0:07 Our subject is discerning the spirit of Babylon and some people may not know why we use the word Babylon because they're not familiar with scripture. But if you turn to the end of the Bible uh in Revelation chapter 17 it speaks about Babylon as the great 0:25 harlot, mother of harlots in Revelation chapter 17 and verse 5. So, it's a scriptural word. We are using a New Testament scriptural word. It has some connection with the old 0:42 empire of Babylon run by Nebuchadnezzar. But the Lord is trying to use that as an example to warn us. And it's called a harlot. The harlot is a prostitute. And it's compared in Revelation 1:00 chapter 21 with the bride in chapter 21 verse 2 is called the New Jerusalem, not the old Jerusalem which is on earth. Babylon is the harlot and the New Jerusalem is the bride and the bride is 1:19 the disciples of Jesus who follow him wherever he goes. They are described in in Revelation chapter 14 as these are the lamb, these are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. In Revelation chapter 14 and verses 1:39 1 to 5. So, that's the contrast here. And we need to understand what is this harlot or adulterous? A bride is someone who's faithful to the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. And uh the adulterous or the harlot Babylon is 1:57 one who is claims to be the bride but is unfaithful. I mean, if someone is not engaged to Christ, in other words, doesn't claim to belong to Christ, they cannot be a part of Babylon. A person who belongs to another religion 2:12 can never be a part of Babylon. Babylon refers to those who claim to be Christians. Claim to accept Jesus as their Lord but are not devoted to him as the bride. And this is described in James in 2:31 chapter 4. If you don't have time to look at these verses, you can just jot them down or listen to this message later on. But I have to go through it quickly. James 4 and verse 4. Here is how the adulterous, the spiritual adulterous is described here 2:48 like this. James writes to Christians. Remember, he's writing to Christians here. In uh other places, he says many of you, brethren, my brethren in chapter 3 verse 1, chapter 2 verse 1, my brethren. He's talking to my brethren. 3:06 And to the breath to the believers, he says in James 4 verse 4, you adulteresses. Now, if you he's not saying that to the world. He's saying that to believers who don't have the spirit of devotion to Christ like a bride should have to the 3:25 person she's engaged to. The bride of Christ uh is a picture of a bride who's absolutely faithful to a person she's engaged to who's gone on a distant journey, promised to come back and marry her. But the harlot is one who is engaged but 3:44 fools around with others while her bridegroom is away. And this is referred to here in James 4:4, you adulteresses. And here is the other person who is attracting the bride and making her an adulteress. It's called here the 4:00 world. You adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world that is spiritual adultery. It's described so clearly here. And that is hostility or enmity towards God. So, whoever makes himself a friend of the 4:20 world is the enemy of God. Now, when it speaks about the world, it's not talking about people. No. The people of the world, the Bible says God so loved the people of the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not 4:37 perish. But this is talking about a world system where Satan is called the prince of this world. And he confuse His aim is to confuse and deceive those who claim to be Christians. He's not worried about those who are already in his hands, unbelievers. 4:56 He's concerned with those who claim to be the bride of Christ. To defile them, corrupt them, make their witness ineffective. Make them compromise in some way, lose their testimony. Go after other things and lose their devotion to Christ. All types 5:12 of ways the devil seeks them to seeks to make them a friend of this world system. When it says the devil is the prince of this world, he's not a physical ruler on earth. He's a ruler of this world system which runs what we see in this 5:30 world. So, that is what's referred to here. And John the apostle also writes like this in 1 John chapter 2. This is we need to understand this Babylon clearly. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15 says, "Do not love the world. 5:48 If anyone I don't care who you are." Again, he's writing to believers. Chapter 2 verse 1, "My little children." He's writing to those who are born again. He's even writing to spiritual fathers in 1 John 2:14. That means not just 6:05 There are three types of believers he writes to in verses chapter 2 verse 12 to 14. Those who are spiritual babes, newly converted. Those who have progressed a little, young men. And those who are spiritual fathers, 1 John 2:14. Some of you may think you're 6:20 very mature, spiritual father. You say, "I'm not a baby Christian. I'm not even a young brother. I'm a mature spiritual father." Here is what the Holy Spirit is saying to you and to me. Do not love the world. Can a spiritual father love the world? 6:39 Can an effective preacher love the world? Yes. Anyone can fall into that. If If you say, "Well, I'm beyond that. I'm a spiritual father." Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. It's behoves us to walk in humility. 6:56 And when the word of God says to spiritual fathers, "Love not the world." I want to take it seriously. I don't want to imagine that I can be careless. Jesus was always alert on this earth when he lived on this earth. That's why he never sinned. 7:12 Do not love the world. If anyone loves the world, listen to this. Don't care you're a new believer or a spiritual father. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. And what is the world? The lust of the flesh. 7:29 Not the people. It's the lust of the flesh, 1 John 2:16. The lust of the eyes and the pride of life. All this is not from the Father but is from the world. And this is going to pass away, verse 17. And the opposite of that is Here's the 7:45 bride in 1 John 2:17. Those who do the will of God. So, the contrast here is between the Babylon, those who indulge in the lusts of the flesh, which is usually all types of sensual pleasures, and the 8:03 lust of the eyes, which refers to adultery and the boastful pride of life, which is seeking honor. And this also includes lust of the eyes also includes the love for money. We look and see things and we want to buy them. 8:17 All this is going to pass away. And the one who does the will of God, that's the contrast. Those are the people who constitute the bride of Christ. That's just a little brief introduction. Now, when we trace this back to the beginning 8:35 uh we'll see it's a very subtle thing. Way back in the beginning when God created Adam he sent him into a garden and there were two trees mentioned. There were thousands of trees in the Garden of Eden. But two trees particularly are 8:51 mentioned. One is the knowledge, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the other is the tree of life. Now, there's nothing wrong with knowing good and evil. We know that. We teach our