The Fear of the Lord

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Saturday, June fifteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eight thirty four pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now. It's Saturday evening. Typically, what that means for me is a lot of sermon prep, right, trying to get everything ready for tomorrow, trying to get the Sunday school lesson ready, trying to get the morning sermon ready, trying to do everything that I need to do for tomorrow. That's typically what a Saturday night would would be filled with.

0:48 It's just a lot of sermon prep. And to be honest with you, I really need to be doing that. But because it's Saturday, we're reaching the end of another week and we're about to be in a new one, I feel like I'm kind of I'm kind of conflicted. Right. I need to be doing sermon prep, right, I need to be focusing on tomorrow and thinking about everything there. But at the same time, I'm thinking I'm running out of time, right, because this entire week was supposed to be about this idea of the fear of the Lord. Now there was a part of me that was going to use that concept the fear of the Lord for all of my teaching tomorrow at Victory Baptist Church. So then I'm like, okay, I may not address it much on the podcast, but I gave everyone the concept the topic. I told everyone to look up random sermons on the sermon's two point oh app about the fear of the Lord, or to look up specific verses about the fear of the Lord, or sermons based on specific verses that mention the fear of the Lord. So I gave everyone the assignment. I gave everyone, what you know, everything to do.

1:49 I told them everything to do. And then and I didn't receive a lot of emails about it. Right, it was kind of pretty quiet. Right. It wasn't a It wasn't one of those subjects. It wasn't one of those assignments that generated a lot of interest and a lot of participation, or at least not any feedback on the participation. So then I was like, well, okay, so maybe people aren't that interested in it, But you know what, even if people are not interested in the subject. The fear of the Lord is a very important subject. In fact, I tried to stress the importance of the subject when I gave everyone the assignment right to look to look things up. So I'm like, well, you know, everyone else doesn't seem to or they appear not to care. Again, sometimes when you try to critique silence, it's very difficult to know how to interpret it.

2:39 Right, So but I'm like, Okay, but you know, I'm going to talk about it on Sunday, even though no one else is paying any attention to it, I can at least kind of bring our week long, you know, focus on the fear of the Lord to some kind of a dramatic conclusion on Sunday. Right. That was my thinking, right, And so I was kind of conflicted, Well, if people aren't interested, do I just move on? I haven't reviewed any sermons on the fear of the Lord, and I said I was going to get to that, so do it and just kind of just all over the place. Well, Well, even though I know the fear of the Lord was the focus this week, many of you know, something happened, right, many of you know something happened. Had I had a number of days where I spent a lot of time in the car this week right driving around and I was listening to a lot of sermons. And remember I kind of got something caught my attention because I found a sermon series where each sermon was entitled the Coming Middle East War Part one, Part two, Part three, Part four, all the way up to part eleven. And when I saw the title, it caught my attention, mainly because it was the Coming Middle East War, but it was based on Psalm eighty three, and I was intrigued. So I was like, all right, let's review this now. When I reviewed part one, I knew it was only like a fifteen minute broadcast, so I knew I could I could start and end the review in one broadcast. It would be simple, it would be straightforward, and then I could tell everyone, Hey, go listen to this series on the Coming Middle East War. Then

4:12 that would give everyone else something to do for the sermon's two point oh opp challenge. I thought it was all just like a very simple thing to do. But we all know what happened that first message that first episode was just like I was so confused by how they were handling Saw eighty three. So we reviewed part two, which even became even more confusing. So by the end of that, I said, you know what, everyone just forget, We're not gonna I'm not gonna listen. I'm not gonna review any more of these messages. I told everyone to go listen to the rest. But I said, I you know, I'm I've got to do something with Saw eighty three now, because I was so I was so just perplexed and confused and confounded and how what they were doing with Saw eighty three. So this is kind of where I am at. Saturday Night is supposed to be about sermon Press, Well, it's tomorrow, even though it was going to be about the Fear of the Lord, and it was going to be about the Davidic Covenant, finishing up continuing our series in Eschatology, and then for the Sunday morning sermon, it was going to deal with the fear of the Lord because we've been working in Proverbs and that's what we've been focused on. Well, the Psalm eighty three thing has hijacked everything. So tomorrow for the first hour and the second hour is all going to be Saw eighty three. That's all we're going to work on. Tomorrow, so that's already hijacked that So but okay, so what do I do If tomorrow is not going to be about the Fear of the Lord, then I'm not going to bring this week long focus on the Fear of the Lord to any kind of dramatic conclusion. Well that's not good. But at the same time, I'm so preoccupied, obsessed

5:46 with the Saw eighty three and how that series on supposedly Saw eighty three just went so horribly, like I don't even know what that was. Then I feel challenged that I've got to do something with it. So then what do I do? Now It's Saturday night, I'm running out of time. So here's what we're going to do. I promised that this week our focus on the Fear of the Lord, and I gave you your assignments. I gave you everything to do, so you can go back and work on those assignments with or without me. But what I'm going to do is I said I would review a sermon on Psalm or Hansamiti three on the Fear of the Lord. We already reviewed something on Psaw eighty three on the Fear of the Lord, and I had one ready to go early in the week. We just never got to it because there's always so many things that can interrupt what we're going to do on this podcast. This this podcast is every day something new comes along and we kind of just allow things to lead us wherever it takes us, and we find ourselves in some interesting spots. I mean, that's how we ended up on the PSAWM eighty three thing this week, right, So what I'm going to do is to at least I know this is not going to bring this to a dramatic conclusion, but I have to. I feel like I have to at least say this week we focused on the Fear of the Lord. Here's at least one sermon review. Now, the bad part about this is typically a sermon review takes me three to five hours of broadcasting. It takes about five hours for me to review a sermon. So

7:17 I don't know if I'm gonna review this entire thing. We're just gonna see what we stumble upon. Again. We remember the whole challenge for the sermons two point oh app challenge this year is just choosing random sermons. All of my sermon reviews, remember how they work. I don't listen to them first, I listened to them in real time with you, so no one can accuse me of just trying to find things that I don't like or things that I can criticize. No, I'm listening to a sermon because I love listening to sermons, and then I speak about it, analyze it, critique, agree, disagree. But it's not to criticize. It's to say, Okay, here's the hypothesis they put forth. I disagree with it. Now here's what I think. And then typically it just it goes from a sermon review into possibly a series, which is just is what's is? Well, that's what happened with SAW eighty three. We reviewed two messages and now it's going to turn into a lengthy series on SSAW maighty three on my part, because it's not so much about criticizing. It's about Okay, you presented me your idea. Now I'm going to go present mine. So so just keep that in mind because people always think I don't know people just so misunderstand the sermon reviews. I listen to sermons. I can listen to them in this studio by myself, or I can turn on the microphone and listen them to listen then listen to them with people around the world, and that's what I like to do. And so I love I love listening to two sermons and understanding their hermoneutical approach, their how they exegete the text, or their philological approach,

