There were many reasons why Jesus died on
the cross.
We have spoken about and known some of
them.
He died for our sins.
He died that our old man might be
crucified with Him on the cross.
He died that Satan might be defeated.
And we also read here one more reason
in Galatians in chapter one.
Galatians chapter one, verse
four.
It says that Jesus gave Himself for our
sins so that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will
of our God and Father.
And when it speaks about the world, it's
not talking about the earth.
The earth is different from the world.
The earth is a physical thing and the
world is used sometimes in the scriptures to
describe the people of the world.
You know, we say about there are people
all over the world.
God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son for the world.
And that is the people of the world.
But there is another sense in which the
word world is used in scripture.
And that is referring to this system that
runs this world.
And that system is run by the devil.
That's why he's called the ruler of this
world.
He's not the ruler of the earth.
Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on
earth is given to Me.
Jesus rules the heaven and the earth.
But the ruler of the world is Satan.
You need to distinguish between the ruler of
the earth and the ruler of the world.
Jesus has got all authority in heaven and
earth.
Everything that happens on this earth, everything that
happens in this whole universe is under the
control of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is sovereign.
Nothing can ever happen.
Nobody can lift a finger or do anything
without His permission.
And particularly where it concerns His children, He
makes every single thing work together for good
because He controls all circumstances and people.
But on this earth there is another thing
called the world.
It's invisible primarily.
It's as invisible as the devil.
It's a system by which He controls almost
everything on this earth.
It controls politics.
It controls the business world.
It controls the entertainment world.
It controls the various styles and fashions of
dresses.
It controls television.
It controls radio.
It controls the whole videotape industry and
science and education and marketing,
advertising.
There's a spirit behind it all, the flow
of money and also many other things which,
a lot of things which I spoke about
are things which we are all touching every
day.
And then a lot of other evil things
like wars and pornography and many other evils,
it's all part of this world system that's
got a ruler.
And that ruler is Satan.
And Jesus came and gave Himself for our
sins that He might deliver us from this
world system because we're all born in this
system.
And from childhood we absorb the values of
this system.
In school we are taught to compete with
one another, to somehow put the other fellow
down and come on top and glory in
being first in the class and first in
the athletics and it gets into the thing
of little children.
And I'm not saying we shouldn't do our
best.
I used to tell my own children when
they were in school, I will never in
my life care for your rank in class.
If you do your best, you work hard,
I don't care if you come last in
the class.
I don't want them to get caught in
this system where you have to push down
other people and come on top and boast
about it.
It's all evil.
Don't let your children get caught in that.
If they get caught in that, they will
live in that no matter how religious they
are, how much they come to meetings, they
can never become spiritual, neither grown-ups.
I believe that the reason why many Christians,
believers, become religious and not spiritual is because
they have not understood this world system.
They are influenced in so much of their
thinking by this world system and also trying
to be spiritual and they end up being
religious.
If you could only be free from this
world system, you'd become spiritual.
Religion is an outward form which gives you
a name.
You can get a name of being holy
or you can get a church, can have
a name of being a wonderful church to
go to based on feelings and many things
like that.
Spirituality is quite another thing.
Spirituality is primarily based on a great devotion
to Jesus Christ in one's personal daily life.
If one is not personally, daily devoted to
Jesus Christ, we're not spiritual.
No matter what we do on Sundays, no
matter what religious activities we go through like
reading the Bible, attending Bible studies, prayer meeting,
fasting and all that, it's all religious activity.
A personal devotion to Jesus and a fervent
love for brothers and sisters in your local
church, that is the mark of true spirituality.
But religion is something different.
You can have religious people involved in what
we had just now, praise and worship.
See, praise and worship can be a spiritual
thing or a religious thing.
That depends on you.
You can have spiritual people and religious people
in a praise and thanksgiving meeting like we
had just now.
And for the spiritual person, it's worship of
Jesus, it's devotion to Jesus.
For the religious person, it's a good sing
-along time, you know, swing and keep the
beat, nice feeling, emotions, all very good.
Religious words, these are religious people.
There's no, I mean, Jesus may not even
be there.
It doesn't make a difference.
We had a good time.
Whether the Lord had a good time or
not doesn't matter.
The spiritual person's not like that.
The spiritual person's not thinking, we must have
a good time.
The spiritual person's thinking when we worship the
Lord, he must have a good time.
It's just that simple difference.
And if you look at a lot of
meetings that you go to, you may discover
at the end of it, you only think
of you having a good time.
And that's one of the clearest proofs that
you're a religious person.
And you're a religious person because even though
you believe everything about Christ and everything, all
of that, you've never seen what this world
system is, which binds you down.
I believe the reason why many Christians and
believers have an up and down experience, constantly
in their life, is because they've never been
detached from the world.
They've never been delivered from the world system.
For example, moods.
Do you know that it's the will of
God that you should never have a bad
mood?
Never.
That's God's will, because it says, Rejoice evermore,
for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.
Have you read that verse?
1 Thessalonians 5?
Verse 16 to 18, it says, Rejoice all
the time, because this is the will of
God for you.
That's God's will.
So how can I rejoice all the time
if I'm in a bad mood?
So I'm absolutely convinced, I was convinced years
ago, that if I'm in a bad mood
for one minute, I'm out of the will
of God, however religious I may be at
other times.
And the reason is the world system's got
a hold on me.
There are no bad moods in heaven.
Bad moods are a part of the world.
Worldly people have got bad moods.
But you need never have that.
You need never be gripped by fear.
Fear is something Jesus hated as much as
sin.
