When Jesus came to earth, Israel had lost
their vision of God, the vision that their
original leaders like Moses and Joshua had.
And yet they went on with their meetings.
Just because they had lost contact with God
didn't mean that they wouldn't have meetings.
They were still very religious people.
They had their meetings, they had their festivals,
they paid their tithes, they sang songs, they
clapped, they danced, they did all types of
things.
But with all their religious activity, and they
had the true Bible, that means from Genesis
to Malachi, they had the true Bible which
was read every Saturday, every Sunday on the
Sabbath day in their synagogues.
And yet, we read this verse, I'd like
to read a verse to you in the
Acts of the Apostles and
chapter 13.
Acts of the Apostles chapter 13 and verse
27.
It says here that those who lived in
Jerusalem, who lived in Jerusalem at that time,
those were the most religious people in Israel
and their rulers.
Rulers meaning religious heads like we would consider
a bishop or an archbishop, etc., did not
recognize him, did not recognize Jesus, and did
not recognize the utterances of the prophets which
are read every Sabbath and fulfilled them by
condemning him.
Now, when Jesus came to earth, there were
already many religions on the earth.
And if the Hindus had rejected Jesus, we
could understand that.
Or if the Buddhists had rejected Jesus, we
could understand that because he was not referred
to in any of their scriptures.
Or all the other religions, Egyptian religions and
whatever religions there were in Europe in those
days, if they had rejected Christ, we could
understand it.
But the amazing thing is that it was
people who read the Bible every week.
They read in Genesis about the seed of
the woman.
They read in Exodus about the Passover lamb
that was slain by whose blood Israel was
redeemed.
They read in the book of Leviticus about
the sin offering.
They read in the book of Numbers about
the brazen serpent that was lifted up, which
is a picture of Christ on the cross.
They read in Isaiah 53 about the lamb
that was slaughtered and was sheared and kept
his mouth shut.
They read in Psalm 22, the psalm of
the cross, which begins with, My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?
And all through, all the way to Malachi,
you read about Jesus as the son of
righteousness.
And yet, when he came into their midst,
the one about whom the entire Old Testament
spoke, they did not recognize him.
Some people thought he may be a prophet.
Once Jesus asked people, who do people say
that I am?
He said, they said, perhaps Jeremiah or Elijah,
or one of the prophets.
But most of the leaders, they looked at
Jesus Christ when he came to the synagogue
and did those amazing miracles, and they were
convinced that he was the prince of devils.
They called him Beelzebub.
Now, just think of that.
People who had read the Bible, who had
read it every week for perhaps 50, 60
years, they could not identify the one about
whom the scripture spoke.
This shows us how the true religion, and
by the way, that was the only true
religion on earth at that time, the religion
that was found in the nation of Israel,
it was the only true religion.
And yet, that true religion, and the only
word of God that was found anywhere on
the earth at that time, was their Bible,
Genesis to Malachi.
With the true Bible and the true religion,
and worshipping one God, following the teaching of
Moses, the prophet of God, with all that,
with all that doctrinal accuracy, they could not
recognize Jesus Christ.
They had a religion, a form, but no
life.
And to be so far off the mark,
I mean, some people were slightly off the
mark, calling him Jeremiah or Isaiah, but the
religious leaders were completely off the mark.
They thought he was the prince of devils.
How is that possible?
And yet, there were others, like an idol
-worshipping Roman centurion, who at the cross said,
truly this is the Son of God.
And another Roman centurion, who came to Jesus
for healing, who had such faith in Jesus
Christ, that Jesus said, I have never found
such faith in all of Israel.
I want you to think of that for
a moment, how people who had not read
the Bible could recognize him as the Son
of God, and people who were steeped in
the study of the scriptures thought he was
the devil.
Now, the reason I ask that question is,
is it possible that the same thing can
happen today?
Is it possible that religious Christians who go
to church every Sunday, read the Bible regularly,
the only true religion or faith in the
whole world today is Christianity?
There is no doubt about that.
The only book in the world which is
inspired by God is the Bible.
Is it possible that people who believe in
all this can somehow miss what God has
for us in this day?