8:52 and just everything about well preaching itself, how they structure the sermon, what kind of typical preaching template they're following or not following, all of those typical things. So I guess what I'm going to try to do tonight is bring our discussion about the fear of the Lord to some kind of conclusion. I know, basically it turned into me giving you an assignment, a lot of assignments, and we didn't really talk about it because we kind of got pulled in so many different directions this last week. But it's Saturday, so the week is fast ending, and this next week it's going to be strongly SAW eighty three. It's gonna be Saw eighty three. That's what it's going to be all next week. I think, I know we're kind of leaving Proverbs and we'll circle back around to Proverbs. So we always have so much to do, but let's get to it all right, It's already been nine minutes and forty two seconds, so let's get to it. Are you ready all right? So here we go. We've been working on the Book of Proverbs for this kind of like the Summer of Proverbs. We've done this in the past and we're kind of doing it again. It all started with me reading these words the of Solomon, and then I basically put forth a question why Solomon Solomon is writing the Book of Proverbs. We typically say a proverb is this short saying that is to convey, that is into a impart to us God's wisdom. We find wisdom in these proverbs, and we may say

10:22 why Solomon, and someone may raise their hand to gains Well, he's the wisest man who ever lived. That's why he wrote the Book of Proverbs. Because he's the wisest man, and it's a book about wisdom. And I would counter or play the devil's advocate and go but wait a minute, Wait a minute. The wisest man who supposedly ever lived happened to also be the most extravagant fool who ever lived. His foolishness was extravagant, it was, it was almost exaggerated. He was like the hyperbole of foolishness Solomon. I mean, oh, I mean we could go on and on and all the things that he've done, and and we will. We well documented everything that he did. So we started trying to answer this question why Solomon, and we did a little background study. Right, we saw Solomon basically serving as David's hitman. Hey, as David is dying, he's basically telling Solomon, kill kill, here's these people I want you to kill. Solomon comes to the throne, not only does he kill those people that David wanted him to kill, well, he even kills his half brother. And were like, the whole thing is crazy. And then next thing you know, he's marrying a woman that he's not supposed to marry, he's making an allegiance with Egypt.

11:35 Just on, and we could just go all the things that Solomon did. It was absolutely crazy. I mean, he did everything wrong. So that got us questioning that. So then we kind of asked this question, We'll wait a minute. When it came to Solomon, and he's given wisdom, I know, the way we kind of preach it is, well, he has wisdom in every area, and I put forth the hypotheses, well, maybe Solomman's wisdom was very limited to his wisdom to rule and to ragin, but it did not extend to so many much of his personal life and much of his even spiritual life, because I mean, he starts sacrificing in the high places, he builds high places, all the things that he did.

12:18 And I put forth that hypothesis, and we worked on that all right. So then at that point I thought about moving into well, let's just discuss wisdom itself. What is wisdom? And we did a little bit of discussing this, but you really can't start talking about wisdom and trying to figure out what wisdom is or isn't. And because and I even put forth, we did a kind of an entire message, do we need to redefine wisdom or a new definition of wisdom? So we did do a little bit of discussing about that. We in fact, I think I did over an hour long teaching on that. So as we're kind of just going through all of this, I was confronted or I started thinking of becoming really meditating on two passages of scripture. The first one is Proverbs one seven. Proverbs one seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And why that kind of struck me so much is because when we started talking about how to define wisdom, typically wisdom is defined as the correct use or the correct application of knowledge. So first you must have knowledge, then wisdom is the correct application of said knowledge.

13:37 All right, Now, this raises all kinds of questions because Solomon definitely did not do that in most of his life, in most areas of his life. Now you may that's why we decide to possibly restrict it to only his what pertained to ruling as a king, and there he did seem to do very good at the correct application and use of knowledge. But the point is we have to have knowledge, but you cannot have knowledge until you have the fear of the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So I started putting forth the question, what is the connection between the fear of the Lord and knowledge? Why is it that you must have the fear of the Lord or you do not have knowledge? And what does that mean? Because there's lots of people who don't fear the Lord but have great knowledge. So is this a specific kind of knowledge, and so we started asking some of those questions. And then the other passage that really struck me was in Proverbs chapter nine, verse ten, where we read the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if wisdom you can't have wisdom, or wisdom is the correct application of knowledge, then knowledge must come before wisdom. But you can't get knowledge until you fear the Lord.

14:52 So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, which you must have, and then wisdom is the correct application of that knowledge, typically the way it's defined. But wait a minute, you can't have wisdom until you fear the Lord. So, in other words, would be the prerequisite for wisdom, and the prerequisite for knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Let me read that to you again a Proverbs chapter nine, verse ten. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So we must fear God before we can even have knowledge, or that we can even have the the have wisdom. We must fear God before we can have knowledge or wisdom, making the fear of the Lord of great importance. So I asked you to try to figure out the connection and why and how it works, and that was some of your assignment. So that's that's that's kind of what got us onto this subject for this week, the Fear of the Lord. Now, I told you to look up random sermons on the sermon's two point, Oh app don't don't look for a specific church or denomination or a specific speaker.

15:56 Just look and as random as you can, try to listen to one each of this week. Hopefully you've accomplished that to some level. And well, I was in the process of doing all of that before the Psalm eighty three thing kind of derailed me. But I had one chosen. I had one picked that I picked early in the week, and I never got along, never got really to it right. But it's called the Great Importance of the Fear of the Lord. The Great Importance of the Fear of the Lord. I'm like, okay, that's that's a pretty good title. Was preached by Mike Allison at the Preaching Conference for twenty twenty four, a part of Bethel Baptist Church. I'm like, okay, so this fits perfectly because it's talking about the importance of the fear, of the fear of God or the fear of the Lord, which I've just articulated to you why it's important. You can't have knowledge, you can't have wisdom without it, all right, is this going to go the same direction? I don't know. I'm curious.

