This sermon emphasizes the importance of obedience to God as an expression of faith and love. It highlights the need to obey God's commandments out of a genuine belief that they are for our good, just as a parent's instructions are for the well-being of their children. The speaker stresses the significance of having a pure motive of love and faith behind our obedience, rather than seeking personal gain or avoiding punishment. The obedience of faith is portrayed as a way to experience God's love, protection, and blessings in our lives.

Praise the Lord we're glad that we can come around his word again. Last Sunday we were looking at the marks of true faith and we saw that the first of those marks was that a person keeps a good conscience always like the Apostles Paul said a good conscience toward God and a good conscience toward men it's not a life of never falling I think falling becomes less and less and less as we progress in godliness but it's a life where as soon as you're aware of a sin you acknowledge it confess it forsake it and your fellowship with God is restored it includes acknowledging and confessing and asking forgiveness from human beings as well that's what it means to keep a good conscience before God and before men a person who doesn't do that I would say really doesn't have true faith it's a good way to test ourselves we saw in 1 Timothy 1 that that when people ignore a good conscience they make shipwreck of their faith they their faith the ship goes on the rocks they never reach their destination it's important to remember that now today we want to look at another mark of true faith and that is obedience to God in Romans chapter 1 Romans is the great letter that describes the fullness of our salvation more fully starting from ground zero from zero all the way to perfection to God's ultimate purpose and there's no book in the Bible that describes it so well as Romans and it's logical step-by-step all the way from chapter 1 to chapter 16 and since that is so it's good to notice a little phrase that comes right at the beginning and right at the end it's like two phrases within which the whole of Romans is put and that phrase is found in Romans chapter 1 in verse 3 first of all that the Apostle Paul says we have received grace and apostleship through Christ to bring about here's the phrase the obedience of faith among all the nations for his name's sake please remember that the obedience of faith for his name's sake there are a lot of people who obey for personal benefit that's not the gospel the obedience for his name's sake keep it in mind Paul was made an apostle and received grace read the Bible slowly like I've often said he received grace and he received a ministry with one purpose to go to all the nations and bring about among them the obedience not obedience but the obedience of faith for his name's sake that the one who lives by that who does that that is who obeys by faith for his name's sake has got true faith and it's good for us to recognize where our faith has come short or is less than what God intended see God is not a businessman people do business for profit all businesses in the world are run on profit no business is run on the basis of sacrifice and remember this brothers and sisters there are two great systems of Christianity in the world one is called Babylon which is run on the principle of business as you read in Revelation 18 the other is called Jerusalem spiritual Jerusalem heavenly Jerusalem not the earthly one which is run on the principle of sacrifice because that is the most significant part of the earthly Jerusalem is that Christ was crucified there his whole life was a life of sacrifice so we can approach God and seek to live according to a business principle that means I do this you do more for me I pay my tithe please give me a promotion in my job or a better car or house this is Babylon through and through and if you don't see it you got to be totally blind then you have the spirit of sacrifice where Jesus came and said I serve you I don't want anything in return I'll go the last mile I'll die because I want to obey now I want to say that among Christians among all of us sitting here whether you know it or not you are following one of these two principles take the matter of sin we preach against sin in this church and you may think that you have accomplished something great when you avoid sin I agree it's much better than a lot of people in the world and a lot of Christians around who are careless about sin but the question is why do you do it in the final day when we stand before the Lord the Bible says that God is going to reveal the hidden things of secret before I go there let me just tell you this obedience of faith expression is found at the end of Romans also in Romans 16 and the second last verse verse 26 again the same expression this secret gospel verse 25 this gospel which is kept secret for long ages past has now been manifested and according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations leading to the obedience of faith not obedience but the obedience of faith to the only wise God beyond glory again it's for his name's sake so remember Romans begins and ends with this phrase the obedience of faith for his glory for his name's sake if the gospel does not lead you there it's a false gospel whatever gospel that tells you you'll go to heaven just because you say some magic words a lot Jesus come into my heart is a false gospel if it has not led to the obedience of faith for the glory of God I want to say to you in Jesus name if you have never known it till today you know it today your faith is not the faith described in the New Testament but it can be it's very simple and if you listen carefully you can hear now I was saying in the final day