0:07 I'd like to turn to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1. If you can turn in your Bibles, please follow with me. The book of Hebrews has got a number of 0:30 warnings for God's people. One of them is an earlier chapter. It says in verse chapter 2 and verse 3, I'll read that first. Hebrews 2 verse 3. He's speaking to believers, "How will we 0:49 escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" The average desire for salvation for the vast majority of believers 1:07 is that I don't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven for eternity. And their whole attitude is, "What is the bare minimum I have to do to get to heaven?" It's almost like saying, "Well, I want 1:25 to enjoy myself as much as possible here on this earth, but I don't want to miss heaven. So, I'm willing to do the bare minimum to get there." Now, I just want to warn you, if any of you have that attitude, my fear is you will never get there. 1:48 Because I don't think anyone's going to go into God's presence for eternity whose attitude here on earth is, "What is the bare minimum I have to do to please this God? It says here, "How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" 2:06 He's not talking about rejecting it. These Hebrew Christians have not rejected, and I don't think any of you have rejected the message of salvation. He's talking here about neglecting it. Neglecting, you know, you can have a 2:21 child born in your home. You love that child. You don't reject that child. But you can neglect that child. A parent can neglect a child. Neglect not in the sense that you don't feed them or clothe them or educate them, but you don't bring them up in godly 2:39 ways. That's neglecting them. And they grow up to be worldly, and then parents weep and say, "Oh Lord, what to do? My children have gone astray." Well, you neglected them all your life. So, many children whom we don't reject, 2:54 we neglect. And in the same way, our salvation, which we don't reject, which we glory in the fact we have accepted the salvation, we may be neglecting the greatness of that salvation. And part of it is what we read here 3:13 in chapter 4, verse 1, "Let us fear." And here is one place where we can neglect this wonderful salvation that Jesus Christ has such a great price. If someone pays a tremendous amount of 3:30 money to get us a very expensive gift, and they come along to visit us later and find that it you've just neglected it and it's somewhere thrown away in the corner, ignored, and full of dust, they'd wonder, "Why in the world did I 3:48 ever get this expensive gift for this person who doesn't seem to value it. And I feel it's like that sometimes the way we have treated God's salvation. The salvation of Christ is so wide and so fantastic 4:07 that I believe uh in our whole lifetime we will not plumb the depths of it. We will not able to reach the extent of it. It's such a great salvation. And uh we have to fear. It says here 4:23 lest God having given us a promise of entering into a very restful life we come short of it. The theme in chapter 4 is of entering into God's rest 4:42 which was God's original purpose for Adam. That's mentioned here in uh verse 4. It says in the seventh day God rested on the seventh day from all his works. You know, I'm always amused by the way 5:01 the writer writes something like this. Somewhere it is written and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. All of us know that's in Genesis chapter 1. 5:19 But you know, these writers of the scripture were not so particular about uh you know, showing that they know where in the Old Testament this verse is found or that verse is found. It's a good thing to know it for our own benefit. 5:36 But they were more interested in experiencing it. Not quoting it. It's good to know Bible references and to know Bible verses. We use scripture memory verses. that is for our benefit. But if I only know a reference or I can 5:51 memorize a verse, that hasn't fulfilled 1% of the purpose of that verse. I must experience it. And there is a Sabbath that God ordained for Adam, which had a deep meaning. That's what it says here. 6:11 And it says in the first verse, "Let us fear lest we don't enter into that rest." In in the Genesis in what in Genesis chapter 1 we read that God made everything in the universe, and after he completed everything, the 6:31 last thing he made was the animals, and then when everything was ready, he made man and woman in the last part of the sixth day, towards the end of the sixth day, towards the end of that 24-hour period, 6:49 Adam and then Eve. So, what I get from there is God has prepared everything. He could have made Adam and Eve on the first day and say, "Well, just wait. Let me make this beautiful world for you." No, he made everything, 7:03 and when everything was ready, then he made Adam and Eve and says, "I want you to enjoy this beautiful world." It's like a father who has made everything available for his children, and says, "Okay, I've made everything, 7:18 my sons and daughters. It's for you to enjoy." And bef- before they went out to enjoy that that in the Garden of Eden, the Lord said to him, "But, I want you to spend the first day of your created existence with me. And I don't want you to work. 7:40 I don't There's a lot of work to be done in the garden, but that can wait. All the work I have planned for you can wait. You must first fellowship with me, and I want I enjoy fellowship with you. I made you in my image, Adam and Eve, 7:57 and I have a great longing. I didn't make any of these millions of angels in my image. I could not fellowship with them, but you you I can fellowship because you've got my nature. You've got my I made you in my image. And so I want you to fellowship with me 8:16 and enter into this rest, which I call a Sabbath rest. Then you can go out and work for 6 days in the garden. Now, in the law, uh which came much later after Adam had sinned, 8:33 2,500 years after Adam's sin, Moses gave a law saying, "6 days you shall work, and then you shall have a seventh day