Zac Poonen - Learning The Fear Of God First

it's good to ask ourselves whether the christians who were converted from judaism had an advantage over us who've come from non-christian backgrounds or who are converted from christian backgrounds there's a word in romans in chapter three romans 3 what advantage has the jew this is in the new testament this question is asked we know that once jesus died in the day of pentecost the holy spirit is poured out there is no distinction between jews and non-jews between people of one religion or christianity or born christian makes no difference but yet it says does the jew have an advantage and he says in verse two the holy spirit says great advantage in every respect first of all because they were entrusted with the oracles of god so what did they have over us was it easier for a jewish person who was converted to become a wholehearted christian like those early apostles then it is for us i've thought about it much because i see that those early apostles are radical and wholehearted but i see so many christians who have heard about grace and the new and living way that we have taught for so many years if even after many years don't seem to come to that type of devotion and even after many years are spent more time watching television than reading the bible and seem to struggle with sexual sin so much and pornography even after so many years of hearing the truth what advantage has the jew is there something they had which we don't have it's good to ask ourselves and i believe it is the fact that the what they call here the articles of god god taught them in his law to fear him they never knew one thing about the grace of god the grace of god was unheard of they spent all their life knowing only the fear of god that's all and so imagine a person who's like peter or those early apostles who spent 30 years knowing nothing about grace knowing only about the fear of god and the severity of god's punishment on sin and then coming to understand the grace of god it makes a tremendous difference uh one way i can illustrate it is here's a person who's gone through 12 years of school and then joins college and here's another person maybe the same age but never went to school and just straight away went to college you think there'll be a difference between both of them in the way they adjust to the studies in college the one who went through 12 years of school will get very high marks when doing a bsc or a b tech they can get even 80 90 but the one who never went to school and went straight to college he doesn't even know how to read because he didn't go to school to learn abc that illustration exemplifies the difference between the jew and those who are not now i would say that if somebody's a christian had really god-fearing parents and taught them from childhood to fear god to obey their parents and to keep god's commandments that person would have some advantage like the jew but most people don't have that see most of us have come out of a very godless environment where we lived in sin and spent our life watching movies and sin was a very light thing and then one day we heard the gospel and we received jesus into our life we know that forgiveness was free and we straight away heard about the grace of god without learning anything about the fear of god and that has been our disadvantage what advantage as the jew because he learned the articles of god and so we read in psalm 111 and verse 10 the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom or as i've often said the abc of wisdom we read in luke's gospel chapter 2 that jesus grew in wisdom how did he grow in wisdom the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all those who do his commandments the fear of the lord is to hate evil turn with me to proverbs in chapter 9. again it says the same thing proverbs 9 and verse 10 the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom the knowledge of the holy is understanding and this comes many times in proverbs and in job etc that is what most of us our parents never taught us and without learning the fear of god living a sinful life one day all of a sudden we got converted or half converted mostly half converted and we after forev thereafter and every church we went to we heard about the grace of god and how god is good and god loves you and he's got a wonderful plan for your life and he wants to do so many things for you and don't get discouraged god loves you no matter how many times you're saying god loves you that's all we heard what is the result after 20 30 years of hearing it we're still living in sin don't you think there's something wrong with that message i mean preachers get become popular with that type of message and since most preachers are only interested in becoming popular that's what they preach but the result is you can see in all these churches the amount of sin there is every type of sin unrighteousness with money unrighteousness a sexual area fighting and quarreling and honor seeking and pastors running after money amazing pride hypocrisy all this we see that in cfc churches too hypocrisy and pride and people are elders why is it because of a lacks lose attitude to sin that's the only reason and that's because the fear of god was never learned and so we have not grown in wisdom we've grown in a lot of knowledge i believe people in cfc churches if they come regularly have more knowledge than almost any other christian in this country but knowledge is not the fear of god just because you can explain a doctrine or just because you can even preach the truth doesn't prove anything if the