So we're glad all of you have joined
for this meeting.
It's wonderful that God has given us this
technology whereby we can go separated widely around
the world that we can meet together like
this.
And I believe that God has allowed this
technology to come because of the need of
the hour so many people not able to
go to meetings anywhere now have to sit
at home.
And it's wonderful that right in our home,
we can hear God's word every day if
we want to.
So thinking of our subject, the good news
during this time of pandemic, the word gospel
means good news.
And for a child of God, our entire
life is one of experiencing the gospel of
good news.
But to experience it in its fullness, we
must begin where God wants us to begin.
It's just like children when they go to
the kindergarten.
The first thing they're taught is to read,
to read the alphabets, A, B, C, D,
E, that's how we all begin our education
in our mother tongue or in English.
And we need to understand what is the
ABC of the Christian life.
Many people try to go into a higher
class without going through kindergarten.
Now, if you go, if you put a
child into a school and straightaway joins in
the fifth standard or fifth grade or whatever
you call it, a higher class, he won't
be able to understand anything because he hasn't
learned to read.
He hasn't learned the alphabet.
So let me tell you what the alphabet
of the Christian life is, what the Bible
itself says.
If you turn to Proverbs 9, verse 10,
Proverbs 9, verse 10.
Here it says, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.
Or I call it the ABC of wisdom.
In the previous chapter, wisdom is referred to,
Jesus Christ is represented as wisdom.
And that's what we need in our life
more than anything else, more than knowledge.
Wisdom is the knowledge of God, which is
more than academic knowledge or Bible knowledge.
A lot of Christians have Bible knowledge.
But I've met a lot of people with
tremendous amount of Bible knowledge who don't know
God at all, zero.
Bible knowledge is not equal to the knowledge
of God.
You don't have to be educated to know
God, but you have to fear God.
And the word fear here means reverence.
Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom, is the ABC of wisdom.
So the ABC of the Christian life is
reverence for God or the fear of God.
And when we get converted, that's one of
the first things we need to learn.
The tragedy with Christians today is they think
more of the grace of God, more than
the fear of God, more than reverence for
God.
Because Jesus came with the message of grace,
and the gospel is called the gospel of
the grace of God.
That's right.
But the advantage that the early apostles had
was that they never knew about the grace
of God for nearly 30 years of their
life.
They were people of Israel, Jewish people, and
all they knew was the Old Testament, which
did not speak anything about grace.
It was only the fear of God, fear
of God, fear of God.
For 30 years, their parents instilled in them
and instructed them about the fear of God.
And then they heard from Jesus about the
grace of God.
And that makes a world of difference.
That's why their lives were so different when
they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
It was not just the grace of God.
They had a foundation of the fear of
God or reverence for God to begin with.
That's the tragedy of Christians today who, from
childhood, they're not taught the fear of God,
first of all.
They're taught about grace.
In Sunday school, they're taught Jesus died for
your sins.
Grace, grace, grace.
And many Christians know very little about the
fear of God, and that's why they keep
on sinning.
They can even hear a message about the
new covenant, that sin will not have dominion
over you when you're under grace.
But it's only a theory.
It doesn't seem to work.
Husbands and wives still lose their temper at
each other.
They still lust after women.
Some of them even watch pornography.
And they ask Jesus to forgive them.
OK, the Lord forgives them.
But when will they ever overcome sin?
Christ did not come only to forgive our
sins.
Forgiveness of sins, as I often say, is
an Old Testament message.
David said in Psalm 103, bless the Lord
who forgives all my sins.
And so that is not a new message.
The new message in Matthew 121 is Jesus
will save his people from their sins, not
forgive their sins.
But beyond forgiveness, he will save them from
their sins.
So it's good for Christians to ask themselves,
how much has Jesus saved me from my
sin?
Not how much he has forgiven me.
A lot of Christians rejoice that they are
forgiven.
I thank God I'm forgiven.
I'm a sinner saved by grace.
And I'll say that till the day I
die.
I wasn't saved because of my merit or
good works or nothing like that.
I was a miserable failure.
And Jesus saved me.
But he saved me from the pit I
was in.
But he forgave my sins.
And it took me many years to understand
how he could also save me.
So that comes through reverence for God.
When we fear God, we hate to sin.
See, there are two types of fear of
God.
One is, which is your people in the
Old Testament knew, the fear that God will
hurt me.
But in the New Testament, the fear we
have is the fear that I might hurt
God.
You know, just like if you have a
very loving father, you don't want to hurt
him.
And that is the fear of God I
want to have.
The fear that I might hurt God by
my behavior, by the way I speak to
somebody, by the thoughts that I think in
my mind, by violating his laws and his
principles, I don't want to hurt him.
Because he loved me so much that he
sent his son to die for me.
So if we begin with that reverence for
God, and the fear that I might hurt
him, I believe we are on a good
foundation.
And when that is missing, we need to
hear the message of repentance.
If you turn to Revelation, and chapter nine,
Revelation is a book that speaks about the
end times.
And when we think of this Coronavirus that
is spread to every country on the face
of the earth, without exception, in our lifetime,
none of us have seen such a pandemic
as they call it, that's spread to every
single country in the world.
Every country has had to be alert to
this.
There's no disease that has spread like this.
Is God ignorant of it?
Or I don't say God sent it, but
God permits a lot of things.
You know, when Job got sick, it was
the devil who gave him that sickness.
But God permitted it.
And God has permitted this pandemic to go
across the earth.
What is the purpose?
Turn with me to Revelation, chapter nine, Revelation
and chapter nine.
And we read here about verse 18.
Revelation 918 is speaking about a future day.
A third of mankind, you see the world's
population is 7 billion or more.
One third of that will be more than
2 billion.
More than 2 billion people were killed by
three types of plagues.
The Coronavirus is just one plague.
And by the fire and smoke and brimstone
which proceeded out of the mouth, this is
symbolic language.
It's speaking about evil spirits mentioned earlier on
in the previous verses.
And the fire and smoke are symbols of
various types of, I don't know, germs or
whatever you call it, that bring sickness and
disease.
And what happened?
The rest of mankind, verse 20, who were
not killed by these plagues did not repent.
What is the purpose of the plague?
To get people to repent of their sins
and turn to God.
Did they repent?
No, most of them didn't.
What did they not repent of?
They did not repent of the works of
their hands.
The sins they commit, worshiping demons and idols
of gold and silver and brass and stone
and wood, which can neither see nor hear
nor walk.
And again, verse 21, they did not repent
of their murders and their sorceries and their
sexual immorality in thought and action, nor of
their stealing.
Sins.
Turn to chapter 16 of Revelation.
Revelation chapter 16, and we read here in
verse 8.
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on
the sun and it was given men to
scorch men with fire and men were scorched.
Remember, this is all symbolic language.
It's not literal, but it's symbols, the reality
of it we will see.
Men were scorched with fierce heat and they
blasphemed the name of God who has the
power over these plagues, again, plagues, and they
did not repent.
That's the point.
God was waiting.
At least when they get these plagues, they
will repent.
But it says they did not repent.
And again, the fifth angel poured out his
bowl on this kingdom of the beast and
they gnawed their tongues because of pain.
Revelation 16, verse 10.
And they blasphemed the God of heaven because
of their pains and their sores, and they
did not repent.
Notice how all these four times that word
repent comes in relation to what is the
result of the plagues.
Instead of repenting, they just kept on sinning
against God.
We need to see everything that happens like
that.
God's purpose to draw man away from the
pit of hell, sickness.
I know of people personally who turned to
God because they got cancer and died of
the cancer, but they went to heaven and
they had no interest in following the Lord
before they got the cancer.
And when they realized they got this cancer
and they were not healed, they turned to
the Lord.
They began to thank the Lord for that
which enabled them to turn to him.
So it's not through sickness alone that God
wants us to repent.
God wants us to turn from our sin
because it is hurting us.
First of all, it's dishonoring to God, but
it's destroying us.
Like children who pick up bad habits, babies
who put mud into their mouths, and children
who do dangerous things which hurt them.
God wants to keep us from things that
will hurt our spirit and ruin us and
finally send us to hell.
And he wants to stop us in every
way possible from falling over the pit into
hell.
And that's why he even allows sickness and
plagues.
It's a loving God who wants to prevent
us from falling into the pit of hell,
from destroying ourselves.
But he will not force us.
He wants us to make our own choice.
And if we make our own choice and
turn, then the blessing of God is upon
our lives.
So the message of repentance is not just
for the world that does not repent.
In the book of Revelation, the first time
the message of repentance comes is not for
the world.
It's to the church that the Lord says,
repent in Revelation.
So the good news in the time of
pandemic is that we can turn to God.
That's the meaning of repentance.
We can turn to God and come closer
to him through all that he allows in
the world and that we see around us.
Shortage of food, loss of a job, everything
designed to make us turn to God.
