They'd call you a heretic, but that's because
they don't read the Bible carefully.
It says in, we saw that in Luke
2.40 that the grace of God was
upon him as a child and he grew
in wisdom.
And we saw in Hebrews in chapter 2
that by the grace of God he tasted
death for every man.
And so from birth to death Jesus demonstrated
he was the first man to walk on
earth with the grace of God upon him.
Now why do a lot of Christians feel
that that's heresy?
Because they don't know the difference between grace
and mercy.
For years and years and years Bible schools
have taught people that grace means the unmerited
favor of God.
That's not true.
You never find it in scripture.
Don't believe all these things we have heard
for years and years and years and years.
You know a lot of people, we sing
songs of Jesus as the rose of Sharon.
Shall I tell you Jesus is not the
rose of Sharon?
You show me one verse in the Bible
which says he's the rose of Sharon.
It isn't there.
It's the bride that is the rose of
Sharon.
We sing songs that Jesus is the lily
of the valley.
He's not the lily of the valley.
It's people who haven't read the Bible who
study in Bible schools who say he's the
lily of the valley.
You read Song of Solomon, it's the bride
who's the lily of the valley.
I challenge anybody to show me anything different.
But there are Christians who sing it and
sing it and it's become gospel truth for
them.
I'm just using it as an example.
We preach that the blood of Jesus cleanses
us from all sin.
It's not true.
If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, then only the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
How can you just preach the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin?
That's half a verse.
And a lot of heresies come out of
half verses.
People don't know.
I'll tell you a lot of things people
don't know.
They don't know the difference between the old
man and the flesh.
I guarantee that 99.9% of people
come out of Bible school, you ask them
what's the difference between the old man and
the flesh, they don't have a clue.
It's the same thing.
They'll talk about sinful nature, a word never
found in the New Testament.
You know these people who fight for the
King James Version, how do they use the
word sinful nature which is never found in
the King James Version?
They're absolutely inconsistent.
Christendom is filled with people who don't know
the Bible.
Because they go to Bible schools.
They don't study it.
They don't sit down and study carefully Scripture
over Scripture.
They say this is the Word of God
and they use words which are not found
in the Bible.
And they say things like Jesus is the
Rose of Sharon.
If you imagine, if you studied a chemistry
book like that carelessly, you'd get all mixed
up.
If you studied physics like that, you wouldn't
even pass high school.
I just mention these things to show you
there are numerous things.
I could spend a whole hour teaching you
unscriptural things that are being taught in Christendom
today.
But I don't have time for that because
we're talking about something positive, about Jesus.
It's much better to talk about Him, the
real Jesus.
So, Jesus lived like this.
You know, mercy is God forgiving us.
Let me show you this verse, Hebrews 4
.16, just to prove that difference.
In the Old Testament, we read this word
mercy often.
But we don't read about grace being given
to any man.
Jesus was the first person.
And in Hebrews 4.16, we see the
difference between the two.
Now, the reason why I say this is
because there is a verse in John's Gospel,
chapter 1, verse 17, which says, The law
came by Moses, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ.
There was no grace till Jesus Christ came.
Grace came and truth, meaning reality.
Nobody could have a life of reality till
Jesus Christ came.
Jesus Christ came to give us grace, and
Jesus Christ came to give us reality.
Now, by reality, I mean, please listen carefully.
This is the crisis that hit me about
30 years ago.
A crisis of reality.
I discovered that what I was preaching was
not true in my inner life.
That's unreality.
Reality is where whatever you say and confess
is true in your inner life.
You don't speak what's not true in your
life.
You know the well-known proverb, practice what
you preach.
Do you know that Jesus never practiced what
he preached?
I'm going to shock you this afternoon, just
to keep you awake.
Jesus never practiced what he preached.
He preached what he had already practiced.
Do you know the difference?
Practice what I preach.
Maybe I'm going to practice it 10 years
from now.
Jesus preached what he had already practiced.
Where do I get that?
Acts 1, verse 1.
He did and then taught.
You follow that pattern.
The first verse of Acts of the Apostles
is, Jesus did and taught, and we're supposed
to do and teach.
We're not supposed to teach what we haven't
done.
That's reality.
Nobody could have that reality till Jesus came.
Okay, Hebrews 4, verse 16.
Let us draw near to the throne of
grace, that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
You see the difference?
That we may find mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
Mercy is what Jesus never needed, because he
never sinned in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive.
There was no sin in him at any
time.
But grace we saw he had.
What was that grace?
To help him in his time of need.
Did Jesus have a time of need?
Well, it says here in the previous verse,
verse 15.
He was tempted like us in all things.
Let me ask you, what is your greatest
time of need?
I'll tell you what mine is.
It's when I'm tempted.
My greatest time of need is not when
I run short of money.
You know we can live without money?
I mean, I don't mean that we can
live without a lot of things that money
can buy, because there's so little that we
really need in order to live.
But Jesus said, man shall not live by
bread alone, we obtain bread by money, but
by every word of God.
And God's called us to live a holy
life.
And Jesus said, that's more important than the
type of food you eat, the type of
house you live in, the type of car
you drive.
All these things are secondary.
A vehicle is to take us from one
place to another.
People lived on earth for nearly 6,000
years without cars.
And a lot of things that we have
today, a lot of people, our forefathers lived
without them, which we call necessities.
But there was one thing that's been true
all through the years, that man must live
by the word of God.
That's never changed.
And so our greatest need is not financial.
We may think it is.
The devil sometimes fools us.
Your great need is financial, or your greatest
need is to get married.
No, our great need is to obey God.
And when we try to obey God, the
person who is serious about obeying God, finds
so much temptation to disobey God.
And that's when we need grace.
Grace can help us obey.
Another verse in 2 Corinthians tells us what
grace is.
2 Corinthians 12.
Paul said that when he had a thorn
in the flesh, I believe it was a
sickness, he prayed many times that God would
heal him, and God didn't heal him, teaching
us that sometimes God does not heal sickness.
There is no man who has ever prayed
to be freed from sin that God said,
sorry, I won't free you from sin.
Never.
But there are cases.
Timothy had a stomach problem with his stomach.
We read in the last verse of 1
Timothy 5, Paul must have laid hands on
him numerous times and prayed for him.
He never got healed.
Finally, Paul told him, take some medicine.
