0:04 We have been seeing in these days that God is not looking for a large testimony but a pure testimony. I believe this is one of the biggest mistakes that Christendom has made. 0:21 The difference between large and pure is the difference between Babylon and Jerusalem. Now I preached that for 35 years but I find many people don't understand it. In the book of Revelation 0:38 Babylon is called the great city. Great. Huge. Big 11 times. Jerusalem is called the holy city. Know the difference between a great city and a holy city. That's the difference between Babylon 0:58 and Jerusalem. That's the difference between a Babylonian church and a Jerusalem church. To build a great city, you need gifts. You need eloquence. You need great men. You need great preachers. You need good 1:18 music. You need a lot of money. But to build a pure church, you need people who are wholehearted. They don't need money. Even without money, you can build Jerusalem. You can't build Babylon without money. You 1:37 can build Jerusalem without any music. 3,000 people were converted on the day of Pentecost without any music. It's a great deception today to think that you require music to u lead people to Christ. It says before 1:55 they went to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus and his disciples sang together sang a hymn and they didn't have any instruments and I I would have loved to have been there without any instruments that Jesus is leading that singing. 2:09 There is so much of deception in Christendom today and the number one reason for this deception is they don't read the Bible slowly and they don't have a clue that the old covenant has been abolished and there's 2:26 a new covenant established. There was one truth I would like to travel all over Christendom preaching is dear brothers the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. The old covenant has been abolished. Don't live 2:39 by Deuteronomy 28. Live by Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 8. These are Romans chapter 12. These are the chapters we must live by today. But like Jesus said in his lifetime, they have ears but they will not hear because 2:59 their heart goes after their greediness and their covetousness. The Lord told Ezekiel, you are like a, you know, person playing a nice instrument whom they would like to listen to, but they're not going to 3:16 listen to you. The Lord said to Ezekiel these words in I want to turn to it in chapter 33. You know, he was speaking to Israel in Babylon. I I told you that books like Jeremiah and Ezekiel are tremendous messages for 3:35 today's Christians. Ezekiel 33:30. Um I have felt like this many times. Ezekiel 33:30. As for you, son of man, I'm reading in the message Bible. You 3:55 become quite the talk of the town. Your people meet on the street corners in front of their houses and in a mocking way they say, "Let's go and hear the latest news from God." And they show up as people tend to do and sit in your 4:11 company. They listen to you speak, but they won't do a single thing that you say. They flatter you with their compliments. Ezekiel 33:30. So the people talk about you in their 4:28 houses and speak to one another saying, "Hey, let's go and listen. What's the message that's come forth from the Lord?" They'll come to you as my people. Sit down. But they're not going to hear. They're not going to do one single thing 4:40 that you say because all that they care about, verse 31, is making money and getting on in this world. All that they care about is making money and getting ahead in this world. And to 4:59 them, you are merely entertainment. a country singer who sings sad love songs playing a guitar. They love to hear you talk, but nothing comes of it. But when all this happens, and it's going to happen, they will one day 5:17 realize that they had a prophet among them. So the church is not here to convert the world. We're not here to convert India. I don't believe the whole of India will ever be converted because there are few 5:36 Jesus said who will find the way to life and he knew better than you and me. We can have desires but God wants all men to repent. He wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth. Even in Noah's day, 5:54 I believe that if there was a big rush of thousands of people who wanted to get into the ark, God would have said, "Okay, Noah, I'll change the dimensions of the ark, make it bigger." But God knew 6:14 there's not going to be a big rush for the ark. Have you ever thought why God gave Noah just those dimensions for the ark? Imagine if a 100,000 people wanted to get in. God knew it wouldn't be 100,000. God knew it'd be only eight. That's why he 6:31 gave those dimensions. He says the animals have got more sense than these people. They'll come, but not not people. Many times God said through his prophets, these animals have got more sense than human beings. The ox knows 6:43 his master, but I don't my people don't know my master. And Noah is called a preacher of righteousness. The last days will be like the days of Noah. And he was a witness right up until the end. 120 years. He preached the truth. 7:00 He was like a burning bush in his time. God in his midst. And people knew he was with God. They called him crazy, all that, but God was with him. And the church is to be like that. Dear brothers, it's very very important that 7:12 none of you elders ever get excited when people come and join you. Make sure they are disciples. If they are not disciples, I can give it to you in writing. They'll be a pain in your neck. They'll create problems in your church. And you will be responsible 7:31 for allowing them every Tom, Dick, and Harry to come and join. When Jesus said, "Go and make disciples," you were just interested in making your congregation larger and excited when more people came. Remember all your life, Babylon is 7:43 a great city. Jerusalem is a holy city. And if you study church history, all the great movements that came throughout history through great men of God whom God raised up, whether it's the Salvation Army or the Methodist Church 7:58 or different groups that God raised up, the founders were very godly men. Almost all of them, the founders were very godly men. The early leaders, one or two leaders were very godly men. They knew God and usually they were very poor. 8:13 They were not rich. And they they had a vision from