If you had asked the Pharisees in Jesus'
time, 2000 years ago, they would have said,
oh no, we can never miss it.
We will recognize the Messiah when he comes.
But they couldn't.
It was their arrogance and their pride, their
self-righteousness, that hindered them from recognizing the
Son of God.
And that same spiritual arrogance and pride and
self-righteousness is found in a lot of
Christians today.
And then God allows their eyes to be
blinded, that they do not recognize the truth.
And it is possible, my brothers and sisters,
for us to miss what God has for
us, and to discover in the final day
when Christ comes again, and we stand at
his judgment seat, and he shows us our
life, the way he wanted us to live
it on earth, and the way we actually
lived it.
And we will see the tremendous difference between
the two.
The blueprint he had made for our life,
which would have made our life so satisfying,
such a tremendous blessing to other people, and
so fulfilling.
We may not have made as much money,
but we would have been a far greater
blessing to people.
And instead of that, the Lord shows us
the videotape of our life as we actually
lived it, and we are going to have
a lot of regret.
And the reason why we preach God's Word,
certainly the reason why I preach God's Word,
I have said this often in our church
in the last 27 years that we have
had this church in Bangalore in South India.
I have said to them, the reason why
I preach God's Word exactly as it is,
is so that you will not have regret
at the judgment seat of Christ.
To me it is like going for an
examination where you already have the question paper
well in advance.
Isn't that wonderful, to go to an examination
where you have the whole question paper well
in advance?
But do you know that the judgment seat
of Christ is going to be like an
examination?
And he has already told us the questions
that are going to be asked in that
day.
If you read this book, the answers are
all here.
And what would you think of a student
who is given the question paper well in
advance, years in advance, and still fails in
that examination?
You would think he is a very lazy
person, deserves to fail.
What would you think of a student who
barely passes, when he should be getting 100
%?
How many of you parents are happy if
your children get just pass marks, whatever it
is, 40% or 50%?
In most places in India it is 40%.
I have never met a parent who is
happy with his child getting 40% when
he could get 100%.
And that is exactly what God wants for
his children too.
Just like you would not be happy with
your child just scraping through and getting 40
% when he could do so much better.
I want to say to you, my dear
brothers and sisters, that God is not happy
with any of his children who just want
to scrape into heaven by the skin of
their teeth, just about made it and did
not get 100%.
Particularly when he has given us the question
paper well in advance.
The entire question paper is here in the
book, in God's Word.
What is God going to judge when he
comes again?
The Bible says, let me just show you
a few verses.
First of all in Romans chapter 14, perhaps
we should begin with Romans chapter 2.
In Romans chapter 2 it says in verse
16, On the day when according to my
gospel God will judge the secrets of men
through Christ Jesus.
So one of the things told us about
the final day of judgment is that the
secrets are going to be judged.
Things which nobody knew.
Things which you have succeeded in hiding from
your wife for 50 years or hiding from
your husband for 50 years.
All those things are going to be exposed.
The secrets of men are going to be
judged.
Let me show you another verse in Romans
chapter 14.
It says here, Romans 14 and
verse 12.
Last part of verse 10 first.
We shall all stand before the judgment seat
of God.
Verse 12.
Each one of us is going to give
an account of himself to God.
It's not a very popular thing for a
lot of people to think of the day
of judgment.
That's like a student who tries to forget
there's a final examination coming.
I mean that's foolish.
By your forgetting about the final examination it
doesn't mean you're going to escape it.
You'll just fail.
You might as well recognize that on such
and such a date the school is going
to conduct the final examination for the year
and you might as well be prepared for
it.
So we should also be prepared for that
day which the Bible speaks about many times.
I just want to show you a few
of those scriptures.
Each one of us shall give an account
of himself to God.
I don't have to give an account for
my wife.
My wife doesn't have to give an account
for me.
I don't have to give an account for
my children.
I have to give an account only for
myself.
The secret things in my life.
Let me show you another verse.
1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5.
Now these are not words to scare anybody.
I'm just trying to show you the question
paper before the final examination.
You should be excited about it because if
you got the whole question paper before you,
you'll be ready for the final examination.
Okay here's a little peep into the question
paper.
1 Corinthians 4.5 says don't go on
passing judgment before the time.
