There Is No Fear of God Before Their Eyes

Appreciate that. As always, the choir does a wonderful job. Music makes you feel good, doesn't it? To hear that the messages that are in the music that are done within the church, even your hymns that you sing have a message in them. You know, if you just, you know, listen to the music of each hymn, that's a message in itself. It's a sermon in itself.

One of the news items I came across this past week had to do with the direction that Americans are going in. You probably saw the article, if you picked up the prophetic times, that fewer Americans are certain that God exists. And so, in this secular world that we're living in, it seems like more and more people are beginning to doubt God, doubt the existence of God. And I think that as time goes on, because of the way that society is, and you hear people as much as I do, that seem to always be injecting doubt into people's minds. Of course, almost speaking of evolution, not just almost, but speaking of evolution as though it is a fact of life, that in fact there was no God involved, that we all sort of climbed out of the pre-mortal soup. You know, like, I guess, a couple of lovesick Mameebas got together, and voila, you have a human being, a fully functional human being. And, you know, it's a wonder that some of us don't look like Mameebas then, if that's the concept that they are trying to sell. But Pew Research, and maybe that's a good name for it, say that less people are certain that God exists. Like I say, we live in an increasingly secular society, and this is why the American way of life drifts further and further away from the Judeo-Christian ethic and values that people once had, that they once embraced. Let's go over to Romans chapter 3 over here. Romans chapter 3.

In verse 11, I wanted to start there, or verse 10.

It says, there are none righteous, no, not one. There are none who understands. That's hard to really grasp, isn't it? I remember when I was beginning to study the Bible, I thought, well, surely all these, you know, people in the religions could be wrong. But the Bible says that none understands. There is none who seeks after God, even among the religious of the world. There are none who seeks after God. They've all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There are none who do good, no, not one. Now, wrap your mind around that, brethren. Their throat is an open tomb, where their tongues they have practiced to see. The poison of ash 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. Now, why are people this way? Why are people this way?

Notice what he says here. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So that's the title of the sermon today that sort of stuck in my mind this past week. No fear of God before their eyes. Well, brethren, do you have the fear of God before your eyes? What does he mean by that, anyway? Fear of God before your eyes?

Well, you know, what we are talking about here is that in the world, brethren, God does not enter the picture of people's lives. God is not a part of the decision-making in their particular lives, whatever it might be, whatever they are doing in their lives. God is not central to any decision that is made on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. No, God is not the center of it, is he? In fact, God is not even a thought as far as government is concerned in this society. And I would say probably most of the homes in this country, God is not a part of the picture. He's not even a part of the conversation. So, brethren, do you have the fear of God before your eyes? Let's go to Deuteronomy 14. Now, we all went to the Feast of Tabernacles, and if I ask you the question, why do you go to the Feast of Tabernacles? Why do you go? What's the Feast of Tabernacles about? What are any of the holy days about? What is the Sabbath about? Well, let's read over here what it says. Here, where Moses is recording what God is inspiring him to record. It's interesting that tithing is connected with the keeping of the festivals. But here in verse 22, he says, "...you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain, that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, and the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain of your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks." Okay, here is the reason why all of this is done. Right there, the next statement here in verse 23, "...that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." That you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Now, what does he mean by that? Always. Fear God always. I mean, either you fear God or you don't fear God. What does he mean, always? Here. Well, we'll discuss that in the course of the sermon today. Now, I'm not going to go over to it, but in Proverbs 1 and verse 7, Solomon says that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. It's the first step of any worthwhile knowledge, in fact, is the fear of God. And that, by the way, that word there, the Hebrew word for fear is the Hebrew word yera. It's spelled y-i-r-a-h. The fear of God that we read and do around the 14, by the way, is spelled yare. And that's spelled y-a-r-e. Both of them are... yare, by the way, is a root word. It's a primitive root Hebrew word from which yera is... you get yera. Yera, by the way, is used 45 times in the Bible. Yare is used over 300 times. And they basically mean the same thing. And that is that the word means someone to be who is morally... who reverences. Morally reverences. And what that means, by the way, morally, means it's a part of your character. As a part of your character, you have a reverent attitude toward God, a fear of God, an awe of God. It's a part of your morality. I think we all understand that. Now, the word yera, by the way, Vines talks about the many ways that the word yera can be used, this word fear, to be morally to fear or to reverence.

