Being Prepared for Christ's Return - Part 1

Let's bow our heads in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to our hearts according to our need. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and acknowledge you, Lord Jesus, is present here in our midst this evening. You know the need of every one of us here. I pray that you will meet us according to our need. The Holy Spirit brood over us and speak to our hearts individually. Thank you, Father, for hearing us. We believe you will be glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. We have to think of the day, you know a lot of believers think of the day when Christ will return. It's a very exciting thing to think of the return of Jesus Christ to this earth to establish his kingdom. But we also need to think of what will happen in that day when we see him face to face. How do I know that I'm ready for his coming? It's not enough just to say I'm looking forward to it. I want to turn to 1 John and chapter 3 where it says that this is the proof that you are awaiting the coming of the Lord. Not just knowing in our mind that Jesus is returning, but it says here in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2, the last part, when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him just as he is. So it's a double hope that we have. We will see him as he is. Most people have only that one hope, but here it speaks of a double hope. We'll see him as he is, be like him, and here is the way we can know whether you really have this hope of Christ's coming. You know, just like faith can be a dead faith or a living faith, James says there's a lot of difference between dead faith and living faith. In the same way, the hope of our hope of seeing Christ can also be a dead hope or a living hope, and the only way to know which is living and which is dead is like this. In the case of faith, James says in chapter 2 that faith without works is dead. Only if faith produces works, it's alive. That's fairly well known. The faith which is only intellectual in the mind is a dead faith. If it produces works of repentance and obedience in our life, then it is living. In the same way, there's a dead hope and a living hope, and I don't think most Christians have ever thought about that. Here it says that if you really have this hope as a living hope, not as an intellectual fact, I mean, let's compare it with faith. What is dead faith? Dead faith is to know in my mind many things. The Bible is the Word of God. God is a trinity. Jesus came to earth. The Son of God died for the sins of the world, rose again, ascended to heaven. If you believe in Christ, your sins can be forgiven. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit. All these are facts, but as long as we don't experience it, it's dead. It's only when we experience the reality of it, and it produces change in our life, faith with works, then it is alive. In fact, James says that there's as much difference between dead faith and living faith as within a dead man and a living man. You see, a dead man can have ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two ears, and every part of his body, but the only thing he doesn't have is life. He doesn't have breath. So faith that does not produce works of obedience to God is a dead faith like that. In the same way, it speaks here of a living hope. A dead hope is just intellectual knowledge, and there are a lot of people who study about the tribulation that's coming, and the seven years of tribulation about the Antichrist, and they argue about what is the number 666, and many other facts about the future, and they look around in the world, and they talk about the mark of the beast, and so many things about various nations rising up in war, and that's all proof of the second coming. It's all there, but there is only one way that you can know your hope is not a dead hope, but a living hope, and that is, it says here in verse 3, everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure. So I told you that many people, there's only one side of the hope they have, and that is that Christ will come again, but the Bible says it's a double hope. It's like, and if you don't have the other part of that hope, it's not the real hope. That is, it's like a coin. If only one side of a coin is printed, or one side of a currency note is printed, the other side is blank, it's a counterfeit. So if you have a hope with one side printed, Christ is coming again, and the other side, we will be like him, not there. That's a dead hope. It's a counterfeit. We need to see 1 John 3, 3 very clearly. Two things, let me repeat. We will see him as he is, one side of the coin, the other side, we shall be like him. So if this is our hope, then it says we will purify ourselves just as he is pure. Our life's passion will be to purify ourselves. Now the Bible speaks about God cleansing us, and we cleansing ourselves. Both are needed. That's the correct balance. God cleanses us concerning our past life. I can never cleanse away my past life. We know that all our righteousness is like filthy rags, and any amount of good works I do cannot cleanse even one sin in my past life. God has to do it completely by himself. I don't touch that. That is through the death of Christ. That my past is taken care of. But then the Bible speaks in a number of places of our cleansing ourselves, and if my guess is right, I would say that perhaps 99% of Christians, believers in the world, never understand the distinction between God cleansing us and we cleansing ourselves. They think God does everything. Let me show you a scripture. What does it say here? He who has this hope purifies himself. He's not asking God to purify him. Of course, he needs God's help. We need God's help for everything in the Christian life, but the