0:12 It's a beautiful verse in Acts chapter 9 verse 31. We looked at it some time back but we can look at it again. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and verified. 0:30 Acts chapter 9 verse 31. And this is the verse I want to highlight. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit were multiplied. Here it says the churches 0:51 they had rest or peace and they were edified and then they were walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Last two months we have been hearing much about encouragement. But I hope the Lord can tell about our 1:11 church. All the brothers and sisters here are walking in the fear of God. You know the fear of God doesn't mean you're afraid of God. Fear of God means having a deep reverence for God, his greatness and majesty, reverence for his word. And 1:31 I believe that's a great lack of that today. And you know there's a verse in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 29. You can understand the heart of God for his people. The heart of God has not changed. Today 1:49 in Deuteronomy 5:29, oh that they were such a heart in them that they would fear me or reverence me. Instead of the word fear, you put reverence and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them and with the 2:09 children forever. Brothers and sisters, God longs that you and I learn to reverence God and obey his word. Why? So that it can go well with all of us. And we should be able to say, I came to the church. I learned to reverence God and 2:27 obey his word. It's gone well with me. That's the way to testify. Sometime we testify in a very, shall I say, not a proper way. I want to ask you one question this morning all of you. How many of you can say from the day you 2:46 came to the church your reverence for God has increased from 10% to 20 30 40 50 60 70 how many of you can say that yes brother like we want all our 3:04 children to get 70 80 90 how is it with you parents and older people have you increased your reverence for learn you know it's like we join our children to school first we can say we also when 3:23 we come to the church we join the school of the fear of god then we have to complete middle school then we complete high school and p preun university postgraduation and PhD and there's no limit to how much 3:40 you can grow in your reverence for God. I'm sorry to say many believers have not even gone beyond school in the school of the fear of God. So just to help all of us this morning, all of us can have a small checkup this morning. Am I increasing in the 3:58 reverence for God? So I'm going to show you some points you can check up. How do you know whether you are really reverencing God or not? Okay. Number one, Job 1 verse 8. Here we find the Lord telling 4:17 Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and departs from evil." You want to know how whether you're reverencing God or not? If you reverence 4:37 God, you will run away, depart from evil. And I want to say that God will not do that for you. You got to do that. It's a choice that you have to make. Especially when you're in secret, nobody's watching you. And that's the 4:53 time God sees whether you really reverence him or not. You know Job had come to a tremendous life before God without the Bible, without the conference, without internet. And to such an extent, the Lord can Lord 5:10 could challenge Satan. Have you seen brother Job? How is it brothers and sisters? Can the Lord tell Satan today? Yeah. There are so many ungodly people in Bangalore. In the midst of it all, can the Lord say, "Have you seen this brother? Have you 5:29 seen this sister? Here reverences me. He departs from evil." That is the true church. Brothers and sisters, all of us sitting here, I can't say we are part of the true church. But I don't know whether you are REVERENCING GOD AND 5:45 DEPARTING from evil. That is true commitment. Then you know I want to tell you God will put your name in that book. Yes. And I hope you will have a long Lord I want my name Lord to be in that 6:01 number. Okay. Number two. Proverbs chapter 8 verse 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy. How do you know that you reverence God? 6:18 You hate especially the root of all sin is pride and you got to learn to hate that. How is it brothers and sisters? Have you focusing on hating pride with all your heart? Proverbs chapter 6 verse 16 it says these six things or seven things 6:38 are an abomination to the Lord. The Lord hates it. Proud look if the Lord hates it, you should also hate it. Has pride become an abomination to you? It says in Proverbs chapter 16:5, everyone that's 6:57 proud in heart, it's an abomination to the Lord, though hand in join in hand, you'll not be punished. So the more you learn to hate sin, hate pride, we can say you're growing in reverencing God. There are different degrees of