fear of god does not keep you from the things that jesus spoke about then we haven't really understood the grace of god properly we can have a faulty understanding of grace like i said last sunday and part of the reason is because we didn't begin with the fear of god like i said we've jumped straight to college without learning the alphabet the alphabet is the abc of wisdom is the fear of the lord we need to understand this very clearly most of us have gone to college without going through school but as the one who went through school has got an advantage so now we have joined college we heard about the grace of god then we're going to start learning the alphabet all over again say lord i'm sorry you got into college and learn about the grace of god and we haven't learned the abc i'll give you an example of how god taught the fear of god to people in the old testament turn with me to deuteronomy there are many commandments in the uh in deuteronomy turn with me to deuteronomy 21 i'll give you one example and you'll see how serious it was to sin in the old testament we say jesus is higher than moses moses brought the law jesus brought grace so who should be living a holier life those under the law or those under grace if those under grace live at a lower level than those under law then we have to say moses is superior to jesus because god is holy and he wants his children to be holy and if moses could make people holier than jesus then moses is higher than jesus and that is why i say many christians have seen a false jesus preachers have proclaimed a false jesus who allows you to live in sin it doesn't matter you keep on sinning my blood is there to cleanse you but think if you grew up like this think if you grew up in a jewish congregation or village where the law was imposed and the command was for children honor your father and mother that you may live long on the earth that it may go well with you something which christian parents don't really most christian parents don't teach their parents that's why you have a bunch of disrespectful children growing up even among christians listen to this now deuteronomy 21 verse 18 if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son he will not obey his father or his mother you know anybody like that in any of your homes your children and when they chastise him that means they punish him he will not even listen to them what should the father and mother do today elders will say pray for him one day he will change moses didn't say that his father and mother will seize him bring him to the elders of the city at the gateway of his hometown and they will say to the elders this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey us he's just eating and drinking a glutton and a drinker then all the men of the city will stone that boy to death thus you will remove evil from your midst and all of israel watch this and they will learn to fear god you and i would learn to fear god too if you saw that and every child who disobeyed the parents would learn to fear god if they saw that that was how it was in the old testament it wasn't oh sin as much as you like god will forgive you that's a false gospel false grace better to go back under law see there are three types of people in the world those under no covenant no no no covenant those under old covenant and those under new covenant and most christians are under no covenant if they were under old covenant they would live like this if they under new covenant sin would not have dominion over them so which covenant are we under we can fool ourselves we are under no covenant this verse doesn't apply to us if we have a stubborn rebellious son say okay he will change that's no covenant old covenant means you've got to stone him to death you say god doesn't give any hope to these people no he did i mean they waited and waited and waited for many years this guy is about 18 years old and he still doesn't listen then the lord says stone him to death we don't want such people in israel can you imagine how god treated those people that's just to give you one indication of the seriousness of sin if a girl committed adultery she was stoned to death she was not allowed to live that was the law do you think christians would accept that today christian girls around the world commit adultery play the fool with boys all over and it's uh it's not serious it's so rare to find a christian girl today who's a virgin on the date of marriage rare why is that they grow up calling themselves christians but they are under no covenant what advantage has the jew the oracles of god we need to recognize this we need to face up to it that we have jumped to college without going through school and that is the reason for all our problems because so many people say brother i've heard this i'm trying i'm praying and praying to get victory over sin and i'm praying for baptism the holy spirit and i've claimed it also i prayed and i claimed i'm baptized in the holy spirit and then you keep on living with dirty thoughts and watching pornography what type of baptism in the holy spirit is that something fundamentally wrong another jesus another spirit another gospel that's what christendom is swallowing and that is what we are determined to expose and fight we will not convince everybody i don't believe i will convince all of you here about what i'm saying i think many of you will continue to live the way you lived until today that's up to you but you will not be able to say to the lord in the final day when you stand before him that you never heard the truth face up to it let me show you how jesus overcame