in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 it says in 1 Corinthians 4 that when the Lord comes again verse 5 he's going to bring to light in the last part of in the middle of verse 5 it says wait until the Lord comes and then when the Lord comes you know we will stand at his judgment seat and it is judgment seat what is he going to bring to light first of all not primarily the things that you did publicly but the things that you did in darkness in secret not how much you prayed in public but how much you prayed in secret not how much you fasted and let other people know about it but how much you fasted without anybody knowing not how much money you gave and other people knew about it but how much you gave without anybody knowing not how much you gave or how much you did for the Lord outwardly but secretly privately that's the first thing it says the things hidden in darkness and then secondly it says he's going to bring to light the motives of men's hearts not what they did but why they did it not whether they avoided sin but why they avoided sin the motive the motive is what makes something pure or impure a nicely washed apple put into the hands of a dirt into a dirty handful of germs immediately gets spoiled doesn't take time the apple is good the hand has corrupted it your action may be good but your motive in doing that action has corrupted the whole action yeah if you give money because you want God to bless you giving money to God is good but you're corrupted the whole thing with the motive and what God what's got God judge you in the final day why did you do it please remember dear brothers and sisters in the final day why is going to be a more important question than what not what did you do why did you do it and this is where Old Testament obedience is different from New Testament obedience Old Testament obedience was because they wanted to get a reward from God that was right in Old Testament times it is right Old Testament obedience was to avoid punishment from God if you're not familiar with that passage let me show you Deuteronomy chapter 28 this is a very important chapter it's the one chapter in the Old Testament that sums up very clearly what I say that obedience was for the hope of a reward promise of a reward or the fear of punishment and so the first 14 verses tell us how God will bless you if you obey you know if you listen obediently diligently obey all these commandments and all these blessings verse 2 will come upon you and there's a whole list of blessings you know you'll be blessed in your business will be blessed in your city you'll be children will be blessed your capital will be blessed that means your business and your crops will be blessed and you will be prosperous you'll never be in debt and you know enemy will be able to stand before you earthly enemy and all those blessings it'll all earthly blessings there was no promise about overcoming sin in a thought life or overcoming the devil those things are not there in the Old Testament it's all earthly blessing and people obeyed in order to get these blessings and verse 15 onwards but if you don't obey then all who there's a huge list from verse 15 all the way down to verse 68 54 verses of he says if you don't obey there'll be a curse on you there'll be a curse on your children you'll get mad you'll get sick you'll have problems you'll be in debt you'll be in financial difficulties your crops will wither your business won't prosper and so when you hear something like this and you believe what God says he'll obey but do you think they obeyed because they love God no they obeyed because they wanted to get a blessing they obeyed because if they didn't obey they'd be punished you know the famous Old Testament verse Old Testament verse which is quoted by New Testament pastors to deceive people Malachi 310 bring your tights into the storehouse and they say that's the church lest I curse you by the way tight storehouse is a place where you put grain and Old Testament tights were grain not money it's very clear from Malachi 310 bring your grain into the storehouse it's got nothing to do with money and lest there be a curse on you that's right that was Old Testament but now we are in the New Covenant it's the obedience of faith it's your motive that matters not because you're afraid you'll get a curse not because you're going to get a blessing see how Jesus changed that whole thing with one sentence in John's Gospel chapter 14 John's Gospel chapter 14 all of that Old Testament spirit of obedience and motive for obedience was changed with one sentence in the New Testament where Jesus said in John 14 verse 15 if you love me you will keep my commandments you got to read slowly carefully now supposing I read it like this if you love me you should keep my commandments am I right that's not what he said do you know the difference between saying if you love me you must keep my commandments and if you love me you will keep my commandments I mean I'm sure all of you know enough English to understand the difference you must keep my commandments means something you must do it's a command if you love me you will keep my commandments means this is the proof of your love you will do it it's not a must thou shalt thou shalt not that's all ten commandments Old Testament in the New Testament if you've really this is how you know you're coming to the New Covenant life it is not oh I must do this otherwise I'll be punished I must do this then I'll be blessed brother sister there's a whole multitude of preachers today trying to take you back to the Old Covenant it's like taking India back to the British Raj where Great Britain rules us how many of you want to be back under Queen Elizabeth I don't I'm happy India is independent what am I saying why do