When we consider the preaching of Jesus Christ
in the world today and what the Lord
has called us to proclaim and what we
have been proclaiming in the church here for
many years, I find the big difference.
Very often I see we preach a different
Jesus from the ones a lot of Christians
are preaching today.
And that's not new to the 21st century.
We read that even in the first century,
Paul preached a Jesus which was different from
the Jesus being preached by a lot of
other preachers.
And we could say not only it's a
false Jesus, but there is a gospel of
the old covenant and there is a gospel
of the new covenant.
And Paul spoke about people who are preaching
another gospel.
That is the essential difference.
Sometimes when I ask people who have gone
somewhere to listen to a public crusade or
some meeting, I ask them, did you find
any difference between what you hear in the
church here and in those other places?
And sometimes they say, no, it's the same
thing.
I never say anything more because then I
know how much they have understood.
That's all.
That's all I wanted to know, how much
they understood.
When we lack discernment, we will think the
two are the same.
It's like people who are colorblind.
Those of us, most of us, or perhaps
all of us are not colorblind.
So we really don't know.
I really don't know what colorblindness means, but
it's a very serious thing.
If you're colorblind and you're getting a driving
license, you don't know what's red and what's
green.
You can have accidents if you're colorblind and
everything looks gray to you.
And that's exactly what happens to a lot
of Christians.
They don't know what's red and what's green.
You can't get angry.
You don't get angry with somebody who's colorblind,
do you?
We never get angry with sick people.
We feel sorry for them.
So it's very important in the Christian life
not to be colorblind concerning what is spiritual,
what is soulish, what is divine, what is
human, and what is old covenant, what is
new covenant.
What are the things emphasized in the New
Testament and what are the things emphasized in
the Old Testament?
When Isaiah was preaching something in chapter 53,
he began that chapter with these words, Isaiah
53, verse 1.
And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed?
The arm of the Lord is the mighty
power of God.
And he begins by saying, who is going
to believe what I'm going to say now?
That's basically what he's trying to say.
Who is going to believe that the true
servant of the Lord will grow up, verse
2, the last part, with nothing attractive about
him, a man who suffers and who knows
pain firsthand.
People look at him and turn away.
They look down on him because they thought
he was scum.
Who's going to believe that?
That a servant of God stands up on
the pulpit and he's going to be despised,
misunderstood, not spiritually attractive because the message he
preaches is not something which is acceptable to
a lot of people.
And so people think he is scum.
Is that a servant of the Lord?
Is that the one whom God anoints and
supports?
It says in verse 7, he was beaten
and tortured but he didn't say a word.
And verse 8, middle, he died without a
thought for his own welfare, even though, verse
9, last part, he had never hurt a
soul.
He had never hurt a soul and he
never said one word that wasn't true.
But it was God's plan all along, verse
10, to crush him with pain.
The last part of verse 12, he embraced
the company of the lowest of people and
he took up the cause of all the
black sheep.
This is the true servant of the Lord.
Not the flashy film star type of person
who stands under the floodlights and runs across
the platform and waves, and whom you cannot
approach like you cannot approach the film stars.
That is not the servant of the Lord.
Such a man is following another Jesus.
Can you see the distinction between red and
green?
Or are you also colorblind?
Isaiah says, who will believe this report?
Who will believe that such a person is
a servant of the Most High God, who
does not have access to millions of rupees
like others?
I believe that if you don't get light
on this type of distinction between red and
green, you will be deceived in this day.
This is a day when even the elect
could be deceived.
I want to show you another verse in
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, we read, it's the
only time, the only time, and it's very
significant, when Jesus uses a word only once
when speaking to a human being.
There are only two or three times when
Jesus used the word Satan, devil.
You know, there are some Christians who are
always rebuking the devil.
Get behind me, Satan.
They think they're spiritual.
I think they're paranoid.
Something's wrong with their head.
Jesus wasn't always going around saying, get behind
me, Satan.
Get behind me, Satan.
No.
There's something wrong with such people.
They're not spiritual people.
It says about Jesus in Acts, chapter 2,
I have set the Lord always before me.
He saw his Father all the time, not
Satan.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
will see God.
Those who are impure in heart, I presume
they will see Satan.
They'll always have to go around rebuking Satan.
I don't waste my time rebuking Satan, because
I follow Jesus.
I don't believe the devil can touch me.
My conscience is clear.
Not if he makes mistakes.
We all make mistakes.
But if our conscience is clear and we're
really seeking to live a God-fearing life,
before the face of God, we don't have
to spend our lives seeing the devil everywhere.
I see God everywhere.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
The therapist in heaven said, and that's what
I say too, I see God's glory everywhere.
Because Jesus has conquered.
Satan is a defeated foe.
But Jesus did say, get behind me, Satan,
in the wilderness, when he actually confronted Satan,
just once.
Another time we read in John, chapter 6,
he referred to Judas Iscariot as a devil.
He said, one of you is a devil.
But he didn't name him.
But there was only one time, only one
time, when he turned to a human being
and said, get behind me, Satan.
And that was, amazingly, not the Pharisees, but
his closest co-worker, Simon Peter.
Oh, how he must have loved Simon Peter
to rebuke him so strongly.