I mean, instead of being constantly sick.
So, Paul had a sickness too, from which
he was not healed.
He prayed numerous times.
It's right to pray when you are sick,
that God will heal us.
Because sickness, according to 2 Corinthians 12.7,
is always a messenger of Satan.
Sickness is never from our Heavenly Father.
God is a much better Father than you
and me.
None of us would give sickness to our
children.
God is a million times better Father.
He never gives sickness to His children.
Sickness is always a messenger of Satan.
But sometimes, God permits it.
He prayed three times.
God said, No.
I am not going to remove it.
And whenever God says no, there is a
very good reason.
And then he told him, My grace.
Never mind your sickness, Paul.
Think of my grace.
Never mind your financial difficulty.
Think of my grace.
My grace is sufficient for you.
It's more than enough to make up for
all those lacks you have in the material,
physical realm.
In your case, the physical sickness.
My grace is enough for you because this
sickness makes you weak.
Financial difficulty makes you weak.
There are other things that make us weak.
And my power is perfected in weakness.
In other words, like another translation says it,
My power shows up best in weak people.
You know like, the stars are shining right
now in the sky, but you can't see
them because it's not dark enough.
But when it's dark, the stars shine brightly.
It's like that.
In weak people, the weaker we are, God's
power manifests itself more perfectly.
So, grace, according to this verse, is power.
That's the other thing we learn about grace.
Grace equals power.
Power from God to meet whatever is our
lack.
It may not heal the sickness.
It may not remove the financial difficulty.
It may not give you a better circumstances
to live in.
It may not remove that difficult neighbor.
But it will give you power in the
midst of those circumstances to be more than
a conqueror.
To walk like Jesus.
That's grace.
My grace is sufficient for every need.
This was the grace that was upon Jesus
in fullness.
And that's why His life was so wonderful.
He wasn't the richest person in Nazareth.
He didn't have the biggest house in Nazareth.
And whatever vehicles or carts they had, He
didn't have the best.
But He was the most triumphant and the
most wonderful person that lived in that town.
And so can you and I be.
That's our calling.
To walk like Jesus.
To live like Jesus.
This is the real Jesus.
The grace was upon Him and that's what
helped Him to live the way He lived.
And He was an example.
He said, follow Me.
Now I want to show you another thing
about grace.
1 Peter 5.
Here it says that God gives His grace
to the humble.
Now we earlier saw that when grace is
upon us, Romans 6.14, sin cannot have
power over us.
It cannot touch us.
It's like saying, if I'm under an umbrella
or a tent, the rain doesn't make me
wet.
It's like that.
Grace is like an umbrella or a tent.
Sin can't touch me.
The rain can't touch me.
If I'm under the roof, the rain can't
touch me.
It can be pouring outside, but if I'm
under the roof, rain can't touch me.
Grace is like that.
But if you are not under grace, or
half of you is out of grace, you
get wet.
It's like that.
But under grace, Romans 6.14 says, sin
cannot touch you if you are under grace.
But if you are under law, sin will
have power over you.
Under law means you are determined to try
and live up to that standard which you
heard in the pulpit the other day.
You tried, brother.
Israel tried it for 1500 years and they
failed.
I don't want to try it again.
I don't want to try which people have
tried, something which people have tried for 1500
years and failed.
I learned from their lesson.
I say, I don't want to try it.
But there's another way.
Jesus made a better way.
In fact, do you know the meaning of
the word Jesus?
It says in Matthew 1.21, by the
way, this is the first promise in the
New Testament, the real Jesus.
The real Jesus.
The first promise in the New Testament, Matthew
1.21, you must call His name Jesus
because He will save His people from their
sins.
Not even forgive their sins.
That was in the Old Testament.
Psalm 103.
David could say that 1000 years before Jesus
came.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives
all your iniquities.
Not 90% of them.
Not who will in some future day, 1000
years from now, when Christ dies, forgive all
your iniquities.
For God, there is no past, present and
future.
Christ died before the foundation of the world
in the Father's eyes.
And David could be forgiven right there in
Psalm 103, 1000 years before Christ.
He could say, Bless the Lord, O my
soul, who forgives all your iniquities.
But what he could not say was, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, who helps me
to overcome all sin in my life, who
saves me from my sin.
He couldn't say that.
That's only after Jesus came.
Jesus will save you from your sin.
And how is that?
By grace.
Grace came through Jesus Christ.
But why is it then so many people
don't get victory over sin?
Why is it the vast majority of believers
whom I have met cannot testify that God
has given them power to overcome sin in
their life?
And sin and this legalistic life go pretty
close together.
Some people come out of sin and then
they get into legalism.
It's like getting out of one pit and
falling into another one.
Here it says in 1 Peter 5, God
gives His grace to the humble.
He doesn't give it to everybody.
He gives it to the humble.
So, if I'm not humble, I'm not going
to get grace.
And if I don't get grace, I won't
get victory over sin.
So, in some particular situation, if I lost
my temper and I sinned, I don't have
to ask God, Lord, why didn't I get
grace?
I know the answer.
Somewhere along the line, I was proud.
Because if I were humble, whether I like
it or not, God would give me grace.
And in that particular situation, the fact that
I lost my temper or I lusted with
my eyes or I did something wrong deliberately,
I know that that particular moment I fell
into sin.
And if I fell into sin, according to
Romans 6.14, it's because I was not
under grace.
I moved out of that covering.
Grace was here and I was here.
I didn't get grace.
Okay, so what is the reason why I
didn't get grace?
That's very clear here in Romans 6.14,
1 Peter 5.5. He gives it only
to the humble.
And I was not humble.
Isn't it good for us to think about
that?
Lord, every time I fall into sin is
one more proof that I'm not humble.
And I who thought I was such a
humble person, I who have given such a
reputation to other people that I'm a very
humble brother and a humble sister.
And we all love to have a reputation
that we are humble brothers and sisters.
But God shows us the reality of it
when we fall into sin.
And if you love the truth about yourself,
it's very difficult to love the truth about
ourselves.
But if you do love the truth about
yourself, in that moment, you'll say, Lord, I
realize now I'm a proud man.
I'm a proud woman.
Help me to humble myself.
And so, grace was upon Jesus from birth
till He died.
It must prove one thing.
