The book of Ecclesiastes is a book that
contains a mixture of divine wisdom and human
wisdom.
God has allowed it to be put in
the Bible to show us how the wisest
man, humanly speaking, that ever lived, Solomon, could
get corrupted when he went astray from God.
He still had, you know, he started his
life with all that divine wisdom but as
he went along he drifted and he still
had bits of that divine wisdom but mixed
up with human wisdom and God in his
great wisdom has allowed it to be there
to show us that human wisdom is not
divine wisdom.
Divine wisdom is in Proverbs, but in Ecclesiastes
there are certain things which are true.
There are some amazing statements there which are
really true, but you've got to be careful,
you've got to sift your way, find your
way through it.
Anyway, here is something that's really true, which
you need to think of.
It's in Ecclesiastes chapter 8.
Some may say, why has God put it
in scripture?
Is it inspired scripture?
It isn't inspired scripture, but, you know, just
like it says right in the first verse,
these are the words of the preacher, it's
like it says in Psalm 14, the fool
has said in his heart, there is no
God.
Is there a verse in the Bible which
says there is no God?
There is, but it's prefaced by saying the
fool has said that.
So here is what a wise human being
said and that's what's written in the book
of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes chapter 8, and the last part of
the first verse, a man's wisdom illumines him,
lights up his face and causes his stern
face to beam, to beam with brightness, and
the Good News Bible, it says, it makes
him smile and removes all the frowns.
Here in the Message Bible it says, the
wisdom puts light in his eyes and gives
gentleness to his words and his manners.
Now, naturally speaking, as the children of Adam,
we are not gentle and we don't have
wisdom and our faces are mostly stern and
rarely beam with light.
But as we move out of Adam into
Christ, again, things don't change overnight.
But the intention is that we shall grow
in wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
And as we walk in the fear of
the Lord, we'll get more and more wisdom
and that wisdom will first of all come
in our heart, but what's in our heart
will be seen in our face and in
our eyes and in our total personality.
You know how, I mean, all human beings
also know you can see anger in a
person's eyes and his face, you can see
anxiety in a person's frown and his face
and gloom you can see in a person's
face.
I mean, everybody in the world knows that.
And if the light of the world is
living in our hearts and we are growing
in wisdom, it should put a light and
a sparkle in our eyes, removing the evil,
the effects of evil that have been upon
our eyes and our face because of foolishness.
When it says foolishness is bound up in
the heart of a child, but the rod
of correction will drive it far from him,
we read in Proverbs.
All of us are children, were children and
foolishness is bound up in our heart.
That's how we are born.
And as we grow up, if we allow
the Lord to apply his rod of correction
to us, the promises in Proverbs, the rod
of correction will drive it far from him.
Foolishness can be driven far from our life
if we accept the Lord's disciplines and his
rebukes.
As many as I love, the Lord says
in Revelation 3.19, I rebuke and I
discipline because he wants us to be wise.
And when that wisdom comes in, the foolishness
goes away, and then it begins to be
reflected in our eyes, it begins to be
reflected in our face, it begins to be
reflected in our speech, it begins to be
reflected in our whole personality, so that we
don't fool ourselves.
Very often, we can deceive ourselves by thinking,
well, I've got a lot of spirituality in
my heart.
If it's there in your heart, it will
be seen outwardly.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks, and wisdom illumines a person's face,
and changes the appearance on his face, and
lights up his eyes, and gives gentleness to
his words and his manners.
A spiritual person will always be a well
-mannered person.
His manners will be better than anyone in
the world.
If he's really allowing the Holy Spirit to
lead him, I mean, if you walk into
somebody, if you're sitting in somebody's house, and
nobody's around, and you see a postcard lying
there, which is addressed to somebody else, you
won't read it.
You won't even read one sentence in it,
because it's not yours.
That's good manners.
The Holy Spirit will tell you that.
When you're talking to somebody, you will not
try to dig out information from him, to
satisfy your curiosity.
That's bad manners.
But the Holy Spirit will prompt you, and
say, don't do that, that's none of your
business.
How will that help you?
Spiritually, to find out that information.
You know, a lot of Christians want to
find out so many things about other people,
that's how they become gossip listeners, and this
is one of the main reasons they don't
grow spiritually, because they're putting all this garbage
into their mind, and the garbage is reflected
in their face, in their eyes.
You must remember that your inner life has
got only a certain amount of space, and
if you fill that space with garbage, there
won't be space for the good things God
wants to put there.
And just like if you have half your
house filled with garbage, people will smell it
on the road.
And it's something like that.
If you don't get rid of garbage from
our life, spiritually speaking, people will be able
to smell it.