Revelation 3.19 says, as many as I
love, the Lord says, I rebuke and I
discipline.
And if he rebukes you strongly, he must
be loving you very much.
If he rebukes you mildly, it's probably not
because he doesn't love you, but because he
feels you're the type of person who'll get
offended with a rebuke.
And if he doesn't rebuke you at all,
I just feel sorry for you.
God's probably given up on you.
God rebukes me all the time.
All the time.
If you ask me today, how do you
know that Jesus loves you?
My younger days, I'd say he died for
me.
Today I say, he rebukes me.
He disciplines me.
That's how I know.
He hasn't given up on me.
And I'm so thankful that he does that.
He rebuked Peter.
And he said to him in Matthew's Gospel
in chapter 16, verse 23, he turned and
said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
Now, we can, you know, paraphrase that and
say, well, what he meant was that Peter
was being influenced by Satan.
And what he said, what Jesus could have
said to him.
I mean, how would you say that?
How would you say that to your closest
co-worker?
Get behind me, Satan.
I mean, Ian and I worked so many
years.
He's never said to me, get behind me,
Satan.
I've never said that to him.
I've never said that to my wife.
My closest co-worker in life.
That's a strong word.
I mean, he called the Pharisees snakes and
vipers.
But to turn around to Peter and say,
get behind me, Satan.
And the wonderful thing about Peter was he
didn't get offended.
That's what marked him out as the man
who's going to be the speaker for God
on the day of Pentecost.
He did not get offended with rebuke.
It was around the same time that Jesus
told his disciples, will you also go away?
When many people left him in John chapter
6.
And Peter was the one who said, Lord,
to whom shall we go?
You said just now, get behind me, Satan.
These are the words of eternal life.
Boy, what light.
He was not colorblind.
He knew clearly what was green and what
was red.
He knew that those words were green.
They were words of eternal life.
And blessed is the man who understands that
when God rebukes him, either directly, or when
he reads the Bible, or when he hears
a message like this, or through a brother
who comes to you personally and rebukes you
because he loves you so much.
If you can say, let the righteous smite
me, like the psalmist said, that is like
anointing oil upon my head.
These are the words of eternal life.
You are a blessed woman.
You are a blessed man.
You are a blessed young brother, young sister.
You are a blessed child.
You can receive it like that.
But now what I want to point out
to you is, in what context did he
say that?
What did Peter say that made Jesus use
such strong words?
I can think of another time when Peter
was discussing, am I going to be the
greatest here?
After Jesus, I mean, Jesus just told us
that he's going to die.
Okay, who's going to take over the leadership?
It's like these mission compounds in India when
the missionaries were planning to leave.
There was a great discussion among the Indian
people there who were going to take over,
not how souls are to be saved, but
who's going to take over as a leader.
Well, that's not new.
That's not old.
That's not a new thing.
It's an old thing.
It happened at the Last Supper where the
disciples discussed who's going to be the greatest.
I mean, if Jesus had told Peter, get
behind me, Satan, don't talk about who's going
to be the greatest.
That's a Satanic attitude.
You always want to go off like, that's
what made Lucifer a devil.
That I can understand.
And you can understand that when people want...
Supposing, for example, there's a fight going on
in this church to be the leader of
the church.
It's never happened in 30 years, and I
don't believe as long as we preach this
message it'll ever happen, till Jesus comes.
But supposing in some church there's a fight
as to who's going to be the leader,
to turn to such a person and say,
get behind me, Satan, is okay.
Because that's the spirit of the devil, wanting
to exalt himself.
But what did Peter say?
Peter said such words of consideration.
I mean, it's the one place in the
New Testament where we would think, boy, how
much Peter loved Jesus to say such a
word.
Because, notice the context.
Jesus told them, from that time, verse 21,
Jesus began to show his disciples how it
was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem,
and suffer at the hands of the religious
leaders and priests there, and be killed.
And the third day, he dries again, and
Peter said, never, impossible, God forbid it, this
will never happen to you as long as
I'm around here, I'm going to make sure
that doesn't happen to you.
What do you say to such a man?
I mean, if you one day announce, brothers,
I think I'm going to be arrested tomorrow,
and some brother gets up and says, brother
Zach, that will never happen to you as
long as I'm around here, I'll make sure
it doesn't happen.
What do I turn around to him and
say?
Get behind me, Satan.
Is that what I say to a guy
who's trying to show me his loyalty?
Who loves me so much?
He'd get offended.
Immediately, Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.
You're a stumbling block to me.
What words.
Oh, how he loved Peter.
Oh, what light Peter had.
That was a green light God gave him.
He was not colorblind.
And the reason is, this is the point
I want you to notice, because this affects
you and me.
You are setting your mind on man's interest,
not God's interest.
Your mind is thinking in terms of human
interest, not God's interest.
Human interest is how to escape humiliation, how
to escape suffering, how to escape difficulties, how
to escape problems.
All human beings in the world, from the
beggar to the king, their mind works like
that.
Show me a man on earth whose mind
doesn't work like that, a man or a
woman.
How to escape humiliation, how to escape trials,
how to escape suffering, how to escape any
difficulty, financial difficulty, physical difficulty, how to escape
sickness, how to escape poverty, how to escape...