sin we talk about jesus being our forerunner in hebrews chapter 5. jesus is our example we read in hebrews 4 and verse 15 we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness because he was tempted exactly like us and he did not sin it went well with him because from childhood he obeyed joseph and mary that's how jesus began i want to say to all of you parents if you wanted to go well with your children teach them to obey you teach them to respect older people and when they don't do it punish them don't say oh well let's spare them did it only once okay you'll see what happens to your child when he becomes a teenager i have seen that in cfc i've seen little children just years ago speak in a despising way to their parents 30 years ago and i warned the parents don't let him ever speak to you like that parents didn't care where are those children today wayward were they warned yes what advantage has the jew oh a lot of advantages this is the problem with christianity grace has been cheapened to become false grace and it's spreading everywhere all over all of christendom has got it and it's trying to creep into cfc too it won't succeed as long as i'm here that's for sure we believe the grace of god is far superior to living by the fear of god far superior not inferior if the fear of god could bring a person to a certain level of obedience the grace of god can bring us higher because we follow jesus not moses we read in hebrews chapter 3 moses was only the house but jesus was the builder of the house first hebrews 3 3 jesus is counted more whether you're more glory than moses be just like the builder of a house has got more glory than the house you look at a building and you look at the builder who's greater and it says moses is only the house jesus is the builder and he's the one we follow we don't follow moses we follow jesus who was tempted like us chapter 4 15 and did not sin and why he didn't sin because this is in chapter 5 verse 7. very important verse we have preached it for 40 years here in the days of his flesh which means for 33 and a half years hebrews 5 7 he offered up prayers and supplications to his father not just with simple words with loud crying and tears and the prayer will save me from spiritual death i don't want to sin in thought word deed attitude motive father i don't want to have the smell of sin in me and he prayed fervently and it led to crying oh father i don't want to sin seriously just like you would pray with tears if your child is dying in hospital that's how jesus prayed and he was heard that's why he didn't sin and it says here he was heard because of his fear of god do you know that jesus feared his father jesus feared his father because he was here on earth as a man many christians us in their eyes superior to jesus oh i don't need to fear god like that god is a merciful forgiving father it must be some other father not the father of jesus christ you think jesus was doubted his father's love never he was perfectly secure in his father's love but the more he loved the father the more he feared and respected him and i want to say to all of you my dear brothers and sisters if you want to evaluate your love for god ask yourself how much you fear him and if you want to know how much you fear him ask yourself how much you hate sin how much you detest sin how much you'll shrink away from sin how much you'll back away from it i think of the times when i used to travel down to tamilnadu in the overnight buses and sometimes the buses will stop in some village bus stop and there will be a toilet there and i'd go there and open the door and looking at it i say no thank you i better go and sit back in the bus because it's so filthy people have used it and not poured water down it the whole place i mean there's no place even to stand there i back away from it i have to control myself and i've said to myself do i back away from sin like that i back away from physical filth just like you would oh shall we say ah doesn't matter if you get filthy just there's soap and water which is cheap that's how people treat the blood of christ no wonder after so many years after 30 years you're still defeated by anger still defeated by dirty thoughts still covetous and loving money still unable to get along with fellow believers still unable to love your mother-in-law is there a christianity which says love everybody except your mother-in-law for some people that's it they don't even they're not even convicted by it well there are people who say he's like a witch that's fine does jesus have grace to love people who are absolutely evil or he doesn't no covenant we have jumped to college without going through school that's the problem and we excuse ourselves saying that person is evil that is a good excuse not to love anybody that person is bad is there a verse in the bible which says you must love all the good people jesus said love your enemies higher than moses who only said love your neighbor many christians are unable to live the new testament what the new testament teaches because they have not experienced the grace of god they have not experienced the holy spirit of grace being poured out upon them in zechariah chapter 12 the promise that jesus the old testament promised which was partially fulfilled on the day of pentecost is this it's the one verse in the old testament where the holy spirit is called the spirit of grace he was never called that in the old testament it's called the spirit of wisdom spirit of the fear of the lord spirit of knowledge spirit of counsel etc but in zechariah 12 10 the lord says i'll pour out in the house