Because if we seek God first and his
righteousness, he has promised that all the things
we need of food, clothing, and shelter will
be provided for us.
That is very clearly taught in Matthew chapter
six, verse 31 to 34.
It says, don't be anxious because if you
seek God's kingdom first, that means the kingdom
of God, by the way, is described, the
kingdom of God is not missionary work or
heaven or all that.
The kingdom of God is here on this
earth and it's Revelation 14, sorry, Romans 14,
17 tells us very clearly the kingdom of
God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the
Holy Spirit.
Righteousness is freedom from sin, peace with God
because our sins are forgiven.
Peace with men because we stopped fighting with
them and joy in our heart, the joy
of the Lord, which is our strength all
through the Holy Spirit.
That is the kingdom of God in Romans
14, 17.
So if we seek that kingdom first of
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit,
all that we need, God is not here
to make us millionaires, but he's here to
provide us all that we need.
Food, clothing, shelter, educating our children, enabling them
to earn their living.
God will provide for all that.
And so he designs everything around us, even
for Christians to help us to repent.
So as I said, in the book of
Revelation, the Lord writes messages, first of all,
to seven churches, and five of those seven
churches were terribly backslidden.
This is just about 40, 50 years after
the days of the apostles.
One apostle John was still alive.
All the others had died.
But so soon before the end of the
first century, around 95 AD, which is about
65 years after the day of Pentecost when
the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 of
the church was born with such tremendous power
and wonderful churches were established by the apostles.
But 50, 60 years later, they're in such
a backslidden condition, many of them, because they
turned away from the truth that the apostles
preached.
And it's the same today.
Many, many churches backslidden.
And the message of the Lord to them
is the same message as it is to
these five churches.
Repent.
Revelation chapter two.
Verse five.
You have fallen from your first love for
me.
Repent.
What the Lord tells this church is and
its leader is you don't love me like
you love me at first.
The day you were born again, when you
were so glad your sins are forgiven, you
love me.
But as time has gone on, you got
more taken up with your love for the
world and money and sinful pleasure and so
many things.
And because forgiveness was there available all the
time, you thought the blood of Christ was
something cheap, like tap water that you could
just wash your hands with anytime.
And you began to take sin lightly.
And gradually, the Lord says, your love for
me is gone.
Well, if it continues like that, he says,
I will take away the anointing from your
life.
Verse five.
I'll remove the lampstand, the anointing.
So to avoid that, repent.
The message, the first message in the book
of Revelation to the church is repent.
The next bachelor in church is the church
in Pergamum, Revelation 2.12. And they've also,
in the beginning, they started out well with
some godly men there like Antipas, verse 13.
But then they went astray with the teaching
of Balaam, verse 14, which says, which is
the pursuit of the love of money.
Balaam went after money, a preacher who went
after money.
And there are thousands of them like that,
if not millions in the world today.
Preachers are only interested in money.
They write letters to get money.
They preach to get money.
And that's their interest.
Their interest is not godliness.
Their interest is not to lead people to
godliness.
Their interest is to get people in their
church to pay their tithes so that they
can become rich.
That is the teaching of Balaam, verse 14.
And the Lord says, repent, verse 16, or
else I will war against you with the
sword of my mouth.
Again, the message is repent.
The next church is the church in Thyatira,
Revelation 2.18. And the Lord says, in
this case, you've got this woman, in some
translations, says your wife, Jezebel, who's teaching people.
This is an elder who allowed his wife
to run the church.
You know, there are many preachers today, elders
and pastors, whose wives run the church behind
the scenes.
They control their husbands and decide what to
do in the church.
Or sometimes the wives themselves are assistant pastors
and get up and preach.
And they control the church.
And they don't lead the church to godliness.
They lead the church to a loose attitude
towards sin.
And the Lord says, in verse 21, I
gave her time to repent.
And to the others in the church also,
he says, you must repent and hold fast
what you have until I come.
And then to the church in Sardis, chapter
3, again, here's a church that has got
a name that is alive and the leader,
but it is dead.
And to this church also, he says, verse
3, repent, turn from your sin.
The fifth backslidden church is the church in
Laodicea, Revelation 3, 14.
And this is the worst of the lot,
who is very wealthy, verse 17, and therefore
feels that I don't need anything.
That's so true of a lot of people
in the world today, because they have a
lot of money.
And sometimes they say that money is the
blessing of God.
Really?
Well, it's true that God provides our need.
But if you made a lot of money,
don't think that is a blessing of God,
because the wealthiest people in the world are
not wholehearted Christians.
Remember that.
The wealthiest people in the world are all
unbelievers.
So where did they get their money from?
They worship other gods, and they believe their
gods gave them the money.
So don't say that Jesus Christ gave you
that money.
Because if you say that, what you're saying
is those other gods are superior to Jesus
Christ, because those gods gave those people much
more money, and they are much wealthier than
you.
It's so foolish.
Money is a gift God gives us to
meet our need, not to boast about how
much we have made.
And it's not at all an evidence of
God's blessing, because the most blessed person on
earth who walked on this earth was Jesus
Christ, and he was not rich.
While the greatest apostle was Paul, he was
not rich.
He says sometimes he didn't have enough money
to buy food.
How about that?
But here's a church, verse 17, that said,
I'm rich and I'm wealthy.
What happens to people who come to that
state is they need nothing.
They think they need nothing.
And so they don't realize, verse 17, that
they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
And so God allows trials to come into
their life.
And he tells them, verse 19, be zealous
and repent.
Those whom I love, verse 19, I reprove
and discipline.
Sometimes sickness is a form of discipline to
help us to repent.
So we see that before the Lord speaks
in chapter 9 and chapter 16 of Revelation
about the world not repenting, he tells the
church to repent, first of all, in Revelation.
The church must show the way to the
rest of the world to turn from sin.
And if you as a Christian are not
showing by your life that you're turning from
sin, you can't blame the world for not
turning from sin when the plague comes.
The good news is that God wants to
use everything in the world to draw us
to himself.
And that's one of the wonderful promises that
God's children have, which most of you know.
And if you don't know it, it is
in Romans 8 and verse 28, which says,
it's a wonderful passage from Romans 8, verse
28, all the way to the end of
Romans 8, verse 39.
And it's all one section.
And it begins with, we know, and a
lot of people don't know that, but we
should know that God causes everything to work
together for good to those who love God.
What about sickness?
What about the pandemic?
What about poverty?
What about loss of jobs?
What about other trials and difficulties and sickness?
God can cause not those things individually, but
all of those things together to work for
our good.
That's a wonderful place to come to, but
it's not for everybody.
Remember, this promise is not for every Tom,
Dick and Harry in the world.
No, it is for a limited group of
people.
It's not even for those who just claim
to be believers.
It is for a group of people, verse
28, Romans 8, 28, who love God.
That means who love God more than they
love everyone and everything else.
Jesus said, if you want to be his
disciple, you've got to love him more than
father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, job, money,
everything.
And the second thing mentioned there is those
who are called according to his purpose.
That means whose aim in life is to
fulfill God's purpose in their life.
They want to do God's will in their
life.
So I want to say to you, here's
the good news.
My dear brother, sister, the good news in
this time of pandemic, if you love Jesus
more than everyone and everything on the earth,
including your own life, and if you want
to fulfill his purpose, which is, in other
words, you want to do his will in
your life.
Just these two conditions.
You love Jesus more than everything and everyone
else on earth.
And you want to fulfill his will in
your life.
Here is God's promise.
Every single thing, which the world calls good
or bad, will work together for your good,
for your very best, not individually, but all
together.
And I want to testify that from the
time I was born again, at the age
of 19 and a half, more than 61
years ago, I'm nearly 81 now.
This verse has been true in my life.
I can boldly testify every single thing that's
happened to me, the financial struggles I've gone
through in the early days after I quit
my job, and began to serve the Lord.
But I'd given away all my money for
God's work, all my savings at that time.
And the sicknesses I've experienced, the opposition, persecution,
trials that have come to me from those
who oppose the gospel.
Every single thing has worked for my good.
It's made me a better Christian.
For example, if people did not hate me,
how could I obey the command which says,
love those who hate you?
I thank God for those who hate me.
They have enabled me to obey one command
in the Bible, which I would never have
been able to obey if I had nobody
to hate me.
If people didn't persecute me for my faith
and for standing up for Christ and the
truth of the New Testament, if they did
not persecute me and harass me, how would
I obey the scripture which says, pray for
those who persecute you?
I thank God for those who persecuted me.
So everything works for my good, makes me
a better Christian, makes me obey certain scriptures,
which I could never have obeyed if these
guys had not tried to hurt me or
trouble me or persecute me or whatever it
is.
And showed me that in the midst of
it all, I could have joy in the
Lord, that their opposition and evil plans could
not take away the joy of the Lord
from my heart.
