Four Things That Happened At The Cross

The Apostle Paul, who was the great preacher who preached about the cross, once said the word of the cross is foolishness to others, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 23. We preach Christ crucified. To the Jews it is a stumbling block. How can a criminal hanging on a cross be our Messiah? To the Greeks, to the Gentiles, it is foolishness. No religion in the world, no religion in the world, and there are hundreds of religions, ever says our leader was so helpless that he had to hang on a cross like a criminal. There is no such religion. You look at all the religions and their leaders are great people who sit on thrones and all that. Christ crucified is a foolish message to the world, but that is God. You know what we just heard? God says my ways are not your ways, much higher than your way of thinking. Then it goes on to say, but if we are called, if you are one of the ones whom God has called, one way you'll know it is that Christ will be the power of God in your life and the wisdom of God to guide your paths. I found that for 63 years. Christ has been my wisdom to guide me in the years I worked in the Navy, when he called me to leave it, and subsequently 56 years in full-time Christian work trusting him for all my needs. He has been my wisdom to bring up my children. He has been my wisdom and the power of God in different situations. It says here all the cleverness of men, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest of men, and the weakness of God is stronger than the strongest man. The things that men glory in are not the things that a true Christian glories in. Imagine glorying in a person who is hanging like a criminal on the cross. I believe that most Christians have lost that vision. What do most churches glory in today, tell me? Good singing, worship teams that can lead people in wonderful singing. That's not, first of all, that is not worship at all. Another day I'll talk about what worship is. All this excitement and all these strobe lights and all on the platform and people collecting millions of rupees in the name of Christianity and Christian preachers buying jet planes with the money that people offer. It's not the religion of Jesus Christ. When they were preaching, if Judas Iscariot had ever stood up and said, my dear friends, when there are 10,000 people listening, Jesus is preaching, and Judas Iscariot gets up and says, friends, Jesus has to walk three days from Galilee to Jerusalem, and he does that trip so often. Let's take a collection to buy him a chariot. Jesus would have gone and pulled him down and said, sit down, Judas, and shut up. I don't want to hear you. And he would never allow him to get up again. Where are the preachers like that? Christianity has drifted, not just slightly, 180 degrees, if you know what that means, going the opposite direction to the way Jesus went. That's happened many times. That's why every now and then God raises up a movement. I believe CFC is one of those movements, not the only one, one of them, through the years, from the time of Martin Luther. When his son seen Christianity going in the wrong direction, he raises up something to bring it back, bring it right round to the right direction. And sometimes even Martin Luther didn't bring it completely around. He practiced infant baptism. He had priests and still so many things like that, but he did a tremendous work. And then little by little, God's trying to bring us back to the perfect purpose of God. I don't know whether we have understood it fully, but it's a lot more than even what John Wesley, the great, mighty man of God knew. He brought a nation to many, many people to repentance, but he preached infant baptism and many other things. He called himself the Reverend John Wesley. He was a hundred times better than most of us, including me, but there were certain things he didn't see, but that's because he lived in the 18th century. God has been completely restoring truth more and more in every century and showing us the greatest thing is the cross of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter six, and if you see this, you've seen the main thing in the Christian life. If you haven't seen it, you've missed it. Galatians chapter six, verse 14. Read this carefully, especially you young people. I read it when I was a young man, about 20 years old, 21 years old, when I had great ambitions before me. I wanted to be the admiral in the Indian Navy. That's what I worked towards, and I was converted when I read this verse, and it changed the direction of my life completely, and I don't regret it. Galatians 6.14, he said, may I never boast. Think of the things you boast in. Ask yourself. Sometimes if you're serious about this verse, I would encourage you. I've done this. Go home, take a piece of paper, and write down the things that you're proud of, the things that you've accomplished in life, the opinion other people have about you, how much you long that people have a good opinion about you, and all the things that you've done, and throw it in the garbage can. If you're serious about