When Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16:15, "Who do you say that I am?", Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said, "Simon, you are blessed because My Father has revealed this to you." Peter did not understand this truth through human teaching or his own cleverness. God the Father gave him a supernatural revelation as to who Christ was.

And then Jesus said that it would be on this rock that He would build His church (verse 18). The rock is Christ known by revelation from God. The church is not built on an intellectual knowledge of Christ that comes through study of the Bible, but on a revelation given by the Holy Spirit through his Word. The true church can be built only on such a revelation.

“Revelation” is a word that is never found in the Old Testament. There, the words used are “knowledge” and “understanding”. The sad thing is that many people are trying to build the church today through an intellectual knowledge and understanding of the Bible. And that is the cause of the confusion and chaos in many churches. The true church of Jesus Christ can be built only on the basis of a revelation given by the Holy Spirit. So, we must seek for that revelation if we want to build Christ’s church.

The church that the Lord builds may be small in number and may not have many clever people in it; and the preaching and singing in it may not be very impressive. But it will be a church that overcomes Satan and all the forces of evil. Jesus said that the powers of Hell will not be able to overpower the church that He builds (Matt.16:18).

So, when we see a church where there is strife and conflict and gossiping and quarreling, you can be certain that Christ did not build that church. Nothing Christ builds can ever be overcome by Satan. Sometimes a church may have been started initially by Christ. But after a while, the leaders may begin to compromise in their personal lives and become careless with sin – and then the Devil takes over such a church.

But if we allow Christ to remain as the Head of the church and to build it the way He wants to build it, then God's promise is this: “All the powers of hell will not be able to overcome such a church”. That is how we want all our churches to be built. Every member in the church has an important part to play in this, by keeping their life under the authority of Christ always; and being careful to follow the principles taught in Scripture about being disciples and submitting to one another in the Body of Christ.

There will be Pharisees in every church, because Satan places them there, knowing that Pharisees can cause more problems in a church with their legalism than those who commit obvious sin. One of the characteristics of the Pharisees, Jesus said, was "justifying themselves in the sight of men.” (Lk.16:15). In other words, if something wrong in their lives is pointed out to them, they will immediately defend themselves with some excuse or the other. They do not like their sins to be pointed out to them.

Men esteem preaching ability and singing ability in a church. But God does not. Jesus said that what men value highly is detestable in the sight of God (Lk.16:15). What God values primarily in a church are humility, purity and love.

In 1 Peter 4:15, believers are warned not to become “busybodies in other people's matters” (KJV). Busybodies are people who are curious about what is happening in other families – matters that do not concern them at all. We must mind our own business and recognize what our boundaries are – and never go outside those boundaries. If you go around giving your opinion about what is happening in other people’s lives, you are being “a busybody”. That is a very serious sin in God’s eyes, because the Holy Spirit puts busybodies in the same category as “murderers, thieves and evildoers”!! (See 1 Peter 4:15)

To avoid being a busybody, we must all recognize where our boundaries are. In Acts 17: 26 and 27, we read that it is God Who has put boundaries around us. God has drawn a circle around you and your home. So, just as you would not encroach into your neighbor's property, you should not enter into other people’s circles either. Our boundary is the circle that God has drawn around us. God has drawn a bigger circle for some people and a smaller circle for others. For example, one who is called to be an elder in a church will have responsibility for all the people in his church, and so his boundary will naturally be larger than that of others.

In Acts 17: 27, we are told to seek after God within our boundary. If everybody stayed within their boundary and sought after God only therein, there would be no busybodies in the church at all. But the sad thing is that most people don't stay within their boundaries. Instead, they are curious to know unnecessary details about other people – details that have nothing to do with them at all. And that is why such people never grow spiritually. If they had sought after God within their boundaries, they would have grown tremendously.

In the above verse, it says that God is not far from anyone. He is very close. So the reason why many people don't have an intimate relationship with God is because they don’t seek God within their boundary. Instead they become busybodies in other people's matters. Let me urge all of you therefore to seek after God within your boundary always – and never to be a busybody in other people’s matters. Then you will know God better and better – and grow spiritually with leaps and bounds.