Just like the Bible says, Sin not, it
says fear not.
What's the difference?
But a world system can grip you so
much that you think sin is wrong, but
fear is not wrong.
You can think sin is wrong, but anxiety
is not wrong.
That if God says, Don't kill, you take
that seriously.
But God says, Don't be anxious, you don't
take that seriously.
How's that?
How can God say, Don't kill, we take
that seriously.
And the same God says, Don't be anxious,
and we don't take that seriously.
It's because the world system gripping us, where
we come to the Bible and pick the
verses we think are important and throw away
the things which God said, which we feel
are not important.
It's this world system.
And we don't realize how much we do
that.
We don't tremble at God's word because with
all our religious activity, the world system has
got a grip on us.
It's like an eagle.
It's one leg caught in a trap, that's
all.
One leg is caught in a trap.
There's no difference between that eagle and a
whole eagle sitting inside a cage.
Both can't fly.
One is completely enveloped by the world in
a cage.
The other is caught in one area, can't
fly.
Both of them are down on the earth
level.
But both of them were created to fly.
God has called us to be a heavenly
people.
See, that's the one big difference between the
Old Testament and the New Testament.
We've seen many differences between the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
And one of those differences is that in
the Old Testament, the people were an earthly
people.
They were down on this earth.
Everything they got was on this earth.
They never got victory over sin.
They got land.
They couldn't defeat the demons.
They could kill human beings like the Philistines
and the Amorites, the Canaanites.
They couldn't get anything spiritual, but they could
get everything material.
They couldn't know God, but they could make
a lot of money.
They couldn't save souls, but they could have
many children.
The whole of Old Covenant life was bound
to this earth.
And then John the Baptist came and said,
Now, the kingdom of heaven is coming.
Do you understand the difference?
That was the message.
And if you want this kingdom of heaven
to come into your life, you've got to
do one thing.
Repent.
Jesus proclaimed that same message.
Before he went up, he said, Some of
you standing here will see that kingdom coming.
And they saw it on the day of
Pentecost.
It's exactly like we sing in that song,
Heaven came down.
The Holy Spirit never was on this earth
for 4,000 years.
But on the day of Pentecost, heaven came
down.
When Jesus came to earth also, it was
heaven came down.
But that was only in one person.
It was heaven in one person for 33
and a half years.
That's why he told his disciples, It is
better for you fellows that I go away.
Otherwise, heaven will only be in me.
It won't be in you.
You fellows, even in the Last Supper you
are arguing who is the greatest.
That's not heaven.
That's earth.
That's the world system.
You know, you can listen to the greatest
preacher in the world, week after week after
week, and still be thoroughly worldly.
And the proof of it is the disciples
themselves.
To seek honor and position as to who
is going to be the leader, who is
going to be the elder, who is going
to be the greatest, who is going to
be considered the best preacher, the best elder,
the best singer, the most handsome person, the
most intelligent person, who comes first in the
class, who comes first in the races.
This is all part of the world system.
In heaven it's different.
In heaven, who is first is last.
That means the last person is considered first
in heaven.
And the servant is considered the greatest authority
in heaven.
That's exact opposite of this world.
But when we don't think like that, when
we think that if somebody thinks highly of
us, we feel really great, that shows you're
part of the world system.
That's the clearest proof that you're still part
of the world system.
Jesus has not delivered you from that world
system.
Jesus has not delivered you from that system
where position and honor and coming first, and
those of you, for example, who glory that
your child came first in a class, or
came first in something, the world system grips
you and you're communicating it to your children
all the time.
Then you're wondering why your children are not
spiritual.
They'll never be spiritual.
Because you're giving them large doses of this
world system every day.
It's like poison, then wondering why they're not
healthy.
They'll never be healthy.
See, heaven is different from the earth.
You've got to see that.
This world and heaven are two different systems
altogether.
And John the Baptist said, the kingdom of
heaven is now coming.
I don't know how many of you fellows
are interested in it, he told the Jews.
But he said, if you want to be
a part of it, you've got to repent.
You've got to repent of being part of
this wretched world system.
A few people repented, and they became part
of that heavenly system.
Now, everybody wanted healing.
Healing is an earthly thing.
And it was promised in the Old Testament,
and Jesus also did it.
A lot of people today are interested in
it too.
You don't have to be a believer to
be interested in healing.
Any unbeliever would be interested in healing.
Atheists are interested in healing.
See, if we ask ourselves this question, if
anything that I'm interested in, a worldly unconverted
person is also interested in, that can't be
a spiritual thing.
Let's make a simple rule.
Anything that an atheist is interested in, and
if I'm also interested in it, that cannot
be a spiritual thing.
An atheist is interested in making a lot
of money.
And if a man gets up and says,
Jesus will help you to make a lot
of money, that can't be a spiritual thing.
I mean, that itself sends a red light
into my mind saying, that is wrong.
That cannot be the kingdom of heaven.
If an atheist is interested in physical health,
and the main message of the gospel is,
Jesus will give me physical health, the red
light goes off in my mind.
Jesus came to give me something, which that
atheist is not interested in.
He came to deliver me from the love
of money.
He's not interested in that.
He came to deliver me from seeking the
honor of man.
He's not interested in that.
Jesus came to deliver me from secret sins,
which other people can't see.
He's not interested in that.
To be delivered from anger, that may not
be a proof of spirituality, because anger makes
us lose our testimony publicly.
And I may be concerned about my testimony,
so I don't want to get angry, because
then I lose my testimony.
And that atheist also may not want to
lose his testimony.