Of course, if other people are also full
of garbage, they don't smell it, because they
are used to that smell.
But a spiritual man, who's got rid of
garbage from his life, he'll smell your stink
miles away.
You may not notice it, you know, people
who live in the slums don't smell anything,
because they are used to garbage, spiritually speaking.
People are used to gossip, and curiosity, and
hurting words, and stinging words.
They don't smell the garbage in their life,
because they are living in a slum.
But a person who's cleansed himself, think of
a person who once upon a time lived
in a slum, but gradually refined himself, refined
himself till he's so cultured, and so clean,
his house is so neat, and tidy, and
he never smells, there's no bad odor coming
from his body.
That person will be able to detect this
smell that there is, spiritually speaking, in people
whose private life is full of curiosity, gossip,
listening, speaking, talking all types of rude things,
and stinging remarks, and all that.
Do you know that it affects you?
Do you know that your words affect you?
The more you speak certain type of words,
I mean, you can be very careful in
the meeting, but when you speak certain type
of words in private, it gradually begins to
affect your personality.
We can conceal so many things from other
people, but you can't conceal something from God,
and you can't conceal anything from a spiritually
minded man, because there's a certain odor, spiritual
odor, we don't smell it, but this knows,
but we've got a sense of smell in
our heart.
In our heart, the Bible speaks about, in
Isaiah chapter 11, about the Holy Spirit making
Jesus very sensitive in his scent of the
fear of God.
Very sensitive.
That's the scent of the soul, of the
spirit, which picks up something which is not
Christ-like.
Immediately.
You know, just like a person with a
good smell, hey, there's a bad smell here.
He may not say it, but he smells
it okay, and it's like that.
And you don't realize sometimes the odor that's
coming out of your spirit, just like a
person who's dirty doesn't realize the odor coming
out of his body.
But I'm sure those of you who are,
got a little bit of refinement, are careful
to get rid of that odor with a
bath and deodorant and perfume, etc., to avoid
that odor coming forth.
And I wish some of you who are
so careful to be refined, to make sure
you smell nice in your body, especially you
sisters, I wish you would have at least
10% of that desire to smell nice
in your spirit.
Boy, what a difference it would make.
We can't hide it.
It comes forth.
It comes forth in different situations, when we
are under pressure.
The solution?
Wisdom.
The fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom.
It's very interesting.
Right in the beginning of scripture, in Genesis
chapter 4, we read that the Lord asked
Cain in Genesis 4, 5, Why is your
face fallen?
Why is your face fallen?
See, God looked at his face.
The Bible says man looks on the outward
appearance, but God looks at the heart.
But here we read that God looked at
the man's face.
Because the face was a reflection of his
heart.
And so he said, you've got anger in
your heart, Cain.
And the result is your face is fallen.
Acknowledge it.
Acknowledge that your face being like this indicates
something is wrong in your heart.
It's clear.
When a person's heart is absolutely clear, that
towards you, that person can look straight into
your eyes with a clear brightness in his
face.
And if you cannot look like that at
somebody, I hope you hear what the Holy
Spirit is saying.
Something is wrong.
Why are you angry?
Why is your face falling?
It's true.
It's absolutely true.
But Cain wouldn't listen to what God was
saying.
And a lot of Christians don't listen.
When God is saying, why is your face
like this?
Why is your face drawn?
Why is your face gloomy?
Something is wrong in your heart.
And even if you listen to a message
like this and show a weak smile to
somebody, it doesn't really fool anything.
It makes it worse actually.
Don't try that weak smile.
You know what a weak smile is?
It doesn't come from the heart.
It's so obvious a person can see it
miles away.
You can't change, because the heart is reflecting
something and you are trying to change it.
You can't change it.
You got to change your heart.
So that's the first question that God asked
Cain.
Why is your face like this?
You contrast that with what we read in
Ecclesiastes.
Wisdom makes a person's face to be.
In wisdom, there is no jealousy.
When you are jealous of someone, your face
can't be.
The Bible says the wisdom that is from
above is pure, peaceable, gentle, without hypocrisy, without
partiality.
That's the wisdom from above.
There is a purity and there is a
peaceableness.
That means you got an attitude of peace
towards people.
You are not the quarrelsome type.
I mean, if you are the type of
person who says, just wait till I meet
that person.
I just want to pick up a quarrel
with him.
Brother, sister, you don't have wisdom.
Wisdom is peaceable.
Let the other fellow pick up a quarrel
with me.
If he wants, I'm not interested.
I'm not interested in picking up a quarrel
with anyone.
It's pure.