of david and the inhabitants of jerusalem a spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication a spirit of grace that will make them pray to me for help for grace to help them in their time of need and that's what jesus prayed for and that's what he got grace and that's how he overcame and in the new testament when you look for that expression spirit of grace where is the holy spirit called the spirit of grace in the new testament it's interesting to find out it's called the holy spirit the spirit of the lord etc spirit of christ but where is he called the spirit of grace i'll show you in the place where jesus is compared to moses in hebrews chapter 10. it's talking about hebrews 10 19 brethren talking to believers there's a new and living way verse 20 that has been opened into the most holy place through the flesh of jesus so let us draw near with the full assurance of faith and let us hold fast but if you don't do that instead of doing that verse 26 brethren if you go on sinning willfully instead of walking the new and living way always read a verse in its context if you don't walk the new and living or you go on sinning willfully saying oh there's grace there is no more sacrifice for sin there is no more after receiving the knowledge of the truth now if you have not received the knowledge of the truth that's another thing you're a heathen but after receiving the knowledge of the truth you go on sinning willfully there won't be a sacrifice for sin but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment hey hey he said this sounds like the old testament no this is new testament a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries then he says you think grace is inferior to the law no anyone who set aside the law of moses died without mercy on the testimony of two three witnesses think of that rebellious son i just told you about how much more not how much less how much more will the punishment be for those who trample under foot the son of god that's what you do when you sin willfully verse 26 sinning willfully is equal to verse 29 trampling underfoot the son of god did you know that i'm not talking about sinning accidentally or i'm talking about sinning willfully you know this is wrong and you go and do it and we keep on doing it we go on sinning willfully i'm not talking about he's not talking in verse 26 about one event you go on sinning willfully that is like trampling underfoot jesus christ secondly it is like treating the blood of the covenant like tap water unclean common and thirdly it is like insulting the spirit of grace that's the place where the word spirit of grace comes in the new testament it's the one place and as far as i know it's the only place in the new testament where the holy spirit is called the spirit of grace isn't it significant where it comes it comes in the place where people despise god's word and keep on sinning willfully and think that they are under grace and he says you are not under grace you have insulted the spirit of grace and god has said vengeance is mine i will repay the lord will judge his people it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living god you'd almost think this is supposed to be what moses says no no no this is new testament but he says remember how it was different in the early days how it was in the early days when you're enlightened you know if many of you who are taking sin lightly today look back like it says the former days verse 32 is a command in the new testament it says remember the former days remember the early days when you were really converted just after christ became your savior you came from hedonism and you were born again and you got baptized what was your attitude to sin those days leave alone pornography you never even watched movies remember those days remember those days when you were so serious about not wasting time how every day would begin with reading the bible do you remember those days back think back to the days when you were first converted how you really avoided things that were wrong what's happened now what's happened as time has gone on i mean those days you were in kindergarten oh boy you should have been in college by now you should have gone through 12 years of school and you should be doing bsc or msc now what has happened you've dropped out of school you've forgotten your abc you can't read now the fear of the lord is gone how did it happen it happened because you listened to the message of a false grace and you insulted the spirit of grace and you trampled jesus under your feet you didn't realize it but the lord is trying to call you back to those forward days think of those days when he was serious about sin how quickly you would go and apologize to someone you hurt but you take a long time to do it now right and then after a few days you justify yourself and say well well it was not such a serious thing and i can't go and apologize to him now for what happened one month ago let's just forget it you'd keep doing that for some time and you'll finally come to the place where you have no fear of god at all and that is the place i fear that some of you have already come to and the direction in which some of you are moving and it's my duty to warn you it's like these roadblocks that the lord puts up on the way saying there's a ditch ahead there's a ditch ahead be careful stop turn back there's a ditch ahead this ditch is coming it's getting closer turn back you just keep ignoring every roadblock and keep going on it's a very very serious thing brothers and sisters to be like that if you turn to chapter hebrews in chapter