humility, 7:12 30, 60, 100. And we must say Lord I want to grow in humility so that I can hate every bit of pride. You know all of us got pride in our flesh but all of us are not diagnosing it in the different circumstances of life. You husbands and 7:28 wives you have so much opportunities in the daily life to discover your pride. There you can put it to death all pride in your life and then you grow. Okay. Point number three. Proverbs chapter 8 verse 6 and 7. I'm reading from the 7:50 living Bible. It says, "I hate lies, every kind of deception." You know, if you really fear God and reverence God, YOU WILL HATE ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, CHEATING, especially lies. And in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 17 8:09 it says the Lord hates a lying tongue. You know the lying is also very deep in our flesh like pride. Many have not got rid of this lying in their flesh over the years. We have had many problems in the church. It's not been easy for us to 8:27 deal with them because many will not tell the truth. Even brothers and sisters CFC we ask them did you do this? You have to say yes or no. But they never tell me. And they beat over the bush. And I'm not a policeman. I just waited 8:45 on the Lord. And then the Lord one day brings out the truth. But I want to tell you brothers and sisters, Christian life is not difficult. Okay? You have sinned, you slipped, you've fallen. Just say, "Brother, this is what 8:58 I did. This is what I didn't do. That's all brother." And if you're open like that, it's we can solve the problem in 5 minutes and God will give you grace. You can repent and you will bear forth fruit under repentance. But if you try to 9:12 cover up, it never goes well. You won't grow in the Lord. So I want to tell the church this morning, there's a great need for genuine reverence for God in our midst. Then only all the lying will be eliminated in your from our midst. Okay. Next point 9:29 number four. You know, if you really reverence God, there'll be purity in your life. In Genesis 20:1, Abraham came to that place and he said, Genesis 20:1, Abraham said, "Surely I thought the fear of God is not in this 9:49 place and they'll kill me." Abra Abraham's wife was beautiful. Abraham was afraid. There's no fear of God in this place. They'll grab my wife. And that shows how when we don't have reverence for God, there is so much of 10:02 sexual sin and impurity. See, Joseph, Genesis chapter 39 verse 9, when Joseph was tempted again, Joseph had no Bible, no conference, no internet, no fellowship. And when he was tempted, he said he had a reverence for God. He said, "How can I do this thing 10:21 against God?" So many times I find people only when they're caught they want to admit and even then they're more afraid what others will think. They're not afraid what God thinks about them. Are you struggling in the sexual area? 10:39 The Lord is testing you whether you really reverence him. Bible says the secret of the Lord is those who fear him. You fear God so much you reverence God. God will show you the way of victory and you will come to victory pretty soon and it's got nothing 10:56 to do with age. There are varying degrees of purity in the church but we want brothers and sisters who are pure purer than Joseph because we follow Jesus. Okay. Number five, 11:12 Genesis chapter 22 verse 12. We can learn a lesson from Abraham. Abraham was a man who was walking with God. He loved the Lord. And after many years, he got 11:30 Isaac. And one day, the Lord told him, "Lay your son as a sacrifice on the altar." And Abraham immediately did it. And when he was about to kill Isaac, the Lord told Abraham, Genesis 22:12. Now I know that you fear me or you 11:49 reverence me. Seeing you not withheld your son, your only son from me. Sometimes we can't make out. But the Lord knows. God could testify first about Job. Now God could testify about second man Abraham. Now I know. Brothers 12:05 and sisters, can the Lord testify about you? Some we nowadays we are all modern. We got all the facilities. But can the Lord say about you? I have watched your life. You are number one for me. You've done any other idols in your 12:23 life. And what a FANTASTIC TESTIMONY ABRAHAM GOT FROM THE LORD. Don't tell me that oh it's so difficult to get approval from God. No, God is testing us in the time of temptation. He's saying what is precious in your heart. For Abraham, the 12:38 Lord was more important than his son. Oh, MAY WE GIVE GOD OUR BEST. Brothers and sisters, you know, in in time in the during Malachi, during the time of Malachi, people did not reverence God. They gave God all the cheap things, weak 12:54 and sick animals as sacrifice and they didn't reverence God. Mark of reverence for God is you give God the best. Have you given God your best? It's not a question of how long you are