16:56 The next thing I was cured I was interested by. It's part of a preaching conference. And you know, I say all the time whenever I see that there's a new conference starting and it's going to be on the sermon's two point, oh app I always love that, right if I can watch them live great or I like it as soon as they're added, because I like you knowing what's going on at the conferences, because a lot of times you can see what the churches feel are important or what they are emphasizing, and you can kind of get a feel for what's going on in the world Christianity. So this was a preaching conference. One of the messages is called the Great Importance of the Fear of of the fear of God. I hope you look it up again, the great Importance of the Fear of God, not the fear of the Lord, the fear of God. Same concept. Preaching Conference twenty twenty four, Mike Allison, Bethel Baptist Church. Please go find it, please, download it. I don't know how much of it we're going to review. I have no idea which direction it's going to go, but we're going to hit play. I'll be analyzing, critiquing, and we will find out. So are you ready? Here we go that but always good to be with him, man, Let's try that again. That was an abrupt maybe okay, I'll back it all the way up. Maybe that's just the way when he turned on his microphone. I don't know. Let's see. I think there it probably eases into it a little better than that.

18:22 Here we go, Thank you, Amen, good to see you tonight. All right, you're looking good most of you. That's great. I don't even like Klipinos, how about that? But always good to be with him. Man, it's been a long time. I mean, it's been a long time. I can't remember. I remember the first time I preached for you. I think I ran a lady off that night and I still got invited back. That was amazing. That was and I wasn't being mean, I didn't think at that time. But anyway, I always loved to hear doctor Smith, what a what a blessing? Man? I like the way it opens the book and it doesn't make any difference. A couple of quick things. I think every preacher can tell that story where you preached, you taught, and you ran someone off, because unfortunately, when it comes to the way it works in the American church, I can't speak for other countries, especially in the American non Catholic world, people can just get up and leave and go to another church for any reason, because they ultimately the people. The people make the determination. Right they're like like it, don't like it, or I've been a member here for now, I'm just gonna leave. And they just leave, and they just leave, and they just leave. And that's why there's those statistics that you have to have thirty new people each year just to maintain, not even to grow, because that's the

19:52 turnover, the turnover, the turnover, the turnover, the turnover. And sometimes you can be very consistent and don't have a big turno and then one thing happens, then boom, you lose twenty thirty people. And it's always weird. The people who stay behind the preacher will be like, I ran them off because I preached the truth. We speak the truth, and they left, and the people who leave, we left because that guy wasn't preaching the truth and everyone will think they were right. It's kind of very frustrating so that it's sad that that's the way it works. And now he mentions doctor Smith, that's the editor of the sort of the Lord he's referring to. And we reviewed his message from this conference. I think we reviewed his message from this conference and we had that kind of very well controversial idea where he put forth the idea that God is not in control of everything and God does not cause everything to happen. We were kind of like what we were a little perplexed by that, so we did review that. But here we go. Let's see where he's going to go. Where it's at. You're going to get some really good stuff that'll help you in a blessing to you.

21:00 What a joy, God's good. I get older, I'm becoming a I'm becoming a crier. Are there any other older people here that you cry more? Now? In what you used to cry? Man? What's wrong with me? I feel like, well, I'm not going to tell you what I feel like. I'm just anyway the weeping prophet. Yeah, with the snap crackle and pop bones. I mean, boy, I'll tell you, if I just bend the knees a little bit, I sound like, what's the name of that cereal rice crispies, That's what it is. That's what does that. Turn your Bibles to the Book of Proverbs chapter one, Proverbs chapter one, and then we're gonna go over to Ecclesiastes chapter twelve.

21:51 This is gonna be so fundamental, so foundational. So I mean, right at the beginning, this is what I think is the main thing that is missing among unfortunately, even Bible believing Christians. We are being bombarded with the thought that because God is love and that we are saved by grace, that God is so desirous just simply to be our buddy, that if we'll just look at him as the one who will give us everything he wants us happy and wealthy and fulfilled, feeling fulfilled in all the worldly things that we could possibly ever want. And I believe that kind of thought is so far away from what our relationship with the Lord is to be. We have a real lack of fearing the Lord. Okay, now, interesting, now I think he's putting forth his hypothesis here. He's putting forth his thesis here pretty I think, pretty straightforward. I think he's being clear. Hey, there's a lack of fear of the Lord in Christianity today. It's missing. It's lacking because we have these other ideas, these other concepts bombarding us now. At the same time, though, I mean, if I go back from the

23:22 very early stages of my Christian life, becoming a Christian as a teenager in the eighties, all the way through the and I've been a Christian ever since, all the way through that, all the things that have happened in my life, from that moment of conversion, all the way through all of my theological education, Bible college, seminary, Bible institutes, all the preaching and teaching that I have done over the years, I think it would be very safe to say I have heard, probably since the eighties, over and over and over and over again, the thing that is missing is that we do not fear the Lord. We do not fear the Lord. We do not fear the Lord. We do not fear the Lord. We do not fear the Lord. I've heard that over and over and over. I've seen books written about it, sermons about it. We do not fear. We've got to get back to fearing God. If we get back to that, that will fix and resolve everything. So I think this puts forth a very important question. We will we will not challenge his assessment that that's desperately needed, or it's desperate, or it's it's drastically miss missing. We will We won't.

24:37 We won't challenge his perspective or his his take that it's it's desperately needed and it's drastically missing. We won't challenge that. We will just go along with that. But here would be my question, if it's been missing, if it's drastically needed, and it's been needed, and it's been missing throughout the years. I mean, you know, from the eighties, the nineties, the two thousands, twenty tens, now we're the twenty twenties, like all of that period of time. That's a long period of time, and it's been missing over and over and over and over again. Then here's the question, how does one obtain the fear of the Lord? How do you get it? Is it something you produce in yourself by like in other words, you're like, Okay, if I read my Bible more, I will get it. If I pray more, I will get it. If I go to church more I will get Do you obtain the fear of the Lord by your own efforts? In other words, the fear of the Lord is this thing and you must pursue it. You must chase it by reading more, studying more, praying more. Like, what do you have to do to get it? Or is it something that is in a sense produced inside of us by a supernatural work? And if it's a supernatural work, then why doesn't God just grant all Christians the fear of the Lord? And if that's the solution to all of our problems, then all of our problems would

26:07 be over do we get it? Or is it given to us? And if it's given to us, then well if we don't have it, then it's that's that's on God. Right, how do you understand obtaining it? Now? We could? I'm just going to go I'm not even going to challenge his perspective that it's missing or that it's drastically needed. Right, it's desperately needed, and it's it's it's it's it's dress it's drastically missing. I think that that's a fair assessment. I'm not even going to challenge or question that the issue is how do we obtain it? Now? Is he going to teach us how to obtain it or is it just going to teach us why we need it? I don't know. Let's see. Now it's not pleasant the priests, but we need it. We need to fear the Lord.