following Jesus, I know I have a feeling that some of you won't do it, because those things you glory in are very precious to you, and that's why you miss out on the best in the Christian life. Paul said, I never want to boast in anything except this one who was like a criminal hanging on the cross. He is my Lord, and I want to be like him. Let me never glory in anything over the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the whole world and its opinions is dead to me, and I am dead to the world. That has been one of my greatest meditations ever since way back about four years after I was converted. I was seeking for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I was born again. I was baptized in water. I was studying the Word, and I got to know the Word of God, but there was one thing missing in my life. I wanted power. I used to preach on the streets in those days outside the naval base, and I was sometimes a little shy. I said, Lord, give me boldness, because I was basically a very shy young man. I said, Lord, I need boldness, and the apostles got it through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and so as I sought God and prayed and fasted many times, the Lord showed me something in Scripture. I'd never heard anybody preach on it in my life. I don't know whether you've ever heard this. I never heard it then. I've never heard it subsequently. The Lord showed me when was Jesus himself anointed with the Holy Spirit, and I knew it was in the River Jordan when He went into the water, allowed John the Baptist to put him right underneath, bury him, and raise him up. Symbolically, you know what baptism means? Dead, crucified by other people, put to death by other people, humiliated by other people, put down by others, and not resisting it. See, when somebody puts us down, we tend to resist it. That's like resisting when somebody baptizes you. You say, no, I don't want to. You never do that, but we do it in real life, and somebody tries to humiliate us, we resist it. We don't want to die. We don't want to be buried. We want our name to be known. We don't want to be buried and unknown. We want to be well known. We want to be respected. That's why we miss out on the best in the Christian life. I was seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Lord said, you really want the best? Have it the way Jesus did. He buried and He submitted to it without resisting. Submit to a total death and burial of yourself, your opinion, your plans, your future ambitions, the opinion people have about you and everything, everything that you value and glory in life, bury it. I said, sure. Then leave it to God, like John the Baptist raised up Jesus from the dead, from the water. Leave it to God to raise you up at the right time, at the time when you can handle it. You see, if God exalts us, when we are not able to handle that exaltation, we become proud and we go to hell. We need to have a maturity so that when people praise us, it just rolls off us like water on a duck's back. But see, when in the beginning, we can't handle that. We can't handle appreciation. We get so puffed up with it and we begin to meditate on it. That wasn't thought highly of me. We look for appreciation. We're not buried. And then I say, you can't be anointed to the Holy Spirit. When Jesus submitted to complete death and burial, He came up and the anointing came upon Him. And what a mighty ministry He did in three and a half years. And the Father said, I'm well-pleased with you. So ever since that day, my great longing has been, Father, I want you to say about me, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. I want to hear that more than the approval of any human being on the earth. I don't care for the approval of men. Whether they praise me or criticize me makes no difference. But can I hear you say, you are my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. I can shut my ears to everybody else's opinions. And that's what's preserved me through half a century, 50 years. So the cross of Christ is very central. It's very important for us to understand the meaning of it fully. For most Christians, its only meaning is Christ died for my sins. Right. That is the ABC of the Christian life. And we have to go to the kindergarten if you want more education. So I don't deny that. You can't skip the kindergarten and go straight away to sixth grade or college. So everybody has to go to kindergarten. Everybody has to learn CAT is cat and BAT is bat. 2 plus 2 is 4. Essential. Then only we progress to higher things. So it's absolutely essential to know Christ died on the cross for your sins. But all I say is don't stop with 2 plus 2 is 4 and CAT is cat. That's all I'm saying. We must progress beyond that. You want your children to progress beyond that. And I want to tell you God wants his children also to progress beyond knowing Christ died for my sins. Every time I sin, I can ask him to forgive me. He'll forgive me because he died for me. Tomorrow I'll sin again. He'll forgive me. Day after tomorrow I'll sin again. For the next 25 years, I'll sin every day and he'll forgive me. That is like saying I will never forget 2 into 2 is 4. I'll never forget that CAT is bat. For the next 25 years, you can test me. Brothers, sisters, is that all you want to know? I thank God that God did not allow me to stop there. I started there too. I started at the foot of the cross as a sinner, forgiven. But I didn't stop there. Jesus said, do you remember what Jesus said about how to get to life? Turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7 verse 14. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are very few who find it. The gate is so small, you have to really be very small in your own eyes to get through it. If you think you're a big man, you can't get through this gate. You have to come to say, I'm a good for nothing sinner, just like the worst sinner in the world. I've many times said to the Lord, the worst terrorist in the world, I'm no better than him. Have you ever said that? Do you believe you're better than you read about some terrible terrorists or dictators? Many people are criticizing this dictator that's in the news nowadays, or the dictator that started the second world war. Do you have a feeling that you're a little better than him? I asked myself, were those dictators also, did they come through Adam or did they come through some other person? I came through Adam. I come from a part of India where people boast about their genealogy. Even other people boast about their genealogy that there was so-and-so big people up in mine. Even when they talk to each other in gatherings, they talk about my grandfather was this, or my uncle was this. When it comes to my turn, I say, I came from a family that was kicked out of Eden, but a savior came to save me. I have nothing to boast about. I want to ask you a straight question. Is there anything in your genealogy that you boast about? You think you're somebody? You think you come from a certain family, not that terrorist family, or that in India they cover low caste, scheduled caste, these people who are from the sweepers who clean the toilet bowls. They're not from that class. I'm a little higher class. That is the reason why you have not progressed in your Christian life till today. You could have been miles ahead by now if you had gone down and become a zero. That is the meaning of being immersed in baptism. Not even a hair visible. I remember once in our CFC church in India, there was a tall brother being baptized. The person dipped him, and this much was above the water. I said, dip him again. This is the most important part that has to go down under the water, the part above the eyebrows. That's the thing that ruins people. Dip him again. I dipped him again fully. I said, okay, now he's got to live according to that. I mean, just being dipped is okay. But that's the thing. We don't want to go down completely and be buried and invisible. When we're under the water, it's invisible. Do you want to be invisible so that only Christ is seen and so forth, that you only live for Christ, no longer for your ambitions and your goals and your desires? That's what the Lord said to me. I was seeking what I was seeking, the anointing and baptism of the Holy Spirit, not the fake baptism of the Holy Spirit where some people babble something and say, I was anointed. I said, Lord, I've seen enough of that. Ninety-nine percent of it is fake, and I'm not interested in that. I want the real thing that made Jesus fulfill the mightiest ministry that anyone ever had, that changed the apostle Paul from a persecutor to a mighty apostle. I said, I'm very shy. You won't believe that today, but when I was so young, when I joined the military academy, 15 years old, five feet, two inches high, thin, people in my class laughed at me and said, you're going to defend our country? And mocked and laughed. And I said, yeah, I'm not very smart. I never took part in public speaking in my entire life, in school or not even in the military academy. And yet, God called me. What to do? I said, Lord, I'm yours. I'm not capable. No, you don't believe that today, but that's the absolute truth. But I'll tell you what changed me, the baptism in the Holy Spirit. What is it that changed Peter? Scared people who are sitting inside a room, locked up for fear of the Jews. What is it that made them bold, fiery people who turned the upside down and started a ministry that has lasted now for 2000 years? Fishermen. One thing, they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire. They got a fire in them that never died out. I said, Lord, I want that. I want that. I don't want this cheap counterfeit going around the world. We are so careful when we get a hundred dollar note. Make sure it's not a supposing you knew that a lot of counterfeit hundred dollar notes in circulation. I guarantee you will, any hundred dollar note, you'll examine it very carefully. You don't want to be duped with a counterfeit note. But many people are willing to be duped and deceived with an experience of the Holy Spirit, which is not genuine. It doesn't seem to produce any power or fire in their life. I say, Lord, I saw enough of that. And I said, I