three it's a very serious word given there sorry hebrews 2 3 hebrews chapter 2 verse 3. how shall we escape now we would think how shall we escape if we reject such a great salvation no these are not people who rejected it they have accepted it but then neglected it or ignored it is there a danger of neglecting such a great salvation says there and how will you escape if you neglect it there's some serious warnings like this which i find that many christians don't take seriously i want to show you another verse in romans chapter 11. verse 22 romans 11 22 when it says behold behold means look carefully so let's read it like that look carefully at the kindness and the severity of god popular preachers people who want to be popular will only preach the kindness of god they will not preach the severity of god go and listen to all these television preachers see if how many of them preach the severity of god it's only kindness kindness kindness kindness you want to be popular just preach the kindness of god for all your life and you'll end up as a preacher of false grace and along with those you preach to you yourself will end up with them and not only end up with them your judgment will be more severe because you proclaim that false grace and let hundreds of others astray behold the kindness and the severity of god those who sinned those who god's kindness if you continue in his kindness otherwise you also will be cut off remember that the warnings in scripture it says in hebrews in chapter 3 and verse 14 we become partakers of christ if as a big capital i f if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end if you behold fast that assurance you had at the beginning firm never give it up until the end you become a partaker of christ now if that verse means even if we don't hold fast the beginning for our transforms unto the end we are still partakers of christ because once upon a time we became particles of christ then we have to say that god's word is telling a lie it's not telling a lie you will be a partaker of christ i can say that to every one of you you'll be a partaker of christ if you hold fast to what you the assurance you had firm until the day you leave this earth not otherwise this is what scripture teaches consistently but by the time it came to the end of the first century you read i showed this to you last sunday in jude the letter of jude and was four at the end of the first century jude says in verse three jude verse 3. he says actually i wanted to write about something else what was on my heart was to write about something else but the holy spirit stopped me and made me change my subject and now i have to tell you to fight for the faith verse 3 which was once for all delivered to the saints even in the end of the first century jude has to warn them hey you guys i want to encourage you to fight for that faith which has gone away in many churches fight for it and today in the 21st century you hardly discover it you've got to search for it the bible says people will wander from c to c amos 8 verse 12 trying to find some place where they can hear the word of the lord they won't find it it's going to be very rare but it started in the first century because he said the reason is verse 4 certain persons have crept into the church unnoticed who were long before god had marked them out for condemnation ungodly persons now you would not think a person is ungodly who is preaching about god's kindness would you do would you believe that someone who keeps on telling you how much god loves you god is a good god he's a loving father do you know how much you don't realize the hairs on your head are numbered you have more value than many sparrows god cares for you he loves you he has said i'll never leave you no forsake you i mean we preach all those things true also but the thing is he doesn't preach anything else i mean all these verses that i just quoted you've heard me preach numerous times in the last 40 years in fact i even made you memorize many of them but this man doesn't preach anything else it's only this they have taken away that faith which is delivered to the saints they have crept in [Music] they have turned the grace of god into a license to commit sin he says if that's the case i want to remind you you remember the old testament example of people who were delivered from egypt which is a picture of our redemption they were redeemed by the blood of the lamb they went into the red sea a picture of baptism the cloud came upon them a picture of the baptism of the holy spirit then what did god do he destroyed them in the wilderness and jude says i want to remind you that god destroyed people whom he had saved read it like this let me just leave out a few words jude verse 5 i want to remind you that the lord after saving people destroyed them who did not believe i want to remind you that the lord after saving people subsequently destroyed those who didn't believe what's he saying this tomb is he saying this to people who have turned the grace of god into a license for sin you think there are people like that today plenty let us pray by preachers who are giving them a license to sin and he says not only that the angels who did not remain within their proper abode in heaven god has put them in eternal darkness and so he says be careful you turn to revelation and you read there about people who are overcomers now many people think there are believers and then there are higher level overcomers okay let's see if that informa if that understanding is correct from scripture revelation let's look at the promises to all the overcomers there are seven