0:07 Well, first of all, I want to encourage all of you to read the Bible regularly, every day at home. Even if it's only 15 minutes. 0:24 And to try and uh study it. I want to show you a picture of my first Bible. One page in it to show you how I studied it. This is how I studied my Bible. Now, 0:43 those of you Those of you who feel you can study the Bible on your phone, I challenge you to do something like this on your phone. It's a deception to think It's all right. You I use my phone when I don't have my Bible with 0:59 me. And especially if I want to look up um s- any other place in the Bible where that verse comes. But I would never have known the Bible if I had not systematically studied verse by verse and seen those 1:17 lines that you see are connecting one verse with another. And you see the link. And I have references there. There are there's a middle column which has got cross references to other parts of the Bible. And I would look that up. 1:36 And then if I found something else which is not written there, I would write it on the side. And then something else I discovered in that passage, I would write there. And this is just one page, you know, Hebrews chapter 12, 1:48 which is a very important chapter. And so I want to encourage you to you don't have to do it to this extent. I mean, this is over a period of years. It's not something in 1 year that I did this. But little by little. And this is the first Bible I had, which 2:05 is a King James version. I use a NASB now. But I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, your life will change. Your relationship with your husband and wife will change. You will overcome sin if the word of God you respect the word 2:25 of God. So, thank you. You can turn it off now. I want to show you a verse in Psalm 100 and Psalm 100 and 38. 2:47 Psalm 138 and verse 2. The last part, it says, "You have magnified your word above all your name." Or together with all your name. 3:05 Now, if you respect the name of Jesus, I hope you do. God's word has been magnified to that extent. To neglect the word of God is like saying, "I don't care for the 3:23 name of Jesus." Really? You don't care for the name of Jesus? That's what you're saying when you neglect the word of God someday. I don't want to live a single day in my life without the name of Jesus. 3:41 I know that's that name by which Satan trembles and which by which I can get answers to prayer. And so, if the Lord has magnified his word according to all his name or above all his name, wow, it's quite an insult to God 4:03 if I don't read it every day. Think of the Bible as a letter written by someone who loves you very much to you. What would you do if you got such a letter one day? If you just 4:24 ignored it and tossed it aside and say, "Well, I'll read it some other time." I would say without a doubt, I don't know who wrote that letter to you, but you certainly don't love that person. That's pretty clear. Crystal clear. I don't need to know who 4:35 wrote it or what is in it. But if you get a letter from someone who you claim to love and you don't read it, it's a clear indication that you don't really love. The world is full of Christians who say, "I love Jesus." But here's one proof of it. 4:52 I want to hear what he has to say to me. And there's not any other book in the whole world from which I can hear what he has to say to me other than the Bible. That's one of the first thing I was 5:09 converted in 1959, July, when I was 19 and a half. And I had not read the whole Bible until then, even though I grew up in a Christian family and went to Sunday school regularly. But I decided, "Even if I don't understand it, I'm 5:27 going to read the whole Bible." And in 6 months, if I remember right, and then definitely not more than 7 months, within about 6 or 7 months, I read from the Genesis all the way to Revelation. Did I understand it all? No, a lot of it 5:44 I didn't understand. But I read through it. And I said, "Lord, I have become your child now. And I want to show you that I want to respect the one letter you wrote to man, the one book you have given to man. I'm your child 6:02 now and I want to show you by reading it from cover to cover, even if I don't understand most of it, that I respect it and I believe your love for me." And after that, I would read it systematically, large sections of the Old Testament as 6:21 and when I had time. And the New Testament, you know, every day large sections of the Old Testament and the New Testament a small portion which I would meditate on. And like that I went through the Bible again and again and again 6:37 through many years. And I can tell you it has changed my life. It has given me direction. It was through the Bible that I got clear direction as to what God's will for my life was. And if I had not read the Bible, I would 6:54 not have got a clear call from God to leave my job. I would still be sitting in the Navy or retired from there and not done what God wanted me to do. It was from the Bible that I got direction to whom I was to marry. And many, many, many other things. And 7:13 when I was tempted, it was from the Bible that I got to know how I could overcome. And when I faced trials, it was from the Bible I came to know that God would stand by me through those trials. I mean, we hear all these things. 7:27 But when you read them again and again, it gets deeply imprinted in our minds. Just like the Lord wrote his commandments on a rock, he writes his law in our hearts and in our minds. 