God. They knew God and they knew how to build a church. And then came another generation which knew the doctrine but did not know God. The founders knew God. The followers 8:30 knew the doctrine. And the result was the followers were excited when numbers started increasing. Hey, we were unpopular for so long. Now we're getting a little popular. That's when you got to be scared. You don't have to be so scared when 8:44 you're rejected, despised, unpopular. You got to be scared when you're getting a little more popular and accepted and people join you because you got a reputation. Because then comes the time when all types of people come in who spoil your 9:00 testimony. People wonder why we don't allow visitors and unbelievers to come to a conference like this. What will happen? The people, you know, we hire these premises and the people who loan us these promises don't know 9:16 who is part of CFC and who is not. Some visitor comes along, gets upset with something and goes and yells at them. Who gets the bad testimony? We don't want to be a bad testimony. That's why we don't allow visitors. In spite of 9:32 them, some people come sneaking in because the elders don't vest who all don't test out whom they are sending. Ah, let them come along. Let them hear the gospel. And because of you, elders are foolish. You get a bad testimony for 9:46 us here. That's why I see we got to be careful. Some of us think we have more wisdom than the elders who plan these things. Do you see how you can ruin the whole testimony of CFC by allowing somebody to come here who's not really a 10:00 wholehearted believer? We're not here for outreach. We're not here to convert people. That you got to do in your local church. We're here to consolidate people and say we want to be a burning shining light here for the Lord. We want 10:11 everywhere we go when we have a conference like this, everybody must know we're different. So it's good to humble ourselves and accept the admonition of the elders in these cases. This has happened more than once but you 10:29 know people are slow to learn a lesson. Charles Finny used to say unless you tell per a person something 10 times they don't hear it because they are so proud they think they know better than those who are preaching to them. In many 10:41 many areas I find that dear brothers and sisters it's good if you have godly elders they have some wisdom when they take some decisions and it's good for you to know that what is our aim we God wants the whole world to be saved he 10:56 wants everybody to repent so do we have to pay a price we believe in teaching that the Bible says in Philippians 2:14 do all things without murmuring and grumbling we believe it must be like that all things if if I have to die, I die. If I have to 11:16 die of a stomach upset, I'll die. But I will not murmur or complain. Impossible. That's my belief. And I won't blame anybody else because I believe I live under the sovereign rule of a father. And if the Bible says in Zechariah 11:34 chapter 2 5 and 8 that he'll be a wall of fire round about me and anybody touches me is touching the apple of God's eye. I am the apple of God's eye. Have you ever tried touching the apple of your eye? Don't try it. I'm just 11:47 saying that sometimes we accidentally do it. But it hurts. The most sensitive part of our body is the apple of our eye. And the eye and the apple of God's eye. You can also be if you believe it, but you got to be wholehearted. 12:04 And so if some bug or germ or bacteria touches me, they're touching the apple of God's eye. I believe that. I resist it and curse it in Jesus name. Dear brothers and sisters, be wholehearted. Let me give you a word concerning our physical body and healing 12:24 because that's a very important thing that we face these days. I know many times I've thought of poor people in our country in our villages they go to a hospital and they charge them 10,000 rupees just to stay there in the 12:34 hospital for 2 three days and afterwards say everything's okay with you to hear that everything's okay with you they spent 10,000 rupees this test that test blood test scan x-ray and I have sometimes gone before God and wept and 12:46 said Lord what will you do for the poor people in our country they don't have 10,000 rupees they earn 10,000 rupees in a whole year how in the world can they go to hospital you got to heal in Jesus name. I want to share something 12:59 with you that I have sought to live by for many years in this matter of the human body because it's very important. We live in a world as the flu. There's all types of things and I know I travel around to all types of places, eat all types of food 13:15 and go all types of places here, there everywhere. I really need God to give me strength in my body and health in my body otherwise I'd have died long ago. So here's a word that's helped me a lot. I want you to listen very carefully and 13:31 read slowly. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 because this is very practical. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Does God take care of his temple? Let me ask you, do you take care of a house that you build? Supposing you spent a 13:46 100 million rupees, a 100 million rupees to build a house, will you take care of it? You sure will. Do you know how much God paid to get my body? You know how much he paid? The blood of Jesus Christ. Tell me how much that's worth. 14:03 Will he take care of his temple? I believe he will. Whether through medicine, surgery anyway, but he'll do it. Okay. 1 Corinthians 6:12. All things are lawful for me 14:23 but all things are not profitable. There are two levels at which you can live the Christian life. If you always ask is this permitted? Is this permitted? You're like the person who's living on the edge of the cliff. Supposing there's 14:35 a cliff there and you build your house just on the edge of the cliff so that your children can play near the edge of the cliff. You lose some of your children one day. I will not build my house on the edge of the cliff. That's 14:47 to say what is lawful? Oh, I haven't fallen over. I haven't fallen over. Many times young people ask me in question time, can I permit to do that? How far can I go? What type of movies can I watch? They're trying to find out how 14:59 far can I go to the edge of the cliff. It's like little children on a railway platform saying how close can I stand to the edge of the platform when the train comes whizzing by. These are games for children. A sensible person will stand a distance 15:14 from the train when the train is coming by on a platform. So I'm not interested in saying which movies how can I watch this one? This is PG-13. This is R. Can I watch can I watch brother? If I have got I I'll give you a little principle. 