This afternoon, we're back in the book of Daniel, the first fifth chapter of Daniel, verses one through five and nine through 10. A strong marker leads to destruction. Belshazzar invited a thousand of his officers to a great feast where the wine flowed freely. While Belshazzar was drinking, he was reminded of the gold and silver cups taken long before from the temple of Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar's reign and brought to Babylon. Belshazzar ordered that these sacred cups be brought into the feast, and when they arrived, he and his prince's wives and concubines drank toast from them to idols made of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone. Suddenly, as they were drinking from these cups, they saw the fingers of a man's hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lampstand. The king himself saw the fingers as they wrote. His face blanched with fear and such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him. The amplified, that's the living version, the amplified version reads, suddenly the fingers of a man's hand appeared and begin writing opposite the lampstand on a well-lit area of the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that did the writing. Then the king's face grew pale, and his thoughts alarmed him. The joints and muscles of his hips and back weakened, and his knees began knocking together. Verse 9 through 10, in the living, the king grew more and more hysterical. His face reflected the terror he felt, and his officers, too, were shaken. But when the Queen Mother heard what was happening, she rushed to the banquet hall and said to Belchazzar, calm yourself, your majesty. Don't be so pale and frightened over this. Here, this is the wrong type of fear. This is the fear of the unholy, of the ungodly. fear in which he had went too far. He had committed sacrilege by taking those vessels. And I don't know if these were really drinking vessels or not. These were vessels that were used in the Holy of Holies, vessels that were used in the temple service. So they wasn't really designed for that or whatever, but it was an act of disrespect. It was a high-minded act, one that that shouldn't have been done. And it's like in religion today, a lot of things that we're doing, a lot of acts and things that we're committing, and it's a lack of respect for God. We're not, those of us that say we know God hadn't departed from evil or the fear of God really hadn't set in. And with that in this latter day and with the church today, God is going to prove himself and he's going to strengthen those of us that honor the Lord, those of us that respect him, reverence him, and glorify him. The saying that God honors those who honor him is a biblical concept found primarily in 1 Samuel 2 and 30. This principle suggests that God recognizes and acknowledges those who demonstrate respect reverence and obedience to him, and in turn will bless and elevate those who show him honor. But there is no fear in love, for dread does not exist. I'm saying the scriptural basis for this is 1 Samuel 2 in the 30th verse. Where it says, therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares, for be it from me, for those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. here was God talking about the deal He had with Samuel and Eli and the rest of the prophets. As all of us, God has told us, He tells us what He expects of us. And that's why He says study to show yourself approved. We must know what the Word of God says. to have a fear of God, a proper fear of God, a relational fear. Because without the proper relationship with God, the fear would be one of dread, one of a spirit that God does not want to exist in His people. And it's, I tell you, the wine that we've drunken of, the wine, you know, and he is metaphorical. We're not looking, saying the Christians are getting drunk and feasting the way Belchizer was here, but it's with the conversation, that attitude, the influence of the world, The Babylonian influence of the world, the wine of the wrath is fornication. It's adultery. It's the spirit of the world or the spirit of the age. We've intoxicated with that. That is what has influenced us. That's what we're drunken on. And we've drunken of the wine of the wrath of God. And we shall drink of the cup. He said, we all shall drink of the cup. But there's varying differences from drinking of the cup because of the inoculation. It was like we were talking about last week that fear was the antidote. I mean, faith was the antidote to these things. If we have faith in God, It removes the fear of dread, of judgment, of punishment, but it keeps a proper reverence, the awe of God, and it keeps a presence there. Yeah, we know that we serve an awesome God, and if we lose that respect, if we lose that fear of God, we've lost the relationship, and sometimes that's where it comes from. Spiritually, and that's the problem in the church. I was talking with one of my doctors about the other day Psalm 2 11 the second Psalm verses 10 to 11 says now therefore Kings Act wisely be instructed and take warning old leaders are doing the earth worship the Lord and serve him with reverence that he is our inspired fear and submissive wonder Rejoice yet do so with trembling do so with trembling That word trembling there is not a fear of being chastened But I'll tell you a lot of times with doing events of doing things from the Lord is that you want to do it properly and that you don't wanna ask. They didn't fear in reverence God and they was intoxicated with the physical wine, with the drinking of the wine and they offered up strange fire to the Lord. They offered it up to the wrong place. That's why in liturgy, just like they selected a Pope this week or whatever, God requires everything to be done decent in order. And that's how we respect the holy God, with fear and trembling that we want to do what is pleasing unto him, but that we must be circumspective and that self doesn't enter in because we have to