0:00 five. He in one sentence at the end of this letter he describes 0:17 the subject of this letter what he's been talking about in the whole letter and it's very interesting to see how he describes it in 1 Peter 5:12 through Sylvanas 0:39 our faithful brother, for so I regard him. I have written to you briefly, exalting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. 0:59 Now, it's interesting that even in Peter's time, which must have been He probably wrote this about 30 years after the day of Pentecost. Very much within the first generation of Christianity, there was a need for him 1:22 to speak about the true grace of God. So within 30 years of Christianity beginning, there was already false grace in the world. So you can imagine 1:41 how much more it is 2,000 years later. Otherwise, he would have just said, "This is the grace of God." Why does he preface it with true? This is the true grace of God. It's like saying 1:59 this is a real $100 bill, which means there are counterfeits. And so he says, I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this what I have written in this letter 2:19 is the true grace of God. Now when we realize what John says in John 1:17 that the law was given by Moses and grace and truth were realized 2:38 through Jesus Christ. There was no grace and truth in the sense that it is meant here until Christ came. There was no such thing as grace. God's grace 2:58 was not available to any human being until the day of Pentecost when the spirit of grace was poured out upon people. So the first person we looked at that during the conference the first person who lived under the grace of God from 3:16 birth to death was Jesus Christ. And truth here refers to what David said in Psalm 51. Turn with me there. Psalm 51. 3:34 You know David wrote this after he had sinned with Bath Sheba. and he confesses his sin. And he says in Psalm 51:6, "Behold, Lord, you desire truth 3:54 in the innermost being." That's the truth that's spoken of in John 11:17. What does truth in the innermost being mean? in very simple terms that my inner life is exactly 4:13 like my outer life. That is my that means my outer life is clean. I'm not a hypocrite. The opposite of truth is lying. And a lying life is a hypocritical life. A life where you pretend to be one thing 4:31 before others and you're quite another person in private or in your thoughts. Quite different. If you give people an impression of being very holy or kind or loving etc. 4:49 and you're not like that inside then you don't have truth in the innermost being. And David realized he didn't have it. He looked like a very godly king on the outside, but inwardly he was defeated by lust and so many other things. 5:03 And he longed, he knew that God wanted truth in the innermost being, but it was just not possible in his time. It was possible for nobody till the day of Pentecost. Zechariah is the Old Testament prophecy 5:20 in the Zechariah chapter 12. There's a prophecy here in Zechariah 12 and verse 10. I'll pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem 5:38 the spirit of grace. This is the first place in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of grace. The spirit that communicates grace. And it was a prophecy of what would 5:58 happen in Jerusalem a few centuries later on the day of Pentecost. So there we see grace and truth. The true verses I showed you, Psalm 51 and Zechariah 12. And this grace and truth was possible only after 6:17 Christ came. That means we now have the possibility of having truth in the innermost being. The possibility of letting anybody enter our thoughts 6:35 if they could. And they would see it's just as clean. as the impression I've given on the outside. I could invite anybody to come and live with me in my home. Come by surprise if you like. And you'll 6:55 see I live at home exactly the same way as I preach and as an impression I give to others in public. That is a person who has got truth in the innermost being. And a person who does not have truth in the innermost being 7:13 is really one who seeking the honor of men. Because it's because we seek the honor of men that we try to present a good image of ourselves before them. If he was seeking the honor of God, we would want to be real inside as well. 7:31 And we can't have truth in the innermost being without grace. Goes together. And the spirit of grace, the spirit of grace is also called, Jesus called him the spirit of truth in John 16. So the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of 7:48 grace and the spirit of truth. And this grace and truth came only after Christ came to the earth. I want to tell you that most Christians do not know this meaning of truth. I don't know whether you ever heard of 8:06 truth in this way and it's because people do not love this truth that they are deceived. There's so much of deception in the world today. False Christianity abounds 8:25 in every single denomination from Roman Catholic to Pentecostal, everything in between. And uh a lot of people are being deceived. There's only one way to escape deception. First of all, you got to know God's word 8:49 and particularly the New Testament. And like I've often said, to know Jesus himself, to know what he's really like. And you can't know what he's really like if you don't read the Gospels clearly, carefully. And you won't know what the Holy 9:07 Spirit's operation is like unless you read the New Testament epistles. If you want to know Jesus, read the Gospels. If you want to know what the Holy Spirit is like, read the epistles. Read the Acts of the Apostles. If you read that and read carefully, you 9:27 will know the operations of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because God's word is the truth. You know Jesus said in his prayer in John 17, father sanctify them means make them holy through your truth. Your word is truth. John 17. 9:44 And the other aspect of truth is being honest with ourselves. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians and chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is speaking about the last days. 10:03 First of all, we are told, you know, there are so many areas in our life where we've grown up in certain churches that have brainwashed us with certain doctrines. You may not think you're brainwashed, but every Christian I have 10:18 met has been brainwashed with certain Christian truths. I work among a lot of Hindus. They're not brainwashed because they know don't know anything of the Bible. They never heard read about the Bible. They don't know anything 10:31 about the Bible. Even some of the educated Hindus don't know anything about the Bible. So when they come to Christ, they come with an open mind. It's like and with them I can work like building a building on an empty plot of ground. But when nominal 10:47 Christians are converted and come to our church, they come to it's like trying to build a building where there's an existing old structure which is completely contrary to the architect's plan and you know how much easier it is 11:01 to build on an empty plot of ground than to build demolish an old structure and uh build a new one. So all Christians got an old structure they think they don't but they do and many of them don't want to demolish 11:20 it. They just want to remodel it