There is a purity in our eyes when
we have been gazing on the Lord rather
than gazing at human beings.
The wisdom that is from above is pure
and peaceable.
See what it says in James.
And you know that I'm just quoting from
James all these things that I just quoted
right now.
If you are not familiar with it, it's
a very beautiful passage in James chapter 3.
Yes, James chapter 3.
And it speaks about things which are not
the opposite of wisdom and that is verse
16 jealousy and selfish ambition.
What is it that makes a man's face
dark, gloomy?
The opposite of what we read in Ecclesiastes
8.
What is the opposite of wisdom?
Foolishness.
So if wisdom makes a man's face being,
foolishness makes a man's face dark.
And foolishness is summed up in verse 16
essentially through jealousy and selfish ambition.
That's what Cain had.
Jealousy and selfish ambition.
Please remember this, where there is jealousy and
there is selfish ambition, there is disorder and
every evil thing, every evil thing, wherever there
is jealousy and selfish ambition, that's what makes
our face fallen and dark.
Think about it my dear brothers and sisters.
That's why I tell you, the moment a
seed of jealousy comes in, throw it out.
Don't let it destroy you.
You heard me tell the story of this
happening in the First World War when the
British ship, the man on the British ship
got a award for something that he did.
The German ship came so close and threw
a grenade onto his ship and you know
a grenade has got a little pin and
before you throw it, you take out the
pin and then the wire connects up and
it takes about 10 or 15 seconds before
the fuse blows and so that's how they
throw a grenade.
They take out the pin and throw it
and then you know that in about 15
seconds it reaches the other place and blows
it up and this person on the ship
was so alert.
This British ship, this sailor, that as soon
as the grenade landed, now our reaction would
be to run.
But he didn't run.
He knew this takes so many seconds, he
took it and threw it back onto the
German ship and it blew up there.
I've often thought about that.
He deserves a medal.
And I tell you, I've thought about that
when the devil throws some thought into my
mind concerning somebody or concerning something and I
know it's going to blow up in my
mind and I don't run.
No.
I take it and throw it right back.
I say, I don't want that.
Right.
You do that, you'll deserve a medal from
God.
You throw it right back and say, I
don't want that.
I don't want that thought about that person
because it'll destroy me.
It'll blow up in my mind and that's
what makes a lot of people's faces gloomy.
Dark.
Because they've allowed one after the other grenades
that the devil's thrown into their mind.
Blow up and blow up and blow up.
Can you imagine a person whose house is
getting one grenade after the other and he
accepts it and he sits there.
Can you imagine what his condition will be
after a few years?
Why don't we have some sense?
Throw it right back.
Every thought of jealousy, every thought of selfish
ambition to promote yourself, to promote your children,
to promote yourself.
My brother, sister, forget it.
Throw it away.
And say, Lord, I want to think good
thoughts.
Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are good report, it says in
Philippians 4.8. Think about these things.
Everything else, throw it right back at the
devil and say you can have it.
I don't want it.
Let it blow up in your face, not
mine.
Be careful.
And if you keep doing that, you won't
change overnight.
If your face is gloomy and dark because
you've lived for so many years with selfish
ambition and you start today, tomorrow your face
will not be.
It'll take time.
Because if you've lived so long in the
pit and all that stink and smell, it's
like trying to get a bath and sometimes
you're so saturated with the stink that even
one bath won't get rid of it.
You take another one, you put some more
soap and maybe in a couple of years
your face will start beaming.
Or sooner, if you're wholehearted, but don't get
any more of that rubbish thrown into your
heart that destroys you.
Jealousy and selfish ambition creates a stink.
Every evil thing comes out of that.
Can you honestly say before God today that
you don't have any jealousy about any human
being?
I'm not just talking about the brothers and
sisters.
About any human being.
It's possible.
I believe I can say that before God.
I'm not jealous of a single human being
in the world as far as I know.
God bless them all.
If somebody can do it better than me,
I say praise the Lord and glory to
God.
I'm quite happy with the way God made
me.
I hope you are.
Zero jealousy.
That must be our goal.
Zero defects.
Just like we encourage our children to do
better in their school examinations.
We tell them you can do better than
that.
I say you can do better than that.
I'm sure we can live a life where
we are totally free from jealousy.
And we are totally free from selfish ambition.
We say Lord I want to live for
the glory of God, not for myself and
my own selfish desires.
So that's so much for foolishness and then
it describes wisdom.
Now as I said, where there's jealousy and
selfish ambition, there'll be confusion and every evil
thing.
Let me read it to you like this.
In the Message Bible.
Boasting that you're wise isn't wisdom.