27:03 Independent Baptists need to fear the Lord, all those who've trust in Christ. The Bible says, the Lord is greatly to be feared in the assembly of a saints. This is an assembly of a saints right here. I mean, that's what the church is. It's an assembly. In the assembly of the saints, the Lord is greatly to be feared. And if he's not gonna be feared here, then the world's definitely not gonna fear him. We want to see the conviction of God fall upon people, then God's people need to have a fear of the Lord. You'll notice verse seven. I basically already give you the verse. But notice it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

27:55 Notice it is the beginning. This is where it starts, the fear of the Lord. Go over to Ecclesiastes chapter twelve, and notice verses thirteen and fourteen, those marvelous words that begin verse thirteen, or what every congregation loves to hear. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter here it is fear God and keep his commandments. For this is what does it say, the whole duty of man. Then it closes out with for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil, that ought to cause us to fear the Lord.

28:55 Okay, now a lot of things to take it into consideration here. So let me ask. So I've already kind of put forth a question, how do you obtain the fear of the Lord? How do you get it? Is it something you have to pursue and you get and how do you get it by reading, studying, praying? Or is it something that is granted to us or given to us by God? I think that's an important question. Second, he quotes from Proverbs one to seven and quotes from Ecclesiastes chapter twelve. Let me ask you this question. Did Solomon fear the Lord? Did Solomon fear the Lord? Now, let's remind ourselves Solomon was no way to get around it. A serial polygamist. I mean, come on, and I think by most definitions you would say he was a serial adulterer.

29:48 What seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines, Okay, I think there's some adultery going on. I don't. And there's clearly some polygamy going on, all right, clear, And that's a clear vie a legion of Deuteronomy. What's seventeen seventeen about what the king is not to do? He not only has all of these women, he marries women that he was not even supposed to. Forget the number of plurality of wives. He's marrying women that he's not The very first record of him marrying someone is in what First Kings? Is that first King's three I believe, or first King four? I think? Maybebe first Kings four? Uh. And then he's marrying an Egyptian woman, and he's making some law, you know, making some kind of treaty with with Egypt. He's literally he literally starts doing the things that he's not supposed to do. He's offering sacrifices in high places, and we can go on and on and on and on and on. He amasses great amounts of wealth which the kings were warned about not doing in First King and Deuteronomy seventeen.

30:45 We can go on and on and on and on and on. Did he fear God? Did he fear God? And look at First King seventeen records the end of his life. It's not good. God does not have with him at the end of his life. God is not pleased. Did Solomon fear the Lord? If he did? Or if Now this is where it gets. This is the that we've been dealing with this question now for you know, for a couple of weeks. If he did not fear the Lord, well, then did Solomon have knowledge and wisdom, since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. Or did he have a practical wisdom simply and how to rule and reign? But that wisdom did not extend beyond that? Did he fear God? Now, if you're going to say Solomon feared God, well, then you can't be challenging other people's fear God. Now what he just said there is the reason you should fear God. The reason you should fear God is because God will up for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing. Whether good or evil. So should you be sitting there sitting in church going, Okay, I'm afraid of God. I'm afraid of God because God is gonna take every

32:17 secret thing and make it. He's gonna reveal it, He's gonna show everyone. That's why I fear God, because God is going to be when He's gonna take every secret thing. When I finally get there, and he's gonna be like, look at everyone, come here, come here, let me show you every secret thing that Steve did, that, Bob did that, Kevin did that, Tim did, Like here it all is. Is that why you should be fearing God is because you just don't want all of your secrets to be revealed? And then how does that work for a believer whose all of his sin has been washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ, removed as far as the east is from the west. Jesus Christ paid for all of this, and he satisfied god wrath for you. He propitiated God's wrath on your behalf by faith, His righteousness and obedience is imputed to you.

33:07 So you stand before God perfect and holy? Or does that not count? Like? So, is that the reason we should fear God? Or is this a general reason people should have fear of God necessarily? Is this for the lost person? Hey, you should fear God because you will be judged. Let's see which direction he goes. That's the subject tonight, the fear of the Lord. Let's pray follow. We com to you in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I plead for the feeling of the Holy Spirit of God. Lord, may we get it. May we allow the Spirit of God to drive it home to our hearts. We're going to share a lot of scripture to that, Lord, and I pray that you would just do a mighty powerful work. When this is all, We would fear you in such a way that you would receive the praise, the honor, and the glory that you deserve from us. And Lord will thank you for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know it's now. I know I point this out all the time and when I when I review sermons, because you almost always get the opening an opening prayer there, and we've I've discussed my feelings about that, and yeah, all all the things about it.

34:30 But I do find it fascinating that I've been listening to sermons now forever I can't even count how many sermons I have listened to in my life. I mean thousands upon thousands, I mean the number. It would be staggering to even know how many sermons I've listened to. I mean, yeah, I mean so many, so many. Yeah, I don't even know where how you would even count how many. I mean, just wow, I mean, considering so many are available to us. I mean, you can just listen to sermons all day if you so desire, But it's so freak common and opening prayers. God open our eyes, God show us, God revealed to us. God lead us to truth, show us truth, help us understand it. And I'm always curious, what do we really believe God does for people sitting there listening to a sermon, Because if God actually was leading us into all truth and opening our eyes to see the truth, there wouldn't be thousands of denominations. There wouldn't be a disagreement on every doctrinal issue you can find. There wouldn't be commentaries that all disagree with one another.

35:40 Just think about Christianity. We don't agree on baptism, we don't agree on the Lord's Supper, we don't agree in the structure of the church. We don't agree. We don't agree on the word repentance. We don't agree on the word baptism. We don't agree. Literally, we don't agree on salvation. We don't. I mean, we can just go on and on and on and on and on and on. This church says that they're right and you're wrong, and the individual Christians will say, no, you're right, No, you're I'm right, you're wrong, that on and or they may say I'm right and you're wrong. Or there you're right and I'm wrong, whatever the case may be. There's just constant disagreements. I mean, it's just it's inevitable. Just go to any Christian website someone posted an article and immediately just start reading the comments. Disagree, No you're wrong, No you're right. Well what about the scripture? Well what about the scripture? Well know that you don't understand that scripture. No, you don't understand this scripture.