don't want it. If I don't have the real thing, I'd rather have nothing. But I want the real thing. And that's when the Lord pointed me to how Jesus was anointed when he died completely to his plans, desires, everything. That's the meaning of baptism. God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world is dead to me and I'm dead to the world. That is what baptism symbolizes. You go under the water and they don't see anything of you. And the Lord said, are you willing for that? I was only, what, 23 years old. I was still working in the Navy. And I said, sure. I had my ambitions to go to the top of the Navy. I'd die. I'm not interested in that. I'm quite prepared to retire as I'm a lieutenant now. Retire as a lieutenant is quite OK. It's not a big thing for me. I want to be a Christian, a true Christian, a disciple of Jesus. And the Lord gave me a little picture of those days. You know, I very often, when I read the Bible, I try to think in picture language. And that's what makes the truth. I grip by the truth. And one of the pictures the Lord gave me at that time, the early days when I was converted, was of me trying to cross the road. In India, the roads are very busy. And people don't care much for the pedestrians. And I did not see, this is a picture that came to my mind, like a parable. I was crossing the road and there was a huge truck coming down. I did not see. I was about to be knocked over. And all of a sudden, somebody came and pushed me out of the way just in time and saved my life. And in doing that, he got run over by the truck and his legs got smashed completely. He was taken to hospital and both legs had to be amputated above the knees. And I went to see him. It was a picture. I go to see him in the hospital. His leg cut off. I say, what will I tell him? Of course, I'll say, oh, brother, and thank you so much for saving my life. I would be dead today if it were not for you. But I'm sorry to see that you've lost your legs. What can I do? I'll pray for you. That's what many Christians say. I'll pray for you. Very pious thing to tell people. I don't know how many times I've heard that pious statement that Christians say to others. It doesn't cost them anything. I'll pray for you. Aha, you pray for me. Okay. That's not what I'll tell him. It's very easy to say something like that to a man who lost his legs to save my life. I thought, what will I tell him? I tell him, listen, I'm alive today only because you saved me and you lost your legs. I want to tell you something. I will do anything you want me to do at any time in your life, which you cannot do because you lost your legs. That's reasonable. I would be dead otherwise. He would have had his legs. There are a million things he could do with his legs, but he can't do now because he's lost his legs. I've got to be his legs now. Sure. That's not a very big thing I'm saying. It's reasonable. I said, I want to tell you this. I will support you with my earnings because you can't earn now. I will spend my money and give you and make sure you have enough to live on. If you get married or whatever it is, I'll take care of you. And any time in your life, if you have any need, just give me a call. Even if I'm doing the most important thing, I'll drop it and come and do what you want. Do you think that's an unreasonable statement to make to such a man who saved my life? Not at all. I said, that's the least I can tell him. Then I asked myself, what will I tell Jesus who did much more than that? Am I going to say, I'll serve you when it's convenient? Or I'll give you 10% of my income? It's like telling this man, I'll give you 10% of my income. What does real gratitude mean? Do you really believe that someone saved your life from an eternal hell? How do you express that gratitude? I said, Lord, there's only one way I can express it. I'll do anything you tell me throughout my life. Anything you tell me to give up, I'll give up. At one time, the Lord told me to give up marriage. And I really thought I'd be unmarried all my life. Really sincerely. That was when I was about, just about that time when I was seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Lord showed me from Jeremiah 16. I was reading my Bible, and sometimes God speaks to you through a verse, and suddenly God spoke to me. I don't doubt it was the Lord. That day, my portion was Jeremiah 16. And I read there, the word of the Lord came to me saying, you know, I was often challenged by Jeremiah, because he was a shy man like me. And if you read the first chapter, he says, Lord, I'm so young. How can you ask me to speak? No, no, no. He says, you will speak. I will send, and I will be with you. And so Jeremiah was a great favorite of mine. He was persecuted and all that. And the Lord said to me, you shall not take a wife for yourself, nor have sons or daughters in this place. And I really felt the Lord was speaking to me. That was my daily portion. I didn't just choose a chapter. I'd go chapter by chapter of chapter. That day was Jeremiah 16. I said, sure, Lord. I thought about it. Fine. I was a young man full of the passions of youth. And the