Fear of God Is the Beginning

Good morning, everyone! Good to see you all here this morning. I want to commend the choir again. Very good job. I hadn't heard that song before, but it's a very, very nice number, so thank you for that. Well, here we are on the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Every year we say the same thing. It's hard to believe how quickly the feast has passed. I think we've all had a good feast. We certainly have. We've had a little bit of everything. We've had very fine messages here in the services each day, which is the most important thing we do when we come into the presence of God. We've also had a lot of physical activities. And yesterday afternoon, we had an activity that I think really made the feast complete. Yesterday afternoon, we were able to welcome a new member into the family of God. Ms. Leslie Harper was baptized yesterday afternoon. Leslie, if you want to raise your hand. So people...

So Leslie comes to us from England, and she'll be returning to London afterwards, but her family lives in Boston right now. And they'll be moving down to Jacksonville, Florida, here after the feast, so we'll be happy to have them in our congregations down here. Congratulations, Leslie. Welcome to the feast. Or, welcome to the family of God. You know, the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, if we progress chronologically, it would be near the end of the thousand years of Christ's reign on earth. Mankind has seen the transition from a world that's devastated at the beginning of the millennium and a rebuilding process that just progresses through the millennium. And at the end of the thousand years, it should be a very happy time where mankind and the vestiges of Satan and his way of life should be totally rooted out of society by that time. But when we look at Revelation 20, verse 7, if you'll be turning over there, we find something that's, I think, probably been a surprise or not a surprise, but maybe we've wondered how something like this could happen. If you'll turn over to Revelation 20, and beginning in verse 7, it says, When the thousand years have expired, so near the end of the millennium there of Christ's reign, Satan will be released from his prison. And he'll go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. So not a small number, but a large number of people that he will go out, and he's going to gather them to battle. They went up, it says in verse 9, on the breath of the earth, and they surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city. So here it is, at the end of a thousand years, these people and their ancestors, or their lineage down through that third thousand years, have seen all the goodness of the kingdom at that time. They've seen the good that Christ's rule and government has brought to earth. They've seen the absence of evil. And yet, at the end of the age, these people, when Satan is loosed, somehow listen to him. And somehow there's a spirit in them that comes up, and they decide they're going to encompass the body of saints. You have to wonder, how could that be? How could it be that people who have seen the thousand year history could ever turn against God and decide that they're going to come to battle against him? Simply with Satan being released a little bit of time. It's almost incomprehensible to think about. God doesn't allow it to happen, we see. In verse 9, fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil, it says in verse 10, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be there forever. But it's an interesting thing to think about how people can do that. In many or in some ways, those people at the end of that time are like us. They're living at the end of an age. Their age is quite different than ours. We're living at the end of this age, that we would call the present evil world. They're living at the end of an age of a thousand years. That isn't an evil world, but a very good world where they've seen everything good happen. And yet somehow they turn away to God.

What happened to them? What were they missing? We know the truth of God. We have faith in God. We believe, and yet these people also know of God, know of His way, have been living that way of life. And yet they turn away. We know in the Bible that it says in Matthew 24, 14, at the end of the age, those who have been called into living His way, the love of many will wax cold. They turn away. Some at the end time who have been called and who have been faithful will turn away as well.

You know, it's not unlike, in a way, what Cora did back in Numbers 16. They saw God, and they saw the God of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, perform mighty miracles to deliver them out of Egypt. And yet Cora and his band of 250, men of renown, as it says back in Numbers 16, big names in Israel, names that people recognized, turned against Moses. God's appointed one and rebelled against him. What could possibly motivate someone to do that?