children from the time they are born to know good and 9:07 evil. Why did God forbid that? Very important to understand it because the origin of Babylon is also here. Here are two trees. And one leads on finally to Babylon in a very subtle way. This is not obvious sin. Obvious sin is what we saw in 1 John 2, 9:26 the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But here you see a contrast in the beginning of the Bible, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. What do you see at the end of the Bible? Babylon and Jerusalem. How does it end 9:38 up there? The choice is to have knowledge of spiritual things. Knowledge of the word of God. And no life. There is a knowledge which just remains in our mind, which is part of our soul. 9:57 Such a person is a soulish Christian, not a spiritual Christian. A spiritual Christian concentrates on life, that knowledge leads to life. See, knowledge is like food. Food is very important. We cannot grow without food. We don't have life without 10:14 food. But if you eat food and it never gets digested, it never gets converted into blood and flesh and bones, you die. You can eat as much as you like. But you die. That is what knowledge does. Knowledge is like food. If it's not digested, it does the If the 10:33 Holy Spirit does not break it down and make it part of our inner life, of our spirit, our heart, it ends up as knowledge and we end up in Babylon. It doesn't look so dirty as sexual sin. It doesn't look so dirty as the love of 10:49 money. It doesn't look so dirty as pride. But it leads to Babylon just as much. Knowledge. Many Christians who are fairly clean morally, who are not running after money, and who are not seeking honor, also end 11:08 up in Babylon because their Christianity is all in their knowledge. Even those who speak about forgiveness or justification, even some who speak about victory over sin, it's not in their life. They are proud. 11:27 How can a man speak about victory over sin and be proud? He's got to be crazy. He's full of the greatest sin of all, the first sin that came in the universe, pride. And here he's proud. Maybe he's not proud of worldly things, he's proud of 11:42 his Bible knowledge. Or perhaps he's proud of his spirituality. That is Babylon. To have a good moral life and to be proud of it is Babylon. We read that in 1 John 2:16, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the 11:59 pride of life. So, knowledge, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 8, puffs up. Whereas love builds up. The primary mark of life, the primary mark of spiritual life, is fervent love 12:16 for God and for Jesus Christ, and leading on to loving one another in the church as Jesus loved us, and loving everyone in the world as ourselves. At least a willingness to love everybody as ourselves. We're not It doesn't mean we 12:33 got to help everybody, but an attitude, for example, to ensure that there is not a single human being against whom I've got hatred. There's not a single human being whom I despise. That's knowledge. You know, knowledge 12:52 puffs up. And whether it's Bible knowledge or scientific knowledge or earthly knowledge, it can puff up a Christian and he becomes a part of Babylon. It's a very subtle thing. Many Christians think, I'm not a part of Babylon, I'm in 13:06 a good church. Oh, yeah? It's not a particular church that is Babylon. It's a spirit that can be in a person. You can be sitting in the best church in the world and be a part of Babylon. Yeah, it's it's an individual thing. You 13:22 yourself choose whether you want knowledge or you want life. For example, when you read the Bible, I'm sure most of you read the Bible, are you seeking for knowledge or life? Those are the two trees. This book, the Bible, 13:39 can be a not a tree of knowledge of good and evil, or it can be a tree of life to you. The choice is yours. If you use only your mind to study, go to a Bible school, study, study, study, use a lot of commentaries and this that and the other 13:55 concordances, which is all good. I use concordances myself. But if it's only going to remain in the mind, I'm going to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not the Bible knowledge, perhaps, the tree of Bible knowledge. 14:08 Jesus The Lord so told Adam, if you eat of that, you'll die. And it's true even today. The pursuit of knowledge, any type of knowledge by itself without life, brings death. There's nothing wrong in pursuing knowledge. I want to pursue knowledge that is 14:25 essential for me to live on this earth. I want to pursue the knowledge of the scripture. I've been studying the Bible for more than 61 years. And even today, I say, Lord, I don't want to study this book to get knowledge. I don't want to study this 14:40 book to preach. I want life more than anything else. That's what I want to pursue. That's how I stay away from Babylon. So, this is the first thing I want to warn you, dear brothers and sisters. Very lovingly and humbly, I would urge you, 14:55 when you read the scriptures, when you hear a message, don't think of, ah, I understood something. Some people think like this, especially those who are preachers. Ah, I got a point to preach in my next sermon. Is that why you're listening to God's 15:09 word in a sermon or reading the Bible to get a point to preach for your next sermon, to get honor for yourself? That is Babylon. When you preach to get honor for yourself, that is 100% Babylon. We are supposed to preach 15:26 to point to Christ, to draw people away from ourselves to Christ. We have to point to him so that people don't see us. That's the spirit of the bride, pointing away from ourselves. So, that's the first place where we see this contrast, 15:44 knowledge or life. Go on to chapter 4. We read about the first sin committed outside the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden, we read of Cain and Abel presenting a offering to God, and there 16:00 again you see a contrast. And there again you see the spirit of Babylon and Jerusalem, the harlot and the bride. Why did the fire of God fall on Abel's sacrifice and did not fall on Cain's sacrifice? That's what disturbed Cain. 16:15 Why is God accepting Abel? The way God manifested his acceptance in Old Testament times was the physical fire would fall on the sacrifice as you read in Leviticus and other places. So, here the reason why is not because, 16:32 like some pre- some preachers teach, that Abel brought a lamb, a blood offering. There were offerings given uh ordered by God which did not have blood. For example, grain offering was a thanksgiving offering. What Cain and 16:48 Abel were bringing was not a sin offering. They were bringing a thanksgiving offering for the way God blessed their labors. Cain was a farmer, so he brought the grain. Absolutely right. Abel was a shepherd, so he brought the 17:02 lambs. A lamb, rather. But what was the difference? Cain, Genesis 4:3, brought an offering, A N, an offering. Abel, 17:18 verse 4, brought the best of his flock. Here again you see Babylon and Jerusalem, or the harlot and the bride. There are Christians who bring an offering to God, A N, some offering. Some 10% or whatever it is. The question 17:38 is not the quantity. No. It's not talking about quantity. It's the lamb that um Abel brought here, maybe very small compared to the huge amount of grain that Cain brought. It is not quantity at all. It was an offering, whereas Cain 17:57 uh Abel brought the best. So, here are two types of Christians. Some who bring an offering to ease their conscience. Oh, I have to give something to God. I call them the minimum Christians. By that I mean their whole attitude to 18:12 Christianity is, what is the minimum I have to do to please God? What is the minimum I have to do to go to heaven? What is the minimum I have to do to have my sins uh sins forgiven? That is called an offering. 