I want
to read a verse, first of all, in
1 Peter chapter 1.
1 Peter 1, it says here what we
should not be like and what we should
be like.
1 Peter 1, 14, as obedient children, do
not be conformed to the former lusts which
were yours in your ignorance.
That teaches us that when a man lives
according to his lusts, it is because he
is ignorant of God.
Remember this, my dear brothers and sisters, the
proof that you are ignorant of God, you
don't know God at all, is that you
live according to your lusts.
Any man in the world, whether Christian, believer,
non-Christian, who lives according to his lusts
is in ignorance, he doesn't know God.
So when a lot of Christians say that
they know God and yield to their lusts,
they're telling lies.
They don't really know the God of the
Bible, they know some other God who is
a figment of their own imagination.
But the true Christian, this is how he
does, he is not conformed to his former
lusts, because now he's not ignorant, but like
the Holy One who called you, be holy
yourselves in all your behavior, because it is
written, you shall be holy because I'm holy.
That's the main reason why we should be
holy, because He's our Father.
And listen to this, verse 17, and if
you address as Father, that means we call
God Father, the one who impartially judges according
to each man's work.
Conduct yourself in fear during the time of
your stay upon earth, our entire lifetime.
It says we must live in reverent fear.
The Living Bible says, act in reverent fear
of Him from now on until you get
to heaven.
There is a fear we're not supposed to
have, and there is a fear we're supposed
to have.
And we need to distinguish between the two.
We are all familiar with that verse in
2 Timothy 1.7, which says God has
not given us a spirit of fear.
But at the same time, it's like judging,
you know, Jesus said, do not judge, but
judge.
I don't know whether you know that.
In John 7.24, He said, don't judge
according to the appearance, but judge with righteous
judgment.
So He didn't tell us never to judge.
He said, don't judge according to the appearance,
but you must judge, righteous judgment.
And so if you don't judge, you're disobeying
God.
Some people know only one part of that
verse, don't judge.
In the same way, Jesus also said, do
not fear, but fear.
That's in Matthew 10.
And all failure in the Christian life comes
because of an imbalanced understanding of the truth.
It says in Matthew 10.28, do not
fear those who kill the body.
It means don't fear man, but rather fear
him who is able to destroy both soul
and body.
So just like Jesus said, don't judge, but
judge in John 7.24. He says here
in Matthew 10.28, don't fear, but fear.
And a lot of Christians are taken up
with the first part, don't fear.
God has not given us the spirit of
fear.
There are many verses like that.
You know, Zachariah prophesied at the birth of
John that we should serve God without fear.
And that's how it should be.
And we know that other verse in Romans
in chapter eight, which says, you have not
received a spirit of slavery, Romans 8.15,
to fear again, but a spirit of adoption
by which we cry above father.
So there are a number of verses that
teach us we're not to be afraid.
We're not to be afraid of God.
Jesus often said, fear not, fear not, fear
not, don't be afraid.
He came to deliver us, the Bible says
in Hebrews chapter two and verse 14 and
15, from the fear of death by defeating
the one who had the power of death
and taking away that power from him so
that he might deliver us who through fear
of death were subject to slavery.
See, in Romans 8.15 also it says
about fear and slavery.
Fear always brings us slavery.
When you're afraid of man, you're a slave
of man.
Every man you're afraid of, you're his slave,
whether you know it or not.
Anyone you want to try to please, any
man you want to try and please, you're
his slave, whether you know it or not.
That's why the Bible says we should not
seek to please men.
We should not be afraid of men.
When we are afraid of death, we're in
slavery.
Any type of fear brings slavery.
That type of fear we've got to be
released from completely, totally, 100%.
But there's another type of fear, a reverent
fear of God which brings freedom.
And it's because many Christians do not have
that reverent fear of God that they don't
come into freedom.
I feel as I've observed our own church
here through, as I look back over the
past say 10 years, when we began to
break free from the clutches of legalism and
law that governed a lot of our preaching
in previous years, and we never want to
go back to that, I have observed something
which is very sad.
In the last 10 years, folks in our
church here have indulged in more secret sin
than in the previous 15 years when we
were under law.
Not everybody.
Number.
You don't know.
I happen to know a number.
And I ask myself, why is that?
And I also know that some others have
come into a far more glorious freedom and
a holiness that they've never experienced in previous
years.
And I'll tell you why.
The reason is, and it may apply to
a number of you here, because you know
the sins you've lived in, in secret, that
nobody in this church knows about.
Perhaps only God, but maybe some of you
are living in sin.
I don't even know about myself.
It doesn't matter.
It's because in breaking free from the old
covenant, we have not entered the new covenant,
but no covenant.
See, there are three possibilities.
Old covenant, no covenant, new covenant.
And many people here in CFC have said,
we're finished with legalism, we're finished with the
old covenant, and entered into an area which
I would call no covenant.
They break free from the fear of man
and the fear of the elder brothers and
come into a place where they don't even
fear God.
It's very sad.
People feared Moses and lived holier lives than
a lot of Christians today.
And that is why I've always said, if
you come to this church, if you don't
fear God, at least fear the elders.
That's second best, because that's old covenant.
They feared Moses and obeyed him.
It wasn't the best.
It was a fear of God.
But examine your life and see whether your
holiness has exceeded the holiness of people under
the old covenant.
If not, I want to say to you,
you're living in a delusion.
Have you broken free?
It's because we don't have that.
You know, we've heard a lot about the
love of God.
But many people think of God as a
grandfather.
You know, the love of a grandfather is
different from the love of a father.
I want to tell you, God is no
grandfather.
He's not one who just ignores anything you
do, like grandfathers do.
