In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the fear of the Lord and its impact on our lives. He emphasizes that when we have God as our God, we have no reason to be afraid. The speaker references Psalm 4, which encourages us to stand in awe of God, commune with our hearts, offer sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord. He also mentions the importance of being watchful and prayerful, using the example of Peter's denial of Christ. The sermon concludes with a story about a pastor in Romania who faced persecution but remained steadfast in his faith, knowing that heaven awaited him.

If you want to open your Bibles to Psalms chapter 4, Psalms chapter 4 and if you see our music leader somewhere, tell him we miss him. Psalms chapter 4, I just was looking at this Psalm, it's neat, let's read it, let's stand together. I've been studying on the fear of the Lord and just notice if you have God as your God you don't have to be afraid, in verse 80 ends up, for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety. Psalms chapter 4, hear me when I call O God of my righteousness thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress, have mercy upon me O and hear my prayer, O you sons of men how long will you turn my glory into shame, how long will you love vanity and seek after leasing, Selah, but know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself, the Lord will hear when I call unto him, stand in awe, stand in awe and sin not, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still, Selah, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord, there be many that say who will show us any good, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us, thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety. Thank you father for your word, thank you that we have safety in Christ, we thank you for the blood of Christ that secures our souls, we put our faith in your precious blood, thank you for this holy atonement that you have given and father we come to you now asking that the Spirit of God would minister to us the Word of God and that we would we would rejoice in you, we thank you Lord Jesus, we invite you to be present, manifest forth your presence, we need you Lord and we have gathered out of our different places to come this day to hear your word to worship you and so we commit this time to you in Jesus name, Amen. You may be seated. We've been doing our series on the fear of the Lord and I didn't, as I said at the beginning I was just studying this for myself to just get to know God better and have more respect for him and to use it as an evaluation of my own life and I've been blessed so much I thought maybe you might like to get in on some of it too, getting to know God's not easy maybe it's easy for you but I find that there's a problem and it's me, the closer you get to God the more God reveals to you about yourself and I think there's a lot of things that come along with that. Well I want to share with you today what I believe the Lord has revealed to me is one of the greatest needs in the church and in the world and in our own lives is to have a fear of God, we've lost the fear of God in the church and there's no respect and even in the short 60, almost 64 years of my life I've seen such a change in the church and I'm sure you have too but over the years such a change it's become very shocking where there's not hardly any respect for God anymore. Well I started off, I was going to make you a copy and photocopy but I forgot, the first part of this I started with Isaiah 11 3 just looking how the fear of the Lord would make the Lord Jesus Christ, it would give him quick understanding and I won't go into that again and so we looked at a couple, we're looking at a couple reasons on the fear of God, the first one I covered was because it would help us to understand God himself and I covered that area by looking at the dreadfulness of his very presence, the greatness of his majesty and what it showed us about ourself and out of that was God's goodness and then also the dreadfulness of his name and we'll cover a little bit more about his name as we go through today but his worship even to worship God was dreadful and you know when Moses showed up at the burning bush God had to give him some instruction how to reverence him and respect him and take off his shoes in his presence and our worship to him is to be acceptable and different things and then I concluded that with four statements and seven lessons then the last time I shared on the fear of God and its rule in our lives which was last week and the subject was father since it was Father's day and our responsibility and we looked at some different things about training five things about the father's responsibility to teach we look we covered that briefly why how what when and who and then we looked at five reasons for fearing God as the fathers were taught by God to teach their children to walk humbly and to honor God and it was for their health and their well-being and so they would be holy and now today I'm going to look at some of the fruits or benefits of the fear of God in our life we're going to look at the benefit of reverence now as I was looking at these I've got about 12 or 13 of them so far the benefits now if the Lord allows me I'll only be able to cover about three but I spent a lot of time in the area of reverence the fruit of reverence having a fear of God produce produces reverence and even in this psalms stand in awe that's the aspect of reverence and I didn't even notice that word was there until as I read it stand in awe it just stood out and sin not so the fear of God should produce some holiness in our life matter of fact quite a bit and so reverence for