Well, this morning I want to look at a couple stories in the Old Testament and see a couple of families. Bring it down to our level, our individual families. If you'll be turning with me over to Judges 11, the first family we'll look at here is a man who's named in the faith chapter. I'm sure you've heard of him, maybe a while since you've read his story, but his name is Jephthah. Jephthah was a man who wasn't held in high favor in his family. He was an illegitimate child, if you will, and his family pretty much ostracized him. But at a time that Israel was under attack and needed deliverance, they looked to Jephthah because he had the skills of a warrior. And they needed him to come and help them deliver them from the Ammonites. In Judges 11, in verse 29, Jephthah accepts the assignment. But let's look a little bit at what he does. Now, Jephthah was a man of faith, as I mentioned. He was mentioned in Hebrews 11. Judges 11, verse 29 says, The Spirit of the Eternal came upon Jephthah, and he passed through these areas on his way to battle. He was looking to God. He had faith in God. He knew that only with God would this battle be delivered into his hands. In verse 30 it says, Now, many times I think as we have troubles, we will make promises to God and say, you know, we will deliver this into my hand. I will be faithful to you forever, or whatever else we might say. Jephthah here makes a vow without thinking it all the way through and says, if you will deliver these people into my hands, whatever I see first when I come home, will be the offering that I make to you. So in verse 32 it says, God answered his prayer. The battle was won. And Jephthah returns victorious, knowing, though, that it was God who delivered him, and remembering that he had made a promise to God if indeed he would win the battle. In verse 34, as he's returning home, it says, And there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing, and she was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter. Only child, first thing he sees when he comes home. And it came to pass when he saw her that he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low. You're among those who trouble me, for I have given my word to the eternal, and I cannot go back on it.

He never counted on the fact that when he got home, it wasn't going to be an animal that he saw first. That's what he expected it was going to be, but the first thing he saw was his daughter. And he had made a vow to God that whatever he saw first, he would sacrifice in gratitude to him.

Now, if you put yourself in Jephthah's situation, you would be very tempted to tell God, Wait, this isn't what I meant. What I meant was the first animal, the first whatever that comes out of the house is yours, not my child.

But Jephthah, to his credit, kept his vow. And he told his daughter, This is what I have said to God.

What would it be to have that happen to you? And yet Jephthah, as we'll read, kept that intent. And look at the attitude of his daughter in verse 36. She said to him, My Father, if you've given your word to the eternal, do to me, according to what has gone out of your mouth, because God has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.

She didn't run. She didn't yell at him. She didn't ask him what was going on. How could you have ever made a promise like that?

What she said, if that's what you've promised, do it. Isn't that an amazing thing for a person to say?

Here in the face of a horrendous situation that they unwittingly found themselves in, Jephthah and his daughter show something amazing, something the people at the end of the millennium don't show, something that Korah didn't show, and others who fall by the wayside along the way. Did Jephthah have faith in God? Absolutely, he did. Did he and his daughter believe in God and trust in him? Absolutely, they did. And that's absolutely necessary to continue and endure till the end of time. But they had something else as well. We read on, and we won't read verses 37 and 38, but we see in verse 39 that the daughter went away for a while, and it was so at the end of two months it says that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with which he had bowed.

It's a tough pill to swallow, isn't it, when we read that? And some people have had trouble with this story, but you notice that nowhere in the story that it says specifically that Jephthah killed her. We don't know what happened. We probably won't know until the time Christ returns to earth what really happened there. But this is similar to a situation when Abraham and Isaac were involved, and God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Because he wanted to see if there was anything else that Abraham would hold before him. And God didn't let Isaac die. He stopped him before he sacrificed him, because God said, Now I know there's nothing that you wouldn't hold before me. So it could very well be in this story that God did exactly the same thing with Jephthah. He could see the attitude of the daughter, he could see the attitude of Jephthah, and he could see that they would follow through on it. And very well, God may have stopped that from happening, and it became a memorial in Israel of the faith of Jephthah, very similar to the faith of Abraham. And because of what he was willing to do, and because God knew what was in his heart, and there wasn't anything he was going to withhold from God, and know how that he would make that he would not uphold, that they became very well-respected in the land, and he is part of the faith chapter. Let's look at another church family back in 1 Samuel.