have a self-restraint or self-control because that's what gets us in trouble, the old man. The Living Version says, O kings and rulers of the earth, listen while there is time. Serve the Lord with reverent fear. Rejoice with trembling. Because like I say, when feasting and doing things, it's not wrong to drink wine. It's not wrong to do eat. It's not wrong to have festivals and enjoy yourself. But it's an overabundance of that. It's knowing where to draw the line. I don't wanna have too many drinks. I don't wanna drink and drive. I don't wanna be under the influence. I don't wanna, as it says, king shouldn't be given to one or else they'll pervert the law. And that's what he was doing here, a perversion of the law of what he was doing, committing sacrilege against God. Hundred other verses say essentially same the same thing that we must have the fear of God in us But nevertheless many persist in believing that in Christianity the fear of God Has been replaced by the love of God, which is which is as not It has not psalm 2 and 11 command served the Lord with fear and trembling We notice in the book of Philippians where it says, Paul says in 2 Philippians 12, 2 in 12, it says, to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. So we see here it hadn't been replaced, and without that modicum of understanding what fear is and the trembling, we lose a certain reverence from God in a relationship-wise way. It's just like becoming acquainted with your parents and your father, and you know your father, you fear your father, but through love, that love of God, the love of your father, that relational love, you know your father would never hurt you or do you anything, but still that fear of him has to be there. It's the same thing with God. We know that anything, even in chastening, the chastening that God does to us, we know that it's in love. That's why a parent, when he disciplines a child, he's not doing it, he shouldn't do it in anger or in an abusive way, but in a corrective way, a way of disciplining the child to make the child better. It says if you don't beat, discipline or beat your child, you don't love him. If you don't chastise him, if you don't whip the child, you don't really love him. Because these, ordinarily we associate trembling with fear of being frightened. But what is there to fear and tremble about in taking salvation to its conclusion? Fear is produced as we keep His commandments and not before. I've noticed that this week. I've noticed that in my preaching in the years as we've been going through. The fear of God is produced as we keep his commandments. And that's when the fear gets greater, but we draw closer to God through our understanding and that love, that understanding, that keeping his commandment, cast it out, all other types of fear, those fears that shouldn't be in there. Clearly, fear of Him and love for Him cannot be separated from our relationship with Him. That's why I say we have to have a relationship with Him. If you adopted, if that's not really your parent, it might go through something to get proven that that's your father, that's your parent that wouldn't do you anything and that adopted you as a loving parent. Well, God has brought us in through a relationship of preaching by faith. We've been drawn or called to God and we must have a relationship where we understand that though we can't see God, that we love him and count on his word and that we don't fear the world. And that's what, sometimes we have a fear of the unknown. and is walking by faith, we don't understand or don't see something, we must depend on God to give us an understanding or open up our knowledge and understanding to give us wisdom to apply that which we need to please God. The fear gained with the relationship with Him always motivates movement in the right way godly direction regardless of the intensity of life uh circumstances that one comes under isaiah 8 and 13 says it is the lord of hosts whom you are to regard as holy he shall be your source of fear he shall be your source of dread not man we shouldn't fear man and in other words we're changing or being transformed by the renewing of our mind to think in spiritual matters that it's only one to fear, and that is God. That's the only one. Without that, we're built to idle in our minds or whatever. We have to get our mind past fearing what man can do to us. We have to cast out that fear of man. There's no doubt that God wants us to fear him. Notice that in Psalm 34 and 11, It says that the fear of God is a quality that we must learn. That is, we do not have this characteristic in our nature. God didn't give us this in our human nature. It's a learned fear. You have to learn the fear of God. It must be taught to you. That's why I said it comes through keeping His commandments and walking with God and having faith and developing a relationship with God because you don't naturally have this. This is something supernatural. Come, you children, it says. Listen to me. I will teach you to fear the Lord with awe-inspired reverence and obedience. Living says sons and daughters come and listen and let me teach you the importance of trusting in fearing the Lord So I said we have to be taught this and that's why we have a teaching ministry That's why the parents are the teach the children in the way teach them coming in and going out this it Faith come it by hearing and hearing the Word of God. So we have to consistently voice this to we have to speak the word of God and speak those things which become sound doctrine which is God's word which is God's word. The fear of God then is different from the fears we normally have in life and it must be learned and it's it's a consequences of making correlations of things that's happening to you as to why things happen to you. That's why Joseph, when Joseph Potiphar's wife asked Joseph to sleep with him. When the natural, a lot of people take him up on that issue. They'll have adulterous affairs, they're having children. Marriage