I want
to turn today to the first book that
God wrote, and that's the book of Job.
That may surprise some of you, but it's
my firm conviction that Job was written before
Genesis.
The book of Genesis was written by Moses,
1500 years before Christ, about 500 years after
Abraham lived.
And the book of Job is the only
book in the whole Bible which has no
connection with Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
Every other book has some connection, except this
one is unique among the 66 books.
It's written by a man who never knew
Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, had no connection with
them, was not a part of their descendants.
And, therefore, I believe he was outside of
that stream, and it appears as though these
things were written very soon after they happened,
because there's such details of the conversation between
people, word for word.
I mean, I can hardly write word-for
-word conversations I heard last week.
And here is a detailed description of conversations
that went on for some time, which means
it was written pretty soon after it happened.
And so, therefore, if he was part of
the tribe of Israel, it would have been
mentioned.
So if he was outside the tribe of
Israel, it must have been before Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, because after that, we read from
that time onwards, God dealt only with the
people of Israel from the time of the
giving of the law.
God didn't deal with people outside after that,
and it's after the giving of the law
that Genesis was written.
So that's why I believe that Job was
the first book that God wrote when he
was writing scripture.
It's very interesting to study Job with that
in mind, that when God was writing a
book for man, the first chapter in that
book was about Job.
And that teaches us that the first thing
God looks for on earth is a godly
man or a godly woman.
He's not looking for a nation, he's looking
for a man or a woman.
And you'll find throughout the history of Israel
that it was lone individuals that changed the
history of the nation.
When Israel was declining and going down badly,
one Samuel, one Moses, one Joshua, one Samuel.
Throughout history it's like that.
When 600,000 Israelites worshipped idols, that golden
cup, one man, Moses, turned them around.
One man, Samuel, changed the face of that
nation.
One man, David.
One man, Isaiah, Jeremiah, it was always like
that.
One man had a tremendous influence on the
nation.
Now once you come into the New Testament,
God's perfect will was that it should be
a body of people now that is his
witness, not an individual, it's not a lone
Isaiah or Jeremiah or Elijah, it's the body
of Christ, the church.
There was no such thing in the Old
Testament like a church, but now local churches
like little lights in the darkness all over
the world are God's plan to be, to
proclaim his witness in every generation.
But, you read in the New Testament and
in 2,000 years of church history, what
is it that preserves a church as a
light?
Usually one man.
Again, Paul once told the elders in Ephesus,
I've been with you three years, he said
in Acts 20, and during all those three
years, you can read that in the latter
half of Acts 20, not one wolf could
come inside this church.
But now I'm leaving, I've got to go,
and I know what's going to happen after
I leave.
All those wolves who've been waiting outside are
going to come right in.
And not only that, you fellas who are
elders of this wonderful church, Ephesus, you're going
to seek your own.
You didn't dare do that when I was
around here, but you're going to do that
once I leave.
And you're going to get your own following,
and things are going to go haywire.
That's exactly what happened.
You read the second letter to the Ephesians
in Revelation chapter 2, and you find churches
lost its first love, and it's so bad
that the Lord says that was the finest
church in Paul's time, because he spent three
years there.
But they didn't take Paul's warnings seriously.
They said, oh, we'll be okay.
That's how the Israelites were.
They never took the warnings of the prophets
seriously.
They said, we'll be okay.
The Ephesians said, we'll be okay, and they
were not okay.
And they drifted, they lost out, and finally
they lost the lampstand itself.
There's no witness there in Ephesus today.
It's a Muslim nation today in Turkey, and
that's the state of affairs.
So, God begins with a man, and that's
in his first book.
He talked about a man, and he talked
about a man who had a number of
qualities.
Here is the first sentence, listen to this,
the first sentence when God writes the book
for a man, for the world.
Read it.
There was a man in the land of
Uz.
See, this is how it begins.
There was one man.
This is how God's book begins.
There was one man.
I mean, what about the creation of the
world?
Yeah, that we'll write later.
We'll write Genesis later, but first we'll write
about a man.
There was one man in the land of
Uz, whose name was Job.
That man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and
turning away from evil.
The first thing that God writes about this
man is his character.
Not his gifts, not his intelligence.
I'm sure he was a very intelligent man,
but that's not first.
He was a man who feared God.
He was upright, that you couldn't find a
single thing to blame in his life, and
he turned away from evil.
It says in the Message Bible, he hated
evil with a passion.
You know what that means?
Hating evil with a passion means a fierce
desire to hate evil.
And he was a family man.
Can family men be godly?
Sure.
The first man God wrote about was a
family man, and he didn't have just one
or two children.
He had ten children.
Seven sons and three daughters.
And as far as we know, he brought
them up in a godly way.
We certainly know he prayed for them regularly,
as we see there.
The other thing we see here is he
was a rich man.
He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels.
Those were the ways people counted riches those
days.