Whenever you're trying to look better than others.
Did you get that?
Whenever you're trying to look better than others.
I don't mean by your face, I mean
you say something to show that I'm smarter
than you.
Did you get the message?
I'm smarter than you.
Do you know lots of brothers and sisters
do that?
In their conversation with another brother or sister
they say something just to show hey, I'm
smart.
Got it?
I'm a little smarter than you.
That's evil.
That's like saying I'm a foolish man, I'm
a foolish woman.
Did you hear it?
You didn't hear it?
Let me say it louder.
I am a foolish woman.
That is when you try to look smarter
than somebody else.
How loud do you want to shout it?
I mean say it softly if you want
to say it.
But it's so loud.
And then you meet the person next day.
Again, did you hear it last time?
I am a foolish man, I'm a foolish
woman.
You don't say it like that but that's
how it comes across.
When you try to show that you're better
than others.
You try to say something to say I'm
a little better than you, I'm a little
smarter than you.
Oh dear me.
My kids are a little better than yours.
When you are trying to look better than
others or get the better of others.
That's another thing.
Your world is full of people who are
trying to get the better of others.
Jesus never tried to get the better of
anybody.
Never.
When you're trying to get the better of
other people things fall apart.
Things fall apart.
That's a beautiful expression.
That's confusion.
Things fall apart.
And a lot of Christians living like that
with things falling apart.
There's no wholeness in their life.
And everyone ends up at the other's throats.
Every evil thing.
But the wisdom from above is pure.
It's peaceable.
It's characterized by being able to get along
with other people.
If you can't get along with other people
because of your nasty behavior and your stinging
words.
I want to tell you, I don't care
how long you've been in CFC, you don't
have wisdom.
Your seniority counts for nothing.
You don't have wisdom.
Can you get along with other people?
Are you peaceable?
And it says you're gentle, reasonable, full of
mercy and it's good fruits.
Blessing others.
Unwavering.
That means not hot one day and cold
the next day.
Without hypocrisy.
Not two-faced.
So this is what wisdom is.
And if we pursue this through the fear
of God, which is the beginning of wisdom,
gradually our faith will begin to be.
That is God's will for us.
Now I want to show you another verse
in Proverbs.
I think it's chapter 27.
Yes.
Proverbs 27 and verse 19.
Proverbs 27 and verse 19 says here, and
paraphrasing the message Bible is, just as water
mirrors your face.
You know when you look into a pool
of water, you can see your face there
in that pool.
Just as water mirrors your face, so your
face mirrors your heart.
Do you get it?
You look into a pool of still water,
you see your face there.
Your face mirrors your heart.
So if somebody wants to know what's in
your heart, all he's got to do is
look at your face.
And Jesus gave us one more help.
He said, out of the heart, the mouth
speaks.
So if a man can look at your
face and listen to you speaking, the way
you speak and the way you do things,
the way you say things to people, they
got a crystal clear picture of your heart.
It's like an x-ray.
Your face and your speech give you away.
So what shall we do?
Start smiling?
Start saying nice things?
Fooling people?
No.
Don't worry about smiling and don't worry about
saying nice things.
Just cleanse your heart.
Get rid of all the stink from there.
Get rid of all the jealousy from there.
Get rid of all the selfish ambition there.
Get rid of all the filth there.
Throw away the garbage bin.
I mean, it's like this.
Supposing you got your kitchen garbage.
I mean, that's the thing that really stinks.
And you stack it up in each room.
You don't throw it away.
You stack it up in each room.
And every toilet in your house you don't
pull the flush ever.
And somebody comes to your house and say,
hey, there's a funny smell here.
You don't blame them if they don't come
again.
And you say, hey, it's true.
It's a funny smell.
You got a lot of perfume.
Spray the sitting room so that...
But these smells penetrate through the perfume.
You know what's the solution?
Pull the flush in every toilet.
Use some odor nil in the toilets.
And throw away the garbage.
Don't accumulate them.
And sometimes you won't even need the perfume.
It just clears up the air.
Open the windows that there be some cross
ventilation.
You know these things.
Why don't you do it for your soul?
Which is a million times more important than
your home.
Why don't you pull the flush in your
soul?
Why stack up all that rot?
It really is rubbish that comes out of
us.
Isn't it?
Flush it out.
Did somebody else come and use your toilet?
And you didn't flush it?
Please go and flush it.
Somebody else came to you and gossiped something
to you and you stacked it up?
Please flush it out.
Don't say somebody else did it.
So what if somebody else did it?
It's your house that's being corrupted.
It's your toilet that's stinking.
