From the Beginning, Fear...

Well, we're here at the Feast of Tabernacles, and I hope that you have been enjoying yourself in spite of some of the restrictions that we've had, in spite of having to wear some face masks and deal with some of the issues that we've had in the world. No matter what we deal with in the world, always coming before God is a joy and an opportunity to rejoice. And no matter what the situation, you know, we will find peace, and we will find peace and hopefully harmony and unity and the joy in coming before God. And as we go through this feast, I hope that we will have even more a picture of what the world tomorrow will look like and what the kingdom will look like when all men live by the word of God, exist by the word of God, and have the Holy Spirit living and guiding them, just as we do today. But, you know, for those of us here today, you know, we have the opportunity to live by God's way of life, and that should produce peace and harmony and the joy that we all experience, and it should be increasing as we're longer in the church and as we are longer as we let God's Spirit lead us. And as we go through the Bible, we know that one of the—we have to endure to the end to be in that kingdom. It's great to know about the kingdom. It's great to be able to think about it. It's great to have the knowledge that we have, but we have work to do. We have work to do if we're going to be in that kingdom. So as we read through the Bible, we learn that our calling is not just a one-time thing, like sometimes the world's churches will say, just be baptized and you're saved. We know ours is a continual course through the rest of our lives. We're told we have to grow in grace and knowledge. We're told we have to be held fast to the things that we have learned and the things that we have received. We're told that we have to endure to the end, that we must endure to the end if we're going to inherit the promises that God has made to all of us. So we have these admonitions that are there, and as we look at the churches in Revelation, the Meshes of Seven Churches, we see other things there. The very first church, you know, they sort of departed from some of the zeal that they had, and God said, go back and remember the things that you were taught. Remember the things you were taught. Repent and go back and do the first works. And I'm struck as I read through the epistles of John, you know, the apostle who lived the longest, and to whom God gave the book of Revelation to record for us the end-time prophecies, that in his epistles, in his end days, he would caution ten times, ten times in those epistles, for people to remember and go back and keep hold of the things that they were taught from the beginning. The things that they were taught from the beginning.

Because as we go through life, there can be a tendency to forget those early things and to let things be watered down. And often we have to just remind ourselves, let's go back to the beginning and see what God taught us then, and not allow that building block that's so important to holding that temple that God is building among us individually and collectively, to never let that brick or that stone disappear. Let's go back to verse John. First John 2, one of the ten times that he mentioned this, mentions this in his apostles, is in 1 John 2 and verse 24.

Says, therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. And he repeats this in his second epistle to John. Remember what you've heard from the beginning. Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Father and in the Son. And this is the promise that he has promised eternal life. Remember what you have taught from the beginning, or what you have been taught.

So today, I want to go back and I want to talk about some one thing in particular that we were taught in the beginning. But maybe over the course of time, we haven't talked about it, and we need a refresher of how important that thing for the beginning that seems so basic. And when I tell you what it is, it might roll your eyes, but it is so important, vitally important, to our salvation. So vitally important for us to even be in the kingdom of God, and we can let it disappear from us as so many people have, as so many people have.

And when we see when we lose that, and if it fades away, we can be among the very many that have left the church over the years and just canceled and forfeited the promises that they've been given. So let's go back. I want to look at a couple of people who interact here back in the Old Testament, because it's very instructive when we see some of the interactions with the people back in the Old Testament. Back in 1 Samuel, we're introduced to a couple of people back in chapter one, and they had very different reactions and very, very different responses in their life and their family matters.

In chapter one, we're introduced to the woman Hannah. You remember Hannah. She was childless, and in those days it was very difficult for women to be barren. It was part of their, just of their makeup, that they would have children, and they would feel like a failure if they weren't able to produce children for their husbands and their families. And she wasn't able to do that. So she prayed, and she prayed to God, and she had faith that He would answer her prayers, and she would come each year to the temple, and she would run into the high priest, Eli, at that time.

And as she encountered him one year, he had a reaction, if we look down at verse 12, that as she was praying, he thought of all things that she was drunk. It seems like that would be kind of an unusual thing for a priest to think, but that's what he did, and it kind of gives us a little bit of clue about Eli as we read this.

Let's pick it up in verse 12 of 1 Samuel 1. It says, it happened as Hannah continued praying before the eternal, that Eli washed her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So he said to her, how long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. Can you imagine if someone had said that to you, and you were praying to God in infervency?

And then the minister said that to her. Anyway, but Hannah answered and said, no, my lord, I'm a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but I have poured out my soul before the eternal. Don't consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief, I have spoken until now. Well, I would imagine Eli was a little embarrassed when he heard what she had said, and so then he joined her in her prayers.