responsibility is his to purify himself, and that is how we prove my hope is not a dead hope. It's a living hope. Now, if I don't do that, whatever hope I say I have is a dead hope, and that's as useless as a dead faith. Nominal Christians, most of you, or if not all of you, are born again, so you know the difference between a nominal Christian and a born-again Christian. What is the difference? Is there anything you believe in the Bible which a denomination of Christianity, whether it's Roman Catholic or Baptist or Methodist or, you know, people are not born again. All of them would believe that there's a Trinity, the Bible is the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he came to die for the sins of the world. All these denominations believe it, but they are nominal Christians. The time came, you and I were like that too, but a time came in our life when we opened our life and let the Holy Spirit make these truths real in us, then we were born again, and you know the difference between a born-again Christian and one who's a nominal Christian is like the difference between a dead man and a living man. So that we understand. In the same way, there's a lot of difference between a dead hope and a living hope. He who has a living hope purifies himself, those are not my words, everyone, verse 3, anyone who claims to have this hope as a living hope, the proof is this, he will purify himself, and when does he stop purifying himself? When he reaches, it says in verse 3, the standard of purity of Jesus Christ. So in other words, he's constantly purifying himself till he reaches that standard. So if you are not doing that daily, I'm sorry to say your hope is a dead hope. You probably never knew that till today, but it's good to know it. Let me show you another verse where also it speaks about cleansing ourselves. In 2nd Corinthians, just like we read here in 1 John 3 3, we purify ourselves, I told you, God cleanses us from the past and in the present, we purify ourselves. Now 2nd Corinthians 7, verse 1, having these promises, what are the promises? In previous verses, I will be a father to you, 2nd Corinthians 6 18, and you'll be my sons and daughters, that's a tremendous honor. If you have these promises, now see what it says, let us cleanse ourselves. It's not God cleansing us, just like we read in 1 John 3 3, he who has this hope purifies himself. Let us cleanse ourselves. Have you ever tried to understand what does that mean to cleanse yourself? And what should you cleanse yourself from? From all defilement of the flesh and the spirit, and thus perfecting holiness in the fear of God. If your aim in life is only to go to heaven when you die, you don't need these verses, but if your aim in life is to please the Lord before you see him face to face, then this verse is a very important verse. Even the other one we read in 1 John 3, because when we see Jesus face to face, let me tell you what is going to happen and what you will feel like. In that day, you will understand the depth and greatness of his love for you, and how much he suffered in order to save you and me from our sin. I don't think we understand it fully. I think God has given me a little revelation of what he suffered, but we don't understand it fully. For many years as a young Christian, all I knew about Christ's suffering was the physical suffering. Every movie that I saw of Jesus, you know there are many movies about Christ, like Passion of the Christ and all, and when I see it, I weep, because you really see, look at the way they whipped him and hammered him and nailed him to the cross. I mean he had to die for my sins, but why did he have to be whipped and beaten? God could have saved him or saved all that, but God allowed all that, and when I see all that, I weep. I've done that from my youngest Christian age, but I found that after I wept and all that, it was passing, it was finished. A couple of days later, I'm still living for myself, just like before, still defeated by the same old sins I was defeated by even earlier. That's how it was for many years. So I found that all that temporary moving of our heart because of seeing the physical suffering of Christ doesn't produce a lasting change in our life. It's only temporary, and if you're honest, you'll have to say the same thing, that when you see that, you're moved temporarily, but as I meditated more much later in my Christian life, as I grew, and I said, Lord, I want to know more about what actually you suffered. You know, God doesn't show us more than you are eager to know. If you're satisfied with your current knowledge of the Lord, that's all you'll have. God wants us to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. The Bible says eternal life, John 17, 3, is to know God and Jesus Christ, and Paul told Timothy to lay hold of eternal life in 1 Timothy 6, 13 and 17. What does that mean? Timothy is about 45 years old, and Paul tells him to lay hold of eternal life. Is it just being born again? My guess is that the average Christian today does not know what it is to lay hold of eternal life. If you read that verse in 1 Timothy 6, how do you understand it, lay hold of eternal life? You say, I've already got it. Well, Timothy already had it. Why is Paul telling him to lay hold of it? That's because we think of eternal life as living forever, but Jesus defined eternal life as, John 17, 3, eternal life is to know God and to Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. So to lay hold of it is to get to know God and Jesus better and better and better. Just like the day a young lady is married to a man, he's her husband, but she doesn't know him. If they really live together happily, every year she'll get to know him better and better and better and better. That's how we are supposed to know Jesus, better and