0:01 Exactly like the Pharisees. And we become like the God we worship. Whenever I see a very legalistically minded person who's always particular about rules and the letter of scripture, I know that's the type of God he 0:20 worships. His God is a legalistic, strict judge who makes life miserable for him. And that's why he looks miserable most of the time. And he makes other people miserable too. But that's not the way we're supposed to be. So we got to clear the 0:38 wrong ideas you have people have about God. And Jesus manifested God not only by what he spoke. It was his whole way of life. He spoke only for he preached about God only for three and a half years. But he lived for 33 and a half years. 0:58 And he didn't say if you have heard me you know the father. We try to explain God by words. Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the father. Hearing was a great word in the old 1:17 covenant. In the new covenant it is seeing. In the old covenant, it was come and hear what the prophet of God has to tell us. The new message from God that has come. But when the disciples asked Jesus, where do you live? He said, come and 1:34 see. So when we look at the earthly life of Jesus, you see what God is like. And when you see how almighty God planned the body of Jesus to first of all to be born in a stable in a cow shed 1:54 in a little trough of manger the thing from which cows eat I don't know if in the history of the world there's any baby that was born in a cow shed I mean even poor families I've seen in India extremely poor they'll have some little place for a 2:12 baby to be born. And Jesus took the lowest place of all to be born. And that was how he began his life. And when he ended his life, it was also in such a shameful 2:29 way as a criminal crucified between two terrible criminals. So it was ignominous in the start and the end that which man would despise. I mean man 2:46 would despise a baby born in a cow shed. I mean if you were born in a cow shed you wouldn't want anybody to know about it. And if you were finally condemned as a criminal, everybody thought you're a criminal when you died. You wouldn't want people to 3:03 know that either. But that's how Jesus began and ended his life. And in between most of the time he was called prince of devils and all types of names and it never disturbed him. So one of the things I learned from the 3:21 life of Jesus is that he never bothered about the opinions of men. So what if I was born in a stable? So what if people thought I was the prince of devils? So what if I was crucified in the midst of criminals and everybody thought I was 3:40 another criminal? That is the body of Christ. I want to ask you, are you a member of this body? You are. If you can say, I also am just as free 3:57 from the opinions of men as Jesus was. It doesn't matter one bit to me what people think about me, whether they despise me, whether they look down upon me, if there's something which in the eyes of the earth, the shameful, 4:14 what a lot of effort we put in to try and create a good impression. There was zero of that in Jesus. In the first body of Christ, there was zero desire to make a good impression on people. It's one of the very important things we 4:33 must remember if you want to be effective members of the body of Christ. It's one of the things that leaves us very slowly. We can get rid of dirty thoughts. Okay, with some effort and anger perhaps 4:51 we can forgive people. We can clear our debts. So many of these things we can do. But to be free from the opinions of people, some of some people don't even think that's a sin. They don't even realize that the desire 5:09 to impress others is one of those terrible sins that is found among God's people. And Jesus demonstrated by his life from birth to death that the opinion of men was fit for the trash can. But he cared a lot 5:31 about his father's opinion. He always sought to please his father. You know one instance where the disciples came to Jesus and said to him Matthew 15 when the Pharisees 5:54 criticized him for not washing his hands his disciples for not washing their hands when they eat you know they were concerned there the old testament law if you look read Leviticus there was a great emphasis on hygiene you must be 6:10 hygienic. There's a lot of emphasis on that in the book of Leviticus because they were living out in the wilderness. They didn't they could have died with infection and there were laws which are good. Hygiene is good. But the Pharisees 6:24 made so much of it that you know they were very particular about washing hands right from the elbows down before they ate anything. And when Matthew 15, the disciples didn't do that. They probably saw Jesus never bothering 6:43 too much about it. Not that he was unhygienic, but not as a ritual. And these he they asked him, "Why are you disciples transgressing?" Verse two, the tradition of the elders. They don't wash their hands when they eat bread. 6:58 He answered and said, "I mean, there are a lot of commandments you don't obey, like honor your father and mother because instead of helping your aged parents, verse five, you say, I've given my money for God's work and he doesn't care for his aged parents 7:18 and thus you cancel the word of God by your wretched traditions." You know that teaches us that it's one of the things I keep telling people. If you have needs in your family, don't give money to God. Take care of your family's needs. There's no other 7:37 preacher who will ever say that cuz they say you got to give to God. But the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5'8, if a man doesn't care for his own family, he's worse than an unbeliever. And Jesus said that here. Don't say I gave to God 7:53 uh what you should have given to take care of your aged parents. So many things I find in Christendom today are so completely opposite to what Jesus taught. And one of the main reasons, 8:11 one of the main reasons is because human beings are lovers of money. If you want to be completely ignorant of the scriptures, just love money. Every understanding you have of scripture will be wrong. Even though you think you got it right. 8:30 I've seen that through the years because Jesus said, "There are only two masters, God and money. And who will commit to your trust the true riches if you're unfaithful with these false riches called mammon. 