7:44 And it'll he'll never do it if he sees Let me say it plainly, that you insult God by neglecting his word. You know what you do by neglecting God's word? You are insulting Almighty God. 8:03 You're insulting Jesus Christ. He took all that trouble to write this book through so many different people over a number of years. And there are people who have laid down their life for this book. Who would long to get one copy of it. 8:20 There are many people in my country who do not have one page of this book translated in their language. There are number of them which have I remember once I was preaching in one part of the country 8:38 and some years ago and somebody was translating for me. And I said, "Let's turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 61." And he said to me, "Brother, we don't have the Old Testament translated in our language." I said, "Wow." 8:57 I cannot quote a single verse from the Old Testament in that particular part of the country. I came home deeply appreciating first of all that I could read English and that the Bible had been translated into English. It's when you see somebody else not 9:16 having what you have. When people get plenty of food, they don't value it. Where people are so rich that they can have such a spread on their table, they can have a choice whether to eat this or that, what to spread on my bread, etc. 9:33 They don't appreciate what in some other countries they don't have anything to spread on their bread. They'll eat whatever they're given because they're so poor and I've been to such homes myself. It's when we see what people lack 9:48 that we appreciate what we have. And I want to say to all of you sitting here among the I don't know who the poorest person sitting here, whoever it is, I want to tell you you have 10 times more than what many people in our country 10:02 have. Really. Learn to appreciate the things that you have, the food that you have, the clothes that you have, the house that you live in. Many, many people don't have it. And above all, learn to appreciate the fact that you know English. 10:20 And that you have the Bible in your own language. Please read it. And read other Christian books as well. I used to have the habit in my younger days to read one Christian book in a month. I would go to the 10:38 a Bible bookshop and buy one book and I would read it. I would be selective. I'd look through and use not words. I mean, if I found the I I'd skim through it in the bookshop and I for found it was all intellectual, just speaking to my head, 10:56 I wouldn't buy that. But if I found it was a testimony of a man, a biography, I would get it. Or if it was speaking to my heart, I would turn a few pages and see if it was speaking to my heart, I would pick up that. I would put aside 11:10 all the books. That's why most commentaries are all speaking to the head. Buy full Bible commentaries. I never read any of them. That's why I decided to write a commentary myself through the Bible, which you have here. If you don't have a 11:25 copy, you must pick up one and study it because there I have tried to explain the meaning of the Bible in relation to the new covenant that we preach. It's very important, dear brothers and sisters. Jesus said, "Man shall not live 11:40 by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Matthew chapter 4. I want you to turn to this verse. Matthew's Gospel chapter 4 and verse 4. "Man shall not live on bread alone, 12:04 but on some of the words? No. How shall man shall live? On every single word that's proceeded from the mouth of God." You really believe that? 12:28 If you live, let me use an example. If you are living financially through the salary that you get from your employer, would you collect every single dollar of that salary? 12:47 Or would you just pick a little bit of that and put it in your bank? You would pick every single dollar of that salary? Or would you be happy with 75% or 50% of it? What does it say here? We shall live by 13:04 every single word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If your employer paid you a certain amount and you took only 25% of that and went home, you'd be struggling. Your children would be starving. They've got you to blame for not taking 13:23 every single dollar that your employer gave you. And if you find your life shallow, defeated often, frequently getting angry with each other at home, unable to guide your children alright, and gradually as the children grow up 13:38 that they go wayward in wrong ways and you don't realize it. Some of you, our children are very small, you think it'll all be okay. It will not be okay. I will tell you right now. I have seen in my church back home people to whom I said the same thing 13:55 which I'm saying now 40 years ago. And their children that they're just newborn babies, and they did not take it seriously. I see those children now in their 30s gone astray. God's word is true. 14:15 If you don't teach your children every word of God little by little in your home, and if you don't use all the We have tremendous facilities explaining the word. You go to cfcindia.com, our church website. There are so many Bible studies there. 14:32 Even you If you spent half an hour every day, it'll take you 3 years to complete all those studies. And if you do them, it'll be like you'd have gone through a Bible college. And you need only half an hour a day. Is that too much 14:51 to spend half an hour a day for a God for a Christ who gave his life for you so that your life can be more useful for him, so that you can be more effective in your service? My dear brothers and sisters, we are living in a day and a time 15:07 when people don't know God's word, they neglect God's word. They come to church and that's all about all that they hear. You will never grow spiritually. I hope you're not one of those Christians who says, "If I just go to 15:22 heaven, that's enough." Just scrape in there. And then that day when you stand before the Lord and you see how much he did for you, I'll tell you, you'll feel ashamed if you did not live your life totally for Christ. There are parts of my life way back in 15:43 the past nearly half a century ago when I was not a serious Christian, which I'm ashamed of today. But I thank God that from the time I took the Christian life really seriously and God filled me with the Holy Spirit, I don't regret the way I've lived. 