This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the seriousness of sin and the need to have a deep reverence and fear of God. It highlights how early Christians, particularly Jewish believers, had a profound appreciation for the value of Jesus' blood due to their upbringing in the Old Covenant's strict standards. The speaker challenges Christians to prioritize the fear of God, immediate obedience to His commands, and the significance of repentance and seeking forgiveness in relationships to truly experience God's grace and victory over sin.

One of the most important things we need to understand about God's way is in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 16. Here it says, you shall be holy for I am holy. That's written in the book of Leviticus. In fact, the whole book of Leviticus is written only to teach Israel one thing, that God is holy. That's one of the books which I think most of us don't read at all. But if you read that book, you see how God gave so many offerings for sin. To teach people that sin was not something very cheap. Of course, the standard of sin in the Old Testament was not as serious, as high as it is in the New Covenant. They only had to avoid physical adultery. We have to avoid it in the mind also. But there were many other commandments. And if they disobeyed a commandment, they had to bring a goat. How much does a goat cost? Few hundreds of rupees. That's how much you have to pay every time you sin. Supposing you had to pay 1000 rupees to God every time you sin, I think you'll stop sinning very soon. That was the meaning of bringing a goat as an offering to God. It's not just bringing some rice or some wheat, which is very cheap. It is very expensive to sin. And if you sin every day, in one month you'll become bankrupt. You'll have to stop sinning. So God was trying to teach them, sin is not cheap. And in so many ways, in what they were to eat also, the Lord told them, you can't just eat anything you like, you must eat only clean food. He was trying to show them, in everything we must be holy. But because we Christians have not grown up with that culture, we have not understood the seriousness of sin. You take people like Peter and James and John, they grew up in that culture. If they sinned, they had to bring a goat. After 30 years of doing that, they only came to the new covenant. So for 30 years, they understood the seriousness of sin. All those early Christians were all Jewish people. In the beginning. And they all had been taught from childhood, how serious sin is. So one day when they came to the new covenant, the blood of Jesus cleanses them. They appreciated the value of that blood, thousand times more than you and I appreciated. Because we have never paid 1000 rupees for a goat, every time we committed one sin. From childhood, we have just said, Oh, tell Jesus, I'm sorry, it's finished. Now supposing both of us are brought up in two different ways. I'm just told to say, Lord, forgive me, and it's gone. He is taught that every time you sin, you pay 1000 rupees. After 30 years, who is going to take sin more seriously between both of us? His bank account is almost become zero. My bank account is very high, because I'm not even paying 100 rupees for my sin. Sin will be far more serious for him than it is for me. Because I would just say words, Lord, forgive me. This is the trouble with 99% of Christians. They have not valued the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why the old covenant people, they had a tremendous thankfulness for the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why he says here in verse 18 and 19, just two verses down, that you were redeemed, not with silver and gold and goats and all that, but with the precious blood of Christ. That means all your money, even if you spent your entire bank account, that is not as equal to the blood of Jesus Christ. He's comparing all the silver and the gold in the world with the blood of one lamb. He says, even if you committed 1000 sins in the old days and brought 1000 lambs and spent all your silver and gold for that, and your bank account is zero today, that is nothing compared to the blood of this one lamb, Jesus Christ. I want to say to all of you, my brothers and sisters, if you want to understand God's way, you have to understand the seriousness of sin. Any sin, if I get angry and speak one word to him, not one sentence, you fool, that's enough. You know Jesus said in Matthew 5, that's enough to make me guilty. In verse 22, verse 21 he said, olden times the standard was different, you don't kill anybody. I've never killed anybody in my life and I don't plan to kill anybody either. That is no problem for me. But that is not the standard today because I am not a follower of Moses. If you are a follower of Moses, then that is your standard. But if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, that is not your standard. Your standard is in verse 22. That means first of all you get angry with your brother, you don't say anything, it's only in your heart. Already you are guilty. What a standard. You husbands, if you get angry with your wife and you don't say a single word, you think you are very holy. No. According to, if you are a follower of Moses, you are very holy. You can't say you are a follower of Jesus and have anger in your heart. If you are angry in your heart, you are guilty. And then you go one step further and call him some bad name. Raka. No, verse 3. Raka means sort of empty head. Yeah, useless. And then, you are more guilty. And then if you say some more, then you go to hell. Can you see the standard here? In the Old Testament, it only said, if you murder, there is no verse in the Old Testament that says, if you murder, you go to hell. No, you look for