8:49 So I've discovered through the years that one of the important requirements to understand scripture is to be faithful with money. Now nobody thinks of that connection. People think you got to study scriptures and you'll 9:00 understand it. You'll understand it all wrong if you love money. That's why the Pharisees couldn't understand it. It says in Luke 16, they were lovers of money. So they couldn't understand the scriptures. And you don't have to be rich to love money. No. Some 9:15 people think, oh, those who are very rich, they love money. And some of us may can can think, oh, I'm very poor. I don't love money. I've never seen a beggar in India who doesn't love money. And every beggar is much poorer than all 9:28 of us. They all love money. So it's not got to do with poverty or wealth. It's an attitude towards money. And so here you know these these people said why giving my money to God and Jesus said you should have been giving it to your 9:43 parents. That's what he said in verse and he said if you because you don't do that you're cancelling God's word with all your traditions. You're all hypocrites. He says you people who give money to God don't care for your parents. You're hypocrites. 10:01 Why do you hear peace preaching like that today? because their heart is far from me. And they got so offended with this. And he said the important thing is then he said he answered that question. It's not a question of a little bit of dirt going 10:16 inside your stomach. Maybe you ate with unwashed hands. Um I mean in India most of the time people eat with their hands in India. You know you know nobody uses forks and spoons and a lot of times you just eat with unwashed hands. You don't 10:29 get sick. And it says here uh now don't let the children do that. I mean our stomachs are acclimatized to it in India. Okay. Jesus said it's not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man 10:47 but what comes out of the out of the mouth. That's the words. And the Pharisees came to Jesus and said in verse 12 this is the verse I really wanted to point out. Don't you know the Pharisees were offended? The way you spoke to them, told them 11:03 that their traditions were all rubbish. They were disobeying God's word. That even when they gave money to God, they were disobeying God's word. Don't you think they were they were offended? And Jesus said, "Don't worry about them." 11:16 Verse 14, "Leave them alone. Don't bother about them. They are blind and they are leaders of the blind. And if a blind man leads a blind man, they'll both fall into the ditch. He was so completely free 11:34 from what people thought about him. Even what his disciples thought about him. I think of that instance where he took a whip. It says he made a whip. I don't know whether you noticed that he asked his disciples to bring bits of 11:51 string or something like that and he sat down and um he it says in verse John 2:15 he made a scourge of cords um it wasn't ready made 12:08 he got a whole lot of bits and twisted it together and I can imagine him sitting there twisting all this together and the disciples wondering what in the world is he doing making a scourge of cords John 2:15 and once it was all tight he took it and 12:27 chased all the sheep and oxen John 2:15 out of the temple and he went to the table of all the money changers of the different currencies lying there and turned the tables and sent the coins rolling all over the place and he said take these things away and 12:45 Don't make my father's house a place to make money. He'd say the same thing today. Lots of preachers who make God's house a place to make money. And at the end of it, the thing that blessed me is that, 13:03 you know, if you saw somebody doing that today, you'd say, "Boy, that guy really lost his temper." And Jesus never called his disciples and say, "Hey, I want to explain to you." I didn't actually lose my temper. I had a 13:15 clear leading from the father to do this. I know what a lust there is in my flesh when I do something which most people will not understand. To explain to them that I didn't really lose my temper. It was the leading of 13:35 God. This blessed my heart to see how Jesus was so free from it. I was so free from it because you know if you have something very expensive in your house, you can you want to explain that well you didn't spend the money on 13:52 it, somebody gave it you as a gift or something. Why all that explanation? We want to show that we are very wholehearted Christians. We we're so bound by the opinion of people. We break free from the opinion of the world and then we come in the 14:10 midst of Christians and then we have to break free from the opinion of Christians and that's a little more difficult. I'll tell you that it's easy for all of us to be free from the opinion of worldly people but it may not 14:23 be so difficult for you to be free from the opinion of people in this church. You may be very concerned that at least the people in this church have a good opinion about you. You don't care of people out in the world. That's a 14:38 slavery. It doesn't matter which man it is. To please men is the opposite of pleasing God. And you can never please God fully unless you're completely free from wanting to please men. And it's one of those onions, you know, we got to 14:55 keep peeling off the desire to please and impress people. And you see that right through, as I told you, from birth to death, he completely free from the opinions of men. He never explained to his disciples why he called the 15:11 Pharisees a generation of vipers. No, he had explained many parables to the disciples, but he never explained anything where he would justify himself. He had zero desire to justify himself. And that's the body of Christ. And I 15:30 want to be a part of that body, which is the, you know, exactly like Jesus lived in his earthly body. That's what the church is supposed to be. The church means us people. We're supposed to be a group of people who are completely free 15:44 from the opinions of men and the opinions of each other because we want to live before God. You remember in the sermon on the mount he said when you give don't let anybody know what you gave. Keep it as secret as far as possible. 16:04 Let people think you give nothing. That's much better. It's much better if everybody in the church thinks you give absolutely nothing when you may be sacrificing a tremendous lot in your giving. It's before God in the same way. 16:18 It's much better that everybody in the thinks church thinks you don't pray at all and you may be praying a lot in secret but the church must think that you don't pray at all. It's much better that people in the church think you 16:30 don't fast at all but you may be fasting a lot in private. That's what he that was the meaning of what he said in Matthew chapter 6. And he said you don't have to worry about their opinion because it's your father who's going to see everything in secret. 