What did we read in 1 Peter 1?
Spend your entire life on earth.
This is not Old Testament.
This is New Testament.
It's the apostle Peter writing 30 years after
the day of Pentecost.
Spend your entire life on earth in fear.
The same word.
I'm supposed to live my entire life on
earth, 1 Peter 1, 17, in fear.
In fear of what?
Fear of God.
Let me show you some other verses.
Hebrews chapter.
I'm not going to go to the Old
Testament.
I'm going to be in the new covenant,
in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 12.
In Hebrews chapter 12, it says, Hebrews
12, verse 25, after speaking about coming to
Jesus, verse 24, the mediator of a new
covenant.
He says, then if that is the case,
you've come to Jesus, the blood of Jesus
that cleanses you from all sin.
Then see to it that you don't refuse
him who is speaking.
And listen to this.
This is a warning to new covenant people.
For if those did not escape, that is,
those under the old covenant did not escape
when they refused him who warned them on
earth, much less shall we escape who turn
away from him who warns from heaven.
And his voice shook the earth then, but
now he has promised not only earth, but
he's also going to shake heaven.
And this expression yet once more denotes the
removing of those things which can be shaken
as of created things in order that things
which cannot be shaken may remain.
Every created thing is going to be shaken.
Those of you who depend on created things,
I want to say you're on a shaky
foundation.
If you are glorying in anything created, you're
on a shaky foundation.
If your foundation is money, property, a good
job, a secure job, and 101 earthly things
like that, you are going to be shaken
without a doubt.
There'll be nothing left underneath you.
The only things that will remain are the
things which are not created.
And therefore, since this is going to happen,
what shall we do?
Since we are going to receive a kingdom
that cannot be shaken, what should we do?
Let us show gratitude.
How do you show gratitude for Jesus dying
for you?
There is only one way to show gratitude
to Jesus for dying for you, and that
is by offering to God an acceptable service
with reverence and awe.
How many of you brothers and sisters have
a reverence and awe for God 24 hours
a day that makes you afraid to say
certain things, that makes you afraid to do
certain things?
I fear it has disappeared because you have
moved from old covenant to no covenant.
And the devil has deceived you to think
that this is the freedom there is in
Christ.
Freedom has become an opportunity for the flesh.
Like I said, the student who cheats in
the examination and passes and then asks the
Lord to forgive him and cleanse him in
his blood, he thinks he's got the best
of both worlds.
He passed in his exam.
At the same time, he confessed his sin
and Jesus forgave his sin, and he also
believes in justification, which means just as if
I had never sinned.
That means, praise the Lord, it's just as
if I never cheated in the exam.
Isn't that wonderful gospel that I can pass
in the exam with cheating, confess my sin,
and be just as if I had never
cheated?
It's not just as if you had never
cheated.
Every sin we commit, God may forgive it,
but it causes a scar which will never
be removed.
I don't know whether you know that.
We have to reap what we sow.
Do you think a man can live 50
years in sin, and another man lives 50
years in faithfulness, and at the end of
those 50 years, the fellow says, I'm justified
by the blood of Christ, just as if
I'd never sinned, and God says, yeah, you're
all going to get the same reward in
heaven.
God would be the most unrighteous person in
the universe if he ever did that.
How could God do that?
Treat a man who's lived in sin for
50 years and claims to be a believer
in the same way as another man who's
been absolutely faithful for 50 years.
So don't misunderstand justification.
Justification gives us a standing before God.
I don't have to be condemned.
I don't have to be discouraged.
That's true.
But it does not make me equal to
another man who's been faithful for 20 years.
You've got to be crazy to think like
that.
Because Jesus said, my reward is with me
to give to every man according as his
work shall be.
Believe me, my dear brothers and sisters, a
lot of believers are going to have tremendous
regret in heaven because they moved out from
the old covenant to no covenant.
And Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and
a lot of those old covenant people will
be way miles ahead of a lot of
new covenant Christians.
Because those fellows lived under the old covenant,
and these so-called Christians lived under no
covenant.
They tried to get rid of the fear,
all fear, and they got rid of the
fear of God as well.
And their attitude to sin became so light
-hearted.
They tried to offer to God a service
without any reverence, without any awe.
They ignored these passages of the New Testament.
And they got a one-sided Christianity, which
always spoke about, always be sure you're accepted
before God.
God loves you, brother.
Don't, don't be.
Remember, God loves you just as you are.
His love is unconditioned.
It's all true.
But if you only look at that, you've
got one side of God, and you've got
a one-sided God, and you'll see the
end result of that in the way you
live.
And I believe that's the reason.
It's one of the great schemes of the
devil.
The devil's got many schemes.
He releases games like Dungeons and Dragons to
get people to get used to witchcraft.
He releases books like Harry Potter, etc., to
get people used to witchcraft.
And he also urges Christians to think about
God's love, and how good he is, and
how unconditional his love is.
And we never must be afraid, and we
must always know that God has accepted us,
and how justification means, just as if I've
never sinned in my life, and how wonderful
this gospel is, and we spend our time
praising, worshiping, praising, worshiping.
Now, I'll tell you something.
In the last ten years, our singing has
improved tremendously.
But I wonder whether our holiness has improved
just as much.
And I'll tell you something.
The only worship that is acceptable to God
is the worship that is offered in what
the Bible calls the beauty of holiness.
Now, let me show you that verse, because
that principle remains true in Psalm 96 and
verse 9.
It says here in Psalm 96 and verse
9, Worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness, or as the NASB says, in holy
dress.
Worship the Lord in holy dress.
Now, that means that if you're not coming
in holy dress to worship God, you're coming
naked.
