Learning the Fear of God First — Zac Poonen

The Jew’s Advantage and the Fear of God

It's good to ask ourselves whether the Christians who were converted from Judaism had an advantage over us who've come from non-christian backgrounds or who were converted from Christian backgrounds.

There's a word in Romans in chapter 3. Romans 3 verse 1. What advantage has the Jew? This is in the New Testament. This question is asked. We know that once Jesus died in the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out.

There is no distinction between Jews and non-Jews, between people of one religion or born Christian. Makes no difference. But yet it says, does the Jew have an advantage? And he says in verse 2, the Holy Spirit says great advantage in every respect.

First of all because they were entrusted with the oracles of God. So what did they have over us? Was it easier for a Jewish person who was converted to become a wholehearted Christian like those early apostles than it is for us?

I've thought about it much because I see that those early apostles are radical and wholehearted. But I see so many Christians who have heard about grace and the new and living way that we have taught for so many years.

Even after many years don't seem to come to that type of devotion. And even after many years, spend more time watching television than reading the Bible and seem to struggle with sexual sin so much and pornography.

Even after so many years of hearing the truth, what advantage has the Jew? Is there something they had which we don't have? It's good to ask ourselves. And I believe it is the fact that what they call here the oracles of God, God taught them in his law to fear him.

They never knew one thing about the grace of God. The grace of God was unheard of. They spent all their life knowing only the fear of God. That's all. And so imagine a person who's like Peter or those early apostles who spent 30 years knowing nothing about grace, knowing only about the fear of God and the severity of God's punishment on sin and then coming to understand the grace of God makes a tremendous difference.

One way I can illustrate it is here's a person who's gone through 12 years of school and then joins college and here's another person maybe the same age, but never went to school and just straightaway went to college.

Do you think there'll be a difference between both of them in the way they adjust to the studies in college? The one who went through 12 years of school will get very high marks and doing a BSc or a B .Tech they can get even 80 -90 percent.

But then one who never went to school and went straight to college, he doesn't even know how to read because he didn't go to school to learn ABC. That illustration exemplifies the difference between the Jew and those who are not.

Now I would say that if somebody's a Christian had really God-fearing parents and taught them from childhood to fear God, to obey their parents and to keep God's commandments, that person would have some advantage like the Jew, but most people don't have that.

See most of us have come out of a very godless environment where we lived in sin and spent our life watching movies and sin was a very light thing and then one day we heard the gospel and we received Jesus into our life.

We know that forgiveness was free and we straightaway heard about the grace of God without learning anything about the fear of God. And that has been our disadvantage. What advantage has the Jew? Because he learned the Articles of God and so we read in Psalm 111 and verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Or as I have often said, the ABC of wisdom. We read in Luke's Gospel chapter 2 that Jesus grew in wisdom. How did he grow in wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all those who do his commandments.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Turn with me to Proverbs in chapter 9. Again, it says the same thing. Proverbs 9 and verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy is understanding and this comes many times in Proverbs especially and in Job, etc.

That is what most of us, our parents never taught us and without learning the fear of God, living a sinful life, one day all of a sudden we got converted or half converted, mostly half converted and thereafter in every church we went to we heard about the grace of God and how God is good and God loves you and He's got a wonderful plan for your life and he wants to do so many things for you and don't get discouraged.

God loves you no matter how many times you sin, God loves you. That's all we heard. What is the result after 20 -30 years of hearing it? We're still living in sin. Don't you think there's something wrong with that message?

I mean preachers get become popular with that type of message and since most preachers are only interested in becoming popular, that's what they preach. But the result is you can see in all these churches the amount of sin there is.

Every type of sin, unrighteousness with money, unrighteousness in the sexual area, fighting and quarreling and honor-seeking and pastors running after money. Amazing. Pride, hypocrisy, all this. We see that in CFC churches too.

