Let's turn to a verse that you've been
looking at in the last couple of days.
It's in 1 Timothy and chapter 1.
We saw in our last session, let me
just revise briefly, faith is helpless dependence upon
God like the branch in the tree.
The branch can do nothing and Jesus said,
apart from me, you can do nothing.
And I explained that that is the secret
of an overcoming life.
When as long as Lazarus was struggling to
live, Jesus did not come.
But once Lazarus had died, then Jesus came.
That's the principle of God waits till we
come to zero and then he works in
us.
True humility is to come to a zero
point in our life and God gives his
grace to the humble.
It's like water, water always flows to the
lowest place first.
So remember this, if you're not overcoming sin,
there's only one reason you're not getting grace
and there's only one reason you're not getting
grace, even though you may think you're humble,
God does not think so.
You're not helplessly dependent on him.
You have some confidence in yourself.
So here Paul says to Timothy in 1
Timothy 1.5, the goal of our instruction,
that means all the teaching that we are
giving has got a final goal.
Just like in soccer, the aim is to
put the ball through the goal.
So that's the meaning of goal.
The goal of all our instruction is love
from a pure heart and a good conscience
and a sincere faith.
So you heard already in the previous session
something about a good conscience and a sincere
faith.
I want to speak about this phrase, love
from a pure heart.
What does it mean to have a pure
heart?
A pure heart and a good conscience.
Now if someone were to ask you on
the basis of that verse, what is the
difference between a pure heart and a good
conscience?
Can you tell me?
If someone were to ask you that question
and say you are a Christian, you say
you know the Lord, you read the Bible
and he asks you, can you please explain
to me 1 Timothy 1.5, what is
the difference between a pure heart and a
good conscience?
I'll tell you something about Bible study.
If you come across a verse that you
cannot understand and you just go around it
and go to the next verse, God will
see that.
What will he see?
That you have no interest in knowing the
truth.
There's a truth there, but you don't understand
it as you go to the next verse.
It's like a farmer who is plowing the
field and he comes across a rock in
the middle.
Instead of digging it out, he goes around
the rock and he comes across another rock
and he leaves that, and he comes across
another rock and he leaves that.
His field will be full of rocks.
And that is how it is with many,
many believers.
They read the Bible, they come to a
verse they don't understand, okay, leave it, they
go to the next verse.
And like that, even after 20, 30 years,
there are so many things in the New
Testament, they're just not, they haven't understood it
all and they're not bothered about it.
They're not interested in understanding.
Now you tell me, if God sees that
you're not really interested in understanding his word,
do you think he's going to bring you
into a life of victory and overcoming and
give you a very blessed personal life and
blessed family life?
No.
He sees that I've got to give him
my word when you read something, he doesn't
understand it, he just leaves it and goes
to the next verse.
That's a policy I followed.
I started studying the Bible more than 60
years ago, soon after I was born again.
And if I didn't understand something, I would
read this book and that book and the
other book and say, most of those books
couldn't tell me much, but sometimes they got
an answer, but I was determined to find
out.
So, you know, today in CFC India, we
have so many resources to study the Bible.
I don't know whether you know that.
Let me begin with just mentioning something about
what we have in the CFC India website.
We have 72 12-minute studies called Basic
Christian Teachings.
It's like the kindergarten lesson.
It's only 10-12 minutes.
And if you spend just 12 minutes a
day, in less than three months, you've gone
through it and you've got a good foundation.
And then we have, you know, foundational biblical
truths, which is about 28 half an hour
studies, which is video.
Another one is audio, which if you go
through, you again get a good foundation.
And then to study the Bible itself, we
have a number of studies called All That
Jesus Taught, 80 studies about half an hour
each, which goes through the whole gospel of
Matthew.
And then we have Through the Bible, which
is 70 hours of video, which goes from
Genesis to Revelation to give you a picture
of the whole Bible.
And then we have another study called Verse
by Verse through the New Testament, which takes
every verse, starting with Matthew chapter one, verse
one, and goes right up to the last
verse in Revelation.