That could be a worldly thing.
But to be delivered from anger inside, that's
a spiritual thing.
Ask yourself, what are the things you're interested
in in your life, which an atheist is
not at all interested in?
You say, well, I go to the meetings.
Well, he goes to his club.
And your meetings may be no different from
a club.
What does he go to his club for?
He goes to his club to have a
good time, to meet with other friends whom
he meets regularly once a week.
And you may be going to your club
to meet people once a week.
Essentially, not much difference.
There may be people giving lectures in his
club and people giving lectures in your club.
He listens to those lectures and does nothing
about it.
And you'd listen to your lectures and do
nothing about it.
Not much difference, really.
You call your club a church.
He calls it something else.
He may be more honest.
He really may be more honest, because he
says it's a club.
I just go there to meet people, listen
to lectures, and I live my own life.
You also go to your club, what you
call a church, to meet people, to listen
to lectures, but you live your own life.
He's more honest.
That's a club.
You call it a church.
It's because this world system is fooling us
all the time.
And if the devil can fool you all
your life, that you're a spiritual person, and
you wake up in eternity and you discover
you are not spiritual at all, the devil
will say, ha-ha, you thought you fooled
me.
I fooled you all your life.
My brothers and sisters, the greatest danger that
believers in the world today are facing is
being religious and not spiritual.
If you think that I've got a little
bit of sense, please take my words seriously.
And the only thing that will deliver you
from religiosity is getting rid of the spirit
of this world.
Yeah, we can think that if I get
rid of legalism, all rules and regulations, and
I become more liberal, I become spiritual.
And some of us have tried that.
Has it made you spiritual?
You got rid of legalism, you got rid
of all your rules and regulations, and you
don't have any more rules that I won't
have any television.
Now I'll have television in my house in
order to be spiritual.
Did it make you spiritual?
You ask yourself.
Did it make your children more spiritual?
In the old days we had rules that
we will not see any movies.
Now we're going to be all free from
all these rules and regulations.
We start seeing movies.
Did that make you spiritual?
All this liberalization.
You ask yourself.
Did it make you and your family more
spiritual, more devoted to Jesus, more eager to
study God's word, to understand God?
You think you can be free from religiosity
just because you get rid of legalism and
legalistic rules and regulations?
Well, you tried it.
It's worldliness that still holds us.
A world system that controls our way of
thinking.
And the basic rule of this world system
is seek your own.
That's what the world system says.
Seek your own first.
Not the things of God, but your own.
All people seek their own.
And as long as you're seeking your own,
you ask yourself, what's the difference between you
and an atheist?
An atheist also seeks his own.
And Jesus came to deliver us from that,
where we seek God, His righteousness, His kingdom
first.
Have you ever read the first four words
in your Bible?
Do you know what the first four words
in your Bible are?
In the beginning, God.
That's how your Bible begins.
Every Bible begins with these words, In the
beginning, God.
It's one thing to have that written in
the front of our Bibles.
It's quite another thing to have our life
lived like that.
That is spirituality, where in every decision, how
will this affect God, His kingdom, His righteousness,
His uppermost.
Do you think all believers make decisions on
that basis?
I think perhaps one percent of born-again
believers make their decision on that basis.
That in everything, they think, how will this
affect?
If I take this, if I go here,
if I do this, if I marry this
person, if I go there, if I do
this other thing, how will that affect God,
His kingdom?
If I spend my time like this, how
will that affect God, His kingdom?
If I spend my money like this, how
will that affect God, His kingdom?
Do you think believers all live like that?
One percent.
Those are the one percent that are really
spiritual, because they've been delivered from this world
system that teaches them to seek their own.
Jesus came to deliver us from this.
See, it says in 1 John, in chapter
2, about two types of loves, and they
are contrasted with each other.
You know, like we say, you can't love
two women and marry both of them.
You've got to make your choice, which one
you want to get married to.
Do you love this one or that one?
And a lot of people have problems with
that even after they get married.
Even after they get married, they can't stick
to one love.
It's part of this world system.
It's not only where divorce is common, like
in western countries, where they get rid of
one woman and marry another.
If you're a married man and your eyes
wander to admire other women, you're gripped by
the world system too.
When you can talk more freely with a
woman other than your wife, more freely than
with your own wife, maybe somebody at work.
I don't care how religious you are.
You are part of this world.
You probably never hear that told you straight
to your face like you hear it here,
but if you keep coming here, you'll hear
a lot of things told you straight, which
scan your heart and reveal its true condition.
Now, what you do with the scanned report
is your business, but at least you'll get
an honest report.
It's a world system that says you can
love two things at the same time.
Okay, here in 1 John 2, it says
about two types of love in verse 15.
Loving the world and loving the Father.
And it says you can't do both at
the same time.
You've got to make your choice.
But in a world in which people think,
yes, I love my wife and I can
also love that other woman.
Such people can think, yes, I can love
the Father and I can love the world.
That's why the Bible says to believers, you
adulteresses, have you ever in your life heard
a preacher get up in a pulpit and
say, you bunch of believers, you are adulteresses.
If you ever heard a preacher like that,
tell me about it.
I'd like to hear him.
Because it's quite likely that such a man
may be a prophet like James.
I want to show you what James said.
James says, first of all, we need to
understand to whom is James writing.
He's writing chapter 2, verse 1, my brethren.
Chapter 2, verse 5, my beloved brethren.
Chapter 2, verse 1, those who have faith
in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
He is writing to beloved brethren.
Chapter 3, verse 1, my brethren.
He's talking to believers.
And what does he tell these believers?