36:27 You don't know how to interpret the scripture. Well, if you would read your Bible, if you would open your eyes. But everyone believes that God has opened their eyes, God is showing them, God is teaching them, and God is leading them, Well then we would all be in agreement. Right. I know someone's gonna quote, well, the Bible says, you know, Lord lead us into all truth. I think those were for the disciples and for those who ultimately authored scripture. God led them into all truth. God revealed truth. God showed them truth. God helped them understand that. But I I don't think that we can apply that to us, because if we can, something is desperately wrong. Something is desperately wrong.

37:10 God can't be leading us all into different truths. So then do you draw the conclusion that God's only leading you into truth and everyone else he's leaving in darkness and everyone should just listen to you. Well, then just go ahead and declare yourself to be the pope. Interesting. They take polls about everything that's out there today, and one poll I don't think people tell the truth in these polls. One poll they have is for Americans is what do you fear the most? Now, they told us in this poll that what Americans fear the most is not death. As a matter of fact, death was number seven on the things that Americans fear the most. The thing that America fears the most, according to this pole, is public speaking. But I think if you brought any sensible American, brought him up on stage, no matter how much he fears public speaking, and you stuck a gun to his head and said, now you start talking or I'm gonna shoot you. I think they'd start talking, because I really think they fear death more than what they fear public speaking. I just don't think they tell the truth on these things. Now I have heard that stated my whole I think in all the

38:46 any college where I went, where I had to do speech class, unit sties, Military am my leadership school, in Coo Academy, all that at any time I was anything for the military. Once again, how to do speech class? Had to give three speeches in each one a speech class, typically do so to obtain my degree for health care administration. How to do speech. I don't even know how many times I've done speech class and it is cited over and over and over that that's the thing people fear the most, and watching how many people handle themselves in speech class, there is a great fear there. But I don't know if it's necessarily people lying. I think it's just like I think the I think the reason a lot of people don't why death is not at the top of the list is because I don't know if you can live your life in any reasonable way if you constantly are in fear of death. If you live in constant fear of death, it would be hard to live, right, it would be hard to function.

39:52 Right. You'd be like, Okay, I'm not going to go here, I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do that because I'm I'm gonna die. I'm going to die. And I think another possible reason is it's hard. It would be hard to live our life if we if we constantly thought about death, we constantly thought about death, there would be so many things we probably wouldn't even do, or even worry about, or even think about it. I don't even know how productive we would be if we just constantly were preoccupied with death. I think that's the reason when death happens everyone's so shocked by it. I mean, look, you know everyone's going to die, you know it, and I know it. But if you get a phone call tonight that your mother or your father, or your brother or your sister or anyone close to you dies, You're gonna be like, oh, you're gonna it's gonna hit you, like, wait, a minute, like, how did this happen? But it could happen to anyone, So I think I think we just kind of put that out of our minds. But yeah, the fear of public speaking is drastic in a lot of people. It does. It does scare a lot of people to death.

40:45 Now some of us, that's no big deal, Like I, yeah, yeah, whatever, Okay, it doesn't bother me to speak in front of people. Obviously I've been doing it forever. Okay, so it doesn't bother me. But that that doesn't make It's just because everyone has different fears, right. I think we're all we're all wired a little differently. Some people have that fear, some people don't. There's things I may not have a fear of public speaking, but I guarantee you I have fear of plenty of other things. Okay, I have fear of plenty of other things. And so do you don't act so tough? All right? So all right, But so he's he's bringing up what people fear the most now, but I think what he's going to articulate is how we don't fear God. I think someone wrote this, and I think maybe I wrote it. I don't know. I don't think I wrote it, but I could have written this.

41:43 That's hilarious. That the reason I laughed. You may not get that, and you may not be funny to you. But if you are, if you are a preacher, you're constantly listening to things and reading things, and you're constantly writing things down. Right, I got no books here, and journals all over the place, right, and I'll write something down or in my notes, so my iPad, I'll copy, and I'll cut and pay something and all over the place, just stuff constantly. Now. Sometimes yes, I'll try to remind myself to take the time to write down the source, write down the name, write down some but a lot of times you just hear something you're like, oh, that's really good, and you write it down and you just move on, and then you come back through your notes, like you know, three weeks later, four weeks later, you're looking at your notes, trying to look at what you were studying here, looking with that, or maybe you're trying to come up with an idea for a devotional or a podcast or a sermon. Who goes, ooh that was really good, but you're like, wait a minute, was that me or was that someone else, I don't remember. I don't remember. Well.

42:37 The thing, there was a time in the past where a pastor would just preach it right, like it's theirs right, like they wouldn't even give it much thought. Right, But in twenty twenty four, you desperately don't want to do that because the minute you say, are you pretend that it's yours, Someone's going to look it up and go, you plagiarize that. So you got to be very the time you just wrote stuff down and it's just like you know, but yeah, so but I understand not knowing. There's a lot of times I'll look at I'm like, I don't know, did I write this as someone say, well that doesn't sound like you? Well maybe maybe, Okay, then maybe it's not me. I don't like it. I don't know like it. Just in any given time, when you're sitting there writing something out, you may write it out in a way going okay, this is really good, and then you may be thinking in your mind how to make it sound better, and then you make it.

43:27 It may not sound like your normal way, or you may who knows, But because you're always bringing in concepts and ideas and quotes and thoughts and sermons and devotional messages and and this and and so that all it can all kind of merge together. I'm not saying that that excuses, you know, plagiarism. I'm not saying that it I say pagiar pelagianism. I'm not saying not pelagianism, plagiarizing. I'm not saying I'm not making an excuse for plagiarizing or plagiarism. That's I'm thinking theology there so. But I do find that funny because sometimes I don't remember either. When I was a child, like most children, I was afraid of things that go bump in the night. But I told myself, for no good reason, that monsters which lie under the bed cannot break through the blankets and the sheets. I may have told yourself the same thing, anybody here, Yeah, yeah, okay. By the time I was a teenager, I wasn't afraid of what might live under my bed, but I was afraid of what my friends might have to say about the way I comb my hair. Now, I know I didn't write that because it wouldn't have been how I combed my hair. But as an example, let me just share with you this's a personal example, when I was in eleventh grade. At that time, most all the young men wore white