And that'll take you a few, maybe a
few years to finish listening to it.
But if some of you had started and
spent just 15 minutes a day three years
ago, you'd have probably finished it by now.
15 minutes of Bible study.
It could have changed your life.
The Bible says faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God.
So if you neglect the word of God,
you're not going to have faith.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of Christ, Romans 10, verse 17.
So that is why I emphasize studying the
scriptures.
That's how faith came in my heart.
The more I studied the scriptures, that's God's
word.
Faith comes by hearing God saying, this is
what God has said.
And you know, right in the first chapter
of the Bible, you see the power of
God's word.
God said, let there be light.
There was light.
And God said, let the stars appear.
The stars appear.
Let the sun and moon appear.
It appeared.
The lesson you learn in the Genesis chapter
one is the tremendous power in God's word.
When the earth submitted to that word, something
happened.
Let the trees come out.
The trees came out.
Now apply that to your life.
When you read God's word and you allow
it to come into your heart, it'll produce
something.
That is a message of Genesis chapter one.
So I want to encourage all of you,
at least from today onwards, spend 15 minutes
a day on pure Bible study, listening to
some of those studies that are in CFC
India.
It's all free.
You can go there and you can even
get a CFC app on your phone and
you can listen to it wherever you go.
You go for a walk, you can listen
to it.
And over a period of time, you'll find
that not only you get enriched, faith comes
in your heart more and more and problems
that you have.
I'll tell you another experience I've had in
listening to God's word like this.
Sometimes I'm reading a word and that has
an answer for a particular problem I'm facing
in my life or in my work.
So what I want to say is there's
a word in the Psalms which I don't
know whether you've read it.
Many times at the end of a Psalm
it says Selah.
S-E-L-A-H.
Have you ever thought that's a Hebrew word
which means stop and think about it.
So that's what happened just now.
Selah.
Just stop and think about what you heard
all this time.
That is, you're speaking about a very important
subject called anger.
And I think God put a Selah there
saying stop and think about it and don't
take it lightly.
Because Matthew 5 20, the Lord said your
righteousness must be more than the righteousness of
the Pharisees.
And the righteousness of the Pharisees will don't
commit murder.
But I say to you don't get angry.
Verse 22.
That's new covenant equivalent of don't murder.
Otherwise he said you can go to hell.
And then now listen to this.
We are talking about a good conscience.
Verse 23.
What is the context?
Please read the Bible in context.
What is the subject?
Verse 22.
The subject is getting angry.
And usually anger is mostly found in our
home first.
So think about getting angry in your home.
And then you go to God in prayer.
Verse 23.
You come to the altar, present your offering,
means you're offering prayer to God.
And then you remember while you're praying, you
hurt your brother or your husband or your
wife with what?
Verse 22.
Anger.
Always read the Bible in its context.
You got angry with someone and you did
not apologize.
You did not set it right.
You poked somebody in some way and you
come to God in prayer.
You know what the Lord says?
Verse 24.
Leave your offering there.
Jesus says stop praying.
Can you imagine Jesus says stop praying?
He told us to pray all the time,
but he says stop praying.
Don't pray because your prayer is not going
to be heard.
A lot of believers prayers are not heard.
And the answer is here.
Leave your offering there.
Go to your brother or to your husband
or your wife or X, Y, Z, whoever
it is.
And verse 24, be reconciled with that person.
Apologizing for what you did wrong.
Then come and offer your prayer.
I want to ask all of you a
straight question.
How many of you do that?
I'm sure all of us who are married
have hurt our husbands or wives sometime or
the other.
Did you apologize?
When did you apologize?
Next day or one week later?
Or keep a grudge for a few days
and then settle it?
You're a Pharisee.
I'll tell you to your face you're a
Pharisee.
And I would also say to you, my
dear brother, sister, let me say this lovingly.
You do not fear God.
You have no respect for the words of
Jesus Christ.
And say that again.
You have no respect for the words of
Jesus Christ who said, don't pray.
Go and settle that matter with your brother,
husband, wife, whoever it is, then come and
pray.