his person for his word and for his glory and his name and for his servants and then that would be one fruit reverence and then time allows how we should have the fruit in our life of carefulness and watchfulness and we'll go into that and then the third fruit that that we'll get into the Lord willing if I'm not too long here is the fruit of godly fellowship and conversation there are three reasons there are three things three precious things that will look at three blessings of this fruit so I'm gonna start out with a little something I remember years ago I can't remember his name I meant to ask somebody in my family if they could remember his name but maybe you do there was a pastor over in Romania pretty well known and maybe Peter started with a D just remember that and he was well known and the communist hated him with passion and they tried everything they could to stop him they would put him in jail and you know you get out you go back again he was just not going to be stopped and so you know he was a real threat to their cause and so they finally figured out they called him in and they said Peter we're gonna kill you we just went to praising God and rejoicing the Lord and said you can't threaten me with heaven you know they were and and by the way he said if you kill me the word is going to go out all over the place and there's going to be so much more the gospel spread and if you kill me you'll be sorry and so they didn't kill him they were they was afraid to kill him and they just couldn't control him he had no fear at all of them but on the vice versa they were afraid of him he was their great enemy they didn't know what to do with him just keep him in jail all right the fear of the Lord has to do I believe with a choice with us making a choice that we're going to fear God and I saw a really neat verse back over in Isaiah 8 Isaiah chapter 8 and I wanted to read this to you and if I remember I'd like to close up with this verse anyway Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 13 and God of course was making this these promises to Israel this the context that God is talking to Israel they were usually in trouble with him and God is coming around telling what he's gonna do if they don't repent and get back straight and he has all these blessings for him and different things and in verse 12 he says say you not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid he said don't worry about the enemy he says instead sanctify the Lord of hosts himself let him be your fear and let him be your dread now I have to be honest with you this study has been changing my life and even the other day I'd I'd laid down it's going to take a nap for a little bit and I just prayed and as I'm praying on Lord would you teach me things about this as I'm trying to wake up God is just putting some things in my spirit on this area and I was just really being blessed it's just been a real blessing and then in verse 14 it says and he shall be for a sanctuary and he shall be for a sanctuary but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the house of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem but notice that he shall be to you for a sanctuary Exodus 25 and verse 5 uses the same word and it's the holy place God will be for us a sanctuary a holy place now let's see if we can look at some of these benefits of fearing God like to start off with a question do you fear God do you fear God do you think you fear God then I got another question to ask you to sort of get you tuned in here if we could look at these benefits I'm going to go I'm going to go over with you then and sort of use them as like a test and I had a sheet of paper back here where I had some more of them that and I even thought of another one this morning I wrote it down but just benefits in our life I'm going to cover these but the benefit of self-discipline it would help us to check our motives it would help us to check our heart that if we have a singleness of heart self-discipline it would help us in the area of our compassion our prayer life self-denial humility and different things like this so why will this be beneficial to me I ask this question and you can ask yourself to just look at the fear of God and the fruit that it produces in the life I think you'll find it's very beneficial it's good to every now and then get your get yourself checked up get your car checked up you we have checkups on all kinds of different things so this could be actually a spiritual checkup and without the fear of God in our life we're not going to have the fruits that follow along and in the back of my Bible I've got 18 keys that God has taught me in the last 25 years about the church when I started traveling around the country working with evangelists in some revival ministry I'd ask God to teach me about the church number 18 is this one I just added it to my list it impacted me so much so I think this is one of the most important lessons that I've studied now let's go into the first one having the fear God should produce some reverence in our life Genesis 42 18 Joseph said this I fear God to his own brothers his brothers didn't fear God so they wouldn't have did what they did this why some people that profess to be Christians can do things to other Christians that are not nice because they really have no fear of God that something's gonna happen to them and I'm gonna cover that in a little bit but he said I fear God he said that to his brothers and then do this listen to what Bunyan said about Joseph's statement I fear God here's a quote John Bunyan his graves over there in London and he said that is more than any other and he sort of speaking for Joseph that is more than any of the other I stand in awe of