What an experience it is, every single thing.
But if your only aim in life is,
I want to live a comfortable life, I
want to make a lot of money, I
want to live in a good house, I
want to get my children married and settled
and have a good retired life, brother, then
I don't have any promise for you.
Live your life the way you like.
I have nothing in God's word to comfort
you.
But on the other hand, if your aim
is to love Jesus supremely and to live
for the glory of God, to be a
blazing witness for the truth of the gospel
and you want to bring up your children
that way and you don't glory in your
wealth or your house or your education or
whatever you have accomplished on this earth, but
you say the only thing worth glorying in
is Jesus Christ himself and what he's done
for you, then Romans 8, 28 is for
you.
Even in this time of pandemic, here is
the good news.
It will work for your good.
It's not that it'll be neutral.
It's not that you will somehow survive and
come through this without any problem.
That's not the point.
That itself would be great news that I
could come through this without a problem.
But no, it's going to make me a
better Christian at the end of it, whenever
it comes to an end.
I don't know when this pandemic will come
to an end, but here's the good news.
It'll make me a better Christian by the
time I come to the end of it.
I want that, sure.
And if the Lord has to take me
through deep waters and fire to get me
there, so be it.
Turn with me to Psalm 66.
You know, before I get there, let me
turn you to Psalm 23.
Psalm 23 is a very well-known Psalm.
It's called the Shepherd Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He leads me to green pastures, et cetera.
And Psalm 23, it says here, beautiful expression.
Verse five, Psalm 23, five, the last part.
You have anointed my head with oil.
It was referring to the Holy Spirit.
And my cup runs over.
My cup is overflowing.
Like Jesus said, rivers of living water will
flow out from our innermost being.
This overflowing, that word overflows is a, it's
translated, the Old Testament is translated from a
Hebrew, and that particular Hebrew word is used
only in one other place in the Old
Testament.
Significant, only two places it's used.
Running over in Psalm 23.
And the other is in Psalm 66, where,
verse 12, the last part.
You brought us into a place of abundance.
It's the same word.
You brought us into a place where the
cups run over, running over.
Now the question is, how did God bring
us to this place where our cups run
over?
Psalm 66, verse 12.
Listen to it.
Verse 10, you tested us, O God.
You refined us as silver is refined that
is in the fire.
Spiritually speaking, we put in the fire.
You brought us into the net, which means
you surrounded me with tight circumstances, financial difficulties,
job loss, all types of things that made
me in, like as if I'm trapped in
a net.
And on top of that, you laid an
oppressive burden upon us.
Weight upon me.
Weights, many, many weights, an oppressive burden.
And on top of that, you allowed others
to ride over me, ride over my head
to crush me down and put me down.
And at the end of it all, you
put me into the fire, spiritually speaking, trials
of fire, and taking me out of the
fire and put me into deep waters.
And through it all, through all these trials,
you brought me to a place where the
rivers of living water flow out from my
life, a place of abundance.
So God brings us through trials to a
place of abundance.
We should look at trials as the machines
in a gym, you know, a gymnasium where
people go to exercise to build up their
muscles in their body.
And usually you'll have a picture of a
very muscular man outside the gymnasium to attract
people to come and say, you can get
muscles like this if you work in this
gym.
And people do build up their muscles.
You know, there are so many muscles in
the body.
When I see the pictures of these muscular
people, I'm amazed that there are so many
muscles they can build up in a gym.
And so people go in there, but the
only way they can build those muscles is
by subjecting those muscles to strain and tension
through the different machines in that gym.
The muscles in the hand and the muscles
in the legs and the neck and the
shoulder and chest and the belly and thighs
and all the muscles in the body and
they're subjected to some strain and tension.
That is how they build up those muscles
and all those machines in a gym are
meant to subject those machines, subject people to
tension in the different parts of their body.
And so that is how God builds us,
makes us strong also.
So if you don't go through this, a
man who just doesn't go into the gym
just doesn't build up his muscles.
If he doesn't allow his muscles to face
tension, they never become strong.
And a Christian who never faces trial and
never faces any tensions in his life, he's
not gonna be strong.
So a true Christian finds that even in
pandemics, God's gonna bring him to the place
where rivers of living water will flow through
if he reacts to it in the right
way, which is beginning with reverence for God.
I'm going to avoid sin.
So Romans 8, 28 says, all things work
together for good to those who love God.
Let me read further in Romans 8.
What do you say?
If God did not spare his own son,
verse 32, but delivered him up for us
all on the cross, won't he give us
freely everything else with him?
Do you have any doubt?
Here is a verse that should remove all
anxiety and fear from your life.
If God did not spare his son, but
sent him to die on the cross for
you, why won't he give you everything else?
When you were a sinner, he loved you
and me.
When we were sinners, and now that we
are his children, won't he care for us?
To use another illustration, we were like beggars
on the street and he picked us up
then and made us his children.
And now that we are his children, don't
you think he'll do more for us?
Certainly.
Then it says, whatever may happen, I'm convinced
in all these things.
Verse 37.
First of all, verse 35.
What can separate us from the love of
Christ?
Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, pandemic,
nothing.
No, in all these things, verse 37, including
in a time of pandemic, we are more
than conquerors.
We overwhelmingly conquer.
Conquering and being a victor itself is a
great thing.
But here it says more than a victor
through the strength given by one who loves
us.
God's love for us is the thing that
holds us firm in a time of pandemic.
And that's what the devil wants you to
doubt.
The thing that the devil wants you to
doubt in a time of pandemic is God
doesn't love you.
Nonsense.
He loves me.
He loved me enough to give me his
son.
He will not forsake me in my time
of need.
Impossible.
He will not carry me halfway across the
river and say, oh, I'm fed up with
you and allow me to drown in the
middle of the river.
No, let there be overflowing waves.
He will carry me through to the other
side.
Let me ask you something.
When the Lord saved you, whenever he did,
when Christ came into your life, do you
believe that God knows the whole future?
Do you believe that God knew many years
ago, maybe you were converted 20 years ago
or 10 years ago or five years ago
or 50 years ago?
It doesn't matter.
Do you believe that when God made you
his child, he could look into the future
and see every wrong thing that you would
do in your life?
Every evil deed that you would do after
becoming a child of God.
Do you think God knew it?
Sure.
And he still chose you.
He's our bridegroom.
Chose us to be his bride.
I sometimes ask husbands.
The Bible says we must love our wives
as Christ loved the church.
So I asked husbands this question.
Now that you've been married for so many
years, maybe 15, 20, 25 years, and you've
seen all the faults of your wife, all
the bad things she did and the bad
ways she has spoken.
If you had known all that before you
got married to her, would you still have
chosen her?
Searching question.
Many husbands, if they're honest, would say no.
Well, if you'd chosen somebody else, she may
have been worse.
Don't forget that.
But the interesting thing is that Jesus knew
all about all the evil things we would
do before he chose us.
Because he knows the whole future and he
knows all the evil things you're gonna do
in the next 20 years or until Jesus
comes back and he still chose you.
Isn't that amazing?
So what should we do?
Take advantage of his love and live in
sin?
Shame on us if that is our reaction.
Lord, I'm ashamed that I've responded to your
love in such a selfish way.
I want to respond from now on with
the same love with which you love me.
That's how we must respond to the fact
that Jesus who knew every single evil thing
we would ever do or think or say
still chose us and made us his children.
What should be our gratitude then?
Repent, turn from everything that you know dishonors
God in your life.
Reverence for God, the fear of God, the
fear that you might hurt him.
Have you hurt him?
Brother, sister, examine your life.
Are you hurting Jesus?
Are you hurting your heavenly father by the
way you speak or the way you behave
towards others, the way you don't forgive somebody?
That's one thing the Lord has been stressing
on my heart to preach very much these
days.
Forgive everyone.
Many people, their lives become miserable because they
don't forgive others.
Let me ask you a pertinent question.
Have you got a difficult mother-in-law?
Have you forgiven her for all the evil
she did?
Have you got a difficult son-in-law
or daughter-in-law or difficult son or
daughter?
Caused you a lot of problems, okay?
Have you forgiven them?
You're supposed to be the Christian.
You're supposed to be the example.
You must first of all demonstrate forgiveness before
anything else.
Have you forgiven those who have harmed you
in your office, your neighbors, your relatives, those
who cheated you of property that was rightfully
meant for you?
Have you forgiven them?
Is there anybody who has done a greater
crime to you than you have done to
God in your life?
Our sin to God is so great and
he forgave it all.
He calls us to forgive.
And let this time of struggle and pandemic
and uncertainty be a time which drives us
to God and enables us to forgive everyone.
Have you forgiven your wife for all the
foolish things and evil things he did to
you?
Have you forgiven your husband for neglecting you
or being unfaithful to you or whatever else
he did?
You say, oh, it's so terrible.
I can't forgive him.