See we have a tendency to judge people
without knowing the facts.
Now no human court would do that.
It's only believers who are foolish in doing
that and of course a lot of unbelievers
too.
Without knowing most of the facts, we pass
a judgment.
We look at the way a person dresses,
the way the person speaks and we pass
a judgment.
We're crazy.
What do we know?
We don't know anything about his inner life
or his private life or his motives or
attitudes or thoughts or anything and yet we
have passed a judgment and therefore the Bible
says don't do it.
Don't go on passing judgment before the time
and the Lord says all of you folks
who are itching to judge others, God says
I'll give you the time for it.
There is a particular time when you can
judge and you know when that time is?
When God reveals the secrets of all men
in the final day.
That time you can judge as much as
you like because you'll know all the facts.
Right now you don't know.
That's what he's saying here.
Don't go on passing judgment before the time
but wait until the Lord comes and when
the Lord comes, what is he going to
do?
He's going to bring to light, there are
two things mentioned here.
First of all, all the things hidden in
darkness.
Now there are many many things in our
lives which are we could say hidden in
darkness in the sense that things that you
have done which nobody knows about.
Things that are not right before God's eyes.
Money transactions which are not righteous.
Maybe it was 20 years ago, it doesn't
make a difference how long ago it was.
If it was not right, it was not
right and if it is not settled, it's
not settled.
Time does not erase sin.
Please remember that.
It could be 50 years ago.
I remember once when I was converted, one
of the things the Lord told me was
to write a letter to a friend of
mine from whom I had stolen 10 years
earlier, nearly 10 years earlier, one single stamp.
A very trivial matter but it was an
unsettled matter.
I had stolen something.
It was when I was 10 years and
11 years old.
It didn't matter.
I looked like a fool writing to this
man about something which didn't probably mean much
to him in any way but it was
still wrong.
It was not enough that I had confessed
it to God.
I had wronged a man and I wrote
that letter.
That was nearly 41 years ago.
I am so thankful that I did it.
It is so important if you want to
be right before God in the final day
that your conscience does not trouble you about
anything that you have done in your life
towards God or towards man.
He is going to bring to you the
things hidden in darkness.
I want to ask all of you sitting
here.
This is the question paper.
This is the question paper for the final
examination.
Number one, the things hidden in darkness or
the secrets of men as we saw in
Romans chapter 2.
Do you have things hidden in darkness that
you are ashamed of that have not been
settled with God and men?
If you have confessed them to God, then
the blood of Jesus has cleansed you.
If you have settled it with man and
confessed it to God, it is finished.
You do not have to worry about it.
I am talking about unsettled matters.
I am talking about unconfessed sin.
Things wrong done against God and towards people
which have not been settled, which have not
been confessed, which have not been forsaken.
This is the question paper, my friends.
God is giving us ample opportunity to get
ready.
The other thing which the Lord is going
to judge, He is telling us the question
paper, is the motives of men's hearts.
A lot of us take pride in the
fact that we do certain good things, but
good things can often be done with a
bad motive.
What do you think of what I am
doing right now, preaching?
Is that a good thing or not?
It is a very good thing, but you
do not know the motive with which I
am doing it.
I may be doing it to get honor.
A lot of preachers preach to get money.
People may be doing it to become famous.
People may not be saying everything God tells
them to say because that will offend some
people.
They may be doing it to please people.
Then that good thing becomes corrupt.
Here is a beautiful apple being given to
you.
My question is would you eat it if
the person giving it to you has got
AIDS, or would you say no thank you?
Even though you may be hungry, and even
though there is nothing wrong with the apple,
the problem is with the hand that is
giving the apple.
That is the picture of a good action
done with a wrong motive.
It is not only preaching.
You could do hundreds of things which are
very good in man's eyes, but which are
not good in God's eyes because He examines
the hand which is offering the offering.
Way back in the beginning of the Bible
you read about Cain offering and offering to
God.
There was not anything wrong with that offering.
He was working in the fields and he
brought the best of his crops.
What else could he bring?
He brought the best of his crops and
offered them to God.
Remember, Cain was not an atheist.
Cain was a deeply religious man.