44:57 socks. All the football player wore white socks, all the athletes wore white socks. All the cool kids wore white socks. But about the time I got to eleventh grade, that was starting to change and they started wearing different colored socks. Well, all I had was white socks. Now, my mom had bought me some socks that were white, but they had a colored ring around the top of the socks. But that's all I had. But nobody was just wearing white socks anymore to school. And so I was in a play in my junior year, the Spirit of Saint Louis. That's not right. Well maybe it was right. I don't remember, but I was in a play. I remember that meet Me in Saint Louis. That was it. Meet Me in Saint Louis is the name of the play. And I had to wear knickers in the play, and I had to have knee socks, and so we bought some knee socks that were black. I wore those every day to school for the rest of the year because none of the boys were white sox anymore. Now you understand I wasn't saved. I was weak. I get it all that, But it's amazing the things that we fear. What plenty of save people fear what people think. Okay, that's

46:28 not like, well, you know, once you're saved, now you have supernatural powers. Okay, that's that's such a built into the way Christians think. Now, plenty of Christians still fear what people think. Plenty of Christians do. They fear what people think when they preach. They fear what people think when they sing a special. They fear what people think and how they how they are dressed on Resurrection Sunday or quote unquote Easter Sunday. People fear what people think, Hey, how my kids are acting? How I fear what people are going to think about us. This people caught. People live in constant fear of what other people think. That's that's saved and unsaved. Okay, now there are some people who don't. Now that's one fear I'm glad I never had. I don't really care what people think. I'm glad about that. It's a double edged sword because I go to the other extreme.

47:21 I don't care what people think. So if I think people think a that I'm gonna go be just because I want to go against everyone else, which sometimes that can be a strength, but many times it's its own inherent weakness. But all right, let's see if he gets to the fear of the Lord. We still want to kind of see where he's going here. People might say about us. So what do I fear now? I'm afraid to put it simply of living a life that doesn't matter. That's my greatest fear. I want my time on this planet to have counted for something.

48:06 Now I'm going to raise this question, what is your greatest fear? What is my greatest fear? And is it acceptable that your greatest fear is to live a life that accomplishes nothing or means nothing. Now, I thought, shouldn't our greatest fear be God? If our greatest fear is God, then what my life accomplishes or doesn't accomplish, or what it means or doesn't mean, that then should be irrelevant. Right. I mean, is my greatest fear that my life didn't accomplish anything or mean anything because it impacts my perception of myself on my own ego? Or do I wrap it in a robe of self righteousness? And say, but I want my life to count for something for God. Right now, I understand that. But sometimes we say I want my life to count for something for God, but it's really more about me. I want my life to count something for God. But see if the other people see that my life is counting something for God, that I'm going to get some of that praise and recognition. Right now, let's say your life like this is the way you would know your life counts something for God. That means something for God. You're accomplishing something for God.

49:15 However, everyone despises you. Everyone hates you. Everyone thinks you're wrong. No one likes you, no one listens to you, no one comes to your church. Your ministry is dead. Your ministry is a failure. Everyone perceives you to be a failure. No one likes you. Are you still going to be like, well, my life counted for I think what we typically mean. We want our life to mean something in the eyes of other people, and then we can see the numbers. We can see this, and we can see that because then we feel good about ourselves. Now we'll tell ourselves no, no, no, no, no, that all proves that my life means something to God. It's the motives there. It's very it's very easy to convince yourself that you're caring about meaning your life meaning something for God. But in reality it can be more about you be that person who nobody listens to and nobody agrees with and everyone thinks you're wrong. And see if you think, well, my life must mean something to God.

50:15 Yeah, well you can tell yourself that, But I think sometimes that's about us. So should my greatest fear be my life not counting or my life not meaning something? Or should be my greatest fear? Is I fear God? And then what should that look like? If I fear God above all else, what should that look like. I'm afraid of leaving the world exactly like I found it, no different from me having been here. Well, my time's almost gone. I want it to have counted for God in something, and that is a desire of my heart. Now, we're all familiar with turn about fear, like, for instance, claustaphobia, and that's those fear of closed in spaces. We have a custaphobics here. If you're not sure whether or not you're a laustrophobic, then just have an MRI in one of those tubes where you are like this on your back for forty five minutes and if you make it through that with no problems, then you don't have it. Then there's acrophobia. Now, acrophobia is the fear of high places.

51:31 I looked up some of the lesser known ones, like this. Astrophobia is the fear of thunderstorms. I have it. I just didn't know it. And you know how I got the fear of thunderstorms. It wasn't till I was an adult that I got the fear of thunderstorms. My wife and I we were living in a mobile home. Then this goes way back up in Michigan and we had this storm coming across from Lake Michigan, coming off the lake at we were living up just north of Kalamazoo, and it was one that had all kinds of warnings with it. I don't think there was a tornado warning there. But I was standing in the back bedroom of that mobile home. I was looking out the window because that's the direction the storm was coming from. Man, it was raining cats and dogs, there was lightning out there, all of that, and suddenly there was a lightning strike just right outside the window. Now, that's not all that bad. But my wife had come into the room, was standing behind me, and I didn't know it, and when that lightning went bam, I jumped. Matter of fact, I turned one hundred and eighty degrees around without touching the ground, waiting it out here. From that time on, I've been afraid of lightning. Never bothered me before anyway. The fear thunb Mysophobia is the fear

53:04 of dirt. Didn't know that, did you. Erythrophobia is the fear of blushing. Pantophobia is the fear of everything, and then agoraphobia is the fear of fear. Normally, people who have anxiety attacks are known for agoraphobia, the fear of fear. Now, the reality is the fear that we need the most is the fear of God. God says it's the very beginning. It's the very beginning. As a matter of fact, he tells us that not just once, but many many times. You would think if God tells us something wants that we ought to pay attention. If God says it it's just so, that's it, and because he says it, it ought to be important to us. If God says it twice, then we ought to really sit up and take notice. Hey, this is something God really means for us to get. We need to have this. If God says it three times, al body, if God says it three times, I want to make sure I'm following what he says. But wait a second, I want to go through and this is not all of them, but let's go through some of the statements about fearing God. I'll do this quick. You won't have the time to turn there. You just have to get the recording and listen to it, all right. But Deuteronomy eight six, Therefore thou

54:36 shalt keep the commandments of the Lord, thy God, to walk in his ways and to fear him. Deuteronomy thirteen four. He shall walk after the Lord, your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice. And ye shall serve him and cleave unto him. First Chronicles, chapter sixteen and verse twenty five. For great is the Lord, and great to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods. Second Chronicles nineteen and verse seven. Wherefore, now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Take heed and do it, For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts Job twenty eight, twenty eight. And under man, he said, behold the fear of the Lord. That is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding Psalm nineteen and verse nine. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever Psalm twenty two and verse twenty twenty three. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him all, ye seed of Jacob. Glorify him and fear him, all, ye seed of Israel Psalm twenty five and verse fourteen. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant Psalm thirty three and verse eighteen. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them the hope in his mercy Psalm thirty four and verse nine. Oh, fear

56:08 the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him. Psalm thirty four and verse eleven. Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psalm seventy six and verse seven. Thou even thou art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry Psalm eighty five and verse nine. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land Psalm eighty nine and verse seven. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints, and to be had in reverence by all them that are about him Psng ninety six and verse four. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods Psalm one O three and verse eleven. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him one hundred and three and verse thirteen. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm one O. Three and verse seventeen. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and his righteousness unto children's children Psalm one forty five and verse nineteen. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him.