Well, you know what God says, then I
can't forgive you.
Matthew 7, verse 14 is very clear.
If you don't forgive others, your heavenly father
will not forgive you.
So if there's one thing we need to
repent of, you know, we saw in the
book of Revelation how plagues are meant to
lead people to repentance.
And one thing that we need to repent
of is an unforgiving attitude, holding grudges, keeping
in, we cannot, let me say this, we
cannot remove from our memory the facts, the
events that happened that will be there.
But you can't get rid of that because
those things remain in our memory.
But in our heart, we can forgive people.
There's a lot of difference between our heart
and our memory.
I cannot forget all the evil things I
did, all the evil things other people did.
That's a matter of memory.
But I can, I know that my past
has been blocked out by the blood of
Christ.
So I don't have to worry about it.
And I know that I've forgiven everyone who's
done harm against me.
So I'm clear.
Even though all those things remain in my
memory, don't you remember all the evil, stupid
things you did in your unconverted days or
even after you were converted?
But you know that you have repented and
God's forgiven you, but it's still in your
memory.
But you don't feel guilty about it because
the blood of Christ has cleansed you.
And if the blood of Christ has done
so much for you, don't you think you
should be merciful to others?
So repent of that in this time of
pandemic.
The other question that comes to our mind
at this time is fear, what will happen
in the future?
If things go on like this for, if
the pandemic lasts another two, three years, will
we survive or five years?
We thought it'd be over in a few
months.
Supposing it lasts another five years.
Let me show you a verse in Isaiah
chapter eight.
In Isaiah chapter eight and verse 12 and
13, the last part of verse 12, Isaiah
chapter eight, here it speaks of a conspiracy,
Isaiah eight verse 12.
All these people call it a conspiracy or
instead of conspiracy say pandemic.
All these people say, this is a pandemic,
it's a serious, it's gonna kill many people.
They have not found a cure for it
yet.
But you are not to fear what the
other people in the world fear.
Let them call it pandemic or anything they
like, but you are not to fear what
others fear or being dread of it.
Instead, you must fear the Lord.
He shall be your fear, verse 13.
You must regard the Lord as holy and
he shall be your fear.
So we should not fear what other people
fear, but we must fear the Lord.
Back to what I started in the beginning.
The fear of the Lord is the ABC
of wisdom.
And the living Bible paraphrases this, these two
verses beautifully.
It says, paraphrases like this.
If you fear God, you need fear nothing
else.
Not even the pandemic.
If you fear God, you need fear nothing
else.
What a wonderful message.
If you don't fear God, you better fear
everything that happens in the world.
Not only pandemic, but everything else.
But if you fear God, you need fear
nothing else.
Now I wanna say to you, fear and
faith are opposites.
Faith in God and fear of what will
happen to me are opposites.
When fear comes in, faith goes out.
They can't live together in the same heart.
When faith comes in, fear goes out.
You had to make a choice which you
want in your heart.
Faith in a loving father and in Jesus
our savior or fear which is put into
you by the newspapers and news on the
internet and what people say around you and
what they predict is gonna happen.
Nobody knows the future except God, but they
predict this, that and the other.
And you listen to all that and listen
to all that.
And you fill your mind with what people
say instead of with the word of God
and the promises of God.
Well, then you have to live in tension
all the time.
But if faith comes in, and what is
faith?
Let me explain that to you.
Jesus taught us to pray.
And he taught us that the most important
thing when you pray is to have faith.
First of all, you must forgive everybody.
Matthew chapter six, because if you don't forgive,
God's not even gonna listen to your prayer.
Remember this, there's a verse in Psalm 66
verse 18, which says, if I regard sin
in my heart, Psalm 66, 18, if I
regard sin in my heart, the Lord will
not hear me.
That's a word of God.
If you've got a wrong attitude towards somebody,
don't waste your time praying, God will not
hear you.
There are people who spend all night in
prayer sometimes, all night prayer meetings.
Many of them, God does not hear any
of their prayers because they have not forgiven
somebody.
They have not set right things in their
heart.
They've got wrong attitudes in their heart.
They're not repentant of sins in their life.
And they pray, waste of time.
God doesn't pick up the phone from a
person when a person calls in prayer who's
got sin in his heart.
So that's important to remember that.
It says in Matthew 6 and verse 14
and 15, if you forgive others, their sins,
your heavenly father will forgive you.
But if you don't forgive others, your father
will not forgive you, Matthew 6, 14 and
15.
So if God doesn't forgive you, he's not
gonna listen to your prayers.
You have this wrong attitude you have.
Whenever you go to prayer, Jesus said, make
sure that you're, first of all, you've forgiven
others.
And secondly, he said, if you have hurt
somebody, Matthew 5, 23 and 24, when you
come to pray, and you know that you've
hurt somebody, go and ask his forgiveness first.
Otherwise, God won't listen to your prayer.
So if you've hurt somebody and you haven't
asked his forgiveness or somebody has hurt you
and you haven't forgiven him, don't waste your
time praying.
Absolute waste of time praying.
Clear your heart first.
And then when you're cleared your heart, this
is how you must pray, Jesus said.
In Matthew 6 and verse 9, pray then
in this way.
You don't have to repeat it, but this
is a pattern.
In this way means in this pattern.
What is the pattern?
When you begin your prayer, don't begin with,
Lord, I got this sickness and my child
is sick.
And I've got this problem.
I need some money.
I need a job.
I need a wife.
No, that's not how you ought to begin.
All our problems are because we begin our
prayer like that.
Begin with God and his kingdom.
You know, the first four words in the
Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, in the
beginning God.
Those are the first four words in the
Bible, in your Bible.
And that must be the first four words
in your life every day as soon as
you wake up in the beginning God.
Talk to him first.
Listen to him first.
Before you get up, before you pick up
your Bible, as soon as you're awake, listen
to God.
Hear him.
And when you pray, he says, pray like
this.
First sentence, our father who art in heaven.
Let's begin there.
You can spend a whole hour meditating just
on that.
There's a book of mine which is available.
You can read it freely on the CFC
India website, cfcindia.com.
Go to the book section.
It's called God-Centered Praying.
It's about the Lord's Prayer.
God-Centered Praying.
And I explained there how our father who
art in heaven, what does it mean?
Teaches me two things.
Before I start my prayer, very important to
remain, believe at this time of pandemic.
Don't pray without being established in these two
truths.
I told you when faith comes in, fear
goes out.
And fear comes in, faith goes out.
And the only way to drive out fear
is by faith.
Faith in our father who is in heaven.
Our father indicates that there's someone in heaven
who loves me.
My father who loves me more than any
earthly father.
Jesus said, if you being evil, he said
that later on in Matthew 7 and verse
11.
If you being evil fathers, that means the
best father in the world is evil compared
to God.
Yeah.
Many of you are fathers.
You are very good fathers and mothers.
You care for your children so much.
You give your life for your children.
But I want to say to you, compared
to God's love, your love is zero for
your children.
You are evil when compared to God.
You're a very good father or mother, but
compared to God, it's evil.
If you being evil, Matthew 7, 11, know
how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your father in heaven,
Matthew 7, 11, give what is good to
those who ask him.
That is the first thing you need to
be established when you pray our father who
art in heaven.
One who is more loving than any earthly
father or mother, more loving than any earthly
father or mother.
In Isaiah 49 and verse 15, the Lord
says, even if a mother forgets a newborn
baby, I will not forget you.
So God is a father and a mother.
Here he speaks about you being evil fathers,
know how to give good gifts to your
children.
How much more shall your heavenly father give
good gifts to those who ask him.
And in Isaiah 49 and verse 15, God
says, I'm like a mother and I'm the
best mother in the world.
I'm the best father in the world.
I'm the best mother in the world.
A mother may forget her newborn baby.
That almost never happens.
But even if they forget, I will not
forget you.
Can you get your heart established on at
least these two verses?
Matthew 7, verse 11, please remember it always.
Isaiah 49, 15.
Matthew 7, 11.
And Isaiah 49, 15.
God is a loving father and a loving
mother.
The best father and the best mother in
the world are zero compared to God.
Where on a scale of one to a
hundred, God gets a hundred and the best
father and mother in the world gets less
than one.
If you can believe that, I believe it.
I've experienced it for 61 years.
I'm not talking theory.
I was born in a Christian family.
My parents taught me my father was born
again Christian.
So he taught me to pray this Lord's
prayer, our father who art in heaven, even
before I was born again.
Every morning when I got up, I had
to kneel down in bed and pray our
father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name, thy kingdom come and so on.
Like a parrot, I would repeat it then
only get out of bed.
I never knew it in my life.
Then the day came when I accepted Christ.
I knew a little bit more.
But as time went on, I began to
realize that God is such a loving father.
I realized that he loved me as much
as he loved Jesus.
That's another great verse for you to remember.
John 17 verse 23.