This church family had as the father of the hype-raced. They, like Jephthah, knew the way of God, knew the way of life, understood the commands that they were to follow, knew what their mission in life was, and the father had sons that assisted him in the work of the tabernacle back then. 1 Samuel 2, verse 12, were introduced to Eli, who was the high priest at that time. Eli was getting older, and his sons were taking over some of the responsibilities of the tabernacle. And it says in verse 12, the sons of Eli were corrupt. They didn't know the Lord. Another church family, Jephthah and his daughters, did.

Eli knew God. His sons didn't. In verse 17, of course, there were rituals that needed to go on in the tabernacle. The sons of Eli never upheld them. They perverted them, they distorted them, they did what was best for them, rather than adhering to every command that God had given. And as we live our lives, we can see some similarities, even though we're not involved in animal sacrifices and how those are distributed to the Levites, God gives us very clear commands of how to live our lives. And he says, don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right, follow them exactly. And that's what he expects us to do as we live in faith before him. Eli's sons didn't. In verse 17, it says, the son of the young men was very great before God for men abhorred the offering of the eternal. They didn't respect it. They didn't do it the way it was. It lost all of its meaning because they perverted the way that it was done. It was benefiting the sons and them more than it was following what God had wanted them to do. In verse 22, it says, Eli was very old. He had served faithfully all of his life, and he heard everything his sons did to all of Israel, and how they did unspeakable things, it says there in verse 22. And he said to them in verse 23, Why do you do such things? I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. Know, my sons. It's not a good thing that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. You're causing them to sin. And they were supposed to be the ones upholding the way of God. They were supposed to be the ones setting the example of how life should be. Just like in our families, we set the examples for our children. How we live God's way. How we honor Him with our lives, with our substance, with our time, with our praise. Yet his sons were doing nothing of it, and Eli was well aware of what was going on. Here's a family, a church family, that stands in direct contrast to Jephthah and his daughter. Did they, did Eli have faith in God? Yes, I believe he had faith in God. Did he believe in God? Yes, I believe he did. And I believe Eli himself did live God's way of life. But Eli made a very grievous mistake, where his sons were concerned. And there's something about Eli, something about Eli that was missing, that caused him, at the end of his life, to not follow through with what he was called to do. Look down, and you had a clue of that in verse 27 of 1 Samuel 2. Samuel 2.

Do you see what Eli did? Even though he lived all of his life, personally, in tribute and in submission and in yieldenness to God, at the end of his life, he didn't put God first. He let his sons continue doing things that weren't in accordance with God. And when Eli did that, he lost something. There was something missing in him that God then pronounced in the ensuing verses, death upon him, death upon his sons. What was it that Eli was missing? What was it that Jephthah and his daughter had? What is it that the people at the end of the millennium are missing that they would actually rise up against God after a thousand years of peace, harmony, and prosperity, and turn against him? What is it that if we don't have, that we could live our lives out, believing that we're obeying God, believing that we're serving him, but perhaps, perhaps miss out on that kingdom or find ourselves in the tribulation and having to prove ourselves to God at that point. Turn with me over to Psalm 36.

Psalm 36, verse 1.

David writes, An oracle within my heart, verse 1, concerning the transgression of the wicked, those who don't do God's will. There is no fear of God before his eyes. There is no fear of God before his eyes. Jephthah, at his core, at the beginning of his faith, had a healthy and lasting fear of God.

Eli didn't. Eli honored his sons more than fear God. Let's go on into verse 2. And as we think about Eli's sons and those who behave in that way, think about that as we read verses 2-4. Those who don't obey God, that know the truth, that have been called and that have been taught, and that have been walking in the way just as Eli and his sons were, he flatters himself in his own eyes. Oh, it's okay. I've got the ideas that need to be done. And when he finds out his iniquity and his hate, when it's even brought to the attention, they just kind of pat themselves on the back and say, it's okay. God understands what I'm doing. It doesn't matter that much to God. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good. And in the evening, it says, it says, he devises wickedness on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn't hate evil. Instead, he tolerates it. He allows a little bit into his life. Certainly not the ridiculous evil that we hear about on the news, but anything that allows us to turn away from exactly what God wants us to do, which is to follow him exactly as he says, to love him with all our heart, mind, and soul.