to make it fit in with the new covenant. You know how Jesus said, "Take a little patch of new d new cloth and patch it to the old garment and it'll tear." Or to use the illustration I'm using, well, 11:36 let's leave this old structure and let's just remodel a few rooms and try and make it fit in with the new covenant. It doesn't work. You got to tear down the whole thing. And so I found it much easier for to bring a Hindu to Christ or to bring a 11:53 Hindu to the baptism in the Holy Spirit than Christians because Christians have got so many mental blocks about that and they even when you they pray for it they're not too sure whether God will answer them and so many things it's more 12:08 difficult for them to come to faith some of these simple things. So here is one of those areas. Most Christians have been taught that the coming of Christ is in two stages. Um Christ will come secretly and take up his church and then there'll 12:27 be a seven-year period of tribulation and then he'll come with the church to the earth. I want to tell you there's not a single verse in the entire Bible that teaches that. So how do how in the world do 95% of Christians believe it? 12:42 because Christians believe a lot of things which are not in the Bible. Okay, here's one verse that clearly teaches what I'm saying. Now, we request you, brethren, 2 Thessalonians 2, regarding the coming of our Lord Jesus 12:58 Christ and our gathering together to him. That's what's called the rapture. We are taken up to be with him. That's going to happen. When is it going to happen? Don't be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a 13:14 spirit or a message or a sermon or a letter that somebody said this is from Paul or this is what the Bible teaches to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you for that day will not come 13:31 unless the first the great falling away from Christians comes first that's happening right now by the way falling away from the true grace of God and the man of lawlessness that's the antichrist is revealed the son of destruction so it 13:46 says here that the lord will not come until the antichrist is revealed I don't know how much pler can be than that. The antichrist is the one who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and he takes a seat in the temple of 14:03 God displaying himself as being God. Verse four, don't you remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things. Even though they were new Christians, when Paul was in Thessalonica, he had already talked 14:13 them about the second coming or the coming of the Antichrist and about Christians going through the tribulation and then the Lord coming after that. And you know what restrains the revelation of the antichrist? That's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's a 14:28 restraining force on the antichrist. Many people say and the and uh so that in his time he may be revealed. Now what the folks say who believe that Christ will come secretly is that Christ will come, the Holy Spirit will go and 14:44 then the antichrist is revealed. No, the Holy Spirit is restraining the appearance of the Antichrist for a period and then that he'll remove the restraining force. He's still here because believers are still here. For the mystery of lawless is at work. Only 14:58 he who restrains will do so until he's taken out of the way. That means he removes the roadblock. It doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit goes away from the earth, but he'll remove the roadblock for the Antichrist to appear. Right now, 15:10 the Antichrist is being restrained. See, there's a tremendous restraining force of God in this world. A lot of people don't realize it. If there were no restraining force of God on this earth, every human being would be 15:22 demonpossessed. Everyone without exception except true Christians. Nominal Christians would demonp possessed. People of every religion would be demonp possessed. I mean, the demons are just waiting to get into human beings. 15:39 You remember once when a man had 2,000 demons in him and Jesus cast it out. His name was Legion. The demon's names. And the demon said, "Oh, don't send us to the pit, please, before the time." They want a body. You know, Jesus said how 15:53 these a demon that's cast out of a man wanders about looking for somebody else to get into. Uh he said that once and in Matthew's gospel and he said that then he comes back and finds this fellow has cleansed up his heart. 16:08 But he's not filled it with the Holy Spirit. He just cleaned up his heart and left it empty. And the demons said, "This is great." And they go and bring seven other demons and occupy it. You see, demons are very eager to occupy 16:19 human beings. They don't like to be floating around the earth. They always like to occupy a person's heart so they can satisfy their lust. Demons have got a lot of lusts which they can't satisfy unless they have a man or a woman. For 16:33 example, uh demons like to accuse others. The devil's called the accuser of the brethren. But you can't they can't accuse unless they get somebody's tongue in somebody's mouth. They got to get into somebody and then they can accuse 16:45 accuse accuse accuse accuse accuse. The demons delight in that. Just like you delight in chocolate and ice cream. The demons love to accuse or um in the Noah's time it says the demons had a great lust to have sex with pretty women but they couldn't do it 17:01 because they don't have any sexual organs and they they don't have sexual faculties. So they possess a man and then they can go after a woman and satisfy their lust. So demons satisfy their lusts through occupying people. 17:14 That's why they always want to possess somebody for satisfying. For example, Satan is a very angry person and he likes to occupy people because then only he can give vent to his anger. Many things like that that Jesus said 17:28 the devil's the father of lies but he can't tell a lie unless he gets somebody's tongue. So they want to occupy people and do all that. So if God did not restrain these demons, they'd be just occupying every all the millions of 17:45 people on the earth. There are more demons than there are people on the earth. There's seven billion people on the earth. There are more seven more than seven billion demons. They would occupy all the people on the earth. But 17:57 God restrains them. And that's why there are very very few people who are demonpossessed. And usually people get demonp possessed when they sin sin sin any particular area they keep on sinning and sinning and sinning. You know whenever I think 18:11 of a person sinning whether any type of sin and they keep on going going going there's a red line in front of them and God's merciful merciful merciful merciful merciful one day they cross the line and then they're open to demons. 