The Essence of Christianity

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:01][music] [singing] [music] >> Amen. Hallelujah. So, um Um well, you're welcome again to uh time with uh with the word of God.

[00:00:22]And uh I believe for that God will reveal himself to us more and more today in the name of Jesus and that God will give us um the willingness to follow after him.

[00:00:38]To do his will. To please him in our ways, in our words, in our actions, in our thoughts.

[00:00:47]In the name of Jesus.

[00:00:49]All right. So, we want to look at the essence of Christianity.

[00:00:54]The essence of Christianity.

[00:00:59]Um when we ask someone whether you're Christian or not, um there are certain things that uh we expect to hear from them. Yes, I'm a Christian.

[00:01:15]I I attend this and this and this church or maybe not.

[00:01:20]Um I have surrendered my heart to Jesus.

[00:01:26]I believe Jesus died for me and that uh he died so that if I believe him, uh he would give me eternal life because um the life is in him according to to the word of God.

[00:01:46]Uh and so, when we question if a person is a Christian, it has things to say why he believes he is a Christian.

[00:02:02]Um we're going to look into the word of God and see uh what the word of God says about about who a Christian is, the essence of Christianity.

[00:02:21]Um the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel of the power of God unto salvation. That's That's That's what the gospel of Jesus is.

[00:02:35]And salvation from what? Salvation from the dominion of of Satan, from the dominion of sin, uh from the dominion of evil.

[00:02:53]And uh we we have to understand how um how man is configured um to to do things or to to think things that are not holy, that are not good, that are not okay.

[00:03:13]It started from the garden of Eden when God said those two trees, um there's one there.

[00:03:23]You may eat of all the trees there.

[00:03:26]Um and and the tree of life was there, too.

[00:03:29]But so you may eat of all the trees, but of this particular one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, uh God said don't eat of it because the day you eat of it, you will die.

[00:03:44]And so uh well, Adam was the one that heard directly from God.

[00:03:56]But Eve heard from Adam.

[00:04:02]And as a result, uh Eve added a little part into it that God did not tell Adam.

[00:04:13]The little part Eve added to eat was that when Satan when the serpent came to her and said, "Did God say you shall not eat of the trees of the garden?"

[00:04:25]She said, "No, no, no, no. God did not say that. What God said was that tree that is in the middle of the garden. He said we should not eat it and we should not touch it unless we die." God did not say don't touch it. He said, "Don't eat it."

[00:04:41]But she added her own cautions to emphasize the fact that we're not even supposed to move close to it.

[00:04:50]And uh you know, Satan said, "Oh, you you're not going to die.

[00:04:55]God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will open and you will know good and evil.

[00:05:00]You'll be able to differentiate between good and evil."

[00:05:04]And so, yeah. So, she fell for it. So, from that day there was an exchange.

[00:05:13]An exchange of the life of God, "Let us make man in our own image and after our likeness."

[00:05:21]The image of the likeness of God that was in man was switched because of that disobedience of eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

[00:05:42]And that became a part of his of his of the configuration of man.

[00:05:49]It became a part of man.

[00:05:52]And what that means is that you know, a baby is born in in that in that uh in that likeness of Adam. And uh from the day of Adam till now, you know, uh whoever is born of a of a woman is born in sin.

[00:06:12]And that's why we all need salvation.

[00:06:16]And the salvation we need has already been done, has already been procured for by Jesus Christ. He became the offering for sin. He became sin for us, the Bible says, so that we might become we might be transformed or we might become in the likeness of of of God uh through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, um Jesus died, he shed his blood um in order to sprinkle his blood upon the mercy seat of God. In the book of Hebrews, the Bible says he took his blood, he sprinkled it on the mercy seat of God. And after he had done that, the blood cleanses, the blood speaks mercy uh before before the Father that God will have mercy on humankind. But you have to receive him, you have to accept him, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order for you to become a partaker of that forgiveness of sin.

[00:07:21]And it's after the forgiveness of sin that you can be assured of going to heaven, of going to heaven to live with him for eternity. So, uh that's just uh a summary of of how uh one becomes a Christian.

[00:07:41]The Bible makes us to understand uh the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God onto salvation.