He brought the best of his offerings to
God.
God said, sorry, I won't accept it.
Just like you would not accept that apple
offered to you by someone who has got
AIDS.
God wouldn't accept it from Cain because the
Bible says God did not have regard to
Cain or his offering.
So motive is going to be a very,
very important factor in the day of judgment.
Not what you did, but why you did
it.
Remember that.
The important question in the final day will
not be what, but why.
We can do good to get honor and
that destroys the whole thing.
Let me show you another verse in 2
Corinthians 5.
It says, Paul had an ambition.
Now it's good to have ambition.
It's good for young people to have ambition.
I had an ambition when I was a
young man and I did not know the
Lord.
I joined the Indian Navy with the ambition
to be the Admiral of the Navy.
It's a good ambition.
That was my goal in life.
I was working towards it and aiming for
that position.
Then one day Christ came into my heart
and saved my soul.
I realized that he had given his life
for me and I said, Lord, what shall
I do in response for all that you
did for me?
I'm going to give my whole life to
you.
When I did that, my ambition changed.
I still had ambition, but my ambition was
different.
My ambition became what Paul says here was
his ambition.
2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9.
Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether
at home or absent, that means whether I'm
on earth or in heaven, to be pleasing
to God.
What was Paul's ambition?
Paul's ambition was not to make a lot
of money.
Paul's ambition was not to live a comfortable
life.
Paul's ambition was not even to be a
great preacher or even to establish churches.
His one ambition in life, a passionate fire
that burned in his heart was to please
God.
Somehow or the other, with the one life
God has given me, I must be totally
pleasing to him.
My thoughts must be pleasing to him.
My words must be pleasing to him.
My actions must be pleasing to him.
My attitudes to people must be pleasing to
him.
My motives must be pleasing to him.
My financial transactions must be so upright that
God himself can approve of it.
Every area of my life must be pleasing
to God.
That was like a burning passion in Paul's
heart.
Do you realize now why God could use
Paul so much?
And why he can't use a lot of
wishy-washy Christians today?
They don't have that ambition.
Okay, why did Paul have this ambition?
That's also given us in the next verse.
It says, because.
The word for means because.
I have this one ambition in life to
please God.
Paul says, because we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each one
may be rewarded for the deeds he did
in his body according to what he did,
whether good or bad.
That means every, listen to that verse, rewarded
or recompensed for every single deed done in
this body.
You and I got this body when we
came out of our mother's womb.
And we have a thing in our brain
called memory.
And everything is stored in memory.
The things you did when you were three
years old are stored in memory.
Now, we may not always be able to
recollect everything, but it's there.
I heard of a brain surgeon who was
doing brain surgery who, when he touched some
part of this man's brain, this man suddenly
remembered something that he had forgotten.
It was there.
When the electrical impulse of something stimulated something,
he suddenly remembered, hey, I remember that.
It's there.
Even if you don't remember it, it's stored
there.
See, our memory is like a videotape.
It started running the day we were born.
And you may not have known it, but
it's been recording everything.
And the interesting thing about this videotape is
it can record motives and attitudes as well,
unlike the normal videotapes we see.
It's recorded every single thing you ever did
in your whole life from the day you
were born.
Good and bad.
The videotape doesn't make a difference.
Your memory doesn't distinguish between what is good
and what's bad.
It's all recorded.
Thoughts, attitudes, words, motives, actions, good
deeds, bad deeds, financial transactions, everything, every account
I ever wrote.
Every single thing.
The way you treated some person somewhere thirty
years ago.
You may have forgotten about it.
Your memory hasn't.
It's there.
It's on the tape.
And you know, when you think of all
the billions, the billions of people that lived
on the earth, it baffles our memory how
in the world God is going to bring
all these people up and reveal everything that
they did for so many years.
It's all there in memory and God just
rewinds the tape and it's played back.
You know, in our mind, these things are
stored.
And I believe that even though the body
perishes, the memory of it is stored in
a man's soul, that the soul that's departed
from his body when he dies.
And one day God's going to bring that
soul back into the body in the day
of resurrection.
And he's going to stand before the Lord,
every single human being that ever lived from
the day of Adam is going to stand
before the Lord and the Lord's going to
rewind the tape.