is really an impediment to man nowadays. Most people are not married. They're having children, they're having family, they're living together. A lot of times, I don't know how to, it's encumbered on me not to even say about my sons, my daughters and things are married. But if your son or daughter is married, it's kind of awkward introducing their significant other and they having children or living together or whatever. If you're a Christian person, that's an awkward thing to say or do, is introducing someone because it should be your daughter-in-law or your son-in-law or whatever. But it's condoning even homosexuals and other people at least getting married or whatever. But there are so many people that go to church and attend churches that don't observe marriage, and they're living together. And the preacher's not preaching against fornication. He's not preaching on all of these things because they are making the building payments. They're not telling these people Well, if you fear God, you wouldn't be living against God's laws because that's a sin against God to live in fornication. That's fornication. But that's what the churches culturally have came to do, that there's no fear of God among them. And that's illustrative in what I tell you about drinking wine and everything because it's so easy to cross the line and get intoxicated. and change it from a festive occasion without that ever-present fear of God that you may drink too much, you may do the wrong thing, you may say the wrong thing. The circumspectiveness leaves out. Godly fears a quality of reverence and respect of God that must be learned and only those whom God calls and converts can learn it So it's a lot of people in church that don't understand and that's why I say this is a process over a period of time doing the commandments of God living by the commandments of God through obedience he learned through the things that you suffer and go through through obedience to God draws you closer and cast out the other fears that's natural in us there's natural fears of dread and woe and distress and all of these things which is natural to all men it's like Peter had a carnal failure of life when he feared the soldiers, the young maidens that was accusing him of being with Jesus, and he denied the Lord three times. But that was because he hadn't had the fullness of the Spirit given unto him. After the day of Pentecost, it's Peter that watched boldly what he said and what he did, and he died. He wasn't afraid of men. He died a crucified death. They marred Peter. He died, they say, upside down. He wasn't worthy of being crucified as the Lord was. The unconverted don't have this relationship with God, so thus they become self-centered. They become irrational. They become covetous. They are lawbreakers because they are not in a covenant relationship that makes them mindful. As Joseph said, as I was talking about Joseph, he says, how could I commit this sin? As Potiphar's wife was trying to go where there wasn't anyone around or whatever, he might not get, he said, but how can I commit this sin and sin against God? Now that's the mindset of Joseph, who was a type of Christ. But we see David as a type of Christ where he let his guard down and the lust of the flesh gotten to him and he had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba. So here's a man that was a man after God's own heart, but by being intoxicated with the wine of this world, with the spirit of this world. That's why he says, create a right spirit in me, because he had gotten hold to a seducing spirit, a spirit that took him down the wrong path. And that's why I say that's the wine, that's the influences of the world that people say, well, everybody's doing it. They're doing this in the church. Everything has become normative in the church, in the Super Bowl, in sports, in things that's not a reciprocal actions of showing the relationship Fear of God, but it shows us being more like Belshazzar bringing Trojan horses into the church using those things that are dedicated to God that should be Sacred and set apart as they do with the Sabbath day They've made that as any other day and he had set that day apart. He had sanctified and that's why he said we've desecrated his Sabbaths and We've developed our own Sabbaths, and that's the cultural influence. That's what Babylon is doing, is they, nothing is sacred unless they feel it's sacred to them, not to God. These things are, their God is their bellies. of those who fear God will do great exploits regardless of their human status, small or great, because those that are powerful by God are chosen to do these things and they start pulling off the old man. I'm looking forward as I come toward the latter end of my life is doing greater things now to bring forth more fruit. I'm more expected Now, as any day, as the doors flinging open, multitudes coming in, and a supernatural growth, that God would plant seeds, that God would add on, that God would send more laborers into the harvest, that the kingdom of God is here on earth, and that we see that growth, that we see our children, grandchildren, and the fellowship that we should have in God. That's inspected of God. To be in that position, we must make the best use of the relationship that he enables us in his calling. Because unless God calls you and choose you, it doesn't develop. We have to respond by seeking him to remain in his spiritual presence. And so I said, we have to practice the presence of God in everything we see, say, or do. And we have to be able to looking for a place, looking for a spot to glorify God. In whatever we do, we look for that opportunity to bring God's glory, his presence with us. Or we will never learn the fear of God, nor have it as part of our character because Satan sometime when he gets you alone or when you're with your spouse or when you're in a familiar atmosphere or content, as they say, let your hair down, kind of relax yourself. But that's when we should beware