We can have a fear of men, and we all understand that, don't we? You know, where does a 500-pound canary sit anywhere he wants? You know, a guy comes up to you, and he's about eight feet tall, and he says his name is Moose. You say, yes sir, don't you? And it's like the guy who, you know, had the big guy that was, you know, a fighter, you know, had a moose. And he said, have you ever kissed a mule on the lips? And, you know, the other guy who was shaking his boots said, no sir, but I've always wanted to try. So, you know, we have a fear of men. In Deuteronomy 2, verse 25, it says, this day, well, I begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the nations under the whole heaven. So, God was going to cause the nations to fear Israel.

Used to be that nations feared the United States, but that's a thing of the past, isn't it? You could have a fear of things. This day, you know, it says in Isaiah 7, verse 25, you will go there for fear of briars, or you will not go there before fear of briars and thorns. You know, all of us, of course, understand that. If you were in the desert in Arizona, you'd be careful to not rub up against a cactus, you know. It'd be the last time you did if you did.

We can be fearful of situations. Remember when Jonah was, you know, on board a ship, and he was running from God, and God caused this great storm, this tempest to take place? And he said, look, I'm the reason, throw me in. And they resisted and resisted throwing Jonah into the tempest, to the storm, and after they did, the waters calmed. And the Bible says over in Jonah 1, verse 14, it says that they greatly feared God when they saw that. They realized, hey, we're not dealing with your minor God here, we're dealing with a major God. And, of course, the word means reverence as well. Such as in the case of Abraham, when in fact, Abimelech, you know, reverence God because of God's great power. So this shows the many aspects of the way that the words fear, what it can mean. And it has different aspects, and many of these aspects can be applied to God. God desires, brethren, reverence or fear in the right manner, in the right way, and awe from those who worship Him. Now, some people believe, by the way, that fearing God is a negative thing. They've read one verse in the Bible, essentially, and they've come to that conclusion. We're going to read that verse and hopefully understand it a little differently if we haven't before understood it. But people have a hard time, if you use the word fear in connection with God, they have a hard time looking upon that positively, in a positive way. However, brethren, fearing God is no more negative than telling a child to look both ways before they cross the street. Now, you wouldn't want your child to run across the street without looking both ways and being sure it was going to be safe. You'd want them to be afraid of this couple-ton vehicle lumbering down the street, wouldn't you? You wanted to be careful. And how many of you, when you get to be adults, you'll begin to think, well, it's nothing. You know, just a 2,500-pound vehicle. No problem whatsoever. No, when you get older, you have a healthy fear of cars, don't you? What do you call somebody that walks across an interstate and you've got a thousand cars coming at you? You call them a dead man, you know? They say you've got mighty good brakes. And most of the people out there on the freeway are not going to pay attention who's on that freeway because they're not looking for anybody out there. So you have a healthy fear, don't you, of that? But, you know, think about it. There are many dangerous things that are harmless as long as you have a healthy respect for them. You know, you're not going to, in other words, have the freeway all certain diverted into your bedroom. It doesn't work that way, does it? If you used to long, you stay away from, you know, the freeway, or as long as you stay away from something that's dangerous, it's safe. There's nothing to fear. It's like gravity. Gravity is a terrible thing, especially if you're 10,000 feet in the air, and you can't flap enough.

You know, it's a deadly thing, isn't it? You fall too far. There are certain deadly animals. You know, it's important to not go up and pet, for instance, a big bear. Or be careful, or be careful about that kind, or a lion, or a tiger, or some sort of snake, a venomous snake. Want to be careful about that kind of thing, or fire. How many times do little kids have to learn that you don't touch hot things? And how long does it take them to learn it? Usually not too long, you know. The first time they learn, don't touch. You know, mom said not to touch. Of course, if you tell somebody not to do something, they're usually going to do it. But it's like, you know, sometimes a man will come in, and his wife has just cooked something, and she'll say, they're not touched that, or not taste that, and maybe she's got a piece of pie. And he takes a spoon, and he dips it into that pie, and puts it in his mouth, waltz around a little bit, and pretty certainly understands why he shouldn't have taken a bite of that. Because it scalds the inside, you know, of his mouth. How many of you have ever done that before? It's kind of, it makes you feel kind of funny, doesn't it? That you were so stupid you took a bite, you didn't, you didn't test it. The other day I was going along, I had a, I don't very often drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee, but my wife had made some coffee. And anyway, there was a lid on the coffee, and for some reason when I picked it up out of the, you know, the well where the, in the car, you know, the little cup holder, the lid came off, and I was going to take a drink, and the coffee went right on my stomach. And I don't know, it burned my stomach, it was so bad. It reminded me of that, that time when McDonald's sold a cup coffee, and so I told my wife I was going to sue her. She said, well, you'd be suing yourself.

