0:05 You know, after Satan appears in Genesis 3, in the book of Job as well, in the very first chapter, you don't read much of Satan in the entire Old Testament. 0:25 He was always behind the scenes, you know, controlling wicked Queen Jezebel, controlling the Philistines and all the others who attacked Israel and sometimes moving in Israel too. 0:42 Uh we read of one instance where he even you know deceived David Satan. It says moved David to number the people so that 1:01 uh he could so that David would depend upon men rather than upon God. It's about the only reference to Satan that there is in the Old Testament because Israel dealt with people. He didn't deal with Satan so much, but 1:20 he was behind the scenes. But as soon as you come to the New Testament, you see Satan there right there attacking Jesus and then very often through demons in the gospels and they were always cast out. 1:39 And um when you come to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles encounter demon-possessed people. And then when you go to the epiles, there's a lot of reference to Satan. And we're no longer fighting with human beings. 1:57 One mark of a old covenant believer is that he fights with human beings. Whether you knew it or not, if you're still fighting with your husband or wife, you're basically old covenant. In the new covenant, we read in 2:16 Ephesians 6:12, we don't fight with human beings. But instead, we fight with the devil. But most believers that I've met are still fighting with human beings, with people at work, with their 2:34 neighbors, at home, getting into a lot of arguments about things that have no eternal consequence. I mean just think of the number of believers nowadays who are arguing about who's got to be who's going to be the next president of 2:54 the United States. You think that's got some eternal consequence? You got to come to India where it's one Hindu versus another Hindu or one Hindu versus another Muslim. What what stand do you take? It's one of the mistakes that a lot of 3:14 Christians make here thinking that America is a Christian country. It's not. There is no Christian country in the world. I also want to say even 200 years ago America was not a Christian country. There is no such 3:33 thing as a Christian country in the world. There's a false sense of patriotism that makes you feel that you belong to a Christian country. The Bible says that God is calling out of the nations the people for his name. 3:53 The only thing God recognizes on earth today is not America or England but the church in any country. Even if the church is in Iraq or Afghanistan, it's the church. 4:09 And it's very sad when we don't see the way God sees. And we get involved in fights and arguments about whether this president is right or that president is right. 4:26 We're fighting with human beings. And the more we fight with human beings, it's exactly what the devil wants. The less ability you have to fight him. I mean, the Lord showed me that many years ago that if you want to be strong 4:40 to fight the devil, just decide to stop fighting with human beings. And we can have opinions, but don't get into arguments about all these unnecessary things. A lot of worldly matters and politics and all. I'll tell you this, you lose a 4:56 lot of energy. arguing about things which 2,000 years from now you'll regret that you ever wasted your time arguing about all that stuff which has nothing to do with building the church of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine Noah getting into arguments 5:15 with people on the streets about who's going to be the next king or leader? He had no time for that. He was concentrating on building the ark. He says, "Hey fellas, this world's going to be destroyed. That's the only thing that 5:27 matters. It doesn't matter which political party you belong to. If you don't turn from sin, you're going to be lost. I wonder if we realize this. We have to be wise in these days. We must not be influenced. It's good to 5:44 read the news, internet or newspapers to know what's happening in the world, but don't believe everything you read. A lot of it is just to influence your mind in a certain direction. You were not there. You didn't see it, but you believe what 5:59 some journalist said and you get an opinion on it. And then you begin to air that opinion. And if you get 10 journalists saying the same thing, you get an opinion. You know, it says here our citizenship is in heaven. And if you want to 6:17 uh live as a citizen of heaven, it says set your mind on the things that are above. Do you think the Lord Jesus at the right hand of the father is worried about political disputes in the world? Not at all. Or it says God is in control of 6:33 everything. All authority in heaven and earth is given to him. And the Bible says just submit to the rulers and God will control them. Honor honor the king. It says in u one Peter in chapter 2 in verse 17, 6:51 honor the king in those days. By the way, do you know who was the king when Peter wrote that letter? Nero, who was worse than any Democrat or Republican. He was such a wicked emperor. He was persecuting the Christians, killing them. He's the fin 7:09 man who finally beheaded Paul. And Peter says, "Listen, don't get involved in all these things. Whoever is the ruler, just let him rule. We're here to build a church and uh let's believe that God will control the circumstances. 7:24 When God wants to get rid of Nero, he'll do that. And he doesn't need your help or any voters's help." And that's God's business. We think we're going to do it. You know, we have had situations in India in when election time comes. I say I 7:41 don't get involved in the disputes. I'm I'm not against this party or that party. I'm not for this party or that party. I'm against the devil. That's about the only person in the universe I'm against. And I'm 100% for Christ. 