Relating to Christ as Our Bridegroom

As we stress in CFC, one of the main things we stress in CFC compared to other churches is that the other churches say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved, which is also a verse in scripture. And Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel in Mark 16. But in Matthew 28, he told us to go and make disciples.

So these are two great commissions, and it's very important for you young people to understand that the difference between these two great commissions. One is Mark 16 and verse 15, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. That's what most people are acting on.

Most Christians only talk about going as missionaries or preaching, witnessing to others. It's always based on Mark's gospel, which says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the world. But Jesus, before he went up to heaven, he said in Matthew 28, and this is the verse we go by, in Matthew 28 and verse 19, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

That is more than preaching the gospel. It's going, he says, go and make disciples of all nations. See, Matthew 28, verse 19 is not go and preach, but go and make disciples.

There's a difference between preaching and bringing people to Christ because they want to go to heaven and making them into disciples. So this is what we have emphasized in CFC from the beginning. It is not enough to get people to go to heaven.

And to tell you honestly, I have zero, I really mean it, I have zero interest in getting people to go to heaven. I myself have no interest in going to heaven. Now that may surprise a lot of people, but I'll tell you honestly, I am not looking forward to going to heaven.

I'm looking forward to being with my bridegroom, Jesus Christ, for all eternity. And I don't care where he is. If he lives on the earth, I'll be happy to be with him on earth forever.

I once told the Lord, Lord, if I'd be ready to be in hell, if you're there, because hell will become heaven for me. Many people are looking for, oh, when I die, I can go for a place where there'll be no problems, no trials. I don't care if I've got trials for all eternity.

If Jesus is with me, I'll be perfectly happy. And if you have that type of Christian life, my dear brothers and sisters, your life will be supremely happy here on earth also. You will have no complaints.

You will have no problems with other people because you're not taken up with a comfortable life. I'm not at all interested in a comfortable life or a luxurious life either on earth or in eternity. I mean that honestly.

When I was a young Christian and I did not know the truths of the Lord, it was great to think that when I die, I'll go to heaven and that Jesus loves me and I'm going to be with him. But the person of Christ was not primary to me. I'd study what heaven was like.

It was a wonderful place. So I want to first of all, deliver you from the desire to go to heaven and change you to have a desire to be with Jesus wherever he is, because that is what commitment to Christ means. You know, it's like when a young couple are in love with each other before they get married and if they continue like that after they get married, they will only want to be with each other.

It doesn't make a difference to them if they live in a hut or a palace. A girl who wants to marry a man, and unfortunately there are many girls like that, will marry a man because he's rich or because he's got a fancy car or because he's got a grand house and say, if I marry him, I live in that grand house. What type of marriage is that going to be? And that will be the crazy, I mean, insecure and shallow relationship that a believer has if he thinks of going to heaven when he dies.

So I want to change that mindset that there may be in you and think of being with Jesus wherever he is on earth and in eternity. The person of Christ, because I'll tell you, this is what changed my life and to be a disciple means what? What did the disciples do? The first 12 disciples, they were with Jesus all the time. Wherever he went, they were there.

He sent them out, but then they would come back to him. That is discipleship. It's like a husband and wife who are always wanting to be together.

And in that type of relationship, we never have any complaints. And if we have any problems, we have our heavenly bridegroom with us all the time. I'll tell you honestly, once I got into that type of relationship with Christ, my Christian life went to an altogether higher level.

There I understood the difference between Old Testament and New Testament. You know, in the Old Testament, nobody could have this type of love relationship with Jesus. They didn't know who Jesus was.

They only knew Almighty God, ruler of this universe, and they would speak to him. They could not even call him Father. We need to understand that things changed fundamentally when the Holy Spirit came and made the presence of Christ real to us.

That is why I tell all Christians, however young you are or old, you must ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit every day. I pray that every day. From the time the Lord filled me with the Holy Spirit 51 years ago, I have been continuously praying, Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That is the most important thing in my life. Because that, not to do miracles or any such thing, I have not done any miracles in my life. The Holy Spirit anointed me to preach the gospel, and he's really equipped me to preach the gospel, I know, because it's not my natural ability.

I was a very shy, reserved person when I was young, but when I was converted and God filled me with the Holy Spirit, he changed me completely into someone who was bold and fearless. So the Holy Spirit can change you. Some of you are timid and shy.

The Holy Spirit can change your personality completely, I know from my own experience. Some people are naturally bold and fearless. I was not like that.