he is my dread he is my fear I do all my actions as in his presence as in his sight I I reverence his holy and glorious majesty doing all things as would fear and trembling before him this is what Bunyan said that he felt like Joseph might be saying now in reverencing God I want to go through these four things it's a reverence for his person his person himself you remember when Goliath come out defiant is there when he finally said this give me a man give me a man and it's like God said okay I'll give you a man and so he said David there if God was asked for a man or a boy or girl today would he say hey I've got one and he could draw you forth because you have no fear of anything but God and that's the idea of a reverential worship so he said give me a man I defy the armies of Israel this day Christ is our man God gave us Christ and with Christ we have all that we need we sure don't need to fear John 8 49 as they're dealing with Jesus he turns around one day and he says I have not a devil but I honor my father and ye do dishonor me and back in 523 he said he that honoreth not the son honors not the father there's a good one for the Jehovah Witnesses they don't like these but I think that we as a children of God should exhibit such a fear of God we have fear of nothing else and our life is just a testimony like Christ many years ago back in the town of Chamoak in Pennsylvania and I didn't look it up but I guess I think this is a true story there was a very violent storm coming through the winds were terrible and the rain was coming down and the lightning was zigging and zagging across the sky and these two men there were drinking and one of them said they must be having a beer party in heaven and the other one said yeah that's the beer keg clanking together and then he stuck his fist up and he cursed God and God sent a bolt of lightning right down and killed him right there on the spot true story and that stories happen other times too when men in public would make statements for God to do something to them and he would now Psalms 89 7 says God is greatly to be feared as we're for all in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him God is created to be feared in the assembly of saints and the early church they had that I want to read you a passage in Jeremiah 10 as I was in Jeremiah 10 hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you house of Israel thus said the Lord learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of the heaven for the heathen are dismayed at them he said don't be worried about all the things that are going on around you and he slips on down in verse 6 he says for as much as there is none like unto thee talked about their idols and those other verses as there is none like unto thee O Lord Jeremiah saying there's none like unto thee O Lord thou art great and thy name is great in might who would not fear thee O king of nations for to thee doth it appertain for as much as among all the wise men of the nations in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee and he just goes on about God in verse 13 he says when he uttered his voice he's talking about the greatness of God when he uttered his voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens and he calls it the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth he make it lightnings with rain and bring it forth the wind of his measures he's just talking about how powerful God is and then he wants to know you he wants to fellowship with you he wants to be your friend he wants you to love him which is the ultimate apex of fear of God is perfect love as John said so we're to fear his person and his word I'm gonna just say a little bit on this because I want to cover one of the fruits of enjoying the word of God the fear of God I believe will give us an enjoyment but we've covered this I think last week in Isaiah 50 66 just right back over here a few pages Isaiah 66 and verse 5 here's his word here the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word your brethren that hated you that cast you out for my name's sake said let the Lord be glorified but he shall appear to to your joy and they shall be ashamed to tremble at his word amazing wonderful thing that God has given us his word infallible inerrant it's his word and there's a long hard process to give us the Word of God that we can trust so God is looking for those that will fear his person that will fear his word back in verse 2 by the way he said for all those things have mine hand made all those things have been set the Lord but to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and tremble at that my word have respects and reverence for God's Word and you'll find more blessing from God there's another thing reverence for his person and his word but also his his glory in his name I'm going to read you some verses I'm going to take you back over and we'll go back and read Revelation 15 for but Psalms 119 holy and reverend is his name Psalm 29 to given to the Lord the glory do unto his name first Corinthians 1013 of course you know do all to the glory of God I believe fearing God I'm gonna go back to revelation but fearing God will remove all other fears this one reason I need to study this in my heart is naturally prone to fear fearing God will remove all these other fears so that there's nothing left but just love and admiration and reverence to God Revelation 15 and verse 4 who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorify thy name for thou only art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgments are made manifest that hasn't happened yet but it is it is gonna happen I believe it and Malachi 4 to there's we're gonna come back to Malachi after a little bit but there's