Signs of True Christians From the Example of the Underground Church in China

Thank you for joining me this afternoon. I wonder what are signs of true Christians? And I had a special privilege of watching some DVDs from the underground church in China. And here are some of the things that I noticed.

They had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the son of the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When I watched their worship, it was between them and the living God. And then I noticed the unity with the believers.

There seemed to be no dissension. There seemed to be no differences. And they were all worshiping God with one heart and with one mind.

There was a deep desire to worship God. And as I watched their tears running down their faces, I compared that to my worship of a living God. And scripture says, where two or three are gathered in his name, then Jesus is in the midst of us.

He is the maker of this universe. He is the great creator. How would I behave in the presence of the President of the United States? How would I be in the presence of the Queen of England? Would I not be attentive? Would I not be acting differently or thinking differently? And so we have this great God who's present with us.

And I saw that in the underground Chinese church. And then I saw that they had a great, great love for each other and even their persecutors. I saw many clips where even those that were hurt deeply, that died because of the tortures.

I saw torture marks on their bodies. And yet they speak as Jesus did from the cross, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. They still love them.

They still give them their testimony. They have this incredibly deep faith. Do I have that as a Western Christian? Their persecution never stops, including jail many times.

Some of the itinerant preachers have gone to prison 10 or more times. They need not go back if they stop witnessing, but they witness because they feel they have a great and incredible salvation. Do you have a great and incredible salvation? Would you tell others about it? They love not their lives unto death.

And yes, they love their enemies. They accept that love means devotion. It means selflessness.

It also means sacrifice and even death because martyr, the word martyr means witness, witnessing for an incredible God and giving our lives for him. The path of the cross is suffering and sacrifice. Do you have a cross that you bear? Do you witness? If you do not witness, you likely will not have any opposition to your Christian life.

So would you try to witness? And then they have power from the Holy Spirit to witness. Acts 1.8 says when he, the Holy Spirit, has come upon you, you shall have power to witness unto me in Jerusalem, which is your hometown, and Judea, your home state, and to Samaria, the neighboring state, and to the outermost parts of the world. Yes, we ought to witness as Christians.

And then there is great humbleness in their leaders. One leader could not overcome torture, and he denounced Christ Jesus. He was released, but I saw him in the video walking back into jail with his dear wife, and he said he could no longer deny his Lord.

He would rather die in prison. And then there is deep joy that they express in poetry and song. And then they love the word, and they meet in homes, in barns, in caves, in underground tunnels and fields.

They want to worship their Lord despite great persecution. Beloved for Christians in America, we are now classified with terrorists. Will you start witnessing? Because persecution is coming.

I love you all. The Lord bless you.