0:00 the more it increases our responsibility before God. It's like somebody giving you a lot of money that's not yours. Say you're working in a company and somebody gives you a lot of money and say uh you've got to take care of this. 0:17 You know, go and buy something for the company or something. You're going to be extremely careful. I mean, if you had only $10 or something, it doesn't matter even if you lose it. But, imagine if a company you're working 0:27 in a company in a corporation or something, they gave you $100,000 and said you've got to buy something for the company. You'd be very scared to lose it. So, we think often of the blessing it is to hear God's word. We mustn't forget the responsibility. 0:47 Jesus once said, "To whom more is given, more is required." So, the illustration I just used is essentially what Jesus said. If somebody gives you more, they expect more. So, it's a privilege to be able to hear so many wonderful truths 1:06 which if you were living 200 years ago in the world, you probably would never have heard. I'm very thankful that I live in this generation. You got to be extremely thankful you're living in this generation where there's so much more of the truth of 1:24 God's word that you could hear. Things that your grandfather and great-grandfather never heard. Wonderful things. So, be thankful for that. So, um the theme for this conference has been empowered to build the body of Christ. 1:43 And you've heard of Daniel and you heard something about rebuilding Jerusalem, etc. during this week. So, maybe I'll begin there. Um I don't know whether you realize there were two movements of God's people in the Old Testament. The were things 2:03 written in the Old Testament are written for our instruction. Why is three-quarters of the Bible Old Testament even though God has abolished the old covenant? God made an agreement with Israel called the old agreement. We call it agreement now. It was called 2:20 covenant those days or testament. Uh now God's made a new agreement through Jesus Christ. So, the old agreement is canceled. I'm not under the law. The new agreement standard is much higher. Grace 2:36 is higher than law. Moses brought the law. Jesus brought grace. A lot of Christians misunderstand grace. A lot of you young people, perhaps. They think grace means now God is not so strict. A person who hasn't read the Bible, 2:56 that's his understanding. Old Testament, he was very strict. Now he's become a sort of grandfather and you know, grandfathers don't punish their grandchildren. God's become like that. That's grace where you can do what you like and he'll 3:09 forgive you. You know, you can sin, it's not so serious. In the Old Testament, do you know in the Old Testament they were even killed for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. That was pretty strict, right? And if a father had a rebellious son, 3:27 they'd brought him out to the gates of the city and stoned him to death. If a woman was found in adultery, stone her to death. That was pretty strict. And now people have misunderstood grace. But, grace is not meant to lower the 3:42 standard. And it's because Christians have misunderstood grace that you rarely find a Christian today who's got even the standard of life of the Old Testament prophets. Jesus once said 4:05 that the greatest man ever born was John the Baptist. I want to show you that verse, Matthew 11. It's good if you young people know your privileges under the new covenant. 4:23 This is a great verse which most Christians, most believers do not believe, do not understand. Matthew 11, verse 11. "Truly I say to you, whenever Jesus wanted to emphasize something, 4:42 he's state started by saying, "Verily, verily I say unto you." Or, "Truly I say unto you." Among those born of women, that's all the way from the first child born, Cain, all the way up to Jesus. From Cain to Jesus, the first child born up to Jesus, 4:59 the greatest human being that ever was born was John the Baptist. But, he was least in the kingdom of heaven. That's us. Kingdom of heaven is another expression for the church. The kingdom of heaven is today the church on earth. One day 5:18 the kingdom of heaven will cover the whole earth, but right now it's the church. The least person in the church is not the most gifted person. You're not talking about the greatest person in the church. The least person in the 5:31 church is greater than the greatest human being born up to the time of John the Baptist. How many of you believe that? How many of you believe that you are supposed to be greater than John the Baptist? I'm just telling you how little faith 5:51 people have in the words of Jesus. Everybody says, "Oh, I believe in Jesus." I say most people don't. You cannot say that you believe in Jesus if you don't believe what he said. But, to possess this kingdom, you got to be a man of violence. It says 6:11 in verse 12, "From the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." Now, that means you see a true disciple of Jesus is externally a person of peace. We don't fight with anybody. 6:27 If you fight with people, you are under the old covenant. It's one of the clearest proofs that you're under the old covenant is you fight. You fight with people over property. You fight with your husband, your wife, your 6:41 father, mother, your children. You fight with anybody. You fight with other believers. You are under the old covenant. Not only under the old covenant, you're part of this world. But, inwardly, we are people who fight. So, when it says the kingdom of heaven, 6:59 it's talking about a spiritual kingdom. We have to do violence inwardly to everything that stands in the way of my possessing that kingdom. And the things that stand in the way of my possessing that kingdom is the devil, 7:17 the spirit of the world, which comes through television, internet, and books, and pornography, and if I don't do violence to all these things, I'll never possess the kingdom. We want young people who do violence inwardly, 7:33 but who are externally people of peace. And