It's good to have our eyes open to
see the mistakes other people have made, not
to find fault with them but to learn
lessons for ourselves.
A foolish man does not learn even from
his own mistakes.
An ordinary man learns at least from his
own mistakes.
But a wise man learns watching the mistakes
of others, not judging them but learning for
himself.
Can you think of some lesson you have
learned by watching somebody else's mistake without judging
him?
That's very important.
My initial tendency is to judge him.
But to say, Lord, there's something I can
learn from there.
I have read the Old Testament like that.
We have proclaimed in CFC through the years
that we are not under the old covenant.
That is the covenant God made with Moses
on Sinai with all those terms and conditions,
ten commandments.
We are not under them.
We are under a higher law of the
Sermon on the Mount.
But the Old Testament, the 39 books, that
is for us, that is part of the
Bible.
That is not abolished.
And the main thing I can learn from
those 39 books and from the historical sections
of the New Testament is lessons for myself.
And I believe this is one of the
mistakes the Pharisees made.
That they never sought to learn anything for
themselves.
They had very sharp eyes to judge other
people.
They even, it's not only the woman caught
in adultery, they were watching even Jesus with
very sharp eyes.
They would send people to Jesus to trap
him in his words.
Can you imagine doing things like that?
And they were supposed to be the most
righteous people of their time.
So the most righteous people of their time
were the ones whom Jesus condemned the most.
I don't find him condemning the Herodians or
the Sadducees so much or the Greeks or
the Romans or the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the people who obeyed the
scriptures and who had the closest in doctrine
to the Old Testament Bible.
It's a verse I've shown you before.
I'd like you all to see it again.
And those who haven't seen it before, let
me point it out to you.
Matthew 23.
Matthew 23 is a chapter full of the
denunciation of the Pharisees by Jesus.
But if you look carefully in the midst
of this chapter, there are two good things
that Jesus said about the Pharisees.
There are lots of things that we have
to beware of and avoid.
There are two good things.
And one of those good things is this.
In verse 3, he's talking about the Pharisees
in verse 2.
Verse 3, he told the disciples, everything that
the Pharisees tell you to do, do.
What does that prove?
That proves that all their doctrines were right.
Jesus cannot look at all the religious groups
today and say whatever they tell you to
do, do.
Impossible.
He cannot even look at all the Christian
denominations and tell you whatever they tell you
to do.
Some of you have come out of Christian
denominations.
Why did you leave them?
Because they were teaching some things that were
not correct.
Not that they were bad people.
There were some things in their teaching that
was not correct.
So think of that denomination you came out
from for that reason.
Jesus will not say whatever they tell you
to do, do.
You don't believe in infant baptism.
You're not following their methods and many other
things which they practice in their Christianity.
But when Jesus says about any group, whatever
they tell you to do, he's almost giving
a certificate saying all their doctrines, their doctrinal
statement is 100% right.
Which group is that today?
Do you feel you belong to a group
which has got its doctrines all correct?
I don't want to be act humble, but
I really believe that what we believe is
exactly according to scripture in everything.
So that Jesus may say, listening to our
messages and all the sermons preached here, Jesus
will say to people who come here, whatever
they tell you to do, do.
Because what they are teaching is absolutely right.
But does he have to say, please don't
watch their private lives.
The way they do certain things is not
right.
Their attitudes towards certain people is not right.
But their doctrine, you can sign it.
Jesus says, I can sign it myself.
It's absolutely true.
Now, if that is true, we are pretty
close to the Pharisees.
We might as well face up to it.
And if so, we have to judge ourselves
and cleanse ourselves.
For many years, I have felt that one
mark of the house of God, of the
family of God, is what is described in
1 Peter chapter 4.
1 Peter chapter 4 is what I believe
is one of the marks of the family
of God, the household of God.
It's a unique verse, 1 Peter and
chapter 4 and verse 17.
In the middle of that, it speaks of
the household of God, or the family of
God.
And it says, it is time for judgment
to begin, not to the unbeliever.
Judgment must begin within the family of God.
Are you part of the family of God?
Judgment must begin with you.
And this judgment must begin with us first.
So I have taken that very seriously now
for many, many years in my life.
