0:01 So let's turn again to Matthew chapter 5. It's I take it as a very serious 0:16 responsibility to explain this because if I explain it rightly then you'll know what it is to build on the rock and if I made some mistake I'll be responsible to some extent for making some of you build your life on 0:36 sand. So I want to make it clear that's why sometimes I repeat and for those who are very clever you don't need repetition but please remember there are some here who are not as smart as you are they need a little repetition 0:53 so Jesus spoke to the disciples and uh the first one he said was blessed are the poor in spirit those who have a constant sense of their own need the I mentioned these nine right attitudes. The second was those who mourn for their 1:10 sin. Not those who just confess their sin. Many Christians confess their sin, but mourning. Oh Lord, I let you down so badly. Uh you look back and see when was the last time you mourned. I don't mean tears, but a inward, oh Lord, I'm so 1:28 sorry that I let you down so badly there. That's mourning. You know that they will find strength. The word comfort is from strength. And blessed are the meek or the gentle. Those who don't fight for their rights. You'd think that those who don't fight for 1:44 their rights will get nothing. But the Lord says they'll inherit the whole earth. That is God's way. God has a way of surprising people. You don't fight for something and he gives you more than what you deserved. Wonderful. That's 1:57 God's way. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And you say, "What is their reward? they should be satisfied. You say, "Boy, that's not much of a reward." I'll tell you why it is. If you're really hungering and thirsting for 2:12 righteousness, you'll say, "That is my reward. That's what I want." You're not looking for something else. If you're looking for If you're hungry and thirsting for righteousness in order to get something else, then you're not 2:21 hungry and thirsting for righteousness. So, I see that hungering and thirsting for righteousness means you get righteousness. That's your reward. I hope you recognize that when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, if God 2:33 gives you righteousness, say, Lord, that's my reward. I don't want anything else. Are you looking for something else? I hope not. And then he says, "Blessed are those who are merciful." The great danger when we are very 2:43 righteous, particularly when we are really righteous, is that we be tend to be unmerciful towards others who don't live at our standard of righteousness. Oh, look at that guy. He compromises here. Be merciful. Maybe he doesn't have 2:59 the light you have. Maybe you're in the 10th grade and he's only in the first grade. Don't despise him. If he doesn't know some of the subjects that you know in the 10th grade, be merciful. Be merciful that he has not known the truth as much 3:15 as you have. Sometimes we look at other believers and say, "Why are they doing that?" Oh, maybe he hasn't understood the truth like you have. Be merciful. That means overlook it. Assume that he doesn't know. Don't assume that he's 3:28 disobeying. Sometimes you see somebody doing something which you know is against God's word but he doesn't have light on it. I don't mean something like murder or theft or something like that. I mean some small little thing which you 3:40 know clearly God's word says but make allowance for the fact that the other person possibly doesn't know. Be merciful to others and forgive everyone. Very very important. And the next one is peacemakers. Blessed are uh sorry, 3:55 blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That teaches me one thing that the real mark of purity of heart is that you want to see God. The great desire is not just that I don't want to do this sin. I don't want to do that sin. That's also 4:12 that's also purity. But beyond all that, if your great longing in your heart is not to see the glory of God within you, to see Christ in your heart, then you're really pure in heart, where you want to not just avoid sins, but long for God 4:29 himself. And then blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. There's a people are always pursuing peace with others and wanting at any cost to make peace with people and who will never get into a fight. I hope all 4:46 of us here are people who will never get into a fight on any subject not even scriptural. You know a lot of people come to argue with me. You know we stand in CFC we've always stood for a very high standard of doctrine obeying 4:59 scripture exactly. We have even challenged people saying show us something in the New Testament that we are not obeying. Show us something. We've challenged I've challenged people personally. Can you show me something in 5:10 the New Testament that we are not teaching or we are not obeying. So when we have such a high standard of righteousness, what happens is people who don't have that standard of righteousness but who are born again begin to