better and better and better and better. For example, if one week after marriage, somebody came to this newly married couple's house and asked the lady, the wife, the husband is not at home, and he asked her, here's a particular problem concerning this situation. What do you think your husband would do in this situation? What do you think we should do? Your husband should take a decision. Can you tell me what you think your husband is not here? Can you take a decision for him? She'd say, I don't know. I've been married just one week. I don't know what decision he'll take. But if they have lived together happily and known each other their ways of life, you meet that same wife 15 years later, and this man comes and asks, what do you think your husband will do in this situation? She'd say, I'll tell you what he'll do. Why? She has come to know him better and better and better, that she doesn't have to ring up her husband to find out what to do. She knows what he will do. That is an indication of a wife who has come to know her husband. That is eternal life. To know Jesus like that, John 17:3, that in the beginning when I'm converted, I don't know what is God's will. It's like I'm a new wife. What would Jesus do here? I don't know. But 15 years later, I should not say I don't know. There are believers who are not 15, 20 years, I don't know. Well, you should be knowing. Imagine a wife who's married for 15, 20 years and says, I don't know what my husband will do in this situation. Then that's not a good marriage. And that's not a good marriage you have with Jesus Christ if after 15, 20 years, you don't know what he would do. One of the things I discovered in my Christian life was that in my early days as a born again believer, in the early years, I would get some very specific answers from God. Even in my Bible reading. Clearly, what shall I do here, Lord? And I would get an answer. And sometimes those answers were very significant answers. You see, like I remember once, many years, that's long, long ago before I got married, more than 50 years ago. I had gone for a student camp way back, way up in Gujarat from my home in Vellore. And I was single those days. And this camp was for one week. And the day I landed in Ahmedabad, I got a telegram from my father saying, the doctors have diagnosed me with cancer. Please come home immediately, because they advised an immediate operation. My father was old, and I was the only child in the country, or I was the only older, mature, older one who was available. And I said, okay. But I had just arrived there for the camp, and the camp was for one week. So I began to seek the Lord and said, what shall I do? And I sought the Lord. And it was still about the 25th of October or something. And the camp was to go on for one week. So that particular day, my Bible reading was in Deuteronomy. And I read in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy chapter one, verse three, that on the first day of the 11th month, the 40th year, Moses spoke. And the Lord said, in verse six, you have stayed long enough, now turn and set your journey and go. Oh, so I said, okay. On the first day of the 11th month. So I said, okay, it's the 25th of October today. I will book my ticket back, not for tomorrow, but for the first of November. Now, I know the first day of the 11th month in Israel was something else, but for me, it was like that, first of November. And the camp was to finish on the second. I said, they can take care of it for one day. So I sent a telegram back. Those days, there were no phones and all telegram. I said, Dad, I'm going to come only on maybe third of November, because I'll start my journey from here on the first. I can't come earlier. So, you see, that was on the basis of something God specifically told me, not a voice from heaven. It was just my daily reading. And when I reached home in Velour, my dad said, since you were delayed by one week, you didn't come in time. So I sent the X-ray to another expert radiologist. And that person said, that was a wrong diagnosis. You don't have cancer. So you don't have to have an operation. And he never had an operation. He never had cancer in his whole life. And I said, wow, how thankful I am that for a small thing like that. I didn't just immediately rush back. But I prayed and said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And God would speak to me specifically. But as time went on, as I've grown in the Christian life, I find that God does not speak to me specifically like that now. Now when I want some guidance in something, and I look in my daily reading, I don't find anything. In fact, the next year after that, in 1968, when I was seeking God, in the same year actually, in 67, when I was seeking God about marriage, and there was this proposal for Annie, who's now my wife, God spoke to me specifically from the word of God and showed me that Annie was to be my wife. Now I'm not going to show you that verse. It's not important. I showed it to my wife. Her name was there. And I said, Lord, this is amazing. But now over the years, I find many times I'm seeking the Lord about something, and I read my daily portion, there's nothing there. And so as I grew, I found that I found less and less of this spectacular guidance. So I began to think, and now I know the answer, but I began to think, what does this mean? Does it mean that God's not speaking to me? Does it mean I'm backslidden or I don't hear God? Because I do hear God very clearly when I ask the Lord, what is the message I have to speak to your people? Very clearly in my heart. But I don't seem to get clear guidance. And then I got the answer one day from the Lord. The Lord said, when you're young, I have to tell you every little thing, every little step. That's because you're like a little child. Like you tell your children, brush your teeth, change your clothes, take a shower, go to bed, do your homework. But when you become 25 years old, you don't tell them, your son, brush your teeth, go to bed, take a shower. No, you don't tell 25-year-olds things like that. And so the Lord says, you're grown up. Why don't you tell your 25-year-old to brush his teeth and take a shower? Because he's doing it. He knows it himself. What to do? He doesn't need to consult dad and mom. Or be careful when you cross the street. 