Transformative Spiritual Growth: Beyond Knowledge to Action
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If a man thinks that he's understood the New Covenant so well that he can even explain it to others but he cannot control his tongue when he speaks to his wife or when she speaks to her husband or when he's in the office or when he speaks to the auto rickshaw driver who's cheated him or to the porter in the railway station errs cheating him and he cannot control his tongue, he is deceiving himself that he's understood the new covenant. [00:03:56]
Judge yourself by one thing: how much can you control your tongue at home? How much can you control your tongue when you speak to people who are at a lower social level than you, your servants, etc.? How do you treat them? We had a so-called brother here many years ago who he and his wife had a servant girl from some poor place here working for them and he treated her so badly. [00:04:40]
With the kind you show yourself kind. If you want God to be kind to you, let me tell you one thing: forget about everything else, be kind to other people, especially to people you think are lower than you. You have to correct them, of course. Don't we correct our children? But are you cruel to your children? No, be kind. Even in correction, we have to be kind. [00:06:45]
The reason why many people do not grow is because they are not kind. But it says here in the last part of verse 26, but with those who are crooked—crooked are those who live one life before other believers and quite another life in private—there it says God will also show himself as twisted. That means, "Hey, this is not a God I expected to treat me." Yes, that's how he's treating it because you're treating other people like that. [00:08:00]
What is another Jesus? One who forgives your sin but doesn't save you from your sin. Matthew 1:21 is the first promise in the New Testament which says the name Jesus means he will save, not forgive, he will save his people from their sins. Forgiveness is in the Old Testament. David wrote in Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all my sins." [00:11:33]
How many sinful habits, my brother, sister, have you overcome since you came to CFC? Ask yourself. And some of you are slipping back into those old habits. Some of you who, when you were first converted, did not watch the type of movies you are watching in secret now. Don't fool yourself that you sit in CFC and everything's all right. [00:12:27]
Christendom is full of people who imagine they have the Holy Spirit and is not making them holy. I said, "What type of Holy Spirit is this that doesn't make you holy?" Evil spirits do a perfect job of making people evil. Unclean spirits do a perfect job of making people unclean. And you ask some of these people, "What is the Holy Spirit?" "Oh, he makes us speak in tongues." [00:13:21]
Are you progressing at least from one class to the next? It's very important. I'm saying this strongly because I believe that it's quite likely that we may all be alive when Christ returns. I don't know when Christ will return, but all the wars and rumors and wars and especially the plagues that are coming around the world now, it is—I call it a plague. [00:14:44]
I should be a million times more careful protecting myself from sin, from a sinful thought, from a sinful attitude towards somebody, from sinful words, much more than any virus in the world. That's the mark of a Christian that is much more afraid of sin than of sickness. And I want all of you to ask yourself one question this morning: are you more afraid of sin or are you afraid of sickness? [00:15:52]
You had a dispute with your wife or your husband and you went to bed without settling it. You have opened the door for the devil in your heart. And if he torments you with bad dreams and torments your mind and torments you in other ways, blame yourself because God told you before you go to bed, settle it with your husband and your wife. [00:37:17]
Forgive one another as Christ forgave you. If it's an unbeliever, the moment you know that somebody has hurt you, forgive the person immediately. If it's a brother with whom you wouldn't fellowship, settle it between both of you. The Bible says if your brother sins, rebuke him, Matthew 18 and verse 14, 15 onwards, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother. [00:42:56]
The time has come for judgment to begin in the family, the church, the household of God, where we judge ourselves first. That is the mark of God's house: people who judge themselves first, who don't justify themselves but who judge themselves first. It must begin with us first, it says. See, that's where the church is different from the world. [00:57:14]
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Judge yourself by one thing: how much can you control your tongue at home? How much can you control your tongue when you speak to people who are at a lower social level than you, your servants, etc.? How do you treat them? We had a so-called brother here many years ago who he and his wife had a servant girl from some poor place here working for them and he treated her so badly. [00:04:40]
With the kind you show yourself kind. If you want God to be kind to you, let me tell you one thing: forget about everything else, be kind to other people, especially to people you think are lower than you. You have to correct them, of course. Don't we correct our children? But are you cruel to your children? No, be kind. Even in correction, we have to be kind. [00:06:45]
The reason why many people do not grow is because they are not kind. But it says here in the last part of verse 26, but with those who are crooked—crooked are those who live one life before other believers and quite another life in private—there it says God will also show himself as twisted. That means, "Hey, this is not a God I expected to treat me." Yes, that's how he's treating it because you're treating other people like that. [00:08:00]
What is another Jesus? One who forgives your sin but doesn't save you from your sin. Matthew 1:21 is the first promise in the New Testament which says the name Jesus means he will save, not forgive, he will save his people from their sins. Forgiveness is in the Old Testament. David wrote in Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all my sins." [00:11:33]
How many sinful habits, my brother, sister, have you overcome since you came to CFC? Ask yourself. And some of you are slipping back into those old habits. Some of you who, when you were first converted, did not watch the type of movies you are watching in secret now. Don't fool yourself that you sit in CFC and everything's all right. [00:12:27]
Christendom is full of people who imagine they have the Holy Spirit and is not making them holy. I said, "What type of Holy Spirit is this that doesn't make you holy?" Evil spirits do a perfect job of making people evil. Unclean spirits do a perfect job of making people unclean. And you ask some of these people, "What is the Holy Spirit?" "Oh, he makes us speak in tongues." [00:13:21]
Are you progressing at least from one class to the next? It's very important. I'm saying this strongly because I believe that it's quite likely that we may all be alive when Christ returns. I don't know when Christ will return, but all the wars and rumors and wars and especially the plagues that are coming around the world now, it is—I call it a plague. [00:14:44]
I should be a million times more careful protecting myself from sin, from a sinful thought, from a sinful attitude towards somebody, from sinful words, much more than any virus in the world. That's the mark of a Christian that is much more afraid of sin than of sickness. And I want all of you to ask yourself one question this morning: are you more afraid of sin or are you afraid of sickness? [00:15:52]
You had a dispute with your wife or your husband and you went to bed without settling it. You have opened the door for the devil in your heart. And if he torments you with bad dreams and torments your mind and torments you in other ways, blame yourself because God told you before you go to bed, settle it with your husband and your wife. [00:37:17]
Forgive one another as Christ forgave you. If it's an unbeliever, the moment you know that somebody has hurt you, forgive the person immediately. If it's a brother with whom you wouldn't fellowship, settle it between both of you. The Bible says if your brother sins, rebuke him, Matthew 18 and verse 14, 15 onwards, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother. [00:42:56]
The time has come for judgment to begin in the family, the church, the household of God, where we judge ourselves first. That is the mark of God's house: people who judge themselves first, who don't justify themselves but who judge themselves first. It must begin with us first, it says. See, that's where the church is different from the world. [00:57:14]
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