And as the tape is rewound, it plays
it back for the whole world to see
exactly how you lived.
Every single thing you ever did, thought, it's
going to be pretty embarrassing for a lot
of people, isn't it?
The secret things, the things hidden in darkness,
the motives of men's hearts.
And that's why Jesus said, in that day,
many who are first will be last and
many who are last will be first.
In other words, we're going to see this
man who we thought was a great man
of God and we begin to see the
videotape of his life and we get a
shock, dear me, is that how he lived
in private?
Were these the thoughts going on in his
mind all the time?
We thought he was a great preacher, standing
up and preaching to us every week.
And boy, and was that how he was
handling money?
All that money we gave him for God's
work, was that what he was doing with
it?
You're going to get a lot of shocks.
I'm not telling you a fairy tale.
This is actually going to happen.
Heaven and earth will pass away.
This word will never pass away.
I believe that.
I'm more sure of this than of the
fact that the sun will rise tomorrow morning.
I'm much more sure of this.
It's true.
These are not scary tales we tell children
to scare them.
No.
This is reality.
Like they say, tell it like it is.
This is exactly how it's going to be.
And as it's played back you know, every
single thing that man, we ever did with
nothing hidden, no wonder Paul says, boy, he
says, I want to please Him.
I want that videotape to show how I
spent my life for the purpose with which
God created man.
And he says, therefore, verse 11, knowing the
fear of the Lord, we persuade men.
We urge others, prepare to meet your God.
If it is appointed unto men, Hebrews 9
.27 says, Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after this,
the judgment.
Why is it going to be so?
Because the Bible says, God created us for
His pleasure.
In Revelation 4.11, Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power for
Thou didst create all things, and for Thy
pleasure they were created.
We were created to bring pleasure to God,
to fulfill the will of God.
Man was created to fulfill God's will.
Just like the planets were created to fulfill
God's will.
The planets were created thousands of years ago.
Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Pluto, Mars, Mercury, they were
all created thousands of years ago, and they
have never disobeyed God for one second.
You can set your watch.
Your watch goes wrong, but not those planets.
They move in such perfect precision.
I remember when I was working in the
Navy, we could fix our position out in
the high seas when we were far away
from land by the position of these planets
and the stars.
They were so accurate in their movement.
They have done the will of God without
any disobedience because they don't have a choice.
That's the difference between them and man.
The only difference is man was given a
choice.
If you want, you can obey.
Those planets were not given a choice.
They just had to obey.
God could have made Adam like that, you
know, like a robot, looking like a human
being, but inwardly programmed like you program computers
that will automatically go around doing God's will,
just like these planets.
But God didn't want a robot.
You know, some people ask this question, why
didn't God make Adam in such a way
that he could never disobey?
Now, wouldn't that have solved all the problems?
Well, I said, then Adam would have been
a robot.
And I said, let me ask you, would
you like an obedient computerized robot or a
naughty child?
Which one would you like?
I've never heard anyone say they prefer an
obedient computerized robot to a naughty disobedient child.
Now, logically speaking, you really prefer a naughty
disobedient child to an obedient computerized robot.
Aren't you crazy?
No, you're not.
You're made in the image of God.
That's why you prefer a child to a
robot.
Of course, you'd prefer an obedient child, definitely,
to a naughty one, without a doubt, and
so does God.
But the point is that a robot has
no feeling.
It doesn't obey you out of choice.
A robot can bring you the newspaper, bring
you your cup of coffee, but you're far
more excited if your child brings you your
slippers than if a robot does it, because
it's out of choice.
You know, when a little child clings to
you and says, Dad, I love you, which
robot can duplicate that?
You can program a robot to do it.
You won't be excited by that, because it
doesn't have a choice.
God made Adam with choice, but he wanted
Adam to fulfill his will.
God made you and me with freedom of
choice.
He doesn't take it away.
And that's why I always say that one
mark of a cult, and there are a
lot of cults in Christendom, we've got to
beware of them in our day.
One mark of a cult is that the
leader of that cult will take away freedom
of choice from you.
You've got to consult him for every little
thing.
Even God doesn't demand that, but he does.