criticize us to somehow say hey 5:22 these guys are extreme. Yeah. That's the way they u it's a sense it's a in a sense they abuse us and many people don't have light that that is a form of abuse saying these people don't have light well why do they persecute because 5:36 we're standing for the truth okay uh then we come to verse 10 blessed those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness that means particularly in our place of work we stand for what is right I don't 5:53 mean you deliberately cause offense but like I said we will not tell lies we will not cheat and sometimes we are asked to do something wrong in our place of work and we say sorry sir I cannot do that many times I had to say that in the 6:08 military I'm sorry sir I'm a Christian I can't do that don't just say I'm sorry sir I can't do that say sir I'm a Christian that's why I can't do that let them know that there's a reason for your don't be ashamed in that opportunity to 6:23 confess Christ. Simple thing like I remember once I think I mentioned this the my senior officer asked me why I wouldn't drink alcohol. I said sir I'm a Christian and I don't drink alcohol. So it's a whenever you get an opportunity 6:40 for standing up for righteousness to proclaim the name of Christ say it. And uh if you're persecuted, it's interesting to see that the poor in spirit, verse three, get the same reward as those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The kingdom of 6:58 heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, verse three, and it belongs to the those who are persecuted for righteousness. and they get the same reward. Which proves to me something that if you're really poor in spirit, have a low 7:10 estimate of yourself and you stand up for the truth, you will be persecuted for righteousness sake. And then verse 11 is those who are persecuted because they confess Christ. Persecuted say all kinds of evil against 7:28 you because of me. Now, why would anybody say evil against you? because of Jesus Christ. I mean, you're proclaiming righteousness, love, humility, peace with all men. Why in the world would anybody persecute you? Because your uprightness and your 7:47 following Jesus exposes that they are not. And we've seen that again and again and again. For example, take a simple thing like when we have a baptism. We are exposing all the believers in the world who did not take baptism 8:06 who were sprinkled as babies because their church taught that that is baptism. Do you know there are number of churches that preach child baptism that is that's not baptism. Baptism means immersion. A child is not immersed. They 8:18 sprinkle some water on the head and they call it baptism. And so when such a I was sprinkled like that as a baby but when I became a believer I took baptism and people who are the majority of Christians in the world Roman Catholics and the Anglicans 8:34 and all those people they don't bapt immerse people. So the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians do not practice water baptism. So they can think that you're trying to act superior to them. I say no we're obeying God's 8:46 word and you can be persecuted for that. You know there are people who have been actually persecuted in many places just because they took immersion baptism because it exposes the hollowess of the other people or it could be some other 8:58 thing you stand for righteousness and for the name of Jesus Christ and then of course those who come from other religions. We we've had num numerous cases of that in India. We have at least thousands of people in our CFC churches 9:12 who've come other from other religions. And I know something of the persecution they endured because they stood up for Christ. It's not easy. There very few people sitting here perhaps who have had to face persecution because of coming 9:24 out of a non-Christian faith. But that is something which is very true in many parts of the world where they and what happens is people will say it says here they say all kinds of evil falsely against you 9:42 because of your stand for the faith. I want you got to ask yourself, have people in your life ever said something false about you? Because if you're standing up for the faith, people have said false things about me, 10:01 numerous things. And I believe if you really stand up for the Lord, they will persecute you in some way by speaking false things against you. And at that time you they you all these have you noticed one thing in all these nine 10:18 attitudes only eight of them have got a reward. Only the first eight have got a reward. You'll get this you'll get this you'll get this. Why is the ninth one got no reward? He just says rejoice and be glad. I'll tell you why. Because I see it like this 10:37 that to be persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ is itself a reward for me. Have you seen it like that? It's a great honor to be persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ like the early Christians. I say Lord I don't want any other 