught in adultery. And I must use the whip where people are making money out of others in the name of Christianity. And I must rebuke strongly 30:12 people who speak about the Bible and who are hypocrites like the Pharisees. I must say to them, you generation of wipers, how will you escape the damnation of hell? Now, you may not be called to be a prophet, so don't say it. 30:26 But that is how Jesus spoke. The meek and gentle Jesus took a whip when he saw people making money in the name of religion. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He uses his servants to use their words 30:45 like a whip against people who try to make money in the name of Christianity, especially leaders and preachers and pastors. And he rebukes strongly you hypocrites 31:03 those who are living a double life who living one life in private hidden from the eyes of the people in the church. Especially if they are leaders and then preaching great powerful sermons like the Pharisees were doing and living quite a different life in p 31:23 private. That's happened. Fortunately, and by God's grace, we've only had a very few cases like that in CFC churches. There have been a few, but very, very, very few. Less than 1%. 31:46 That's a pretty good average, less than 1%. cuz we have today about 300 or more elders and facilitators in all our 120 churches. So 1% is we we have not even had 32. It's much less than 1% of people who 32:05 have lived a hypocritical life as leaders. One life in public preaching and another life in private. They were there in Jesus' time also. Judas's scariat was number one. 32:21 And in Paul's time also, you know, Paul had a coworker. Paul had many co-workers. Timothy was one of them. And one of his co-workers is a man called Deus. And Deus was a close coworker of the 32:41 Apostle Paul. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 4. He's making a list of his co-workers. Colossians 4:12. Epherus Colossians 4:12, 33:00 a bond slave of Christ. Luke Colossians 4:14. Luke, the beloved physician, and Deeus, co-orker of the Apostle Paul. Paul didn't just pick up any believer to be a 33:18 coworker. Only wholehearted radical people were his co-workers. But the same Deus a few years later 2 Timothy 4 33:37 verse 10. The same Deus who was a coworker in Colossians chapter 4. Such a good coworker that Paul could mention his name when writing to the Colossians recommending him here is a man of God I can send to you Colossians. 33:52 The same man 2 Timothy 4:10 has loved this present world and has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Deus 2 Timothy 4:10. So just like there was a Judas in 34:11 Jesus's group, there was a Deus in Paul's group. Do you think Deus preached powerful sermons? Sure. He had heard Paul so many times. I'm sure he had a brilliant mind, clever man, and he could preach powerfully because 34:31 he could grasp things. When a person speaks well, it doesn't mean he's spiritual. I'm sure Deeus was a man who had a good mind and knew everything that Paul preached and heard Paul, absorbed it, and went and preached it to others. 34:47 that today there are hundreds of people who have listened to me on YouTube and who preach my sermons. I have no objection. Somebody once asked me this question. Brother Zach, can I preach your sermon? I said yes on one condition. Only one condition. 35:05 You don't have to quote me. You don't have to say I heard this from brother Zach. That's up to you. If you want it, you can say it. But more important than that, you must live it first. You do what I have taught then preach 35:19 what I have preached. Why do I say that? Because that is the example I see not just in the life of Paul but I see that in Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 1 the very very important verse 35:38 to me one of the most important verses in Acts of the Apostles is the very first verse. How many of you know the first verse of Acts of the Apostles? The very first verse in Acts of the Apostles. Do you know it? It is the most important verse. 35:58 Acts 1:1. And there this is Luke. Luke is writing Acts. He also wrote the Gospel of Luke. And he wrote it to the same man, Theophilus. And he says that first account he's referring to the gospel of Luke. Theophilles. Dear Theophilles, you 36:15 remember I wrote that first letter. He's talking about the gospel of Luke. The first account I compos the gospel of Luke describing describes what? What does the gospel of Luke describe? All that Jesus began first to do and 36:30 secondly to teach. To do and to teach. To do and to teach. To do and to teach. Everything that Jesus taught, he first did. He never taught anything that he did not do. 36:49 That is the first verse of the acts of the apostles and that is described in the gospel of Luke. Paul's Luke's summary of the his gospel is all that Jesus began to do and teach in his physical body. Now if you to ask brother Luke, can you 37:07 make a summary for the acts of the apostles? Yes. All that Jesus continued to do and teach through his spiritual body, the church. That is what he first did in his physical body. And now this is what Jesus continued to do 37:27 through his spiritual body, the church. And if today after 2,000 years you and I are part of that spiritual body, we should be doing that. We we should have we have no right to teach what we have not done. 37:46 If ever I I know in many areas I'm growing spiritually. I don't claim to become like Christ. I'm not fully like Christ yet. There are areas where I'm growing. For example, it took me a many many years to overcome discouragement. 