you want to go back to the Old Covenant when it's been abolished on the day of Pentecost there's only one motive for obedience today you love Jesus you will keep you don't keep the commandments that is the clearest proof that you do not love Jesus Christ no matter how much you sing I love him I love him I love him I don't know what all so many songs are there about our love for him it's all rubbish nonsense you don't love him at all because if you love him you'll keep his commandments you will at least seek you may not reach perfection many commandments in the Bible are like height of perfection be anxious for nothing I haven't reached that peak but I'll tell you something as I've sought to obey it I have moved a lot nearer the peak today than I was even four or five years ago and much closer to the peak than I was 50 years ago so the commandments of God rejoicing the Lord always it's a peak pursue it husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church who can say they have attained there I tried for years I haven't got there but I'll tell you I think but you probably need to check with my wife I think I'm a little closer today than I was when we got married wives submit your husbands how as the church is to Christ it's a mountain peak you got to press on to it if you don't do these things I would say in Jesus name however much you may sing about your love for the Lord you're telling a lie you didn't know till today you were telling a lie to God right well you know it now next time you sing that say Lord I want to love you more please help me I'm sorry for all the years I disobeyed you I don't want to love you because I want a blessing from you I don't want to love you because you will curse me if I don't no no no I want to obey you because I love you I want to obey you not because you will bless me and I don't want to disobey you because you will curse me no but because I love you Lord I don't care if I don't get a blessing but I love you you've done so much for me if you love me you will keep my commandment so love and faith go together you know. The obedience of faith is based on love. Now there's an expression in Galatians which says, Galatians 5 I think it is, where it says in the New Testament, circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but faith which works by love. Yeah I can't find the exact verse but it's in Galatians 5, verse 6 is it? Yeah thank you. I'm getting old, Christian you know every verse immediately. Circumcision and uncircumcision means nothing but faith which works through love. That's the only thing that matters, not an external ritual. The circumcision was an external ritual and you can make a whole lot of external rituals today, going to church, reading the Bible, getting baptized, getting children dedicated, so many things, attending conferences, how many people are keen on breaking your bread? Boy people are so keen on that. It's all good but the most important thing is faith working through love. So the obedience of faith is distinct from that Old Testament obedience in the sense that you're not doing it to get a blessing from God and you're not doing it because you're afraid of a curse. So as I said it's not a question of whether you avoid sin, why do you avoid sin? Now there could be various reasons why you avoid sin. I think a lot of people in the world would like to steal but they don't steal because they may get caught. Isn't it good that they don't steal? Yeah. But is the motive good? No. How many of you avoid stealing because you're afraid you'll get caught? Can you glory in the fact I never steal? Does that make you a Christian? I'll tell you what makes you a Christian. Why do you avoid stealing? I don't want to tell a lie because I might get caught or I don't tell a lie because I love Jesus Christ. I don't want to look at internet pornography because it'll pollute me. Good motive? No. I'm sorry to say it's true it'll pollute you, it'll destroy you. But the motive is I love Jesus Christ and that's why I will not click on that internet site. If you love me you will keep my commands. There are many motives with which you can avoid sin and it's good. I'm not saying these other motives are bad. I'm saying if you start there, if you start with the law, good. I'm not despising it. You avoid internet pornography because you're afraid it'll pollute you. Praise the Lord. At least start there but don't stop there at the foot of the mountain. Work your way up to the place where you avoid it not because it'll pollute you but because you love Jesus Christ. So I'm not despising avoiding sin or obeying God for these other things. All I'm saying is if you get stuck there you're stuck at the foot of the mountain. You're never entering into the new covenant. It's good to be under the old covenant rather than no covenant. So sure I agree with you. Be under the law if you can't be under grace. But the best is to be under grace. The best is to be under Jesus Christ and follow him. But if you can't at least follow Moses and his law. He's a good man and many of you are following Moses. Praise the Lord. He is a godly man. He gave commandments. Please keep them. But what I'm saying is there is another person who came 2,000 years ago by the way in case you didn't know Jesus Christ. And he sent the Holy Spirit in case you didn't know to fill your heart so that you can be free from following Moses. And you can love Jesus and do something far higher more than what Moses commanded. This is the whole spirit of the new covenant. The obedience of faith. I can avoid sin because I may lose my testimony. You know like sometime when you're shouting at your wife at home and suddenly the bell rings and you wonder who that is. You hope he didn't hear that last word. And he comes in and all of a sudden you're very pleasant to everybody to your wife and everyone else. And then he goes away it starts again. Why? Because when he goes away only Jesus is in the house right? And who cares what Jesus is up. Forget it. But his brother. He's there we got to be careful with what we speak. But when he goes away only Jesus is there. We're not bothered about him. Do you see how there's so much of deception in Christianity? Because we have not started with ABC. You put a child as soon as he goes to school in the sixth standard and help him to teach him physics, chemistry, geography. He'll come back and say mommy I can't understand a thing. Of course he can't understand a thing. But you keep forcing him to go to sixth standard. Poor child hasn't learned ABC. What is the ABC of the Christian life? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The reverence for God. A holy fear of displeasing God. A holy fear. A reverence for Almighty God who's our creator. Lord I don't want to displease you. If that brother heard me yell at my wife it doesn't bother me one bit. But Lord you. You know like I've often told parents. Don't ever say to your children what will people say if you dress like that my girl. You train your daughter to be a hypocrite. Tell your daughter what will Jesus say if you dress like that anytime. Even when with your with your friends and nobody from the church has seen you. Somebody asked me once here in this church how do you brother Zack how should I dress as a young sister? I said I'm not gonna give you any rules on length of blouses or length of anything else. Or how much of your skin should be exposed here there. No. Because there's no end to it. I'll give you one rule. I said if you're gonna go for a walk with Jesus Christ through the marketplace and he calls you to come to his house. You're going for a walk with Jesus physically. How will you dress that day? Dress like that all the time. Because that's so you don't you want Jesus to be with you all the time? Or you wanted you know some people say you must dress in a special. Be careful when you dress when you come to Sunday meeting. So in other words Jesus is with you only on Sunday morning? What about the other days? You don't want him to be with you when you go to work? No wonder you have so many problems in your place of work. Say Lord I want you to be with me always. I want to obey you all the time. What do you think of a woman married woman who loves her husband on Sundays? Full of love on Sundays and the rest of the days of the week she's fooling around with other men not bothered about her husband. She's a harlot. That's what the Bible calls Babylon a harlot. Sunday love for Jesus Monday onwards other people other things other interests. I'll tell you you'll hear some things here in this church that you'll never hear anywhere else because it'll lead you to true Christianity. And many times I've told people who say brother Zach is a hard preacher is a hard man. I say listen I'm not bothered what you say about me. I love you too much. I love you too much to allow your soul to be lost. And I don't care what you say about me now. I'll tell you in Jesus name in the day of judgment when you stand before the Lord you'll turn around and thank me. That's enough. I don't want any thanks before that. I'll tell you the truth of God's Word. You know it's like these IIT training institutes. There are certain institutes that have got the reputation as the best Institute in India. We want to be like that. To train people not for IIT but for the judgment seat of Christ. To be ready for that final examination and to get the best results of any church. Isn't that a good aim to have? We're not saying that we are the best church. That depends on all of you. But we want to say that we want to present the best teaching that will enable you to stand with hundred percent of the judgment seat of Christ. Do you believe first of all that you can get a hundred percent of the judgment seat of Christ? Or are you satisfied with pass marks, forty percent? Lord if I get into heaven some backseat that's enough. Like I often say I don't want the Lord to say. What do you want the Lord to say to you? Well done good and faithful servant. What do you want the Lord to say? So you managed to get in is it? I never thought you'd make it. What do you want the Lord to say to you in the final day? I know what I want the Lord to say to me. Well done good faithful servant. What's your aim in life? Just to get the heavens out of scraping by the skin of your teeth? Or do you want to have what the Bible calls in 2nd Peter 1 an abundant entrance? If you want an abundant entrance you better learn the obedience of faith. Don't avoid sin. I mean it's good in the beginning to avoid sin because you'll get corrupted or you lose your testimony or you want to have a ministry. You have a ministry then I must keep away from sin. Even that's the wrong motive. I want to keep away from sin because it dishonors God. Yeah I want to obey God's commandments because it honors him. That's the obedience of faith of love. Faith with works through love. You know I told you in the last week that there's a phrase found in the New Testament which is not found in the Old Testament. It's Hebrews and chapter 6. It speaks of the foundation. Now remember this is not some postgraduate stuff. This is kindergarten stuff I'm going to talk to you right now. Kindergarten stuff in the Christian life. The foundation of a building is kindergarten. Superstructure is we go all the way to first standard, second standard, third standard, college, PhD and postdoctoral studies. You can climb as high as you like. You can build a skyscraper in your Christian life but the foundation, the beginning. What is it saying? Hebrews 6. The