15:29 If it is doubtful, it's dirty. If it's doubtful, it's dirty. You got to be absolutely sure in your heart this is lawful. But here's what's profitable. If you want to be a burning bush for God, determine one thing in your life that you will never live by 15:47 the principle of is it lawful? But is it profitable? It's the one who lives by the principle of is it profitable and only chooses the things that are profitable that's going to hear from the Jes from Jesus in the 16:06 final day, well done, good and faithful servant. Those who live by is it lawful? Is it lawful? May get to heaven and the Lord will say, "Oh, you finally made it, did you? I don't want to hear that." What do you want to hear from God? All 16:26 things are lawful, but I will not be mastered by anything. See, it's a very important principle that I'm talking about the human body. Now there are two areas where we have to be very very careful in the human body. 16:44 One is being mastered by food and the other is being mastered by sexual desire. I'm telling you how I try to keep my body. I will not be mastered by anything. It's lawful. Yes. But I will not become a 17:03 slave. food. Now he speaks about food and sex in the next verses and you'll see it's not my idea. It's here in scripture. Food is for the stomach. The stomach is for food. But one day God will destroy both of them. A day is 17:19 coming where there'll be no stomach and no food in the new im you know heavenly body. But yet the body is not for immorality. That's the second thing he speaks about. Food and immorality. The body must not be given to immorality. 17:38 The eyes or anything in the body must not be given for immorality but for the Lord. And when I give my body for the Lord, look at this promise. The Lord is for my body. That is the promise I have taken for 17:56 years. I said, "Lord, what shall I do with this body? I'm not going to use this body to make money. I'm not going to use this body just to enjoy good food. I'm not going to use this body for immorality. I'm not going to use this body to get 18:12 honor for myself. I'm going to use this body 100% for you." The Lord says, "I will be 100% for your body." Isn't that a wonderful promise? Is that in scripture or not? You believe this is the word of God. I have proved it for 18:31 years. The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body. I believe that many a times when I've traveled 16 hours at night in a bus on a bumpy road to go to some conference in some village down in Tamil Nad. I mean my body is like yours. 18:48 You shake. you can hardly go to sleep because the roads are so bumpy and um you have all these cars and all types of things whizzing past you and all that and the best thing is to shut your eyes and trust God as you you reach the other 19:02 end after 16 hours and go straight into a meeting and have four meetings a day and go on for three days like that. You can't do it unless the Lord is for your body. I believe all of us must be a living testimony to the fact my body is for the 19:17 Lord and the Lord is for my body. It's in scripture. Don't you want? You know, one of the things I prayed is I said, "Lord, every promise in scripture in the New Testament, I wanted in my life." Supposing your dad was a billionaire and 19:33 died and left 10 houses as an inheritance for you. Will you occupy only one of those houses? Yeah, let anybody take the other nine. Let some crooked lawyer take the other nine. Let um some crooks go and occupy the other nine. We will never do 19:51 it because we are lovers of money. We are lovers of good houses. What about an inheritance that Jesus purchased for us on the cross? Why do we let the devil take away 90% of it? I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, how many of you will pray this 20:08 prayer? Lord, every promise you made for the church in the New Testament, I want to experience it before I die. If you haven't prayed that prayer, pray it now. I'm not talking about the Old Testament of lot of money and all that. I'm 20:23 talking about New Testament promises which are all yes in Christ. So here's a promise. The don't be taken up with food and don't be taken up with immorality. The body is for the Lord. Now you keep watching internet 20:42 pornography and you say, "Oh Lord, heal me. Why should he heal you? What should I pray for you? Oh Lord, this brother is so sick now he can't sit and click on those pornographic sites. Please raise him up." so that he can sit 20:53 healthily at the computer table and watch the pornographic sites. Is that why should I should pray for you? Lord, this brother is so sick now. He's no opportunity for lusting after all the women on the street. Please raise him up 21:05 so that he can walk along the street and lust after the women again. Why do you ask for healing? The body is not for immorality. The body is not for just eating and eating and eating. Do you know there's a close connection between overeating and 21:20 excessive sexual desire? Turn for a moment to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. When you think about Sodom, it's become 21:39 a word in the English language. Sodomizing people is talking about homosexuality. And the people in Sodom were renowned for that. And God destroyed that whole city by fire for their homosexuality. It says here the reason why what was the 21:56 sin of Sodom. It's very important to understand. When we think of the guilt of Sodom, we immediately think of homosexuality. But see what God says in Ezekiel 16 verse 48. As I live, declares the Lord God. So 22:14 your sister have done not done as you have done. Behold verse 49. This was the guilt of your sister Sodom. And interesting thing he doesn't even mention homosexuality there. Notice this. What is the guilt of your sister 22:30 Sodom? Arrogance. Pride. I'm smart. I'm clever. I'm rich. I'm spiritual. Abundant food. Plenty to eat and eat and eat and eat. They were glutton. No wonder they became 22:49 homosexual. Abundant food and careless ease. Lazy lifestyle. Sleep. Don't get up in time. Sleep. No time to read the Bible. Watch television till you get groggy and go to sleep. 