The Fear of the Lord The Great Essential for Godliness

Tonight our hearts together before the Lord and I'm asking him to stir up your mind with the scripture that today might be a day that really is one that we mark things from in our lives. Father we bow before your throne. We've sung about your throne as we've done many times before but today we pray with all these hearts here united we pray that you will bring us into a oneness right now in the presence of the Holy One. Lord we invoke your presence here in Jesus name and we thank you that you are Lord and that there's no part dark allowed in this building and that you are by your precious blood able to say to the uttermost that means your definition of that we thank you in Jesus name that you're at work in us to will and do what your pleasure is in the throne room of our heart. May the throne room of our heart be in agreement with the throne room in which we now find ourselves with others who you've redeemed. In prayer we come together in Jesus name and we ask that in this moment that those who are in this room and those who listen will find their hearts and minds being stirred provoked, encouraged, convicted, moved with holy fear and may we prepare the ark, your word, your sacrifice that others will enter in to the joy of being in Christ. Glorify your name. We thank you in advance in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well we don't have to look far to know that something is missing in the experience of the church. Probably you've been burdened that's why you've come to this conference. Before revival ever comes there's got to be a recovery of truth to the hearts of those who can respond. It's the revelation of God that he gives to us through the scripture, through the word preached, through the word ministered that brings a heart to the place where there is conviction of being out of that blessed throne room, being away from his control. When this happens we have the privilege to get in line with it, repent before God. When the church repents when those who are called by his name do that then, then he hears from heaven as we humble ourselves and he does what he loves to do and that's glorify his self in our midst with his presence and we we call it revival. But you know what really happens in revival? It's when the fear of the Lord is restored to the presence of God's people and they began to move and walk and live in the fear of God and that is what is missing in our day. I want to just take you this morning through the scripture and I'm asking you to take these scriptures down to write them down and to and to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance as 2nd Peter says, to be sanctified by the renewal not removal but think and concentrate as we look in the Word of God and really see what he says to us and this message this time this morning is not meant to necessarily produce a huge effect right here. My heartbeat is that you'll be provoked to go back to your churches and back to your fellowships and wherever you are and that you'll be provoked to seek the face of God and really understand the fear the Lord and walk in the wisdom of God. Oh brother Ravenhill used to say this he says if the prodigal son had lost his father's address he wouldn't know where to go to when he finally came to himself and if the Church of the Lord Jesus loses the father's address in the Word of God if we don't understand what it really means then even when we know we need revival and something in the church we won't know what really to do and we'll end up as it says in Scripture having something lesser than what he wants their fear of me is taught by precept of man it says in Isaiah that's what happens we come to some lower thing than what God has well there's over 1,000 verses in the Scriptures explicitly and specifically that set forth the fear of God that is such a volume and there's hundreds of other texts that imply and point toward this as being our experience to tremble before the Lord at the voice of the Lord at the Word of the Lord to tremble in his presence to have a heart that's moved to to silence and desperation and joy unspeakable and full of glory to fear before him all the earth that's what he says in the Word of God but now most of us have experienced enough bad fear in our life the wrong kind that we cannot believe that there is a type of fear in the Scriptures that God not only wants us to have but commands us to have and he even says that it is a violent wicked thing that his fear is not in us he says that to his people if it's not think of that a thousand verses if you took the whole book of Romans and the whole book of Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and 1st Timothy and 1st Thessalonians and the book of James take those eight books you've got about 987 verses total you imagine what would happen to your Bible and to the knowledge of God and our churches what it means to know him if those if those books were taken out of your Bible and suddenly removed what would you be left with what it would be something less than what God wants for us and this is what happens when we hardly hear a truth preached or hardly study the great truth of the fear of God the fear of the Lord that over and over in the Scripture is not only commended to us but commanded for us to walk in and the question for you and for me is to answer this morning am I a God-fearing person once not long ago there was the description of the Puritans and others it would be commonly said he was a God-fearing man she was a God-fearing woman and a God-fearing woman is to be praised it says in Proverbs 31 but today we seldom use those words to describe anyone that loves the Lord with all their heart and mind and soul and strength but this morning I want to set before us some things to help us in this understanding of what God wants for us if you turn to Psalm 34 I want to take this like a glorious diving board of God to dive into the Scriptures and set before us this subject of the fear of the Lord and that how it is indeed the great essential the great and grand theme of so much of the Bible that without which we cannot walk in the wisdom of God we cannot have the true knowledge of God and we cannot really enjoy and know and serve and honor him as we ought in Psalm 34 verse 1 it says I will bless the Lord at all times his praise will always continually be in my mouth my soul will make her boast in the Lord the humble will hear about this and they'll be glad Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all of my fears you see that's what he does he delivers you from all of your fears so that he might put his fear in you in at Sinai when they were so afraid to come to the mountain they the noise and the glory of God they said let Moses talk to us but not God we can't come near to a God like that God says to them in Exodus 20 verse 20 he says listen I want to free you from your fear so that you might learn my fear learn to walk in the fear of the Lord so when I come to him and magnify him he'll free me from my fears and they looked to him and they were lightened or they became radiant and their faces were not ashamed the angel this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all of his troubles the angel of the Lord camps round about those who fear him and he delivers them Oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man who trusts in him and in the command fear the Lord knew his saints and a promise there is no lack or no want to those that fear him to have a lesser view of the fear of God that man has designed such as just a dread that he might punish me for some for something that's such a limited view although it does carry that in it a dread and in awe and a and a and a shaking on the inside when I see how glorious and holy he is but to leave us with just that and to reject that and call just the fear of the Lord is merely to reverence him it's so far short of