it. It's not there. The Old Testament says, if you kill somebody, you got to be killed. That's all. And your future, God will determine. But here, it's very clear. If you are angry, you are guilty. You know how anger develops in us? All of us have experienced this. It always starts in the heart. Somebody does something to irritate you. It may be your husband, it may be your wife, it may be somebody in the office, it may be your neighbor, it may be your relative who cheated you. There is an anger in your heart. God says, you are already a murderer. You say, no Lord, I have not even said anything. Yeah, you are controlling your mouth, but you are a murderer, in God's eyes. Do you understand that standard? I tell you, 99% of Christians are followers of Moses, not followers of Jesus Christ. The standard is, I don't kill anybody. That's why when you get anger in your heart, you don't feel guilty. You control your mouth and you say, Praise God, I got victory over sin. Have you read this verse? Everyone who is angry is guilty. He hasn't even opened his mouth, he is guilty. When he opens his mouth, that's the second step, he becomes more guilty. And you know how anger is? All of you have experienced in that. You first try to control it, then you cannot control it. You know, like the water boils over, or when the milk boils over, when it's heated, then it comes out through the mouth, you go and tell the other person whatever you want to say, isn't that how you do it to your wife or husband? And then it's all gone out and you go back and do something else. But the stove is still boiling and once more the milk boils over. You say, what I told her is not enough. What I told her is not enough. And after five minutes, you go back to him again or to her and say some more. Then you are ready to go to hell. These are not my words and you will not hear it in any other church because they don't preach the Bible. Many years ago the Lord told me go and preach what other churches are not preaching. It will be very unpopular but you preach it I'll be with you. That's what I've done 30 years. I say it exactly like it's written here. You are angry in your heart and you don't open your mouth you are guilty and you go to that person and say something you are more guilty you come back and keep quiet and after five minutes you go back and say something more then you are ready to go to hell. I think many of you are ready to go to hell. You can clap your hands and sing over here but God is not cool but the Lord didn't stop there because the message of gospel is not a message of condemnation. No, it's a message of hope so he goes on from there to say something more this is ok here is a way to escape hell next verse now you come to the altar you come to the conference or you come to the meeting and there you remember oh I shouted at my wife or my brother or my relative stop don't pray don't give money don't do anything go he doesn't say go to God see what it says it's easy to go to God very easy all of us have years of experience of going to God and saying oh Lord I'm sorry please forgive me because that is one of the biggest deceptions of so called confession nowadays if you have only sinned against God then you have to go only to God for example if I was only at stage 1 I got angry with him in my heart I never said anything then I have to only confess to God if I had some bad thought in my heart against him I don't have to confess to him because I didn't hurt him we know that we don't confess sin with which we did not hurt anybody that's only to God I lost it in my mind I didn't harm anybody I go to God and I say Lord I'm sorry for what I did but it became more than from my mind and heart I actually spoke something or I touched a girl then I have to confess to that person also I can't just go to God and say I'm sorry because I have harmed one more person I have to go to that person and say I'm sorry I hurt you the same thing applies if you have gossiped against someone if you have spoken evil about that person if I spoke something evil about brother Vincent to three people here afterwards I realized I was wrong I have to confess to God and I have to confess to four people first I have to confess to all those three people I'm sorry for what I said about Vincent I withdraw all those statements please forgive me then I go to him and I say I'm sorry brother I spoke against you please forgive me I have already gone to those people and withdrawn those statements how many believers do this one in a million that's why only one in a million become really holy the rest will pray Oh God fill me with the Holy Spirit you really want Holy Spirit which makes you sensitive to sin no you don't want that you want some noisy spirit or excitable spirit because if you wanted Holy Spirit you would have gone and said all those matters right you know God cannot be fooled God knows who all are sincerely seeking for a holy life it doesn't matter whether you are elder brother or younger brother with God there is no partiality and if you are an elder brother the standard is much higher than for younger brother and if you stand up and preach like me then the standard is even higher you think God judges me by the same standard He judges you at least ten times higher standard because God says you are preaching my word then your standard is higher I will judge you by higher standard and the longer you preach the higher the standard that's why I tell people if you got only five minutes worth to speak speak five minutes God won't judge you by the higher standard that's why I tell people if you got only five minutes worth to speak speak five minutes God won't judge you but people who got only five minutes worth to speak they speak for one and half hour how much God would