If He never sinned, which means grace was
on Him all the time, it must mean
there was never a moment in His life
when He was proud.
To me, that's an amazing thing that a
human being can live on earth for 33
1⁄2 years and never be proud for a
single moment.
You say, well, that was because He was
the Son of God.
Oh!
If He lived as the Son of God,
if He lived as God on earth, then
He's no example for me.
I can't follow Him.
He was tempted like me.
Otherwise, I can't follow Him.
You see, we like to take away the
credit from Him which He deserves by saying,
oh, it was easy for Him.
It wasn't easy for Him.
Do you think you're glorifying Jesus when you
say, oh, He overcame sin because He was
God?
It's like saying, well, that angel went across
the swimming pool because He's got wings.
It's not so easy for me.
When I go to the swimming pool, I
go down.
No, Jesus didn't fly across this earth and
say, follow me.
It's like an angel flying across the swimming
pool and say, follow me.
I say, I'm sorry, I can't.
I tell that angel, listen, if you want
to teach me to swim, you better get
rid of your wings and take a body
like mine which is subject to gravity and
jump into that pool and you'll know how
I feel when I get into that pool
and then try and teach me.
And so, if Jesus came to earth as
He was God, no doubt, He didn't cease
to be God, but He didn't use His
power as God when He lived on earth
as a man.
This is the wonderful truth you see in
the New Testament.
Jesus lived on earth as a man.
He did not use His resources as God.
It's like a missionary coming to India or
a millionaire from a western country coming to
a poor country and telling people in the
slum, I'll teach you how to live on
$25 a month, which is what they earned
there.
And supposing when they're not looking, He keeps
using His credit card, He's cheating.
But if He says, listen, I am a
millionaire, I won't deny that, but I give
you my word, I'll never use my credit
card.
I will live, I'll work like you, earn
$25 a month and teach you how to
live within that income without getting into debt.
That's how Jesus lived.
He was God, but He never used His
heavenly credit card on earth because we don't
have a credit card like that where we
can just have access to the things He
had access to.
He lived like us.
He was tempted like us.
That's why when I saw this for the
first time about 30 years ago, I wept
with joy that Jesus had become like me.
I always thought He came down, but He
sort of lived in a five-star type
of flesh, just a little above mine.
And of course, I could never follow Him
because I didn't have a five-star flesh.
I had minus something flesh.
And when I realized that He came like
me and He never sinned, I really got
light on two things.
One, I could never make an excuse for
my sin anymore.
And two, if one man did it, so
can I.
Now if you say God did it, I
can't say so can I because I'm not
God.
But if one man did it, so can
you.
So can I.
Right or wrong?
Right.
I thought of it like this.
Supposing there was some remote island on earth
somewhere where nobody knew how to swim.
And for generations and generations, people had believed
man can never swim.
Because when a man goes into the water,
he sinks.
Right?
He does.
And so for generations, for years, from the
time of the forefathers, nobody can swim.
And there on that island, nobody could swim.
Everybody would be scared of the water.
They wouldn't go near the water because they
could drown.
And then one man comes from some other
part of the world who knows how to
swim.
And he says, hey, here's a river.
Let's go swimming.
Oh no, no, no.
Be careful.
Man can't swim.
And they see him swimming across that river
to the other side.
And when he comes back, they touch him
and say, have you got a body just
like ours?
Are you sure the weight is the same?
Are you sure the density and specific gravity
is the same?
Are you different?
He says, no, I'm just like you.
No, it can't be.
It's not possible.
He says, okay, just get in the water.
I'll show you.
Do what I do and you can go
across the river just like me.
And the first person, a lot of people
say, no, no, no, it's not possible.
It's exactly like Christians today.
No, no, no.
Victory over sin.
Oh, brother, it's not possible.
It's not possible.
Nobody from our forefathers onwards, nobody's ever got
victory over sin.
It's all a strange teaching.
But we say Jesus did it.
No, no, no.
He was different.
He's got a different type of flesh.
And Jesus says, do what I did and
you'll get victory too.
And the first man who has the courage
to do that gets into the river and
goes across.
And then people believe.
Hey, it's possible.
It's possible.
That is true Christianity.
Where a person can say, he's not teaching
swimming on a blackboard, you know, move your
legs like this and move your hands like
this.
No, no, no.
We're not talking about theory.
We're talking about what we do.
We do and we don't practice what we
preach.
We preach what we've already practiced.
And we follow Jesus.
And Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ.
And I believe that's the great need in
every church of living examples who have overcome
sin.
And if they fall, we get up and
say, yeah, I fell there.
I'm not trying to cover up my sin.
You know, if you try to cover up
your sin, you'll never get victory over it.
Supposing you lust with your eyes and you
say, well, I was just admiring the beauty
of God's creation.
Really?
Whom are you trying to bluff?
The devil is not fooled.
God is not fooled.
And you're trying to fool people.
It's not true.
You'll never get victory over that sin because
you justified yourself.
And justifying yourself is the mark of a
Pharisee.
And every time you get angry, you say,
well, there was a reason for it.
I give you my word.
I promise you, you'll never get victory over
your anger.
Because you justify yourself.
But if you say, Lord, that was a
rotten sin.
That was wrong.
That was evil.
That was adultery.
That anger was murder.
I don't want to murder anybody.
You know that Jesus said that in Matthew
chapter 5?
Anger was like murder.
And lusting with your eyes is like adultery.
You call it murder.
Call it adultery.
And I guarantee you'll get victory over it
pretty soon.
But you call it righteous indignation and admiring
God's creation and all this type of rubbish.
You'll never get victory.
That's the reason a lot of people don't
get victory.
They don't call it by the dirtiest, filthiest
name they can think of.
And therefore, they don't hate it.
Jesus overcame.
This is the real Jesus we see in
Scripture.
He got grace continuously because He was continuously
humble.
And you and I can get grace continuously
if you're continuously humble.
And if you don't get victory over sin,
if you don't get victory over lusting with
your eyes, if you don't get victory over
anger, if you don't get victory over seeking
the honor of men, if you don't get
victory over the sins that plague you in
your life, go before God and fall down
and say, God, I am a proud man.
I'm just fooling people around me that I'm
a humble brother, a humble sister.
I'm not.
You're proving to me day after day that
I'm a proud man.
And when you confess that, say, Lord, I
want to be humble.