16:45 He will see uh what you're doing in secret. How much you pray, how much you give, how much you fast, and his reward will be open. And when he rewards you openly, everybody will see it. And if they want to know how that thing 17:00 came, there was a life hidden in secret which they know nothing about. I see that, you know, in Jesus life. He never, you know, why do they call those 30 years hidden years? which nobody knows anything about 17:17 because in no message of his did he reveal the sacrifices he made during those years when he was in Nazareth. But the more I've sought to understand the life of Jesus is the Holy Spirit's revealed to me. There's so many hidden 17:37 sacrifices that he made in Nazareth. And the Holy Spirit will show it to you too. He'll show it to you if you're interested in it. If you're interested in the external life of Jesus, because you're an external type of Christian, then you'll 17:52 only see the external life of Jesus. But if you're an inner life type of Christian, the Holy Spirit will show you the inner life of Jesus, the way he lived when he was in Nazareth 30 years. It's not written in the scriptures, but 18:04 the Holy Spirit will show it to you. the the sacrifices he made, the self-denials he made. And as the Holy Spirit shows you, you have an example to follow, but he doesn't show that to everybody because I mean, God doesn't show things to 18:23 people who have no interest in obeying that. He's not revealing things for information. He doesn't teach us things that are good points for us to preach in some sermon. But I'll tell you this. If you're really serious about wanting to walk with God 18:41 in secret, away from the eyes of men, the Holy Spirit will show you some amazing things about the secret self-denials of Jesus in those 30 years which which will be footsteps for you to follow. And like I said, let me repeat. 19:02 Uh the Holy Spirit doesn't show it to people who are not interested in that. I mean, that's why it's so important to be free from wanting to live before the face of men. He never spoke a word about what he did in those 30 years. 19:18 But you can see the father rewarded him openly. When you look at his external ministry and the fantastic ministry he had in those three and a half years, it was based on 30 years of sacrifice in secret. It was that was the basis on 19:35 which he could minister so effectively. And that is new covenant ministry. New covenant ministry, the body of Christ and that's for brothers and sisters and all of us. It's not standing in the pulpit and preaching. That's just one 19:49 part of it. Some people are gifted to do that. But we're ministering all the time. I mean, we're meeting one another. We are meeting people in the world. People come to our homes. We meet them in our place of work. The body of Christ 20:03 is always coming in contact with the world every day. Right from morning till night, we're coming in touch with other people. That's your ministry. The people you come in contact with, first of all, in your own home, your husband and your 20:15 wife. And there is the body of Christ ministering. And um the effectiveness of your ministry there depends on what you have sacrificed in secret. If there's no sacrifice in secret, there will be no 20:34 effective ministry in public. The reason for a lot of our external sins is because there's very little sacrifice in secret and we struggle to overcome some of these sins. is because there are no sacrifice in secret. And that's why some people never get rid 20:51 of their anger. Yeah. Because they're only wanting to get rid of things that ruin their testimony before others. I mean, if you get angry, your testimony is spoiled. Even if it's only between your before your husband or your wife or your 21:05 children or other people, but if you're so concerned about that, you'll never get victory over it. Not in 50 years. You got to be concerned about the other things which other people don't see. And when you're concerned about the areas of 21:18 your life which other people don't see and you don't care for the external, then you'll find the you get the victory over the external as well. Because it's the root that Jesus is dealing with. He came with an axe to the 21:31 root. He's not so concerned about just chopping off the bad fruit. That was the law. He's dealing with the root. That's John the Baptist said the axe is laid to the root of the tree and when it's laid there then the fruit will be 21:48 automatically good. Jesus said that if the tree is good the fruit will be good. If the tree is bad the fruit is bad. And um so the fruit that comes out of our lips and our life is because something is wrong underneath in our 22:02 hidden life. Jesus said about the Pharisees in Luke 16, one characteristic of the Pharisees. Um, you've probably seen that little book of mine called 50 50 marks of Pharisees. And as I was studying the marks of Pharisees, 22:21 I saw this was one of them. It's a very interesting study because very often we think we're not Pharisees. I ask people to go through that book and see whether you're a Pharisee or not. You may be surprised. It says here in Luke chapter 16 22:38 that Jesus said one mark of the Pharisees is here verse 15. You are those who Luke 16:15 who justify yourselves in the sight of men. That means you are people who are always 22:56 wanting to make a good impression before others. Mark of a Pharisee. Always wanting to make a good impression by on on others by by the things you say. And you go back and meditate on how what you said would have impressed some 23:14 of those people whom you wanted to impress with your Bible knowledge perhaps or with your spirituality or how God used you somewhere or whatever it is. You are those who seek to present a good image 23:34 before men and you don't realize that that is verse 15 an abomination in the sight of God. Boy, what a word, an abomination. You know, idol worship was called an abomination in the Old Testament. The 23:53 Lord used to use the prophets to say to Israel, "Get rid of your abominations." And those abominations are idols. The idols of Baal. What are the idols of Christians? Other human beings. See, when I try to impress somebody, 24:13 what I'm actually doing is I'm bowing down before him and say, "Oh my god, I hope you think good of what I just said. I hope you're impressed by what I just did." It's idolatry. If you really go to the root of it, it's idolatry. 