of the schemes and the devices of devils. That's when Satan is trying to ambush you. He told Jesus he would come back at a more convenient time. He had lost a battle in the wilderness, but he said that he would come back at a more convenient time. And notice that he was always trying to entrap Jesus. Same way Satan will do us. for fear is a powerful motivator. Now fear can be a very powerful motivator. Our normal understanding of fear comes from being a mild apprehension, awareness, anxiety, an outright, bowel-moving terror with people thinking of what's about to come up on the earth. But I've been more relaxed and I'm expecting as the economy falters, as things are going haywire, I'm not fearing these things. A lot of people say they voted the way they voted, the things that they do. They are fear driven and not God driven. You may elect, it says the devil that we do know is better than the devil that we don't know. The greater the lesser evils. I decide not to take any evil. So I'm not in bed with any of these things. I may do certain things, but God has to see my intent, what motivated me to do it the way I did. And it's not a fear of a self-sacrifice. In other words, You have to be willing to present your body, your losses, as some of the... I always talk about Adam Kinzinger, Liz Chainer, some of the people who lost their jobs, lost everything because they stood for what was right instead of as the... What we see in this nation today that Babylon is fallen and just like with Belshazzar, he was fallen. We don't see God resuscitating him as he did Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had a lot of chances and opportunity and he came, he was brought unto the Lord. But we see Belshazzar died this very night. This very night, he lost his life. He was put to death. That's a flight of fright. And some people say they're moving from the United States and leaving because this person was elected or whatever. But we must realize we can't leave to fight. We have to stay in the fight. We have to stay in the fight. We can't give up and just leave. And physically, we have to face these things in the spirit. Why then does God, if it's extreme response and thing, why then does a loving God want us to fear him? If all these things, anxieties, people, I say, become depressed and he says, see that you be not anxious. See that you don't, these calamities. He said there's gonna be wars and rumors of wars. He talks about distress and he talks about great tribulation and all these things. These things shouldn't put fear in our hearts and our minds. would he rather us not snuggle up to him with no thought of fear but it's just like you remember i was telling you having those pet sins i think the lion the witch and the rod robe i'm trying to think of the man that wrote that because i've read two of his right two or three of his books or whatever but they was talking about asking and asking the lion and He says, is he dangerous? He says, of course he's dangerous, but he's fair. We know that there's all power in God's hand and that he has the power of life and death. But as I was saying, if God is our father, we shouldn't have a fear of him destroying us or that we perishing at his hands. Perfect love casts out all fear. So we should have that love develop in us, that perfect love of God. That's what cast out all of these other fears that doesn't come from God. I tell you, these other fears that come are not from God. He wants us to love him, but even at that love, the sense of fear should always be present. As I was telling you about our father or whatever, we always should have that fear that he's the ultimate disciplitarian. It's just like the fear of God, the God of the Old Testament. A lot of people don't want to serve that God. That's why they don't like the Old Testament because he's a fearful God. They would rather Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Not knowing that that loving God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old Testament. It's just that he invites us into a relationship with him. is that we get into a relationship because that same Jesus, he's gonna be our judge in that last day. That same Jesus that you've cast and trodden on the floor, you don't wanna face him in judgment. That's why it promotes us of judging ourselves. Coming up to the communion table this weekend, are we examining ourselves and making sure that we have all the leaven out? that we have sin and that we're pushing sin out of our life because we know that we are unworthy and that he's worthy. So a lot of people through the lack of fear of God come to the table as Belchazza's thousand people were to the table feasting and everything like God, the king in the book of Luke invited people to the wedding supper of the lamb and they had this wedding and they invited everybody in. but this man is eating and drinking but he don't have on a wedding garment and the king comes in and say how did you get in your friend without a garment on take him and cast him into outer darkness that shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth now there he was at the king's palace at the king's wedding feast not dressed without proper tax, but he wasn't fearful of the key that it wasn't fearful. What if I get caught? How can you relax? Just like Joseph said, how can I do this and sin against God? David hadn't thought that matter through. He didn't say he was overwhelmed by lust. He was overcome by the lust of the flush. He was the lust of the eyes. But here Joseph, a man that God is with him, he says, how can I do this? So he aware of the snares of Satan. And this guy was cast out of there because why? He wasn't aware of himself that he's not properly dressed. That's why we should have the Bible and use it as a mirror to examine ourselves. to pull things off. That's how we get wisdom and knowledge. That's how we pray to God, because through fear of boldness to come to the throne of grace, we could petition God in areas where