0:20 As we come to the closing session, we want to think about what the Bible says is the most important thing in the Christian life. You know, we look at many things, 0:37 many different subjects, and they're all part of the of one big whole. Uh there was a question earlier asked about what is the difference between being in Christ and walking with the Lord. 0:55 You know, these are all word pictures. With a scientific mind, we try to pigeonhole these things as if they are different things. They are not different things. We look at them differently, but they're all part of one whole. 1:08 To be in Christ, for Christ to be in us, to be a part of a body, or part of a building where Christ is the foundation, or part of a body where Christ is the head. In a building, the foundation doesn't control the bricks, 1:27 but in a body, the head controls the fingers and the members. So, they're different illustrations because the totality of the Christian life cannot be expressed with one illustration. And that's why the New Testament uses so 1:41 many pictures. You are the salt and you are the light. And we are in Christ, Christ is in us, and we are to walk with the Lord, and we are to walk like the Lord, and we are to run behind the Lord. He was our forerunner. 2:00 And we are look we are to look up to our Lord who is at the right hand of the Father. If you take if you think only one of these is true, uh we've got this pigeonhole type of mind. It is not like that. That's why the Bible says 2:16 Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent who try to analyze everything scientifically. And you've revealed them to simple babes." You know, I find that when I go 2:27 to the villages in India, they don't have these questions. They don't have all this analysis because they don't have this scientific type of pigeonholing everything. But even for those who are scientifically minded, I mean, 2:41 I would say it's something like this. Uh take a thing like sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid consists of two atoms of hydrogen, one atom of sulfur, and four atoms of oxygen, if I remember my chemistry right from 2:58 about 50 years ago. It's H2SO4. Now, you can study hydrogen, the qualities of hydrogen, and the characteristics of it. You can study the qualities of sulfur and the qualities of oxygen. You breathe oxygen, but you better not 3:17 breathe sulfuric acid, even though it's four atoms of oxygen. See, you can look at our oxygen separately and sulfur separately and hydrogen separately, but that's not sulfuric acid. That is a simple example. You look at sodium and you look at 3:31 chlorine, and that's not salt. You put it together, you get salt. So, it's that's a little weak illustration of how we look at many, many different things in the New Testament. And when put together, that is true Christianity. 3:49 And that's what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. But if you take one word picture, it may clash with another. Is Jesus a um a shepherd? You already see an elder brother. I mean, the shepherd and sheep are two different 4:07 kingdoms. Shepherd is a human being and a sheep is not a human being. But an elder brother and younger brother, we are human beings. So, we mustn't make too much of one picture as if that is everything. That's a little principle you must bear 4:21 in mind those who who tend to analyze. It's very easy to, you know, for our soul to develop and hinder our Christian life. Adam went to the tree of knowledge and went astray. Knowledge always brings 4:41 death. It's life, the tree of life that he should have gone to. God's word has not been given to us for analysis. God's word has been given to us to teach us how to relate to God and how to relate to one another. So, 4:59 when somebody came to Jesus and asked him, "What is the great commandment of the law?" He said in Matthew 22, that was a question that somebody asked him. And um Jesus' reply was this. You know, I think they had the idea they were all 5:18 legalists, and they thought the most important thing is um keeping the Sabbath. But Jesus didn't even refer to the Sabbath. You know, there can be sometimes people who are godly who who got a sort of a 5:38 quirk. They go off on a tangent on some particular doctrine, and that becomes like a bee in the bonnet. You know what a bee in the bonnet is? A bonnet is like a hat these women used to wear, and if you got a bee inside it, it's always buzzing, buzzing, 5:53 buzzing, buzzing. You can't hear anything else. And that's an expression in English where it says that you can't think of anything else except this one thing. I remember once I was visiting a a god-fearing brother in the United States 6:06 who belonged to a particular group that emphasized women dressing modestly and veiling their heads 24 hours a day, etc. I mean, we had a lot of respect for each other. I've spoken in his church. And after a long time, I was meeting 6:24 him. I just I just visited him for a few minutes. And what do you think he wanted to talk to me about? Uh you'd think that we talk about Jesus. No. He said, "Brother Zac, what is this I hear that you are teaching that women do 6:38 not have to veil their heads for 24 hours. They only need to veil their heads in the meetings." Uh that's is not it is not exactly the most exciting subject I wanted to talk about. But anyway, since he asked that question, I said, "Okay, I'll tell you, 6:53 brother." I said, "You teach" and I saw how these women veiled their heads there. They don't veil it completely because it's too hot to wear it all the time. So, they gradually move the veil back, back, back, back, back, and finally just cover 7:08 the bun on top of their head and cover that 24 hours. You know, backsliding is exactly like that. Okay. So, I told him, I said, "Brother, what is the difference between you and me? You tell people to cover the back part of their head, 15% 7:24 of their head, which is sometimes only their hair, and wear it 24 hours. I tell people to cover their whole head in the meetings only when they uh pray and prophesy. But I'm not going to be a legalist and fight about these things. These are not 7:38 the important things for me." See, and that is one of the most god-fearing brothers I've met in the United States. See, this is how you can go off on a tangent that you meet a brother, and all you can discuss is some little thing of doctrine. 