This sermon emphasizes the importance of keeping a clear conscience before God and men, focusing on forgiveness, setting things right, and pursuing peace. It highlights the need to align with God's standards, believe in His word, and strive for righteousness to be part of the resurrection of the righteous. The speaker urges the congregation to prioritize spiritual growth, humility, and genuine repentance to experience God's grace and salvation.

Praise the Lord, it's so good to see so many of you who are here. We want to memorize the scripture. Are you ready? Okay. First of all, we want to revise what we did. Is this on? Oh, we always have some technical hitch. Okay. Romans 6, 14. This is what we considered last time. Sin shall not be master over you. Let's, I hope you all can say it with your eyes shut now. Have it on the screen this time. We're going to do it next time too, but we won't have it on the screen next time. So let's say together, sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law, but under grace. Now let's say it personally. Sin shall not be master over me. Sin shall not be master over me for I am not under law, but under grace. Romans 6, 14. It's important to remember the reference for one reason that when you are sharing God's truth with other people, you must know where in scripture that is. And if you've been in the church for more than two years and you don't know it, you must go home and repent before God and say, Lord, I'm totally ashamed of myself, but I don't know the reference for this important verse. Okay. We're going to learn another verse today. It's a little longer, but you know, we have said that in scripture there are promises and commandments. Those are the two legs. Those who live only on promises get into a very unreal life and pretty soon they lose their salvation. I believe that those who only claim promises, I believe they'll go to hell without a doubt in my mind. And I'll tell you why. Commandments is the other leg. And those who live only on commandments, according to the letter of the commandment become legalists and they go to hell too. In John 14, if I were to ask you today, do you love Jesus? You'd say yes, but let's listen to what Jesus says in John 14 and verse 21. Let me read it to you first. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me and I will love him and he'll be loved by my father and I will love him. So you see, how do I prove that I love Jesus? Or if you want the father to love you, what do you have to do? Well, it says here that it's what it says is that he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me and he will be loved by my father. He who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him. Lord Jesus, you're going to love those who keep your commandments. What about those who don't keep your commandments? I'll tell you, I don't know, but I do know that if you keep his commandments, he loves you and the father will love you. Many people don't know this verse. This is not a favorite verse with Christians. You know what is the favorite verse for Christians? God so loved the whole world that he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him and they don't even understand what believe means. Believe means a commitment just like a woman says yes to a man at a wedding. It's a commitment. A woman is saying yes to a man at a wedding for how long? For life. I'm going to quit my job. I'm going to live where this man lives and I'm going to live with him for the rest of my life, whether he's poor or rich or whether he's sick or healthy. This is my future. That is belief. That type of belief, very few Christians have, but those are the ones who are really born again and the great tragedy in Christendom in every church, including CFC, including all CFC churches is that a number of people sitting in CFC churches are not born again. A number of people sitting in CFC churches who were born again once upon a time have lost their salvation now because they become careless in their conscience and backslidden. So they're not born again today. It's very important to understand this. So this is a very important verse. This is not a commandment by the way. This is a preparation for some of the commandments we are going to learn. We want to try and learn a promise one week and a commandment one week so that we get exercise on both of our legs. But as a preparation for that, this verse tells us the importance of those commandments. John 14 verse 21. So, you know, there are two things here. You've got to have the commandments and keep them to have. You can't have the commandments unless you read the word of God. How will you know what the commandments are? If you only hear a preacher from the pulpit, how do you know he's quoting exactly from the scripture? There are many churches where people don't even bring a Bible. It's very sad. It's like a student who goes, would you send your children to school without their school books? Any of your parents would send your children to school without their school books? How is it you come to church without a Bible? That's amazing. That's the condition of a lot of Christians today. They say to God, we couldn't care less for your word or we know all of it in our mind. Really? I still don't know all of it in my mind. I never go to a meeting without a Bible. 