38:02 It took me many years to be overcome anxiety. It took me many years to come to the place where I could rejoice in the Lord always. Always means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I did not come there the day I was born again. It took many 38:18 years. It took many years to come to the place where I could say I'm free from anxiety that I'm giving thanks in everything many many years. So what what should I do? Keep quiet in all those years never 38:37 preach no I can get up and say brothers this is a mountain peak I have to reach never be anxious for nothing. Philippians 4:4. I haven't reached there yet, but I'm climbing. Climbing. That's what I said. I'm climbing. Please follow me. And as 38:55 year by year by year, it became better and better in my life. I did. And I taught, but I never pretended that I'd reached the top of the mountain. I'm pretty close to the top of the mountain now after 50 years of seeking 39:09 to follow the Lord and after 66 years of being born again. You won't get there overnight. You will not become like Jesus in one day. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit today. It can take you 50, 60, 70 years to become like Christ. But you'll never 39:24 become like Christ even in a 100 years if you don't seek to walk in his footsteps with a clear conscience every day. Most important, when you're filled with the spirit, keep your conscience clear. When you're not filled with the spirit, 39:40 you're like a person with leprosy. My wife worked a lot with people who had leprosy. In fact, that's what challenged me to marry her. That she went to work among lepers when no other lady doctor had ever gone. I said, "Boy, that's the type 39:56 of person I want to marry who cares for the poor and the sick." And but she taught me something about leprosy that leprosy is something you you don't have any sensation. You touch that man there, you poke him with a nail, you feel 40:10 anything? No, I don't feel anything. You don't feel anything when I poke you with a nail? No. He's got leprosy. So when you can sin and not feel it, that's spiritual leprosy. That means your conscience is dead. 40:26 You men, if you can lust with your eyes, with a picture of some woman on a on the computer screen or on your phone or in a magazine and uh maybe for 5 seconds, 5 seconds you did not feel the nail poking you. 40:45 Brother, you've got leprosy. You felt it only after half a minute of looking at that filthy picture. Then you realized, "Oh, it's bad. I must stop away." Half a minute, you could not feel the nail poking your skin. Brother, you got leprosy. 41:05 Wake up. Make your conscience sensitive. Or brothers and sisters, you see, lust is a problem with men. What about anger? Sister, you don't get convicted when you get angry. When you raised your voice and shouted in anger at your husband or 41:24 at somebody else, sister, you didn't get disturbed by it. And only after half an hour you went and apologized. Half an hour the nail was poking you, poking you, poking you. Half an hour and you didn't feel it. You got leprosy. 41:40 Ask God to heal you. Go like those lepers to Jesus and say, "Lord, heal me. Why am I saying all this? Because I want you to be a living expression of the body of Jesus Christ 42:00 who did and taught. Who did and taught. I'll tell you in my own life, I'd say I was very sincere as a Christian for many years. I left my very high job in the Indian Navy as an officer when I was 26 years old. I gave 42:19 up everything. All my money I took and gave it away for God's work. And I started my life with zero in my bank account. Even though I'd earned a lot of money as a naval officer for 8 years. And I said, "Lord, I want to live for 42:30 you." But I was still a defeated Christian for the next 8 years. Even though I was a full-time worker, even though I was preaching, I'm telling you the truth. Because nobody had preached to me the gospel of the first two verses in the 42:49 New Testament. Jesus will save you from your sin. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit and fire. I'm sorry. I grew up in a churches which never taught me that. That's why I decided that I will preach those two truths wherever I go. 43:07 I began to see God on my own. I said, "Lord, I want to be saved from my sin, not just forgiven, and I want to be immersed and filled with the Holy Spirit." And God in his great mercy met with me. I was thoroughly defeated as a born 43:22 again Christian. The nail would poke me and I wouldn't feel it. Later I would wake up, oh, apologize for my anger or repent of dirty thoughts. Yeah, I was not a holy man from day one. Externally, I was very good. I never 43:41 committed adultery or killed anybody or harmed anyone. Never borrowed money even once in my life or paid all my taxes uprightly. All those things which other people think external life. My life was perfect. My problems are all inward. Wrong 43:57 attitudes to people. Everything inward. Outwardly I was a saint. and inwardly a hypocrite but not a hypocrite who wanted to be a I was a repentant hypocrite every day. Every day I would say Lord I'm not what 44:15 I should be. Please have mercy on me not have mercy on I never pretended. I mean I kept up a front before people but I didn't say Lord I'm holy. I never thought I was. I went before the Lord in repentance almost every day of my life. I fasted 44:31 and prayed. I said, "Lord, deliver me from this. I want to live a holy life. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to live a spiritfilled life and I want to serve you. I don't care if I I'm paralyzed or anything. It doesn't 44:45 matter, but I want to be holy." I was more interested in spiritual holiness than in physical health. Honestly, I even said, "Lord, I don't care if I'm paralyzed and in bed the whole rest of my life, but I want to be holy inwardly." 45:02 When you have a passion like that, I tell you, God will make you holy. But we are so careful. If we get a nail pokes our feet, immediately we want to take it out, right? Because it can get infected. 45:21 If you get a cut in your hand, immediately you want to wash it and put some medicine, right? Otherwise, it'll get infected. Why aren't we just as careful when it concerns our conscience? Very, very important. Let me tell you the importance of 45:40 conscience in Acts chapter 24. Please turn with me to Acts the Apostle chapter 24. Paul says, "Because of this, 45:59 I do my best to maintain a good conscience before God and before men." And whenever you read a word like because of this or in view of this, you must look at the previous verse. It's this is not Bible study, just simple English. Whenever you read in 46:16 view of this, you say, "Why?" In view of what? Why is Paul saying, "I must keep my conscience always blameless before God and before men." Always means 24/7, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I must keep my conscience clear before God and 46:32 before men because of this, because of what? Verse 15. Let me read it to you now correctly. There will certainly, whether you believe it or not, whether you, whatever you may think, it makes no difference. There will certainly be Acts 24:15, a 46:50 resurrection of the righteous and of the wicked. Two resurrections. You read that in Revelation 20. Also, a resurrection of righteous people and a resurrection of wicked people is going to happen when Christ comes again. 47:07 First, the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked. And let me add a few words here. Paul says, I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. So what do you do Paul? If you want to be in the resurre ah this is how I'm 47:23 going to be in the resurrection of the righteous. I keep my conscience without blame every moment of every day. That's the meaning of always before God and before men. If I've hurt somebody, I apologize to the person immediately. If 47:37 I've taken something wrongfully, I return it as the first opportunity. If I borrowed something, I'll return it as the first opportunity. If I've taken money from somebody, I'll return it and return it with interest like Zakius did 47:50 when he returned money. That is righteousness. Because I want to be righteous before God with a blameless conscience. A conscience doesn't prick me even a little bit. That means I have no leprosy in my conscience. No part of 48:05 my conscience has got leprosy. Any part of my conscience you prick, I feel it immediately. Why? Why are you so keen on having a blameless conscience, Paul? He says, because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. I don't want to be 48:21 verse 15, the resurrection of the wicked. There are two resurrections, and I don't want to end up in the wrong resurrection. I want to ask you, my brothers, sisters, has anybody ever preached this verse to you the way I'm preaching it now? 48:34 Have you ever in your life heard any preacher tell you that you'll be in the resurrection of the righteous only if you keep your conscience blameless day and night before God and before men? Am I teaching a strange doctrine from some 48:47 other book? Is this some Hindu or Muslim book I'm reading it from? No, this is from the Bible that you have read. I'm sure all of you have read Acts 24 sometime. Have you taken this word seriously? There will certainly be a 49:02 resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. And I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. Therefore, in view of this means because of this, I do my best. I don't take this casually. I do my best. Supposing you have a 49:18 little child who's seriously sick. You'll take him to one hospital. They can't treat him