7:53 What is the most These Pharisees were like that. What is the great commandment? What shall we discuss? The Sabbath. Jesus refused to get involved in that. So, he said, "I'll tell you." Uh this is verse 36, Matthew 22. "Teacher, which is the great commandment 8:10 in the law?" Verse 36, Matthew 22. He said, "I'll tell you which are the 10 commandments." He didn't mention any of them. He mentioned in a in a summary what all of God's commandments were meant for. "You shall love the Lord your God with 8:24 all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like you love your neighbor as yourself." You can't get it more straight than from Jesus' own mouth. The greatest thing in the Christian life 8:38 is to love God with all your heart. Or like uh somebody was saying yesterday, to love Jesus passionately. That is the greatest thing in the Christian life. And Jesus says, "But this is not by itself. 8:57 If you do that, you will automatically love your neighbor as yourself. And you will love in the church" neighbor neighbor means everybody in the world, and Jesus added one more commandment for us in the church, "You love one another 9:10 in the church as I loved you." You love everybody in the world as yourself, but in the church, the love is going to be stronger. A new commandment, uh you love one another as I have loved you. That is the greatest thing. 9:26 Now, somebody may say, "But Brother Zac, yesterday you said that when you're a child, you say you love Jesus. When you're grown up, you say Jesus loves me." I'm not talking about our testimony. I'm talking about what we do. 9:42 I'm not here to tell you I love Jesus passionately. You'll never see that in scripture, any apostle saying that. They love Jesus passionately. Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" And he Peter didn't give that to John, he gave it to Jesus. Tell Jesus, 10:01 "Lord, I love you passionately." I'll tell you why I'm saying this. It is the most important thing in the Christian life. I say it many times to the Lord. Like the Song of Solomon, the bride tells the bridegroom, she doesn't go 10:14 around telling everybody else, "Hey, I love the bridegroom passionately." But she tells the bridegroom, "It is the most important thing in the Christian life." And that's where I love these songs that some of these mystics, many 10:27 of them were Roman Catholics, who wrote many times I sit in my room and sing those songs. Sometimes I'm walking down the road or lying in the bed, I sing these wonderful songs, "My God, how wonderful thou art. Thy majesty, how bright, how beautiful 10:42 thy burn burn mercy seat in depths of burning light." And songs like this, "Show me thy face, oh Lord, one transient gleam of loveliness divine. And I shall never think or dream of other love save in thine. All lights or light will darken 10:56 quite. All lower glories wane. The beautiful of earth will never seem beautiful again." Many songs like that of devotion. We must all have times like this of devotion to Jesus by ourselves. This is true worship. I can never worship God in 11:13 a crowd. It's not possible. I can praise God in a crowd and I can thank God in a crowd and have songs of praise and thanksgiving. But songs of worship I can only sing to God alone to really mean it. You see, for example, I I I see all 11:29 these sentimental songs that nowadays written by these modern half-converted cowboys who wrote used to write love songs in their unconverted days and have just given a little twist to it and directed it towards Jesus. "Hold me close. Never let me go." 11:48 Who are you talking to? They used to They were singing that to some girl in the old days. Now they just They don't even put the name of Jesus there. There's something sentimental about it. "Oh, I love him more and more." 12:03 You know, whenever I sing that, I sing it a little differently. I'll obey him more and more. "I love him more and more. I'll obey him more and more." Sing it like that and see it makes a difference. Because Jesus said, "If you love me, 12:19 you will keep my commandments." And I don't want to fool myself that I'm passionately loving the Lord if I'm not passionately obeying God's commandments. There are two marks that I love Jesus passionately. One, that I keep all his commandments. I have 12:36 a passionate desire to obey every single thing that God's word says. Whether it's a small thing like teaching women to cover their heads or whether it's a big thing like being by forgiving all those who hurt me. It doesn't make a difference to me. If I 12:54 believe either I believe this is God's word or I don't believe it's God's word. I believe it's God's word and if there's a single thing, big or small, in God's word, I love Jesus, I keep his commandments. I don't care what people 13:05 think about it. Secondly, I But I won't be a legalist. You see, I can take some small commandment and compel people to live according to my light. I don't do it. I sometimes preach in churches in the United States where there are 2,000 13:20 people sitting there and 1,000 women, none of them cover their heads. My subject is not covering your head. My subject is holiness. So, we got to be wise in all these things. You can have a bean in your bonnet where something is the most 13:32 important thing for you and that's not the most important thing in the Christian life. What is the greatest commandment? Love God with all your heart. But you can't force a person. Some people haven't seen some commandments. You 13:43 can't force them to see it. It's only when they see it they can obey it. That's why the Bible also says, "Don't judge somebody else. You do it yourself." What is the difference between discipline and legalism? Discipline is where, because of my love 14:00 for Christ, I have disciplined my body in certain areas. Maybe in the amount of sleep I have, the amount of food I eat, and keeping myself fit perhaps, and reading the Bible and studying the scriptures. These are disciplines 14:18 which you cannot live with the holy life if you're not disciplined. Discipline in the way you spend time on different things. Discipline I I still feel there's a lot of areas in my life I need to be more disciplined, but I'm working towards it slowly. 