55 years. I've never gone to a meeting without a Bible because I want to have his commandments. Then only I can keep them. Thereby I prove my love for Jesus Christ who gave his life for me and thereby I know my father loves me. It's not imagination or delusion and I know that Jesus loves me and my whole life will be different when I have a father in heaven who loves me and cares for every area aspect of my life. And I've proved that in more than 50 years. So I want to encourage you to please remember this verse, to have his commandments and keep them. So now we're going to say it together. Is it on the screen? Okay, let's say it together. Jesus said that he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him. Okay. I think we can say it a little louder. Well, like as if we are saying this at midnight half asleep, that's not the way we need a bit more of the military parade round attitude. We are the army of the Lord. So let's say it as an army would say it. Okay. Jesus said he who loves me and keeps them is the one who loves me and he who loves me loved by my father and I will love him. John 14 21 praise the Lord. I hope that will remain in your mind. You'll meditate on it and think about it in the coming days. Hmm. In this church we have spoken about the tremendous difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. I want to show you a parable that Jesus spoke in this connection. Luke's gospel chapter 12 Luke 12 and Jesus speaks about a faithful and wise steward in verse 42 he was speaking about his second coming and we believe that is very near when I see of all the wicked evil things that's happening in the world today. Every day in the newspapers, the news is the same. It's murders, sexual sin, rapes and murders just like the days of Noah and Jesus said the last days will be like that. But in the midst of those last days, there was one upright man, Noah who made sure that his whole family was saved. That's Noah who made sure that all his children were involved in building the ark. That's Noah who trained his children to serve God. We need to do that. But we train our children from childhood to be part of the church and to build the church. Even if what they do is just arrange the chairs. That's how we start. That's Noah. There'll be in the last days in the midst of evil. There'll be a few families like Noah who have taught their children divine values and who stand for God without compromise, without changing the message. He never had many people in his church, only eight people, which was his family. The last days are going to be like that. And it says here in Luke 12 verse 33, be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit. I believe that's referring to our conscience. Keep your conscience clean, your lamps lit and be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. That's how we must be ready for the coming of the Lord. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes. On the alert against sin. In the world, they're on the alert to see some opportunities to make money. What land can I buy to invest in? What shares can I invest in the stock market? They're always on the alert, checking every day. I've got nothing against that. If that's the way that's your profession and that's the way you earn money, go ahead and do it. But we got to be much more alert to sin if you want to be ready for the coming of the Lord. If you're only alert to the things of the world, then we prove that this world is our home. And if you're alert when the master comes, he finds us like that. Listen to this. He will serve us. He will make us sit at a table and Jesus will come and serve us just like he served those disciples at the Last Supper. It's going to happen again. And you don't know when he comes. In the second watch, third watch, midnight blessed are those slaves. But be sure of one thing. If the head of the house knew what hour the thief was coming, then he would not, he'd be on the alert for a thief. Now Jesus is not a thief, but he's using an example of alertness. You to be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. I believe that, that Jesus will come at an hour that we do not expect. And Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us? Or is it all those unbelievers? And the Lord said, who is the faithful and wise steward? There are two things required in a steward, faithful and wise. Steward means, uh, as an employee, one who doesn't own anything. When you work in a shop or a company, you don't own the company. The company is owned by somebody else, but you're employed there. And that is how we are to be in relation to the Lord. We're not the owners of God's work here, but we are stewards. And there are two things required, faithfulness and wisdom. Faithful in the little things and the way we spend our time and the way we spend our money. Faithful in our speech, faithful and wise. Wisdom comes over a period of time. God gives wisdom to the humble. I'll tell you this. If you keep on humbling yourself, you'll grow in wisdom every week. Faithful and wise. The master will put him in charge of his servants. I believe there's a great need in our churches for the master to appoint certain brothers, say, I want to give you a responsibility to share my word. But if you're fit, you've got to be faithful and wise for a long period of time before he can commit that responsibility to you. Even in earthly companies, they test a person for a long time before they give a responsibility as a manager or a director or something. So the Lord says if somebody is faithful and wise, the master will put him in charge of his possessions. But you know what can happen with some people after they have been given some responsibility or they've been believers for some time, they become careless. And that's what the Lord is warning here against being careless after you've been very, very careful for some time. But that often happens with believers. They start out that time when they're born again, their Christian life with great zeal. And then the graph goes up, they're getting better and better. And then they begin to slacken off because they are surrounded by people who slacken off. I was in a church where hardly anybody was serious about the Christian life and that's the time the Lord gave me Hebrews 12 verse to look under Jesus and don't look at anybody else. If you look at it, if you find a godly man whom you can follow, like Paul who could say, follow me as I follow Christ, follow him. But most of the time we don't find such a godly man. Then we look at Jesus. So we always have somebody to look at, which they didn't have in the Old Testament. So what happened? Some slaves, they say, Oh, well, it's going to be a long time before Jesus comes back. And they begin to beat the slaves. How do you beat a slave? How do you beat a brother or sister? Gossip about them, speak evil about them behind their back. That's what it means to beat your fellow slaves and treat them badly. If you hear something nice about them, keep quiet about it. If