7:55 And if you are seeing the glory of God, well, I'm with you. But in all these other earthly disputes, I see we're not interested. And we decided in our church that we're going to pray that uh see God knows what's best for our country. And 8:14 God is going to we're going to cast our vote in the prayer meeting and make sure that our vote is going to be very influential because we're going to pray and ask the Lord to influence the the elections so that the right person comes 8:29 into power. And I'll tell you there are some amazing stories. I don't have the time to tell you this where we have influenced the government and changed things by prayer in a little group like ours. Yeah. So I want to mention this that 8:45 it's Satan that we are concentrating on in the New Testament. This business in the Old Testament, Israel was a nation under God. That was okay for them to have a discussion of whether Saul is going to be better king or David's a better king. But we're not 9:00 in a nation now. We're in a church. And our conflict is not with people. Our conflict is with Satan. It's very important to remember that. It's important to remember that whenever conflict begins to arise in your home, don't get into conflicts with your 9:16 children or we got to discipline them. But uh that's fine. But you know when we get agitated about something something that's happening in the country and you get all worked up about it, you got to be at rest. I'll tell you 9:31 what you need to be agitated about. If you want to be agitated, here's something to be really agitated about. The name of Jesus Christ is being dishonored in this land and in every land. Does that agitate you? That's what bothers 9:46 me. That's the thing I primarily pray because Jesus taught me to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. And I'm not going to get involved in all this 10:03 low-level earthly stuff. And you know, the result of that, it's my life is being one of joy. That's why I don't get into bad moods because I don't get into involved in all these earthly conflicts that so many believers get into. And I 10:16 want to encourage you in this area. Don't get into arguments or disputes with people at all. I've had people come to my house sometimes and they act as though they're trying to get a clarification on some biblical doctrine. 10:30 Now, you'd think that I'd get into an argument about a biblical doctrine because I stand for the truth. I want to stand for the truth. But when I see that what he's asking for is not an explanation, what he wants to get into an argument, 10:44 I stop. I say, "Hey, I'm not going to get into an argument because you seem to be pretty convinced in your view about it." Fine. God bless you. Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about cricket. That's a game we play in India like people play 11:01 football or because I say there we won't get into an argument. We are both on the same side. We want India to win, right? Okay. So let's talk about something where we are united because I know this will get nowhere. We'll just get heated 11:16 up and become enemies at the end of our discussion. I see I don't want to I see you can believe that you won the argument. Fine. That's why I changed the subject. Oh, brother Zach changed the subject because he didn't have any 11:26 argument. Fine. You're welcome to believe that. It doesn't bother me because your opinion is only fit for the trash can like everybody else's opinion. My opinion is fit for the trash can. What does God think about you and me is 11:36 the only thing that matters. So when it comes to Satan, let's not think his power is weak. If he had the boldness to tempt Jesus Christ and at the end of that temptation, do you know what it says at the end of 11:55 his tempting him for 40 days in James 4 uh sorry Luke 4:13. Um, it's a very interesting verse. I don't know whether you've noticed it. Luke 4:13, at the end of the three temptations in the wilderness, it says, "The devil finished every temptation for 12:15 the time being and departed from Jesus until an opportune time, for a season." He said, "Okay." And that's what the devil says about you and me. If he said that about Jesus, he say that about you and me. Okay, I'll 12:34 leave him for a while. I'll wait for an opportune time when I can get at him again. Remember that if he said this was written about Jesus, it's I believe the devil's waiting for an opportune time to get at me and you. That's why we need to 12:52 be alert. And very often we fall into so many sins because we're not alert. You know we there's a old proverb which they use for countries that are liberated from oppressive rulers. It says eternal vigilance 13:11 is the price of liberty. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Which means always being alert to oppressive forces trying to dominate you or foreign rulers trying to control your country. always being alert that if you begin to sit 13:29 back and relax, you lose your liberty. And very often we fall into sin because we're not always alert. Jesus kept on saying to people, watch and pray. Watch and pray. In other words, um that's an old 16th century word. Uh today's 13:46 language say be alert. That's the meaning. Be alert and pray. Be alert and pray. I like to read it in these modern translations so I understand its meaning. I understand be alert much more than I understand watch. 14:01 Be alert all the time. Be alert. Um be of sober spirit and be alert. 1 Peter 5:8. 1 Peter 5:8 it says, "Be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling about like a roaring lion seeking 14:20 someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith. But you can't resist him if you're fighting with human beings. If you found that you're not able to overcome Satan, just sit down for a moment and ask yourself, have I been 14:34 getting into fights with human beings? Have I get been getting into arguments on politics and some other area where I have a strong opinion and I want to air my opinion and convince everybody that I'm right and I get some delight when 14:48 people accept my view. finally. Well, people may have accepted your view finally, but the devil gets the better of you finally because you're not strong enough to fight him. Concentrate on Satan. Resist him firm in your faith. 