then our flesh, the lusts in our flesh which he you know, which from the time Adam sinned, every human being is born with desires. God doesn't remove them when we are born again 7:52 because he wants us to fight them and become strong. So, these are the the world, the flesh, and the devil are the three enemies against whom we have to do violence to possess the kingdom. The why I said we must be externally 8:10 people of peace is I'll show you that verse. It's good for you young people to know these verses. John chapter 18 and verse 36. "My kingdom is not of this world." Jesus said that. "My kingdom is not of 8:31 this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants will be fighting." Remember that all your life. If you want to grow up to be a servant 8:49 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God wants all of you boys and girls and young men and young women to grow up to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, determine that you will not fight for earthly things. That you will only fight for spiritual 9:07 things. If you want to build the kingdom of heaven on earth, the church, if you want to be empowered to build the body of Christ, you have to decide one thing. "My kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise, my servants will fight." 9:26 Look at the amount of wars that there are in the world. What are they fighting for? Earthly things. You go to any home. What do they fight for it? In their husbands and wives and all fight in property. And families fight for property. And 9:44 husbands and wives fight about something in the home. It's always something earthly. Some maybe um somebody feels I've not been given the honor I I That's an earthly thing. You know what honor is? It's an earthly thing. 10:03 It's It's to seek honor is as bad as seeking for money. Or running after some other woman who's not your wife. It's as bad as that, to seek honor. A lot of people don't think that. It's spiritual adultery. To seek for honor for myself, it's a 10:20 form of idolatry. It's worshipping myself. And it's for honor sometimes. You didn't treat me with the respect. Husbands and wives say. What's that? Fighting for earthly things. They are part of this world. 10:39 And the sad thing is Christian leadership in the world today has got people like this as leaders who fight for honor, who are competing with others to show that they are better and greater. Where can they build God's kingdom? Impossible. 10:55 If you want to be a servant of God, decide one thing. My kingdom is not of this world. And I will not fight at all. And that's the testimony that, you know, if you read there in verse 35, Jesus was answering Pilate. 11:14 And this is so important. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, the Lord Peter, sorry, Paul told Timothy. Remember, Timothy is had already been with Paul for maybe 25 years. Timothy was around 11:34 maybe 40 or so when he got this letter from Paul. And he Paul says to him verse 13. Uh verse 12, sorry. Fight the good fight of faith. That's the fight you should be 11:53 fighting, which I told you. The fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's how you can take hold of eternal life. Eternal life is not something you just get once, you know, when you receive Christ as your savior. It's a beginning. 12:09 But you got to take hold of eternal life. Eternal life Jesus defined as knowing God. And you got to take hold of it. And he says, "If you want to take hold of it, remember verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and I 12:27 charge you in the presence of Jesus Christ who made a good confession before Pontius Pilate. Why in the world is Paul telling Timothy about some confession Jesus made before Pontius Pilate? Is that such an important confession 12:42 that when he charges, you know, like he's saying, "I charge you in the name of God." That I can understand. I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ who made a good confession before Pontius Pilate. What was that confession? 12:57 We just read it. My kingdom is not of this world. I charge you in the presence of Jesus Christ who made that confession. Keep this commandment without stain and stop fighting for earthly things. Timothy was wholehearted, and even 13:16 Timothy Paul had to say, "Listen, Timothy, you may think that you don't fight for earthly things. You may be seeking honor. You may be seeking some comfort in maybe seeking something in the world which will prevent you from 13:28 fighting the good fight of faith." Dear brothers, my dear young brothers and sisters, you can be greater than John the Baptist if you take these words seriously and stop looking at the low standard of Christendom around you. Don't judge 13:45 them. It's not our business to judge anybody. We're not to compare ourselves with others. We're not to judge others. Jesus said, "Don't judge by the outward appearance. I'm not here to judge anybody else." And 2 Corinthians 10 14:01 verse 12 says, "If you compare yourself with others, my paraphrase is you're a spiritual idiot." Those who compare themselves with other believers are spiritual idiots. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12. What does it mean? 14:19 Read it. Those who compare themselves with themselves, with others, are without understanding. I don't want to be a spiritual idiot. Everybody sitting here who compares himself with other believers is a spiritual idiot. 