18:29 It always ends up in Babylon. The other Christian is like Abel, who says, Lord, what is the maximum I can give you in this one earthly life I have? You don't have to be a full-time Christian worker. The Apostle Paul was a 18:46 businessman who served the Lord. He was a tentmaker. He was not a full-time Christian worker. He earned his own living and supported himself and even supported some of his co-workers. He was an amazing man, an example. He says, follow 18:59 me as I follow Christ. He didn't bring an offering. He brought the best. He gave his life to God and he said, I don't want to be one like one of these preachers who are paid by others and look around for somebody to give money, these preachers 19:14 who always send out prayer letters to get money from different places. He says, I don't want to be like that. He never sent out a prayer letter, he never asked people for money. He supported himself. Because he wanted to give the 19:25 best. He says, as a servant of the God, I have the right to be supported because Jesus said the laborer is worthy of his hire. But he says, I don't use that right. He was following a savior, Jesus, who gave up all his rights when he came to 19:40 earth. That is the mark of a man who belongs to the bride. He doesn't claim rights. He doesn't say, I have a right to this. I'll I'll you, the bride of Christ has no rights. If people take away rights from him, he says, "Okay. 19:57 I'm not going to get offended. I'm not going to get hurt." He may be the most respected person in the church. If somebody stands up to his face and insults him, he bows his head and forgives him. That's a true servant of God. 20:10 He does not seek to exalt himself. He doesn't like some of these big preachers nowadays run away from the platform as soon as they finish speaking because they're too big to talk to ordinary people. They may be a big preacher in the world, 20:23 but they are part of Babylon. Don't be deceived by all that. Jesus never ran away after he finished preaching so that he could not talk to ordinary people. He didn't go around sitting around with the big shots of the chief priest and Herod and all after his 20:36 message. He was mingling with ordinary sinners all the time. Before speaking, after speaking, all the time. In fact, somebody like Nicodemus could come and disturb him in the middle of the night. How free do you feel to go to somebody's 20:52 house in the middle of the night and then knock at the door and say, "I want to talk to you." That's a man of God who's given people the impression, "You can come and disturb me anytime. If I can help you spiritually, come in 21:04 the middle of the night. I'll wake up and sit and help you." That's the spirit of Christ which Nicodemus sensed. And he went to him. Otherwise, he would not have gone. He was a respectable rabbi. He He knows that he shouldn't go 21:18 and disturb other rabbis in the middle of the night. But he says Jesus was different. He gave people the impression, "I'm here to serve you anytime. You can disturb me." That's the spirit of the bride of Christ. The same spirit as Christ. So, 21:31 we see these two examples. Knowledge and life. And here the you give the minimum What is the minimum I need to do? For example, what's the minimum I need to do to have a good testimony in the church? Maybe you want to be a part of a church. And 21:46 you want to find out, "What is the minimum I have to do to remain as a good member in the church? Uh do I have to come to so many prayer two meetings a week? Okay, I'll come for two meetings a week. Do I have to pay a certain amount of money in the offering 21:56 box? Do I have to take some small responsibility? I'll do that. But I'm going to live for myself the rest of the time. The fundamental principle of a part person who's a hall part of the harlot Babylon church is that deep down in his heart 22:13 self is in the center. Not Jesus Christ. Not the kingdom of God. But how can I advance myself? If I can use religion to advance myself, let me do it. See, let me give you the example of, you know, that Jesus drove out some money 22:29 changers and the sellers of sheep and all from the temple. Why did he do that? Do you know that they they were doing a very good service? I don't know whether you realize that. They were not there just to make money. Of course, they were making money. 22:42 But they were saying, "There are all these people, Jewish people, coming from far places like Galilee and other parts of Israel coming all the way to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice to God in the Passover time. And there 22:59 was three times they had to come to Jerusalem. And instead of bringing their sheep and oxen all the way from their place, which is a nuisance. I mean, to travel all the way bringing your animals which for sacrifice with you, 23:12 these merchants, these businessmen said, "Hey, you don't have to bring them. We'll give them to you here. We'll sell you these sheep for sacrifice." They were not selling sheep for food. They were selling sheep and dogs and all for 23:26 sacrifice for a religious purpose. And he says, "We'll give it to you here. The only thing we have to charge a pretty high commission." And they were making money in the name of Jehovah in the name of God from those poor people. 23:44 And Jesus said, he chased them out. He says, "This my house is the house of prayer. Not a place for you to make money." Do you know that Jesus never went to the marketplace in Jerusalem and chased anybody out? There's nothing wrong in doing business. 23:58 There's nothing wrong in selling sheep or mark or goats or anything you like in the marketplace, but don't do it in the name of God. If you do anything in the name of God, it's it must be for zero profit. That's the principle. 