of rest." But God's plan for Adam in the beginning was 8:51 one day you rest with me and then go out and work for 6 days. That's amazing. It's uh God wanted Adam to see what a loving father he was. I mean, it's something like if you joined a very prestigious company for a job with a 9:08 very high salary, and they told you, "Well, we first want you to take a 1-month vacation to start your work. 1-month vacation, and then come back and you can work for us." You'd say, "Wow, what a good company this is." But that's how God was treating Adam. I 9:25 wonder whether he realized it. I don't want you to go and work first. I want you to rest and have fellowship with me, and enjoy that, and then you'll have the strength to go out and work. That is the rest spoken of here. 9:44 And he says here in the first verse, "Let us fear lest we get so busy doing things for God and going here and going there and trying to do something and we have not entered into that first day Sabbath rest. The Sabbath rest is not 10:01 here the seventh day rest. It's the first day rest. The first day for Adam was rest, you know. Our dear Seventh-day Adventist friends think it is the seventh day. Uh some of them are born again, but we love them, but they're wrong. 10:16 Adam it does not Adam's seventh day that was a Sabbath. We go back to the beginning. Adam's first day was a Sabbath. That's why we don't care for Saturday. It's the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead. That is the day we come together. 10:34 There's a significance of our coming on Sunday. It's symbolizing that God Adam's first day was a day of rest. That was a Sabbath. And the meaning of that Sabbath, more than the actual day of the week, is the meaning of the Sabbath 10:48 that is important for us. God wants us to enter into that rest and then serve him. And if we try to serve him without entering into that rest, that's the cause of all the problems we have. All the murmuring, all the complaining, 11:04 all the grumbling. And more than that, the questions we have about Does God really love me? Is he always looking at me with a frown? Do some of you feel like that that God is because you're not perfect, God's looking at you with a frown all the 11:24 time. His brow is I mean, he doesn't have a face, but there's a frown on his face looking at you. Well, I'm not so happy with you. It's almost most believers I think live like this. That God's looking at them with a frown which says 11:39 really, I'm not very happy with you. You're a terrible disappointment with me, but I tolerate you. Okay, I'll bless you in some way. But to tell you honestly, I'm pretty fed up with the way you're living. I'm not very happy with you. Now, you 11:55 know, so many believers live with that type of attitude. They haven't entered into God's rest at all and they'll never get into God's rest and they'll never be able to do anything useful for God until we first get this matter settled. 12:08 Looking into God's face, looking into Jesus' face and to be sure that he's smiling at me. Now, I'll tell you why I say that. For so many of my years of my Christian life, I myself felt that God had looked at me with a frown. 12:26 But it all changed for me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit uh being filled with the Holy Spirit, not just once but being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, it says, comes inside and cries out, 12:41 "Dad." Romans 8:16, the word "Abba" in that verse in the New Testament, the English translation is "Dad." Have you ever Now, I can teach you dear brothers and sisters, please look up and call God your father. 12:59 Or be more intimate and call him Dad. And you say, "Is that what I have to do? Okay, Dad." The whole thing's so artificial. But can can you imagine the joy in your heart when your little baby one day spontaneously looks at you and 13:15 says, "Dad." He's not being taught to do that. It's just a spontaneous expression of affection and love and confidence that you are his father. or he says mama. Imagine the joy in the mother's heart when a little baby says 13:32 that for the first time, and every time he says that, it's not artificial, it's not forced, it's not so much somebody has taught him saying you must call him dad, you must call him mama. No. Dear brothers and sisters, that's what 13:46 God wants from us, and only the Holy Spirit can produce that in you. I wish the Holy Spirit would convince you today of God's eagerness to have that relationship with you. He waited 4,000 years after 14:05 Adam's failure till he could accomplish it. And even after 2,000 years after the day of Pentecost when he sent the Holy Spirit, he still finds so many gloomy Christians who still don't rejoice 14:22 in knowing that God's smiling at them. And the excuse that so many Christians make is say, "Well, how come the world can God smile at me? I'm such a wretched sinner. I've got so many things wrong in my life. I'm not perfect." 14:38 Well, that's why he sent his son. You know, Jesus often used to tell people the Pharisees were the people who thought they were perfect. And Jesus said, "I didn't come for you guys. No, because I have not come for the 14:57 righteous. I have not come for the perfect people. I have come for the sinners." Have you read that verse? "I did not come for the righteous." Jesus said, "But I have come to call sinners to turn around towards me." Repentance. 