In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching the fear of the Lord to the younger generation. He explains that the fear of the Lord is a response to God's love and should be demonstrated through obedience. The speaker also highlights the need to love and serve the Lord in every aspect of life. Throughout the sermon, the speaker references the book of Deuteronomy, where God instructs the Israelites to teach their children about Him and to live for Him. The sermon concludes with the speaker encouraging young men to share what God has taught them and to honor their parents.

Father, we ask you to bless the reading of your word, and we ask that you would have mercy upon us as we meet this morning, that we would hear what you have to say to us as a body and also as individuals. Lord, I pray that you would fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit, anoint our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our tongues to speak. You are to be reverenced, you are to be loved, you are to be honored. And Father, we confess that many times we have not done these things, even this week, and we ask you to have mercy upon us. Cleanse us by the blood of the Lamb, rebuke the enemy away from us and meet with us. May we know, Father, that when we have left here today, that God has blessed us, that you have blessed us with your presence. Bless your word now, in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I don't have a lot of word pictures. As a matter of fact, I don't have one. I don't have a lot of stories and illustrations. If I have one, God will just have to give it to me as I go along. But the subject is fathers and their responsibility. This will be the second in the series on the fear of God, its rule in our lives. And I was asking the Lord what He wanted us to do. And I thought He was going to have me share on something else, but I decided I better take some time and be quiet before the Lord. Back earlier in the week, I don't remember what day it was. I think it was Wednesday. And I was just there, and the Lord just brought into my mind Deuteronomy 6. I said, Deuteronomy 6. And as I meditated upon it and I listened, I saw what He was trying to say to us. And so I'm going to try to share this. I'm not adequate. There was one of the speakers at the conference that we were at last week, Mr. Sibley. He had two messages for us there for the church. And he said he didn't want to give either one of them. But he did, and they were powerful messages about our condition and what we need to do. And I sort of feel like that. I want to give the message, but I'm not adequate to give it. So you pray that God can open up our eyes. On the subject of fathers, some of us may have fathers still alive and some may not. I'm grateful that my father is still alive. And I was just thinking as I was praying earlier some of the things that I'm just really sorry that I did as a kid. And a lot of them I had to pay for it. But just come out of not honoring my father and doing what he wanted to do. And my father and I, the best times that we had were when we went fishing. And that was our time together. We might drive 45 minutes and not speak a half dozen words the whole time there and about that many on the way home. Except if we had a good fishing trip, we might talk a little bit more. We just didn't talk. We didn't talk much, but it was time together. And there were some good times. I remember the time that Dad swung my end of the boat around into a wasp nest or yellow jackets or something. And they got me four times before I got in the water. And Dad thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. He was laughing. And I'm standing in water about up to here. And so we had some memories. The time we was in a storm, my cousin and I, we thought it was a great storm. It was really a lot of fun. And Dad was holding our boat behind and had the boat in front and running the boat motor and trying to get back so we didn't die out in this lake. And the waves were big and trees were falling over, old dead trees. And he was my father trying to save us. And my cousin and I thought, this is great. This is exciting. So as kids, we didn't always have the right perspective on things. So I'm trusting that God will give us something today on a right perspective towards our Heavenly Father. And to be a father is an awesome responsibility, a fearful responsibility. And most of the times when we go into marriage and we get married, we're not really thinking ahead that we may be a father. Then all of a sudden one day you've got a bunch of them to be a father of. And then all of a sudden you're realizing you've got some responsibility. And so Deuteronomy 6 has given us some tremendous insight about being fathers. Now, I want to get on into this. I might go a little fast so you might want to take notes. I didn't bring any paper for you to take notes on. But there will be verses you might want to jot down. On the fear of God, I started a couple months ago or so studying on this from a book by John Bunyan. And he said this in regards to Psalms 3411. Come, you children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come, you children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. There's a lot in the Bible on this subject. I never realized how much there was. And I went back and I looked at verse 4 of Psalms 34 and come on down. And David said, I sought the Lord, and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. The fear of the Lord has to do with us being delivered from all our other fears. In other words, if we fear God, we've got nothing else to fear. But we need to understand fear in God. Because it's not like it might sound. Because the Bible says if we perfect love, cast out all fear. But yet he talks about his fear in God. So this is what we want to continue studying. And he said, they looked unto him, and verse 5 of Psalms 34, and were lighted, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him. This is an important subject. It's really an important subject. And it has all to do about obeying God and loving God. Matter of fact, it might surprise you that that's what the book of Deuteronomy is about. Fearing God and loving God. And being loved by God. And I'm going to say some things about that in a minute. Bunyan said this, that is when he said, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. It comes on down in verse 11. He says, come you children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. David learned something. And he said, I want you to understand the fear of the Lord. Bunyan said, that is, I will teach you the fear, I will teach you the commandments, the statutes, the judgments of the Lord. I never realized until I studied on this this week that the fear of God has a lot to do with the Word