24:13 Anything you do in the name of God must be for zero gain for yourself. You don't use the power of God to gain something for yourself. Never. That is Babylon. When the Lord called me for my to serve him full time when I was 24:30 working in the Navy in India in 1964, which is a long, long time ago, 56 years ago. One word that the Lord spoke to me at that time very clearly was from the first temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness. 24:49 In the first temptation in the wilderness, you read in Matthew chapter 4, the devil came to Jesus and told him, "Well, you've just been Let me paraphrase his words. A few days ago, 40 days ago, you were anointed with the Holy Spirit and power 25:05 by God in the river Jordan. Now you got power. Now you be not been eating for 40 days. You're really hungry. And you can use your your power to turn these stones into bread and satisfy your hunger." You know, even if you don't eat for 3 25:20 days, it's it's tough. You feel really hungry. Imagine going with 40 days without food. Jesus was hungry. And the devil said, "You're not stealing anybody's food. You're not asking anybody for food. You're using the power God gave you not 25:38 to make money. No, no, no. Just to make a little bit of bread to eat. It sounds such a good thing to do." But Jesus said, "No." He said, "I haven't heard from the Father to do that, so I won't do it." He did not use his power 25:57 to make bread for himself. But at other times, we know, he made bread for 5,000 people, 5,000 men and many women and children, 10,000 people. Another time he made for 4,000 people. Multiplied the bread. He He had the power to make bread. 26:15 And he made it for others, for thousands of others, but he never made it for himself. That's the word the Lord spoke to me. And the way the Lord applied it to my life was, "I have given you an anointing to preach. That's not your 26:30 own ability." I know it's not my own ability because I I was a very shy young man. I've never taken part in any public speaking in school or in the military academy or anywhere. I was very reserved and not at all the type of person who could be a preacher. 26:47 But God anointed me with the Holy Spirit. And the Lord said, "I have given you power. I'll be with your mouth and I'll give you words to speak. But you must never use the gift I gave you that I give you to get anything for yourself." 27:04 Jesus never used the power to make bread for himself. You must never use the gift I give you to make money for yourself. You must never use the gift I give you to get honor for yourself or anything for yourself. It must be all 27:23 for Christ. Not 90% for Christ. All for Christ. I'm not saying you cannot receive a gift. Jesus received the gifts. We read in Luke chapter 8 verse 3. But he was not dependent on them. He was not looking for it. He was not preaching for 27:38 money. He was not preaching for honor. So, that is Babylon where you do a right thing and you're doing it for yourself to gain something for yourself. This is what the Lord told me when I started writing books. In the world, people write books to 27:55 become millionaires. They get money, royalties. Christian preachers write books to make money. You must never write a book to make money. That's why we publish all our books at Christian Fellowship Center, Bangalore. 28:13 And I get zero royalty from it. I don't want it. The Apostle Paul is my example who said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." That's why I've supported myself now all these years that I've been serving the Lord. So, I see very clearly 28:30 so much of Christendom today is in the spirit of Babylon seeking gain for themselves, preaching for honor, preaching for money, writing books for money. This is Babylon. So, if you keep this in mind, we'll understand a little bit 28:45 of where this all leads. Let me just show you another passage in 2 Timothy Timothy. And it'll become clearer. 2 Timothy in chapter 3, he's Paul is speaking here about the last days. 29:04 And you know, we're living in the last days. And he says here in 2 Timothy 3, "In the last days, difficult times will come." Or as the Living Bible paraphrases it, "It'll be very difficult to be a Christian in the last days." Not because 29:18 of persecution. No. That's also true. But here he's referring to the fact that there are people who will have a form of godliness, verse 5. This is why it's going to be difficult to be a Christian in the last days. Listen carefully. 29:32 Because around you will be Christians who have an appearance of godliness. The form of godliness is the doctrine. Those who have the right doctrine. Those who preach the truth. We're not talking about people who preach error. 29:48 People who will preach the right form of godliness, but lack the power. You remember what I said about the two trees in the garden of Eden? It's the same thing here. These are the two trees, 2 Timothy 3:5. The tree of knowledge, 30:02 the form of godliness, Bible knowledge, exact correct doctrine, but no life, no power to live that godly life. So, that's right here. Babylon and Jerusalem are right here in 2 Timothy 3:5. A form of godliness without power. 30:18 And in other words, they'll be talking about Jesus. They may be their full-time workers preaching about Christ, and maybe they become famous in that city or town or worldwide or whatever it is, but they will be they It says there are four 30:33 types of lovers mentioned in verses 1 to 4. Read carefully. Four types of lovers. The only correct one is the lover of God. The lover of God is the bride of Christ. The other three lovers are part of Babylon. And they are 30:49 verse 4, lovers of pleasure. Lovers of sinful pleasure, of sexual pleasure, preachers who fool around with women, not their wives, and who commit sin, but hide it so that nobody knows about it, and they get a 31:08 name as a great preacher, but in secret they're living in sin. 100% Babylon. Will be judged by God in the final day. God is no respecter of persons. God doesn't care whether you're world famous or anything like that. He looks for 31:22 purity. Many who are first will be last in the final day. So, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This is the contrast. Babylon consists of Christians who love sinful pleasure more than they love God, 31:40 who love pleasing themselves more than pleasing Jesus Christ. Pleasure to love pleasure means to please yourself. It could be sexual pleasure, it could be any type of thing. You know the Bible speaks even about gluttony as a sin. Philippians chapter 31:58 3, it speaks about those whose God is their stomach. People whose God is their stomach. Have you ever thought of that as a sinful thing to make that gluttony could be a sin? To eat to live is right, but to live to eat, 32:17 that's completely wrong. It's It says in Philippians 3 about those whose God is their stomach in Philippians 3:19. So, that's another type of pleasure we got to be careful about. A true Christian follows Jesus and he's disciplined in his life. 32:35 Discipline in the use of his time, discipline in the way he spends his money, and discipline in the way he lives his life. I'm not saying that he has no time for relaxation. It's perfectly all right to relax, to play games with our children, and to go 32:51 outdoors, to go for a walk, to go for a picnic. All that is okay, provided our aim in everything, like it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. That's a true disciple of Jesus. 33:09 You say, is it a high standard? Certainly is. Should we aim for that? Now, my I can answer that question when you say, you mean all of us Christians should aim to live for the glory of God? Let me ask you another question. You answer that 33:22 and then you'll get the answer to this one. Do all of you want to be in perfect health? Or would you like to have little bit of sickness? I don't mean too much sickness, just 1% or 5% sickness. How many of you would say, yes, I I love I love 5% sickness? 