Paul told Timothy to “take hold of eternal life” (1 Tim.6:12). What does that mean? Jesus said that knowing God is eternal life (John 17:3). So Paul was telling Timothy to know God better and better. And this “knowing God” more intimately can take place only if we stop being busybodies in other people's affairs. Being curious to know what is happening in other families will hinder you in your walk with God. If people ask you for help, be ready to help them. But otherwise, mind your own business. “Mind your own business” is a very good exhortation. Seek for God within your own boundary alone.

In our CFC churches, we do not preach on how to go to heaven when you die. Jesus told us to go and make disciples in every nation – and to teach them all that He had commanded – and not on how to escape hell and go to heaven!! But, unfortunately, a lot of the preaching of the gospel today majors on how to go to heaven when you die. I don't preach that Gospel because I'm not interested in taking people to heaven. That is God's business. I seek to make disciples for Jesus Christ here on earth and then I seek to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded. That is the commission the Lord gave us very clearly in Matthew 28:18-20. And that is what we have been trying to do in our CFC churches in many parts of the world, for the last 50 years.

My gospel is how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ here on earth and how to follow Him every day. Jesus said there is a small gate and a narrow way that led to life (Matt.7:14). We can enter the narrow gate by repenting of our sins and trusting in Christ’s death and resurrection. Then we are called to walk the narrow way by taking up our cross and dying to Self each day, and putting Christ first in our lives, and following Him. That is the way of life and discipleship, that Jesus taught in the above verse – and that is the way of eternal life that we teach in all our churches.

In relation to discipleship, Jesus said in Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and his own life, he CANNOT be my disciple”. How often have you heard anyone preach about hating your loved ones, as Jesus said in that verse? That is the Number One condition for being a disciple of the Lord Jesus. And Jesus commanded us to make disciples everywhere – and not converts. So if we want to make disciples, we must first teach them this Number One condition of discipleship, before teaching them anything else.

When a child joins a school, the first thing he is taught is not physics or chemistry. No. The first thing he is taught is the alphabet – ABC. In the same way, those who join our church must FIRST OF ALL be taught the alphabet of discipleship – to love Jesus supremely. Those who don't want to fulfill that condition must be told clearly right at the beginning, that they cannot be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no second class of disciples. There is only one class of disciples – those who “hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and their own life” (Luke 14:26).

How are we to reconcile this demand of Jesus with other commands in the Scriptures to “honor your father and mother” and to “love your wife as Christ loved the church” and to love our children and our brothers and sisters?

Jesus often used illustrations to make a point clear in His messages. So I sought to find some illustration to understand these apparently opposite commands to love and hate my family members! And this is the illustration that has made it clear for me; I compare my love for my father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters to the light of the stars – bright and clear and without any darkness in them at all – a picture of the love we must have for our family members. But in the morning, when the sun comes up, the stars become invisible. They are still there, but we cannot see them. Even so, my love for Christ must be like the light of the sun, in which light, my love for my family members fades into insignificance. My love for my family members is still there (like the stars are still there in the morning). But my love for Christ is so great that all others are now loved only through my love for Christ. That means that my love for Christ is so great, that I will never allow my wife or my parents or anyone close to me to ever come between me and Christ. I will henceforth love everyone else only through my supreme love for Christ.

When I was considering getting married to Annie (my wife), I told her right at the beginning that she would always be second in my affections. I told her that she would never be first in my life. That sounds like a terrible thing to say to someone when proposing marriage. So, I explained it to her, saying that what I meant was that Christ would always be first in my life. And I told her that I wanted to be second in her life also – second to Christ, always. And today, after 57 years of marriage, I tell her the same thing that I've said to her for the last 57 years: “You will always be second in my life. Christ will always be first. And I also want to be second in your life always. Christ must always be first in your life”. The result has been that we have had a supremely happy married life for 57 years.