you hear something bad about them, spread it. What's the difference between you and the world then? Beat their fellow slaves, judge them when it's not your business to judge them. Both men and women and drinking and get drunk is being taken up with the pleasures of this world. One is our attitude to other believers. The other is getting taken up with the pleasures and entertainment of this world. Entertainment has become the God of many Christians. They want entertainment on television. They want entertainment in the computer. They want entertainment in the church. Many churches are just places of entertainment where people go only for the music. I remember in the early days when we met as CFC for six years in my home, we had no instruments. We were like first century church, no organ, no guitar, nothing. Six years. You think instruments are so important for music? We, we lacked nothing. We had such a fantastic fellowship as family and we didn't have entertainment, no musical instruments. So don't ever think those things are important or if you have them, use them. I'm not against it. But if you think that musical instruments and music is the important part of a church, you got it all upside down. We never had it for six years because nobody was there who could play any instrument properly. So entertainment, you know, you can get drunk with these things. And the master of that slave comes suddenly when he doesn't expect him. Ask this question. Where's 41 Lord? Are you addressing this to us? Yes. Yes. The master of that slave comes suddenly and he will cut him in pieces. Peter says, Lord, are you addressing to this to us? Yes. He will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. In other words, he was not an unbeliever, but he will assign him with the unbelievers. I mean, if he was an unbeliever, he's already there. But this guy, what does this verse mean? I mean, use your be open and understand he will assign him a place with the unbelievers, which clearly means he was not an unbeliever and that slave who knew the master's will, that is new covenant Christians who understand the new covenant and did not get ready or act in accordance with God's will will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it like old covenant people, but committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive few. And here's the principle. Everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required and to whom they've entrusted much. That means they are given greater responsibilities and gifts. They will ask more. I mean, you, you know in an office that the company requires more from a manager than from a peon or a servant who works in that office. Why is that? Because they have committed more responsibility to a manager or CEO or something. So much is expected of them. It's like that. When you come to a church where the word of God is preached in its purity, the more you hear, the more responsibility you're getting. It's like a company giving you money every day. Take this and use this for the company. Take this and use this for the company. Boy, the more you get, the more responsibility you have. It's not yours. The company is giving you a hundred thousand, 200,000, 300,000, 1 million. Come on, use this for the company. That's how it is when we come Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and receive God's word to whom much is committed, much will be required. I'm scared for people who say, this is a good church where we hear good messages. I'd like to go there. Okay. But remember, if you come to this church, your responsibility before God is going to be 10 times more than if you go and sit in some other church. If you don't want to obey what you're hearing, I would strongly recommend that you stop coming here. You'll never hear any pastor or preacher or elder say, don't come to this church, but I will say that in your interest, if you're not interested in obeying what you hear, I would strongly recommend that you go to some other church. I recommend that because I love you because you're going to get so much, so much. You'll have to answer to God for so much. But as you sit in some other church, they hardly give you anything. You'll have to answer to God for very little. To whom more is given, more will be required. Don't ever forget that verse in your whole life. Luke 12 48 to whom more is given, more is required. Don't think it's a wonderful thing to be able to just listen to good messages and all these folks who listen to me on the internet and say, boy, brother Jack, we enjoy listening to you. That's good. You enjoy listening to me, but don't forget that you're accumulating knowledge, which increasing your responsibility. You're getting spiritual money from God. Every time you hear a good message, which is from the Holy spirit, it's like getting money from the Lord. Now a lot of useless preachers are not anointed by the spirit. You're not, they're not giving you money. They're giving you a trash. You're not responsible for it. That's like a garbage bin. You don't have to worry about it, but if you're getting money, you're answerable to the company. If you're getting spiritual truth anointed by the Holy spirit that speaks to your heart, I want to say to you in Jesus name, every single time you hear it, your responsibility increases. So don't ever listen to a message just to get entertained or like Herod listened to John the Baptist. Yeah, great message. Every single time you hear some more money dumped into your hands and God is keeping an account of it. That's why I believe that God will judge me 10 times more than anybody sitting here or more than 10 times perhaps because the Bible says one who teaches the word will be judged by a much higher standard, but I'm ready for that because I, my conscience is clear and I want you to remember that to whom more is given, more will be required. Keeping that in mind, I want you to turn with me to an important passage of scripture in Hebrews and chapter nine, Hebrews chapter nine. Uh, here is, it's contrasting the old covenant with the new covenant. I told you the slave who did not know the master's will and the slave who didn't know the master's will. We read that in Luke 12 just now, the world of difference in the way God is going to assess these two people in the old covenant are like the first slave who did not know we are like those who knew. So he says in the first covenant, Hebrews nine verse one, they had many regulations of divine worship and an earthly sanctuary. But verse 11 when Christ appeared as a high priest of good things to come, good things to come means it came on the day of Pentecost three and a half years after Jesus started his ministry, the good things to come. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle when Jesus died and rose up and 40 days later he went through into the perfect tabernacle, one which is not made with hands and he did not go with the blood of bulls and goats and cards, but with his own blood he entered into the most holy place which was blocked off by a veil throughout the old covenant in the temple. There was a thick veil where God was saying to people, you can't come here. This is in my presence. Uh, I'm too holy. Even the angels cover their faces when they come before me. You can't come into my presence. There's a thick veil. And you know, when Jesus died, he rented it. And it says here he obtained an eternal verse 12 redemption for us. And now is the contrast between the old and the new. If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling, uh, those who've been defiled sanctify for the external cleansing. I mean the old Testament cleansing was only external. How much more, listen to this verse, the new covenant, how much more the blood of Christ, you know what is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant? One example earlier on in chapter three, he says, it's like Moses and Jesus. Is there a difference between Moses and Jesus? Tremendous. That's the difference between old covenant and new covenant. Here's one more contrast. The blood of goats and the blood of Jesus Christ, that is the difference between old covenant standard of life and new covenant standard of life. Anything written in the old covenant, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. And all those things is compared to the new covenant is like the blood of goats compared to the blood of Jesus. It is so much higher. Please remember that. How much more will the blood of Christ who offered himself without blemish to God through the eternal spirit and there's some every verse, every word here is important. How did Jesus live for 33 and a half years on earth without committing a sin? I mean you and I know how it's difficult to live without sin even for 24 hours to have no sin in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive just for one day. It's tough. I mean people are really faithful, can manage it, but it's really tough. You got to be really watchful to spend a whole day without a single sinful thought tempted. Yes, maybe hundreds of times, but never yielding even once in our thoughts, never saying a word that is on Christ like never having a motive or an attitude towards someone that is on Christ like just for one day and Jesus lived 33 and a half years with a body like ours tempted like us. That's a greater miracle than raising Lazarus from the dead. Raising Lazarus from the dead was so easy. Lazarus come out over. You think that does that easy for Jesus to overcome sin? He says he prayed with loud crying and tears. That's how he overcame sin. That's not how he raised Lazarus from the dead. He didn't pray with loud crying and tears to get Lazarus out of the grave. A lot of people today are impressed by miracles. Wow, look at that healing. They don't have an understanding of what it is. The miracle of living without sin. What is the greatest miracle that Jesus did? I know he lived 33 and a half years without sinning in a body like mine, tempted like me. That's a million billion trillion times greater miracle than raising Lazarus from the dead. How did he offer himself without blemish to God? Here it says through the Holy Spirit. That's the secret. Even Jesus could not have offered himself without blemish to God without the power of the Holy Spirit that shows us he was like us. I mean, if he had come here in his person as a son of God, why does he need the Holy Spirit? He can keep himself pure on his own. But because he gave up that the privileges and became like us, he needed the power of the Holy Spirit every single moment. And at the end of it, he could present himself without spot to God. He could say, the Prince of the world comes against me, has come against me for 33 and a half years and finds nothing in me. He said that in John 14 verse 30, the devil tried, tried, tried, tried, tried. That shows us what the Holy Spirit can do for us. That is why in this church we keep emphasizing the importance of the Holy Spirit. It's very sad that many churches, particularly Pentecostal charismatic churches, there are believers there, but unfortunately they emphasize only when the fullness of the Holy Spirit in relation to speaking in tongues or healing. You can speak in tongues and heal the sick and go to hell. I was so, I've never been a member of a Pentecostal church, so I don't know much about it, but I'll tell you what I heard the other day from a man who was 85 years old who had been a believer for 57 years in a Pentecostal church. He died now. He'd been a believer for more than 57 years in a Pentecostal church, grew up there. He was one of the finest preachers of holiness in the Pentecostal church, died a few years ago. He said this, when he speaks, he's speaking with authority. He said 85% of people in pen, sitting in Pentecostal churches are not born again. How do you like that? If I say that, I say, I can't say it. I don't know. I've never been in a Pentecostal church, but imagine a man who spent 55 years in Pentecostal churches all over in different places, different countries, and who says 80, he says, his observation is 85% of people sitting in Pentecostal churches are not born again. They've not had a change of nature in their attitude to sin. And when I heard that, it made me think, Lord, what percentage of people in CFC are not born again? Who imagine that they are a lot