14:34 And I don't want to be one. I don't want to compare myself with other preachers. I don't want to compare myself with other believers. I don't want to compare my church with other churches. I've no interest. There's only one person I compare myself 14:47 with, Jesus Christ. And I find I'm constantly in need when I compare myself with him in my life or in my ministry. And I would say to you young people, you know, when I was a young Christian around your age, I was only about 21 15:04 years old when I got baptized. And I was in a church which was correct in doctrine in many things, but to be honest, I could not look at any older brother there, an elder in 15:22 that church, and honestly say, "There's a man of God whom I could be like." I could not honestly say that. I mean, I'm telling you honestly. I didn't judge them. It was not my business to judge them, but I said, "Lord, I can't honestly say that these 15:38 are examples whom I can follow. They're elders in the church, so I will submit to them. I'm a young chap here. Whatever they tell me to do, I have to do in church matters. But I can't look up to them because I can't see them as people who say, 15:53 'Follow me as I follow Christ' like Paul could say. So, what shall I do? I wish I had a spiritual father like Paul, like Timothy had Paul, that I could look up to him to guide me. There's nothing wrong in having a spiritual father. 16:12 It doesn't mean that we uh lose our connection with Christ. I think if the Apostle Paul were living in Bangalore, I'd visit him every week. And spend a lot of time talking to him. And that would not hinder my relationship with Christ. It would make 16:28 my relationship with Christ even more glorious. I'd learn 101 things from him about how to build the church. So, um that's why he said, Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." But when you don't find somebody like that, 16:42 and that's the time the Lord pointed me to this verse in Hebrews 12. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we run this race. And there's something the Lord spoke to my heart which has helped me all these 16:55 years. That I felt the Lord saying in my heart, "If you find a man who is wholeheartedly following me, you can follow him. 17:12 Because thereby you'll be following me. But if you don't find such a person, then follow me directly. So, I always have somebody to follow. It's like climbing a mountain. Jesus Christ has climbed all the way to 17:31 the top of, let's say, Mount Everest to the peak. He walked on this earth and completed the entire race, overcame every temptation. Perfectly obeyed the Father and reached the top. Now, I'm following Jesus. In following 17:47 Jesus, if I see some brother who is I mean, Mount Everest is 29,000 ft. Some good brother who's, say, 10,000 ft. He's already climbed so much, and I'm just about 2,000 ft. Great, that guy is a challenge to me. I can follow his path. I say, "Hey, he's 18:04 going that way." But I can't follow somebody who's at 500 ft down there, who's not serious about climbing this mountain. So, there are many believers around me whom I can't follow. They may maybe older than you. The question is not age. 18:21 The question is how passionately are they following Jesus Christ? And one mark of following Jesus Christ is my kingdom is not of this world. And they're very strict about obeying God's commandments. So, Daniel, coming back to Daniel. 18:39 I don't know whether you realize I was saying there are two movements of God's people in the Old Testament. One is the movement from Egypt to Canaan. And the other is the movement from Babylon to Jerusalem. There were two 18:53 movements of God's people in the Old Testament, and both have got a lesson for us. The movement from Egypt to Canaan. Many Christians understand that. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb in Egypt, delivered from Pharaoh, who's a 19:10 picture of Satan. Egypt is a picture of the world. The Red Sea is a picture of water baptism. You come into the sea and come out. The cloud coming down is a picture of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And then what people don't realize is the whole 19:26 purpose of the cloud was to lead them to Canaan, to a life of victory. The whole purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to lead us to a life of victory. Day by day by day by day, God was to lead them to life of victory, not 19:38 overnight. They didn't reach Canaan overnight, but they could have gotten in 2 years. Instead of 2 years, it took 40 years. How long does it take to graduate here in the United States? 4 years. But you know it can take 40 years also. 19:56 It depends on you. I mean the minimum maybe 4 years, but I know people in India who've been studying medicine for 15 years, still haven't graduated. That's up to you. You can enter the promised land in 2 years or in 40 years, 20:12 that's up to you. They took 40 years and that's a warning. So that is a picture of the individual life. Trusting in the blood of Jesus, baptized in water, baptized in the Holy Spirit, overcoming the giants of sin, coming 20:27 into a personal life of victory. But the other movement from Babylon to Jerusalem is a picture of building the church. And that's what many people don't have any light on. I've hardly ever heard a message on 20:46 Babylon to Jerusalem. It's very, very important. If you go to our church website, cfcindia.com, there we've got a whole series of I think 24 messages on Babylon to Jerusalem, study of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc. That whole 21:03 movement, it's very significant movement because it's got to do with building the church. And if we understand their Babylon, why is it picture of building the church? Because when you come to Revelation, Babylon is the false church. 21:20 And Jerusalem is the true church, the bride of Christ and Babylon is the harlot. What is the different Paul said to the Corinthians, I want to present you as a virgin to Christ. You know, God wants to uh the every true servant of God like 21:37 Paul will the whole purpose of their laboring with you is to present you as a virgin to Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. The virgin is one who's not fooled around with other men while her bridegroom is absent. The picture here is of Jesus 21:56 getting getting engaged to us and saying, "I'm coming back. Be faithful to me." He got engaged to you when you received him as your savior. That was your engagement. It was not your wedding. The wedding is coming. Revelation 19, it 22:12 says the bride has made herself ready. Inwardly, spiritually, we are united to Christ. One sense we're married that way. Like a a a true bride is already one with her bridegroom inwardly, but physically they've not yet been married. 