10:51 reward. That is the reward for me that I stand up for you and they persecute me. Praise the Lord. See it like that. Then so be rejoice and be glad. And he says, "Your reward is great in heaven." And uh you're put in the same category as Moses 11:08 and Isaiah and Daniel and Jeremiah and all the prophets. Boy, what a reward that is to be put in the same category as all those prophets. And you're not a prophet, but you just stood up for Jesus and were willing to face all the false 11:22 things people said against you. And that's your reward. You're categorized like one of the prophets of the Old Testament. What a great honor. So stand up for the Lord. And then we finished the nine um right attitudes. And the 11:35 result if you keep these nine attitudes, the Lord says you will become the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, verse 11, how can it be made salty again? So he's selling there that once it you lose your taste, it's very 11:50 difficult to make it salty again. It's once that means you backslide. It's very difficult to come back. You can come back but far better if you don't backslide. As a salt that has lost its state is a backsliden Christian. 12:04 So be careful because sometimes you can backslide and like it says in verse 13 is thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Good for nothing. It's a tremendous expression. Good for nothing. We people use it in a despising way about certain. 12:21 Oh, that guy's good for nothing. Imagine Jesus said that somebody's good for nothing. You know who? Those who do not have the qualities mentioned in verse 3 to 12. Isn't that what he said? He read all this and said, "This is the salt of the earth, but if 12:41 you don't have this taste mentioned in verse 3 to 12, you are good for nothing." Those are the exact words he used. I don't want to be good for nothing. a good for nothing Christian. I see I see it seriously. They used to use that expression in the 13:01 Navy GFN. Good for nothing. Good for nothing. But that's that's what it is here. Someone who does not have these qualities. So I got to take these qualities serious otherwise the Lord says I'm good for nothing. And I don't 13:10 want to be like that. And the Lord says then it's you're not useful to the kingdom of God. So it's not a question of preaching. Now you look at the qualities listed in verses 3 to 12. Is preaching mentioned there? No, you don't have to be a preacher. 13:29 Is a great prayer warrior mentioned there? No. All these things are qualities that any one of us can have without any gift. You know, prayer warrior is a gift, preaching is a gift and that God gives to some people. But these are not gifts. The qualities 13:49 mentioned verse 3 to 12. You may have no gift of preaching. You may have no gift of powerful prayer. You may have no gift of healing or anything. Yet you can have all these qualities and you can be part of the salt of the earth that brings 14:03 taste. What the Lord is saying is that this world is being preserved. You know we use salt to preserve. It's well known. All housewives know that with salt we preserve things for a long long time. And I see that this world has not 14:19 been destroyed yet because here and there around the world there's some salt which has not lost its taste. And all these 20 centuries God has had some people who are like having these qualities who are the salt of the earth 14:35 preserving this earth from destruction. People make fun of the Christians and laugh at these Christians and say all types of things against you. But you are the ones who are preserving this earth from destruction if you have these 14:47 qualities. So you're doing a great ministry to this earth and that it will be preserved until the time Christ comes. So you're the salt of the earth and if you lose your saltiness then you're fit to be trodden underfoot 15:03 by men. That's what he said there. So meditate on these qualities from verse 3 to 12 frequently. We go on to the next thing. Not only the salt of the earth, the Lord says also you're the light of the world. So that's the other thing I want to 15:22 mention. Um a city set in a on a hill cannot be hidden. Let me just say one thing about salt to the earth and that is how many people salt is very little. That's what 15:41 I want to mention before I go on. How in in a plate of rice or something like that how much salt do you put even one teaspoon of salt is too much. You know that in a in a plate of curry you need very very little salt to make that whole 15:58 curry or plate of rice field this has been salted. That teaches us the number of Christians required to preserve this earth very very few. You may be one person in the office and preserve that office as a witness for Christ. One person it 16:15 requires very little salt. You remember what the Lord said to Abraham in that city of Sodom with thousands of people. If there are 10 people who are righteous, I won't destroy the city. Out of thousands, 10 people could have 16:33 been like salt. Or I don't