Chapter 4, verse 5, you adulteresses.
Look at that.
My beloved brethren, you adulteresses.
He was a prophet for sure.
He was not the type of chap who's
interested in increasing the congregation in his church
and making sure all the rich people come
there and put their offerings in.
James couldn't care less for all those people.
In fact, if you read the book of
James, you'll discover that he was against a
lot of rich people who tried to get
influential positions in the church because of their
wealth.
And why does he call these people adulteresses?
He says here in verse 4, don't you
know that friendship with the world, this goes
one step further than what John said, is
actually enmity towards God.
And if you become a friend of this
world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
What a word.
Question, children, are you listening?
How to be an enemy of God?
Answer?
It's there in that verse if you read
it.
What's it?
Be a friend of this world.
Very simple.
How to be an enemy of God?
Be a friend of this world.
That's what this verse says.
Friend of what?
It's not the people of the world.
It can't be the people of the world
because God loved the people of the world
enough to give His Son.
Jesus loved murderers, thieves, gamblers, all types of
evil sinners of every description.
He loved them.
He came to die for them.
It can't be the people of this world.
Then what is this world spoken of here?
Do you know you can love God and
love the people of the world?
In fact, the more you love God, the
more you love the people in the world.
The more you love God, the more you
love the sinful people in the world.
But the world itself spoken of here is
not people.
It's a system.
When you become a true disciple of Jesus,
you don't have to give up your worldly
friends and worldly relatives and become like a
hermit.
That's not true Christianity.
In fact, that gives a bad name to
Christianity when people have nothing more to do
with their relatives and friends and all and
become like ascetics and live all by themselves
and say, I'm a Christian.
No.
Do you think Jesus was like that?
No.
But, if you allow those worldly friends and
relatives to influence, oh, that's a different thing.
You know, it's like a tug of war.
Once upon a time, you were on the
side of the world pulling against God and
God's people.
But now you've changed sides in this tug
of war.
And you got onto the other side and
you're pulling the rope the other way.
Can you keep your worldly friends and relatives?
Sure.
But watch that rope.
That handkerchief tied in the middle of the
rope.
Watch which side it's moving.
When you are with your friends and relatives,
just make sure that you are pulling them
into God's kingdom and not that they are
pulling you into the world.
And if they are pulling you into the
world, just drop that rope.
Leave them.
Because you are not strong enough to be
with them.
If you find when you are in the
midst of relatives that they gossip, backbite, speak
evil, which is the common practice of most
worldly people, and you sit there and you
find you are being polluted, I would say,
give up contact with such relatives.
But if you can sit there and be
a positive witness for goodness and uprightness and
truthfulness and not speaking evil of others and
not gossiping and speaking about, even if you
don't speak about worldly thing, about spiritual thing,
about good thing, then you can be there.
But otherwise, steer clear.
And then it is right for you to
steer clear of such worldly friends and relatives
who are polluting you every time you go
there.
I mean, if you go to somebody's house
and every time you go there, he throws
garbage on you, how long will you go
there?
You stink when you come out.
You go have a bath.
And that's what happens when we go with
a lot of unconverted relatives.
As soon as they start, the conversation is
garbage, garbage, garbage, this fellow is garbage, the
other fellow is garbage, all flung on you
and you come out stinking.
Do you want to go back there?
I don't want to go back there.
I want to go to a place where
at least they don't throw garbage.
Even if they don't throw perfume, at least
they don't throw garbage.
That's why I steer clear of a lot
of worldly people.
Because they've got nothing but garbage in their
hands and on their tongues.
I'm not interested in that.
Find somebody else to throw your garbage on.
I'm not interested.
I'm not saying that you've got to listen
to my holy talk about the Bible, let's
talk some clean stuff.
Otherwise you can say, oh, you're holy people.
I'm not a holy person, I don't want
your garbage, that's all.
Can't you keep the garbage away from me?
Why should I come there?
You've got enough people there to throw your
garbage on, why do you want me also
there?
I don't want it.
But that's because we don't love purity as
much as we love those unconverted people.
That's the trouble.
We don't love Jesus enough.
It says, friendship with the world is enmity
with God.
The world is a system which seeks its
own.
And have you noticed when people sit together,
they never talk evil about the people sitting
there.
Always the evil talk is about somebody who's
not there.
That's what I mean by evil.
If you don't believe that, just go and
see when people sit together and talk.
They never talk about people sitting there until
one of them leaves.
Then they'll start talking about that person also.
It's always about people who are not there.
It's a system which seeks one's own.
It manifests itself in numerous ways and gossip
and backbiting is just one of them.
Where you sit and speak evil of others,
you sit and pollute each other with more
and more talk about and people sit there
and boast about themselves and boast about their
children and boast about their husbands and their
houses and their jobs and all types of
things all trying to show that I'm one
better than you and then the other fellow
has to do something to show that he's
also equally good and this is all the
world's system.
Boasting about our connections and our...
Even among religious people.
You know, I meet some people who are
always boasting about some bishop they are related
to and I get sick and tired of
it.
Religious people.
I mean, where did that bishop come from?
He came from Adam, thrown out of Eden
like the rest of us just because he
wears a purple robe and a cross around
his neck doesn't qualify him for heaven any
more than it qualifies you and me.
What does it matter?
You can be related to Judas Iscariot as
much as a bishop.
It makes no difference.
You're a sinner, so is that bishop, so
is Judas Iscariot, so is you, so is
me.
We've got to be saved by the blood
of Jesus Christ, whoever we are and you
can't escape, you can't go to heaven by
hanging a cross around your neck or changing
your clothes and putting purple robes on.