22:29 And so there's this waiting period. That's your condition. If you receive Christ as your savior, you're engaged. Now you know, engagements can break up. And that happens to a lot of believers. They break up because 22:45 they want to fool around with other men. And I'm sorry to say most believers that I have met are not virgins spiritually. They're fooling around with the world. They fight for earthly things, proving that they don't belong to the kingdom of 23:05 heaven. Their interest is this attractive fellow called the world is there calling them and they forget about the fact that they're engaged to Christ. They run after the things that the world offers. They're more interested in 23:24 watching television than reading the Bible. It's like more interested in reading letters that this worldly guy writes to you than the letters that your engaged bridegroom writes to you. What would you think of a girl who's 23:42 engaged, but is more interested in getting letters from these other guys than from her absent bridegroom who said, "Be faithful to me." That's the condition of most believers. I'm not talking about nominal Christians. Most believers that I've met 24:01 and that's the reason why the church is in such a pathetic condition. Christianity has got such a bad name in every country, India, America, any any country in the world, is because God has got so few people who will be absolutely pure and loyal 24:17 and true to him. And I want to encourage you, don't be a half-hearted Christian. If you want to be a Christian, be wholehearted, otherwise forget it. You know, Jesus said that. You be hot or cold, but don't be 24:36 lukewarm. He said that to the an elder brother in the guy was an elder brother in a church called Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. It's around the verse 15 or 17 or something. He says there, "I've got something against you. 24:55 You're not on fire for me. At the same time you're not cold. That means you're not out and out worldly like all those godless people. But you're not on fire for me. You're sort of halfway. You say you love me, but your interest 25:12 are in the things of the world. You fight for the earthly things. At your place of work you fight for earthly things. At home you fight for earthly things. In the church you fight for honor and things like that. You're lukewarm. 25:25 And you know what the Lord says? I wish you were on fire for me or I wish you were outright worldly. Can you imagine Jesus saying to somebody, "I wish you were worldly."? I wouldn't say that when I was a young Christian because I didn't know God well 25:41 enough. Today I know the Lord well enough to say to people, "Brother, be outright worldly if you're not going to be wholehearted for the Lord. Forget it. The Lord doesn't want you." Which bridegroom will want a bride who's more interested in reading the 25:59 letters of other men than the letters he takes the pain to write to them? Would you be interested in marrying a girl like that? Who's more interested in reading the letters of other men than the letter you write? That proves she's not interested in you. 26:17 I know when I received Christ as my Lord, it was a total turning around. You know, some repentance is a turning around. It's like you're facing this way, the world, sin, yourself, God's behind you. You turn around. Now many Christians haven't turned 26:34 around completely. With the world at the back, they've sort of turned around 90 per- 90°. And they're one here and one there. They are the most unhappy Christians you can meet on the face of the earth. So I want to encourage you if you're 26:52 young, right at the beginning of your life, turn around completely. And say, "Lord, I want to be out and out for you." I don't want to be half here, half there, neither either hot neither hot nor cold. And the Lord says, 27:06 "I wish you were worldly." Why does he say that? I thought about it through the years. Why does the Lord say, "Be hot or be cold."? There's a saying in the world, "Something is better than nothing." It's not true in the Christian 27:21 life. Something is not better than nothing. If something was better than nothing in the Christian life, then lukewarm is better than being cold, right? Something is not better than nothing. You go to the coffee shop, you get iced 27:39 coffee or hot coffee. I've never heard of sort of lukewarm coffee being Does anybody sell it? I've never heard of that. Nobody wants it. It's like that in the Christian life. Either out and out for God or out and out for the world. 27:57 What are you? There are so many services I've been to where people say, "Come forward, accept Christ." I Yeah, that's good. But Jesus You know, it's very interesting. You never read in the Bible that Jesus ever asked anybody to come forward. 28:17 That's why I never do it. You know what Jesus asked people to do? He said, "Sit down and count the cost. Not stand up and come forward, but sit down and count the cost. Do you really want to be my disciple? Do you want to pay a price? 28:35 Do you want to be wholehearted? Now I'm not against I'm not saying people who come forward are not mean it. Sometimes it's good to come forward, make a decision. And but I say it must go on from there to accounting the cost and say, "Lord, 28:47 I'm going to be wholehearted. 100% for you." See, that's how Daniel was. He was the beginning of that movement from Babylon to Jerusalem. He never went to Jerusalem finally, but he was the man who started it out in Daniel 9 with prayer. 29:06 God, he had a burden. He carried a burden in his heart for 70 years. He went out to Babylon as a young man in his teens and years later when he's about 87 years old or something, he's praying, "Oh God, you said after 70 years you're going to take 29:22 the people back to Jerusalem. I'm burdened." And from that prayer and fasting and confessing and repenting started a movement. All real movements of God start through a burden, not prayer, but a burden that results in prayer. There's prayer with a 29:39 burden, there's prayer without a burden. Prayer without a burden is useless. Throw it in the trash can. Prayer with a burden. Daniel had a burden. God, I want to see your people back in Jerusalem. I want to see your name honored. 