Lord says, never get married. I said, okay, I won't get married. And I really decided I will not get married. I was in the Navy. I had no plans at that time to leave the Navy, and God had not called me yet. And because I had a very attractive job, and I was a born-again Christian, there were other born-again Christian families, a number of them, who wanted their daughters to marry me. I got proposals. I would say, I'm sorry, I'm not getting married. It's very easy. I didn't even have to think about it. I didn't even have to say, I'll pray about it. God has already spoken to me. Sorry. Rejected, rejected, rejected. She's a very good girl, but God told me not to get married. And all my time in the Navy, I didn't waste my time looking at girls. Is that the girl for me? Is that the girl for me? You know how people go to a church, and they're always wondering, that sister, is that the one for me? Is that the one for me? I didn't have that problem at all, because I was not to be married. And I could spend all my time concentrated on studying the Bible. That's how I studied the Bible. I had no distractions, no girlfriends, nobody to even think of as a possible wife. And then one day God called me to leave the Navy, and I left my job. 1966, I was 26 years old. And by the time I had such a gift God had given me through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that I was preaching to 5,000 people, and they wanted to hear me again and again. I was only 24 years old, 26 years old when I left. And then I thought I'd leave the Navy. Nobody would be interested in marrying me now. I was bald and many disqualifications, and no salary. I refused to take a salary from anybody. That's it. In the eyes of others, jobless and not in a respectable Christian denomination. I was in a group that was not irrespective. Of believers, mostly all poor people in our churches. But all of a sudden I found, as I spoke in these big conventions and conferences, that some Christian parents wanted me to marry their daughter. Oh, this guy is going to be a famous preacher. Let's get our daughter to marry him. You know, naval officers and famous preachers are all attractive to people. And I said, Lord, I'm so weak. I don't know when I'll fall. Please protect me. How shall I save myself now? And then I met Annie, a wholehearted Christian who, the thing that attracted me about her was not that she was a doctor. I said, I don't care for doctors or income. She went to work among lepers. From the top medical college in India, graduate and go to work among lepers, and all the rest were going to America to become doctors there. Almost everybody in her class went off to America. She went to work among lepers. I said, wow. I said, if I ever marry anyone, that's the type of person I want to marry, who cares for the poor and the weak. And the lepers are the lowest in India. And she was the first lady doctor who went there. I said, Lord, but you told me not to marry, so I got to forget about it. And then you know what the Lord told me? Go and read that verse again. Okay. And he went back to Jeremiah 16, verse 2. You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor have sons or daughters in this place, in the Navy. Aha. It's amazing how the Lord did not make me blind to those last three words for all those years. And the Lord made me blind to those last three words so that I would never think of marriage when I was in the Navy. It's amazing. You know how the Lord hides something from us? I'm giving you my honest testimony. I'm not trying to say something spectacular. This is the absolute honest truth. Some of the things that God does for us are spectacular. I've experienced that in my life. It's sometimes unbelievable that God does such things. And so sure enough, the Lord led us to get married. And I saw that God had a plan. Now that I look back, we've been married 54 years, and someone who's completely one with me and was willing to give up her profession in order to help the poor. That's what we've done. She's never earned one cent as a doctor. She spent all her life as a mother, and she's helped the poor, of course, but never earned any money. Helped hundreds of people medically, still doing it even today, but not for money. And I saw that, as I look back now, that God had a plan in all these things, but I had to die completely to my choices, my preferences. So I see in the cross, I was telling you that some people have seen only one thing in the cross. Jesus died to forgive my sins. That's the next thing the Lord showed me was Romans chapter six, where he showed me the... So I just want to quickly tell you four things that I saw in the cross. Very quickly, you can meditate on it later. Number one, that Christ died for our sins. We all know that. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse three. Very simple. That's the elementary kindergarten stuff. 