promises given to overcomers in revelation chapter two and three and we want to find out who are these overcomers it's obviously overcoming sin it's referring to the world the flesh and the devil those are the enemies of the christian and overcoming means overcoming them revelation 2 7 he who has a year let him hear what the holy spirit is saying to the churches this is not to the unbelievers it's spoken to believers who are the people who are part of the church believers let's read it like this if you have a year listen to what the holy spirit is saying to believers okay if you overcome i will allow you to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of god tree of life symbolized eternal life so it means if you overcome i'll give you eternal life what if you don't overcome you can live all your life imagining you have eternal life and you'll discover in the final day you never had it because you didn't bother about overcoming let's go to the second promise chapter 2 verse 11 he who has a year let him hear what the holy spirit is saying to believers if you overcome you will not be hurt by the second death the second death is let's see what the second death is chapter 20 verse 14 death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death the lake of fire you got a definition of second death this is the second death the lake of fire okay turn back to revelation 2 11. if you overcome you will not go to the lake of fire what does that mean if it means even if you don't overcome you will not go to the lake of fire because you believed right here what the holy spirit is saying to believers if you overcome you will not go to the lake of fire tell me if i'm preaching some wrong doctrine i'm comparing scripture with scripture instead of trying to define myself what second death is i'm showing you what scripture says second death the third promise revelation 3 to chapter 2 verse 17. if you overcome the spirit is saying to believers i'll give you some of the hidden manner and then white stone and a new name written on the stone that only the person who receives it will know it the new name is to me this is a picture of an engagement ring stone on an engagement ring that a bridegroom gives to the bride with the name written on it you'll have that relationship with jesus if you overcome i want to have that i want jesus to put a ring on my spiritually speaking with my name on it just like someone gives when he gets married okay and then chapter 3 chapter 2 sorry and verse 26 if you overcome and keep my commandments until the end i'll give you authority over the nations and you will rule them and i'll give you the morning star that's referring to himself i'll give you myself as the morning star that's speaking about a reward which also overcomers get chapter 3 verse 5 if you overcome you will be clothed in white garments i will not erase your name from the book of life what does that mean can a person's name be erased from the book of life jesus knows more about the book of life than you and i so i believe what he says he's the one who writes the book of life the one who made the law knows the better know that knows the law better than any lawyer the one who made the law the one who made the book of life will know how people's names come into it we've heard so many things in our life from so many preachers i want to encourage you to come back to the bible because our eternal destiny depends not on what preachers have told us but what god's word says to us if you do not overcome your name will be rubbed out from the book of life i want my name to remain in the book of life and i want to be an overcomer okay chapter 3 verse 12 if you overcome i'll make you a pillar in the temple of my god and you will never go out of my temple what if you don't overcome you will not be in that temple i'll write upon that person the name of my god and my new name if you have a year listen to what the holy spirit is saying to believers and then finally chapter 3 verse 21 if you overcome you will sit with me on my throne and the last one there are actually eight of them revelation chapter 21 and verse 7 here's the eighth promise revelation 21 verse 7 if you overcome you will inherit all these things and i will be your god and you'll be my son if you don't overcome you will not be my son that's what god says i'll tell you something i don't care what all the preachers in the world preach i believe the word of god i've taken my entire eternity on what jesus said in his word and i want to erase from my mind all the rubbish that other preachers have put into my mind through the years i want to get it out of my mind that's the only way i will be able to make sure i live my life in a way that i have no regret when christ comes again for many many years this has been the burden of my heart lord jesus when you come again i don't want to have any regret over how i lived my life how i spent my days at home i've got 24 hours a day and how i spend those 24 hours a day at home how i conduct myself with other believers and with other unbelievers in my place of work when you come again and i review my life i want to have no regrets i don't want to wish in that day that i spent my 24 hours in a better way or that i filled my mind with all the trash that preachers are preaching who do not turn me to god's word i can only warn you this is more serious than we think the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom turn with me now to genesis chapter 22. in genesis 22 i want to show you a man who feared god and god was so happy with him that he gave him a certificate i know you fear