14:33 Discipline in the amount of time we spend on the internet and discipline the amount of time we spend reading newspapers and other books and even in listening to music. I feel there are a lot of young people today who don't have time to read the Bible, 14:51 but have time to listen to what they call Christian rock, which is imitating the worldly rock music. They It is not originally Christian. It didn't come from the Holy Spirit. They saw something in the world and they imitated it and put Christian 15:10 words to it to try and attract the young people. Do you think that Jesus tried to attract the young people in that day by seeing what worldly people were doing, the Greeks and the Romans, and say, "Let me reach people like that." No, he depended 15:23 on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been replaced by a music today. The Holy Spirit has been replaced by money. Why is it there's so much emphasis on money today in Christian work, but no emphasis on money in Christian work in the New 15:36 Testament? They had emphasis on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's been replaced by money, music, and psychology today. You got to be very careful. And that's why you have a generation of young people growing up in many churches, 15:50 including many young people in Armidale, who have taken up with what they call Christian rock. Trace the source of it. That's what I want to know. Always take the source. A good doctor will not just look at a fever. He say, "Where 16:01 does that fever come from?" It comes from tuberculosis. Don't just give him a Crocin and get rid of the fever. Deal with the root. So, when you think of Christian rock, please trace it to its root. You'll find it's not the Holy Spirit. 16:16 It's worldly, demonic, rock musicians and the Christians try to imitate them with wearing vests and black dress and black strumming guitars and all that. And you watch these Christians. They don't overcome sin in their life. 16:29 They don't have time for the Bible. They spend hours practicing their um guitars and listening to uh these worldly rock musicians and trying to imitate that in their own life. No. All I'm saying is not It's not godly. I 16:46 cannot imagine Jesus when he was 15 years old listening to that type of thing even if you such things were there in his day. And do you really want to follow Jesus? This is not the way to reach the world. I'll tell you that. People ask me, "What 16:59 do you think of Christian rock?" I say, "Christian rock? That's like asking me what I think of Christian adultery." "Christian adultery? What's that?" Adultery between two Christians. Christian murder. What's Christian murder? 17:12 What is Christian stealing? What is Christian rock music? There is no such thing. So, I'm just saying that you know, all this sentimental stuff, today's music has so much of sentimentality. If you compare the music written by 17:28 people today compared to the music written 100 years ago and 200 years ago by people like Charles Wesley and Fanny Crosby and all those people, you'll see one fundamental difference. They wrote hymns of tremendous devotion 17:42 to Christ and of service of that drove people to the mission field and sent people to preach the gospel and sacrifice. Today's musicians, they write about three lines which you sing about 10 times. If you don't believe me, look at the 17:57 song you're singing. Three lines. They don't have any more inspiration and most of those lines are "I love him. I love him. I love him." The lines itself have repetitions and then you repeat that 10 times or something like that. 18:07 There's no And do you know the another difference? Charles Wesley didn't make money from his music, from his songs. Today's musicians produce CDs and produce millions. Now, I want to ask you all a straight question. If you have a preacher here 18:24 who does not take money for his preaching, but preaches really sincerely seeking the glory of God, and another preacher who wants to make money out of his sermons or out of his books, you tell me, which of these two do you think would 18:41 have a word from God? The first one or the second one? Okay. You're sure? Okay. Now, here we have two musicians. One who did not write any of his songs to make money and never made many money. And here's another musician who wrote 19:01 his songs and produced CDs to make millions. Which of these things Which of these songs do you think will be inspired by God? Give me a right answer. And you'll know why I'm not so fascinated by today's music. Money is the greatest opposite to God. 19:18 And the thing is, many of you don't have discernment. You say, "It sounds so nice." What sounds so nice? The beat. And that's why your Christian life is so shallow. And that's why your children go astray. I want to tell you straight. I'm holding 19:34 you to the highest. It may take time to get there. Now, you may be passing through a phase where you young people want to, you know, appear like they say cool and accepted with your friends. That's fine. All I want to say is, when Jesus was 15, 19:49 he did not want to appear cool and accepted with his friends. What shall I hold up to you? The standard of some third-rate half-converted cowboy or the standard of Jesus when he was 15 years old? That's the only one standard we hold up 20:06 in the church. I'm not going to condemn you. I'm not saying you shouldn't come to the church. I'm telling you this is the standard we preach in the church, whether you're 5 years old, 10 years old, you see the footsteps of Jesus as a 5-year-old, as a 20:18 10-year-old, as a 15-year-old. See the footsteps of Jesus when he was 20 years old. He was tempted in every single point as we are. And the Bible says you know, the Bible not only says this is the secret of godliness in 1 Corinthians and sorry, 1 Timothy in 20:36 chapter 3, the secret of godliness is that Christ came in the flesh and was pure in his spirit. No human being from the time of Adam had the flesh could keep his spirit righteous and pure. Nobody. The first person who came in flesh with 20:52 a will of his own. When I say flesh, I don't mean he had sinful lusts. He did not have sinful lusts. There was no sin in him. But he had what is the root from which sin comes out in all of us, which is my will. All sin comes out of my will. Did Jesus 21:09 have a thing called my will? Of course he had. And it was something he had to deny. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, "Not my will, but your will." What does that mean? That means Jesus' will was against his father's will. 21:25 That's what we call the flesh. The definition of flesh is my will. Jesus had it. And he denied it. Not just in Gethsemane, he denied it in all the days of his flesh with loud crying and tears. And it's this my will that you see in a 21:43 2-year-old child who refuses to yield to the commands of his parents. It's there. That's what Jesus denied. He denied it when he was 5 years old, he denied it when he was 10 years old, he denied it when 15, 20, all the way to 33, and at 21:56 the end of it he said, "It is finished." I have denied my will in every single possible area that any human being can be tempted to do his will. He denied it. That's what he meant when he said it's finished. And that's when 22:08 the veil of the temple was torn. And Hebrews 10:20 says that veil is a picture of Jesus' flesh, which is my will. It was torn from top to bottom, which means Jesus did it by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. And