Please humble me.
Please let me humble myself.
Give me grace.
You'll get it.
God loves honest people.
God loves those who are downright honest and
say, Lord, it's my fault.
I take the blame.
You know the difference between Adam sinning and
David sinning?
Now, in human eyes, whose sin was greater?
Adam who just ate of the fruit of
a tree and David committed adultery with somebody
else's wife, killed off the husband and married
the woman?
Anybody will tell you David's sin was greater.
But how is it that Adam, there's no
record that his sin was forgiven.
As far as I know, he went to
hell.
But David, he's in heaven today.
You know the difference?
Both of them confessed their sin.
But with a difference.
You can confess your sin and you can
confess it the Adam type of way or
the David type of way.
And you confess it the Adam type of
way, you'll never be forgiven.
It's very important to know how to confess
your sin.
And I'll teach you this right now, how
to confess your sin.
When God came to Adam and asked him,
did you eat of the tree?
He said, yes.
But, you know the problem was with my
wife.
She was the one who gave it to
me.
And the moment you confess your sin with,
but this was the reason and that was
the reason and somebody else did this and
my wife did that.
Brother, you are a follower of Adam.
Sister, you're a follower of Adam.
Your sin will not be forgiven.
You'll be kicked out of paradise forever.
Because Jesus said to the Pharisees in Luke
16, 15, you are those who justify yourself
before men.
One mark of a Pharisee is he may
confess his sin.
Yeah, I made a mistake, I ate the
fruit.
But, this was the reason.
This is the reason why so many people
don't have fellowship with God.
They've always got a reason why they fell.
Yeah, there's a lot of pressure in the
work today and that's why I sort of
lost my temper when I came home.
That's not the reason, brother, sister.
The reason is you are proud.
Don't say there was a lot of pressure
at work today.
How did David confess his sin?
Read Psalm 51.
He said, Lord, you're absolutely right when you
judge.
I am the criminal.
I am the one to blame.
It's not Bathsheba, it's not anybody else, it
is me.
I should have been going out to fight
with the kings in battle.
As it says in 2 Samuel 11, verse
1, when the kings went to battle, David
went to sleep.
I should have been out on the battlefield.
And if I had gone on the battlefield
with my army like I normally do, I
would never have fallen into sin with Bathsheba.
But instead of going out on the battlefield
with my army, I decided to take a
day off and sleep at home.
That's why I fell, Lord.
It's my fault 100%.
You know what God said about David?
That's a man after my own heart.
What was so great about David?
He was absolutely honest and he didn't blame
anybody else.
And let God find somebody like that over
here who will not blame anybody else, who
will say, woe is me, oh wretched man
that I am.
You know when you see God, that's what
you say.
When you hear about the Lord, it's different.
I want to show you the book of
Job.
Job was a very wonderful man.
He was the most upright and righteous man
on the face of the earth.
How do I know?
Because God Himself certified it.
And when God certifies that a man is
righteous, you can be pretty sure he's righteous.
He was a man who feared God and
hated evil.
God said that.
And God could say that even to the
devil.
When the devil said, I've been going around
the earth, God said, have you seen Job?
Satan said, sure.
God said, there's nobody like Job on the
earth.
A man who fears me, who hates evil
in the whole earth, you will not find
a man like him.
Imagine getting a certificate like that from God.
What a wonderful man he was.
And if you get time sometime, you read
just one chapter.
Job 29.
When you get time, and you'll see the
type of things he did.
He helped the widows.
29 to 31.
Three chapters where he speaks about how he
didn't make gold his God.
He didn't worship money.
He didn't lust with his eyes.
Do you know that Job did not, he
made a covenant with his eyes not to
lust with a woman 2,000 years before
Matthew chapter 5 was written.
He had such a high standard of holiness.
He would help the poor.
He'd help the blind to cross the street
and take care of the strangers and the
widows.
His holiness was practical.
But with all these wonderful things, he never
worshipped idols.
With all these wonderful things, he had one
big defect.
One serious problem.
And that's a serious problem that many, many
Christians who live holy lives also have.
Many Christians who help the widows, who care
for the orphans, who fear God, who hate
evil, who do many, many good things have
this one problem that Job had.
And that is, he was proud of his
righteousness.
He was proud that he was such a
holy man.
He was not like other people, you know,
carnal and worldly and all that.
No.
I've got ten children and I've brought all
of them up in a God-fearing way.
Seven sons and three daughters.
And I pray for them regularly.
You read all that in chapter 1.
What a wonderful man he was.
And he was pretty proud of it.
Only one weakness.
He was proud of the fact that he
was such a holy man.
He was proud of the fact that he
got such a wonderful family of ten children.
And that spoiled everything.
It's like making a wonderful dish, curry or
something like that and then putting one lizard
inside.
Just one.
Not too many.
Just one dead lizard we put inside.
I mean the best cook in the world.
We got him to make the best chicken
curry and then we put one lizard inside.
I'd rather have that third-rate curry made
by the fellow who doesn't know how to
cook.
Thank you.
I don't want this.
That's what God says too.
All your righteousness, you become proud of it.
It's like having this lizard inside it.
Spiritual pride.
Would you touch it?
No.
God doesn't touch it either.
How to get rid of it?
How to cleanse Job of this pride?
You know whom God used?
Who?
Satan.
That's right.
Now you know why God allows Satan to
hang around.
Now you know why He allows him to
come and trouble you in some way.
God used Satan to humble Job.
And God can use Satan to humble you
and me.
Sometimes He humbles us by making us fall
into sin.
God used Satan to trouble Job, to harass
him, to kill his children.
Boy!
All in a moment.
I have never heard of anyone who lost
10 children in one day.
Have you?
Have you heard anyone who has lost even
50% of his children in one day?
Or 30% of his children in one
moment?
Here a man lost 10 children in a
moment.
And on top of that, he lost all
his business in a moment.
All at the same day, he lost his
children, he lost his property, he lost his
business.
And a few days later, he lost his
health as well.
Who did it all?
Not God.
Satan.
Why did God allow Satan to do it?
To make Job humble.
His big problem was with all his holiness.
He was proud of it.
And we have seen that everywhere.
People who pursue holiness become proud of their
holiness.
How do we know they are proud of
their holiness?