in the church. It means nothing. It's 13:12 not a question of how gifted you are. It means nothing. Can the Lord say about you? Yes, I know this brother, sister, she has given her best to me. Oh, may God help us to give God the best and get the testimony from God. Yeah. Coming 13:29 back to Malachi, Malachi chapter 3 verse 16. There's a lovely verse again I want to highlight this verse this morning. Then they that fear the Lord spoke often to one another and the Lord heard it and the book of remembrance 13:49 were written before him and them that fear the Lord and then they thought upon his name. This is true fellowship. When you reverence God, you speak about the Lord. You speak about God's word. You speak about how to depart from evil. 14:04 You speak about how to hate pride, how to hate lying, how to give God the best. You know, so much of fellowship, what we call fellowship is nothing but gossip. Talking about this person, that person, shopping and whatnot. 14:23 Can the L and the Lord says they shall be mine. Verse 17, in the day when I make make up my jewels. In other words, God's looking at different people in the church, but amongst them, God's got some jewels. God's got a treasure. And just like we 14:42 heard about Gideon last week, yeah, there are 32,000 people, but amongst them, God chose 300 people. And in the same way, there are so many people in the church, but amongst the people in the hall, God's got a few Jews who are a 14:57 treasure. And the Lord says they they are the true church. They are my jewels and that is fellowship. Brothers and sisters, I want to ask you, how is it during the weekly meetings? Are you speaking about departing from sin? Are 15:13 you speaking about reverencing God? ARE YOU SPEAKING ABOUT HATING SIN? That is fellowship. I'm sorry to say sometimes our meetings are heavy during the week because we don't have many people who are fearing God. Don't be happy that you are a 15:28 coordinator. Are you encouraging other people to depart from sin? Then we can say our meetings are wonderful. And Malachi 4:2 again lovely verse. But unto you that fear my name, 15:46 can the Lord look at you and say you you fear my name? I hope you will get the Lord's testimony. Never mind about what we think of you. Think about this verse Malachi 3:16. That's the MARK OF A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH that there are brothers and 16:05 sisters who so fear God and so want to encourage and bless one another TO DEPART FROM SIN FAR AWAY. OKAY. Then number seven, Ecclesiastes 12:13. This is the conclusion of the matter to fear God and keep his commandments. 16:23 That's the whole duty of men. When you respect God, you will respect his word. And that's the kind of people we want in the church. We don't want your money. This is one of the few churches which teach people, we don't want your money. 16:37 We want you to learn to reverence God. Our goal is to increase the number of obedient people who will simply do what's written. Okay. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse1. This is a well-known verse for many of us. You want to check whether you're growing 16:56 in the fear of God. Verse 7:1. Chapter 7:1. Having therefore this promise, dearly beloved, let's cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holy the fear of God. If you are growing, increasing the 17:11 fear of God, you will grow in holiness. You will grow in love. You'll grow in purity. And then you will automatically learn to cleanse yourself. We don't have to teach you. We don't need to exhort you. Okay. In Ephesians chapter 5 21, 17:27 he says submitting yourself to one another and the fear of God. Like it says harmonizing yourselves. You know brothers and sisters, we have taught submission to authority, spiritual authority here in this church. And I observed all those who submit 17:44 authority. It's gone exceedingly well with them. And all the others, they are stuck. They know the doctrine. They're coming regularly, but they're not growing. You know, submission requires humility. I want to say there's a great lack 18:02 of that spirit of submission even amongst us. That's the reason some of you are not growing in the Lord. Okay. Next one. Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10. It says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, 18:17 that is the ABC CD of Christian life. ABCD of spiritual growth. If you don't know ABCD, you will not learn a language. Same way, I often wondered why is it that so many brothers and sisters are going around doing stupid things, 18:32 foolish things. I come to see that because they basically are lacking this reverence for God. If you're growing in reverence for God, God will teach you, no, don't speak like that. Don't see that, don't go there, don't do that. I 18:45 cannot come and teach you all that. But God will teach you so that there will be wisdom in your life. The way you speak, the way you conduct yourself. Jesus grew in wisdom. We want brothers and sisters will manifest wisdom in our church. 