Eli answered and said, go in peace, and the God of Israel, grant your petition which you have asked of him. And she said, let your maidservant find favor in your sight. She had a good attitude, too. She could have really developed an attitude toward Eli, but she was forgiving, and when she saw that he joined with her, then, you know, she was head of forgiving spirit, and they both prayed, and you know the story? Hannah had a child, and she had made a promise to God that that child would be God's when he was weaned. And so she kept the boy Samuel with her, and for whether it was three years, as it might indicate in 1 Chronicles, whether it was five years, he was very young when he was weaned, and Hannah made the commitment to give that boy, or as she puts it in the Bible, or the Bible puts it, to lend him to God.

Now, again, imagine, put yourself in her place, even if you're a father and not the mother, that you have this child for three years, or five years, or whatever period of time, and then you willingly take it because you promised to God if he would give me a child, if you would give a child, you would give it to him. Take it to the temple, and then he would be in service to the temple and to Eli there.

And she willingly did that. Now, her husband might have had an opportunity to say, you know, she made that promise, and it wasn't my promise, but he honored her in her commitment. She was willing to sacrifice that little boy that she loved so much because she had made that commitment to God. What was it about Hannah that she didn't look for a way around that promise? What was it about Hannah that she kept true to her word and didn't look for a way around what she had said?

You know the boy Samuel, who he grew up to be, he grew up to be one of the finest judges in all of Israel. Committed to God, God used him. Samuel was even the one who anointed David to be king. He was a very good man, and even in his very young years, you remember, as you remember that story, he was just so obedient to Eli.

Here's this young kid, and he went in there, and you don't see him whining, crying, throwing fists that his mom is leading him. He was just trained at that young age to whatever Eli wanted. That's what he did. What was it about Samuel? What was instilled in him that even at that young age, he had a commitment that would make many of us feel or pale in comparison to. Yes, God's Spirit was involved at that time, but something about them.

On the other hand, we have Eli, who was the high priest, and Eli had been there. He'd been, we could use the, you know, the term he'd been in the church all of his life. He had two sons, Hothney and Phineas. They'd been in the church all their lives. They knew God. They could recite the commandments. They could do everything.

They knew what the, they knew what the procedure in the temple is. They knew what their jobs were. They'd done it all their lives, and yet when we look at Eli's sons, we see they're nothing like Samuel was. This young lad Samuel in verse 12 of 1 Samuel 12. I'm sorry, verse 12 of 1 Samuel 2.

It says the sons of Eli were corrupt. They were corrupt, and you can read through what they did. Untenable things in that temple, and they just kind of made mockery of the things of God. It says they didn't know God. Well, they knew of him. They'd grown up in that atmosphere.

Eli had raised them. He was the, he was the priest. They should have known better, but here they were operating in the temple of God, and they were nothing like Samuel. There was something missing in those boys. Something terribly missing. Down in verse 17, it's, it's repeated, the sin of the young man was great before the eternal, for men abhorred the offering of the eternal. What they did even made people not even want to come to the temple because it was so heinous what was going on.

They didn't even enjoy coming before God and rejoicing of them because of the behavior of those two young men. Down in verse 25, Eli tries, as it's brought to his attention, to correct them, and he goes to them and says, listen, you can't be doing this. Haphne, you can't be doing this anymore. Verse, I'll pick it up in verse 24. He says, no, my sons, it's not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him, but if a man sins against the eternal, who will intercede for him?

Didn't get their attention, though. Nevertheless, they didn't heed the voice of their father because the eternal desired to kill them. They'd gone too far. They were missing something, even though they had been raised in the church, even though they had knowledge, even though they could probably repeat more than you and I could from the Scriptures, there was something about them that was missing. God decreed that those young men would die. And down in verse 34, it says that Haphne and Phineas, it was prophesied that they would die in one day. And indeed, they did. What was it about Eli? That his children didn't have what Hannah's son had. What was it about Haphne and Phineas who were in the church all their lives, but they didn't have that same spirit that Samuel did? You know, you can look through the Bible and you can see the differences between people that are in the Bible. What was the difference between Abraham and the rest of the people? Why was he willing to sacrifice Isaac without arguing with God, without hesitating?

Why was Isaac willing to go along with it and not tell his father no way or run away or throw a fit or whatever it is who he's doing? What was it about them? They knew God, yes. They believed God, yes. They understood God, yes. What was the difference, for instance, between a Saul and a David? Saul knew he was appointed by God, King Saul, and yet God removed him from being king because he didn't obey God in the way and the diligence and carefulness that we're instructed to.

And yet there was King David who did. There was King David who did, and the Bible tells us God put his Holy Spirit in Saul. It wasn't that, but something along the way Saul was missing.