elementary teaching it says that's kindergarten stuff. Hebrews 6.1. The kindergarten teaching about Christ. Let's lay that and press on to build a skyscraper to maturity of perfection. You know many people say to us Brother Zack you guys think you're perfect. I said have you seen what's written in the front of our pulpit? You didn't read it? Let us press on to perfection is the public testimony to everybody. We haven't become perfect yet. It's you guys who never preach on it who think you're perfect. Got it? Hebrews 6.1. Let's press on to perfection. Here's where that verse comes. Not lay again a foundation of what is the first thing mentioned. Please the ABC here. Repentance from dead works. This is a phrase and as far as I know it's the first time found in the whole Bible. First time in the Bible. Dead works and we have to repent from it. How can I turn from something I don't know what it is? You know what dead works are? Dead works are those works in Deuteronomy 28 which I do because I'm afraid God will punish me if I don't do it. Which I do in order to get some blessing from God. To do business with God you know. Oh Lord you said if I give you'll give back hundred times. That's great. Any Marwadi businessman would be glad to do business with Jesus if that's the return he's gonna get for his money he gives. No bank will give that. Banks give what 4%, 5%, 6%. Imagine getting 100 not hundred percent. You know what hundred times means? Ten thousand percent. Says by the way. It's simple mathematics. Ten thousand percent. That type of return God giving. But if that's the reason with which you try to obey you'll get zero. What's the motive? Dead works. Doing something not because not out of faith. Obedience but not out of faith. Obedience but not out of love. What do I need to do with such works? Repent from that. Say Lord I don't want to do things to do business with you. I don't want to do things as a ritual. Oh I'm supposed to read my Bible and pray. Otherwise I might have an accident on the road today. So I better read it. Oh today's examination. I never read the Bible for the last six months but examination today so I better read it. Am I telling stories? I suppose I did the same thing when I was a child. So I can't throw stones at anybody. They've all gone that way. But what I say is let's move on. What does it say here? Let's press on. Let's move on to maturity and turn from doing works of you know ritualistic obedience to come for the breaking of bread because they think there's some holy thing there which is really blessing. And you're not interested in fellowship which that breaking of bread symbolizes then it's a dead work. I believe that many Christians break bread as a dead work. They should actually repent of it. They should go on and say Lord I'm sorry for breaking bread today because I have no interest in fellowship with these brothers and sisters with whom I break bread. That's a dead work and the Bible says I've got to repent from it. The obedience of faith, the obedience of love. Now there's an Old Testament verse in Deuteronomy wherein the Lord gave his commandments. He said in chapter 5 why does he ask us to keep his commandments? Why does he ask us to keep his commandments? Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 29. Oh it's one of those rare verses in the Bible where God says oh whenever anybody your father or mother say oh it means there's such a deep longing. Oh that my children would do this. That's how he speaks. Oh that they had a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments. All my commandments always. All my commandments always. Why? So that it may go well with them. Not because God is going to get anything out of it. So that it may go well with them and so that it may go well with their children forever. You see the longing in God's heart. What is God's longing? Oh that it might go well with you. Oh that it might go well with your children. Did you hear that? You hear the longing in God's heart. You say you got a similar longing. I tell you God's got a bigger oh than you have. You may say oh that it might go well with me. God says oh that it might go well with you and with your children. Not for one or two days but forever and because of that he says I wish they would fear me and keep my commandments. I mean parents can understand this. Particularly if you've got a rebellious teenage son or daughter who just doesn't listen to the warnings you give. Don't do that my girl. Don't do that my son. And they say no dad you don't know. You're all old-fashioned mom and you go away you know you can force them when they are three years old but you can't force them when they are 18 and 19. What do you do? You go away and weep. Say oh that my daughter would realize that when I tell her to come home at a certain time in the evening it's to protect her. Not to stay late with her friends, partying and all that. It's to save her from destroying her whole life. When I tell my son not to fool around with girls or not to go to all those sites on the internet and not to listen to all that heavy metal rock music which will put demonic influences into you. They say ah you're old-fashioned. Oh that they would realize that they are destroying themselves. You don't want your son to destroy himself for 20 years and then wake up and say oh that was right. Many of you young people who are destroying yourself today with all this type of stuff I mentioned. 