Don't say that brother, that sister came and
said it.
It's like saying that brother, that sister used
the toilet.
I didn't flush it.
He didn't flush it either.
Would you do that?
It's stinking brother, sister.
Some of you don't realize it.
And if you don't realize it, it's probably
because you've lived so long with that stink.
You know there are people who say words
to hurt others and don't even realize it.
It's like people who don't even smell that
the toilet has not been flushed for days.
It is like that.
And someone brought up in more refined circumstances,
hey look at the way that person speaks.
Look at the smell in that toilet.
They need to go and use the flush
a little bit.
That's exactly how you sound.
Do you realize it?
And you go on and on and on
and on and on, hurting people, saying things
to sting people, to hurt people.
Dear brothers and sisters, let's flush our toilets.
Let's throw the garbage out to the garbage
bin far away.
Find the furthest garbage in the way and
throw it away there.
And if somebody comes and brings garbage again,
say, please, not in my house.
I know I allowed you to dump all
your garbage in my house, but take it
somewhere else.
Would you do that to people who come
to you with gossip?
Say, have you heard this?
And they lower their voice and you know
something is coming which was garbage last time
and it's going to be garbage this time
too.
Don't allow it.
People stopped gossiping in my house ages ago.
Because every time they came and told me
something else, I said, I'm going to ask
that person.
Even before you leave, I call up that
person and say, oh brother, brother, this is
only for prayer.
What prayer?
Rubbish prayer.
I'm not fooled by all that.
They stopped coming to my house.
You try that method.
They'll stop coming to your house too.
Keep the air clean in the house.
I want to keep the air clean in
my house.
I'm much more interested in the spiritual atmosphere
of my house than the physical.
I'll tell you that.
At least a million times more.
We can't keep our house totally free from
dust and all that, but we keep our
heart.
You know, I'll tell you this.
Some of you who are so particular about
keeping your house spick and span, I appreciate
you.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Good.
All I say is I wish you would
have one percent of that desire for your
soul.
Boy, what a difference it would have made
in your life if you had said, I've
got to keep my soul spick and span.
I want to flush out the toilet.
I want to cleanse the garbage.
We can't do anything about the past, but
we can start do a little house cleaning
so that wisdom begins to fill you know,
that limited space in our inner man which
has been filled with garbage.
We cleanse all the garbage and there's empty
space there now.
We're going to fill it with good things.
We can say words of appreciation to other
people.
I remember writing to somebody who left our
church.
I once said to him, you know, I
said, I have seen you, I've heard you
speak words of appreciation about your family members.
But all the years you were in CFC,
all I heard was criticism.
Finding fault with this, and finding fault with
that, and finding fault with the other thing,
and the other thing, and the other thing.
I said, I'm not here to judge your
past, but I give you a little bit
of advice for the future.
If only you had treated CFC people like
your own family members, perhaps you didn't.
But if you had only treated CFC people
like your own family members and spoken a
few words of appreciation, boy, what a different
story it might have been.
But then I said, perhaps CFC was not
your family, that's all.
You spoke about it being family, but it
was never your family.
Your family was your flesh and blood family.
You never really understood God's family.
I'm convinced about that.
That many people who come to CFC do
not consider CFC as their own family.
And that's why they accumulate so much garbage
about other people.
But you never accumulate about your own children.
No, never.
You'd rise to the defense of your children.
But that's somebody else.
See, this is how we haven't got wisdom.
The wisdom that's from above is first pure,
then peaceable, full of mercy.
Mercy means being good, forgiving other people, because
if they did something wrong, it's okay.
You say, well, we've made mistakes too.
We can forgive them.
You know, it says about those who are
leaders, and in a sense, all of us
are leaders.
You may not be an elder in a
church, but you're an elder to somebody younger
than you in your home.
If you've got even one younger brother or
sister in your home, you're an elder.
And even if you don't have anybody in
your home, if you come to this church,
there are lots of people younger than you
in this church.
You're an elder.
Elder is a relative term.
You can be ten years old, and you're
an elder to someone who's five years old,
and you've got to be an example to
the five-year-old.
You've got to show that five-year-old
how a ten-year-old should behave.
See, that's it.
So, when it speaks about elders, the way
an elder should conduct himself, an elder has
to be an example.
Let me show you one verse in 1
Peter, in chapter 5.
It says here, I exhort you elders, in
verse 5, prove to be examples to the
flock.
Not lording it over others, but to be
examples to the flock.
And the paraphrase says, not bossily telling others
what to do, but tenderly showing them the
right way by the way you live.
Are you one of those who bossily tells
your younger brothers and sisters what to do?