You can't fool God.
You can fool people that you're holy but
you need to be born again to enter
God's kingdom and if you don't realize that
before you leave this earth, you'll suddenly realize
it when you stand before the Lord.
Like Jesus told Bishop Nicodemus, you must be
born again.
You may be 75 years old, Nicodemus, you
may look very holy but you need to
be born again otherwise you'll never enter God's
kingdom and Nicodemus was humble enough to accept
it unlike the other parishes.
You see, that's the thing.
The world system that glories in all types
of religious things which have no value in
heaven and that world system affects our thinking
in so many ways and I believe that
you must ask God to give you light
on where that world system has polluted your
way of thinking.
That world system is what teaches you to
rebel.
You know, one of the marks of people
who are in this world system is they
have no respect for authority.
They have no respect for people who are
older.
Why do we keep on teaching in this
church teach your children to respect you as
parents?
First of all, they must respect you as
parents and then they must respect other older
people they meet anywhere.
Now, you don't have to be a Christian
to know that.
You go down into the villages of India,
villages that have not yet been polluted by
television and western influences and you will see
in those villages young people respect older people.
They are not Christians.
God has taught them.
They have got a conscience.
Young people respect older people.
They stand up when an older person comes
into the room.
Do you see that with our children?
I am sorry to say, with most of
them, no.
And the parents get offended when they are
corrected.
That shows what a tremendous grip the world
has got even on the parents.
The parents are only interested in honor, not
in godliness.
Oh, I lost my honor.
My children lost honor.
Do you think such parents are interested in
godliness?
I don't even know whether they are converted.
If they were converted, they would be interested
in godliness, not honor.
You ask yourself, my brothers and sisters, have
you taught your children to respect?
Do you allow your child to speak disrespectfully
to the mother and the father listens to
that and does nothing about it?
I tell you, if you are a father
like that and your son or daughter, no
matter what age they are, speaks disrespectfully to
his mother and you listen to it, I
say to you, you should never have gotten
married and produced a child.
You should have remained single all your life.
You are unfit to be a father and
you are certainly unfit to be a Christian
father and certainly unfit to be a father
living in, coming to CFC.
Totally unfit.
Imagine, your child violates a law of God
right in front of your eyes, dishonors his
mother and you just smile.
Say, don't speak like that, darling.
You deserve to join the atheist club, not
sit here.
The atheist club, that's where you belong.
No respect for God and His word which
says, teach your children right from day one
to honor their father and mother and when
they don't honor their father and mother, now
how do I know that they are talking
like that at home?
I don't come to your home.
I'm not looking in through the windows.
I don't look in through anybody's windows, by
the way.
How do I know?
Because I see them behave like that over
here.
That's how I know.
When they behave like that over here, they
must be behaving exactly like that at home.
The children who respect their parents at home
will respect older people here.
The children who don't respect their parents at
home don't respect older people here.
That's all.
Because you can't change your nature.
I mean, you are older and you can
act in a different way in CFC than
you do at home because you are smart
and you can cover all your sins that
way.
But children are not so smart.
They behave exactly like they behave at home
right here because they've got no guile and
so we discover exactly what they are like
and like I've told all the CFC people,
just watch the children and you'll know what
the parents are like.
Watch the ones who are unruly, who have
no respect for anyone.
They're part of the world system because the
parents are part of the world system.
They're religious.
They come to every meeting.
They send their children faithfully to Sunday school.
But there's a tremendous difference.
No respect for authority.
In the world, there's no respect for authority.
Look at all the spirit of rebellion that
started with Lucifer way back.
That spirit of rebellion against authority, against God.
And we see that in schools where people
make fun of their teachers and colleges and
factories where they rebel against the authority.
They break windows and damage equipment.
It's all part of that spirit of rebellion.
And in the home, the children rebel against
parents.
In the church where people have no respect
for elders.
You know, it's in small things that we
see.
And the fault with the children often starts
with the parents.
I don't believe we should blame children.
For example, you go to the slums.
You can't blame the children for not knowing
ABC.
Why can't they know ABC when your children
know ABC?
Don't blame those children.
Your children are not better than their children.
You, as a parent, were more sensible than
those parents.
They never sent their children to school.
So, where's the fault?
In the parents.
You know, when the Lord spoke to Israel,
He always spoke to the leaders first.
He said, the problem is with the leaders.
If the leaders are right, everything will be
right.
And this respect for authority is, I believe,
something we must teach our children.
It's part of the world system, this rebellion
against authority.
I was asking Brother Ian yesterday, you know,
I don't come for choir practice.
But yesterday evening, I was asked to speak
to the choir.
And I see some faces in the choir
this morning who were not there yesterday evening.
So I asked Ian, what is the rule
here?
People who don't come for choir practice, are
they allowed to sing here on Sunday morning?
I thought we had a rule on that.
But, who cares for rules, right?
This is what I mean by rebellion.
We don't care.
If it were the military, such a person
would be court-martialed.
But this is not the military.
This is just a club.
We have fun together.
I'm just talking about a little thing like
that.
I noticed it because I happened to be
here yesterday.
So, what I'm saying is, it starts with
the older people, always.
The problem is there.
A total disregard for any rules or authority.
And when the parents are like that, how
in the world can the children be different?
So, it could be many, many things.
First of all, we've got to respect authority
ourselves.
A disrespect for authority, a disrespect for older
people is a sure sign that the prince
of the world has got something in you.