You know, you don't have to ask God
when you go and buy a shirt whether
you should buy a blue one or a
green one.
God doesn't bother much whether you buy a
gray one or a blue one or a
green one.
When I go and buy clothes, I don't
have to ask God what color I should
buy them.
God's given us common sense, but he wants
us to please him in things that affect
our conscience.
That's different.
Whether I buy a blue shirt or a
green shirt is not a matter of conscience,
but there are other matters that affect our
conscience.
And your conscience tells you.
You know, that's the thing that makes us
different from all the animals, our conscience.
Let me show you Acts of the Apostles
in chapter 24.
Here also Paul speaks about the day of
judgment.
You know, we've been looking this evening at
a number of verses in the New Testament
that speak about that final day of judgment
or what I call the final examination day.
And why are we as parents so eager
that our children should go and write the
examinations on the examination day?
Even though they are scared, they're nervous, they
don't want to go.
Why do you as parents force them to
go?
Even if they got a little fever, you
tell them to go.
Why are you so keen that your son
or daughter should go and face that tough
examination?
Why?
Because you know that if he passes in
that examination, he's going to be promoted.
Every examination, if you're successful in it, leads
to a promotion.
And that's why even if your child's got
a little fever, you say, never mind my
son, go and sit and write this examination.
The child doesn't understand it, but you're older
and you understand the importance of doing the
examination.
Examination is very important.
And we saw these number of verses which
speak about the final examination for mankind and
what is going to be important in that
day.
We already saw a number of verses, motives,
secret things, things that are not settled in
our private life.
Here's another verse like that, Acts 24.
This is Paul's testimony.
He says, I have a hope in God,
verse 15, Acts 24, verse 15 and 16.
I have a hope in God, he says,
which these men also cherish, that there will
certainly be a resurrection of the righteous and
the resurrection of the wicked.
There's going to be two resurrections, a resurrection
of the righteous and a resurrection of the
wicked.
And he says, because I believe this, I
do something about it.
It's like a child saying, because I know
there's going to examination coming up next month,
I'm doing something about it.
I'm preparing for it right now.
And that student will say, I'm not studying
the subjects that are not going to come
in that examination.
Which crazy boy would sit down and study
subjects which are not coming in the final
examination?
He will only study the subjects which are
coming in the final examination.
Do you know one subject that's not going
to come in the final examination?
How much money did you earn on earth?
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's not
going to be a question in the final
examination.
How much did you know of the Bible?
Even that's not going to be asked in
the final day.
Why are you studying these subjects?
They're not going to come in the final
day.
How much did you obey the Bible?
That's going to come.
Sure.
How did you treat other people around you?
That's going to come.
Sure.
Study for the subjects that are going to
come, my friends.
Don't waste your time with studying for subjects
that are not going to come.
What did other people think of you?
Is that going to come?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
And yet this is the subject which a
lot of Christians are studying very seriously.
What do other people think about me?
Let me do all that I can to
create a better impression on people.
It's not a subject that's going to come
in the final examination.
Do you see how a lot of Christians
are like stupid students?
Studying for subjects which are not going to
come in the final day.
What are the subjects that are going to
come?
You know, this is where the devil deceives
us.
He makes us spend our time on things
which are not important and leave out the
subjects that are important.
Okay.
He says, because of this, because I know
there's going to be a final judgment, I
do my best.
Here's a zealous student who is preparing for
the examination.
He says, I do my best to always
maintain a blameless conscience before God and before
man.
That's going to be very important.
That's a subject.
What does your conscience tell you?
Your conscience is not a perfect guide.
The Holy Spirit and God's Word are the
perfect guide, but our conscience is a pretty
good guide to whether God is pleased with
us, our lives or not.
And God's will is that our conscience should
grow in sensitivity.
You know, when we are first converted, I
know people who come to our church in
India who, I mean, when they are first
converted, their life is so bad, they are
slapping their wife every other day.
Okay.
But then they come to Christ and they
come to the church and their conscience bothers
them about slapping their wives.
But it doesn't bother them about yelling at
their wives.
So they stop slapping, but still yell at
their wives.
And you know, just like a child when
it comes into kindergarten or the first grade,
he doesn't know much, but it doesn't matter.