18:26 That's what usually happens. So and that's why a lot of God is very merciful. A lot of people, a lot of Christians keep on sinning and God nothing happens. They're all in danger though. But there's a restraining force that God restrains these demons from 18:43 possessing everybody on the earth. So you have atheist, non-Christians, nobody's possessed by a demon except a few people when they expose themselves to a lot of idol worship or sinful habits or occult and things like that. 18:55 Then they open themselves up to demons there. So there's a restraining force and here it speaks of the Holy Spirit as a restraining force and a time comes when the restraining force will be taken out of the way and then the antichrist 19:08 comes full with full power and then when that restraining force is taken away that lawless one will be revealed the antichrist verse 8 whom the Lord when he comes from heaven would slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end 19:25 by the appearance of his coming and that's the coming spoken of in verse one are gathering together with him. When he comes, as soon as he comes, we'll be gathered together with him and the antichrist will be slain. And that's at 19:36 the end of the period of tribulation. And this one, the antichrist who's coming is fully in accord with the activity of Satan with power, signs, and false wonders. There is Holy Spirit's power. There are genuine 19:53 uh manifestations of the Holy Spirit and genuine miracles. But at the same time, it says here there are false signs and false wonders. And the devil, as we approach the end, the devil's going to prepare the world 20:10 with a lot of false signs and wonders. Even among through Christian preachers, you remember Jesus said many Christian preachers will come to him in the last day and say, "Lord, Lord, we cast out demons in your name. We did mira many 20:27 miracles in your name. And we preached in your name. Matthew 7 verse 21-23. And Jesus said, I will say to those many, many preachers, yes, you did it all in my name. I know, but you can get away from me. I'll have nothing more to 20:43 do with you because I never knew you. Christianity is a knowledge of the Lord. The Lord must be able to say, I know you. See the word know is a word in the scriptures which always speaks of the physical relationship 21:02 between a husband and a wife. Adam knew his wife. It's a and when the Lord says I know you, it speaks of an intimate spiritual relationship between Jesus and me in my spirit. Christ is the bridegroom of the church 21:24 and it speaks of that intimate relationship. If a person doesn't have that intimate personal relationship in his spirit with Jesus Christ, then even if he does miracles and preaches and casts out demons, the Lord will finally 21:38 say to him, "Yeah, you did all that in my name, but I never knew you." A lot of people, you know, we use our human logic and say, "Well, how can somebody cast out a demon in the name of Jesus?" I'll tell you why. Because the demons are 21:51 afraid of the name of Jesus. That's why. It's not because necessarily the person himself is a very holy person. Because you remember once when the Pharisees said about Jesus, you're casting out demons. Matthew chapter 12 22:07 with the prince of demons. Jesus said, if I'm casting out demons, the prince of demons, through whom are yours children casting out demons? They were doing it, too. How was that? So uh we we need to understand this that 22:23 the reason why the Lord tells all those preachers that all your miracles and all your wonderful preaching and all has got no value before me because you never had that intimate relationship with you. I never had that intimate relationship 22:35 with you. Depart from me you who commit sin, you workers of iniquity. So in that one single sentence we see how committing sin um is so serious that all the miracles you do and all the preaching you do all the Christian work you do can never make 22:54 up for living in sin. Impossible. All that all those wonderful works you do for God. Sorry they don't count because you lived in sin. Now think of the reverse of that. Think of somebody who never did a miracle, never preached 23:11 a sermon, never healed a sick person like probably many of you, but you lived a holy life. You sought to live a life free from sin. And you stand before the Lord. You say, "Lord, I never did any miracle. I never healed any sick person. I never 23:31 preached any sermons, but I really sought to please you by seeking to live a holy life before you. Do you think the Lord will say, "Depart from me, you who never did miracles and you who never did preach sermons and you who never healed 23:43 the sick." Impossible. If only we could understand that, we will see what is the what is going to matter in the final day. So all these false signs and wonders, the what's happening today in Christendom is preparing the way for the 23:57 antichrist. Now, you may think that's an extreme statement, but wait till the antichrist arises and you'll see what I said is the absolute truth. And when he comes with all this deception of wickedness, verse 10, for those who perish, and this 24:15 is the phrase which I wanted you to understand. It's one of what I call one of the scariest verses in the Bible. They did not receive verse 10, last part, the love of the truth so as to be saved. And whenever it 24:35 speaks in the Bible about being saved is being saved from sin. They did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved for from sin. Therefore, God himself will send upon them a deceiving influence so that they might believe 24:53 what is false. Verse 11 here is the scariest verse in the Bible. And I'll tell you why. The Bible says in Revelation 12:10, "The devil is a deceiver." The Bible says in Ephesians 4:22, "Our lusts deceive us." 25:12 The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, "Our heart is deceitful." So look at the number of things that we have against us. a deceitful heart, deceitful lusts in the flesh, and a deceitful devil. Three things trying to deceive us. Our 25:32 only hope is if God gives us light on all these deceptions, then we won't be deceived. But if on top of all this, verse 11, God also deceives us, we're doomed. 25:48 We're finished. Now, the best deception is where you don't know that you're deceived. I mean, if somebody gives you a piece of paper and says, "Here's a $100 bill," you're not deceived. Deception is where that $100 bill is 26:06 made to look exactly like a $100 bill. Even if you hold up to the light, those are the master counterfeits. You can't make out. And there are millions of such counterfeit bills going around the world today. That is deception. 26:24 So if something is obviously non-Christian, you're not going to be deceived. Deception is where something is so close to the truth that because you don't know the scriptures, you like I often say, if you 26:41 have a Bible and you can read and you don't read it, you deserve to be deceived. If you have a New Testament, if it's only a New Testament, you don't only have the whole Bible. You have a New 26:57 Testament and you know how to read and you don't read through it. You deserve to be deceived without a doubt. God's word is the truth that protects you from deception. But here's another thing. It says here the people whom God 27:16 will deceive. God doesn't deceive everybody. It says here God himself sends a deluding influence. And listen to this scary word that people will believe what is false. Does God make people believe what is 27:36 false? According to this verse, yes. If you believe it's the word of God. What does that mean? It means he will make some people think they are born again when they're not born again. He'll make some people sit in a church 27:53 thinking they're on their way to heaven when they're on their way to hell. He'll make a lot of people think they are filled with the Holy Spirit when they're not filled with the Holy Spirit at all. It's scary. God allows certain people to believe 28:10 what is false. And I read that verse and I say, "Lord, how in the world can I be saved from this? Do I have to be a Bible scholar? No. It takes years to study the Bible. What about new believers? New believers can also avoid deception. 