But you ignore that.
And you say, I'm going to pray.
Well, you can pray as much as you
like.
God's not going to hear you.
A lot of your prayers were never heard
by God, just went to the roof and
came down.
What is the difference then between you and
all those other Hindus or non-Christians who
also pray?
Nothing happens.
People pray to an idol, nothing happens.
Your prayer also, they may not be an
idol, but it just goes up to the
roof and comes back.
You say, but God answered some prayers of
mine.
Sure.
God is merciful.
The Bible says God sends his rain on
the righteous and the unrighteous.
He makes the sun to rise upon the
good and the evil.
So there are certain blessings God gives to
everybody, whether you're righteous or unrighteous, good or
evil, but you'll never have God's best if
you don't settle those things immediately.
Good conscience means as soon as you feel
a prick, you settle it.
To use an example, if you're walking barefoot
in the grass and a thorn gets into
your foot, let's say you're walking barefoot somewhere
and a thorn gets into your foot.
You feel it immediately.
My question is, when will you remove that
thorn?
Tomorrow, next day, after a week.
We will remove it immediately, not only because
it's paining, but because we know it'll get
infected.
And when it gets infected, the problem will
be much worse.
That's exactly how it is when you have
done something wrong to somebody else, spoke in
a rude way or something, and you have
not said it right.
It gets infected.
There is a spiritual fuss that comes there
that hinders your fellowship with God.
So I want you to take this very
seriously.
When you come to God in prayer, you
suddenly remember that, hey, I didn't set that
matter right with that other person, somebody in
your home, somebody in your office, whoever it
is, even if it's a beggar, a homeless
person.
In India, we have beggars that come to
the gate and knock at the gate and
knock at the gate, and you can get
easily irritated with them.
I've told people, if you are rude to
a beggar, you tell him, get away, I
don't want to see you, or something like
that.
You know what you should do?
Follow him, go after him and say, I'm
sorry, sir.
Please forgive me for speaking to you like
that.
That beggar may be poorer than you, but
he's made in the image of God, child
of Adam, and you have been rude to
someone who was made in the image of
God.
Go and set it right.
James says that.
You read James chapter three.
He says, you speak blessed words to God,
and in the same mouth, you speak a
rude word to people who are made in
the image of God.
You read that in James chapter three.
Settle it, settle it.
That is how we must keep our conscience
clear, immediately, immediately.
It has changed my life from the time
I decided to follow it, immediately.
Set it right, and if someone far away,
make a phone call or write a letter,
set it right, set it right.
I've sought to live with a good conscience
for many years, and the advantage is you
can hear God clearly.
Many people say, I can't hear God.
I'll tell you why.
The ear is blocked with a dead conscience.
Do you think God doesn't want to speak
to his children?
You tell me, many of you are fathers
and mothers.
Don't you like to speak to your children?
Is there any father or mother who has
no interest in speaking to the children?
And the Lord says, if you being evil
are eager to speak to your children, how
much more your heavenly father is eager to
speak to you?
Then why do you say you don't hear
him?
You don't hear him because your ears are
blocked, and the ears are blocked with a
bad conscience.
Then God can, John said in Revelation chapter
one, John the apostle says, I heard the
voice of the Lord like a trumpet.
Oh, like a trumpet, and you can't hear
it at all?
Yeah, a deaf man can't even hear a
trumpet.
How is it that John the apostle heard
the Lord's voice like a trumpet?
Because his conscience was clear.
Faith and a good conscience, very, very, very
important.
Please keep this in mind, dear brothers and
sisters.
And don't forget it, please.
Some of the things that you hear today,
I would encourage you to go and listen
to the message again.
When you tend to forget it, listen to
it again.
Thank God for recorded messages that we can
hear again and again.
And if you find that a particular message
challenged you and blessed you, make a note
of that link somewhere and go back to
it.
See, we have about 2,000 messages on
different subjects on YouTube, and the purpose of
all those messages is to help you to
have a good conscience in different areas, to
help you to have faith in God, to
help you to be helpless in your dependence
upon God.
So keep a good conscience.