Jesus said in John chapter 14, John's Gospel
chapter 14, in verse 30, he said, The
ruler of this world is coming, and he
has got nothing in me.
Do you know who calls Satan the ruler
of this world?
Jesus.
Jesus acknowledged Satan is the ruler of this
world, not of the earth, of this world,
of this system.
And that system has got nothing in me.
That system could not make me rebel against
Joseph and Mary in the 30 years where
God kept me at home.
30 years the prince of the world could
not get Jesus to rebel against Joseph and
Mary.
Is he your forerunner?
He submitted to imperfect parents.
Teach your children to submit to imperfect parents.
Even if daddy is wrong, honor him.
If daddy is a drunkard, honor him.
Don't follow his example, honor him.
He is your father.
Your mother is a liar, outright liar.
She is still your mother, honor her.
Don't follow her example, steer clear of that.
She is your mother, honor her.
Your husband is dumb, stupid and all the
other names you call him, still, submit to
him.
That's what we teach, respect for authority.
Otherwise, the world has got a hold of
you no matter how religious you are.
We have to teach this to our children
right from the beginning so that we can
raise up a generation in the midst of
this ungodly world of young people who are
different.
Who are different because they know how to
respect authority.
They know how to respect their parents.
They know how to respect their older people.
They don't necessarily follow their parents because their
parents may be carnal, worldly.
They may not seek advice from their parents
in spiritual matters because parents have no spiritual
advice to give them.
That's okay.
Jesus didn't seek spiritual advice from Joseph and
Mary.
They couldn't teach him anything.
That he sought from his father in heaven.
And when he chose his disciples, he didn't
choose any of his four brothers to be
his disciples.
No.
He didn't have any partiality.
A lot of preachers today have partiality.
When they form a church, they get all
their own relatives to be board members and
all that other type of stuff.
Not Jesus.
He did not go by human relationship.
He had four brothers.
Not one of them did he choose to
be among his twelve.
But, if he saw somebody spiritual among his
relatives, like James and John who were his
cousins, he said, sure, come along.
He was not bothered what people said.
He was purely governed by the values of
heaven.
He had nothing against anyone or for anyone
because of relationship.
That didn't make any difference.
You know, in the world system, we show
partiality to our relatives.
If somebody is your child, oh, he can
never do anything wrong.
He has different standards than the standards in
the church.
That's partiality.
That means you are gripped by the world
system.
The standards are for other people's children.
Who said that?
Jesus never cared for his own relatives when
it came to spiritual things.
He says, well, they never believed in him,
well, they can't be his disciples then.
That's it.
I've seen people, even in CFC, they see
some young people getting baptized.
Through the years, I've seen it many, many
times.
And then the parents think, oh, my son,
my daughter is getting left out of this.
Somehow, they must also get baptized.
Then they'll be in the club.
And they somehow manipulate and get their son
or daughter baptized because somebody of their, a
friend of their son or daughter also is
getting baptized.
What do you think such parents are doing?
Destroying those children.
And you see the people who are baptized
like that through the years.
I've watched them.
I've never said anything.
None of them are spiritual.
None of them are following Jesus.
Whose fault?
Parents.
Parents wanted the honor.
Oh, my son, my daughter shouldn't get left
out of this baptism going on.
Don't be like that.
I never asked one of my sons to
be baptized.
Not once.
Why?
Because I didn't want your honor that my
sons are baptized.
I say, I don't care to get baptized
when they're 30.
They must choose on their own.
Not because somebody else or their friends are
getting baptized.
You have to make a choice in these
things, brothers and sisters, that you will not
let the world influence you.
The spirit of this world which is always,
get honor.
Get honor through your children.
Get honor for yourself.
Jesus came to deliver us from this evil
system.
And I'll tell you, I'll tell you after
43 years of fighting this battle, it's going
to be a battle till the end.
This world system is all around us.
You know, it's like plugging a leaky roof.
You know, a tin roof.
Okay, you plugged every hole and the next
rain comes there's another hole.
You got to go and plug that.
This is how the world is.
All the time surrounding us and we got
to plug a hole every now and then.
Don't let that water drip, drip, drip, drip,
drip.
It'll make it worse.
Go and plug it immediately.
Wherever you see the world coming into your
life, into your home.
And the same thing applies in dress.
See, the Bible has a lot to say
about dress, by the way.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 3, particularly about women's
dress.
The unfortunate thing is that a lot of
Christian groups have majored on dress itself as
though that is the only test of worldliness.
Now, I don't believe that.
You can get a person dressed in white
clothes and without any ornaments and sisters and
long-sleeved blouses and all that and they
can be the most worldly people in the
world.
Because the world is a system.
If they seek their own honor, they have
no respect for authority, despite all their long,
white-sleeved blouses and modest dress, they are
worldly.
So, worldliness is a system inside, but which
is manifested in many things outside.
And one of it is dress.
In Isaiah chapter 3, it says, one of
the things the Lord had against Israel in
those days was the daughters of Zion.
That's chapter 3, verse 16.
The daughters of Zion are proud.
It all comes out of pride.
And pride is a major part of this
world system.
All that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life.
It's because of pride that I want to
seek my own honor.
It's because of pride that I want to
present myself dressed up in a way that
I'll be more attractive than the other girls
around me.
I will have the latest fashion that will
make me stand out among all the others.
I say to you, dear parents, don't let
your daughters grow up like that.
If they are young, you can control them.
If you don't control them when they are
young, they'll become teenagers and it'll be too
late to control them.
The daughters of Zion are proud.
And you can see it, first of all,
in the way they walk.