Turn with me back to Romans 3.

Paul talks about this as well. When he's writing to the Romans and quoting some verses from the Old Testament, Romans 3 and verse 10, he writes, There's none righteous, no, not one.

There's none who understands, none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There's none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. And what is he attributed to? There is no fear of God before their eyes. A healthy fear of God we absolutely must have, and it must be at the beginning of who we are.

We can learn many things. We can live and attend every Sabbath service, Holy Day service, pay all our tithes, do everything that God expects us to. But if we don't have a fear of God before our eyes, we may be one of those people who aren't there. At the time the millennium begins, or be one of those people who have to go through the tribulation and develop the fear of God at that time. You know, in today's society, fear of authority is something that's gone by the wayside.

When I was growing up, I had a pretty healthy fear of my teachers. I never thought it was even an option not to turn in homework, not to do the assignments that I was given. And yet I noticed, even among one of my children, when we get notes on that this assignment wasn't turned in, and I thought, where does that come from? There's something missing here. And as I watch TV and as I watch movies, society has pretty much taken away all fear of authority.

People make fun of presidents, people make fun of anyone in authority, people have absolutely no problem talking about and talking down about anyone that's in authority. And society has become a vast wasteland of people who think they know it all and know better than their bosses, know better than their teachers, and as we heard yesterday, even know better than God. Why do we need God when we have all of the answers that we would want? Let me read to you from an article that was written a few years ago by a lady by the name of Susan Reimer.

She's a syndicated columnist and disappeared in, I would guess, newspapers across the country. This is an excerpt of an article that she wrote. She says, I volunteer to lead the campaign to restore fear among children. Not the monster under the bed boogeyman type of fear. Your kids will keep you all night with those kinds of fears. I'm talking about fear of authority, fear of consequences, the kind of fear that will keep you up all night if your children don't have it, the kind of unexamined, nonspecific fear we grew up with, the fear behind the refrain of our youth, my mother will kill me if...

you remember those times. She says, I want that for my children. I want them to live in fear of what I will do. If I catch them doing whatever it is they're thinking about doing. And I want my children to fear more adults than just me. I want my children to be afraid of what their father will do when he gets home. I want my children to be afraid of what the teacher will do when she stops writing on the board and turns around and sees them acting up. Most of all, I want them to live in stomach-flipping fear of what will happen if they don't do their homework.

And, she says, at all other times, a decision in conscience, I want them to worry about what God would think if he knew what they were doing. Because God will know, even if they fool me. So many times, we think if we can fool the people around us or make them believe that we know that we're behaving in one way, that's all it takes. But God sees all. It's God that we honor. It's God that we obey. It's God who will lead us, protect us, guide us, and bring us into His kingdom.

And we have to have a healthy type of fear if we're going to honor Him the way that we should. The other day when I spoke, we talked, it was Isaiah 35, verse 3. There's a type of fear that's going to be cast out in the kingdom. The fear of timidity. The fear of other people, men holding people down and being afraid of man rather than God. The fear that we're talking about here is a healthy reverence and an awe of God, but also a fear knowing that He holds our eternity and our futures in His hands.

Not a fear that we fear and are afraid of Him, but a healthy reverence. And unfortunately, in the English language, there's not a word that reflects that as opposed to the other type of fear that we will be absent in the kingdom. God taught people the fear of Him. Turn with me back to Luke 12. Well, first let's turn to Luke 12 and let's look at a few commands that Christ made. Luke 12 and verse 14.

Luke 12 verse 14. Christ responding to someone says...

That's not the right verse. Oh, Luke 12 verse 4. Sorry.