Oxen, donkeys, and very, very many servants.
Now, a lot of people think that if
you're rich, you can't be spiritual.
Who are the people who think so?
Those who are not rich.
They are usually jealous of somebody else who
is rich, and they have this prejudiced mind
which says rich people can't be spiritual.
Well, the first person God wrote about was
a rich man, and he was the most
spiritual man in the world.
It doesn't mean that all rich, I think
very few rich people are spiritual.
That is true, but because the Bible says
God has chosen the poor of the world
rich in faith, and 1 Corinthians 1 says
not many rich, not many clever are in
that crowd.
But you can be rich and you can
be spiritual.
A lot of people think the opposite of
that, that you've got to be poor to
be spiritual.
If that were true, then the most spiritual
people in Bangalore should be living in the
slums, and this church should be full of
slum people, because we want to be a
spiritual church.
Is it true?
How many of you believe that?
No, you don't believe that.
You believe that the middle class are spiritual.
Why do you believe that?
Because you're middle class.
You see how conceited we are.
You know, there are lots of elders in
our churches who believe that.
People who live at my level economically are
spiritual.
People who are richer than me cannot be
spiritual.
I straight away look at them with a
prejudiced look and say they are not spiritual.
It's because of fantastic conceit and arrogance and
pride that makes people feel I am the
standard.
Who said you're the standard?
Jesus is the standard, and he was poorer
than all of us.
It's good for all of us to humble
ourselves.
Riches or poverty have got nothing to do
with spirituality, just like the color of your
skin has got nothing to do with spirituality.
Your height has got nothing to do with
spirituality.
Your weight has got nothing to do with
spirituality.
The number of children you have has got
nothing to do with spirituality.
The size of your house doesn't have anything
to do with spirituality.
What job you have, what country you belong
to, whether you're white or yellow or black
makes no difference to spirituality.
You believe all that, it's exactly the same
with upper class, middle class, lower class.
But you can't believe that because you don't
read the Bible.
We have to get out a lot of
prejudices from our mind.
And the only way to get prejudices out
of our mind is by reading the Bible.
Okay.
But I'll tell you another thing.
The Bible says, Charge those who are rich
in the world to be generous.
If a rich man is spiritual, he's very
generous.
That's for sure.
He cares for the poor.
Job did.
If he doesn't, then he's not spiritual.
And another thing, it says here, this man,
the Message Bible says, was the most influential
man in the East.
Now a lot of people think also, okay,
forget riches.
If you're influential, you can't be spiritual.
Who said that?
You haven't read the Bible.
This guy was the most influential man in
that entire area, and he was the most
spiritual man.
Oh, what a lot of prejudices we have
to get out of our carnal minds before
we ever become spiritual.
Whether you have influence or no influence makes
no difference to spirituality.
So why am I saying all this?
That in future at least, when you look
at people, do not pass a judgment that
this fellow can't be spiritual because he lives
in a slum, or this fellow can't be
spiritual because he lives in a palace, or
this fellow can't be spiritual because he's too
influential, or this fellow can't be spiritual because
he's got no influence.
This is crazy stupidity thoughts that come from
people who haven't read the Bible.
Spirituality is completely independent of all these human
factors.
Okay.
Now the other thing we see here is
that this man, when his children, you know,
they used to have, they were all living
in their own houses, they were grown up,
so Job was a, like a grandfather almost,
his children were married, they were living in
their own house, and they would have feasts
on their birthdays, which would last a number
of days, and then, when the days of
feasting for their birthdays were over, verse 5,
Job would get up early in the morning
and sacrifice a burnt offering.
That was the way those days they atoned
for sin.
For each of his children, this is for
my oldest son, Lord, and this sacrifice is
for my second son, he didn't sort of
pray a general prayer, God, I pray for
all ten of my children.
No, no, no, no, no.
He prayed for each of them by name.
This one, now I pray for this one,
and now I pray for this one.
You see, godly men do that.
Godly men pray for each of their children
by name.
For each one, he offered a burnt offering,
and the reason was, he said, perhaps during
this time of feasting, they may have sinned.
He doesn't know that they have committed any
sin.
Perhaps they sinned and may have fought something
against god in their hearts.
Look at this man's concern.
He's not talking, perhaps my children went and
fell into adultery.
No, no, no, he hasn't gone that far.
He's starting with the heart.
He says in verse 5, perhaps my children
sinned in their thoughts.
Boy!
How many of you pray that type of
prayer?
Lord, my children may have sinned in their
thoughts.
Will you please forgive them?
This guy lived 4,000 years ago without
any Bible, without any fellowship, without any Holy
Spirit, without any knowledge of Jesus or Calvary.
How did he learn all this?
Because he had one characteristic by which we
learn everything.
The fear of God.
It says he feared God.
That means he reverenced God.
And when a man reverences God, the Bible
says that is the ABC of wisdom.