Think of yourself coming here without a stitch
of clothing on you.
However loudly and wonderfully you may sing and
praise God.
People say, what's wrong with this fellow?
The fellow's not wearing any clothes.
You'd be ashamed to come here without any
clothes.
You would be ashamed to come here in
an underwear.
The Bible says that's how it is when
you come to worship God and there's not
holiness in your life.
And I don't mean this type of holiness
where you keep on living in sin right
up to this morning and then say, oh
Lord, cleanse me.
I'm justified now.
It's just as if I've never sinned the
whole week.
Don't fool yourself with these psychological tricks.
God is not fooled.
The devil's not fooled.
Godly men are not fooled.
Only you're fooled.
I have preached and have believed in justification
by the blood of Christ more than anybody
else, perhaps.
But I fear God.
I know who God is, and anyone who
lives close enough to God will reverence Him
more than anybody else.
We live in a day when people are
trying to be chummy with God, slap Him
on the back, and that type of thing.
These are people who don't have any understanding
of the true God.
I believe that many Christians are worshiping a
false God, God of their imagination, who's a
grandfather, who just allows them to do what
they like.
There's no sense of responsibility and no sense
of reverence, and I'm convinced that many are
living under no covenant.
The Bible says the law was our schoolmaster
to lead us to Christ, Galatians 3.
Not to lead us nowhere, but that's where
a lot of people have been led, to
a false Christ who allows us to live
as we like.
The word reverence has gone.
We're worshiping the Lord, and we think that
the thing that really impresses God is if
all the drums and the music are all
going wonderfully, and our singing is so beautiful,
and the parts go so well, but what
about the holiness?
That's the one thing God is looking for.
We need to understand what is the mark
of God's blessing in the New Covenant.
In the Old Covenant it is very clear.
If you read Deuteronomy 28, the first 13
verses, you know what is the mark of
God's blessing in the Old Covenant.
If God was blessing you in Israel, the
proof of it would be, you'd have a
lot of money, you'd have a lot of
children, your cattle would multiply abundantly, your barns
will overflow with your crops, your enemies will
cringe before you in fear, you will never
be in debt, you'll borrow from nobody, you'll
be a person whom human beings respect, because
God's blessing you.
Now the sad thing is that a lot
of Christians today think that that's the mark
of God's blessing in the New Covenant too,
except for the children part.
They don't want that many children, but all
the other things.
They say that's the mark of God's blessing.
It's not.
There's only one mark of God's blessing in
the New Covenant, and that's we become like
Jesus Christ.
Never forget that.
How do I know whether God's blessed me
in the year 2003?
I've become a little more Christ-like, a
little more gracious, a little more gentle, a
little more humble, and above all, a little
more pure than I ever was in my
whole life.
God's blessed me then.
A little more free from the love of
money than I was in the last year
and the previous year, and God's blessed me.
See, in the Old Testament, you could fear
God and love money and have a lot
of money also, but Jesus said you can't
love God and love money at the same
time.
They're two opposites.
The closer you come to God, the further
away you come from money.
The closer you come to money, whether you
know it or not, the further away you're
going from God.
It's like two opposite walls.
You can't go to the North Pole and
the South Pole at the same time.
The further you go away from the North
Pole, the closer you come to the South
Pole.
The further you go away from the South
Pole, the closer you come to the North
Pole.
God and money are like that.
The closer you come to money, believe it
or not, the further away you're going from
God.
That is New Covenant.
How many people understand that?
The devil has deceived people in this area.
No man, I don't believe any man, can
be close to God and be close to
money at the same time.
It's impossible.
Jesus, you read Luke 16.13. These are
marks of New Covenant blessing and one of
the earthly proofs of it.
I can imagine I'm becoming like Jesus.
But one of the tests of our relationship
with Jesus Christ, like John says, if you
say you love God and you don't love
your brother, you're a liar.
You're not a believer.
You're just fooling yourself.
It's very easy for somebody to think, I
love God, but I can't love that person.
Well, something's wrong with you.
You don't love God at all.
If there's a brother or sister whom you
can't love, I don't care what you may
say.
I mean, you may not agree with that
person.
That's another thing.
You may not be able to work together.
I can't work together.
I can't work together with a lot of
believers because they compromise in so many things.
But I don't hate them.
I love them.
I love a lot of people and that's
why I don't work with them.
I love them too much to encourage their
compromise.
But if I don't love them, I don't
love God.
If I love God, I have to love
every single brother.
I've got to love every one of God's
children.
Otherwise, I don't love God.
I'm just fooling myself.
And if I'm becoming more and more like
Christ in the vertical direction, one proof of
it will be that I'll be having more
and more fellowship with godly people.
If you're getting more and more fellowship with
worldly people, you're going in the wrong direction.
Just like Jesus spoke about God and money,
1 John chapter 2 verse 16, 17 says,
If any man loves the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
If you love the world, the love of
the Father cannot be there.
So, the more worldly my friends are, the
more I'm away from God.
Actually, I don't love God at all.
The more I love God, the more my
fellowship with godly people will increase.
And if you're really become more like Christ
in the year 2003, your fellowship with godly
people should have increased in this year.
And if your fellowship with godly people has
become less, you're fooling yourself that the blessing
of God is upon your life.
And I don't mean fellowship with a whole
lot of carnal worldly type of Christians.
I mean, they're also there.
But, it's fellowship with the godly.
Jesus was very selective about whom he spent
most of his time with.
He preached to the multitudes.
He selected 70 from the multitudes whom he
sent out two by two.
I mean, Jesus, come on.
Jesus sending out people two by two.
And those 70 people cast out demons.
They got so excited when they came back
and said, Lord, the demons are subject to
us.
