The Transcendency of God Pt 2-Fear, Revere, or Both?

The sermon today is part 2, last week was part 1, of course, on the transcendency of God. Transcendency of God. And as you can tell from your bulletin, the title is fear, revere, or both. I asked some people today, I got here early. Yes, I want you to know there are people that get here early. I ask if you could choose anything that you love to eat that had no repercussions, had no calories in it, you wouldn't have to worry about anything. And you could eat it once a week with no fear of any repercussions. What food would that be? And you think about it. Bill actually said salmon, and then he thought the calories, and what is it? Cherry cheesecake? Yeah, okay. As I was thinking about what I would eat, because I... What stirred this in my mind yesterday is we stopped and got gas somewhere in Florida at a pilot station, or one of those stations. As I went through, my wife went in first, and then she came back out as I was putting gas in, and then I went in, got something, and came back out, and I noticed there was a Cinnabon place in there. And she went by it and didn't buy anything. Didn't get it, and I know she likes Cinnabon, because that smell takes up, you know, whole room, and it happens in the airport. So I happened to ask my wife, what would you, if you could eat anything, and never worry about anything about it, and eat it once a week forever. Of course, hers was pizza. She'd eat pizza every day. She even eats it cold. If we have some left over when we do eat it, I don't like cold pizza, but she's fine with it.

There are other things that other people might like. So why would I ask that? Is there some food that you would? Ampe, you're shaking your head, yes. What is it? Chocolate chocolate. Oh, okay. Dark chocolate, dark chocolate. Okay. Well, it's not about that today, but there are things we definitely know that we love. All of us have these things that we love to eat. Are we love to do? Are we love to watch? Are we love to play? Some may even love to read. All these things we know what we love, but do we know what we should fear? Is fear something that you know a lot about? That you understand?

Last week in the sermon, we showed the transcendency of God and showed the infinite gap from God to us, an infinite gap so wide our minds cannot even grasp the distance and the quality of being as we talked about last week.

Fear. Do you fear that powerful being, that powerful entity that is there, controlling everything, this sovereign Lord God that He is? Do you fear?

Do you feel like, well, I don't fear or revere, but do we need to fear? Because you have to understand and Winston will tell you, right? Fear is healthy. Fear for your children is healthy. Am I correct, Winston? That that stove is hot when you're a child?

Yeah, but it's so pretty and red. Can I touch it? Okay. Neil will have to explain to the boys and to this little girl up here, you can't go running in the street because you can and probably will be hurt. You can't, as a child, they need to fear and have the certain respect for a dog.

Because I was scared to death when we had our, in Tennessee, we had a Rottweiler. She was good as she could be, except she protected our place. But when my little niece came over, she was about a coy of size, a little bit older, she went over there and she just pulled the ear. Didn't do anything. You know, you go, no, no, no, no, no, no. The dog was fine. Then I kind of looked when Mary freaked out one time when the dog was eating, she went right there and grabbed food out of his bowl. Biscuit, yeah, a little biscuit there. Thankfully, the dog didn't do a thing.

But you wouldn't try that very often. That's a rarity. You need to show some fear. We have certain areas in our life living here. There are neighborhoods that you and I wouldn't be wise to go into some of those neighborhoods at night. It wouldn't be wise to just be driving around on some of these interstates at 90 miles an hour, even though there's others that do. There needs to be a certain fear. That something can happen. Because fear, brethren, is healthy. Healthy for children, it's also healthy for us. Now before you go, oh, this is a negative sermon. We need to fear God. I don't fear my God. Well, let's go into that today because fear is a scary word. It's an intimidating word, and we can all relate to that word because we all fear something.