16:02 I don't regret that I put God's word first. So, I'm telling you from my own experience, every one of you, you're all younger than me. Many of you are very young. I started when I was 19. I wish I started earlier. And I worked so hard from the time of 19 16:21 that by the time I was 23, I was preaching God's word in the meetings. You can do that. If you you don't even if it is just 5 minutes, can you share something for 5 minutes from God's word? 16:41 If you're asked spontaneously somewhere, "Tell me something from God's word." If you are reading it every day, you'll always be available with a word to people who are in need. Let me show you another verse in Isaiah and chapter 17:06 Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4. Isaiah 50 verse 4. In the middle of that verse, God wakes me up every morning. Look at it like that. 17:28 That when you wake up in the morning, God has woken you up. And he wants to waken your ear, your inner ear. There's a ear in your body and there's a ear in your heart. He wants to waken the ear in your heart 17:47 to listen to something he has to say to you. As a disciple means one who wants to follow what he tells you. And if you allow verse 5, the Lord to open your ear and you're not disobedient, then you'll come to a triumphant life. 18:05 Verse 7, "The Lord God will help you. You will never be disgraced in any situation." And verse 7, "You will never be ashamed in any situation." The Again, it says, "The Lord will help you." In verse 9, think of the rest of those 18:19 verses. I don't have time to go through it. Read it sometime. Isaiah chapter 50. If you allow the Lord to waken you up and waken your ear every morning. Now, please don't just do that for the next 1 week because you heard it today. 18:36 If you got a If you're married, praise God, you got a helper. Husband and wife, please remind each other with a simple question. Did you hear something from God today? Did you hear 18:53 something from God today? After you read the Bible a number of times, you will hear even without opening the Bible, God will speak to you because so much of scripture will be in your mind. And that'll help you in the time of 19:10 temptation. Even Jesus, he did not overcome temptation except by quoting scripture. And the devil tempted him, Jesus said, "It is written." At the time the devil said, "It is written." Jesus said, "It is also written." He knew a verse to counter 19:29 that. And the third temptation, again Jesus said, "It is written." That's the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Don't say you want to follow Jesus if you don't know what is written in his word. And Jesus learned the Bible when he 19:46 didn't have a physical Bible like this at home. There was only a Bible in the synagogue. He had to go as a little boy every day to the rabbi and say, "Sir, can you please read something for me? Okay, stop. That's all I can take today. 20:05 I'll come back tomorrow." Come back the next day and say, "Sir, can you please read from where you stopped yesterday?" Imagine what a hunger he had as a young boy so that by the time he was 12 years old he could even confront the scholars. 20:22 Take that as a challenge every one of you. Encourage your children to read the Bible every day. I guarantee you will not regret it. Your life will change 1 year from now. You will see the difference it has made in your life, 20:40 the difference it's made in your family life, the difference it's made in your business. God bless you. There are a couple of hymns that I want to read to you today. One is search me, oh God. I want you to 21:00 follow these words. First of all, this reference in Psalm 139 in verse 23 and 24. If you can turn in your Bible Psalm 139 and verse 23 and 24. Here in the NASB it says, 21:25 "Search me, oh God, know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts." But here is how it is. Can you put the reference there? That comes before that. The verse. In the Living Bible it says, "Search me, 21:45 oh God, and know my heart. Test my thoughts. Now, this is the part point I want to show to you especially. Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad." I remember years ago I printed that out in a card and 22:03 gave it to everybody in my church. I said, "Keep this card with you. Keep it in a place where on your table where you'll see it every morning. Lord, put the word Lord before it. Lord, point out anything you find in me not that makes you angry. No, no, no. 22:22 God's not angry. But that makes you sad. Lord, point out anything you find in me that makes you sad. Maybe something I'm I said to someone, something 22:42 I'm thinking which I should not be thinking, something I'm doing. Imagine if you went through life with this prayer in your heart. Lord, point out anything. Maybe I don't see it myself. You're not angry with me. You're never 22:57 angry with me, but you're sad sometimes. Don't you parents know sometimes you look at your children and you're disappointed with the way they have conducted themselves or the way they have done something? But that's how the Father looks at you 23:12 with love. Make this a prayer. And lead me along the next part of it. It says, "And lead me along the path of everlasting life." That's the only way you can be led along the path of everlasting life. You want to walk the way of everlasting 23:30 life. The way is narrow that leads to life. Every step along that way say, "Lord, point out to me anything that makes you sad." It's a prayer that you can pray many times a day in your heart. Lord, point out to me anything that 23:44 makes you sad. And then you come to the end of the day you can ask the Lord before you go to bed or in bed, "Lord, was there anything in my life today that made you sad?" Now, I know you'll forget it. If you don't If you repeat it to yourself, you 23:58 won't forget it. It'll come back to your mind. The Holy Spirit will remind you again and again to pray that prayer. God bless you. Now, I want to go go to this hymn, which is very beautiful hymn. And I'll go verse by verse through it. 24:15 It says, "Search me, oh God, my actions try. And let my life appear as seen by thine all-searching eye. To me my ways make clear." Because some things we don't see in ourselves. 24:35 God's all-searching eye make my ways clear to me. Something I did with a wrong motive. Make it clear, Lord. Let my life appear not in my eyes, but thine eyes. Okay, the next verse. 24:53 Search all my sense, my feelings, and know my heart. Because you're the only one who can make known what is in the deep, the hidden part. Please show it to me fully. 25:12 I don't want any part of my heart to be hidden. Supposing there were a few snakes that had crawled into your house. You were living in a place where snakes snakes were infested. Wouldn't you want to clear out every part of your house? 25:29 Lord, is there something hidden under some cupboard on some corner, something under a box somewhere? I want to clear it all out. Well, the flesh and its lusts are worse than snakes. How careful we are to clean even the dust from our tables and 25:46 tidy up our house. Some of you are very careful to keep your house tidy. Very good habit. Much more I want to encourage you. The deep, the hidden part. Lord, show it to me fully. Okay, the next verse. 