And after that, no more. And after that, have no more that they can do. But I'll show you whom you should fear. Fear Him. Who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. I say to you, fear Him. Have a respect for Him. Do what He says and absolutely do not ever question His authority and do not ever think that you know more than He does and that it's okay to do things different than what He did. He's not Eli. He's not Eli. It's not going to be okay to do your own thing and just think that God will allow you because He's looking for people in His kingdom that will love Him, obey Him, and live His life.

People that He sure will because that's the only way to the peace, the security, the prosperity. And everything good that the kingdom pictures. Over in 1 Peter 2 and verse 17. Peter writes as he's in his letter. He says, Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Fear God. And in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, as God was working with His people, He taught them the fear of Him. Let's look back at Luke 7. Just see one example here. Luke 7 verse 11.

Since it happened the day after that He went into a city called Nain, and many of His disciples went with Him in a large crowd. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out. The only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had companion on her and said, Don't weep. And He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried Him stood still. And He said, young man, I say to you, arise. So he who was dead sat up and began to speak, and He presented Him to His mother.

Then fear came on all. Fear came on all. And they glorified God, saying, A prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited His people. A reverence and an awe. Who could do this? What type of being is this? That God has come down and has the power over the thing that ends physical life. And those people had a healthy reverence and a healthy awe of God.

Part of what fear of God is. Let's turn back to Exodus 19. And as God brought His people out of Egypt, He assembled them at the foot of Mount Sinai. They wanted to see God, and He wanted to present Himself to them. And He wanted to do it for a reason. Let's pick it up in Exodus 19 and verse 16. It says, It came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

When they saw the power of God, it made them realize how great He was. And they trembled. Does it make you think of Isaiah 66 verse 2, where it says, to this one God will look, to those who have a pure and contrite heart, and who tremble at His word. Who tremble at His word, because they understand the power behind it. They understand what it means. They understand that those are the words of life. And if we want that life that He promises, we'd better adhere to every word of it.

We'd better fear Him. Tremble at His word, and have the awe and the respect for Him, and the love for Him, that is required that certain people in the Old Testament, and perhaps many that we've known from the past, didn't have. They didn't tremble at His word. Instead, they bowed before the ways of the world, perhaps bowed to family members and others who would lead them astray, but didn't have enough fear of God to maintain the course and keep walking straight forward to the Kingdom.

Turn with me back to Psalm 111 and verse 10. There it says in Psalm 111, verse 10, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It says in Proverbs 1, verse 7, The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. And then it says in Proverbs 9, verse 10, the same thing that this verse says, The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. We might just stop after the word beginning. The fear of the God is the beginning. That's the beginning. We have to have that at the beginning of our faith, at the beginning of our knowledge, at the beginning of whatever wisdom, and it has to stay there from now until the time, well, for all eternity.

Because as Mr. Massey said this morning, and he referenced in Isaiah 11, even Christ has a fear of God. And yet He is the Son of God and was with God from the beginning. If He has a fear of God, why would He expect that we wouldn't? It's at the beginning of everything we are. It was at the beginning of who Jephthah was. It is at the beginning of the first fruits who will bewed to Christ after His return, as we'll read a little later.

But in those who won't be there, in Eli and his sons, that fear of God putting Him first wasn't at the beginning. And it led them astray, and it allowed them, or led them from, what God wanted them to do.

Five times in the Bible, God says, the fear of God is at the beginning, at the beginning of wisdom, knowledge, and who we are. Going on in verse 10, it says, A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. And as you see the word understanding in the verses that we read the rest of the morning, think about that. A good understanding have they who do His commandments. At the beginning is a fear of God. And understanding comes from living His life, or living the way of life He's called us to, and allowing Him to guide us, but always having that fear before our eyes of Him.

There's many, many things that fear of God produces. And I want to take a little bit of time to go through a few proverbs here, to show what the benefits of having a fear of God are. And as you read these, there's things that every single human being wants. But if we want those things, and if we want them lastingly, we know what the beginning of it is. Turn with me to Proverbs 16.

Proverbs 16.