15:15 Don't get scared of that word. A lot of people make so much of that word repentance. It's such a scary theological word. We try to understand the depth of its meaning. I'll tell you in very simple terms today and I hope 15:27 you'll never forget it. Repent means you know, there's a beautiful word in the Indian Tamil language. It's the most accurate translation of repentance I've ever heard. In Tamil, the word for repentance is 15:45 manam tirumbutal. Manam means mind. Tirumbutal means turn. Turn your mind. That is repentance. That means you're facing in the wrong direction. My son, my daughter, turn towards me. Is that a scary word? 16:04 If your dad is standing behind you and offering you something very precious and says, "My son, my girl, don't look the other direction. Turn towards me. I love you. I've got something for you." That's repentance. I hope you'll never forget it. Manam 16:23 tirumbutal. Turn your mind around from looking in the wrong direction, from being gloomy, miserable, complaining. Turn around and look at me. I'm your father. I gave my son to purchase you, to make you my own forever. Turn towards 16:42 me. That's how we come to rest. If I repent, I can come to rest. If I turn around, the reason why we don't come to rest is because we are looking in the wrong direction. That's why I want to speak about what repentance means first of 17:00 all. It's repentance and faith. When I turn around and I look at God's face and you see him smiling at you, faith becomes very easy. See, if you always look at God as a grumpy, sour person, it's almost impossible to have faith. 17:19 You Do you remember the story of the person to whom the Lord gave some talents and told them to invest it. And um one man uh when he came back, he he he had not invested it. 17:37 One of the people used that one mina. This is The story is in Luke 19 and um verse 11 to 27. And one man They were each Each of his 10 slaves were given one mina each. Mina was the coin of those days. 17:56 And one of those people invested that one mina. He didn't put it in a bank and get, you know, 2% interest or something. He invested it and some type of stock exchange or something, and that one became 10. And the master commanded him. 18:14 And another chap invested him and made five mina. They were bold to take a risk to get something for their master. But this The other fellow who had only one, you read about it in Luke 19 and verse 20, he did not He didn't even put it in a 18:32 bank. He wrapped it up in a handkerchief, it says in Luke 19 and verse 20, and he buried it somewhere. In one place, it says he buried it under the earth. And when he came back, he gave the master, "You gave me one mina, right? 18:48 Here it is." This is the chap whose attitude is, "What is the bare minimum I have to do to go to heaven? I know God is a very demanding type of person." That's what he said in verse Read verse 21 and 22. Why was his life useless? The The person 19:06 who was given one mina and produced nothing with it is a is an example of a believer who's done nothing with his life for God. He received everything from God, forgiveness of sins, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, 101 earthly blessings and 19:23 spiritual blessings. And what has he given returned? Nothing. Why? Why is that? Why are so many believers like that? And I'll tell you why. The answer is here in verse 21. I was afraid of you. Luke 19:21, I was afraid of you. 19:45 You're a very exacting man. You know, taking up what you did not lay down, reaping what you did not sow. Boy. What an impression about God this man had. Don't be surprised that is exactly the impression that many believers have 20:04 about almighty God, their heavenly Father. Probably some of you have. And then your lives will be unfruitful. The one life you have, that's all you'll have to give to God with accomplished, whatever you accomplished with it, zero. 20:23 You went to a few church meetings. Okay. And you sang the songs. And you attended the Bible studies. That's all? When God wanted you to accomplish something fantastic through you, 20:43 nothing could be accomplished. Because you felt God is so demanding. You felt he's always looking at you with a frown. He's always sort of telling you you're imperfect. You're imperfect. You don't recognize that's the voice of 20:58 the devil. I'll tell you something many, many years ago. I'm very thankful about this that the Lord taught me years ago. This is going back more than 40 years ago. Um I was in a I had a dream. Very rarely God speaks to me in a dream. 21:17 But this is one of those dreams through which God spoke to me. And in my dream I was coming back from a meeting. You see, I was traveling those days different places preaching the God's word in different different places. 21:30 And in this dream I was coming back from a meeting where I had poured out my heart uh preaching God's word. And as I was walking back to the room I was staying in, it was not in my hometown, somewhere else. As I was walking back to my room, I 21:46 heard a voice behind me saying, "That was not good enough. You could have done better." "That was not good enough. Your preaching was not good enough. You could have done better." And you know, I thought I'd poured my heart 22:05 out, done everything to share God's word, and here was I felt God saying to me it wasn't good enough. And my head my face fell. And I said, "Lord, why is it 22:21 when I when I talk to you face-to-face, you always encourage me? But when you speak from behind my back, you always say, 'That's not good enough.'" And I felt the Lord saying to me in my dream, "Turn around and look." And in my dream I turned around and 22:39 looked. And it was a devil, some black figure there that suddenly disappeared as soon as I came, as soon as I looked around. I learned a lesson there that I'll never forget. God was trying to teach me. Sometimes God speaks through a dream. 22:56 And the lesson was, "I never will tell you that was not good enough. That's the devil. No, I thought the devil will never say to me that was not good enough. The devil never will never challenge me to do better. But there's a lot of difference between 23:14 challenging someone to do better and keeping on telling him, no matter what he does, that was not good enough. So, I learned something. I mean, you try telling your child who's uh worked hard and done something to make a gift for you and you say that was 23:31 not good enough. That's enough enough to crush his spirit. And you should never speak to a child like that. No sensible father will ever speak to uh children like that. I remember my uh boys when they were small, 3 4 years 23:45 old, they would give me birthday cards on my uh birthday. Birthday cards means what? We couldn't afford expensive cards, you know, just a piece of paper on which they'd written um my dear daddy, happy birthday and the spelling 23:58 was wrong, the D was written crooked, you know? It doesn't make a difference. It was precious to me. So precious that I still have copies of some of them after so many years. What did it matter to me that the spelling was wrong? What did it matter 24:13 that it was not written in a straight line? What do I call my son and say, "That card was not good enough."