I said, at least I'd live well for a while. But it, but it left marks on my, my, my stomach, you know, which I guess it'll teach me to suck my, my gut in a little bit. But, you know, we have fear, don't we, of those particular things. Like, hot, you know, if you go to the zoo, they have glasses to protect us from venomous stakes, don't they? They have fences to keep us from vicious animals. And it's the foolish person that goes beyond the barrier. And, you know, when you go there, you don't taunt the animals. As some have learned not to do, you don't go and you don't make fun of the monkeys. They might just come out of there and beat you up, you know. Or the tigers, we had an incident down here in Oakland, where apparently these, these lions were being, or tigers were being, taunted. And somehow they escaped, and they ran after the people who were taunting them. It's amazing, you know. I guess they, they used to say, elephants don't forget. I guess certain lions and tigers don't forget either. I'm gonna get you, you know, maybe a lion is saying. But boundaries, in other words, what I'm trying to say, brethren, boundaries are part of life. Railroad road crossings protect us from oncoming trains. And if we respect those boundaries, you know what? We'll live longer. We just will. And parents teach their kids this from the time that they are very small.

And we have, have healthy fears of these things. We really do. We have healthy fears of these things. And now some boundaries, by the way, and barriers are invisible. But they're there. That you just don't do certain things. Sometimes a foolish person will, will maybe not be aware of those invisible barriers, but they're there.

Princess, the law of God, you know, has certain barriers to it. I don't know if you've thought about it that way, but the law of God has certain barriers. For instance, the barrier is this. If you break the law, there will be a penalty. Now, you may not even see the penalty, right away, at least. But be sure, like the Bible says, your son will find you out. If you, if you break the law, it will break you. That's why God has revealed his law to us, so we won't be broken.

Now, some, again, of the penalties are quite obvious to you, to us. You smoke too much, you get cancer, you know. You, you, you get involved with certain things. You're going to get particular health issues that are going to come.

But again, even those may not happen right away. You know, it might be a matter of time before that kind of thing happens. But we know that even, even though there are penalties, God is merciful to us. He forgives us of the sin. He doesn't always take away the penalty, the physical penalties, but He certainly takes away the spiritual penalty of eternal death from us. That that does not hang over our head. But we must not confuse, by the way, that particular penalty for the physical penalty, sometimes we suffer as well. Because God doesn't always remove the physical. We know sometimes He does heal, for whatever reasons He does.

But let me tell you, brethren, God is a lot more merciful in His administration of justice, you might say, in broken law, than man is. God is a lot more merciful. I don't know if you've ever, you follow some of these judges and what they do to those that commit crimes. You know, in some cases, they simply humiliate them. They humiliate those that commit crimes. Now God's purpose, brethren, is not to humiliate us. And maybe in some cases people need to be humiliated in the world for some of the things that they do. But God doesn't want to humiliate us. He doesn't want us to do that.

He simply wants us to learn the lesson and move on as His people. And God wants, brethren, not to humiliate us, but He wants to change us. And so we suffer penalties when we break certain laws. You know, God doesn't want to break us, but He wants to make us. I like that phrase, by the way. God does not want to break us, but He wants to make us.

And God wants us, brethren, to learn. And God's intent, brethren, is we learn to fear Him always. Now, there's a reason for that. That word always. Learn to fear God always. Because we don't always fear God, do we? Oh, we fear God, but we don't always feel fear God. You know, at the Feast of Tabernacles, we receive God's messages, sermons, sermonettes, split sermons for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles.