26:08 Throw light into the darkened cells where passion reigns within. We have a lot of passions in our flesh which make us angry, which make us women men lust after women, which make us covet something 26:29 which God hasn't given us. Passion. A passion to to have money beyond our needs. It's a passion. And it destroys our relationship with God because we begin to pursue things 26:49 which God doesn't want us to pursue. He certainly wants us to work hard and earn our living and earn as much as you can. John Wesley used to say that. Earn as much as you can. And save as much as you can, he said. Don't waste it. 27:05 And then give as much as you can. So, it says here, "Quicken my conscience till it feels the loathsome." Loathsomeness is a word. It's an old word which says the filthiness, the filthiness of anger, 27:25 the filthiness of gossiping about somebody else, the filthiness of dirty thoughts. Let me see, Lord, how filthy it is like an unflushed toilet. The best way I can describe the lusts in our flesh is like an unflushed toilet. 27:44 Imagine having a toilet in your restroom which has not been flushed for days and keeps accumulating. The flush system is not working. What would you do about it? Would you ignore it? I want to tell you, my dear brothers and 28:02 sisters, our flesh is like that. And if you allow that flesh to get into your heart when you sin and you leave it unconfessed, you don't ask the Lord to cleanse it, your heart also becomes like an unflushed toilet. And you may not smell it, but the angels in 28:21 heaven may turn away from that. You want the angels in heaven to turn away from you? I want the angels to come near me. And the Lord is grieved. Okay, the next verse. 28:39 Search all my thoughts, the secret springs, the motives that control my thoughts, which nobody knows, not even your wife or your husband. And there are secret springs from which You know what a spring is? From down 28:57 below something comes up and springs up. Those are the motives deep down in your heart. Beyond the thoughts are motives with which you seek to do something which looks good, but the motive is bad. Show me, Lord, the motives that are 29:19 controlling my words. Why do you say something to somebody? It may sound so nice, but there could be another motive behind it. Words that hurt, meant to hurt. Motives that control your actions, the reason why you go and 29:36 visit some place. The motives that control. And those chambers in our heart where polluted things hold empire means control, my soul. Deep down there are rooms in my heart where filthy things are having hanging 29:56 around there which nobody can see. People think you're a saint. Are you serious about holiness? There are things that are controlling hold empire over the soul means they are ruling. Christ is not Lord. You may say Jesus 30:10 Christ is Lord with your lips, but something else is ruling in your soul. Okay, the next verse. Search more, Lord, till your fiery glance. God's glance is a fiery means it's full of the fire. It brings light. One of the wonderful things about fire 30:29 is not only reveals something, but it burns up the rubbish. So, I want God's fiery glance to shed its holy light through every part of my heart. Expose everything. And when I see it, I'm not afraid of this God because 30:48 he's calling me in kindness and by God's grace I fall before his face and say, "Lord." Like Isaiah, who thought he was the holiest man in Israel, Isaiah. But when the light of God shone in him, he said, "Oh, Lord, I'm a filthy man." 31:04 Have you ever felt like that? I felt like that numerous times when the light of God has shown into my heart. I wasn't committing any outward sin. None. I had control over my words. And yet the Lord began to show me motives, 31:23 attitudes towards people. Particularly motives and attitudes towards people, thoughts. These three areas that even we don't see unless God shows us thoughts, attitudes towards people, motives with which I do some good 31:42 things, the motive is bad. Honor seeking. Seeking to exalt myself, seeking to appear before others as a holy guy or as a great saint or some rubbish like that. That holy light shines through on I say, "Oh, Lord, what a sinner I am." 32:01 And I fall like Isaiah before the Lord and say, "Lord, have mercy on me." The next verse. This is the last verse. And thus prostrate means I've fallen before God on my face. Even if you don't do that physically, 32:20 sometimes I have done it physically, too. Flat before God. You can do that flat on your bed or flat on the floor. But even if you don't do that physically, inwardly prostrate. What will I learn? This is the important verse. Going to 32:38 conclude with this. What you will learn is not God's holiness, but his love. His love which wants you to be like Christ. That's why he exposes all that. His love which wants you to be pure. His love which wants you because he 32:57 knows that sin is like a sickness. It's It's like a mother who's got a baby and they've taken the baby to the doctor and the doctor says your baby's got about 10 or 20 sicknesses, serious sicknesses. And how that mother will pray, "Oh, God, 33:13 please heal mine." One by one by one as you see that as she sees that baby healed one by one, is delighted. "Oh, that sickness is gone. That's other sickness is gone." It's the love of a mother that wants that baby to be healed of all 33:30 sickness. It's the love of that mother that takes that baby for injections that are painful. That gives bitter medicine into the mouth of that baby because the mother wants it to be completely healed. I want to tell you, 33:43 my brother, sister, sin is exactly like sickness. And when your heavenly father looks at you, it's not in anger. You think a mother looks at in anger at her baby that is sick? No. She's weeping. My baby's got this sickness and that 34:01 sickness and the other sickness. That's how God looks at you. Please look at yourself like a that Remember look at Remember God looks at you just like a mother looking at a sick child. And supposing that you go the mother 34:18 goes to the doctor and says, "Well, 90% of the sicknesses are gone. Wonderful." Does the mother go home happy? No. Because the doctor said there are still two or three sicknesses in your child. And she's determined that every last 34:35 sickness in that child must go. You got to be a mother to understand the love of a mother to her a child. You know, when God wanted to speak about his love for us, he spoke about a father as one who provides. 