Being Ready for Christ's Return - Part 1

I'd first like to read a verse in Matthew chapter 16. In Matthew 16 it says in verse 3, the middle of that verse, do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky? But you cannot discern the signs of the times. So in that day, if they had studied the scriptures, they would have known that the coming of Christ was near because even the exact time was prophesied in the book of Daniel in chapter 9. And so they were the experts at knowing when it's going to rain, what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. And we are also like that. We read the newspaper and the news here and there, and we know what's happening in Ukraine and we know what's happening here and there, but we may not know the signs of the times in which we live. So let me turn to another verse in Matthew chapter 24. In Matthew 24 and look at verse 37. Matthew 24, 37, it says, the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And then suddenly the flood came and took them all away. It will be like that. Verse 40, when two men will be in the field, one will be taken, the other will be left. Two will be grinding at the mill and one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore, be on the alert for you don't know which day your Lord is coming. And if you turn to Genesis in chapter 6 and see something about the days of Noah for a moment. In the days of Noah, we read in Genesis in chapter 6 that the earth had become corrupt. Genesis 6 verse 5, it says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. This is very true today. With all the type of evil, not only wars, perverted sex, homosexual activity, transgender and all types of things that are going on today. And verse 5 says, the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth. And every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continued. We must be alert to these. We must not be like the Pharisees who are ignorant of what's happening in the times in which we live. Because the times in which we live are sort of very close to the coming of the Lord. And it's an amazing word. It says in verse 6, the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth. You know, here God is speaking like a man. God knows the future. He knew everything that was going to happen in Noah's time. But he's speaking in a human terms to the old covenant people did not understand like we know. And he was saying how it grieved his heart to see man like this. And we say we want to be in fellowship with the Lord. A wife must be in fellowship with her husband. And if you are in the bride of Jesus Christ, your heart should be in fellowship with the Lord's heart. If he is grieved, not angry, grieved at the condition of man's wickedness, you know that you're the bride of Christ with one test. Are you grieved also when you see what's happening in the world around? Or you say it doesn't bother me, I'm earning enough money in the Gulf, and I'm educating my children well, and they're going to get good jobs. That's all you're worried about. You're no different from all the other heathen who work in the Gulf. The difference between us and all the other heathen, our non-Christians or nominal Christians or worldly Christians should be the difference between light and darkness. When you come into a room, you know immediately whether there's light or darkness there. And my dear brothers and sisters, when people around you, your relatives, your unconverted relatives, and a lot of people in your place of work and elsewhere in the Gulf, when they see you and meet with you and talk with you, they must see that you are different from the average Christian. I felt that very strongly when I was working on the ships in the Navy. There were many nominal Christians, but I wanted people to see that I was different, not just from the non-Christians, I was different from the other Christians, because I believed God's word, and I was not ashamed of Christ, not ashamed to be a witness. And I would stand up for the truth, even if it meant I would lose my job. And two or three times, my senior officers really made life difficult for me because I said I would not do something unrighteous. There were many temptations. People in the Navy would do so many unrighteous things, write wrong statements, and especially in money matters. And I would say, sorry, sir, I'm a Christian, I can't do that. And once I was transferred, within half an hour, that's fine. But I remember those years when I was just 23 years old and 24 years old, and the Lord tested me to see, is this man fit to serve me? Not just does he know the Bible, but is he willing to stand up for me when others around are compromising and corrupt? And I want to ask you a straight question. If you believe the coming of the Lord is near, and you're going to stand before him at his judgment seat and give an account of every single thing you ever did, every single account you ever wrote in your office or in your home, and every single word you ever spoke, are you ready to meet the Lord and say, Lord, I'm ready right now. My account is clear. My life is clear. There's nothing I have not confessed, nothing I have done wrong that I have not said right. And wherever possible, I'm trying to make it known that I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. Not necessarily with words and preaching. I know you're not allowed to preach over there. But your life, Jesus didn't say, let your words be like the light. Matthew chapter 5, he said, let your light shine before men. And our light is the light. And I discovered that in the days when I worked with 200 unconverted