me that is abraham and you'll see that certificate in genesis 22 and he says in verse 12 the middle of that verse god says to abraham now i know that you fear me now i know that you fear me would you like to hear god say that to you i want god to say that to me not now i know that you've understood the message of the grace of god no before all that i want god to say to me i know that you fear me i know that you fear me he said that to abraham why can't he say it to me why don't you long to hear it now i'll tell you how he heard it abraham was now 125 years old 50 years after he left his home and it says in chapter 22 verse 1 god tests abraham does god test people 50 years after they are converted yeah i've been converted 57 years and i find god is testing me even today in different situations he will test you till the end of your life god tested abraham and said to him abraham and he said here i am he was ready to hear what god said take your son the one whom you love and put him for a burnt offering in mount moriah that is a three days journey and it says verse 3 abraham rose early in the morning and i'm absolutely sure though it's not written there i'm absolutely sure he never told sarah where he's going yeah there are seeks something secret that a man can have with a god which he cannot tell his wife because she may stop him from doing it can you imagine if abraham got up in the morning and said sarah i'm taking isaac and going and if he had told her if he had asked where are you going abraham why are you taking isaac well i'm just going to take him to kill him i'll come back what would sarah have said see sarah hasn't heard god remember that only abraham heard god i just couldn't i'll come back without him i'll kill him there and come why you want to kill him god told me to kill him you think she either let him go sometimes it's wise to obey god and not tell your wife i remember somebody asked me once brother zach my parents are poor and one reason they are poor is because they spend so much money educating me in college that they don't have much left now i've got a very good job and i supported my parents regularly but now i'm married and my wife says you should not send any money to your parents brother zack what shall i do i said the bible says don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing simple those are the words of jesus don't unnecessarily tempt your wife by saying i earned so much and i gave so much to my parents honor your father and mother jesus specifically said that at matthew chapter 7. sorry mark chapter 7. you tell your needy parents no i don't have any money to help you he said such people have canceled and invalidated god's word so that's just by by the way so abraham didn't tell sarah he took because he was obeying god and god was more important than to him than his wife as it should be for all of us abraham rose early in the morning and took and he didn't even tell his young men uh what he was going to do he said and were those servants who came with the verse five and look what he tells the young men verse five i and the lad will go up there to the top of the mountain and worship and come back to you you know we have worship meetings nowadays people talk about praise and worship it's not this type of worship today it is shallow emotional excitement which cost people nothing that's not worship this is the first place in the bible where worship is mentioned if you want to understand worship go here that when god says something to you and it's in the middle of the night that god spoke to abraham because it says in the early morning he got up and obeyed sarah was sleeping there didn't hear a word sometimes god may say something to you in the middle of the night when you wake up and your wife sleeping next to you doesn't hear it god can say something to you when you sit in the meeting here and the person sitting next to you doesn't hear it only you hear it and then god tests you after that what are you going to do when you get up in the morning what are you going to do when you go out of this room god was watching he didn't tell abraham in the morning hey remember what i told you last night no now i can see test him whether he fears me or not whether he's going to be scared of his wife and he saw abraham going and he gave him three days to think about it and no boasting he didn't want it was in secret he didn't even want anybody to know what he's going to do up in the mountain he called it worship i'm going to gift god that the darling of my heart i'm going to give god the most precious thing i have to me that is my worship meeting not singing emotional songs i don't believe 99.9 of christians have understood what worship is i myself did not know it i thought it was singing songs on sunday morning i discovered it was not i discovered that worship was giving to god in secret without anybody knowing that which is costly that was just precious giving up sacrificing denying myself when you're tempted strongly to watch pornography and you deny yourself the desire is strong in you and you refuse to look at it that's worship if you don't do that and come here and sing psalms on sunday morning the dev i want to tell you the devil's having a big laugh at you that's all god's not impressed and don't fool yourself and i'll tell you something you won't hear this anywhere else other places they'll only tell you come on raise your hands come on shout yes praise god let's worship god let's be excited that's not what i'm going to tell you i'm going to tell you if you're not obeying god before you come here on sunday you're not