Make a note of it.
John 17 verse 23.
God loves us as much as he loved
Jesus.
If we are his disciples, not every Tom,
Dick and Harry, but if you're a disciple
of Jesus, God loves you as much as
he loved Jesus.
Do you think any harm could come to
Jesus without God's permission?
You remember the time when Herod wanted to
kill all the babies and wanted to kill
Jesus in Bethlehem when he was born.
And God warned Joseph and Mary beforehand, they
took him off to Egypt.
And by the time Herod came, Jesus was
not there.
Another time we read in Luke chapter four,
where about maybe 200 of the people in
the synagogue took Jesus and took him to
the top of the cliff to throw him
down to kill him because they didn't like
his message.
And it says there, he walked away and
went away.
How could that happen when 200 people have
grabbed you to throw you down a cliff
and you walk away?
I've meditated on that.
I said, Lord, how is that possible?
No angel came.
There was no miraculous deliverance that the Lord
pulled him out.
It says he walked away from them.
And I thought about how could that happen?
I tried to reason.
I said, maybe these 200 people began to
argue with each other as to which cliff
to throw Jesus over.
That cliff over there or this one here
or the other one there.
And while they were arguing, Jesus walked away.
And 15 minutes later, when they decided which
cliff to throw him over, he wasn't there.
God is such a wonderful arranger of circumstances.
I've seen that in my life.
People have tried to harm me.
I've never succeeded.
Romans 8, 28.
This is our loving father.
Remember this in a time of pandemic.
You have a loving father.
The second thing you need to remember is
our father who is in heaven.
Not on earth.
In heaven means one who runs this universe.
My father runs this universe.
He's in control of everything.
And if you studied a little bit about
geography and the planets and the stars, you
know that the universe is so huge.
And the stars are so many millions and
millions of miles away.
They look like a spot in the sky.
A little dot in the sky.
But they're so huge.
Some of them are bigger than the entire
solar system.
You know, there's a star which is so
big that the whole solar system can rotate
inside it.
But it looks like a speck in the
sky.
Because it's so far away.
The earth is so, the universe is so
huge.
And earth is like a small speck of
dust in this universe.
And on this speck is a still smaller
speck called me, you.
And my father in heaven runs this universe.
What are we afraid of?
Why do we have to be afraid?
Jesus said in Matthew 28 and verse 18,
all authority in heaven and earth is given
to me.
Yeah, because he died and rose again, the
father gave him all authority in heaven and
on this earth.
He's in control of the pandemic.
He decides how long it's got to last.
And no man can stop his hand in
the Old Testament.
We read of a very evil king called
Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.
He was the ruler of Babylon.
And he became so proud that God punished
him.
And punished him in a very severe way
that he became like an animal eating grass
for a number of years.
And then he repented when he realized that
God was the one who brought him down
like that.
And it was God who had given him
the kingdom, et cetera.
And when he repented and came back to
the Lord or not came back, but came
to God.
I want you to listen to these words.
He spoke in Daniel chapter four, verse 34
and 35.
Amazing words, which I've seen to be the
most complete statement of the sovereignty of God
anywhere in the Bible.
And it's spoken by a heathen king when
he repented.
Daniel four, verse 34 and 35.
At the end of that period of severe
discipline where he got healed of his mental
problem.
You read about that earlier on, but verse
34.
I raised my eyes toward heaven and my
reason returned to me.
He had lost his reason.
He'd become a mental case.
And I blessed the most high and praised
and honored him who lives forever.
Because I realized Daniel four, 34, the middle.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion.
His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
And listen to this.
All the inhabitants of the earth, you and
me and your enemies and your friends and
every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world
are accounted as zero.
This is the verse in the Bible which
says all human beings are a zero before
God.
And he does exactly what he wants.
Listen to this.
My God, Nebuchadnezzar, this has become his God
now.
My God does exactly what he wants in
heaven and in all the universe, the host
of heaven.
And he does exactly what he wants among
all of this earth and all the people
of the earth.
And not a single person, no human being,
no demon can stop his hand, can stop
his hand or question him saying, what are
you doing?
Or what have you done?
What a fantastic statement to believe in this
time of pandemic.
God does according to his will in heaven
and on earth.
And no one can stop his hand or
question him saying, what are you doing?
Why have you done this?
Or how long is this going to last?
But in the midst of it all, as
children of this loving father in heaven, we
can be at rest.
If you fear God, you need fear nothing
else.
When faith comes in, fear goes out.
So let us be established in faith in
these days.
Drive away anxiety.
After Jesus said this three times, he said
in Matthew 6, he said, our father who
art in heaven, that's how we must pray.
Seek his kingdom first and God will provide.
Give us this day our daily bread, Matthew
6, 11.
You think God is not interested in that?
You can pray.
Give us Lord our daily bread.
Give us the opportunity to earn our living
so that we can buy daily bread.
Give us the ability to educate our children
so that when they grow up, they can
work and earn their living and get their
daily bread.
To pray for daily bread is a good
prayer to pray to our father who is
in heaven.
Our father who art in heaven, we want
your name to be glorified.
We want your kingdom to come.
Come soon, Lord Jesus.
Give us our daily bread so that we
can live on this earth and glorify you.
And please forgive us, verse 12, exactly as
we have forgiven everybody else.
Important.
And Lord, please deliver us from all sin,
verse 13.
We want to glorify you forever.
Having prayed that prayer, he says, verse 25,
Matthew 6, 25.
Don't be worried about your life in these
days.
Where will you get food from?
Where will I get clothes from?
Isn't your life more than all this?
Look at the birds of the air.
Okay, let's look at the birds of the
air in this time of pandemic.
They don't even know.
They don't read the newspapers.
They don't go to the internet.
So they're not worried about all this.
You know, they have a father in heaven
who cares for them.
Jesus told us specifically, look at the birds
of the air.
I want you to obey that command.
Look at the birds of the air.
They don't sow.
They don't reap.
They don't read the newspapers.
They don't hear the news.
They don't know what's happening.
They don't hear any predictions.
They don't get any medicines.
They don't get any treatment.
They have no hospitals.
But your heavenly father cares for them.
Don't you think you're much more than that?
Of course, I'm not saying that we should
not go to hospital or should not get
treatment or that you should not read the
newspapers.
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying, don't you believe that you are
worth much more than them?
And then by being worried, are you going
to live one, not one day, but do
you think you can add one hour to
your life by being worried?
You know, what will happen?
What will happen?
Is that going to add even one hour
to your life?
Jesus says.
See, he's using an argument of reason.
You can't.
Why are you worried about clothing?
Look at the birds, the flowers, how beautifully
God clothes the flowers.
Even Solomon was not clothed in all his
glory like these flowers.
See how beautiful clothes, colors God has given
to these flowers.
Some Christians say that must really wear white
clothes, but God didn't make all the flowers
white.
Look at the beautiful colors he gave to
the flowers.
God's not stuck with white.
He made the flowers with so many colors.
That's the address.
He clothes you.
Why do you worry about what we shall
eat?
Verse 31, what we shall drink.
These are the things a lot of people
are worried about today.
That non-Christians, they are worried about these
things.
Sure, you got a father in heaven who
loves you, who runs this universe.
And he knows at this time that you
need these things.
So what should you do?
Seek his kingdom first.
Verse 33, what is his kingdom?
Romans 14, 17.
Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Seek to live a holy life.
Seek to be at peace in your heart.
Keep your conscience clear always.
Seek to be at peace with all men
as far as you're concerned.
And live in the joy of the fact
your sins are forgiven.
God is your father.
Joy in the Holy Spirit.
And all these things that you need, according
to your need, will be added to you.
So here's a concluding word.
Verse 34, don't worry about tomorrow.
Three times he says, yeah, don't worry.
He teaches us to call our father, our
father in heaven.
And don't worry.
Verse 25, don't worry.
Verse 31, don't worry.
Verse 34, three times, don't worry, don't worry,
don't worry.
It's a message of the Lord for us
at this time.
About tomorrow.
Tomorrow will take care of itself.
Each day has enough trouble for itself.
Live one day at a time.
God bless you all.
We thank God for scriptures in this time.
I thank God that we have a Bible
which tells us these wonderful things that Jesus
taught.
Be thankful for the Bible.
So many people in the world don't have
a Bible.
You have one and you can read it.
Do you read it?
I hope you do.
It's changed my life.
I've studied this book for 61 years from
the time I was converted.
It's changed my life.
It brought rest into my life.
It's helped me to bring up my family
properly.
And it can do the same for you.
God bless you all.
Shall we just bow in prayer for a
moment?
As our heads are bowed in prayer, will
you ask the Lord to remind you of
the things that you heard, all that you
heard, and that at the proper time, he
will remind you of that particular word that
you need at that time.
The Holy Spirit's got an amazing way of
doing that.