Something along the way, David kept it in the forefront of his mind all the time. So God says, this is a man after my own heart. You can draw the same things we can come bring, but right to the end time that we're in now. When we look in Revelation 3, we see two end-time churches, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And we know what the traits of the Philadelphia Church is. We all want to be, have those traits of the Philadelphia Church that God says, nothing negative about. You've kept my word. You haven't denied my name. You've endured to the end.

But at the same time, there's this Laodicean Church that exists at the same time, and they are not the same, and they don't behave the same as the Philadelphia Church. What's the difference between the two? How can two groups of people be sitting in the same church, led by the same spirit, knowing the same God, hearing the same messages, and yet have two different types of behavior at the end time? One that God commends, and one that God recommends, go out and have your gold refined in the fire. What's the difference? What's the difference? What is the something that from the beginning that perhaps some lose along the way that could spell the difference between being in the kingdom or not being in the kingdom? Being part of a group that God may, you know, take away to a place during the Great Tribulation or having to go through the Great Tribulation, what is something from the beginning that these people have? Well, we might find a little bit of the clue here, right, in 1 Samuel 2. Let's drop down to verse 27. And as Eli is working with his sons or telling them to stop the behavior they're doing, they're not paying any attention to what what Eli says. They're beyond that. They are just, they just do what their will is now. Verse 27 says, A man of God came to Eli and said to him, thus says the eternal, didn't I clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Didn't I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon my altar, to purr in incense, and to wear an ephod before me? And didn't I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? Didn't I give you everything? Didn't I offer you everything?

Didn't I give you what you needed in order to do the job that you were called to do?

Why then, verse 29, do you kick up my sacrifice and my offering which I have commanded in my dwelling place and honor your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people? And then God pronounces a dire, a dire pronouncement on them.

Eli was guilty of putting his sons before God. He was violating the first commandment.

It's almost as if he feared his sons and was more willing to do what they had because he'd lost something called the fear of God in the process. It no longer meant as much to him to please God as it did to just allow his sons to do what he allowed his sons to do. And so he lost his life.

His family lost what they had been called to do. His sons lost his life.

A pretty stern price to pay because he lost something that he should have known and may have been placed in him from the beginning, but over the course of time he got very used to God.

Very, very satisfied or very comfortable in his life and allowed other things to take precedent over something so basic. Did Eli have faith in God? Yes, he did. Did he believe God? Yes, he did. You read through the Bible and you know when God makes his pronouncement, you know, he simply says, you know, let God's will be done. He understands it. Perhaps he even understood, I've lost, I've lost my fire, I've lost not even my zeal, I've lost that brick that holds my faith up, that drives so much else and that directs me through life, even with God's Spirit with me.

Let's turn over to Psalm 36.

Psalm 36 in verse 1. This is from David. A man who, God says this after his own heart, a man who we absolutely know, you know, had the fear of God and it was before his eyes day and night. Psalm 36 verse 1 is quite instructive. An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked. Well, we have Eli, we have Hophni and Phineas.

An oracle concerning the transgression of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes.

There's no fear of God. And so we do what we want to do. We compromise. We say that's okay. God may say, do this 100% of the time, but hey, he would be okay with 80% or 90% or 75%. He may say, come before me and I think, well, you know, yeah, most days that's okay to do and other times it's not, you know, God's okay with that. He knows what's in my heart. God's okay with us. God wants us to learn how to obey him diligently and carefully. We're told over and over in the Bible and to live by every word of the Bible, not just the words that satisfy us or fit the occasion that we want to have happen at that time. God says they've lost the fear of God. It's no longer important to them. They think, ah, nothing's going to happen to me. It's okay to do things this way. We go on in verse two. This person who has no fear of God before his eyes, he flatters himself in his own eyes.

I'm okay. I'm a good person. I do most of what God says. I'm not out stealing. I'm not out, I'm not out lying. He flatters himself in his own eyes when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. Even if someone brings it to his attention like Eve like brought it to Afni and Phineas, it's like, I'm not going to listen to that. In my eyes, I'm doing just fine.

The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit. And notice what it says about those who have no fear of God. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. When we lose the fear of God, when that no longer is at the forefront of what we do, one of the beginning building blocks of our individual temples and our collective temple as a church, we begin to lose the wisdom of God.

He gives his wisdom to those who keep something important right from the beginning.

Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1, verse 7. Next book over.

Well, actually, let's stop in Psalm 119 on your way to Proverbs 1. Make that Psalm 111. We'll be in Psalm 119 later. Psalm 111 and verse 10.

The fear of the Lord or the fear of the eternal, it's the beginning of wisdom.

We all want the wisdom of God. We all, when we repent and when we're baptized and we have God's Holy Spirit placed in us, when he looks at us as children, he wants us to grow in grace, in knowledge, in wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. If somehow over the course of our lives, that fear disappears, what does Psalm 36.3 tells us? Wisdom begins to fade. Wisdom begins to disappear. All of a sudden, we look at ourselves and pat ourselves on the back and say, I'm okay. I'm okay. God's okay with what I'm doing, even though I may be looking at words and not doing what they have to say. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding have all those who do his commandments, who pay attention to what he has asked them to do. Now we can go over to Proverbs 1.