Do you know that the way a woman
walks is a pretty good indication of whether
she's a God-fearing sister or a worldly
one?
I've learned through the years to see that.
The way a person walks, the way a
person looks, the way a person talks, and
the way a person dresses.
These are three, four pretty good guidelines.
I don't tell them.
I'm not here to go around classifying worldly,
10% worldly, 90% worldly.
That's not my business.
But for myself, I do that.
And I know the way a person walks,
the way a person talks, the way a
person looks, and the way a person dresses.
They walk with their heads held high, with
their noses in the air, the Living Bible
says, and with seductive eyes.
The Living Bible says, with wanton eyes that
rove among the crowds to catch the glances
of the men.
Here are women, young women, who are hoping
that some man will watch them.
They're not immoral.
No, no, no, no.
They won't give their bodies to anybody.
No.
But they want to be noticed by man.
Do you think that's a good thing?
God doesn't think so.
You must dress neatly.
I'm not talking about shabbily dressed.
I don't believe Jesus was shabbily dressed even
one day of His life.
I don't believe Jesus wore stinking clothes one
day of His life.
I believe Jesus was neatly dressed always.
He was made in all things like His
brothers.
In other words, He wanted to dress in
such a way that He wouldn't stand out
in a crowd.
I think if everybody was wearing a suit
and a tie, Jesus would wear a suit
and a tie.
If people were wearing dhotis, He'd wear a
dhoti.
If everybody around was like that, He tried
to merge with the crowd, be made all
things like the others, because He came to
be like us.
Not to stand out is different.
And that's the fundamental principle that you should
follow if you're a God-fearing sister.
Don't seek to stand out.
Follow Jesus, who sought to merge with the
crowd so that you don't stand out, so
that you get the glances of men, the
way you are smartly dressed.
And it says here, therefore, He talks about
the bangles on their feet.
It's amazing what all the Lord takes note
of.
Verse 18, their anklets and headbands and their
ornaments and their earrings and their bracelets and
their scarves and veils and headdresses and ankle
chains and sashes and perfume boxes and amulets
and finger rings and nose rings.
Lord, are you going to stop?
No, not yet.
Festal robes, altar tunics and clothes and the
money bag.
Oh, even the dainty little handbags.
The Lord's keeping an eye on that.
And these hand mirrors and undergarments and turbans
and veils.
Boy, you'd never thought the Lord's interested in
all these things, right?
We always heard that the Lord looks on
the outward appearance and man looks at the
heart.
And God looks at the heart and man
looks at the outward appearance but it looks
as if the Lord's looking at the outward
appearance too.
Because that outward appearance comes out of a
heart that is worldly.
And so, we're not here to make rules
for people.
Because it's very difficult.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2
that a woman should be dressed sensibly, modestly,
discreetly.
Verse 9.
1 Timothy 2.9 With proper clothing, modestly
and discreetly.
That's why I believe that no God-fearing
sister should expose parts of her body that
would provoke a man to lust.
And if you're in doubt, go and ask
your father.
Don't ask your mother.
She may be worldly herself.
Go and ask your father.
Dad, what parts of my body if I
expose will provoke a man to lust?
Your dad, if he's honest, will give you
an honest reply.
Because he's a man.
And listen to him more than to those
advertisements you see on television.
You ask yourself whether your style of wearing
certain parts of your clothing has come through
watching certain cinema stars or television models.
Or whether it has come out of a
desire to be modest in the way you
dress.
You know, we can say one dress is
more modest than the other, but the world
has got ways of making even these churidars,
the kurta part of it, tighter and tighter
and making the slits down the side bigger
and bigger.
And it's all part of the world.
We can't make rules on it.
It's a sense you get.
We don't make any rules, but you know,
how do you define a bad smell?
Can you please explain a bad smell to
me?
Anybody.
Write a book on it and try to
explain a bad smell to me.
You can't explain it.
But if you've got a good nose, you
smell it pretty quick.
How do you define bad food?
Well, if you've got a good tongue, you
know it immediately.
It's exactly the same.
What is worldliness in a woman's dress?
I'm sorry, I can't explain it.
But when I look at her sister, I
know.
It's like that.
You know that that person did not get
that out of any desire for godliness.
That person got it from watching television and
movie stars.
The way they do their hair and the
way they do their, the way they walk
and the way they toss their heads and
like little dolls.
And the way they walk and so many
things.
All the way from head down to the
heels of their shoes.
You can see where did you get it
from.
Are you trying to be like other god
-fearing sisters?
Or are you trying to be like those
movie stars?
That's a choice you have to make.
But I would encourage you parents to teach
your children to be simple, godly.
They can be, I'm not saying they should
wear white.
No, I'm not.
God made flowers in various colors.
And when He spoke about dress, by the
way, He said in Matthew 6, God will
make you dress like all the flowers.
So I don't understand where this idea of
white dress came from.
Because it's contrary to what Jesus said.
The flowers have got various colors.
There's nothing wrong in colors, they're not reds.
There's nothing wrong in beautiful.
Those flowers are beautiful.
But, modest, tight-fitting dresses and all following
the latest fashions in order to expose various
parts of our body and shape and expose
and you know, gradually a spirit of uncovering.
Uncovering.
Uncovering parts of a woman's body that should
be more properly covered in the church.
I say we're against it.
We're against it.
We're against this unnecessary decking of oneself with
all types of things in order to impress.
Let's humble ourselves and go to God.
And say, Lord, we need to repent.
There was a day years ago when the
church was first born.
The church in the world walked far apart.