Hypocrisy and pride in people or elders. Why is it? Because of a lax, loose attitude to sin. That's the only reason and that's because the fear of God was never learned and so we have not grown in wisdom.

We've grown in a lot of knowledge. I believe people in CFC churches, if they come regularly, have more knowledge than almost any other Christian in this country. But knowledge is not a fear of God. Just because you can explain a doctrine or just because you can even preach the truth doesn't prove anything.

If the fear of God does not keep you from the things that Jesus spoke about, then we haven't really understood the grace of God properly. We can have a faulty understanding of grace. Like I said last Sunday and part of the reason is because we didn't begin with the fear of God.

Like I said, we've jumped straight to college without learning the alphabet. The alphabet is the ABC of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. We need to understand this very clearly. Most of us have gone to college without going through school.

Whereas the one who went through school has got an advantage. So now we have joined college, we heard about the grace of God, then we got to start learning the alphabet all over again. Say Lord, I'm sorry you got into college and learn about the grace of God and we haven't learned the ABC.

Old Testament Severity and the Seriousness of Sin

I'll give you an example of how God taught the fear of God to people in the Old Testament. Turn with me to Deuteronomy. There are many commandments in the in Deuteronomy. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 21.

I'll give you one example. And you'll see how serious it was to sin in the Old Testament. We say Jesus is higher than Moses. Moses brought the law, Jesus brought grace. So who should be living a holier life?

Those under the law or those under grace? If those under grace live at a lower level than those under law, then we have to say Moses is superior to Jesus. Because God is holy and he wants his children to be holy and if Moses could make people holier than Jesus, then Moses is higher than Jesus.

And that is why I say many Christians have seen a false Jesus. Preachers have proclaimed a false Jesus who allows you to live in sin. It doesn't matter, you keep on sinning. My blood is there to cleanse you.

But think if you grew up like this. Think if you grew up in a Jewish congregation or village where the law was imposed and and the command was for children, honor your father and mother that you may live long on the earth, that it may go well with you.

Something which Christian parents don't really, most Christian parents don't teach their parents. That's why you have a bunch of disrespectful children growing up even among Christians. Listen to this now, Deuteronomy 21 verse 18.

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, he will not obey his father or his mother. You know anybody like that in any of your homes, your children? And when they chastise him, that means they punish him.

He will not even listen to them. What should the father and mother do? Today elders will say pray for him, one day he will change. Moses didn't say that. His father and mother will seize him, bring him to the elders of the city at the gateway of his hometown and they will say to the elders, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious.

He will not obey us. He's just eating and drinking, a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city will stone that boy to death. Thus you will remove evil from your midst and all of Israel would watch this and they will learn to fear God.

You and I would learn to fear God too if you saw that. And every child who disobeyed the parents would learn to fear God if they saw that. That was how it was in the Old Testament. It wasn't, oh sin as much as you like, God will forgive you.

That's a false gospel, false grace, better to go back under law. See there are three types of people in the world, those under no covenant, no, N-O, no covenant, those under old covenant and those under new covenant.

And most Christians are under no covenant. If they were under old covenant, they would live like this. If they are under new covenant, sin would not have dominion over them. So which covenant are we under?

We can fool ourselves. We are under no covenant. This verse doesn't apply to us. If we have a stubborn rebellious son, say okay, he will change. That's no covenant. Old covenant means you got to stone him to death.

You say God doesn't give any hope to these people. No, he did. I mean they waited and waited and waited for many years. This guy is about 18 years old and he still doesn't listen. Then the Lord says stone him to death.

We don't want such people in Israel. Can you imagine how God treated those people? That's just to give you one indication of the seriousness of sin. If a girl committed adultery, she was stoned to death.

She was not allowed to live. That was the law. Do you think Christians would accept that? Today Christian girls around the world commit adultery, play the fool with boys all over and it's not serious.

It's so rare to find a Christian girl today who's a virgin. On the date of marriage. Rare. Why is that? They grow up calling themselves Christians, but they are under no covenant. What advantage has the Jew?

