This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the fear of God before fully grasping the grace of God. It delves into the concept of true worship as sacrificial obedience in secret, denying oneself for God's sake. The message warns against false teachings that cheapen grace and encourages a return to the radical devotion and attitude towards sin that characterized one's early conversion.

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 3. Romans 3 verse 1. 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 was poured out. There's no distinction between Jews and non-Jews, between people of one religion or born Christian. It makes no difference. But yet it says, does the Jew have an advantage? And he says in verse 2, 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 than 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, even after many years, don't seem to come to that type of devotion. And even after many years, spend 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 what they call here the oracles 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 is 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. 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. Do 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. And doing a BSc or a BTech, they can get even 80-90 percent. But then 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 has 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 have 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 especially 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 thereafter in every church we went to, we heard about the grace of God and how God is good and God loves you and 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 sin. 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 in the 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 in people or elders. Why is it? Because of a lax, loose 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 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, whereas 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 got to start learning the alphabet all over again. Say, Lord, I'm sorry you got into college and learned 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 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 drunkard. 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, N-O, 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're 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, okay, he will change. That's no covenant. Old covenant means you 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. You think Christians would accept that? Today, Christian girls around the world commit adultery, play the fool with boys all over and 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 in 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 want it 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 years ago speak in a despising way to their parents 30 years ago and I warned the parents, don't let them 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. Hebrews 3.3, Jesus is counted worthy of more glory than Moses. 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. 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 was, 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. 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. No, I don't need to fear God like that. God is a merciful, forgiving father. There 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 Tamil Nadu 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. Or shall we say, ah, doesn't matter. If you get filthy, just there's open 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 in 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're not even convicted by it. Well, there are people who say, it'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 a 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 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 promise, which is 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. It was never called that in the Old Testament. It was called the Spirit of wisdom, the 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 on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and the Spirit of supplication, the 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. He'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 to 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 way, 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 or 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 underfoot 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're not under grace. You have insulted the Spirit of Grace. And God has said, vengeance is mine. I will repay. The Lord will judge 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, 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 are enlightened. You know, if many of you who are taking sin lightly today, look back like it says the former days, verse 32. There's a command in the New Testament that says, remember the former days. Remember the early days when you were really converted. Just after Christ became your Savior, you came from heathenism 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? 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. 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 former days. Think of those days when you were serious about sin. How quickly you would go and apologize to someone. You hurt, but take a long time to do it now, right? And then after a few days you justify yourself and say, 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 upon the way, saying there's a ditch ahead. There's a ditch ahead. Be careful. Stop. Turn back. There's a ditch ahead. The 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 Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3, there'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 have rejected it. They have accepted it, but then neglected it or ignored it. Is there a danger of neglecting such a great salvation? It 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 at. 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 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 led hundreds of others astray. Behold the kindness and the severity of God. Those who sinned, 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 hold 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 partial from the end, we are still partakers of Christ because once upon a time we became partakers 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 what you have 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 verse 4. At the end of the first century, Jude says, in verse 3, 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 at 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. Today in the 21st century, you hardly discover it. You got to search for it. The Bible says people will wander from sea to sea. 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. And 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. 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 nor forsake you. And we preach all those things 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. They've turned the grace of God into a license to commit sin. 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? To whom 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 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 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 2 and 3. 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 verse 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 believe, right? Hear 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 manna 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, a 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, in 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 a 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 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. 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 staked 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 something secret that a man can have with the God, which he cannot tell his wife, but 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'll come back without him. I'll kill him there. Why do you want to kill him? God told me to kill him. You think she'd have 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 spent so much money educating me in college, but 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 Zach, 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 seven, sorry, Mark chapter seven, you tell your needy parents, no, I don't have any money to help you. He said, such people have cancelled and invalidated God's word. So that's just 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 what he was going to do. He said, those servants who came with him, 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 costs 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 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 give 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 which is 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 songs on Sunday morning, 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. 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 worshipping God at all. Don't fool yourself. Call it singing. 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. 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'd 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'd jump up to the grace of God, then you understand what advantage has the Jew. They learn 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 perceive 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 which 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. I pray it'll be like that for all of us. This is not a message of gloom, no. If a doctor says to you, you've got a cancer, but it can be removed completely. It'd be a little painful, but it can be removed completely. It's a message of hope, and that's the message. There is sin in your life, but you can be delivered completely from it by the spirit of grace. How shall we receive grace? You 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'll 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 understood so much. You're a respected brother in the church, but you've gone back from that early devotion you had to Christ when you were first converted. Your attitude to sin has become lax, worldliness, your attitude to worldliness has become lax. 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 want to 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.