But gradually through the years the church in
the world come closer and closer and closer
in most places.
They're holding hands now.
The church is supposed to be engaged to
a bridegroom who's coming.
I remember a sister once I told her,
she asked me, how should I dress for
my wedding?
I said, dress in the way you would
like to be dressed if you were going
to have an interview with Jesus Christ.
How would you like to?
Jesus Christ invited you to come and visit
Him sometime.
How would you like to be dressed when
you go there?
Dress exactly like that.
If you believe in the presence of the
Lord and the church, dress like that.
Be careful of this world system, brothers and
sisters.
That's barheads for God.
All I would say today if you hear
His voice, don't harden your heart.
Those of you parents who are lucky enough
to have your children still young, small enough
for you to spank them and correct them,
there's great hope for you.
You can guide them aright.
And those of you who are careless and
allow your children to do what they like
because of a wrong understanding of legalism and
rules and regulations, well, you can still pray.
The job will be a little more difficult
now that your children have become teenagers.
It's a bit too late to try and
impose your laws on them now.
You can pray for them, love them, advise
them and repent before God.
But it's a big responsibility we all have.
The church and the world have nothing in
common with each other.
Just make sure that in every area we're
trying, where none of us are perfect, we're
at least trying to do things in a
way in our homes, even in our clothing,
to glorify God.
Don't let the world determine how you spend
your money, how you spend your time.
Let Jesus be happy.
That's the test.
What you've got from me today is not
a bunch of rules and regulations, not even
a dress list of what you should wear
or what you shouldn't wear.
Just ask yourself, is that the way you
would go to meet Jesus if He asked
you to come and meet Him?
Is that the way you'd be dressed if
you went to meet Jesus somewhere?
That's the way you should be dressed all
the time.
Let's be careful in the days to come.
There's hope for everyone.
As long as we're alive, there's hope.
Brothers and sisters, from the beginning, as a
church, we've sought to stand for the Lord.
And we want to continue to stand for
the Lord.
And we want all the parents to cooperate
wholeheartedly in preserving the church in purity and
that the next generation that grows up after
we are gone does not get rid of
the standards that we sought to maintain.
May God have mercy on us and help
us.
It's an awesome responsibility that falls on the
shoulders of us parents.
We need to fall down before God and
weep and repent and ask God's mercy.
And that will protect our children from the
corruption that is in the world through lust
and prepare them for the Kingdom of God.
I'm not asking you to make silly rules
and regulations which have no meaning.
I'm not asking you to ask them to
follow the fashions you followed 50 years ago.
I'm asking you to teach them to be
decent and modest, God-fearing and respectable in
the presence of Jesus Christ.
That's all.
Heavenly Father, it's a tremendous battle in the
church to fight against the world.
So many are unwilling to fight it because
it will make the church unpopular, because it
will drive away people who want to be
worldly.
We say to you in Jesus' name, Father,
we're not afraid of that.
We're not afraid of people being offended with
the truth.
Help us to speak the truth in love,
with graciousness, and not with a spirit of
legalism.
To find that balance between grace and truth,
between the kindness and the severity of God.
To find that balance where we have standards
without being legalistic.
Where we want to keep the world out,
but we don't want to bind people with
chains.
I believe you will do that in our
midst.
We don't want to be like those churches
that put chains on their people, and neither
do we want to be like the other
churches that let people go right into the
spirit of the world and destroy themselves and
their children.
We want to follow Jesus who was sensible
and balanced, and we believe that you are
in our midst, Lord, and you can help
us and show us and show our children
that what we advise them is for the
very best for them.
For them.
Because you're always seeking our good in everything.
Preserve us, Lord.
There are a million aspects of the world
which we don't often notice, but give us
a sense for the things of the world
and the things of God.
Make us quick of sense in the fear
of God so that we can immediately detect
where something is worldly, where even a manner
of speech is worldly, or a conversation is
becoming worldly, or a particular dress is worldly.
Give us wholehearted sisters who will remodel their
dresses.
Yes, Lord.
Do it.
Give us wholehearted parents who will teach at
whatever cost their children to respect parents and
older people.
Give us wholehearted brothers and sisters who will
stand for the standards of God's Word in
a corrupt, worldly, adulterous Christendom we are surrounded
by today.
Preserve us as much as we have asked
you through the years to preserve us from
legalism.
We also ask you to preserve us from
worldliness, from the world system that surrounds us
on every side, in school, at work, with
our friends and neighbors, and especially with television.
Protect us, Lord, from the worldliness that comes
booming into many homes through television every day.
Protect us, we pray, from the worldliness that
there is in the newspapers, in the advertising
sections, in the entertainment sections of the newspapers.
Protect us, Lord.
It's all over.
We can't escape it.
It's in the billboards, on the roadsides, and
everywhere.
Preserve us.
Preserve our children.
They face a more difficult time than we
had in our younger days.
Please help them.
Please help them and help all of us
that we shall be as a church a
light for you.
We're not worried if we are small.
We pray the light will be bright.
That's all we pray.
Bright in a way that you can endorse
it and that in the day when we
stand before you, you will say to us,
Well done, good and faithful servant, because as
a church you proclaim the truth without compromise,
in love, without legalism.
Help us, Lord.
It's not easy, but we believe you'll help
us and help our children to be gripped
by this matter of being delivered from this
present evil world system, lest it destroy them
one day.
Give us light on the schemes and the
snares of Satan, on the clever traps he's
laid for our young people, the snares in
the realm of music and so many other
areas.
Preserve us from the world, we pray.
Have mercy upon us all.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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