23:09 That's sort of No wonder they had problems in the sexual area. Careless ease. And another thing, when there were poor and needy people around, they did not help them. Why couldn't they help them? Because they had to spend it on food for 23:26 themselves. They had to spend it on careless ease. And they didn't care for the poor and needy. No wonder God condemned them to homosexuality and burnt up their city. Why isn't homosexuality mentioned here? The Lord is dealing the root cause of 23:42 the problem. The problem came up but the root cause was abundance of food and careless easy lifestyle and arrogance and pride and not caring for the poor and the needy. So I tell people when you want to overcome sexual sin, if you have a 24:02 tremendous problem with the lust of your eyes and sexual desire which is uncontrollable, shall I tell you where to start? First of all, humble yourself. You are too proud. You say, "What's the connection between pride and sexual desire?" Very close 24:15 connection. Second, you eat too much. You have a You got to get rid of your love for food first if you want to control your eyes. And you got a too much of a lazy lifestyle. No discipline 24:31 in other areas of your life. Plenty of food, plenty of money, all to spend on yourself. You don't care for the poor and the needy. Well, then you deserve to be defeated by sex all your life. There's a way out is there if you want 24:48 to take it. The Bible says God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability, but will make a way of escape. And I show you the way of escape and say, "No, I don't want that." Then live with your immorality and your sin and 25:01 keep on like they say, confess my hope. One day I will get victory. You'll be 75 years old, still lusting after women. One day I will get victory. It'll never come because you never took the way of escape. God showed you. Get rid of your 25:16 pride. Get rid of your gluttony. Get rid of your careless lifestyle. Care for the poor. And you'll suddenly find victory in the areas where you've been struggling for so long. The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord. 25:35 and the Lord is for the body. That's one promise. Second, back to 1 Corinthians 6. Verse 15, there are three things mentioned about the body here which I want you to see and all are dependent on this that my 25:53 body is for the Lord. It's not for food or immorality. We eat in order to live. We don't live in order to eat. Did you hear that? We eat in order to live. We don't live in order to eat. The world lives in 26:10 order to eat. We eat in order to live. And if you are a person who always loves the best type of food, don't be surprised if you are defeated by sex. Even when you're 80 years old, you got only yourself to blame. You will never 26:29 be the man of God that God wants you to be. Never. You'll never build the home or the church God wants you to build. Take it seriously. God wants a witness for him in this generation and this age. You say, "I have deny deny myself this, 26:46 deny myself that, deny myself this, deny all this." I say yes and some more also. We'll tell you about that later. But I will also tell you this. It'll be worth it all when we see Jesus. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. One look from his 27:05 dear face. All self-denial and the thought of it I'll forget about. Dear brothers and sisters, it's worth it all. I don't have to wait till I see Jesus. Today I can say it's worth it. It's worth it. 27:24 I have never made a sacrifice in my life, but that the Lord has given me a 100 times better things in return. He tests you. Will you deny this one little thing? Oh God, it's so difficult to deny. Okay, don't deny it. You don't 27:38 know what you missed. You were going to get something 100 times greater, but you missed it. It's like that parable that I think I read it in CS Lewis's book about a man with his ugly chameleon or ugly gecko lizard sitting 27:57 on his shoulder. uh you know it's a picture of some dirty lust and there was this angel standing before him saying shall I take this away and as soon as he says this lizard says no no no no no we are good friends 28:16 remember I am so I won't trouble you again won't trouble you I promise you I won't trouble you don't don't let him take me away from you and this man is torn between the desire to listen to what God is saying and the what lust is 28:28 saying and and he tells the angel, "Why don't you just pull it off me?" He says, "No, I can never do that without your permission. I will never force you. If you permit me, I'll take it off. But if you don't permit, it's your choice." And 28:44 this chap is torn between the desire. Do you understand that? You've experienced that in your life. The desire to please God and this lust here. Finally, he shuts his eyes and tells the angel, "Okay, take it all." And the angel pulls 28:59 it out and the claws of that lizard are in his flesh. Tears his flesh. It's a very painful experience. Tears him. The blood is flowing. And the angel throws that lizard down to the ground. And suddenly it gets transformed into a big 29:14 white horse. And the angel says now you don't have to walk. you can ride this horse and go much faster in your Christian life than you could until now. And that man says, "Boy, I wish I had done this earlier. 29:34 What I missed all these years? When are you going to do that? When you're 80 years old or when you're 18 years old? When do you want to start riding on a horse? When you when do you want to get rid of this ugly lizard who says, "I'll 29:49 behave myself and I'll help you and all that. Dear brothers and sisters, be wise. The second promise is verse 15. The first promise is my body, the Lord is for my body. It's a promise. 30:06 The second verse 15, my body is a member of Jesus Christ. My body, my body is a member of Jesus Christ. I thank God for that. 30:26 My body is a member of Christ. I don't have any right. See, for example, you cannot make my hand move. You can make your hand move, but you can't make my hand move. Only my head can make my hand move. That's the meaning of my body is a member of 30:45 Christ. My body, my physical body is a member of Jesus Christ, the head. He tells me what to do. That's why Paul said in one Corinthians chapter 9, I discipline myself and I tell my body to do what it should do, not what it wants to do. It's a 31:03 beautiful translation in the Living Bible, 1 Corinthians 9:27. I make my body do what it should do, not what it wants to do. So one, the body, the Lord is for my body. The second, my body is a member of Christ. 