? Is that what I'll tell him? I hug him and say, "Thank you so much, my son, for thinking of me and greeting me on my 24:26 birthday. I love you so much." And I thought, "Boy, that's how God is." When I present my imperfect effort to try and love him and serve him, he's not looking to see whether it's all in a straight line, whether the E is written the other way 24:45 and the D is written crooked. Not at all. He's a million times better father than me. He will hug me and say, "I'm so thankful that you love me." Remember that, my dear brothers and sisters, and don't let the devil say to 25:01 you that was not good enough. I learned a lesson there that I'll never forget because you know, I grew up I never had a spiritual father to talk to me like I'm talking to you now. I wish I had. But I never had one. Uh I don't know I looked around and 25:20 the elders in my church were not godly men whom I could look up to. They never spoke about victory over sin. Uh they never spoke about words that would encourage and lift me up. They never taught me how to be filled with 25:33 the Holy Spirit. They just taught academically scripture from here and there and all their clever sermons and what could I do? So, I had to learn to seek God myself. I was like a an orphan spiritually. Really. 25:51 Uh I longed like Timothy for a spiritual father like Paul, but God never chose to give me one. And anyway, in one way that was good because I had to seek God myself. And I became more dependent directly on him. Sometimes we can become so dependent on 26:11 a man that we lean more on him than on the Lord. That is a danger. If you are connected to a very godly man, it's very easy to lean on him and not on the Lord. And a truly godly man will never allow that. He'll always push you 26:28 onto the Lord and never allow you to lean on him. But anyway, because I didn't have a spiritually spiritual father for many many years, I was not sure how God looked at me. I was so discouraged and condemning myself most of the time. 26:44 So, I'm very thankful that I discovered that God is not a demanding exacting man. Otherwise, I'd lived all my life and wasted this one life God gave me. I'd have been like this man. And you know what? This The Lord told 26:58 this man, see Luke 19 and verse 22. By your own words, I will judge you. You worthless slave. Worthless slave? Did he go and commit some sin? Did he go and commit adultery or kill somebody or 27:18 steal money or What did he do? Why was he worthless? Because the one life God gave him, he didn't do anything with it for the master. He wasted his one life. He wasted all the thousands of days God 27:35 had given him on earth accomplishing nothing. Just kept it. I'm going to heaven. My sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven. I don't have to worry about anything. I'm perfectly okay. 27:55 Well, and then he said, "Okay. Well, that's what you said. Okay, I'll judge you by your own words." Did you know that I'm an exacting man telling you what I did not know and reaping what I did not? Okay. I'll treat you exactly like you said. 28:16 At least you could have put my money in the bank, he says. And he says, "Take the man away." And look at this. He says, "Give it away to the other person." So, I see there that this man had not 28:33 come into this life of rest. He didn't reject the salvation. He neglected it. Return back to Hebrews chapter 4 now. Hebrews in chapter 4. We read here He speaks here about verse 9, Hebrews 28:59 4:9. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered his rest has himself rested from his works as God did from his. Hebrews 4:10. And 29:17 verse 11, therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall or fail through following the same example of disobedience. So, it says here that there is a Sabbath rest for us today 29:37 to enter in. And we enter into this rest, it says here earlier on, in Hebrews, yeah, verse 10, the one who has entered rest has ceased from his own works 29:56 as God did from his. He's using the example of God having finished all the work in 6 days and the 7th day there was nothing more to be done. And the person who enters into rest is one who is convinced that as far as my acceptance, please 30:16 listen carefully, as God rested from all his works on the 7th day having finished everything on the 6th day with nothing more to be done, we are to enter into a rest in the same way, absolutely convinced that as far as 30:33 my acceptance before God is concerned, there is nothing more to be done. There are a million things to be done in order to serve God. That's another issue. That's the work in the garden for the next 900 years. Adam lived that long. 30:52 But as far as my acceptance before God is concerned, he's completed it all. So I'm resting from my works. My works are not going to make me more acceptable to God. No. That's what I need to understand. On the sixth day when Adam was created, 31:10 everything was finished. Adam just had to enter into the seventh day without having done one single thing to earn it. And they That's the example pointed out us to hear. My dear brothers and sisters, you cannot serve God in the 31:30 garden or anywhere else. You cannot go out and live a life for God or try to please him if you don't enter into this rest first. That is what God wants first of all. He wants you to recognize that he's done everything on the cross for us and 31:46 through the resurrection of Christ and having sent the Holy Spirit, there's absolutely nothing you can do to find acceptance before God. If you try to do something to find acceptance before God, you're going the way of the heathen. 