And, of course, we have the last great day as well. What is the purpose of that? Why does God want us to get so much information in so little time? Well, the reason why God wants to immerse us in His way. He wants us to be bathed in it, as it were. And hopefully, if we're immersed in it, you know, through the process of osmosis, that somehow it will get into our mind and we'll see the value of our life.

Now, you be honest with yourself. When you are close to God, brethren, and all of us could say this here, when we're close to God and we're doing what God wants us to do in our life, and we know that we're doing what God wants us to do in our lives, aren't we happier? Aren't we more pleased? Aren't we more tranquil? Aren't we more at peace in our lives? You know, when you go to the feast, brethren, you know, and you hear all these messages, I mean, you really get into it.

You're listening, you're fellowshipping, you're immersing yourself in the Feast of Tabernacles. Aren't you having a good time? Aren't you enjoying your life on a higher level? Well, the reason God has seven days of that, brethren, is the word. The number seven is completeness. It means completeness. And God wants us to learn the lesson that if we completely immerse ourselves in Him, in His laws, in His commandments, in His statutes, in His way, with His people, and doing those things that God desires that we do, we will be happier in our lives.

That's the key to happiness. And He hopes that after seven days we get that point.

But unfortunately, you know, we sometimes we're kind of hard-headed, aren't we? And we don't get that lesson. We don't come away from the Feast and say, well, you know, I felt better when I was really immersed in God's way of life. I could do this all the time. Now, you can't go to church every day, can you? But you can't study God's Word every day. You can't immerse yourself that way. You can pray every day. You can do all those things, brethren. And let me tell you, brethren, when we're doing those things, and you might say we're hitting on all eight pistons, we feel better. Our lives are much more rich and happier. Let's go over here to 1 John, chapter 4. Like I say, some people look at fearing God as a negative thing. But let's go to 1 John, chapter 4. But let's understand fear, brethren, what it is and why God says we should fear Him always. Well, we know that, again, the world doesn't fear God, even the religions. They don't fear God. If they did, they would do what God says, what God commands. But they do not do that.

But here, let's notice here in verse 18, it says, there is no fear in love.

This is the verse I'm talking about, where people get these negative ideas in their minds about fearing God is a bad thing, it's a negative thing. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

Okay, most of the time people close the book and they say, I rest my case. I don't have to fear God. I don't have any fear of God. Well, I think you'd be kidding yourself. You'd be kidding yourself. Let me do a little bit of reasoning with you about this, brethren.

Love is an affection which produces fear.

Love is not an affection which produces fear. I may have left the word not out. There I said it in my head, but they didn't say it verbally. I guess I'm already able to, you know, just communicate with my mind, you know. I do that with my wife all the time, by the way. I said, didn't you hear me say the word not? Love is not an affection which produces fear. We all agree with that, right? So we agree with that. That fear and love just don't go together. Okay. But here's the thing, brethren. We, therefore, if we hate somebody, if we have a wrong attitude towards someone, we must not love perfectly, then.

And would you agree that you do not love perfectly? How many of you think you don't love perfectly? Okay. All of us, right? I'm going to raise my hand with that one. I don't love perfectly. Why? Because we get offended, don't we? And let's face it, we sometimes hate even our brother.

Now, the end of the age, brethren, is a time of betrayal. You'll read over in Matthew 24 about that. When love waxes cold in the world and with some in the church. The time is going to come, where some are going to, in the church, are going to deliver you up, you know, to the magistrates, and, you know, they may do so, you know, and they think God, they're doing God a service.

I'm sure there were those that believed, you know, what they were doing to Christ was doing God a service. But, brethren, if we had perfect love, we would not hate. Would you agree with that?

We would not hate. So, therefore, we do not have perfect love. We do not love God perfectly because, why? Because we do not fear Him. You get what I'm saying here, brethren? Very important for us to understand this and why we must, you know, as God's people, we must learn to fear God always now.

But because we do not fear God and we do not love God perfectly, then love must be labored at, right? It's something we're working on. I'm working, brethren, very hard. Help me here. I'm working very hard to love every one of you here.

You know, and hopefully we're all helping one another love each other. But love has to be labored at always until we, in fact, come to a point of perfection when fear is gone. You get what I say? I said right there, when do you think that's going to happen? When do you think the fear will be totally gone?