20 years from now you will say I was right but you'd have messed up your life, ruined it, spoiled it and possibly some of you may never be able to recover. That's the danger. God's commandments are always for our good. What does it mean to have faith in your parents? Let's start as an example. You believe that the food that your mom places on the table has got no poison in it. It's an elementary step of faith. Now there are sad cases of mothers who poison their children. I mean there are cases like that we read in the United States frequently because this 40 year old mother has now got a 20 year old boyfriend and just chucked her old husband. You know these strange funny things happen these days. Believe it or not. And so she wants to get rid of her own children. There's so many cases of these mothers who kill their children and all that. But you eat the food your mom places in your plate because you have faith. My mom is not trying to poison me. Though when you're three, four years old and she asks you to eat the vegetables, you may think she's trying to poison you. But it's really good for you. Those vegetables are good for you. And we believe it. And as we grow older, I've often said that a girl will never know how much, a child will never know how much their father and mother loved them and cared for them until they become parents themselves. Then when they get children and they begin to reap what they've sown, then they say, oh dad was right. So faith is what my dad tells me is for my good. How much more? Now I'll tell you this, your dad and mom, earthly dad and mom could be wrong because they are imperfect. I'm imperfect. I punish my children sometimes when they didn't deserve it. I'm sorry and I apologize to them later on when I discover. But we're dealing now with a heavenly father who's never wrong. And he sees my whole future. He knows every part of my personality because he created it. He created my temperament. He doesn't want me to be like anybody else. And he knows exactly what is best for me and gives me some commandments. Do you think I can make a better deal of my life than what God told me to do? If I believe God, if I really believe that God is a good God, like if I were to give you a question paper, how many of you believe God is a good God? You'll all say yes. How many of you believe that God wants to be a loving father to you? All of you will say yes. If I were to ask you another question, how many of you believe that God has got more wisdom at least than you? All of you will say yes. The next logical question is then why don't you keep all his commandments? If you believe he loves you more than anybody else in the world and he's got much more wisdom than you have and he cares for your future more than you don't even know the future. He knows it. Don't you think that everything he tells you is for your good? Faith. So the obedience of faith is Lord I believe that everything you have told me in the New Testament is for my good. For my good. Oh that there were a heart in them to obey me so that it might go well with them. Why does God tell us to give him all the glory and never take glory for ourselves? You think that's selfishness? Oh I want everybody to glorify me. He's not like some stupid earthly dictator who wants everybody to praise him. He's saying that to save us from destroying ourselves by taking glory to ourselves. That's why. That's why he says worship me glorify me. I don't worship him as a ritual and when you give money to God don't believe all these preachers who say that God is hard up. He's having a tough time balancing the books and the accounts and you've got to help him out. It's a lie. I mean imagine if the American ambassador stood here and said you know we're a bit hard up in America now can you give us some money and pass a bag around to collect. You'd say that guy's a hoax. He's not the American ambassador. He's just a hoax pretending to be. What about all these preachers who go to pass around a bag and saying God's work is hard up can you please the kingdom of God is going through a bit of a financial struggle now. Can you please help. I mean I don't know which is the lowest poorest country in Africa. You know that ambassador came here and said here that our country is having a tough time. Will you give us some money. You'd say that can't be. I can't imagine an ambassador is stooping so low. But you believe all these fellows who claim to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ. You know why. Because in your estimation all right there are big superpowers like America China and all that and India is also gradually becoming one and you go all the way down to some of the poorest countries in the world and underneath all of them comes the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Because you think like that that you think the kingdom of God is hard up. I'll tell you I'm a servant of God. I have been one for more than 40 45 years. I'll tell you the kingdom of God is not hard up. He doesn't need your little two paisa put into the offering box to do his work. He doesn't need your money. He owns the heaven and the earth. He created all the silver and gold in the world. That's why we never take an offering here. That's why we never ask people to give money. It's not because we got to pay taxes on this building. We got to pay for the electricity. We've got to pay for the internet. We got to pay for 101 things in our. We had to spend millions of rupees over the years. But it's given by people who voluntarily cheerfully give. God never asked for it. No. Jesus never went around asking people for money. He needed money because he knew he had to support 13 people himself and 13 disciples and their families. God took care of that by people giving. But it wasn't for reward. Jesus didn't go around saying give and God will bless you. No. Or these are my needs. No. There's a dignity about a true servant of God. And I tell you this, the sad thing that I've seen in India and America and everywhere is it's so rare to find a man who upholds the dignity of Almighty God when he represents him. The ambassadors of