I can stand before God and say this,
God is my witness that every single day
of my life for many years now, I
have judged myself in something or the other.
I preach a sermon, I go away and
judge myself.
What was there that I could have done
better, or I should not have said, or
I should have said, or did I bore
people, did I take too long?
I'm judging myself all the time, even in
a thing like that, even though preaching a
sermon may be a good thing and 101
people may have come and told me they
were blessed by it.
Okay, but I still judge myself.
I sometimes listen to my own sermons on
YouTube and say, Lord show me, is there
something I need to cleanse myself?
I do not, that is simply saying I
am not perfect.
When I judge myself, I'm testifying to the
Lord, Lord I'm not perfect.
And so I'm not perfect in my preaching,
I'm not perfect in my living, I keep
judging myself in my relationship with my wife,
even though I never lose my temper at
her anytime.
When I judge myself, I say, Lord that's
not enough.
I don't want my testimony to be negative.
The Bible doesn't say, husbands don't lose your
temper at your wife, that's a negative thing.
The Bible says, husbands love your wives as
Christ loved the church.
It's a positive thing.
So the mere fact I don't lose my
temper at my wife, that's okay, it's good,
but that's not the great thing.
The great thing is to learn to love
your wife as Christ loved the church, and
I haven't got there yet.
I'm working my way towards it.
My point is, as long as you, I
think all of us will say, we have
not become like Christ.
We all say that, but what are you
doing about it?
I mean, it's like saying a child wants
to complete, let's say at least 12th grade,
and he says, I haven't attained 12th grade,
but he doesn't want to sit in the
second grade all his life.
No, every year it's going forward.
It's examination in the class, it's a promotion
to the next.
That's how our life must be, and you'll
never be promoted in the Christian life to
a higher level if you are not judging
yourself.
It is the mark of the family of
God, and this is a very precious verse
to me.
Ever since I understood this great truth, that
anyone who acknowledges that he has not become
like Christ will be judging himself every day,
and if he does that, what will happen
is, he will make progress not once in
a year.
Children get promoted to the next class once
in a year, but a true Christian can
be promoted every day.
Let me show you that.
That's how Paul lived.
That's the challenge that comes to me.
In 2 Corinthians 4, we read, Paul says,
in the verse 16, 2 Corinthians 4, verse
16, in the middle of that verse, our
outer man, that is our physical body, is
decaying every day.
I mean, doctors will tell you, there are
thousands of cells dying in our body every
day.
Blood cells, brain cells are dying.
That's why as people get older, their memory
becomes weaker, because brain cells are dying by
the hundreds every day, and our outer body
is decaying.
But he says, in the same way, our
inner man is being renewed every day.
I mean, the body doesn't take a break
for one month, okay, and no cells will
die in this one month.
No such thing.
Even if you're the healthiest person in the
world, your brain cells are dying every day,
whether you like it or not, and many
parts of the other part of your body,
there are cells that are dying.
Some blood cells are replaced, but there are
cells dying every day.
And it never takes a holiday.
In the same way, the opposite of that,
the inner man should be renewed every day.
Renewed means a little more like Christ.
That's the only meaning of renewal.
A little more like Jesus Christ than I
was, not last year, than I was yesterday.
Okay, if you haven't got there, fine.
Let's work on it.
When you read something like that, does it
challenge you?
That's my question, not have you attained it.
When I read something in scripture, my first
question is not have I attained it, but
does it challenge me that I want to
get there?
I want to be where Paul was.
There are many things, you know, if you
read scripture, it would take a challenge from
the life of any of these men.
For example, John the Baptist.
I was just reading what I read many
times before.
Somebody came to John the Baptist.
You know how great preachers like to be
famous and known, and that's what puffs them
up and ruins them.
People came to John the Baptist and said,
are you Elijah?
No, he could have.
People think I'm Elijah.
He says, no, he didn't even think like
that.
Are you that prophet, Messiah?
Oh no.
What are you?
This is what challenged me.
Read it in John chapter one.
I am a voice.
Brother, sister, are you willing to be just
a voice, a voice for Jesus?
Nobody sees your face, nobody knows your name.
That's the way the Holy Spirit spoke to
me.
Are you willing to be a person whose
name nobody knows, whose face nobody recognizes?