31:20 And the third promise is in verse 19, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I have claimed these promises for my body for many, many years. Lord, I never want to use any part of my 31:39 body to make money or to live myself. I want to earn my living. I don't want to be a beggar dependent on others. I want to earn my living. But my goal in life is not to make money. My goal in life is not to get honor for this body. My goal 31:51 in life is this body will be used for the Lord completely. And therefore, I claim according to your word, unless God's word is a lie. and I throw it away. If I throw it away, then I don't even know whether Christ died for my 32:08 sins because the same book tells me Christ died for my sins. I never see saw Christ died for my sins. I believe it because it's written in the book. But the same book tells me that the Lord is my body. How can I be selective? Ah, 32:21 this is right, that is wrong. No, I take the whole thing and the whole thing works. Lord, number one, you are for my body. Number two, my body is a member of you, Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven and earth. And number three, my body is the 32:35 temple of the Holy Spirit. Lord, take care of your temple. We must be bold in our faith. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you don't ask in faith. You ask wondering whether your father in 32:52 heaven is a person who delights to see you suffer, delights to see you tortured by the devil. By the way, there are some people whom the father will allow the devil to torture. And those are those who have not forgiven others. I don't have time to 33:12 show it to you. Matthew 18, Jesus said there was a man who was forgiven 10,000 talents, maybe a 100 million rupees and some other brother of his owed him 100 rupees. The throat and say, "Pay back your 100 rupees." And the king heard it 33:26 and said, "Come back here. I forgave you 100 million rupees and you couldn't forgive that guy 100 rupees. Come back here. You got to pay back the whole amount. Do you know there's such a thing in the Christian life as being 33:36 unforgiven? Forgiven. We know. We confess our sins. He's faithful to forgive us our sins. All 100 million sins are blotted out. Then we go out and don't forgive somebody else for what he did. God calls us back and say all those 100 million 33:55 sins which I blotted out are put back into your account and now I'm going to hand you over to the torturers. That's the word in Matthew 18 towards the end of that verse. Torturers and they're going to torture you. They're going to 34:07 make you sick. They're going to give you arthritis and migraine and every imaginable thing because you will not forgive that person. A loving father. Like I told you the other day, if your children go astray, pray that they'll have a car accident 34:21 and break their bones. God is a loving father. I'm a loving father, too. I tell you, God is my witness that if my children go and serve the devil, I'll pray that God will break their bones in a car accident or something. See, we're not radical. We 34:36 play the fool. We think, "Oh, physical health is more important than spiritual sickness." It's not. Sin is a million times worse than AIDS. I would rather get AIDS than live defeated by anger. How many of you will say that? Many of you have a problem 34:51 with anger. Will you stand before God today and say, Lord, I would rather get AIDS than live defeated by my anger. Believe me, you'll get victory over your anger pretty soon. You say, "Oh, brother, this is my father had it, my 35:06 grandfather had it, but you don't have to have it." They were not serious about their sin. The fundamental problem with many many believers is they're not serious with their sin. They like these concepts of a burning bush and all that. But do you 35:21 know what a burning bush does? It gets rid of every bug and bacteria in the whole thing. Okay? In the Old Testament tabernacle, we read that the fire was on the tabernacle the whole time. 35:38 That was the mark of God's presence. That tabernacle is a picture of my body. I want the glory of God upon me all the time. You have to have a passion for it. The Lord says you will seek me and find me. When you search for me with all your 35:53 heart, when you take little sin seriously, you hurt somebody, you'll immediately go and confess it to your wife. I'm sorry. That sentence I spoke to you 5 seconds ago. Five seconds ago. Not five days ago. That sentence I spoke 36:12 to you five seconds ago. I'm sorry, darling. It was a little hard. Please forgive me. I'm sorry. You do that and I'll tell you, you'll get victory like that. Do you know how Jesus got victory? He He was tempted like us. He was made like 36:30 us. Now I'll show you the secret. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews in chapter 5, we read that Jesus was tempted like us. In chapter 4:1 15, 36:51 tempted like us in all points. Hebrews 4:15. Yet never sinning once. Earlier on, we're told in chapter 217 that he was made like us in everything. I believe the Bible when it says made 37:08 like his brothers in all things. Some people say not all things. Well, I'll tell you this. If the Bible does not mean all, all then I would say when the Bible says he's forgiven all my sin, I don't know whether all means all. 37:22 Maybe he's forgiven only 50% of my sins. But the good news is all means all. When he says he's forgiven all my sins, it means all my sins. When it says God makes all things work together for my good, I believe all. And when it says he 37:36 was made in all things like his brothers, Hebrews 2:17, it means the same all. And when it says in Hebrews 4:15 that he was tempted in all things as we are, I believe all. Again, all means the same thing in every verse in 37:48 the Bible. Why do we pick and choose? All means all my sins are forgiven. But all does not mean he was made like me in all things. All does not mean that he was tempted like me in all things. Brother, you are arrogant to try and 38:01 question God about his word. If you don't believe it's his word, throw it away. But if you believe it's his word, keep on proclaiming his belief. And some of you like the King James version, go and read there. It's the same thing. 