19:02 And last one, Revelation 14 verse 7. This in heaven. Even in heaven, there's an exitation. And I heard a voice here that says, "Fear God, reverence God. Give glory to him for the hour's judgment is come and 19:21 worship him that made heaven and earth and sea and fountains and waters." You know, more you reverence God, you want to praise the Lord. You want to worship the Lord and it'll come from the heart and it won't be superficial. You know we 19:35 have so much of praise and worship meetings which is all superficial just because the music is good the melody is good that's not worship when you reverence God turn away from all sin hating pride and lying and you come to 19:52 the meeting and you worship God can sense that worship brothers and sisters check up this morning are you growing in the fear of God it says about Jesus Isaiah chapter 11:2 He will delight in the fear of the Lord. That was Jesus 20:10 heart. He loved to reverence God. He obeyed God. What Cornelius is written he feared God with all his house. And in Nemiah 7:2, it's written about a man called Hani. He says he feared God above many. I hope it 20:28 will be written about you. This brother if he had got more than other brothers and sisters in the church and oh may the Lord raise up amongst us brothers and sisters who have a great longing to fear God and to increase in the fear of God 20:45 and keep growing in the fear of God till the last day of our life. Amen. We looked at a number of verses this morning on the fear of God. We saw first of all in I mean 21:00 During the message we saw in Genesis 20 verse 11, Abraham says here to Abi the king of Ger. He says because I thought surely there 21:18 is no fear of God in this place and that they will kill me because of my wife. You see this is the first time that the word fear of God comes in the Bible and 21:33 that too it comes in relation to um sexual sin. We read in verse one of the same chapter that now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the neg 21:50 is south country. He started going south. When your life starts going south in the direction of south, you can always be sure that there's something wrong that you have to wake up. Wherever he went, whenever he went down 22:08 to south, even at another time he went to Egypt, that again is south of Israel. There again he had to lie in order to save his skin. And whenever our life is taking a turn towards 22:26 south we can be sure that there is something is going to happen. Brothers we need to look up look up to the Lord and wake up. This is the first time it comes in the Bible. the fear of God. And the last 22:45 time that it comes that also we read that that is in Revelation, Revelation 14 verse 7, we read about that. And he said with a loud voice, that is the angel telling the people who live on 23:05 earth. In verse 6, I saw another angel flying in mid heaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. What does he say? He said, he says with a loud voice, fear God and 23:25 give him glory. This is called the eternal gospel. To fear God and to give him glory. And we are here in between Genesis and Revelation. Our life is in between these two books. 23:44 And the end is going to come soon. And the message is very clear. Fear God. And it is for such people that the salvation of the Lord is revealed. We read about that in Acts. Acts chapter 13 26. Acts chap 13 26 it says brethren sons of 24:10 Abraham's family and those among you who fear God to us the word of this salvation is sent out to whom the word of salvation is given 24:27 it is to those who fear God it says sons of Abraham who fear God to you the gospel is given and the salvation is revealed. We read about a governor in the old 24:44 covenant governor Neahmiah. Neahhemiah book comes before Esther. Esther comes before Job. Nehemiah 5 verse1 15 Nehemiah says here but the foreigner for 25:06 former governors were who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine and besides 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants doineered the people but I did not do so because of the fear of God. 25:23 You see, Nehemiah feared God and because of that he did not doineer the people and he did not take from them bread or wine or even 40 shekels of silver which other governors used to take and I also applied myself to the 25:41 work on this wall. We did we did not buy any land and my servants were gathered there for the work and moreover look at this every day at his table 150 people used to eat 25:57 150 at my table Jews and officials besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us and that which was prepared for each one each each day was one ox 26:14 and six choice sheep also birds and once in 10 days all sorts of wine and etc they were furnished and yet for all this I did not demand the governor's food allowance because the servitude was very 26:33 heavy on this people you see because of all this in spite of so much of expense to build the wall and also So to feed the people who were building and these 150 plus people who were eating at his table every day, he did not charge these 26:53 people of the land. He paid it from his pocket. Why? Because he says, "I feared God." No wonder. Because he feared God, God blessed him and made his mission successful. 