Praise the Lord.
It is such a joy to meet you once again through this episode.
Last week we saw how God has asked us to honour all people.
Through many verses we saw why God has asked us to do so.
Today we are going to see on Should we fear God? Let us see this based on a few verses.
The verses that we saw last week are the same as what we would see now.
But we will see different parts of those verses.
II Peter 2:17, the first part says Honour all people.
Then it is said, love the brotherhood; fear God and honour the king.
Today we are going to see the third part fear God.
God says that man has to fear Him, who has created him.
Often the word Fear refers to the fear that we have for darkness or over some shocking news or so.
That fear has nothing to do with this fear of God.
Actually this refers to reverence. Fear of God is nothing but revering God.
This verse actually tells us how we should revere God.
When it is said, Fear God, many people wonder why they should fear Him because He is our Father,
He is our King, and they ask shouldn't we live in closeness with Him? Of course this is true. I wouldn't deny it.
However this does not mean that just because you fear God, you are not close to God.
Just because I fear God that does not mean that I am not pleasing to God or am not close with Him.
Such idea is our own perception. Why does God say, Fear God?
Let us see these verses to find out the reason.
Deuteronomy 5:29 says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments,
that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
God tells the people of Israel, You should always follow My Commandments and walk in fear of Me
Imagine a family! The father is the head and then the mother and children are there.
Even so, if we should not misuse each other within a family and to keep it with proper restraint,
the father would always take the authority and bring us within a boundary –
You should not do mischief; you shouldn't talk loudly…
Thus the father would admonish us about something or the other.
Only when we have respect for our father, we would listen to him saying,
Yes, dad, what you say is correct… We would fear him in the sense that we revere our father.
Why so? We follow our father's words.
Just because I fear or give reverence to my father, that does not mean that there is no relationship between both of us.
Though a father-son relationship exists between us, I should listen to my father's words in fear
and reverence and should not misuse it. The same words are said in the Bible too.
God says, You should always fear Me. We should fear God's Words; His commandments.
We should fear in doing wrongs; in disobeying God's words.
When we live thus, truly we would be made into that new man about whom God speaks.
On many occasions, God tells the Israelites, these people worship Me in their mouth but not in their hearts
The truth is today it has become a fashion to say I am a God fearing person when someone
– may be from our office or any other place – asks us Brother are you spiritual or religious?
That's all! We should think whether we really have the fear of God in us to call ourselves God fearing persons.
When we see this on the basis of the Scriptures, it is said, When I walk in fear of God, I first of all shun evil.
Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.
The actual meaning of walking in fear of God is he/she should hate evil.
A person who does not have pride, anger, arrogance, wicked nature, and the habit of not talking
whatever comes to his/her mouth, is called the person who lives in fear of God.
Today I may be a big pastor in the church, a leader in a big ministry, or a Founder of a big church,
and a person of good status, popular in the Christian society. Nothing wrong in this.
God has blessed me and He has given me this.
But still, if we are a God fearing person, first of all we should come out of evil.
What is that evil? I will not have pride – whether it is pride about my ministry or my faith
or my testimony or my family and proudly telling,"Look at my majestic ministry!
We would not have any such pride. Next, we will not have arrogance.
Many times, when we are busy in the ministry, we lose our temper with many people.
There is nothing wrong in warning when something wrong is done.
Usually when we are busy, we would be tensed up. We would be short tempered.
This world has taught us, if you are busy or occupied it is natural for you to have a healthy arrogance.
In my office I have seen managers who are under pressure and busy, flying to places
and attending meetings and they would bring revenues for the company.
They would always be strict and arrogant. They would not be jovial; even while eating they would look stern.
Why I am telling all these is that this is not wrong according to this world.
The ruler of this world and the people of the world teach us only this.
But what does the Bible teach us? When you walk in fear of God, you would never be arrogant and proud,
no matter how busy you are and how occupied you are.