This is the thinking of man.
You don't have to be spiritual to think
like that.
All children of Adam think like that, and
not only children of Adam, even animals.
Why does a lizard run away when you
try to catch it?
It's thinking the same way like all human
beings.
How to escape suffering?
If this guy catches me, I'm finished.
What's the difference between that lizard and a
human being?
Absolutely nothing.
Snakes, dogs, they all...
Have you seen how these dogs around here,
when the truck comes to pick up these
stray dogs, they know.
Amazing!
They disappear.
And once the trucks go away, they come
back.
I've been amazed at the intelligence of these
dogs.
They know how to escape suffering.
Their interests are on how to escape anything
that's difficult, suffering, trial, confinement, and everything like
that.
And here Jesus was saying, I'm going to
be killed, I'm going to be humiliated, they're
going to spit on me, they're going to
treat me badly, they're going to kill me.
And Peter says, rubbish, it's not going to
happen.
Not as long as I'm around here.
And Jesus turns around and says, your mind
is set on man's interests, God's interests.
So we need to find out what are
God's interests.
And that's where we understand the New Covenant
Gospel.
In the New Covenant Gospel, there is a
major place for suffering, which is not there
in the Old Covenant.
I looked up a concordance this morning, and
looked for the word suffering in the Old
Testament.
It wasn't even there once.
Did you know that?
That was amazing to me.
The word suffering is not there in the
Old Testament once.
Suffering is there once in Exodus chapter 3,
where the Israelites were having sufferings in Egypt,
and God delivered them immediately from that.
Otherwise, it just isn't there.
But in the New Testament, it occurs plenty
of times.
I thought, okay, let me look up another
word, which is a very popular word nowadays
in Gospel preaching.
What is that word?
Prosperity.
Okay.
That occurs in the Old Testament, sure.
I said, let me check how often it
comes in the New Testament.
Paul says once in Philippians chapter 4, verse
11 to 13, he says, I know how
to have little, and I know how to
have prosperity.
I said, that doesn't seem to fit in
with what I hear.
I mean, here we are hearing of a
gospel which is only prosperity, and Paul seems
to say, it doesn't make a difference to
me.
Whether I'm prosperous or poor, it's all the
same to me.
I've learned to be content, and I just
praise the Lord.
I'm anxious for nothing.
I rejoice in the Lord always, all in
the same chapter, Philippians 4.
And then, I found that word prosperity occurring
another time.
That's very interesting.
I told you once where Paul said, it
doesn't make a difference to me whether I
have prosperity or little.
The only other occurrence of prosperity in the
New Testament is in Acts chapter 19.
In Acts chapter 19, Paul was preaching, and
thousands and thousands of people were getting converted,
and they were giving up their idols, and
they stopped buying idols.
So, when people stop buying idols, what happens?
People who make idols run out of business.
Well, Paul was doing that, and he says
here, there was a big confusion in the
city, not against the gospel.
They were not bothered about the gospel.
The businessmen were concerned.
It says in Acts 19.23, there was
a big disturbance concerning this way that Paul
was preaching.
And there was a man named Demetrius, verse
24, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of
Artemis, and was bringing no little business to
the craftsmen, because a lot of people were
buying this.
He gathered all these people together with workmen
of similar trades, and he said, men, you
know that our prosperity, there's the word, depends
upon this business.
But you see, this man, Paul, has persuaded
and turned away a considerable number of people,
verse 26, saying that gods made with hands
are no gods at all.
And I thought of it, how does this
apply today?
There are preachers who say, our prosperity depends
upon whether we continue to preach that people
must give us their tithes, and that people
must give us their money, and only if
we convince them that God will give you
prosperity, only if you sow a seed to
our ministry.
But this man, we won't mention his name,
he's going around preaching that this is not
the gospel.
This is troubling us.
What shall we do with this man who
is going around preaching that that is not
the gospel?
Let's try and get rid of him.
Stop him from preaching.
Don't let him come on television or any
such thing, because our prosperity depends on this
business that we are promoting.
It's the same old story.
Two thousand years go by and history is
just being repeated.
Dear brothers and sisters, those are the only
two occurrences of the word prosperity in the
New Testament.
Other preachers won't tell you that.
I'll tell you that.
Even a concordance will tell you that.
You don't need a preacher.
What did Jesus say to Peter?
Your mind is set on man's interests.
Man's interests are always what will help me,
what will make me rich, and what will
make me more comfortable, and a better car,
and a better house, and a better this,
and a better that.
Whose interests are these?
Do you think Jesus was always thinking, how
can I get a better house, and can
I get another better clothes?
Was this what he was thinking of all
the time on earth?
He wasn't even thinking of his food most
of the time.
Once when he didn't eat at all and
he got a soul saved, one soul saved,
he said, I've already eaten, he said to
his disciples in John chapter 4.
I've eaten food which you fellows know nothing
about.
My food is to do the will of
Him who sent me.
All the time his mind was revolving around,
how can I do the Father's will, how
can I do the Father's will.
How did he know when that day that
there's a needy soul in Samaria, there's a
five times divorced woman there whom you got
to go and help because nobody goes near
divorced women.