32:01 They do pilgrimages, they burn candles, they give tithes, they give money to find acceptance before God, even Christians. They They're Christians who are taught by some groups of people, you give money and God will be pleased with you and 32:14 he'll bless you a hundredfold. They're always trying to do something to find acceptance before God. Can I give money? Can I go on a pilgrimage? Can I help the poor people, Lord? Will you then accept me? You'll never be happy that way. 32:28 I don't need to do anything to find acceptance before God. He's done it all on the cross. And through his resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, it's all over. I have to find that must be the basis of my life. I'm not talking about 32:45 the building of the house. I'm talking about the foundation now, don't forget. This is the foundation. We have to build a house on it, a lifetime of service. I'm thankful that I was converted 61 years ago in this month, July 33:00 1951 59, sorry. To this month it is 61 years. I laid my foundation then, but it wasn't very shaky. It was a very shaky foundation for about 16 years till I began to build on it. So shaky because I thought I had to do something to please God. 33:18 I always needed to do something, but when I came to rest and say I can do nothing to lay the foundation. God wants to work me me to build a house. The foundation is already laid. Says in 1 Corinthians 3, you cannot lay any other foundation other than what 33:34 Christ has laid. Don't try and add your righteousness which is like filthy rags to that foundation. The foundation God has laid for your acceptance before him is complete in Christ. Let me repeat pictured in the way God 33:51 completed everything before he created Adam. He completed everything before he asked you to come and be his child. So my service for God today and my love for him and my sacrifice and anything I do 34:08 is not to find acceptance. It is because I have found acceptance. Because he's done everything for me. And he's entered me in I've entered into his rest. I'm sitting on his lap. I can't do anything more 34:25 to win his acceptance. But I'll do everything to live for him. Like that little couplet says, "I cannot work my soul to save, for that my Lord has done. 34:44 But I will work like any slave for love of God's dear Son." Remember that. "I cannot work my soul to save, for that my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave for love of God's dear Son." We need to 35:03 understand the difference between foundation and superstructure. Just like in our earthly foundation, we don't put windows and doors into the foundation. In the foundation, we have only stones and rocks, big boulders. 35:22 That's laid in the foundation. And it's all hidden under the ground, the foundation of a building. But it's the strength of that foundation that keeps the house solid. And this rest that is spoken of here is the foundation of our Christian life. 35:39 And that's what ensures that our house is not going to topple or shake in a wind or a storm. So, I'm telling you about the foundation here. Let us enter into this rest. Let us fear lest we remain always 35:57 uh confusing the building with the foundation and thinking that we are putting some doors and windows into the foundation. No. There's not one single thing you can do. The foundation has been laid in Christ. You have to come on to that. Like I 36:12 said, "Now I work like any slave for love of God's dear Son." If my service for God doesn't come out of love for him, out of gratitude for what he's done for me, I want to tell you it's worthless. I mean, if if you if there's anything 36:30 you do if you even go for a church service out of obligation, oh, Sunday I have to go. Brother, sister, don't go. Sit at home. Go and do something else. Go and play games or go for a walk. It's no use going to church if you 36:47 think, oh, God wants me to come there. I am obliged to go. No, sir. You don't have to. God doesn't want anything from you. If I don't do something out of love for the for Jesus Christ, it has no value before God. 37:05 You need to understand that. You can't bring uh put big mortars and I mean big boulders in a building. That's all in the foundation. You know how buildings are built here. They don't build the walls with big boulders. So, 37:24 I'm not going to do works to find acceptance before God. It's very, very important. And because in the church, particularly in CFC churches, we preach so much about pressing on to perfection and uh denying ourselves and taking up the 37:41 cross and seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit and being righteous in all matters, righteous in money matters, not wasting our time, giving up bad habits, and all these things, we can unconsciously gradually begin to 37:54 think that my acceptance before God is based on all this. It isn't. It's based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And then people may say, well, you mean that means I can live as I like? 38:12 If you speak like that, I would say you haven't even you have not even understood what salvation is. No person who's understood salvation can ever speak like that. Oh, Christ has done everything, then I can live as I like, right? 38:27 The person who speaks like that has not repented. He has not done this manam thirumbal. He's not His mind is not turned around. He's still facing in the wrong direction. He's facing in the wrong direction. His back is towards God. 38:41 Then he says, "Oh, you told me that Christ has done everything, is it? Then I can live as I like." I said, "Brother, you need to repent first." Christ hasn't done everything for you like uh for you if you've not repented. 