of people sitting in those churches imagine that they are, but this man's hand is clear of their blood because he told them straight. If there is no change of nature, you're not born again. It says when you're a new creation, the old things are passed away and all things have become new. Second Corinthians five 17. So how much more will the blood of Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The cleansing of the conscience is what is important here. Turn earlier to verse nine in the old covenant, Hebrews nine, nine. The old covenant is only a symbol of what we have in the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered under the old covenant, which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. If you look up a concordance, you'll find that the word conscience is never found in the old Testament except once when it says David's conscience smote him when he cut off Saul's robe. That's it. But in the law given in Exodus numbers, Deuteronomy, there's no mention of conscience because the old Testament law could not make a man's conscience perfect. So when we speak like you see in the front of this pulpit, let's press on to perfection. We're not talking about perfection in health or wealth or even wisdom or perfection in holiness or perfection in love. Let's understand what it means. Perfect in conscience. That's all. All the other perfection will take years to accomplish, but perfect in conscience. The old covenant people could not become perfect in conscience, but verse 14, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience? This is very, very important. This is how we are ready for the coming of the Lord. It's very important. My dear brothers and sisters, your conscience is the voice of God inside you. It's very faint when we are, it's very sensitive when we are just newly born into the world. You've heard me say that the three year old boy, his conscience is very sensitive. When he tells a lie to his mother, you can see it on his face that he's telling a lie. You can just say, tell me, did you really do it? And he'll acknowledge, yeah, I'm sorry mom, I did it. Because he can't say a lie very strongly because his conscience is always shouting, that's a lie. That's a lie. But that same boy, with 15 years, by the time he's 18 years old or something, he can say, I never did that. Who said I did it? Of course I didn't do it. And the way he says it, you're so convinced. That is how much his conscience has died in 15 years. And some of us have grown up to 30, 40, 50, how perfectly we can tell lies now and do wrong things. And it doesn't even disturb our conscience. That is a sad condition. I call it leprosy. Leprosy. In case you don't know what one mark of leprosy is, you don't feel. Not just that touch doesn't feel, you put a nail there also, it doesn't feel. That's leprosy. And that's why in the Old Testament, leprosy is a picture of sin. And it's the details given in Leviticus 14 about the cleansing of a leper, the cleansing of a man of leprosy, the cleansing of his house of leprosy, sin in the personal life, sin in the family life, that's the meaning of leprosy in the house. And what is the mark of leprosy? You don't feel anything. And I mean, you can arrest the progress of leprosy now with modern medicines, but you can't restore that. If it's gone, it's gone. But that's the wonderful thing about the Gospel, that God can restore this leprous conscience, which had no sensation, which we have killed and killed and killed by telling lies and gossiping against others and doing so much harm to others in so many ways with our words and attitudes. And you know, if you have cheated other people of money, that I think of so many families where they cheat those who have a right to their father's property in the will, cheat them in some way and get it for themselves. It is, there'll be a curse on that money. I believe that. If any of you got money wrongfully, give it away, unless you want to pass on a curse to your children. You know, Gehazi, you read in 2nd Kings chapter 5, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, who had such a godly man as his master, went after that Naaman who's an unbeliever. And Elisha said, I will not take any money from you. Naaman was offended. We have offended people in CFC when we have told nominal Christians, sorry, we will not take your money. I myself have returned money orders to people that people sent to CFC. I'm sorry, we don't take it. Okay, if they get offended, they get offended. But Gehazi ran after that person and took the money and came back and pretended that he had got nothing because he thought nobody saw him. But Elisha was a man of God. I tell you, you can't fool a man of God. Not then, not today. He can see through you, through the Holy Spirit. And Elisha said, I know what happened, Gehazi. Is this the time to collect money? That's what he told him. You know what you got? You not only got Naaman's money, you got his leprosy. And your children have got his leprosy as well. Now, Gehazi didn't have any children right then. But later on, when he has children, imagine one day his eight-year-old son comes to him and says, Daddy, I can't feel anything on my hands. There's a patch here. Daddy, what is this? What did Daddy tell him? I got some unrighteous money, son, before you were born. And that curse has come down to you. My dear brothers and sisters, please don't have to say that to any of your children. I don't want a single cent or paisa in my account that does not righteously belong to me. There are pastors in many churches I know, who somebody gives them money for God's work and they take it for themselves. It brings leprosy. They build meeting halls in their own name so that their children will inherit it. If you don't believe it, go down to Kerala. Plenty of them is like that. Yes, using church money to build something in a property that belongs to them. There was someone in CFC down in Kerala who did it. He's not with us now. I told him straight, I'll never accept this. You don't realize people can hear the greatest truths and live like ordinary people in the world and think, Oh, I accepted Jesus, I'm going to go to heaven. And