You got to go and help, the Holy
Spirit said, and Jesus heard it.
How did he hear that voice?
Because his mind was attuned always to thinking,
what is the Father's will, what is the
Father's will, what is the Father's will.
His mind was not thinking of where can
I buy some better clothes and where can
I get some better food and which is
the best restaurant in town and which is
the best place to buy clothes and which
is the better house I can move into.
His mind wasn't revolving around those things.
His mind was not revolving around better bathroom
fittings and better tiles for his floor.
These things were all secondary.
I'm not saying he lived on the streets
in Nazareth, but they were secondary.
We read in Mark's Gospel how once in
Jesus' house, you know Jesus moved his house
from Nazareth to Capernaum when he started his
ministry.
We read that and in his house we
read one day somebody broke open the roof
and lured somebody to, did you know that
was Jesus' house?
Yeah, you read that.
It's in Mark chapter 2 I think.
I can understand that because nobody would dare
to break somebody else's house roof.
But when they thought about getting into Jesus'
house, these folks who were brought, this paralyzed
man said, this is Jesus, he won't mind
roof and all being broken up because he
loves people, he doesn't love property.
So he won't mind, I tell you he
won't mind.
He said, are you sure?
He said, I'm positive.
He won't even ask us to pay for
it, he'll pay for it himself.
Because he loves people so much.
He loves to help people so much.
And they broke it open.
They would not have dared to do it
in anybody else's house.
But Jesus' house, they broke it open.
And then he wasn't concerned, hey all these
fellows broken up, how much is that going
to cost me?
He wasn't even thinking about all that.
He saw this man who needed healing, he
healed him.
And then he saw him needing forgiveness, he
said, okay you're forgiven.
Then he walked away and he may have
told one of his disciples, get somebody to
fix that, here's the money.
Don't go and ask those people why they
broke it up.
His mind was, that shows me, you know
you read these stories in the Gospels and
you understand what was going on in Jesus'
mind.
And I say, Lord, you know all of
us say, I want to be like Jesus.
You want to be like him?
Set your mind on God's interests.
Otherwise, get behind me, Satan is the word
we'll hear.
It's Satan who makes a man of God
set his mind on earthly interests.
Peter was a man of God.
There was a time when his mind was
set on fishing and how to make more
money fishing.
Okay, but one day God called him.
One day Jesus called him and said, come
and be my disciple.
Go and preach the Gospel, Peter.
There was no time for him after that
to set his mind on human interests.
Paul says that in 2 Timothy 2.
He says in verse 3, suffer hardship with
me.
He said, I'm not telling you to suffer
something I haven't suffered myself.
Timothy, remember that suffering which is not found
in the Old Testament is a major part
of the New Testament Gospel.
And it's something which if you're a servant
of God, you have to go through.
What type of suffering?
Leave it to God to decide that.
One thing you can be sure, he'll never
allow you to suffer more than you're able
to bear.
I praise God for that.
He'll never allow me to go through a
trial or a suffering, which is too much
for me to bear, but he will allow
me to go through suffering.
All the apostles were killed.
They did not die natural deaths.
Perhaps John did.
We don't know.
He lived up to a good old age
of 95, but most of the others died
in their 60s.
As far as we know, many of them
much younger.
James, when he was 31 or so.
31 years old, just beginning to serve the
Lord.
And his head is chopped off.
We read in Acts chapter 12.
Why?
Was it because there were thousands of apostles
that we didn't need one fellow like James?
No.
Those were days when there were hardly any
apostles.
Was it because God couldn't deliver him?
A few days later, God delivered Peter.
Just a few days later from the same
prison.
You read in Acts chapter 12, the angel
came and released Peter and took him out.
Why didn't the angel come and release James
a few days earlier?
God wasn't asleep.
And I've thought about Peter going, it says
in Acts chapter 12, he went to the
house of Mary, where they were having a
prayer meeting for him.
They were all praying, oh God, release Peter,
release Peter from prison.
And he knocks at the door.
And the maid servant goes and opens the
door and says, hey.
And she runs back and says, hey, the
prayer has been answered, Peter is here.
No, they say, it can't be Peter.
They pray just like we pray.
We don't expect an answer.
It's like that old black preacher who once
in a very dry area of the United
States, he called everybody saying, we're going to
have a prayer meeting for rain Sunday morning.
We're not going to have regular service.
We're going to pray for rain because it's
been so dry here.
And then he got up and said, hey,
you fellas come here to pray for rain
and none of you brought an umbrella.
What type of faith is that?
So it's like that.
Most of our prayers are like that.
We can't blame those people or we can't
blame these people who prayed for Peter.
But he came out and I thought when
he came in, it says he gave his
testimony, how the angel came and knocked off
his chains and opened one door after the
other.
And here he is.
And who is sitting there?
The mother of James.
I think her name was Salome.
The mother of James and John.
Their father, Zebedee.
He was sitting there.
And amazed.
Hey, two days ago, our son was killed.
Why did God allow that?
And here, the same prison, same guards, the
angel comes and delivers them.
Sometimes we can't understand God's ways.
