Preserving God's Standards - Part 4

But like a coin, it's got two sides. And the other side is Matthew 28, which is also words that Jesus spoke, probably on another occasion before he went up to heaven. Matthew 28, it says, the last three verses, is after his resurrection, before he ascended to heaven, Jesus came and spoke to them. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Again he talks about going into all the world. Going to all the nations, which is all the world. But this time, he doesn't say preach the gospel. This time he says, make disciples. A disciple is a learner and a follower. A disciple is one who sits at the feet of his master and says, Master, teach me. And show me how I can live like you live. That's a disciple, who's doing it all the time. Teach me, Master, every day, how I should live. And help me to live that way. Let me follow your example. Go and make disciples all over the world. And then baptize them. That's of course mentioned in both places. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And here, the emphasis is not on speaking in tongues and healing the sick and not being harmed by serpents, like we read in Mark 16. That is when you do evangelism, you see all that. Here, when you make disciples, the emphasis is on teach them after you make these disciples. There may be only ten in a particular town. Fine. Teach those ten people what? Verse 20. Every single thing I commanded you, teach them to do it. Now, I want to ask you a little question in English. I think all you guys are pretty good in English. Can you tell me the difference if I read it like this? Please watch. Teach them all I commanded you and teach them to do all I commanded you. What's the difference? Yes, obedience. But I think more than that, an example. Not just teach them. Teach them to do. When I was in the military academy, I learned sailing. Sailing a boat out on the seas with just two people. And then I had to teach other people how to sail. You could never do it on a blackboard. I had to get into that boat and ask that other young fellow, come with me, I'll teach you how to sail this boat. No matter which direction the wind is, I'll take you from here to there. So, there's a difference between teaching them and teaching them to do. One is just saying, this is what the Lord told us to do. And the other is, here's how to do it. And what are we to teach others? Every single thing that Jesus commanded. And if you want to teach other people to do every single thing that Jesus commanded, you've got to experience it yourself first. So, coming back to what I said earlier about two sides of this great commission. Both are equally important. I don't say one is more important than the other. In fact, one leads on to the other. It's like having children, that's easy. But bringing up children in God-fearing ways, boy, that's not easy. To become a father, easy. To be a good father, so it's like that. Mark 16 is, be a father, become a father, produce spiritual children, bring them to Christ. Matthew 28 is, now be a good father, bring them up to follow me. That's tough. So, what is human tendency? When you have an easy job and a tough job, which is the one you choose? So, if God gives us two jobs, one easy, one is tough, what will most people choose? The easy one. And that's why 95% of Christendom concentrates on evangelism. Accept Christ, sign the decision card, raise your hand, okay, baptize him, come, you're a member of the church, let's go and find the next fellow. I don't despise it. I believe it's very important. But, it's like having children. You can have 10 children, all wayward, godless, it's better to have one child, who's God-fearing. So, the Lord's interested in disciples. He's not interested in just more and more children coming into his family. But, look what he says, make them disciples, and not only make them disciples, teach them to do every single thing I commanded. Let me just tell you some of the things Jesus commanded. Not to lust with your eyes after any woman. Do you think Christendom is filled with people who don't lust with their eyes after women? Do you really think so? Don't fool yourself. Not to love money. Do you think churches are filled with people who don't love money? Quite the opposite, actually. Jesus said, don't get angry. That's in Matthew 5. Do you think churches are filled with people who have overcome anger? Forgive everybody. Do you think churches are filled with people who have forgiven everybody? I'm just taking a few samples. Never be anxious. Do you think churches are filled with believers who are never anxious? Rejoice always. Do you think churches are filled with people who rejoice all the time? Maybe two hours on Sunday morning. That's different. What I'm saying is, why is it that all these commands of Jesus, you find hardly anybody who obeys even one of them? Leave alone all of them. When you hear of a school where a hundred students wrote the final examination, 99 of them failed. Do you blame the students or the teachers? If you know nothing about either. I say, I blame the teachers. I mean, it's rare to find a good school where 99% of people fail. It must be the teachers. It must be some corporation school where the teachers don't come regularly or something like that. So it's like that. When you see 95% of Christians are not like this, I don't blame those Christians. I blame their leaders. I blame the teachers who haven't taught them. I've been to so many churches. I'll tell you, I hardly ever heard a message on not lusting with your eyes. Hardly ever in my 47 years of my Christian life. I hardly ever heard a message on never loving money. I hardly ever heard a message on totally overcoming anger and never shouting at your wife or anybody else. Never once. I never heard a message on being totally free from anxiety and bitterness and gossiping and backbiting. Hardly ever. I mean, I heard a message on we got to reach the lost, brother. I agree there. But is that all the Bible says? When Jesus said, teach them to do every single thing I commanded you. We just concentrate on one subject. It's like a school which has only history. We only teach history in the school. Kindergarten to 10th standard. You think they're all going to pass ICSE? History is very important. I agree. But I would never send my child to a school that only teaches history. Hey man, there are lots of other subjects. We got maths and physics and biology and chemistry. No, no, no. We believe in history. Great. You run your school. I'm not going to send my child to your school. That's the problem. Hey, we got to reach the lost. I believe that. I believe with all my heart. I'm not against history and I'm not against evangelism. But I say a church, a school which is only teaching history needs a few teachers teaching other subjects. And so you stack a school with 95% of the teachers teaching history, it's going to be a very imbalanced school. And that's the problem with Christendom. And that's why Christendom has drifted. Because when you major on quantity, more and more and more people coming in, you sacrifice quality. I'm all for quality. I wish all of India were converted. But I know they will not be converted. You know why? Because Jesus said. Because I believe the word of Jesus. The way to life is narrow. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 14. And very few find it. Do you believe that? I believe it with all my heart. Very few find it. Millions may hear about it. Millions may even understand it. But actually finding it, very few. And because I believe the word of Jesus, I say what may sound like a very unpopular thing. All of India is not going to be converted. That may not be popular, but it's realistic.