25-year-old doesn't need that. And so I was encouraged to know that when we grow spiritually, God doesn't have to speak so spectacularly. When God speaks like that to you, it's very often because you're still a child. So I'm not impressed by all these so-called prophets who say, God said this to me, and God said that to me. Yeah, God spoke to me like that when I was two years old. But I'm more than 50 in the Lord now. And he doesn't tell me to brush my teeth and take a shower now. I know what to do. And I know. So if you're experiencing something like that in your life, don't get discouraged. It just means you're growing up. I mean, if you're still doing the wrong things, for example, you have to tell a child, don't put that mud in your mouth. He doesn't know. Now you say, God doesn't tell me all that now. But you still put mud in your mouth at the age of 25. Then there's something wrong. What do I mean by putting mud in your mouth watching pornography? Do any of you watch it? You love to look at dirty pictures? It's exactly the same as a little two-year-old, not a little two-year-old, six-month-old putting mud in its mouth. No difference. But you're not six months old. You've been a believer for so long. God doesn't speak to you because you're a retarded 25-year-old. So as I grew in the Christian life, one other thing I wanted to know more was, Lord Jesus, show me more of how much you really suffered, not just the whipping and the thorns. That all really moves my heart. But two days later, I'm behaving just the same. I don't seem to take it seriously. So as I meditated on it, the Lord began to show me what he really suffered on the cross. And that, I discovered, was the cup which he prayed in Gethsemane, Oh, Father, take it away from me. That was not the whipping. No. He wasn't afraid of the whipping or the thorns or the nails. I'm sure Jesus would be willing to suffer that a thousand times for me. He loves me, or for you. But there was something else which was much worse than that, much worse than whipping and thorns on his head and nails. That's what I want to know. And I've had this passion. When I find something in Scripture that I don't know and it's written there, I want to know it. In science, all the great discoveries were made by people who asked questions. Like Isaac Newton, a great scientist, three, four hundred years ago, he saw an apple fall to the ground. He says, why does the apple fall to the ground? Most people don't even ask that question. Apples were falling to the ground for five thousand years and nobody bothered about it. But Isaac Newton said, I've got to find out why this apple is falling to the ground. And he discovered the law of gravity. Today we all know it. And discovered how gravity works in the universe, not just apples falling to the ground, but the moon pulling the tides in the sea, etc. So no discovery would ever have been made, even in science, if people didn't want to say, why does that happen? And so when you read the Scriptures, if you don't want to go in and say, why is it like that? Not only you will remain ignorant of the Scriptures, but you'll be ignorant of God. You won't know Jesus Christ. You won't be able to lay hold of eternal life. And then you won't purify yourself either. So I began to seek the Lord and I said, Lord, is that cup, Lord, which you were trying to avoid? I know it's not the cross, it's not the nails. Then the Lord showed me. There was one sentence, Jesus cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I've heard that from childhood. It's not something new. But there was certain, as I hungered and thirsted, I began to realize the truth. That as I began to seek God, because he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Hebrews 11, 6 says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So the Lord showed me a couple of things just in that verse. First of all, that that was the only time in his life that he ever called the Father God. He never spoke to his father as God. He was God. But when he spoke to his father, he always said, Father, Father, Father. That's how he prayed. Every single time, all through his life, for 33 and a half years, he never looked up and said, God, he always said, Father. But once in his life, he said, my God, my God, only for a short time. And then at the end of the cross, again, he switched back to Father. Father, I commend my spirit into your hand. That was the last word, and he was gone. So always it was Father, Father, Father, Father, and at the end it was Father. But in between, there was this period where he said, my God, my God. That's the first thing I discovered there. Do you know the reason? I'm sure you've read that, you've heard that for years. But the tragedy with so many Christians is that they study their chemistry books with intensity, they study mathematics with intensity, they want to know how to solve this problem and why does this happen like this. They go to the physics laboratory and the chemistry laboratory and search and find out why does this happen, and they learn such a lot. When they come to the Bible, they just read it. They don't ask themselves why. I want to teach all of you to study the Bible in a different way. When you see something there which is different from what normally happens, you say, why is it like that? Why is it like that? And the Lord showed me that that was the one time in his life when he was standing before his father as a judge. The father was a judge at that time. Till then, he was Father, Father, but now, because he was bearing sin in his body on the cross, he was standing before the judge of the universe who was punishing him for sin. My sin, your sin, punishing him. He was not standing before the father, he was standing before the judge of the universe. And what was the punishment the judge of the universe gave him for my sin and your sin? You're forsaken. So then I began trying to understand what does it mean to be forsaken? I was just meditating on one sentence, that's all. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It never happened throughout his life. He never called him God before, and he was never forsaken before. This is the only time he was forsaken. And as I meditated on it, I discovered that that is what hell is. Hell is not a geographical place, you know, a lake of fire. God uses all these pictures of a lake of fire, but it's a picture language. It's not real fire. It's a picture. Like Jesus said, there's going to be mansions in heaven, not real mansions. And what are you going to do with a 10-bedroom mansion in heaven? What do you do with it? I don't want it. Here on earth, God is using pictures to show what is valuable. So you see, for example, I'll show you, I'll prove to you why there's no real fire in hell. Do you remember the story where Jesus said about a rich man and Lazarus, his beggar, sitting at his door? And both of them died. And Lazarus went up to paradise, to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man, it says, went to hell. And what did the rich man say? Do you remember? I'm thirsty, my tongue, please send Lazarus to give me a little water. You think now when you hear that, when you read that, you think, does this rich man have a tongue? His tongue is in his body that was buried on the earth. It's his soul. The soul doesn't have a tongue. His body was buried on the earth and his tongue is there. And he's saying in hell, I want some water. You follow that? It's picture language to show you that the same intensity with which a body will burn in the fire, and you cry out in thirst, that is what the soul faces to a much greater degree when he's in hell, forsaken by God. It's worse than your body being burnt in the fire. And I saw that is what Jesus suffered on the cross, forsaken by God. And then I realized that what I had believed all my life, that Jesus' physical death was the punishment for my sin, was not really true. Because physical death is not the punishment for sin. I mean, you know, you have sinned. How is God going to punish you for your sin? Is it physical death? Just think of it. If it is physical death, then the moment you die, you say, Lord, I paid the price. I can go to heaven. Everybody dies physical death. They'll all go to heaven. Why shouldn't they? If physical death is the punishment for sin, everybody who dies has to go to heaven, because he's died. He's paid the price. And if that is what Jesus did on the cross, then I say, Lord, you don't have to die. I can die myself. You don't have to die in my place at all. So then I realized something, you know, as you meditate on scripture, the Lord begins to show you more and more of himself. And I saw that the punishment for my sin is spiritual death, not physical death. Physical death everybody has. And what is spiritual death? It is to be cut off from God, forsaken completely. It's something like you cut off the wire that brings electricity to this bulb. It's dark immediately. That's how it is to be cut off from God, from the life of God. You're cut off permanently. That is eternal hell, and it's a million times worse than being burnt in the fire, a million times worse than worms and all eating you. No, that's nothing compared to being forsaken by God. That's all picture language to show you how terrible it is to be forsaken by God, because if you just hear the word forsaken by God, you don't realize how bad it is. And so Jesus uses the picture of fire and worms and all types of things to show you how terrible it is. So that is what Jesus suffered on the cross, forsaken by God. That's what he experienced. So the next question that came to my mind was, as I meditated on it, but Lord, the punishment for my sin is not being forsaken by God for three hours. No, because that's all he was forsaken on the cross. Punishment for my sin is forsaken by God for eternity. Not for thousand million, ten million years, but eternal forsaken by God is the punishment for my sin. Lord, were you forsaken like that? And I discovered he was. And I discovered that human beings have to have eternity to experience eternal hell. But because Jesus was infinite, we are finite. Jesus is infinite. An infinite being can experience the eternity of hell in one second. It's a simple mathematical equation. Infinity into one second is equal to a finite being into eternity. So I understood something there. What Jesus experienced on the cross was what I would experience, and not I, all the billions of people together would experience for all eternity. If you can try and understand that, very difficult to understand. To all eternity, the equivalent of being burnt and eaten by worms, and whatever picture you get of being forsaken by God, and living with all the demons, and forever and ever and ever and ever, Jesus suffered that. It really opened my eyes to what the death on the cross was. And I said, Lord, it's amazing that you love me so much. And that that's what you were agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, I don't want to be forsaken by you. I mean, I've been with you in fellowship for all eternity. I don't want