[00:07:50]And and this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel of his power because the Bible says that he is the word that became flesh.

[00:08:01]So, he is the word of God that became flesh.

[00:08:06]Okay.

[00:08:07]All right. So, he is the word.

[00:08:10]And that word became flesh. That's who Jesus Christ is.

[00:08:17]And so, in order for us to um to live the life he wants us to live we have to know what his word is.

[00:08:31]Because it is by his words that the heavens and the earth became.

[00:08:38]It's only by his word or through his word that we have light because his word is life.

[00:08:47]And he is the word.

[00:08:50]So, in order for us to know who uh the one that is born of God that the one that is a Christian is, we have to look into the word of God to see so, the essence of Christianity.

[00:09:08]Please open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12.

[00:09:19]Let's take to read there from verse one.

[00:09:22]It says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may be able to prove what is that good, what is that acceptable, and what is that perfect will of God.

[00:09:54]So, from this passage, we begin to see what the essence of Christianity is. The very essence of Christianity is a people that are conformed to the image of Christ himself.

[00:10:12]A people that um that behave like Christ, that do like Christ, not just in the power, but in character.

[00:10:25]Right. So, so we see from this passage that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Say, "Do not be conformed to this world." You see, because this world we were born into this world.

[00:10:42]And so, our flesh knows this world.

[00:10:45]In actual fact, our flesh responds to this world.

[00:10:49]However, you see, we should be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

[00:10:55]How does that happen? When we read the Bible, hear the word, we our minds get renewed from our old personality, which is the personality of Adam, the first Adam, into the new personality, which is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And unless that begins to happen, even we have to, you know, submit ourselves to this, not to be conformed to the world, but being transformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ until we begin to come into that place of realization and we begin to submit ourselves to that place of transformation.

[00:11:44]A person cannot live the life that Christ wants us to be.

[00:11:52]Let me give you an example.

[00:11:55]See what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 from verse 43.

[00:12:04]Since you have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."

[00:12:13]Verse 44 says, "What I say unto you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven." How do you become sons of your father who is in heaven? It is by loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

[00:12:54]Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

[00:13:02]Verse 45 says, "So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven."

[00:13:13]What does the father do? He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and on to the unrighteous.

[00:13:34]It says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies."

[00:13:44]It didn't say you should curse your enemies.

[00:13:46]Love and curse not.

[00:13:50]Love your enemies.

[00:13:53]Now, these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:13:57]Whatever preaching, whatever teaching that stands against these words of our Lord Jesus Christ is not from God.

[00:14:06]It's from It's from the enemy.

[00:14:10]That teaching is from the enemy. The any teaching that tells you to curse your enemy is from the enemy.

[00:14:22]To hate those who persecute you, that comes from the enemy.

[00:14:28]Jesus says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

[00:14:56]"Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, who are against you."

[00:15:05]But these days, what do we have? What do we have flying all all over these days, even from pulpit?

[00:15:12]People are helping you curse your enemies and you are saying, "Amen."

[00:15:19]People are helping you, you know, uh say [snorts] evil things about your enemy and you are saying amen.

[00:15:30]That is where a partaker of cursing your enemies.

[00:15:34]>> [snorts] >> You're a partaker of hating those who persecute you. Says, "Love them."

[00:15:44]Love your enemies. Love them.

[00:15:48]Don't curse them.

[00:15:50]Love and don't hate.

[00:15:55]Love and don't hate.

[00:16:00]It is for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

[00:16:08]Doesn't even the tax collectors do the same? You love those who love you.

[00:16:13]You greet only your brothers.

[00:16:20]What more are you doing than others?

[00:16:22]Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

[00:16:28]Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Luke chapter 6 from verse 26.

[00:16:37]Says, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.

[00:16:42]For so did their fathers to the false prophets."

[00:16:53]I hope you're getting something here.

[00:16:56]I I I I hope you are getting something here.

[00:17:03]Jesus says, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you."

[00:17:09]What? Because you have compromised.

[00:17:14]Because you are in compromise.

[00:17:17]A man that is not in compromise is not is not liked by everybody.