The reverence of the Lord or the fear
of the Lord is the beginning or the
ABC of wisdom.
It's like when children go to school, they
don't learn geography and physics first because they
can't learn that before they learn their ABC.
We have the great tragedy in Christendom today
of a whole lot of people who are
trying to stuff their heads with Bible knowledge
but who don't have wisdom for daily life
because they have not started with ABC.
I mean if you had a school in
Bangalore where you sent children and they straight
away started teaching them physics and geography and
history without teaching them ABC, they're going to
fail for 25 years.
They'll sit there and fail every year because
we tell that stupid school please start with
ABC.
Don't start with physics and geography and chemistry.
That's what we need to tell many churches.
Please don't teach them about the rapture and
the tribulation and the coming of Christ and
justification and sanctification before you teach them the
ABC.
They're so ignorant they don't know what the
ABC is.
It's written in your Bible.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.
It's the ABC of wisdom.
Teach them to fear God.
To reverence God.
Then they'll understand everything else properly.
If they don't learn the reverence of God
they will have a lot in their heads
and pretty close to zero in their hearts.
That's the condition of a lot of Christendom
today and I've been around Christendom a lot
more than you.
That's the reason why we have so many
lovers of money in Christendom.
That's the reason why we have so many
divorces in western countries anyway in Christendom today.
That's the reason why so many fine young
believers are defeated by the lust of the
eyes 365 days of the year.
That's why there are so many believers who
are involved in internet pornography.
You think they lack Bible knowledge?
They got Bible knowledge oozing out of their
ears.
And their tongue especially.
But they haven't learned ABC.
They haven't learned the fear of the Lord.
I blame their teachers.
I mean if a teacher doesn't teach them
how will they learn?
David said in Psalm 34, come my children
I will teach you the fear of the
Lord.
There are very few teachers who can teach
the fear of the Lord because there are
very few teachers who fear God themselves.
Who reverence God.
Job was a man who feared God.
And a man who fears God is concerned
about his children.
Concerned about sin in the heart.
Notice how in the first paragraph of the
Bible that God wrote, he spoke about sin
in the heart.
He was afraid that they have sinned in
their hearts.
This guy was really an amazing man.
He says in another chapter, in chapter 31
he says, I made a covenant with my
eyes.
Think of that for a moment.
I made a covenant with my eyes never
to gaze at a young woman.
How old did we say Job was?
25?
He's a grandfather.
Do 65 year old people have to make
a covenant with their eyes?
He made it when he was a young
man.
But he maintained it all through.
Long ago he says I made a covenant
with my eyes.
Who taught him that?
Was Matthew chapter 5 written there in those
days?
That if you lust with your eyes you'll
commit adultery?
No.
You don't need Matthew chapter 5.
You don't need the Bible when you have
the fear of God.
When you don't have the fear of God
you can study all these verses.
You'll never get anywhere.
See what this man had.
Long before the Bible was written.
I made a covenant with my eyes that
I will not gaze at someone who's not
my wife.
Because I'll be tempted.
And he goes on to say I wouldn't
hang around some other woman's house.
What a man he was.
He spent his time thinking of how he
could help the widows and the orphans.
Instead of thinking how he could lust after
women.
See because of the fear of God.
There was only one thing that kept him
from all this.
The fear of God.
There's another place there.
I don't have time to show you.
Where he says I did not make gold
my God.
Where did he learn that gold can become
your God?
That money can become your God.
Who taught him that?
Was it written in Luke 16 about what
Jesus said about mammon?
That wasn't even written in those days.
When you have the fear of God you
don't need any of these verses.
When you have the fear of God it's
not only the beginning of wisdom it leads
you all the way to the end of
wisdom.
If you don't have the fear of God
you learn nothing.
This man feared God.
He reverenced God.
He became sensitive to sin.
He knew mammon is a tremendous power that
can draw me away from God.
He knew that he must use the resources
God has given him to help those who
are more needy than him.
He used to help blind people cross the
street.
Is that Christianity?
Sure it is.
Total strangers.
A blind man helped him cross the street.
Yup.
And it says here one day you know
various angels and Satan were also there.
Satan couldn't come into the third heaven the
immediate presence of God.
He'd been cast out from there.
But from the second heaven he could speak
to God.
The other angels were in the third heaven.
And it says here the Lord said to
Satan where do you come from?
Verse 7 Satan said I've been roaming around
the earth and walking around on it and
he's still doing that.
Satan is alive and well on planet earth.
He's moving around all the time.
And the Lord says you've been moving around
all the earth.
Okay let me ask you a question.
Have you considered, have you seriously looked at
my friend Joe?
My servant Joe.
Have you looked at him?
I know you've moved around the earth Satan
and you've found a lot of ungodly people.
A lot of people who claim to be
religious and spiritual and who live hypocritical double
lives.