what God is saying there is no lack to the life the person that has the biblical true godly fear there's no lack God says that's a promise the young lions may lack they may suffer hunger but they that seek the Lord shall not lack or want any good thing and then the Lord says this invitation to us come ye children listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord I will teach you the fear of the Lord God promises to teach us the fear of the Lord now what is the fear of the Lord what does it really mean to have the fear of the Lord well the fear of the Lord is that godly fear that is appropriate and proper to believers and it arises out of a right view of God and a reverence for his person and for the character of God we respect his person in his ways and and then the result is there's a supreme desire for that person to please him not to act unworthily of such love and such grace and to respond to him what is the fear of the Lord it is it is an authentic sense of his presence that is that is moving to the person and it fills the heart with veneration and with and with all it's it's conscious of the presence of Almighty God you can see people in the scriptures who were going along in their normal routine of worship of God like David when he brought the ark back to Jerusalem the first time and they had all the praise people out there mightily praising God with all their might and they were coming up towards the temple not far away and and the cart that had the ark stumbled and started to drop the ark and Uzzah in absolute sincerity reached out his hand to steady the ark and God smote him dead because you see he touched the ark of the covenant and it says in first Chronicles there that and David was afraid and he says wait we can't bring this ark because you see they weren't prepared and he put it in the house of Obed for three months until there was preparation made you see there was a fear of God Jacob came and he he was just on the way and he had a dream that night when he was at Bethel and he saw the Lord and angels and he woke up in the morning and he says how dreadful is this place I did not know that God was here see he wasn't aware of the immediate presence of God until God revealed himself and when he did he says I was afraid and he called it Bethel the very house of God you see what happens in the fear the Lord there's a deep inner respect and a trembling that comes to the heart and to the mind and when I begin to realize that God is who he is regardless of whether I'm lost or saved it's to happen when I see him as he is something on the inside moves and I'm moved into a new place and it knows inherently when you when you see him that this holiness will not be changed for anything of man it's me that must adjust so what happens there's an inward reverential awe of God but I'm gripped by the reality of the unseen and there's an amazement this is pervasive as you'll see in a moment to the scriptures over 300 times in the scriptures the the Bible connects the fear of the Lord with the majesty and the holiness of God it's when it becomes real and authentic to us and what happens when we do that there's a sense of God's bigness and our smallness it's like what happened to Isaiah when he saw the hugeness of God Almighty God and and suddenly he realized how small and how needy he was and in that amazing what looks I shouldn't be here God's grace comes to him and this is what happens to us who began to see him rightly he begins to say I want you to appreciate and know who I really am we're gripped by the reality of the unseen and driven to our knees by the awareness and truth of what we see he discloses his person and he displays what he purposes in your life or in history and he he absolutely displays all that he is and and the veil is lifted it's like the disciples when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and he was praying and suddenly the face began to glow and they began to see it's like God took the corner of the veil into the Holy of Holies that was have been emptied into the Lord Jesus and and lifted that veil and they saw him and they were afraid and overwhelmed with the glory of who he is that ever happened to you have you ever seen beyond the historical Jesus to see the majesty and the glory of the one who emptied himself and was found in fashion as a man obeying unto death even the death of the cross and when you see him you can never refer to him again as the man upstairs or whatever you might say the senior partner or my bro in heaven or whatever my my homeboy what a abomination but what a revelation it would never come to the true knowledge of God this cannot continue in America what's happening is is the the results of our waywardness are coming we've sown the wind and we're reaping the whirlwind you see over and over in the scripture a sense of wonder stunned at the majesty of God and amazed by his works and driven to unction and driven to urgency and driven to stillness and quietness and amazement in his presence this is what happens when the fear of the Lord comes it's like this it's the hush of the eternal gripping the heart and insane to me worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness and the fear of the Lord is actually mentioned more in the scriptures than the love of God we want to retreat and say oh it doesn't mean what what and we retreat from the bad definitions and we don't retreat to the scriptures and say but the fear the Lord is clean it endures forever kiss the Sun worship the Lord in fear rejoice with trembling there's no contradiction between the love of God and the fear of God in fact the fear of God and who is and knowing him makes the love of Christ infinitely more precious when you finally see what it really means that such a God as this would come and give himself for me and commend his love for the enemy but by in heart and mind and all that I am to such a one as him worthy and it puts us on our face in absolute amazement astonishment and we can't go on you see William Mueller once said it's the fear of the Lord is to have such a do sense of the majesty and the holiness and the justice and the goodness of God it is to make me tremble at the idea of offending him most of us live our lives about what we should and shouldn't do instead of an awareness of his presence like Joseph who says when Potiphar tempted him every day and nagged at him he says how can I do this such a thing seeing as how I worship God and later when Joseph was asked what makes us know you'll keep your word he says I fear God that was his testimony down deep on the inside this is the reason that he walked in the and it says God was with him in prison we read right over these things in the scripture I mean it's amazing what you'll see when you look at it with focus Abraham Abraham take your son your only son Isaac the one you love first mention of the word love and scripture taking an only son and take him to Moriah and there go worship first mention of the word worship in the scripture and it's in connection with giving of what's most precious to your heart that which God has given to you all the promises of God are yes and amen lay it back on the altar of God and you see you learn he goes up and as he's there at the top of that mountain and the son says to the father my father here's the wood here's the fire where's the lamb and a Abraham says these words he says my son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering Jehovah Jireh and he looks you see and he sees that he sees that ram caught in the thicket and you know he puts but before he sees that ram he holds the knife up like this and father God says to him Abraham Abraham touch not the lead because now I know that you fear God I've never seen that till about a year ago and I just said all of this was that God's teaching at the end of his life the fear of the Lord he's making perfect in us it's not just something that happens