people in a ship, not one born-again Christian there, I said, Lord, I'm going to let my life shine here. And because some of them would make fun of me and laugh at me, laugh about me behind my back, that's fine. They killed my Savior. What is the matter? I'm disturbed by somebody laughing at me. I'm not fit to be a disciple of Jesus. And I want to say to all of you, I want to challenge you, as if you believe that these days are like the days of Noah, let me read to you from Genesis chapter 6 again. It says here, the Lord was so breathed, verse 6, but then it says in verse 8, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. What did we read in Matthew 24? The last days will be like the days of Noah. That means the world will be like Noah. And the main sins in the time of Noah, if you read earlier on, was, first of all, sexual perverted, perverted sexual sin. It says here in verse, chapter 6, verse 1, that beautiful daughters were born to men. And verse 2, the sons of God is referring to the angels, the angels. Can the angels lust? I don't know fully, but when they possess a man, they do lust. They certainly, demons are the ones who provoke you to lust with your eyes and look at pretty women and look at pornography. Who do you think is tempting young men and even Christians to watch dirty movies and have pornography on their phone and laptop and all, and still sit in church as very holy people? That's demons, 100%. Those demons love it when you're watching pornography. And it says here, they looked at these beautiful daughters of men. Now they don't have any bodies. So these demons couldn't have sex directly with these women, but they possessed men in those days. And through those men, they would marry these women and many, many women. It says they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. And the demons got some secondhand pleasure through these men. That it is sexual sin, promoted corrupt sex. And that's exactly what we see in the world today. It's never in the history of man, in all the 6,000 years of man's history, it has never been so perverted. Sex has never been so perverted as in our time. And even in Noah's day, it was bad, but this is 10 times or a hundred times worse today because Noah's time, there was no internet. There was no news going around. There were no videos, sex videos and all that type of stuff. It's all there today. We're living in a very perverted age and the world will be like that. They'll be corrupt. It will get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. But if any one of you brothers sitting in a CFC church are looking at all these corrupt pictures, you should go and hang your head in shame and say, Lord, I'm ashamed to be a part of a CFC church. I'm claiming to be very holy and this is what I do in private. You may close your door and think nobody's watching. I tell you there are a hundred demons inside that closed room who are looking at you when you watch pornography. Steer clear of it. Hate it. You will not be able to have a satisfying, loving relationship with your wife if you watch all that rubbish. Why do I mention this? Because Jesus said, the last days will be like the days of Noah. Young men, old men, married men, they're all doing this type of stuff. And it's a time of rebellion and wickedness. It says in verse five, the wickedness of man was great. But praise God, it says here there was a man called Noah who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, verse eight. And do you want to be that man in whichever town you're living in, in your office? Do you want to be that man about whom the Holy Spirit can write this person and your name, found favor in the eyes of the Lord? I tell you that is a million times better than any good recommendation your boss can give you. I felt that. I said, I don't care what my bosses in the Navy ships and all would give me. I mean, my promotion in the Navy depended on what recommendation my commanding officer in the ship gave. But I said, Lord, if I have to compromise to get that good recommendation, I'm not going to do it. I don't want a good recommendation. I will remain as a lieutenant all my life and never be promoted. It's perfectly okay. Let the others become admirals around me, but I will remain a low rank because I stood up for Jesus Christ. Are you willing to suffer financial loss, loss of promotion, and loss of popularity, and loss of everything else because you stand up for Jesus Christ? It's very dangerous to live in a society where everybody is so wealthy like you are. It's not like living in some village in Kerala. You're living in one of the wealthiest places in the world where people glory in the fact that they don't pay tax. I know believers from CFC churches who go to other places, and I've heard them boast, oh, we don't pay any tax in the Gulf. Aha. When they consider marriage, they want to promote themselves like that. I was so ashamed that a CFC believer would ever talk like that. You may not say it, but it can be the back of your mind. You keep counting how much money you have, and that's fine, but make sure that you don't miss out when the Lord comes. It's wonderful to have all these Bible studies about the second coming of the Lord and know all about the signs and all that, but the important thing is to be ready. Let me turn back to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. It's good that Jesus told the Pharisees, you must know the signs of the times, and it's good for us also to know the signs of the times in which we live. Matthew 24, verse 6. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, and we hear plenty of that. Let's be, I mean, for the last so many years, we've heard it here, there, or everywhere. Make sure you're not frightened, but those things have to take place, but it is still not the end. Nation will rise against nation, verse 7, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes, and all these things are only the beginning. A new birth is going to take place of the earth. The earth is going to be changed, and Jesus compares it to a woman giving birth to a new baby, the new world, the new earth, the new heavens and the new earth, and, you know, a woman goes through a lot of pain before the baby is born, and it says all these problems that are happening on the earth are the birth pains of a new world that is going to be born, and then this hasn't happened yet, verse 9. They will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you. That's not happened to any of us in CFC churches so far, but we must be prepared for it, and some of our brothers in North India have already suffered that, being killed for the name of Christ, and you will be hated by every nation because of my name. It's not just that you won't be allowed to witness like there in the Gulf. You'll be hated. Right now, some of you may be quite popular in your place of work, but here it says you'll be hated by all nations, and when that happens, what's going to happen in verse 10? It says here, many will fall away. How do you feel it when you read that, that as we approach the end, many believers are going to fall away? You just read that and go to the next verse? I don't want to read that and go to the next verse. I don't want to pretend, oh, I'm so strong, I will not fall away. Well, you know what the Bible says, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. The humble person will take that warning of Jesus and say, Lord, I will not be able to stand if you don't keep me. I want to cling to you. I want to use everything that happens to me to draw me closer to you. I want to read the word and let it challenge me to cling to you just like the branch in the tree. Always the Lord gives me the picture of the branch in the tree in every situation because that is the most perfect example of faith that I have found personally in the words of Jesus. As the branch abides in the vine, or perhaps you're not very familiar with vines, in the tree, so you must remain in me. Why is that a picture of faith? Because that branch is helpless without the tree. Even if it's been in the tree with 50 years of experience of producing fruit, if it's cut off today, it is as useless as on the first day. It was in the tree. Experience doesn't help. 50 years of walking with the Lord and you can fall away today and have no more fruit in your life. So anybody who thinks, oh, I've been a believer quite a long time, so I'm pretty safe. You're not, brother. You're more in danger if you're proud of it. Or if you are one of those conceited, proud people who are always comparing yourselves with other people in your church and saying, I'm not as bad as them. How do your sisters feel? Do your sisters feel you're better than some of the other sisters? And you have thoughts that I'm not so bad as them and you speak evil about some of them and backbite against them because you're not so bad as them. I'll tell you, you're more in danger than those people. Remember in the prayer, the two people who prayed in the temple, the Pharisee said, I'm not so bad as that man over there. And the Bible says that other wicked man is the one whom God accepted, the Republican. And the Pharisee who thought he was better than the others, he got thrown out. And I believe that's really going to happen when Christ comes again. A lot of people who sit in churches and speak evil about others saying, I'm not as bad as them. I'm not very good. They're going to get a big surprise when Christ comes. So it's good for us to walk in humility. The Bible says in second Corinthians 10, I think it's verse 12, those who compare themselves with each other are foolish. It's a paraphrase, unwise, foolish. Anybody who compares himself with another believer, the Bible calls them in second Corinthians 10, a fool. I don't want to be a fool. I want to be wise. And one way of wisdom, there are many ways of wisdom. One way is don't compare yourself with other believers in your church or with other believers in other dead churches. Let them go their way. If you get the opportunity, witness to them, but don't compare yourself with them. Be thankful for God's mercy. There are many things. These are the words I say to the Lord. Luke's gospel and chapter 17, Luke's gospel and chapter 17. When you have done everything you have been told, how many of you have obeyed all the commands of Jesus? Have you tried to? I think some of us are really trying to obey all the commands of Jesus. I believe that if you have responded to the messages you've heard in the dark for many years from me and others, I'm sure you are one of those really trying to obey every command of Jesus. I thank God for that. Okay. Well then here is a word for you. Luke 17 and verse 10. See what it says. When you have done everything commanded, okay, maybe you think you've done everything God has commanded you according to the light you have. Great. If you have done everything you're commanded, what should you, you get a certificate then? What is the certificate you get from God? Say, we are unworthy servants. That's a certificate. And you don't get it until you obey everything the Lord has commanded. And if you haven't obeyed everything, then wait, you can't get that, even that certificate. Then your certificate is I'm a