worshiping god at all don't fool yourself call it call it singing i'm i'm going to sunday morning for a time of singing okay fine don't call it worship give it the right name don't call a bicycle a cadillac car a bicycle is not a cadillac car and singing songs on sunday morning is not worship that's all i'm saying give it its right name call a bicycle a bicycle it's not a cadillac car excited singing on sunday morning is not worship it's singing this is worship and when you worship god like this in secret nobody knows wife does not know the sacrifice he's making his servants don't know alone abraham and god you and god in secret denying yourself refusing to look at that dirty picture refusing to talk back in the angry way somebody talks to you denying yourself loving that person who hates you being good god sees your inward suffering when you're trying to do something to obey him do you know what he'll say to you now i know that you fear god now i know you're beginning to learn the abc of wisdom and when you learn the abc of wisdom and then you hear about the grace of god you really understand it because you would have completed your 12 classes in school and then go to college the subjects will be very easy to understand but without learning the abc of wisdom you jump up to the grace of god then you understand what advantage has the jew they learned the fear of god first okay unfortunately we did not learn the fear of god first at least we can learn it now behold the severity of god and the kindness of god this is very very important brothers and sisters because we are living in a day when i'll tell you honestly you'll hardly hear any message like this if you don't believe me go to youtube go to the internet tell me if you hear a message like this which explains clearly to you what the fear of god is what true worship is and how you must learn the grace of god after learning the fear of god how you can't play the fool with sin what will happen to you if you keep on sinning willfully what it means to overcome and what will happen if you don't overcome how your name can be erased from the book of life and yet how god is a good god who says to you i don't condemn you if you're serious about your sin but don't sin again this is the true god of the bible that we proclaim and we want to make sure that everybody understands it we can't force people to receive it even jesus said that he's the one who sows the seed you know that the son of man sows the seed he said but even the seed with jesus sowed he said some of them the birds of the air come and take it away the demons are always around to take it away and some of it falls on hard ground and produces no fruit some of it falls and it produces some fruit but sooner or later the lust for money and the cares of the world come and crush it but in a very few people it falls on good ground and produces fruit to life eternal and i pray it will be like that for all of us this is not a message of gloom no if a doctor says to you you got a cancer but it can be removed completely be a little painful but it can be removed completely it's a message of hope and that's the message there is there is sin in your life but you can be delivered completely from it by the spirit of grace how shall we receive grace we have heard that for years and years and years humble yourself humble yourself under the word of god when you hear it say lord your wisdom is superior to mine i want to submit my mind to your word god will give you grace let's pray our heavenly father we think of many here who've been deceived by false teaching through the years who have listened to what is popular rather than to what is they need i pray their eyes will be opened dear brothers and sisters take a few moments to think about what you have heard to meditate on it and pray that it will sink deep that it won't be hard ground it will not have thorns choking it in the coming days determine think back to your former days the days you were converted when you were first converted what a radical attitude you had towards sin and worldly habits why have you backslidden now you claim to be a wholehearted believer you've understood so much you're a respected brother in the church but you've gone back from that early devotion you had to christ in your when you were first converted your attitude to sin has become lacks worldliness your attitude to worldliness has become lack now you're more running after money and so many other things which you had given up once upon a time and you call yourself more mature no don't let the devil deceive you remember your former days is what it says we read in hebrews 10 remember your former days i want to encourage those of you who've been converted a long time go back home and remember your former days and ask yourself whether you're ahead of where you were or whether you're backslidden from where you were then may god help us all to be radical in our attitude to sin heavenly father help us each one we want to be a church that glorifies you we don't want to be popular we don't want to be famous we don't want to be rich we want to please god we want to please you we won't have a clear conscience when we stand before you in the final day we want to have no regrets when we see you face to face we don't want to just say you're coming quickly and live as we like we want to live as those who are eager to be ready for your coming each one we pray in the name of our lord jesus christ amen you

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Id: gMGh--bZqpU

Length: 68min 40sec (4120 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021