we are weak at, that we are fearful that God says, if I don't get rid of this, it'll cast my whole body and soul into hell. I have to get rid of these lusting eyes. God, do something to Help me overcome sexual immorality. Help me to do something to overcome lying or whatever. These things are inherent in me and supernaturally, you're the only one that can take them away. So that's where the trembling come in. That's why Paul says he's pressing on toward the mark. It's like they've given you four or five orders to complete of red lights and things to build, but then they're going to come and pick them up Tuesday or Wednesday. But your job relies on you having done all of those right and that they're ready, but something in you, if you notice the magnitude of this, that if something's wrong, something's not hooked up right, you may lose your job or whatever over this. Because it says we must do everything as we're doing it unto the Lord. So everything in our lives, that's why with the church, that's why we're preaching and finding things to teach y'all and everything, that I have a greater responsibility to present to God a church without a spot or wrinkle. It come that day, it's gonna be on that individual. Because I said, Lord, I told him it would be like Adam and Eve. Instead of Adam blaming Eve, he could say, well, Lord, I warned her, I told her what you said. And the judgment is on them. That's why in raising our children, that's why everything we do, it's like Ezekiel, if you don't warn them, if you don't tell, their blood is gonna be required of you. The blood's gonna be on your hand. So God gives us a boldness to preach and tell people if we're afraid of our spouse, if we're afraid of our children, our parents, or whoever it is, God will use us to do something, but we had a fear of man, a fear of the consequences or the circumstances or whatever the situation would entail, so we didn't do. We quenched the Spirit because we know to do right. We knew what God was requiring of us, but we wasn't obedient to the Spirit. But as we be obedient to the Spirit, if we act upon His commandments, act upon those things, and we'll do greater exports, we'll build upon that, we'll have ever increasing faith. God will use us to do bigger and better things. will increase in the exploits that we do, and that's what Daniel is talking about in the 11th chapter. As we come to this time, as we see people standing in this nation, as we start to rise throughout our communities and our homes, this is the time when I'm seeing and praying that these things come to the fore, and that we lock arms in Christ Jesus, strengthen one another by the word, and go forward. The church has to put the battle in a ray here. Well, what does John say, 1 John 4, chapter 17 through the 18 verse? Does it not contradict the assertion that our relationship with God should contain Godly fear? For 1 John 4, 17 and 18 says, there's no fear in love. The dread does not exist, but perfect, that is, complete and full-grown love drives out fear, because fear involves the expectation of divine punishment. So the one who is afraid of God's judgment is not perfected in love and has not grown into sufficient understanding of God's love. Because we should be banking on the word that there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. That we are sons of God. We're banking on the promises of God. But if we truly love God, We did his commandments, we've done the words, and God's gonna prevent, he's gonna show us, he's gonna bring us, he's gonna put those words before us, just like he put before Nebuchadnezzar when Daniel told him to turn from your ways. Stop oppressing the poor. But what God did, he had to take a severe correction, a severe punishment, a severe corrective measure. That's why Paul says, turn that man over to Satan. so if we would judge ourselves those things that we know we are doing wrong that the bible speaks about if we would humble ourselves he says corinthians first uh first corinthians the 11th chapter i think it is 31st verse of something that says if we would judge ourselves it says there's no judgment that Judgment begins at the house of God, but we've already been through the process of judgment because we're judged by the word But we also in turn are washed by the word. So if we're actual doers of that word that we're being washed and cleansed by, we'll be a church without spot or wrinkle. We're rejoicing for Christ to come. We're looking forward to him coming. We're anticipating a soon return because we're all clean and dressed and ready. The brides had trimmed their lamps to five, Five wives had continually trimming their lamps. They didn't have to buy oil. Their lamps hadn't gone out. They were ready for the return of the bridegroom. That's why it says, be ready. Be ye ready. It says, but if we evaluate and judge ourselves honestly, that is, recognizing our shortcomings and correcting our behavior, we would not be judged. But when we fall short and are judged by the Lord, we're disciplined by undergoing his correction, which Nebuchadnezzar went under when his correction. And that was seven years of being transformed. His mind, he gave him the mind of a beast. The dew fell over him. He was wet with the dew and he claws and fingernails and everything started to change. Severe punishment. Paul says, turn that person over to Satan. With our children, with our spouses, whatever, sometimes we have to turn that person over to Satan. We have to turn him over and allow that chastening by God. He told Solomon, if your children, if your sons be a disobedient, I'm not gonna get rid of them like I did Saul, but I'm gonna punish him with the sword of man. You remember the evil man is the arm of the Lord. That's the disciplined rod of God. It says, but when we fall short in a judge by the Lord, we are disciplined by undergoing his correction so that we will not be condemned to eternal punishment along with the world. That's why a lot of people are broke. That's