34:53 If you being evil know how to give good gifts like you'll give an egg or a fish. That's what he said. A father will give to a child. But when he spoke when he when he wanted to speak about the depth of his love for us, he spoke about a mother. See Isaiah 49. 35:13 He speaks of himself as a father who makes provision for us. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him. So, that's a father's job and God does that. 35:29 He gives us many, many, many good things. But when it comes to love, Isaiah 49:15, he says, "I love you like a mother." Not just caring for her children, 35:45 caring for her nursing baby. A baby that cannot live cannot eat anything, cannot eat ordinary food, is dependent on the mother giving it milk. There's nothing else the baby can have 36:02 in its early days. It's a nursing mother. And when that baby cries, can you imagine the compassion in the mother's ma There are some mothers who don't have enough milk in their body. 36:20 They go looking for it. Because they have compassion on their child. All of them may forget, the Lord says. Even that mother may forget. But I will not forget you. 36:39 Please remember that last verse, last part of that verse. The Lord says, "I will not forget you." Can you remember those five words? "I will not forget you." Wonderful words. 37:02 Remember it all your life in your time when you're tempted and you feel God's forsaken you. Remember Isaiah 49:15. Even a mother may forget her nursing baby, but I will not forget you. Okay, I want to show you another hymn 37:18 now. It's a very familiar one. It's called Just As I Am. When we come to the Lord, we don't have to come with anything 37:38 to offer him. This is a beautiful hymn. Both these hymns that I mentioned this morning, I would encourage you to learn them by heart and sing them. As I was thinking this morning as to what I should share, 37:59 it's these words of this hymn came to my mind. Because I read them long I mean I sang them long ago and I sing them to my sing them to myself myself sometimes. Just as I am without one plea means I've 38:18 got nothing to recommend myself. There's nothing in me that I can recommend that God should accept me. Except one thing. Jesus shed his blood for me. That's all. "Why have you come?" God says. Christ shed his blood for me. 38:36 Not even, "Lord, I have repented." Not even that. Yeah, I need to repent. But that's not some credit I'm claiming for myself. The blood of Christ was shed for me. And the second thing is you invite me to 38:55 come. That's why I come. I don't deserve to come, Lord. I'm a filthy sinner. But you invite me to come. Oh, Lamb of God, the one who sacrificed yourself as a lamb, I come. 39:14 The next verse. Just as I am and waiting not. I don't want to wait a single moment to rid my soul of any little blot there. Every single thing that spots 39:34 on my soul, I want to get rid of it all. I know it's only your blood that can cleanse all those spots. Oh, Lamb of God, I come. The next verse. 39:54 Just as I am, though tossed about, that often happens in our daily life also, with many conflicts, sometimes doubts comes to us, it comes to me, fightings and fears. 40:12 Outside, there are fightings and fears, things that happen in the world that bring fear and inside also. There are struggles and fears inside. If you're honest, we'll admit it. You turn to 2 Corinthians 7 sometime. Paul himself said, "There are fightings 40:30 and fears, fightings within and fears without." Fears within, fightings without. Fightings and fears within, without. Oh, Lamb of God, I come. Just as we are. With all these things going on inside 40:49 and outside, where should I go? I shall only turn to him. And the last verse. Just as I am, now we go on from this. Can you Thou wilt receive. You will receive me, Lord, 41:08 just as I am. You'll welcome me, pardon me, cleanse me, relieve me. Relieve me because no more guilt in my life. And only one condition, 41:26 I believe your promise. Isn't that wonderful? I believe your promise. And the fact that I've come to him indicates that I've repented. I want to be cleansed. Remember all that it said, "I want to rid my soul of every blot." 41:41 We saw in the second verse. That shows I've repented. I haven't come without repentance. Waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot. And I believe your promise. There are other verses in it. I just selected these four. 42:00 These are two good hymns. I would encourage you to memorize and remember and sing it to yourself a number of times. I'd like to show you one more verse in the Psalm 119. Psalm 119. 42:35 Verse 9. I remember reading this as a young man. How can a young man or a young woman keep his way pure? By keeping it keeping his way 42:57 according to your word. And so, I with all my heart, verse 10, I've sought you. Don't let me wander, Lord, from your commandments. I seek you with all my heart. 43:17 Your word I have treasured in my heart. Not just I've kept in my heart. Supposing you have a very valuable thing in your house. You won't just leave it lying around the table. You'll probably lock it up in the cupboard. 43:33 Some something the most expensive thing you have in your house. It says, "Thy word I have treasured in my heart so that I might never sin against you." Verse 11. So that I might never never sin against you, I keep your word treasured in my heart. 43:51 That's how I can keep and treasure. Let me show you a couple of more verses. The whole Psalm is wonderful. 