15:03 And in that connection, I want to show you something else in one Thessalonians and chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now I want you to read this slowly and see 15:23 u learn something from it. Paul is writing to the Thessalonians and saying in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse1 17 we brethren brethren we having been bereft of you for a short while that means we were we 15:41 had gone away and hadn't known much news about you hadn't met you for some while in person not in spirit we were with you in spirit but in person we were not with you were all the more eager with desire to see your face I mean why did Paul 15:54 want to go to the Thessal Alonians, he says, "Hey, these guys are confused about the coming of the Lord and so many other things. I want to go and establish them." Paul had a great burden for the churches he planted that they would be 16:07 established in the truth and not led astray by the devil here and there. And he says, "We wanted to come to you more than once." Verse 18, I Paul wanted to come to you more than once, but Satan hindered us. Can Satan hinder a mighty man like the 16:29 Apostle Paul? Spiritfilled apostle who um wasn't wasting his time on political arguments or fighting with human beings. Even a man like him, Satan could hinder him. And we sit back thinking, "Oh, Satan 16:47 will never hinder me. I'm a Christian. I just using the name of Jesus. Go away." You think Paul couldn't use that? We don't recognize Satan's power. I'll tell you this, Satan will not be able to frustrate God's plan. That's for sure. 17:03 But I can say this without a shadow of doubt that every Christian who fights with human beings, the more he fights with human beings, the more his power to fight Satan gets drained out. And the more we get into worthless 17:21 earthly arguments, the more our power is drained out to fight Satan. And that's the reason why we fall into sin so often. Ask yourself, are you getting into a whole lot of unnecessarily worthless arguments with people which will have no value 2,000 17:39 years from now? Whenever you get into a discussion with somebody and it's getting a bit heated and you want to convince people that your view is right, just ask yourself, will this have any value 2,000 years from now? What does it matter if 17:55 he says he's right? Okay, brother, go ahead and think you're right. I want to be right about the things that are going to be important 2,000 years from now. I couldn't care less about things that are going to be important just for one or 18:07 two years. Is this going to be important in eternity? Has this got some eternal value? Well, then I'm going to fight for it with all my heart. But other things, yeah, I'm careful. I'm cautious. I want to be alert, but I want I'm not going to 18:23 fight with people about it. No, it's not worth it. It's not worth winning an argument about something which is not no eternal value. I said, you you're welcome to believe your view is right. I respect your view. I don't agree with it 18:36 necessarily. That's what I have to say to some people, but I I I'm not going to fight with you over it, Satan. Because I want all my energies concentrated. I've got only one life to live, and the Lord's got a plan. Lord's wants me to do something with my 18:54 one life. And I would don't want to spend my time getting into a lot of disputes and arguments and fights which will hinder me from fulfilling the purpose God has for me. Satan hindered Paul. I believe he can hinder me. But if 19:10 I'm alert, I can overcome him even when he has hindered me in doing something. And that's what I want to show you. Satan hindered me. Did therefore Satan win? No. That's the thing I want you to see. 19:28 And he says when we could chapter 3 verse one, when we could not endure it any longer, okay, we decided to stay in Athens alone and we sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage you. And 19:46 when he was able to come there and when I could not endure it, I sent to find out about your your faith. Verse five. And now that Timothy has come to us from you, that means Satan could not hinder Timothy. Notice that he could 20:02 hinder Paul, but he couldn't hinder Timothy. So Timothy went and encouraged them and blessed them and came back. It says in verse six, and brought us the good news of your faith and your love and your longing to see us, etc. And for 20:18 this reason, we were comforted when we heard of your faith. Why did God Almighty allow Satan to hinder Paul but not but make sure that Timothy went? You know why? 20:36 I've seen that in India that God wants to train another generation to carry the torch. And Paul was getting old and was use Paul every time going to Thessalonians, Thessalonica or Philippi or anywhere. 20:55 Let's get an younger generation also fired up and blessed and let's get these churches to respect another generation coming up. They all respected Paul. They needed to learn to respect Timothy who was also a godly man who was like Paul's 21:11 son. And so God, Satan thought he was hindering God's purpose by holding Paul back. And God always turns the tables on Satan. That's happened throughout the Bible. And he said, "Okay, Satan, you think you're going to accomplish something, 21:27 you're going to accomplish my purpose. I want another generation to come up. And it is in my will that Paul is not going. Even though you think that you're accomplishing your purpose on the cross of Calvary, Satan thought he had accomplished his 21:47 purpose, but it was God's purpose that was being accomplished. See that verse in Acts chapter 2, it's a wonderful verse. If you don't know it, you must know it. Acts chapter 2 and verse 2, 22:05 sorry, verse 23. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. It's talking about Jesus Christ. There are two things I want you to see in this verse. One is what Satan accomplished through godless men. That's in the latter part of that verse. 22:22 Acts 2:23. Paul Peter is preaching to the religious leaders. You nailed Jesus to a cross by the hands of godless men. godless men instigated by Satan killed 22:39 Jesus Christ. But he says that was according to the predetermined verse 23 plan of God. You see that it was done by Satan through godless men, but it was the predetermined 22:57 plan of God. And so we have that comfort, too. If I'm wholehearted, radical, really seeking to live for Christ alone, my only ambition in life is to do the will of God and build his church, just like Noah's one ambition was to complete 23:16 the ark and save people, nothing else. Um what will happen is even the things that Satan does in my life, in my home, with my children, my job or anything. Okay, 23:34 Satan did that. And it looks as if he did something against me through godless men who hate Christians. And we have lots of them in many parts of the world. God according to his predetermined plan 23:53 will work that thing which Satan did in some wonderful way to become good for me and my family and my children and my future. This is the God we worship. A God who turns the a curse into a 24:11 blessing. See that verse in Deuteronomy. Some of these verses it they're good to memorize. Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23. There are some verses in the Bible. If you got the habit of underlining, you better underline it 24:29 because it's good to remember it. Deuteronomy 23:5, the last part. God turned the curse into a blessing because he loves you. Isn't that good? Somebody curses you and he turns it into a blessing because 24:49 he loves you. I've experienced, you know, as we preach truths that a lot of Christians don't like. For example, we preach that tithing is not a New 25:08 Testament command. It's in the Old Testament. God doesn't want you to tithe. He wants you to give cheerfully. Do you know that almost every Pentecostal church in India hates me for preaching that? They detest it. Or when I say you're not supposed to be 25:27 a one-man ruler like a pastor running a church. We we need shared eldership with elders. That's another thing a lot of pastors don't like because it takes away their throne and their kingdom. So once when I was going to 25:42 uh a place for meetings, public meetings, imagine the Pentecostal churches there got together to pray against the meetings. Have you ever heard of that? People praying I mean you think the the Hindus and 26:02 Muslims would do that. These were Christians who claimed to be believers praying against my meetings. So here they are. Here is I'm having public meetings in some open ground and there they are in their church praying to God. 26:14 God bring confusion there or whatever they pray that it rain and thunder and everything else that should happen. But you know God listens hears all that and says these guys don't know what they what they should be praying but they're praying so 26:29 I'll I'll answer something good uh because that's what I want to do. and he turns it and we had a fantastic blessing. He turns even the evil prayers that people pray against us for something good. I remember another place where I went 26:46 for public meetings and all the pastors there had printed a big sheet saying the false prophet was coming here and and they distributed all over and and they they they were standing outside the place where we were having meetings and 27:02 giving out these leaflets warning people against me and um I sent a message to them. I say if you give us some of those leaflets, we'll distribute it to everybody inside the hall as well. We're not afraid of anything you say and if anybody sitting 27:19 in this hall is afraid. Hey, you better go home right now. You you can't be afraid of people and follow the Lord. It's impossible. I said, we're not afraid. And do you know what happened at the end of that? Some of the elders in that in their 27:32 churches u you know were gripped by the truth and decided to leave their church and come to our fellowships. God is I've seen so many examples in my life of God turning a curse into a blessing. That's why I don't hate them. 27:48 I don't hate a person who curses me. The Bible says, "Bless those who curse you." Because God's going to turn that curse into a blessing. Unless if you curse a person who curses you, then you don't believe in God. If you hate a person 28:00 who's trying harm to you, doing harm to you, then you don't believe that God can turn that for your good. See, this is where our faith is tested. The worst thing that Satan can do cannot harm us if you're doing seeking to do 28:13 the will of God. I often ask people this question. What is the worst thing that Satan ever did in the history of man? It was not leading Adam astray. That was pretty bad because it affected 28:33 the whole human race. But the worst thing and the worst sin that was ever committed on this earth, you know what it was? The crucifixion of Jesus Christ to crucify the son of God. Is there is it possible to have a sin worse than 28:48 that that anybody can commit? No. Okay. So, we've decided what is the worst sin? The worst thing that ever happened on this earth was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Then I ask people, what is the best thing that ever happened on this earth? 