You've met a lot of people who gossip
and backbite and talk a lot of rubbish
at home and lust with their eyes and
love money and claim to be spiritual.
I know there are thousands and thousands of
people like that on the earth Satan but
in the midst of this crowd have you
thought of this man?
I know there are few only but have
you thought of this one man Joe?
He's different.
And what does God say about him?
There is no one like him on the
whole earth.
Why?
Because he's got so many camels.
God doesn't care one bit for it.
He doesn't even mention that.
Do you know that God doesn't care for
your bank account or the size of your
house or your job?
I mean that may swell your head with
pride but God doesn't care two hoots for
that.
But he says there's a man who's blameless
and upright according to the light he has.
He's absolutely upright.
In certain areas he doesn't have light yet
because the Holy Spirit is not living in
him but according to the light he has
he's absolutely blameless and upright.
A man who fears God and hates evil
with a passion.
There are a lot of other things written
about Job in the first paragraph but God
doesn't mention any of them.
He doesn't say how many children he has.
He doesn't say how much wealth he has.
Those things don't mean anything.
The man fears God.
Satan have you seen a man like that?
There's no one who fears God like him
in the whole earth.
What do you long for?
A better job?
A higher salary?
A more comfortable life?
A bigger house?
Yeah, nothing wrong in these things.
Provided those are not your priorities.
But if those things become priorities then you
go astray.
If you rejoice more in an increment in
your salary than in victory over some sin,
you got it all wrong brother.
You got it all wrong.
It's like a dog getting excited that he
got another bone to bite.
It's really like that.
It's crazy.
I'm not talking about unbelievers.
I'm talking about believers.
The thing that excites them.
They got such a huge salary but they're
still defeated by lust.
Is that great?
That you got a better salary?
More opportunity now to love money and waste
it on yourself and sin.
You're defeated in your life.
You got it all wrong.
God is looking for those who fear him.
I tell you from the time I first
was gripped with this passage, many many years
ago as a young man this came to
my heart and it hasn't gone away more
than 45 years it hasn't gone away.
Lord, I want to be a man like
that.
I want to be a man like that.
The cry rings from my heart even today.
I want to be a man like that.
I want to be a man whom you
can boast about to Satan.
I do not want to be a man
whom human beings praise.
I couldn't care less for the empty praise
of man whose breath is in his nose.
God takes away that breath.
You hold a man's nose for 5 minutes,
he's dead.
That's all he is.
His breath is in his nose.
All his intelligence, everything disappears if you hold
his nose and mouth for 5 minutes.
He'll become retarded.
Don't try it.
But anyway, that's the way it's done.
It doesn't mean a thing.
The Bible says that.
The last verse of Isaiah 2.
Man's breath is in his nose.
Don't care for him.
I love that verse.
Many years ago the Lord gave it to
me.
Isaiah chapter 2, I think it's 22, the
last verse.
Man's breath is in his nose.
Don't care for him.
I said, Lord, I won't care for him.
Care for what God thinks about you.
Care for whether God can boast about you
to Satan.
And say, there's a man.
Have you gone to Bangalore?
Have you gone to that street?
Have you gone to that house?
Have you seen that man?
Have you seen that woman?
He's different.
I know there are lots and lots of
hypocrites in the churches in Bangalore, but have
you seen this man?
Have you seen this woman?
I want to ask all of you sitting
here, how many of you have a burning
desire as you hear this?
Lord, I want to be one like that.
And I'm willing to pay any price if
you can boast about me to Satan.
I couldn't care less what the church thinks
about me or what people think about me
or anything, Lord, but if you can boast
about me to Satan, I don't care if
I'm the most insignificant, unknown person in the
world.
I tell you honestly, that's my desire.
God is my witness.
That's my desire.
I hope it's yours.
If you are like that, you as one
person can make a tremendous difference in this
world for God.
You'll be able to do what 10,000
people cannot do.
It's true.
You'll be able to do more than 10
,000 people.
One man who fears God and hates sin
with a passion will be able to accomplish
more in his life than not only 10
,000 but a million compromising Christians.
But God finds so few whom he can
boast about to Satan.
Those who fear God, hate evil, are blameless
and upright.
What else did God say?
What else does He say?
Blameless, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil.
God doesn't say, Do you know, Satan, how
much of the Bible this fellow knows?
Satan will say, I know more than him.
And he's right.
Do you know Satan knows more of the
Bible than you and me?
He knows every verse.
And he knows exactly the right verse to
quote to lead people astray.
He even quoted a verse to Jesus in
the temptation to try and tempt him.
Can you imagine how much he knows the
Bible to quote exactly the right verse to
lead you astray with the Scripture?
He knows he can't lead you astray with
some other religious book, but he can lead
you astray by quoting Scripture.
Ha ha, he knows that.
He tried it with Jesus, but he didn't
succeed because Jesus knew another Scripture, which countered
what he said.
And you may not know that other Scripture
because you're not so careful in studying the
Scriptures.