It's tragic when sometimes, even in a family,
a person who's just two years older than
somebody acts like a boss.
I have been very careful about that from
the time I became a Christian.
I'm the eldest in my home.
I have a younger brother and I have
a younger sister.
And I decided I would never, never be
a boss to them.
Never!
It's evil.
It's not Christ-like.
Jesus was the eldest in his home and
he wasn't bossy to his four brothers and
two sisters.
Now, I've seen in CFC older brothers
and sisters, some of them speaking, their face
is almost like the devil's when they speak
to some little child or someone else who
does something wrong.
I see a face like the devil coming
to CFC?
Dear me!
What have we been hearing all this time?
Huh!
What do you like?
Bossily telling other people what to do.
This bossy attitude.
Dear brother, sister, see if it is in
you.
You don't have wisdom then.
Doesn't make your face to be.
And you are not drawing people to Jesus
Christ.
I'm telling you what I have seen in
this church for the last 25 years.
I haven't always spoken about what I see.
Because most of the time when I see
a brother or sister do something wrong, I
don't tell them.
Because I don't want them to be dependent
on me.
I want them to get light themselves from
God, the Holy Spirit.
And only after a long time when they
keep on doing the wrong thing again and
again and again and again and again and
I see this guy just is not listening
to the Holy Spirit, then I tell them,
Hey, since you are not getting light from
the Holy Spirit, I better tell you.
I remember once a brother got up here
and spoke in a very bad spirit.
Sunday, so Sunday afternoon I called him.
I said, Brother, did the Lord tell you
something about the way you spoke this morning
in the meeting?
This is some years ago.
Somebody has left the church.
And he said, No.
I said, Okay then I've got to tell
you.
I mean the best is if the Holy
Spirit tells you, but if he doesn't tell
you, second best is me.
I'm not the best.
I'm second best.
If the Holy Spirit cannot tell you something
about your selfishness, then I've got to tell
you that.
But that's second best.
But then you've got to go to God
and say, Lord, why in the world didn't
I get light on this?
Why does Brother Zach have to come and
tell me this?
I should have got light on it ages
ago.
You know a lot of us think we
are wholehearted.
I don't believe you are if you're not
getting light on yourself.
If you're getting light on your selfishness, then
you're wholehearted.
If you're not getting light on your selfishness,
if you're not getting light on your speech
and the lack of graciousness in your speech,
if you're not getting light on your bossy
ways, I'd say you're not wholehearted.
You can come and sit here in the
meeting every day, but you're not wholehearted.
A wholehearted person is one whom God gives
light to continuously.
He gets light on his selfishness, on the
way he's speaking.
He cleanses himself.
It's not that he never makes a mistake.
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it
immediately.
He doesn't keep on doing the same mistake
day after day after day, week after week
after week, month after month after month.
And yet that is what I have seen.
I'm sorry to say I've seen in CFC
among brothers and sisters who imagine that they
are wholehearted, who delude themselves that they are
wholehearted.
I want to say, wake up.
Wake up!
I mean, before you stand at the judgment
seat of Christ and discover a whole lot
of things there, I say it's better to
discover it now.
Sure.
That's why the psalmist said, let the righteous
smite me.
It's like oil upon my head.
Can you imagine a slap becoming like oil
on the head?
Because that guy was really interested in becoming
Christ-like.
God-like.
I'm interested in being God-like.
I hope you are.
We want our faces to radiate the beauty
of Christ.
You know, it's like the moon reflects the
glory of the sun.
The sun shines on the moon and it
shines back that glory onto the earth.
That's the picture of Christ.
The son of righteousness and the bride of
Christ is like the moon.
And you know how beautiful it is when
there's a full moon and there's nothing coming
between the sun and the moon.
When does the moon become half or quarter?
It's when something has come between the sun
and the moon.
I mean, you study geography, you know that.
When something comes in between the sun and
the moon it could be money, it could
be a job, it could be a pride,
it could be jealousy of somebody, it could
be selfish ambition.
Ah!
Then this wonderful round moon becomes half and
after some time it becomes a thin line
and you can hardly see it.
And sometimes you see these new moons you
can still see the outline but it's all
dark and the light is only in a
small part.
A lot of Christians are like that.
And when they're like that you know something
has come between them and Jesus.
But the moon gets over and you give
it 2-3 weeks it's smiling again but
some believers are always like this.
New moon.
Sad.
You know how we should be?
We should be like a full moon all
the time.
A face beaming because the Lord has never
to say to us why is your face
fallen?
Why is your face drooping?
Why can't you look up?
We're looking down, gloomy.
Something's wrong.