have judged them but do you think they realize that ninety nine percent of preachers don't realize that because they don't read God's word let me read to you James chapter 3 here is a commandment it's a commandment of God if God has not called you to be a teacher of His word it says here don't let many of you become teachers my brothers because you will be judged by a stricter judgment why should you not become teachers you say Lord but there is a great need for teachers in the church that may be true but don't become one God has not called you because your judgment will be much stricter I have seen so many speakers in our churches get up and speak and speak and speak with absolutely no fear of God they are not teaching anything wrong but they are wasting people's time there is no anointing upon their life no anointing in their words they think they are very interesting to listen to everybody is just waiting for them to finish and at the end of it the judgment of God is going to be very severe it won't come immediately it will come at the judgment seat of Christ and when it comes on you please don't tell me I did not warn you we must not speak more than our life never we must only speak according to the measure of our life according to the grace God has given us according to the gift God has given us many examples like this I could take to show you how there is very little fear of God in many of our lives I have seen wives and husbands who won't talk to each other for 2-3 days you would think that they are atheists no you would think okay maybe they are nominal christians no they are not nominal christians you would say okay they may be born again christians in some denomination where they don't hear this no these are born again christians in our churches who have come to so many conferences and heard these things for so many years who shut their eyes and pray so hard for the holy spirit and how they can go home and live like that there is no fear of God before their eyes see it says in Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3 the holy spirit is trying to show here how all people are sinners and there are many things he says quoting from the old testament quotation from psalm 14 in Romans 3 10 there is nobody righteous not even one there is nobody who understands nobody who seeks for God you thought you were seeking for God I believe God's word nobody seeks for God I want to tell you you never sought for God God sought for you I never sought for God but I admit it I hope you admit it also God sought for me that's why I seek for God now if you realize that you will be humble there is no one who seeks for God everybody has turned aside they have all become useless you can't be useful to God until you first realize you are useless there is no one who does good you thought you did a lot of good in your life I am sorry brother sister I believe God's word there is nobody who does good not even one there is not one person here who does good God may have worked in us and now we may be doing some good apart from that there is nobody who does good you say no brother I know some atheists and some non-christians who do a lot of good that is according to your standard you go and live in a slum and even one filthy dirty house you will say this is a clean house why? because it is cleaner than all the other filthier houses over there somebody who has come from a clean house will say you are calling this a clean house this is absolutely filthy most of you also if you go to the best house in a slum you will call it filthy many people who you say oh he is a good man that shows how low your own standard is I think spiritually you are also living in a slum today and you can look at a non-christian and say he is good and even some christians he has got sin in their life you say oh he is a good man he is a good man because he gives money to the poor the bible says there is not even one good person you can believe what you like I believe what God says because we look on the outside and God looks at the heart I want to tell you you can never have a proper experience of salvation until you discover there is nothing good in you how many of you are honestly willing to get up and say I am no better than the worst prostitute and murderer in the world you take all these gangsters and murderers you say there is no good in them there was some people like Veerappan and what is the other man's name Otto Shankar people like that you know all of them there is no good in them supposing I say you are also like them oh no no I am not like them that's why you don't enjoy your salvation you please believe the word of God and your salvation experience will be much better there is nobody God says nobody who does good not even one you got to come to that place you see the teacher says you got zero and you keep on arguing with the teacher for 25 years no I got 5% I didn't get zero teacher says no Veerappan got zero, Otto Shankar got zero you also got zero no no no I got 5% I am not as bad as them you can argue all your life you won't enjoy your salvation I agreed with God long ago yes Lord I got zero and what is the result I am a very happy man because I got salvation freedom from sin because I accepted God's verdict on my life you know many of us have not accepted God's verdict on our life I was brought up in a very God fearing home my father never took me to a cinema I never had a television in my home but I got zero you know many of us who have been brought up in God fearing homes we don't think we have got zero you see I am not so bad like all the other college boys and girls they are all fooling around with each other I know that and I am glad you are not doing that so you ask me brother Zach are you saying that we should also