Anywhere you go, you're not a famous person,
you're just an unknown, but you're a voice
for the Savior, a voice for Jesus Christ.
I mean, I read that before, but just
some time ago I read it again.
I said, boy, Lord, that's a challenge to
me.
I want to be a voice.
John the Baptist.
That's why Jesus said that man was the
greatest man that ever lived up to his
time.
What was so great about him?
And you know, the other thing about John
the Baptist, he was the one prophet who
never did one single miracle.
Some people think prophets must do miracles.
John the Baptist did none.
Elijah and Elisha did so many.
John the Baptist did zero.
And Jesus said he's the greatest prophet that
ever walked on this earth.
Not only the greatest prophet, he's the greatest
man since Adam before Jesus, who's John the
Baptist.
And what did he say about himself?
I'm a voice.
Never sought to promote himself.
Be a Christian like that, brothers.
Jesus said in Matthew 11 that the lowest
member of the kingdom of heaven of Christianity,
of a Christian, would be higher than John
the Baptist spiritually.
What does that mean?
If I am to be higher than John
the Baptist spiritually, it means that I'll be
willing to be humbler than him.
That's the meaning.
If he was only a voice, I want
to be less than that.
That is to be greater than John the
Baptist.
Because, I mean, Jesus is the humblest of
the law.
We can never reach his level.
I was thinking, meditating the other day on
this great verse, and I've meditated on it
many times before, but it came home fresh
to my heart.
It's amazing how the Bible is like a
well from which you can keep drawing all
the time, even after 60 years.
By the way, I was converted exactly 60
years ago.
I was just celebrating my 60th anniversary this
month of being born again.
I was 19 and a half.
I was in the naval base in July
1959.
My ship had been, I mean, my spiritual
ship was wandering, wandering, wandering for so many
years.
But that day I dropped an anchor.
I believe Jesus accepted me.
John 6, 37.
He said, I'll never cast you out.
And I had read that verse before, but
that date was like an anchor, and I
never doubted it.
All these 60 years, I've been anchored on
that verse.
Him that cometh to me, I will never
cast out.
Even though since then I've made many mistakes,
many blunders, disappointed the Lord, hurt Him in
so many ways, took time sometimes to confess
my sin, took advantage of the Lord in
many ways.
But He was so merciful, merciful, merciful, till
He finally, after about 16 years of being
born again Christian, the Lord began to open
my eyes to the new covenant, and to
being filled with the Holy Spirit, and to
knowing God as my Father, and to knowing
this wonderful truth that God loves me exactly
as He loved Jesus.
So many things opened up to me.
But for me, it took many years to
get there.
That's increased my responsibility.
But it's been my passion since then to
really become more.
I knew that I realized then my destination
was not heaven.
Till then my destination was heaven.
Now my destination was to become like Jesus
Christ.
It's very different from heaven.
I told the Lord, I'm ready to go
to hell.
If you're there, I'll spend eternity with you
in hell.
No problem.
Because for me, I don't desire anything.
I don't desire the comforts of heaven.
I desire Jesus.
And when I stand before the Lord, as
we all will stand in the Day of
Judgment, I don't know whether you realize that
the fact that we are going to stand
before the Lord should bring within us a
great reverence and fear.
If it doesn't bring a reverence and fear
in you, that you are going to stand
before the Lord to give an account of
everything in your life, I want to say
to you, my dear brother and sister, I
want to say it as lovingly as possible.
There is something fundamentally wrong with your Christianity.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10 and 11
to be read together.
2nd Corinthians 5, 10.
We must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ so that we will be recompensed.
Recompense means rewarded or punished accordingly for the
deeds we did in our body.
According to whatever, they're talking about believers now,
whether what we did was good or bad.
And therefore, whenever you read therefore in the
Bible, see what it is therefore.
What is it therefore?
It's related to the previous verse.
It's saying, knowing the fear of the Lord.
Why?
Because we're going to appear at the judgment
seat of Christ.
I know the fear of God and we
persuade men.
And what about your own ambition, Paul?
Verse 9, in light of the judgment seat,
we have only one ambition.
Whether at home in heaven or absent from
home here on this earth, one ambition to
please him.