29:04 What's that? The crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Was there anything better than that ever happened on this earth? I don't think so. That's where all my sins got thrown away and that's where I got into fellowship with God. So, what do you see 29:18 there? The worst thing that ever happened became the best thing that ever happened because God turned it around like that. And that is there's a message there in the cross that we need to see. A lot of messages on Calvary if you 29:29 meditate on it. One is our sins are forgiven. One is Satan is defeated. And one is that the worst thing that the devil can do to you, God can turn not only cancel its effect. I mean that itself would have been great that the 29:42 God cancels the effect of that bad thing the devil did to you. Not that but he turns it into good. Have you read in the Old Testament how whole lot of enemies would come to fight against Israel? One example is 2 Chronicles 20. Whole lot of 29:57 enemies come to fight against Israel and they're scared. They begin to pray to God and God not only defeats their enemies, he gives them all the wealth of their enemies. Have you read that? So it was a good thing those fellas fought 30:12 Israel. Israel became richer at the end of it. And these are lessons written there not just to read. I mean it's all right when you're in children's Sunday school to read those are stories. But when you grow up you need to see what is 30:24 the spiritual meaning there for me that when Satan today my enemy is not the Philistines or the Amorites, it's the devil. Now, when he comes against me and does a whole lot of things, God's not just going to cancel the effect of it. He's going to bring 30:40 something good into my life which would not have taken place if Satan hadn't come. For example, when Satan comes and attacks me in some area and I fight and I overcome, do you know at the end of it, I become a stronger Christian? 30:56 and I would not have become a stronger Christian if Satan hadn't made the mistake of trying to attack me. So that's why we're never going to be defeated. We're not afraid of the devil. And we also know this wonderful promise 31:11 in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God will make sure that the temptation is not too strong for us. Every temptation that comes our way, God decides, is that strong enough for him? No. uh is that too strong for him then or 31:29 her then God says Satan you can't do that you remember how u when we read about God allowing Satan to tempt Job why didn't he in chapter one he lost his property 31:47 and his children but he didn't get sick that was a little later Maybe it would have been too much for him if it had all come together. And God saw that, hey, Satan, you can't touch his body. You can kill his children and his 32:06 family. And then as a second stage, okay, now he's overcome that. Now I'll allow you to touch his body. So what we see there is right from the that by the way that's the first book of the Bible written the book of Job 32:23 because Job lived before Moses who wrote Genesis. So the first book that God wrote when God decided to write a book for man the first book he said is the first book he wrote was about a man of God who was upright who was attacked by Satan 32:42 and who had a difficult wife. Can a man of God have a difficult wife? That happens often, unfortunately. But it didn't change him. He stood for the Lord. A man who suffered, who lost his children, lost his property, but he came 32:57 out triumphant. The first book that God decided to write out of the 66 books for man was the story of a man because he was upright. God turned everything that the devil did against him for his good and he ended up with 33:17 he had seven sons and three daughters to begin with and in the last chapter he's got 14 sons and six daughters. I mean 10 of them in heaven and the other 10 on earth and all his property doubled. The message there is if you're 33:36 faithful to God, you fear God and okay, you may not understand. Job couldn't understand why it was all going through. Today we can understand because we have the Holy Spirit and we have the Bible. Job didn't have a Bible. He 33:50 didn't have the Holy Spirit. So, he couldn't understand. So, we don't have that excuse today. Today, we understand. And we know that the ultimate end of God is to turn the tables on Satan so that we are overcomers. And that's why it's 34:04 so important, dear brothers and sisters, to recognize what are the tactics of Satan to make us weak. Let me turn you to second Corinthians and chapter 2 uh and verse 11. 34:28 Paul is talking to believers and he's not excluding himself. He says in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan. He's including himself. He says I'm not different from you Corinthians. It's not just oh you fellas 34:47 Satan could take advantage of you. He includes himself. Look at his humility. He says, "I don't want Satan to take advantage of me." Because we are not ignorant of his tactics or his schemes. 35:04 I want you brothers and sisters not to be ignorant of Satan's tactics and schemes. They were ignorant in the Old Testament. Every Old Covenant Christian is ignorant of Satan's schemes. Yeah, 35:24 you know, I was talking about the political debate and they discussed what are the tactics of the Democrats and tactics of the Republicans. I'll tell you couldn't I couldn't care less. I couldn't care less even in India. I want 35:34 to be aware of Satan's schemes and one of SC Satan's schemes is to get me involved in all these unnecessary disputes. I'm not I'm not a man. My citizenship is not here. I belong to heaven. I'm not going to get involved in 35:47 all these things and neither am I going to get involved with fights with people over worthless earthly things. I'm not ignorant of Satan's schemes because one of Satan's schemes is to get me so involved with earthly things and 36:00 particularly fighting about unnecessary things that I'm weakened in fighting him. I mean, you can spend so much time seeing the pros and cons of a lot of things happening in the world that you don't have time to read the Bible. 