So, Bible knowledge is not the thing.
It's the fear of God.
Coming regularly to the meetings?
Do you know that the demons are more
regular at these meetings than you are?
It's true.
I don't believe there's a single anointed meeting
anywhere on the earth where the demons are
not present.
I mean, if he knows of some dead
church, some dead meeting, ah, forget that.
The devil says, don't send anybody there.
Nothing will happen over there.
But if he sees a place where people
are going to be delivered from sin and
people are going to overcome Satan and put
him under their feet, boy, he'd send a
pack of demons there.
I believe there are a pack of them
here right now.
Isn't that great?
I want to always be in a meeting
where there are a pack of demons sent
by the devil because he's scared of what's
going to be preached there.
I don't want to go to a meeting
where the devil says, ah, don't send anybody
there.
Nothing's going to happen.
So, don't glory in coming to the meetings.
Don't glory in Bible knowledge.
The devil exceeds you in all of these
things.
I'll tell you where he cannot excel you
to be blameless, upright, fearing God and hating
evil with a passion.
Okay, do you know the demons can sing
better than you?
Do you know that?
Do you know who influences the rock musicians
of the world?
Who teaches them all the back masking that
goes on in their songs?
Demons.
They sing much better.
They play the guitar much better.
They play the drums much better.
Don't glory that you can play the guitar
or drums or keyboard or anything.
Demons can do that ten times better than
you.
It's stupid to get your head swollen up
with these type of things.
Preaching, the devil can preach better.
But I'll tell you what God looks for.
Is there a man who fears me?
Who hates evil with a passion in his
private life?
Who's careful about sin in the heart?
Who's careful about sin in the hearts of
his children?
That is the type of person God is
looking for in this church and all over
the world.
And he finds so few like that.
But where there is such a man, God
will boast about him.
But I tell you, that man will be
the target of the devil.
His family will be the target of the
devil.
That's what you read in the book of
Job.
The devil will be after that man, the
devil will be after his family.
But, the devil won't be able to touch
a hair on his head without God's permission.
That the devil knows.
He says there, you have put a hedge
around him.
He says, in verse 10, you put a
hedge around him, you put a hedge around
his family, you put a hedge around his
bank account and his property.
That devil can't touch one rupee of mine
without God's permission.
He cannot make my business run into loss
without God's permission.
I know that.
I've earned my own living doing a business
for 30 years and the devil's never been
able to touch it.
I'll tell you sometimes, I've lost large amounts
of money and I said, Lord, why?
And the Lord said, to free you from
the love of money.
Ah, praise the Lord, that I want.
So, God allows it to teach us a
lesson like he allowed Satan to put a
thorn into Paul's flesh to make him humble
for a good purpose, yes.
Otherwise, he can't touch anything without his, he
can't touch sickness.
When sickness comes into our home, okay, that
is to manifest the power of God there.
How Jesus can heal.
So, it's tremendous to be one who fears
God.
You can be attacked by Satan but he'll
never be able to overcome you and much
more today when Satan has been defeated.
Satan was not defeated in Job's time.
So, he didn't have as much power as
I have today, as you can have.
Satan lived, Job lived 2,000 years before
Satan was defeated.
So, he didn't have the authority.
He couldn't use the name of Jesus to
drive Satan away.
Today, we can.
We're living in a time when they were
defeated.
Satan's been defeated.
And the other thing you read is when
a man fears God, others are going to
be jealous of him.
You see those three preachers?
Jealous of Job and who were so happy
that he lost his property and became sick.
If you're a man who fears God, others
will be jealous of you and they'll be
happy when something bad happens to you.
They won't say that openly.
They'll come and cry like they did before
Job.
Oh, we are so sorry brother that we
heard this thing happen to you.
But inwardly they'll say we're thrilled this guy
was better than us spiritually and he was
rich too.
But God didn't spare them.
He waited a long time.
Then he called the three of them up
and said I won't spare you fellas unless
you humble yourself and go and ask Job
to forgive you.
Because you spoke against him.
It's a very dangerous thing to speak against
a man who fears God.
God will hold you for that a hundred
years later.
Unless you go and apologize and said it
right with that man.
You read in the book of Job chapter
42 just you fellas, you spoke against Job,
go to him and apologize.
And ask him to pray for you otherwise
I won't spare you.
And they had to do that.
Job had to offer an offering for these
fellas who criticized him.
Then they were forgiven.
See, God keeps his accounts.
He may take a long time to straighten
out those, to get people to pay their
bills.
Sometimes he waits two thousand years.
I mean those Pharisees who killed Jesus, they
haven't paid the bill yet for two thousand
years.
But you think they've escaped?
Even though Jesus said forgive them for they
don't know what they do.
Jesus only forgave the horizontal part.
As a human being I forgive them.
But what about their responsibility before God?
The vertical part of their sin.