24:33 I say something and I want people to be impressed. That person is my idol. Maybe a group of people, maybe a whole lot of idols you have in your church. And you don't realize you're bowing down before them. God is a jealous God. 24:52 He will not give his glory to another. And he said in the Old Testament law, you shall have no other gods but me. You shall not bow down to anyone. This is one of the biggest sins that Christians are guilty of. Jesus was never guilty of it. He 25:12 wouldn't bow down to Satan in the wilderness. He wouldn't bow down to any human being throughout his life. He only lived before the father. He never wanted to explain to his disciples anything that they if they misunderstood they 25:30 misunderstood. He didn't care whether people misunderstood or not. He said if you really love the truth you won't misunderstand. If you want to do God's will you'll know. He never wanted to justify himself before. Whereas the Pharisees were so 25:46 particular. People shouldn't have a wrong impression. If they did something which people could have been have the, you know, people could have thought less of them, they would explain it. It's like, I mean, if a Pharisee today 26:03 were to buy an expensive car, he'd have to explain to people uh why it was necessary and, you know, somebody gave him a gift or something that what for? I mean if you live before God's face why are you bothered about explaining 26:16 anything to anyone? Anytime we find we have to explain something so that people won't misunderstand. You got an idol brother. You got an idol and you're bowing down to that idol 26:34 and that's not a proper testimony for the body of Christ. First body of Christ had no idols. He worshiped only the father. He said in John chapter 8, John's gospel chapter 8 verse 29. 26:59 The father has never left me alone. Now we'd like to have that testimony, right? God never leaves me alone. But he gives a reason here in the middle of that verse. The one who sent me is with me and he has never left me alone 27:16 because because I always do the things that please him. I couldn't care less whether it pleases men or not. That's why he could say, "My father is with me all the time." 27:35 Do you want that? Do you want God to be with you in all the circumstances of your life? You know what a wonderful thing it is to have God with you in all the circumstances of life. It can solve many problems. Many times our problems remain unsolved 27:53 because God's not with us. Or there are situations where we don't know what to do because God's not there. I find in Jesus life there was never a situation where he didn't know what to do. He faced some really complicated 28:07 situations and people came to him with all types of complicated problems but he always had an answer. Never do you find him confused wondering what to do because God was with him. The father was with him. Most Christians they only have a verse 28:25 on the wall which says lo with you always. And they imagine yeah the Lord is with me. Don't be so sure. Jesus said, "The Father is with me because I only want to please him." Now, if you're like that, you can be 28:44 pretty sure God will be with you in every situation. Always means 24/7. Always my only desire is to find out am I pleasing to the father. That was all. And I believe there's some tremendous 29:03 blessings when you're like that because that always see another word place where the word always comes. John 11:42 John 11:42 Jesus said in his prayer, "Father, 29:22 verse 41, last part, I thank you that you've heard me and I know that you hear me always. Wow, I'd like that. I'd really like that. 29:39 The father hears me always because of John 8:29. I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I'm not at all interested like to be like the Pharisees to impress people in any way 29:59 with what I say or what I do or with my knowledge or any such thing. Let people think what they want. Let them think that I'm Billy Bull, the prince of devils. Let them think I'm a deceiver. Let them think I'm not following the law of 30:15 Moses. Never never did he try to explain to them that was a dignity he had because he was so free from people's opinions and the father was always with him. The father was so delighted with that. You 30:31 remember at the baptism of Jesus there was only one certificate that the father gave only one. This is my beloved son with whom I'm totally pleased. How is that? Because 30 years in 30:50 Nazareth, he only wanted to please the father. He had no ambition. That was the body of Christ for 30 years hidden away. Nobody knows. Even today, nobody knows all the details of what went on there. And the Holy Spirit's 31:05 never allowed it to be written because it was a secret life before the father. [Music] But outwardly you could hear the voice saying, "I'm well pleased." I look at his life and I examine it and I'm well pleased. You know, it's something like 31:24 we read in the first chapter of Genesis. You know, the Bible says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And we hear the beginning of that in 31:43 Genesis 1. Words proceeding from the mouth of God. Let there be light. That was the first word. Verse three. And from wherever it was, light came up. There was an obedience, an instantaneous 32:01 obedience. And God gave a certificate. I'm well pleased. That's the meaning of when it says God saw it was good [Music] and u like that with other things when God said let the earth sprout vegetation 32:20 verse 11 and immediately without any delay verse 12 the earth brought forth vegetation God said I'm well pleased then God said let there be lights and the two great lights the sun and the 32:36 moon verse 14 and God said, "Yeah, I'm well pleased." Verse 18, you know how that's how it was every day. He said something and without a moment's delay, there was a response from the earth or from the universe that was already 32:51 there. An immediate response, God was well pleased, well pleased, well pleased, well pleased. Right up to the last day when he he saw everything. Verse 31, and he was very well pleased with everything. And I see that as the earthly life of 33:10 Jesus. Every single day he lived by the word of God. When he said, "Man shall not live by food alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth," he was talking about his own life. He wasn't quoting a verse. It was a verse in the 33:25 Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8, but he had lived that for 30 years every single day. And if you go to that verse in Deuteronomy what Jesus quoted u I don't know how many of you have the habit of 33:44 looking up New Testament quotations in the Old Testament. This is the reason God never gives revelation to many people because they're lazy when they study the Bible. God told Adam, "By the sweat of your brow, you'll earn your bread." And it's 34:02 exactly the same way you get bread from the scriptures. By the sweat of your brow, you know that a lazy man uh will not make much in life. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, the hardworking farmer is the first one to get the 34:20 crops, the yield of the crops. Paul told Timothy, the hardworking farmer, 2 Timothy 2. And so it's the same when you come to scripture, the hardworking person who goes into it, digs into it, spends time on it, believes that this is 34:36 the only book that God's given to man and spends his time trying to understand it because he wants to live in a way pleasing to the father. One thing that you can do is whenever you see a New Testament verse quoted from the Old Testament, go back and uh 34:53 persspire a little in metaphorically speaking and um study what is where did that come. So when you go back to that verse, man shall not live by bread alone, you find it's in Deuteronomy chapter 8. U God was 35:11 teaching you. He says there in verse three, the last part, that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Deuteronomy 8:3. But he compares it, verse three, which you don't get 35:29 when you read the New Testament. That's the blessing of searching it out in the Old Testament. Compares it to the mana that fell every day. He says God gave you mana every day. You know, you couldn't keep one day's mana to the next day. You know that it 35:47 would breed worms. I I can't think of any food that we have today that breeds worms within 24 hours. Mana did. 24 hours. It began to breed worms. Is unusual type of food. Worms got into it in 24 hours. And it says here that 36:07 this was to teach you, let me paraphrase it, that every single day you got to receive God's word freshly. You can't live on yesterday's. If you try to live on yesterday's, it'll be full of worms. There'll be a death in 36:25 it. Even though it's God's word, the letter kills. That's the meaning. Man shall not live. Man is to live by every word that proceeds. It's a present continuous tense in grammar. Not that proceeded out of the mouth the Lord 2,000 years ago, 36:42 but that proceeds continuously. It's like a river constantly flowing. What is it that keeps a river fresh? Why is it a lake is stagnant? Why is it you'd rather drink water out of a river, a flowing river than from a lake? Why are you hesitant to drink 36:59 water from a lake or a pond? But from a river, you're happy to drink because it's flowing. That keeps it fresh. God's word is like that. It's not a stagnant lake. For many people, this book is like a stagnant lake. It's all there. God's 37:13 word is proceeding all the time. We need to read this, but to hear what God is speaking to our hearts in a living way like mana. And that's what Jesus meant. Every day he got a word from God just like in Genesis 1 and 37:31 Jesus did it and he got another word the next day he did it. He lived his whole life like that. Father, I want to do your will. I want to do your will. And it's based on scripture. I mean Jesus memorized. Jesus not memorized but he 37:47 studied the scripture. And you know how difficult it was in those days. He didn't have a Bible at home. How did he know the scriptures? By the age of 12. You'd go to the synagogue. That's the only place where they had the scroll. It 37:59 was very expensive to have an Old Testament in those days, handwritten on parchment. How many people had have a copy of that? They'd have to go to the the Hebrew schools would teach them from the scrolls of the Old Testament. So, he 38:13 would listen carefully and u there was no copy he could take home. He'd had to listen and listen and listen. And in seven years, he absorbed it. And that's what taught me when I was a young Christian that if Jesus could do it by 38:27 listening, if I'm serious about my work, uh, serious about the scriptures, I can also learn the scriptures. But you got to be serious about it. That when God says something, that's the first chapter of Genesis, something happens. 38:44 Then God says something, the next day something happens. God says something, the third day something happens. And the man of falling every day was also teaching the same thing. You got to live by the word that proceeds from God's 38:55 mouth. And every day God's examining well pleased. Good. And the next day, yep, good. And I see that that's how God wants to examine my life every day. This is how Jesus lived. 39:15 These are the things which are not written in so many words in the gospels. But if you sweat a little, allow the Holy Spirit to explain scripture to you, you'll see behind Jesus life, how he lived by the word that proceeds out of 39:34 the mouth of God. And it was this man who Jesus who was filled with the Holy Spirit. Today I see so many people so glibly saying, "Yeah, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit." And a whole lot of other Christians were not even bothered whether they are filled 39:49 with the Holy Spirit or not. For them, it's a doctrinal controvers uh a controversial subject of doctrine. That's exactly where the devil wants you to keep it. Keep it as a controversial subject of doctrine to be argued and 40:02 discussed forever and never experience it in your life. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it or not. My digestive system works even though I may not understand how it works. I don't need to explain it. That's true. uh we 40:18 don't explain how eyesight works or hearing works inside the brain but it works but so often I find Christians are more interested in the theology of what does redemption mean and what does the fullness of the Holy Spirit mean we get 40:33 into all the explanations and the things not real in our life we can understand so much today which the early Christians never understood but we may not have the life that they had. They were so gripped by the truth of God 40:51 when there was no written New Testament. On the day of Pentecost, 3,000 people got baptized without understanding what baptism meant. Romans chapter 6 was written 30 years after the day of Pentecost. We can explain it. They 41:04 couldn't. But they were baptized. And they were so wholehearted when they were baptized that they gave their money in plenty to God. That doesn't happen today. Today we are so calculating and we can explain so many things but we don't have 41:24 the heart they have. Our lives are so shallow compared to them. But we can explain things better. I think a lot of us can explain scripture better than even the apostle Paul. We probably know more of scripture than even Paul because we got the printed and 41:40 we've studied it and we know the chapter, we know the verse, we know everything. Well, you don't have the life because we're not gripped by the body of Christ. How did that first body of Christ live? And I'm called to be a part 41:54 of the body of Christ in this day and age. I need to see how the first body of Christ lived. That's my example. He never said, "Admire me." He said, "Follow me." And yet, the vast majority of Christians that I met in my life 42:08 admire Jesus more than they follow him. They don't care to understand how can I follow him. But boy, do they admire him. Wow, what a life. What a sacrifice. All that. But he never once said, "Admire me." We're not supposed to admire Jesus. 