You know, in the context, he's saying that
one day we'll be absent from the body
and present with the Lord.
He's saying in verse 1 and 2, our
permanent home is heaven.
So, verse 9, whether we are in our
permanent home in heaven or absent from our
permanent home here on this earth, we want
to be pleasing to him.
The meaning of that is the way I
pictured it in my mind is, when I
get to heaven, my life is going to
go full speed in one direction.
Pleasing God, pleasing God, pleasing God.
That's absolutely certain.
You and me, we'll be going full speed
in one direction in heaven.
Pleasing God, pleasing God, pleasing God.
That we have no doubt about.
And he's saying here that I want to
go in the same direction when I'm absent
from heaven here on this earth.
That means it's not that I'm going in
some other way here and suddenly the Lord
comes and I have to change direction and
start pleasing him.
No.
I want to be moving in exactly the
same direction right now as I will be
moving when I suddenly get transported to glory.
If I die tonight or the Lord comes
tomorrow, no change in direction.
Oh, come Lord, we're going the same way.
Pleasing the Lord.
I hope all of us will take this
challenge.
That there'll be no change of direction if
Christ comes.
Your ambition, what is it?
Verse 9, what is our ambition?
To please the Lord.
Young people ask me, is it good to
have an ambition?
I say, yeah, sure.
But make sure your ambition is a good
one.
You know, children have all types of ambitions.
I want to drive fire engines or I
don't know how many of them grow up
to drive fire engines when they grow up.
It's all exciting things, you know, I want
to be a marathon runner in the Olympics
or…
But here's a good ambition that we can
have and we can attain.
An ambition to please the Lord in exactly
the same way as I would be doing
when I'm absent from the body and present
to the Lord.
Lord, I don't want even a slight change
of direction.
It must be, I'll do it more perfectly
then, but my ambition must be the same.
Even if though I may do it more
perfectly in heaven, my ambition should not change
at all.
He's not saying I'll be able to do
it as perfectly on earth as I do
it in heaven, but I believe my ambition
can be exactly the same here on earth
as in heaven.
Only please the Lord.
In any situation, okay, what is pleasing to
the Lord here?
You're finding God's will about some complicated situation.
Lord, what's pleasing to you?
That's all.
No other question.
What is pleasing to you?
Not what is good for me or what
is most beneficial for me or what's most
beneficial for my family or how much money
I've learned.
Okay, okay, those are the things worldly people
have as their ambition and those are the
things that we also had once upon a
time, but I hope we are converted.
I hope you have turned around from that
and say now I want to please the
Lord.
And don't think, you know, there's a word
in English called spoilsport.
Spoilsport means someone who likes to mess up
your life in some way by spoiling you.
So sometimes people think God is a spoilsport.
If I yield completely to him, he'll mess
up all mine.
He'll tell me to take the worst possible
job and go and live in the most
difficult place on earth to live.
What a crazy idea.
Do you think your earthly father will do
that to you?
Any of you, do you think your earthly
father would try and plan something like that
for you?
And Jesus says, you earthly fathers know how
to give good things to your children.
How much more will your heavenly father?
Many people have a wrong concept of God
as a spoilsport.
I say he's my earthly father, always planned
something good for me.
I've always planned something good for my children.
And I tell you my heavenly father is
a million times better than that.
Plans what is good for me, but he
knows what is eternally good for me.
That's the advantage.
So he may take me through some trials,
which I may like to avoid my children
going through.
But my father does not stop me from
that because he knows that's good for me.
So, but we live in this fear.
One day I'm going to stand before the
Lord and I have to give an account
to him.
And when I give an account to him,
the verse that has helped me, I hope
it'll help you also, is 1 Corinthians chapter
11.
You know, I pictured it like this.
When we all, you know, like one by
one, we are going to stand before the
Lord to be judged by him.
And I pictured Christ sitting at his judgment
seat and he calls up different people by
name, you know, millions we've got all eternity.
So plenty of time to do it.
One by one, he calls different ones and
he goes through the record of their life.
That's what he reads.
Everything done in his body.
And maybe there's going to be a video
that the whole world can see.
The video of all that you did, at
least, at least from the time you were
born again.
Okay.
All the past is blotted out.