Heavenly Father, I pray for all these dear
brothers and sisters and friends who will listen
to me today and will be listening to
this message later on.
I pray that they will really be established
in the faith.
They learn to reverence you and learn the
ABC of the Christian life and go on
from the ABC to the higher levels of
wisdom that you want us all to have.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, Benoit, thank you.
Thank you, Brother Zach.
Before we go into the question and answer
session, I just wanted to remind everyone, if
you are in U.S. or Canada or
Mexico, and if you need some fellowship where
you don't have any local fellowship, you can
write to us at austincfc at gmail.com.
If you're outside of those countries, if you
are looking for fellowship, please write to cfc
at cfcindia.com.
And also, if you have any books, if
you need any books by Brother Zach in
the U.S. or Canada, you can write
to ravensministry at gmail.com.
And I just wanted to remind everyone about
the CFC Bible Study app.
If you don't have it, please install that
in your smartphone so that you can get
a lot of teachings through that.
There's so many messages that are there.
And then if you have not, if you're
not getting the Word for the Week every
week from cfcindia.com, please go to cfcindia
.com and subscribe.
On the bottom right, there is a place
where you can put your email and you
can subscribe so that you can get an
email every week with some encouraging words and
also communication about the information about the meetings
like this in the future.
Okay, so Brother Zach, I have a few
questions that I prepared here related to this
session.
If you don't mind, if you can take
some time to answer those, that would be
great.
Okay, like I said earlier, we would, since
we have so many people in the session,
it's gonna be very difficult to coordinate a
live, I mean, feedback from you guys, the
questions from you.
So I have prepared a few questions and
so I will be asking that.
Okay, Brother Zach, we have, I think, do
we have like 20, 25 minutes, half an
hour, up to half an hour.
So if you're okay with it, I mean,
you can take as much time to maybe
up to five minutes.
I have like five or six questions.
So you mentioned about, you started with the
repentance, the importance of repentance, right?
So here's someone says like, I wanna repent,
but I have made such a mess of
my life and there are too many things
to account for.
What do I do?
Okay.
You know, some people think they are the
only ones who have made a mess of
their life.
I wanna tell you the good news or
the bad news.
That everybody's like that.
And a lot of people are much worse
than you.
But Jesus said, he did not come for
the righteous.
He came to save sinners.
So if you're a sinner, you qualify.
You know, it's like when people apply for
a job, there's a list of qualifications.
If you have these qualifications, come.
So the qualification to come to God is,
you're a sinner, you're a terrible sinner, then
you'll be in the front of the line
for this job.
Jesus came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance, not to leave them as
sinners.
You see, a hospital is not set up
for healthy people.
Hospital says, sick people come here.
We are a good hospital.
And the better the hospital, they can treat
the worst cases.
And if you think you're the worst case,
come to Christ.
There's no one he cannot handle.
The only thing you need to do is,
what does repentance mean?
Repentance basically means turning around.
It's in the military term, about turn.
In the parade, in the military, sometimes they
give a command about turn, then you turn
right around 180 degrees.
That is what repentance means.
Turn around in your mind.
In the Tamil language in India, the word
for repentance is Mananthirambal.
Mananthirambal means your mind being turning around.
It's the most accurate translation of repentance that
I've heard of in any language.
You see, the word repent is a word
we don't understand, but in Tamil, it means
turn your mind around.
That's what it means.
Have you changed your mind, turn it around
and seen that your way of life was
against God?
See, God was on one side and the
world and sin is the other side.
We grew up facing the world and sin
and God was behind us.
Turning around, repentant means I turn around and
put my back to the world and sin.
Now I face God.
It's simple.
It's not saying I've reached him.
No, it's not saying I finished the Christian
race.
It's not saying I've overcome all my sins
in my life.
No, I may not have overcome any sin
so far, but I want to overcome.
I've turned around from it.
That's all it means.
So repentance is not saying from now on,
I'm not gonna sin.
You can't say that.
Nobody on earth can say that, but you
can say, I don't want to sin from
now on.
I've turned around from my old way of
life, meaning not that I've reached the finishing
line, but I've come to the starting line
of the Christian race.
I've still got a whole life to run,
but I turned around.
My attitude to sin has changed.
That is repentance.
And if you have turned around like that,
let me give you a lovely verse in
Acts chapter 17 and verse 30.
This is the favorite verse that I give
to people who feel they have made a
mess of their life.
And in one way or the other, all
of us have made a mess of our
life in our unconverted days.
I know I did.
You don't have to commit adultery to make
a mess of your life.
You don't have to murder people to make
a mess of your life.
Jesus said, if you do these things in
your thoughts, it's just as bad.
If you get angry with somebody, Jesus said
in Matthew 5, it's like killing him.
If you lust after a woman, it's like
actually committing adultery.
In God's eyes, you're committing sin in the
mind is a sin.
You have murdered people in your mind and
you've committed adultery in your mind.
And all those evil things other people done
on the outside, you've done it in your
mind.
Your mind is just as filthy as those
guys.
Okay, now you come to the Lord.
Acts 17, 30, it says God overlooks.
That means he doesn't look at it.
Your times of ignorance, you did not know
how serious sin was.
Maybe you knew to sin, but you did
not know how serious it was.
So you indulged in it.
Now God is saying, now that he's overlooked
your past, turn around and turn towards him.
Because one day, verse 31, he's gonna judge
the whole world in righteousness.
So you don't have to be bothered by
the fact that you sin so much in
your life.
Christ shed his blood to cleanse us from
every sin.
And 1 John 1, verse 7 says, if
we walk in the light.
What does it mean to walk in the
light?
You know what walking in the light means?
It means being honest.
It means shining a flashlight on that, turning
on the light in a room, you see
everything.
That means walking in the light means you
don't hide anything in your life.
It means being honest.
It doesn't mean being perfect, no.
It does not mean being perfect, 1 John
1, 7, because if you're perfect, then there's
no need for the blood of Jesus to
cleanse you from anything.
But it says here, if you walk in
the light, the blood of Jesus will cleanse
you.
So when you walk in the light, you've
got sin which has to be cleansed.
So walking in the light is not perfection.
Walking in the light means walking in 100
% honesty as much as you have light
on your inner life.
The blood of Jesus will cleanse you from
all sin, A-L-L, all, believe the
word of God.
And when you commit a particular sin, verse
9, confess that sin, God is faithful and
righteous to forgive you all your sin because
he has paid the price for it on
the cross.
Sin is like a debt we owe to
God.
And that debt was paid by Jesus on
the cross.
It doesn't matter whether your debt was 10
cents, or billions of dollars in terms of
money.
However great Christ's blood has paid for it
all.
And when you magnify your sin as greater
than the blood of Christ, then you're insulting
God.
When you say, oh, I'm such a terrible
sinner.
How can God forgive me?
Then you're saying the blood of Christ is
not worth so much.
My sin is greater.
That is an insult to the blood of
Christ.
Don't insult him anymore.
Your sin can never be greater than the
power of the blood of Christ.
Remember that.
Confess your sin.
He'll forgive you.
God bless you.
Thank you, Brother Zach.
You mentioned about loving Jesus more than everyone,
everything on this earth, right?
I mean, Bible calls out to you, you
must hate your father, mother, things like that.
So one of the illustrations that you used
was about the sun and the stars.
Remember that?
That helped me a lot.
Would you mind sharing that illustration in that
context?
Yes.
In Luke 14, Jesus said, if you want
to be my disciple, you must hate, if
anyone comes to me, Luke 14, 26, must
hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and
his own life.
Otherwise you cannot be my disciple.
Now, how does this fit in with other
places where it says you must honor your
father and mother?
You must love your wife as Christ loved
the church.
And here it says, you gotta hate.
Compare scripture with scripture.
So there are another passage in the gospel,
another gospel where a similar statement is made
is Matthew 10, verse 37.
He who loves father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me.
He who loves son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me.
So when we compare these two verses, we
understand that the Lord uses the word hate
as a strong word to show how great
our love for him must be.
So if you think of love as light,
perfect light, and hatred, we think of as
darkness.
Okay, just picture that in your mind.
Love equals perfect light.
Hatred equals darkness.
Your love for your father and mother, think
of a pitch dark night.
Your love for your father and mother must
be like the light of the stars.
You see the stars, you see the planets,
your love for your wife, your husband, your
father, mother, children must be there.
That light of the stars must be there.
But as soon as the sun rises in
the daytime, you don't see those stars anymore.
It's not that they've disappeared.
It's not that they've been blotted out.
It's not that they've vanished.
They are still there, but the light is
so bright.
The light of the sun is so bright,
you can't see those stars.
Now apply that to this verse.
You love your father and mother.
You love your wife and children.
You love your wife more than your own
life.
You'd do anything for her.
You love her like Christ loved the church.
But when you come into the light of
Christ, how much you love him, it's almost
as though it's become like a star that's
disappeared.