Even now, I'm not an extrovert in personality, but the Holy Spirit changed me within that I could be a bold witness for Christ, and I believe that is the main thing you need, because what does the Holy Spirit do? He brings us to admire Jesus Christ and to love him. So John 17 and verse, John chapter 17 and verse 23 is the verse which I wanted you to have a look at, because this is one of the things the Holy Spirit made real to me when I was filled with the Holy Spirit 51 years ago, and this is the verse that changed my life. John 3, 16, as I said, is for the whole world, but John 17, 23, which also speaks about the love of God, is for disciples.

This is not for everybody. John chapter 17 is a prayer that Jesus prayed only for his disciples. He says that.

He says in verse 9, the whole chapter is a prayer, and in the middle of that chapter, he says in verse 9, I am asking on behalf of these disciples of mine. I am not asking on behalf of the world. So he makes a difference between the disciples and the world, and a person who just wants to go to heaven when he dies, I don't think he's a disciple.

A disciple is one who wants to follow Jesus wherever he is, and if you want to follow Jesus, here is John 17 is for you. Now if you only want to go to heaven when you die, then John 17 is not for you, but if you love Jesus and you want to be with him, John 17 is for you, and one of the things he says in John 17 and verse 23 is his prayer. Jesus is praying to the Father.

I pray in the middle of verse 23, please remember this all your life, John 17 23, that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them, that is the disciples, just as you loved me. Think of that expression. How many Christians in the world know and believe and live by this every day, knowing that God the Father loves me just as much as he loved Jesus Christ when Jesus was on the earth? You go and ask the average Christian, do you believe God loved his son Jesus on earth? Yes.

Do you believe God loves you as much as he loved Jesus? Oh, they say, how can that be? Well, that's why their life is so shallow. I did not believe that for nearly 16 years of my Christian life. But this verse became central in my life after that, that God loves me, a saved sinner, as much that God loves me, I know from John 3 16.

But this is the only verse in the Bible that teaches me that he loved me as much as he loved Jesus Christ. And I tell you this, it changed my life. And if you believe it, it'll change your life also.

All the insecurity and fear, what will happen to me in the future? And this problem has come into my life and that problem has come to my life and all that insecurity will completely disappear. If you believe this one truth, you don't need any other verse in the Bible. God loves me as much as he loved Jesus Christ.

And that is the time I wrote a song where it said, if what the Lord has done for Jesus, he will do for me. If God loves me as he loved Jesus Christ, everything that he did for Jesus, he will do for me. I'll tell you why I say that.

I've got four sons and I've never been partial to any one of them. Whatever I did for my eldest son, I did for the other three. Everything that I would do for my eldest son, I would do for the other three.

And I'm a very poor father compared to Almighty God. And if you say God is a loving father and there's no partiality with him, and the Bible says Jesus Christ is our elder brother, and if the Lord God Almighty does more for Jesus than he does for me, you have to say God is partial. Think of that.

Why do I say that God will do for me everything that he did for Jesus Christ? Not only because John 17, 23, but because I believe God is totally impartial. If I, as an earthly father, would do for my youngest children whatever I did for my eldest, God will also do. Jesus Christ is called the eldest brother in the church.

If you don't know that verse, please look at Romans chapter 8. I'm trying to get your faith founded not on my words, but on scripture. So please remember these verses, even if you write it down and look them up later. These are very important verses.

Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 is well known. God makes everything work together for good to those who love him. That's a very well-known verse among Christians, but I never in my life heard anybody connecting it with verse 29, but God opened my eyes to see that, and I preached it all over the world.

Now other people have heard me and are also preaching it. I'm so happy to hear that. I hear people who listen to me on YouTube from other churches preaching that Romans 8, 28 is connected to verse 29.

That thrilled my heart that they have seen it finally. Have you seen that the good works, for example, Romans 8, 28, God will make everything work together for your good to those who love him. What is that good? Many people think he'll give me more money or give me a better job or give me a good wife or a good husband.

That's not the greatest good God can do to us. Those are all very, very small little things like a drop in the ocean. What is the main thing? The main, the best thing that God can do for you and me, if God were to ask you, my son, my daughter, tell me one thing you want me to do for you, just one thing.

What will be your answer today? The Lord comes to you today, right now and says, my dear son, my dear daughter, tell me one thing you want me to do for you, I'll do it for you. What will you ask him for? Is it a healing from some sickness? I hope not. Even if I got cancer, that's not the first thing I'll ask God for because we are so taken up with these earthly things that we ask for these earthly things, give me a good job, give me more money, give me a better house, give me healing.