38:16 But how did he get it? Now listen, this is how he got it. Here's the secret. Just a few verses down, chapter 5, verse 7. in the days of his flesh. Now, some people don't read carefully. They think that means the last day of 38:32 his flesh in Gethsemane. No, in the days of his flesh means all 33 and a half years. In the days of his flesh, he prayed. And supplication means specific request, not 38:49 just a general prayer, specific, you know, pointed prayer. and specific prayer. How did he pray with loud crying and tears to the only one to the only one who was able to save him 39:09 from death? And he was heard. He was heard. That means he was saved from death. Was Jesus saved from death? Many people have struggled with that verse and twisted it and added it and 39:27 they add saying he prayed that he'd be saved from death prematurely that he would not die in Gethsemane. It's all rubbish. Don't add to scripture. When it says he's saved from death, he prayed that he'd be saved from death. And when 39:40 it says he was hurt, he was hurt. He was saved from death. But the thing is because we love our bodies so much, whenever you read about death, you only think of physical death. But a spiritual man when he reads about death, he immediately thinks of 39:54 spiritual death first. So when you read that verse and you think of physical death first, it's because we are human. We walk like other men. You talk to a human being in the world about death, he can only think of physical death. You 40:07 talk to a really spiritual man about death, he thinks about spiritual death first. He's not afraid of physical death, but he's really afraid of spiritual death. The worldly person is afraid of physical death. And I believe for myself anyway, I say 40:23 this, if I'm more afraid of physical death than spiritual death, I'm a thoroughly worldly person. Even if I dress modestly and don't have television and all that, I'm a thoroughly worldly person. If I am more scared of physical 40:35 death than spiritual death, I want to say that to all of you. All of you sitting here who are more afraid of physical death than spiritual death, brother, let me tell you, you are a thoroughly worldly person. If you're more afraid of your children 40:49 dying physically than dying spiritually, you are a thoroughly worldly person. I tell you when it comes to our children, we are really tested. What are you afraid for your children? That they will die spiritually or die physically. 41:05 We think we are radical Christians. We're not. If you're radical Christians, we'd be more afraid of spiritual death in our children than physical death. with greed. Supposing the doctor said to you, "Your son is all hope is lost. He may 41:18 only have one week to live." That would really make you out, wake you up. You'd fast and pray. But what if you what if your child is going astray into the world, you don't fast and pray, you are a worldly person. Even if you're an 41:31 elder of a church, you are scared of physical death for your children, but not spiritual death. You know, we play the fool with God too much. We think we are so much better than all those other dead Christians in other denominations. We're not. We are. 41:46 If we hate spiritual death more than physical death. So when I read the scripture, he he prayed that he might be saved from death. It immediately comes to me. Of course, he prayed to be saved from spiritual death. The Bible is 41:57 written for spiritual people, not for worldly people. And immediately the thought that comes to a spiritual man is he wanted to be saved from spiritual death. And he was heard right. He never touched spiritual death. Even for one 42:08 second in his whole life he was heard. What is spiritual death? James describes it describes it. When lust conceives it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death. Spiritual death. 42:26 In the day that you disobey me, God told Adam, you will die. Did he die physically? Not till 930 years later. In one sense in the same day because one day is with the Lord is a thousand years. It was true physically too but 42:43 spiritually in that moment he died in that day that very moment. That is the death which Adam got as soon as he ate the fruit that Jesus prayed that he would never go fall into. Why 43:01 should he pray? Because he was here on earth as a man. This is the truth that changed my life. The baptism in the Holy Spirit and the truth that Jesus was tempted exactly like me and never sinned. I can say these two truths changed my whole 43:20 life about 35 years ago. The baptism in the Holy Spirit continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. If you have only one of these truths, you can become a legalist. But if you have both these truths, you'll be a spiritual man. I don't mean if you 43:37 understand it, if you're gripped by it in your heart that my savior was tempted. You know, I remember in my younger days when I was tempted severely and I used to think, Lord Jesus, you were also tempted when you were in 43:50 Nazareth. Exactly like I'm being tempted now and you didn't sin. I want to follow you. I don't want to just sing it in the Sunday morning service. I want to follow you right now. Cuz right now is when I'm being tempted. Tuesday afternoon or 44:06 Wednesday night. Lord, you were tempted like this in Nazareth. What did you do? And I see here he prayed with loud crying and tears. Now I'll tell you something. That's one reason Jesus used to go into the wilderness because there he could pray with loud 44:23 crying and tears and not disturb anybody. But I said, Lord, it's very difficult to find a wilderness in Bangalore. You got to go a long distance nowadays in a country with 1 billion population to find a wilderness. And the 44:33 Lord showed me that you don't have to physically make a sound. You can cry aloud with tears in your heart without any sound coming out of your mouth. That's a great technique. I would encourage you to develop it to cry aloud 44:46 in your heart and mouth is shut. You don't disturb the person sleeping next to you. I've done it many a times when when I'm