And we see that in the beginning or from the beginning, we need this fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom, and fools despise instruction.

When someone tells me something, I don't take it with, I need to look at myself and examine myself and ask, is this what I'm doing? Rather, I just shrug it off, or I get mad and walk away or run away and say they're just being nitpicking with me and whatever. What's our reaction?

What's our reaction when we may be corrected by parents or by a friend or a spouse or someone else?

Fools despise wisdom instruction, but the fear of God is the beginning, the beginning of knowledge.

When that fear disappears, when we no longer see God in the way that God expects and delights in having us see Him, things begin to disappear.

So we've all known people over the years who have been sitting here with us. And then, after a few years, they're not sitting with us. They're off doing something else.

Maybe they start little by little, not doing the things that they should do, and you can kind of begin to see them fade away. And then all of a sudden, they're not there at all. Because when that beginning, that would beginning thing disappears, when we get too comfortable, when we think all is okay and we lull ourselves to sleep, knowledge disappears, wisdom disappears. And we have people, a people, and a world that doesn't have the fear of God in it that dissolves or devolves into a very, very sorry place.

Romans 3. Romans 3. And verse 10.

You know, Paul, as he's writing to the Romans in the first two chapters, he takes the Gentiles to task for the ways that they've lived their lives. They came out of a society that was, that was awful to live in. They had a lot to overcome. The Jews kind of saw themselves as superior and thought, oh, we're so much better than these Gentiles. But they had to understand that the way they were living their life, it wasn't the correct way either. Jesus Christ didn't come to say, hey, it's Judaism, the way you live, plus add me. He told the Jews what you are doing is not the way of life. Follow me. Follow me. And he corrected them, and they didn't want to hear it either. They didn't want to hear it either. And they continued in their way. And as he writes here in verse 10, quoting from the Old Testament, he says, there's none righteous, no, not one.

None. There is none who understands. There's none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside.

They all used to know. They all used to get it. But now they've all turned aside. They've together become unprofitable. Maybe at one time beginning to be profitable servants, but now unprofitable servants. No longer with the focus that they used to have. No longer with the commitment that they used to have. No longer with the diligence and the carefulness they used to have. There is none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced a seat. The poison of asps is under their lips. Look at the words that he says to a people that once knew. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

The way of peace they haven't known. Among their nations, in their families, in their marriages, in their church. The way of peace they haven't known. And he all boils down to one thing. All those things that society, peoples, families, marriages, parent-child relationships, all boils down to there is no fear of God before their eyes. How important is it to have the fear of God?

Vitally, vitally, vitally important. Something we've been taught from the beginning. Something that we may not talk about enough. Something we may not focus on enough. Something we may not talk to our children enough about. Something that we may need to look at what Hannah, Abraham, people like that did. That their children feared God and they walked in those ways with him.

Something missing in some other lives. Maybe something missing in our lives if we're not having the same type of results. The same type of peace. The same type of growth. The same type of everything that God wants for us in our lives individually and collectively.

Today there's no fear in the world. No fear at all, right? I mean, we look at the world around us and what it screams at us is, authority, forget authority. I'm not afraid of the police. I'm not afraid of any government intrusion. In fact, we want to just do away with authority. That's the cry of the land now. Defund police. Get rid of government. Let's have no laws. Let's have a land of lawlessness so that everyone does what they say. And somehow, people think that's wise.

Somehow, in a world that's devoid of God, that gets further and further away from him, that doesn't even think of him anymore. In most occasions, it gets further and further and more and more just absolute derelict and hopeless as you look at it. No wonder America is the way it is. At one time, perhaps they had a fear of God, as we heard earlier in the feast, when the Constitution was being put together and the government was being formed, and people actually looked at the Bible as a guide to their lives, as instruction from God. But all that fear is gone. And year by year, decade by decade, we see the country just moving further and further away. What we... and maybe we see that happening in our families. Maybe we see that happening in our churches, if I dare say that. In our communities, the fear of God has to be, as we've heard, one of those bricks in our temples that were being built individually and collectively. And if we ever pull it out, if it ever goes, it crumbles. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. Always remember that. But this fear of God... this fear of God is important. Faith is important. Belief is important. Obedience is important. All those things have to work together. But the fear of God is basic. Something from the beginning.