27:09 And we read about Job. We already read, we read about him in Job 1:1 that he was a man who was fearing God and avoiding evil. You see, this is the mark of a God-fearing man. God-fearing man has two 27:27 sides. One, it's like a coin. One side of the coin is he fears God and the other side of the coin is he avoids evil. This is how our life should be. Joseph, we heard, he feared God and he 27:45 ran away from evil. And you see, most godly people, they did the same thing over and over again. We read that in 2 Timothy 2:19, 2 Timothy, this is the seal of God on God's 28:06 children. It says, "Nevertheless," 2 Timothy 2:19, "Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal." What is that? The Lord knows those who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from 28:24 wickedness. Everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, depart from evil. This is the mark of a God-fearing man. what what how how what does it constitute 28:43 or rather how does it begin or like brother was telling what is the ABC of the fear of God? How do we know that we fear God? How do I know I fear God? How do you 28:59 know you fear God? It's very simple. In Psalm 34 it says in the old covenant the psalmist taught the fear of God. He says verse 11 come you little children listen 29:18 to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What is it? Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? begin here. This is the ABC 29:36 of the fear of God. Verse 14, depart from evil. I mean verse 13, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. You see, it all begins with 29:54 our tongue. If how do I know that I fear God? The basic thing is that there is a control over my speech. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit it 30:11 says is self-control. And when I have when I claim to have the Holy Spirit residing in me, the mark is that I begin to control my mother tongue. First of all, 30:29 control my tongue and my lips from speaking evil and speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. See this is down to earth. This is some not something a pie 30:47 in the sky. It's down to earth. You know in our daily life situation, how we interact with people, how we speak to one another. Do we all the time go on babbling, babbling, babbling? Because it is bubbling, bubbling, 31:06 bubbling. You see, we read in Proverbs, it speaks about a babbling fool. Chapter 10 verse 10. The second part, a babbling fool will be thrown down. A babbling fool will be thrown down. 31:26 Verse 19, it says, "When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable. He who restrains his lips is wise." One of the marks of a wise man is that he restrains his lips. He has control over his tongue. 31:45 and a babbling fool will be thrown down. It says, "And a man who doesn't have control over his tongue," James says in James 1 26, I think he says, "A person who doesn't know how to control his tongue, his religion is worth nothing." 32:02 That means his religion is good for nothing. I may claim to have been born again. I may claim to have been filled with the Holy Spirit. I may claim and so many gifts of the Holy Spirit but still if I don't have control 32:18 over my tongue I am a big zero as far as God is concerned. That is the mark whether a person fears God or not. You know Paul exerted 32:34 Timothy three times in his epistles and once to Titus. He spoke to them very strongly. He said avoid these empty and worldly chatter 32:50 which lead to only you know ungodliness. You know sometimes young people can get into argument with another brother of another another church or something like that and trying to convince that ours is the be best and know you're doing wrong 33:09 and we are right and go on arguing about this doctrine that doctrine and so on and this genealogy and that genealogology and all that. What Paul says and the Bible also says where there are multitude of words sin is not lacking 33:26 and the more you speak the more you are sinning and the more you're trying to convince the other person that you are right and the other person is wrong the more you are sinning you are not gaining anything let that other person think that you 33:40 lost the argument doesn't matter but you keep the peace of your mind peace of your heart let it not be disturbed The Bible is very clear and uh we read in the same book of Proverbs 16. 