you and I can't do it. It wasn't 22:24 torn from top bottom to top. Some of us are doing it. That's legalism. Try and tear the veil from the bottom to the top. You can't do it. It has got to be torn from the top to bottom. God has to do it. God has to give us the 22:36 power of the Holy Spirit to walk this way. The way into the most holy place is already open. You don't have to rend that veil again. But we have that flesh which Jesus had, which we must by the power of the Holy Spirit walk this new 22:48 and living way to go the way Jesus went. And it's not a theory. If you are walking that way, it's not seen by your talking about it. It's seen by the fact that people will see you becoming more and more Christ-like every year, more and more 23:04 gracious, more and more gentle. When people in CFC who known me for 33 years say, "Brother Zac has changed." I'm not ashamed of that. I say, "I hope I've changed." I was pretty legalistic 30 years ago. And if I not changed in 30 years, I 23:21 should hang my head in shame. Now, I don't expect a young person, 15-year-old, to have the maturity that I have at 69. No. That's like saying if a 10th standard student looks down on a first standard student and say, "Hey, why don't you 23:37 know calculus?" Who's the fool? The 10th standard student. How can you expect a first standard student to know even geometry? Leave alone calculus. And if you as a 60-year-old or 50-year-old expect a 14-year-old to have the 23:55 maturity you have, I'm sorry to say, brother, you're the fool. Sister, you're the fool. They won't have your maturity. But sin is the same. When a 3-year-old says no to his father, that is sin. I mean, he may not have maturity, but 24:13 he's got sin. I don't expect a child to be suddenly 6 ft tall, but I expect him to be healthy even if he's only 2 ft tall. Health is what we require from our young people, not maturity. Maturity may take a long time, but they'll never be healthy 24:30 if they are following the examples in the world. So, when we talk about love for Jesus in all these modern choruses and all, you have to be very careful. Some of them are excellent. But some of them are written by these 24:43 half-converted cowboys who don't know Jesus. It's sentimental love ballads which they used to sing in their unconverted days to men and women, to other boys and girls. Now they think they think it's a frothy a frothy sentimental love for Jesus which does 25:01 not make them obey God's commandments, which does not make them fervently love others. And that is why you see that the hymns that people sang years ago made many of them leave their countries and come to difficult lands like India as 25:17 missionaries. My wife and I know a very godly missionary lady who was about 85 or 90 years old now who came to India as a young 25-year-old nurse, worked in the um uh deserted villages in Maharashtra. That's 25:35 where my wife went to work with her in among lepers, a village infested with cobras and lepers and no roads, no electricity, no running water. And here is a young 25-year-old nurse from America came there along with others 25:55 and built buildings there, would take the leper babies and keep 25 years old like some of you young girls at 25, gave up marriage, but it was take care of the leper babies and brought many of those people to Christ. She didn't grow up singing sentimental 26:11 love songs to Jesus. Her love for Jesus was manifested in sacrifice and a tremendous passion like Jesus had to come from heaven to this earth to give other people the gospel. But all these fellows who are singing these songs today in the United States 26:26 and other places, you don't see them coming with that type of missionary passion today. That missionary passion has gone. What are they doing? They're singing sentimental love songs. And what are their leaders, who these 26:38 charismatic leaders who teach people to sing these songs, what are they doing? They They never come here to these jungles of India and Africa. No. They go to the posh amphitheaters in America and charge $10,000 per evening to preach a message. And 26:52 they'll arrive there in their helicopters, preach the message, and go away. What a difference between today's preachers and which you see them on television and you open your mouth and say, "Ah, what a man of God." I'll tell 27:03 you who who is a real woman of God, woman like that 90-year-old lady. I have 100 times more respect for them than all these modern preachers. These modern preachers are being brought up in this so-called Christian rock and 27:16 all this rubbish with sentimental love for Jesus. I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, this is the preach This is the truth I preached 33 years ago, is the truth I preach today. We haven't changed the standards in the church. 27:29 We don't judge anyone. If you want to go that way, you can go. God himself doesn't stop people from going to hell. So, we can't stop you from being carnal. We can't stop you from being worldly. When God doesn't stop people from going 27:41 to hell, do you know how many millions went to hell yesterday? Do you know within the 3 days that we had this conference, how many people God allowed to go to hell in the world? He didn't stop any of them. He didn't catch them by the neck and 27:52 say, "Hey, don't go to hell." And I'm not going to catch anybody by the neck and say, "Stop listening to Christian rock." No, no, no. Go ahead and listen to it. There's a verse in the Bible where it says, "Be filthy." There's a verse in the Bible which says, 28:06 "Be unrighteous." Can you imagine a holy book teaching us to be unrighteous and filthy? Turn to Revelation 22, verse 11. It says here, "If you are doing wrong, 28:25 please continue to do wrong." You'd think that is in some book written by the devil. No, this is the inspired word of God written by the Holy Spirit. And he says here, "Those who are doing wrong, please continue to do wrong. 