33:41 Not even one. I'm 81 years old, but I don't love sickness, I'll tell you that. I don't want to be sick, not even 1%. I love health. I love health 100%. If so, I want to live for the glory of God 33:59 100%. I want to do everything for the glory of God. Why is it that every one of you will love health, physical health, 100%, but not spiritual health 100%? What do I mean by that? When your conscience convicts you about 34:16 something, it's like a sickness. It could be a cancer, serious sickness, or it could be an injury, a broken bone perhaps. Now, whether it's a cancer or a broken bone, every one of you will seek to set it right in some way possible. 34:35 Nobody says, oh, I got cancer, it's okay, let me live with that. No, you won't say my bone is broken, let me leave it like that. Let me Let me leave my hand hanging around like this. No, we fix it immediately. We don't wait. We go to the doctor. We 34:47 go to the hospital. We love health so much that we fix anything, even a small injury in our hand. We go and put some medicine or a band-aid or something there immediately. That is how much we love physical health, and I want to urge you, my 35:03 brothers and sisters, it's very simple to live the Christian life. Love spiritual health in exactly the same way. Is that too much? Supposing I were to say to you, I'm going to give you some instructions on how you can be 100% healthy. 35:21 Would you like to listen to that? Oh, yes. There's not a single person who does not want to be 100% healthy. But I'm sorry, I'm not a dietitian or a doctor, I can't give you that instruction. But I can tell you how to be 100% spiritually healthy. 35:36 And if you claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and you're not interested in being 100% spiritually healthy, I want to say to you, you you've got the spirit of Babylon in it a little bit, and you just leave it like that, it'll grow. 35:51 You know, the giants in Canaan had little children, and they would grow up to be giants unless you until you unless you kill them as well. That's why the Lord said, don't don't only kill the giants, kill their little children. 36:05 So, the principle there is there are small sins in your life. The Bible says in Song of Solomon chapter 2, take care of the little foxes. Get rid of them. Get the little one, not the big ones. These little ones, the small little 36:17 sins. The small little scorpion crawling around in your house. The small serpent, small one, not big enough to run away fast. Small one. Kill it while it is small. So, what does that mean? It means that 36:37 as soon as you're convicted in your conscience about something, you immediately set it right. You don't wait. What do I mean practically? You suddenly realize that you spoke rudely to your wife 5 minutes ago, and you're aware of it. 36:58 Maybe your wife is kind enough to ignore it, forgive it, doesn't say anything, smiles at you, but you have still hurt her. You must ask her forgiveness. Otherwise, don't just go to God and say, Lord, forgive me. That's good. 37:15 But you know what Jesus said in Matthew 5:23-24? He said, if you have hurt your brother, don't go to God and ask his forgiveness first. Go to your brother, ask his forgiveness first, then come and bring your offering to God. 37:29 And if I don't ask forgiveness from another person, that verse is teaching me that I should not go to God at all. In the same way, if somebody has hurt me, and I feel in my heart an anger towards him or a bitterness towards him, you are 37:46 sinning. Forgive him immediately. If you don't forgive, you are not interested in spiritual health. I want to ask you, do you want to bring an offering like Cain? What's the minimum I have to do to give to God? That is Babylon. 38:02 So, lovers of pleasure. 2 Timothy 3, another lover. Chapter 3, 2 Timothy 3:2, lovers of money. That's the other lover, which is a part of Babylon. One who claims to be a Christian, but he loves money more than he loves 38:20 Christ. How shall we find out? Let me use an example. Supposing you're married to a very lovely woman as your wife, and you're married, you live in the same house with her. Everybody knows she is Mrs. So-and-so, your wife, 38:38 but your mind is always thinking of some other woman. Not always, any most of the time. You do think about your wife now and quite a bit of the time. Maybe 25% you think about your wife, but 75% of the time you're thinking of some other pretty 38:52 woman somewhere else. What do you think of that type of husband? Don't you think he's an adulterer? 100% an adulterer. Even if he's thinking 25% of the time or 1% of the time of some other woman. Now, my question is, 39:12 is your mind on money more than on Jesus Christ? There's nothing wrong in earning money. We have to earn money to live. Jesus earned money as a carpenter right up to the age of 30. Maybe from the age of 18 to 30 he was earning money because he had to support 39:31 four brothers and two sisters and a widowed mother at home. There's nothing wrong in earning money, and when you have seven members at home, you have to earn a lot of money. And he had to make a lot of stools and tables and benches 39:42 in order to earn money to support his family. There's nothing wrong in earning a lot of money. But Jesus never loved money. No. If some poor widow wanted something, he would make something for her free. If some child came into his carpenter 39:56 shop and broke something, he wouldn't get upset with that child. He didn't love money, but he earned money. It's perfectly all right to earn money. It's perfectly all right to have a savings account. Jesus had a savings 40:05 account. What do you mean by savings account? A savings account means you don't spend everything as soon as you get it. That means you get money today, you spend it today. That's not If you you keep some of it, whether you keep it for 40:16 1 day or whether you keep it for 15 years, that's not the point. If you keep it for use in the future, that's a savings account. And many people gave money to Jesus in appreciation. You read that in Luke 8:3, and Judas Iscariot kept it in a 40:30 bank. The banker was Judas Iscariot. Of course, he was a crooked banker. But Jesus kept that money in a bag because he didn't use it the same day. That's a savings account. It's perfectly all right. Because he said, "Well, I may need it 40:46 tomorrow. I've got 12 disciples and some of them got families. I've got to feed them. I'm going to send money to their home." Perfectly all right to have money. Perfectly all right to earn a lot of money, provided it's earned righteously. 