That was my attitude to my parents as well. I respected both my parents right up to the time God called them home. But I never allowed them to take first place in my life, above Christ. When the Lord called me in 1964, to leave my earthly job in the Navy to serve Him, I did not consult my parents. I just obeyed the Lord and put in my resignation and informed my parents only thereafter. And it was the same even afterwards in my ministry as well. The Lord gave me a gift to preach and opened many doors for my ministry in many countries; and my father was delighted to see me travelling around the world preaching God’s Word. But then, the Lord showed me from His Word that the apostles did not just preach and bring people to Christ but they also gathered those who were converted and made them meet together in local fellowships – called “churches” – in every place. So, God called me to quit my travelling preaching ministry and to start building believers together into a local church in Bangalore, my home-town. Once again, I did not consult my earthly father about that. I just did what the Lord told me to do. And when we began this new ministry, very few people came to meet with us, in my home, My Dad then asked me why I had given up my ministry to thousands of people around the world and was now sitting with just 10 people in my home? I told him that that was what God had called me to do – to build a local church. I told him that my calling was not to be a well-known preacher in the world, but to build a local church as an expression of Christ’s Body. My Dad died without fully understanding that. But today, if my Dad could see from heaven, He would see what the Lord has done. He would see local churches that the Lord has planted as expressions of the Body of Christ in many countries in the last 50 years, and He would see the thousands of people who have come to Christ in those churches, Then he would say, “Son, you were right in the choice you made to build local churches.” I thank God that I did not listen to my father, but listened only to Christ.

Jesus said, "I will build my church." Only He can build it. We are only members of His Body – one is like a tongue, another is like a hand and yet another is like a leg. And some believers who are not so prominent are like the hidden organs of the body. But Christ is the Head Who builds His Body. We can only offer ourselves to Him to be ruled, controlled and used by Him as members of His Body. The hands and legs cannot do anything on their own. The head tells the hand what to do and tells the legs where to go. That's how we are to be submitted to Christ. And that is how the Body of Christ works and is built. And that is what we have sought to emphasize.

But once God begins to use someone a little and he begins to see the miracle of the Body of Christ being built in a place, the great danger is of spiritual pride. When God blesses us, pride is lurking around the corner. We can begin to imagine that we were the ones who built that local church or that it was we who brought those people to Christ. And when a servant of God or a church becomes proud, God immediately begins to OPPOSE that person and that church.

How should we dress as Christians? 1 Peter 5:5 says, "Be clothed with humility toward one another" That is how we should be dressed all the time – and especially in our relationship with each other in the church. Think about that for a moment. When you read a verse like that in the Bible, don't rush past it. Pause and meditate on it. God’s Word is like our food. And when we eat, we chew our food first before swallowing it. Thus the food is digested better. Even so, we must meditate on the verses we read. What does it mean to be clothed with humility towards our brothers and sisters in the church?

We can see the answer in Philippians 2:3. There it says what our attitude towards one another should be, at all times. “Do nothing from selfishness or pride”. We must do nothing – absolutely nothing – from selfishness or from pride. 

This can be an exhortation to those who stand in front of the church and lead the singing. Don't show off your singing abilities. It is also an exhortation to those who preach: Don’t show off your knowledge. Instead, speak with humility of mind. In other words, when you're standing up there speaking, if someone were to open up your mind at that time, they should see a humble attitude there towards all the people - all the time

Philippians 2:3 tells us to consider everyone in the church as more important than ourselves. That is humility. We are not told to regard others as more spiritual. That would be impossible. But we are to regard others as more important. 

Jesus did not regard others as more spiritual than himself. He could not possibly do that. But He did regard all His disciples as more important. He proved that on the last day of His life on earth by washing the feet of all His disciples. That was the job of a slave in those days. It was the slave in a house who took the bucket of water and washed people's feet when they came into Jewish homes. And Jesus took that place. How then can any of us, ever think of serving God’s people in any other way? 