28:41 Those who are filthy, continue to be filthy." That means become more filthy. Do more wrong. You think John didn't hear God right? John, did you hear God correctly? Yes, sir. He heard God correctly. Let the one who does wrong continue to 28:58 do wrong. Let the one who is filthy continue to be filthy. That I never understood that word for many, many years until God gave me light on it. You know, you can't understand scripture until you get light on it. Go and ask some Bible 29:13 college professor what it means. He won't be able to tell you because he doesn't have revelation. I didn't have for many years. I said, "Lord, what does this mean?" And this is what the Lord showed me. If you have read the 2,000 pages of this 29:29 book, the Bible, and you come to the after all its warnings and exhortations against sin and warnings and exhortations to be holy, and at the end of reading all that, you come to the last page, and you still want to be filthy, go ahead and be 29:46 filthy. You read all the Bible and you come to the last page and you still want to commit sin, go ahead and commit sin. In other words, God is saying, "Go to hell." It's true. Go to hell. What shall I say? 30:06 Shall I stop you from ruining your life with Christian rock and with seeking to be friendly with your peers? I say, "Go ahead. Go ahead. Go and watch internet pornography as much as you like. Go right ahead. Watch more of it next 30:21 year. Go to hell." After all that you hear in CFC all these years warning you, all the conferences you've come to, elder brothers, you heard so much about humbling yourself, be broken. You don't want to be broken, don't be broken. Go continue 30:38 to think that you're somebody. Go ahead. Think that you're somebody for the rest of 2009. Go and mess up your life. Go and ruin your life. Go and ruin your family life. But he who has ears to hear, let him hear. The greatest commandment is to love 30:55 Jesus with all your heart. There's nothing greater than this. There is a false teaching in the world today in Christendom which says that faith is the greatest thing. Brother, you need faith. You need faith. You need faith. You need faith. 31:12 And there are every preacher on television is saying, "You got to have faith. If you're sick, it's because you don't have faith. If you're not a millionaire, it's because you don't have faith." I wish these people would come to our 31:22 poor villages in Tamil Nadu and teach that. They don't do that. They go to place where already people are millionaires, collect money from them, and sometimes they go to deceive poor people, collect the tights from them, and become millionaires 31:33 themselves. I'm I get mad and angry just like Jesus got in the temple when he saw people making money in the name of religion. The money changers and the deceivers are back in the temple today and there's nobody to drive them out. 31:47 And nobody has the guts to expose them. That's the tragedy in Christendom today. What shall we say about these type of situations? This is the condition of Christendom. And the word of God has warned us and warned us and warned us. 32:00 He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. To love God means I keep his commandments, not in a legalistic way. The Pharisees kept the commandments and Jesus said to the Pharisees and said to his disciples in Matthew 5, he said, "If your righteousness 32:20 Matthew 5:20 does not surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." What did he mean by that? How can your righteousness surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees? I would say two things. Please 32:38 understand this. First of all, their righteousness was external. They cleaned the outside of the cup. Your righteousness must surpass that in the sense that your righteousness must be internal. You must not show people love on the 32:55 outside. It must be from within. Otherwise, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Number one, listen again. Unless your This is spoken to the disciples. Are you a disciple of Jesus? It says here in verse two verse one, he sat down, his disciples 33:14 came to him, and he told his disciples. And if you're one of his disciples, this is what he says. Unless your righteousness is more than the righteousness of the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But you say, "Lord, I 33:28 said those magic words 25 years ago, Lord Jesus, come into my heart." Whatever magic words you may have said, if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But you say, "Lord, 33:40 that's a religion of works. Salvation is by faith." Yes, but it is a faith which produces works. A faith which does not produce works is a dead faith. Like a dead man who's got all his fingers and toes and eyes and everything, but no breath. That's what 33:55 James says. He's got all his doctrines right, but no breath. Faith without works is dead like that. It's a dead faith. It's a type of faith, an intellectual faith, which even the devil has. No, that's not it. It's a righteousness that the proof of 34:15 faith is that you love God with all your heart. And when you say love God with all your heart, it's not something you have to grow to. I said the other day how you may your capacity may only be a cup. You love God with all that. 34:31 It becomes a bucket. You love God with all that. You become mature and you become like a tub. You love God more. Our love for God increases as our capacity increases, but all the time it's full. The cup is full, the bucket is full, the 34:43 tub is full, the river is full. Your righteousness must be exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees in two ways. One, it must be inward more than outward. Not that I don't murder, but that I don't get angry. That's why I say anger is serious. 35:02 Not that you don't lust with your that you don't commit adultery, but you don't lust in your heart with against women. Not that you give money for God's work, but that you don't want people to know about it. So, it must be hidden inward. 35:19 And secondly, it must be motivated by passionate love for Jesus Christ. Yeah. That's why I believe that a passionate love for Christ is the most important thing. But we don't talk about it to others. We tell the Lord. It's right to tell Jesus, 35:37 "Lord, I love you passionately." But when other people ask me my testimony, my testimony is I'm a disciple whom Jesus loved. That's it. But what do I tell the Lord? Lord, thank you for your love. 35:55 And I sing to him the songs the mystics sang of our devotion to Christ. That's what it means to be a worshiper. But let the Lord hear it, not with these sentimental love ballads written by half-converted people, but deep from your heart. 