I'll tell you what I ask for. Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus Christ. Everything else will fall into place if that happens in my life.

I cannot make myself like Jesus, fill me with the Holy Spirit and make me a little more Christ-like every day. I don't ask for anything else. All the other things will fall into place, sickness, job problems, any other problem, marriage, everything will fall into place if this is your primary prayer.

Seek the kingdom of God first. Make Jesus king in your life first. All the other things will be added to you.

So it's our relationship with Christ that is most important. So here in Romans 8, 28, it says all things work together for good to those who love God. And the next verse tells us what that good is.

And that good is that God is destined that we should be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That is the good. So I see that Romans 8, 28, when read with verse 29, proves the greatest good that God can do for you and me is to make me more Christ-like every day.

And you know, that should be the way we are walking. You know that the Christian life is not just entering through a gate, but walking a way as well. Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. Here's another mistake that a lot of preachers are making.

They say you accept Jesus as your savior and you're insured to go to heaven when you die. Is that what Jesus said? Let's read carefully. Matthew chapter 7. The whole of Matthew 5, 6 and up to chapter 7, middle of chapter 7, is such a high standard.

And at the end of it, you know what Jesus calls this? He calls it a narrow way. What is this narrow way that he mentions in verse 14? He says there is a narrow gate, small gate, Matthew 7, 14, that leads to life. Many people say there's only a gate.

They have changed the word of God. Please read Matthew 7, 14, the way it is written in Scripture. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.

You ask an eight-year-old boy or girl, listen, my child, how do you get to life? Is there a gate or a way or only one or both? You read that verse and tell me. He'll say there is a gate and a way. Eight-year-old child will say that because that's what Jesus said.

Yet most preachers today say there's only a gate. You accept Jesus as your Christ, you come inside the gate, and you come to life. But read carefully.

The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. I use the example of the marathon race. In the Olympics, there's a marathon race for 26 miles.

The starting line is where they begin the race, and that's like entering through the gate. Then the way is the long 26-mile race. At the end of it is the finishing line.

The Christian life is exactly like that, a marathon race. Hebrews 12, verse 2 says, let us run the race, looking unto Jesus, who has run this marathon race in front of us, as our forerunner. So there's a gate and a way.

Any preacher who tells you there's only a gate is a deceiver. Jesus said there's a small gate and a narrow way. At the end of it is life.

So I enter through the gate when I accept Christ as my Savior. I pick up the cross and walk every day, and that's how I walk the way. At the end of it, I find life, eternal life with Jesus forever and ever and ever.

The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and very few find it. There are many people who find the gate, but very few who find the gate plus the way. So I want to deliver all of you from deception.

It is the gate plus the way that leads to life, and that way is what is described in the previous chapters of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, 6, and chapter 7. So how shall we, when we understand that God loves us as He loves Jesus, it's a love relationship that the Lord wants to have with us. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4. You know why the Apostle John in his first letter speaks so much about love. If you check up in the concordance of the word love in 1 John, it comes so often because John had a loving relationship with Jesus.

He was leaning upon Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. He was so close to the Lord. He was closer than Peter.

He was closer than anybody else. It was not Peter who was leaning on Jesus' breast in the Last Supper, it was John. And John had this wonderful love relationship with Jesus, and that's why he writes so much about it in his first letter.

And he says in 1 John, listen to this verse, verse 19, we love Him because He first loved us. Now, if you want to know why many people don't love Jesus fervently, here's the answer. They don't know how much He loved them.

If only we knew how much Jesus loved us, we would love Him with all of our heart. There's an example that I'll give from my own life. I've repeated it many times, many sermons, you may have heard it also, but I'll repeat it here for the benefit of those who have not heard it.

After God filled me with the Holy Spirit 51 years ago, I said, Lord, can you tell me, what were you struggling with in Gethsemane for one hour in prayer? You know, we read that before He went to the cross, He was in the garden of Gethsemane, and He was praying, and He prayed for one hour and the sweat came out of His body, not as salty water, but as blood. That means there was an intense suffering He went through during that. I've never heard of anybody sweating blood, but He sweated blood because He was going through an intense pressure within.

And I said, Lord, can you explain that to me? What is that intense pressure? This is the picture the Lord gave me at that time of Gethsemane. It's imaginary, but it helped me. I imagine that the Father spoke to Jesus, saying, you can come straight up from Gethsemane to heaven.