You know what? Let's keep your finger there in Proverbs 16. Let's go back to Exodus 20 for a minute. We were just there a few minutes ago as Israel was gathered at the base of Mount Sinai.

But in Exodus 20, they're gathered there in verse 19, and then God speaks out to them the Ten Commandments, His way of life, the foundation of life. And in verse 18, at the end of those commandments, it says, All the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled, and they stood afar off.

And they trembled at God's word. It caught their attention. It made them do what... it caught their attention, and they knew that what they were hearing was something they needed to pay attention to.

And they said to Moses, You speak with us. We'll hear, but don't let God speak with us, lest we die. They felt the power. They felt what was going on. They knew that God had the power of life and death, eternal life and death, in His hands, but He was giving them the key to life.

And Moses said to the people in verse 20, Don't fear. Don't fear in the wrong way. Have a fear of God. But again, unfortunately, the English language is tough with this word. Don't be afraid for the wrong reason, for God has come to test you. And notice what He says. He's come to test you that His fear, the right type of fear, of awe and respect, may be before you, so that you may not sin. So that you may not sin. One of the huge advantages of having a healthy fear of God is that if we have it, it will keep us from sinning.

Now, you know, when I was growing up, having a fear of my parents, I'll have to say it kept me from doing some things that I could have gotten involved in in high school, because I did fear what would happen. And I had a healthy respect for them. I just wasn't feared, you know, afraid of what would happen to me physically, but I had a healthy respect for my parents that I didn't want to lay that on them.

More importantly, when I got into college, there were plenty of things as I was away from home that I could have gotten involved in, just like all you hear about, and that may be in college today. And that was back in the 70s. I know here in the 21st century what you can get involved in and things that can change your life forever.

But you know, in the 70s, I had plenty of opportunities to do whatever I wanted, without my parents being there to see what I was going on. And as those opportunities presented themselves, I didn't do it. Do you know why? Because I had a fear of them. Not a fear of what they would do because they would have never known, but because I had a respect for them and I didn't want to lay that on them, that I would do something that would be apart from what they wanted that they would have raised me with.

That's the same type of fear and love that we should have for God, and even more so, that when we're tempted, when things and opportunities come before us, we don't want to displease God in any way. We love Him and have such a great respect for Him and what He's offered to us that we would not deter from His way of life, even if no one else knew.

God said, or Moses said, Israel, people of God, then and now. You have a fear of God, a healthy love, a healthy reverence, a healthy fear, a healthy respect for Him. And you use that fear that will give you the strength to not sin, to say no to the things that are going on in the world around you, to say no to the things that you have an opportunity to do and that you're tempted with.

Use that strength of the fear of God to say no, and don't allow it, don't allow yourself to be led astray. In Proverbs 16, now we'll go back to Proverbs 16, verse 6. Solomon writes, "...in mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by the fear of the eternal one departs from evil." We need the Holy Spirit to depart from evil, but we need the fear of God to do that as well. Back in Proverbs 8 and verse 13, it says, "...the fear of the eternal is to hate evil." But it doesn't even appeal to us.

It's not something we even want to do, because our course is set. His laws, His way of life, is written in our minds, written on our hearts, and that's the way we would follow. He goes on in verse 13, "...pride and arrogance, and the evil way and the perverse mouth..." God says, He hates. No presence for that in one whom God is working in. The fear of God would preclude that from happening. In the Jewish religion, they have a catechism that I came across. And in it, they have several chapters of things that they teach their children.

Catechism is just that. They go through these, teach their children their way of life, and there's a section of their catechism that talks about the relationship of man to God. And in it, number 30 of chapter 4 of that catechism, they have a question that they teach their children, and it's much more than what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you one phrase to the answer of what they give.

As they talk about man's inclination to sin and how they would resist this, they say, well, the question is, how can we control our inclination to sin? The first line is, by fear of God. By the fear of God. Number 33 in that section says, what do you call the fear of God when it's actively displayed in our conduct? How do you know someone's living by the fear of God? The answer? What we call people who are living by the fear of God? We call it virtue, piety, and righteousness. I thought there was a very meaningful thing in that catechism. And as we live righteous lives, we fear God.