33:57 Proverbs 16 verse 17 it speaks about the highway. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who watches his way preserves his 34:16 life. You see, pride goes before destruction and a hotty spirit before stumbling. It's a mark of a fool who keeps on blabbering and blabbering and blabbering. And even if everybody has stopped speaking, he still keeps on talking as a 34:35 mark of a fool because he has very high thoughts about himself. He thinks that he knows it all. That's why he he never stops. That's why it says a hotty spirit goes before stumbling and pride goes before destruction, but the highway of the upright is to 34:55 depart from evil. We read about the highway again in Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35:8. And a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the highway of holiness. What is this highway? We are talking 35:13 about highway of holiness. Holiness in our speech, in our conduct, in our walk of life. Our lifestyle becomes sanctified, holy. The unclean 35:33 will not travel on it. But it will be for him who walks that way. and fools will not wander on it, but the redeemed will walk there. Are you redeemed by the blood of Christ? If so, make sure that you're walking on 35:53 the highway highway of the Lord and that in your in your heart there are there is highway of the Lord. And that is when you are swerving here and there, you hear a voice behind you like it says in Isaiah, this is the way, walk in it. 36:12 Then you will not miss the way. As long as we are, you know, sensitive to the prompings of the spirit and we can hear what God is speaking to us. But as far as the wicked is concerned, 36:31 it says about them in Psalm 36 one last verse. Psalm 36 verse verse one it says transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart. 36:50 Who is speaking within your heart today? Just examine yourself. Is the Holy Spirit speaking to you in your heart or the word of God is speaking to you in your heart every day or transgression is speaking 37:09 to you within your heart. Check it out. The first verse it says in 36 Psalm sin speaks to the ungodly within his heart. You know, we hear people saying, "The Lord spoke to me or the word of God 37:28 spoke to me." But here is another kind of person. He says, "Something spoke to me." And what is that? It's the evil one who is residing in his bosom. Says transgression speaks to the 37:46 ungodly within his heart. What's he speaking about? There's no fear of God before they rise. See, a person who doesn't fear God, iniquity speaks in his heart instead of the Holy Spirit, instead of the word of 38:04 God. And when I repent of that, when I come to the Lord and say, Lord, I have a loose tongue. My one child asked the father, it seems, what should I write uh in the form about mother tongue? And the father said, 38:21 "Write it long." Do we have a long tongue or a loose tongue? Like they say in the military, loose tongues sink ships. Is it? Is it true in our lives? Is it 38:39 so? Is my tongue so loose that it can even ship my sink, my ship, my life? Can I have a shipwreck in my life? All that comes because of this uncontrollable little member in the body that 38:59 James speaks about. Let's offer that as a sacrifice to the Lord and say, "Lord, I want to learn the basics, the ABC, the alphabets of the fear of God. That is to keep my tongue under control under the 39:17 control of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord help us. We heard about the fear of God today and I want to share about uh about David and Uriah. You know, David was Israel's king and 39:36 God had appointed him to take care. I read one verse when the Lord speaks to David at the end. He says, "I gave you Israel and Judah to take care." David was supposed to be an example to Israel and Judah. He was a man with a tremendous fear of 39:55 God in his youth, in his 20s and in his 30s. He was a man with a tremendous fear of God. We we read that many times in the Psalms. In Psalm 36:1, David himself says about other evil people, there is no fear of God before their eyes. 40:12 But by the time David came to the age of 52, many things had happened in his life. He had a comfortable home. He had plenty of good food. He had plenty of money. God had blessed him so much. And slowly slowly the fear of God 40:30 started going down in his life. I want you to turn to uh 2 Samuel chapter 11. And I want to just share a few things that bless me that God spoke to me. And it's good for us, brothers and sisters, that we take the warnings that 40:49 scripture gives us. The Lord loves us so much and he wants to warn us. He wants he does not want the fear of God to go down in our lives. He wants the fear of God to grow and grow. If we know the contrast, David is around 52 years old. 41:05 I think Uriah and Batshiba were a young couple because they didn't have children. So they are probably a very young couple but okay we we know the incident. I will very quickly go through some of the verses. We don't you can refer in the 41:19 Bible and if possible in the message bible in verse one we read David should have been out in the battlefield but he took a decision to to be in the palace and relax and lead a life of ease and comfort. 