You know, I like to keep articles from time to time. And apparently, I left the article that I was going to read back at my... back at my desk. Perhaps I could have my son bring my clipboard up to me if it's... if it's there. Maybe I left it back. But I'm gonna... I'll quote it if I...

if I can remember... I remember the article well. It was written by a lady by the name of Susan Reimer back in 1996. That was the days when people were still reading newspapers and whatever, and you might get up on Sunday morning and read your newspaper. And I remember this article because it struck me... it struck me as... as I read it, that she had tapped into something so important. And I've carried that with me for 24 years. But she wrote it in 1996, and she was talking about the fear... putting fear back into our children. And she was quite... she was quite a... I wish I had the article, but I'll... I'll quote parts of it as I remember it. But what she was doing was saying that it was so important to have the fear of God in our... our fear of their parents and their children. Hold on. No, it's not here. But you remember, those of us who are older, you know, I had a fear. I had a fear of my parents. If my mom said something like, you know, when your dad gets home, we're going to talk about this... I trembled. If my dad says something like, you know, when we get home and you're driving the car and we're having whatever was going on, and he said, I trembled. And she said, you know, that doesn't seem to happen anymore. That doesn't seem to happen anymore. And we live in an age, as we look at here at 2020, where our children are not that way at all. In fact, society has set up things that, if you don't like what your parent says, report them. Report them to the school. You know, they'll send out the Division of Children and Family Services. They'll look at the situation and see. Children are being told, you have all these choices in life, and if you differ with your parents, doesn't mean you're wrong, means they may be a little bit overbearing. So she was talking about, I want the fear of my... I want my children to have a fear of me again. And I want children everywhere to have that fear again, because in America, we're missing something, she said. And I don't want them to have only a fear of me. I want them to have a fear of my neighbors. I want them to have a fear of their teachers. I want them to have that healthy, healthy respect for adults that they need to have. And she concluded the article, and she goes, and more than all of that, I want them to have a fear of God. I want that back in my children. That needs to be back in America, because I may not see what they're doing, but I want them to know that they're always being held accountable, and if I don't see them, God is. And I think we would all say, that's what we want. That's part of what's missing in our world today. We see it fading more and more away from it. There is no respect. There is no awe. There is no reverence for the elders of the land, the authorities of the land. Authority is now looked down upon, as opposed to a blessing. And so God would tell us, you need to have the fear of God. We can never lose sight of that. I won't turn back to Exodus 20. You know, in the Orlando congregation in Jacksonville, we've talked about this a few times, so they'll recognize it. But you remember back in Exodus 20, when God gave the commandments, and He had Israel gathered together before Him at the base of Mount Sinai. And as they gathered together, they heard the thundering, they heard the lightning, they heard the sound of the trumpet.

And the people were in awe. They were terrified at the power of God. So much so that they said, Moses, we don't want to, we don't want to be. We don't want to hear God speak to us.

So you just let Him speak to you, and we'll, we'll be back here. Tells us in Hebrews 12, even Moses was terrified when he saw the power of God, because God demonstrated at the beginning to Israel just how powerful and important he was. And you remember in, I think it's around verse 20 of Exodus 20, it says Moses told them, don't fear God in the timidity, afraid type of way, but this is happening that you may fear the Lord for what reason? That you may not sin.

If you have the fear of God, if you know who He is, if you recognize His power, if you recognize His might, if you always hold Him in the reverence and awe, Hebrew word y-i-r-a-w, the reverence and awe, the terrifying, the good, healthy, terrifying aspect of God that we all must remember who He is, if you hold that there, it's going to be a benefit to you that you may not sin. A huge, huge part of our life in God comes if we have a fear of God, because if we forget the fear, it makes no difference. We kind of get lulled to sleep. It's okay what we do. It's okay as long as we're doing something, even not with our heart and not all of what God says. Turn with me back to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. You know, the fear of God is something God will put in us, and probably as we look back in our lives, we've seen the power of God, and we must have, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here today. But it's something that has to be honed in our lives, in our children's lives, in our parenting, in our churches, in our church, in our temple. Psalm 119, verse 38, David, in his very long dedication to God's Word and how he studied it day and night because he was so committed to living by every word of it and delighted in learning of it. In Psalm 119.38, it says, establish your word to your servant, who is devoted to fear. If we're going to have what God wants, we have to be dedicated. David said, I'm devoted to fearing you. Establish your word in me. I'm devoted to fearing you. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's there at the beginning, but it's a lifelong process.

Going back to Proverbs, Proverbs 1 and verse 29.

Pick it up on verse 28. It says, then they will call on me, but I won't answer. They'll seek me diligently, but they won't find me. That can't be a pleasant experience to be calling on God, and he just isn't responding to us. Why? Because they hated knowledge. They didn't choose the fear of the Lord. They kind of just cast it away and thought, I'm doing fine. I've grown beyond that. That's just kind of part of what it is. I haven't been paying attention to it. I haven't been reviewing and examining myself. Do I still have that healthy fear of the Lord?