28:27 Maybe you're converted last week and you haven't had time yet to read through the whole Bible. You got to wait 25 years before you be protected from deception. No. Here's what every new believer needs to do and every believer needs to do. It 28:42 says here, God will send a deluding influence on verse 10, those who don't receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. There are two expressions there. Loving the truth so as to be saved from sin. 29:00 What does it mean to love the truth? To love the truth means in a particular situation if the Holy Spirit tells me you were wrong, admit it. You have a conflict at home 29:23 and you you know that you were at least partially wrong. Maybe your partner was also wrong, but you know you were wrong too, but you don't want to admit it. That's what I mean by not loving the truth. You maybe highlight just the place where 29:44 he or she was wrong. Okay, that's right. But you don't love the truth that you were also wrong and you don't want to admit it. I want to tell you, you're a perfect candidate for deception because you don't love the truth. 30:02 Or another aspect of truth is God's word is truth. I read something in scripture which is so plain that even a child can understand. But that's not what I've always believed. And I don't want to give up my 30:18 20year-old belief even though I see it staring in my face. that is not what the Bible says and you try to beat around the bush and try to make it twist it and you know you have a mold which is your particular doctrine and you want to pour the Bible 30:36 into that mold those are the people who are going to be deceived see when I come to scripture I have no mold the Bible is my mold and I want to pour my mind into that but most Christians I have met I'll tell you this that's why it says very 30:49 difficult to work among those who have had a Christian background because they have already got a theological mold which they have formed from their background and every verse they get they pour into it it comes out that shape 31:02 it's very difficult very very difficult I myself for years and years and years I could never be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire because I had a mold which I got from the brethren assemblies that I got everything when I was 31:16 converted I believed it so I felt a tremendous lack of power but that my theology said, "I've got it all. There's nothing more to seek God for." Till I got fed up. I said, "What am I going on with this? I I need God." And I said, "Lord, I don't 31:32 have what the apostles had. I need it." And when I began to love the truth, God could lead me further. But I want to ask you all to see whether you have a mold that you have got from your past religious Christian religious background. 31:52 Every verse of scripture has to be come out in that shape. And if it doesn't fit that doctrine, you force it to fit that doctrine. That's the shest way to be deceived because you don't love the truth. I had to change my views on many, 32:05 many things. For many years of my Christian life, I believed that Christ would come in two stages and I'd be secretly raptured, then there'd be a tribulation, and then Christ would come again. That's what I was taught. But as 32:17 I read the scriptures, and I even, by the way, I even taught that to others and after you've taught something to others is very difficult to backtrack and say hey fellas I was wrong very difficult because you love your honor so 32:31 much but thankfully that was very early in my life about 1963 I was just converted four years and I was only mouththing you know when you're four years old as a Christian you only teach other people what you've learned you you you don't study the I 32:49 haven't studied the Bible much myself. But as I studied the scriptures, within by the time one or two years after that, I completely changed my view because I said, "Hey, the Bible teaches something completely different." 33:00 And so for the past 50 years, I've had another view. But I'm thankful that I changed my view. I said, "Lord, I never in my life want to be deceived. I don't care if I'm not a great preacher. I don't care if I don't have 33:14 the gift of healing. I don't care if I can't do miracles. I don't care if I can't cast out demons. I want to live a holy life and I don't want to be deceived cuz I have only one life. I don't want to stand at the judgment seat 33:25 of Christ and discover I was thoroughly deceived even 10%. I don't want to be deceived 1%. In any area I'm sure you don't want to be deceived in many areas in your life. I mean do you want to go and buy something in the 33:43 market which is a fake or a counterfeit? Are you happy with something which looks like the real thing but is not the real thing? No. In the world, we don't want that. We pay more to get the genuine article. We must love the truth like that. Then 34:02 God will never allow us to be deceived. That's the first thing to love the truth that I see in God's word and to love the truth about myself. There's situations where God says that was downright selfish on your part to speak like that 34:17 or to act like that and immediately if you love the truth this will be your reaction. Yes, Lord, you're right. I was absolutely selfish in the way I acted right now and the way I spoke and I want to set it right. I want to go to 34:34 that person and apologize say I'm sorry. I it's very selfish on my part to do that or say that please forgive me. You know if we can teach our children these values from childhood boy they can grow up to be saints and a 34:50 blessing in the church and a blessing to the world. It's the most important thing there only two things I used to punish my children for. One was if they disrespected parents which includes disobedience or rude speaking and the 35:05 second was telling lies. That's it. Other things were not important for me. I don't care what marks you get in school. I don't care if you broke something expensive. Do things. Don't tell lies. Don't be honest, truthful, 35:20 and learn to respect not only parents but older people. Learn to respect older people. And I'm very happy because I believe that these are the two things we should teach our children. So loving the truth is so important. If you see something 35:34 was wrong, admit it. and acknowledge. And if you see in a certain area you acted in pride or you had a thought that is proud or you had an attitude towards somebody that was bitter, admit it. Don't say that I've got every reason to 35:54 be bitter because he did like that to me. Oh, forget it. You're on a dangerous path if you go that way. Admit it, Lord, I was bitter. I'll tell you something. Nobody in the world has sinned against you as much as you sinned against Jesus 36:12 Christ. Nobody in the world can sin against you as much as you have sinned against Christ. I'm convinced of that. That's why it's easy for me to forgive anybody. Because I compare the evil that person did to me with the evil that I've done 36:31 against God and it's less than 1%. Whenever people focus on oh that evil that person did to me, you know that guy has got absolutely no understanding of sin in his own life. 36:49 He thinks that he did just a little bit. He committed a little bit of sin against God and that person's done so much evil against him. That's exactly what the devil wants you to think. The devil wants you to think, "Oh, you did some something minor 37:05 towards God." You think it was something minor for when Jesus died on the cross? You're going to be crazy. And I tell you, most Christians are crazy. If you understood the gravity, the seriousness 37:23 of your sins, how many they were, how you were doomed to hell, and how Christ took it all upon himself, forgave you freely. I'll tell you this. I can tell you this from my own experience. 