38:52 You're facing the wrong direction. You need to turn around and look God face face to face, look into his face, and see what he's done for you, and you'll never talk like that ever in your life. Oh, I can live as I like now. I'll 39:05 tell you honestly, I do not believe I can live as I like. But that's not a because some force is frightening me saying you better live carefully. I don't live in fear. No. My la- life is pure joy. It's a delight to serve God. 39:24 I left my job in the Navy in May 1966, which is 54 years ago. And I'll tell you, I've seen other Christian workers who are gloomy, miserable, grumpy, but my life is exciting. I like that 39:41 translation in Proverbs 14:14 in the Living Bible. It says, "The godly man's life is exciting." And I'm not trying to sell anything. I'm not a salesman. Well, I'll tell you honestly, the Christian life is exciting for me. 39:54 Totally. It gets better and better as the days go by. I'm never gloomy. I can't think of a single day where I was gloomy in the last so many years. How can I be when I have such a wonderful, loving heavenly Father smiling at me all the time? 40:08 Imagine if you can see a wonderful, loving heavenly Father smiling at you all the time. You You're going to be gloomy? No, it says in the in the book of Psalms, "They looked unto him and their faces were lightened." Their faces became bright. 40:26 Because they saw God smiling at them. That's exactly how I feel. Oh, yeah, I'm tempted. The devil tempts me sometimes. You know, we we like to do our best. We're pressing on to perfection and sometimes in our pursuit of perfection, 40:45 it may not be conscious sin, but we've sought to overcome conscious sin, but may Oh, I could have done more there. I could have done that better. I could have spoken a little kinder to that person. We're always pressing on to 40:58 perfection. I'm not perfect yet. So, we're pressing on to perfection, but that pressing on to perfection can sometimes make us discouraged. But I say, "No, that's a temptation. I will not get discouraged." I'm pressing on to perfection. I know 41:11 I've got a long way to go. I've not reached the finishing line of this race, but I'm pressing on and I'm not going to give up. I want to encourage you today. Your Father in heaven loves you immensely. I've shared many times that 41:28 in the years when I was wandering around without a spirit earthly spiritual father, I remember about 45 years ago God gave me this verse from John 17. I want to share with you. Please turn with me to John 17. This is the prayer of Jesus 41:53 for his disciples. It's not for everybody. I might as well tell you that. Because he says very clearly here in John 17. He's praying to his heavenly Father. And is John 17, the whole chapter is a 42:12 prayer. It's the longest recorded prayer of Jesus. And he begins by saying, "Father." It's a prayer just before he went to the cross. And one of the things he says here is in verse nine, 42:30 "I'm not praying for the world. But I'm praying for these disciples." So, whatever he said in this prayer is not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry out in the world. It's not for everybody who calls himself a Christian. No. 42:48 "I ask on their behalf. The These are the people who you will they believe you sent me. I do not ask on behalf of the world. I'm not praying for the world, but for these whom you have given me. They are yours. 43:07 And you gave them to me. And if you are one of those whom the Father has picked out and given to Jesus as a gift. I I like to think of that. That out of all the world God set his eye on me 43:25 and picked me out and gave me to Jesus. I'm very privileged. Why? Because I believe God's word. It's true for you also. You may not be enjoying it because you don't believe God's word. You have not because you don't have 43:44 faith. You If you pray without faith, James chapter one says you'll get nothing. Can pray as much as you like. But if you pray without faith that God loves you, cares for you, you'll get nothing. You'll be miserable all your life. 44:01 And the only difference between you and the happy person is that guy's got faith and you doesn't you don't. Maybe you know maybe you feel you have made such a mess of your past life. And you say, "Well, others have not made such a mess of 44:15 their life. How can I ever accomplish God's will for my life?" I'll tell you what will happen. Please listen to me now before this happens at the judgment seat of Christ. If you continue to live like that, you will waste your life. 44:29 And when you just stand at the judgment seat of Christ, you'll say, "Lord, I made such a mess of my life, and I couldn't believe that you could do anything with me." The Lord will say to you, he'll call somebody out, somebody from 44:40 the crowd in the day of judgment, and say, "This guy, his life was much worse than yours. I'll show you the video of his life." The Lord will say, and you'll see it was much worse than yours. But, he believed that I could do something with his life, 44:58 even though he made a mess of his life. He trusted me. And see what a glorious life he lived. You could have lived that same life. Your life is not as bad as his. You could have lived that same life if you had trusted me. 45:11 So, you could not do anything for me, not because your life was a failure in the past, but because you would not trust me. You would not believe that the blood of my son can wipe out your past, that my Holy Spirit can fill you, 45:25 and make you accomplish something with your life. Dear brother, sister, enter into God's rest. Don't keep looking inside and saying, "Oh, this this thing wrong with me, that thing wrong with me." Well, if you look inside, why look 45:41 inside? I'll get discouraged. I don't I never look inside, by the way. What does it mean to judge yourself? We often speak about judging ourselves. I'll tell you how I judge myself. I judge myself exactly like we read in 45:53 Isaiah chapter 6, where Isaiah saw the glory of God, and he saw his own need then. Not by looking inside. No. If I look inside, I'll get discouraged. Isaiah looked up and he saw the beauty of Jesus. And in the light of the beauty of Jesus, he saw 46:11 his own need. Then he said, "Oh God, I'm a sinner." And the blood of Jesus, I mean, symbolically, the fire from the altar touched him and cleansed him and he was set on fire for God. That's the best way to see our own corruption. 