So whatever you lead the church in – in singing, or preaching, or whatever - whatever your ministry may be, follow Jesus’ example and be a washer of people’s feet. Today we all wear shoes and so there is no need to wash anyone’s feet. But in a church building, it may perhaps be the toilets that need to be cleaned. Be a toilet-cleaner then in God’s house. Be willing to do any dirty job for God’s people. That is a true leader. Esteem all others as more important than yourself. 

In Philippians 2:5, it goes on to exhort us to have the same attitude that Jesus had. He is our Example. That is how we can build His church. You can have the best singers and the best preachers in the world. But if you don’t have the spirit of a servant, then I can I tell you in Jesus Name, that you will never build the church of Jesus Christ. You will only build a grand structure that impresses people. The gates of hell will prevail against your church, and Satan will pollute and destroy it. 

We must be clothed with humility all the time – because God is against all who are proud (1 Peter 5:5). God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Meditate on that. If you are proud of your good looks, or of your Bible-knowledge, or of your singing-ability, or of the church you belong to, or of how clever you are, or of the job you have, or of the beauty of your house, or of anything, then God will oppose you.

What that means is that God will stand against you and push you back. Think of that. If there's pride in your heart, no matter how much Bible knowledge you may have, or how spiritual you think you are, or how many years you've been a Christian, God will keep on pushing you back. You're not going to make any progress in your Christian life then. Instead, you will go backwards.

On the other hand, if you humble yourself, God will keep pushing you forward. Think of that. Who can stand against you then? That is the meaning of God giving grace to the humble. He keeps pushing humble people forward. Then, all the demons of hell will not be able to stop your spiritual progress. You will make tremendous progress in your Christian life in a very short time. And you will keep getting new revelations on God's word – again and again. And even if your singing is not so great, it will bless people more than those with beautiful voices can. And with your broken words in your sermons, you will bless people and lead them closer to Christ much more than great preachers with their Bible-college degrees. The important thing is that God must push you forward. That's the meaning of God giving grace to the humble.

And then, another wonderful thing also happens when God gives you grace. Romans 6:14 says that when God gives you grace, sin will not be able to defeat you. You will conquer sin. All of us have grown up with a life where sin has ruled us, from the time we were children. We told lies, we cheated, we rebelled against parents, we did so many wrong things. We fought with other children and we had grudges. And after we got married, we fought with our partners frequently. But when God begins to push a humble person forward, he enters into a wonderful life where sin can no longer rule over him any longer. His attitude towards his wife will become heavenly and Christlike. What we need desperately is grace from God – and He gives grace generously to the humble. This is the wonderful message of the gospel. But sad to say, it is not preached sufficiently – and so, what Peter calls “the true grace of God” is not experienced by most believers (1 Peter 5:12).

I want to warn you about one more thing. One of the qualities of Divine wisdom is a total freedom from all partiality (James 3:17 - KJV). There is partiality in every man’s flesh. We favor certain people. If a friend of ours does something wrong, we cover it up. But if someone else whom we don't like, does the same wrong thing, we advertise it. Why this difference? Because of the evil of partiality. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus if you are partial. 

Partiality is one of the great evils that I have seen in many believers. If you want to build the church of Jesus Christ with Divine wisdom, then consider James 3:17 – which says that one of the qualities of Divine wisdom is that it does not show partiality to anyone.

In 1 Timothy 5:19, Paul tells Timothy never to receive an accusation against any elder in a church, unless there are two or three witnesses to the action. I've followed this principle in all the churches I've worked in. Whenever I have received an accusation against any elder, I have always investigated it. If I discovered that it was a false charge, I threw it away. But if, after hearing from two or three witnesses, I discovered that the charge was true, then I have taken action on it. But I have had to be careful to ensure that I acted without any partiality towards an elder (who may be a close friend of mine). I ask the Lord to help me to be totally impartial.