Leave your offering there.
Stop praying.
First be reconciled to that person, and then
come and present your offering.
So that is one part of a good
conscience, where you have hurt somebody, and you
must go and ask his forgiveness.
Let it be a habit in your life
that you're quick to humble yourself, to ask
forgiveness.
I'll tell you, there is only one reason,
only one reason why you are slow in
asking forgiveness from your husband or your wife,
or it could be a maidservant in the
house, it could be anybody.
Pride, P-R-I-D-E.
That's the only reason why you don't go
immediately and ask forgiveness, and that is why
God resists you.
The Bible says God resists the proud.
You'll never make progress in your life if
God resists you, and one mark of pride
is an unwillingness to go and ask forgiveness
from somebody.
God will resist you until you set that
right.
Think of the number of days in your
life that you're wasted like this, keeping a
thorn, one thorn, two thorns, three thorns in
your foot, never pulling them out till they
get infected.
Make sure that from now on it doesn't
happen like that, that you stop praying, leave
your offering, go and settle it and come
back.
Very, very important.
It's a simple thing.
Pull out a thorn, confess, say, Lord, say,
brother, I'm sorry.
Don't tell your husband or wife, darling, I'm
sorry for what I said.
Please forgive me.
I want to be more careful in what
I say.
Keep a good relationship.
If it's somebody in the church, you hurt
and set it right.
Okay.
The other aspect is this, good conscience.
Turn to Matthew chapter six.
Here, there is a prayer.
We are taught to pray, and this is
a prayer.
Even if you don't repeat it every day,
all our prayers, you must pray.
You must have a spirit of prayer every
day.
Definitely.
Even if you don't spend hours in prayer,
this prayer takes less than five minutes, but
we know it is an attitude of prayer
we must have every day because one sentence,
it says in verse 11, give us this,
Matthew 6, 11, give us this day our
daily food.
So that talks about this day, daily.
So the whole prayer, even if you don't
repeat it, should be the spirit of your
daily praying.
Jesus expects us to pray daily, and that's
why you read that, give us today our
daily bread.
That means all that prayer, that spirit of
that prayer, must be every day in our
prayers.
And one of the things we pray for
every day is verse 12, forgive us our
debts or our sins as we have forgiven
others the sins they have committed against us.
This is the opposite of what we read
in Matthew chapter five, that it was where
you sinned against somebody, and you go and
ask his forgiveness.
This is where somebody sins against you, and
you have to forgive him.
What is the prayer?
Let me paraphrase it, verse 12, it's a
daily prayer, Lord today, please forgive.
We may not consciously sin every day, but
unconsciously we are sinning every single day.
Until you become 100% like Christ, there
is some type of unconscious thing coming out
of you, which you may not be aware
of.
It's like this body odor, you know, if
you perspire a lot or you haven't had
a shower for a long time, there is
a smell, a bad smell that comes out
of your body.
Everybody else can smell it, but you yourself
cannot.
There's a problem with body odor.
The person who has it doesn't smell it,
he thinks he's smelling nice, and everybody's feeling
like holding their noses.
But it's like that, you know, the things
that come out from us, un-Christlike behavior,
conversation, gossip, backbiting, so many things which we
are not even aware of, that there's something
wrong in that, a certain attitude or the
way you say something, and you don't realize
that's un-Christlike.
So even if you don't consciously sin in
any day, unconsciously you're sinning.
That's why we need to pray every day,
Lord, please forgive my sins.
Forgive my sins, and it says here, not
just forgive my sins, forgive my sins in
the same way as I have forgiven others
their sins against me.
See the connection?
How should we ask the Lord for forgiveness?
Forgive me, Lord, in exactly the same way,
verse 12, as I have forgiven that person
who did something wrong to me.
Okay, question is, how did you forgive that
person?
First of all, have you forgiven him at
all?
Have you forgiven everybody who did wrong to
you?
I want to ask you a straight question.
Think of all the people who have done
wrong to you.
Anybody who's older than five years old, people
have done wrong to them, even children.