They look down on other groups who they
think they are not as holy as we
are.
It's like, you may be good.
The many things you do may be good,
but there is this dirty lizard in your
curry.
It spoils everything.
And then finally, God, after He had broken
Job completely, you see, humility and brokenness go
together.
And the Bible says in Isaiah 53 that
it pleased the Lord to crush Jesus.
God allowed Jesus to be crushed and broken
through circumstances.
And one reason why God allows difficult circumstances
for godly people is to break them so
that He can give them His grace.
That's why He allowed a thorn in Paul's
flesh.
That's why He allowed Timothy to have stomach
trouble that he never got healed from.
He had to keep taking some medicine till
the end of his life.
I have seen people like that who have
some infirmity and God allows it.
They pray and pray and pray.
They may be faithful servants of God like
Paul and Timothy.
Paul and Timothy were the best.
And people like Demas who were running after
money, they were probably healthy.
But Paul and Timothy, they got something better
than money.
They got grace.
And sometimes God allows you to have that,
my brother, sister.
Because He sees you are such a wonderful
brother.
You are such a wonderful sister.
You have raised such a wonderful family.
But you got this stinking lizard in your
life called spiritual pride.
And He doesn't find any other way to
get rid of it except by giving you
some sickness or some trial or some difficulty.
And it won't go.
You can pray as much as you like.
It won't go.
Because God wants to give you something better.
He wants to give you grace to be
an overcomer in your spirit.
God is a good God.
He doesn't give us little trivial things which
we ask for which are worthless.
He gives us something eternal instead.
He is a good God.
But He is trying to get rid of
pride from our lives.
And when God revealed Himself to Job, when
God revealed Himself to Job and said, do
you see how great I am?
And Job saw how small he was.
And I believe that's a great need for
us to get that revelation.
How great He is.
And how small we are.
Like Isaiah got a revelation of how holy
God is.
And all His apparent holiness, all His so
-called holiness just disappeared.
He realized He was a filthy person.
Then, I want you to receive these words
of Job when He comes to the end
of this trial.
Job 42 verse 5.
He says, Lord, till now I only heard
of You.
But now my eye sees You.
Now I see You at last.
Till now I knew about You.
I'd heard of You so many wonderful things.
I knew what God was like.
But now I see You face to face.
And I repent in dust and ashes.
That's always what happens when a man encounters
God.
He has no eyes to see the faults
of people around him.
He sees his own sin.
And he falls before God in dust and
ashes.
And it says, immediately after that, God doubled
everything Job had.
He got back ten children.
And He got back double all his property.
God blessed him abundantly.
Once he had accomplished this work.
And I believe it's God's desire to bless
all of us abundantly.
But He has to humble us.
Because it's a law in God's dealings with
man that He gives grace to the humble.
And we cannot get grace if we don't
humble ourselves.
And that is the greatest thing we see
in Jesus' life.
Right from the beginning.
I want you to turn to Philippians chapter
2.
See, we need to humble ourselves because we
are sinners.
But Jesus never sinned.
And He still humbled Himself.
Which teaches us, there's all the more reason
why we need to humble ourselves.
The godlier we become, the more we need
to humble ourselves in all situations.
The more God uses us like the branches
that bear the greatest fruit in a tree
hang down the lowest.
Which are the branches that stick up like
that?
The ones that have got no fruit in
them.
And the more God uses you, the more
the branches go down in humility.
And that's how it is.
We read in Philippians chapter 2.
Though He was God, equal with God from
all eternity, He did not hang on to
that as something that He had to grasp.
Philippians 2.6. But gave it all up.
And He was made in the likeness of
men.
And being found in the likeness of men,
He took the form of a servant.
Now, I understand that verse to mean that
every human being is supposed to be a
servant.
Every human being is supposed to be a
servant.
If you are a human being, you must
be a servant of God and of other
human beings.
That's the meaning of it.
He took the form of a born servant.
I want to read it like this.
Because He was made in the likeness of
men.
Verse 7.
That means because He became a man, He
realized, which a lot of human beings don't
realize, Oh, am I a human being now?
I've got to be a servant.
It's automatic.
I'm supposed to serve others.
I'm not supposed to lord it over anybody.
Today we have kings who lord it over
people.
We have pastors and preachers who lord it
over other people, trying to control people's lives.
They haven't understood.
They haven't understood what human beings are supposed
to be like.
Leave alone those who claim to be examples
among human beings.
Jesus understood it.
He understood, as soon as I become a
man, I am supposed to be a servant.
I'm never supposed to be anyone other than
a servant.
That's why when they wanted to make Him
a king in John chapter 6, when He
fed the 5,000, they said, boy, this
is the fellow whom we've got to make
king.
And they wanted to make Him king, He
ran away.
He said, no, I'm not going to be
king.
That's why He never allowed Himself to be
called by any title.
He said, don't you disciples take titles to
yourself.
You're all brothers.
And He always called Himself an ordinary man,
a son of man, an ordinary man, an
ordinary man.
Because He knew what a man was supposed
to be before God.
And He had no problem in the last
day of His life on earth to wash
the disciples' feet.
That's what He was.
That was His calling as a human being.
He knew that's the only thing I'm supposed
to do.
I'm not supposed to exalt myself.
I'm not supposed to lift myself over other
people in any way.
I'm not supposed to make people feel small.
Because that's how God is.
A godly man is one who will never
make you feel small.
Jesus was like that.
He revealed the Father, the real Jesus.
He didn't even make a prostitute feel dirty
in His presence.
Isn't that great?
That a prostitute, a drug addict, a murderer...
I mean, the presence of the Pharisees, they
felt terribly sinful because these holy Pharisees were
around.
But in Jesus' presence, Jesus never made them
feel small even though He was the holiest
man that walked on earth.
That's the mark of a holy man, of
a real godly man, that He never makes
you feel small.
He never makes you feel inferior to Him
in any way.
This is the real Jesus.
He never made anybody He met feel inferior
to you.
Do you meet people who make you feel
inferior to them?
Lots of people like that in the world.
There are lots of people like that in
Christendom.
I straight away ruled them out.
They don't know Jesus.
They don't know God.
See, the Pharisees were like that.
It says in Luke 18, you know, Jesus
told many parables.
He spoke many parables, but in one parable,
only one, He said, this parable is for
a certain type of people.