36:10 Lord, I love you. What do you want me to do? Well, you know what the Lord asked that 25-year-old nurse to do 65 years ago when she was living in the comfort of the United States? Not to sing love ballads to him. Go to the 36:26 jungles of India and tell them that I love them. That was a pretty costly love. It would have been easy to sit in the church every Sunday morning and sing, "Oh Lord, I love you so much." And you see her today, she's such a 36:43 saint. These are the people I respect, I tell you. I respect them a million times more than these television preachers because I see Christ in them. In all these other preachers, I only see the love of money. It's dollars, 36:58 dollars, dollars in their eyes. But in these other people, I see the love of Christ in them. You must follow right examples. Don't be impressed by people who just preach nicely, dress smartly with all the money they've collected from people 37:15 to get all these branded dresses. I'm amazed that CFC people are fooled by these television preachers, men or women. I'm amazed how they circulate such CDs of such people and travel miles to listen to these people. I wouldn't travel 1 km to listen to 37:33 these people. I would like to sit at the feet of these godly men and women who sacrificed. That's why I urge young people, read the biographies of people like Jim Elliot. Read the biographies of Hudson Taylor, C.T. Studd, 37:50 Mary Slessor. There were women, too. Amy Carmichael. Read about these women. They didn't sing love ballads repeating three lines 20 times and think they love Jesus. Their love produced obedience. If you love me, keep my commandments. 38:05 I fear that we have a generation growing up who think they are spiritual with zero sacrifice in their life. And they're they're in a church which doesn't even take an offering. They don't even give money. Leave alone any other sacrifice. And 38:21 they think they are spiritual because their head is oozing with knowledge about the new covenant and about spirituality and legalism and everything in the Bible, but it hasn't produced fruit in their life. And there's conflict and strife among 38:37 the elders and conflict and strife between husband and wife and brothers and sisters, but they belong to CFC. You think God is fooled? You think when we stand before Jesus, he's going to ask us which church you belong to? 38:51 Is love for Jesus important? It is the most important commandment even today. Let me tell you what Paul said about those who don't love Jesus. 1 Corinthians, I don't know whether you read this verse. 1 Corinthians 16, it's a pretty scary 39:06 verse. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22. Paul is writing to the Corinthians who were carnal, babies, born again, that like they thought, had all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 39:24 And he tells them, if 1 Corinthians 16:22, if anyone anyone anyone anyone does not love the Lord Jesus passionately, let him be accursed. Boy. What would you think if Brother Zac got up in the meeting and 39:43 said a curse on all those who don't love Jesus? Brother Zach's getting very hard. He's not getting hard, he's just quoting scripture. You don't know it because you don't read the Bible. Anyone sitting here does not love the Lord Jesus, he or she 40:01 is accursed. Do you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God? Or do you have favorite verses? You'll never be cured with favorite verses. 40:18 All scripture is inspired by God. I'm thankful that I've spent 50 years studying this book. And even today I'll tell you I feel I know so little of it. That I'm surprised how people have time 40:38 for so many other things when they have never read the Bible. So much time to watch television, so much time to watch movies, so much time to read romantic stories, and so much time to read so many things and they don't know the Bible. And they which 40:50 Christian books do they read? Christian books that don't drive them to the Bible, Christian love stories, and Christian this, and Christian that, which don't drive them to the scriptures. I read only those type of Christian 41:02 articles and books that drive me to the scriptures because I know that uh Christian books are like listening to a message. For example, if what I'm speaking now is written down, that becomes a book. And if it's good to listen to a message, 41:13 it's good to read a book provided it drives you to the scriptures. Not it gives you sentimental feelings of holiness and love. Let me show you another verse. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 24. 41:33 We all like to have grace. But whom does Paul pray? Paul is praying may grace be with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with a passionate love. Does Paul believe that loving Jesus with 41:52 a passionate love is the most important thing? Yes, he does. He says only such people deserve God's grace. I believe it, too. I endorse it 100%. But don't sing about it. Don't talk about it. Tell Jesus about it. And let 42:09 other people see it in your life. And when you testify don't testify what you're doing for the Lord. Testify what the Lord has done for you. "You shall be witnesses unto me," Jesus said. Not witnesses unto yourself. 42:28 Be witnesses unto the Lord. That's not for mature Christians, that's for baby Christians. The apostles were 30 years old, 33 years old, baby Christians filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Be a witness for me. Go everywhere and talk to people 42:44 tell people about me." Not about yourself. Grace be with those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with a passionate incorruptible means and the original means undying. A love that never dies. A love that increases just like my age 43:04 has increased. Once upon a time I was 1 year old, now I'm 69. My age has increased every year. That is how our love for Jesus must increase. Undying, growing, passionate devotion to Christ. May the grace of God be upon such people. What shall I say? 43:21 Shall I say, "Oh, the grace of God be on all of you?" No, sir, I will not say that. Grace be upon all who are sitting here who love Jesus with a passionate undying love. The rest you can do what you like. Maybe go and listen to Christian rock. 43:38 Or sing these three lines 45 times. Fool yourself. I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you what scripture says. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Let's look at another apostle. 43:58 He was the one who lived with Jesus for 29 years at home. But he doesn't call himself a brother of Jesus, he calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ. James 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man who perseveres under 44:18 trial. That means who overcomes sin. Because once he has overcome and he's been approved he will receive the crown of life. Which the Lord has promised to whom? To everybody? No. To those who love him with a devotion, 44:37 who love him with all their hearts. Do you know that the crown of life is not for everybody? Why didn't he say the crown of life is the Lord has promised to all believers? No. It's for those who love him. And you know, I have a question when I read this 44:51 verse. Do you have Do you find the same question? To whom is the Lord going to give the crown of life? Answer me by reading just that one verse. Is it going to be for those who love him? Or is it going to be for those who 45:03 persevere under trial and overcome and are approved? Tell me. Let me read it. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. Who's getting it? 45:23 Did I confuse you? I hope I stirred you to read the scriptures more carefully. Let me say it again. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, temptation, and once he's been approved, that means God approves, yes, you overcame it. He will receive the 45:38 crown of life. Who's the one who gets the crown of life? The one who overcomes in temptation. Now let me read it again. The crown of life is the Lord has promised to those who love him. Who's going to get the crown of life? 45:54 So by simple deduction, if A equals B and B equals C, what did algebra teach you? Therefore A equals C, okay? Now let me teach you. This teaches us that those who love him will persevere under trial. He says they're talking about the same 46:13 people in two different ways. You say this is a man, this is a male. Same thing. This is a man who loves Jesus passionately. He overcomes in trial. Same thing. Don't fool yourself that you love the Lord if you don't persevere under trial. 46:33 That's what I'm trying to say. If you don't persevere under trial, you don't humble yourself when God calls you to humble yourself, you don't overcome temptation as God as it comes to you, you do not love the Lord. That's it. 46:46 That's the last word on it. Let me show you another verse. It's amazing, you know, you read scripture carefully and you get light. All you've got to do is read slowly. One of the things I've been encouraging people in different parts of India now is read 47:01 scripture slowly. Don't let Don't try to go through the Bible, let the Bible go through you. I'm not so interested in going through the Bible in 1 year because I'll tell you honestly, when I read the Bible sometimes I get stuck in one verse for 1 47:16 week. One verse. How can I finish the Bible in 1 year? Because I get a verse and I say, "Boy, I I Lord, I need to really digest that." Otherwise you'll be like these children who swallow food. You put meat in their mouth, gulp. No 47:30 chewing, nothing. You put something in them, gulp. And it all comes out like that only. We teach our children, "Chew your food. Chew your food. You live long if you chew your food." Now the same thing I say with scripture, 47:44 chew it, chew it. It's not like milk which you can swallow. There's certain things you can swallow. Those are babies, but there's solid meat in scripture, chew it, chew it, chew it, and then you'll become strong. Chapter 47:54 2, James chapter 2. Verse 5. Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? Now you know the answer. To whom is God 48:14 promising the kingdom? To? To those who love him and which is the same as those who are rich in faith. You know, it's the same thing. If you love him, you'll really have 48:31 strong confidence in in God. You know, the proof of my faith in God is I mean that I say, "Lord, the proof of my love for God is that I say I keep my command his commandments." The proof of my faith in God is, "Lord, I believe that every 48:47 commandment you've given me is for my good." Okay, let me show you another verse. Well-known verse. Romans 8:28. We know that God causes everything to work together for good for whom? 49:07 For those who love him. Do you see how important it is to love God with all our heart? Everything that happens in your life will work for your good. I want to live there. The safest place in all the world, where is it now? 49:22 It's not the United States, it's not Europe, it's not these planes, it's not the Arab countries. It's not India. It's certainly not the five-star hotels. That's not the safest place today. The safest place 49:41 is in the shadow of the most high. In the secret place of the most high, the shadow of the almighty. It is in the center of the will of God. And if you're in the center of the will of God, you can live in Afghanistan or 49:56 Iraq and you're quite safe. But if you're not in the center of the will of God, you're not safe. You can be killed crossing the road in a country you think you're safe. Seek with a terrific passion in your life. Lord, I want to be in the center 50:12 of your will. Teach your children to seek the will of God for their life, whatever it is. Lord, I want to live in the center of your will for my life all my days. Love is the greatest. And how shall we love Jesus more? 50:32 I found two ways. One is by meditating on how much he loved me. John says in 1 John chapter 4, we love him because he first loved us. 50:50 This is how I we love him. We love him because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19. That's how I love him. If you don't meditate on how much Jesus loved you, you will not 51:08 love him. You will not turn from sin. One of my favorite hymns which I sing by myself is this. Ever when tempted, Lord, make me see beneath the olives moon-pierced shade, 51:27 my God alone. It's talking about Calvary. Outstretched and bruised and bleeding on the earth that he made. And make me feel it was my sin 51:43 as though no other sins were there. That was to him who bears the world a load that he could scarcely bear. That was to him who bears the world my sin 52:02 a load that he could scarcely bear. That he had to cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I meditate I meditated on that for 50 years. It's made me love Jesus. It's made me take up the cross and humble myself in different 52:20 circumstances. And to do anything if the body of Christ can be built, Lord, I'm willing to go down. I'm willing to be nobody that the body of Christ be built, that fellowship be built. Go that way. Your life will be very 52:36 happy. I'll tell you my life is so happy. I I wonder if I've met a happier man than me in the world. If you meet one, let me know. I'd like to meet him. My life is supremely happy under all types of circumstances. It makes no 52:46 difference. If things go right, things go wrong, it doesn't make a difference because I've seen Jesus on the cross. I've seen the intensity of his love for me. I'm a disciple whom Jesus loves. And I love him because he first loved me. 53:01 That's number one. The second thing that makes me love Jesus fervently is Luke's gospel and chapter 7. I'm saying this not to tell you how much I love Jesus, but to encourage you to love Jesus by doing the same thing yourself. Meditate 53:19 on Jesus' love for you, number one. Number two, Luke chapter 7 verse 40 onwards, Jesus told the story about two debtors. A money lender, verse 41, had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. Both were unable to repay and he 53:37 forgave both of them. He asked, "Which of them will love him more?" You know, the creditor here is is God. Every sin I commit is a debt to him. And I've committed millions of sins in my life and I'm tremendously in debt to 53:52 God. Maybe another fellow has not committed so many sins. He's not so much in debt. One owed him million sins and other owed him maybe 100,000 sins. Who will love him more? The one who has been forgiven more. Simon said, even the Pharisee knew the 54:08 answer. "Yes," Jesus said to Simon the Pharisee, "Do you see this woman?" She's talking about that sinful woman, the prostitute who took all her life savings and bought a perfume and poured it at Jesus' feet because she'd been forgiven so much. 54:25 We were not prostitutes. We were not forgiven so much. And Simon certainly was not a prostitute. And Jesus said, "That's why you don't love me so much as this woman. You criticize her because she's not dressed properly. 