There are many people who have done wrong
to you throughout your life.
It's true of every single one of you.
It's true of every human being.
My question is, have you forgiven all of
them?
Not 99% of them, all of them.
All the people who did wrong to you,
some of them have died.
They did wrong to you.
Maybe your parents brought you up badly, or
some uncle, or aunt, or mother-in-law,
or somebody cheated you of the property, perhaps,
which you deserve, family wealth, or something.
Have you forgiven them?
That's my question.
Why do I ask that question?
Because you're telling God, God, my Father, please
forgive me in exactly the same way I
have forgiven this person.
And if you have not forgiven this person,
your prayer is, Lord, don't forgive me.
Did you know that?
You're telling God not to forgive you?
Yes.
If there is one person on earth, listen
carefully, if there's one person on earth today,
almost dead and gone, whom you have not
forgiven for something that person did against you,
or said against you, or harmed you, or
cheated you, or whatever it is, and you
have not forgiven, you're saying, Lord, forgive me
in the same way I forgave that person.
The Lord says you didn't forgive him.
So you're actually asking me not to forgive
you.
Do you understand that?
Forgive me in the same way I have
forgiven that person, but you're not forgiving that
person.
So you're praying to God, Lord, don't forgive
me.
Actually, many Christians are praying to God, don't
forgive me.
Lord, don't forgive me, because I haven't forgiven
that person, and I haven't forgiven that other
person.
Do you know that many people, when they
stand before the Lord, the Lord will say,
I answered your prayer.
I never forgave you.
I answered your prayer by never forgiving you,
because you asked me to forgive you like
you forgive others, and you never forgave all
those other people.
So you were asking me not to forgive
you, and I answered your prayer.
I did not forgive you.
And you stand before God in the final
day, unforgiven.
Where will you go?
After you die, there's no hope for forgiveness
after that.
If you want God's forgiveness, you must do
it now.
And if you want to forgive other people,
you must do it now.
Then Jesus amplified.
You know, there are many requests in this
prayer.
Our Lord be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done.
Give us our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts.
Lead us not into temptation.
Deliver us.
And out of all these six, seven requests,
Jesus takes out one request and repeats it.
Now all these requests are important, but one
request he repeats it, that is forgiving others.
Verse 14.
If you forgive others
their sins, your father will forgive you.
If you do not forgive others, your father
will not forgive you.
Do you believe that?
My dear brother and sister, I don't mind
stopping here for half an hour, because I
want all of you in the kingdom of
God, not only in the kingdom of God,
I want all of you to have a
very effective life for Christ here on the
earth.
And you will not have it.
If there is one person you're not forgiven.
I've been a servant of the Lord, full
time servant of the Lord for 56 years.
And I've tried my best to speak the
truth without compromise.
All these years, especially after CFC started.
And because of that, I know the devil
hates me.
He hates me more than other people because
I'm exposing his lies and preaching the full
gospel.
And how do you think the devil attacks
me?
Not directly.
He gave up that long ago.
Through people.
Attack me in various ways with words and
this and that and the other and take
me to court that the religious people did
that to me.
Okay.
But I want to stand before God today
and tell all of you, I have forgiven
every one of them.
There's not a single human being dead or
alive whom I have not forgiven.
I say that before God, even people who
did great harm to me, deliberately troubled me.
Because of that, I have the absolute confidence
to know my heavenly father forgives me.
I want all of you to have that
same confidence every single day of your life.
I live under a clear, open heaven.
You know, prayer is like making a phone
call.
Have you had this experience where you make
a phone call to some person and that
person sees his phone and says, oh, this
is from that person.
I'm not going to pick it up because
he doesn't want to listen to you or
she doesn't want to talk to you.
They see your name on that phone and
say, no, I won't pick it up.
Let it ring.
That shows that that person and you don't
have a good relationship, but that is what
God does.
When you make a phone call to him,
when you pray, God says, oh, that person,
I'm not going to listen to him because
he hasn't forgiven somebody.
I'm not going to listen to her because
she hasn't forgiven someone.
She hasn't forgiven her husband.
