Preserving God's Standards - Part 2

And years later, after Paul died, 30 years later, when John writes to the same church in Ephesus, he says, you left your first love. Things are so bad. He says that the Lord says he's gonna come and take away the anointing. You're gonna be like, you're gonna be a dead church. And I think that happened in Ephesus a few years after Revelation chapter two was written. But in that church, the Lord spoke to the overcomers. He said, he who overcomes. And that means in the church in Ephesus, there were some people who refused to go in the direction their leaders were leading them. They followed scripture and Jesus. Jesus was their example. So they overcame. So what would have happened? I thought, it's not written in the Bible, but I tried to think what would have happened to the church in Ephesus when God finally removed the lampstand and the anointing from them and Jesus was no longer in their midst. I mean, it's amazing to see that Jesus was still in those churches for a long time. He was holding the leaders, but he warned them that he's gonna give up on them pretty soon. And when he did give up on them, you know what would have happened in Ephesus? A place where there was only one church that had been two churches. That's how denomination started, with a very good reason, because the overcomers, maybe there were only five of them in a church of three, 400. And those five would have said, hey, the Lord's not in this church anymore. And if the Lord's not here, why should we? Why should we be here? And they would have left. And they'd have started another church with five people, despised and criticized by the big church in Ephesus. Oh, these heretics have left and these rebels have left and all that. And those folks didn't say anything. They kept quiet, despised, rejected, called heretics, called false teachers, but the Lord was with them and they had life and power and joy and love in their midst and they lived overcoming lives. But give them a 50 years and they also grew to the size of 400 and the same story was repeated. And then the Lord had to look for overcomers in that church. So after a couple of hundred years, you see in Ephesus, there'd be three churches now. And the third one is one with five or six people in it, struggling. And now the third one is called a heretic by two big churches. That's a cult, it's a heretic group. And these people would suffer under that shame of being called heretics and despised but the Lord was with them and power and glory anointing. And then the same story would be repeated not after another 50 years. This has been the history of Christendom, cycle after cycle after cycle. We can say it's the principle of death and resurrection. That's the wonderful thing about the gospel. There's a resurrection too. Okay, one church died but out of it, there was a resurrection and maybe four or five people came out and there was another church which was pure. So many people say, why so many denominations in Christianity? Do you know that if there was only one denomination in Christianity today, Christianity would be totally dead? There would be no living Christian on the earth. I say, thank God for denominations. When you see how they started years ago, they started because of some people having a desire to stand for the truth. But the question is preserving yourself in that running well. And for that, we need a healthy fear. I believe that. I want you to see 1 Corinthians in chapter nine. 1 Corinthians chapter nine. Here again, he talks about a race. And he says, it's not a question of how you start the race. You know, that's what he was telling the Galatians. And now he's talking about it to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 9, 24. We can say the starting of a church is like the starting of a race. The starting of a Christian life, your Christian life, when you started it, when you were born again. You came to the starting line of a race. Think of a marathon race. 40 kilometers. This is, the Christian life is more than 40 kilometers. It's a huge marathon race that you run for many years. But you cannot join that race until you come to the starting line. I mean, if a marathon race is running over here, for example, in Bangalore, I can't just join in the middle and say, hey, I'm also in this. And maybe I'll come first. Because I jumped in ahead of everybody else on the 39th kilometer or something. Or 39.9 at my age to come first. Jump in there and say, I came first. And they say, no, you're not first. You never came to the starting line. So you got to come to the starting line. That is, you must be born again. You don't get there, no way of being part of the race. But he said, after you come to the starting line, don't you know, listen to this, don't you know that so many may run in a race? Thousands. But only one receives the prize. If there's only a first prize in a race, how many will get it? Only one. So the point is, it's not a question of how you start. It's a question of how you finish. In all races, even in school races, is there any prize for those who even in the kindergarten race, is there a prize for somebody who started off well? In the Olympic Games, the highest of all competitions, is there any prize for those who started well? There are numerous races where people started well, didn't even finish. Certainly didn't come first. So what shall we say? We know that so many run in a race, but only one receives a prize. But in the Christian race, notice what he says, run in such a way that you may win. In other words, every one of you can get the first prize, but you got to finish well. In the Christian race, he doesn't say only one will win the prize. All of you can run in such a way that you win. That's the encouragement. I mean, if I were to say, well, only one person is going to get the prize, that's probably going to be Paul or somebody, and forget it, I'm not even going to try. No, I can also win a first prize, and you can also win a first prize, but you'll never win it if you don't endure till the end. Running on the same track, not running on some other track which you find is more pleasant, and not taking any shortcuts, cheating, that you don't complete the 40 kilometers. If you run on the track and don't cheat, don't take shortcuts, follow the rules, and don't jump into somebody else's track. That's what I mean, don't judge other people. Watch your track, and say, Lord, I want to win the prize. I want to tell every one of you sitting here, you can win a first prize. Sure, you can. That's up to you to decide whether you want it or not. So, he says, if you want to win that prize, everyone who competes in the games, exercises self-control in all things. Have you ever seen a fat man coming to run the 100 meters race? I can take a bet on that man that he'll come last, and nobody will bet with me because they'll agree with me. He says, these guys discipline themselves to win the race. In the Christian life, it's not a question of the size of your waist, it's a question of the attitude of your heart. That's what determines whether you're slim and fit. And he says, that can only come through self-control. There are certain things. Think of a man who's planning to run a marathon race. He gets up at 5 o'clock every morning for 4 years, and says, I've got to run 40 kilometers today. And all that food that's going to make him fat, he says, I can't eat it. He likes it. I mean, his mouth may be watering for it, but he says, I've got a race to run, and I've got to win that. And I'm aiming for the Olympic gold. And so I won't do this, and I won't do that, and I will do this. I don't feel like getting up in the morning, he says, at 5 o'clock and running 40 kilometers. Who feels like that? Nobody feels like that. But I've got to do it because I've got a goal. I've got to get that Olympic gold. He does it, does it, does it, does it, does it. And one day you see him on the television, and he stands on the victory stand getting the Olympic gold, but you don't know what all went behind that. Years of discipline, of denying himself many things, of disciplining himself to do things that he did not like to do because he had a goal.