57:39 He also will hear their cry and will save them Psalm one forty seven and verse eleven. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy. Proverbs one seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge Proverbs two five. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs eight and verse thirteen. I'm sorry, Proverbs two and verse I gave you that one. Proverbs eight and verse thirteen. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

58:21 Do you get that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. That's one of the problems in America today. People don't hate evil. As a matter of fact, they love evil, and they hate what God says about evil. But the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy in the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate? Proverbs nine ten. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Proverbs ten and verse twenty seven. The fear of the Lord prolonged days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened Proverbs fourteen twenty six. The fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. Proverbs fourteen twenty seven.

59:14 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death Proverbs fifteen sixteen. Scripture says, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith Proverbs fifteen thirty three. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility Proverbs sixteen six By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged, And by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. Proverbs nineteen twenty three. The fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied. He shall not be visited with evil Proverbs twenty three and verse seventeen. Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou and the fear of the Lord all the day long Ecclesiastes eight and verse twelve. Though a sinner do evil one hundred times, and his days be prolonged. Yet surely I know that it should be well with them that fear God, which fear before him Isaiah two and verse ten. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty. Now, it's awesome that he's going through all of them, it really is. I don't know, like he's going through him so fast.

1:00:37 I don't even know if you could write down all the references when it's kind of like it's I'm conflicted there. Right, it's twenty twenty four. Right, it's twenty twenty four. You can look up the Fear of the Lord. You can use any kind of tool to say fear of the Lord. Basically, give me a list of all the scriptures Fear of the Lord, and you probably can have it in about ten seconds, right, probably could have it in fifteen seconds, five seconds, right, And there's there's all kinds of tools you could use to find it, so anybody could get a list of them. He's reading them so fast that there's no way to really articulate it. Now, Maybe what he's or no way to really do anything with it or try to be impacted by it. Now, maybe what he's trying to demonstrate is that the I did to fear God and the call to fear God is not a one time thing. It's said over and over and over and over. So he's just going through I'm just going to read all of these scriptures to drive that point home that to fear God is of the utmost importance because it's repeated so many times, and in that case it's effective.

1:01:44 So you could argue, like, in some ways is this needed. It may not be needed, but it may be effective and trying to be it may be effective. It may be effective and trying to demonstrate to people, Hey, this is all through the Bible, so we have to learn to God. But here's what struck me. Here's what struck me, and I'm and I'm going to put forth this in a different theological setting. Right, As everyone knows, we have talked on this podcast extensively about the proper distinction between law and gospel, and that that proper distinction between law and gospel has been obliterated in basically modern evangelicalism. Right, it's still that proper distinction between law and gospel, and that talking about that distinction is typically found in Lutheran theology, but it's been obliterated everywhere else within evangelicalism and even within fundamentalism.

1:02:36 And that is rast that can have a drastic impact on a proper understanding of the Gospel because I think so many times are so called gospels are nothing more than law masquerading as gospel. It's really law. When you get when you remove the mask, you remove the mask and you get down to law. Remember law if you're if you're trying to understand what is law and what is gospel. Any page you read in the Bible that says do this, do this, do this, do this and get this, do this and get this, don't do this and this will happen. Anything that says do this, do this, do this, that is law, law, law, law, law, law. And let's make it very clear. Law is designed to do a few things, but specifically it is designed to show you your inability to keep it. It's there to show you how you have broken it. It has show it's the law is there to condemn you.

1:03:29 It is to reveal to you. It is to convict you. It is to shame you. It is to humiliate you. It is to break you. So when you read scripture after scripture says fear God, Fear God, Fear God, Fear God, Fear God, fear God, I know that in most churches it's going to be like, get to it. That's what you need to do. Try harder, but you can try all day, You're never going to fear God properly. And if to fear God is connected with obeying him, then unless you are one hundred percent holy and obedient all the time, then you do not fear him. How much disobedience can be in your life before that can no longer be classified as fearing God? How much disobedience can be in your life? How much? Because trust me, I can give you some just a few quick scriptures. Love the Lord God, Love the Lord God, Love the Lord Thy God with all your heart, mind, body and soul. If I can speak correctly, love the Lord Thy God with all your heart, mind, body and soulf. No one does that, And if you think you do, then you've got bigger problems. Well, if you don't obey that, and you don't obey that ever, then do you fear God? Love your neighbor as yourself? Do you ever truly pull that off? Oh? Here's one be ye, holy as He is holy? You're never holy as God is holy, ever, not in practice? So those are three areas where you're an almost perpetual disobedience.

1:04:48 So then do you fear God? If fearing God is connected to obedience then you have to be perfectly obedient in order to fear God, because if you're not perfectly, then you're disobedient. And if fearing God is obedience, then disobedience would prove you don't fear God. So then do you ever truly fear God? Now I will argue all those scriptures that say fear God, fear God, fear God, fear God, fear God, fear God is law, which condemns you that that should be? Well, what do I do? You run to Christ? Because in Christ you then will be declared to be perfect and holy, and all of Christ's obedience is imputed to you.

1:05:29 Now this comes into play here. Look at Isaiah chapter eleven. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots Isaiah eleven to one. Almost everyone says this is a Messianic prophecy, pointing to Christ. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord Christ in his incarnation, in his humanity, in his relationship to the Father, in that incarnational relationship one God three distinct persons. But that proper relationship between father and son, Christ and his incarnation feared God. In Christ, his fear of God, that means he obeyed all of those commands to fear God is imputed to my account. So in my position, I fear God perfectly.