know whether you know another example I'll show you in Jeremiah chapter 5 in the land of Israel. Jeremiah chapter 5. Here's what it means to be a salt of the earth. Jeremiah chapter 5 16:51 and verse one. The Lord told Jeremiah, "Rom to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem." You know, this is the time when Jerusalem was going to be judged by God for its sin. And see here and there and look in the open squares and see if you 17:07 can one man, not 10. In Sodom, it was 10. But now the Lord says, "Can you find one person in Jerusalem who does justice and seeks truth? I'll pardon the whole city." Have you seen that? The tremendous influence that one person who stands up 17:26 for the Lord can have. These are the things that should grip us when you're all alone in standing up for the Lord in your office or in your in the midst of your community or you got relatives or all not wholehearted Christians or compromising type of 17:42 Christians which is as good as unbelievers but you stand up for the Lord one person in Jerusalem. It was a great challenge to me. Most of the time I found myself in a ship. When I was on a ship, I was the only believer on the whole ship. And I said, "Lord, I 17:58 can be a witness for you. One person is enough." [snorts] And said, "A great challenge. Let me show you another verse." This is the time when Israelites were being sent into Babylonian captivity when Jeremiah said that. Here's another verse. Ezekiel 18:16 in chapter 22. This is the same period of time as Jeremiah, Babylonian captivity time. Ezekiel 22:30. The Lord said to Ezekiel, "I searched for a man again in Jerusalem among all the people who will build up the wall 18:33 spiritually and stand in the gap for me." But I could not find even one. I could not find one. All God required was one person. Therefore, I poured out my judgment on them, consumed them with fire. You see 18:52 these two places in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. That means if God had found one person who stood up for him, things would have been different. You know in we read that, let me give you another example. When Elijah said, "Lord, I'm the only 19:07 one left." Do you remember what the Lord told him? I have still got 7,000 people who have not bowed the knee to Bal. But none of those 7,000 people could bring fire down from heaven. [gasps] 19:26 That testimony was negative. I don't bow down to idols. I don't go to movies. I don't watch pornography. And there are many people who say like that. It's a negative testimony. I don't bow down to bal. They could accomplish 19:40 nothing. There were 7,000. The man who brought fire down from man was not just a had a testimony. I don't go to the movies and I don't bow down to the other. He was a testimony. I stand up for the living God. Even if the king 19:52 tries to kill me, I'll expose him. I stand for the truth. That's the man who brought fire down from heaven. And I tell you, that's the person who will bring fire down from heaven even today. Not the person who says, "I don't watch 20:02 this and I don't do this. I don't do the other thing." Don't let your holiness be a negative testimony. I don't do this. I don't do this. I don't. Stand up for the Lord. like Elijah be willing. He He was willing to be killed if necessary. Those are the 20:18 people who accomplish something for God. Okay, we got to move on. The next example the Lord uses is the salt of the earth. Sorry, the light of the world. Just like salt, light also, [snorts] a lamp or a candle is very, very small. 20:37 Take these bulbs here. They're very small. Oh, look at the H hallogen lamps in the streets. Very small but lights up the whole road. Again, the principle in both salt and light is a very small testimony but lights up a whole area. Gives taste 20:54 to taste to the whole plate of food. All these examples the Lord uses to show us the in every century at all times the number of wholehearted disciples of Jesus will be very very small. So I'm not excited when I read that when 21:11 church has got 2,000 members or 10,000 members. I'm not at all excited. Okay. They don't bow the knee to be ba. Good. Like the 7,000 there was a church in Israel or call it a church of 7,000 people who did not bow the knee to Val. 21:29 But they did not have any influence in that country. One man who stood up for God accomplished more. He brought the whole nation down falling down and acknowledging that Jehovah is the true God which all those 7,000 people couldn't do. And there are these 21:46 two types of Christians also the 7,000 people who have a testimony. I don't do this. I don't do this. I don't do this. I don't have any bad habits. I don't brother that should not be our testimony. Even here it could be some 21:56 people your early testimony is I don't do this and I don't do this. I avoid this sin. Avoid that sin. I don't get angry. I don't get upset. I don't watch pornography. I don't tell lies. What about standing up for Jesus Christ 22:07 in your place of work? What about standing