Then he said, that's fine, all you fellows.
Demons are cast out and you're serving me.
But from you, I don't think 58 of
you are wholehearted enough.
I've got to select 12 out of you.
Can you imagine how the other 58 felt?
Hey, we're also serving God.
We're casting out demons.
That's fine, Jesus said, but there are 12
whom I select out of the 70.
And if the other 58 get offended, they're
welcome to get offended.
They're welcome to go where they like.
But Jesus was very selective.
He selected 12.
And then he called these 12 and he
said, well, I find that three of you
are a little more sensitive to things of
God than the others.
And he picked out Peter, James, and John.
And he always took them with him wherever
he went for special things, like praying for
Jairus' daughter who was dead.
Peter, James, and John come.
Praying alone gets so many.
Peter, James, and John come.
Going up to the Mount of Transfiguration.
Peter, James, and John come.
It was not by rotation.
Okay, now this is your turn.
Next shift.
Next three.
He didn't believe in all these earthly things.
He was closer to those who were more
sensitive to the things of God.
Not perfect people.
You know Peter was not a perfect person.
But he was a sincere person.
Thank God he was not a perfect person,
otherwise we'd have no hope.
But he was utterly sincere.
And Jesus selected.
From the multitude he selected 70.
From that he selected 12.
From that he selected three.
And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever.
Don't think that he's as close to every
believer as to the other.
He loves everybody.
He blesses everybody.
He's not just as close.
From the multitude, even today, he selects 70.
He selects 12.
He selects three.
If he doesn't do that, we'd have to
say he has changed.
I don't believe he has changed.
I believe he's exactly the same today.
And that's why I want to say the
Lord is not as close to every believer
in CFC as to the other.
It's not true.
He wasn't there.
It wasn't like that in Palestine.
It's not true today.
It all depends on your reverent fear.
It does not depend on how well you
can sing.
It does not depend on how much money
you put in the offering box.
It depends on your reverent fear of him.
Those who are closest to him, fear him
the most.
They're not insecure.
It's not the fear of torment.
No.
They have understood God's perfect love.
And like it says in 1 John chapter
4, the wrong type of fear has been
cast out of their life.
You know, it says, there is no fear
in love.
1 John 4.18. Because perfect love has
cast out fear.
And that type of fear, those people who
are close to the Lord don't have.
You know, like someone has said, there are
two types of fear of God.
Listen carefully.
One is the fear that God may hurt
me.
The other is the fear that I may
hurt God.
That's the right type of fear.
One is the fear God may hurt me.
We should never be afraid of that.
God's not evil.
God's a good man.
He's not a good person.
He's not a hard taskmaster.
He doesn't hurt people.
But the fear that I may hurt God
by something I say, something I do, something
hurt God by different things in my life.
I want to encourage you in this year
to develop that fear.
To be totally free from the other fear
that God may hurt you.
And as much as you are free from
that, to develop in this fear throughout this
year, that I may hurt God.
I may hurt my loving Father by something
I do, something I say.
See, that's how love is.
See, the Bible says the relationship between Christ
and us is like a husband and a
wife.
I mean, a wife who really loves her
husband will respect him.
She won't want to do anything that hurts
him.
How can we say we love God, love
the Lord, and do things that hurt him?
Then you don't love at all.
It's a deception.
A wife who says, I love my husband
tremendously and keeps on doing things that hurt
him, she doesn't really love him at all.
I think one mark of love is that
I don't want to hurt the person I
love.
Apply that to God.
And now let's ask ourselves, are we fooling
ourselves that we love God a lot when
we're taking advantage of His grace day after
day?
For myself, one of the tests I ask,
I apply to myself is, am I being
defeated by the same sins that I have
been defeated by year after year?
If so, I'm taking advantage of God's grace.
Is there some progress there?
Is there a progress towards perfection?
Am I climbing to the peak of the
mountain, or am I right down at the
bottom still, rejoicing in justification?
Have I moved out of the old covenant
into no covenant?
If so, I would recommend to you, all
of you, get back into the old covenant.
Get back into legalism, because in the days
of legalism, you did not sin like this.
That was better.
There are many people who are under the
old covenant who are in heaven.
Jesus said that.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, they're all in
heaven.
But people who are under no covenant won't
get there.
God has provided something better than the old
covenant, but the law was our schoolmaster to
lead us to Christ, not to lead us
nowhere.
And if you have not found this real
Jesus, who's the mediator of this better covenant,
then it's better to hang on to the
schoolteacher, the law.
I believe with all my heart that for
a number of people sitting here, the life
of legalism is far better than the life
you're living today.
I'm sorry to say that.
It's not the best, it's second best.
But second best is better than third or
fourth or tenth best.
So that's what I'm saying.
And I believe this is true even in
the olden days, in the days of the
apostles, where people took advantage of God's grace.
It's not something new to the 20th century
or 21st century.
Even there, there were people who, when they
heard the message of God's grace, they said,
oh, let us do evil that grace may
abound.
And Paul says, you fellows are charging us
with preaching that.
Shall we sin that grace may increase?
See, it says here in Romans, verse 8,
chapter 3, verse 8, verse 7.
But if through my life the truth of
God is abounded to his glory, why am
I being judged as a sinner?
Why not say, as we are slanderously reported
and some affirm that we say, that let
us do evil, that good may come.
That means some were slanderously saying, this gospel
that Paul is preaching is one that encourages
sin.
See, he was preaching the gospel of free
grace.
And he says here, some have slanderously reported
and affirmed that what we are preaching is,
it doesn't matter if you sin, because you
know you're justified.
Like I said, it doesn't matter if you
cheat in the exam, because you'll pass.