I tell you, many things that happen in
the world, people ask me, why do all
these people suffer with starvation in Africa?
And why are all these Christians in Sudan
being persecuted and sold as slaves?
And I say, brethren, I don't know.
Why does God allow His most faithful servants,
just by the way, some of God's most
faithful servants are not the ones you see
on television or who stand on platforms today.
They are in Chinese prisons.
They never come on television, we don't even
know their names.
I was reading of a man the other
day in a Chinese prison recently, who was
in prison for four or five years.
And what I read was, out of 800
prisoners there, 600 got converted.
Because this guy went in there.
The police didn't know what to do.
So they put him in solitary confinement for
three months in a room where there was
no light.
Four feet high, he couldn't stand.
Only four feet long, he couldn't sleep.
All he could do is sit down there
just two and a half feet wide for
three months.
Teach you a lesson.
These are some of God's greatest men.
Make them your heroes.
Not these people who stand under the spotlight
and ask you for your money.
So, we wonder, why does God allow that?
Why does God allow one of His faithful
servants to sit in this little cell, four
feet high and four feet long and two
and a half feet wide for three months?
Is it the same God who delivered Peter
from prison?
Doesn't He send angels today?
Is it the same God who allowed James
to be beheaded two or three days before
Peter was released?
All these things teach me one thing.
Lord, your ways are not my ways.
I bow and say, I'm a human being.
I don't understand your ways.
And sometimes we try to use our logic
and tell every sick person, you've got to
be healed.
Jesus wants to heal you.
I don't know what's the next thing they're
going to say, whether they're going to tell
every dead person, you shouldn't die, you should
be raised from the dead.
What all crazy things people will say, I
don't know.
It's all because man tries to explain God
by logic, instead of humbling himself and saying,
Lord, your ways are not my ways.
Your thoughts are not my thoughts.
I've got a teaspoon of wisdom.
You've got an ocean.
Where is a teaspoon and where is an
ocean?
As the heavens are high above the earth,
so higher are God's ways than mine, and
they are better.
And like we sing in that song, one
day when I stand in glory, I will
say, above the rest, this note shall swell.
My Jesus has done all things well.
We may not be able to understand it
now, but we'll be able to understand it
then.
And we'll be in many things of suffering
and trial and discipline and even sickness that
God permits, like he permitted a thorn in
the flesh for Paul, which he never removed
despite Paul praying a number of times.
I don't know.
I've seen a lot of godly people in
the world suffer.
I can't explain it.
I wouldn't tell them like Job's comforters, hey,
that must be because of some sin in
your life.
There are preachers today who say Paul didn't
have enough faith, that's why he couldn't come
out of prison.
Thank God he stayed in prison, otherwise we
wouldn't have got some of these episodes.
God's ways are not our ways.
Don't be fooled by all these preachers who
talk about a faith which has only got
to do with physical comfort, physical healing, financial
prosperity.
And there are multitudes of people around the
world who are being deceived, being told, if
you want to get out of debt, give
money to God, to our ministry or something
like that.
Pay your tithes and you'll get out of
debt.
And there are people who do business with
God, like commercial street business.
You give me this, I'll give you this.
You want to buy this suitcase, pay so
much.
The Lord says, you want to get out
of debt, give me so much.
And these stupid believers who don't read the
New Testament go and do that, what is
the end result?
What they deserve.
They'll get more into debt.
Don't be foolish.
I believe we must give to God.
I don't believe if you're in debt, you
should give to God.
I'll tell you why.
Because if you owe Mr. X some money,
and you give God money, you're actually stealing
from X what you could have given him
to clear your debt.
You're giving to God.
God says, I don't want Mr. X's money.
I want your money if you want to
give it.
And if you don't have any, don't give
it.
Go and clear that fellow's debt.
Supposing you have to pay Caesar and you
have to pay God, who should come first?
Tell me.
God first or Caesar first?
That's a tricky one, isn't it?
If you don't know the answer to that,
read in Matthew 22.
Jesus himself said, first, render to Caesar what
is Caesar's, and then render to God what
is God's.
Why didn't he put God first?
Because it's so sensible.
If I owe Caesar money, and I give
to God, how can I give Caesar's money
to God?
God says, I don't want Caesar's money.
You first clear your debt to Caesar, and
then give to God.
Supposing I cheat the government of income tax,
and I say, Lord, I'm going to give
this to you.
Do you think he'll take it?
No.
And here you are expecting me to repay
my debt to you, and I tell you,
hey, korban, I've given that to God.
Say, God or not God, you better pay
up my money.
And supposing when Jesus comes to rapture us,
and he's going to take us, and you
say, hey, wait, Lord, this fellow hasn't paid
his debt.
He gave all his money to you.
You deserve to be left behind in that
day to pay your debt.
So don't be fooled by all this.
God is a good God.
Paul says here, suffer hardship with me as
a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No soldier in active service.
Entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life,
so that he may please him who's enlisted
him to be a soldier.
You know that.
Here's a man who's fighting for India in
Kashmir.
He's not thinking about, hey, that roof is
leaking in my house in South India.
How am I going to fix that?
I tell you, he'll get shot if he
keeps thinking about those things.