105, verse 105, Psalm 119. And verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet 44:14 and a light to my path. And the best way I can illustrate is like a torchlight. When you're walking through a dark forest full of snakes and thorns and pitfalls, that's how the world is. There are snakes, there are ditches, there are 44:33 pitfalls, spiritual ones in the world. God's word is like a torchlight. Torchlight does not light up the whole road in front of me. No, it's not a streetlight. It's a torchlight. I can see about 10 ft in front of me. If I want to see more, 44:58 I obey the light I have, I'll see some more. If God shows you 10 ft in front of you, you'll never see any more until you obey that which he's shown you already. That's a principle. You get more light when you obey the light you already have. 45:16 If you want to see further along the road of God's way, move forward and then the torchlight will show you some more. And then you move forward and he'll show you some more. This is how I have grown in my Christian life 45:28 in the last 63 years. It's not suddenly. Little by little by little as I kept the torch in front of me, I got more light and more light. If I ignore the torch sometime or turn it off, that means I don't read the word, then I'm stuck with the light I have. 45:45 That's all. Stagnant. It's like having your child sitting in the third grade for 10 years. How many of you would be happy if your child is sitting in the third grade for even 2 years? Or 3 years? We are not supposed to be stagnant. 46:01 My dear brothers and sisters, don't be happy if your spiritual life is at the same level it was 1 year ago. Please, I urge you in Jesus' name. Just like you would not be happy if your child is failing again and again in the 46:18 third grade, work with your child and work on yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. Cry out to him. Say, "Lord, I want to move forward. Thy word is a lamp, a torchlight." And little by little I get light on my whole path. 46:35 One last verse in Psalm 119. There are many. Verse 130. 130. The unfolding of your life words gives light. Or as it says in some versions, "The 46:54 entrance of your word gives light." When God's word is opened up, it gives light. So when you read a verse and you don't understand it, don't go on to the next verse. Say, "Lord, unfold this to me. Open it up to me." 47:13 Supposing you're teaching your child addition at the lowest grade, and he says, "Mama, I can't understand that." What do you say? "Okay, forget it. Let's go on to multiplication." You'll never say that. You'll be Son, we're going to work on 47:29 this till you understood this. If it takes you 6 months to understand addition or you can add big numbers, we'll work on it. I won't give up on you. That's what the Holy Spirit says, "I won't give up on you." And so, it gives understanding to the simple. We 47:47 are all simple when we come initially. But he'll give me understanding and wisdom. Yeah, those are just some things I wanted to stress to you. Okay, now I'll begin my message. Whether it was my message all along. 48:09 But there's something else that's on my heart I also want to share. And uh that is from Ephesians chapter 3. It's something which I guess 48:29 that perhaps 90% of people here have not known. If you've studied the Bible well, you'll know it. In some of my messages, I've spoken it. But my guess is many people here don't know. You all know that as Christians we are 48:46 supposed to be witnesses on this earth to other people. How many of you knew that we are also got to be witnesses to the angels in heaven? What does it mean to be a witness to the angels in heaven? 49:04 Have you thought of that? To be a witness to people on the earth, well, that's only when I see them. So long as I keep my life and my life good before them, I'm a good testimony before people because they don't see me all the time and they don't read my 49:19 thoughts. Um 90% of my life they don't know. So it's easy to be a witness before people. Many of you got a good testimony in this church because people can't read your thoughts. People don't know how you behave at home. 49:38 People don't know how righteous or unrighteous you are with money in your office. People don't know how much you love money. But it's quite another thing when God wants us to be witnesses to the angels 49:55 who can see everything in our life. Your private life. Anything wrong you did in the office, anything you signed to get something for yourself which is not true. False statements 50:12 to get some benefit or to make some money. Okay, here it is. Ephesians chapter 3. Verse 9. There's a mystery which has been hidden in God 50:32 for many ages. What is this mystery that has been hidden for centuries? One part of it is Paul said I've been called verse 9 to bring to light 50:52 what is the administration of this mystery which has been hidden for ages with God who created all things. It is the purpose is so that the many-sided or manifold many-sided wisdom of God 51:09 the wisdom of God is huge. It's got many many aspects to it like a circle with many sectors, 360° in a circle. The 360 sectors in a circle inside if you could split it up. And 51:29 the purpose is that this manifold many-sided many colors, that's another way of using the word manifold. You know the brilliant colors there are in the world. There are many many colors beyond the seven colors in the rainbow. There 51:42 are many many colors which are not in the rainbow, mixtures of different colors in the many colored wisdom of God must be made known through the church. That's through you and me. This wonderful wisdom of God is to be manifested in the way we speak, the way 52:00 we behave, the way we react to money and to circumstances and situations. To whom? Not to the people of the world now. That's spoken in Acts 1:8, you shall be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. But this is to the rulers and authorities in the 52:17 heavenly places. There are good rulers and authorities, the angels, and there are bad rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Those are Satan and his angels. You know, the Bible speaks about three heavens. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, "I was 52:32 caught up to the third heaven." The first heaven is what we see, this universe. Like the psalmist says, "When I see the heavens, the work of thy hands and the work of thy fingers." That's the first heaven. And there's a second there's a third 52:49 heaven that is the immediate presence of God which is called paradise. The third heaven. But then in between the two is a second heaven. That's where the devil is. The devil's not in hell by the way. One day it says hell will be cast into 53:07 the lake of fire and then the devil will be cast into the lake of fire. But he's not in hell today. He's all his demons are roaming around on the earth. But their headquarters is in the second heaven. When he sinned and you know how the devil sinned, by 53:24 pride it came in his heart. Pride is what made the Pride is the first sin that was committed in the universe. Please remember this. The root of all sin. The first sin committed in the universe was pride. And the most beautiful angel 53:43 became a devil in a moment. It didn't take long. Pride came in his heart and immediately became a devil. That is to teach us a lesson what the origin of sin is and what pride can make you in a moment. Can make you behave like the devil. 