37:41 The greatest evil that other people can do to you continuously for 50 years will be this small. Like a drop in an ocean. Not in a drop in a bucket. A drop in an ocean. It's only a person who's seen 38:00 the evil he's done against God in that light that has really understood what sin is. And for such a person, it'll be very very easy to forgive anybody immediately because he loves the truth about himself 38:19 and thus he's protected from deception. I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters, I've I practiced this for many many years and this is the I believe this is the way God's protected me from all the deception going on in 38:32 Christendom today. And the wonderful thing is when you're protected from deception yourself, you can help others to see, hey, this is the real mark of a genuine $100 bill. This is the real gospel. You'll be able to lead others to see the truth and to 38:49 identify it. God will send a deluding influence on all those who don't love the truth. Who don't love the truth about their own selfishness or their own pride. who don't love the truth that they see in God's word because it goes against 39:05 everything they've heard for everything they've believed for 20, 30 years. Be open. Keep your mind open. There's more truth that God wants to show you than you already know. And some things you already know are probably in error. 39:19 God wants to show you the truth. The second thing in verse 11 is so as to be saved. Two expressions. Loving the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:10. so as to be saved. The second thing that I must have is a passionate desire to be saved from all 39:38 sin in my life. When it says in the Bible in the New Testament to be saved, it's never talking about being saved from sickness, never talking about being saved from being without a job or without a house or from poverty. It's only talking about 39:57 being saved from sin. So I must have a passionate desire to be saved from sin if I want to be if I want to escape deception. That's all. You don't need to know the Bible. It's good to know the Bible, but 40:17 you'll know the Bible better and better if you have these two qualities. So supposing you're born again today. It'll take you probably 15, 20 years to know the scriptures. Until then, how will you escape yourself from deception? Even 40:30 after you know the scriptures, how will you keep yourself from deception? Love the truth about yourself. Love the truth that you see in God's word when it contradicts what you think is right and have a passionate desire to be saved 40:47 from the sin you see within yourself. It may take you years to be free from anger or from lusting after women. Okay, fine. But have a passionate desire to be saved. You know, like if the doctor says you got a cancer, but I can treat you, but 41:03 it's going to be a long process of chemotherapy. It may take you 10 years to be free from it, but I guarantee you'll be freed. Would you go through that course? Even though it's so painful. Chemotherapy is a very painful 41:15 type of treatment to be free from cancer. And I've seen people who go through it who lose all their hair and eyebrows and everything else. They don't care how they look. They want to be free from cancer. Boy, what an example 41:30 for people who who are serious about being free from sin. They know it's not going to happen overnight, but they determined to submit to the doctor who takes them through all types of painful injections and everything else, but they 41:44 know one day they'll be free. And at the end of those treatment, they're free. They're healthy. They live another 40 years on earth instead of dying before that time. I wish Christians had such a passion to be free from sin. 41:59 I want to have that because I know that I will never be deceived then. Yeah. You know there's another verse along this line in John chapter 8 similar words. John chapter 8 42:15 and verse 32 Jesus said verse 31 the last part if you abide in my word that means if you make your permanent dwelling place in my word you know the difference between living in a house which is you've just rented you may move out of it after a year 42:34 because you don't find it convenient you rent another house you may move out of that house after another year there's a difference between that in where you bought a house and you know you're going to live there forever. That's your 42:45 permanent address. So abide is like that. Make your permanent mailing address in my word. You'll always be found there. That means everything written in it that's your permanent address. Then you are truly disciples of mine. That's a true 43:04 disciple whose permanent address is in God's word. And then you will know the truth. And the truth will make you free. That's how I know that I know the truth. It makes me free. 43:23 Free from what? Not from poverty. Paul struggled with lack of money many times. Free from sin. And he makes it clear there because they said, "What do you mean free? We're not slaves to anybody." Verse 33. What do you mean by 43:37 you shall be free? And he said, I'm talking verse 34 about being free from sin. The only type of freedom Jesus spoke about was being free from sin. The slavery he spoke about was slavery to sin. And so here we see if you know the 43:54 truth, you will become free from sin. And that's how I know I know the truth. If I'm still enslaved to a sin, I have to say I know a little bit of the truth, but I haven't really got the full truth. Because if I got the full truth, I'd be 44:09 free from sin. I'd be free from anger. I'd be free from lusting. I'd be free from anxiety. I'd be free from fear. I'd be free from all the things the Bible says, complaining, grumbling, murmuring. I'd be free from it if I know the truth. 