live like that no no no no all I am saying is you still got zero if you did what they did you will destroy your body also a lot of them get AIDS there was a young girl whom I went somewhere for a meeting she was only 18 years old then and it was some special meetings I was visiting in their home God fearing mother was not so interested I sat and spoke to this girl and her brother told them to take their Christian life seriously it was not very interested in listening to me I saw the same girl four years later now she is 22 you know what she told me brother Zach I think I have got AIDS fooled around with so many men I said God can still forgive you repent of your sin I went there one year later no interest I asked people in the church did she come back to the meeting no I feel sorry for that you know this is the world we are living in today God can forgive everybody but if you sin with your body and you get a disease in your body I tell you God will not heal you because he wants to make you an example to other people so be careful don't fool around sexually with your body and if you get AIDS you will die very quickly instead of living up to 70 years you will die at 25 so I am not saying we should fool around like that but we have to acknowledge that we have got zero in God's eye then it speaks mostly about how we use our tongue Romans 3.13 their throat is an open grave their tongues they deceive under their lips they have got the poison of ass their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness see four statements about the tongue because the tongue is the part of our body with which we sin a lot everyday and their feet are swift to shed blood see you may not kill a person physically but when you kill his reputation you are shedding his blood see if I go and speak evil about brother Vincent to somebody I have shed his blood if I have a problem with him I must go and tell him the bible says Jesus said Matthew 18 if your brother sins go to him and tell him if he doesn't listen to you take two brothers and go to him or go to the elder brothers but don't go talking to all the others about it their feet are swift to shed blood go quickly to houses did you hear about that what happened over there did you hear what that person's son or daughter has done and it says in verse 17 the path of peace they have not known they don't know how to humble themselves and go and ask somebody's forgiveness all these terrible things what does it prove verse 18 there is no fear of God before their eyes it's like totaling up arithmetic sum verses 10 to 17 this plus this plus this plus this plus this plus this plus all this there is no fear of God before their eyes you know therefore what is the first thing we need to learn fear of God we have heard about the grace of God but the trouble with us is we have heard about the grace of God before we know the fear of God it's like going to college before we have gone to school supposing you don't put your child into kindergarten we have to quickly get them a degree so he is 5 years old you put him for BSc first year he has not even gone to nursery so he will sit there he doesn't even know ABC they are talking all these complicated scientific things over there he is sitting there he can't understand anything he gets examination paper how much will he get how many marks will he get you can answer zero cipher ok he says fail one year never mind we will try next year again zero after 30 years he is still sitting in first year BSc zero and other children who humbled themselves and started from nursery they have already got MSc and all they have got jobs now this fellow will sit forever getting zero because he tried to go to college before going to school but you know there is no stupid person like that in the world but among Christians there are many stupid people like that they have tried to understand the grace of God before understanding the fear of God see it says in Proverbs 9 verse 10 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom what does aarambam mean beginning ABC what is the first lesson in the school of wisdom what is ABC fear of the Lord grace of God and all is BSc that we learn don't worry see there is another verse Galatians 3 and it says here verse 24 the law was our school master to lead us to Christ school master it says a school teacher so what does a school teacher lead you to through 12 years or 13 years he leads you to college you start with nursery and you spend 13 years then he takes you to college you are 18 years old now you finished 12th class you go for BSc because the school teacher has done a very good job in 13-14 years but if every year in school you fail, fail, fail, fail how can you join BSc that is the trouble that is the problem of many believers in many of our spiritual lives we went to college without going to school in spiritual terms you don't have to spend 14 years in school but you have to learn however long you take what is the subject in 14 years of school the fear of God if you learn that you may learn it in one week then you are ready for college but if you take 50 years to learn it then you have to wait 50 years to go to college in spiritual life there is no minimum age for joining the grace of God but it says the law has to be your school master to lead you to college God is Christ the college is Christ you have been searching for victory over sin for many years I want to explain to you why you didn't get it this is a frequently asked question Brother Zach why I have tried so many years to get victory over sin I haven't got it I will tell you today you did not study ABC properly and you are sitting in the BSC class now please go back and learn ABC what is that? the fear of God this is the beginning of wisdom the fear of God