He's thinking about the enemy coming over this
side and that side, and he's got no
time to think about his leaking roof, or
whether he's going to get a new pair
of clothes, which shop he should go to
tomorrow in Kashmir.
He's got no time if he thinks that
he won't be going to a shop tomorrow,
because he'll be finished before he gets there.
He's got to keep his mind concentrated on
the enemy.
And he says, no man entangles himself in
the affairs of everyday life.
Now supposing you do see a soldier who's
entangling himself in leaky roofs and buying clothes
and all that.
You say, ah, this guy's a retired soldier.
He's not a soldier like it says in
active service.
Retired soldiers can do anything, and lot of
Christians are like retired soldiers.
I mean, they haven't finished their full service.
They retire as soon as they join.
This is amazing.
As soon as they join, they're retired.
I mean, if you spend 40 years in
the military serving God and then retire, okay.
But these guys, as soon as they're born
again, they retire.
As soon as their mind is immediately on
affairs of everyday life.
And Paul says to Timothy, are you going
to be an active soldier?
Paul says, I'm 65, 67.
I'm not retiring.
I don't plan to retire at all.
I'm going to go straight from here to
heaven, and I'm not even going to retire
there.
I'm going to go straight to hell.
I'm not going to serve God there.
I'm not going to retire.
Never.
There's no retirement age for me now or
in eternity.
The joy of the Lord keeps us going.
Nothing like serving the Lord.
It gets better and better every day.
So he says, no soldier in active service
entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life
because his one goal is to please the
one who has enlisted him as a soldier.
And all those soldiers fighting in Kashmir may
not be so interested in pleasing their general,
but we are interested in pleasing our general.
And he says, if you want to please
your general, Jesus Christ, the captain of your
salvation, you better make sure that your mind
is not all the time revolving around better
clothes and better houses and better this and
better that and life on earth.
And he doesn't think about how to promote
God's interest.
That's what the Lord told Peter.
You want to serve me, Peter?
And you want your mind to be on
man's interest?
You're a stumbling block to me.
You better get out of my service if
you want to be like that.
And I tell you a lot of people
who are doing Christian work today, God's word
to them is, get out of my service.
You're a stumbling block to me.
You don't allow people to come into God's
kingdom.
You're a stumbling block.
You're lying on the roads, making them all
stumble by your life.
I tell you a lot of preachers are
causing sincere people to stumble over them instead
of showing them the way into God's kingdom
because of the way they live.
Also he says, if anyone competes as an
athlete, verse 5, he does not win the
prize unless he competes according to the rules.
Then he goes on to say in verse
7, consider what I'm saying.
Just think about what I'm saying.
God will give you understanding.
God will remove your color blindness if you
just meditate a little on what I'm trying
to tell you.
And I want to encourage you, my brothers
and sisters, meditate on what you're hearing now.
God has to give you understanding.
Do you think Paul could not give Timothy
understanding?
He could not.
If you're color blind, do you think man
can make you healed of color blindness?
No, only God can do that.
It's the same here.
Paul says to Timothy, I've been gripped by
this truth, but I can't explain it to
you.
And I say to you, brothers and sisters,
I cannot explain it to you.
I want to, but I cannot.
But if you think about it and meditate
on it, God will give you understanding about
what I'm going to say.
Verse 8, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the
dead seed of David.
He's emphasizing the fact that Jesus Christ came
in the flesh of David, the seed of
David.
Tempted like us in all points, yet did
not sin.
Remember him according to my gospel.
My gospel concerns a Jesus who became a
man and was tempted like us in every
way and did not sin.
That is my gospel.
That's what gives us hope that we can
also walk as Jesus walked in overcoming life.
But that gospel is not being preached much
today.
It's another gospel that is being preached.
He said, this is my gospel.
And because I preach this gospel, what happens
to me?
I suffer.
You won't suffer if you don't preach this
gospel.
I suffer.
At the age of 67, probably 35 years
of serving the Lord, he says, I'm still
suffering.
I'm locked up in jail like a criminal.
They've locked me up in jail.
I'm sitting in jail right now because I
preach this gospel.
And why?
He says, but the word of God is
not in jail.
Praise God.
I'm in jail, but the word of God
is not in prison.
That keeps going.
He says, for this reason, I endure everything.
I stick it out so that everyone God
calls will get in on the salvation of
Christ with eternal glory.
He says, I don't want people just to
be saved.
I want them to get eternal glory.
And if that, for them to get eternal
glory, if it means I have to go
through suffering, I'll do it.
Now, he didn't realize fully what a tremendous
glory millions of people were going to get
because he was in prison.
In prison, he wrote some of these finest
epistles which have brought eternal glory to millions
of people.
He didn't know that.
He didn't even know that what he wrote
would be preserved beyond the church he sent
it to.
He didn't know that for 2,000 years,
people would be studying it and meditating on
it and coming into eternal glory.
He never knew that.
And sometimes the suffering we go through, we
don't realize what God is going to bring
out of it.
I'll never forget.
Many years ago, more than 20 years ago,
I had to go into hospital for a
little minor surgery.
I had prayed many times concerning that minor
problem that God would heal me, but he
didn't.
Anyway, he didn't do it miraculously.