Some of the most common fears is, of course, death. Most of us fear death. We're not going to go, oh, good, I get to die today. No. One of the great fears of the American public is public speaking. A lot of people, it's right up there with dying because they just don't want to stand up in front of people and speak. So they fear that. Another is rejection. People fear rejection, which is not a good feeling if you're a salesman. Because if you're a salesman and they kind of look at that, if you can't take rejection, you're not going to hold your job very long. It's kind of like a minister. If you don't like or you don't have a strong tolerance for problems, you're not going to last very long because that's what we do. We're spiritual firemen who run to the fire, not run away from it. But also, there's pain. A lot of people fear pain. Have you? I think most of us do. None of us want to have. Oh, I just used a diamond blade Thursday on my and my thumb hit that blade while it was going around and it is very, very sore as it made this tension.

I don't like pain. It's interesting, the top three in the United States, according to the USA Today in October 12th of 2016, they actually listed in America. Now you have to remember this is October the 12th, right, of 2016. They listed the top three fears of Americans. Can you guess what they would be? First one is corruption of government officials. The second, a terrorist attack. This is America. And the third, not having enough money for the future. Those are the top three fears in America as of about three months ago. Can you remember the most fearful times in your life? Or have you tried to vanquish them from your memory? A lot of us do. And in a lot of ways, some of those things are healthy to vanquish. Others, not so healthy to vanquish.

But I'm talking about extreme heart-stopping, trembling, heart-pounding, knees-knocking, body-shaking, faint-fearing feelings. We've all had them.

I don't know about yours. Perhaps your worst nightmare coming true in a lot of ways. Most are vivid. Mine in the past shook me to the core. And there were truly times that I have and you have feared death and pain.

One of my first was 17 years of age. On our farm, we had cattle, and we had bought a bull.

A new bull, part Brahma, part Holstein. He was 2,200 pounds of mean. And I was at 17, 150 pounds of something. It wasn't mean. And I wasn't tough. And I knew 150, 2,200. Yes, it was a problem. If there was a problem. And one morning, there was a problem. So my father knew this new bull was creating problems. It was beating up on a younger bull that we were hoping to use later on for breeding. And I remember going out one morning and getting the cows up. And as I was doing it, he always said, take a stick because you're going to have to lay something on that bull because he doesn't want to go where you want him to go. And he wants to do what he wants to do. So I did. I had trouble with him. And then finally, when we get towards the barn, and there was this gate there, he was attacking the other bull, the younger bull, who only wait about seven, eight hundred pounds. And he would have tried to kill him. So my job was to make sure that he didn't. So I went over with that stick and well, he gave it my best home run swing, to which the stick broke and he was unfazed other than I just made him angry. And he turns on me and heads towards me. And I remember I had these big old boots on, galoshes, you would say. So we used in the barns at the time, which made you feel like you were running in sand. As I was running for this because I knew he was going to do me the same way he did that bull and knock him down and then try to paw him and butt him. And I remember thinking, can I reach that gate and realizing that if I didn't, he would kill me. The first time that I can remember fear before the incident was going to happen that I could actually do something about. We've all been in car wrecks or something that just happens and boom, it's there. It didn't have really time to fear, you just had time to react. Well, here I just reach as I'm running, doing my best Usain Bolt before there was a Usain Bolt.

And I reach the gate and I leap, put my hands over it and just leap over it behind that fence. And he hits that fence and just, boy, that gate, he just bent it all to pieces. But I was safe. But I knew I came close to death. My father knew because my father actually took an axe handle out and hit him a couple of times and he was still coming. So we sold him about a month later. It wasn't worth it. Too dangerous. I remember a car wreck. I was 19 years of age. I was coming home late one night, coming over this hill. And as I came over this hill near in Sumner County, which Stephanie would know, near the Tuttle's house, came over this hill and all of a sudden I was doing maybe 30 or 40 miles an hour in this little car. And I come there and there's a horse trailer had turned over in the road. It was a four lane. And there was a horse laying in the middle of the road and there was one over here. Just a terrible situation at about 1130 that night. So I slow down. As I'm coming down that hill, I'm probably doing 20 because I'm trying to decide, do I need to stop because I'm, you know, I'm maybe a thousand feet from there and how am I going to get around this? And all of a sudden I see in my rear view mirror these lights coming at me so fast and I'm going, somebody's going to hit me. And I don't have time to move. And of course, being young, dumb, and stupid as I've told you many times at 19, seat belts were something other people, old people, used. So I didn't wear seat belt. And this car hit me at 60 miles an hour in the back of my car to which I was propelled forward and busted out the windshield with my head. As Mary said, that maybe was wrong. I don't know.