when I get saved it's a continual learning process that God brings me into a greater and deeper and more intimate relationship and greater love with himself because he's faithful if it were up to me and up to you we'll be back at the hog trough tomorrow but he keeps that which he seals and he saves to the uttermost that which he calls and he equips his precious bride with things that cannot be organized from earth the fear of the Lord is a disposition of heart you see it's what happened to Nehemiah when he looked at the wall astonished and broken and he led this amazing obedience to God and someone says why are you doing it this way he says this I did because of the fear of the Lord that was his motivation he reverence God and the definition of what it really meant Job God said was the best man on earth nobody like him in all the East and three times father God in chapter 1 gives his his description he was a man who feared God uncontaminated pure and and walked before the Lord three times the character quality cited by God Noah moved with what fear and I don't know how God told him but he told him to build an ark and he moved with fear and that means a response you see when you start seeing what the scriptures are used by the Holy Spirit you start understanding more what the fear of God really is it was when the angels appeared in the heavens and said unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who's Christ the Lord and the shepherds feared you see what happens is God pulls back the veil he shows that in this person here I live and you begin to see your brothers and sisters as members of the risen glorified Christ and you begin to understand not at the outward appearance but you begin to see the real authentic nature of things biblically and by the Spirit of God and something happens far beyond what you could ask or think on the inside one of the most moving ones to me I've never seen it a couple of years ago at the cross the place of ultimate light where we see what's really going on there at the cross you see two thieves on the cross and one of them rails on the Lord Jesus and the other thief that ended up in paradise that day looks at him and he says don't you fear God what a question to you and to me don't you fear God I mean here's a thief on the cross asking another thief if if he fears God whether it be Jonah who was thrown into the ocean and the sailors feared God because the storm was stilled or whether it be Jehoshaphat or whether it's the last words of Joshua all through the scriptures over and over they're told that we must fear God all other fears that we know as harmful in our life result from that we don't know God we don't we have an unworthy idea we don't see him we have unworthy thoughts and concept of who God is and our false fears arise from that it's a distrust it's a disrespect it's a disregard and and there's an ignorance about who he really is so when we sense God's majesty all the other fears I sought the Lord and he answered he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears you see if you fear God you'll fear nothing else the way he really wants to be feared if you really fear him the way the scriptures say to walk in the fear the Lord then suddenly all the other fears will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace and you'll be filled with amazement in his presence when was the last time you were reduced to tears alone with him alone with him in his presence because of how glorious he was and how need you know you still are and how sufficient his ability to meet that need really is and the like Charles Wesley wrote from my broken heart with tears two wonders I confess the wonders of redeeming love my and the two were so colossal that the Spirit of God breaks you it's the goodness of God that leads to repentance the brokenness is greatest in the life when we see that he is the high and holy one who dwells in eternity and and he lives there with the broken and the contrite the poor in spirit to send revival into their hearts new life not just a thing that happens but life that comes the life of God in the soul of man in the spirit of man and coming out well come my children I will teach you the fear of the Lord God wants us to learn what his fear is all about he wants us to walk in it listen to these scriptures back in the book of Deuteronomy he says it's his desire for his people to walk in the fear of the Lord he says oh that there were 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 and someone says well that's that's not what we're to do we're not legalistic like that anymore chapter 10 verse 12 now Israel what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in his ways and to love him the best friends the fear of Christ the love of Christ their best friends and to serve the Lord with all your God with all your serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul after warning them not to forget him when he goes into when they go into Canaan he says look only fear the Lord over and over in the book of Deuteronomy God says look when you move into the place of blessing when I'm giving you my promises don't forget the person that brought you here don't begin to look at the things he's giving but look at me and if you do forget me then I promise you just like all the other nations that have gone before then you'll be separated from me and and you know I'll turn the heavens to brass and the earth to powder and you will be driven to your knees until you seek me and I'll treat you like the other nations and so you see he longs for them and he threatens them if they don't fear him you know and Deuteronomy was the book that our Lord Jesus quoted the most from lest we get confused on this matter it's the book he quoted the most it was the book that four times in it says I want you to learn to fear me honor the words read the words and every king in chapter 17 of Deuteronomy it says had to write out longhand the whole book of Deuteronomy so that they would the Kings learn to fear the Lord learn to fear the Lord you see what sometimes we think if we fear God it means we don't love him we kind of like see him in a slavish way like he's gonna smack me no that's a men's definition of the fear of the Lord yes there is dread it was the Lord Jesus himself that said listen he says I say to you my friends don't fear these people that threaten you don't be afraid of them that can kill your body I'll tell you who to fear I tell you solemnly fear the one who has the authority and the power to kill both body and soul and cast it into hell he said that to his friends and when you see in Isaiah 11 it talks about the spirit of the Messiah it is it's amazing to read the sevenfold aspect of the spirit that would so fill the the Messiah it actually says they'll come forth one a root out of the stem of Jesse a branch will grow out of the root and the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him and listen to how it describes the spirit that would rest upon that came upon and was in fullness without measure in the Lord Jesus the spirit of Christ the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the spirit of counsel and of might the spirit and of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and the spirit will make him quick living in his understanding in the fear of the Lord it talks about how the Lord Jesus walked in the fear of the Lord in its fullness the way the Bible wants us to walk in it he looked to his father not one word not one thing I do as the second man the last Adam do I do apart from intimate contact and total dependence the glory was that he was not coming as only God in the in the flesh that wasn't hard to believe when you saw his mighty works but that he was limiting himself in a real way to all the resources only that Adam had and when he when he came to the cross he really was the second man who in him all who trust him can be utterly saved to the uttermost