44:22 And in the measure in which I know the truth, and that measure, I'll be free from sin. So, it's a very helpful guideline so that I don't deceive myself because all of us know how much we're free from sin or enslaved by sin. 44:37 So it's in this context that we need to look at one Peter where Peter had to say this is the true grace of God. 1 Peter 5:12 stand firm in it. So I want to encourage you 44:55 to read one Peter slowly, carefully take some time. It's only three and a half pages. Three and a half pages is not a long letter but like I always encourage people 45:13 nowadays read it slowly and read it carefully stop you know I'll tell you there are times when in my Bible reading I read one verse and it's like a stoplight in front of me I can't move 45:32 I know the Lord's trying to say something to me through that verse and okay that means I have to stick in that verse maybe think about it today next morning I open the Bible I'm still in the same verse and the stop light red 45:50 light is still there and the Lord's not letting me go I got to learn something more from that verse now what happens is if I don't read three four chapters a day I'm not going to be able to read through the whole Bible Now that's okay if you have never read 46:07 through the Bible. It's good to read three four chapters a day so that you read through the whole Bible. I did that the day when I was converted. I said Lord I want to first read through the whole Bible top speed and in six months 46:19 I read through the whole Bible so that I knew overall what was in the Bible. Then I went into it in detail. So once you've read through the whole Bible once, you probably need to read I think there are 1,129 chapters in the Bible. So you'll need to 46:35 read about four chapters a day on an average to finish it in a year. And I did that. I did it in more than that. I did in about six months, maybe seven, eight chapters a day. But then you need to go into it little by little and read it slowly and let the 46:54 word sink into you. So read one Peter like that and you'll see some amazing things of what is the true grace of God. Let me just give you a little glimpse of that. For example, it says in verse 1 and two, one Peter 1, 47:13 keep this in mind at the back of your mind all the time. This is the true grace of God. This is the true grace of God. This is the true grace of God. Let that ring in your mind as you read every verse in one Peter. Because Peter 47:24 himself says, "That's the subject of my letter. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it." Keep that last verse of one Peter in your mind all the time as you read it. This is the 47:37 true grace of God. Stand firm. First of all, he speaks about election. Now I don't know whether you know but if you've been in Christian circles long enough you know this is one of the biggest areas of controversy in christendom. It's what they call 47:52 Armenianism versus Calvinism. Election is the people the Calvinists say once saved always saved. And the Armenians say I know you can be lost. It's all based on election. And the people say the Calvinists say you're elected. God just elected you. You had 48:09 nothing to do with it. That whole teaching is destroyed by the very first verse of one Peter. He says you were elected according to the four knowledge of God. That means God knew millions of years 48:28 ago that a certain particular time you would respond to the call of Christ. God wants all men to be saved. We read that in 1 Timothy 2. God wants everybody to come to repentance. We read that in second Peter Peter 3. But even though he 48:45 wants everybody to come to repentance, he wants all men to be saved. All men are not saved. All men are don't come to repentance because he's given everybody a free will. He doesn't force anybody because he doesn't want any robots in 48:59 heaven. God's a father. He wants children. He's not excited to have robots. He doesn't want just people who will obey automatically. I mean, you as a father know that. Would you like a small little 49:15 robot about 2 and 1/2 ft high opening the door when you come back from work and saying, "Hello, daddy. I'm so happy you have come home. Uh, can I bring your slippers for you?" You don't get excited over a robot coming and saying all that. 49:28 You know, it means nothing. It's been programmed. You can program it to say whatever it likes. I love you very much. and the robot hugs you and kisses you. You'd rather have a three-year-old naughty child come and hug you like 49:38 that. That means a million times more to you. God is a father. Just because you don't want robot, you don't like robots. God doesn't like robots either. Who are, you know, like the planets, God's told the planets to go in a certain orbit, 49:50 they just keep going. Do you know the planets have never disobeyed God in thousands of years, but they can't become children of God and they can't become sinners. And if God had programmed us like robots, we'd never be sinners. But we never be children of God 50:04 either. And if God forced you or just said, "Well, whether you like it or not, you're going to be a Christian. I've just elected you and my grace is just going to conquer you and force you to be a Christian." I'm sorry, I don't agree with that 50:22 because it says here elected according to the fornowledge of God the Father. And one of the best ways I picture for knowledge is like this. Supposing you were seeing a home video, something that somebody shot about some vacation they 50:35 had and you're there in it too and you see all those pictures and uh or maybe you're not in it. It's a home video of somebody else and you're sitting watching it. If anybody does any good there in that video, you didn't make him do the good. 50:52 You know that you're only watching it. And if somebody did something bad there, you're not making that person do anything bad. You're watching it. You understand that? Now, God can see a video of what's going to happen a 51:06 million years later, he doesn't influence it. Somebody does something bad, he just observes it. Somebody does something good, he observes it. He doesn't force him to do it. Just like you have, you're only watching a video, but you watch a video 51:21 of what's already happened. God can watch a video of what's happening in the future. That's the meaning of fornowledge. That's why it says in Ephesians 1:4 uh he chose us before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world means 51:38 before Genesis 1 vers1 he knew you by name because of his fornowledge that as one particular time in history you would respond to his call to repent and receive Christ as your savior. That's going back to eternity. That's 51:53 why I often shock people by saying, "Do you know who was there in eternity past? God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit and zakunan in his mind and you too if you have faith in it. If you have faith in Ephesians 1:4, it 52:11 applies to you as well. My faith is based on Ephesians 1:4 that before the foundation of the world, he knew me and he chose me in Christ." Ephesians 1:4 is very clear. Chosen before the foundation of the world. That's what gives me security in 52:29 my life. I'm not sort of a social security number floating around this world. No, I'm a very important person in God's eyes because he chose me before the worlds were created. But he didn't just take my name out of a hat. He chose 52:43 me according to fornowledge. He knew that I would respond. Of course, he want he helps me to respond, but he wants to help everybody to respond. I mean, it's like you have two children who you want to help. Say maybe they're 52:58 playing with some building blocks and trying to build a house or something and uh one of them says, "No, Dad. I don't want your help. I'm going to do it on my own." And the other one says, "Help me. I can't help." And he finishes his job 53:12 and does a great job of building that house. The other one is still struggling with the blocks because he asked for your help. He helped you. God, we want we want God to help us to repent and we repent. We want God to help us to believe. We believe. 