As it says back in the Gospels when Jesus Christ said, don't fear those who can kill your body.

Fear Him. Fear Him who can take your life. Fear Him who gives eternal life and can also give us eternal death. Back in Psalm 19. It's not something that we do just at the beginning. It's like all of our calling, something that has to be there throughout our calling and endure to the end. Just as Jesus Christ said back in Psalm 19. We read that. Psalm 19, verse 7. Here as David is looking up at the skies, inspired by what he sees, the awe of God, he says so many things here that are good for us to just kind of recount them here in verse 7. He says, the law of the eternal, it's perfect. Now we heard that at the beginning of the feast, right? The law of God, there's nothing wrong with it. It's perfect. If we obey it, if we take it to heart, if we apply it into our lives, it converts the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure.

It makes wise the simple. The statutes of the eternal, they're right. They rejoice the heart when we obey God, when we fear Him, when we shun sin, when we turn away from sin and turn toward God.

It rejoices the heart. The commandment of the eternal is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord. It's clean. It endures forever.

It always has to be there. It always has to be there. If we lose it, we're not enduring to the end the way that Jesus Christ would have us be.

It's a trait that always must be part of God's people individually and collectively.

If we turn over to Isaiah 11, we see that as part of our Savior, Jesus Christ was the son of God, was in human flesh the son of God as well. He never sinned. He lived a perfect life.

And as Isaiah 11, verse 12, or two, I'm sorry, in talking of Him, and it says, the Spirit of the Eternal will rest on Him. The Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, we've read where that spirit or where that wisdom and understanding begins with, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Eternal.

It was part of Him all the days of His life. He kept His eyes on the goal.

He feared God, even though He had been God. He was willing to sacrifice His life and give it all because He feared God, obeyed God, lived the perfect life, and had that as part of His makeup, part, not the only thing, but part of it. Without the fear of God, if He had allowed that to just kind of go by the wayside and said, I'm a good guy, I know what I'm doing, boom, boom, boom, if He had forgotten that, if He didn't do the things to hone that fear, would He have failed? My guess is, yes, it's part of Him, just like it needs to be part of us. Let's look at a few more verses here on how important the fear of God is in our child-rearing, how important it is for us as parents to instill that into our children. And it has got to be so difficult to do that today when kids are in school and they're being taught just the opposite.

It takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication, a lot of prayers for people, you know, with children in the schools to kind of bring them back to the Bible, remind them who they are, that they are offspring of God, and that this family is committed to God, this family lives by the Word of God, and to hone that in on them, that they understand that you may be educated on some of the mechanics in the world, but where it comes to the behavior of life, it's of God. We follow Deuteronomy 6, we talk of God, we teach God, we teach the fear of God, because if we don't, one by one, they become teenagers, they go off to college, and what happens? Too many just run off to the world. What's missing? What's missing?

Psalm 34.

Psalm 34. David asks the question, come, you children, listen to me.

Here's this fear of the Lord that he talks about that marks Him part of our Savior, part of the men of the Bible and women of the Bible that you can go through and see. It's all one of the basic features of their character traits. Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the eternal. Well, that's what we need, right? We need to be taught how. What do we do? Do we just say, oh, God is great? God is awesome? Do we just repeat that all day long? What do we do? How do we fear God? How do we learn to fear Him? Well, David begins to show us as we read down in these verses. He says in verse 12, who's the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Well, that's us, right? I mean, what parent doesn't want to have their children live long lives? Which of us doesn't want to live long life and see good? Who's the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Well, keep your tongue from evil. Guard your words, right? James 3, you know, James 3, it talks about the tongue and it's a beast that takes a life time to control. Christ says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And He says, He goes right to it. Keep your tongue from evil. That's a lifelong process. That's constantly assessing what we're saying, constantly assessing how we're reacting, our tone of voice, what we're doing. How are we speaking? And what are we saying? Is the corrupt language gone? Does it disappear over time? Are we working on that? That our language is pure to God? That the words we say are praising to God? Keep your tongue from evil. And your lips from speaking deceit.

Verse 14, depart from evil. Well, the fear of God, right? We read, we've been read Proverbs 16, verse 6 yet, but Proverbs 16, verse 6 says, by the fear of the Lord, depart from evil.

And here He says, depart from evil. I'll teach you the way of God. I'll teach you how to fear what the fear of the Lord is. You got to make conscious decisions to turn from the old and turn to the new. Turn to God and away from our own thoughts and our ideas and the way we used to do things. Conscious choice to do those things. You choose to fear God. You have to be committed to doing it. It is, God will give us what we need to do, but it's just not going to be automatic.

We've got to work at it. We've got to show our commitment to it. Depart from evil and do good.

Turn from that way and actually do the works of righteousness. Seek peace.