if they follow him into all that he is and so it says in Jeremiah 219 thy own wickedness will correct you your backsliding he's talking to his people will reprove you know therefore and see it's an evil thing and bitter that you've forsaken the Lord your God and that my fear is not in thee we don't like to talk about the fear of the Lord it has connotations of wrath let me tell you when Jesus comes it's not all going to be shouting ground for everybody and even of his own people there'll be some who will be ashamed when they see how glorious he is in his person and how powerful he is in all of his ways and and his love in it Oh Lord I traded this for trinkets I gave it up for play things of dust Oh woe is me I mean there'll be tears in heaven it says it and I think that may be why but then he'll wipe them away and all people that will know him and love him will be covered with the with the banner he's given a banner to those who fear him and in Revelation it says there's coming a time when he will reward those on earth who fear him it's interesting to me when he talks about the second coming in the last book in Malachi when he says in chapter 3 in chapter 4 the day will come that'll burn like an oven and he says but in that day the wicked I will come and I'll make them like stubble I'll burn them utterly two kinds of people but those who fear my name there's a book that's written of those who speak often of the Lord and who fear him it says in in Malachi 316 and it's a book of remembrance for those who have feared the Lord and God says in the day that I'm coming like this to burn up the wicked I'll make these the jewels in my crown those who fear my name O be diligent that you be found of him dressed in that white robe of righteousness of the blood of the Lamb and that within and without everything in your temple Christ holy not just the outer with what you do but the inner that's just staggered by the glory of who he is listen the fear of the Lord is expected universally by God just listen to these scriptures 1st Chronicles chapter 16 verse as you read in there it says he is to be feared above all gods fear before him all the earth Psalm 76 11 let all that are round about him bring presents to him give gifts it means themselves to him who ought to be feared he is to be feared Psalm 96 above all gods worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness fear before him all the earth it actually it actually equates walking in the fear of the Lord and seeking him and obeying him all those things are equated with the man who fears the Lord and the song in heaven itself in the book of Revelation it it just is amazing to me the first song in the Bible in Exodus after they crossed the Red Sea and it's about the fear of God and his mighty works and the last song in the scripture in Revelation the song of Moses and of the Lamb and they sang great and marvelous are your works Lord God Almighty just and true are your ways King of Saints who shall not fear you O Lord and glorify your name because you alone so see they're singing about his his fear and his blood around the throne of God at this moment those who see him best are not afraid of his fear because he says I want to deliver you from the things that you're afraid of there's a lot of lesser fears there's the fear of man there's the fear of heights there's all kinds of God gives us certain fears that are meant to help us don't walk off that cliff so you're afraid of heights don't do certain things you'll hurt your your body and we're afraid of certain things there are other fears that are bad the fear of men brings a snare and the fear that the enemy would hold you in bondage with and bring torment into your life that's not the kind of fear that God gives he's given you the other kind of fear that puts you on your face before God and that is a good thing that's a good thing in these days stand in awe and sin not commune with your own heart on your bed be still let all the earth fear the Lord let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him Psalm 89 says God is greatly to be afraid of feared in the assembly of the Saints right here and to be held in reverence of all that around about him so the fear of the Lord is that attitude or disposition of mind of the person who is always aware that he's in the presence of God and therefore every word every action and every moment is lived in conscious conscious sincere sober single-minded adoration for him this is what God is cultivating in your life as you by the Spirit of God learn to live in that the Bible says this several times it says the fear of the Lord in in Psalm 111 verse 10 and in Proverbs 1 7 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom one of them says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge in Proverbs 1 there's two words for beginning in those four usages of that word the first word beginning is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it actually means it's like the chief it's not just the first among many things it's the chief ingredient in the knowledge of God and it actually means it like this when if you look at how it's used in the original what it means it's like you want to learn how to read so what does it mean to read I have to learn my ABC's ABC and when you learn your ABC's it equips you so that then you can write words and you might become Shakespeare one day but I'll tell you one thing you'll never forget your ABC's if you're writing in the English language and the fear of the Lord it's saying is the chief part the beginning it's that ingredient that begins it and goes right through and no matter how mature you get the feel the Lord endures forever it endures forever it doesn't just pass away after you repent it's a growing and deepening repentance and all that takes place in your life and that's what God wants for his precious people for I'm good even not just he didn't have an ego problem he just what it's what we're made to do to praise him and love him with all our heart the fear of the Lord is like the one two three and counting to a zillion but you have one two three even if you're a mathematician you always use those numbers that's what it's like and it's meant to pervade your life the knowledge of God and it helps you grow in the but the fear of the Lord is also it says the beginning it means like when a sword pierces it's the entry point it's like first base when you're playing baseball and you hit you hit a home run you run around second and third the stands are going crazy they're just they're just amazed at the grand slam home run and you get to home bait basically like I've made it home and then all of a sudden the come they come over and tag you out and now part says you forgot the tag first it's the first thing you must see if you really want to have the knowledge of God the right knowledge Paul would say something these people have not the true knowledge of God yes they they they worship me with their lips but their hearts are far from me it says in Isaiah they have what they have is the fear of God is a religious thing it's taught for man and I just look like you smell like you act like you and think like you but I never have seen God see that this is the fear of the Lord and it's pure and it's holy Proverbs says the fear the Lord is the instruction of wisdom if I want to know God if I want to be instructed I've got to enter into this disposition toward God and let God be God and show me that he is if I'm gonna walk my faith I must walk in the he is of God it's the beginning of knowledge all knowledge of God and this is eternal life that we might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sinned Jesus prayed that the knowledge of God and this is what that I might know him Paul says I'll give up everything David said I'd rather spend one day in the temple of God beholding these things that teach me about the beauty of the Lord than a than three