1:06:34 In my position, I obey God perfectly. So all of those commands. Yes, we should pursue the fear of the Lord, but we're never going to get there. You're never going to You're never truly going to fear God properly, ever, and if you think you are, you're never going to fear him properly, especially if you say the fear of the Lord is connected to obedience. So I would tell you, when you consider the fear of the Lord, write down Isaiah eleven if you believe Isaiah eleven one through three is speaking of Christ. Now I'm gonna look at I'm gonna look at this verse in a different translation. I'm gonna look at it at a different translation, just to make sure. I probably need to look it up in all English translations, probably look it up in all. I know. I know we're approaching. I know this is a concept. A lot of you may not are well, depending on who's listening you maybe if you've been listening to this podcast, we've done like over eighty hours of teaching on the proper distinction between law and gospel, probably the most important series we've ever done. Okay, and now that is that is Apple trying to talk to me, my Apple device. I will not say her name, because she obviously thought I was speaking of her. All right, all right. Isaiah chapter eleven in this Bible says, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So when the King James and in the New King James, it clearly states that. And I don't

1:08:05 have I don't have any other translations. But since we've already gone sixty eight minutes, I won't look it up. Just remember Isaiah eleven. All of those scriptures tell you you must fear God, and it says fearing God in many cases is connected to obedience. Well, you don't do that. And if obedience is connected to fear, then it must be perfect obedience, or you don't fear God, or you have to answer the question how much disobedience before it begins to call into question how much you fear God. Now, typically what we do is that person fears God and fears God until they commit a certain sin. And then if they commit a certain sin, well, they don't fear God because if they fear God, they would never commit that sin. Well, then wait a minute, Okay, now we got a problem. Well, then did Solomon fear God? Did David fear God?

1:08:49 Did anybody fear God? Because everyone in the Bible disobeyed. So in one hand, practically we never truly fear God, or at least we can say we never fear God any we're close to perfectly. But in Christ Jesus, we can say that we fear God, just as we say that we are obedience, because in our position we are all of those things because of the imputed obedience of Christ to our account Isaiah thirty three and verse six. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. Now I know what somebody's thinking right now. Somebody's thinking either in here or perhaps over the internet. Somebody's thinking, Well, all those verses, Preacher every one of them are in the Old Testament. Well, that means you were paying attention when I read the address of each of those verses. Every one of those verses were in the Old Testament. But that's not all the verses. I just hadn't gotten to the New Testament yet, So let me give you some in the New Testament. Matthew eight, Jesus is speaking. He says, in fear not them which killed the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.

1:10:13 Now you say, well, that's the devil. No, he's not telling us to fear the devil. The devil has no power in hell. You understand that was created not for the devil and his angels to reign, but to suffer. The devil doesn't even have the keys to Hell. Jesus has the keys. Just read Revelation chapter one. The one that word to fear is God Luke chapter one and verse fifty. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Ah, that's powerful stuff right there. Look twelve five. But I will forewarn you whom he shall fear, fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.

1:10:55 Yeah, I say unto you, fear him in Acts chapter nine and verse thirty one. One. Then had the churches rest round are throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied. You get that when the churches had the fear of the Lord, they had rest the fear of the Lord. Two Corinthians, chapter seven and verse one. Having therefore these promises, Dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.

1:11:36 Pesians five twenty one, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. First Peter, Chapter two and verse seventeen. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, Fear God, Honor the King, Revelation fourteen seven, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him, Give glory to Him, for the hour of his judgment is come. And worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the thousands of waters. Revelation nineteen and verse five. And a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. So how many times does God have to say something before we take it seriously? And we will stop right there. You can go listen to the rest of that sermon, The Great importance of the Fear of God.

1:12:35 Mike Allison on the sermon's two point. Oh, app please go download it and listen to the rest. I don't know if we will review the rest. Maybe we will, maybe will not. It depends if anyone listens and wants me to the main point that we take from this is clearly God demonstrates it's of great importance because it's repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. But if you read some of those scriptures where it's repeated, those scriptures are clearly classified as law because it's saying do this, and you will get this, don't do this, and you will obtain that this, do this. It's law, law, law, law, law, law. Well, what does law do? Laws convicts you, Law shows you what you're to do and that you do not do it, and that you cannot do it. We cannot keep God's law. Everyone get that right. No one can keep God's law lost or saved as a saved person, you cannot keep God's law perfectly. If you think you can, you are delusional. You cannot keep it perfectly. How do I know? Be holy as He is holy? You cannot be as holy as God as holy you cannot. That would be perfection inwardly and outwardly. Where you're not even perfect inwardly because you have a sinful nature even after being saved. That's why you have to We have to have glorification where we get a new body and the old nature is gone. Right, so we are we will never obey that perfectly. We will not so because we don't obey God's law perfectly. Well, one of the things we don't obey is fearing God perfectly. We always fall short of that. So then what do we do? Well, Obviously we want to be convicted by our failure, but we ultimately by our failure, we want

1:14:05 to be driven to Jesus Christ. When we're driven to Jesus Christ, what do we find? We find that by putting our faith in him, his obedience, passive and active, is imputed to our account. His holiness is imputed to our account. We are, it's accredited to our account that we are holy, righteous, and obedient. And all that Christ did, all that Christ was, is imputed to me. And he feared the Lord. Isaiah eleven one through three or one through four. I can look at it. You can look at Isaiah eleven. That's clearly a Messianic prophecy. That's a message. I think I may have called it a messionic palm, a Messianic prophecy. Clearly that's referring to Jesus. Jesus feared God in him.

1:14:51 I fear God in him, I obey in him, I love in him. I do everything correctly and practice. I fall short of all of it. Now, because I'm declared to be perfect, positionally and practice, I should try to pursue what it is to fear God. Now we didn't get exactly how we are to obtain it and what that looks like and how do we get it? But you did see the importance of it. Now we went seventy five minutes. These reviews always do that. I told you it would take five hours to try to review this entire sermon. Easy, maybe I could finish it up in the next one maybe, but typically it usually goes four to five hours, so maybe because my initial introduction is always so long. But I had to give a longer introduction because this is to try to conclude our discussion of the Fear of the Lord that we are supposed to have been working on all week. I don't think we've even come close to exhausting the subjects, so we will probably return to it again. But for the starting tomorrow, our focus for the sermon's two point zero app sermon challenge will be Psalm eighty three. But we will return to this and hopefully you did all of the assumates I gave you this week, and I would challenge you to at least finish that sermon. You only have about probably twenty five minutes left. Well probably about twenty because usually the concluding five or six minutes as a prayer and summarizing, so probably you probably got fifteen minutes of actual probably teaching, so you can probably wrap that up soon. All right, there we go. Well, we definitely got to talk about this again soon.

1:16:23 All right. NEWSI F at yahoo dot com. That's NEWSI F at Yahoo dot com. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great night. God bless