But the fear stayed with me for more than a few years because that happens and I couldn't get out of the way and those lights just keep coming. And of course, always before if there was a car coming, it would wouldn't bother you. But now it took me two years to get over that fear that anytime someone started coming up behind me at the lights at night, I would sometimes change lanes just because there was that fear that was going to happen. Had nightmares about it. True fear.

Last but not least, I was 20 years old. And I had, maybe our nurses here can tell us since we have a few nurses, more than a few nurses here, hopefully you do not have the same archaic practices they had in 1978 or 79 when I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. And I tried to take care of it myself and tried to cut it out and tried various things to get by. And the worst part was it was always a wound there as I continued to try to work.

And I actually then, because it was open, I actually worked around concrete and got some of the concrete dust and so forth in it, which further inflamed everything. And so I had to go to the hospital because I couldn't even walk and blood was coming through the pores of my skin as infection was so bad and the streaks were going up my arm.

And I went in for surgery and the surgery, because I was bitten on the very kneecap and this thing was swelling up so big that when they went and did the surgery, which I would do anything just to keep me from this pain, that was just every time my heart would beat, it was like this. So they took me in and they cut out on each side of my knee and in the back of my knee.

And they put this gauze in this cut area. They cleaned it out and they put this gauze in there and then sewed it back up, except they left the gauze hanging out. And he's saying, I hope you still don't do that. You do? Oh, you still do? Oh my! And this gauze will hang out just a little bit out of each of those three rooms, at which time, I guess, it collects whatever is in there or whatever.

But every day for three days, they would take, get me up, put me in a wheelchair, take me to this tub with water in it. And it was warm water and it had a whirlpool in it. Okay. I tried to vanquish that, but I couldn't. And they would then turn that water on when you were in it, because they actually lowered me the entire way.

And when they did, that water would cause those pieces to hang out, to just vibrate you to the core, at which time they brought a lady in, who would begin to pull a little of that out each day. And it was such excruciating pain, they actually had this rubber thing that I could put in my mouth to bite down on and to scream.

That's why I say, archaic. Each time they would pull out a little more for three days that went on to where they would take you in, and you're sitting there in a pool of your own blood pretty soon, because there's so much blood coming out. I entered at 150 and came out 127 pounds a week later. For a six-foot tall, I was not something any woman would look at. I'm glad she didn't see me at that. But I so remember that pain, because each day I had to get up and go till they finally got three foot of gauze out each of the side, but they had put four foot of gauze in my back of my knee, right back there.

And it took an extra day for them to... And every time they would come to get me, my hands started shaking, because I knew what kind of pain that was going to be. That's fear. I know what fear is, and I tell you those stories just because you've got probably more that can match that or beat that at any time of what fear is. So once you truly know what true fear is, that is where we begin to grow.

We begin to grow in our spiritual lives. So I asked you the question today, do you fear God? And is that healthy? Do we have proper reverence for God? And is reverence enough? Proverbs 14 and verse 27 says, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. That doesn't sound right.

Fear is a fountain of life. That's what the scriptures say. Last week we saw and visualized a transcendency of God. Just how far above He is in every way, shape, and form. And Tafari last week brought me an ant in a little container, and we looked at the size of that ant and then compared that to a human. Was it Dwight we compared it to? Okay. And then we said whatever comparison you have there, there's an even greater, greater comparison between even Dwight and God because it's infinite. So you remember that little ant because some of you even said you couldn't even see it hardly.

With that little bitty ant, do we realize that we are like ants to God? I mean, you say it, but do you realize that? That God can squish us just like we can step on that ant. You know, if we want to step on an ant and kill it, we don't have to go, hmm, what?

It's effortless, isn't it? Just step on it. Just take a step. It's so easy that to God we are so small, so insignificant to God, no. So insignificant compared to God we are like that ant. The 2,200 pound Brahma bull caused such fear when he showed his power.