But from the time you were born again,
everything that you did, every sin that you
confessed and forsook is cleansed.
That will not be in the video because
you confessed it, forsook it.
But if you didn't forgive somebody or you
did not ask for forgiveness from somebody, all
that will be there.
A lot of things are going to be
in that video.
And when the Lord plays that video there,
are there things which will make me shrink
in shame?
Do you know the Bible says that when
Jesus comes again, there are going to be
two categories of believers.
Now we all know there are two categories
of believers and unbelievers, but here's two categories
of believers when Christ comes.
Turn with me to 1 John and chapter
2.
When Christ comes again, 1 John and chapter
2 and verse 28.
Can you see the two categories there?
My little children, when Christ appears, there will
be two categories of people.
One who have confidence and boldness and say,
yeah Lord, praise God you've come.
I'm waiting to stand at your judgment seat.
One group is like that.
And the other, believers now, still believers, oh
Lord, have you come already?
And I haven't settled those matters.
I haven't repaid those debts.
I haven't asked forgiveness from that guy.
I didn't go and forgive that other person.
They shrink away.
These are believers in shame.
A lot of people think that all believers
are going to be the same.
I don't think so.
There are two groups right here and I'll
show you from Revelation and there are two
groups.
A lot of people don't like to face
up to this, but it is true.
You might as well face up to it
now.
Here is one group in heaven.
Revelation chapter 7.
And I saw a great multitude, verse 9,
Revelation 7, 9.
No one could count.
No one could count means billions and billions.
I'm not talking about human beings.
I'm talking about people who are in heaven.
Okay, praise the Lord.
Billions of people in heaven from every nation,
every tribe, every people, every tongue.
Now, I want to tell you quite honestly,
if you study the spread of Christianity right
now, up to the 21st century, every nation
has not been covered with the gospel.
Every tongue does not have a Bible.
Every tribe does not have one convert, at
least from every tribe.
I mean, even in India, in the Andamans,
there's a tribe there and not a single
person been converted from that.
But here it says there will be from
every tribe and tongue and nation and I'll
tell you who they are.
In every tribe and every tongue and every
nation in the world, babies have died at
birth.
That's how there's going to be people from
every tribe and tongue and nation in heaven.
Not one will be left out, because from
every nation and every tribe, there have been
babies that have died at birth and they
all go straight to heaven, not because they
are babies, but because the blood of Jesus
is put to their account.
You know, just like you can be a
millionaire's son, baby and a baby and you
can have a bank account of a million
when you're one day old, because the daddy
put that much in your account.
So the blood of Jesus is put to
the account of babies who have not consciously
committed any sin.
So there will be some from every tribe,
tongue and nation there.
Think of all the aborted babies, millions of
aborted babies, even in the educated countries.
They're going to be there.
And then what do they say?
All that they say is, our salvation is
due to what the Lord has done for
us.
They cry out saying, our salvation is due
to our God who sits on the throne
and our Lamb.
What do we have?
We have white robes and we have made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
That is their only testimony.
Even babies are born in sin, but it
has been cleansed.
Even that baby that never saw life on
earth, that aborted baby that's in heaven now,
say the blood of Jesus has allowed me
to be cleansed and I can stand here.
And the great sinner who died, the thief
on the cross who murdered people till almost
the last day of his life, he says
the blood of Jesus has cleansed me.
I'm here.
They cannot boast about anything.
My robe was filthy, but the blood of
Jesus made me clean.
I cannot boast about anything else.
I didn't do a single thing for the
Lord.
That baby says that, the thief on the
cross says that, but the blood of Jesus
has cleansed me.
I'm here.
And how many are there?
Millions, billions.
But there's another group in heaven, which is
a little smaller group.
The first group is so big you cannot
count them.
The second group is small enough to be
counted.
It's fairly large, but it's small enough to
be counted.
Revelation 14.
Remember, Revelation is a book of symbols.
So when it says 144,000 is not
literally 144,000.
The meaning is in Revelation 7 is a
number that cannot be counted.
In chapter 14 is a number that can
be counted.
That's the only difference.
It may not be exactly 144,000.
But this is a group of people who
have the name of the Father and of
the Lord Jesus written on their foreheads.