to be forsaken. I don't mind the whipping, and the cross, and the nails, and all that, but to be forsaken by God, I don't want it. And I was meditating on it in relation to myself. And I felt the Father would have said to Jesus, well, if you're not forsaken, Zach will go to hell. And then Jesus says, Zach will go to hell. Okay, then I'll go to the cross. You know, when I got that revelation, I'll tell you honestly, I wept, and I wept, and I wept. Because for the first time in my life, I understood what it meant when it says Jesus died for my sins. Till then, this is 16, 20 years after I'm born again. In all those 16, 20 years, all I thought of was the thorns, and the cross, and the nails, and the spear piercing, and the humiliation, and all that. I saw that was nothing compared to what He really experienced. What is the result? It moved me so tremendously. I mean, if you just weep, it's nothing. I think I wept more then than in any movie of the cross that I saw, because now I saw the reality of it. It moved me so much. You know, it says we love Him because He first loved us in 1 John 4. It brought such a spontaneous response of love in my heart to the Lord, that I said, Lord, never again will I live for anything else but for this. This is the greatest truth in the universe, that Jesus loved me, and loved humanity enough to die for them. Most people haven't understood even one percent of it. Even a lot of Christians haven't understood one percent of it, that this is what He suffered for my sin. This is what He suffered for my getting angry with my wife, my lusting in the mind, for all the bitterness, and complaining, and grumbling, and not forgiving others, and name it, every type of sin. This is what He suffered. I said, Lord, I want to finish with sin in my life. It brought into me such a hatred for sin, which was the first step to a life of victory, and that's how God led me to a victorious life. It began with His revealing His love for me in such a deep way, and the fulfillment of that verse, we love Him because He first loved us. So I was saying that when Christ comes again, and we see Him face to face, the thing that will hit us more than anything else, and I will explain a little bit to you, I believe that in that day, I will see much more of what He suffered, and the depth of His love, not the physical suffering, but the spiritual, and you will be so moved by it, and you'll say, Lord, I never knew that you love me so much, and then you will look at your life. I never knew, Lord, that you suffered so much because of my sin, and then you look at your life on earth, and you'll see how casually you took sin, so many sins. He was so casual. You say, oh, the blood of Jesus will cleanse me. It doesn't matter if I sin, the blood of Jesus will cleanse me. It has become such a trivial thing to many people. Why is it? They haven't seen what depth of suffering Jesus had to go through to get our sin forgiven. I've seen what I've told you is just a little bit. I have laid hold of eternal life. I've come to know Jesus, and once I understood that, I said, Lord, it took me so many years after I was born again to know this, how much more there must be in Scripture, which you want to teach me. I want to know it, and that has been my passion through the years. It has made my Christian life richer. It's made it much easier for me to forgive other people who harm me. Do you find it difficult to forgive somebody who harms you? I'll tell you why. Listen to me, because you haven't seen the love of Jesus. I can tell you to your face, if you find it difficult to forgive somebody, it's because you have not seen the love of Jesus Christ. If you have a bitterness against somebody in your heart right now, against anyone, you haven't seen the love of Jesus Christ. If you're still worried about material possessions, and you're happy when you get material possessions, and unhappy when you lose some material possessions, I can tell you to your face, you haven't seen the love of Jesus Christ. It's really true, what we sing in that song. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And the way I picture it is, you know, when you show something on a screen, and when it's focused, it's very sharp, but you change the focus, and it becomes dim and fuzzy, and you can't even make out what it is. If it's words, the words can't be read. If it's a picture of somebody, you can't see the pictures, it all becomes fuzzy. That's the meaning of the things of earth will grow strangely dim. You know, when we are not close to the Lord, and we haven't seen the love of God, everything in the world is clearly focused. I see money, clear. Sexual pleasure, clear. Honor in the world, clear. And then I turn my eyes to Jesus, and see him more clearly like I was just explaining, and all these things become dim. They're not so focused, and when they're not so focused, you don't run after them. It doesn't disturb you if somebody takes it. You don't get excited when you get more money, and you're not depressed when you lose some of it. You're not running after honor or position in the church, or in the world, or anywhere. You're not excited if people praise you. You know that it costs nothing, it's worth nothing. You're not depressed if people call you a devil. Nothing, because it's all out of focus. The things of earth have become strangely dim, because you have seen Jesus Christ. This is the man, the woman, who's ready for the second coming of Christ. Are you ready? This is so important, dear brothers and sisters. If you take what I say seriously, I can guarantee one thing. You will not feel, you'll not have any regret when you see Jesus face to face. You know how we look back over our life, even now, before Christ has come, we look back over our life. I'm sure we all have regrets about