You don't have to go to the cross, because you've lived a perfect life, all your 33 and a half years, you can come straight up to heaven, but Zach will go to hell if you come straight up. And then Jesus says, oh, Zach will go to hell. Okay, Father, then I will go to the cross.

Till today, I mean, the Lord spoke that to me nearly 50 years ago. But till today, I can never forget that. It moves me.

Every time I think of it, that Jesus says, okay, for Zach's sake, I'll go to the cross, because I don't want him to go to hell. That was the day I remember I wept, and I wept, and I wept. And I said, Lord, for the rest of my life, I will never, never live for myself.

I don't want anything on this earth. Even today, I say I don't want anything on this earth. I will only live for you, because I saw your love there for me in Gethsemane.

Many people have seen Jesus' love on the cross of Calvary, he died for them. I saw his love in Gethsemane, that he chose to go to the cross. And that's why he says, John says, we love him, because he first loved us.

And I've discovered from that, the reason why many Christians don't love Jesus fervently. They love money, or they love their job, or they love some girl or some boy, or something other than Christ. I'll tell you why.

Because they have not understood how much Jesus loved them. When I understood how much Jesus loved me, I could not but respond in saying, Lord, I'll never love anyone or anything else more than you. I remember when I met my wife, Annie, before we got married.

I told her straight, you will always be number two in my life, second. You will never be first in my life. You will always be second.

And I want to be second in your life. I want Christ to be first in your life and my life, then we will have a very happy marriage. And we are actually 58 years married today, exactly 58 years ago, we were married.

And it's the same today. I say to her even today, you're second in my life, and I'm second in her life. And that's why we have a very happy marriage, because Christ is first.

We never love anyone more than Jesus Christ. So what I want to say is this, like John says, we love him because he first loved us. I want to ask you whether you have a relationship with Christ which is based on love.

You know, you think of many boys and girls who love each other so madly in love with each other, as they say, they can't even think of being without each other and lovers sometimes go and like to be by themselves alone, sit for hours and hours, talking to each other and they're not bothered about anything else in the world. And they don't know the passage of time and they're in love with each other. There are people who are in love with each other like that.

And I asked myself, am I in love with Jesus like that? I believe I've come there. To me, the most important thing in life is even more important than being with my wife is to be with Jesus Christ. And that is why my love relationship with my wife is so close and so happy.

Because Christ is first, and in her life also Christ is first. And that's why I have no problems with believers in any church. I can love those who hate me and I can love those who create problems for me because it's not a horizontal relationship I have with any believer.

My relationship with every believer in the world is not horizontal. It's vertical. It's through Christ I love that person, through Christ I love the other person, through Christ I love my wife.

The result is it's a perfect love. And you know, the Bible says that we are members of Christ's body. Okay, let me ask you, how does this right hand of mine work with my left hand? It's not directly.

It's not because they're always holding hands each other. It's not this type of love relationship, two brothers who love one another or husband and wife who love one another, no. It is because this hand is connected to the brain and this hand is connected to the brain.

They always work together. We can do, I can do many things together. These hands can do many things together because both are connected to the head.

They never fight with each other. This hand has never had an argument with this hand or a fight with this hand, never. Can you say that? How many husbands and wives can say I've never had a fight with my wife or husband? If you're connected to the head, you will never have a fight or a quarrel or an argument with your marriage partner.

It's learned from the body. The Bible says we are members of Christ's body. Why do you have problems with other people in your church or with other believers? I'll tell you why.

Because your relationship with that person or his relationship with you is not through Christ. It's through directly. We try to love each other and not through Christ.

I don't try to love anybody like that. I want to love a brother through Christ. Then it doesn't make a difference to me how he behaves towards me.

It doesn't matter if he insults me, I love him. If he doesn't care for me, I'll still respect him and love him. If he does not respect me, I'll respect him.

Because my relationship is not direct. Seek to love people through Christ. In other words, let your primary relationship not be horizontal with other people, but vertical with Jesus Christ.

So we have to build up our vertical relationship with Jesus Christ and have a commitment to him if we want to really live this Christian life. And this is where many, many young people have failed, and I'm very happy that the Lord opened my eyes to me that when I was very young. I was converted when I was 19 and a half, but because I grew up in an Orthodox Syrian church, I was baptized as a baby.

And when I got converted, I did not know that I had to be baptized properly, which is immersed. That took me about one and a half years. I won't go into that.

But anyway, at the age of 21, I obeyed the Lord in baptism, but that was a turning point in my life. I suddenly began to be taken up with the presence of the Lord. And I was on a ship.