When an elder is discovered to be in sin, we are told in 1 Timothy 5:20 that he must be rebuked publicly – in the presence of everyone. That means that the whole church must know that this elder committed sin. And when even an elder is disciplined publicly, then everyone else in the church will be afraid of sinning.

Paul warned Timothy, that if that elder is a close personal friend, there is a danger of Timothy being partial towards him and covering up the sin. And so Paul warned Timothy to be careful not to commit the sin of partiality. And in 1 Timothy 5:21, Paul used very strong words to emphasize what he said. He said, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and His holy angels…..”. Every verse in the Bible is written in the presence of God and in the presence of Christ and the angels. So why does Paul have to mention that specifically here? Because Paul wants to emphasize the fact that showing partiality in the church to anyone is a terribly serious sin. “Take this seriously, Timothy. Don’t ever be biased in favor of any elder. Be very careful in this area, because you will have to answer to God and to Christ one day.” That is what Paul is saying.

During the past years, I have had to discipline some elders in our CFC churches, at different times. But, by the grace of God, I can say that I have never shown partiality to any elder at any time. And if my disciplining an elder caused him or anyone else to be angry with me, that did not bother me. But I did not want to lose the anointing of God upon my ministry. That alone was most important for me. So, I was always careful never to show any partiality to anyone.

In 1 Timothy 5:22, Paul goes on to tell Timothy, “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin”. This is referring to the appointing of elders. Paul warns Timothy not to appoint anyone as an elder whom he did not know really well. Don’t appoint an elder hastily. Otherwise, Timothy would end up sharing responsibility for that elder’s sins.

Yet another way by which we can end up sharing responsibility for the sins of an elder is by covering up his sin, when we know that he has sinned. Then, God says, you also will be responsible for his sin. So, Paul warns Timothy to keep himself pure, free from partiality, and free from such sins. 

God constantly seeks to expose sin in His church – everywhere.

We see something interesting in the prophecy that Simeon gave when He came and saw Jesus as a baby in the temple. He said three things:
”(1) This child (Jesus) is appointed for the fall and the rise of many;
(2) for a sign to be opposed;
(3) and the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (Luke 2:34, 35).

I have seen these 3 things being fulfilled again and again, in the CFC churches that the Lord has planted in different parts of the world – as we have allowed the Lord to have free course in our midst.

First of all, the powerful presence of the Lord in our midst has resulted in some genuinely humble people rising to great heights spiritually in our churches, and some proud people falling away altogether. Some who were esteemed highly by men fell away, while some others who were not esteemed were raised up by God.

Secondly, we have seen that, as the Lord has powerfully manifested Himself in our midst, our churches have been opposed by many people. Every church that is true and faithful to the Lord will be opposed by ungodly Christians.

Thirdly, I have seen, many a time, that the secrets that some tried to hide in their hearts were exposed by the Lord when they came to our churches. Nobody can hide anything when Christ manifests His Presence in power in a church. God exposes everything, one way or the other.

In Numbers 32, there is a small statement tucked away in the middle of some other statements that Moses makes. In verse 23, it says, “Be sure your sin will find you out”. If you sin against the Lord, even if it is hidden from everyone, you can be absolutely sure that one day it will be revealed - if not now, then when Christ returns. But it is better if it is exposed now - because you can set the matter right. Once Christ returns, you won’t be able to set anything right. It will be too late. So thank God if your sin is exposed before Christ comes back. You also should have this desire that all your sins should be exposed now itself, before Christ returns.

I also want to speak about the importance of having a spirit of sacrifice in our service for the Lord. Soon after I was baptized in water, in 1961, the Lord spoke to me through a statement that David made in 2 Samuel 24:24. There David said, "I will never offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing." And I remember very clearly the Lord telling me then, that I was never to offer to Him an offering that cost me nothing – at any time in my life. Jesus Himself lived a life on earth, where He offered everything sacrificially to the Father – all the way to the cross. And I saw that that was the path that I was to walk in, all through my life. And I decided that day that I would never ever offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing – at any time, in my life or in my ministry.