years in the tents of wickedness because one day with him is better than somewhere else out a wise man fears the Lord it says and departs from evil you know there's a lot of things that can change a person's life and sometimes we go and minister to people and try to reform them there's like four motives you can have to depart from evil one of them is fear of punishment Romans 13 says that's a real one that the law is given to to make people have dread of murder and all the things that the law says don't do God gave that and you know you may do that and you'd be smart if you don't do those things but that's not the fear of the Lord that's the fear of being punished and that's that's a motive to depart from evil I've reformed why I don't want to go back to prison the second one is see a lost man or a saved man could have that motive and the second one is it's pride well son we don't smoke in our family our family does not commit adultery this is the way we do things and the more we do it the prouder we get of it I don't we don't cuss we don't chew we don't all this stuff you know it's it's I'm better than that and you can depart from evil to prove how good you are and a lost man and a saved man can act like that but there's a third motive that's only possible for a one who's been born again who has the spirit of God inside and what happens is God comes in he shows me his glory and how he is and I begin to read the word but I don't enter into this fear of the Lord yet and so I began to say Jesus loves me and he died for me and so now I'm gonna do all these things for him because I just love him so much and and and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna chew tobacco and you want just pick that out of there I don't know why I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lust after women like this anymore I'm not gonna sleep around I used to do that Lord I'm not gonna do it and so you walk around like a muzzled dog you walk around saying I would like to but I don't I would like to but I don't you see it's like caging the stuff you never really deal with I don't I don't get angry anymore outward but inwardly it's like a bird in the cage you can't you can't really be angry see that's not what he wants that's just man trying to reform himself that's the principles of man it says in the Proverbs that the by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil and the fear of the Lord is to what does it say hate evil hate evil Proverbs 16 6 says by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil and the fear of the Lord Proverbs 8 13 is to hate evil there is a departure from evil that is not because I might get punished not because I want to be a better person not because I just don't don't want to dishonor the ideas of Jesus and but I'd like to but I'm controlling myself for God that's what most Christians live like there is a fear of the Lord that's real and pure that when you see him what have I to do with idols and he changes your heart before you begin to love what he loves and you know what you would not do those things anymore because now you've come to hate him you love him and you wouldn't do that I mean you can turn your back on this person and they'll be the same because they live in the presence of God be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day it says in the scripture and I choose it says choose companions I'm a companion of those who fear you Lord and because of your fear others turn to me it says in Psalm 119 and they look to me come draw near all you who fear God and I'll tell you what great things he's done for my soul over and over and over in the scriptures that says this to us a wise man fears the Lord and departs from evil the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that leaves you as departing from the snares of death better is a little with the fear of the Lord then great trouble and a lot of substance you see better better when Solomon asked father God for wisdom Solomon tell me anything you want I'll give you anything give you the wisdom but the Hebrew means a listening heart you see forgot to listen before it was all over start listening to his wives strange wives and he ended up like a broken plank on the beach that was once a great ship with sail and full force the wisest man the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom he wrote this you see but you see Solomon asked for a listening heart and pleased father God so much he says I'm gonna give you a listening heart and I'm gonna give you riches and wisdom and other things as well because now I can trust you with it and father God knew I'm sure what would happen well the books the New Testament's full of the fear of the Lord the Old Testament's full of the fear of the Lord I want to just talk to you for a moment about Proverbs because you see if you see Proverbs in this light when you read it most of you read it every day Proverbs is a collection of sayings and axioms that that really doesn't begin to the second part of the book this this this three three parts to Proverbs and the first third of it is is an exhortation that says get in the place where you can really hear God's wisdom and the first seven verses of Proverbs are really just there they're like an introduction and a summary and it ends with this saying the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and and the entire book of Proverbs contrasts two kinds of people fools and fear and if you read Proverbs in that light it'll help you because you will see him exhorting the fools he says listen in chapter 1 because you did not receive my instruction I I sought the wisdom to to get you to listen but you would not listen you don't really know God and therefore when your fear comes and it will come it'll find you I will laugh at you because you did not choose it says in Proverbs 130 the fear of God you didn't choose you have to choose the fear of God it's not just automatic like turning on an oven yeah there's a DNA that happens God puts his fear in us thank God but he wants me to respond he wants me to respond to him and say yes to him he really wants me to respond and in Proverbs you see fools and fear is contrasted and it's it's it's a glorious thing in Ecclesiastes read that book with fear of the Lord in mind five times the writer of that says I've done everything I've experienced everything in that great chapter that says for every purpose under heaven there's a time there's a reason and it gives a list of almost every possible thing they write song about it and sing it at weddings for every purpose under heaven there's a time it actually says this maybe you've never seen it all these things God does and what God does he does forever he does it so that man will fear before him all those events God is bringing into your life he lets these things come to your life not just so you'll show him how much you love him but so that you'll trust him and seek him and fear him with all your heart and when you see what's happening to you in your life as a classroom for learning in the fullness of what the scriptures mean the fear of God it'll change everything the fear of the Lord is clean clean enduring forever and you never will outgrow it you see I I just I'm gonna have to skip over a lot of what I wanted to share with you it's not just the Old Testament the New Testament is full of exhortations about the fear of the Lord you know it says after we're being told in Ephesians 5 be ye being filled with the Holy Spirit all of you every one of you it's a command tense be filled with the Spirit of God let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith and and to be being filled the Spirit so like a river suggested flowing water like oh they cut it off the baptistry was bubbling back there but it was flowing like a flowing river that's what happens to a lot of Christians it's yesterday's experience with the Holy Spirit instead of today's freshness