that's the lie I want to demolish out of your minds today. It's a very serious thing to kill your conscience. Turn with me to Acts of the Apostles chapter 24. I'll tell you honestly, I don't want a single person sitting here, adult or child, to go to hell. I don't want a single person here when Jesus comes back for Jesus saying, reject you, saying, I don't know you. I don't want any of our children to be lost. There's a song we sing in English saying, will the circle be unbroken by and by, by and by. Will the circle be unbroken? The meaning is, here's a family with father, mother, two or three children all holding hands together. It's a circle. Think of you and your family, father, mother, and children holding hands together and forming a circle. And Jesus comes up in heaven, and you try to form that circle up in heaven, and there's a gap in that circle. One of your children is missing. That's the meaning of that song. Will the circle be unbroken by and by, by and by. Don't think, like the slave said, yeah, my master is going to take a long time to come. It doesn't matter. If your children are unconverted, you should be weeping and fasting and praying before God, not saying, oh, it's a long time. Jesus will come. One day my children will get converted. When? 50 years from now? Take it seriously. I tell you that if one of my children not only converted, I wouldn't be happy if my child was just baptized. I want my children to follow Jesus. Because Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, John 10, 27, and they follow me and I give them eternal life. You've seen that sequence? Maybe you should turn there first. John 10, verse 27. I want this for myself. I want this for my children. John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow me. And therefore I give them eternal life. Is that true of you? Do you hear his voice? Do you hear his commandments? Hear means not just hear like this. When Jesus says, let him who has ears to hear, hear is meaning more than hearing here, but hearing inside, which means obedience. Hear my voice means they listen to me and they follow me and then I give them eternal life. I hope that is the basis on which all of you sitting here think you have eternal life, that you can boldly stand before Jesus and say, I hear your voice, Lord. Whatever I know in my conscience, I try to obey. And as far as I have light, I seek to follow you. Maybe you're in the kindergarten. Fine. Some other brothers may be in 8th standard, 10th standard. Don't worry. You're not being tested by their standard. In kindergarten, make sure you get 100%. Make sure you know at least 2 plus 2 is 4, not 5. God doesn't expect you to know more like other people. We progress. And God will never judge you by my standard. No, I have a higher standard. And some brothers here have got a higher standard than you. But according to your conscience, I hope you can say, Lord, I hear your voice and I follow you. That's why I know you have given me eternal life. And it says they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Do you know how the rest of the Christendom preaches this verse? Listen to me. All the rest of Christendom will not preach it like I preached it to you this morning. What they will tell you is, brothers, hear what Jesus says to you. I give you eternal life. You will never perish. No one will snatch you out of my hand. My father is greater than me and no one will snatch you out of his hand. Let's all shout a hallelujah. That's what they say over there. I say before you shout a hallelujah, please read verse 27. Who is that promise given? It's like you get a check for 100,000 rupees and get excited and suddenly realize it's not in your name. It's for somebody else. That's what people are going to discover when Christ comes again. Hey, I thought this was for me. No, it's not. See whose name it is. Whose name is in it? Give this money that is eternal life to whom? The one who hears my voice and follows me. If you qualify, the check is for you. Eternal life. These are the words of Jesus. I believe it. I want it for myself. I want it for my wife. I want it for all of my children. Not 75% of them. All of them. I want it for my grandchildren. I don't want them to be lost. We got a pretty big circle now. And I want every one of them to be there in God's kingdom. I hope you have that burden. Very, very important. Don't just be satisfied that you educated your children well and got them good jobs and married. Now you sit back and relax. You can't sit back and relax. We can't relax till Jesus comes again. Now we turn to Acts 24. Let's turn to Acts 24. Look what Paul says. He's speaking to people. He's talking to a king. He's been brought to a trial before a king called Felix. The Jews brought him in trial. And Paul is standing as a criminal in a court with a king sitting there as a judge. And he's telling them, they cannot accuse me of anything. Let's see verse 13. Can they prove the charges which they accuse me? But I admit that according to these Jewish people, what I'm following, what they call a cult. That's what some people call us. There were some brothers who were with us in Kerala who called us a cult. I say, okay, God bless you. I'm not here to judge you. But Jews called Paul and his group a cult. Okay. But I said, whatever cult is, is my cult, Paul says. And listen to me, this is so true of us. People who call us a cult or call me a cult leader, I say, what type of cult? I'll tell you. Just like Paul says. I admit that according to them, I'm a cult, but I'll tell you how it is. I serve God, believing everything written in the word of God. That's my cult. What they call a cult. Believing everything written in the Old Testament, it was law and prophets. In the New Testament, in New Covenant Ages, the New Testament also. I believe everything written in the word of God. And I also have a hope in God that there will definitely be two resurrections. The resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked. Not one resurrection. I believe with all my heart there'll be two resurrections. And because, verse 16, I want to be in the correct resurrection, which is the resurrection of the righteous. Do you know what I do? This is what they call me a cult for. I keep my conscience blameless before God and men always, 24 hours a day. Call it a cult if you like. Paul says that is a cult. You fellas call it a cult. That is what I believe. Everything written in the word of God. Not bits and pieces here and there. And because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, I watch my conscience. 