From the day that I left my earthly job to serve the Lord full-time, until now - in all these 60 years – I have sought to live by this principle: that I will never offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. I was ready to sacrifice my money, my health, my reputation, my comfort and everything else, to serve the Lord with my whole heart. As a result, I have had a very blessed life and a very blessed ministry in all these years. I wholeheartedly recommend this path to all of you, as well.

When the first CFC church was born 50 years ago, the Lord gave us a word on the very first Sunday that we met – on August 17, 1975. The word the Lord gave us was from Malachi chapter 1. There the Lord speaks about the Israelites who were bringing cheap offerings to God that cost them nothing - blind lambs and lame oxen and sick goats, etc. They gave God the animals that they had wanted to get rid of. They kept the best animals for themselves and gave God what they didn’t want. Their offerings did not cost them anything at all. And the Lord said, "I wish the priests would shut the gates to people who bring such offerings, and refuse to receive them” (Malachi 1:8-11).

Those Israelites in Malachi’s time were offering to the Lord that which cost them nothing. That was an insult to God. But the priests did not stop them from doing that. But the Lord said to Malachi that a day would come soon when the Lord would have a people all over the world who would offer Him only costly sacrifices that cost them everything.

That was the word the Lord gave us when we started the first CFC church. And I remember it vividly even today. The Lord says there that from the rising of the sun to its setting, all over the world, His Name would be great in all the nations of the world, as He raised up people everywhere who would “offer sacrifices to Him that were pure” (Malachi 1:11) – and by “pure” He meant offerings that had cost them everything! Then His Name would be great among all the nations on the earth.

We are now living in that time. And it is our privilege now, to make the Name of the Lord great in every country of the world – by offering sacrifices to the Lord that have cost us everything - where we deny ourselves and die to Self and follow the Lord every day; where we humble ourselves like little children and have no smell of pride in us about anything; where we constantly seek to go down and down – and never seek to be big in the eyes of others.

Jesus commanded us that, after making disciples, we were to teach them ALL that He has commanded us (Matt.28:20). So when we started as a new CFC church, we decided to study the sermon on the mount first of all, and to seek for the Holy Spirit’s power to obey everything Jesus said there (Matt.5, 6 and 7). In those chapters, Jesus told His disciples that their righteousness must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees – which was an old covenant righteousness that was only outward and that impressed people. But the righteousness of the new covenant, Jesus said, was to be inward.

Jesus then gave them some examples. Consider the first two examples He gave.

First: The old covenant said that you should not commit murder. Since murder begins with anger in the heart, Jesus said, that the new covenant equivalent of that command was that one should not get angry (Matt.5:21, 22). That is how new covenant righteousness exceeds old covenant righteousness. So anger under the new covenant is as serious as murder was under the old covenant. So, If you're a person who gets angry with your marriage partner, you are a murderer by new covenant standards!! But who preaches what Jesus taught here?

I did not take anger seriously for 16 years after I was born again because nobody taught me that anger was equal to murder under the new covenant. When I got angry at home, I never thought it was equivalent to murdering my wife!! And then, Jesus went on to say that if someone continued with his anger he would end up in hell (Matt.5:22). 

Christians tell people that if they don't believe in Jesus, they will go to hell. But Jesus said that if you continue to get angry, you will go to hell. Read Matthew 5:22 and meditate on it seriously. When I understood the seriousness of anger, I became desperate because I could not overcome it. Then I sought to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is when Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Then I could overcome anger.

It is a pity that most Christian preachers don't emphasize this. They say that once you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit has come into your heart – and you don’t have to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is true that the Holy Spirit comes into our heart when we are truly born again (as we read in Rom.8:9b). But our heart is like a house with many rooms. There may be light in one room, while the other 9 rooms are dark. Then the house has light, but it is not filled with light. So also we may have received the Holy Spirit but not be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only when every area of our life is yielded unconditionally to the Holy Spirit will we be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then you may backslide one day – and then the light goes out in that room. Then you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit again. So the filling of the Holy Spirit is something we need to have continuously – all the time. Jesus warned us “to watch out that the light in you does not become darkness”. “But”, He said, “if your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, then it will be fully illumined” (Luke 11:35, 36) That is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So we have to watch out always to ensure that there is no darkness in any area of our life.