42:26 We're supposed to follow him. Otherwise, our admiration is all empty, hollow, shallow. You know, that's the meaning of breaking a bread. What you call communion or the Lord's table or breaking a bread. When the bread comes to us and we break it 42:43 and take part of it, I'm saying, Lord, I want to go the way you went, the way of death to self. That's the meaning of the breaking of bread. I want to drink the cup and pour out my life in obedience to the father. 42:59 But if I don't mean that, if I only admire the life of Jesus, I tell people, you shouldn't take part in the bread. You must look at it, admire it and say, "Wow, what a lovely bread." Pass it to the next person or look at the cup and 43:15 say, "Wow, what a lovely wine." and pass it to the next person. Don't drink it because you have no desire to follow. You only desire to admire Jesus. Wow, what a life he lived. What a death he died. But that's not what we do in a 43:31 in a ritual that costs us nothing. It costs us nothing to eat the bread and drink the cup. We feel a little holy at the end of it. I took part in the Lord's table. Cost us absolutely nothing. But the 43:49 meaning behind it. Do we mean that? Lord, I'm not going to admire you. I'm going to follow you. That's why I'm taking part in it. I'm not admiring the bread, admiring the cup. I'm taking part in it saying I want to go that way. I want to live that way 44:07 the first body of Christ lived on earth. Dear brothers and sisters, that is what it means to be a new covenant church, a body of Christ. So often we can compare ourselves with a lot of other church and say we're better than them. That doesn't 44:22 mean we're pleasing to God. It's like in a in a class if one student gets 10% in mathematics and he comes home excited to his mom saying, "Mom, I came first in the class. All the others got three and two and one 44:41 and zero, but I got 10 out of 100." And he's pretty proud of it. That's how a lot of Christians are. And a lot of churches, we're better than them and them and them and them. They got only three or five out of 100. I got 10. I'm 44:57 three times better than maybe you are, brother. But you're way below Jesus. The Bible says we are to run the race not looking at all those others who are looking under Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and see how he lived his life 45:13 always seeking to please the father every day. What does the father want me to do? And that's the message to me in Genesis chapter 1 that every day of my life like the mana I can receive God's word and just like the earth and the 45:26 universe responded without any hesitation. It did they didn't have to pray about it or fast and pray nothing. It was immediate. God had spoken. There's no question of thinking about it anymore. And Jesus said this in John chapter 7. 45:45 It's a very important verse. Why did he not explain to people when people misunderstood him? There's a possibility that his disciples would have misunderstood that he lost his temper when he took the whip and chased people out or he may have lost he got 46:02 very upset with the Pharisees when he called them a generation of vipers. He never tried to explain to them, hey, listen, I didn't really lose my temper that they needed to hear that. No such thing because he didn't care even for 46:15 the opinion of Peter, James, or John. That's a wonderful thing when you don't even care for the opinion of those who are closest to you in the church, the most spiritual people in the church, you don't even care for their opinion 46:29 because you want to live before God. That's how Jesus was. In John chapter 7, here's the reason why he never had to explain his actions. Verse 17, he said in verse 16, "My teaching is not mine, but the one who sent me." Verse 46:47 16, "And if anyone is willing to do the father's will, he will know what I'm talking about, whether it is from God or from myself." If a man is determined 47:03 to do God's will, he will know whether I lost my temper or not when I took the whip, whether I was upset with the Pharisees or not when I called them a generation of vipers. But if you don't have a passion to desire to do God's 47:19 will, you'll never understand. [Music] I remember a believer, a good believer once telling me, uh, "Brother Zack, don't you think Jesus was upset when he told the Pharisees, "Oh, you of little faith, how long shall I be with you?" 47:36 I'll tell you something. I don't believe he wanted to do the father's will. That's why he could not understand that was not getting upset. Did he get upset when he told Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. Yeah, only a spiritual man can 47:57 understand the actions and words of a spiritual man. Most believers are carnal. They cannot understand the actions and words of a truly spiritual man. But he said if you deep down in your heart really want to do the will of 48:13 God and that's your only ambition in life. If you can stand before God's face and say, "God, you know my heart. I have only one ambition in life to do your will and to please you. I don't care what other people think. I don't care 48:28 what sacrifice I have to make. I don't care what I lose in the world. I don't care whether I make money or not. Don't make money. I want to do your will. I want to finish the work you you sent me on earth to do. And I want to please you 48:42 completely." If that is your ambition, I guarantee you will understand Jesus perfectly. Otherwise, you will not. That's what he said. And I believe this was in reference to something that happened in the previous chapter. 49:01 You see, John 7:17 comes after chapter 6. In chapter 6, we read he spoke some very difficult words. He said, "Un verse John 6:53, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you got no life in 49:18 yourselves." And he repeated that. Verse 54, "Eat my flesh, drink my blood." Verse 55, "Eat my flesh, drink my blood." Verse 56, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood." Verse 57, "Eat me. Eat this." Verse 58, "Again and again 49:37 and again and again. eat my flesh, eat, drink my blood. And you know, people couldn't understand that. Today, we may understand it because we have the Holy Spirit. But think of those Jewish people who didn't have the Holy Spirit listening to this. 49:55 And they had been taught in the law, you shouldn't even drink the blood of animals, leave alone drink a human being's blood or eat his flesh. And that's why they said in verse 60, hey, this is a difficult statement. Who 50:09 can listen to this type of rubbish? Who can listen to this? When they said difficult, what they meant was this is ridiculous what this man is saying. And the they grumbled. It says in verse 61. 