And most of the ships in the Indian Navy are warships, battleships and destroyers and frigates and things like that, where they always are exercising for war. And everybody likes to be in those ships. I also wanted to be in one of those ships because that's exciting.

But the Navy also has got one or two what they call survey ships. Survey ships are the most boring ships to be on because they don't go into battle. They're always going around the coastline of India, measuring the depth of the sea and making charts because, you know, we need charts for the ships to know how deep the water is in all along the coast of India.

And the coast of India has always got to be surveyed because the depth of the water changes. Mud can accumulate, etc. So a survey ship is a naval ship that goes all the time around the coast of India to all the uninhabited places, measuring the depth of the sea.

It's a very boring job. And at the age of 21, I got transferred to that ship. Nobody likes to go to that ship.

And I was very disappointed. But what to do? You can't fight with the orders from naval headquarters. So the end result was, you know, the survey ship never goes to any inhabited towns because they're always going to these uninhabited places where the sea has not been surveyed.

So the end result was for one year, I was almost in the ship the whole time. I could never go out to town anywhere because it was always in uninhabited villages that we were going moving around the ship. What is the result? I had a room to myself in the ship and I was all alone.

Unfortunately, I was born again, baptized, but I did not know how to study the Bible. But I had picked up one book from my father's library when I went to that ship. I didn't know anything about that book, but it was a commentary on the Song of Solomon.

Now I did not know what Song of Solomon was. I knew it was one of the books in the Bible, but God allowed me to pick up that book. I didn't know why.

So what is the result? You know, for one year, I sat and I didn't know how to study the Bible, but I had this commentary with me. So I studied the Song of Solomon as the first book in the Bible I studied. Now the wonderful thing about the Song of Solomon, as I read this book, was that it is speaking of a love relationship between a bride and a bridegroom.

I'm so thankful now when I look back that the Lord began my Christian life teaching me how to love my heavenly bridegroom more than anything else. He didn't teach me the doctrines of justification and sanctification and the second coming and the things connected with the return of Christ and all these things other people are occupied with. He taught me to love him based on the Song of Solomon.

I'll show you, you know, when I studied the Bible in those days, I would make notes on and there's no book of mine like Song of Solomon. Let me show you this. This is the Song of Solomon in my book.

See the number of notes I made in it. You see this? This is how I studied the Bible and it is a Song of Solomon more than any other book. Every page is like this.

This is how I studied Song of Solomon during that one year on the ship. It changed my life and God gave me a foundation, not based on doctrinal justification or sanctification or second coming, no. Based on my beloved Jesus loves me and I love him.

And, you know, when I look through Song of Solomon 26 times, the bride says, my beloved, my beloved, my beloved. There's no place in the Bible where Jesus is called beloved 26 times in a book. I said, Lord, this is what you're trying to teach me, not to be a preacher to explain justification and sanctification and the return of Christ and all that, but to first of all develop in my heart a love relationship with my beloved, where Jesus becomes my beloved.

See let me show you a verse in Song of Solomon. I would encourage you to read it. You know, I was young.

I was 21 years old and you'd think, oh, this is all not a sexual type of stuff. But I knew this is spiritual. The Lord is not writing about sex relationship in Song of Solomon.

So, I could read it even though I was a young 21-year-old and relate it to me and Jesus Christ. See, for example, this verse, Song of Solomon chapter 2, verse 16. Song of Solomon chapter 2, verse 16.

See what it says here. My beloved is mine and I am his. That's all.

That's enough for me. My beloved is mine and I am his. And that comes many times.

It comes later on towards the end of Song of Solomon also. My beloved is mine, Song of Solomon chapter 6 and verse 3. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. This is the way the bride lived here.

And she would say things like chapter 7, verse 11. Come my beloved, let us go out into the country. Let us spend the night in the villages.

Let us rise up early and go there. Come my beloved, let's go here. Let's go there.

Amazing. And I said, Lord, this is how I wanted to be in my life. This is how I wanted to be.

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. And I saw that this is, you know, when you read the whole, so I don't have time to go through the whole thing, but I see the bride admiring the bridegroom. See for example, Song of Solomon chapter 1 and verse 16.

How handsome you are, my beloved, and so pleasant. Wonderful words like this. Chapter 2 and verse 9. My beloved is like a gazelle a yanking, he's standing behind our wall.

My beloved responded and said to me, arise my darling, verse 10, my beautiful one, come along. You know, and many, many, I don't have time to go through all these passages, but this is what I studied for one whole year. It changed my life when I saw that this is what true Christianity is, a love relationship with Jesus Christ.