why a lot of people are sick. They were coming into the communion, what they would call, they would have the love feast at the same time that they would do communion back then. So the church observed the Love Feast, but people were getting drunk at the Love Feast. They were eating, they were going before others because why? They wasn't being circumspect. You remember I told you, all of this we can do, it's not wrong to do these things. So they had wine and they had food at the Love Feast, but a lot of people were getting drunk. A lot of people were eating and other people didn't get a chance to eat. They was eating up all the food. They was carousing, in other words, they were embobbing, they were gluttonous in eating these things. It's like to say, nothing wrong with eating and drinking. It says, if anyone is too hungry to wait, let him eat at home so that you will not come together for judgment on yourself. In other words, don't go there to get filled up. The chameleon is just, that's why I said we just have a cup that is representative of partaking of the Lord's blood, of the wine, of the drinking of the cup, and a little cracker, a little piece of bread there representative of the symbolism which it stands for. We don't have a 16 ounce or a big gulp or nothing of wine there for you, loaf of bread or anything for you to eat or anything. This is a symbolism. So if you hungry and need something to drink, eat before you leave home. You know, they say if you go visit a king, this is my son calling. Let it finish ringing. So these people, where were I? I'm full of foam. Wrong there. I'm going to have to start somebody else there. I'm sorry that I had to stop the recording there, and I need to know where to start back at here. And these people, so we have to have a guard up against us. So there's nothing wrong with doing those things, but not to excess. And that's what happened at Bill Chazard. that he lost all boundaries, and it hit and hit, and the wine is an inhibitor, and it starts to inhibit you, and it desensitizes you to being respectful of what you are, and that's why the Bible tells you not to be drunk with wine. But the people today are drunk with the wine of the world, in other words of Babylon, which is being unholy, which is not being spiritual, the wine of this world, the false wine, that wine of Babylon, still commits fornication and whoredoms and drinking of the wrong table. You cannot drink of the table of the Lord and the table of devils. The symbolism is different. That's why I say the intent and the motivation in which God is judging you. And I hope I didn't have a strain of thought that started in that interrupted process just now. But I'm getting back to this what I meant. All of those forms of fear express a wide range of emotions. And we being spiritual, we start to divorce ourselves away from emotions as when Aaron's sons was drunk and offered up strange fire and God killed him. God told Aaron not to get emotional about it and show like he was in disagreement with God, but to continue on serving God. As Job says, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. As in Ezekiel, he took Ezekiel's wife that morning, the delight of his heart, when he said, don't show grieving and don't go to those places looking in a certain way because you need to divorce yourself away from this and show that I'm the priority. That Jesus says, who's my mother, father, sister, brother? That wasn't that he distanced himself in love. The love was still there, but if they were to come, they had to come to him. He couldn't go to them. So he's the truth to wear in the life. So we have to die to self. We have to, all of those old ways in the old man, we have to pull him off. But then we'll see that this is a much better wine. This is the new wine. You can't put this new wine into old wine skins and the skins will burst. People trying to put the New Testament ideology in midst of combining the two. with synergism or synchronicity, we're going to have a problem there. But that was just a shadow of things to come. we're to living in the new, we're part of a much better covenant where God writes his laws within our hearts. In other words, this is what we actually are. This is what we're drunk in the spirit, be full with the spirit, filling up the spirit and yet not controlled by chemical or anything else. That's why food or drink doesn't actually commend you to God. It doesn't make any difference whether you drink or don't drink. But it's the character, it's the influence, it's the world's influence on us that we're trying to have a new mind. We have to have a new mind. God is giving you a new mind, a new heart. Feelings such as dread, distress, dismay, trouble, terror, horror, alarm, awe, respect, reverence, and admiration all appear as fear in the scriptures, but there's different quantities of this fear. God always appear to people in the Bible. He says, be not afraid. Don't be afraid because this would be horrible. People believe that if you see God, you will die. but you have to have a fear that you don't see the invisible, but you're aware of his presence. God is so real that you live in the fear of God without seeing him. That's why a lot of people, that's where Satan made his mistake. He said he would ascend to the throne and be like God. Well, how can you ascend to the throne if God is on the throne? He never vacated or abdicated the throne. So our iniquities separate us from God, these emotions and feelings. So it hurts me to preach and tell people what I have to tell them, but I have to fear God because he says, if you be confused or confounded. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of kings. Daniel, remember I told you the other day that through consternation, Daniel was saying that He was wishing that this was happened to somebody else and not to Nebuchadnezzar. But it was Nebuchadnezzar said, don't be afraid of the telling of the interpretation of saying what it is because some things is hurtful, it's harmful. And that's why Jesus says that you reject me or you hate me, you dismiss me because I've told you the truth. But we can't fear telling the truth or speaking the truth. But that's why I say speak it in love. Have the Spirit do it through you. You have to do it through the Spirit. The Spirit has to bring that. But if we're doing this, and that's why a lot of preaching is harsh, and the leadership, and parenting, and different things, because it's self-centered. It's for self-gratification. God is not in these things. It's not the Spirit of the Lord. So you're not doing this out of the love of God. It's not a correction from God. It's the Pharisees, they did works, they cast out devils, they healed the sick, they fed the deviant, but they never had a relationship with God. So this wasn't through reverential fear of God, the reason they was doing it. It was through self-centered and self-seeking motives. The fear that God desires in us is a good, positive, motivating quality. This fear is one that we do not naturally possess that comes from God. That's why I say it has to be learned. God instills this into us through teaching and that we become doers of God's word. And that's why it increases because some of these things, as Peter waxed boldly, You remember he couldn't talk before he was afraid, but he was bold before that Sanhedrin council. It says man ought to obey God rather than man. So godly fear is one of a deep and abiding respect that grows as we learn from within a continuing intimate relationship of his character, his purpose, and his powers that comes from being with Jesus. They says by this man's boldness, we know that he had been with Jesus. This is due to his relationship, his proximity to Jesus. And we notice that Peter, James, and John held a closer relationship with Jesus than the rest of the apostles did. At least that's what we hear of. But as he said, what I say to one, I say to all. So the unconverted do not have this relationship as a sustaining presence of God. They've only heard about it or can come into it, but they don't possess it. It's different from a confession of faith and having faith than possessing faith instead of just confess. Some people confess to what they don't have. Love has been perfected in us of this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. So we are ourselves. This is not a facade. This is who we are. It's not false piety or whatever. And we know that there's no condemnation, so we're not worried about this. But now, I mean, Belshazzar was worried. He was shaking because he seen the fire. It's like the Ten Commandments was written by the fingers of God. But this was the fingers of a man's hand. It didn't say the hand. It was the fingers of a man's hand. So this got his knees to shaking and losing his bowel movement and he become disjointed or whatever. It was a fear, a dread that comes in. You've ever been in a perplexing, a dreadful situation, a complexity that gave you the shakes because you knew your conscience had convicted you that you were wrong, that something was about to happen. And that's why I say with dreams and different things in life, something changes. We know something is about to go down and there's a fear sometimes that paralyzes us. We can be paralyzed with fear. John is referring to being bold in spite of the circumstances we face from life in this world once we are converted. That's why I say it doesn't contradict that perfect love casting out fear, we have to take it in context. Well, what is John talking about? The love of God works in us to dispel the fear of disease, the oppressions, persecutions, death, but it does not drive out the fear of God. That's why I say love and fear, love doesn't replace fear. The love of God, the love of Jesus Christ doesn't replace the fear of God. But, and like I say, sometimes we can have lack of knowledge or whatever, because a lot of people doing this COVID scare or whatever, they was using a religious pretense or religious ignorance to violate and jeopardize others. with a deadly plague or whatever to prove a religious circumstance that wasn't there. It says, tempt not the Lord thy God. So this is something fatal. This is something you could die by. I can understand in having faith that God is gonna protect you or whatever, but do you know those things? That's why I say, sometime we have a fear of the unknown. But the confidence is in Jesus. The faith is in Jesus. But we shouldn't go pick up a snake or something and say, well, I believe in Jesus. I have faith. That's why people could become handling snakes and doing all these things and talking about drinking. You're tempting the Lord, though. So if this is a deadly virus or vaccine or something, you believe in, I came through COVID. A lot of us came through COVID. But because God protected us and kept us, But it was also through that God had people to develop a vaccine that overcame these diseases and things. If it did, John would be contradicting what the Bible says elsewhere about the necessity of continuing to fear God. Paul would say, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, you wouldn't get to a point where you love God so much that you cease to have fear and trembling because then it really would be contradictory. but we see that you're growing in the fear, that fear grows. The farther you go in God, the farther you realize that what you had to fear in the natural, that with your spiritual love of God, it becomes a non-secret. Christianity, has not replaced the fear of God with the love of God, as many wrongly believe. Instead, the two work hand in hand, okay? Christianity doesn't replace the love of God. we could approach God's throne. Therefore it says, let us with the privilege approach the throne of grace that is the throne of God's gracious favor with confidence and without fear so that we may receive mercy for our failures and find his amazing grace to help us in the time of need. In other words, we boldly approach