In other words, fear is there until love is perfected. So now we fear always. You get the reason? The reasoning? Brethren, behind it. Now, God wants us to learn to fear always until our love is perfected. And, you know, we're not going to be perfected in that until you and I can, we pinch ourselves and it doesn't hurt. We are spirit beings until we are changed at Christ's Second Coming out of this mortal into immortality. You know, one of the things, though, realize this, brethren, that as we journey to the point where we love perfectly, if we have fear of God, you know, we're in the loving hands of God in His mercy if we have a fear of Him. Now, brethren, you want to be in the loving hands of God. You don't want to fall into His hands. There's a difference, you know, between falling into God's hands and then being in God's loving embrace and in His loving hands. Let's come notice and compare a couple of scriptures over here in Hebrews in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 over here.

Hebrews 10 and 30, verse 10. That's chapter 10 and verse 30. It says, For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine. I will repay. And yet, how many times, brethren, do we try to take vengeance ourselves? God says vengeance is His. I will repay. But notice going on here says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge His people. You get what He's saying there? The Lord will judge His people. So God says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, but I am judging my people.

Now keep that in mind. You know, the Bible also tells His brethren that the world does not know God because it does not keep His commandments. He that says He knows God and keeps not His command is a liar and the truth is not in it. So the world does not know God. We're supposed to know God. But God says the Lord will judge His people. In verse 31, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Like I said, you want to be in God's hands. You don't want to fall into His hands. But as long, brethren, as we fear God always, we don't have to worry about that.

So, brethren, it behooves us to realize the boundaries that God has set for us.

God is judging us. He's not judging the world. And we should seek God in fear to love this perfected in us until that change comes. In fact, the Bible tells us that God will punish those other sinners in the future who refuse to repent, who are defiant to God. Sometimes that happens in people as well. People once knew the truth. Again, are far away from God. But, you know, God is merciful. And, you know, He has a way of bringing people back, doesn't He? We pray that for everyone, frankly, for the future. He's in charge. He will do those kinds of things. But, remember this, God eventually acts. He will act. He will do something. He will bring something about. Let's go to verse 25 up here, chapter 25. It says that we should not forsake the assembly of ourselves together, as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching. Because, brethren, if we're not gathering together with one another, then what are we doing?

Why are we on this earth to begin with? We're missing something, aren't we? Usually, when we're forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, we've got our minds on something else that we think is more important than what God has commanded us to do. But notice it goes on, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. God has no sacrifice for unrepentant sins. But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. And this is anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace. And then he goes on to talk about how vengeance is his. And he says the Lord will judge his people, and it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So again, we do not, brethren, want God to have to act to deal with us because we are not keeping those boundaries that he set through his law. We're not fearing God. You know, a person that is not showing he's going to pay attention or he's going to pay attention. They're not going to show fear of God or respect for God. You know, God simply is going to eventually have to take action. And, brethren, you don't want that. I don't want that in my life. I don't want God to have to take an action in my life to get me to straighten up, to change. You know, we are given the law of God so we will know what his character is. And God wants us to learn to be like him. And, you know, if you really know God, you're going to want, brethren, to make reverence, fear, awe. You can call it whatever you want, a part of your character. Respect. Because in the kingdom, brethren, all will respect each other. And the one that will be the most respected will be God forever and always. And with no fear of God, brethren, you know, we minimize the importance of God's way in our life. If we lack that fear, you know, we minimize the importance of that giant, mega-tongue train coming down the way. And forget about the barrier that is there, that God has put to protect us. And what's going to happen to such a person, of course, in the physical realm as they're going to die? And so it will be in the spiritual as well if there's no repentance that takes place. Let's go over to Matthew 10. Matthew 10. And where, you know, Jesus is talking about these things that men can do to us.

And there are many things that men have done to those who were religious in the past, who were not even knowledgeable of the truths that we have. There's no doubt Satan would inflict upon God's people in the future.

But here in Matthew 10, verse 28, here Jesus said, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. You know, there are those that they can do a lot of damage to your body. You know, people in World War II and, you know, were subjected to the death camps, the, you know, the marches, you know, the Vatan death marches in the Philippines in World War II. Many of them came back. You know, as a result of the infliction of what men did to them, health problems that lasted for the rest of their lives. We have men that came back from Vietnam. Same thing.