the world have more dignity when they represent their country than the so called ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Most of them are humbugs. There's no dignity about that. God does not want our money. He wants our body for our good. He tells us to obey for our good. Everything is for our good that it might go well with them. Why does the Bible say honor your father? Why do we should we teach our children honor your father and mother? Tell me. Children obey your parents because it is written honor your father and mother. Why do I want my children to honor me as a parent, as a father? I'll tell you honestly in Jesus name it's not because I want some respect for my children. I didn't look after my children so that they would look after me in my old age when I'm stooped and walking with a cane. No sir. God Almighty can take care of better and take better care of me than my children can. Those are not the reasons why I tell my children to obey me and respect me. No. It says honor your father and mother that it may go well with you. I wanted to go well with them. That's why I teach them to speak respectfully to their father and mother. That's why I taught them to teach us to speak respectfully to anybody older than them. Even a servant in the house. Speak respectfully I say. It'll go well with you. God always, the commandments are always that it might go well with us. Why does he say forgive people who have harmed you? That's for your good. You can sleep better at night. All you people who haven't forgiven somebody. Tell me honestly. Don't you lie around in bed thinking about that guy? Even when you go on a vacation you can't enjoy it because you're thinking of that guy who hurt you and harmed you and how many years it's been going on. That guy hurt you 35 years ago and still bothering you. He's that chap who hurt you. He's Dale and Harty. He sleeps well. You're the one who's not able to sleep well. That it might go well with you. Forgive them. Release them. And you have a motive for it because God forgave you. Everything he tells us. Love your enemies. Because love is like health. I'll tell you this if you don't know it. The love of God is like a healing stream. If you allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with the love of God you'll be healthy. I'll tell you I want something better than Christ as my healer. I want Christ as my health. Prevention is better than cure. It's better to know Christ as my health than Christ as my healer. And if you want to know Christ as your health obey the commandments. Now that's not the motive. That's the result of obeying. We obey because we love. Everything is for our good. So even if you're seeking your own good I would tell you the best thing for you to do if you want to seek your good 100% the best thing for you to do from today onwards is stop reading the New Testament and obey every commandment there. Do to others as you want others to do to you. Whenever you're doing something ask yourself would you want that fellow to do that to you? You speak evil about somebody behind his back. Do you want somebody to speak evil about you behind your back? Obey the commandments. They're all for your good. I'll tell you in Jesus name you'll sleep peacefully. You'll be healthier. Everything will go better in your life. The heavens will be open over you above all. You will become more and more like Jesus Christ. You will be free from bad moods and discouragement and depression and it's just going to go well with you. Your home life will be better. Why don't we choose it? Because the devil like he deceived Eve and made her disobey. See Eve's disobedience was the disobedience of unbelief. That's why salvation is the obedience of faith. Why was Eve's disobedience the disobedience of unbelief? Because you got to see the like they say read between the lines. Read between the lines means think of the reason why the devil is saying all this. Eve why do you think God doesn't want you to eat from this tree? You know he doesn't really love you. You thought he loved you? This beautiful fruit you think if he loves you he would stop you from eating it? Your whole being longs for it right? I can see your mouth watering Eve. You think God will stop you from eating something good? If he loves you he doesn't really love you. It's all nonsense. He just created you to take advantage of you to exploit you. He wanted a gardener. That's why he created you and the other thing is he's afraid that you might become like him. If you eat this you might become like God and he doesn't want that. He doesn't want any competition and Eve stupid woman that she was believed all that and Adam stupider man that he was ate what Adam Eve gave him. It was the disobedience of unbelief. Oh perhaps God doesn't love me. Perhaps what the devil says is right. Have you heard that yourself such words? For example you prayed for something which you wanted desperately. Maybe you wanted admission in a college or something even more interesting than that. You wanted to marry somebody and it didn't work out and you waited, waited, waited. Finally the person married somebody else. All hope was gone or something or something more serious. Your child was sick and sick and sick and sick and sick. No prayer was not answered. The child died and the devil says, see, do you believe all this nonsense about God loving you? Look at this. If he loved you, do you think it was difficult for God to answer that prayer? Why did he allow this to happen? Why did he allow you from to fall from that chair and break your bones as if God couldn't stop you from falling down? All the time the devil is flinging what he called what the Bible calls missiles. The shield of faith it says in Ephesians 6 will protect us from the darts and missiles