24 hours a day, always means 24 hours a day. I'm sure you know that. I keep my conscience not only clear before God, but before men, 24 hours a day. You call that a cult? Call it what you like. When Christ comes again, you will see that these people who are called cults like this were the ones that were really godly people. And why do these other people call this man a cult or call us a cult? Because they don't like that standard that we preach. That you got to keep your conscience blameless always before God and men. That's how Paul lived. He once told a high priest in chapter 23, I've lived with a clear conscience before God till today. What a man. Why do you think God used Paul so greatly? How is it he could suffer so much harm and beating and all that? He had a clear conscience. I want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, have a clear conscience. If you want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, there will certainly be, verse 15, there will certainly be two resurrections. A resurrection of the righteous whom God calls righteous and those whom God calls wicked. And I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, Paul says, therefore, in view of this, I do my best. What a word. Say that, I do my best to keep my conscience absolutely without a blame before God and before men always. That means if I did something wrong at 10 o'clock in the morning, I don't wait till I go to bed to set it right, no. I cleanse it before 1001. That's what it means, always means that. If you get a thorn in your foot at 10 o'clock in the morning, when do you take it out? At night? Before 1001, you've taken it out. That's, we keep our body like that. Is it difficult to keep our conscience? I mean, people say, oh, how difficult it is, brother, to keep our conscience always. It's like saying, you mean I must take out a thorn from my foot every time it comes in? Can't I keep it for a little while? Enjoy it a little while? We heard, these are mad people. You mean I have to take a thorn out as soon as it gets in? Is it like that? Is it so difficult? When you love your body, it's not difficult. A man who's got leprosy, when a thorn goes into his hand, he doesn't even know it. He doesn't even know it. If you want to know how bad his leprosy is, let me tell you a true story. There are people with leprosy who go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning and find one of their toes missing because some rat came and ate it off. Never felt a thing because he had leprosy. That's why people with leprosy have to count their toes every morning to see if it's all there. That's how bad leprosy is, and it's a perfect picture of a bad conscience where something can be done there and you don't do anything about it. Take this matter of having a grudge against someone. I want to ask all of you sitting here. Have you got a grudge in your heart against a single person in the whole wide world? For whatever reason, maybe somebody cheated you of money, maybe somebody did some terrible harm against you which you say is unforgivable. I say it what you like. I want to tell you to your face, you got leprosy because you don't feel it. You sit in this church and hear the word for so long and you still got it? Even though you heard a word like Jesus said in Matthew 6, 15, if you don't forgive others, your father will not forgive you your sins. Now, if he had said God will not forgive you, then he's talking to unbelievers. When he says your father will not forgive you, he's talking to believers. If you don't forgive others, Matthew 6, 15, your father will not forgive your sins. You can say what you like. You can say you went to CFC for 30 years. Your father will not forgive your sins. Now, let me tell you another bit of news. Nobody can go to heaven without their sins forgiven. Supposing you die tonight when crossing the road, and you have died without having forgiven somebody. I can give you a guarantee that you'll go straight to hell. I don't have even 1% doubt of that in my mind because I believe the word of Jesus. He knows more about heaven and hell than you and me. I don't know. I'll honestly confess I don't know. But I know Jesus' standards for entering heaven. If you do not forgive other people their transgressions, but you say, Lord, that guy did something terrible against me. And the Lord said, do you know how terrible things you did to me? And I forgave you. That parable that Jesus said about a man who was forgiven 10,000 talents and he couldn't forgive someone a small amount. It's like somebody forgiving you 100 crores of rupees and you catch somebody by the throat who owes you 10 rupees. Something like that. And you know what we read in that parable in Matthew 18? The master put that 100 crore burden back on his head. He said, you got to pay up. Go in prison till you can pay up. Where is he going to pay up? He's in prison for life. It's a very serious thing. If you live in the world even for five years, five years, somebody has done some harm against you, definitely. All children, face it. Imagine if you've lived 25 years, 35, 40, like me, 75. How many people have done harm against us? Forgive them, forgive them. Every single one. Forgiveness doesn't mean fellowship. I'm not asking you to visit their home or no. Jesus forgave all the Pharisees on the cross, but he didn't visit their homes and seek fellowship with them. Fellowship is different from forgiveness. Fellowship depends on the other person's attitude towards God and towards me. But I must be at peace from my side. The Bible says, as much as lies in you, live at peace with all men. In other words, I'm not the quarrelsome guy. If that guy's a quarrelsome guy, I can't have peace with him. What to do? As far as I'm concerned, I've got nothing