The oracles of God. We need to recognize this. We need to face up to it. That we have jumped to college without going through school and that is the reason for all our problems because so many people say brother, I've heard this, I'm trying, I'm praying and praying to get victory over sin and I'm praying for baptism in the Holy Spirit and I've claimed it also.

I prayed and I claim I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit and then you keep on living with dirty thoughts and watching pornography. What type of baptism in the Holy Spirit is that? Something fundamentally wrong.

Another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel. That's what Christendom is swallowing and that is what we are determined to expose and fight. We will not convince everybody. I don't believe I will convince all of you here about what I'm saying.

I think many of you will continue to live the way you lived until today. That's up to you. But you will not be able to say to the Lord in the final day when you stand before him that you never heard the truth.

Face up to it. Let me show you how Jesus overcame sin. We talk about Jesus being our forerunner in Hebrews chapter 5. Jesus is our example. We read in Hebrews 4 and verse 15. We have a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness because he was tempted exactly like us and he did not sin.

It went well with him because from childhood he obeyed Joseph and Mary. That's how Jesus began. I want to say to all of you parents, if you wanted to go well with your children, teach them to obey you.

Teach them to respect older people and when they don't do it, punish them. Don't say, oh well, let's spare them. Did it only once. Okay. You'll see what happens to your child when he becomes a teenager.

I have seen that in CFC. I've seen little children just years ago speak in a despising way to their parents 30 years ago and I warned the parents, don't let him ever speak to you like that. Parents didn't care.

Where are those children today? Wayward. Were they warned? Yes. What advantage has the Jew? Oh, a lot of advantages. This is the problem with Christianity. Grace has been cheapened to become false grace and it's spreading everywhere.

All over, all of Christendom has got it. And it's trying to creep into CFC too. It won't succeed as long as I'm here. That's for sure. We believe the grace of God is far superior to living by the fear of God.

Far superior, not inferior. If the fear of God could bring a person to a certain level of obedience, the grace of God can bring us higher. Because we follow Jesus, not Moses. We read in Hebrews chapter 3, Moses was only the house, but Jesus was the builder of the house.

Hebrews 3 .3. Jesus is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, just like the builder of a house has got more glory than the house. You look at a building and you look at the builder. Who's greater? And it says Moses is only the house.

Jesus is the builder and he's the one we follow. We don't follow Moses. We follow Jesus who was tempted like us, chapter 4 .15, and did not sin. Why he didn't sin? Because this is in chapter 5, verse 7.

Very important verse. We have preached it for 40 years here. In the days of his flesh, which means for 33 and a half years, Hebrews 5 .7, he offered up prayers and supplications to his father. Not just with simple words, with loud crying and tears.

And the prayer was, save me from spiritual death. I don't want to sin in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive. Father, I don't want to have the smell of sin in me. And he prayed fervently and it led to crying.

Oh father, I don't want to sin. Seriously, just like you would pray with tears if your child is dying in hospital. That's how Jesus prayed and he was heard. That's why he didn't sin. And it says here he was heard because of his fear of God.

You know that Jesus feared his father? Jesus feared his father because he was here on earth as a man. Many Christians, us, in their eyes, superior to Jesus. No, I don't need to fear God like that. God is a merciful, forgiving father.

Must be some other father. Not the father of Jesus Christ. You think Jesus doubted his father's love? Never. He was perfectly secure in his father's love. But the more he loved the father, the more he feared and respected him.

And I want to say to all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, if you want to evaluate your love for God, ask yourself how much you fear him. And if you want to know how much you fear him, ask yourself how much you hate sin.

How much you detest sin. How much you'll shrink away from sin. How much you'll back away from it. I think of the times when I used to travel down to Tamil Nadu in the overnight buses and sometimes the buses will stop in some village bus stop and there will be a toilet there.

And I'd go there and open the door and looking at it. I say no, thank you. I better go and sit back in the bus. Because it's so filthy. People have used it and not poured water down it. The whole place.