50:25 And Jesus said just one word. The words, verse 63, the words I spoke to you are spirit and life. That's all. No further explanation. And but I know verse 64 some of you 50:43 don't believe. So I'm not bothered about trying to explain to you people because I know that a lot of you guys are not serious about doing the father's will. Why in the world should I explain it to you? I know already. He knew that who are the ones who would 51:01 not believe in him. And as a result of this, many got offended. Verse 66, not unbelievers, not Pharisees, but disciples. They they had come to Jesus and become his disciples. They believed in him. 51:21 The Pharisees withdrawing. We can understand here were disciples withdrawing. It's like a whole lot of people leaving a church because of some strong offensive statement. made by a spiritual leader who couldn't care less for people's opinion but who 51:39 only wanted to please God. That's what happened here. And a whole lot of them went away. Chapter 6:2 begins with a great multitude. There's a great multitude disciple listening to him and by the time you come to the end of the chapter 51:55 there only 11 people left. Jesus spoke in a way that he drove people away who were not serious about obeying God. And I say the only church that is pleasing God, that's following the leading of the Holy Spirit is that is a church where people 52:13 who have no interest in obeying God feel constantly uncomfortable. Constantly uncomfortable because deep down in their heart, they don't want to obey God. They come here to listen to messages and be tickled in their ears. 52:30 And then there were 12 left. Verse 67. And he's doesn't say, "Oh, I hope you fellas won't leave me." He says, "You can go too. You want to go? You can go too." There was a tremendous dignity about Jesus. He lived before the father. 52:45 He knew those who want to do the father's will will understand. They will not get offended. And I've seen that through 37 years of ministry in different churches. Those who really want to do the father's will never get offended. They stay on. The ones who 53:03 fall away are they fall away over something or the other. They make some silly excuse, but deep down in their heart, they prove thereby they don't want to do the will of God. And Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? These are 53:17 the words of eternal life." And I've often thought if somebody one of those people who left came back the next day to Peter and say, "Hey Peter, you stuck around with this guy. What's the meaning of eating his flesh and drinking his blood? Tell me." 53:33 You said it's the words of eternal life. What does it mean? Peter would said, "Hey, I don't have a clue really, but I know this man. He's a man of integrity and I'm going to stick with him. Even if I don't understand what he says, 53:51 I know the man. He's a man of integrity of such as I've never found anywhere else in all my life. And I don't stick with him because I understand everything he says. A lot of things he says is way above my head. But I'm not going to run away just 54:06 because I can't understand it. I've looked all my life for a man of integrity and at last I found him and whatever he says I'm not going to get offended. I know these are the words of eternal life because I see it in his 54:18 life. You know that is the basis on which the body of Christ is built. I've seen through the years. It's not because we gather people who agree with us in doctrine. Do you believe in the fullness of the spirit? Do you believe in 54:32 speaking in tongues? Do you believe in taking up the cross? This is all explanation. Do you understand what it means to eat the flesh and drink the blood? Do you understand the meaning of all these verses? Do you understand what 54:46 justification is, sanctification? It's good to teach all this, but ultimately I've discovered it's by life that the body is built. Not by explanations. It's by life that we are brought together. 55:06 That's what made Jesus Peter stick with Jesus. I know he's a man of integrity. Look what Paul says to Timothy. Paul says to Timothy, similar words, I mean the similar thought. Paul is writing his last letter to 55:25 Timothy and you know this is his last letter second Timothy and he's unbburdening his heart to Timothy and he tells him 55:43 verse 10 2 Timothy 3:10 Timothy 3 verse 10 Timothy you have followed my teaching And not just my teaching, you followed my conduct, 56:00 the way I conducted myself, the way I would speak, the way I handled money, the way I dealt with people, the way I treated my enemies. You've watched my purpose in life. You've seen me. You've seen my faith. This has got 56:14 nothing to do with teaching. Teaching is one word. But you've seen my conduct. You've seen my purpose in life. You've seen my faith. You've seen my patience. You've seen my love. You've seen my perseverance. You've seen how I stood up 56:28 in persecutions and sufferings. What all I endured. And continue verse 14. In these things, not just in the doctrine. Continue in these things that you have learned. And here's the important phrase, 56:47 knowing from whom you learned them. Knowing the type of person who taught you these things, not just the doctrine. Maybe there are things, Timothy, you couldn't understand. It was above your head. 57:07 But you know the type of person who taught you this, me, Paul, a man of integrity, a man who didn't care for the opinions of men, a man who had no interest in the in money, no interest in honor, no interest in the pleasures of the world, 57:25 willing to sacrifice, deny myself and suffer anything. Know from whom you learned them. It's very rare for Christians to think of that phrase. Today, people are more interested in doctrine. Is that correct doctrine? Is this correct doctrine? And 57:41 you see, I got the right doctrine. I'm sticking with this church because it's the got the right doctrine. And then 10 years later, you discover the pastor was living in adultery all the time. It's happening all over or something or the other. or you discover 57:54 the pastor is a controlling tyrant who wants to control your life or something knowing from you whom you have learned them. That's what Peter could say to the people who questioned him. I don't have a clue what Jesus meant when he said, 58:13 "Eat my flesh and drink my blood, my dear friends, but I know from whom I learned it. I watched his life and I know I've never found another man like that. If we attach ourselves to a group of people because we agree in doctrine, 58:32 you're not going to make much progress in your Christian life. Paul sought to draw people to himself by by his life. I'm sure Deeus who left him it says here later on verse 10 chapter 4:10 Deeus has loved this present world and has 58:51 deserted me just like those disciples