Don't fear, though, those people that can, they can rack your body, can't they?

But they cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him as able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. The word hell here is in the Greek Gehenna.

And so God here, Jesus is telling his disciples and those that were there to listen, you know, here, you know, this is, there's no contradictory here, by the way. Jesus is saying, if you, if you fear God, you have nothing to fear, no matter what they do to your physical body. But if you do not fear God, you have everything to fear.

Man can only kill your physical body, but, but God can take away even the potential for eternal life.

And God has in his life the power of, in his hand, the power of life and death.

And he has the power to resurrect. He's the power to give eternal life to whomsoever he will. In other words, fear him who has the power over life and death.

And that is God. You know, God's already proven in the scriptures that by, you know, papadrons of evidence from Shadrach to Meshach to Abednego, you know, when they were cast into the fiery furnace, he's able to deliver us from the clutches of men. If he wants to, if he desires to do that, read the book of Hebrews. How many times God delivered his servants? You know, Daniel's another example. He can throw you in, you know, they could throw you in a den full of the hungriest lions of the face of the earth. And they will be like kittens to you, if that's God's desire. So do not fear men and what men can do. But you know what? In this world, people fear these things. This is what they fear. They fear doing something that their spouse might not like.

Oh, I can't do that! My husband won't go with that. My wife won't go with that. People fear disobeying their boss. Why? The paycheck.

Students fear disappointing the teacher.

People fear getting the rent in on time.

They think, oh, I'm going to be kicked out of my place and I'll never have a place to live again. Well, you know, there are things worse than living on the streets.

But sometimes we place things like that ahead of God when we ought to put God first, no matter what men can do to us. Now, again, if you're, for instance, you're not working and you're not paying your rent because you're not working, you know, that's on you. If that's why you're not able to pay the rent because you're not getting out and hustling and doing what you can do, you know, to earn money. There are things that we can do. I know sometimes people think that they're, well, I'm above that. You know, I couldn't flip a hamburger. I mean, I'm too important for that.

Well, you better think again. There's a lot of things you can do if you have to. You know, think about this. Over in Russia, you've got physicists that are flipping hamburgers. You know, at one time, I don't know, maybe the Russians now are employing their physicists a lot more, but you have people that are highly educated, you know, that they were taking menial jobs just to, you know, put food on the table. So you can have too much pride, brethren. But we shouldn't fear again those things. I'll tell you this. I remember back in 1995, when I was prior to the 1995 debacle, when in worldwide days, they were rejecting, you know, the basic truths of the Sabbath and other things like that. And all of the trouble that I felt I was going through as a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona, and my wife is a witness of this, I came home and I said, I think I would rather dig ditches and do this. You see, things could get worse, be worse. In fact, I went down to the circle K, brethren. This is about, I think, 1994, around there. I was beginning to put feelers out. You know, what can I do? I mean, what do you, what does a pastor do who's been pastoring for 20 some odd years at the time? What does a pastor do? I don't, I have no idea. No. And so I went down to the circle K. And I was talking to this guy, you know, and I said, I said, what kind of money you guys make here? He was, he was, it looked like the manager to me, had all these zits all over his face, you know. Well, we, we, well, I can't really tell you that, you know. You couldn't tell me what, what they were making. I guess it must have been really high. But, but there are things worse that you can do, you know. So, you know, we should not fear what men can do. Well, make a long story short so I don't leave you hanging without God. Bless me. And I, and frankly, you know, supplied his answer to us in not just one way, but there was three or four different ways. But don't put things ahead of God. Don't be afraid of what can happen to you. Obey God, and you will be amazed. You will be amazed. Have faith in God. You will be amazed. So God wants us to, to learn again, to put our trust and our fear in Him. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 29. Like I say, you can, you can call the word fear awe, respect, whatever you want to call the word brethren. Reverence. As long as it makes you do what God commands you to do.