And then you can ask God to forgive
you and you'll be justified.
And you will be just as if you
had never cheated in the exam.
Isn't that wonderful?
That you can commit everything you want to
live for yourself and live just like any
rotten old sinner in the earth, indulging yourself
and then ask Jesus to just forgive you
and cleanse you.
And it will be just as if you
had never done those things.
You know why God has allowed it like
that?
He's testing us in ways we don't realize.
I heard a story once, it's only a
parable, of people crowding outside the gates of
heaven on the final day, wondering who will
be allowed to go in and who will
not be allowed to go in.
I mean, that's not how it's going to
be, but it's a parable which teaches us
something.
And you know, a lot of people who
had denied themselves, stayed away from sin, were
glad that they had done that because that
would allow them to enter God's kingdom, cleansed
in the blood of Christ.
And then a rumor started coming through the
crowd, from heaven as it were, that God's
decided that it didn't matter if you lusted
with your eyes, He's still going to take
all of you in who lusted with your
eyes and lived for money.
And then there were a whole lot of
people saying, Boy, I wish I'd known that
when I was on earth.
I mean, imagine telling me that right after
I've died and come to heaven.
Imagine how much I could have lusted, how
much I could have lived for money.
And then the word came, all those who
thought like that, that rumor was circulated with
a purpose, to find out who really wanted
to do it, but didn't do it just
to get to heaven.
Are you like that?
Do you think Jesus lived a holy life
just to get to heaven?
What does it mean to partake of God's
nature?
You know, real holiness lies in the motive.
What is the motive with which you are
living a holy life?
There could be many motives.
I want to live a holy life because
I might get caught by somebody in the
church if I sin.
Okay, you live a holy life, but you're
afraid of getting caught.
There are people who don't commit adultery because
they may get AIDS.
They're not holy.
Even if they never commit adultery all their
life, they're not holy.
They're afraid of AIDS.
They're afraid of getting caught by their wives
or caught by some brother.
Deep down they really love to do it,
but they don't do it because they're afraid
it'll break up their marriage or something like
that.
And these fellows are not holy.
These are people who are just self-seeking,
people who live for themselves.
Imagine that they have repented.
They've never repented from their self-centered life.
There are people who want to be holy
because they lose their testimony.
Oh, if I do this, I lose my
testimony.
And then there are other people who want
to be holy because they want God to
use them.
If I'm not holy, God won't use me.
These are all selfish reasons.
The Bible says, Be holy.
God says, I'm holy.
Never mind whether you're used or your testimony
or anything.
My Father in heaven is holy.
I claim to be his child.
In reverent awe, I live all my life.
Let me show you another verse in 1
Corinthians.
Sorry, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
In 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, it says, and
verse 11, 2nd Corinthians 5, 11, Therefore, knowing
the fear of the Lord, we persuade men,
and we are made manifest to God.
Knowing the fear of the Lord, that's really
something.
That means, this is new covenant.
And he says that in connection with the
previous verse, we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
be rewarded for his deeds in the body
according to what he has done, whether good
or bad.
Therefore, therefore means, because I'm going to appear
at the judgment seat of Christ, and I'm
going to be rewarded for everything I did
in my body, good or bad, ooh, that
brings a solemn fear of the Lord in
my heart.
And I persuade men.
I say, hey fellas, remember this, you're going
to stand before God.
Don't think with all these justification gimmicks, you're
going to stand there for everything you did
in your body.
Therefore, verse 9, we have only one ambition,
whether we are in heaven or on earth,
home or absent, I want to please Him.
Why is it many in our church do
not have a burning passion only to please
God?
Why is that?
I fear it's because we have moved out
of old covenant to new covenant.
Old covenant people had a desire to please
God.
They did it with a legalistic spirit.
But I want to say to you, my
brothers and sisters, we are in tremendous danger
of getting a one-sided picture.
Paul says, we know the fear of the
Lord, and therefore, knowing that we appear before
Him, we're going to give everything I did
in my body.
Jesus said, every idle word I speak, I'm
going to give an account in the day
of judgment.
I believe that.
Let me show you another verse, 2 Corinthians
chapter 7.
This is all New Testament.
We're not in the Old Testament.
We're talking about New Testament verses written by
Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 1, therefore, having these promises, beloved, which
promises?
Turn back to verse 17 and 18 of
chapter 6.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be
separate and don't touch what is unclean.
You know, this is a promise.
The condition is, come out from all that
is worldly and evil and don't touch what
is unclean.
And I will welcome you.
I will be a father to you.
You will be my sons and daughters, says
the Lord Almighty.
Therefore, since we have such a tremendous promise
that God will be our Father, we can
be sons and daughters if we pull out
from all that is unclean.
Therefore, let us cleanse ourselves, chapter 7 verse
1, from all defilement of flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness.
How?
In the fear of God.
There is absolutely no way of perfecting holiness
in the New Covenant age except in the
fear of God.
You know, like you've heard me often say,
don't try to hate your father and mother
before you've learned to honor them.
The Old Covenant command was, honor your father
and mother.
You've got to start there, then come to
the New Covenant, Luke 14, 26, hate your
father and mother to be my disciple.
But when a young person who has not
learned to honor his father and mother, not
learned to deeply respect and love his father
and mother, tries to hate his father and
mother, you know what's going to happen?
He's not going to be a disciple.
He's going to have hatred in his heart.
Because in any case, he detests the authority
of his father and mother and he loves
Luke 14, 26.
That's the verse for me.
Hate my father and mother.
That's how these cults, these cults are built
like that.
People who are taught to hate their father
and mother.