They go hand in hand. It will keep us on the straight path. It will lead us to where we want to be, what these days of the Feast of Tabernacles picture. And the fear of God leads us to many other things as well. We're in Proverbs. Let's turn back to Proverbs 14.

Proverbs 14, verse 26. Notice the things that the fear of God produces. There's no one in this room. No one in the world, really. They may want the fear of God, but what it says it will give to us or what it produces in us is things that everyone wants. Proverbs 14, verse 26. In the fear of the Eternal, there is strong confidence. How many psychologists and psychiatrists, how many classes are taught in self-esteem? You want confidence? Don't have confidence in yourself. The fear of God will provide the confidence that you need. The fear of God will lead you forward and give you the strength. It goes on to say, His children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Eternal is a fountain of life. To turn one away from the stairs of death. You want life? You want confidence? You want a life that's productive and satisfying? You've been called. You know. And at the beginning of it is the fear of God. A few chapters over in Proverbs 19. Verse 23. The fear of the Eternal leads to life. Not to death, the way of this world. And he who has it will abide in satisfaction. His life will be full. His life will be satisfying. There won't be the holes out there that so many people turn to drugs, alcohol, pornography, sex, gambling, shopping, and all the other addiction that you can find in the pages of addictions that are hundreds and hundreds of long. Pages or lists of hundreds of addictions. That's what they look to, to fill the holes of their life. If you have a fear of God, you don't need that. Your life will be full. You will be satisfied. God will provide that satisfaction to you. You don't find it in the world. You find it with God. Proverbs 22, verse 4, By humility, a way of life that we must all live, by humility and the fear of the eternal are riches and honor and life. Who doesn't want that? God says, if you want those things, fear me first. He said in Deuteronomy 30, there's two ways of life. Life and death, blessing and cursing. And he says, choose the obvious one. Choose life that I can give you all these things I want to. But at the beginning of that life, and at the core, forever and ever, must be a fear of God. Turn with me back to Psalm 34.

Psalm 34. How do we get the fear of God? Well, the Spirit of God should certainly engender that in us, and as we live by the fear, or as we live by God's Spirit, that fear should be there. But as we come into the church, and as we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, that fear of God is there. It wouldn't be there. If it wasn't, we would just ignore our calling. We would just think the world has all the answers, and we would just go on with it. But David says here in verse 11, Come, you children, listen to me. I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. I'll teach it to you. Over in Proverbs 2, Solomon talks about the fear of God, and what we need to do to develop that, to maintain it, to sustain it, or to reinvigorate it if we find ourselves that maybe the fear of God isn't there the way it should be. Proverbs 2, verse 1, My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, to remember what understanding is, yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. What does he say to do? Commit yourself to him. Pray. Study. Make your calling and the life that you're living now the most important thing, nothing before God, nothing more important than the kingdom of God, nothing more valuable to you, nothing that you would give up your calling for. No amount of money, no amount of prestige, no fame, no job, nothing. Seek it. And seek him through prayer, fasting, study, meditation. Keep close to him and ask him to write his way in your mind and on your heart as that happens. And as he puts his spirit in you and as you live by that spirit, his fear will be there. Keep it active. Keep it alive. A few verses back in Proverbs 1 and verse 28, Solomon tells us the consequences of not having a fear of God. When we let other things crowd out what we know we should be doing, when we make decisions that are contrary to what God's will is, it says in verse 28 of Proverbs 1, They'll seek me diligently, but they won't find me. Why? Because they hated knowledge. They didn't count it the most important thing. They didn't seek it as silver or gold. It wasn't important in their life. Other things of the world were more important, and they didn't choose the fear of the eternal. They didn't choose that. They sacrificed it for momentary pleasure, momentary wealth, doing things and following people, professions, pleasures more than God. They would have none of my counsel, it says in verse 30, and they despised my every rebuke. Every time I tried to get their attention and call them back, they just kind of ignored it and went on with their life and just didn't pay attention to what God was trying to bring them back to. Therefore, it says, they shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and they'll be filled to the fool with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. Complacency. Not allowing or not making yourself do what God says, but allowing the ways of the world and the ways of the people around you, or as Eli did, his family to make cause you to think it's okay to not do some of what God says. Not keep his Sabbath the way that he said. Not honor him with our substance and time the way that he would have us do.