He never said that about any other parable.
There's one particular parable He spoke only for
a certain type of people.
I want you to read that.
In Luke 18, verse 9, He also told
this parable to certain ones who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous.
So this is, He's not talking to worldly
Christians here.
He's talking to people here who are holy.
They avoid the world.
They dress modestly.
They do everything right.
And they are pretty happy with their own
righteousness.
They are happy with the holiness in their
homes and many, many things.
And very often, along with this, comes that
attitude that Job had, looking at others, verse
9, with contempt.
We can look at other people with contempt.
Like the Pharisees said here, Lord, I thank
You that I'm not like other people.
I'm not like this other man over here.
We can say something similar.
Lord, I thank You that I'm not like
people in those denominations over there who don't
have light.
I thank God I've got light.
And I thank God that my children are
not being brought up like that guy's children
or those people over there in those denominations.
Why?
I thank God I'm not like that.
And you can say that and not even
feel that you are one of the first
class Pharisees in your generation.
That's the wonderful thing the devil does.
He makes you a Pharisee and he doesn't
even make you think you're a Pharisee.
You think you're a Christ-like, humble person.
But you're defeated by sin.
Which shows there's no humility as far as
God's concerned.
This is the subtlety of false holiness.
And the only way we can escape it
is if we see the real Jesus.
He wasn't like that.
He did not view anybody with contempt.
If you look down on someone, it proves
you're not like Jesus.
You're not like God.
The Pharisees viewed others with contempt.
I want you to see this verse in
Job 36.
There's something about the character of God mentioned
here which we must know.
Because if you want to be like God,
you've got to be like this.
Job 36.
And verse 5.
It says, God is mighty, but He doesn't
despise anybody.
Listen to this.
God is the mightiest person in the universe,
but He doesn't despise anybody.
The world is full of people who despise
others because they're not like God.
The world is full of churches that despise
others because they're not like God.
I go into a church and I say,
how come there are no black people in
this church when there are so many black
people in this community?
Because they're not like God.
They despise certain type of people.
Okay, go ahead.
You're not like God.
That's all I can say.
Because God doesn't despise anybody and He's the
mightiest person in the universe.
And I don't want to be like you
fellas.
I want to be like God.
Have you ever thought about that?
Have you ever thought about certain types of
people who live in your community who are
not found in your church?
There are no representatives of them in your
church.
Have you ever thought about the reason?
The reason could be a certain snobbishness on
your part.
You say, no, no, no, no.
We treat everybody alike.
Yeah, you say that.
But there's a certain odor that comes out
of your church which you don't sense.
Have you heard of body odor?
All the perfumes and deodorant companies in the
world make money because of body odor.
Think if our body odor were all sweet,
all the perfume companies would have to close
down.
Deodorant companies would pack up.
But it's because there's a body odor that
comes out that we have deodorant companies and
perfume companies.
Because body odor is not pleasant.
But very often, listen to this, this little
secret in case you didn't know about body
odor.
The person who has it doesn't know it
himself.
It's other people who know it.
And other people may be kind enough not
to tell you, but that's true.
That's just courtesy and decency.
You know that spiritual pride is exactly like
body odor.
The person who has it doesn't know it.
He thinks he's the humblest guy around.
But other people can sense it.
And you know, people can sense when you
make them feel small.
You don't realize it yourself.
You think you're a zealous Christian, but you're
making people feel small.
How are the ways we can make people
feel small?
You know, Jesus could have made people feel
small by how spiritual He was.
Have you ever thought of this?
You know, I try to use my imagination.
All of us have used our imagination in
our unconverted days for a lot of filthy
things, right?
Why don't you use your imagination now for
some good things?
So one of the things I use my
imagination for is I imagine that I'm living
in Nazareth when Jesus was a carpenter.
I don't know who He is.
Nobody in Nazareth knows who He is.
And I hear of this carpenter, this nice
carpenter who works here making good furniture.
And he helps widows and doesn't charge them
for it and does all types of good
deeds.
I said, I'd like to go and meet
this guy.
Who is he?
And he's the person who seems to know
the Scriptures.
And when I go to meet him and
I spend half an hour with him, he's
25 years old.
It was long before he started.
He's never healed a sick person, never preached
a sermon.
I just go and spend half an hour
with this carpenter and I come back.
And I've asked myself, what would be the
lasting impression that this carpenter of Nazareth made
on me?
Have you ever thought about that?
Supposing you had spent half an hour with
Jesus when He was 25 years old, when
He was unknown, nobody knew His Son of
God, He never preached a sermon, never healed
a sick person, no miracles, nothing.
Just like an ordinary person, like many other
carpenters in Nazareth.
And you spent half an hour with Him.
What would be the lasting impression you would
have got from Him?
I'll tell you what I think.
I think I would have come away thinking,
boy, what a humble man.
I've never met a humble man like that
in my life.
He would never have left me with the
impression, oh, what a holy man.
I've never met such a holy man in
my life.
See, holy men put an awe, they've got
an awe about them.
I think I would have felt like that
about the Pharisees.
If I went to the Pharisees, they would
have impressed me with their holiness and their
knowledge of Scripture and how they know this
verse and that verse and the other verse
and the interpretation of various verses.
But Jesus wouldn't awe me with all that.
He would have made me feel that I
was just a person just like Him.
This is the real Jesus.
I think His children could come to Him.
He would play with the children.
I'm sure if He were here, He'd probably
play with the children.
Jesus is like that.
He was always, you know, it says He
was God and He became like us.
This is the first principle of effective ministry.
I live in a country where I've seen
missionaries of all types in my lifetime.
A few, I have respected immensely and wanted
to follow their example.
More than 90% of them, I have
no respect for.
Not because their doctrines were wrong, but they
had this body odor that came out of
their spirit.
Not body odor, spirit odor, let's call it
that.
This making you feel small, you know.
And I have zero respect for such people.
They don't know God.
God doesn't make anybody feel small.
When you look down on someone, we never
say it.
We don't say it like the Pharisees today.
That's crude.
Oh, I'm not like other people.
We just think it.
It's just as bad.
When you think it, it's a spirit odor
that comes out.
We got to get rid of it in
our thinking.
I don't believe any of us go around
saying, Lord, I thank you.
I'm not like people in the other denominations.