54:02 So how do you conquer pride? Jesus had to humble himself which is the opposite of pride. First step as a God he became man. Philippians 2. That's humility. Second step, as a man he became a 54:20 servant, a slave. Washing the disciples' feet and serving people, serving people. Tirelessly. Sometimes he didn't have time to sleep. Serving, serving, healing the sick, preaching. That was all serving. He was a servant. 54:34 And then you think that was the lowest? No. Then went still down the third step of humility. Hanging on the cross like a criminal even though he was not a criminal. Misunderstood as though he were a criminal. God to man, man to slave, and slave to a 54:51 treated like a criminal. So that's what I say. People have asked me the three the secret of the Christian life is first is humility, second is humility, the third is humility. These are the three secrets of the Christian life. 55:06 And you see that all three mentioned in Philippians 2. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Have this attitude, verse 55:24 5, which was in Christ. Although he existed in the form of God he became a man. Emptied himself. And then as a man, verse 7, he became a 55:42 bond slave. That is the second step. And then he went to the death on the cross, verse 8, as a criminal. Appeared to be a criminal. So those are the three steps of humility it says he is here and it says you must have the 55:58 same attitude which was in Christ Jesus. And if you have this attitude what will happen? Verse 3. You will never do anything from selfishness or pride. With humility you will regard others as 56:17 more important than yourself. Not more spiritual than yourself. No. More important than yourself. And if you have this attitude of humility you will not be interested, verse 5, only in your own personal interests. But you will also be concerned about 56:34 people around you. So this is what we are to manifest. Not just to show others that I'm humble. No, that's crazy. Jesus didn't come here to show others that he's a humble person. No. That was his nature. 56:53 You know, a dove doesn't have to act like a dove. It's a dove. A lamb does not have to act like a dam lamb. It's it's a lamb. If I have to act humble, there's something wrong with me. Then I have to work out my salvation and 57:09 say, "Lord, this is a proud man acting humble to get some honor." Repent of that. That's acting. There's another word for acting in the Bible. It's called hypocrisy. Hypocrite. The word hypocrite is actually a Greek word meaning actor. 57:28 So when Jesus said don't be a hypocrite, what he was saying is don't act. Don't act holy. Don't act humble. Don't act loving. Be really humble, really loving. Otherwise it's like a tiger acting like a lamb. 57:48 Deception. God hates acting. I'll tell you that. So it's genuine humility that God wants to see in us. And only the Lord can give it to us. You can't produce it. You can try your best, 58:07 your humility will be artificial. That's why we need to pray, "Lord, give me yours. Let the Holy Spirit work in me so that from deep within I will genuinely be humble. Genuinely be pure. Genuinely be holy." 58:26 That's so important. The opinion of others is fit for the trash can. Seek the opinion of God. Seek the opinion of Christ over your life. Always, always live before God's face. 58:43 So the devil was cast out from the third heaven when he sinned in pride. Just pride. He thought high and he wanted a high position. Pride came that God cast him down and number of other angels who were with him were cast down. 58:58 A few millions of angels along with Satan were cast down. All of them were proud. The devil infected all of them. A proud man can infect others. Cast down to the second heaven. And that's where the devil is now. So there are good angels 59:15 in the first heaven. And there are bad angels in the second heaven who come roaming on the earth. The good angels also come on the earth to protect us from accidents and things like that. So this is what where we have to 59:34 be witnesses. I must be a witness to the angels in the first heaven and the second heaven. That's That is what we read in Ephesians 3. Take some time to look at it later on. This mystery that was hidden from ages that God wants his wisdom. 59:53 Let's turn back again there, Ephesians 3:10. God wants his wisdom to be shown through us to these angels in the first and second heavens. The good ones and the bad ones. And they're watching us. 1:00:12 So, if you're only a good testimony before people in the church, people say, "Oh, that's a good brother." Yeah, I know such and such a person is a really humble brother. Or that sister, boy, she's a really godly sister. 1:00:24 Well, it's good to have a testimony like that. What I want to say is they see less than 10% of your life. They see less Do you think there's anybody in this church who knows more than 10% of your life? Even your husband or wife knows about 1:00:41 50%. That's all. Why? Because she cannot Your wife and your husband cannot see your thoughts. He can see your actions. He can see your words. People in the church can't even see that 90% of the time because you're not You 1:00:58 don't They don't see you all the time. Even the people in the office don't see you all the time. Your wives and husbands see you all much more, but even they cannot know 50% of your life because they don't know what is your attitude towards somebody. You 1:01:12 can carefully conceal it. They don't know the thoughts going through your mind at different times. You can carefully conceal it. Your wife does not know whether you love money or not. You can fool her by your actions, but she does not know 1:01:29 because it's an inward thing. She does not know whether you