So I finally went to the hospital.
And as I was lying there in bed
for 10 days, I still have it written
down what the Lord spoke to me at
that time.
I read it the other day.
The Lord said to me so clearly, I
could have healed you in a moment, but
I didn't.
You're running around so much that I don't
get time to talk to you.
Now you have to lie down with your
head up all the time, looking at me,
and I'll talk to you.
And he did.
For 10 days, he spoke to me among
all the articles I ever wrote in my
life, and I've written perhaps hundreds of them,
the closest to dictation, writing down exactly word
for word what God spoke, was only one
article of mine.
A lot of articles are messages like this
that I speak.
It's not dictation.
I mean, I'm not speaking every word that
God gives it to me.
It's not true.
I'm just speaking what's in my heart, in
my own thoughts.
But that one article was different.
I sat and I wrote, lying in the
bed, I wrote what God said to me.
This is the type of man I need.
It's a little six-page tract called God
Needs Men.
And I wrote point by point by point,
about 50 of them, and I saw why
God put me in bed.
Sometimes it's in our times of suffering and
difficulty that God gives us the maximum revelation
and the maximum blessing to others in the
days to come.
And that little tract's gone all around the
world now, published in various magazines and different
places.
I remember Lynard Ravenhill, who was a very
godly man, wrote Why Revival Tarries.
I got a letter from him once when
he was alive, many years ago that was,
I think about a year after I wrote
this.
And he said, Dear Brother Poonen, in his
own handwriting, simple man, he said, I've just
read this article of yours.
And he said, I've been so blessed by
it.
Can I use it somewhere?
I was so humbled that this great man
of God should write to me and ask
me whether he could use that article.
But it's amazing how God allowed it to
get into his hands more than 20 years
ago.
So, I don't know how he used it,
he probably did in some way.
I said, Sure, Brother.
You are welcome to use it.
I consider it a great honor.
Because I have a lot of respect for
you.
Yeah, he was one of those rare prophetic
voices.
But brothers and sisters, what I want to
say is, when Paul was in prison, God
was accomplishing far more than he himself thought.
With these Chinese believers in prison, and think
of men like Richard Wembrandt who were in
prison in Romania, and many others who've gone
into prison.
I tell you, those are my heroes today
in the 20th century, more than these people
who stand on platforms and appear on television.
Watchman Lee who spent 22 years in prison,
he's my hero.
These are the people who suffered for the
gospel.
Suffering is a major part.
Peter understood that.
You know, after the Lord told him, Get
behind me Satan, your mind is set on
human interests, not God's interests.
Peter understood it, because later on, you read
in John chapter 12, Jesus saying these words
concerning his own suffering, in John chapter 12
verse 27, 28, and the disciples heard that,
and they understood what God's interests are.
John chapter 12, verse 27.
You know, he was approaching the cross, and
he said, verse 27 of John 12, Now
my soul has become troubled, and what shall
I say?
Father, save me from this hour?
No.
See, this is man's interest.
The way man thinks is when you're in
trial, Oh Father, save me from this!
But shall I say that?
No.
What shall I say then?
Father, glorify your name.
In those two sentences, you see man's interests
and God's interests.
What is the way human beings think?
Father, save me from this problem, save me
from this difficulty, save me from this trial,
save me from this suffering, save me from
this imprisonment, save me from this sickness, save
me from this, save me from that, save
me from the other thing.
And what is God's interest?
Father, glorify your name.
Our Father who art in heaven, save me
from this trial now.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
Give us bread enough to eat, even if
we don't have much, enough for the day,
so that I can live to serve you,
to do your will on earth as it
is in heaven.
And Lord, forgive me all the sins I've
committed, because we sin every day.
My brothers and sisters, whether you know it
or not, unconsciously anyway, we are sinning.
There are 90% of our life we
don't see.
There's unchrist-likeness in our actions, words, we
hurt people without knowing it.
We sin.
We've got to ask God to forgive us.
We can get victory only over conscious sin.
This is only 10% of our life.
We need to say, forgive us, as we
have forgiven all the people who have hurt
us, perhaps unconsciously.
Assume it is unconsciously.
Please assume that they don't know what they
do.
So say, Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do.
That's how it is to follow Jesus.
And Lord, once you've done that, also please
deliver me, not from trial, but from evil.
Deliver us from evil.
And Lord, this is not a prayer only
for me.
I'm saying, give us our daily bread, me
and my brothers and sisters.
Forgive us our sins.
Forgive that person his sins.
And deliver all of us from evil.
What shall I say then?
Father, save me from this hour?
No.
Father, glorify your name.
And a voice came from heaven, I have
glorified it and will glorify it again.
I'll tell you something.
If you want to hear a voice from
heaven, pray this prayer.
Father, glorify your name.
You'll hear it in your heart.
Many of us don't hear a voice from
heaven to encourage us in life's battles, because
we're always praying, Father, save me from this.
From this problem, this sickness, this poverty, this
thing, that thing.
I'll tell you this.
Pray, Father, hallowed be your name.
Glorify your name.
That's to follow Jesus.
He will never allow you to suffer beyond
your ability.
Don't believe the lie of the devil, who
tells you that God is a spoiled sport.