of Satan. What are these missiles? God doesn't love you. God doesn't love you. He doesn't really care for you. He's too busy. He's got no time to listen to your prayer. He doesn't care for you and you believe all that. You believe all that. Gradually you lose faith and when you lose faith you begin to be disobedient. Now what I want to stir in your heart is not obedience first of all but faith that God loves you. Every commandment of his is for your good and if there are things which God doesn't give you which he takes out of your hand there must be a reason for it. Do you think a little child, do you think a one-year-old child understands why you take that sharp blade or knife out of his hand? It's a nice shiny knife and the child wants to play with it and you take it out of his hand no matter how much it screams you don't give it back. Do you think the child understands? My child, my mother is doing this for my good to take this knife out of my hand. Like I said, do you think that teenage daughter or son of yours understands when you tell him not to do certain things, not to do these things? Do you think they understand? No. They don't trust you. They think they know better till they mess up their life 20 years later. God doesn't want you to mess up your life. Sometimes children may say to that father, yeah dad what did you do when you were a teenager? What's your reply to that? Well son I did a lot of stupid things. Do I want you to do the same stupid things? No. I want to save you from the wretched things I did just because I got chicken bucks or some other tuberculosis when I was small. I don't want you to get it. I got measles when I was 15. Okay all my children must get measles when they're 15. What type of argument is that? I want my children to avoid all the diseases and all the sicknesses and all the sin that I had when I was small. I want them to have better health. You can take them to better hospitals. You can save son, daughter. I can give you a better education than I got when I was small. In every area I wanted to be better for you than I had. That's why don't ask me what stupid things I did when I was young. I want to protect you from that. We desire the best. Now remember this just like you desire the best for your children, God desires the very best for you. So it's very important that we cleanse our motives. What we have been hearing today is once the motive is cleansed even a little bit of obedience has value before God. You know it's like if you have 10 people and nine of them holding big ripe apples with dirty hands full of germs and one fellow has got clean hands and he's holding a nice small little apple. Which one will you take? I take the small one from a clean hand. I'll tell you God is also like that. A little bit of obedience that comes from a motive of love for him. Lord I love you and that's why I don't want to do this. I love you and that's why I'm doing this. That everything that comes out of my life is obedience of faith in the fact that God loves me. To look at every commandment and say Lord that's a tough commandment but I know you love me and I believe it's out of love that you have asked me to do that. I have faith in that and therefore I obey. That's the obedience of faith and I'll tell you something. If you really believe that all the commandments in the new testament especially many old testament commandments have been abolished now are for us you will take great pains to study those commandments just like you would study your dead father's will to see how much money he has left for you. Would you study your father's will carefully to see how much he has left for you? Anybody who does not read the new testament more carefully than he studies his father's will is really a worldly person. I would say that. I would doubt whether he's even converted. I doubt whether he knows the first thing about Jesus Christ and salvation. I doubt whether he believes that heaven is more important than earth. I doubt whether he believes that his spirit is more important than his body. I believe doubt whether he believes that the kingdom of God is more important than all this earthly property he can accumulate from his father's will. How carefully do you read the new testament? Can you honestly say that I try to read it as carefully as I would read my dead father's will to find out how much he left for me as an inheritance. There's a lot of need to repent of dead works. Works, maybe works of obedience but works done with other motives and especially works of disobedience. Outright disobedience to God's word is always the mark of unbelief. What is the mark of faith? You believe that every commandment of God, every commandment Jesus gave is for my very best. It comes from a heart of love. You know there's an old testament verse. I don't have time to show it. You can look look it up in Deuteronomy 32 which says from his right hand there went a fiery law for his people. Oh how he loves them. That's a beautiful verse. From his right hand there went a fiery law for his people. Oh how he loves them. That's how God loves his people. He gave that law in Sinai because he loved the people and he's given us even more fiery commandments. You can look at the new testament commandment and say oh what a lot of wonderful commandments he's given us. Oh how he loves us. Then we obey in faith. Then the obedience doesn't become a burden. Then you never ask oh do I have to do this? Do I have to do that? No. It becomes a joy and your Christian life will be different. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads before God. Bow our heads before the Lord and say Lord I want to obey you out of love from now on. Even if it's little I want to obey you out of love. Help us each one Lord we ask in Jesus name.