36:16 I'm absolutely convinced that a lot of believers, politically minded believers are not reading the Bible enough these days because they are listening to the opinions of journalists and so many other things and on television and all 36:31 that. What a work Satan has done. Unnecessary things he gets them involved in so that they don't read the Bible. So they don't get to know God. Are you ignorant of Satan's schemes? I don't want to be ignorant. I want to be alert. 36:46 You can say, "Oh, well, after this phase is over, I'll repent and I'll turn to the Lord." But you've wasted so many weeks. I don't want to waste a single day of my life. I've got only one life. And every single day, one of the things 36:57 God shown me is every single day of my earthly life, God's got something for me to do, something for me to accomplish. I don't mean witnessing to somebody every day, but there's something God wants to do in my life every single day, and I don't 37:10 want anything to distract me from that. leave alone waste a month. I don't want to waste a single day. I hope you're like that. I hope you're serious about, you know, making progress in your Christian life personally, progress in your 37:25 relationship, in your home, with your family, and um seeking to grow in the Lord. We not ignorant of Satan's schemes. So, let me just mention a few of them. For you, turn back to Genesis chapter 3. I'll just quickly mention some of the 37:43 things you see there in Genesis chapter 3 of how Satan came to the devil. Uh sorry, Satan came to Adam and Eve. And this is something we must remember. The number one 38:00 tactic which he employs with Christians and that he employs with employed with Adam was Genesis 3:1. Has God really said this? Is the Bible really the word of God? 38:26 and he's got many other tactics. Get into an argument about which version you should use. Should it be the King James version or this other version or the other version? I've told people every version says you 38:44 got to hate sin. Every version of the Bible says if you don't take up the cross, you can't follow Jesus. Let's concentrate on those things instead of arguing about this version and that version and you get sidetracked with all that and you read 38:57 all those books on why the King James version is the only version to be read. What about your life, brother? What about your thought life? Is that pure? Take 26 translations of the New Testament. They all say that if you lust 39:09 after a woman, it's adultery. Concentrate on that. But the devil won't let you concentrate on that. He'll make you concentrate on some verse here. You have seen compared this verse and this version with that verse and the other 39:21 version. I don't have time for it. I want to keep my thought life pure so that I can hear God. I want to be free from bad moods 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's much more important to me. And the Bible says that. Every single version says 39:36 rejoice always in the Lord. Is there any version which doesn't say that? Every version says in Ephesians 4:31, "Put away all anger. I should never be angry in my home. Never be angry with believers." Why not take those verses instead of arguing 39:53 about versions? Don't get into these Satan's trying to sidetrack you into all types of things which you think are so right because just like journalists, there are Christian journalists who try to convince you about something that's 40:04 important. Don't be ignorant of the tactics of Satan. See the end result in your life. You can see from the end result in your life that you could have made a lot more progress if you hadn't got taken up with these side issues. 40:17 There is a phrase in English called majoring on minors. Majoring on minors that means giving more importance to the unnecessary trivial little things. There there's this expression which is used about you know the Titanic the big 40:37 ship that sank in the Atlantic in the early part of the 20th century that uh arranging the deck chairs on the Atlantic on the Titanic when it's sinking or the chairs are not in order. Let's put them in order. The ship is 40:49 sinking man. And that's what I mean by majoring on minors. Search your life and see whether Satan gets you to major on minor things. Has God said that sin shall not have dominion over 41:08 you? Romans 6:14. It says same in all 26 translations of the New Testament. By the way, sin cannot rule over you. Why not concentrate on that? On the promise of God and God, Satan says, "You think it really says that? Has God really said be anxious for 41:28 nothing?" Philippians 4:6. Why is it most believers are anxious, worried? Because they don't believe God has really said it. They'd be much more careful to obey what a traffic policeman says 41:45 or what the government says and be Christians are very faithful to pay their taxes to the IRS. They don't bother about God saying, "Don't be anxious for anything." Yeah, who cares for that? That's a tactic of Satan. Take God's 42:00 word lightly. It's not so serious. Take the big commands seriously like don't murder, don't commit adultery. In other words, you take God's word and be selective. You decide which are the important ones and which are not important. 