some really neat things in Malachi I didn't have time to write a lot of these out so I'm have to flip back but Malachi 4 to says but unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall again promises to Israel that I don't think God minds us barring some of those promises sometimes as long as we understand how the context is when we claim the Word of God and we believe that we see things happen but just look at that unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing I like to think that as I have reverence to God he's gonna draw near draw nigh to him we draw near to him and he'll draw near to us another one a reverence for his servants I've got lots of observations on this one but even Jesus gave some up for observations on about them killing the prophets you know and those different things I just went back to a few and I have observed this there should be a fear of God in our hearts and our lives to speak against the servants of God even if they don't have the same theology of us or they're doing some other things if God is using them we need to be careful and we probably maybe with some couldn't couldn't agree with with everything they do but we need to have a reverence if Joseph's brothers had had a reverence of God they would have dealt with their own corrupt vile jealous hearts the Bible says who can stand before envy when people have an envious heart they go to extremes they go to extremes and watch out for his repercussions so what happened to them well God took them through a horrible nightmare of a time Mordecai Mordecai had his Haman and of course ended up getting hung and David had his Saul and Saul ended up dying Daniel had his presidents and his princes and I was looking over there at that I thought this is really pretty neat Daniel had these men in Daniel chapter 6 his presidents let me read you a few verses in for the whole chapter just really good that was going back over there these guys they're just they're just driven with a frenzy of hatred for Daniel and how we're gonna get rid of him but in in Daniel chapter 6 in verse 4 but 3 this then was Daniel then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him there's where the trouble began and then verse 5 then said these been we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the law of his God and you just come on down here there after him then in 16 then the king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions the devil always thinks he's going to get the child of God one way or the other but the devil always loses on the end and I'm going to share some things some principles with you in a few minutes about this but and so it all ended up like this and the king commanded in verse 24 and they brought those men which had accused Daniel and they cast them into the den of lions them their children their wives and the lions had the master of them and broke all their bones and pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den so and of course there is Hananiah, Mishael and the Azariah same deal same deal back over in chapter 3 and so and there's a have you ever noticed how many times a burning fiery furnace is mentioned verse 6, 3, 6 and who so fall down not worship thou the same I are be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace verse 6, 11 a burning fiery furnace verse 15 a burning fiery furnace in 17 a burning fiery furnace in 20 the burning fiery furnace and 19 it was just the furnace but in 21 the burning fiery furnace you boys better be afraid there's a burning fiery furnace if you don't bend and bow and worship we're going to hurt you when we fear God we don't have to fear anything else isn't that a neat neat thing and so in verse 6 of that chapter who so falleth not down you come on down through there and then and verse where was it 11 I think that was one I like and who so falleth not down and worship that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace and threat threat threat threat so finally they throw them in and they wouldn't burn and there used to be a song they wouldn't bend they wouldn't bow and they wouldn't burn kids would sing that but the principle is if we have a reverence for God we don't have to worry what they're going to do to us first chronicle 16 20 22 touch not mine anointed give you six principles that I believe we should have in the church there's a lot of others to maintain a reverent spirit we're going to go through deals you count on we're going to go through problems are going to go through challenges we're going to go through things and all of us here said amen amen amen we've seen these things but these are some things I believe we need to watch to maintain a reverent spirit in our worship number one if somebody comes up and especially if you get into leadership you probably won't have too much problem with this one to you unless you do something but you you have something come against you don't defend yourself I've learned this in the hard way if you defend yourself and you become your defense attorney but give it over to your lawyer let him defend you Romans 12 19 says vengeance is mine I will replace that the Lord so if we try to take upon ourself say somebody comes up and whispers in somebody else's ear you know I think oh so-and-so I think I don't think they're smart enough to be teaching in our church well that's an accusation and so so-and-so finally he gets word of that song somebody else said I wasn't smart enough I'll show him at that point he is moved in the position of God instead of going God I know this is true why am I getting all upset you know well God I'll just commit this to you for this brother obviously he has a problem to even say it you and I both know it's not true it's true but to