of God. Matter of fact, when God speaks, it's His Word. At His words, the Bible talks about many times people trembling at His Word. And so it has to do with trembling. Deuteronomy 6.20, And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, say, And what mean the testimonies, the statutes, the judgments, which the Lord our God commanded you? Then he's going to go in to explain, to bring some things into your life. Proverbs is such a wonderful book. I just want to read a few verses. I'm giving you, this is all introduction. One, one, two, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding. And it goes all down through these things. A wise man will hear in verse five, six, to understand a proverb. And then seven, he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom. I can't go back and review what I did two weeks ago, but I started off about the Lord Jesus. How the fear of God, the fear of the Lord would make him of quick understanding. And that just intrigued me. And when I got in there to see what that really meant. That it would be of such a nature that He wanted to live His life in such a way that everything He did pleased His Father. And the fear of the Lord was that He would not honor God every step of the way. And when He come to the cross and He looked into that cup that He was going to bear in the garden of Gethsemane. He was trembling because He was going to go through something that no one had ever done before and no one ever will before. And He wanted to honor the Father. Because at any point He would have said, no, it would have been all over. And we would have died in our sins, we would have had no substitute. He would have gone back to the presence of the Father to be the great three in one as they had been for all eternity past. But His great love for us and for the Father carried Him on through. So among the many things the Father is to do, He is to provide, protect and all these other things. But He is to instruct. It's one of the most important things is we are to give instruction to our children. And the fearful thing about that is what we say is blah, blah, blah, blah. But what we do is, whoa, is what's going to come out. And that's the fearful thing to us is what we do, how we live. Instruction used 30 times and it's used many times as a word for chasing, chastisement and different things. Now the basic challenge from Deuteronomy, and that's going to be our basic book that we're in, is these two things as I said, to fear and to love. Look at 6.2, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God. And then look at 13, there's three times fear is mentioned. That thou shalt fear the Lord thy God. And then 24, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord. And then to love the Lord, in verse 5, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart. And back over in 5.10, showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. So love is all through there. Over in chapter 7, a lot of times I'm going to flip back over to 5 and 7 just to sort of stay in the neighborhood. And sometimes I'll get a little bit farther away. But like in chapter 7, in verse 7, For thou art a holy nation, for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. Above all people are they upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number. And then in 8 he said, because the Lord loved you. And one of the things about love, I've got an evangelist friend, he goes into Detroit now, witnessing to Muslims. And he's got a powerful way of doing it. He just loves them. Because that's one thing they don't have in their lives. They don't have that in their teaching. It's just not there. It's hate. A lot of that is just... And so he loves them. He said they don't know how to handle that. But that's what brings them to Christ. But if you love someone, what you like is you like someone to love you back. Now God loves you. And he likes to be loved back. So this book is about fearing God and loving God and that goes together. Now let me give you a little rundown on the background. This book is a review of their desert experience. God brought them out, brought them up. In two years he brought them up to the promised land and said, now go in. And this is a new generation. And they wouldn't go in. The old generation wouldn't go in. So they had to wander around in the desert for 38 years. So they all died off. And so now he's bringing them back. And he's going to teach them a few things before they go in. And the theme is he's going to teach them about loving and obeying God. J. Vernon McGee said, Obedience is man's response to God's love. And that's just what Jesus said. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And so it's not the saying it, it's the doing it. How we love God. So Deuteronomy is the product of Moses now walking these 40 years with the children of Israel in the desert. And he's had 40 years back in the first part of his life in the palace. Then he got 40 years in the desert with God, learning to know God in the desert. Now his last 40 years he's been wandering around with these people that wouldn't believe. And now he's got his final words he's going to say. Final words are usually pretty important. And so this is important. And now this new generation, since the old couldn't enter in, they broke God's law. They failed to believe God. They failed to fear God. They failed, just failed, failed, failed. The new now needed some things pointed out to them. And he's going to give them a lot of good instruction. And it won't be bad for us to follow it either. One of the things I was just looking, just to give you an idea how practical it is, in chapter 20 he gives instructions on how to go to war. And if you look at the details of that, there's spiritual warfare principles that the Apostle Paul taught. Where'd he get them? He got them out of the Old Testament and a lot of them in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 20 has some powerful spiritual warfare principles. How to go to battle. But fear is used over, I think, around 30 times in this book, in Deuteronomy. And so we're going to look at this. Final instructions. Before they enter into the promised land. Deuteronomy 6.10 And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which he swearing to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not. He's going to instruct them on how to do that. Now I want to bring you on in to this book. This chapter. With these five questions. Why? God has given the fathers the responsibility to teach. In verse 7, Deuteronomy 6.7 And thou shalt teach. He's given them the responsibility to teach them about God, to teach them the Word. And so I ask this question, why? In verse 1. There are several that's. In verse 1. That ye might do them. They're to teach. Look in verse 6. Now these are the commandments, or verse 1. The statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land with you go to possess it. So he said, I'm giving you these things, fathers, that you can do them, so that your doing can teach your children. And not only the doing, but also the teaching of the Word. So in 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently. Diligently. So that's why. They're to do that. How are they to do that? Is taught in this book. Look at verse 5. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. The how they were to teach and the how they were to love God is all thine heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might. They were not to be half-hearted, half-way Christians, so to say. They were to follow God with all their heart. So that was how they were to do it. And it just goes on down through verse 9. On how they were to do that. And then what? God wanted them, as fathers, to teach their children to fear God. Actually, He wanted them to fear Him in verse 2. In verse 3 and 4, He wanted them to hear. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe, and do it. And that word, that, is planted all down through there. In verse 6, that you might do them. In verse 2, that thou mightest fear. In verse 2 also, that thy days may be prolonged. And we'll come back and talk about that. And then He says, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it. That it may be well with thee. And that you may increase mightily. So I think this is a pretty important book. And that's the why and the how and the what. The fear to hear, to love, to meditate. In verse 6, these words which I command thee this day. That's the what and the when. Verse 7, Thou shalt teach them. When are you supposed to do it? Well, you're only supposed to do it. Here's what He said. Teach them to thy children. Shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house. You only have to do it when you sit in your house. Also though, when thou walkest by the way. And also when thou liest down. And also when thou risest up. And it just covers every minute of the day. They were to teach. And so that was when. But there was one more thing that they were supposed to get across. And that was the who. And that was the Lord. They were to teach them about God. Their whole life was designed to be given to God. Their whole life was to be given to living for God. Loving God. And being an example to the other nations of God in their life. God in their camp. And God glorified in everything they did. And 22 times in this chapter in verse 6. You will find the word the Lord out of 25 verses. And this doesn't include other verses referring to God. And so the who is what it's all about. It's about the Lord. So the first thing is they are to fear. And they are to love the Lord. And then also they are to serve. We'll point that out. Matter of fact in 10.12. All back and forth through Deuteronomy. These things all tie together. In 10.12, chapter 10 and verse 12. And now Israel. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul? 13. To keep the commandments of the Lord and the statutes which I command thee. Now, let's get into some things here. I asked myself a question. That's a good way to learn. Is ask questions. I had a teacher in our church. Oh, I don't know. Back in 1977 I guess it was or so when he came in. And we had four of our families. Four of the couples in the church. They had gone to Bible colleges. And he was just like an 8th grade education guy. And he kept everything all stirred up. We'd be there and he would come along with a question that would blow all our Bible learning apart. And God would get us to see. Oh, wow. We were just learning some things of man. But ask a question. It's a good way to learn. Why was it so important that the fathers taught just this area of the fear of the Lord? Why was, and we won't go into the love area, why was it so important that these fathers taught the fear of the Lord? And I'm going to share with you about five reasons. Now, I've got something for you young men to do. When we're done, I'm going to try to not go too long. I won't have a lot of illustrations and things. But I want you to do what I usually do for the last part, is come tie things together with lessons. I think I had seven lessons on the first one. I want you to get some lessons. A lesson is a principle that you can apply to life. It's something. I've got a lot of them. Every now and then I'll remember one. You know, one of the principles I learned from an evangelist that died when he was 39 years old, and the prime of his ministry and the prime of his life, he was our school evangelist when I was in Bible college, but I'll never forget this. He said, and I've used this many times, if opportunity arises to serve Jesus, do it. Do it. And I've done a lot of things and got into a lot of different areas and got a lot of blessings by just remembering that I get an opportunity, and that is a scriptural opportunity. I think it counts. One verse you can back it up with is Galatians 6.10. As ye therefore have what? You have an opportunity to be a blessing to the brethren. Do it. That's not a translation. It's not anything close to it, but that's the idea in that verse, and I just thought of it. Now here, I'm going to go through this, and I want you young men, I'm going to open up afterwards, give you a limit of five minutes to preach, but I want you to draw out at least seven principles as I go through here, and maybe you already got one or two, that God has spoke to you about that you want to share with us. Alright? I'm going to have five reasons that they are to teach the fear of the Lord. Now, the first one, and I believe this is important because it's backed up by another passage of Scripture, is that so that they would walk humbly with God. So that they would walk humbly with God. And so that they would walk humbly with God, God designed it for them to live humbly. You know what it's like to live humbly? To live low? To live needy? We're not always happy with that. Sometimes we'd like to live a little bit higher than God has us. But Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3 was the principle of them being humble. He said in verse 2 also, He said, And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger. God wasn't out of food the day they ran out of food. It was a test. And you're in a test right now probably. Aren't you? There's probably not one of us here that aren't being stretched about something. And once you get done with that one, God's got another one. But he's teaching us things, and many times he lets us go through humbling situations. It's humbling. And so he said, Humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger. And what happened? And fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. And so