Seek peace. Got consternation at home? Got consternation at work? Got consternation in the church or with neighbors? Seek peace. Something's missing, and it may be upon us to know the way of peace that God will show us if we fear Him because He will increase our knowledge. He will increase our wisdom when He sees that we're really committed to doing it.

Seek peace and pursue it.

Chase it. Look for it. Follow it.

Proverbs 2. You know, Proverbs is the book of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There's an awfully lot in the Psalms and Ecclesiastes and the Proverbs about fearing God. In Proverbs 2, 1 through 5, we see things that we can apply in our lives. We could say these very words to our children. We could read these very words to us as if God is speaking those words to us, which He is. Proverbs 2, verse 1, My son, if you receive My words and if you treasure My commands within you, you know, where is our treasure? What is it that really that we count as important? If you receive My words and treasure My commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom, see, this is just automatically drop it in, and we just sit back and do nothing, we have to be in tune to it so that you incline your ear to wisdom. And if you apply—there's an action verb—and if you apply your heart to understanding, we're working at it. We're looking at the Scriptures. We're studying the Scriptures. We're striving to live by every word of God. If you apply your heart to understanding, yes, if you cry out for discernment, there's all those things that we need to do asking God. And if you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, if you do all those things, but that's on Me to do, that's on you to do, when God sees that we're devoted to this, we're committed to this, we're committed to Him, if you do all those things, then you'll understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. It's got to do it. You got to do it. The more you understand, the more you study the Scriptures, the more as you apply it into your lives, those laws of the kingdom, that perfect law that lights our path, that perfect law that defines our lives should be today, certainly will define life in the millennium under Christ's rule, then you'll find it, He says, to go one chapter back to Proverbs 1. Now verse 20, Wisdom, it says, remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom calls allowed outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words. You know, we all go to church, we all hear the words, we're all reading the Bible, listening to sermons online, going to Bible studies, taking the opportunities to hear God's Word because hearing the Word is as important as reading the Word and studying the Word. It's part of how God has made us to do. All these opportunities that we have, wisdom is there, and God says, you're listening to these things. She speaks her words, but how long you simple ones? Will you live simplicity?

Scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Fools hate knowledge.

I don't want to hear that. I kind of want to close my ears to that. I don't want to hear that part. Let's write down to verse 28. We read part of this already, but let's read it again. They'll call on me, these people who hated knowledge, who just didn't want to hear what God had to say. They'll call on me. I won't answer. They'll seek me diligently. They won't find me because they hated knowledge. They didn't choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. They didn't want to hear what I had to say. I tried to warn them. I tried to educate them. I tried to say, you got to turn back to that. You got to pay attention to every detail. They would have none of my counsel. They despised my every rebuke. They didn't take it to heart. They didn't take it as instruction to turn toward me. They didn't take it as part of their training to become like Jesus Christ. They just got mad and put it out of their heads. They would have none of my counsel.

They despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and they'll be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

Always remember that word complacency. Always monitor our reaction to God, our lives. Complacent, energetic, and zealous. Doing all those things we read in verses 1-5 of chapter 2, or just kind of playing at it. Verse 33, But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure without fear of evil.

Well, that's what we want, right? That's what we would want to live safely. Everyone wants peace. Everyone wants to live without fear of evil confronting or befalling them. God says it can happen.

Let me have you... I'm going to give you a couple more verses. Ephesians 5, 21.

It says, submits to each other in the fear of God. Deuteronomy 10 verses 12 through 20 talks about the fear of God. Instructive verses that we can read. If you want to learn the fear of God, if you want to see, is this still in my life? Is this still at the beginning? Is this still one of those bricks in my temple? Then it's time to look at that. It's time to review it and ask God and work to get that fear, that right, correct fear, back. And the fear of God, like every aspect of God's life, has so many benefits. I'm going to give you a few. I'm going to... you don't even have to turn to the Bible. Let me read them to you. You can write these verses down if you want to.

Benefits of the fear of God. God lists them all here in Proverbs and Psalms for us.

Just listen to these. Proverbs 27, what person, what parent wouldn't want this for their children? What person wouldn't want this for themselves? The answer is here. We have it. We just have to cling to it. We just have to make sure it's still there as part of our lives. Verse 27, Proverbs 10, the fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened. You want to live long? You want your days to be long? God says fear Him. Proverbs 14, verse 26, in the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence. I hear so much about, you know, self-esteem. You want strong confidence to face the world? In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge. Verse 27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. Proverbs 19, verse 23, the fear of the Lord leads to life, and He who has it will abide in satisfaction. You know how nice it is when you're just satisfied? You know, if you have to have a good meal, if you're if you just feel like you've eaten too much, you just kind of feel miserable, but when you've had just enough and it's been a really good meal, you just feel satisfied. Spiritually, it's such a good feeling to just to be satisfied. And God says that the fear of the Lord leads to it. He who has it will abide in satisfaction. He will not be visited with evil. Chapter 22, verse 4, by humility—boy, there's one of those beginning building blocks, too. Got to have humility as part of what it is. Proverbs 15, verse 33, we'll talk about that as well in conjunction with the fear of the Lord. But Proverbs 22, verse 3, says—Proverbs 22, verse 4 says, by humility and the fear of the eternal are riches and honor and life.