1 Corinthians 15 3. Christ died for my sins. You start there. Then the next thing the Lord showed me was Romans six. You know what baptism means? That we were baptized... Romans 6 3, we were baptized into Christ and baptized into his death. And so when we are put into the water, we are buried with him through baptism. So the water baptism is symbol of my being crucified with Christ. And come out of the water means raised up again. So that's the other meaning of the cross. That means when Jesus died, as it says here in verse six, my old man was crucified with him. Not only he died for my sins, that's number one. Something else happened. The old man, this man that wants to sin, this thing I was born with, inherited from Adam, was crucified with Christ. I believe that 90% of believers haven't even seen this. It really changed their life if they see it. Just like think if a nominal Christian one day really sees my sins were taken by Christ on the cross. I was a nominal Christian for 19 and a half years. I didn't go around committing sin, but I was not born again. Till one day I saw Jesus died for my sins. First step. Now I was forgiven. That's how all of you were born again. Before that you were just a namesake Christian. It's exactly like that. Second step. I never knew that my old man was crucified with Christ. Just like that nominal Christian has not accepted Christ and so is not born again, even though he believes all these truths intellectually. I never saw that my old man was crucified with Christ because he says, if you recognize this, so that, listen to this, your old man is crucified with Christ, Romans 6.6, so that this body of sin might be done away with, so that we will not serve sin anymore for the rest of our life. That I will not be a slave to sin. I was a slave to sin. Sin said, get angry. I would get angry. Sin said, cheat that a little bit. You can make a little more money. I did it in my unconverted days. Sin said, think that dirty thought. I would think a dirty thought. I was an absolute slave to sin, just like all of you were. When that man argues with you, argue him back and defeat him in that argument. That's what sin kept telling me. And I was an absolute slave to sin. But here it says you will never be a slave to sin once you understood the second truth. The first truth delivered me from condemnation. Oh, my sins are not forgiven. I knew I was forgiven, but I was defeated. The second truth is to deliver me from the slavery to sin. That when sin tells me to get angry, I don't get angry. That when sin tells me to think a dirty thought, I don't get a dirty thought. That when sin tells me to argue with that man and win the argument, I say no. No longer a slave to sin. Buried with Christ. Completely underground, under the water rather. That is baptism. And the power of the Holy Spirit raised Jesus up and anointing came upon him. John the Baptist lifted him up and the Holy Spirit lifts me up from that. He won't lift you up unless you go down fully. If you got a little bit above the water, nothing will happen. You got to go right down. And you got to search your own heart and see if everything in your life was surrendered. My ambitions. I had ambitions. They were put under the water. I had desires under the water. As you know, even marriage I said under the water. It's not for me. If God gives it to me, he has raised me up and then gave it to me. He raised me up and gave it to me. So this is the reason why many people don't, it says here in verse four, the last part, that we might walk in newness of life. Why is it so many Christians, even though they are born again, their sins are forgiven, Christ is their savior, they still live like many other people in the world. Same ambitions. They watch the same useless movies. I mean, dirty movies. There are Christians who watch pornography. Why is that? The young people who say they are born again, who are more interested in playing video games than in reading the Bible. Why is that? Is that how Jesus wants them to live? Something is missing in this Christianity. It is terribly missing. They have not accepted total death to self. And so they've missed out. They're in the kindergarten. Oh yes, they can read ABC. They say CAT is cat. BAT is bad. Two plus two is four. That all they know. Twenty-five years later, they still get 100%, but they're getting 100% in the kindergarten. So that's the second thing. The third thing in the cross is we read in Hebrews chapter 2, why did Jesus die on the cross? Hebrews 2.14, since the children share in flesh and blood, Jesus also took part. Why? He already saw two things. To take away my sin. Second, to crucify my old man, which is always wanting to sin. And third, to make Satan powerless against me. Isn't that amazing? This mighty Satan who knocked down Adam and Eve and throughout the Old Testament, knocked down great men of God, like David, man after God's own heart, the devil made him commit adultery with somebody's wife, kill her husband, marry him, marry that woman. The devil did that to David, the man after God's own heart. One wonderful brother whom Jesus chose to be a wholehearted disciple. He was a wonderful brother. The devil got him, Judas Iscariot, and made him betray Jesus. See what the devil can do. He was not a crook when he was chosen. You read in Luke chapter 6, he became a traitor later on. He