54:38 You criticize her for bringing an offering from her earnings as a prostitute, but I see the heart behind it. Simon, I know there's a law in Deuteronomy which says that the earnings of a prostitute must never be given as an offering to God. I 54:51 know that verse, Simon, but I see her heart. I go beyond that. You guys are all legalists. You want to kill the woman caught in adultery. I know there's a law which says such women should be killed, but I see God's heart. 55:04 She's to be forgiven. This woman has been forgiven so much. You didn't even give me water for my feet. And she's been anointing my my feet with oil. She loved much. Why do you think Mary Magdalene was the one who waited in the tomb? Uh you know, 55:22 I read that story of this resurrection morning. Peter and John came and looked and saw the tomb was empty. It was 4:00 in the morning. They said, "We haven't slept properly yet. I go back to sleep." Well, 4:00 in the morning, if you get 55:34 up, you naturally want to go back to sleep again. Mary was awake before 4:00 in the morning. She went there at 3:00. But she didn't go back to bed. She said, "I can't go back to bed. I want to know where my savior is." Do you have a passion like that? 55:53 When you've lost Jesus for a while because you're occupied with the world, you go back and say, "I've lost my Lord. Where is he Where is he?" She couldn't go back to bed. Why? Because she had been forgiven much. Seven demons had been cast out of her. 56:09 She wasn't forgiven little like Peter and John and all who had lived a decent life. She was a sinner, a filthy sinner. And Jesus had forgiven much. She loved much. And so God gave her the privilege to be the first human being 56:26 to see the resurrected Jesus. Those who know they are great sinners and who don't despise others, who esteem others as better than them, will see Jesus. They may not become elders and have great honor and position, but they will see Jesus. 56:42 And they'll be great in the kingdom of God, the kingdom which God has promised to those who love him. And such people will find it very easy to love others because they've been forgiven so much. Such people will find it easy to forgive 56:53 others because they've been forgiven so much. This is the whole secret of the Christian life. Don't let your past sins bring condemnation upon you because the blood of Jesus has cleansed them. But always remember the sins you committed. Do you 57:08 know that I I have zero condemnation about my past life. I stand before God today as one who has never sinned because the blood of Christ has justified me. But having said that, I'll tell you honestly my testimony. I frequently remember the 57:23 sins I committed as far back as my childhood. I can remember. I remember it frequently because that's how I love my Lord. I say, "Lord, you forgave me so much. You forgave me so much. How can I live a shallow, half-hearted 57:41 life for you? I have no time for that. Life is so short. About 15 years ago, I was driving my moped down the level crossing here and then the guy lowered the level crossing and hit me straight on the chest and I fell unconscious on the railway line, 57:58 almost died. 15 years ago. I got up and the Lord saved my life. And this is what I said to the Lord at that time. I said, "Lord, I have not finished saying thank you to you for dying for me on the cross. Please 58:17 give me a few more years. Just to say thank you to you. That's all. I don't want any reward. I don't want any And that's what I sought to do last 15 years. Dear brothers, you owe so much to Jesus. You may say, "Well, I'm not such a great 58:31 sinner." That's because you haven't seen how serious even pride is, hypocrisy. You know that pride and hypocrisy are worse than adultery and murder? If you don't see the seriousness of it, you think you think like the worldly 58:44 person. "I haven't killed anybody. I haven't committed adultery." So what? You You've had pride. You've had hypocrisy. You've had selfishness. Those are the worst sins in God's eyes. The fellows who commit murder and adultery are much better. 58:56 So, we recognize we are sinners when we see the gravity of sin in God's eyes. Let's go forth determined to love Jesus passionately with all of our heart. And that Jesus will see that in our life. Let's spend time in worshipping 59:12 him saying to him, "Lord, whom have I in heaven but you? There's no one on earth that I desire beside you." Don't sing it to people. Sing it to the Lord. Like a bride whispers her love to her bridegroom in his ear. She doesn't talk about it to others. 59:30 Live before Jesus like that. And I believe we will have a different types of churches in India if we have more people like that. And you will be changed and your life will transform your children. I want to go that way. 59:46 Let's walk together. You and I and build the church of Jesus Christ in this land. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are a needy people. 1:00:07 And the more we hear your word and the more we see your glory, we see our need. We don't see anybody else's. I see my own need, Lord, more than anybody else's. I'm far, far from what you want me to be and I believe most of us feel like that 1:00:22 right now. But we have hope. As we trust you, that you will work in our hearts producing in us the desire to will and to do of your good pleasure, the ability and the desire to love you with all of our 1:00:42 hearts. And from that love to serve you, to sacrifice, to deny ourselves, to be merciful to others, to forgive others, to serve others, to do good to others, to walk in lowliness, never to esteem ourselves as superior to anyone, 1:00:59 to serve them, to love them, to deny ourselves, to walk in purity, to see that it is the load of our sin that crushed you on the cross. Help us each one, Lord, we pray.