Riches and honor and life. You see what God is saying? If you just do this, if you just follow me, if this is part of you, who would not want that life? It's all there.

It's all there in God's promises if we obey Him. Let me go back to the Psalms.

We were in Psalm 34 earlier, Psalm 34, verse 7.

Says, the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Could always know that God is there and that whatever confronts us, He will see us through. Verse 9, O fear the Lord, you his saints, there is no want to those who fear Him.

The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Do you believe God? When He says these things, He says, Prove me now herewith.

Do it. Do it and see the blessings that He will give those who follow Him. Psalm 112.

112, verses 1 through 3. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Eternal, who delights greatly in His commandments. Doesn't see them as burdensome. Not an, oh no, I have to do that, but who delights in it because they are the light to His life.

His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches will be in His house, and His righteousness endures forever. Forever. Psalm 128, verse 1.

Blessed is the, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you will be happy, and it will be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house. Your children, like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed, who fears the Lord. Physical blessings in ways we would wish for. Physical blessings the world will wish for or does wish for. They don't know how to get there. We do. They'll be taught it. They'll be taught it in the kingdom, and there's spiritual blessings as well. Let me give you Psalm 25, verses 12 through 14. Well, let me read Psalm 25, 12 through 14. I'll give you a couple more that you can read later on today. 25, verse 12. Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall God teach in the way He chooses. He shall himself dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. Want to understand the scriptures?

Want God to continue revealing His plan to Him, which is so invigorating, so inspiring. Want that?

Got to be one who fears God along with all the other things. Got to have that as part of our building blocks. In 2 Corinthians 7, 1, it tells us to work out godliness in the fear of the Lord.

We want to become the godly people. Do it in the fear of the Lord. And over in Acts 9, we say that the church is involved in this as well. Acts 9 and verse 31.

As Paul is being converted, and as the churches are growing here in Acts 9, 31, it says, Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, they had peace, and they were edified. They were being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. And that was part of the churches building block as well.

They grew, and they multiplied. They were comforted.

Back in Acts 2, you know, we often go back and look at that early New Testament church, and they had all things in common. And it says clearly back there in Acts 2, 42-44, they were walking in the doctrine of the apostles and God's truth, and they were walking in the fear of the Lord. That was part of what it was from the beginning.

And part of what will be taught in the kingdom tomorrow.

You know, we've just been through the day of Trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets, and the day of Atonement.

And the world will see the strength of God. They will be in awe. They will be terrified. They will be decimated when the Feast of Trumpets is fulfilled. Every power, weapon, might, everything that they relied on is going to be completely destroyed. They will know there is no power like the God that you and I know today. And it'll take them some time to be able to absorb that shock, that awe, and what's happened. But they will be in a state that they will be able to begin to learn. They will be able to begin to have that knowledge and wisdom. And without that fear of God, it would not happen. Back in Jeremiah 32, it tells us that the fear of God will be right there at the beginning of the kingdom as well. Jeremiah 32, verse 37.

This was spoken of earlier in the Feast too, when God will gather His people back and bring them to there the land that He had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Verse 37 of Jeremiah 32 says, Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and I will cause them to dwell safely. They will be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way. The same thing He gives us today when we're led by God's Holy Spirit and bound together, bound together as one people. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. For the good of them, because God always has what's our best interest in mind. Fearing Him, implementing that into our lives, teaching it to our children, teaching it and reminding of ourselves of that which we have learned and taught and known from the beginning to restore that. Go back and read Malachi 3 16. It says, Those who fear the Lord spoke with one another. Malachi 4 verse 2 that also has a promise for those that fear God.

And Solomon's conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12 13 after he wandered and somewhere along the line lost the fear of God and did all those things that the world would do, even though God gave that to Him at the beginning. And you could see it, but riches, the cares of the life, everything that He multiplied for Himself, He lost. But when He assessed His life at the end, He said, Here's the whole duty of man. Fear God. Keep His commandments. So let's do that. Let's remember these things that we've been taught. Let's reteach ourselves if we need to go back and strengthen that fear of God so that we're ready to teach in the kingdom the things that God is going to want us to teach, but He has to know that we will do it today. Let's hold fast and always remember and never let go of those things, including the fear of the Lord, that we've been taught from the beginning.