he's going to teach them the fear of the Lord so that they would learn to walk humbly with God. And I'm going to just say a couple or three things about humbleness here and in this passage in relation to this. It is to have a contrite spirit. You know, they could have been a little bit cocky after coming out of Israel, and they're all scared, huddled up at the bank, and then the water opens up, and then they go across to the other side, and then they see what God does to Pharaoh's armies, and then all of a sudden they go from this cowardness and this fearfulness and everything, and crossing through, and then they see what happens to the army. And then they could have puffed up their chest. There, that'll serve you right for trying to pick on us. You know? God could give you a great victory, and then you could all of a sudden think that you had something to do with it. And so He said, No, God is allowing you to go through the trial you're going through to humble you, and one aspect of that is to be contrite. Do you know what it's like to be contrite? I was going to bring a word picture in here, but I forgot about it. I was going to bring in a handful of dirt. That is a word picture of contrite. Matter of fact, if I got my Hebrew right when I looked that up, it's the word for dust. You can't get any lower than dirt. And not only that, if you think you're really something, God says that's what you are. It's dirt. Dust. So what do you got to be proud about? And God put you together. And so Abraham, the friend of God, he says, Which am but dust. That's why God could be his friend. Because he recognized he was nothing but dirt in himself. So that's what contrite is. Poor. Lowly. Also it's used for afflicted. And we tremble at God's word. Isaiah has some amazing things to say about walking with God. And you know this passage in Isaiah 57, 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabited eternity. And God is wanting these fathers to teach their children this. When they come into the land, they are to walk humbly with God. Whose name is Holy. He said, My name is Holy. I dwell in the High and the Holy Place. With Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble. And to revive the heart of the contrite ones. It's important. That we teach and that we live in this area. I saw a verse over here in Isaiah 66. Listen to this verse. Verse 1 and 2. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made. And all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look. Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit. And trembleth at my word. One of the things that they were supposed to teach. Was that to fear God was to tremble at His word. When God spoke from the mountain, they trembled. And God is expecting some respect. And when we respect Him. And love Him. And honor Him. And I'm going to talk about some of these things. He likes that. He deserves that. He's God. But He wants us to be contrite. And this was about Jesus who humbled Himself. When God takes you to a cross and you refuse to humble yourself at that cross. That is the exhibition of pride. But Jesus when He came to the cross. What we're to do at the cross is to humble ourselves. And of course if we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. He will what? Lift us up. But if we lift ourselves up. He's going to what? Help us get back down. Because God designed His people to live low. The devil designed His people to live high. And this is how you can distinguish the two. And there's not much that works in between either way to be any good. The hypocrite living in pride. When he tries to give the appearance of living low. It just doesn't come out too good. Everybody can see it. But yet on the other hand. When we as the children of God. Are designed to live low. And try to live a little bit higher than we're supposed to. It shows too. So it pays to live low. Because we get to experience the presence of the Lord. King Josiah is a great example. And this is in 2 Chronicles 34. I probably won't go into this very much. But it's a great example of what you're to do. When all of a sudden God gives you light. And revelation. And Israel had got into their normal thing. Got in bad shape with God. It back slid and forgot His commandments. As a matter of fact things had got so bad. They lost the law. And so they're coming back around. They've got some money. They're going back into the temple. They're cleaning things back up. And while they're doing this. Hilkiah the priest found a book. Of the law. 2 Chronicles 34 verse 14. Of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe. I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. The scribes had even lost it. They were in bad shape. And they talked about this book. And so finally when they bring it around. And they read it to the king. What does he do? He humbles himself. Josiah humbles himself. And God comes along in 27. He said because thine heart was tender. And thou didst humble thyself before God. When thou heardest His words against this place. And against the inhabitants thereof. And humbled thyself before Me. And didst rend thy clothes. And weep before Me. I have even heard thee also said the Lord. And he says he would gather him up in peace. God appreciates it when we humble ourselves. So as to be contrite. Here's something else though. And we don't like this one. About being humble. To recognize that we're dust. To be contrite. But also it means to be dependent upon God. And this is just exactly what Deuteronomy 8.3 was when I read that. God was humbling them. So they would be dependent upon Him. He was doing that. And look at Deuteronomy 8.16 also. Let me encourage you. If God is taking you through a low spot. I mean lower than the lowest. Normal low. We're to live low. But sometimes God just seems to pluck a hole out in our life. And lets us drop down a little bit lower. And we get to look up at the bottom. He said, I'm doing that so I can do you some good. We don't always enjoy the process. But we do enjoy the product. And you know one of the best things that God can do for us. Is to knock all our props out. So all we got is God. We're in the prop making business many times. This is why we got a lot of churches. They got prop making services. And prop making programs. They're going to try to prop up our own mess that we got. We don't want to look like that we are failing. So lets try to get some people in here. So we look like we got a church. So to go out there and get the world. And bring them on in. But someday God. I mean He usually just leaves. But if we'll hear Him. He's going to come in. He's going to knock out our props. So we get back down. And sometimes He lets us go through a little extra process. Now is to make you dependent upon God. Make you dependent upon God. And this is where He comes back in chapter 6. And you come down through there 6 through 9. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them. And He goes down through all these things. He said I want you to teach your children to depend on me. And not themselves. And that's just something the heart of man doesn't like. You know we've got a bunch of girls running around our house. More than the normal amount. And my daughter did something the other day. That just really surprised me. And this is something that Joy had put together. To get some girls to come and pray and seek the Lord. But she come into the room. And she asked counsel. About something they were going to do. And I thought wow. I just thought you girls were doing all the things you were going to do. But when she come in and did that. I thought that is really wise. They've got their plans. So she's sharing with me what her ideas were. And then they're going to go off. But that was very wise to do that. Because they were covered. And what happens when we move out from under God's authority. We become dependent upon ourselves. When we become dependent upon ourselves. We become independent of God. And God has designed us to live under authority. God designed the woman. The young girl to always be under authority. When Eve listened to the snake. She moved out from under the authority of her husband. Out from under the authority of God. And got us all into trouble. And Adam even got sucked into the deal. And so we're in trouble because of the authority issue. It is to make you dependent upon God. And I thought that was very wise thing to do. To just check. Because there may be something that God would say. Hey. They're going to do this and this. But I think you ought to give a little direction on doing maybe something this or that or whatever. And they had my blessing. I thought it was great what they were going to do. But I thought it was a very wise thing to ask counsel. You girls should always live under the authority of your father. Or your husband. Or if you don't have a husband. You have to work under some kind of authority. Have some authority to work under. Now a widow has to work right directly under God. She's in that position. But it's just the principle of being dependent upon God. There's one other thing here. About humbleness. To be contrite. To be dependent. But He's teaching them these things so that they would be wise. Look at Deuteronomy 4. Look at Deuteronomy 4. And look at verse 6. And I've got words highlighted. I've got hear and love and fear. Deuteronomy 4. And verse 6. Keep therefore and do them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding. And the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great? Who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God in all things that we call upon Him? To stay low and to stay humble is a very wise thing to do. It's a very wise thing. But it goes against the flesh. There was a very famous singer over in Sweden years ago called Ginny Lin. And in the height of her career as a singer, they said she sang like a nightingale. I think it was. In the very height of her career, everybody just loved to hear her sing. Crowds would come. She just stopped and quit singing and went back. I think she went back home. Now why did she do that? Anybody here know? Rory knows. Rory knows everything. No. But he's from that part of the world. But here's why she did it. One day, she's reading her Bible, and the sun is just setting, and somebody asked her, Ginny, why did you do that? In the height of your career. Money and fame. And she said, she held up her Bible, because of this. Because I was losing touch with this. With the Word of God. And then also because of that. Because the sun set. I was losing touch with God. And so she dropped it. Is there something that God is telling you to drop? If He tells you to drop it, it's probably best to drop it. So they would walk humbly with God. There's something else too in this passage that I see that these fathers were to teach. God the Father is teaching the fathers. And He said, pass it on. And the next thing was to honor God. Honor God. Deuteronomy chapter 6. They were to honor God. Deuteronomy 6.2 That thou mayest fear the Lord thy God to keep all His statutes, His commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged. Notice that word prolonged. That thy days may be prolonged. In verse 24. To fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive. Israel's in pretty bad shape, because they've failed to follow God's Word. But how do we honor God? Let's do this a little bit. And also, to me, it's the word for glorifying. Sometimes, I can't say if it was all the time, but I know sometimes it was the word for glorifying. There's two ways that they were to teach their children to honor God. If you go right across the page, back over to chapter 5 and verse 16, Honor thy father and thy mother. If they would honor their father and their mother, they would honor God. As the Lord thy God had commanded thee. And as I said when I started out, I realized when I would not obey my dad, it was not honoring to him. But by honoring parents, they honored God. We know a lot about this. We know these things. I'm going to just share a little story with you about how it feels now that I'm older. I can feel a little bit better how my father felt. I'll just focus on my father. But how my father might have felt when I would not obey him. And maybe even if I would do something that would bring him shame. There was a father in Scotland. A very distinguished father. Fairly well known. Very distinguished. He walked around straight with his head erect. And he had a son that was in business. And his son was also a very refined son. But he got caught for embezzling funds. And he's in court. He's going through the trial. And he's sort of standing there like it doesn't matter that much that he is fixing to get sentenced. And the judge is just fixing to pass sentence. And he's just sort of arrogant in his spirit about this like he just doesn't really care. But all of a sudden out of the corner of his eye he looked over and his father was standing. And the judge had just had him stand up and he realized that when he stood up his father stood up. And the judge is just fixing to pronounce sentence on him and he looks over there and his father now is all bent in shame and humbleness and brokenness and weeping. And it wasn't until he saw that what he had done had also affected his father that it hit him and it broke him. We're connected. As children we're connected to our parents and our children are connected to us. And as a body we're connected. And so God is saying live honorably. There's something else He taught them. I'll go on. Honor the Lord with thy substance. He was teaching them to live and He was