It's so infinitely small.
What the Lord is trying to show here
is your love for Christ must be supreme.
Your wife must never take the place of
Christ in your life.
No one must take the place of Christ
in your heart.
Christ must be Lord of your life, Lord
of your heart, sitting on the throne.
Nobody else has place there.
And your love for your wife must come
through Christ.
Then you will never get angry and get
upset with her.
It's when you don't love your wife through
Christ that you get angry and upset and
fight and quarrel.
It's when you don't love your husband through
Christ that you love directly without Christ.
Then you fight and quarrel and even hate
and divorce and all that happens.
But if Christ is Lord in your heart
and you love your wife and your father
and mother, you'll keep them all in their
proper place like the stars.
But Christ is supreme.
That is the meaning of this verse.
Okay, thank you.
So many people, I'm sure many in this
group are like listening to, have been listening
to you for a long time.
They're very keen on listening to more messages,
more messages.
But very few really experience what the truth
that you're saying, the abundant life is like
that.
What is the secret of that transformation?
Not just listening, listening is important, but to
experience that truth that you were mentioning.
Okay, see very often when we are listening
to a message, we are thinking of understanding.
And we think if I've understood it, I've
got it.
No, you haven't got it.
If it's a mathematics problem or a chemistry
or a physics equation or something like that
in the world of academics, if you understand
in your mind, you got it.
History, geography, all understanding is enough.
But when it comes to righteousness, the way
of righteousness, you can understand it so well
that you can explain it to others and
still not be righteous in your life because
understanding is not enough.
In Matthew five and verse six, Jesus said,
those people are blessed not to understand about
righteousness, but to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
You see the difference between understanding the way
of righteousness and hungering and thirsting for it.
There are a lot of people who cannot
explain the way of victory over sin, perhaps
as clearly as I can.
But that's because God's, not because I'm better
than them.
I don't believe I'm better than any other
human being, but God's saved me and God
has gifted me to be a teacher.
That's why I can teach.
If God takes away that gift from this
moment onwards, I will not be able to
teach.
It's entirely a gift of God, which he
has given me.
But you don't need to be a teacher,
but you need to hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
You will be satisfied.
You will be filled.
If you don't hunger and thirst, you'll only
understand it.
And you'll explain it to others and be
defeated in your life.
Look at the number of pastors and preachers.
I've heard some of them myself who preach
so strongly against adultery and fall into adultery
themselves, who preach against the love of money
and are the biggest lovers of money themselves.
That doctrine is right.
Their life is all wrong.
Their life speaks louder than the words of
their mouth.
The life speaks about sin and the words
of their mouth speak about holiness.
That's what's called hypocrisy.
The Pharisees spoke so many right words, but
their lives are complete contradiction.
They knew the doctrine, but they did not
hunger and thirst after righteousness.
So when you read the scriptures, if you
only use your mind, you'll be able to
understand everything and you can become a preacher.
It'll do you no good.
A lot of preachers are in hell without
a doubt.
There'll be more punishment for them because they
preached and did not love it, did not
live it.
Those who did not preach would have a
lesser punishment if they commit the same sin.
But if you hunger and thirst for righteousness,
you want to really be free from sin,
God will do it in your life.
Because there's a verse in Jeremiah, chapter 29,
which reads like this.
Jeremiah 29 says, it's a very important verse.
Jeremiah 29, it's a principle that is true
right through the Old Testament and into the
New Testament.
Jeremiah 29 and verse 13.
Let's begin at verse 12.
The Lord says, you'll call upon me.
You will pray to me and I will
listen to you.
And you will seek me.
But you will find me only when you
search for me with all your heart.
Look what it says.
You will call upon me.
You will come to me.
You will pray to me.
And you will seek me, but you will
not find me until you search for me
with all your heart.
You can do all those other things.
You can pray and read the Bible and
everything else.
But you will never experience the reality of
an overcoming life where you overcome those dirty
thoughts, habits, where you overcome anger, where you
overcome bitterness, where you overcome murmuring and grumbling
and gossiping and complaining and learn to give
thanks and everything.
You'll never come to that life if you
don't hunger and thirst for it.
You'll never overcome anxiety and fear if you
don't hunger and thirst for a life of
overcoming sin.
So that is the secret.
Thank you.
You mentioned about the trials are the machines
in the gym, right?
That's how we subject our methods to those
machines.
I read that in 1 Corinthians 9, 27,
Paul says I have disciplined my body, right?
So what are some of the practical things
as believers that we face?
When we face circumstances, like God arranged circumstances
in a way that let's say, you know,
a young man who works in the corporate
world is sexually tempted or somebody who loves
the Lord so much, but their loved ones
are taken away from them or something like
that.
What are the practical ways of that disciplining
my body or that muscle subjection?
Yeah.
See, sin is primarily in the mind and
it's manifested through the body.
It's sin in your heart, you know, Jesus
said from your heart, the evil words come
out.
So everything begins inside.
So you don't clean up the inside, just
clean up on the outside, doesn't solve the
problem.
You can overcome anger in your mouth, but
if anger is in your heart, you're still
living in sin.
But trials have a way of God putting,
it's like putting gold into the fire.
You know, when people pull out gold from
the depths of the earth, it's mixed with
so many alloys.
And you can't clean it with soap and
water.
You have to put it in the fire.
What is the fire?
The fire just burns up all that dross
and the metals with which the gold is
mixed and it becomes pure.
That's how gold is purified.
So trials do something like that for us.
Let me read to you from James, the
letter of James chapter one and verse two.
My brethren consider it only joy when you
encounter various trials.
Have you ever heard a more challenging word
than that?
That when you face a trial, not one
trial, but various types of trials, I'm just
reading one word, James one verse two.
When you encounter various types of trials in
your life, count it as only joy.
That's the meaning of that, literal meaning of
that word.
Consider it as only joy.
Praise the Lord.
Another trial, like the man who goes into
the gym.
Oh, and the trainer says, you got to
do this machine today that'll develop this muscle.
He says, wow, that's great.
I'm looking forward to that.
Okay, that muscle is developed.
Then the trainer says, now I'm gonna take
you to this muscle where your leg muscles
are gonna be developed.
He's so happy.
Wow, another part of my body going to
be strengthened.
And then he says, this is for your
shoulder muscles.
And like that one after the other, he's
just delighted as he goes through machine after
machine in the gym because every part of
his body becomes muscular.
So he says, consider it only joy because
the testing of your faith, trial verse James
one three, is a test of your faith.
When a student studies in a class, he
can imagine that he's understood it all.
The teacher says, have you understood what I
taught today?
And the student says, yes.
Yes, sir, or yes, ma'am, I understood
it.
But when the examination comes, he gets zero.
That proves they understood nothing.
Trials are like a test of our faith.
Right now, when you're listening to my message,
you understood everything.
You say, boy, I've got great faith.
Hang on, just wait a minute.
Wait till the trial comes, then you'll know.
But God will help you.
So consider it all joy when you encounter
trials.
Because if you fail in that trial, it's
good to discover that something is lacking in
your life.
And you can fill that lack by going
to God and say, Lord, I slipped up
here.
Why was that?
And God will give you that faith so
that you've got an overcoming next time.
So consider it because the testing of your
faith produces endurance.
And verse four, James one four, endurance, let
endurance have its perfect result.
It takes time.
You've got to go to the gym many,
many, many days and probably years.
But finally, at the end of it, you'll
be perfect.
James one four, and complete lacking in nothing
means every muscle developed.
But that includes disciplining your mind, disciplining your
body.
In the verse that Benoit just quoted in
1 Corinthians 9 refers to Paul, even though
he was a great apostle.
He said, I discipline my body.
1 Corinthians 9, 27, and make my body
my slave.
See the living Bible paraphrases it beautifully saying,
I make my body do what it should
do and not what it wants to do.
I like that.
I want to make my body do what
it should do according to the will of
God and not what it wants to do.
My eyes want to look at many things.
I'm going to tell my eyes, you're not
going to look there.
My eyes want to read many things.
And I tell my eyes, no, you're not
going to read that.
That's impure.
I don't want to pollute my mind.
My hands want to do so many things
or write so many things.
And I tell my hand, you're not going
to write that.
You're not going to do that.
I'm determining, I make my body do what
it should do, not what it wants to
do.
I want to listen to a lot of
gossip.
My ears say, no, you're not going to
listen.
I'm not going to allow my body to
do what it wants to do.
For example, everybody likes to eat and eat
and eat and eat.
Most human beings are gluttons.
They eat far more than they should.
They have no discipline in eating.
And that's very often the reason why they
are sick.
They'll eat a lot of things which are
not good for their body.
And they get high blood pressure and high
blood sugar and so many other things.
And they die quickly.
They're not healthy.
They get heart attacks and they don't keep
themselves fit because they listen to their body.