53:27 But it's pride that prevents people from asking for that help and then God doesn't force his way on them. Elect according to the fornowledge of God. This is the true grace of God. remember this all your life because I've heard so 53:40 many people defending Calvinism on the internet and everywhere. And I've noticed one thing about them. They never come to one Peter 1 verse 1 and two. That's the difficult verse they leave out. In other words, they are deceiving 53:54 people. Why don't they come to this verse and explain it? You take all the other verses and I say scripture has been written in such a way listen to me that if you don't love the truth, God himself will allow you to be deceived. And that's exactly what 54:11 happens to these people. They know there's another verse which is completely contradicting what I'm saying. I better better I leave it out because all the congregation doesn't know all these verses. I'll just put into their mind 25 verses and convince 54:25 them about my theology. I see it happening with pastors and all that. You got to be extremely careful. People ask me, "Do you believe in the sovereignty of God or the free will of man?" I say, "I believe in both." To me, 54:38 it's like the right hand and the left hand. It's like asking, "Which one do you want?" I don't have a choice. I want both. I believe 100% in the sovereignty of God, and I believe 100% in the free will of man. And people say, "How can 54:51 you believe in both?" I say, "They're like parallel lines in my mind. But you know the mathematical definition of parallel lines, you know the layman says parallel lines are lines that never meet. But if you go to a mathematician 55:07 and ask him what is the definition of parallel lines, he'll tell you parallel lines are lines that meet at infinity. That's the correct definition, mathematical definition of parallel lines. So the free will of man and the 55:21 sovereignty of God do meet in the infinite mind of God. My mind can't grasp it. That's all there is to it. But they do meet in the infinite mind of God. And one day when I meet God face to face and I'll know the truth more fully, 55:34 I'll understand it how it works out. But today I have to honestly acknowledge. They don't seem to meet in my mind. So I accept both and I don't want to, you know, put God into a pigeon hole and say you got to stay there. 55:51 A lot of people have these doctrinal pigeon holes where they try to put God in. They tried to lock the son of God into a doctrinal. The Pharisees had a doctrinal box in which they tried to put Jesus in. He wouldn't fit there. That's 56:02 why they killed him. And today this today is the third person on the train. The Holy Spirit is on the earth and they try to put him in a doctrinal box and he doesn't fit in. He does surprising things which surprises the charismatics and surprises 56:15 the anticarismatics. So I say, "What are you?" I say, "I'm neither charismatic nor anticismatic. I'm a Christian." Period. That's it. So there are many things here in one Peter like that. I want to show you another another one. I don't have 56:31 time to go through the whole look at this in second one Peter chapter 2 like newborn babes. He's talking about newly born again people. He speaks in verse 23 about being 1 Peter 1:23 about 56:47 being born again. And then in chapter 2 verse two, once you're born again, you're like a newborn babe. You must have a great longing for the pure milk of the word of God. In the beginning, you drink the milk of the word of God. 57:01 Later on, you go into the other parts of the word of God which are like solid meat. Both are there in God's word. So that have you ever heard this expression to grow in respect to salvation? Most Christians know only one salvation. 57:17 I'm saved. What is this growing in respect to salvation? Because salvation has got like grammar three tenses. We study in English. Past tense, present tense, future tense. Salvation has got past, present, future. 57:35 Past is I'm saved from the penalty of sin because I received Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection. That's dealt with my entire past. Every single one of the millions of sins I committed have been dealt with on the cross. Pen 57:51 from the penalty of sin. That's past tense. Present tense, I am being saved daily from the power of sin. I'm being saved today. I need to be saved tomorrow. I need to be saved till Jesus comes. And finally, future tense, 58:09 I will be saved from the presence of sin. So you remember that the penalty, the power and the presence of sin. I'm am saved. I'm being saved and I will be saved. So this is what it means when it says growing in respect to salvation. 58:25 Salvation is not a static thing that happened once. Onethird of it happened once. There's another one-third that's happening right now. And there's another oneird that will happen only when Christ comes again. When I'll completely be 58:37 saved from the very presence of temptation and sin. That's another thing. This is the true grace of God, by the way, growing in respect to salvation. And here's another verse I'd like to show you. Chapter 2 and verse 21. 58:52 Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example to follow in his steps who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Think of this expression. Follow in Christ's steps who 59:08 committed no sin and told no lie. Read it like that. Follow in Christ's steps who committed no sin and told no lie. What a goal. Lord, I want to get there. I want to follow in the steps of 59:26 Jesus who never sinned, never told a lie by word or action or by his life or attitude or anything. I want to get there. And that's what this is the true grace of God. This is the true grace of God. And when he was reviled, verse 23, he 59:43 did not revile in return. When he suffered, he didn't threaten people. No. Okay. The true grace of God. Further chapter 3 just like Christ suffered you wives. Oh the true grace of God enters our home as 1:00:02 well. Wives and husbands wives be submissive to your own husbands even if they are disobedient to the word of God. You know I've heard wives say my wife my husband doesn't even listen to God's word. Uhhuh. Sister I've got a verse for you. 1:00:21 1 Peter 3:1. Be submissive to your husbands even when they are disobedient to God's word. Oh, you can't agree with that. Okay. You don't love the truth. You'll be deceived. That's all. That's the truth. That's up to you now whether you accept 1:00:36 it or not. I don't force anyone. The truth is in the is in the same way means what? What is the previous? He's talking about Christ suffered for us unjustly. Christ suffered for us unjustly. In the same way, wives, if you're suffering 1:00:52 unjustly, be submissive. God can deal with your husband. God can deal with your wife, but be submissive. And your aim must be to win your husband. Verse 3:1. You who think you are so obedient to the word of God, sister, why don't you win 1:01:11 your husband, without a word, that's a beautiful expression, without preaching, by your behavior. Have you ever thought of winning your husband by your behavior? I'll give you one example that happened in our church. 