I praise the Lord for that. I wish that for all of you. And why do I say that? Because if you turn to 1 John, first epistle of John and chapter 3, I ask people this question, what are you looking forward to? And a Christian would say, I'm looking forward to the coming of Christ.

Yeah, that's true. But it's more than that for me. Not just I'm looking forward to the coming of Christ, because in 1 John 3, turn with me to 1 John 3 and verse 2. Here in 1 John 3, verse 2, it says, the last part, when he appears, we will be like him.

That's what I'm looking forward to. There are two things there. He appears and we will be like him.

Now which of these two is important for you? Only that he appears and you'll see him? What about the second part? When he appears, we will be like him. I want to ask you, dear brothers and sisters, do you have a passion to become like Jesus Christ? If you really love him, you'll want that. When he appears, we will be like him.

And we will see him as he is. There are two things in the last part of 1 John 3, verse 2. We will see him as he is, and that is all that many believers are looking forward to. Christ comes, I will see him as he is.

Good. I also believe that. But the second part of it, when I see him as he is, I'll be like him.

That's what excites me the most. What about you? Change your perspective. Say, Lord, I'm not looking forward to just seeing you when you come.

That yes, definitely. But also that when I see you, I will be like you. Now, if you believe that, what should you do? This is what I was coming to.

I don't stop there. I don't stop at 1 John 3, verse 2. You go to the next verse. 1 John 3, verse 3. Everyone who has this hope, what is the hope? You ask many Christians, what is your hope? I guarantee 99.9% will say my hope is that I'll see Jesus face to face.

But I'll tell you, that's not my hope. That's only half my hope. My hope is that I'll see him face to face and I will become like him.

1 John 3, verse 2. And it says, if you have this double hope, verse 3, in you, what will you do? You will purify yourself just as he is pure. There's no use saying I'm expecting the coming of Christ. If you're really expecting the coming of Christ, that you will be like him when he comes.

You'll be purifying yourself all the time. Lord, I want to be like you. I want to be like you.

And I want to cleanse myself from everything that's unlike Christ in my life. And this is what I've been doing for the last many years in my life. That's what made my life so happy.

It's made my married life so happy. It's made my service for the Lord so joyful. I have zero complaints in my life because my passion is to become like him and I purify myself.

Everyone who has this hope purifies themselves. So if I were to ask you, do you have the hope of the second coming of Christ that you'll see him? I think all of you will say yes. But hang on.

1 John 3 says, if you really have this hope, you'll be purifying yourself. That's what it says. Everyone, no exception.

Everyone who really has this hope that I will see Jesus when he comes and I'll be like him, he'll keep on purifying himself until, verse 3, until he reaches Christ's standard of purity. Have you reached Christ's standard of purity? I have not. But I'll tell you honestly, I'm pressing on every day.

I'm seeking with all my heart to cleanse myself to become a little more like Jesus every day. That is the passion of my life. And that should be the passion of your life too, if you're a true disciple of Jesus.

This is what it means to be firmly committed to Christ. What does it mean? Commitment is a word I've used in marriage. That's why Song of Solomon is so relevant to your subject, being committed.

A bride, what does she do at the wedding day? She commits herself to the man saying, I'm going to be with you for the rest of my life. But a true Christian says more than that, I want to be like you, Lord, more and more every day as I walk with you. And I'll tell you how we can do that.

Let me tell you the answer is very, very simple. It's not a complicated thing. Of course, you must read the Bible.

Because when you read the Bible, let me show you this beautiful verse in John 16. John 16, we see this verse. How can we become like Jesus Christ? First thing, you must know what Christ is like.

You say, well, that's in the Gospels. Not everything is in the Gospel. You read the whole Gospel, what you read is Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, stilled the storms and walked on the water and all those things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And preached so many wonderful sermons. I'm not talking about those things at all.

I'm not talking about all the external things that Jesus did, which are written in the Gospels. I'm talking about what we read in John 16. Jesus said, I am the truth, the way, the truth and the life.

He said that in chapter 14. Then he said in John 16, 13, when the Holy Spirit has come, he will guide you into all the truth. And verse 14, this is a beautiful verse, John 16, 14.

Meditate on it. The Holy Spirit will glorify me, Jesus said. And he will take of mine and disclose it to you.

Now, do you know the difference between telling you something and disclosing something to you? There's a difference. If the Holy Jesus is the Holy Spirit will tell you something about me. That's one thing.