on my bed at night. crying aloud. My wife doesn't hear it in my heart. The tears may fall on the pillow, but 45:05 what am I crying for? Lord, I want a victory over my anger. I want victory over all lusts. I want freedom from the love of money. I want to be more compassionate. Never prayed. I've never in my life prayed that I'd get a better scooter or 45:25 a better car or a better house or bigger church. No, I don't pray for all these things. Lord, I want to be like Jesus. And one little area I slipped up one day, I was not like Jesus in some thought or word. I go before God and I 45:38 cry out to him. And over a period of time, over a period of time, God sees that I mean business with him. I said, "Lord, I want to be in a good mood 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anybody, anything goes right or wrong, I 45:55 want to believe that God is on the throne. I want to live like that. I want to prove to this world that the word of God is true, that sin will not have dominion over me." And there are areas where I discover later on that something 46:09 two years ago I didn't know it was sin. Now I know it's sin. And God doesn't condemn me because I didn't know it. Now I know it. No, Lord. Now this area also I have to get victory. And so life is an interesting progression. My life is 46:20 exciting. I love that translation of Proverbs 14:14 in the Living Bible. The godly man's life is exciting. It's wonderful to dwell. You know there's a verse in Isaiah 33 which says about dwelling continuously in this the 46:38 constant burning of God. If you are not familiar with that verse, let me show you. uh I think it's Isaiah 33 verse4 this talks about sinners who are sitting in the church. Yeah, there can be sinners sitting in the church. Those are 46:54 the people who don't take sin seriously. They are terrified. You know what I believe? That if I'm a true servant of God standing as God's representative in the pulpit, every sinner who sits in my congregation will be terrified. 47:14 If they are not terrified, I'm not speaking properly. And trembling has seized the hypocrites. That's how it says in the King James version. The hypocrites should tremble. Preaching is to disturb those who are 47:31 comfortable and to comfort those who are disturbed. So I say Lord make my preaching such that it will disturb all those who are comfortable and comfort all those who are disturbed. Pray that you will also preach like that. That the sinners will 47:46 be terrified and the hypocrites will tremble but those who want to live with the consuming fire and who want to live with continual burnings, they'll be happy. Are there some people here who want to 48:05 live continuously in this fire? Everything is burnt out. who want to be righteous and speak with sincerity. Verse 15, who want to reject all unjust gain and won't take any bribes and stop listening with their ears to gossip, 48:22 gossip, gossip. They want to hear it. Shut their eyes from looking at evil. Oh, such a man will dwell on the heights. His bread and water will definitely be given to him. He will see the king in his beauty. And that's he will be a servant of God. 48:41 So dear brothers and sisters, I want to say a little more about the necessity of preserving our home as a burning bush as well. The Bible says in 1 Timothy and chapter 3 this these words one Timothy and chapter 3 speaks about 49:02 the qualifications of an elder and we have tried to follow that very strictly in all of our churches in all these years. A man who is a one of the qualifications is verse four. He must be one who manages his own family well 49:21 keeping his children under control with all dignity. Why? Because if a man cannot take care of three four children in his own home, how can he take care of a 100 people in a church? That's the meaning. So from that verse we learn that the foundation for 49:38 your church ministry is your home. And that's why the devil targets individuals. He targets their homes so that he can destroy their church. Watch over your home. Bring up your children in the fear of God. Teach them to honor their parents, to 50:00 obey their parents when they're at home. teach them to speak respectfully to older people. Very, very important. I'm sorry to say some parents do not teach their children to speak respectfully to older people. I remember seeing one such 50:19 boy in this church years ago. The way he was despising his father and the way small boy and the way he talked to his father. And I called the father and I said, "You be careful. That boy will grow up to be a pain in your neck if you don't control him." 50:38 I'm sorry to say. Sure enough, he became a pain in the neck, but he wouldn't listen to them. I've often told people, "Brother, I cannot stop you from backsliding. But if I'm your elder, I will sense that something is going wrong, and I'll warn 50:54 you at least 3 months before you fall away." Whether you listen to me or not, that's up to you. Even God Almighty can't force anybody to listen to him. He doesn't. I won't. But he warns us. I've gone up to people and said, "Hey, I 51:09 feel something's wrong with you. I don't know what it is. God doesn't reveal anybody's sin to me, but I sense when I see. I can look in a person's eyes and say something wrong. I don't know what it is. I don't want to know his sin. I'm 51:23 not a priest or something to for people to confess their sins to me. But you sense something is wrong. You parents, you must be very sensitive. When you see something wrong in your children, you must pull them up and say, 51:38 "Hey, be befriend them. Put your arm around them and say, "Are you struggling with something? Can I help you? Love them. Love them. God loves sinners. He loved us." But that arm around that child will encourage that child to confide in 51:58 you because he wants to be free from sin. I'm sorry to say so many parents in India are so distant from their children. I want to ask you fathers, when was the last time you put your arm around your child? You mothers, when was 52:12 the last time you put your arm around your child? We correct them, rebuke them, encourage them. They're struggling. Don't you remember the struggles you had as a teenager? Love them. Bring them under control with all dignity. 