the throne of God. But this is not an arrogant or hubric fear approaching. It's with submission and obedience to his word, knowing that we ask anything in his name and we receive it because we keep his commandments. We're children of God. So we have the petition that we desire from him. Praise John. 322 says, and we receive from Him whatever we ask because we carefully and consistently keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing to Him. and his sight habitually seeking to follow his plan for us. So, you remember I told you that Peter in the fourth chapter of Acts went before the Sanhedrin council and says, now when the men of the Sanhedrin saw the confidence and boldness of Peter and John and grasped the fact that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were astounded and began to recognize that they had been with Jesus. In other words, he had strengthened their spirit for he hadn't given us a spirit of fear timothy had that spirit in him naturally it's a lot of people that can't stand before people or talk before a crowd of naturally shy whatever get nervous or whatever peter wasn't the type of preacher as titus was that's why paul sent titus to the island of creton where the cretins was liars and all types of people whereas he said timothy to a different place timothy was more or less a mama's boy or whatever he grew up in that his father was a roman a greek or whatever his father was roman but his mother lois and eunice taught him of the scriptures and everything but we see timothy this preaching and this contention in the churches and everything had timothy during that time the water wasn't the most pure thing to drink or whatever but he says drink a little wine for the orphaned infirmities. Well, the wine didn't give him strength or vigor to do these things. It was the Spirit of God that gave him spirit of vigor to embolden him to do, just like Gideon's faith had been increased by putting out fleeces. But today, as Charles Stanley was saying, one time I was hearing him teach, we don't put out fleeces testing God, asking God, okay, if I put the fleece out now, make it on the fleece and dry all around it. The next time you say, well, look, make the fleece dry and wet all around. We don't tempt or test God putting fleeces out. We trust God. We go forth with God. We don't have to lay out those fleeces. But Paul told Timothy that he says, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, a cowardice, a fear, but he has given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound judgment and personal discipline that is abilities that result in calm well-balanced mind and self-control but those are taught those are learned through the church those come by the gifts that he given unto the church you may give gifts unto the church the five-fold ministry for the teaching and edifying of the church but here timothy uh didn't have these things whereas when Gideon's Gideon's army was out there or whatever well he didn't give them choices because no as unbelievers as in the world they didn't uh were afraid to go to battle just as the 10 spies when they went out the 12 spies were 10 of them were afraid of fighting the giants in the land they said they couldn't do it they were afraid and they talked negative that was a negative fear The 32,000 that Gideon had chosen, out of that 32,000, 22,000 of them were fearful or needed a different approach. In other words, they didn't have what God, so that's natural. That's what's in man of the world. That's influence. That's the wine of the world because there are a lot of dangerous and poisonous and deadly things in the world. Just like I said Peter had a moral failure of what they were doing to Jesus and he didn't have the spirit and we can't love our enemies. We can't do all these things except by the Spirit of God. It's disastrous aspects, especially if you've been doing one. That's why I said as I come to close this, Up on top of this, I said, I named it, I said, wine, a strong marker that leads to destruction. Many people have been destroyed through religion, through the Antichrist, through false religion. The Pharisees was that trap. And they were drunk on themselves, on wine, the religions of the world. And that's why Jesus said he was going to fight against the church, because the church had imbibed the wine of Babylon. The church authoritaries says you have that woman, Jezebel there, who teach and seduce my people to commit fornication and eat those things, sacrifice unto idols. Well, it wasn't that the eating was dangerous, but it was the doctrine. That's why it says beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees. So they're seducing spirit doctrines of devils to teaching the poison of ass that's very destructive until the Pharisees you make you proselytize and makes one sevenfold the child of hell than you are. So false teaching and false preaching, the Bible, Jesus warns us more about false prophets and false teachings than anything else in the New Testament. The Bible is thorough about false prophets and false teachers, that which is false. That's the wine of Babylon. And we've drunken it to the core. So when he told Jeremiah to go to all of these different nations and have them drink of the cup, religion, their panacea, the thing that took them over to the edge was religion. That has had more wars and more deaths than anything else. It is religion. That's the wine of Babylon. That's the wine of the wrath that God's gonna pour out without measure. And that's what we're having through the internet and social media and all of these different ways that Satan is entering in. These are the doctrines of devils. This is the abyss. This is the place that descended from the Abusos, the abyss, the place of no knowledge. These false doctrines of the river Euphrates that flows. This is the wrong teaching. So we'll go a little bit further in this when we get another opportunity on this. Heavenly fathers, we come before you this afternoon, Lord God,