teaching them to live right. And so Deuteronomy 12, 6. Go over there. I'm going to just pick out a couple of verses maybe. We can go a lot of places on this. This is very important. This is a very, very, very important principle that they were to fear God. They were to be afraid. To disobey His Word. Not to bring in the substance. Do you know what happens if we fail? If things begin to get tight for me financially or whatever, one of the first things I'll do, well, we better go back and make sure we've been given to God the way we should. Make sure that's not the cause. And if that's okay, then there may be something else going on. But we're taught in the Word that the tithe is God's. So if we don't give that to Him, then we become a thief. And then the offerings are beyond that. Deuteronomy 12, in verse 6, God had given them instructions. There are a lot of instructions in this area. In 12.6, And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the first things of your herds, and your flocks. And so He gave them direction on that. In verse 11 also, Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. Thither shall you bring all that I command you, if you burn offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye bow unto the Lord. So this was actually the giving of their tithes and their offerings was a part of their love relationship to God. They were loving God when they gave. Who you love much, you're willing to give much to. This is why when Mary is at the feet of Jesus, weeping, the alabaster box is broken, the precious ointment is poured out on His feet, her hair, a woman's hair is precious to her. It's her glory. But she recognized by the Spirit of God that Jesus was giving her everything He had, and so she was willing to give the best she had back. And really, a stinginess in this area is really showing a tightness in our love relationship with God. And it brings problems in our lives. Other verses are all over the place on this. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty. Who said that? Was he just talking? And of course Malachi has a lot of good instruction. I was looking over at that. We're just like if we do not live in the Spirit and follow the Spirit of God in our lives, and we do not honor the Lord. Maybe I won't go into Malachi. We know all those things and I didn't mark it. But those principles there are very powerful. Malachi 1, he starts right off about being honored. And he's not getting the burden, the honor that he needs. He said in 6. A son honoreth his father as servant and as master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? If God is your father, do you honor Him like a father? Where is my honor? If I be a master, where is my fear? said the Lord of hosts unto you. O priest that despise my name, and you say, wherein have we despised thy name? And he says, you offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that you say, the table of the Lord is condemnable. And he goes into all this thing. He said, you offered a blind for a sacrifice? He said, that's evil. Is it not evil? And you offer the lame and the sick? Is it not evil? He said, would you go to your governor and give these things? We sing that song. Give of your best to the master. So they were to teach their children to honor God. By honoring their parents and also with their tithes and their offerings. And there's a lot of things. You go over to chapter 3, that famous passage there, 3, 9, and 10 about bringing all the tithes into the storehouse in verse 10. But if you look in Malachi 3, in verse 8, God says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. Then they say, God, where have we robbed you? How have we robbed you? And this is how he comes back. And he says, wherein have we robbed thee? And he says, in tithes and offerings. And he said, because of that, you curse yourself. You bring curses upon yourself. The tithe is the Lord. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, in verse 10, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now, here where it is said, the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Would you like the blessing of God? Whether therefore, there's another thing in honoring God. I'm going to share one more. By honoring parents, by tithes and offerings, but also by living for God's glory. This is what he was teaching in verse 6. In verse 5, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, Deuteronomy 6, 5, and with all thy soul, with all thy might. This is what Paul was talking about, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. All thine heart, all thy soul, and with all thy might. That doesn't leave much room for anything else. So, they were to teach the fear of the Lord in this area of honoring God. And there's a third thing, a third reason the fathers were to teach the fear of God. And this one is just so packed into this book. It's just all over the place. And that was for their health and well-being. It's just good for you. It's just good for you. Look at 5.16. That it may go well with thee in the land where the Lord thy God giveth thee. Look at 5.2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us. Not 5.2, was it? No, 5.29. Oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children forever. We cut our own throat. Look at verse 33. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God had commanded you, that you may live, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land to go to possess it. And so in 6.2, it's the same thing, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all His statutes, His commandments to which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy sons' sons all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged. In verse 3, he says it again that it may be well with thee. And just go down to 18, he says it again. And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land. So, for this reason many are weak and sickly among you, Paul said to the Corinthians, because they were taken communion with known rebellion in their life. God means what He says. There's a fourth thing, a fourth reason, and I think this was covered pretty good last week, so they would be holy. 615, For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from the face of the earth. He said, You better be holy. You're to be holy. Look at 7.6, For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee. And so they're to be a holy people. And you can just, you can go. There's a lot of places in here. I think 14.21 was another one. I just picked out one here and there. He said, For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. He keeps reminding them. How often does the Spirit of God come and check us in our conscience or whatever, and He's trying to tell us you are a holy person. And this is an unholy thing. And so He