many foolish things we did. Maybe you have a regret about the way you brought up your children, that you could have done it better, and that's why your children suffered, or came to some loss, because you didn't take it seriously. Or other things like that, certain things you did in your past life, you say, oh I wish I hadn't done that, I wish I hadn't done that, the regrets. But all those regrets are nothing compared to the regret you'll have when you see Jesus face to face, and you look back over your life, and see how carelessly you took sin in your life, and you see what a price he paid to take away your sin. It wasn't just a light thing, and this is something which I don't think I can explain to you. When I try to talk about this subject, I'm pretty helpless. I say, Lord, if I try my best, I cannot explain it. It's a mystery. It's only the Holy Spirit can make clear to you, you know, you see something in your heart, and you say, ah, I got it now. I pray that you will have a moment like that in your life, what they call an aha moment, at last I saw it. I've seen many people who hear this message, it doesn't make any difference, they haven't seen it. But if they meditate on it, they'll see it, and I guarantee that you meditate on what you heard just now, and go to God alone, and ask him to show you, Lord, I want to see this more clearly. I want to see more clearly what you went through on the cross, only for this reason, not so that you can get and preach it somewhere. I did not ask God for this revelation to go and preach it somewhere. That is selfish and honor-seeking, even in the most holy things, we go seeking our honor. Preachers like that, they hear something, you know, one of my YouTube messages, they hear something, and instead of challenging their heart and convicting their heart, they say, oh, that's a good point for me to preach somewhere in my next sermon. Can you imagine anything more selfish, self-centered, and seeking one's own honor? They're not seeking to apply it to their life. I'm not against people preaching my sermons, not at all. I say, do go ahead and preach it, but I always say, please, in your own interest, live it first, then go and preach it. Let it work in your own life first, then go and preach it all over the world. I want what I preach to be spread all over the world. But if you don't live it, you're just seeking honor. And there's a lot of honor-seeking among preachers to say something and to give people the impression that you had such a great revelation from Scripture. You didn't get it. You just borrowed it from somebody else. Honor-seeking. That's why people don't grow spiritually. That's why after so many years, they're in the same level. They're in first standard, first standard, first standard, year after year after year, because they're honor-seeking. So what I want to ask you to do is ask God to give you a little revelation on this. And when you see it, you will love him more. So when the day comes when we see him face to face, we will have a lot of regret if we did not cleanse ourselves. Like it says in, he read that verse, from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of God. So that is the second verse I showed you in 2 Corinthians 7:1, where we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. I showed you 1 John 3:3, we purify ourselves. 2 Corinthians 7:1, we cleanse ourselves. Another verse is 2 Timothy 2. Here it is speaking about how we can become a useful vessel for God to use, a useful servant of God. God wants all of us to serve him. We are sons and daughters. We are not paid workers. We are sons and daughters working in the Father's business. You know, we have, there's a street in Bangalore called Commercial Street with many shops owned by businessmen. And they employ workers in those stores, in those shops, to sell things, etc. But say in one of those stores, the owner's son is also working there, along with all the others. There are stores like that where the owner's son and daughter are also working along with all the other workers in that store. All the others work for a salary in that store, in that shop. The son and daughter get no salary. But they work harder than all the others because they are partners with their dad. They're not looking for a salary. The other workers all go home. Okay, it's 8.30, now time for me to go home because they work there till late. But the son and daughter don't look at their watch. They say, after all the workers have gone home, we've got to now write up the accounts and total up everything and see that all the stock is all here. They may go home at 11 o'clock and they don't get any overtime pay because they are sons. The others are workers. God's work is also like that. There are sons and there are servants who are workers. The son also works, but he's not a servant. And many so-called Christian workers are servants. They're not sons. They're doing God's work. You look at these workers working in this shop, they're doing a good work. They're selling goods and showing customers the price of this and selling it. But they're not like the sons. The son sits there and he's not looking at his watch. He's not thinking of, will my dad give me overtime pay? He wants nothing. He's just delighted that he can prosper the work of his father. You know, that's how these big business houses in India, you find in India, there are some big business houses that belong to certain families. And they train their sons, whether it's Birla or Ambani or Tata, you know, train their sons to take over this work. Those sons don't bother about pay. They are partners in the work. That's what Jesus said when he was 12 years old to his Joseph and Mary. Didn't you know that I must be about my father's business? He was not a servant. At the age of 12, his mind was on