or there's no place. You'll rush to another hospital and that one the beds are all full. You go to another one. When will you stop taking 49:30 that child whom you love, your only child to the hospital? You'll keep on going from hospital to hospital because you want that sick child to be healed. You're doing your best. You'll forget about everything else. You'll forget 49:40 about food. You'll forget. That's the love of a mother for a child. I want to treat sin like that. Some of you brothers say, "Oh, I'm not getting victory over sin." Brother, I tell you, treat sin like I'm just describing to you. You'll get victory 49:54 over sin in 24 hours. Your life will be different. We don't keep our conscience sensitive. We have treat God so lightly because we have preachers who have tickled our ears. 50:13 We have preachers who have explained doctrine. CAT is cat. BAT is bad. 2 + 2 is 4. 3 + 3 is 6. You go to that church after 15 years, CAT is cat, BAT is bad. Said when are these people going 50:32 to grow up? Is that all that is in the English language? Is that all there is in the arithmetic? 2 plus 2 is 4 and 4 + 4 is 8. How many of you parents will allow your children to sit in a school like that? And yet there are multitudes 50:45 sitting in churches like that who are listening to CAT is CAT and 2 plus 2 is four year after year after year. Oh, confess your sin. Jesus will forgive you. Confess it again tomorrow, maybe five, 10 times a day tomorrow. He'll 50:58 forgive you. You'll be cleansed. What about he will save you from your sins? I've used this example. You've probably heard it also. If my little 8-year-old boys is going outside the road near a ditch and I said, "Be careful. They're digging 51:16 a pit there. You'll fall into it." And like little children, he disappears and falls into the pit. And he cries out from inside the pit, "Daddy, daddy." And I run onto him and say, "What happened son? Dad, I'm sorry. I disobeyed you. I 51:27 went near the pit and I fell into it. Please forgive me." And he my son is lying in the pit. And I say, "Son, I forgive you completely. Goodbye." Have I forgiven him? Yes. I'm a man who keeps my word. Have I saved him? No. 51:46 That is exactly the condition of many Christians. They asked the Lord to forgive them from a pit of sin they've fallen into. But they never asked the Lord to save them from that. Lord, save me from lusting with my eyes. It's a terrible pit. It's 52:01 a filthy toilet bowl. Unflushed toilet bowl. I've fallen into these dirty thoughts and I'm wallowing in it. I'm dipping my head in it all the time. This anger, this anger that you have towards your husband, towards your wife, towards 52:19 somebody else, this bitterness that you have towards someone whom you cannot forgive because of some wrong that person did to you or your family long ago. And you keep that bitterness and think evil of him all the time. That's 52:30 putting your head in the toilet bowl and licking it unflushed toilet bowl. You see it like that. It's a small picture that sin is much worse than that. And Jesus died. 52:49 If you want to know how serious sin is, remember it could not be removed without Jesus being crucified and being sent to hell by the father. That's what it means to be forsaken by the father. When he was 53:06 forsaken on the cross for three hours, he experienced hell. Not three hours of hell. No, the punishment for sin is not three hours of hell. Then how did Jes Jesus take my punishment? 53:24 Punishment for sin hell is punishment for sin is eternity in hell. That's why no human being could die for my sins. He'll have to go to eternity in hell. But even if he goes to eternity in hell, he can pay for the sin of one 53:43 person. How could Jesus pay for the sin of all humanity with just three hours of hell? Do you think of these things? We think so much about our earthly work. Think of how much time you spend thinking about your work, how to make 54:00 more money, and how to do well in your profession. Good. Good. Think about these things also. How could Jesus suffer for all humanity with just three hours of hanging on the cross, even if he suffered hell forsaken by the father? 54:15 I'll tell you why. Because he was an infinite being. He was almighty God. If he was just a man, he could not have taken the sins of humanity. It's simple multiplication. Infinite being multiplied by 3 hours 54:36 is equal to eternity for the billions and billions of people. Eternity into billions of people is equal to an infinite person multiplied by three hours in the cross. He suffered eternal hell for me. It's a mathematical truth. 