rivers of living water which will happen when the glorified Christ comes in it actually says right after that in being filled with the Spirit it says submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God before it ever says husbands love your wives before it ever says wives respect and submit to your husbands and before it says you see it's all about relationships this is where the fear the Lord comes out submit yourselves one to another in the fear of God because you know him you and you're being filled with the Spirit the Spirit of Christ in the fear of Christ he comes in and it sanctifies the marriage relationships it says children obey your parents it's right after we're told to submit one to another in the fear of God that fear of God gives clarity and reason and understanding in our relationships even with employee and employer it says right after that and our relationship to the devil it says to resist him in Ephesians 6 right after it's talking about being filled with the Spirit and submitting one to another in the fear of God we resist we resist the devil and so the Lord wants us to understand in first Peter this is what this says chapter 1 verse 17 it says and since you are calling on the Father who without any respect of persons I mean you may have been a Christian 10 or 50 or 20 years but without respect of persons he present tense verb keeps on judging according to every man's work and it's not just what we do it's it's our ways he looks at your life and mine he looks and he wants me to be his child and to walk worthy responding to inward impulses of the Spirit of God about like Jesus did to his father as he was sent so am I and by the word you need to have this attitude it actually says here he's gonna judge every man's work then pass the time of your sojourning here on earth in fear because you know for as much as you know you weren't redeemed with corruptible things from your vain way of life like silver and gold but rather with the precious blood of Christ so see there's no contradiction between since I'm just on earth for a few years I'm not gonna let earth it's not my home I'm a citizen of heaven now that I'm a Christian I know you I love you I'm a citizen there Zion is my home and I'm just passing through and I'm gonna walk like it says that they were sojourners all through the Psalms just like those in Hebrews 11 they were sojourners I am to also be a sojourner with my name written in heaven and my my heart being kept there it's a lot of stuff isn't it I can see some of you holding your head like oh oh if it provokes you I want to provoke you I want to provoke you to get on your on your face before God maybe you've never seen this stuff or really this promises to those who fear God their promises that and in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1 right after it talks about you I will be your God and you'll be my people I will walk in you don't be unequal yoke with unbelievers be separate says the Lord and the first part of that he says listen Paul says having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh that's the outer life and the spirit that's the part of you nobody ever sees that's the part when you get back to your motel room at night and you're on your own perfecting holiness it says in fear of God perfecting holiness it's like when it says the Lord Jesus was made perfect when for the suffering but he bought the things he suffered he was perfect but in his role as priest he had to experience some things to be a sympathetic high priest he was made perfect and you're being made perfect because you already are in Christ but he's making into what you are in him in Hebrews Oh one of the crowning jewels of Hebrews after it says listen don't resist him who's speaking they didn't they didn't escape who resisted the Old Testament you won't if you do him in you he's speaking from heaven he's shaking everything let's choose grace so that we can serve God acceptable in meekness and fear choose grace so that we can serve God acceptably in meekness and fear why because he's a consuming fire that's what the Old Testament means when it says worship the Lord how can you do that well first John says perfect love casts out fear that's the kind of man's fear but not God's fear don't get the two confused there's a there's a fear that's appropriate like I heard your voice and I was afraid and it's good is to put man on his face like Adam there's a fear when God says I know that my fear is not in you that that is God's fear but there's also a fear like it says in the book of Revelation when the mountains are falling the the nations will look around some will say fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the Lamb the day of his wrath has come and who can stand Bible says you'll bring pleasure to God if you fear him Psalm 147 verse 11 the Lord takes pleasure Psalm 147 verse 11 the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy it says you'll bring fresh mercy you'll have fresh mercy and grace from God if you fear him as heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him he says as a father pities his children so the Lord has pity or compassion on those who fear him how great is thy goodness that you've laid up Psalm 31 for those who fear you it brings blessing happy is the man who fears always I know that it will be well with him who fears God you see Ecclesiastes and it goes all the way through in the last verse the man who's done everything tried everything says listen hear the conclusion of the whole matter this is what after studying I've come to see and experiencing everything this is the conclusion of the whole matter and in Ecclesiastes that last chapter he says verse 13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments it's not a legal thing it's a heart thing with your heart let your heart be circumcised to him for this is the whole of man God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it's evil or good every thought of my heart every idle word see we've forgotten the parts of the scriptures and therefore we should be on our face walking in a continuing intimacy the reason it scares us so much is because we've been doing it alone we've been acting what is it not in faith whatever is not a faith Romans 14 23 is sin but if I live and walk in him and by him you can't live for Jesus until you're alive by him and when you're alive by him then it's not you living for him it's him living through you literally truly and you see it says in Philippians 2 it says look work out your own salvation with what fear and trembling you you're so aware that that I'm I've been delivered I mean I'm still on earth but I'm a different person I'm a new creation and the next verse says it work out your salvation and fear and trembling because it's God who's at work in you to will and do his own good pleasure you can't work out what God hadn't worked in but when God works it in in his great he's giving you the privilege like Abraham of putting what's most precious on the altar of Calvary I'm crucified with Christ no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me Christ is my life and when I when I hold that knife up he doesn't have me put it in officially because he put it in Jesus you see I learned with Abraham to fear the Lord and he gives us this privilege I'm convinced that he says no offerings would be without salt I'm convinced that if you study that the salt that must be in every offering is to makes it acceptable it's what Hebrews said the fear of the Lord makes our I think the fear of the Lord is the salt that he's talking about that we must have it brings acceptance with God you know it's amazing that in the book of Acts when when there had been a when Cornelius had been say or when he was hearing the gospel they say I suppose it's true I see this it's true in every nation the one who fears God and works righteousness is accepted of him see that that sounds like you're