You never say that because that's crude.
You lose your reputation for humility, right?
So we don't say that because we want
to preserve our reputation for humility.
We just think it.
And the more we think it, the spirit
odor comes out of our lives.
How is it it never came out of
Jesus' life?
Because He never thought like that.
He never looked at a sinner and said,
Boy, what a filthy sinner he is.
No.
He just loved him.
People were all the same to Him.
He was colorblind when it came to people.
They were all the same to Him.
They were creatures made in the image of
God whom the devil had destroyed.
You could look at a prostitute and see
there's a creature made in the image of
God supposed to glorify God in her body.
And oh, the devil has ruined her.
And he was mad at the devil and
was determined to deliver her from her sin.
That's how he looked at prostitutes, murderers, thieves,
people who were ruined by the devil.
He never made anybody feel small.
In the Old Testament, there's a verse which
God says, I'm the God of the widows
and the orphans and the strangers.
Have you read that?
He was the God of the people who
were marginalized by society.
Do you know people who are marginalized by
society?
He was the God of those people.
In those days, it was widows, strangers, orphans.
Israel society marginalized them.
God said, I'm there.
I'm not in the middle with you Pharisees.
I'm with those widows and orphans.
That's why when Jesus got up to preach,
He said, I come here to preach the
gospel to the poor.
I come here to preach to all the
upper middle class people.
Sometimes, you know, I thought about this in
many churches that I go to.
Did Jesus only come for decent middle class
people who were brought up in good God
-fearing homes?
Because I say, hey, this church seems to
be full of people who were brought up
in good God-fearing homes.
We don't have any converted prostitutes here and
we don't have any people who are evil,
who are outright evil.
Whereas if you went to Jesus' church of
12 people, there were converted murderers and converted
prostitutes and all hanging around with Him.
Because He never made them feel small.
And I've asked myself, I've asked this much
about our own church in Bangalore.
I say, Lord, have we missed something?
Have we missed something of the real Jesus?
Have we got an imaginary Jesus here who
is sort of 90% like the real
one, but one important 10% is missing?
Is it because there's a spirit order coming
out of us?
You know, I heard a story of some
woman who was divorced and a single mother
and struggling to take care of her family
and not knowing how to...
Oh, she had problems with her husband and
didn't know how to get back to him.
And she went to a secular marriage counselor.
And the marriage counselor was counseling her and
asked her, did you go anywhere for help?
Did you go to some church?
She said, oh, church?
Boy, I wouldn't go there.
They would just look down on me, this
person who is divorced and who is in
this wretched condition.
They wouldn't help me.
I wouldn't go anywhere near a church.
It's a true story.
Is that the testimony we have?
We are so holy.
We keep all the sinners out of our
church, you see.
Because we are a holy bunch of people.
That's not the real Jesus.
I'm sorry to say, that's not the Jesus
of the Bible.
And you say, there may be two or
three gathered together there.
Is Jesus in the midst?
There may be a Jesus, but not a
real one in your midst.
Because these people, you know, these out and
out, these people who have made a mess
of their life, who have divorced a couple
of times, two or three times.
They say, oh, this bunch of holy people
won't understand my problems.
Let me go somewhere else.
What sort of church is yours?
Is it a place for sinners to be
saved?
Is the Jesus in your midst a friend
of sinners?
Not one who leaves them in their sin.
The church is like a hospital.
And if your hospital is a good hospital,
it can say, bring the worst cases.
We can handle them.
What is the mark of a bad hospital?
Bad hospitals, oh, your fever is a little
too high.
We can't treat you.
You better go to some other hospital.
Your case is too bad.
What sort of hospital is that?
The good hospitals say, listen, we can take
the worst cases.
But we can treat them.
They don't remain in the same condition here.
They get better.
God is almighty, but He doesn't despise any.
Jesus didn't despise anybody for anything.
What are the things people despise people on
earth for?
They despise them if they are poor.
They despise them if they are uneducated or
they are not smart.
I am trying to find out who are
the people on the margins of society because
I know those are the ones God loves.
The ones who are marginalized by society.
Those who are poor or who have a
particular color of skin or who got some
very bad habits, drug addicts.
And people who have, or sometimes people are
just fat.
We have seen all these advertisements about slim
people and how you can become slim and
fat people are marginalized by society.
God is the God of fat people.
Did you know that?
How would you like that?
Do you despise a person because he is
fat?
Do you know the number of people who
by the grace of God are slim who
take pride on that?
Who think, I am not a glutton like
that man.
They don't say it, but they think a
lot of thoughts like that.
There is a spirit order that comes out
of such people.
Jesus never despised a fat person.
He didn't believe that being slim was being
godly.
It had nothing to do with that.
That is for advertisements in newspapers to sell
products and to fool people.
God was not interested in all that.
He is interested in, He sees every person
as a soul valuable to God.
Someone whom Jesus died for.
He never despised anyone for anything.
And I tell you, there are very few
Christians like that on the face of the
earth.
But you can be like one of them.
I am determined to be one like that.
I am determined with all my heart that
I will never despise a human being for
anything.
Not even if he is a sinner.
He can be the worst sinner on earth.
Let me ask you a question.
How many of you believe that you have
the same flesh as Osama bin Laden?
I have it.
Was he born of Adam by the way?
Were you born of Adam?
Is it possible?
His circumstances were different.
His upbringing was different.
And he turned out like that?
By the grace of God, my upbringing was
not that.
I say, I thank God that he did
it.
But in myself, I am capable of the
worst possible terrorism and evil and sin that
anybody is capable of.
If you don't believe that, you must be
believing there are different races that came with
different heads.
I believe everybody came out of Adam.
And we all have that flesh.
God doesn't despise anyone.
The real Jesus never despised anyone.
Everybody could feel comfortable in his presence because
he came to save them.
So much so that the holy Pharisees called
him a friend of sinners and despised him.
Now I want to tell you, he didn't
make such a lot of bunch of rules
and regulations that most people wouldn't be able
to follow them.
His great battle throughout was this battle with
religious people.
He cared for those who were marginalized by
society.
He cared for that leper, that poor leper
whom nobody had ever touched for so long.
On the margins of society, you read the
Gospels like this, how he would go out
to the people marginalized by society, prostitutes, lepers,
and he would welcome them and save them
and bring them into his kingdom.