54:56 I thank God for it. I remember I have said this before how the Lord opened my eyes to see how in Gethsemane Jesus prayed and I make it personal you know like Jesus say I say Jesus died for me he prayed in Gethsemane for me 55:16 and the father I imagine the father saying you don't have to go to the cross you've lived a perfect life come up to heaven from here but Zach will go to hell and she says Zack will go to hell. Okay, father, let's go to the cross. Put your 55:33 name there. It'll change your life. It changed my life. I remember many years ago when the Lord spoke that to me. I still remember that day when I asked the Lord to open my eyes to understand Gethsemane, Calvary. I understood Gethsemane. And 55:49 this is what the Lord showed me. He said, "Father, I'll go for Zach's sake." I made it personal. Make it personal. put your name there. I wept and wept and wept and wept. I can't don't remember for how long. I said, Lord, I cannot 56:06 ever ever live for myself again. Impossible. I will not live for money. I will not live for myself. I'll deny myself anything. I want to live for you 100%. Give me life. That was when I was 56:25 in my 30s. And I am 86 now and I'm still not finished. I said, Lord, give me a long life where I can show my gratitude to you. That's all. I don't want any reward in heaven. But I'll never stop saying thank you to you. 56:40 My whole life is just writing a sentence. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me. I've still not finished that sentence. That's why I'm alive. I had a road accident when I rode my motorbike one day in India and I was 57:00 unconscious. My head hit to the ground and I almost died. And when I was came to finally came to my senses and I came I said Lord I have not finished saying thank you. I've only written th Ha. I've got still 57:19 a lot more to write. Thank you Lord Jesus. I let me complete my sentence. I looked at my whole life as writing a sentence. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me. I still haven't finished that sentence. I'd written only about tha 57:31 those I was in my 30s. And the Lord said okay I'll give you more time. More time for what? More time to live a holy life. more time to live a life totally devoted 57:48 to showing my gratitude to Jesus for going to hell for me. Yeah, I feel emotional even when I think about it now for so many years. It's not wrong to feel emotional when 58:07 you think about what Jesus went through on the cross for you. Dear brothers and sisters, we don't have to be teachers. There are many people who have tried to be teachers in the church 58:25 and you fallen away into sin. Don't be a teacher, but be a liver, one who lives the life even if you cannot teach. It says in James 3:1, "Don't become teachers because you'll be judged with a stricter 58:45 judgment." Haven't you heard some people who can preach so well and teach so well and explain things so well and you say, "Boy, I was blessed by that message, but the guy was not living the life." And you have seen that in Austin, too. 59:04 Such people will incur James 3:1 a much stricter judgment because they preach such a high standard as if they were doing postgraduate and they were living not even in the kindergarten. The life was kindergarten level and 59:22 their preaching was PhD level. Hypocrites of the first order. Such people will incur a stricter judgment. So don't it says here don't try to be a teacher. You mean we should never teach. Yes, you can teach. When you follow Acts 1 verse1 59:42 Jesus did and taught. Did and taught. Did and talk. You can teach whatever you have done. What you've not done. Keep your mouth shut and say I'm trying to follow this way. I've not yet reached there. Please follow me in this pursuit. That's fine. 59:58 You're honest. I believe every one of us must be a witness for Christ. Now, all all of us are not called to be teachers. Very very few teachers in the genuine teachers, anointed teachers in the word of God, I have seen very few in my whole life. I can count 1:00:16 them on my fingers in the world. The ones I've come across who live and teach And those who are honest, I think that number is increasing in CFC now for 1:00:33 those who are trying to live and teach. Praise the Lord. I believe that's one reason God has raised up CFC churches because we emphasize Acts 1 verse one. Live and teach. We emphasize 1 Corinthians 11 verse1. Follow me as I 1:00:50 follow Christ. Two important words. Do you want to be a leader of God's people? Sister, do you want to be a godly sister who helps other sisters? Here is a verse for you. Acts 1, sorry, 1 Corinthians 11:1, follow me as I 1:01:09 follow Christ. Then you can teach sisters. Then you can brothers, you can teach the brothers. If you can say to them, follow me as I follow Christ. Look inside my mind. you and see my attitude to money. You must have the same attitude to money as I 1:01:24 have. I can say that to anybody. But you can ask God to open up my mind and see my attitude to money. See how I live frugally even today as I've always lived for the last 60 years. And how my wife and I have lived 1:01:42 in our home for 60 years frugally. So I can say follow me in that area. Follow me in the way I study the Bible. You don't have to follow me in preaching because that is a gift and God doesn't give it to everybody. But in the life, 1:02:01 yes, studying the Bible every day. I study the Bible when I couldn't teach anything. I just for my own life. Attitude to money. Attitude to those who have hurt me and harmed me. I'm a servant of