[00:17:25]A man of truth is not embraced by everybody.

[00:17:36]He says, "But I say unto you which hate, love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you and are against you."

[00:17:54]Do not take vengeance, he says further there, because vengeance belongs to the Lord.

[00:18:00]Do not repay evil for evil, but repay good for evil.

[00:18:08]That's what we are supposed to do as as people of God, as children of God.

[00:18:17]Please open your Bibles with me to the book of Romans in chapter 1.

[00:18:32]I'm going to read there from verse 16.

[00:18:36]It says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation." We have just looked at the gospel of Christ right now.

[00:18:50]Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation." The words of Jesus Christ, the the things he has told us to do.

[00:19:10]We must not be ashamed of the we we because when we uphold these things and we do according to what he says we should do. You see, but you know I know that it's not easy to do that. I I I understand that perfectly.

[00:19:25]Because see, bef- before you can be able to to do all these things, there is something you have to to do on a daily basis. And that is to carry your cross on a daily basis. Because if you are going to follow him here, Jesus says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple, that is my follower, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

[00:19:53]To deny oneself actually means that you put your flesh under.

[00:19:58]You tame your flesh. Your your flesh Someone is speaking ill about you and even he's saying it right in your face, your flesh wants to Ah ya ya ya. Your flesh wants to fight.

[00:20:12]Oh, my But there is a hold back.

[00:20:18]Okay.

[00:20:20]All right.

[00:20:22]No problem. It's okay. It's okay. The person is is is lashing at you, is abusing you, is calling you names, is pulling you down, is lying against you right before your face.

[00:20:38]And you become a fool for Christ's sake.

[00:20:44]He that is wise among you, Jesus says, "Let him be fools."

[00:20:51]Because see, when you are a fool for Christ's sake, that is when you are really wise.

[00:20:59]Take up your cross and follow me. The cross is a place of death.

[00:21:04]See, this flesh, this our flesh, the flesh is not just is not the the the flesh of the body. No, no, no. That that is the that is the inner inner person, inner soul of man.

[00:21:20]The soul of man, that's the place of his flesh.

[00:21:25]He see gets angry, of course it's good to be angry sometimes.

[00:21:30]But the Bible says do not sin.

[00:21:32]Do not let the sun go over your anger.

[00:21:35]That is you've got to make it up before before the the the day runs out.

[00:21:44]The flesh wants to backbite.

[00:21:49]The flesh wants to speak ill of of other people, wants to pull people down, wants to slander.

[00:21:57]The flesh wants to do everything against another person.

[00:22:03]That's what the flesh wants to do. That is the the that is the nature of the old man.

[00:22:11]And that's Satan.

[00:22:13]That's the nature of the old man in man.

[00:22:19]And that is what has to die on a daily basis. I beg of you by the mercies of the living God. You've got to understand that this life this life is so trivial.

[00:22:33]It's so temporal.

[00:22:39]You will you will agree with me.

[00:22:43]Those who are old enough, you remember when you were a child. It's just like yesterday.

[00:22:50]Just like yesterday.

[00:22:53]You could almost play out those things that you used to do when you were a child, just like yesterday.

[00:23:03]This life is so temporary.

[00:23:09]Eternity is forever.

[00:23:13]Where one spends eternity is determined by one's response unto the word of God, either by accepting what the word says or rejecting what the word says.

[00:23:33]If God says if the Lord says here, "Bless your enemies. Pray for those who who persecute you, who use you."

[00:23:44]Pray for them.

[00:23:46]And someone is helping you curse your enemy. I often say this and I will say it right now.

[00:23:52]Whoever curses your enemy for you is your enemy. That That's is your number one enemy.

[00:23:59]Run.

[00:24:02]Jesus says, "Pray for them."

[00:24:05]And we come on the pulpit to be cursing your enemies for you.

[00:24:11]Where is the Where's the spirit of Christ?

[00:24:16]Where is the spirit of Christ?

[00:24:19]Well, those who take the time to look into the this word and study the word, those who know that this life is temporal, they begin to make a U-turn, to change.

[00:24:41]Though [music] we are many, we are one body.

[00:24:48]We are one body [music and singing] in