was not a traitor when he was selected. What all the devil could do that, on the cross, he was made powerless. He could not have power over me. I was free. Up to the year 1776, America was ruled by the British. What the British king said, Americans had to do, whether they liked it or not. India was ruled by the same British people. Up to 1950, we became a republic. Then we had our own president. But till then, a lot of things the British said we had to do. Independence means you don't have to do what the ruler says. There are countries where Canada, Australia, you know who's their head? Who's the head of these countries? Queen of England. Yeah, they say we are independent countries, Canada, Australia, but the head is the queen. Many people say I'm Christian, but the devil's running certain areas of their life, certain departments. Some departments are under Christ, but certain departments are run by the devil. Imagine having an office where some departments are run by the devil in some areas of your life, financial areas, other areas. But imagine that power taken away. That's why he died. That Satan was defeated on the cross. I never knew that. But that delivered me from the fear of Satan. And the Lord said to me, as you have been afraid of Satan, from now on, Satan will be afraid of you. I said, wow, is Satan afraid of me? How many of you believe, let me ask you honestly, that Satan will be afraid of you? Many believers are afraid of Satan. I'll tell you this. I've seen this. Born-again believers, they're scared. Oh, you got to be careful, brother. No, don't go around there. The devil can do something for you there. There are believers I've heard of who hear noises in their house and things rattling and say the devil is here. I can't live in this house because it's haunted. Somebody died in this house and it looks as if the devil is the most powerful person even for believers. They're scared. I can go and live in any haunted house in the world and drive the devil right out of there because he was defeated on the cross. I know it. As sure as I am that my sins are forgiven, I know the devil was defeated. Not only the devil was defeated, I'm equally sure the devil is scared of me. I've seen that happen with demon-possessed people. The number of demon-possessed people we had to deal with in CFC, particularly in the villages of India, because they've been worshipping idols and all that. Till today, let me tell you my testimony. I have never seen a demon-possessed person where the demon did not go with one word. I didn't have to yell and shout and scream like I've seen in some churches. Do you ever see Jesus yelling and shouting and screaming to drive a demon out? No. Every time I have cast out a demon, I've said one word, in the name of Jesus Christ, get out of him, get out of her. Gone. He was defeated. I remember one sister once brought a young woman to our house. My wife and I were sitting there in our sitting room, and she was sitting there, and I thought he brought her for salvation. So I gave her the gospel, and I said this other sister was also sitting there, this new lady, and I said, now, you know what I always tell people, we not only deliver them from sin, now I want you to know you're free from the devil. So I want you to speak to the devil. He can hear you. Tell him you were defeated. Satan, you were defeated on the cross. Just say that. She turned around to me and turned, face changed her appearance and said, I was not defeated on the cross. I said, there's a demon inside this woman. She's talking to me. So when a demon speaks to me, I speak to the demon, and I told the demon inside this woman, you were defeated on the cross. You're a liar. Get out of her right now, you demon. Gone. Then I told her, now the demon's gone. Now tell Satan, Satan, you were defeated on the cross. I don't belong to you. She said it. It didn't even take one minute, a few seconds. Satan was defeated on the cross. Do you know that, my brother, sister? Are you scared of the devil? If you meet a demon possessed person, what do you do? If somebody tells you your sins are not forgiven, what do you say? You say, no, my sins are forgiven. Jesus died for me. Why can't you be just as certain that Satan was also defeated on the cross? Your savior wanted to save you from the fear of Satan as well. It says there, made him powerless. He's like a snake that's not dead. I don't say Satan is dead. He's a snake that's paralyzed. You're not afraid of a paralyzed snake. Let it be a viper. It cannot move. It's alive. You know what a paralyzed man is like? Lying on the bed. He can't do anything. He's not dead. I don't say Satan is dead. Think of a paralyzed man lying on the bed or a paralyzed snake. That's what Satan is. And I'm not scared of preaching that. I remember when some people asked me to pray for another lady who was once a believer and dabbled in some temple things and all that. And so when I went, I said to this lady, say, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. And the voice from her mouth said, tell her to say that. Don't tell me. There's a demon saying, don't tell me