29:58 That's why the Lord says, I wish you were worldly. You see, a worldly person does not even claim to be connected to Jesus Christ. A person who accepts the Lord claims to be. Where How is the name of this Jesus 30:19 disgraced in the world today? There's a verse in Romans 2 which says, "My name is blasphemed among the nations because of you, my people." "My name," the Lord says, "is blasphemed among the nations because of you, my people." 30:32 How can the name of God be blasphemed among the nations? Who blasphemes the name of Jesus Christ today? We may say it's those Hollywood movies that paint Jesus as a homosexual or something like that. No. The Muslims and the non-Christians can 30:54 and Hindus and they cannot blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ. They don't take that name. They take the name of other gods. Do you know who blasphemes the name of Jesus Christ? Let me ask you this. Before my wife got married to me, 31:09 she didn't have my name. She had another maiden name which is her father's name. She could not disgrace my name when she was not married to me. When could she start disgracing my name? She hasn't done it, but when could she 31:26 start doing it if she did it? Only after she got my name. So, who are the people who can disgrace the name of Christ? Not the non-Christians. They don't have his name. It's the one who says, "I've accepted Christ." And then is more interested in 31:44 pornography than the Bible. I say, "Go and be a non-Christian." Why in the world are you taking the name of Christ and bringing dishonor to his name with all this? Or who accept Christ and then start fighting for honor and position in the 32:00 church and or for something earthly. I say, "Why don't you just remain a non-Christian?" It's serious. That's Babylon. That's the harlot. 32:19 The Lord is building Jerusalem. Daniel had a burden. And I pray that many of you I pray all of you have that burden. I carried a burden in my heart from I think from the time I was 25 till the time I was 35, 10 years 32:39 before I really saw the beginnings of something which could even be remotely be called a New Testament church. And it took many, many years after that to see it come to fruition. But I'll tell you this, I don't think it would ever happen if I 32:57 didn't have a burden. Burdens like carrying a baby, you know, like a mother has to carry a baby in the womb. Why does God allow a mother to carry a baby for 9 months in her womb? That's what brings such an attachment from the mother and the child. I mean, 33:16 if children were born one day after they conceived, I don't think there'd be such an attachment between mother and child. But the mother goes through all that labor. It's called labor. And they have a And she has a child. 33:29 That is exactly how a true church as a body of Christ is born. It's not by organizing it. It's not by understanding certain principles, saying, "Okay, we saw it here. We're going to follow the same principles here, use the same songbook, and follow 33:43 the same pattern, and we'll have a church." You won't. It'll be a robot. You know, manufacturing a child in the laboratory. But that which comes out of a burden which is produced by God. I wish some of you would have a burden. 33:59 The sad thing is, I know in in Bangalore, a lot of businessmen who carry a tremendous burden to make money, to expand their business and make more and more money and to have more outlets 34:17 for their stores. And I suppose when they dream at night, they must be dream dreaming about more stores, where all they can open branches and franchises of their stores here and there. They have a burden. They stay go to work early in the 34:33 morning, stay up late. They take huge bank loans and take such risks to make more money. And I say, "Lord, I've said this often. You said, Lord Jesus, there are only two gods in the world, God and money." 34:52 He said that, Luke 16, verse 13. Only two people you can serve on this earth, God and material wealth. That's all. There is no third one. And I see certain people in my city who worship this god called Mammon or 35:12 material wealth so wholeheartedly, they dream about it at night. They pursue it. They're always thinking how to make more, how to make more. And I I say I'm serving the true God, Jesus Christ. Lord, are these people going to put me 35:29 to shame? Are they going to be more wholehearted in serving their false god than I am in serving the true God? What do I dream about at night? Is it about building the church? Is it about promoting God's kingdom like that guy is dreaming about 35:43 promoting his business? I'm on fire. I said, "Lord, I never want it to be said about me in the final day when every when the books are open and everybody's inner life is revealed, I don't want it to be said that some guy who worshipped a false god 35:59 was more wholehearted than me who claimed to be worshipping the true God." So, I want to ask you young people, what type of Christian are you going to be? Be a wholehearted Christian or don't be a Christian at all. Have you ever heard a preacher tell you 36:15 don't be a Christian at all? Well, you hear me tell you that. Don't be a Christian at all unless you're going to be wholehearted. I don't mean you'll never fail. We may fail, children. Uh that's another thing I learned. Children, God allows 36:30 children to learn to walk over 1 or 2 years before they're steady on their feet. It takes time for us to Don't get discouraged if you fall. I I say, if you get discouraged, watch a little baby learning to walk. Falls a thousand times and never gets 36:45 discouraged. Can you be like that, a Christian who falls a thousand times and never gets discouraged? That baby says inwardly, "I am going to walk one day." You were like that one day as a baby. Aren't you walking today? 