And he's not even a blip on the radar screen of God.

That's the God we worship. That's the Father who will protect us and guide us and do all things for us.

David writes, a road in Psalm 8, What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him?

David, I think, knew. Because you remember, he would have known what pain was because he was a warrior. But he also knew what it was like to fight giants.

Because it wasn't a giant to him because he had God with him. How about us? Do we have that mindset? Do we have that mindset? When men in the Bible came before God or saw a glimpse of, or vision of, his greatness, there was this incredible sense of fear, reverence. But so many times there was dismay and terror. And these were men like us who were followers of God. Terror in the presence of God. But something to think about. We saw last week in Isaiah where he actually had a vision of God, and he actually said, I'm undone, I'm destroyed. Because he was just in his midst and realized he didn't deserve to be there. Remember Moses? He was afraid. He was a general. He was afraid. He was a former general. Children of Israel, what happened to them? Let's go, if we will, to Exodus 20. Exodus 20, we all know the Ten Commandments are codified there. In Exodus 20, verse 18, now all the people witness the thunderings, the lightnings, flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. You know, imagine seeing smoke coming off a mountain, and it's not because it's fog. It's smoke because of the presence of God.

And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you so that you may not... What? Sin.

A deterrent. A deterrent.

It's against the law to steal. If there wasn't a penalty for it, you think you could leave your doors unlocked? You could leave money laying out? A deterrent.

Leviticus 9. Let's go to Leviticus 9. Leviticus 9 and verse 23. Leviticus 9 and verse 23. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering, and the fat on the offering, when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. It wasn't like, ah, okay! It's like, ah, ah, because this fire came down and just like, whoof, and just consumed it all. They saw, they saw just a little teeny tiny bit of God's power.

And they were afraid as we would be. Remember Belshazzar? Daniel 5? He was standing there having his party, and all of a sudden he saw a hand that God sent and wrote words upon a wall. What does it say he did? Well, the scriptures actually say his joint, he came out of joint, his knees knocked, or whatever, what it's saying, he lost control of his bowels. He wet himself! He was so afraid.

I knew another minister when I was growing up. He was in Second World War. He was taken captive by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp. And Doc Kessler was a big man, and told the story of how when he first, they went through this thing, and then some of them were called in as he was one of the older ones, and he was called in before the soldiers there, and one of the men and just cocked a gun and put it right to one of them's head.

And they wanted the truth, and the guy was just stuttering, and so they shot and killed him, right there next to him. And he said, I just lost control of my bowels. I just lost it. There was so much fear. There was so much fear.

God, if we truly understood, he's so much more worse than that. He's so much greater than that, that if we truly knew, we would be fearful, and it would be healthy. A lot of times we do not fear him. And yet, even in the New Testament, you say, well, that was God of the Old Testament. And really, doing this study, I had some thoughts of myself because I really don't fear God. I have more reverence towards him. And as I begin to study the Word, he deserves both. And there are times when both are needed. Both are required to be faithful. Because I like it when Stephen Steffen, in Acts, this is one of the seven deacons in Acts, relates the story of Moses. It's the same story we read about, but he actually said that Moses shook with terror and did not dare look upon God at the burning bush.

We see other examples.

1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 16, and I'll read from the New Living Translation.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 16, describing God, describing Christ, He alone can never die, and He lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach Him. No human eye has never seen Him nor ever will. All honor and power to Him forever, Paul understood. And he wanted to get us to understand.

The reference to fear in the Bible are over 400 times that fear is mentioned in the Bible.

You realize that 300 of those 400 refer to the fear of God. It's pretty important. Three quarters of everything is fear to God, both Old Testament and New Testament, because to fear God is to reverence God, to be in awe of God, to respect and honor God. I think it's amazing, I wonder what God thinks when He sees people that meet somebody important, and they're just, ah, oh, oh, oh. And I wonder, you know, I think what God must think, because they're like ants to Him, and they're going, oh, could I get your autograph?