leaving out the gospel no the fear of the Lord includes the gospel and understanding and those who fear God and work righteousness they let out what God puts in just like you have the mind of Christ but you don't always think like God do you if you're Christian but you have the mind of Christ that's your DNA divine nature from above just the same way that God is putting you the mind of Christ but you must let this mind be in you you must choose this day whom you will serve and walk with him in the beauty of holiness the same way he's putting you the fear of the Lord in fact one of my favorite verses about the fear of the Lord I'm gonna have to end here I wish I had about three hours to go with you listen to what it says this this is a new covenant promise it's it's absolutely beautiful in that in that in that beautiful place where the Lord says I will do a new thing in the coming day it's quoted in Hebrews and chapter 8 and 10 about the new covenant it's a new covenant promise for you and it says in Jeremiah this is this is brought into the New Testament chapter 32 and it says in 39 God says I will give to them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and for their children I will make an everlasting covenant with them and I will not turn away from them I will do them good and I will put my fear in their heart that they will not depart from me the Bible says you'll depart from evil the department God will put it in you but you must choose to say Lord I choose this day the fear of the Lord it brings reward I don't have time to go into all that it promises but it brings protection from evil it says that they will not be afraid in famine over and over get your concordance and make a list of the promises to those who fear he takes pleasure he delights in those people you can't serve God acceptably without the fear of the Lord you can't worship without the fear of the Lord in thy fear will I worship you can't have a deterrent that's real from sin without the fear of the Lord you can't be perfected in holiness without the fear of the Lord you can't have relationships that are honoring to Jesus Christ and that are a blessing to your family without the real fear of the Lord and awareness of his presence you can't even know God's best secrets in the Word of God establish thou thy word to thy servant who's devoted to thy fear the secret of the Lord is reserved for those who fear him Psalm 25 14 he will show them his covenant he will show them that it's Christ in you that's the hope not you for Christ if you're living for Jesus how you doing you're probably pretty frustrated if you're just living for him and you're not living by him because he wants to be the resource he wants to be all that there is he wants such a relationship with me that I am walking in absolute awe and worship and amazement that God is who he says he is and when I choose the fear of the Lord it is a good thing to walk in the fear teach me thy ways show me thy truth lead me your holiness and your majesty they motivate me your works all that you do my life they motivate me to seek your face and the goodness of God leads me to deeper repentance and the greatness of your plan and the coming judgment that I'm going to stand before you and give an account I want to be found in him not having my own righteousness which is according to some thing that suggested from the outside but having your righteousness which is according to Christ in me the hope of the assurance of that day that I'll be glorified oh but there's an anger of it's to motivate to there is a dread there is a dread the only person that need fear God and this kind of dreadful way is the person who should you're in here and you're a captive like to internet pornography but you come to the conference getting some relief I want to suggest to you today that it's not just an option and a little thing that's suggested that you stop looking at pornography to help your life be more meaningful that's just one example but you see it says in Hebrews it says listen if I choose to walk willful and sin if I go against what God says after he showed me so clearly these glorious things there remains nothing but a fearful looking for God to just show judgment begins at the house of God he will show show this all that happened why do you think so many pastors are falling and all these things are happening around because God is saying I demand inner and outer agreement and I want your life to be a radiant testimony not just of a historic Christ who died hallelujah for us but of a living Christ who today is alive and available and he's adequate and I've put my fear in you and you can walk in the beauty of all that you are that he is and I would if you will feast on the word you read Proverbs the first chapter to the first eight verses and it says if if if you will do these three things then you shall know the fear of the Lord and have the understanding of God God promises if you will in if you'll internalize God's Word and if you will intensify your desire and call upon him and cry out for reality with him and if you will have integrity with the truth he's given to you already if you'll do those three things then I will pour out on you and into the spirit of the fear of the Lord that's what he promises something's missing in the life of the church something's missing in the life of most Christians and it's sometimes they offer him just our human dedication and we're so I'm grateful on a human level that he's changed my life he's given me one wife and five kids and seven grandkids and I've been privileged to serve him travel all over for years and sing the gospel and over 50 countries but you know none of that means a thing if today on the inside I don't have the fear of God I mean the real fear of God that worships him and I just had this sometimes I just have to say Lord I just have to get along with you I just have to I have to just because when you love someone you want to be alone with him and you fear him and you respect what he says to you and you you don't let it slip you meditate on him day and night you don't have to make yourself meditate on him when you fear God you have to tear your mind away to concentrate on your accounting you have to make yourself drive and not get killed because you're praising God in your car I've got I've got to listen I'll die quick before my time I've got to I've got to concentrate on the Lord you see no no I don't have to I get to and as I know him and I fear him it's such a beautiful thing to worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness and in all my day be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day it says and walk with those and talk with those who are part of the body who've been bought by blood and to pray like David Lord unite my heart to fear thy name oh he prayed that God would bring his heart into the throne and put it in an agreement does your heart agree with the throne room of God does the music you listen to can you put it in that throne room where they're saying thou art worthy of the Lord to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and they're on their faces before him just all seven times at least they they see him on the throne and they fall off their throne and so if I can take my life and say well this is what I'm involved in now fit there if it doesn't fit there then it ought not fit here now because he's worthy oh yes but I want to ask you didn't walk in the fear of the Lord or is it something that you've read over you've never really seen it's something that was really necessary have you prayed with the companions you hang with show that you fear God I'm not talking about just religious observance I'm talking about heart fellowship people who love Jesus and you know who they are when you meet him they walk in his anointing you can have fellowship doesn't matter if they don't dress like you don't even act like you in many ways but if