That was not forgiven.
That's never forgiven.
Even if somebody says I forgive you.
Doesn't release you from the vertical part of
it until you repent.
And they did not repent.
The bill has been waiting two thousand years
but one day they'll have to pay for
it.
A lot of people who escaped justice on
the earth who cheat and rape and commit
crimes and who escape because they got influenced.
But they haven't escaped.
The bill is waiting.
They'll have to pay for it one day.
Every single sin that you've committed in your
life.
There's a bill that's waiting to be paid
unless you have repented, confessed it, forsaken it,
asked the Lord Jesus to forgive you, cleanse
you in his blood and gone to the
people whom you hurt and asked them also
to forgive you.
Then it's gone.
Then the bill is destroyed.
That's how these guys destroyed their bill.
The other thing you read in the book
of Job is a man who fears God
can sometimes have a very difficult wife.
Sometimes we think God fearing men will always
have godly wives.
Not Job.
First book in the Bible we read about
a difficult wife who made life hell for
him.
Told him to commit suicide.
You thought your wife was bad.
Look at this guy's wife.
She told him to commit suicide.
She actually told him that in Job 2.
Go and commit suicide.
Curse God and commit suicide.
He was a godly man.
I'm not foolish enough to do something like
that.
I'll accept what God says.
He wasn't like Adam.
Loved Eve more than he loved God.
Anyway, what was this fear of God mean
that made this man such a wonderful man
that he came out triumphant at the end
that God blessed him double?
You know, the first time in the Bible,
the other day we took a study on
three words that occurred first time in the
Bible.
Now I'll tell you the first time in
the Bible the word fear of God occurs.
It's a very interesting study.
Whenever you see the first time in the
Bible a certain word occurs.
Have you done that study, for example?
Where in the New Testament does the word
grace occur for the first time?
I don't mean in terms of books but
in terms of time.
In terms of time just by the way,
the first time the word grace occurs is
in relation to Jesus.
That grace was upon him as a child,
Luke 2.40. That's why he never sinned.
Just by the way.
Okay.
Just a few hints for Bible study.
Take a concordance.
I bought a concordance 45 years ago.
That's how I studied the Bible.
the first time the word fear of God
occurs in the Bible is very interesting.
It's in the book of Genesis in chapter
20.
It is in relation to sexual sin.
Very interesting.
Fear of God comes first time in the
Bible in relation to sexual sin.
Abraham had gone up to a certain place.
We read in Gerar the name of the
place was Gerar, verse 1.
While he was there his wife who was
85 years old was still pretty good looking.
I mean, remember they lived up to 200
in all those days.
Sarah was like what we'd say a young
25 year old girl today.
And the king of Gerar looked at him
and said, Hey.
He took her because Abraham said, she's my
sister.
Oh, sister.
That's great.
I thought she was your wife.
She's your sister.
I'll take her.
But Abraham told a half-truth because he
was, she was a sort of a cousin,
sister of his.
And he lost his wife because he told
a lie.
Anyway, Abimelech, God protected Sarah from being raped
that night somehow.
And the next morning, God spoke to Abimelech
and said, restore the man to, verse 7,
restore the man's wife because he's a prophet.
Prophet who tells lies?
Unfortunately yes.
But he's a prophet.
But restore the man's wife to him, verse
7.
If you don't restore her, you'll die.
I tell you, God takes care of his
servants.
He takes care of his prophets.
So Abimelech restored him, restored her to Abraham
and said, here is where an unbeliever can
rebuke a prophet.
Why have you done this to us?
Why?
How did I sin against you that you
did this?
You've done to me things you should not
have done.
Can a prophet receive a rebuke from an
unbeliever?
Why not?
If you're humble, you need to receive it.
Abraham received it.
Can you be corrected by somebody younger than
you spiritually?
Sure.
Paul corrected Peter who was 10 years senior
to him.
He's wrong.
It's a false love that does not correct
people.
Completely false love.
Too much of that false love among Christians.
We let a person go astray and say
let him go astray.
We don't love him.
Then Abimelech said, why did you do this?
And listen to this.
Abraham said, I thought, verse 11, first time
the fear of God, word fear of God
occurs, I thought there is no fear of
God in this place.
That means you fellas don't have any respect
for sexual morality.
Because that's the sin they were talking about.
I thought if I say this to my
wife, you fellas will kill me because you
want to molest my wife.
You guys don't have any sense of sexual
morality.
That's what he meant.
I remember years ago seeing this that the
first time the word fear of God is
mentioned in the Bible is in relation to
sexual morality and uprightness.
And I learned something from that as a
young man that my fear of God as
a young man is tested by my attitude
to uprightness in the sexual area.
From Scripture.
You learn a lot when you study Scripture.
You get all the wrong ideas out of
your head.
The fear of God.
I remember asking the Lord at that time,
Lord why have you made the sexual desire
so strong in men that they murder for
it, they give money for it, they do
all types of things.