He hasn't forgiven his wife.
She hasn't forgiven her mother-in-law and
he hasn't forgiven those relatives of us from
who cheated in the property.
Why should I listen to him?
I will not pick up the phone.
It's a terrible thing when God does not
pick up the phone, does not answer your
prayer, does not even pick up the calls.
And then there are other people.
You know how it is, people who love
you, love greatly.
As soon as you hear the phone, you
pick it up because you have such a
good relationship with that person.
I want it to be like that with
me and my heavenly father.
Then when he sees, oh, that woman is
calling, let me respond immediately.
Don't you want that relationship with God?
Dear brother, sister, forgive everyone, everyone, no matter
what harm they did to you.
Let me tell you this, whatever harm anybody
has done to you is less than one
millionth of the harm you did to God.
The sins you committed against God is one
million times more than what that person did
to you.
Forgive, and your heavenly father will forgive you.
Because going back to 1 Timothy chapter 1,
you heard a lot about that during the
last couple of days, faith and a good
conscience.
And it says here in 1 Timothy 1
.5, a good conscience goes along with sincere
faith.
The two go together, a good conscience and
sincere faith.
So you won't have faith, a sincere faith
if you don't have a good conscience.
Okay, so much for that.
Now, I want to go on to the
other thing mentioned here, a pure heart.
That is the ultimate goal.
The good conscience and sincere faith are preparing
the way to come to have a pure
heart.
Now, what is the difference between a pure
heart and a good conscience?
Let me explain to you.
You probably never thought about it till now.
A good conscience is where you're convicted of
sin and you immediately confess it and set
it right and ask the Lord to cleanse
you.
Whether it's a sin against God or dirty
thought or some wrong attitude towards someone, they're
only between you and God, or between you
and somebody else, you ask forgiveness and you
give forgiveness, and your conscience is clear, good.
But a pure heart is more than that.
Because Jesus said, turn with me to Matthew
chapter 5, please.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8, Jesus said,
blessed are the pure in heart, for they
will see God.
What do the pure in heart see in
their heart?
God.
They always see God.
They don't see that evil person doing something
evil to them.
No, they see God.
Some difficult circumstances, oh, that's God allowing that
thing to happen to me.
So they don't get upset with that person.
They say, God has allowed that to happen
to me.
Let me give you a classic example of
that.
Turn with me to Genesis in chapter 50.
You remember the story of Joseph.
When he was 17 years old, his 10
older brothers were jealous of him because the
father loved him especially, and sold him as
a slave.
Can you imagine hating your younger brother so
much that you sell him off as a
slave?
That's what they did to him.
But God had a plan for that young
Joseph.
And when he went to Egypt, there he
was falsely accused and he had more trouble.
He went to prison for another at least
10 years to the age of 30.
Falsely accused by some evil woman, hated by
his 10 brothers.
And finally, God arranges things in such a
way that this young 30 year old man
becomes next to Pharaoh in Egypt.
The most powerful man in Egypt next to
Pharaoh.
And then there's famine all over and his
10 brothers come for food, for grain.
What an opportunity to take revenge.
Now I can teach them a lesson.
But he doesn't do that.
He gives them the grain, doesn't even charge
them.
He gives them their money back.
And remember, he was not a Christian.
He didn't even have the Old Testament Bible.
He never heard about Jesus Christ.
He never heard about Calvary's cross.
He did not receive the Holy Spirit.
He feared God, that's all.
That's what he told Potiphar's wife.
How can I do this thing?
I fear God.
Potiphar's wife says, there's nobody here, Joseph, come.
Joseph tells Potiphar's wife, there is somebody here.
God is here.
Imagine an Old Testament person tempted to commit
a sin.
And the woman says, come, nobody's here.
And he says, no, God is here.
What an example for all young people to
follow.
You think nobody's watching you, just God is
here.
And then when that's his fear of God,
but see another part of his character, when
these people come to him and they say,
please forgive us, Joseph.
It says here in Genesis 50 verse 17,
the father told him, go to Joseph and
say, please forgive, I beg you, the transgression
of your brothers.