I mean there's no place even to stand there. I back away from it. I have to control myself. And I've said to myself, do I back away from sin like that? I back away from physical filth. Just like you would.

Or shall we say, ah doesn't matter if you get filthy, just there's soap and water, which is cheap. That's how people treat the blood of Christ. No wonder after so many years, after 30 years, you're still defeated by anger.

Still defeated by dirty thoughts. Still covetous and loving money. Still unable to get along with fellow believers. Still unable to love your mother-in-law. Is there a Christianity which says love everybody except your mother-in-law?

For some people that's it. They don't even, they're not even convicted by it. Well, there are people who say, it's like a witch. That's fine. Does Jesus have grace to love people who are absolutely evil or he doesn't?

No covenant. We have jumped to college without going through school. That's a problem. And we excuse ourselves saying, that person is evil. That is a good excuse not to love anybody. That person is bad.

Is there a verse in the Bible which says you must love all the good people? Jesus said love your enemies higher than Moses who only said love your neighbor. Many Christians are unable to live what the New Testament teaches because they have not experienced the grace of God.

They have not experienced the Holy Spirit of grace being poured out upon them. In Zechariah chapter 12, the promise that Jesus, the Old Testament promise, which was partially fulfilled on the day of Pentecost is this.

It's the one verse in the Old Testament where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. It was never called that in the Old Testament. It was called the Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of the fear of the Lord, Spirit of knowledge, Spirit of counsel, etc.

But in Zechariah 12 10, the Lord says, I'll pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and the Spirit of supplication, the Spirit of grace that will make them pray to me for help, for grace to help them in their time of need.

And that's what Jesus prayed for and that's what he got, grace. And that's how he overcame. And in the New Testament, when you look for that expression, Spirit of grace, where is the Holy Spirit called?

The Spirit of grace in the New Testament. It's interesting to find out. He's called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, etc., Spirit of Christ. But where is he called the Spirit of grace? I'll show you.

In the place where Jesus is compared to Moses in Hebrews chapter 10. It's talking about Hebrews 10 19, brethren, talking to believers. There's a new and living way, verse 20, that has been opened in to the most holy place through the flesh of Jesus.

So let us draw near with the full assurance of faith and let us hold fast. But if you don't do that, instead of doing that, verse 26, brethren, if you go on sinning willfully, instead of walking the new and living way, always read a verse in its context.

If you don't walk the new and living way, you go on sinning willfully saying, oh, there's grace. There is no more sacrifice for sin. There is no more. After receiving the knowledge of the truth. Now, if you have not received the knowledge of the truth, that's another thing.

You're a heathen. But after receiving the knowledge of the truth, you go on sinning willfully. There won't be a sacrifice for sin, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment. Hey, hey, he says this sounds like the Old Testament.

No, this is New Testament. A fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. Then he says, you think grace is inferior to the law? No. Anyone who set aside the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Think of that rebellious son I just told you about. How much more, not how much less, how much more will the punishment be for those who trample underfoot the Son of God? That's what you do when you sin willfully.

Verse 26, sinning willfully is equal to, verse 29, trampling underfoot the Son of God. Did you know that? I'm not talking about sinning accidentally or I'm talking about sinning willfully. You know this is wrong and you go and do it and we keep on doing it.

We go on sinning willfully. I'm not talking about, he's not talking in verse 26 about one event. You go on sinning willfully. That is like trampling underfoot Jesus Christ. Secondly, it is like treating the blood of the covenant like tap water.

Unclean, common and thirdly, it is like insulting the Spirit of Grace. That's the place where the word Spirit of Grace comes in the New Testament. It's the one place and as far as I know it's the only place in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Grace.

Isn't it significant where it comes? It comes in the place where people despise God's Word and keep on sinning willfully and think that they are under grace and He says you're not under grace. You have insulted the Spirit of Grace and God has said vengeance is mine.