A year goes by and it goes to
second grade, hopefully.
And so this chap, a year later, he
discovers that, hey, yelling at my wife was
wrong too.
That means he's progressed.
So his conscience is becoming a little more
sensitive.
And like that, he begins to be more
and more sensitive about little, little things, which
means he's progressing.
Have you been progressing?
Or are you defeated by the same things
you were defeated by 20 years ago?
How would you feel if your little boy
is still struggling with addition after sitting in
the kindergarten for 20 years?
Horrible thought, no?
He should be struggling, but he shouldn't be
struggling with the same subject.
You know, a child is struggling with addition
first and then with subtraction, and then he's
struggling with multiplication, and then he's struggling with
division, and then he's struggling with square root,
and then by the time he gets to
the 11th grade, he's struggling with calculus.
And I mean, when he gets to PhD,
he's still struggling, but he's not struggling with
addition.
So the Christian life is a struggle, no
doubt, but it shouldn't be with the same
old sins that we were defeated with 20
years ago.
That's serious.
That means we're not progressing.
Something's wrong.
We haven't taken our Christian life seriously enough.
We haven't taken our studies seriously enough.
What would you think of a 20-year
-old who's still sitting in the kindergarten?
You'd say, without any doubt, he hasn't taken
his studies seriously.
And what would you think of a Christian
who's been 20 years and still defeated by
anger, and bitterness, and lust, and an unforgiving
spirit?
I'd say, brother, you haven't taken your Christian
life seriously.
It's exactly what I tell that 20-year
-old who's sitting in a kindergarten.
You haven't taken your studies seriously.
There are other people who joined school with
you who are in college today.
You're still sitting here.
And I would say to some other people
who became Christians at the same time you
became, and look where they are today.
Their life is so useful to God.
They've become overcomers.
And here you are sitting defeated by the
same old thing.
Why?
Was God partial to him?
No.
He took his life more seriously.
He believed in the resurrection of the righteous
and the wicked like Paul, and therefore he
did his best to keep his conscience blameless
before God and before men.
In other words, Paul is not saying that
I never made a mistake in my life.
Neither is he saying I will never make
a mistake in my life.
Let me illustrate to you what it meant
by Paul saying, I kept my conscience clear
before God and men.
Turn to the previous chapter, chapter 23.
It's an amazing statement that Paul makes here.
I think Paul was about 60 years old
when this thing happened.
It says in Acts 23, Paul said, Brethren,
I have lived my life, verse 1, with
a perfectly good conscience before God up to
this day.
I've lived with a perfectly good conscience.
And when the high priest heard it, he
commanded those standing beside him, verse 2, to
strike Paul on the mouth.
And Paul said to him, God is going
to strike you, you whitewashed wall.
Do you sit to try me according to
the law in violation of the law, order
to me to be struck?
Do you think that's the way a Christian
should speak to a judge?
Is that the way Jesus spoke when he
was struck on the mouth?
Not at all.
So what's all this good conscience he spoke
about in the previous verse?
And now you'll see it.
As soon as he was aware of it,
he admitted it.
Oh, it says you shall not speak evil
of your ruler of your people.
And no doubt he apologized immediately.
That's what I mean by a good conscience.
That as soon as you're aware that you
did something wrong, you settle it with God
and with men.
Lord, I'm sorry.
And if you spoke rudely to your wife,
say, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, darling.
I'm sorry.
I should not have spoken to you like
that.
It's my mistake.
And your conscience is clear.
Do you do it?
What is the time gap between your knowing
that something was wrong and you're setting it
right?
Six days?
The Bible says, don't let the sun set
on your anger.
In Ephesians 4, I think it's the 26th
verse.
Don't let the sun set on your anger
means in those days, by sunset, people went
to sleep.
They didn't have electricity.
Sunset was the time to pack up and
go to bed.
They woke up with sunrise.
So basically what that verse meant was don't
go to bed with something unsettled.
That's basically what that verse means.
Did you hurt somebody?
Did you get upset with someone?
Okay, before you go to bed, settle it.
That's the outer limit.
It doesn't mean you have to wait until
you go to bed.