useless servant. But if you're obeying everything God has commanded, then you say, I'm an unworthy servant. I've been promoted from useless servant to unworthy servant because I've only done what I should have done. Dear brothers and sisters, I'm very thankful that very early in my life, I began to take God's word very seriously because I believed this is the only book that God has given on earth. That's why one of the first things, you know, I was born in an Orthodox Syrian Jacobite family. I was baptized as a baby when I was a few weeks old and I grew up there and I was not born again until I was 19 and a half. My father was born again. He never sent us to Jacobite church, but we went to a Sunday school in a brethren assembly. So I heard the gospel from a young age. Many times I said, Lord Jesus come into my heart, but I was never sure until one day when I was 19 and a half and I was sitting in the navel base in my room, I read the Bible in John 6, 37, Jesus saying, the one who comes to me, I will never cast out. And I said, Lord, I've come to you many times. And the Lord said, I never cast you out. That day, I got assurance of my salvation. 64 years ago, I dropped an anchor and my ship has never drifted in 64 years. I'm not saying I never failed. I made a lot of mistakes, but my ship, my assurance that God has accepted me, I've never lost that assurance. I was absolutely sure. You must be absolutely sure. But then after that, I began to take the Bible seriously. And I realized that in 19 and a half years, calling myself a nominal person, I had never read the Bible even once. Did I really believe that there's only one book on earth written by God? I would say yes. So why don't I read it? Oh, well, it's boring. Or I don't have time forever. Something else things to do. I've got to study for my exams. I've got to prepare for my job. Promotion in my job is very important. If I read the Bible or not, it's not so important. And you know what the result was in all those 19 and a half years? I was up and down and up and down and backslidden and good for nothing, useless to God. But when Christ came to my heart and I had that assurance and I began to take the Bible seriously, and I said, Lord, I believe there's only one book you have written. Imagine, dear sisters, or if you're, or your, your husband is away in a far country, and you haven't seen him for a long time, because he's working. And he sends you a long 10 page letter, which he's taken a long time to write. And you get that letter. And you read one sentence here and there, page one, page four, page six, a few sentences and leave it on the table for months on end. You say that you love your husband? No. I'd say you're an unfaithful wife. Your husband is working there so hard to send you money and take the trouble to write a 10 page letter. And you read only a few sentences here and there and page three and page five and page six. That's how people read the Bible. They don't read the whole thing. And yet they say, Oh, Jesus Christ is my bridegroom. Really? Well, he sent you a letter with 66 books in it. How much of you have you read? Don't ever say Jesus is your bridegroom again, until you read the Bible. The one letter that he sent from heaven. I'll tell you what I did. 1959. I got converted in July. Assurance of salvation. And in the next six months, six months, I was working. We had a very busy life in the naval base in Pochin. But I finished reading the whole Bible in six months. I just cut down a little bit of my sleep. That's all you got to do. Cut out half an hour of your sleep. You won't die if you cut out half an hour of your sleep. And say, Lord, I'm going to start tomorrow. And I'm going to finish the Bible in six months or less. Cut out a half an hour of your sleep. In fact, you'll be healthier if you cut out half an hour of your sleep and start reading the Bible. I didn't get sick. I was healthier. And at least I knew what it is. I didn't understand it all. But there began in my heart that day, a passion to know what is God speaking to man and what is God speaking to me. And if you don't listen to God's word, it's no use saying I'm ready for the coming of the Lord. I'm not ready for the coming of the Lord. Do you know the first words that Jesus spoke in his ministry? The first words Jesus spoke in his public ministry. It's important to know it. If I say it, you will know it. But those are the first words Jesus spoke. And that was in the temptation when Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread. He said, man shall not live, Matthew 4, 4. Man shall not live by bread alone, by food alone, but by every word. The important word there is every. Okay, if you're not sure of that, go to Matthew 4, verse 4. Some of you may not even know that verse. Matthew 4 and verse 4. Man shall not, absolute, shall not is a clear word, live on food alone. There are three things man, God has created desire in man. Food, sleep, sex. Okay, you have all three. That's not enough. You need every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 75% of the words, no. If you want to live, you must live by every single word that's proceeded from the mouth of God. And there you have it in print. Do you know that for 1,500 years nearly, Christians did not have a printed Bible? Printing was discovered only in the 1400s. I think the first printed Bible was printed around 1460 or something like that. So if you were living in the first 1,500 years of Christianity, you wouldn't have had a Bible. We're so privileged today to have the Bible. So in those days, Matthew 4, 4, how did they obey it? Every word, listen carefully, that