said, Stop it. And we say, Oh Lord, You're right. I pray for Your grace. I thank You for the blood of Christ. Oh God, I'm sorry. So for their health and well-being, because they were a holy people. You know, 1 Peter 2 brought out something I thought was really interesting in this area about being a holy people. I was looking at that and I said, Wow. 1 Peter 2 and verse 4 and some verses in there. It's just 2, 4. To whom it's coming unto as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. That's the word for value. Jesus is of value. In verse 6, Wherefore also, as it's contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone. Elect precious he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. He's precious in 119, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. What God went through to make us a holy people was He shed the precious blood of His own Son. And when I sin, I mock the sacrifice of God's own Son. And it grieves me. And not only that, He says that we are a peculiar treasure. We are a peculiar treasure. The precious thing. And 7, Unto you therefore which believe He is precious. That means He's a peculiar treasure. A very special treasure. How can Christ be claimed by so many people? They're Christians, but yet their life does not reflect that they are a holy person. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of the heart the life lives. There's one other one that I'm going to close down. It's so that they would be blessed. And I just threw this one in. It's just an extra one so that they would be blessed. In Deuteronomy 7, He said, Teach the fear of God so I can bless Him. Deuteronomy 7, and look at verse 13. And He will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee. And He also will bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land and thy corn and thy wine and thine oil and the increase of thine kind and the flocks of thy sheep in the land which He swears unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people. I think you ought to get out and bless your garden. Maybe you ought to bless your car. For sure we should bless our children. We should bless each other. Give a blessing. Maybe if you bless your garden you won't have so many weeds. Maybe you'll have something grow. You know, ask God's blessing. If you cannot ask God's blessing on it, then don't do it. You know, what we ask God's blessing and what He blesses has His blessing on it. Well, it's for our good always that we do these things. I'm going to close up with this one little simple story and then maybe Jeff will bring us a song or two. And then I want you young men, as God has spoke to you, to come up and give us the lessons. You say, what do you mean like a lesson? Well, let me give you a couple of them. I just jotted them down on purpose. I didn't go through and give seven lessons. But like one. When you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. Have you ever read 1 John 4, 18? Have you ever read that? I'm sure you have, but just listen to this. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. The whole idea was that they would fear God and love God. And He would just pour Himself out upon them. The more they loved Him, the more they got love back. Here's another lesson I wrote out. You'll never fear God until you're humble. On the humble point. And when you're humble, you'll fear God. You'll never fear God until you're humble. And when you're humble, you'll fear God. Don't you fear to live dishonorably of Him? Some of the speakers at this conference, I picked this up when they were saying this, because I live like this. God, there's such a wretched being who lives inside my heart. And they would mention this, a couple of them especially. But it just drives me to seek God and pursue Him all the time. I dare not. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and it's never more wicked and desperately wicked than when it's fooling itself. And trying to. I'm going to close up with this little thing. And this, I want you to understand, I believe, is what God is looking down at us. There was a man for 18 years. He wandered around as a bum. He wandered around from here and there, and one day, he tapped a man on the shoulder. And he said, Mr., can I have a dine? And the man turned around, and he tapped his shoulder and looked at him. And he said, My son, I've been looking for you for 18 years to give you all that I have. And they had a reunion. And this is what God is doing. He's looking for you. You don't need more money. All you need is God. He that has the Son has life. You know what eternal life is? I did a little study. It's the same word for everlasting life also. It means without end. And also, it means without a beginning. How can you have no... It's if you have Jesus, you have eternal life. And He's never had a beginning or an ending. He that has the Son has life. If you have Christ, you ought to be a tariff to behold when you go out somewhere. Because you should be Christ. I should be Christ when people... I passed a lot of tracks out up there, and there was a couple with us. They were sort of amazed at me. Because everywhere I went, I kept saying, wherever you go, leave your tracks. And I was sharing Christ with different ones. Because it's just the way we should live. You can't give what you don't have. But if you have Jesus, He's meant to be shared. And God didn't just save us so we could sit in this nice little building and come once a week and sing some songs and have a good time and eat some good food. No, we come in to be encouraged in the Word and to go back out. God has somebody He's going to bring in your life this week that needs Jesus. Doesn't it cause you to tremble that you could fail? I have failed God many times. And this is what it is to fear the Lord. To fear to fail Him. To fear to not please Him. To fear to dishonor Him. This is the fear of the Lord. It's not something we're afraid of God. No, we love Him so much we tremble that we would dishonor Him. That we would not live in a way that would please Him. Let's pray. Lord, You know, I told you I couldn't deliver this. And I just have to trust that You would take the Word and bless the Word. That we would forget the poor messengers that You use. And that we would realize that You have spoke to us through the Word. In this passage, which is the most important passage to the Hebrew people, has such powerful stuff in it. May we not fail as fathers to teach our children. And it's a fearful thing. A thing that causes us to tremble. To recognize that we teach how we live more than by what we say. I pray that You'd bless Your Word. And that we would know that God, that You love us. And You want us to tremble in Your mighty presence. And You're so holy. And You're so awesome and such a powerful being that You have to humble