They did you wrong.
Please forgive the transgression of the servants of
God, your father.
And you know what Joseph said?
What does Joseph reply to these people who
did such evil things that he suffered for
13 years?
Verse 20, this is an amazing verse.
All of you must remember this verse.
This is the Romans 828 of the Old
Testament.
You know, Romans 828, God works everything together
for good to those who love him.
This is the same verse in the Old
Testament written by Joseph who didn't have a
Bible.
You meant evil against me, but God turned
it around for good.
To bless and preserve many people.
What an attitude to have.
When somebody does evil to you, my brother,
sister, remember Genesis 50, 20.
Somebody did some terrible evil to you.
Can you at least have the faith of
Joseph who had no Bible, no Holy Spirit,
knew nothing about Christ?
We know about Christ.
We have the Bible.
We have the Holy Spirit.
Surely we can at least come to this
standard.
You meant, he meant evil to me, but
God turned it out for good.
What an example.
Joseph will rise up in the day of
judgment and accuse Christians who do not have
that attitude, saying, you people had a Bible.
You knew about Jesus.
You received the Holy Spirit.
You had meetings.
You had conferences.
I never had any of those things, but
God gave me grace to, or mercy and
help to forgive my brothers.
Forgive.
Love from a pure heart.
Why was this?
Because Joseph saw God.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
What do they see?
What did Jesus say?
Blessed are the pure in heart.
They'll see God.
Everywhere they'll see God.
When Potiphar's wife came to Joseph and said,
come, let's sin.
He saw God.
When the pure in heart will see God.
They don't see Potiphar's wife.
They see God.
When his evil brothers come, he doesn't see
the evil brothers.
He sees God.
That's how you know whether your heart is
pure or not.
That's the difference between a good conscience and
a pure heart.
Good conscience is as soon as you're convicted,
you confess it.
Good.
A pure heart is beyond that.
A pure heart is one which sees God
in every situation.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
They will see God in every situation.
They will only see God.
They won't see the evil people.
They will not look at the evil circumstances
and be in panic or in fear.
They'll see God.
For example, some very difficult situation you face.
If your heart is pure, you'll see God
there.
If your heart is not pure, you'll see
that circumstance and you'll be in a panic
and you won't be able to sleep at
night and you'll have fearful dreams and all
types of things.
And when you're in a difficult situation, the
devil will tell you many, many ways to
tell lies and get out of that situation.
You know the number of Christians who tell
lies to get a visa, just to get
a visa.
What a lot of false things they'll sign
and you think they see God there?
When you fill up a form, see God.
Your heart is pure.
You will never lose anything by speaking the
truth.
Never, never, never.
You'll never gain anything by telling a lie.
Be pure in heart.
How do you know you're pure in heart?
The pure in heart will see God.
Jesus said that.
In every situation, in every circumstance, everywhere.
And that's how God wants us to live
on this earth.
And like Joseph to be a testimony, much
more in the New Testament.
You know, when the disciples, when the Garden
of Gethsemane, we read that they, and you
know how Peter took out a sword and
wanted to hit those people who came to
capture Jesus.
Jesus replied to him was, the cup, see
that's in John chapter 18 and verse 10
and 11.
Very good verse to remember.
John 18, verse 10 and 11.
All the soldiers had come in Gethsemane to
capture Jesus.
And Simon Peter, the great defender of Jesus,
took out his sword and struck the high
priest slave and cut off his ear.
And Jesus said, put your sword back.
The cup which my father has given me.
John 18, 11.
Shall I not drink it?
Peter saw the Roman soldiers.
Who did Jesus see?
God, the father.
That is an example of how same people
are there, but Peter sees the Roman soldiers.
Jesus sees God.
So two people can look at the same
circumstance.
One person sees God there and the other
person sees the difficult circumstance.
And that person gets into a panic.
But the person who sees God is at
rest.
Somebody comes to do evil to you.
The person whose heart is pure, he sees
God there.
The person whose heart is not pure, he
sees that evil person and gets into a
fight.