36:58 Don't give up. So, Daniel had this burden and from that burden, finally, the temple was built in Jerusalem. But why did God choose Daniel? You know, you heard the other day how the Lord could boast about Daniel even when he was alive, 37:17 that he was the wisest man on earth. He could boast to the devil like he could boast about Job to the devil. He could boast about Daniel. And he compares Satan's wisdom. He says, "You're wiser than Daniel." Not wiser than Solomon. There's a phrase in the 37:31 world, "wiser than Solomon." But the word of God says that Ezekiel 28:3, "wiser than Daniel." God considered Daniel the wisest person that ever lived up to that time. Wiser than Solomon. Because Solomon's wisdom was earthly. 37:49 Daniel's wisdom came out of the fear of God. Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." And Solomon didn't have that. He had it once when he wrote Proverbs, but he lost it pretty quickly. The fear of the Lord is the ABC of 38:09 wisdom. When you started learning English, you learned started with ABC. If you didn't start with ABC and straight away went to studying science and mathematics and physics and chemistry and all, you wouldn't have 38:27 understood anything. Isn't that right? Could you study geography and history and physics and chemistry without being able to understand what ABC is? Impossible. Well, exactly, it is impossible to get wisdom if you don't start with the ABC, 38:44 which is the fear of the Lord, the reverence for God. Fear is the word we misunderstand today. I'm I'd rather use the word reverence. You know, there are two types of fear of God. You young folks must remember that. Please 39:01 remember this all your life. Two types of fear of God. One is the fear that God will hurt me. The other is the fear that I might hurt God. I don't have a fear that God will hurt me. And you need never have that fear. I hope you have a fear that you might 39:21 hurt God. Do you have a fear your dad will hurt you? You need to have a fear that you might hurt your dad. How do we hurt God? By the way we live. That's the right type of fear of God. But reverence is a better word. Daniel 39:37 had a tremendous reverence for God. And the reverence for God is the ABC of wisdom. Then you can study geography, history, chemistry, physics, all the wonderful things in the Christian life if you start with the ABC. The fear of the Lord. 39:52 Here's one proof of it. Daniel chapter 1 verse 8. He was a young man, a teenager. And as you've already heard one who would have been in the lower end of the people who came for this youth camp. 40:11 Maybe 17, 18. I don't know his age, but he was a teenager, I think. And as a young teenager, let's say he was 17 years old. In the midst of a lot of other people who are probably 20, 21, 25, just like here. And you know how young people there's a 40:29 tremendous desire to be accepted. The reason why a lot of young people fall into bad habits in school and in university and with their friends is because they want to be accepted. Their school friends will say, "Come on, 40:46 be a man. Don't be a coward. Try this drug or alcohol or a cigarette or something." And they make fun of you if you don't join them. You make fun of you girls if you don't dress in the immodest way that the rest of those girls are dressing. 41:06 And so you want to be accepted. And the if you're if you don't overcome this desire to be accepted by your friends, I'll tell you you might as well forget about following Jesus. It's one of the first thing you have to conquer 41:17 as a young person. I don't want to be accepted by my peers. Peers means those of my own age. I don't want them to accept me. I want Jesus to accept me. That's all. And that's you know Daniel who's just like you, 17-year-old who wants to be 41:34 accepted by especially there are 20-year-olds and 22-year-olds and others around you. They say, "Hey, you're a you're a or you're old-fashioned." And that's what Daniel conquered. He had such a reverence for God. It says in 41:47 Daniel 1:8, he made up his mind. Now it's very interesting to see what he made up his mind about. It's a mark of the fear of God. Of course, it's not just he made up his mind he wouldn't commit adultery, he wouldn't tell lies. That's all great. 42:00 Those are the big 10 Commandments. There were 10 Commandments in the Old Testament. And someone has counted there were 603 other Commandments. Small small Commandments. And the reverence for God was seen in Daniel in the way he obeyed the small 42:17 Commandments. Not I mean all all those people obeyed the 10 Commandments. Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery and all that. But what about these small ones which are found in Leviticus 11 like don't eat certain types of animals, 42:33 don't eat certain types of fish, don't eat certain types of birds. They may be tasty, but the worldly people eat it. But you don't eat it and it's not because there's physically bad. I mean we eat pork today. But the Lord was trying to teach them a 42:49 principle of separation from the world and instilling it into them by various means. And one of the ways was avoiding certain types of food. And in those days where there was not the opportunity to for hygiene as there is today, there was 43:07 probably possibility of um unhygienic situations with certain animals. So, anyway, whatever the reason, the Lord had forbidden certain things in Leviticus 11. I mean if you want to know how much the Israelites read Leviticus 43:26 11, you ask yourself how much you have read Leviticus 11. They were just as disinterested as that. Uh they wouldn't know the list of animals that but Daniel studied it. This insignificant chapter in Leviticus and say, "Hey, God has forbidden certain 43:45 things." If somebody would have asked him, "What do you think why do you think God has made those?" "Oh, those are rules for the wilderness, man. Daniel, we're in Babylon today. We're in educated, cultured city now. We don't 43:55 have to follow all those silly rules that Moses made in the wilderness." Well, Daniel said, "You can do what you like, fellas." Do you know there are so many things Christians say today, "That was for that culture. That was for that time. 44:10 But things have changed today. We're in the 20th century." Uh-huh. Daniel wasn't like that. No wonder God never uses you to build a body. You'll just drift along. I hope you make it to heaven. I don't know whether you will, but 44:26 um Daniel was not like that. He was not going to be lukewarm. When all these other people said, "That was for that time. That culture. They were in the desert and they were couldn't eat certain animals, but now we're in a hygienic place, Babylon." 