He hates you.
That's what the devil says.
If you say, oh no, I'll only pray,
Father, glorify your name.
He will send me to the most difficult
place on earth to live.
And if I've got three jobs open to
me, he'll tell me to take the one
with the lowest salary.
And if I've got three places to go
to, he'll tell me to go to Timbuktu
or some place where there's not much civilization.
He'll tell you to marry the ugliest girl
you can ever find on earth.
Who tells you all these stories?
The devil.
What a fool you are to believe that.
All the demons whispering all this in your
ear.
And you believe it?
No, my Father is a good Father.
He loves me a million times more than
my earthly father loved me.
He loves me a million times more than
any human being loves me.
More than my wife, more than your husband,
more than anyone.
He's a loving Father and if he allows
you to go through some difficulty and trial,
it is for your good.
If he does not allow you to marry
Miss Universe, it's to save you from umpteen
headaches that you will have marrying a woman
who's always used to attention.
Thank God you didn't marry Miss Universe.
If he doesn't make you a millionaire, it's
so that he saves you from all the
problems that they have.
God is a good God.
He's a loving Father.
He saves us from many things.
He doesn't answer many of our prayers because
it's not good for us.
He gives us what is best for us.
And Peter understood that.
He understood it.
He heard, get behind me, Satan.
He accepted it and said, those are the
words of eternal life.
And then he wrote his letters.
Now listen to his letters.
1 Peter chapter 2.
He's really gripped.
Now he's straightened out and he says, 1
Peter chapter 2 and verse 20.
What credit is there if when you sin,
you are harshly treated?
I mean, if you get punishment that you
deserve, there's no marks for that.
But if you are treated badly, even though
you did what was right or it was
a mistake, it was not deliberate evil and
you still suffer and you suffer patiently, endure
it.
This finds favor with God.
Because you have been called for this purpose.
Which purpose?
To suffer when you do what is right.
Please read verse 20 and 21 and tell
me what does it mean when it says
you are called for this purpose.
Read it.
It's plain English.
This is why you have been called to
suffer for doing what is right.
That's your calling.
How many people have understood it?
Peter understood it because he accepted that rebuke.
Because Christ also suffered and he has left
you an example to follow in his steps.
I have to follow in the steps of
a Christ who did not become wealthy or
healthy, but who suffered.
Now a lot of people say he suffered
so that I can be wealthy.
But read what it says here.
Christ suffered leaving you an example to follow
in his steps.
Peter understood that.
Don't be deceived by all these Demetriuses going
around saying this man's preaching is ruining our
business.
Our prosperity is dependent on preaching this gospel.
Don't be deceived by these Demetriuses of today.
Listen to the word of God.
Christ suffered for us and he did not
sin.
When he was reviled, verse 23, he did
not utter, he did not revile again.
When he suffered, he did not utter any
threats.
He did not call them names back.
And so he says later on in chapter
3 and verse 13, if you do what
is good, who can harm you?
But even if you suffer for the sake
of righteousness, you are blessed.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be intimidated by people trying to intimidate
you.
Oh, if you preach the gospel here, you
stand up for Christ, you won't get any
promotion.
We'll sack you from your job.
Okay.
Don't be intimidated.
Don't be troubled.
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart.
Always be ready to give a defense to
everyone who asks you.
I'm not asking you to go and give
tracts to everybody in the office and use
their office time to do such things.
But when somebody asks you a question, give
an answer with gentleness and respect.
And if you suffer because of that, well
that's okay.
It is better, verse 17, if God's will
is that you should suffer because you did
what is right than doing what is wrong.
Because Christ also died.
Again he says, Christ is the example.
Or you go to chapter 4 and he
says in the last few verses of chapter
4, he says in verse 19, if you
find life difficult, it's because you're doing what
God said.
Take it in your stride.
Trust the Lord.
Commit your soul to Him.
Don't suffer, verse 15, as a busybody in
other people's matters.
But if you suffer as a Christian, don't
be ashamed.
Because, chapter 4, verse 1, Christ also suffered.
That's the point.
Right through, Peter has been gripped by that
message.
I follow a Jesus who suffered.
Okay, in conclusion, let's look at the last
book of the Bible and see what Jesus
has to say to a church there.
One of the two faithful churches, Revelation chapter
2, verse 8, to the church in Smyrna
which is suffering, he says in verse 9,
I know your tribulation, your pain and your
poverty.
The most faithful church in the seven churches
in Revelation had suffering and poverty.
And the unfaithful, backslidden church of Laodicea in
chapter 3 had prosperity and health.
You got an idea which is the true
gospel?
I know the blasphemy of those who say
they are Jews.
Don't fear what you're about to suffer.
The devil will cast some of you into
prison.
And you will be tested, but I will
make sure it's only for ten days.
He's the one who decides how many days
the judge writes on the verdict.
Who put that thought in his head?
God.
He will not allow you to be tested
beyond your ability.
Whether it's your boss in your work, who
gives you extra work, or the judge who
writes something down.
It's God who decides.
Praise God, we serve such a wonderful Father.
There's a spirit of triumph in us all
the time.
Bow our heads before God in prayer.
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