Yourself to look at the stars. And even the things on this earth, You have to humble Yourself. What kind of God are You? But You're such a God that You want us. And You've come to live inside of us. What an amazing thing. Lord, thank You. We're so unworthy. I am so unworthy of You. In Jesus' name, we thank You for all You've given us in Christ. And Lord, also, I just want to throw this in. If there's someone here that's been struggling with assurance, been struggling with who they are, been struggling, Father, meet them right there and tell them all they have to do is just let go and believe You. Because that's how You save us. When we repent of ourself and we just believe You, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Thou shalt be saved. You made it so simple. The devil tries to get in there and complicate it. May they believe that You died on the cross for them. If you're speaking to someone, Father, may they surrender. Because I know that before we believe, there's struggle. And give their heart to You. Give their life to You. Father, work in their hearts if there be someone. Assure them that You love them. Thank You in Jesus' name, Amen. What did God teach you? You young men, now we're in a training school. It would be best to volunteer. What did God give you? A principle that He spoke to you. I said that to you at the first and didn't tell you right at the last so you had time to prepare. Who wants to share first? If you get to preaching, we'll give you a limit of five minutes. This is going to be fun. You get to call on me. We have William here from Wisconsin. William, you're free to share. Let's see. Okay. Let's see. Josh, you're still a young man. David. Okay, I'm going to move in for volunteer. Who has something God gave you as a principle? Okay. William, why don't you come on up here. William is from Wausau area in Wisconsin. Been down here. Not down here Friday evening. What did God give you? Well, the Lord reminded me of a few things. Beginning with back to the day that He saved me. That the Holy Spirit made real to me the terror of the Lord. The terror of hell, of eternal judgment. It gripped my heart. It was made real by the Spirit of God. Before that, I'd always tried to push it away and push it back. In the background, I didn't want conviction. But the Lord made that so real to me, I could not bear it anymore. And I finally broke and repented of my sins and gave my life to the Lord. And that was the first principle I see of the terror of the Lord in salvation. That terror of eternal judgment. And that's not the fear of the Lord that we should always have as Christians, but that should bring us to the Lord. And then, as we serve Him, we begin to draw nearer to Him and we start to learn, as it says in Lamentations 3, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. His compassions, they fail not. And how every moment we have to cast ourselves fully upon Him for help. As Jesus Christ said, without Me you can do nothing. Talking about abiding in Him. And so that second principle is dependence on Him. As it says in Philippians 2, verse 12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And when we begin to depend on Him in that way, we start to realize His holiness, His awesome holiness. As He says in Isaiah 66, it was read this morning, where God says, I have made the heavens, the heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is the house that You built to My name? And where is the place of My dwelling? He's saying, He's so huge. Heaven is His throne. What could we, us small, insignificant people, do for Him? He says, for all these things hath My hand made, and all these things have been, saith the Lord. So what can we do for Him? And this is what we begin to realize is holiness. And He says, but to this man will I look upon him that is poor or broken and of a contrite heart. And then as we're broken, the next thing begins to happen. He says, and trembleth at My word. And the Lord has really taught me that recently about how we need brokenness so much. And as the Lord breaks me down, I begin to tremble at His word. And then, as we tremble at His word, we get to realize, we get a sense, when we see unbelievers, we see the lost that are going to hell, we realize the terror of the Lord and that they're going to hell. Our first reaction is we should pray for the lost. That they'll be saved. That the Lord will break through to their hearts. And then, we must be willing to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace so when the Lord does direct us and moves us to share the gospel, to obey. And then when we have that realization of the terror of the Lord, we're not just preaching God's judgments to try to condemn them. We're pleading with them because we don't want them to go to hell. And then, because we've been praying for them, because the Holy Spirit is working through us, because we're broken, they will get a sense of the terror of the Lord too. I've seen that many times in the last few weeks. We talk to people about, what if you died in the next five minutes? You're going to stand before God on judgment day. His throne, that great white throne. And you're going to be cast into hell. And you see this fear grip them. This terror come into their eyes. And that's what I had to share. About the terror of the Lord. As the Apostle Paul said, Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So let us all do that. I think you might be a preacher, boy. That's good. He was at our house last night. Finally had to sit. I got to go to bed. You're going to have to go home. But he's sharing the things of the Lord. That's good. And I think the terror of the Lord We need to remember that. There were two Germans up there in Victoria. And they asked something to me that I didn't want. They asked if I wanted my picture made. I went up on the spot and talked to these guys. And then they said, Well, take your picture. With the background of Victoria. It's very pretty harbor and everything. I said, no, I don't want that. And they said, yeah, we want to do that. And then the Lord said, this is it. Oh, yeah, I want my picture made. Because when somebody does something for you, That gives you an opportunity to do something for them. And then I gave them a track. Talked to them about the Lord. And like that. You know, God had to joke me. These guys have souls. What do you think? You're up here just taking pictures and look around? You're here for them. Oh, yes, Lord. And then the terror of the Lord. These guys need Christ. Who's next? Yes. You young man. What did God give you? David, God give you something? Come on up here. Come on up. It's good. We'll get the bashful ones last. Share with us what God gave you. Well, as we were going through there, I was writing down some ways that we can honor our parents.