Could you ever see Jesus Christ asking somebody for their autograph?

Wow. We can give more reverence to someone who's on some reality TV show, some degenerate that plays some sport, and yet we have trouble reverencing God, fearing Him. To properly fear God is to truly know and realize, brethren, the transcendency of God. If we could see Him.

Luke 12, verse 5. Luke 12, verse 5. I'll read this from the New Living Translation. Luke 12, verse 5.

Next, we'll start in verse 4. It's Christ saying here, Dear friends, don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body. They cannot do any more to you than after that, but I tell you whom to fear. You get that? I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear... what to say?

Fear what? Fear God. Fear God who has the power to kill you and then throw you into heaven.

A lake of fire.

Words from Jesus Christ. How do you think He said it? Oh, now you people. You pretty, you nice people. I'll tell you whom to fear. Oh, fear God.

No. He says, fear God.

How powerful is that?

And it is, He said, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Hmm. In Psalms 111 verse 10, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want to be wise? You can't get there according to Him until you first have fear. Fear of God. Anybody have an NIV? New international version? Anybody? No? You do? You have it there? Right there? Okay, would you look up a verse for me? Proverbs 8 verse 13. Proverbs 8 verse 13.

The fear of the Lord is the hate evil.

Say that again.

The fear of the Lord is the hate evil. I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior, and perverse So He says, to fear the Lord is to hate evil. Do we have many people here who hate evil? We better. Got one back there raising their hand.

To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I've seen some evil that I haven't hated and realized when I do that I'm not fearing God because He hates evil and He's going to as we heard and served. It's going to be cleaned up eventually and He's going to do it quickly.

Psalm 33 and verse 8 in the English Standard Version said, Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. There are a lot of instructions in this book telling us about fear and God.

Deuteronomy 10.

Deuteronomy 10.

In verse 20.

Told them back then, you must fear the Lord your God and worship Him and cling to Him. He told them back then. But it's instructions for us today. We must fear the Lord and cling to Him. Now, a little over a week ago I was walking on a beach in Deerfield Beach and I come to this area down there where there's a bunch of sandbags and it goes out at the very end. And I sometimes walk out there because you have water on two sides at that time. And as I was walking up there, it dawned on me because this woman was walking this little dog. He was that big, maybe 20 pound dog. He's walking on that dog on that leash. And as this woman was walking that dog, some of the sandbags were so big that the dog couldn't get up on those sandbags. So she would have to pick him up and put him there. And then he would walk with that with her. And the thing that got me, and I couldn't get it out of my mind the rest of the day, was the way that dog looked at her. And I thought that dog looked at her with such reverence and love and with such power that it embarrassed me that I had never at times looked at God that way.

That a dog can have more reverence for God than humans, and even us who he has called his children. And that dog was just, it was just so happy to be in that person's presence. It depended on it. It was just so happy to be there and had no fear. Because perfect love does what? Cast out fear.

Wow! What an example we can look around and we see God in everything, and we should see Him in everything. In everything.

A couple more scriptures before I wrap up today. I'd like you to turn to Psalm, Psalm 34.

Psalm 34 in verse 9. Read from the New Living Translation. Psalm 34 in verse 9, fear the Lord.

Wait till you get there. Fear the Lord, you, his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Just like that little dog's not going to have to wonder if he's going to be fed, taken care of.

We're his children. We're godly people. It's that big of a deal. Go with me too, Philippians.

Go with me to Philippians 2. Philippians 2.

In verse 12. Philippians 2 in verse 12, New Living Translation, said, Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I am way, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. Obane...what? Obane God. I don't know what yours says. Obane God with deep reverence and fear.

Deep reverence and fear. Obane God. Shouldn't we be just like, oh, I'm scared, God?

No, he's very loving. He's very caring. He's very forgiving. That's what this is all about.

But there's a point, just like a parent's going to say, uh-uh, it stops now.

Right?

I loved my dad even growing up, but I realized when he unbuckled his belt, and that belt started to come off, it was time to fear.