This is Christianity.
I remember attending Times Square Church in New
York once where David Wilkerson was.
That's his church.
He wasn't speaking that day.
But I did get a chance to meet
him, a very humble brother, a man who
is world famous in his ministry.
But it hasn't gone to his head, a
humble brother who is seeking to serve the
Lord after serving the Lord for more than
50 years.
There was this other brother who was preaching
there who was a director in his Teen
Challenge ministry.
And he said, I was a drug addict
down in the gutter in Boston.
Nobody cared for me, all the religious people
with their church services till David Wilkerson came
by and picked me up.
And that's what David Wilkerson spent so many
years doing, picking up these drug addicts from
the gutters, bringing them to Christ and leading
them into a ministry.
And here was a man...
What a message that man gave today.
I couldn't believe this guy was a drug
addict lying in the gutter in Boston.
And I tell you, if there were not
a few people like David Wilkerson around, where
would that man be?
Have you ever thought, if all the preachers
and Christians were like you, what would have
happened?
Ever thought of that?
If all the churches in the world were
like yours, what would have happened to all
the drug addicts who were lying in the
gutters?
I say, thank God that all the churches
in the world are not like yours and
mine.
Thank God for the David Wilkersons who do
something which none of us ever do, which
I have not done.
I will not criticize that man.
I say that man has been given a
ministry by God and I praise God for
it.
I've got my ministry and I've learned to
respect and value people who have other ministries.
I may not agree with all of them,
but there's something about God using people.
God doesn't consult me before He uses people.
Thank God for that.
And He doesn't consult you either.
He just uses people.
Whether you like them or not, whether you
like their face or not, I praise God
for that.
Now, a lot of people don't like my
face, but God still, He still loves me.
It's wonderful to be able to see Jesus,
how He loved people.
He cared for them.
He Himself was so secure in His Father's
love.
He was concerned about, He came to earth
to build His Father's house.
That's why, do you know the first recorded
words of Jesus in the Gospels?
The first recorded words of Jesus in the
Gospels?
You know what it is.
When He was 12 years old, don't you
know that I must be about My Father's
business?
That I must be in My Father's house?
From that age, there was a sense in
His mind, My Father's house, My Father's business.
He wasn't here to make money.
He wasn't here to live a comfortable life.
His uppermost thing from that age was, My
Father's house, My Father's business, My Father's house,
My Father's business.
And as soon as He came out into
the ministry and He saw His Father's house
being ruined by people who were making money,
He took a whip and chased them all
out.
My Father's house.
See, this is the real Jesus who was
concerned about the purity of the temple and
today the church.
And He's concerned for those who should be
in the church who are being kept out.
And people who are occupying center stage in
the church who are just religious people who
don't know Jesus, who are making a whole
lot of rules and regulations that keep people
who should be in the church out.
Is that happening in your church?
Maybe the Jesus in your church is not
the real one.
So, this is what He's saying.
It was all because of His humility.
I want you to turn to Matthew chapter
1.
I want to show you something here which
I saw once which really blessed my heart.
Matthew chapter 1.
We read about Jesus, that He was in
that genealogy about Jesus.
Sometimes we don't get much out of these
genealogies.
They're pretty boring.
But I saw something in Matthew chapter 1
once.
Have you noticed?
You know, in Jewish society they never listed
women's names in the genealogy.
It was all men, men, men, men, men,
men, men, men, men.
So and so.
Even in the genealogy of Mary which is
found in Luke chapter 3, they don't mention
Mary's name.
Can you imagine?
A genealogy of Mary.
They don't put Mary's name.
That's how the Jews were.
They said, you know, Joseph's father-in-law
was so and so.
You've got to know that Joseph's wife was
Mary.
Okay.
But here, in the amazing thing is there
are four women's names mentioned here in this
genealogy.
And all these four women, you want to
know the history of them?
The first woman is Tamar in verse 3.
She was the one who committed adultery with
her father-in-law Judah and got a
son.
The son's name was Perez.
And that's in the genealogy of Jesus.
A woman who committed adultery with her father
-in-law.
Second one.
The second woman mentioned is Rahab, verse 5.
She was the most well-known prostitute in
Jericho in the genealogy of Jesus.
She wasn't even a Jew.
And third is Ruth, verse 5.
Ruth was a Moabitess.
You know who the Moabites were?
The descendants of Moab.
You know who Moab was?
Moab was the son born when Lot committed
adultery with his own daughter.
Lot and his own daughters.
Incest, incest, incest all the way in the
genealogy of the Son of God.
And Ruth came from that line.
And the fourth one is the wife of
Uriah, verse 6.
Bathsheba.
A woman who was unfaithful to her husband,
slept with the king, and then married him
after the adulterous relationship.
And to her was born Solomon.
I mean, if you had a genealogy like
this full of incest, would you write that
in the first page of your biography?
How many would say, well, one of my
great-grandmothers was the most well-known prostitute
in such and such a town and somebody
else was born out of incest here and
somebody else was...
You know why Jesus chose that?
So that He could identify with those who
are marginalized by society.
So that He could identify with people who
are born out of incest and say, hey,
I know what you feel like.
My ancestors were also like that.
And I'm proud to put their names in
the genealogy.
Are you the most well-known prostitute?
Were you born to the most well-known
prostitute in a town?
Don't worry, I understand that.
It's in my genealogy too.
He was the friend of sinners.
He didn't come to save decent middle-class
people who were brought up in God-fearing
homes.
He came to save sinners.
And if our church is like Jesus Christ,
we will want to save sinners.
And we'll never save them if we despise
them.
We've got to love them.
That's how Jesus was.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray You'll give us light.
We've got more than enough light on Your
Word.
And we've got plenty of light on other
people.
Please give us some light on ourselves and
our hearts and the odor that comes out
of our spirit which we can't even smell.
Give us grace, Lord.
Deliver us from the high thoughts we have
of our own spirituality.
Help us to see how we are a
million miles away from being like You despite
all our apparent holiness.
Help us to humble ourselves.
Help me, help each one of us to
put our face in the dust like Job
and repent in dust and ashes because we've
heard of You many times, but we've seen
You, Lord.
We've seen You, Lord Jesus, what You really
were like.
And we worship You.
We want to follow You all our days.
In Jesus' name, Amen.