The next thing is, today we have forgotten to speak about wicked Characteristics.
Those who are not of Christianity live in sin and they go to hell – This is the concept that we have.
The concept that could be seen in Christianity is We have sinned; God has shed His blood; we will go to heaven.
There is no change in this. He doesn't know Christ and so he sins and goes to hell.
But I know Christ; I do presumptuous sins but I will go to heaven - Thus I say.
We call this as grace. This is the biggest foolishness.
We would know if this is true or not only after we die.
A holy God would never insist that we can live as we like.
Even today I tell you, if a person wants to live in spiritual way, he should not be proud of his physical body or his ministry
(though he may be a Christian) but should deny everything wholly and shape up his spirit and soul in the form expected by God.
This would bring a productivity in life.
God says that the first thing a man, who fears God, would do is to depart from evil.
What evil? He will not have pride, arrogance, wrong words, and his wicked characteristics would change.
Today let us analyze if the pastor of your church or a minister of God who guides us
or fellow leaders or our elders or bishops or whoever it may be,
have evil character you should realize that they are not God fearing persons – they take alcohol, smoke.
The one wicked character that is casually mentioned in this world is I take drinks; I had severe body pain and so I took wine.
Such people who give lame excuses are not the ones who fear God.
What does such kind of people do?
They would search the Scriptures deeply to find out if there is any verse that supports their habits.
In one place Paul says , use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities
Based on this verse, some people would say, We can take wine and alcohol. Such thoughts develop in them.
If you see the context of this verse, it says, when you have infirmity in your stomach, you can use it
Actually, that wine was not alcohol based as it is done now;
in those days it was a drink meant for medicinal purposes.
But what do we do? We go to a bar or super market and have the drink.
To convince ourselves we search for a verse.
My subject is not on whether to drink or not but that whoever does this has absolutely no fear of God.
If a person is addicted to it but is trying to break this habit, it is a different matter.
Some people would have left that habit. That's also different.
But when this is preached as the right thing and when it is accepted so, it means that they are not leading a life of fearing God.
Today we need to have the fear of God. I know a sister who is more or less a family friend who sends us prayer requests.
She always used to ask, I want to see God and what should I do?
I used to tell her, We can't do anything about it. We will pray in faith and
God may help in His grace by seeing the spiritual maturity. Or He may not help also.
Even so, still He is alive with you and He watches you. So keep praying.
One day when the sister was praying, she felt the awesome presence of God
and kept praying with closed eyes at night.
She could sense the presence of God and someone touching her.
She got scared and got up and ran to bed.
Actually this is fear. This is an immature fear.
This fear is not at all connected to the fear mentioned in the verse.
The fear that ought to be given to God is reverence.
The fear that sister had, was a worldly fear. T
his is related to a different subject and I have cited this as an example.
Fear God'does not mean running away in fear. Fear God is, following His word and walking in Him and with Him.
God fearing person is the one who is walking closely with God.
Though there are not many verses in the Bible about Enoch, crisply and effectively it is written,
He lived a righteous and faithful life and walked with God. One day, he was taken up.
Enoch is not mentioned in one or two pages of the Bible but he is talked about only
in a couple of verses which is enough to make a great impact on us and kindles the desire in all of us to live like Enoch.
He walked with God and was taken up. Why do I say this?
Enoch was such a God fearing person that he departed from evil –
though his forefathers had come from Adam – he did not mix with the people of the world in his period.
Noah was like that. In the period of Noah, we don't know how far the culture was established
and how far the people monitored and lived in fellowship.
However, in his period, Noah was a good and righteous man. God liked Noah.
That's why even when He decided to destroy the whole world, it was because of Noah, today we are here.
Because that one family – Noah's family – was righteous, God has given us the grace to enjoy today in this world.
Without Noah, the world would have been completely destroyed and
eternity would have been wiped off and we wouldn't have known what life is,
and love is, and we wouldn't have an eternal livelihood and life.