my father's business. That is a true son. And I often thought of it like this, you know, if a father goes on a long foreign trip and comes home, as soon as he comes home, the four-year-old and the five-year-old will open the suitcase and say, Daddy, any chocolates for us? Any toys? That's what the little children are. The 25-year-old son will say, Dad, how was business? Have you got something? Have you made some expansion in our business? God's children are also like that. The little children are always saying, Lord, what is there for me now? What are you going to do for me next? Is there something for me, some chocolate, some toy? And then there are those who are sons who say, Lord, how's your work going? I want to know more about your work in the world. I want to know more about your work in India. How is it going? Are the believers getting strengthened? How is it going? How is it burdened? Or even in your own church, how is it going? There are some people, their only prayer to God is a big shopping list. Lord, I want this, this, this, this, this. Amen. Those are servants. One day when we see the Lord face to face, we will wish that we had served God in a better way. You turn with me to 2 Timothy in chapter 2. Here it speaks about how we can be an effective servant. A son, the spirit of a son, how we can serve God. 2 Timothy in chapter 2, and he compares it to two types of vessels in a house. There are vessels of gold, 2 Timothy 2:20. In a large house, there are vessels of gold and silver. And then there are also vessels, you know, packing cases of wood and earthen pots. Supposing you have a house where there are big packing cases made of wood and earthen pots. And then in a cupboard you have behind the glass, you have gold and silver vessels. If you find your house on fire, which vessels are you going to grab first? You're not going to catch those packing cases and earthen pots. You'll go for the gold and silver vessels. Those are the valuable ones. It says there that in God's house also, there are different type of vessels. Some are, it's not how big they are. Packing case is much bigger than a golden vessel. But a golden vessel has got a lot more value. And it says here, there are these big vessels of wood and earthenware and small vessels of gold and silver. If a man, verse 21, if a man cleanses himself, it's the same phrase. He who has this hope of Christ's coming will purify himself. Or 2 Corinthians 7, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The man cleanses himself, he will become a useful vessel, sanctified, useful to the master, and prepared for every good work. That means you will no longer be just like a packing case. Packing cases are also useful, but a golden vessel has got a lot more value. And if you want to be a valuable vessel to God, it says you've got to cleanse yourself. And therefore, he says, flee youthful lust, etc. So what I wanted to show you in all these verses is that there is a cleansing that God gives through the blood of Jesus Christ from our past life, but there is a cleansing we have to do ourselves. In all these verses I showed you, based on our understanding of how much Jesus loved us and what he suffered to free us from sin. And the more we understand that, the more we will really want to cleanse ourselves, purify ourselves, get rid of all the filthiness, the flesh and spirit, and we will be useful, as it says here, for every good work that our Heavenly Father has for us. I hope this will challenge all of you to seek the Lord more and say, Lord, help me to know more of your great love for me, because then I will spontaneously love you in return. We love him because he first loved us. There are two ways in which our love for Christ increases. One, the more you understand his love, spontaneously, you don't have to make an effort, spontaneously. I'll tell you honestly, I do not, I'm telling you the truth before God, I do not have to make an effort to love Jesus Christ, not at all, because I meditate on his love every day. From the time I get up I want to meditate on God's love in the midst of all my other work. And the more I understand that, the more love comes automatically. I don't have to struggle to love him. So when it says that in the last days the love of many will become cold, it's becoming cold because they don't meditate on his love, number one. The second way in which our love can increase, you remember what Jesus said when a woman washed his feet? And Simon the Pharisee said, oh, how is the master allowing this woman to wash his feet? And Jesus said, she has been forgiven much, so she loves much. Simon, you've been forgiven very little, that's why you think you've been forgiven little. He who is forgiven much, loves much. He who is forgiven little, loves little. The meaning is, there is nobody in the world who has been forgiven little. Do you think you've been forgiven little? Everybody's been forgiven much, but some people are aware that they've been forgiven much, others are not aware. They think, oh, I've been just forgiven a little bit. How do you know that some person feels he's been forgiven a little bit? Because he loves the Lord very little. If you love the Lord very little, you're one of those who think, I've been forgiven only very little, that's why I love the Lord little. And you see somebody, another person who loves the Lord fervently, that's the person who's probably sinned less than you, but he's aware of how much he's been forgiven. He loves the Lord much. He who is forgiven much, loves much. And I'll tell you something, dear brothers and sisters, in the final day, it's not how many meetings you went to, but how much you love the Lord, that'll matter. Let's pray. Our Father, please apply these truths to our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name.