But when Jesus says the Holy Spirit will disclose something about me to you, it means. Disclose is a word that relates to something that's hidden. Some hidden matter which you cannot see.

And the Holy Spirit uncovers it. And shows you, in other words, not the external life of Jesus. How he cared for sinners and he loved sinners and he forgave sinners.

Not that. But disclose means he takes away the surface and shows you what Jesus was like inside. I want to see what Jesus is like inside because I want to be like him inside me.

I've never healed the sick or raised the dead. I'm not trying to imitate Jesus in these external things. We can't imitate him in those external things.

That's a matter of ministry. But the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will take of mine and reveal, disclose and show you something that's hidden. I want to ask you.

Has the Holy Spirit ever shown you something of the hidden life of Jesus Christ? He has shown me so many things about the hidden life of Jesus. And shown me that I can be like him in those hidden areas. Because when you're like him in the hidden areas, that will come forth on the outside.

I'll tell you why this is important. Because if you only try to be like Christ on the outside, you'll be an actor or an actress. You'll behave like Jesus when you're with other people.

You'll try to talk like Jesus and behave like him and do things on the outside. But it's not your real self. It's like a wolf trying to act like a lamb, put on a lamb's clothing and act like a lamb.

That is what most Christians are doing. They are trying to act like Jesus on the outside. But a real lamb does not have to act.

A real lamb just is itself. And the Lord says, I will so change you inside that you don't have to act like Jesus Christ at all. You will automatically behave like him.

Because he's worked in you inside. You know, if you could take a wolf and change his inside into a lamb, then he does not have to act like a lamb. He will be a lamb himself.

That is the main secret I want to tell all of you. Please don't ignore this. This is the fundamental truth of Christianity, which many people have not seen.

The Holy Spirit, it says here, will take of mine and show you the hidden things in my life. Hidden attitudes. And he'll change you into that.

Praise the Lord. I'm so thankful for that. I'll give you one example, which I've quoted in other places also.

When you do something for somebody, when you do a kindness to another believer, and do you expect him to thank you? Yeah, it is normal. And if you do a number of things for somebody and he doesn't thank you, a thought will come into your mind. What an ungrateful person this chap is.

I've done so many things for him. He doesn't even say thank you to me. And that happened to me many, many years ago.

I think about 45 years ago. There was a young brother who was with us in our local church in Bangalore. And we did so many things for him.

I did so many things for him. He used to stay in our house because he was young. He would sleep overnight in our place and get up in the morning, go to the kitchen and make coffee himself.

He was so free in our home. And we did everything possible for him because his parents were not believers. And then he graduated.

And he went off to another town in India. And I never heard from him. He had a good job.

And I began to think. I said, what an ungrateful guy this is. After all the years that we did so much for him.

He doesn't even write a thank you note. And that's the time the Lord convicted me. Why are you expecting a thank you note from him? I said, Lord, I did so much for him.

And the Lord said, you know that story. Which Jesus told a story once in Matthew 25. You know how people come to him in the last day.

And Jesus says to them. I'm so thankful that when you were thirsty, you gave me something to drink. This is Matthew 25 and 37.

And you gave me verse 35. You gave me something to drink. You invited me to your home.

And you clothed me when I was naked. Matthew 25, 36. And the righteous will answer and say in verse 37.

Lord, when did we do all that? We never saw you in our life. What do you mean that we fed you and gave you a drink and clothed you and all that? And the Lord says, here's the answer. And when you did this for the least of my disciples.

When you did this to the least of my disciples. Verse 40, Matthew 25, 40. You did it to me.

Have you understood that? That when you serve the child of God. When you help him or feed him or clothed him or do anything for him. Jesus says you're doing it unto me.

But what the Lord told me at that time was. If you help this young brother for so many years in your home and in the church. The Lord said you did it to me.

So who should thank you? That brother or me? My eyes were open that day. That when I serve a brother. I'm serving Christ.

And so I do not expect any thanks from that person. I expected directly from Jesus one day when he comes back. How many of you have understood that? I'll tell you the result of that in my life.

I don't expect thanks from anybody in the world now. Because I don't do anything as unto them. I do it as unto the Lord.

I'm happy to serve all of God's people. But I don't want any of them to come and thank me. I don't want any of them to do anything in return for me.

Because I did for them. No, I expect nothing. Because I did it as unto the Lord.

Do you know the number of believers who got complaints? I did this for that person. He was not grateful. I did so much for them and they did not do anything for me.