proceeded from the mouth of God and they didn't have a Bible, but God was speaking to them every day in their conscience. So Matthew 4, 4 primarily refers to the conscience, even if you don't have a Bible. And when you have a Bible, then of course, you read the whole Bible and your conscience becomes more sensitive. But even if you don't have a Bible, like many of our poor sisters in the Tamil Nadu villages, I've met some of them who cannot read or write, but they've got a conscience. I'm talking about CFC believers today in some of our poor Tamil Nadu churches. I wish some of you would visit them. It would be a tremendous blessing if you don't just go to the rich people in Kerala and visit some of the poor believers in the Tamil Nadu churches. Spend three, four days of your holidays like that. It will really bless you. I encourage my children to do that. And I saw there sitting with those poor people. The Bible says very clearly, James chapter two, that God has called the poor people of the world rich in faith. Why not spend a little time with the poor people in the world who are rich in faith? I've been tremendously encouraged in my faith by going there. Yeah, I have to sacrifice something. Sure. I like to always be with my relatives, but if I love the Lord, I have to sacrifice some of that in order to be more effective for him. So conscience is very, very, very important. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God proceeds means present tense. That means it's God is speaking even now. It's not just in the past and he speaks to our conscience. And that's the only way to be ready for the coming of Christ. Because Jesus said, turn with me to Luke's gospel chapter 12. It says in verse 35, be dressed and in readiness and keep your lamps lit. Verse 34, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And verse 36, be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. I want to ask you whether you're in readiness like that. And you know, Jesus said that all that we speak comes out from our heart. And he said, every idle word that men speak, they will give an account on the day of judgment. That's something we have to be very, very careful about because when Christ comes again and he's going to set up a judgment seat, we're not just going to give a general test of whether we are born again or not. Everything we have done and everything we have spoken, how can God expose every single thing you've ever done and spoken? Let me show you that verse. Matthew chapter 12. Please, I don't know how many of you know this verse. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 36. Jesus said, I tell you, whenever Jesus said, I mean, everything is what he said, but when he emphasizes something, he knows that some people don't take it seriously. I tell you, every single careless word that people speak, believer or non-believer, they will give an account for it in the day of judgment. I'm absolutely convinced that 99.9% of believers don't believe that much. Because the way they speak carelessly, they speak so carelessly to their wives, to their husbands, they speak so carelessly to each other, they crack dirty jokes to get a reputation for humor, all kinds of things. Do you think they believe that every word they speak, they're going to give an account in the day of judgment? Definitely not. I mean, the way I hear believers speaking backbiting and speaking evil of others and all that, you should write Matthew 12, 37 on a little cardboard and put it up on your table. Matthew 12, 36. Print it out on a card and put it on your table and remind you every day, every careless word you speak today, you will give an account in the day of judgment. We need to be reminded, you know, because we are such forgetful people. You keep on reminding yourself, reminding yourself that it sticks in your mind. It's like the multiplication table. When we were in school, we were taught the multiplication table from 1 to 12. And even today, I remember it. You know, 12 ones are 12, 12 twos are 24 and so on. It's by the constant repetition that we know it. And if I keep this before me, constantly reminding myself, it'll stick to you. And then you'll become very careful in the way you speak to your wife. You'll be very careful in the way you speak to your husband. What will be the result of that? Your home will become like a little foretaste of heaven. And you know who'd be blessed? Your children. Your children would have grown up in heaven, in a heavenly atmosphere. And they'll go out and get married. And they will want to build a home like that themselves. See, I'm so happy as I visit the homes of my children today. It really thrills my heart. I brought up my four sons very strictly, using the rod where they needed discipline, very strict. And I don't regret it, because I see the result in all four of them today serving the Lord, building the church. And the thing that excites me is, I find them bringing up my 17 grandchildren in the same way. I'm just excited that families do it in different ways. For example, one family is getting their children every day to listen to this 10-minute daily devotions that is on CFC. Every morning, CFC puts out a daily devotion. It's only 10 minutes. Very little time, maximum 12, 13 minutes. I'm so happy that my grandchildren are listening to it. Every day, it will have an effect on them in the long term. What does it mean to bring up your children in the discipline of the Lord? Some of you have got grandchildren. Tell your children to bring them up in the discipline of the Lord from a very young age. The Lord does not have many faithful servants in the