you've forgiven somebody from your heart. She may have heard you say it, but all those bitter thoughts that you continue to have towards someone who corrected you or rebuked you or 1:01:46 injured you or hurt you or hurt your family in some way, God alone knows whether you've repented of it and cleansed it and got rid of it. Your husband and wife don't know whether you who appear to be so spiritual are really spiritual deep down in your 1:02:01 heart. But the angels and do. The demons do cuz they see you all the time. If you're watching pornography in secret, a lot of believers who watch pornography in secret on the phone, the computer, 1:02:19 they make sure the door is locked. But there's no door that can shut out the demons who are standing there. Huh. Delighted. Actually delighted. This guy who claims to be a child of God and the devil says to God at that time, 1:02:37 You know, the devil says in Revelation 12:10, the devil is the accuser of the brothers. He doesn't accuse the people of the world because they belong to him. They're on his side. He's on their side. But he looks at believers. He's watching 1:02:49 them all the time. And then he sees one believer there watching pornography and he says to God, "God, this guy claims to be your child. He goes to Which church does he go to? He claims to be a holy person. Do you see what he's watching right now?" 1:03:07 How do you think Jesus feels about that when some angel, demonic, fallen angel points you out to him? Says, "See what he's watching now?" Of course, he'll shut it up and he'll go 1:03:23 to the church just like a holy person. Or when you are rude towards your marriage partner and the devil hears that. Or the demons hear that and say, "God, did you hear that?" This person who appears to be so gentle 1:03:41 and so gracious in the church, you see how he's behaving right now? These are the things we need to repent of. God in his great wisdom wants his wisdom to be manifested to angels in the first 1:04:00 heaven and the second heaven. And the And the angels in the first heaven also come down and see you when you're watching pornography or when you're rude to your marriage partner and they are sad. They almost feel like they cover their eyes and say, "Oh, 1:04:17 sad sad. Oof. Oh, God, sad that one of your children is behaving like this. Talking like this to his marriage partner whom he's supposed to love and care for. Because he's such a hypocrite. He pretends to be so holy in the church 1:04:36 and look at how he's behaving now." These are the things we need to repent of. And if you ask God to give you light, he will show you day by day by day. I'm telling you through the years, 1:04:55 through the last 50 years especially, what God has shown me little by little by little. And it's made my life a life full of joy. May God be able to point you out to the 1:05:13 angels of heaven and and of the second heaven, the demons. There's a man. For example, I was thinking the book of Job. There are three chapters in that book which are to me new covenant. Chapter 1, chapter 2, and the last chapter. 1:05:30 All the rest is old covenant. Where Job, when he loses everything and he loses his children, he says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away." And he worshipped. He really meant it. But he couldn't endure when he got sick. 1:05:50 He said, "Well, if God gives me good things, I must take a few bad things as well." But he couldn't endure. And in those two chapters, first two chapters, God could point Job out to the angels 1:06:08 and to the demons. You see, he told He pointed him out to Satan. I don't have time to show it to you. Read it sometime. Job chapter 1 and chapter 2. Satan, do you see my servant? You've taken away all his children. See what he's taken away all his 1:06:23 possessions. He doesn't love money. Can God point you out to Satan at some time when you had a big financial loss? 1:06:40 Can God trust you with a financial loss? Or can he trust you only with financial profit? I know he's asked me that question. And I said, "Lord, I want to be a testimony to the angels and to 1:06:58 the demons. That financial loss and financial gain will be exactly the same for me." Cuz it was like that for Jesus. So long as we have enough to live and take care of our needs and God God's 1:07:16 promised that definitely. But I don't want to be excited, taken up with financial gain or depressed with financial loss and then all the demons God can point me out to the angels and then say, "See him? Do you see him? You see Job? 1:07:33 He had so much and he worshipped me. He lost it all. He still worships me. He was so healthy and he worships me. And he lost his health and he still worships me. That is new covenant. And when he fell 1:07:53 from that for the next remaining chapters, complaining, grumbling, and all that, in the end he repented. And when he repented, chapter 42 of Job, again God could point out him to out to Satan. You see now? He blundered, but 1:08:06 he's repented now. Thank God for that chapter. So, chapter 1 and chapter 2 and chapter 42 of Job, that's our to be our experience. And none of the in-between chapters. God should be able to point you out. Make this your goal. You may not be You 1:08:24 may not be there today. Make it your goal. Just like you tell your little child who's in kindergarten, "You're in kindergarten now. Never mind. There's so many books there and you see there and your older brothers and sisters are studying and you can't 1:08:36 understand it. Don't worry. One day you'll get there. You'll get there. You'll get a PhD. I guarantee you. I'm going to work on you," the Holy Spirit says. "You see that great saint of God you read about in some book or met 1:08:48 somewhere? I'm going to make you like that. I want to make you such a powerful witness for me like that. I won't give you his gift, but I'll make you like him in character. Free from lust and free from the love of money 1:09:04 and free from getting excited when you have much and depressed when you don't have something. I'm going to make you like Jesus." Wow. Lord, do it in me. Will you pray that prayer for yourself? Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, 1:09:26 I pray that every word we have heard will go home and remain in our hearts and produce eternal fruit. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