discip deserted Jesus here was another coworker of Paul's he was a coworker of Paul's you read about him earlier on in Colossians and chapter 4 he says verse 14 59:09 Colossians 4:14 two of my coworkers Luke and Deeus send you their greetings. Deus, my coworker. In Colossians 4:14, five or six years later, Deus has deserted me, 59:27 loving this present world. He forgot the type of man Paul was. And he joined up with some other fellas, some other preachers who probably had the right doctrine, but were more interested in the honor of men and money and things like that. He says, "He's 59:45 deserted me. He's gone." Not only Deeus, it says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 15, 2 Timothy 1:15, you are aware of the fact that all those in Asia have turned away from me, including Fagelus 1:00:05 and Hermogenesis. It wasn't easy to stick around with Paul. I'll tell you that. Just like it wasn't easy to stick around with Jesus because their standards of purity was so high. You couldn't play the fool when you stuck around with Jesus or Paul. 1:00:21 But I say, "Boy, that's the type of person I want to be with all my life." Cuz that man's got eternal life. He's not teaching doctrine. It's a life. So like Paul said, like Peter said to those people, I can't explain the 1:00:38 meaning of that which you're asking me. I'm not such a great scholar, but I know the man. He's a man of integrity. The same way Timothy could have said, a lot of things Paul says which I can't understand. You know Peter also says in 1:00:49 1 Peter 5 uh second Peter 3 rather there are certain things that Paul says which are difficult to explain and understand but Peter and Timothy respected Paul because of the life he had. It's the life. I find very few people who 1:01:07 understand this because there are very few preachers today who can say follow me as I follow Christ. Have you ever heard of a preacher saying that? I I read it in scripture. 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow me as I follow Christ." 1:01:24 And as a young Christian, I went to different churches looking for someone who would say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I never found it. And I was disappointed because I was a new Christian and I thought, "Hey, this 1:01:42 is how it should be. And the Lord said something to me way back then in when I was in my early 20s which really helped me. And the Lord said, "If you find a man, there won't be many of them, but now and then you may find a man who's really following me, 1:02:01 follow him, but the rest of the time just look straight at me and follow me." So you'll always have somebody to follow. And that's the rule I have followed in my life. that where I find a man and if only rarely have I found such a person who's 1:02:19 who can really open up every area of his life and say look at any area of my life you can follow me in finances you can follow me in the way I deal with people follow me in the way I speak not just from the pulpit in ordinary conversation 1:02:34 follow me in you the ambitions you think I have in my life follow me in the way I brought up my family follow me in the way I relate to my wife follow me in every single area of my life. Follow me as I follow Christ. I'm not perfect, but 1:02:46 I'm following Christ. He's at the top of the mountain, but I'm climbing. You can follow me. But if you don't find one like that, then look at the one who's gone ahead, our forerunner, and follow him. But the challenge that comes to us 1:02:59 is that we should be those mini forerunners for other people. That's how it's come to me. Jesus is the great forerunner and as I follow him I must be a mini forerunner for people who are a little lower down the mountain 1:03:15 since I'm not claiming to them I've reached the mountain top like Paul say I've not yet attained but I should be able to say to them hey fellas this is 30,000 ft to the top I've climbed about 5,000 ft and you guys who are at 500 ft 1:03:29 follow me we're going to the top can't you say that if you're a mountain climber it's not boasting you're just telling ing them to follow in your tracks because you've climbed safely up to 5,000 ft. And it's good that they 1:03:43 have an example of somebody the safe track out of that up that slippery mountain slope. That's what it means to follow me as I follow Christ. There's no boasting in it. He's not claiming that he's reached the top, but he's saying 1:03:56 we're going the right direction and you can examine my life. I I've said to people who come to our church in Bangalore, I said, "Dear brothers, if you find anything that we do here which is contrary to something in scripture, 1:04:10 please tell us." But show it to us in scripture. Don't tell us this how they did it there or this how they I couldn't care less how they did it anywhere else. Show it to me in scripture. We'll change it. We should be able to say that about 1:04:22 our church. We should be able to say that about our home. Show me anything in my home which is not according to the word of God. Show me anything in the way I'm bringing up my children which is not according to God's word. I'll change it. 1:04:35 But show it to me in scripture. Show it to me in the New Testament. I'll do it. We should seek to follow Jesus like this. This is the example. This is why the church is called the body of Christ. This is how the first body of Christ 1:04:49 lived. And this is how we're called to live. And I see in his, you know, in his discussions with the Pharisees, he could have overwhelmed them with his knowledge of scripture, but he didn't do it. He was seeking to draw them to life. 1:05:09 And that's why he used simple examples that even a child could understand. Jesus didn't come across as a great theologian who could quote this verse and that verse and the other verse and overwhelm people with his tremendous knowledge of 1:05:22 scripture. He was seeking to draw people to life. How is it with you? Do you seek to overwhelm people with your knowledge of the word or with your explanations or you seeking to draw them to a life that has changed your life that's made your 1:05:42 life live on a wholly different level than most Christians live? And does your life say to others come up higher? There is a higher life than most Christians live at. And it's easy to get there if you want to do the will of God. 1:06:01 Let's pray as we bow our heads before God. Let's examine our lives and see. Peel off another layer layer of that onion of living before the face of men. 1:06:20 Say, "Lord, I want to be an example. I don't want to just I don't want to be just a Bible scholar. I want to be an example in my life that others can be drawn to follow you because they see me. Help me father. 1:06:39 Help us each one. We pray in Jesus name.