world. We want to increase that number. And God has raised up CFC churches so that we can increase the number of faithful disciples on earth. And my dear brothers and sisters, you are part of that. You have a responsibility to increase the number of faithful believers on this earth. Begin with your children. Teach them to read God's word. I was so happy many years ago when I saw in the front page of one of my sons, in the front page of that Bible he had written, he was just about 16 or 17 years old, completed reading the Bible today. Oh, I was so excited. The 16-year-old boy has completed reading the Bible. I gave him a Bible as a gift. It was a living Bible. It was easier to read. He wrote in the front of that, completed reading the Bible today. Please, please encourage your children to read the scriptures. And if they don't understand something, tell them to come to you and encourage them. And you start reading it yourself. Be an example. I remember another son of mine telling me many years later, he said, Dad, there's one thing I can never forget. In the years I was at home, you know, whenever we got up 10 years old, 11 years old, 12, 14, 13, we had to get up in the early morning to get ready to go to school. And I would come into the sitting room and I would see you sitting there with the Bible. Every day when I woke up. And he says, that image I can never forget in my mind. See, there are images that remain in the mind of our children. They see you, maybe reading the Bible. Maybe they see you kneeling in prayer. They see you. And that has such a powerful effect on them. More than all the sermons you preach to them. That will prepare them for the coming of Christ. So I'm talking about something practical. I pray that you will take these things very seriously. Let me turn to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians in chapter 4, it says, when the Lord comes and the trumpet of the Lord sounds, 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That is what we are looking forward to. We are not looking forward to death. I'm older than all of you. I'm 83 years old, but I'll tell you before God, I am not looking for death. I will not look for death even if I live to be 100 years old. The sky is my goal, not the grave. There's a song we sing like that. The sky, not the grave is our goal. So we should be as people who are waiting to be caught up. And when we are caught up, we stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And how is the Lord going to bring out every word that we spoke? Yeah, I thought about that. There's a little track that I wrote. You'll find it on the CFC website. It's called the videotape of our memory. It's only a two page track. You can read it sometime. The videotape of our memory. It's in one of the small articles there. So go to cfcindia.com, resources and books. Down there you'll find it. Anyway, and what I said there was in our memory, it's like a videotape. You know how a videotape, you switch it on and it's running all the time, recording everything, words spoken. But this memory videotape can even record our thoughts. It can record the attitudes we have towards other people. It can record any grudge or any good thought we have about people. Everything is being recorded in our memory. And you can't stop that tape. It's just recording all the time. From the day you were born, it's been recording good and bad and everything. Now there are a lot of bad things in all of our videotapes. Now foolishness, we have all sinned. But every sin that you honestly confess to the Lord, not where you blame other people, where you take the blame yourself. Confession means you take the blame yourself. You don't say he did that, therefore I did this. That's like children. He hit me, so I hit him. No, no, no. Just say I hit him. Never mind what he did. Take wherever you have honestly acknowledged and taken the blame yourself and said, Lord, I don't want to do that again. That is repentance. That part of your videotape is blotted out, blank. Thank God. All the evil parts in our videotape can be blotted out completely if you honestly take the blame. If you blame somebody else, it will not be blotted out. Anything wrong that you did in the past, which you blamed your wife or you blamed your husband for it or blamed some relative for it or your brother-in-law or mother-in-law, that will not be blotted out from your videotape. It will remain there. Confessing sin means you take the blame. Repentance means, Lord, I want to turn from what I did wrong. Forget about how my mother-in-law treated me or how my brother-in-law cheated me of the family inheritance. That's unimportant. What is my reaction? What did I say? What did I do? What did I think? What is my attitude? Did I wish evil for him? Did I forgive him? Then it's blotted out. And in the final day of judgment, all that the Lord has to do is press the rewind button in my memory and wish to go back to the day I was born. And then the Lord plays it. Now, this is actually going to happen because we've got all eternity before us. The Lord will play back that videotape for everybody to see right from the day you were born, every idle word you spoke. That's how it's going to come. He's not going to ask you what you spoke. He's not going to ask you anything. He's going to play it back. And then he'll ask you, what do you feel? Do you feel you reserve a reward or a judgment? You yourself can answer in that day when you see the videotape of your memory. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, but only if you repent, not if you confess. Repent and confess. The last message of the Lord to the church is not, I'm coming soon. It is Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. To five churches, the Lord says, repent, repent, repent, repent. That is the last message in the closing book of the Bible. Turn around from sin. One final word, 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is speaking here primarily in connection with the Lord's table. And it says here in connection with the Lord's table, that we must examine ourselves 1 Corinthians 11, 28, and then eat the bread and drink the cup. But it's good to do that every day, not just once a month. And verse 31, this is the verse I want to point out. We're talking about the final judgment. If we judge ourselves rightly today and every day in the final judgment, we will not be judged. But what a wonderful promise. I've taken that verse very seriously. And God is my witness. God is my witness that I judge myself every day and many times a day, because I want to be totally pure inwardly, not just to get a reward. I don't want any mansion in heaven or crown or any such thing. I just want to be close to Jesus for all eternity. The reason I want to be like this is not to get a reward, but out of gratitude for all that the Lord did for me. And I say, Lord, how much you suffered for my sin to be crucified and killed and face being forsaken by the Father for three hours on the cross. I don't want to take my sin lightly. I want to take my sin very seriously. That's how I keep myself ready for the coming of the Lord. And so I want to do what it says here. Judge myself rightly. Verse 28, examine myself not only at the breaking of bread, examine yourself every day. And if I judge myself rightly, let me read verse 31 again. If you judge yourself rightly, the important word there is rightly, without putting the blame on others in the final judgment, your judgment will be zero. Oh, what a promise. You mean when my turn comes, I stand before the Lord and the Lord says, there's nothing to judge you, Zach. You can go. You're free. You're blessed. Nothing to be judged in your entire life on earth. Can you believe it? I believe it. But it says there, you will not be judged if we judge ourselves rightly. That's why I judge myself every day. That doesn't make me miserable. People say, oh, if you judge yourself miserable, you'll be unhappy and gloomy. Not at all. I was unhappy and gloomy when I did not judge myself. I can say before God for the last so many years in my life, I'm never discouraged. I've never been discouraged for many years now. I don't live in self-condemnation since many years now. Before that, as a believer, I was full of discouragement and gloom and self-condemnation and all that. It's gone. Because of one habit, I decided to examine myself and judge myself every day. I recommend that to you. So when you hear about being ready for the coming of the Lord, don't just think of the wars and earthquakes and pandemics and all religious and science. Lord, I want to be ready. If I've spoken strongly, it's because I love you all. You're like my children. For many, many years, I've come there seeking to build you up in the faith, and I don't want to let you down. At the same time, I have a responsibility before God to make sure that I speak the truth. I know that every sermon I preached in my life, a lot of them are on YouTube, but I'll hear all of them when Christ comes back. And the Lord will ask me, when I spoke the truth, did I say anything to please anybody? Did I preach something to get money? Did I preach the truth? Did you live the truth before you preached the truth? I want to live like that. Many of you get the opportunity to share the word. Dear brothers, be faithful. Be faithful in your life and let your words come out of your life and speak and build up the body of Christ. There's a great need in all those places you live in, Dubai, Sharjah, Doha, Bahrain, Muscat, Saudi, every place. There's a need. There's a great need. There are many people all around you. Say, Lord, make me a light. Even if I cannot openly, boldly preach, let me be a light that I can draw people to you. God bless you all. Let us bow our heads in prayer. Please take a moment to think about what you have heard. And the stronger the word, the more God loves you. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. Or as another translation says, Lord, show me anything in my life that is making you sad. Show me anything in my life that is making you sad. I want to get rid of it. Make that a prayer every day of your life. I'm saying this as one who tries to live by that every day. God bless you all. Heavenly Father, I thank you for these very precious brothers and sisters in all these Gulf countries who've been such a tremendous support to all our CFC churches through the years. And I pray that above all, Lord, you protect them from the dangers of the love of money and the dangers of a comfortable life and many other dangers they face there. We pray that you save them from the dangers of taking an easy way through life, have them to really seriously examine themselves, judge themselves, and become purer and purer every day, that the churches in all these places will become stronger and more bright lights shining for you in those needy countries. Fill them with the Holy Spirit. Baptize them in the Holy Spirit and fire. Give them a hunger for that baptism in the Holy Spirit that will never stop until they are actually filled and the rivers of living water flow out from them. Help us, Lord, we pray. Bless the word. Let it remain in people's hearts and bring forth fruit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.