Something is wrong.
Acknowledge it.
Look up into the face of the son
of righteousness.
This that beautiful verse, where is it?
They looked unto him and their faces were
lightened.
Psalm 34, isn't it?
Psalm 34.
It's a very beautiful verse.
Psalm 34 has got some lovely verses in
it.
I will bless the Lord at all times.
Verse 5.
They looked unto him and they were radiant.
And their faces will never be ashamed.
See, our looking at Jesus finally affects our
face.
They looked unto him and they were radiant.
They didn't try to put on a weak
smile.
You know all these stickers you see, smile,
God loves you.
I never put that.
I mean, I've got nothing against it.
There are enough people frowning in the world
that it's good to encourage people to smile.
But I don't preach on that so much
because the Bible doesn't say that.
The Bible speaks much more about joy than
about smiling.
And if I were to put a word
I'd say, repent, God loves you.
Most people in the world have got no
reason to smile because they're living in sin.
There's about 1% of the people in
the world who are not living in sin.
99% of the world's people are living
in sin.
They've got no right to smile.
They should be repenting.
Because God loves them they need to repent,
not smile.
But a person whose sins are forgiven, blotted
out, cleansed and everything is set right between
God and man, there's every reason why the
joy of the Lord should be radiating through
his face and through his personality and through
his life.
That there's nothing between him and God, nothing
between him and another human being.
They looked unto him and their faces were
radiant and they were not ashamed.
It says about Moses when he spent 40
days in the presence of God, he never
met another human being for 40 days.
Boy what a wonderful thing.
He never saw man.
He had no time to think about what
this other person was thinking about him and
what the other person was saying about him.
He never had time for 40 days to
listen to gossip and backbiting and all that.
He was just with God.
And he came back and it says his
face was shining.
People couldn't look at him.
It was almost like looking at the sun.
Imagine his face was so bright that he
had to put a veil over his face.
A purdah.
Because his face was so bright people couldn't
look at it.
But there was another reason why he put
a veil on his face.
Do you know that?
It says that in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
Paul has got some wisdom there.
There was another reason by the way that
Paul gets his spiritual truth out of it.
And that's great to see it.
Paul says in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 3
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13 They are
not like Moses who used to put a
veil over his face and here the paraphrase
says so that here is the reason so
that the children of Israel would not notice
that the glory was fading away.
Why did he put a veil on his
face?
He says because hey, everybody saw my face
was shining but he looked in the mirror
once and he found it was a little
less than yesterday.
Paul says that's it.
They want to cover up something because there's
a glory inside underneath that cover that's fading
away.
And he says we're not like that.
Verse 13.
We are not like that.
Because our glory is not fading away.
It says in verse 18.
Our glory is getting greater and greater and
greater by the Holy Spirit from one degree
of glory to another.
And if you want in a nutshell what
is old covenant life and what is new
covenant life, here it is.
When Jesus' face began to shine on the
mount of transfiguration he didn't put a veil
over it because there was nothing to fade
away there.
It wasn't fading away.
It was just getting brighter and brighter and
brighter.
Whereas Moses is fading away.
You know, and when there's something in your
life that's fading away maybe once upon a
time my brother sister, and I want to
say this gently and graciously.
Once upon a time you loved the Lord.
Once upon a time you didn't get into
church politics.
Once upon a time you didn't have time
to listen to all the gossip and garbage
people are talking about.
You loved Jesus and Jesus came into your
heart and you didn't know all these wretched
things about other brothers and sisters and you
were not in competition with anybody.
You didn't have any children.
You were not in competition with anybody else's
children to show that your children were so
great.
You just loved Jesus and you were so
happy.
Your sins are forgiven and there was a
spring in your step and a twinkle in
your eye and a song in your heart
and good words on your lips.
But the glory has been fading away and
you cover it up with words and try
to clap on Sunday and try to cover
up with singing.
It's all a veil.
When you speak spiritual language, when you see
each other after Sunday, oh praise the Lord
brother and sister how are you and all
that.
It's all spiritual language.
It's a veil to cover up a glory
that's fading away.
It's not like it was in the old
days.
When you go to the Lord and say
Lord I'm following Moses.
I didn't even know that Lord.
I thought I was following Jesus.
But I discovered I'm following Moses.
I've got something to hide.
I'm under the old covenant.
Lord will you please fill me with the
Holy Spirit.
Like it says in 2nd Corinthians 3.18
we look nothing between us and God nothing
between us and God.
Verse 18 2nd Corinthians 3.18 Nothing between
us and God that old constricting legalism is
obsolete.
I don't live by any of those rules
and regulations that other people try to put
upon me.