42:17 Do not commit adultery. Take important. Do not commit adultery. Important. Do not be anxious. No, put it in another category. Not important. It's the same God who said it. But I decide it's not important. Do not fear. No, that's not 42:33 important. Do not steal. Yeah, that's important. Do you know that unconsciously you are making a selection in God's word? In a very holy way, you say, "I believe the Bible is God's word." I don't believe you believe it. 42:48 If you did, you would take everything God says seriously. I I'm not throwing stones at anybody. For so many years of my Christian life after I was born again, I did the same foolish thing. I wish somebody had got a hold of me when I was young and say, 43:01 "Hey, Zach, don't do that. Take every word of God seriously." I think I'd have made a lot more progress. I don't want you to make the mistake I made. At least from now onwards, take God's word seriously. Has God said, that's the first sentence 43:19 that he spoke to Adam. You see Satan's tactic there? And once he's stripped up, once say he came to Eve like that and once uh he's got Eve into a discussion, the next thing he says, "Has God said you'll 43:37 surely die?" Verse four, you will not die. In other words, Eve, sin is not so serious as you think. He's told the believers that cancer, that's serious. You better do something 43:56 about it. Spend as much money as possible to get yourself treated and go to a doctor immediately if you're suspicious of cancer. AIDS. Wow, that's terrible. If your blood report suspects AIDS, you better do something about it. But anger, that's 44:15 not so serious. Bitterness and unforgiving spirit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those things you got to live with, man. Do you see? Paul says we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes. The only believer who believes God's word is the one who can say to the 44:34 devil, "Satan, I hate sin more than I hate cancer. I hate sin more than I hate bitterness in more than I hate AIDS or any rotten sickness there is in the world. I'd rather have leprosy than have sin 44:52 and mean it. And I tell you this, the day you mean it, you'll suddenly discover victory over a whole lot of sins that you thought you could not overcome. Satan succeeded in making you have a sort of a casual attitude towards it. 45:07 It's not sin, it's a weakness. It's not a weakness. And the next thing is once he succeeded in making Eve sin, you know, lowering God's standards, put 45:26 it like that. God said you shouldn't do this, but let's lower God's standard and say it's permitted. I know God has said it shouldn't be done, but yeah, well, God understands. You're being drawn to it, and God understands. Take it. The next thing 45:42 that the devil does is get you to get you to make other people also lower their standard. I mean, you've already slipped up, Eve. Now, get your husband also to come down to your level. Are you guilty of bringing other people 45:58 down to your level? You know how if our clothes are dirty, we like to be in the midst of people whose clothes are dirty. We don't like to be in the midst of people who clothes clothes are spotless. We don't we like to be with people who 46:12 are at our level. There's a strange delight that man gets if other people are as dirty as he is. Yeah. I mean even a simple thing like getting your clothes dirty when you're going somewhere for a wedding or something and you stepped in a puddle 46:28 and your clothes got dirty. There's a certain carnal delight we get if somebody else also stepped in that puddle not just you. It's evil. I've come down to this level. Let me bring other people also down. Let me say it to 46:41 other people. Don't be bothered about all those things. Let's not let's not be serious about all those things. Do you have the habit of bringing other people down because you're down? And then the next thing you see is they suddenly realize verse 7 that 46:58 they're naked. Now begins the accusations. Satan is called in Revelation 12:10 the accuser of the brethren. He's called the deceiver of the whole world but the accuser of the brethren. His once he succeeded in all these things, his next 47:16 tactic is accuse you. Accuse you. Accuse you. Remember what you did 10 years ago, you've already confessed it a 100 times, but he still accuses you. Has God said that if you confess your sins, he's faithful and righteous to 47:32 forgive all your sins? Ah, don't take it too lightly. That's all right for small sins like little little things. But the big ones, you remember the big ones you did 10 years ago. That doesn't come under one John 1:9. You got to be you 47:46 got to feel condemned about it all your life. You got to spend shed tears for it all your life because the more tears you shed, the more you will be cleansed. All this rubbish. Do you know that your tears will not cleanse one sin? It's 48:00 only the blood of Jesus that cleanses sin. You can weep as much as you like over the sins you committed in the past. They will not cleanse. One sin of yours is the blood of Jesus. We need to have sorrow. Sure. I want to have sorrow over 48:15 the years of my life where I didn't wholeheartedly live for God. Sure. But what is the result of that sorrow? The result of the sorrow is I'm running much faster today to live for God the rest of my life. If that is the result, good. 48:31 But it was going to bring depression. Oh, I failed and I messed up. And dear brothers and sisters, let's be aware. Satan is the accuser. Whenever you hear a word of condemnation, remember condemnation is an Old 48:49 Testament ministry. If you don't believe it, turn to second Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians 3. The Old Testament ministry, the entire ministry of the law is called in verse 9, a ministry of condemnation. 