up for Christ in the midst of your unconverted relatives? Ah, that is like being an Elijah. That'll make you unpopular. In fact, if you avoid all these bad habits, you may become 22:18 popular. Oh, what a decent upright man. But it doesn't bring any glory to Christ. We need to stand up for Jesus Christ and not have a negative testimony. Light is like that. It drives out the darkness. And in fact, uh, testimonies must be such, you know, when 22:33 you walk down a street, you can see immediately there's a house that's lit up. There's a house, there's no light. That should be our testimony. In the midst of the world, and we live in in an office, work in an office or in the midst of our 22:49 relatives, people should know there's a person who's completely different. He's not a negative testimony. He doesn't do this. He doesn't do that. But a positive testimony for Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you, seek to be like 23:03 that, the light of the world. He said, Matthew 5, you are the light of the world. And it's not something need to be hidden. Are you seeking to hide from your unconverted nominal Christian relatives that you're a wholehearted 23:20 disciple of Jesus? Are you ever ashamed to admit that I'm not just an ordinary Christian? I'm a Christian who believes the Bible 100%. I seek to follow what Jesus taught 100%. Well, they'll think you're peculiar. Let them think you're 23:35 peculiar. You'll be a witness for Christ. You may save some of them from eternal damnation. But if you try to cover up your testimony with try to appear like a decent human being, you'll get a reputation. You're a decent person. But 23:47 they will turn turn point to you in the day of judgment and say you knew the truth and you never told me. I don't want anybody who came to know me well enough to say that I never told them about Jesus. I'm not talking about everybody who's I 24:02 meet here and there but someone who is close to us. Is there anybody close to you who's not converted and to whom you have not made it clear there is only one way of salvation. Why don't we make it clear? Why don't you let the light shine? Is any bulb 24:22 ashamed to shine? Because the room is too dark. Does the light ever complain, "Oh, this is too dark. No, I don't want to shine over here." The darker the room, the greater the need for the light. And so, a light is not meant to 24:36 be hidden. It is to shine so that all may see. And what is the light? It says here in verse 16 that they may see your good works and glorify your father who's in heaven. So the purpose of light is not you know you 24:55 don't go down the road and you don't say hey what a bright light that is. That's not what we say. We say look at how brightly the road is lit. People even don't even bother about the lamp over there which is bright giving the light. 25:08 They are taken up with the road that is lit up. And so it says here that when people see your good works, they don't glorify you. That's the important thing. They glorify your father in heaven. So that's very important. You know, I 25:25 told you that we need to be witnesses for Christ to our relatives in our place of work. And that's not for us to get glory or credit that oh what a wonderful Christian he is. Let them see your good works. Not just your good words. It's easy to preach, 25:44 but along with the words, your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. You know, I when I read something that I think of Joseph, he was in prison. What was the thing that started the process that made him finally the ruler 26:03 in Egypt? Can you think of one thing that started the process that made him the ruler in Egypt? I'll tell you. He was considerate when he saw two discouraged people. He saw two discouraged people and said, "What's the matter? Why are you 26:18 discouraged? That is what started the process by which they told him the dreams, those two people, and he explained the dreams and started the process that finally made him the ruler in Egypt." So it didn't come with his pre 26:32 proclaiming some great truth about Jehovah or any such thing with a simple question and I've often said that to many of our fellow believers. You may one day see somebody in your office discouraged and go up to him say brother why are you discouraged and 26:51 say anyway I can help you and encourage him. You never know what will result from that. It's not just by preaching or carrying a badge saying if you don't believe in Christ you'll go to hell or something like that. That's not usually 27:05 the way we draw people to to Christ. I mean some people are called to wear badges or something. If God leads people to do that it's fine. But Jesus didn't go around with a board like that on his chest. He by his good works that people 27:19 see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. So the light is not just preaching. What is the light in verse 16? Let your light shine that they may see not hear your good words but see your good works. 27:37 May God help us. Amen.