1:01:29 There was a non-Christian lady whose husband I mean another sister from our church met her in a place of work and invited her to the meeting and she accepted Christ and her husband was dead against Christianity and he would not allow her to go to 1:01:47 church. Then she would sometimes sneak and come to the meetings when her husband did not know come to the meeting because she hungered for the word. she'd go back and um then secretly she got baptized. 1:02:03 We baptized her in secret and um I said now when you go back your husband has to see you so submissive. I mean unless he asks you to worship idols and all don't do that but anything which is not contrary to God's word be 1:02:22 submissive. And if he tells you don't go to church one day, don't go. It's okay. God understands. And uh let him see that you're patient. And you know what happened? I think in a few months or sometime her husband saw something and 1:02:41 he discovered that she had some contact with our church CFC and he said to her, "Okay, I'll allow you to go to one church. That's brother Zach's church, Zach Pun's church. You can go there. And he would come and drop her 1:02:58 at our meeting hall at 9:30 in the morning and come back at 11:30 to pick her up. And this happened for a while. And he saw such a change in her that when they they didn't have any children, they adopted a child. He said to her, "I want 1:03:14 this to be dedicated in the church." and he came with his wife and I dedicated the child in the church and since then there's such a change in him that he started coming to church even when his wife is out of town. It is a classic example of this verse 1:03:34 being fulfilled. She never preached to him but Jesus he saw what true Christianity had done in his wife. We need many examples like that. There's more than one example I know of like 1:03:49 that as they observe your pure respectful behavior. What is the type of behavior mentioned in verse one that'll win them? A behavior that is pure and respectful. 1:04:08 I'll tell you something. I noticed I've lived 55 years as a Christian. I have traveled in many many lands and I've seen you know just like moral decline we all see moral decline everywhere there's a decline in respectfulness as 1:04:27 well we have a complete lack of respect now for God and even young people hardly ever now respect older people in the Old Testament God taught the Israelites 1:04:44 that you must the one way you fear me. You read this in Leviticus 19. One way you show your fear for me is by standing up when a older man comes in. That's all gone. Now we have young fellows just slapping older people on 1:05:00 the back and say hi. They have no zero fear of God, zero respect for God because they have zero respect for older people. It's really amazing. They talk to older people as if they're buddies. It's just one example of how as a 1:05:19 decline and I find that Christians have sort of caught up in that, they're not governed by the Holy Spirit in God's word, respectful behavior. And it goes on to say, don't let your atonement be external but in inward. And 1:05:37 then it speaks to husbands. Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. Verse seven, live with your wives in an understanding way. What do you have to understand? Number one says there, you must understand 1:05:54 she's a weaker vessel. You know how you treat delicate objects that are easily broken? If you have china in your house, you don't just throw it around. There are things that are easily broken. You treat them with care. This is the 1:06:13 true grace of God because she is a fellow heir of the grace of life. That means she's an equal with you. Maybe um I I've sometimes asked sisters in our church, do you want to be a queen in your house? They say, well, of course I want to be 1:06:32 the queen in my house. I say, well, make your husband the king. You will automatically be the queen. That's the meaning of joint heir. You're sitting on the throne. He's the king and you're the queen. But you treat your husband like a servant. You're 1:06:47 going to be a slave too. Then joint heir. That's expression here. Joint heir of the grace of life. It's a double throne where the husband and wife sit together. You need to recognize that she's got a place with you there 1:07:02 on the throne with you. This is the true grace of God. One more verse. Chapter 4 verse one. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh and that means he denied himself. We've already seen that in a previous study. He denied himself. 1:07:19 That's the meaning of suffering in the flesh. If you arm yourself with the same mind and you suffer in the flesh, you'll stop sinning. Who would be interested in understanding this verse? Only the person who's interested in stopping 1:07:30 sinning. The one who wants to give up his cancer, get rid of his cancer, that person will want to know how to get it. How can I cease from sin? Oh, by suffering in the flesh like Jesus denied himself, I deny myself. Then I can spend 1:07:44 the rest of my life. Verse two, doing the will of God and not living for my own lust. What a wonderful way to live. In other words, I'll live a spiritually healthy life without any of that cancer, without any of that AIDS, spiritual 1:07:55 sicknesses. I'll be healthy. And it says, listen fellas, just think of it. Don't you think, verse three, you've spent enough time living in sin? Is there anybody who feels, "No, I haven't lived in sin enough. I want to live some more years in sin." He says, 1:08:12 "You've spent sufficient time already in the past living in sin. At least the rest of your life live for God's will." How can we have this true grace of God? Finally, 1 Peter 5:5, 1:08:28 God gives his grace to the humble. Humble yourself, acknowledge your need. Don't rebel against what you heard this evening. Husbands, wives, 1:08:46 did you did you sense a little rebellion in your heart against what you heard today? deal with that. If a doctor shows you a scan of your inner condition and he gave you a free scan, you didn't have any pay any money for it. 1:09:06 It's no use getting angry with the doctor and it's no use tearing up the scan report. That doesn't heal you. You might as well face it and say, "Well, how can I get rid of this?" So when we read God's word, it's like giving it gives us a scan of our inner 1:09:25 condition. There's no use getting upset with the doctor. No use no use tearing up the scan report. Say, "How can I be saved from this?" And there is a way. Humble yourself. Say, "Lord, please cleanse me. I see my own need and I ask you to forgive me. 1:09:45 Cleanse me in the blood of Jesus and fill me with the Holy Spirit. and give me the strength to live in the true grace of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to be gripped by these truths 1:10:08 so that they will produce a permanent change in us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