41:36 In verse two, in one translation I read after his afternoon nap, David got up from the couch and we know he went to the roof and he strolled around and he saw something and 41:50 we know all that followed later. And you know in I want you to I want to turn to verse six. You know, after David had sinned, David calls for Uriah from the battlefield and Uriah comes. 42:08 And then we see now David has sinned and now David is trying to cover up his sin. Cover up after cover up. The fear of God had departed from his life slowly slowly. You know, in verse 8, first cover up, 42:27 David tells Uriah like this in the Message Bible, "Go home, have a refreshing bath, and a good night's rest." You see David's motives, his motives. We can see clearly the impurity in his motives, 42:47 but he's giving an external impression. Nothing has happened. He's telling Uriah the right thing. go home, have a refreshing bath and a good night's rest. The fear of God had slowly started departing from his life. In verse 10, 43:04 okay, in the same verse at the end of it, we read that David sends him a gift. I read in another translation that that gift was a mess of food. You know, we hear of army mess, officers mess, a mess of food. He sends him a gift. 43:22 If he receives such a big gift, he naturally has to take it home and share with his wife. David wants to somehow send the man home. You can see the impurity of his motives. In verse 10, he he says he tells Uriah, "Didn't 43:41 you come off a hard trip? Why don't you go home?" And there's something that Uriah says. We can read that in verse 11. I like what Uriah says. Uriah said to David, the first thing he mentions, the 44:01 ark of God, the ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary tents and my lord, my boss Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Another translation says, "They are roughing it out in the fields. Shall I 44:19 then go to my house to eat and to drink and to be with my wife?" We see the fear of God in what Uriah speaks. The king David, he's supposed to be an example to all of the nation. But we see his fear of God is going down. 44:35 And we see a young man, Uriah, the fear of God in him. He says, "The ark of the Lord is out in the tents and I want to be there." And then we know quickly verse 13, David invites Uriah to dinner. He makes him 44:51 drunk and hopes he goes home. But Uriah again, he stays at the palace gates and he doesn't go home. And then finally the next morning, David writes a sad letter and sends it through Uriah. his execution order. Uriah has to 45:09 carry it to his boss. You can imagine the sorrow in Job's heart when he opened that letter and read, "Poor Uriah, he didn't know." And then in verse 17, we read, "When Uriah was killed, we read, "Some of the men of Israel fell, including 45:27 Uriah." It was not only Uriah who died, many of the men of Israel died. back home in Israel, their wives are waiting for their husbands. That one act of David, how many widows he made, how many children he made fatherless because of 45:45 the lack of the fear of God. I see we can learn much from David's example. God spoke to me as I meditated on this passage quickly. We can see what is the difference between David in this condition and Uriah. David had a comfortable home, had a 46:03 comfortable house. He was away from the ark. The ark is the presence of God. All every year he had gone out with the ark to the battle. But this year, the ark was in the battlefield, but David was at home. David had now entered a 46:19 life of comfort and ease. He had a nice couch now. And he had no desire to support God's people who are battling for the Lord in the battlefield. And in contrast, we can see Uriah and the fear of God that he had. The first thing he 46:35 mentions it, bless me. When he opened his mouth, the first thing he said, the ark, it's a symbol of the presence of God. And Uriah was so conscious of God's presence and where the presence of God was. And he wanted to be there. He 46:50 wanted to support his leaders. Joab and the other commanders of the army. He wanted to support them in the work in the battle that God's people were fighting. He was willing to rough it out. He was willing to dirty his hands. He was willing to do a dirty 47:06 thing for God's people and for the church. I I learned much from these