As long as that which is within you causes you to do that, brethren, I guess you could call it whatever you want to call it. But you have a great reverence for God. You have a great awe of God. Let's go to Proverbs 29 verse 25 down here. It says, The fear of man brings a snare, and whomever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. You know, anytime you begin to fear and you're afraid of what men can do to you, and people can do you, it's like you're in a trap. You're in bondage. God doesn't want His people to be in bondage. He wants our faith to be in Him. God doesn't want us to be in a trap, brethren. He doesn't want us to fall into that kind of mentality in our life. That's how people get to the point where they, you know, they're robbing Peter to pay Paul, and they're doing things that really shouldn't do, and they get themselves in a whole heap of trouble. Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12 over here.

Hebrews chapter 12. What time is it, anyway? Do I have a clock? Is it 20 till 12? Okay. I didn't set my clock back. I thought, man, I just begun waxing eloquent hair and already gone past the time. So I'm all right. In Hebrews chapter 12. I was thinking we're going to have to bark to the end of this sermon here. But Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22.

Here Paul talks about how during the time of Moses, people were very terrified coming before God. Remember when God thundered the commandments from on top of Sinai? The people were afraid. They quaked in the presence of God. But to sort of interrupt there or break into that thought, in Hebrews 12 verse 22. 13. But you have come, he said, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. Do you know how many angels there are, brethren? From what we understand, just from the figures we have in the Bible, there are at least over 100 million. I think there's a whole lot more than that. But if you look back in the book of Daniel and you go back over there, it talks about that there are about 100 million standing before God. Imagine that kind of assembly. Now that's a big meeting hall. But an innumerable company of angels.

And to the General Assembly of the Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven. To God, the Judge of all, to the Spirit of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant and the blood of sprinkling. That speaks better things than that of Abel. Now again, what are you saying here? You know, Israel was afraid when they went and they saw, basically what Paul is saying, they went there and they saw a little smoke, they saw a little fire, maybe the ground quake that day. So they were afraid of that. But Paul is saying, look, look, erase that from your mind. You've come to something much greater than that. It's like Paul says, what you've come to, by comparison, it's like a little boy takes a little boat, you know, and you ever made one of these little boats and you floated on the stream?

And he's looking at this little boat and he's made a really big one, you know, that is floating down the stream, little sail on it and all that. And he's not paying attention. And there's a giant aircraft carrier! That's what Paul is saying. You think you're too small. You're thinking way too small. You think God can't take care of you? He says, you come to this vast, not just little, but vast, vast. You know, assembly. And Jesus Christ is there. But then he says here, because the people remember, they said, Moses, you talk to us because if God talks to us, it will die. He says here, though, and of course Israel did not obey God, they turned from God. He says, See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more should you, shall we, not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he's promised saying, yet once more I'll shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this, yet once more indicates to remove all those things that are being shaken as the things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken, may remain. That's you and me. Hopefully we're going to hang in there. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. You know, we better fear the aircraft carrier, right? Be concerned about the big humongous, you know, vessel as it compares a little bitty boat that we get afraid of.

You know, sometimes we think too small as God's people. We really do. There is a bigger picture, Breville, that many, most, do not see. You know, Moses, what Moses told the people anciently when the commandments were being given, he told the Israelites, fear not, fear God for your good so you don't sin. So you don't sin. Again, remember those boundaries because God is a consuming fire. Let's put it this way. He can be a consuming fire to you and me. And he's a consumed fire that can motivate us to alarm and reverence. However, brethren, just knowing that doesn't give us a complete picture of God.

This is why the Apostle John tells us perfect love casts out fear.

The more we love, the more we become like God in character. And when we achieve perfection, brethren, there will be no fear because we will be like God. We'll be like Him.

First Peter chapter 1, First Peter chapter 1, will be part of the family.

First Peter chapter 1 and verse 17, it says, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality, doesn't matter who you are, brethren, long you again want to walk in righteousness and want to obey God. According to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay, your life here, in fear. In fear. And we don't have very long, brethren, physically speaking, do we? This physical life, I think the more the years go by, it seems the more I understand that. You know, how brief our lives are. Had a very dear friend that died recently, David Rowan Spees. You know, and just, you know, although I know a lot, we'll see David and the resurrection. And it's something he hoped for. We both hope for. But pray that God will comfort his family during this time. But many, many, again, those who have been faithful through the years have passed on. But the fear of God inspires us, brethren, in consistent carefulness in what we do and following the boundaries of God's law that God has set. So that we obey God's law in the letter and the Spirit. And that we don't ever lose that proper respect for God. Remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he told them, you know, after they had come to repentance, how that in fact, godly sorrow, as he called it, or repentance, caused them to be careful to obey. And that's what the fear of God does, brethren. It causes to be careful to obey what we do, what we do on the Sabbath, what we do, you know, in terms of tithing, what we do in terms of everything connected with God's law and God's way of life. When fear is lost, I've seen it happen many times, brethren. Respect for other people begins to fall by the wayside, too.