say it Lord I just pray for this brother and go back and see if you can help them many times that will stop everything but you know we'll go back to somebody else and the whole thing goes long Moses is trekking along doing his job every day gets up God I wish you'd get somebody else nope go to work every day so Miriam's complaining and what happens leprosy and it can even get worse than that because Gore complained and what he got the pit let God be your defense just remember that one here's another one when things come along be still I have a little thing somewhere if I haven't lost it that says when something stirs up in the church it says don't touch it they've said if you do you may stir up a whole tornadic active demonic activity stirring behind that don't touch it go to God and don't do anything until you prayed it through completely and God is giving you clarity on what you're supposed to do so be still psalms 46 10 be still psalms 4 4 that's why I went to that psalm psalms 4 4 I thought it was really neat psalms 4 4 where to go I lost it anyway that last verse there it is the last verse I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only make us be dwell safely be still I think there's something in there and be instilled to yeah for that's where it was communion on your bed and be still so be still there's a third principle which I'm gonna say you say why are you saying that I'm gonna just say it cuz we don't do it first and that is pray pray and everything by prayer everything that comes lumps of somebody stirs up something against somebody else or whatever start praying it works it works we even had it instance this week there's something that's trying to get stirred up and God stopped it just you know nothing big but it can become big just pray and here's another principle a fourth one and this one I think is important guard your heart the fear of God should help us to put a guard around our heart and and I wrote this out the site if you're doing something for God the devil will complain and use a loose tongue so just watch it guard your own heart Jude 8 says those that are around are going to despise Dominion they're gonna speak evil of dignities they just they don't like authority they've got a problem that they've got a problem with authority they're not gonna like authority and the root goes back to the fact that they don't have a fear of God so they'll take upon themselves to complain he says they speak evil in verse 10 16 he said they're murmurs and they're complainers and what to have men's persons in admiration the spirit of envy is one of the deadliest thing that a believer can go up against and brother Keith has shared some stories with us on this area but a fifth thing is make an appeal to those in authority if there's something you don't like just make an appeal don't go talking around everybody go make an appeal it may be that that pill appeal will help them to see where they are wrong and they'll be grateful but if you go to somebody else then that is showing no fear of God these are just some practical things and we get all kinds of problems stirred up in our fellowships because of no fear of God no fear of God and then say you make an appeal and they don't listen to you and you might go back again and they still don't and maybe it's serious enough nature where you just have to remove yourself but don't take it upon yourself to try to remove somebody in authority you're gonna you can cause a whole big bang big bang theory like God do it like God do it so many things that we think we are appointed to do I was with a brother one time and there was something going up and we were both preachers there was something going on up there in the pulpit and and somebody got up in there and just doing something he's back here next to me and he was just and I'm just watching him he was trying to control the situation back there because he sensed there's gonna be some problem then I watched the pastor he just sort of slowly got up and this guy next to me is afraid this girl's gonna take over in the meeting and the pastors moving in he's back here and at one point I thought he he's gonna get up and go up there but it wasn't his place it wasn't his place and it's so easy for us to get out of place I remember this was so sad a long time ago in my mom and dad's church that a young pastor and a young family just a young family but somebody in the church took it upon themselves and this stuff happens and it's bad but they took it upon themselves to get rid of them and here's how they did it they had a business meeting one Wednesday night and they went around and found all the dead wood laying around the country they could that were members of the church and slandered this pastor and so all these people all of a sudden showed up at the business meeting it was brought up to vote them out and they voted them out just like that but you wouldn't want to know what happened it's just not good so we need to let God do it and here's a sixth thing we have to guard our hearts we have to guard our hearts we need to make wise appeals but we need to be careful because of the fear of God we need to be careful around those that make accusations slander and whisper we need to be careful because we can be poisoned oh really and just like that the dark has entered into our heart but the fear of God would say oh father what is this and we need to get it taken care of be careful that we don't get poisoned with accusations and especially with leadership I guess an elder received not an accusation before two or three witnesses and elders get out of shape they make mistakes and they can make some bad ones and we have to deal with those things but we need to be careful because a lot