Now you need to see that the contrast
is between the followers of the Antichrist who
have the name of the Antichrist written either
in the previous chapter, chapter 13, verse 16.
The Antichrist allows you to have his mark
on the forehead, verse 13, 16, or on
your right hand.
But the Lamb of God does not allow
you to have it on the right hand.
It must be chapter 14, verse 1 on
the forehead.
You've got to see the contrast.
The devil allows you to follow him publicly.
I am a follower of Satan on your
forehead or secretly hide it inside your right
hand and follow the devil secretly in your
office and come to the church and act
like a wholehearted believer, follow the devil watching
pornography in your room, secretly even come to
the church and look smart.
The devil allows people to be secret believers,
secret followers of him.
But all public followers like the Satanists and
worshippers, both types, there are religions where they
put the mark of the religion on their
forehead.
They openly proclaim, I'm a follower of this
wrong religion or something.
But there are others who follow the same
unrighteous principles but it's in secret.
The devil says, I allow you, put the
mark on the hand so nobody will see
it.
But the Lord Jesus says, no, if you
want to follow me, verse 14, you must
have my name on your forehead.
There's no such thing as being a secret
follower of me.
Wherever you go, you're publicly known as a
disciple of Jesus Christ and I'm not ashamed
of it.
Whether you're a school boy, a college student
or working in an office where everybody's corrupt,
you stand up for, you don't have to
be a preacher, but you say, I'm a
follower of Jesus Christ.
And I tell you, it's one of the
greatest honors and privileges.
I had such tremendous opportunities to do that
when I worked in the Navy with unconverted,
non-Christian bosses before whom I had to
say, sorry sir, I'm a Christian and I
cannot do that.
What an honor!
And sometimes they would punish me for it.
I would suffer for it, fine.
I mean, they almost locked me up in
prison when I refused to, not for being
a Christian, but for refusing to obey an
order, which I said, I cannot do with
a clear conscience.
I'm sorry, sir.
Okay.
But somehow God protected me from that.
But I'm thankful.
And I was only 23 years old and
I had a number of occasions to do
that.
And then after the Lord had seen me
doing that one day, the Lord said, okay,
you can quit the Navy and serve me
now.
He tested me for years before doing that.
I think mainly to see that when he
took me into the ministry years later, whether
I would stand up against all the corruption
there is in Christianity.
But he trained me out there in the
Navy.
And I'm telling you this, God will give
you opportunities in your place of work to
stand up for what is the truth.
And I remember one secretary in an office,
a Christian, asked me this question, Brother Zach,
see, I'm sitting with the boss in the
office and the phone rings.
I mean, it was not cell phones those
days.
It was hand phones on the table.
It was years ago.
And the boss asked, the secretary says, Brother
Zach, the boss asked me to pick up
the phone and if he's calling for me,
tell him I'm not here.
What should I do?
So I said, you discover it only when
you pick up the phone, who he's asking
for.
So here's what you should do.
You pick up the phone and your boss
has told you.
And that chap asked you, is the boss
here?
Put the phone back.
Disconnect the phone.
And he'll ring again.
Now tell the boss, Sir, please ask somebody
else to answer the phone now because the
chef is going to call again.
I'm a Christian.
I cannot tell a lie.
You may lose your job.
I tell you in Jesus name, you'll get
a better one.
I've seen people.
This is what I've taught and I've seen
people experience it.
Because the one verse in scripture which says,
those who honor me, I will honor.
I've experienced it myself so many times.
Once I got a transfer in half an
hour, I took a stand for something.
I just turned out of my job and
got another one.
I said, praise the Lord.
So those are precious experiences.
So have the mark on the forehead.
But this number is very small.
And what is the characteristic of them?
It says here, as described in verse 4,
they followed the Lord, the Lamb, wherever He
went.
Wherever Jesus went, they looked for the footsteps
of Jesus and they walked there.
Always looking for the footsteps of Jesus.
Sometimes it's not very pleasant.
I remember when religious people took me to
court once in India, the Lord spoke to
me.
The first day I stepped into the court,
He said, don't forget religious people have taken
me also to court 2,000 years ago.
Look for my footsteps here.
I said, what are those footsteps?