Just the way it works, respect for the church, respect for the ministry, Satan always vacates an empty home. And so, I'll tell you what, if we're not filling our minds with God's way of life, Satan will be Johnny on the spot, right there with you. It's all tied together, brethren. And when we have a proper fear of God, it impacts how we keep the Sabbath, how we keep the Holy Days, how we treat each other, how we teach our children, how we treat our mate. It involves our entire family, our entire way of life, the way we treat our neighbors, how we deal with people in the community. Fearing God, brethren, is not being fearful because that is not of God either. God doesn't want us to be fearful or cowardly. The fearful, the Bible says, won't even be in the kingdom. The cowardly.

Don't realize this, brethren. We don't have to be fearful because God hasn't called us to fail. We don't have to be fearful of failure. Usually, fearfulness comes when we fear we're going to fail. But none of us are going to fail if we keep our sales trimmed, as they say, and we're headed toward the goal. There was a sign in front of a church that went this way. Sometimes I like some of these signs that you go by and you read that people put these pithy sayings they put on the church marquee. It goes like this. Don't give up. Moses was at one time a basket case.

So, brethren, God's not going to make a failure out of you. He's called you to be a success. We must continue to look to God and keep on our calling, brethren. Experiences, good or bad, brethren, help to transform us in our life. Without that, we're in a heap of trouble for not changing and growing. Abraham and Sarah journeyed to Gareir out of fear, and out of fear Abraham told a bimlic, well, Sarah is my sister. You know the story back in Genesis. And you know what he said? He said he thought the reason why he said that Sarah was his sister, he thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they'll take Sarah. Apparently she was a ravishing beauty at 90. Must use a lot of makeup. No, no, no, she would, she, I guess they were naturally that way back then. And kill me. So Abraham thought that he'd be killed. Well, brethren, he took matters in his own hands, and you know, look at the life of Abraham and see how many times Abraham took matters in his own hands and how well it turned out. There was a story of Hagar, you know, like it was a Dr. Phil says, how's that work out for you? Well, he went down there and pretty soon, Belnick had, I guess, Sarah and his harem, and God cursed him for it.

So sometimes we make decisions based upon that little phrase, well, there's no fear of God here, so I gotta, I gotta improvise.

Well, the fact of the matter is all we have to do, we don't have to improvise, brethren, we just have to obey God wherever we are. A man who obeys God, brethren, doesn't have to worry about where he's going or where he's been. He knows where he's going.

He knows where he will have been. But how often do people have this mentality? Well, God, you know, they don't have the fear of God here. At my job, they don't have the fear of God. No kidding. I mean, there are only seven and a half billion people on the earth and planet, and how many are in the church? Very few, by comparison. My employer doesn't understand a feast, so I can't take off. You see, same principle, isn't it? There's no fear of God here. They're not going to listen to me. The landlord doesn't tie, so I must put him first. My spouse does not believe, so I have to follow what they tell me to do.

It's because we're again putting, you know, men before God.

Now, I'm not saying that we should not do what our spouse asks if we can do it within God's law. We should certainly do that. But we should not respect human beings over God. When Ananias and Sapphira kept back the price of the land that they were going to donate to the church, they, I guess, thought, you know, that God was not even a part of the picture there. They had no fear of God there. And look how that turned out for Ananias and Sapphira. And after that fear came upon the whole church. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4 and verse 1.

The last scripture here, brethren. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it. So we ought to, as we're coming up, brethren, on the end of the age, have fear of God before our eyes and, brethren, realize this, that if we have a fear of God before our eyes, up until the time when we're changed out of this flesh to become immortal and eternal beings, God will say to us, come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And we'll enter on in to his kingdom and be there for all eternity.