means to be sensitive to sin it means when God says something you do it immediately go and apologize to your wife you drop everything and go Jesus said that's how we must live you know in Luke's gospel in chapter 17 he is talking about the day in verse 30 when Jesus Christ will be revealed from heaven verse 24 like the lightning flashes the son of man will be in his day you don't know when that will happen any day it will happen but on that day verse 31 don't go downstairs to take your goods and if you are in the field you shouldn't have to turn back or today we won't say field those days they worked in a field today we will say office if you are in the office you don't have to go back home in those days they worked in the field now many of us don't work in the field in your office you are working in a factory or a hospital or a school or a government office and there the Lord comes you should not have to say Lord please wait I have to go back home and ask apology from my wife I fought with her this morning before going to work I haven't settled it give me half an hour let me go home and settle that Lord is not going to wait half an hour in the sky for you to go and settle things before you go to office you should not you should not have to turn back it says in that day likewise any attachment you have to earthly things that will hold you back it says in verse 32 remember Lot's wife who has an attachment to her saris and all which she left in Sodom all those things are getting burnt now if you have any attachment to your saris you will not go to heaven I will tell you that remember Lot's wife you only had one sari and all those silk saris are being burnt in Sodom I couldn't pick up my ornaments you are attached to all that you will not go when the Lord comes it says here you are on top of the house and you are attached to your goods inside the house then you won't be ready next verse remember Lot's wife you must not have an attachment to anything on this earth if you want to go use them don't be attached to them and always make sure before you go to the field or the office everything is settled at home that means your conscience is always clear because you fear God now I am going to show you the first place in the Bible where God says in Genesis 22 to a man I know you fear me that's a good example to see the first time in the Bible where God looked at a man and said now I know that you fear me it's like when you are school leaving certificate passed signed by God this person fears God Abraham got this SSLC certificate he was ready to go to college he says that in Genesis 22 God told Abraham to go and offer up his son just as he was going to offer his son the Lord said no verse 12 don't kill your lad now I know that you are a fearer of God that is SSLC certificate signed by God passed after 50 years after God called him God doesn't give a certificate after 2 days or anything like that He examined him many examinations final examination passed Abraham fearer of God signed by God okay you can go how did that happen one day in the middle of the night verse 1 God said Abraham Lord here I am one thing about Abraham whenever God called him he said Lord here I am notice that in Genesis he may be doing the most important work God says Abraham he drops it and comes like these peons you see sitting outside the managing director's office he may have gone to collect some water to drink he hears the bell he drops that and goes manager is calling him I have time to drink water also that's how Abraham was you read that in the previous 10 chapters Abraham here I am take your son and go and kill him in this Mount Moriah what did Abraham do did he fast and pray for one week when God says something there is no need to fast and pray five o'clock in the morning verse 3 he got up he didn't even tell his wife what he is going to do he took his son and went immediately went to that place exact place where God told him he took him three days to reach there he didn't say Lord why to go all the way there let me do it here itself I said go there he went there went to the top of the mountain put his son there every little point he obeyed immediately God said ok don't kill your son here is your certificate fear of God why as soon as God told him something nobody else heard it wife didn't hear it he obeyed I wanted to ask you something when God speaks to you something in a meeting like this or yesterday or yesterday nobody else has heard it the person sitting next to you never heard it wife is sitting that side she never heard it you heard what God was speaking to your heart yesterday or this morning now God is watching to see whether you obey immediately or you say yeah let me think about it it's like examination day and you don't go for the examination you say yeah let me think about it fasting and praying for three days to see whether I should go for the examination by the time you finish your fasting and prayer examination was over three days ago you are not going to get a certificate when God says something you go immediately then God will test you again next week next month you do it immediately something else God says you do it immediately especially the difficult command you know what will happen one day you will get a certificate fearer of God now you can go to college my son now you can experience my grace free forgiveness victory over sin as it says in Romans 6.14 sin shall not rule over you because now you are not under law anymore you are finished with school you have come to grace grace college praise God that's God's will for you you have to learn the fear of God first that means very simply when God tells you something which nobody else has heard you obey it immediately don't be proud don't seek your own honor let's pray