Because that was his favorite implement of torture. Oh, that's how I looked at it sometimes. But you know, when I did everything, as he asked me to do, I had no fear of the belt. He never even reached for it.

That's God. But you know, the times when I got the belt and he used it on me, I looked back now and glad he did, because I don't know where I would have been. And I doubt I would be here today if he hadn't put the fear. And why did he do that? Because he loved me. Because he cared for me. And you know, as I got older, and before my father died a few years ago, I didn't... there was no fear. There was just reference for you. Even when I go to his tombstone today, there is reverence for him, as I'm in awe of him and hope I can be that someday.

What does God want us to be? Become you perfect. He wants us to be like him.

Do we? Do we? Do we want to become like that?

Do we have fear? Do we have reverence?

One of the most famous poets, writer, statesman, that lived in the 18th century. And he was from Germany, and he was, at his time, comparable to Shakespeare.

Milton, Dante.

So much so that when Napoleon Bonaparte came in and conquered Germany, he held this guy and held him at such esteem and put him in a house and took care of him. I wanted to make sure he was protected. He so thought of this man, so well thought of.

His name, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A deep thinker.

I want to read just a sentence of what he wrote to his people at the time to try to get them to understand who really was over everything. And he said, referencing people's view of the lack of transcendency of God, he said, and I quote, people treat it as if that incomprehensible and most high being, who is even beyond the reach of thoughts, where only they're equal.

Where only they're equal.

Something to remember from Goethe.

I don't think when, at the second resurrection, he will have any problem learning the truth, do you? Because he's got the distance figured out.

He's got the supremacy of God figured out. Fear.

All those times mentioned in the Bible, the Hebrew word is Yare. Y-A-R-E. Y-A-R-E. And Hebrew is pronounced Yare. Similar to what? Yare. Yare.

It's so important. And it means to fear, if you look it up in the concordance, fear, to fear, to revere. But as you study the Hebrew, and you really break it down because their language is, to me, a lot more complicated than the Greek, you found that those words are there, fear and revere, and they don't separate them.

That's what that fear means. That Yare means. It means to fear and to revere. You cannot separate one from the other when we talk about our God.

Because to fear is to revere. To revere, brethren, is to fear. How powerful was that? I had to learn that. The more I studied that word, I was stuck in for an hour just going, how could I have ever gotten this so wrong?

Because I always look at, well, fear is something that kids do. No. With God, He's so deserving of both. He's deserving of everything.

See, it is healthy to fear and revere.

The most awesome entity ever.

That's why Christ mentioned it many, many times. I challenge you to go grab a concordance and look at all the times that Jesus Christ mentioned fear God.

He is our pattern. But then look how many times He reveres His Father and teaches us to do the same.

It is powerful. Very, very powerful for all of us.

So why is this lesson important to us as MPs?

It's a Melchizedek priesthood. Why? Because we hold a certain position.

A God-ordained position. A God-given position. That very few people on earth are given.

And it's not something we should go, look at me. It's something like, why me? Like David did. What is man?

Vance Havner once said, when you're accustomed to standing before God, kings don't matter much.

Right? Take that on. When you're used to, you're accustomed to standing before God, what lawyer, what businessman, what anything, what politician should we even think about? They don't matter much. Respect? Yes. There's only one.

One Father.

Who asks us to love Him, to fear Him, and to revere Him. And He'll take care of all the rest.

John Bunyan, famous biblical advocate.

He actually got thrown in prison. Many years ago, hundreds of years ago. He got thrown in prison for reading the Bible on the streets, because the Bible was only to be kept by certain people.

So near England, he would sit there and read the Bible, and he got thrown into prison, and kept in prison for a while. And all he did was say, we want you to stop, and you can go free.

But he wanted people to have the truth. To have a Bible. And he made this comment, as they asked him, why? Why? Don't you know what we can do? We can take your life! We can keep you in prison forever! We can imprison your wife, your kids!

And he said, when you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. When you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. My fellow brethren, we have nothing else to fear when we fear God.

Fear our reverence. Brethren, let us live with both.