God chose a Noah and he lived as a righteous man.
In that period when he lived, he was not addicted to sin and alcohol but rather was a good man.
Today, we too should live like that, with good qualities.
We should give God the fear or reverence.
A God fearing person does not mean running away from God but having a caution never to run away from the Word of God.
God says, Follow My commandments, Follow My commandments and be fearful of Me.
The Bible says, Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom
There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge.
In knowledge you would know the good and the evil.
Suppose I have a gun and I know how to use it properly.
I am asked to fill my rifle and take aim at evil people and shoot them down.
If we are in the military or army we would know this.
I have this knowledge and because I have wisdom, I handle this knowledge properly.
What would I do if I have knowledge but not wisdom? I will be randomly aiming and shooting around.
Everybody has knowledge. All the people of the world have knowledge. They know what is good and evil.
Still they would choose both the good and the evil. This is based on knowledge.
But a man with wisdom, would depart from evil and seek after good.
Today God has given wisdom to the people, who follow Him.
How does it begin? When he walks in fear of God,
firstly God would give him wisdom with which everyday he would diligently follow His Word and live a good exemplary life.
Today let us live such a life.
Job 1:1 says, There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright,
and one who feared God and shunned evil.
Job was blameless; nobody could find fault with him. He was righteous and thirdly he lived with fear of God.
Fourthly he shunned evil – departed from evil.
From the Bible we have come to know from early time to the period when Jesus lived
and to the time of Apostles, how people lived, what was their culture, and what were their ways.
Since we have learnt these from the Bible, it does not mean that only the Biblical characters should have lived so.
We need to change into such characters.
It is in our hands to decide whether our name should be found in the Book of Life or not.
There are two kinds of book in the Bible.
One is 'Book of Law' and the other is 'Book of Life'.
Book of Law is the Bible that we read. Book of Life is God's book and it is in heaven.
In Revelations it is said that a man, who wants to live by the Book of Law will be written in the Book of Life by God.
If your name is written in the Book of Life, it means that you follow the Word
and you will give the reverence that should be given to God. Let us live accordingly.
Christian path is not an easy path. For who? For the people of this world.
Christian life is the one which lives for God, with zeal and desire to live holy.
For such people it would be an easy life and they alone would go to heaven through a narrow path.
I am not saved by the fact that I have been born as a Christian.
If I am truly born in a Christian family, I should first see my salvation experience.
My family is a Christian; I go to church; So I would follow Christianity and go to heaven –
If I say this, it is not possible. You have a chance.
Because you were born in a family that knows God,
you have not followed any other gods or devils but the Scriptures.
One day or the other you need to have the salvation experience.
Every man of this world – Christian or Muslim or Hindu – should have the assurance in his life
about one particular day and say, This was the day when I was saved and God saved me Why?
Only then he can live a testimonial life.
Those who have this assurance, they will live quietly, happily
and in fear of God and capture the Kingdom of heaven.
Today let us live in fear of God.
Fearing God does not mean running but giving reverence to God,
getting united with Him and not running away from His Word.
Let us pray: "Praise you Lord. Loving Father, thank You for this time, O King.
Thank You for the verses You have given for me to hear Your Word and fear God.
Father, help us to fear God, give honour to people, and give respect to our authorities
and those who rule over us. Let us not grumble against anyone and fall into sin.
We commit ourselves to live in fear of God and walk with Him.
Change the life of everyone who hears this and give them the wisdom needed for their mind, soul body and the spirit.
Give them the knowledge. We read in the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, O Lord.
Accordingly, help us to walk in fear of God, follow His Words, and
establish the Kingdom of God in this world also and to live with You in heaven also eternally.
Thank You Lord for making us righteous because of Your righteousness and teaching us to grow in righteousness.
Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this grace.
We pray this in the name of the Saviour and living Lord Jesus Christ O Father –
Amen,
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
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