I will repay. The Lord will judge His people. It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. You'd almost think this is supposed to be what Moses says. No, no, no. This is New Testament.

Perseverance, Warnings, and the Need to Overcome

But He says remember how it was different in the early days. How it was in the early days when you're enlightened. You know if many of you who are taking sin lightly today, look back like it says the former days, verse 32.

It's a command in the New Testament. It says remember the former days. Remember the early days when you were really converted. Just after Christ became your Savior, you came from heathenism and you were born again and you got baptized.

What was your attitude to sin those days? Leave alone pornography. You never even watched movies. Remember those days? Remember those days when you were so serious about not wasting time? How every day would begin with reading the Bible.

Do you remember those days back then? Think back to the days when you were first converted. How you really avoided things that were wrong. What's happened now? What's happened as time has gone on? I mean those days you were in kindergarten.

Boy, you should have been in college by now. You should have gone through 12 years of school and you should be doing BSc or MSc now. What has happened? You've dropped out of school? You've forgotten your ABC?

You can't read now? The fear of the Lord is gone? How did it happen? It happened because you listened to the message of a false grace and you insulted the Spirit of grace and you trampled Jesus under your feet.

You didn't realize it when the Lord is trying to call you back to those former days. Think of those days when you were serious about sin. How quickly you would go and apologize to someone you hurt, but take a long time to do it now, right?

And then after a few days you justify yourself and say, well, well, it was not such a serious thing and I can't go and apologize to him now for what happened one month ago. Let's just forget it. You'd keep doing that for some time.

And you'll finally come to the place where you have no fear of God at all. And that is the place I fear that some of you have already come to and the direction in which some of you are moving and it's my duty to warn you.

It's like these roadblocks and the Lord puts upon the way saying there's a ditch ahead. There's a ditch ahead. Be careful. Stop. Turn back. There's a ditch ahead. The ditch is coming. It's getting closer.

Turn back. You just keep ignoring every roadblock and keep going on. It's a very, very serious thing brothers and sisters, to be like that. If you turn to Hebrews in chapter 3, there's a very serious word given there.

Sorry, Hebrews 2, 3. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 3. How shall we escape? Now, we would think how shall we escape if we reject such a great salvation? No, these are not people who rejected it. They have accepted it, but then neglected it or ignored it.

Is there a danger of neglecting such a great salvation? It says there. And how will you escape if you neglect it? There's some serious warnings like this, which I find that many Christians don't take seriously.

I want to show you another verse in Romans chapter 11 verse 22, Romans 11 22. When it says behold, behold means look carefully at. So let's read it like that. Look carefully at the kindness and the severity of God.

Popular preachers, people who want to be popular will only preach the kindness of God. They will not preach the severity of God. Go and listen to all these television preachers. See how many of them preach the severity of God.

It's only kindness, kindness, kindness, kindness. You want to be popular? Just preach the kindness of God for all your life. And you'll end up as a preacher of false grace. And along with those you preach to, you yourself will end up with them.

And not only end up with them, your judgment will be more severe because you proclaim that false grace and led hundreds of others astray. Behold the kindness and the severity of God. Those who sinned, those who... God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off.

Remember that. The warnings in Scripture, it says in Hebrews in chapter 3 and verse 14, we become partakers of Christ if, as a big capital IF, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.

If you hold fast that assurance you had at the beginning, firm, never give it up until the end, you become a partaker of Christ. Now if that verse means even if we don't hold fast the beginning, partial, firm, until the end, we are still partakers of Christ because once upon a time we became partakers of Christ.

Then we have to say that God's Word is telling a lie. It's not telling a lie. You will be a partaker of Christ. I can say that to every one of you. You'll be a partaker of Christ if you hold fast the assurance you had, firm, until the day you leave this earth, not otherwise.

This is what Scripture teaches consistently. But by the time it came to the end of the first century, you read, I showed this to you last Sunday in Jude, the letter of Jude and verse 4. At the end of the first century Jude says in verse 3, Jude verse 3, he says, actually I wanted to write about something else.