two men. What an example Uriah was to David. But because of David's because the fear of God had gone down from his life, 47:25 David sinned. But David was honest enough to confess his sin and God restored him. We can take these things as a warning, brothers and sisters. When we read of these things, I really thank God for this chapter because it shows us the 47:43 fear of the Lord. It shows us what can happen to us when we go down in the fear of God. God wants to help us. God wants to protect us. God doesn't want any one of us to perish. God wants us to grow in the fear of God. That's why God has 47:56 given us this chapter. David was honest. He acknowledged his sin. He confessed it thoroughly and God was able to restore him. That's the good news. If you are in sin, God is able to restore us. And David repented so thoroughly and his 48:13 life changed. And we know at the end of his life, God could say, "He is a man after my own heart." That's what God wants us to do, wants to do, brothers and sisters. God wants to help us grow in the fear of God. And even if we sin, 48:26 if we are sincere and we turn to him, God wants to restore us. May God really help us all to grow in the fear of the Lord. Amen. Praise God for what we heard. May God give us a spirit of reverence, spirit of fear of God in our midst, 48:44 especially young people, that God may give us a revival of fear of God that the Lord could say, "Now I know that you fear me." Now, I was thinking this verse in Philippians chapter 2 verse 12, last part, it says, "Work out your salvation 49:02 with fear and trembling." What a great responsibility that we have. Uh next verse it says God is at work for it is God who's at work in you both to will and to do him and to work for 49:20 his good pleasure. I believe that that we have to work out the salvation with fear and trembling. We have to re God. We we need a great reverence for God. And I was thinking that uh 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 17 verse 15 onwards 1 49:43 Peter 1:15 but like the holy one who called you be holy yourself also in your all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy. Verse 17 it says, "If you address as a father the one who impartially judges according 50:02 to each one's work, conduct yourself in fear during the time on earth during your stay on earth." I pray that the Lord would give us a great fear of God in our midst. We heard about the fear of the Lord is to hate evil and 50:20 then pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mai hate. Fear of God is to eat hate evil. We heard about Job how we fear God. You know we read about 50:37 Job 1:8. It says Job is the man who feared God. You know what was the job is a great example who had the fear of God. The Lord what was it produced in his life. You know he began with the fear of God. We heard about him at the 50:57 end. Job chapter 40. Quickly I want to show uh Job chapter 40 verse 4. You know when all that has happened to him at the end when he stood before the Lord and he said verse 4 Job 51:14 40:4 behold I am insignificant what can I reply to you I lay my mouth hand on my mouth once I have spoken and I will not answer even twice and I will add nothing more. What a humility. We 51:32 heard about when mark of lack of fear of God in our life. The pride and arrogance. We heard in this church the three secret secrets of Christian life. Humility. Humility. Humility. Why we don't have that humility? Because we are 51:49 have a pride in our heart. Why we have a pride? Because we don't have the fear of God. That is the beginning of wisdom. ABC where we can learn from the beginning the fundamentals and Job knew that. Job learned that you 52:06 know further on chapter 42 Job chapter 42 verse 5 I have heard of you by hearing of the earth but now my eyes sees you. Therefore, I retract and I repent in 52:26 dust and ashes. What a man. May God give us that revival of repentance in our midst of the fear of God that we may go before God. When was the last time young people ask yourself, when was the last time you went before the Lord and said, 52:42 "Lord, I'm insignificant." I believe that God wants to teach us the fear of God. Like we heard he wants to give us the spirit of fear of God in our midst when we open oursel when we go to God young people that God wants to help 52:57 us. He wants to put a fear of God in our heart so that we fear him like Joseph. We could say how can I sin against the Lord. The Lord I set the Lord before me all the time. David says and we could have the presence of God. We could have 53:15 like we heard we could have the ark of the Lord with us so that we can fear God. We can have that great reverence and then we can let us learn the fear of God. Let us go to God the Holy Spirit of God that he may pour out the spirit of fear of God 53:34 so that we can fear him. Amen.