46:27 Look at Jesus and run the race and he will show you as much as you're able to bear at each particular time. You know, God didn't show me all the wretchedness of my flesh right at the beginning of my Christian life. I would have got so discouraged. 46:43 I'd say, "Lord, I give up." He showed me as much as I could bear. You know, just like a little child goes to school and they don't teach him everything in the kindergarten. They just start teaching him a little bit in the kindergarten. 46:58 As much as he can bear. The next year, they teach him a little more in the first grade and a little more in the second grade. He'd get overwhelmed if they taught taught him 10th grade stuff in the first grade. He'd get so 47:11 discouraged. He'd say, "Dad, I don't want to go to that school anymore." God is also very gracious. He shows us as much as we can bear. I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters. Look up into the face of your loving 47:23 father and see here he says in John 17:23. This is the verse I wanted to show you. To those who are chosen by him, "I want the world to know." The middle of verse 23, John 17:23. "I want the world to know that you love these disciples of mine 47:41 mine as much as you love me." That's the verse that changed my life 45 years ago. One simple truth that I was beloved of my heavenly father. I always knew he was my heavenly father. 48:01 I never prayed Jehovah, I prayed loving father, but it was only a word it was only words. But it became reality when the Holy Spirit filled me and cried out from me, "Dad! You're my dad." You love me just like you loved 48:19 your son and I never got tired of preaching that truth and I don't mind preaching it every single time because I'm seeing that this is what brings people into rest. What is it? God loves me as much as he loved Jesus. I'll show you that from another verse 48:39 which doesn't look like that, but if you read there are many things written within a verse if you look at it carefully. Turn with me to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2 Romans in chapter 2 49:06 verse 11. A very simple verse which we all believe. There is no partiality with God. Meditate on that. To help you meditate on that 49:27 turn over to Romans chapter 8. You keep that in mind and go to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29. Romans 8:29 where it says God has predestined us, he 49:44 foreknew us, he predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son Jesus so that Jesus might be the eldest among many brothers. So, God's purpose is 50:01 the reason why Jesus became a man was so that he might be the eldest brother of many many brothers and sisters in the church, in the family of God, and I'm one of them. So, that's why I say, "Call me brother Zac." 50:19 Don't call me Reverend Zac or Pastor Zac or these low-down titles. I'm not such a low-down person. I'm a brother of Jesus Christ. Please call me brother Zac. You know what that means, sister so-and-so? You're a sister of Jesus 50:35 Christ. Why do people pick up these titles like Reverend, Doctor, Right Reverend? What is that compared to brother of Jesus Christ? That's the highest possible title you can ever get. That Jesus might be the first among many 50:51 brothers, and down the line I'm also one of them. Brother Zac, brother of Jesus Christ. You're that too, if you'll believe it. Now, once you believe that that you're a younger brother or sister of Jesus Christ then go back to Romans 2, the verse we 51:10 read. There's no partiality with God. And if you're a good father you will not be partial to any of your children. I have four sons. And everything that I did for my first 51:30 son I was determined to do without any partiality for the other three. I made no distinction. Within my ability, though. I mean, I was not a wealthy person. We had very little, my wife and I, but with whatever little we had, we decided we're going to 51:46 treat all our sons equally. Everyone was equally precious. Everyone would be equally cared for. Everyone would be equally provided, equally loved. And if Jesus is the elder brother, it means the father, who's a much better 52:05 father than me, will definitely treat me just like him, like he treated him. Like he cared for Jesus on the earth, he will care for me. Boy, I can't explain to you how that changed my life. Now, he you're hearing this and now you 52:25 got it all in your head. I pray it'll sink another one foot down into your heart. Then it'll make a world of difference in your life. You can have it in your head for 25 years and still be worried and anxious and tense and always feel God is looking 52:42 at you with a frown on his face. It won't change one single thing, but the day it sinks into your heart that despite all the mistakes you've made in your life, and I'll tell you I made lots of mistakes in my life. I disappointed God even after I was born 53:01 again. But he forgave me all. He forgave me everything. The blood of Jesus cleansed me from all sin. And he not only says that, he says in Hebrews 8:12, "Your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more." I remembered that day very clearly 53:18 about two years after I was born again. I was still uncertain what about my past failures and how does God think about that? I remember I was I was the navy and I was standing on the deck of a ship late in the evening alone. I was on duty that 53:37 night on my ship and I was walking that deck of my ship and I this word came to my heart. "Your sins and iniquities I will not remember anymore." I said, "Wow." I'd already read that in Hebrews 8 and 53:56 verse 12. But that day it came home to my heart. I said, "Lord, thank you." It's not just that I'm forgiven, but God I saw that God wasn't looking at me like "Yeah, I've forgiven you, but I'll never forget what you did. 54:12 I know you're the fellow who did that 10 years ago. I know what you did 25 