of false accusations can go out now let me go to the second one the second one the second fruit the fear of God many times I believe we will not have the fear of God that we need until we have a fatal crash just looking back at the scriptures looking back over here in the Gospels what Jesus is saying to his disciples he's on his way to the cross to make the final move of God to set us free from our sins and Jesus has a simple request from his disciples he says in in in Matthew 6 20 633 he says sit you here while I go and pray yonder and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy then said he unto them I've got a request to make of you my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Terry here and watch with me watch with me and he went a little father and fell on his face and pray and then he comes back in verse 40 he said Peter what could you not watch with me one hour they're asleep and why did he pick on Peter well most prophets are usually getting into trouble anyway you know Peter he's the one that said that Jesus shouldn't go to the cross and he's the one that goes to sleep and when it came to the crucifixion he was the one that actually denied him but Jesus said watch with me could what could you not watch me one hour and 41 he says watch and pray that you enter not into temptation I believe having a fear of God will help our prayer life with temptations who was it that warned us about the roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour have you ever noticed that Peter in first Peter 5a when he's talking about the roaring lion be sober be diligent because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour because listen brethren I've got teeth marks in my hide the lion has bit me fear God more than the lion fear God more than but down in my country don't have lions we got alligators fear God more than that watch watch look what I found now don't tell Jana that I borrowed her alligator she might not like it but we have somebody else here from Louisiana today and I found one of those out bass fishing one time and I took Vicki out in the bass boat to see it it was night and there it was over there and that old eye was red in the spotlight you know what she said oh that's a nice-looking alligator over there no she said get me out of here and so we had to crank up dad's bass boat and get out of there but suppose you were a missionary out on the mission field and you were having to live where there were alligators would you be afraid well you don't want to go mess with them you want to give them some respect and a lot of room maybe 100 miles you know but there was a missionary there was a missionary family that were in a place where there were all kinds of creepy crawly things in the jungle and at night they could hear the alligators talking her alligators talk I've never go out there and check it out but this mother said she was afraid her daughter is in a hammock obviously they didn't have a house at this time and they're having to sleep in hammocks and they had a little girl and she was just scared to death that this alligator out there was going to come up and jump up and jump down on their little girl and not only that was the alligators but there were other things they had snakes and one day the little girl had to ride her bike two miles through the jungle back to the mission school and so one day she came back home and she said mommy there was a big snake across the path and I didn't know what to do so I just ran over and held my feet up you know what God did to that mother God spoke to her and she's and God said to this mother listen I took care of your little girl in the States before you ever came here and I can take care of her here too and when she realized that she had fear of these things and she was not reverencing God it cured her and she had no more fears from then on. Alligators are snakes and here's a statement that I made out of that story and I think that was a true story you keep your eyes on God and he will keep his eyes on your alligators. You just keep your eyes on God and worship him and fear him. He'll take care of the alligators. Right? And that's the principle. Now it'll produce a carefulness and a watching in our life and I picked on Peter because he's the one that really failed. 1st Peter 5.8 he says watch and pray and by the way back over in 1st Peter 4.7 Peter said this but the end of all let's see that wasn't it yeah it was but the end of all things is at hand be ye sober and watch unto prayer. He said listen I had a great failure in my life I had the extreme privilege of denying Christ at his trial. I could have stood up and said to that maid yes I am a Galilean yes I'm with him I love him he's the Messiah. You don't know what's in your heart until you have an alligator approach you in the form of something but if we would have a greater fear of God we would have lesser fear of these things. So you keep your eyes on God and he'll keep his eyes on your stuff your things. There's one more fruit I believe a fear of God will produce a reverence I believe a fear of God will produce a deeper carefulness a more you know if you do like Peter and we've all probably had our experiences wherever somewhere where we have failed God. I haven't shared this for a long time but I've had some failures but one of them just a hundred times I wish I could go back and do it again. I just wished I could go back and do it again but I couldn't and that's when I came back I was coming back from overseas I've been gone for a year and a half and and our plane was packed full of Italians out of Rome and and we were late getting to the airport and I had an uncle there to meet me and he asked me to stay over and I did not have