I say, you cannot hate your father and
mother until you've first learned to honor them.
And anybody sitting here who has not first
learned to honor his father and mother and
deeply respect his father and mother, I say,
don't even try to come to Luke 14,
26.
That verse is not for you.
You've got to get past the Old Covenant
first.
The law is our schoolteacher to lead us
to Christ.
And you can't get there without that schoolteacher.
And it's the same thing.
Do you know the first people who heard
about the grace of God were Jewish people
who had learned the fear of God first.
The Old Testament was all about the fear
of God.
And to those people who for 1,500
years under the law had been taught to
be afraid of God, Jesus came with the
message of grace.
And boy, was it a liberation.
But today, a whole lot of people are
learning about grace who haven't learned about the
fear of God.
It's exactly like I said earlier, teach people
to hate their father and mother who haven't
learned to honor their father and mother.
What's going to happen?
They're not going to get it right.
I believe that the true disciple of Jesus
must not allow his father and mother to
run his life.
But he must have learned to honor them
first.
I learned to honor my father and mother
first before I hated them.
And you've got to learn the fear of
God before you can appreciate the grace of
God.
Otherwise you'll get a false grace.
The reverence for God is an essential component
of the true grace of God.
A grace of God that does not include
a reverential fear of God is a false
grace.
How do we know that we've got the
true grace of God?
You know, even in the apostle Peter's time,
he had to mention this in 1 Peter
5.
After writing this whole letter in 1 Peter
5, he said, I want to tell you
something.
He didn't write it himself.
He got somebody else.
I think Peter was an old man.
He got his brother.
Maybe Peter wouldn't have got his Greek spellings
right because he wasn't a scholar.
So he asked his brother Silvanus, 1 Peter
5.12, to write down the letter.
Silvanus, you know spelling better than me.
You know grammar better than me.
I'll dictate and you write.
And he says, Through Silvanus, our faithful brother,
I have written to you briefly, exhorting and
testifying.
Do you know what's the theme of my
letter, Paul says?
This is the true grace of God.
Stand firm in it.
There is a false grace.
Thirty years after Pentecost, there was a false
grace around.
And Peter had to warn against that.
What is the true grace of God?
Let's look at a few verses in his
letter.
1 Peter 1, verse 17.
If you address his father, the one who
impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct
yourself in your entire time on earth in
fear.
This is the true grace of God.
Chapter 2, verse 1.
Put aside all malice, all guile, all hypocrisy,
all envy, all backbiting, slander, gossip.
This is the true grace of God.
Chapter 2, verse 17.
Honor all men, love the brotherhood and fear
God.
This is the true grace of God.
A grace of God which does not include
the fear of God is a false grace.
Chapter 2, verse 21.
Christ has suffered for you, leaving you an
example to follow in His steps who committed
no sin.
Read it together.
In His steps who committed no sin and
in whose mouth no deceit was found.
This is the true grace of God.
Who when He was reviled, verse 23, He
did not revile in return.
This is the true grace of God.
Wives, chapter 3, verse 1.
Be submissive to your husbands even if they
don't obey God's word.
This is the true grace of God.
Wives, verse 3, chapter 3.
Don't let your adornment be braiding the hair,
wearing gold, putting on dresses.
This is the true grace of God.
Husbands, verse 7.
Live in an understanding way with your wife
as a weaker vessel, giving her honor.
If you don't give honor to your wife
as a weaker vessel, you have not understood
the true grace of God.
And further, chapter 4, verse 1.
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh,
arm yourself with the same purpose.
Because when you suffer in the flesh, you
finish with sin.
This is the true grace of God.
So that, verse 2, all the rest of
your life on earth, you live for doing
God's will.
This is the true grace of God.
Is that the grace of God being preached
today?
I want to encourage all of you to
read 1 Peter.
And remember this last sentence as the heading
of that.
This is the true grace of God.
And as you go through 1 Peter, at
every sentence you say, this is the true
grace of God.
This is the true grace of God.
I tell you, by the time you finish
that letter, you'll be delivered from false grace.
If you're serious about it.
I'm serious about it.
I don't want to spend my earthly days
deceiving myself that I'm doing God's will when
I'm not.
Deceiving myself that I'm enjoying God's grace and
defeated by sin.
See, I told you, there's a reason for
my saying this.
As I've observed this church over the last
28 years, I've seen a number of people
have declined after we have become free from
legalism.
Do you know in the first 15 years,
a lot of people who are here almost
knew nothing about movies and movie stars like
they know in the last 5 or 6
years.
Do you think we're getting closer to God?
Do you really think we're getting closer to
God?
You've got to be crazy.
Off your head.
The days of legalism were better because we
are under no covenant.
We think it's freedom.
If you had gone and asked Jesus about
the movie stars or whatever type of drama
stars there were those days, he wouldn't know.
He wouldn't know.
He'd be out of that conversation.
I'm not here to judge you.
God's not given me that responsibility.
All I say is don't fool yourself.
Ask yourself whether the law has really been
your school teacher to lead you to Christ
or you've jumped out of legalism into something
else, out of the frying pan into the
fire.
God has got something better for us.
It's not a life of bondage.
My life is not bondage.
I'm completely free from the fear of men.
I don't live in fear that God will
judge me.
I have zero discouragement, zero getting offended and
zero condemnation of myself.
That is a new covenant life.
We don't condemn ourselves.
I'm not saying I never slip up and
fall.
I don't think anybody will be able to
say that until Jesus comes.
But there's a reverent fear.
The closer I get to God, the more
I reverently fear.
The more I'm free from the spirit of
the world and the spirit of the love
of money by which the devil controls this
world, the spirit of the entertainment world, the
spirit of this world which is seeking to
dilute the effectiveness of Christians.