Take such terrific risks for it.
The Lord said because it is through this
that I test whether a man fears me.
And I've never forgotten it.
It is in the sexual area that God
tests you, my brother and my sister, whether
you fear God.
Particularly men because he's talking about men here
in Genesis 20.
This is the area where God tests you.
You know how temptation comes.
Look at Genesis 3.
The devil showed Eve something.
She got attracted with it, with her eyes.
Her body drew her to it.
And she reached out her hand and grabbed
it.
That's how the devil tempts you today.
He shows you something on your computer screen.
Your eyes are attracted to it.
Your body is drawn to it and you
reach out with your hand and click your
mouse.
Same thing.
Just like Eve.
And you get there.
And you get the consequences.
Do you think the devil told Eve, once
you eat this, your life is going to
be destroyed?
Your children's lives will be destroyed?
All types of confusion, you're going to sickness,
you're going to have this, you're going to
have that, you're going to solve types of
problems for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years.
Do you think the devil tells you the
way it's going to mess up your life
and mess up your mind and give you
dirty dreams for the next 50 years by
all that pornography that you watch on the
internet?
Do you think he'll tell you that?
No!
You wouldn't go anywhere near it if you
knew that.
He's not going to tell you you're going
to have dirty dreams for the next 50
years.
No!
He's not going to tell you that your
usefulness to God is going to be hindered,
your sharpness will be blunted.
He's not going to tell you all that.
Why should he tell you all that?
He wants you to drop into his lap.
He'd be delighted if you spend eternity with
him.
And that's where he's trying to lead you.
Take it seriously.
The first area where the fear of God
is tested is not in whether you cover
your head but in what is your attitude
in the sexual area.
And in this connection I would say a
word to sisters as well.
Have you read this verse in Matthew chapter
18?
Matthew chapter 18, Jesus said an amazing thing.
Matthew 18 and verse 7.
Read this very carefully.
Woe!
Woe is the equivalent of the Old Testament
curse.
Jesus used to say, blessed are the poor
in spirit, blessed are so and so.
The opposite of that is woe.
The opposite of curse.
You see that in Luke chapter 6.
Blessed and woe.
So this is a curse.
Boy!
If Jesus pronounced a curse, I wouldn't go
anywhere near that.
A curse on the world because of its
stumbling blocks.
You know people, you know people are walking
down a dark road and there's a stone
there, they trip on it and stumble.
That's a stumbling block.
It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come.
That means as long as this world exists
there will always be stumbling blocks.
Don't pray, Oh God remove all the stumbling
blocks from the world.
It won't happen.
There will always be filth on the television.
There's no use praying that it won't happen.
There will always be preachers who steal money
from poor believers through television and through their
messages.
Steal money means ask them to give, give,
give, give, give, give, give.
You know why I never ask people to
give money?
I'll tell you what God told me many,
many years ago when I started serving the
Lord and you'll know the reason.
I don't think I've ever said it publicly
but here it is.
The Lord said to me as long as
you have got one rupee in your bank
account don't ever ask anybody else to give
money for my work.
I said Lord I won't do it.
When I have given my last rupee and
the Lord's work still needs money I will
tell people brothers I think it's about time
you did something for the Lord's work.
That's why in all these years you've never
heard me tell you to give money because
I haven't come down to my last rupee
yet.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't give.
That's between you and the Lord.
My giving is between me and the Lord.
It's more blessed.
I wanted the greater blessing of giving rather
than the blessing of receiving.
It's more blessed to give than to receive.
I said sure I want the greater blessing.
If you fellas want the lesser blessing that's
your choice.
There's a greater blessing in giving lesser blessing
in receiving.
You can have your choice.
I chose the greater blessing.
Everybody is given a choice.
But there's blessing and there's curse.
Stumbling blocks.
There will always be stumbling blocks in the
world.
Crooked preachers, deceivers, evil men, bad filthy movies.
They'll always be there.
False religions, terrorism, immodestly dressed women.
They will always be there.
Models and cinema stars who dress in ways
to lead people astray.
They will always be there.
But woe, a curse to the man or
woman through whom the stumbling block comes.
There's a curse on all these people I
just mentioned.
If they cause other people to stumble.
How does that apply to you sisters?
If you dress in such a way that
you cause a man to lust after you,
you are responsible.
You probably never heard that before.
But you have no answer to give to
God from today onwards if you commit that
crime.
Will that man be judged?
Sure.
For lusting after you.
Will you be judged?
Certainly.
For causing him to lust.
That's why the Bible says women should be
dressed modestly.
And that's why the devil is determined to
make sure women don't dress modestly.
That's why he makes young girls admire the
models and try to become like them.
Destroy them spiritually.
I've never till today seen an immodestly dressed
girl who was spiritual.
It doesn't exist.
It's like saying black is white and white
is black.