against anybody. Then people may say, Brother Zak, then why don't you visit some people? Because the Bible says, pursue peace with all men. And if you visit some homes, fight will start. So I don't visit such homes because I want to pursue peace with all men. Sure. Maybe if you visit homes of some of your relatives, there'll be a fight. Then pursue peace and don't visit them. But that's not because you've got something against them because you're following a word which says, pursue peace with all men. Dear brothers and sisters, keep your conscience clear In money matters, Zacchaeus said, Lord Jesus, I'm not fit for you to come into my house because I've done wrong things in my life. I've cheated people. I'm gonna give it back. It may take a long time for me to give it back. And Jesus said, salvation has come to this home today, not 10 years later when you're finished giving it all back today because, Zacchaeus, I can see your heart. Your heart is right. Even if it takes 10 years to return all that money, salvation has come today to you. Isn't that wonderful to know that? I don't have to wait till I've cleared all my debts. I remember once when I just got converted, one of the things the Lord told me was to give back things I had, money I had taken wrongfully. And it took me about four or five months to earn that much money. It was about three, four times my monthly salary I had to give back to the government. And I said, okay, I'll save it up. And one day I emptied my bank account and gave it back and my conscience was clear. Bank account was empty, but my conscience was full of the joy of the Lord. And I decided through the years, I remember once when I wrote a very stinking letter to someone and the Lord said, within a one week, the Lord said, apologize. This is way back, 50 years ago nearly. And I said, sure. I said, brother, I'm really sorry for the way I wrote. Please forgive me. Keep your conscience clear. Listen to the voice of the Lord. Go and ask forgiveness from those whom you have hurt. If the person's far away, write a letter. If the person's nearby, humble yourself. It's more humbling to go and face that person and say, I'm sorry. Don't take the easy route out of it by saying, I'll write a letter. And don't just take it lightly. People sometimes do a hundred wrong things and then just say, oh, I'm sorry. There must be a sorrow in your heart for what you did. And if you hurt that person or harmed him in some way, try your best to set it right. Prove that you mean what you say when you try to set things right with your conscience. And please, please, please don't waste your time gossiping about them. All the people who did harm to you to go to this person and that person and earn sympathy for yourself. Do you know what that person did to me? And brother, sister, do you know what this other person did to me? When are you going to finish with all that? I'll tell you what you should do. Go to people and say, do you know what Jesus did for me? Isn't that a better thing to talk about? And what this person did and that person did and the other person did. Let's change who we talk about. I'm going to tell you what Jesus did for me. And let's tell our children also what Jesus did for us. Let's bow in prayer. Let's bow before God. God is a good God, but He's a holy God. He wants us to partake of His holiness. He'll give us His Holy Spirit to help us when we have to set things right in our conscience. He doesn't ask you to do something without promising to help you. I guarantee in Jesus' name that any of you are finding it difficult to set something right, I promise you that God will help you through the Holy Spirit. Just go to Him and say, Lord, please give me grace to set this matter right. I don't know how to do it, but I want to do it. I want to do it with everybody I've wronged, like Zacchaeus. Your life will shoot up. Suddenly from first standard, you'll be jumping into 10th standard within a week. You want to get there? God's inviting you to come. Every message that you hear in this church is a voice from God that says, my son, my daughter, come up higher. Don't live at that low level anymore. Heavenly Father, help us, we pray. Your name be glorified through our lives. Thank you for all your good gifts to us. We pray that we shall honor you and everyone here. We don't want one person to be lost. We don't want anybody sitting here imagining that they're going to heaven when they're not. Imagining that they are your children and they are not. Imagining that they are born again when they are not. Help us, Lord, each one of us. We don't want anybody's blood to be on our hands. We pray for those whose children are lost. Lord, children who have grown up here, how much they have hurt. Please have mercy on them. We don't want any child grown up in CSU to be lost, but we know that we can't do that. We pray you'll give much grace and wisdom to the parents to fast and pray and seek and ensure that those children turn back and come into your kingdom. Hear us, we pray for them ourselves also. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So that's the end of the meeting. Charles will come and conclude the meeting. There's just something I want to say to the congregation here. It's a personal request. We are here very rarely, so we want to meet with people as far as possible during the Sundays that we are here. So those of you who already know me, there's no need to shake my hand. I acknowledge it. You've already shaken my hand. Don't have to shake it again. But I'd like to meet people who I've not met. Please give me a chance for that. And when you meet my wife, don't go for medical consultation. She wants fellowship just like everybody else. She's not running a medical consultation here. After 45 minutes after the meeting is over, then come for your medical consultations. You say, I can't wait that long. Then there are a thousand doctors in Bangalore. Please go there. But if you can wait 45 minutes, she'll help you. Because we also want fellowship. But so many people I find are so thoughtless in that area. It's selfishness. Just be a little unselfish. Give us an opportunity to meet others. God bless you all.