No.
There's nothing between us and God.
Our faces are shining with the brightness of
His face and so we are transfigured just
like Jesus was.
Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful
as God enters our lives and we become
like Him.
Our lives becoming brighter and more beautiful as
God enters different areas of our personality and
we become like Him.
Paul told Timothy give yourself totally to these
things that your progress can become evident to
everybody.
Timothy was already way above all the others
in Ephesus spiritually.
He was the most wholehearted.
But Paul says even though you're up there
and all the other believers in Ephesus are
over here, people over there must still see
that you're growing that you're becoming more Christ
like you're becoming more gracious because God is
filling now different areas in your life.
It's like a big hotel building with thousand
rooms and little by little the lights are
coming on in different rooms.
Once upon a time there was light in
only 4 or 5 rooms and now the
lights are coming on and one by one
more and more of those thousand rooms are
filling up and the hotel is looking brighter
and brighter and brighter.
That's the picture of the Christian life.
That's how it should be in all of
our life because we have nothing to hide.
My brothers and sisters I hope that's true
of your life.
That you have nothing to hide.
That your attitude towards every person here is
absolutely good and loving right out into the
open.
You have nothing to hide.
It will really reflect on your face.
The lights will come on one by one
by one by one and people will see
it.
That's how we're supposed to draw people to
Christ.
That's how we're supposed to draw people to
Christ.
Jesus said I if I be lifted up
will draw all men unto me.
He's doing it through us.
It's the sun shining upon the moon and
the moon reflecting onto the earth.
You know have you seen sometimes in a
bright moonlit sky at night you don't even
need the street lights.
So many thousands of miles away hundreds of
thousands of miles away such a powerful light
you don't need the street light.
You can see the road.
Imagine that this is our calling.
Wisdom lights up a man's face taking away
the sternness, taking away the harshness brings gentleness
into our words and our manners.
Let me turn you to another verse.
Colossians in chapter 4.
Verse 6 Let your speech always be with
grace as though seasoned with salt.
You know here it uses the example of
salt.
And we who are in India in our
food we always want salt.
I mean I don't understand how a lot
of people in western countries can eat bland
food without salt.
Salt is so important and makes such a
difference in the taste that as soon as
you put it in your mouth immediately you
know whether the salt is there or not.
Let it be seasoned with salt.
Let your speech always be with grace.
How many of you have difficulty finding out
when you taste the curry whether there's salt
in it or not?
Anybody?
I don't think even one of us.
Immediately you know, hey give me the salt.
There's not enough salt here.
Whether it's a chapati or a curry.
Okay.
How many of you can sense when you
hear somebody talking to you, there wasn't any
grace there.
You can sense it immediately.
Just like salt.
Ah!
I know why he said that.
Look at the way he says it.
Look at the way she says it.
Do you know that that's the way you're
coming across?
You think the other person doesn't get it?
They get it and they remember you like
that for years.
Well that's the person who's always going to
say something stingy.
Always say something negative.
That's the way they are.
Because they've spent years thinking about the negative
things of other people and that's what comes
out of their mouth.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks.
They can never say anything good or gracious
or appreciative.
Think about this my dear brothers and sisters.
When was the last time you said something
appreciative to some brother or sister?
I don't mean your own family.
You should be saying it to your children
too.
But sometimes we can be very selfish when
we think, oh I've got to say appreciative
things to my children.
Start saying some appreciative things to some brothers
and sisters in CFC.
Especially some of the ones whom in your
whole life you've never appreciated.
Even though there may be 10,000 things
that God appreciates in that person which you
don't.
Imagine almighty God can appreciate something and you
don't.
That shows you're millions of miles away from
God.
Yeah, yeah.
It says here, let your speech always be
with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you
can know how to speak to every person.
Let me read the paraphrase.
Five and six.
Use your head as you live and work
among people.
Use your heads as you live and work
among people.
Make the most of every opportunity.
Be gracious in your speech.
The goal, listen to this, the goal is
to bring out the best in other people
in a conversation.
Not to put them down or to cut
them out.
Don't say something to put somebody down.
That's the work of the devil.
Don't do the work of the devil for
him.
The devil can do his job very well
without your help.
How many of you know that?
How many of you know that the devil
can do his job very well without your
help?
Now, if you don't know that, go and
ask God to give you a little light
on it.
Lord, please show me that the devil can
do his work without my help.
Lord, I've helped him so much in these
past years, but I don't want to help
him anymore.
Don't put people down.
Don't cut them out.
Dear brother and sister, let's ask God to
fill us with wisdom.
Wisdom.
Amen.