There are preachers today who get angry – and are not convicted about it. Satan has deceived them totally. How can they ever lead people into the new covenant.

Then Jesus quoted a second example. In Matthew 5:27, He said, that the old covenant said that you should not commit adultery. But in the new covenant, He said that, if you look at a woman with lust in your eyes, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart. If you look at pornography, and watch someone else committing sexual sin, you are committing adultery. And Jesus went on to say that such lusting with your eyes would finally send you to hell (Matt.5:29).

But how many people are there who believe that watching pornography can send them to hell? I preach it, and I will continue to preach it – because that is what Jesus taught. And further, Jesus also said in Matthew 5:30 that if you sin sexually with your right hand, that would also lead you to hell. But who preaches that? I have never heard anyone preach it in my entire life.

Jesus told us to teach His disciples ALL THAT HE COMMANDED. But even a small part of what Jesus taught (that I have mentioned above) is not being taught in today’s churches. That is the tragedy of today’s Christianity.

It is when we hear the new covenant standards clearly that we see our own inability to reach those standards. That is what will drive us to seek the Lord to be filled with the Holy Spirit, again and again.

When Paul was leaving Ephesus after spending three years preaching to the church there, he told them, "I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable for you” (Acts 20:20, 27).

Being delivered from anger and sexual lust is extremely profitable for us - both in this life and also when we stand at Christ’s judgment seat. And that is why I have preached it in every CFC church that the Lord has planted.

And then Paul said, in verses 26 and 27, "I am innocent of your blood." I can also say, in all the churches that I have responsibility for, that “I am innocent of your blood because, I did not hesitate to declare to you the whole purpose of God" – as Paul said in Acts 20:27.

I did not proclaim the old covenant telling people, "Don't commit adultery and don't murder.". No. I proclaimed the new covenant, saying, “Don't get angry and don't lust with your eyes”. And so, like Paul, I also proclaimed the whole purpose of God, and therefore no one’s blood is on my hands. We can say that no one’s blood is on our hands only when we have proclaimed the whole purpose of God – the full circle of the new covenant gospel, not just one small segment of that circle that Christ died for our sins.

And this is all the more necessary in these days, when there is so much of sexual sin in the world. We have to warn all men especially to be extremely careful in contacts with women.

In 1 Corinthians 7:4, we are told how married people should conduct themselves. “The wife does not have authority over her body. Her husband has authority over her body.” So, as a sister, you cannot do anything with your body, which your husband will not approve of. You cannot hug any man or kiss him – because that is an expression of physical, sexual affection. You can hug and kiss only your husband – and no other man. 

What about the man? Here in the same verse, it says that the husband has no authority over his body. His wife has authority over it. So he cannot hug or kiss any woman. He can hug and kiss only his wife – and no other woman. A husband must not do anything with another woman that his wife will not approve of completely. He must relate to every woman, exactly as he would, if his wife were standing right next to him and watching him. That is the Christian standard.

“Keep yourself pure”, is the exhortation that Paul gave Timothy in 1 Timothy 5: 22 (KJV). Timothy was an elder in a church and a wholehearted brother. Yet Paul gave him this exhortation, because Paul knew that every man can be tempted to sexual sin.

And that is my exhortation also to every believer. Keep yourself pure. Don't hug or kiss a person of the opposite sex until you're married to that person. That is God's standard. But this standard is being lowered everywhere – even in Christian circles nowadays. Let us maintain God’s standards in all our CFC churches until Christ returns.

Let me also say that we have a responsibility for one another in Christ’s Body. If the left hand is injured, the right hand immediately puts some medicine there and wraps it up. And if the right hand is injured, the left hand does the same. That is how the body of Christ must function - caring for one another. How much more so, if we see someone sin.