44:45 And God and Daniel said, "Well, God hasn't changed his mind. He hasn't told me that he's canceled all that. So, I'm going to keep it. So, I will not eat that pork. I will not eat that bird that's one of the forbidden birds and 44:56 that fish on the table is one of the forbidden ones. I won't eat it. And the wine." Now there's certain type of wine which people drank in the Old Testament. But in Proverbs it says, "Don't look upon the wine when it is red, when it stirs itself in 45:12 the cup." That was a commandment of God. And I'm sure Jesus obeyed it. There's certain type of wine which I'm sure Jesus drank. He made in um Cana. But there was another type of wine which this fermented strong type of wine 45:30 with this very clear commandment. And Jesus kept the Commandments in the Old Testament. "Don't look upon the wine when it is red, when it stirs itself in the cup." And Daniel said, "No, I'm not going to do it." I see this that type of wine is what is 45:41 here on the table. I know it's very tasty. And the other guy said, "Come on, Daniel. Don't be so narrow-minded." You know when people say, "Why are you so strict about obeying God's Commandments?" 45:59 I say truth is narrow-minded. 2 + 2 is 4. If somebody says, "Hey, man. Don't be so strict. Let's make it 5 or 3." I say, "You can make it if you like. For me 2 + 2 is always 4." "Well, what about will you compromise and make 46:12 it 4.1?" I say, "Sorry. Not even 4.1. It's 4." "You are so narrow-minded. You say 2 + 2 is only 4. We are broad-minded. We say 2 + 2 can be 3.9, 3.75, 4.5. Go ahead. You do what you like." I get my calculations right and you get 46:31 it all wrong and you wonder why. Cuz you're broad-minded. Truth is narrow-minded. And a God-fearing man does not sit and examine the Bible and say, "Ah, this is not for our time. This is for some other time." He reverences God. And I'll tell you 46:50 your the Daniel's reverence for God was not found in his keeping those 10 Commandments, but in keeping the other 603 small ones. And your reverence for God will be found not in your keeping the big broad Commandments of the New 47:03 Testament, but the small ones. Which a lot of believers say, "Ah, that's not for today." I decided long ago I'm going to be like Daniel. I make up my mind. I will not defile myself. But I'm not here to judge them. Brothers 47:23 and sisters, you do what you like. I'm not going to spoil my obedience to God by going and disobeying him when he says don't judge others. I don't judge others. I don't compare myself with others and become a spiritual idiot. 47:35 But I know what I have to do. And I follow godly men who believe in keeping all the Commandments of God. Cuz Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my Commandments." And he said, "If you ignore the least of the Commandments, you'll be you won't go 47:51 to hell, but you'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Any preacher who ignores the least commandment, I call him the least in the kingdom of heaven according to the word of Jesus. I say, "I don't respect him. I don't 48:04 care how gifted he is. I want to see how obedient he is, not how gifted he is." Learn reverence for God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Let me just quickly 48:25 show you a chapter in the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus is one of your favorite books, right? A lot of people haven't even read it. You know because Leviticus speaks about holiness. 48:43 If there's one book in the 39 books of the Old Testament you can say the entire subject of the book is holiness, it's Leviticus. Um read it. It's a very interesting book. If you want a little help in that, 49:02 there's a little CD of mine called 70 hours through the Bible. Go to Leviticus and read it. It's just 1 hour. Listen to it on the way back and you'll find what Leviticus has a tremendous challenge. Let me just show you. Now Leviticus 19 49:14 is in uh certain Old Testament laws. But these have spiritual principles and I'll just quickly go through them and you can um see how it applies for us today. I'm I'm making a spiritual application. I'm not taking it literally. 49:28 Tell the congregation of Israel, verse 2, "You must be holy." That's the subject. Number one step. Verse 3, "Reverence your father and mother. Respect them. If they tell you to disobey something in God's word, don't listen to them, but respect them. 49:46 I know a lot of people in our church whose parents are not believers, idol worshipers. I tell them, "If your father asked you to worship an idol, tell them, 'Dad, I respect you so much. I love you so much. You've done so much 49:56 for me. I'm deeply grateful, but I believe God is even above you. So, I have to obey him. I will not bow down to idols. But, respect them. Even when you disagree with your dad and mom, speak respectfully about your disagreement. 