enough respect and reverence of God at that time to recognize that all things come from above that God had orchestrated that delay for me to get there to where I only had five minutes with him if I would have had that fear of God and that recognition of him working and doing these things I would said sure but I said no I think I'll go on home and the reason God did that because if there was anybody that could have reached that uncle for Christ it was me and I failed God. I think we should be afraid to fail God we should be afraid to go against him we should be afraid to recognize his hand in the very details of our life instead we tend to like to complain I'm saying we I'm not going to be mean and nasty and say you but isn't that true we fail to recognize the sovereign power of God to control everything a fear of God would produce this fruit in our life with more reverence for him and more carefulness and there's a third area there's a third area that the fear of God produces and this is a very positive one it's a very beautiful one I'm going to close up so we're closing up on a good side on it but if we have the fear of God it produces something that is sort of rare today and that is this godly fellowship and godly conversation around Christ if we have a fear of God in our midst in our hearts it's going to produce godliness in our fellowship it will produce more patience with wild preachers you know they do show up but a fear of God will produce in our lives more patience for each other more understanding and a more deeper love and that's why I'm saying we've lost the fear of God in our churches we'd rather fight than switch we'd rather hot fight than humble ourselves we'd rather stand up for our rights than be trodden over and all of this we're not revealing Christ we're revealing self oh ugly self and what does the world need to see our ugly self? No! They need to see the beautiful Jesus who desires to live in our body. Self is to be crucified and so you have somebody like the Apostle Paul who had a great failure because he had no fear of God he was he was off track because he really I believe he was sincere he did love God but he really probably was not too sad at the fact that Paul was going up in the eyes of his peers that Paul was looking more and more zealous than everybody around killing Christians and he thought he was really doing God a favor but his heart was wrong or God wouldn't have had to nail him and so Jesus appeared to him and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. A fear of God will make us more careful in our fellowship. Now I want to go through these three things with you about this first of all Malachi back to Malachi again in chapter 3 godly fellowship conversation it's going to produce this and it's going to have these effects it's going to we're going to find that we have a precious precious time of communion in Malachi in chapter 4 and you know where I'm going now in verse 16 then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. What do you think God's writing in that book? Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened, he heard, he hears our sweet fellowship he hears that. We sometimes we wonder if he had to shut his ears up. I don't like that but he says he hears what's going on and he's writing in a book a book of remembrance a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. I wonder if the fear of God wouldn't promote us for propel us to be more God conscious in our conversation. You know there are some precious things and God says in 17 and they shall be mine said the Lord of hosts and that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man that spareth his own son that serveth him and they shall be mine. This is precious this is something that's very precious you know a couple years ago being in London and Scotland we saw the crown jewels of Scotland we saw the crown jewels of England and the main the big the latest crown was gone not in its place they had all these crowns probably several billions of dollars worth of jewels and gold diamonds I mean biggest diamonds in the world and stuff were given but the main crown was gone so we asked you know where is it oh they took it out to get it ready for the Queen she's gonna wear it. God values some things and he's making up a crown and he's putting in at these jewels and these jewels are those that fear him those that fear him there's there's the precious communion and then there's also the precious ointment of godly fellowship from Psalms 133. Psalms 133 the psalmist is crying out and it's a song of decrees of David and he says behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it's because we have no fear of God that we will not do everything we can to maintain unity in our heart in our home in our church. A fear of God should do that to dwell together in unity and then he gives a word picture it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments as the dew of Hermon and as a dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life forevermore I think fear of God will draw down the blessing of God in your heart in your home and in our churches. The devil's not going to like it because he doesn't like anything that God likes he doesn't like anything that God does for the good but that's alright we need to rejoice and we need to give thanks I just thought of something I just thought of something and and I hadn't even planned on this but I just thought since it popped my mind I'm going to read it to you because it's just possible that if we would happen to go into some rough days ahead you know it's just very likely that this might happen and it's just likely that as we become more and more unpopular in this country as being known as