You could settle it the next second.
I mean, Paul didn't wait till sunset to
apologize to the high priest.
And if you hurt somebody, you can apologize
the very next second.
But the outer limit is not the next
day or the next month.
It's sunset.
Keep your conscience clear.
That is the most important thing if you
want to be ready for the final examination.
I don't know what your conscience is bothering
you about right now.
Is there something in your life unsettled?
The Bible says, 1 John 1.9, if
we confess our sins, God is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we confess our sins, if we come
to the Lord and acknowledge, Lord, that was
wrong.
It's very difficult for man to do it.
You remember Adam?
God came to him in the garden and
asked him, Adam, did you eat of the
tree I told you not to eat?
There are only two possible answers to that
question, yes or no.
It's like these multiple choice questions that nowadays
in question papers, they ask you a question
and they have two boxes there underneath saying,
A, yes, B, no.
Pick whichever you want.
You know what Adam did?
He wrote C.
My wife gave me this thing and you
gave me this wife.
So it's not really my fault.
I did it, I know.
And that's how man is.
Always trying, instead of saying, Lord, I did
it, I'm sorry I did it.
That would have been the plain answer.
Pick A, yes.
But we don't pick A.
We write underneath C the reason, big long
reason why I did this and how somebody
else prompted me and all that.
And what's the use?
You think we can fool God with all
these excuses?
But man's been an expert right from the
garden of Eden to put the blame on
somebody else for his sin.
And that's the reason why we're not ready
to meet the Lord on the final day.
So that's the first thing we need to
get rid of.
Do you know the difference between being in
Adam and in Christ?
There are hundreds of differences, but let me
point out one to you.
If you're in Adam and the Holy Spirit
convicts you of some sin, just like God
coming to Adam and saying, did you eat
of that tree?
All you have to do is to say,
Lord, I did it.
Instead of saying, I did it, you justify
yourself by so many excuses.
Oh, I was under pressure or this thing
happened and it caught me off guard or
so many things.
There's no need for all that.
Stop justifying yourself.
Stop putting the blame on somebody else.
Just pick A, yes.
I did it.
Solves the problem.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and
righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us
from all our unrighteousness.
The matter is settled.
So that's the number one lesson that we
need to learn.
Acknowledge your iniquity immediately.
And what does it mean to be in
Christ?
To be in Adam means to blame somebody
else for your sin.
To be in Christ, how did Jesus do
it on Calvary?
It was the exact opposite of Adam.
He took the blame for other people's sins
when he died on the cross.
You notice the difference?
Adam could not take the blame for his
own sin in Eden.
On Calvary, Jesus took the blame for other
people's sins.
Now let me ask you, are you in
Adam or are you in Christ?
Can you take the blame at least for
your own sin?
Or are you always finding some excuse and
blaming somebody else?
Just think what a lot of peace would
come into a home if we were sensitive
to keep our conscience right, to apologize, to
say these simple words, I'm sorry, that was
my mistake, please forgive me.
Some of the most difficult words for any
human being to say.
Try it if you don't believe me.
I am sorry, that was my mistake, please
forgive me.
You think it sounds easy, it's not.
You try it out sometime and you'll find
it's not so easy.
But if you can do it, you'll be
ready for the final examination.
And we may have to do it many,
many times because we're human, we make mistakes,
we do wrong things.
If I can keep my conscience sensitive, Lord,
that thought that came into my mind that
really dishonored you, I'm sorry, nobody saw it.
It was only between you and me, but
it was filthy.
Forgive me, cleanse me.
It was wrong, that attitude I had to
that person.
Forgive me, cleanse me.
Keep your conscience clear.
We'll continue, let's pray now.
While I head about in prayer, I want
to ask you if God spoke into your
heart this evening concerning something.
It's like a multiple-choice question.
Will you say, yes, Lord, that's my mistake?
And at the first opportunity, I want to
set it right.
I want to confess it, first of all,
to you, my sin, and also at the
first opportunity to the people I sinned against.
I want to ask forgiveness.
I want to set matters right.
I want to live before you.
I want the blood of Jesus to cleanse
my videotape of that part of it which
I'm ashamed of.
Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
Amen.