Why is all this complaints? They have not done it unto the Lord. They've done it unto man. I'm giving you one example of how the Holy Spirit takes the hidden life of Jesus and shows it to us.

He showed me the hidden life of Jesus. That he did everything as unto the Father. I could tell you many, many things like that the Lord showed me in my life.

I'll tell you just one more thing. You know, when Jesus never got up. Anybody read in John chapter 7? Jesus went to Jerusalem.

That was not his hometown. He was in Nazareth. He walked three days from Nazareth.

He was in Capernaum. From Capernaum he walked three days to Jerusalem. And we read in John 7, 37 he was preaching in the temple.

And he was in Jerusalem. It's a strange place. It's like a new place.

He doesn't have a house to live in. And at the end of his sermon and all these people listened to him and they were blessed. Not a single person invited Jesus to come and stay with him in their home.

Now, I'm a preacher. I've traveled to many, many cities in the world. But I'll tell you honestly, in every single place, somebody has invited me to come and stay in their home after the meeting was over.

I've never been stranded. But here Jesus was stranded. Because at the end of the sermon, John 7, it says in verse 53, John 7, 53, everybody went to their own home.

But nobody invited Jesus to come to their home. And Jesus was stranded alone. This great preacher who had come, walked three days from Capernaum and blessed all these people.

Not one of those people was blessed, invited him to their home. What did he do? Did he complain? No. It says he quietly, chapter 8, verse 1, went to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus looked up and said, it's not raining. I don't need to stay in a home. I can sleep out in the open under the tree of Mount of Olives.

I said, Lord, give me an attitude like that. That if I go somewhere and nobody invites me to stay in the home and I have to sleep under the open trees, I will not complain. I'll be thankful and be happy.

And we read the next day, John 8, verse 2, he came in the morning and again sat in the temple and preached. Now the average preacher, listen to this. If that happened to an average preacher today, the next morning when he comes to teach us, his first sentence will be, last night when I was sleeping under the trees, just to hint to people that none of you invited me to your home.

Jesus was not like that. He never dropped any hints to make people feel hurt. Do you ever do that? These are the little things the Holy Spirit will take of the inner life of Jesus and show it to us.

I want to urge you, my dear brothers and sisters, for the rest of your life, ask the Holy Spirit not to show you the external things of Jesus, how he raised the dead, how he healed the sick and all that. No, no, no, no. Ask him to show you the inner life of Jesus, how he never expected thanks from anybody.

He never expected anybody to invite him to stay in their house. He never expected anything from anyone. He came to serve and serve and serve and serve and serve and never expected thanks, never expected gratitude, never expected anything from anyone.

And when it was not given to him, he had no complaints. And he would not even hint. Lord Jesus, make me like you.

Everyone who has the hope that one day he'll become like Christ will purify himself now. This is what it means to be committed to Christ. This is what the bridegroom, the bride said to the bridegroom and son of Solomon.

I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine and I want to be more and more like him. My dear brothers and sisters, I'll tell you, I've been a Christian for 67 years now and I can tell you, your life will be an extremely happy life. You will have no anxiety, no fear about anything.

Some of you may have problems in your life. Okay, all that anxiety and fear in your life will go if you come to this inner walk with Jesus Christ. You'll have no complaints against a single human being, leave alone believer, no complaints against any believer, no complaint against a human being.

If you ask the Holy Spirit to show you the inner life of Jesus and you walk with him and say, Lord, my main aim in life is not to go to heaven. No, not at all. Not even just to see you, but to become like you when I see you.

And that process starts now. And you know what you should do? Every time your conscience convicts you about some small thing, set it right immediately. That's how we become like Jesus.

Whenever your conscience tells you that was a wrong thought you had about that person, confess it, forsake it. Or you spoke one rude word to your wife or to somebody else, to anyone, to your mom or dad, confess it, forsake it. You walk like that, I tell you, by the time you come for next year's conference, you'll be another person.

You'll be more like Jesus Christ than you are today. If you want such a life, take seriously what you heard today. God bless you.

Let's just pray. Please bow with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that every one of us, everyone's heard it now, Lord, I pray they'll be gripped by it.

I pray this tremendous truth, Heavenly Father, that you love us just like you love Jesus. You will do for us what you did for Jesus. I pray that everyone here will be gripped by it.

These young people, what a tremendous future there can be for these young people in the future. How much you can bless them and use them and make them a blessing to multitudes in the world. Please help them, Lord, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to see the inner life of Jesus, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live like that.

I pray this camp will be a complete turning point for everyone who has come. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.