49:07 And it had a certain degree of glory. That's what it says there. People are made to feel bad about their sin. But I'm not supposed to stop there. When I feel bad about my sin, I must move on to the new covenant, which is called in 49:23 verse 9, 2 Corinthians 3:9, the ministry of righteousness. that I'm cleansed in the blood of Christ. And if I keep condemning myself over something uh in the past, I'm saying the blood of Christ is not good enough. I'm glorifying the devil. Don't 49:42 be ignorant of Satan's tactics. You may not have done it deliberately, but unconsciously, many of us are glorifying Satan. We are worshiping him almost. No, I'm going to stand on the ground of God's word. I'm going to know that I'm righteous in 50:00 Christ. That when the Lord says, "I will not remember your sin anymore," he means it. I I don't I am not going to allow myself to be condemned by Satan. I'm not going to let the accuser of the brethren keep on accusing me about things that have 50:13 happened in the past. I'm not even going to let him condemn me by saying, "You're not good enough. Has he ever said that to you? Imagine if you kept your telling your child, "You're not good enough. You're not good enough." Where will your child be after 50:32 some years? Do you know that God expects you only to live at the level of your understanding? Supposing you have a three-year-old son who's just learning to write the alphabet. So, a 50:51 four-year-old son and he sends he writes a little card for you on your birthday with his own handwriting. Happy birthday, daddy or mommy. And you know how when they start writing alphabets sometimes it's turned the other way around and crooked. The E 51:06 is the other way around and maybe the A is upside down. And you look at this and say, "Hey, this is not good enough." You the A is upside down. You're telling your three-year-old child who sat up at night to write a birthday card for you. 51:19 And the first thing you see in the morning, you say, "This is not right. This is not right." What type of father are you? What do you expect from that child? He's expressing the love of his heart. Maybe he got the spelling a little wrong. Do 51:33 you think God is a worse father than you? God's a million times better than you. When I come to him as a little three-year-old perhaps and I haven't spelled something right, he just hugs me and says, "Hey, I'm delighted that you 51:48 love me." When you sing some of these songs and you don't know the tune properly, God doesn't bother about the tune. We got a brother in our church who can't sing one note, right? Even after 20 years, I believe that God loves his singing 52:01 because he sings it from his heart. I never get bothered that he's out of tune because I know his heart and I know what God's like. He's not bothered. I remember once in our church some of the instruments were not playing together 52:18 and I was a bit disturbed and God spoke to me immediately saying it doesn't disturb me. I said it doesn't disturb you. I said Lord thank you. He says what does disturb me is there's a husband and wife here who are not in tune with each 52:30 other. There are two sisters here who don't talk to each other. a couple of brothers here who don't get along with each other. That disturbs me much more than two little instruments you're out of tune. And I prayed a prayer that day. I 52:42 said, "Lord, for the rest of my life, anything that doesn't disturb you, it's not going to disturb me. And anything that does disturb you should disturb me." Think of the change that will come in your home when you say, "Lord, 52:58 anything that doesn't disturb you in this home is not going to be disturbed me." You know, some people are so particular. Oh, there was a little bit of dust on that window sill. It's not been wiped out. A little bit something, right? Or those 53:10 shoes were not kept exactly in the right way. You know, it doesn't disturb God. I'll tell you, there are 101 things out of place in your home that doesn't disturb God one bit. But that little tension between you and your partner that disturbs God a million 53:27 times more than clothes lying around here and there or something else not in place or the food was not exactly cooked properly. God doesn't bother about it. Our life would be completely changed if our eyes are open to the tactics of 53:45 Satan to bring misunderstandings. Maybe your husband or wife said something and the devil whispers, "Do you know why he said that?" Say, "No, I don't know." Instead of saying, "Yeah, I know why." You don't know. It was with a very good motive. 54:03 When the devil says it was a bad motive, say, "No, it wasn't." Don't allow that misunderstanding. Nip it in the bud and cut it off. Let's not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. We are living in the New Testament. Let's forgive. 54:20 Be quick to ask forgiveness. Quick to forgive one another is the great advice I give to all newly married couples, old married couples. In one sentence, one law for your married life. Be quick to ask forgiveness from each 54:37 other and be quick to forgive. Let me show you that in closing. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 10 2:10. Whom you forgive anything, I 54:59 forgive. What I have forgiven, I have forgiven anything in the presence of Christ. Why do I forgive? Because otherwise, verse 11, Satan will take advantage of us. But I'm not ignorant of his schemes. You see that forgiveness, a little thing 55:17 like that is where Satan can get an advantage. That's why I say be quick to forgive and be quick to ask forgiveness and Satan will not get a foothold in your house. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads before God and allow what we have heard 55:36 to sink right into our hearts and not just something we are inspired by momentarily. But this is my prayer that this will result in a complete change in your attitude to the devil and to 55:56 people. You're going to love people and hate the devil from now on. And you're going to be more aware of the schemes of Satan than about a whole lot of unnecessary things that go on in this earth. Heavenly Father, help us to be 56:10 radical and to see the things that are really important. Our life is short and we have no time to get involved in things that don't have eternal consequence. Help us, we pray. Help us not to be moved and influenced by the tremendous forces that are there 56:29 that are in this world that we'd like to drag us away from your perfect will for our lives. Help us each one every family here. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you, brother Zach.