The body's craving, eat this, eat this, drink
this, drink this, drink this.
I'm going to make my body do what
it should do, what is good for it
and not what it wants to do.
And it's so many areas.
Your body doesn't want to do any exercise
to keep fit, even not even go for
a walk to keep fit.
No, I'm going to make my body do
it.
Keep fit physically.
And so that my body doesn't sin.
That's what Paul is saying.
And he says, if I don't make my
body my slave, 1 Corinthians 9, 27, I'll
be the greatest preacher in the world.
But one day I stand before the Lord,
the Lord will say, you're disqualified.
Imagine being the greatest preacher in the world
and don't qualify to enter heaven.
So discipline is very important.
And trials are the way by which God
makes us strong.
Thank you, Brother Zachar.
One more question related to that.
I believe it's 1 Corinthians 1, 18 is
when Paul says that a message of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
And for us who are being saved, it
is a power of God, right?
So is that related?
So as a believer, we're not keen on
this, what you're saying, that exercising the will,
that discipline my body, right?
So there is a danger out there, right?
Is that what Paul is saying?
That those who are perishing...
There is a danger of what?
What were you saying?
I'm saying the message of the cross is
foolishness for those who are perishing.
My question is, so us who are believers,
if we don't take this word, what you
just said, the message of the cross or
that dying to self, that exercising a will,
right?
If we don't take it seriously, there is
a danger, right?
Yes.
I want to read another verse before I
come to 1 Corinthians 1, 18.
And that is in Hebrews chapter two and
verse three.
This is written to believers.
The book of Hebrews is written to believers
because he talks about chapter three, verse one,
consider our heavenly calling, Jesus, our high priest.
It's written to believers.
And one of the things he tells believers
in Hebrews two, verse three is, how shall
we escape?
Is he talking about believers?
How shall we believers escape the judgment of
God if we neglect such a great salvation,
not reject?
You know the difference between rejecting a salvation
and neglecting a salvation that God has purchased.
Rejecting is, I don't want Christ in my
life.
I don't believe that he died for my
sins.
I'm not going to accept him.
No, you don't do that.
You accepted him and you want him left.
But this wonderful salvation, which is more than
forgiveness of sins, which is overcoming sin and
partaking of God's own nature in our life.
That is a full salvation.
We can neglect it.
It's like a child who says, I've learned
ABC.
That's enough.
Would you be happy if your child just
goes to kindergarten and learns the alphabet?
Can't even read words properly, but can read
A, B all the way to Z.
Can read that properly.
Would you be happy?
No, you'd say, hey, my child, you've got
to learn more than that.
You've got to study a whole range in
education.
A lot of that's neglecting education.
A lot of Christians, they've accepted Christ.
They've learned ABC.
And then they stop.
They say, now I'm going to heaven.
They have not rejected Christ.
They've neglected this salvation.
And it says here, how will you escape
if you neglect this salvation?
Now coming back to 1 Corinthians 1.18.
The word of the cross.
There are two parts to the cross.
One is Christ died for our sins.
1 Corinthians 15 verse four.
The other is I am crucified with Christ.
Galatians 2.20. Our old man is crucified
with Christ.
Romans chapter six, verse four.
On the cross, Jesus died and our old
man was also crucified.
Christ died for our sins, to forgive our
sins.
But in some mysterious, wonderful way, he took
my old man and crucified it with him
on the cross before even I was born.
Because God lives in eternity.
Everything is present for him.
There's no past, present, future for God.
I was there on the cross, crucified with
Christ so that I could be freed from
sin.
That's what it says in Romans 6.4.
That I might not be a slave to
sin anymore.
So that is, the message of the cross
is twofold.
And the message that Christ died for your
sins, you don't have to work.
You don't have to light candles.
You don't have to go on a pilgrimage.
You don't have to do anything.
Just repent and receive Christ.
That is foolishness to a lot of people.
Say, how can that be?
You mean God will just accept you because
you have to do nothing?
Yes, you got to do nothing.
You got to humble yourself and receive Christ.
That's foolishness to a lot of people.
And the same way when we tell Christians,
you were crucified with Christ and reckon yourself
dead to sin, but alive unto God.
That's also foolishness to a lot of people,
to Christians.
And therefore they never experience the power of
God in their life.
But to us, 1 Corinthians 1.18, who
are being saved, look at that expression.
Not we say we are saved.
But here it says, us who are being
saved.
You know that salvation has got three tenses
like in grammar, past, present, future.
There's a past tense, present tense and future
tense to salvation.
Past tense is salvation from the penalty of
sin, which is the judgment of God.
Present tense is salvation from the power of
sin, which we have to get day by
day.
And third, future is salvation from the presence
of sin, which will happen only when Christ
comes.
So salvation is from the penalty of sin,
from the power of sin and the presence
of sin.
Past, present, future.
Many people are only taken up with the
past.
I've been saved from the penalty of sin.
The wages of sin is death and I've
asked God to forgive me.
But today, I have to be saved from
the power of sin.
Day by day.
That's why he gives me the Holy Spirit.
The blood of Christ deals with my past.
The Holy Spirit has come to deal with
my present that I can overcome sin.
I don't overcome sin by the blood of
Christ.
The blood of Christ cleanses my past.
I overcome sin by the grace that the
Holy Spirit gives me.
That is what we can neglect.
So many believers are neglecting it.
Thank you, Brother Zach.
That was excellent.
And one more last question.
I think this is kind of related to
that.
You mentioned about forgiving others, right?
And you mentioned about repentance.
Several things that all these things happen appears
to be very difficult for me to do.
Why can't just God come and do that
for me?
Like several people asked that.
This is so difficult.
I can't do it.
Why can't God come and act on my
behalf?
Okay, let me use an illustration.
Here is a child who's gone to school.
And let's start from the earliest class in
the kindergarten class.
They're taught to write ABC in small letters.
And they're given a homework.
Write out this page of these words.
And the child goes home and his father
writes out the whole page for him.
And it's beautiful handwriting.
The child is only five years old.
And the teacher says, how did you do
this?
Such beautiful handwriting.
You're so young.
And he keeps quiet.
He's a liar.
His father did the whole thing for him.
Or in a higher class, a mathematics problem,
he's got to do homework.
And the father does the whole homework for
him.
And the next day he comes to school
with the homework done.
You think that child has learned anything?
That child has learned nothing.
All his homework is done by his father.
And he goes through school learning nothing.
None of you wise parents would ever do
that.
You say, you got to learn that, my
son.
You don't ask me to do it all
for you.
So if you say, God, you do it
all for me, you'll never be strong.
You'll be the same foolish, ignorant sinner you
were when you first came to the Lord.
He wants us to do it with him.
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11, and
verse 28, I'm sorry, verse 29, Matthew 11,
verse 29, take my yoke upon you and
learn from me.
See, in industrialized nations, we don't see this
so much because you've got tractors to plow
the field.
But if you go to the villages of
India, and like it was in the days
when Jesus spoke in Israel, everybody saw oxen
plowing the field.
And they always saw, everybody knew this illustration,
the yoke resting upon two oxen and both
the oxen plowing the field together and are
perfect.
And if you're grown up in a village
where oxen plow the field, you've seen that
yourself as well.
There are two oxen with a yoke upon
them.
And supposing one ox dies and they get
a new ox who does not know how
to plow.
And they team it up with a senior
experienced ox.
And if that senior experienced ox could speak
to the junior one, this is what he
would say, learn from me, walk with me,
and don't go faster than me, don't go
slower than me, don't go in some other
direction, go in the same direction I'm going,
at the same speed I'm going, learn from
me and you will plow an absolutely straight
furrow.
But if you don't learn from me, you'll
always plow a crooked furrow all your life.
So this is what Jesus is saying.
It's a tremendous humility where Jesus says, one
end of the yoke is on my neck,
you take the other end on your neck
and let's walk together.
Don't rush ahead of me, don't lag behind,
don't turn left or right, listen to me
as I go.
There's a verse that in the Old Testament,
which explains this in Isaiah, which says, your
ears will hear a word behind you saying,
this is the way, walk in it when
you turn to the right, Isaiah 30 and
verse 21.
Your ears will hear a word behind you,
this is the senior bullet telling the junior
one, this is the way, don't turn to
the right or left when you're going astray
and say, no, no, not that way, this
way.
That's what the Holy Spirit does.
So that is how the Lord wants to
work together with us, after some time that
junior bullet becomes a perfect flower of the
field, it can teach others.
So this is the way we are to
walk, learn from me, Jesus said, take my
yoke and learn from me, listen to me
every day, man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from
the mouth of God.
The most important thing we have to listen
to every day is the word of God
that Jesus speaks to us.
I don't mean just reading the Bible, but
listening to the Lord in our conscience, the
whole day, we will plow a straight furrow,
we will live an overcoming life and partake
of God's nature more and more.