to accept Christ. So I said, get out of her in Jesus' name. Left. Then I told the lady, now say, Lord Jesus, come to my heart. She said it. It is as simple as that. I've always said to myself, if I have to speak to a demon twice, I don't have faith. Jesus said, you must go and pray and fast. Come back. I'd say, excuse me. Come and see you another day. I've got to fast and pray. Something's wrong with me, but that's never happened till today. Not because I'm anybody. Are you somebody great when you say that your sins are forgiven? Supposing you say all my sins are forgiven. Somebody says to you, don't boast as if you're such a great person. You're not boasting. Not at all. You're saying Jesus died for me. I believe it. So when I say demons are afraid of me, I'm not boasting. And you can say that too, if you believe it. I didn't hear some other voice from heaven saying Satan was defeated. I read the Bible. Hebrews 2.14. It's in your Bible too. Fourthly, why did Jesus become, did you know that Jesus became a curse on the cross? Curse. Curse is one of the worst words you can say to somebody. Curse. Jesus became a curse on the cross. Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three and verse 13. Amazing verse. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. That's why he had to be crucified. I once thought, why didn't he just be forsaken by the Lord, by the father in Gethsemane and suffer hell for me there and then die over there and be buried and be buried and resurrected three days later? Why this painful crucifixion and all? Why? He had to die. Why not die quietly in Gethsemane? No. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Verse 13. He had to be crucified. That's an old testament thing fulfilled on the cross. He hangs on a tree, cursing. Why did he become a curse? Taking my sins, I can understand. But to be cursed, defeating the devil, I can understand. To be cursed, you know why? Here it is. In order that. The reason is given there. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon me. I'm one of the Gentiles. So that I can receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of Abraham through the Holy Spirit. Now let's turn to the blessing of Abraham. Important because that's why Christ became a curse. Why did Christ die for my sins? Why did he defeat the devil? That I might never be afraid of the devil anymore. Why did he become a curse? So that the blessing of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12. The blessing of Abraham. The Lord said to Abraham, verse 2, middle of verse 2, I will bless you. And the last part of verse 2, you shall be a blessing. You'll be blessing to all the families, verse 3. I got it. This is the blessing of Abraham. He will bless me. And in Galatians 3.14, it says it is the Holy Spirit. That's the blessing. I'm not looking for money. I'm not looking for honor. That's all worthless garbage. The only blessing I want is the power of the Holy Spirit. And Christ died, became a curse. It says in Galatians 3.14 that I might have the promise of the Spirit and thereby get the blessing of Abraham. What is that? That I, such a weak, shy person, withdrawn type of person, I'm going to be a blessing. To every family I meet, I'll be a blessing. Today you look at me and say, yeah, Brother Zach, that's because of your personality. Rubbish. I wish you had known me, what I was like 60 years ago. You wouldn't believe it. God's word can be true. I can say that to the shyest, most withdrawn, hesitant person sitting here. I was more shy than you, more withdrawn, more reserved, fearful to stand in public or say anything, fearful even to give a testimony. But Jesus became a curse for me so that the blessing of Abraham might come to me, that I can be a blessing to others, and that every family I meet will be blessed in some way. Is it only for me? Isn't it in your Bible? Isn't Galatians 3.14 in your Bible? Claim it. There are so many checks lying in your mailbox. Why haven't you cashed them? There's so many checks in your Bible. I cashed them. That's the only difference between me and you and me. You got the same checks. I showed you four of them today. I cashed them, and I found the bank of heaven approved of all of them. It'll approve them for you too. Let's pray. Please don't say you heard a good message and go away. Go before God. Take this seriously. Get down before God when you go home and say, Lord, I've understood it a lot. Make it real. Make it real in my life. The work you did on the cross, the price you paid, such a tremendous price you paid for me on the cross, and I missed out on so much of it. Thank you for opening my eyes a little bit today. I want to see this more clearly. Holy Spirit of God, teach me much more than any man can teach. Make it living in my life that my life will be changed from today. Even if you never cast out demons, live a life overcoming Satan, that he has no power in your home, no power over your children, no power over your finances, no power over anything in your life. Heavenly Father, make these truths real in our life, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.