the Lord and because of that many people have harmed 1:02:18 me. The devil has instigated numerous people to harm me because I serve the Lord. I'm a threat to the devil. But I have forgiven every one of them. I can say before the Lord today, there's not a human being in the world whom I 1:02:31 have not forgiven. People have troubled me and taken me to court falsely accusing me. I have forgiven them all. Everyone there's not a single person in the world 1:02:49 anywhere whom I have any bitterness against. Zero. Not one person. Many have harmed me in many ways. Physically hurt me in ways which damaged me permanently. Forgiven 1:03:08 without exception. in in Christians who were forgiven. You should be able to have that testimony then you can say follow me as I follow Christ. There's a serious verse in Matthew 6 1:03:27 verse 14 and 15 which says if you don't forgive others God will not forgive you. I've often quoted that verse Matthew 6:15. If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you. That is the lowest level. That is the 1:03:52 kindergarten level at which you must forgive others because you want to be forgiven. That is a selfish reason. 100% selfish reason. I forgive others because I want God to forgive me otherwise I'll go to hell. Isn't that a selfish reason? 1:04:10 When will you rise up to an unselfish reason to forgive others that I forgive others because Jesus has been so good to me? Not because I want to be forgiven. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because Jesus has made me partaker of 1:04:26 his nature that I forgive others. Not because I'm saying, "Lord, therefore, please forgive me." No, I forgive others because it has become my nature. But at least start at the kindergarten level. Kindergarten level is forgive 1:04:44 others. Forgive others. Forgive others. Otherwise, you'll go to hell. Okay? Start there. But that is kindergarten level. Don't live there. If you don't forgive others, God will not forgive you. Start there. If you don't get past that, you haven't 1:05:02 even finished kindergarten. But don't stay in kindergarten for grow up to the place where you forgive others because that's God's nature. Not because you want forgiveness because that is God's nature. You delight in forgiving others. As soon 1:05:16 as somebody hurts you, you forgive. Not only that, from there God has led me to a higher level. Is there a higher level than just forgiving others? Sure. Matthew 12:32. It's amazing. Scripture has got so much wealth in it. 1:05:36 Can you believe that I read that verse for 60 years before understanding it? 60 years. And it never hit me till about a few years ago. Matthew 12:32, "Whoever speaks a word against the son of man, it'll be forgiven." 1:05:55 What do you get from that? I read it so many times for 60 years and I never got accept that Jesus forgave people. But I realize now when I read it more carefully that Jesus is speaking about the future way back 2,000 years ago he said whoever 1:06:12 speaks means for the next 2,000 years if anybody speaks against me he's forgiven right now. And I said Lord I want to follow you. Whoever speaks against zakun and whoever does anything against zakunin for the rest of my life and even after I'm gone 1:06:26 from the world I have forgiven them right now. That's called future forgiveness. Have you done it? It's a very blessed life. I tell you your life will be very peaceful. Your sleep will be peaceful. I never get disturbed in my sleep at night. I don't 1:06:44 get terrifying dreams or any such thing. In my younger days I did. It's all gone. My mind is at perfect rest all the time when I'm awake and when I'm asleep because I have forgiven everybody. Not because I want God to 1:07:03 forgive me. No, because that has become my nature. Jesus didn't forgive people because his father had to forgive me. He had nothing to father to forgive. And I say Lord even if there's nothing for you to forgive in me I still forgive 1:07:21 others because it has become nature you know you graduate from kindergarten to the higher classes where you do something because it's like homework oh if I don't do the homework the teacher will punish me tomorrow that people who live at that 1:07:36 level will never study anything seriously you come to the place where I study because I want to learn I want to understand not because the teacher will punish me tomorrow. So I want to forgive because that's God's nature. 