There's two people at the end of this age that we live in. Two churches you read about back in Revelation 3. One has at their beginning a fear of God. One church follows God and denies the world and follows him implicitly. The other church, the Laodicean Church, is complacent. They kind of are in the church and do all the things that they think they can do so others see them, and it looks like they're doing things, but in their heart, they're kind of right there on the edge of the world. They don't fear God, but they'll show and they'll learn the fear of God in a way that none of us want to be part of through the tribulation.

You don't want to be complacent. You don't want to think you're fooling God. You don't want to be sitting here in this feast of tabernacles where you're picturing all the good and all the great things of the kingdom and find yourself missing out on it. Because you were complacent, then you didn't count on the fact that God was supposed to be the only God in our eyes, and that a healthy fear of Him has to be at the beginning of everything and the beginning of who we are. Turn with me back to Deuteronomy 10.

Verse 12.

As Moses is speaking to God's people, then, and as the rewards have been preserved so that they can be spoken and read by His people now, it says in verse 12, and now, people of God, what does the eternal your God require of you? And notice the first one he says, But to fear the eternal your God, to fear Him, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and the statutes and the way of life that He provides for us. That's what He wants. That's what we want. To be close to God, at the beginning of it, is the fear of God. You know, we mentioned Abraham. Abraham would have never done with Isaac what he had done if he didn't have a fear of God. He wouldn't have done it. He would have found excuses. He would have found ways to delay it. He would have not followed through.

Oh, he obeyed God. He lived his way of life, but he feared God. And God saw and said, Now I know that there is nothing more important to me than you. Jephthah, perhaps, or Jephthah, was the same way. There was nothing that he held more important to God, and he feared God. And followed through on a commitment so that God knew He would. Now, whether God required him to or not, you know, we won't know. At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon said, Here's the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. It's the beginning. Fear God and keep His way of life and live His way of life. Christ, as we talked about earlier, in Isaiah 11, had a fear of God. The Spirit of the fear of God the Father was in Him.

Over in Revelation 11, verse 18, As the angels and the elders and the hosts in heaven know that the kingdom is about to dawn, there's praise, there's honor, there's excitement, as they know Christ is about to descend to earth. And in verse 18, it says, what John heard in the vision, says, The nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great. It's time for you, Christ, we've been waiting for this since the foundations of the earth, for the time of this world to disappear, and for Christ to come down and reward those who fear His name. In Revelation 19, verse 5, The voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you His servants, and those who fear Him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude is the sound of many waters, and is the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigns, let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. We're all invited to that marriage supper. It's up to us, and the choices that we make in this physical life, whether we'll be there. God wants us to be there. Christ wants us to be there. And we know the way of life that He's called us to. We've learned the principles over the years. We know what's right and what's wrong. And if we don't, we have His word in every single one of our homes that shows us what that way is.

At the beginning of all understanding, at the beginning of all knowledge and wisdom, and at the beginning of every person that will be in the marriage supper of that Lamb is the fear of God. The fear of God. It was absent in some people that we talked about. It'll be absent in some people at the end of the millennial time who lived that way of life and who learned those ways. But somehow, when Satan is loosed, they didn't have a healthy fear of God. They chose instead to follow Him. Don't let that happen to any of you. Let's all be in that Kingdom. Let's all commit ourselves to Him. And as we commit ourselves to Him, the first step in that is keeping before us the fear of God.