52:30 Then God will give you a ministry in the church. Your home must be like a burning bush. The devil will first seek to attack a person. If he can't attack him, he'll attack his home. Because his ultimate purpose is to destroy his 52:42 ministry. But a lot of people, we find in many countries today, the man's fallen into sin. But he doesn't give up his ministry because his ministry is based on his gift, not his character. So he says, "Okay, 6 months I'll just 52:59 stay awake and then start again on his ministry." And he falls again. And there are some people a little better than that. They won't um if they fall away themselves, they'll stop their ministry. But when their children are 53:13 weward, they say, "Oh, it doesn't matter. I've got a gift." Brother, you can't serve God with your gift. You'll build Babylon. You got to have a character in your life. If you can't control your children at home, what in the world are you going to 53:31 do building a church? You'll never build a church. You'll build a church just like the home you build. Very, very important. When Noah went into the ark, all his children were with him in the ark and their wives were with him, too. He made 53:45 sure that his children married godly wives. He didn't allow his children to marry any old woman. They wouldn't have got into the ark. Then he wanted his children. What about Lot? Lord allowed his daughters to marry whom 54:03 they like. You know this business of we give our children freedom brother then don't be a servant of God. Go and live go and be a worldly businessman or something or even give your children freedom. God gave you a responsibility 54:15 to guide your children. Advise your children. Don't follow this modern trend. You know what happened to Levi? He heard that his children are committing adultery and he calls them and says, "Dear boys, you know that's not a good thing." 54:34 Huh? You think anybody will listen to a father who talks like that? Dear boys, you know that committing adultery with these women in the temple is not a good thing. God said, "You honored your children more than me. Nobody from your 54:47 tribe will ever be a servant of God again." Scary. On the other hand, when God blesses a man, he says, "My spirit," he told Isaiah, "My spirit will be on your children and your grandchildren." You know, there's a prophecy like that. 55:03 Isaiah had a wife who was a prophetess. God told him even what to name his children. And when they had children, God said to him, "My spirit will be upon your children and your grandchildren." I tell you, it's worth it being righteous. 55:18 It's worth it being a burning bush. It's worth it disciplining ourselves in gluttony and sex and all that. It's worth it humbling ourselves. It's worth it caring for the poor because God will bless your children. God will bless your 55:32 grandchildren. They you can't bless them with money. A lot of people with money will get a lot of money to their children and just ruin them. I'm not saying you shouldn't give money. The Bible says fathers must lay up for their children and it's good for 55:46 fathers to lay up for their children. And a book of Proverbs says, "A good man late gives an inheritance even to his grandchildren." That's fine. But don't do that if you don't lead them to godliness. I plead with you young married couples. 56:03 Please give an inheritance to your children of godliness. Teach them to reverence God. Teach them to respect you as parents. teach them to respect older brothers and sisters in the church and to respect even I mean God's taught me even to respect younger 56:19 people and to speak respectfully to beggars and poor people never to despise anybody. Don't let your children make fun of people laughing and despising them. Be very very careful in these areas. Let's build godly homes that like a 56:38 burning bush. One last verse. Genesis chapter 18. Abraham was a man about whom we read even a heathen king once came to him in 56:56 Genesis 20 and said, "We have seen that God is with you." But turn to Genesis 18 and see what God says. Genesis 18. Why did God choose Abraham? Do you know the answer? You say it was to raise the nation of 57:16 Israel. That was reason number two. Let me tell you reason number one. Genesis 18:19. I have chosen Abraham, says the Lord, so that he may command his children and his family after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing 57:35 righteousness and justice. because only then will I be able to bring upon Abraham all that I've promised him. There are wonderful things God has promised you and me. But he'll be able to bring that about when you command 57:48 your children. Not when you give suggestions. Oh darling, don't do that. Please come home in time. Oh sons, don't play the fool like that. No. Command them. I'm your father and as long as you live in this house, I'm going to tell you what you're going to 58:06 do. Abraham did that. And we see the result of it years later when he's carrying the uh when Isaac is carrying the wood and they place it on the altar. God says, "Abraham is 125 years old weak man. Isaac is a strong muscular 25 year old 58:26 man." Abraham says, "Son, lie down on that. I'm going to kill you." Which 25year-old boy, young man will listen to his father when he says, "Lie down on that. I'm going to kill you right now." Isaac says, "Okay, dad, kill me." Boy, 58:42 Abraham deserves to be called a man of God. He brought up his children properly. Don't think God just selected somebody and allowed him to live as he liked and blessed him. He doesn't do that. I have chosen him so that he can command 58:58 his children to keep the way of the Lord. so that I can bring upon them all that he promised. Is it possible, my brother, sister, that you have missed so much God has for you, so much of the fire and the anointing God would have 59:10 put in your life because you were so gentle with your children. Allow them to do all types of wrong things. Love them, encourage them, but be firm when they play the fool with sin or when they're disobedient. Let's pray. 59:30 Heavenly Father, we've all bundled up so much in our life. We've made mistakes, done stupid things. We've not studied your word carefully. We are so careless when it comes to your word. Forgive us. Help us, Lord, in the days to come 59:45 to take your word more seriously that your name can be glorified through our lives and our homes. Help us have mercy upon us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