1:07:50 I want to be pure because that's God's nature. Dear brothers and sisters, the Christian life is a wonderful life. It's a life where I partake of the very life of Jesus. And that is how I can walk as he walked. He doesn't tell us to walk. 1 John 2:6 1:08:10 says we must walk as Jesus walked. How in the world can we do that? By Jesus giving us his life. I've often used the example of a pig and a cat. A pig and a cat both fall into the dirty 1:08:29 water. One just stays there and licks it and enjoys himself. You know which that is? The pig. The cat jumps out immediately and licks itself clean. Licks itself clean. I have seen cats who are already so clean still licking themselves, 1:08:45 licking themselves, licking themselves. I say, "What in the world?" There's nothing wrong with there's nothing dirty in this cat. They're still licking itself. Haven't you seen cats like that? And those cats are a great example for 1:08:54 Christians. Judge yourself. Judge yourself. Even if you think there's nothing wrong, judge yourself. Take that example from the cat. Next time you say see a cat licking itself, even though the cat is perfectly clean licking itself, say, "Lord, teach 1:09:09 me to be like that in my Christian life. always cleansing myself so that there's not a speck of dirt in me. I believe God has put cats as a example for us to follow. You see a pig and a cat can walk through a very dirty pathway where there's a 1:09:27 really a narrow clean way. The cat will walk along that clean way perfectly, never going into the side or not. But the pig, if you want to keep it on that narrow road, you'll have to put a chain on it and keep pulling it, keep pulling 1:09:40 it. Does the Holy Spirit have to keep pulling you like that to keep you from falling into sin? And you say, "Yes, I managed to live today without sin because the Holy Spirit was pulling me, pulling you there, pulling you there." That is a cat 1:09:54 stage. That's a pig stage. Sorry. You got to grow out of that. First you're in the pig stage where you're without any chains just wallow in the mire. Then you come to the stage where the a chain is put on you and every time you go that 1:10:08 way you're pulled back or this way you're pulled back. Imagine growing out of that to the cat stage where you don't need a chain. You just avoid the dirty this side and that side even if it's a very narrow path. You always walk in the narrow path 1:10:22 because you want to walk as Jesus walked. Not because you're afraid of being punished for sin. Not because you want God to forgive you. No, no, no, no. Because you want to walk as Jesus walked. And that is only possible if 1:10:36 you're filled with the Holy Spirit. So dear brothers and sisters, thank you for patiently listening to me. I wish I could go on and on and on because I have a burden that not one of you who listen to me should have a regret when you stand before Jesus 1:10:54 Christ our Lord. When he comes again, when you stand before him and he reviews your whole life and he tells you, "I sent my servants to speak to you again and again. I don't want him to say to any of you, 1:11:12 but you did not listen to my word." I hope he'll never say that to any of you. Dear brothers and sisters, if it has been like that till now, take it seriously today. Forgive everyone. Whatever sin people have committed 1:11:32 against you, it is not as bad as crucifying Jesus Christ who immediately said, "Father, forgive them." Immediately before he said anything else, he said, "Father, forgive them." Follow this is the real Christ. Follow 1:11:50 him. And he tells us, walk as he walked. 1 John 2:6. And you can never do that if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you this. If you really seek to walk as Jesus walked every day and judge yourself, nobody will have to tell you 1:12:09 to seek God to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You'll be crying out to God every day. Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. because you discover that it's not easy to walk as Jesus walked. May God help you all. 1:12:24 Let's pray. Please bow your heads in prayer. Don't forget anything God has spoken to you today. What is the number one thing God that comes to your mind right now? 1:12:43 The number one thing among the many things you heard, bring that up before the Lord. Say, Lord, this thing you spoke to me today, I want to deal with it in my life. Seriously, I want to take it seriously in my life from today. And please don't 1:12:57 let me forget this tomorrow or next week or next year. Remind me of it, Lord, again. I'm such a forgetful person. Please help me to remember all that I heard today all my life that I may please you before you come again. 1:13:15 Heavenly Father, I pray that every one of those who have heard today will recognize that their responsibility is increased a 100 times today because of what they've heard before. You help 1:13:34 them to take their Christian life seriously and also the possibilities of a wonderful life has increased a 100 times today because they've heard about being filled with the Holy Spirit. Please help everyone here. Encourage everyone. 1:13:53 Assure everyone that you're listening to their prayer right now. Keep our minds pure, Lord. Keep our minds and our hearts full of love. Fill our hearts with the love of God and purity in an evil world. 1:14:10 Make our lives completely different. And let the people in our homes see that first of all before people outside that in our homes people will see us becoming more Christlike. That we can say to others who live with us in our home every day, follow me as I 1:14:29 follow Christ. Help us Lord each one we pray in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