It's a wonderful thing to have a pure
heart.
And the way you know you have a
pure heart is that you only see God
in every single circumstance you face in life.
So let's turn back to 1 Timothy chapter
1.
We talked about faith, helpless dependence upon God.
We talked about a good conscience.
That means forgive everyone.
Ask forgiveness from everyone.
Immediately take out the thorns that prick your
conscience.
And 1 Timothy 1.5 says, a good
conscience and a sincere faith.
But that's not all.
The ultimate goal is love from a pure
heart.
How can you love people from a pure
heart if you see God in every situation?
How could Joseph love his brothers who had
done so much evil against him that made
him suffer in jail for 10 years?
I tell you, even though he didn't have
a Bible, he didn't have the Holy Spirit,
he saw God.
How is it he refused to yield to
the temptations of that evil woman, the 41st
wife?
He saw God.
Blessed are the pure in heart.
They will see God in every situation.
That difficult situation they are facing, where the
devil wants to bring panic in their mind.
When you see God, the panic goes.
Maybe you're concerned about the future of your
children, about their education.
Maybe some of you are concerned about getting
a job somewhere or getting a visa or
whatever it is.
I don't care what the problem is.
I'll tell you one thing.
If you're pure in heart, you will see
God and you will never be in a
panic.
And you will never sign a false statement
and you will never tell a lie to
get anything in the world.
And then God will give you the best.
He will give you the very best.
I have experienced that for half a century,
for 50 years, particularly the last 47 years
since God filled me with the Holy Spirit.
I have always got the very best in
everything, everything.
I say, Lord, I want to see you.
In every situation, even when other people troubled
me or tried to harm me, God make
it work for the very best.
I remember once I got a phone call
from somebody.
I had to discipline somebody in a particular
situation.
As an elder in a church, sometimes we
have to discipline people.
It's not something I like to do, but
you have to do it like a father.
A good father will discipline his children, also
love them.
So I had to discipline somebody and somebody
else in another town who did not know
the full story, and was a very close
friend of that person, got very upset with
me when he heard it.
And without knowing the full story, he called
me up.
He was a believer.
And he started yelling at me on the
phone for many, many minutes.
This is many years ago.
Now, I could have easily put the phone
down.
One advantage of having a phone, you can
disconnect the call.
But I said, I don't want to insult
him.
Let him speak whatever he wants.
He kept on speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking.
I never said a word.
I never said one word.
Then finally he stopped.
So I said, Brother, have you finished?
He said, yes.
I said, okay.
God bless you.
Thank you.
And I put the phone down.
Two or three months later, he called me
again.
He said, Brother Zak, I'm really sorry.
I discovered the facts of the case only
later.
What you did was absolutely right.
That discipline was necessary.
I did not know when I yelled at
you and got angry with you.
Please forgive me.
I said, there's nothing to forgive.
That day itself, I forgave you.
It's perfectly all right.
What would I have gained either by putting
the phone down and being rude to him
or by yelling back at him and explaining
everything?
No.
It says when people accuse Jesus, he committed
his cause.
1 Peter chapter 2.
Read it sometime.
He committed his cause to the one who
judges righteously.
He said, Father, these people are saying, I
said I will tear down this building and
you tear it down.
I'll build up this temple in three days.
You know what I meant.
I was talking about the body, but they
are saying that I have built this earthly
temple.
I'm not going to explain to them.
No.
Let them believe what they like.
I commit my cause to the one who
judges righteously.
Follow Jesus' example in everything in life.
You'll have a wonderful life on this earth.
The goal of our instruction.
Remember this verse all your life.
One Timothy, one fire.
Memorize it.
The ultimate goal, the goal of all the
teaching is that you might have a good
conscience, a sincere, helpless dependence upon God, which
we call faith, and a pure heart which
sees only God in every situation so that
you can love everyone.
That is the meaning of one Timothy, one
fire, and that is the purpose of all
that we taught in this conference and always.
May God bless you all.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, please help us to live with
so much of knowledge we have now.
Help us to put it all into practice
and make it real in our lives.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.