Faith in a loving heavenly Father and love
for your accusers.
I said, great.
That's what I'm going to walk in.
Faith and love.
Faith in my heavenly Father controlling all circumstances
here in the court and love for those
people accusing me there, to love them and
bless them when I meet them.
Good.
I did that.
It's a wonderful experience.
So follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
It's not always easy.
Jesus didn't have an easy path.
But it's wonderful to be in that small
group of people, not like the millions who
say, oh, the blood of Jesus has cleansed
me.
I was a rotten sinner, but somehow the
blood cleansed me.
I'm here.
That's great.
Praise the Lord, brother.
You're my brother in Christ.
But I want to have to, I don't
want to be like the dying thief.
What do you think regret the dying thief
has in heaven today?
Oh, I wish I had lived at least
one day for my Savior.
I did not even get one day to
live for Him.
Think of the regret that man has.
I got saved and I died immediately.
And He'll tell you, you guys are so
lucky after you got saved.
You had so many years.
I hope you did something for the Lord
in those years.
That's what the dying thief will tell you
and me.
And I want to say, yes, my brother,
the Lord gave me 60 years after I
was converted and I could do things for
Him.
I hope you left some testimony like that.
And you followed the Lamb wherever He went.
And it says here, they were those who
kept themselves when it says they were worse
for they were not defiled with women.
The women mentioned are the daughters of Babylon.
You read that in Chapter 17.
Corrupt Christianity is called a harlot system full
of harlots, spiritual harlotry.
And this is a group that kept themselves
from the spiritual harlotry of the daughters of
Babylon.
Babylon and his daughters, it speaks in Chapter
17.
They did not defile themselves with compromising Christianity.
Babylon is compromising Christianity.
So that these are the things that we
need to judge ourselves in.
And 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 tells us how
we can be ready for the coming of
the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11.
Think of this day when we stand before
Jesus and He judges all human beings.
There are many things we regret for failures.
We ask God to forgive us and relent
from those failures.
You know, when I think of the Apostle
Paul, he lived 67 years and then he
was beheaded by Nero, the emperor.
Out of those 67 years, 30 years he
did wrong things.
What type of wrong thing?
Worse than you and me.
He persecuted Christians and killed some of them.
Anybody here done anything like that?
Imagine having a record where I have persecuted
God's people and killed some of them, then
I get converted.
I know, I regret the years when I
disappointed the Lord so much.
But you know what the result of that
was?
When I meditate on those years, I say,
Lord, I'm going to run much faster because
I wasted so much time.
It's like that Olympic runner I saw in
a video of one of those recent Olympics,
one of those African long distance runners.
He tripped and fell and he got up.
You know, once you trip and fall in
a race, it's almost impossible to win.
This guy tripped and fell and got up
and ran and came first.
I said, wow, what an example for me.
Because he said, I've got to make up
for this time I lost.
That's exactly how I felt.
I said, Lord, I've lost a lot of
time by being half-hearted and not serious
in my Christian life.
I have to make up for it.
I can't be like all these other young
fellows who sort of slowly move along at
a steady pace.
I have no time for that steady pace.
I've got to go full speed because I
wasted so much time.
I've told people in my own home church,
I said, many of you guys are learning
things at the age of 17 and 18.
What I learned when I was 36.
So you have much more opportunity, if you
come to my age, 80, to go way
much further than I have come in the
Christian life.
But when I see the way you're living,
I don't think you'll beat me.
Because I've got so much regret over the
way I messed up things in my life
that I'm going full speed and I don't
see you guys going full speed like that.
I see you guys are so careless and
slack and drifting along.
You come to a good new covenant church,
but you're not radical.
And so I tell you, I'm disappointed in
the sort of half-hearted way.
You're moving in the right direction, agreed.
And you understood all the new covenant and
all, but it's not a radical, wholehearted, fast
pace at which you're running.
That's how Paul felt.
I messed up so much of my life.
I've done so many evil things.
Peter, Paul, Peter, John, James, and all haven't
done it.
I've got to run.
And that's why God picked him up and
used him so much.
There's no partiality with God.
There's no partiality.
He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek
him.
He says, if you seek me with all
your heart, you will find me.
Whoever you are, there's no partiality with me.