40:57 But if our mind is always on that, how to make more money, how to make more money, how to make more and more and more and more and to the point where Christ is excluded and we have one corner for Christ. That is like Cain. 41:11 He brought an offering. And you bring your Sunday morning a little offering to God. He said, "This is you're fooling yourself." Wholehearted Christianity, wholehearted discipleship, that is the bride of Christ. So, lovers 41:30 of money, we have to think about money in order to support our family, but I'm talking about where you're so occupied with it that Christ is pushed out or you do something unrighteous in order to make money. Maybe a little 41:44 bit unrighteous. Yes, you say that's not so serious. It's just a little bit like saying It's like saying I put only a little bit of poison in my food, not much. But a little bit of poison. Why do you put a little bit of poison in your food? 41:58 Why do you put a little bit of Why do you do a little bit of unrighteousness with money? Do you see a little unrighteousness is the same as poison? I'm trying to get your conscience more sensitive. So, lovers of pleasure, lovers of money, 42:11 and the third is verse 2 Timothy 3, lovers of self. That's the greatest of all, where pride, my honor, self sitting on the throne. See, the essential difference is here. The harlot is one who has got self sitting on the 42:28 throne inside. The bride is one who's got Christ sitting on the throne inside. In other words, everything relates to how how will this affect Christ and the kingdom of God? He leads an honest living life on earth. Maybe he 42:43 doesn't make as much money as that crooked Christian. That's okay. But he earns an honest living, but Christ is honored in his life and everything. He brings up his children for the glory of God. Bring them up in a godly way. 42:56 That is also part of Christianity. Um I I remember when I had four son I had four sons. And I when they were little small, I said, "Lord, I want these little children who are now my children to one day grow up to become 43:10 my brothers in Christ." And every one of them is my brother in Christ today. I worked toward that. God worked my But my wife and I worked toward We had a goal. It was God who helped us reach there. I don't take any credit for it. 43:25 My wife and I don't take any credit for it. It was God who did it. But my point is you must have a goal. You must If you have 10 children, give them all to God. Say, "Lord, every one of them must live for you. Every one of them, 100% for you. 43:40 I want to use my home for your glory." This is one those are following in the footsteps of Abel. Let me say a little bit about Christian work as well. There's a lot of Well, let me conclude here. So, here are the three lovers, 43:56 lovers of pleasure, lovers of money, and lovers of self. In contrast to all that is 2 Timothy 3:4, lovers of God. So, Babylon consists of those who love pleasure, those who love money, those who love self. The bride are those who love God. That's 44:13 the contrast here. And it says in verse 5, 2 Timothy 3:5, there'll be people who have the form of godliness, who appear to love Jesus Christ, but they don't have the power. That means they love themselves or they love pleasure or they love money inside. 44:27 So, you can see Babylon here in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The other place where I want to show you is You know, there's a beautiful verse in Romans in chapter 11. It's a very lovely verse. I remember God gave me a revelation on this verse many, 44:42 many years ago on uh what the essence of being the bride of Christ and the essence of the harlot was. In Romans 11, the last verse. The next verse after that, and ignore the chapter division, it says, "Therefore, 45:01 whenever you see read the word therefore in scripture, ask yourself, "What is it there for?" Why is the word therefore over here? It's connected to the previous verse. Romans 12:1 is a well-known verse, "Present your body as a living sacrifice 45:16 to God, holy acceptable to God, and present your mind, verse 2, to be conformed to his the way God thinks." But why therefore connects it to Romans 11:36. Very important. From God and through God and to God 45:35 are all things that have eternal value. To him be the glory. Listen to that. Three things. From God, anything that has eternal value is going to be originated in God, done through God's power, and done for God's glory. From God, through God, to God. 45:55 The opposite of that is That's the bride of Christ who's got that spirit. And that's why the bride goes on in chapter 12:1 and 2 to present her body and mind to the Lord. The opposite of that is Babylon, from man, through man, to man. 46:11 Originates in man's mind, done through man's power, done for man's glory. You turn back to the Old Testament and you will see that. The origin of Babylon is in Genesis chapter 11. Turn with me for a moment to Genesis chapter 11. 46:31 The whole earth was using the same language and the same words. They came to the land of Shinar, and they said to one another, listen carefully, "Come, they've got a bright idea. Let us make bricks and build a tower, verse 4, that goes all the way up to 46:50 God." Man trying to reach God through his own ability. It's a bright idea from man. And how shall we do it? Let us, through man's power. Let us make the bricks, and let us burn them, and let us Let us Let us Let us. 47:08 Chapter 3 verse 3 and verse 4. This is from man, man's idea, through man, and What is the purpose? Verse 4 middle, "Make ourselves a name for our glory." Do you see the opposite of Romans 11:36 here? There it was from God, through God, to 47:28 God. Here it is from man, through man, to man. Originates in man's mind, done with God man's power, and done for man's glory. Okay, let's move on. Many few thousand years later, you come to the time of the one of the world's 47:47 great empires, the empire of Babylon. And you read about that in the book of Daniel. The great leader of Babylon was a man called Nebuchadnezzar. And one day, Nebuchadnezzar walked on the roof of his palace. 48:07 Babylon was a fantastic city. It had a very famous hanging gardens, and it had a wall right around it. I believe the wall was so thick that a chariots could ride go around on that top of that wall. Anyway, it was a fantastic city built by 48:23 Nebuchadnezzar with all the labor of people in Babylon. And see what he says in Daniel chapter 4. And you'll see the spirit of Babylon here also. One day, the king was verse Daniel chapter 4, verse 29, was walking on the roof of the royal 48:42 palace. And he looked around at this fantastic city that he had built. And he said, "Isn't this Babylon the great which I myself have built? My bright idea. This beautiful building was my bright idea, from man. 49:02 I built it with my power, through man. And I built it for my glory, through man." The same thing we saw in Genesis 11, you see here. From man, through man, to man. That is Babylon. And as soon as he said it, 49:22 a voice from heaven said, "Sovereignty has been removed from you, and you'll be reduced to the level of an animal." And that's what happened. He became like an animal eating the grass in the fields. That's how God humbled him. 49:35 And he was like that for about 7 years or so, and finally God restored his health. And when God restored his health, you see what he says. This statement of Daniel's, sorry, not Daniel's, Nebuchadnezzar's is the most thorough statement of the 49:52 sovereignty of God and the control of God over the whole universe that I've seen anywhere in the Bible. Listen to me Listen to it carefully. This is spoken not by a godly Christian, it's spoken by a heathen man who was humbled by God and who humbled 50:06 himself as a result of that. Daniel 4 verse 35. Listen to this description of the sovereign power of God. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as zero. This is where I've understood this teaching that man is supposed to be a 50:24 zero before God. See, the zero gets a value when there's a one in front of it. Then it becomes 10. You get a number of zeros, say a five zeros, and you put one in front of it, it's got value. Otherwise, it's all zero. You put multitudes of men, it's 50:44 all zero till one, that is Christ or God is in the beginning. So, that's what we see here. All the inhabitants of the earth are zero. It doesn't matter how many people there are in your church. You call your church a mega church, 50:56 all zeros. Is Christ the center? If Christ is not the center, it's a bunch of zeros. I'm not impressed by mega churches. I'm impressed by two or three who gather in the name where Jesus is in the middle. It's Jesus in the middle that makes a 51:09 true church. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And God Almighty does exactly according to his will in the in heaven. And he does exactly according to his will among all the inhabitants of the earth. 51:28 And no one can stop his hand. No one can strike against him. No one can push his hand away. And no one can question him saying, "What have you done?" No one. In heaven or on earth and among the demons or in human beings. 51:45 What a fantastic expression of the sovereignty of God. It's similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, "All authority in heaven and earth is given to me." The bride of Christ recognizes that. He rec- The bride of Christ recognizes that 52:03 everything must be from God, through God, and to God. And so, if we have that spirit, we can be part of the bride of Jesus Christ. And let me tell you how God led us a little bit of our own testimony. 52:22 50 years ago, I was in full-time Christian work as a preacher. I was traveling to many countries, invited to big conferences. But I was defeated in my inner life. 52:40 In my thoughts, I'd get angry at home. And I didn't have victory over anger. My thoughts were not always pure. Externally, I had a good testimony before people. It's very easy to have an external good testimony, but inwardly, I was defeated, 52:59 but that was mostly at home. And nobody knows how we live at home. You don't know that preacher who stands in the pulpit how he lives at home, how he talks to his wife. And when I stood in the pulpit, nobody knew whether I got angry at home or 53:13 whether my mind was on money or So, that's how I was, but I got so fed up with my defeated life. I didn't know much about bride and harlot and all those things. I only knew that I was living a defeated inward life. And I got so fed up. I'll tell you 53:30 what I Even though God clearly called me to serve him, I got so fed up with this life when I was around 30, 34 years old. I said, "Lord, I'm going to quit full-time Christian work. I'm going to go and take a secular job 53:46 and never preach again for the rest of my life. This is about 57 years ago. Oh, brother, 47 years ago. Nearly 50 years ago. Unless you do one thing for me. That's all I ask. I don't want money. I don't want honor. 54:05 I don't want fame. I want you to do one thing, Lord, for me. Make my inner life correspond with what I preach. It must be equal. It must not be that my one leg is so short, my life leg, and my knowledge leg is so long. 54:23 Many preachers are like that. Their one leg is 1 inch, the preaching leg is 6 feet long. Unstable. I said, "No, I don't want it like that. I want my inner life I want both my legs to be equal length." Is anything wrong with this such a request? 54:38 Don't you want both your legs to be equal length? Well, this is my inner life must correspond with my external preaching. And I said, "Lord, if you don't do that for me, I can't do it. I've tried so many years. I'm just 54:48 defeated. I will just go and do a I won't give up Christianity. I love Jesus. I'll go and do a take a secular job and I'll never preach again unless you do that for me." And I want to tell you in the mercy of God, before I rolled off the cliff into hell, 55:06 he laid hold of me. You know what he did? It wasn't some new teaching. It was, but it began with being filled with the Holy Spirit. He filled me with the Holy Spirit. And I knew it. I I had the same assurance. 55:26 And he began to reveal to me from God's word after that. That's what I said, "Lord, if this is really full fullness of the Holy Spirit, the Bible will become a new book for me." And God began to open my eyes to different truths, and one of the great 55:38 truths he revealed to me at that time was two things. Jesus Christ came to earth as a man exactly like you, and he did not sin. And he says, "Follow me." 55:56 Which means it's possible to follow him to overcome sin. And secondly, Jesus established a new covenant when he shed his blood. You remember the last supper, he said he passed the cup around and said, "This is the new covenant in 56:14 my blood." He used a word he never used at any other time. The old covenant was when Moses went up to the mountain and brought a law. The new covenant is Hebrews 8, where the law is written inside our heart. See, the Old Testament law was written 56:30 on two tablets of stone. And that didn't help people to live a godly life. Today, the Bible can be like two tablets of stone for us. I read it. I understand it, but it is not written inside. Hebrews 8:10-12 says the new covenant is 56:47 God writes his law inside my heart and inside my mind. The two tablets now are not on rock, not on printed paper. The two tablets are my mind and my heart. God says, "I will write it in my in your mind," meaning I'll give you a desire to 57:04 do my will. I'll write it in your heart, which means I'll give you the power to do my will. Oh, Lord, that's all I want. I had a desire Make Make that desire even more fervent to do your will and give me the power to do it. The promise 57:16 in Hebrews 8:11 is, "I will write my law," Hebrews 10:11, "I will write my law in your mind and in your heart." And that's explained in Philippians 2:13. Uh 11 to 13. God gives us the desire and the ability 57:36 to do his will. So, God's grace, the purpose of God's grace is first of all to give me a desire to do God's will, and then the ability. And I tell you that changed my life. And from that time, we I we started gathering a few people together, two or 57:52 three. Jesus said, "Where two or three gather together in my name, I'm in the midst." And we started a church. Not with a big crowd. Just two or three. Some then some people would come and go and come and go and like that God has 58:05 multiplied, multiplied, and now planted churches in 10 countries and many, many churches, scores and scores of churches. But he did it all. But the point is, it began with God bringing me to the place of a zero point. Bringing me down to show me that with 58:23 all your effort and with all your knowledge, you cannot live a godly life. You need the power of my Holy Spirit. And when I came to that place and I was desperate and I couldn't care less for the opinion of men, God met with me. 58:37 I praise the Lord for that. And he'll meet with you, my brother. It's a message of hope. So, I want to tell you something from this human hand to illustrate. One of the great truths that time God revealed to me was that he was my 58:50 father. Theoretically, I knew he was my father. But it's like some people whose father is working in some country 10,000 miles away. He gets letters from his father, but he never sees his father. He never gets a hug from his father. 