years ago. I haven't forgotten that." He does not look at me like that and he doesn't look at you like that. Whatever blunders you have made in your 54:25 past life, I want to tell you God doesn't look at you like that. When he says, "Your sins and iniquities I will not remember anymore." He means it. And he hasn't changed his mind about you. Rejoice in his acceptance. Dear brother, sister, enter into his 54:44 rest. Oh, the rest that has come into my life. I can't explain it. It's blessed. My life is supremely happy. I count myself of all men more blessed. I sometime I once said to uh my church folk in India. I said, "If you can meet a man who's 55:03 happier than me in India, I'd like to meet him. Please uh bring him to me. I'd like to see him. My life is so supremely happy every day. It's not that I don't have problems. I mean, I faced all types of problems from people who are antagonistic to 55:19 Christianity and uh other Christian believers who are angry with me for preaching perfection and angry with me for uh showing their love of money and preaching that Jesus never took any money and Paul never took any money and 55:34 exposing their covetousness. The people A lot of people are angry with me and it's okay. I love them all. It doesn't disturb my heart. I'm a blessed man, extremely blessed man. Uh I'm very happy and you're just the same. The only difference between you 55:49 and me is I believe and you don't. I wish you I wish you did. It'd make a tremendous difference in your life and even in the expression on your face. I'll tell you that. It will and your life will be very different from this day. 56:04 It's not some course you have to graduate after 5 years. You can enter into this life today. I love that word which says today, now. Is it Is it Turn to that verse. We'll look at that in closing, 2 Corinthians and chapter 6. 56:20 2 Corinthians chapter 6. When is the day of salvation? Some people will say today. Wrong. 2 Corinthians 6:2. When is the day of 56:38 salvation? Read it. Now. Not today. Not after 1 hour. Now. Now is the day of salvation. Right now. Say Lord, I believe it. It doesn't depend on me. It depends on 56:58 what you've done. And I'll tell you this. If you're sincere, you're not going to take advantage of God's goodness. When I understood this, did it make me more careless in my life? Did it make me say, "Oh, but God's accepted me as I can I can live as I 57:14 like." You know what I said? Now God's accepted me, I cannot live as I like. Not I can live as I like. I cannot live as I like anymore. I have to live to please the Father, but it's no longer a burden. It was not a burden for Jesus to please 57:30 his Father and it's not a burden for me. I'm nearly 81 years old now. But I said, "Lord, I'm not in a hurry to stop serving you. If you give me another 20 years or 40 years, I'm ready to pour out my life to serve you. I want to build your church on this 57:50 earth. I want to show my gratitude to you. I I remember some years ago, it was in 1993. How long ago is that? 27 years ago. I was riding my moped in India and I crashed into a a railway gate which somebody lowered without warning. 58:10 He was some new man operating they operated by hand in India. And I crashed into it and I fell down unconscious. And I had a crack in my skull and my shoulder was dislocated. And somebody picked me up and I didn't die. And uh anyway, God healed me. 58:30 And when I went home after that that same day, you know what I said to the Lord? I said, "Lord, I have not finished saying thank you to you for dying for me on the cross. Give me a few more years to say thank you to you. I don't want any reward. I'm 58:48 not looking for crowns and and mansions in heaven. No, no, no. Let other people get all that. I just want to show my gratitude and say thank you, Lord, for dying for me. Give me a few more years to do that." And God's answered my 59:01 prayer and given me 27 more years since that day. But even today I say, "Lord, I'm still writing thank you." I think I've reached up to t h a. I still haven't finished, Lord. Uh I got to finish the whole word thank you for dying for me. Give me time. 59:21 I wish you the same happy life that I'm enjoying. Not because of what I do or what I am, but because of who my father is. And he's your father, too. I want to introduce him to you today. Enter into his rest. 59:41 That's what Adam What did Adam have to do on that first day of his life? The Sabbath day. Looked at his father. Said, "God, you love me so much." He couldn't call him father. I can call him father. He could say, "God, you love me 59:55 so much." It's a real pity that he went out the next day and disobeyed God. Lord, I learn a lesson from that. I don't want to do that. But I don't blame him. He didn't have the Holy Spirit. I've got the Holy Spirit. So, there's a lot of difference. I don't 1:00:11 compare myself with Adam. Dear brothers and sisters, may God bless you. May you rejoice in God's goodness, and may that overflow in a life of love for the Lord and for others that will lead to build RLCF there, 1:00:29 or whichever church you're in, as a strong expression of the body of Christ and of the love of God for the human race. God bless you all. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, 1:00:52 I don't believe I can ever put in words the wonderful truth of the gospel. It's so much beyond our human ability to do justice to it. We do our best, and we still we feel we 1:01:10 have come short. I pray that the Holy Spirit will make up for my human limitations and take the message home to every heart who heard me today, and convince them of your love, Father, And they'll be delivered from the deceptions of Satan 1:01:26 and from the condemnation that the devil always seeks to bring upon your people. Help them to walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God, rejoicing in you, so that they can love one another more fervently and forgive each other freely. 1:01:40 Yes, Lord. Help us all, we pray. We are needy people. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