A lot of Christian preaching today is human
psychology.
Get people to feel nice.
I don't want to get you to feel
nice if you're living in sin.
Paul spoke once to the Corinthians and said
a phrase which has come to my mind.
1 Corinthians chapter 5.
He's speaking to a Christian church which is
supposed to be in the new covenant, but
I don't think the Corinthians were in the
new covenant at all.
They had moved out of old covenant to
no covenant.
And what was the result?
There were all types of things in their
midst which did not happen in Old Testament
times except like when Israel was worshipping the
golden calf.
All those things happened.
But when they had a God-fearing king
and a God-fearing prophet in their midst,
Israel never did those things that the Corinthian
Christians were doing, talking about the grace of
God.
He said, it's actually reported that there is
immorality among you.
And this is the phrase I want you
to notice.
Immorality of such a kind as does not
exist even among the heathen.
Think of that phrase.
Immorality of a kind that does not exist
even among the heathen.
Immorality of a kind that does not exist
even among the heathen.
Not all heathen.
I'm sure there were debaucherous wicked heathen people
even in those days.
But what he's saying is, among some decent
heathen people, decent unconverted godless atheists, don't do
some of the things you Corinthians are doing.
What type of grace are you fellows in?
That's what Paul told the Corinthians.
And he said, the little leaven will leaven
the whole lump.
He goes on further to say in verse
6, Don't you know?
You're boasting about all your justification and grace
is not good.
Don't you know that a little leaven will
leaven the whole lump?
How much leaven do you need to put
in a big size dough from which you
want to make bread?
Very little.
The whole thing blows up in the oven.
You don't need much.
And sin is like that.
You tolerate a little bit of sin in
your life, a little bit of worldliness, and
say under the guise of freedom, I'm free
from the law and I'm sick and tired
of this legalistic life.
I'll tell you, I'm sick and tired of
the legalistic life too.
But I don't want to jump out of
that into the fire.
I want to jump out of that into
the new covenant.
That is where the devil trips us up.
A false freedom where we think of God's
love, God's love, God's love, God's love, and
you go through a whole year without ever
hearing about the fear of God.
Reverence of God.
It says we got to offer to God
a service with reverence and awe.
I've been amazed at, you know, the Apostle
John.
There was a man who had walked with
God for 65 years.
I want to ask you a question.
How many of you believe that you are
more spiritual than the Apostle John?
Oh, there's nobody here so crazy to think
that.
Man, 95 years old, walked with God, suffered
for Jesus.
We're not holier than him, right?
How many of you would worship an angel?
Anybody here who would worship an angel?
And if you by mistake did worship an
angel, and you're corrected, hey, don't worship me.
Half an hour later, would you make the
same mistake again, worshiping an angel again?
You know that John did that?
He worshiped an angel and half an hour
later, he did it again.
Does that mean you're more spiritual than John?
I'll tell you why he did it.
It was a mistake.
I don't believe worship to angels.
But the man has such a reverent awe
of God, which many of us don't have.
He was so taken up with it, he
forgot himself and he worshiped.
We who are so casual, who slap Jesus
on the back and say, hi, you're my
friend, we won't do that, will we?
We probably won't even bow down before Jesus.
We'll just put our arm around him and
say, hi.
That's the trouble.
John was different.
We got so friendly with Jesus that we've
lost our reverence for him.
I fear that's happening.
I thank God it's not true of everybody.
And as I say, this does not apply
to everyone.
But if your life has got, in the
past few years, sin of a kind which
is not even mentioned among decent, heathen people,
I'd say to you, better wake up.
Don't just be fooled with all this justification
theology.
It's true, but it may not apply to
you.
I'm just trying to save you from deception.
I'm just trying to save you from surprises
at the judgment seat of Christ.
I want you to be ready for that.
I want you to understand repentance.
I remember in the early days, many people
who came to CFC would say, Brother Zach,
we never knew what repentance was till we
came to this church.
We never knew what sin was till we
came here.
Still saying that.
I hope there's, of course, we also speak
about God's love, but it's a love which
passionately desires holiness in our life.
See, perfect holiness is like perfect health.
Any father wants his child to be perfectly
healthy, not 90% healthy.
I didn't want any of my children to
be 90% healthy.
And if you're a good father, you want
perfect health.
That's what God desires for every one of
us.
He wants us to be 100% free
from the love of money, 100% free
from bitterness, jealousy, strife, pride, arrogance, hypocrisy, insincerity,
100% free from every one of these
things, not from most of these things.
I don't want my children to be free
from most diseases.
Look at holiness like health.
And there are laws of health.
You know that.
You can't eat what you like and be
healthy.
You can't drink any type of water and
be healthy.
Why are we careful with filtered water?
It's a law of health.
You can't live in any sloppy old way
without any exercise and expect to be strong
and healthy.
No.
And there are laws of holiness too.
We can't just live as we like and
say, oh, I'm justified.
Maybe you're justified, but you're not holy.
And that's a great tragedy in our day.
If we proclaim holiness, I believe the light
of God should be shining brighter in our
midst than in any other place.
Otherwise, we've got to just humble ourselves.
It's all a theory.
So, I believe that in this year we
need to seek God earnestly about some of
these things.
Think of this verse in Ephesians in chapter
5, verse 21.
Be subject to one another in the fear
of Christ.
Is there a place for that in your
life?
The fear of Christ that I have to
be subject to my fellow believer?
In the fear of Christ that I don't
tread on into his boundary?
I recognize his boundary?
Just like I would not interfere in another
person's married life or try to separate a
husband from his wife?
I want to recognize boundaries.