59:05 There are And I felt I was like that. I had a father, a distant father in heaven. I don't know he he I could read his word, but I never felt I have a father. I never felt his nearness. The Bible says, "When the Holy Spirit 59:20 fills us, he cries out from our heart saying, 'Abba, Daddy.'" That cry came in my heart when I was filled with the Holy Spirit. Daddy, you're my dad in heaven. I'm not an orphan anymore. You remember when Jesus spoke about the 59:36 Holy Spirit in John 14? He said, John 14:16 onwards, "I will not leave you orphans." One of the wonderful things the Holy Spirit does is makes us know that God is a real father. Theoretically, we all know that. That became real to me. 59:53 So, let me quickly conclude with this. Look at my hand. When I want to hold something tight, I need a solid grip. Like this. I can hold it with two fingers also, but it's not a solid grip. But I with all my hand I can get a solid grip. 1:00:13 So, I saw there Here's how I began to got my grip on my Christian life. The palm. That was knowing God is the father. That's the foundation of everything. And then the thumb. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. 1:00:32 If I confess my sin. And then the finger. The word of God. Meditate on the word of God. Blessed is the man who meditates on the word of God. Whatever he does will prosper. Psalm 1. Then the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, they could only 1:00:51 have the Holy Spirit upon them to anoint them. Now I can have the Holy Spirit within to help me within. A helper. It's like Jesus living right inside, helping me to do the right thing. Giving me the ability to do God's will. 1:01:05 And then the next point. The word of the cross. If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. Die to self daily. And finally, the body of Christ, fellowship with 1:01:24 other believers. So, this is how my Christian life changed. I came to know God is my father. Number one. I was sure the blood of Jesus had cleansed me from all sin, removed the guilt of my whole past. I never feel condemned about my past at all. 1:01:42 I came to value God's word. This is God the Bible is God's written word. And I believed its promises. I obeyed its commands. And I wanted to obey its commands. I asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. That's number four. 1:02:00 Knowing God is father, cleansing the blood of Christ, receiving God's word, being filled with the Holy Spirit. And then I realized every day I must be willing to die to myself. In any situation, if somebody offends me, die. 1:02:15 So, if somebody insults me, die to myself. If somebody takes advantage of me, die to myself. Don't hit back. Die. A dead person does not respond. I used to think of How does a dead man lying here respond if somebody insults 1:02:28 him? No response. What if somebody praises him? No response. Lord, I want to be dead like that. Dead to criticism, dead to praise. And then finally, I could not live my Christian life without this. Fellowship with others who 1:02:42 are wanting to go the same way. Even two or three. These are the things that changed my life. These are the things that helped me to recognize what it means to be a part of the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ is not one person. 1:02:56 It's a group of people. In the Old Testament, you could be one prophet, Moses, Noah, Enoch, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, but not in the new covenant. In the new covenant, it's a body. Christ is not building outstanding men. 1:03:12 He's building the body of Jesus Christ of which he is the head. He's the only head. And the best of us are just members. But we must fellowship with other members. And I thank God for that. Even in a ministry like this, 1:03:23 it's not just me preaching. I got my wife there praying for me behind the scenes. I mean, she follows me everywhere I go. She's my prayer partner. That's part of the body. It's the heart that pumps the blood so that the tongue can speak. And 1:03:36 I've got many, many brothers in many parts of the world who pray for me. That So, it's a body ministry. The tongue is doing something through supported by the body. So, I I believe that I'm only a part of the body. That's what preserves me. That 1:03:50 prevents me from going astray. Prevents me from being irresponsible. I'm responsible to others with whom I work, my co-workers. They can question me. They can challenge me. Yeah. They can they're free to disagree with me. I'm not God. They can disagree 1:04:05 with me. But I praise God for fellowship God has brought together like this. This is my brothers and sisters is what challenged me. And this is how you can build the body of Christ. You can build the true Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, 1:04:20 by the power of the Holy Spirit where you are. And I pray I don't I never feel in any message I preach I never feel I've done full justice to it because I say, "Lord, who can proclaim your word accurately and perfectly? Not me." 1:04:33 But I say, "Lord, please make up for my infirmities. Please make up for my limitations. And let your Holy Spirit take what I could not express and explain it to these dear brothers and sisters. I love every one of you. I 1:04:46 don't know all of you. But I want to say I love you in Jesus Christ. And I seek to be your servant to help you in any way I can to lead you to a godly life. God bless you all. I want you to pray with me. Please bow your head. 1:05:03 Heavenly Father, I pray that you will help everyone who has heard your word today to remember what they heard or remind them by the Holy Spirit at the right time. And I pray to you, Lord, that 1:05:22 it will lead to reality in their life. They'll go beyond knowledge to life. We commit each of them to you. Every one of them. Bless them, those who are having struggles and difficulties. Please encourage them. Those who are sick, please bring healing 1:05:39 to them, Lord, physical healing. Bless those who are struggling with wayward children. Bring them back to you. Whatever other needs there are, we pray for those who are without job or in poverty in this time of pandemic. Please provide their need, 1:05:54 Lord. And we pray you'll help us each to be a part of the body of Christ ready for your coming. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