So if you see your brother or sister doing something suspicious, what should you do? Don't talk about it to others. Warn him directly. But if you don't know that person well, then go and tell the elders what you saw. That way you can protect that brother or sister from defiling the church, and also from going to hell. It doesn't matter who you are. Tell the elders what you see and help that person to be saved from eternal damnation.

Anyone can fulfil this ministry – a brother or a sister. Consider the example of Sister Chloe in Corinth. She was the cause for two whole books of the Bible to be written – Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. And because of that letter, his second letter to the Corinthians was also written. In 1 Corinthians 1:11, we read that Paul heard of the problems in Corinth through Sister Chloe. She wrote a letter to Paul telling him that there were many problems in that church – quarrels among the people, brothers taking other brothers to court, party spirit among the believers, a brother living in sexual sin with his stepmother, selfishness at the breaking-of-bread meetings, chaotic speaking in tongues in the meetings, etc. And the elders in the church were not doing anything about all this.

Praise God that Sister Chloe was concerned about all this and wrote to Paul about it. She didn't say to herself, “Oh, I am only a sister. How can I write to the great apostle Paul?”. Thank God she had a burden to protect the church. Praise God for sisters like Sister Chloe.

The Holy Spirit then backed up what Chloe wrote and inspired Paul to write his first letter to the Corinthian church – dealing with all the problems that Chloe had mentioned to him. And later Paul wrote a second letter to follow up on his first one. And these two letters have become part of inspired Scripture today.

In the second letter, we have this wonderful promise from the Lord: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor.12:9). We have to thank Sister Chloe for that promise appearing in Scripture. Because there would have been no first or second letter to the Corinthians if she had not written to Paul. And so when I get to heaven, I will go up to Sister Chloe and thank her for what she did.

I also want to say a word about the music ministry in the church. The church is not a place for gifted singers to show off their abilities. We thank God for those who have the gift of music and those who have the ability to preach God’s Word. But they must all be humble people who have the life of Christ and who are seeking to glorify God alone – and not those who want to show off their own abilities. The church is a place where Christ alone must be glorified.

Paul told Timothy to keep himself pure. If any ministry has even a shade of self-glorification in it, it should be cancelled. In that way we can preserve the church in purity. May the Lord bring purity into our churches. And may He discipline us all to be a pure offering for Him.

We all say that Christ is coming soon. If so, what should our attitude be? 1 John Chapter 3 tells us. In verse 2 it says, that when Christ appears, we will become like Him, because we will see Him as He is. If we believe that, then what should we be doing? The next verse (1 John 3:3) tells us. All who have this hope within them (that they will be like Christ) will purify themselves until they reach His standard of purity. 

That is our homework - for the rest of our lives on earth: Purify ourselves until we reach Jesus' standard of purity. Never do anything in your life that Jesus cannot support you in doing. Ask yourself in a tricky situation, whether Jesus would support you in doing that. And if you are unsure, then don’t do it. That way, you will never go wrong.

In order to live such a life, we need the power of the Holy Spirit every day. So pray to be filled with the Spirit every day. Seek for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You need to be immersed in the Holy Spirit just like you were immersed in water at your water-baptism. We need to be immersed in the Holy Spirit every day of your life. There is a beginning to it, but it must also be continuous. Rivers of living water must flow out from us always (Jn.7:37). Let us pray that that will be true in all of our lives. 

Don't ever dishonor the Holy Spirit by devaluing His ministry. Jesus said those who speak against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven (Matt. 12:31, 32). It is sad to hear of Christians who speak against the baptism in the Holy Spirit and against the absolute necessity of being filled with the Spirit continuously. Don't ever speak against the Holy Spirit. It is better to keep your mouth shut and say, "I don't know," rather than to speak against the Holy Spirit. 

May we all fear God and seek for the power of His Spirit every day so that we can glorify God in our lives and build His church in these last days.

Amen.