Be subject to one another.
That brother, even if he's younger than you,
has got a boundary.
Respect it.
Why do I respect it?
Because I fear Christ, who is the head
of the body.
The fear of Christ.
We think these are Old Testament verses.
No.
Ephesians 5.
Let me show you another verse.
Philippians chapter 2, verse 12.
My beloved, just as you have always obeyed,
not as in my presence only, but much
more in my absence, work out your salvation
with fear and trembling.
This is New Testament.
With fear and trembling I have to work
out what God works within me.
What God works inside me, I've got to
work out, not casually, but with fear and
trembling.
Another New Testament verse.
Hebrews chapter 4.
Therefore, let us fear, lest a promise of
entering God's rest has been given to us,
and we never make it.
We come short of what God wants us
to enter, a life of victory.
That's what he's speaking about.
You see the previous verses.
He's talking about people who didn't enter the
life of victory, but perished in the wilderness
for 40 years.
He's talking about the land of Canaan.
He says, let us fear that God's promised
a life of victory for you, and you
don't enter it.
Let us fear.
How many of us have a fear that
I might not come into this life of
victory that God has promised for me?
That's Hebrews 4.
Take this matter of preaching.
1 Corinthians chapter 2.
A lot of us share God's word here
and there.
Paul says how he preached.
He says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 3.
When I came preaching to you, I was
with you in weakness and in fear and
in trembling.
Preaching with fear and trembling?
Where do we hear of that today?
People who preach, afraid lest they may say
something God doesn't want them to say.
Afraid lest they may just waste people's time,
bore people.
Just imagine if all the preachers, even in
our churches, began to preach with a little
more fear that I don't want to say
anything more than what God wants me to
say.
I'm feared that I may bore people, I
may waste people's time.
I may say something out of my head.
I may say something without any preparation, just
casually.
Oh God, give us that fear which Paul
had.
We've lost it.
We need to retrieve it.
There were days when we had turned the
steering wheel so much that we went way
off to one side into legalism.
Let me tell you my fear.
In correcting that, we've turned the wheel back
to the left and some of us anyway,
we've gone way off to the other side.
And that's why there's more sin perhaps in
your life today than there was 10-15
years ago.
Perhaps there's more interest and knowledge of the
world and the entertainment world and the money
world than there was 10-15 years ago.
If that doesn't apply to you, your life
has become more godly, wonderful.
That is true freedom.
So I want to encourage you to examine
your life as you begin the new year.
Did you fast more in the days of
legalism than now?
How much did you fast in 2003?
Do you remember how it was in the
early days when we were a little more
legalistic?
Jesus fasted.
The apostles fasted.
Was there more prayer in your life in
those days than today?
Was there more diligent daily reading of the
scriptures in those days than today?
Was there more judging of yourself regularly in
those days than today?
Then I'd say, those days are better.
Get back to those days and ask the
law to lead you to Christ.
Those days are not the best, but better
than no covenant, that's what I'm saying.
The best is when you come into the
glorious liberty of the sons of God.
For we are free.
Free from fear, free from seeking to please
men, free from rules and regulations and laws,
desperately desiring to please God.
In reverence and in awe, in our life,
in our words, respecting one another, honoring one
another, fearing lest we say something God doesn't
want us to say, go someplace God doesn't
want us to do.
Oh for a healthy, reverential fear of God,
fear that we may hurt Him with the
prayer, Lord point out anything in my life
that makes you sad.
There is no condemnation in any new covenant
message.
Absolutely none.
Condemnation is an old covenant thing.
There is no bondage in a new covenant
message.
A new covenant is meant to free us,
first of all, from sin.
Jesus came to save us from sin.
He came to deliver us from this world
system.
He came to save us from the fear
of men, from trying to please men.
He came to save us from the wretched
love of money that trapped millions of people
in the world.
He came to save us from all these
things, to make us Christ-like, to build
a fellowship among the godly.
That's what He came to do.
Dear brothers and sisters, pursue it with all
your heart.
Let there be such a repentance in your
life over past failure that will bring sorrow
and sin, maybe days of fasting and seeking
God.
I want to encourage you to do it.
I want to encourage you, if you can
do it, to set aside one day a
month to seek God in this year.
Or at least some hours in one day
a month, just to seek God and to
evaluate your life once every month, to see
where you stand, to get along with God,
to get out of the trap of this
busy world.
And don't let the devil just keep on
tormenting you saying, oh, that's legalism, that's legalism.
To seek God is not legalism.
To spend time to seek God is not
legalism.
To fast and pray to seek God is
100% new covenant.
Let's not let the devil deceive us by
anything we seek to do.
Allow him to call it legalism.
Dear brothers and sisters, I'm concerned.
I'm concerned that standards are slipping.
The reverential fear of God is disappearing.
Let's restore it.
Come back to the center of the road.
We don't want to go to the one
side of legalism or the other side of
worldliness or false liberty.
We want to walk right through the middle,
enjoying God's love day by day, rejoicing in
His love, rejoicing in His acceptance of us.
But never taking advantage, with deep respect for
our Heavenly Father.
Father in heaven, those who know you best,
fear you the most.
We want to be in that number.
Oh Lord, our Father, we want to be
holy because you're holy.
This year is going to be different.
We're going to walk in the liberty of
the new covenant, especially liberty from sin.
Help us, we pray, to seek you with
all of our hearts because you're a rewarder,
those who diligently seek you.
We can't do it, but we know by
the power of your Holy Spirit, as you
write your laws upon our heart and mind,
we can live this life.
Jesus died that we might live this life.
We don't want to frustrate the grace of
God in our lives.
Thank you Father and Jesus.