they fear God I'm a companion with them that's who I want to walk with so has the church lost the fear of the Lord we we know that the church in every age has been up and down we would never speak against the church that he's redeemed with his blood but love the church enough to point out to her as it says in this in the old to point out to Zion her transgressions to love her enough you don't love someone if the house is burning down and you see it you don't warn them and when the church in our day is full of trouble and we don't care enough because it might hurt a ministry to be a watchman and to share them real truth don't you see that you're glorying and all these out-of-things and he is available I love it when it says in 2nd Peter stir up your pure minds and remember that through the knowledge of God through the knowledge of God and these precious promises to know what he's really like and what he's really said you see all the devil wants to do is rob you looks like he did he has God really said he wants you to come to conferences like this all day long instead of read your Bible let the Spirit write it on your heart he wants you to read books about missionaries and there I'm all for that I'm not saying don't do that but I'm saying look if you neglect this word has God said or you may use 50 50 different versions so when you try to recall it and think about it you can't remember a thing except a jumble get the word I will have I hidden my heart Lord that I might not sin against thee I can cleanse my way by taking heed to your word your word is ever with me it's in my heart has God said you know I'm not sure what the word says about that when you put the word in your heart you increase the vocabulary of the Holy Spirit in your life clearly what you when you hear what he's already said he'll tell you the next thing but don't ask for unclear light when you're disobeying clearly walk in the scriptures has God said and then he says to you God knows that if you do this he's here I want you to do this he's holding the best out for you see the fear of the Lord is dismantled when you don't see who God is in his character and you don't really see he's he really loves you and he wants the best for you but the best for you is nothing it's never entered your mind his thoughts aren't your thoughts and his ways aren't your ways you're gonna have to forsake your own thoughts and your own ways and let him renew your mind and read in your heart but the Word of God God is who he says he is and even though I don't feel like I'm lovable he says he loves me but if you don't believe that you can't really walk in the fear of the Lord and you shall not surely die he says to the devil says to you it's when you know God loves me so much and I'm just made he made me this way so I'm gonna do it and ask forgiveness later if you can say that you've never come to what I'm talking about today a real fear of the Lord but when you come to fear the Lord it'll be like how can I how can I because what I make these hands do I make Jesus do so it says in Corinthians 6 when I do this with my hands I make the Lord Jesus do that what I look at with my eyes I'm actually forcing him to look through and he's a pure eyes than to the whole iniquity so I learn that this mind this heart this this nature he's put in me I need to let my mind go and let him be who he is and you know what that'll do? It'll make you a new creation you'll be transfigured by the renewing of your mind and you'll be a walking worship service all the time and people will look at you and scratch their head and say that person is strange and you will say God said I would be a peculiar person a peculiar people a holy nation a blood-washed group of people who know God and walk in all that he is and that's what he's made in this group there's enough there's enough heart and mind that God has put in this room right here and just those under this right here to change our world around us if we would say Lord teach me that ways teach me your fear lead me in your truth the secret of the Lord those reserved his covenant truth his whole being who I am is reserved for the one who fears God and it's his definition you want God to change your life do you on his terms most people want God to change their life on their terms Lord change my life and some of all these things that are so hard on me get them out of my life change these things here that that that really it's not for my ultimate benefit it's all about me but Lord my life on earth now it's a vapor it'll be gone before any time it's over and while I haven't breath while there's voice remaining Lord Jesus change me into your pleasure into what you want for me and I see Job at the end of his life best man on earth God put him in deep trouble and the end of Job was this when he got to the end of his life said Lord up till now I've heard about you by the hearing of the ear that's how faith comes but now my eyes sees you and I hate my own life that I've been offering to you and I want you to change me you know what he'll do when you pray that you'll hear the hallelujah chorus break out perhaps in the angelic elder they don't sing they just say we sing they don't sit anyway I want to pray with you will you bow your head and pray with me Lord we read in Acts how the church has that's not when they were blessed by you and they multiplied and they were edified and the secret you tell us there is because they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit thank you for that glorious balance Lord Jesus in that verse that shows us that the fear of the Lord is that beginning of knowledge that provokes to us real repentance and once we see you we see how much more we needed you than we ever knew and as we grow in the knowledge of God and in your word Lord that fear deepens and that respect and awe and amazement wonder and being astounded that you would love such a one as me and bring me to yourself with a mighty hand God that provokes me and I thank you for that that you would do that but then Lord may we understand what it means to present our bodies to you a living sacrifice that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith and that it might be Jesus living as the head of my home that Jesus might love my wife and that he might use my hands and feet and voice that his will would be done Lord hallowed be thy name we know that means make your name hold on this make your bring your fear to us let your kingdom come let your will be done may we honor you in all of our ways may we walk worthy of the calling you could have taken us out and you say this but you left us here so that we might be those people who know God saw and light amidst a wicked and perverse generation among who we shine as lights because the Lord Jesus yourself you've come to inhabit this temple so may we understand and be provoked today I ask you Lord that these loaves and fishes compared to the feast of what it really means to fear the Lord these few words Lord I'm I'm grieved that I could not share more but I pray these loaves and fishes will multiply in the lives and in the families and in the churches and in the workplaces of those represented here that the fear of the Lord will be that which raises the church to a place which you can be entrusted with true revival revival and we thank you for this in advance because that's the kind of God you are oh may our inwards tremble in your presence when we consider you when we remember you and meditate on you have you walked in a glorious peace and stillness because of your greatness within thank you for these dear ones Lord I pray for them and their families that you will make them an offering that's well-pleasing in your sight and in your your holy nostril these days you'll you'll make us a sweet aroma of the Lord Jesus Christ and like last night that we will lay our lives down in your will for others and for your church and for you very much. Thank you.