So 1 Corinthians 11, come to this verse,
has been a tremendous help to me.
When the Lord judges everyone, it says here,
1 Corinthians 11, 1
Corinthians 11, 31.
If we judge ourselves rightly, rightly, rightly
in the day of judgment, we will not
be judged.
What a promise.
That means my turn comes to stand before
the Lord.
The Lord calls out, Zach Poonen, when I
come and stand there, and the Lord opens
the records, the video.
No, Zach, nothing to be judged.
Wow.
Can you imagine how excited I'll be?
Is there anything on earth to compare with
that?
Well done, good and faithful servant, there's nothing
to be judged.
It says here, there'll be nothing to be
judged.
Why?
Because I tried my best to judge myself
every day from the time I got light.
And I decided to run faster than the
others because I've wasted so many years of
my life.
Dear brothers and sisters, take it seriously.
We can glory in the fact like the
Pharisees, Jesus says, all that this church says
to you, do, do.
NCCF is teaching the right thing.
Everything they tell you to do, do.
Believe what they do.
This is absolutely the right doctrine.
You won't find another church like that in
California.
Great.
It means nothing.
You can boast about it, glory about it.
But it'll mean nothing when you stand before
the Lord.
If you have not judged yourself rightly, that
born again, God fearing man from the Roman
Catholic Church may be ahead of you, because
he judged himself rightly.
His doctrines may have been wrong.
But the Lord will say, look at that
what man did with that wrong doctrine.
And how you should have been way ahead
of him with all the right doctrines.
To whom more is given, more will be
required.
I've had some people tell me, Brother Zak,
my life, I can't progress much because my
wife is so half-hearted and not serious
disciple.
I say, you know what will happen to
you in the day of judgment?
When you stand before the Lord and give
that excuse, Lord, I couldn't wholeheartedly follow you
because my wife was such a drag on
me.
The Lord will say, hey, let me call
that man from there.
That man from that country, come here.
He'll call him before you and say, I'll
show you a video of his life and
show you what type of wife he had.
You see that?
How she yelled and screamed at him and
did all types of things against him.
But see what a wholehearted life he lived.
What do you have to say?
Your mouth will be shut.
John Wesley was one of the greatest men
of God who lived on this earth and
as a witness for Christ.
He had a wife who was really unconverted,
would pull his hair in the presence of
his senior co-workers.
She would open up the letters which he
had written for posting.
And when he was away, she would open
up and write some other nonsense inside that
in those letters, fold it up, stick it
and mail it.
Have you got a wife like that?
Don't ever complain that your wife or your
husband is not wholehearted.
There is absolutely no excuse.
God's grace is sufficient to overcome every single
problem.
You have only yourself to blame if you
sin.
You have only yourself to blame if you're
not becoming more like Christ at least every
year.
And people around you should be able to
listen to it.
Whenever I hear some couple comes to me
and some brother says, brother I've been listening
to your message for 10 years.
I say I want to ask your wife
whether you've become a better husband.
Otherwise what you're saying you've listened to me
for 10 years.
Let your wife tell me that you've become
a much better husband in 10 years.
Oh then something has happened.
Otherwise it's just knowledge.
It's very easy for people to listen to
me and get a lot of knowledge, correct
knowledge.
But it doesn't help to know that two
times two is four, two times three is
six.
It's all accurate but how does it help
you spiritually?
So it's very very important dear brothers and
sisters to be ready for the coming of
Christ with judging ourselves rightly and having no
regret when we stand before the Lord.
May the Lord help us.
Let's bow our heads for a moment.
Thank you father for your word which is
a lamp to our feet and light to
our path and above all the life of
Jesus which is a tremendous example for us
to follow.
Please help us we pray.
Everyone here Lord we know you have great
plans for this church and for the truth
that is proclaimed here that can transform lives
and families.
We pray that you will bless every single
person here and all those who've come newly
and those who are seeking to be members
here Lord we pray there'll be a radical
attitude towards discipleship and also an unashamed proclamation
of their loyalty to Christ in a time
like this where so many are compromising.
Help this church and everyone here to be
true to you.
We know we will have no regret when
we stand before you face to face.
Thank you father in Jesus name.
Amen.