what is fundamental Christians we believe in the basic fundamentals of the Christian life that somebody may not like you and especially if you're going to speak up for Jesus and you're going to preach the word these three preachers that we know that I just talked with two of them yesterday and one of them is saying Pastor Don, Pastor Dan, we just submitted to you we need your counseling wisdom we are just listening and they're calling up and asking for counsel and everything I think that is good, not that they're calling me but it's good that they have a fear of God and they're making their decisions or they're wanting counsel and they're wanting direction from God and they want to make sure they're right but just in case that you would go through some trials and tribulations remember this Luke chapter 6 and 22 blessed are ye when men shall hate you when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets and so it's a precious thing to have fellowship with God but it's also going to be something that's not like precious fellowship precious communion precious unity and then this one other thing one other thing I am surprised that so many of our churches are willing to operate without this because Jesus put such a high priority on it and it's this in John 13 34 and 35 is the precious love that we would have one another because Jesus said a new commandment I given to you that you love one another new commandment I given to you that you love one another as I have loved you by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples fear of God would produce in us I believe a pure joyous communion and fellowship with one another and this communion is so precious and the unity is to be so precious and the love is to be so powerful that Jesus said by this shall all men know that you're my disciple if you have love one to another so the fear of God will produce this love I believe Jude 12 should have a covering on Jude sometime as all the false fruit in Jude 12 I was looking at that as Jude is covering this area and is in verse 12 I noticed these are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear clouds they are without water carried about of winds trees whose fruit wither it without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots we should be careful about the fruit Jesus warned his disciples by their fruits you shall know that by their fruits you shall know them close up with Acts chapter 9 I don't know why I got over here but after a little bit they had some peace for a while after they got this mad guy from Saul of Tarsus after God got him cool down and all the persecution stopped for a while and then verse 31 then had the church's rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied three blessings of the fear of God the church had their walking in the fear of God they had rest means they had peace that means literally in the Greek the absence of strife it's a state of untroubled undisturbed well-being their great enemy had been conquered by their Savior and then it says they were edified and then it says that they multiplied I'd like to go back to Isaiah again and just close up on this verse and just give all of us a challenge all of us a challenge in this in Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 18 at 13 sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread I need that I'm prone to fear I'm prone to be afraid of things and now I wouldn't say I'm afraid but isn't worry a fear isn't it a slander really if God is your God isn't bitterness a slander of God and a disrespect and a irreverence of him we've taken upon ourself to to get even with somebody by being bitter against him and the only thing that poison inside just hurts us you know and all these things we need this we need to fear God because I believe of what's coming you know the world in our world that we live in they're looking for a new election another election that's going to get us out of our troubles no we need a revival and awakening because our nation does not fear God our churches do not fear God and if anybody's gonna fear God it's gonna have to be Christians that really love God because that's where this whole thing that fear God goes perfect love cast out all fear cast out fear because fear has torment and it's not perfected in life so let's pray and Lord you do a work in our hearts if there's something there and you've been banging on us you've been rattling our cage you've been ringing our doorbell you've been calling our number may we not shuffle you off may we fall on our face may we get with you may we acknowledge our sin may we deal with that thank you that you love us enough not to let us go but you will not have us to be idolaters you will have us to love you with all our heart with all our soul with all our mind with all our strength with nothing to go out anyplace else to take our affection to take our attention to take our desire God we need this I need this and I just asked that your word would accomplish that would you please now Oh God thank you for speaking to us on this subject to fear God thank you that you love us you've never failed us why in the world do we think that you might fail us in the future Lord I ask you to do such a deep work in our hearts there'd be nothing that comes out of our life but praise and worship and adoration to you no matter what kind of threat comes our way we will fear you we will reverence you we will stand in awe of thy word and may the testimony of our life be such a powerful example to those that you give us opportunity opportunity to that they will come and they say what is it that you have and we'll say I have fear I fear God as Joseph said to his brothers I fear God may that be our testimony in Jesus name