50:14 Never rudely. Keep my Sabbaths. In the Old Testament, Sabbath was just for 1 day in a week because that's all they could manage. But, today, we enjoy God so much that uh I like to be with him 7 days a week. 50:34 I mean, I love my wife, and even 1 day away from her is so bad. Imagine if the Lord said, "You can be with your wife only 1 day a week." Would you love that? Well, if you If you hate hate your you hate your wife, you'll probably say that, but 50:52 if you love your wife, you'd say, "What do you mean 1 day a week? Lord, only 1 day a week? What about the other 6 days?" When you love God, every day will be a Sabbath. But, in the Old Testament, couldn't come to that position of love that the Holy 51:07 Spirit now brought us to. That's why today I see every day is a Sabbath for me. Sunday is not my Sabbath. Monday is my Sabbath. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. It's like saying, "How many days you want to be with your wife?" And she say, "Yeah, every day of 51:17 the week." So, keep my Sabbaths. Keep every day for me. And every day is for the Lord. Don't turn to idols. Don't make idols of money or pleasure or computer or sport, music. There's so many things in the 51:36 world today which don't look like idols. I tell you a lot of Christians have got sport as their idol or music as their idol. They're all good as servants. When the servant begins to take over the house, that's the danger. 51:51 Keep the servant as a servant. Abraham, it says, had 318 servants. He kept them all as servants. None of them replaced Sarah as his wife. Sarah is my wife, but you 318 you're you're my servants. Very useful in the house, 52:05 but remain as servants. So, sport, music, so many other things in the world, education, all that, very good things to have, but servants. Uh so, don't make any idols. Um When you make a sacrifice of peace offerings. Now, I want to apply this. 52:23 You shall It shall be eaten the same day you offer it. Verse six. I apply it today that when you lost peace with somebody, settle the matter the same day. Don't wait till the next day. It says this peace offering must be 52:36 eaten the same day. So, if you had a fight with your wife, when should you settle it? Tomorrow? No. Or you had a fight with somebody else, when should you settle it? You must eat the peace offering same day. Got it? See how interesting 52:49 Leviticus is? Okay. Um Verse nine. When you reap the harvest of your land, you go reaping, don't reap the corners of your field. Leave it. When you glean your vineyard, if 53:07 something falls down, you know, gathering the grapes, some of the grapes fall down, leave it. You say, "Why?" Because poor people can come through your field and pick up something. It's a mark of the fear of God. Care for those who are poor, 53:24 who don't have as much as you. Think about them. Deliberately leave something behind for them without their knowing it. They thought it was accidental you dropped it. No, you dropped it deliberately. You read that about Boaz in the Old 53:36 Testament. How did he become an ancestor of Jesus Christ? Because he told the people just leave some deliberately for that poor woman who's come from Moab. You shall not steal, deal falsely, or lie to one another. That's plain. 53:51 Mark of the fear of God. You shall not swear falsely. That means don't give a promise and go back on it. Uh either don't promise, but if you make a promise, these are marks of fearing God. Don't oppress your neighbor. Don't make life difficult for other 54:06 people. There's a song we sing in India called, "Lord, help me to make life easier for my brothers." Wonderful prayer. Help me to make life easier for my brothers. Don't let make me a problem for others. Make life difficult. 54:19 If you stay in a home, make life easy for people in that home. Don't make it difficult. And if somebody has worked for you, make sure you pay your wages straight away. Verse 13. Don't curse a deaf man or place a stumbling block in front of a blind man. 54:35 You know how children like to tease others who are not like them. Don't make fun of a blind man or a deaf man or someone who stutters or someone who's poor or someone who's lame or someone who's got who's somewhat different from you are. How children 54:50 love to make fun of others who are different, people who got a different type of accent. They go back and make fun of them. If you fear God, you'll never do it. You'll You'll reverence God. You will not make fun of people 55:04 who don't have all the polish and style that you think you have. You know what is real polish and style? To be gracious. That's real polish and style. Okay. Uh You shall not go about slander. That means don't sit at home backbiting. It's 55:22 a mark of fear of God. You shall not hate your fellow man in your heart. That's the important part. In your heart, don't hate somebody. And You shall not take vengeance. There are many other things like that. I don't have time to go through all that. 55:40 Um It speaks about treating slave women, verse 20, in the same way. If you treat treat a laid carnally with a slave woman, you you have to be punished. That means don't treat some people as lower down in society. And um 55:57 so on. There are many other things like that. Uh I I go through every single verse, and I've learned got something from it for myself from every single verse in Leviticus 19. And uh he goes on to say there, "Don't profane your daughter, verse 29, 56:12 by making her a harlot." You who have daughters, if you're married, don't let them dress like prostitutes. A lot of believers who allow their daughters to dress like prostitutes. They follow the models and film actresses in the world. 56:29 They don't teach them to dress modestly. Reverence for God. Rise up before the gray-headed person, verse 32. Respect those who are older. Just like you respect your parents. And when a stranger resides with you, 56:48 treat him just like You shall love him as yourself, verse 34. That means in the church, there must be no distinction of race or language or community or education. These are little little commandments. These are not the big things. 57:05 But, when we reverence God, we get wisdom. God gives us wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Then, you can build the church. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads before God. Heavenly 57:23 Father, help us to learn that which we do not know. Give us grace in Jesus' name. Amen.