How can that be?
No, it's impossible.
It's woe, a curse on all those who
cause other people to stumble.
So parents, if you have daughters, don't yield
to all their demands as long as they
live in your home.
Once they leave your home and get married,
you can't control them, but as long as
they're in your home, put some values into
their head.
Teach them these things which they will not
hear in other churches.
Preachers who want to be popular, who want
to increase the size of their congregations won't
tell people these things.
But we teach people these things.
What's good for them.
What will help them to stand before the
Lord one day and hasten with joy.
What will enable God to boast about them
to the devil.
Yeah.
That's how it is.
So I would say take this seriously.
The fear of God, that's the first time
it's mentioned in the scriptures.
Where's the last time it's mentioned?
It's in Revelation.
It says in chapter 19 and verse 5
Give praise, the voice came from the throne
saying, Give praise to our God all you
His bondservants who fear Him.
The small and the great.
Who are the ones who will praise God?
Who are called to praise God?
Those who fear Him.
Those who reverence Him.
You know when I listen to some of
the flippant so called praise and I don't
call them worship songs at all, praise songs.
Flippant songs written by half converted song writers
who were unconverted once singing, writing love songs
once upon a time.
Now they got half converted and because they
got a gift started writing love songs to
Jesus.
Oh Lord, I can't get along without you.
Some of these flippant songs I'll tell you,
I don't sing them, I stand there I
reverence God too much.
I know God too much to sing the
songs written by these half converted fellas.
There was a reverence for God in a
lot of the songs written by godly men
and women fifty, hundred years ago.
So rare to find that type of reverence.
Now and then you come across a song
chorus real reverence, a man who fears God
but a lot of today's so called praise
songs are very flippant.
Who can praise God?
It says, you who fear God, reverence Him.
The small and the great praise Him.
I want to be in the midst of
those who reverence Him.
I'd rather join with four or five people
who reverence God and praise Him than multitudes
who can sing well, shake their hips and
all that.
Today's Christians don't know what it is to
praise God, much less do they know what
it is to worship God.
It says that we can perfect holiness, 2nd
Corinthians 7.1 only in the fear of
God.
Many are not become holy because they are
trying to be holy without the fear of
God.
They've misunderstood the grace of God because they
think grace means I can live as I
like, I'm just going to be happy before
the Lord.
Well then you've misunderstood grace.
The grace of God has taught me to
reverence God much more than in the days
when I did not have the grace of
God.
That is true grace.
True grace is that which teaches us to
fear Him.
You know there are only four times in
the Bible where the word, four times in
the New Testament where the word hallelujah comes
by the way.
We sing hallelujah so much in our songs.
All four times are in Revelation 19.
The only times in the New Testament where
hallelujah comes.
And all times, all those times, it's in
relation to, three of those times, it's in
relation to the destruction of Babylon.
False Christianity.
It's allowed people to compromise.
Here it is.
Babylon is destroyed.
Hallelujah.
Okay.
Now, let's rejoice verse 6.
The Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.
Hallelujah.
You know, we haven't understood true praise.
If you don't understand true praise, we don't
understand worship.
Everything revolves around the fear of God, reverence
for God.
Get a certificate from God, like Abraham got.
Now I know that you fear me, because
he offered up his son.
He obeyed God in secret.
You've heard a lot of things today, alone
in your mind, just like Abraham heard one
night in his bed, God spoke to him,
give up your son.
You've heard some things today.
Nobody else heard it.
The person sitting next to you didn't hear
it.
You're like Abraham.
Read Genesis 22.
Where he spoke something only to you.
Even Sarah sleeping next to him didn't hear
it.
The person sitting next to you hasn't heard
it.
Your wife didn't hear it.
Your husband didn't hear it.
You heard something.
Now God is testing you whether you'll obey
that or not.
Abraham obeyed.
God said to him, Genesis 22, now I
know that you fear me.
What a certificate to get.
I want that certificate.
God telling me, now I know that you
fear me.
You don't get those certificates easily from God.
But when he gives it, you will be
a man who influences thousands, tens of thousands,
however weak you may be, however ungifted you
may be.
Learn, my brothers and sisters, to reverence God.
Let's bow our heads before God now.
While our heads are bowed in prayer, whatever
God spoke to you in secret like he
spoke to Abraham, say, Lord, will you help
me?
I'm willing to pay any price.
I don't have the ability.
I've tried so many times.
I've made so many resolutions only to fail.
Bring me to the end of myself.
Help me to fear you and to reverence
you and to come into this life that
you want me to live.
Make my life count for you on this
earth, Lord.
Don't let me drift along and waste my
life.
Thank you, Father.
I believe there are at least some.
I don't expect many because you said, few
there be that find the way to life,
but I believe there are some.
Men and women, we're seeking you this morning.
Give them their heart's desire.
Teach them the reverence of God and lead
them on the path of wisdom.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.