What was on my heart was to write about something else, but the Holy Spirit stopped me and made me change my subject and now I have to tell you to fight for the faith verse 3, which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Even at the end of the first century, Jude has to warn them. Hey you guys, I want to encourage you to fight for that faith, which has gone away in many churches. Fight for it. Today in the 21st century, you hardly discover it.

You've got to search for it. The Bible says people will wander from sea to sea. Amos 8 verse 12. Trying to find some place where they can hear the word of the Lord, they won't find it. It's going to be very rare when it started in the first century because he said the reason is verse 4, certain persons have crept into the church unnoticed.

Who were long before God had marked them out for condemnation. Ungodly persons. Now you would not think a person is ungodly who's preaching about God's kindness. Would you believe that? Someone who keeps on telling you how much God loves you.

God is a good God. He's a loving father. You don't realize the hairs on your head are numbered. You have more value than many sparrows. God cares for you. He loves you. He has said I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

We preach all those things also. But the thing is he doesn't preach anything else. I mean all these verses that I just quoted, you've heard me preach numerous times in the last 40 years. In fact, I even made you memorize many of them.

But this man doesn't preach anything else. It's only this. They have taken away that faith which was delivered to the saints. They have crept in. They have turned the grace of God into a license to commit sin.

He says if that's the case, I want to remind you. You remember the Old Testament example of people who were delivered from Egypt, which is a picture of our redemption. They were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

They went into the Red Sea, a picture of baptism. The cloud came upon them, a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Then what did God do? He destroyed them in the wilderness and Jude says I want to remind you that God destroyed people whom he had saved.

Read it like this. Let me just leave out a few words. Jude verse 5. I want to remind you that the Lord after saving people destroyed them who did not believe. I want to remind you that the Lord after saving people subsequently destroyed those who didn't believe.

What's he saying? This tomb, is he saying this? To people who have turned the grace of God into a license for sin. You think there are people like that today? Plenty. Let us stray by preachers who are giving them a license to sin.

And he says not only that, the angels who did not remain within their proper abode in heaven, God has put them in eternal darkness. And so he says be careful. You turn to Revelation and you read there about people who are overcomers.

Now many people think there are believers and then there are higher level overcomers. Okay, let's see if that understanding is correct from scripture. Revelation, let's look at the promises to all the overcomers.

There are seven promises given to overcomers in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. We want to find out who are these overcomers. It's obviously overcoming sin. It's referring to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Those are the enemies of the Christian and overcoming means overcoming them. Revelation 2 7. He who has a year let him hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. This is not to the unbelievers.

It's spoken to believers. Who are the people who are part of the church? Believers. Let's read it like this. If you have a year, listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to believers. Okay? If you overcome, I will allow you to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Tree of life symbolized eternal life. So it means if you overcome, I'll give you eternal life. What if you don't overcome? You can live all your life imagining you have eternal life and you'll discover in the final day you never had it.

Because you didn't bother about overcoming. Let's go to the second promise. Chapter 2 verse 11. He who has a year let him hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to believers. If you overcome, you will not be hurt by the second death.

The second death is... Let's see what the second death is. Chapter 20 verse 14. Death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The lake of fire. You got a definition of second death?

This is the second death, the lake of fire. Okay. Turn back to Revelation 2 .11. If you overcome, you will not go to the lake of fire. What does that mean? If it means, even if you don't overcome, you will not go to the lake of fire because you believe, right?

Hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to believers. If you overcome, you will not go to the lake of fire. Tell me if I'm preaching some wrong doctrine. I'm comparing scripture with scripture instead of trying to define myself what second death is.

I'm showing you what scripture says second death. The third promise. Revelation 3 to chapter 2 verse 17. If you overcome, the Spirit is saying to believers, I'll give you some of the hidden manna and then white stone and a new name written on the stone.