Dear Lord, we have so many things
to be grateful for. But first of all, this morning
we'd like to offer up. Our thanks and. Rupert surgery
this morning and how he's come along so far. It could have been
a different outcome, but you've been pleased to. Bring him through
this. This time once again, and we
thank you for that. But as always, as we gather here,
we beg your grace and your mercy that you come and just for a
short while be with us, dear Lord. Remove the outside world
and turn our eyes. To our Lord and our Savior. May we learn more about him.
Fall even more at his feet if it be possible, dear Lord. Thank
you for all blessings. Your many kindnesses to us. You're
so much better to us than we deserve, and we praise you for
it. Amen. Now, how many of you remember
hearing about poor Richard's Almanac? Well, if you're getting
old and you don't remember, or I don't know what schools are
like nowadays, they might not even teach it anymore. But this
was a little pamphlet that Benjamin Franklin wrote for about 25,
26 years. He'd come out with it annually.
And it's much like a farmer's almanac nowadays, when to plant
your crops, what the weather's going to be like, things such
as that. But he would also come up with some little quaint little
sayings he would put in there, some original, some borrowed. But it's what you would maybe
consider advice for better living. Just one quick example, lost
time is never found again. What does that tell us? Use your
time wisely, kids. Every moment's precious. But
I'll use the term unfortunate to describe this, but unfortunately,
I'm afraid that this is how many people use the book of Proverbs. And including myself in the past,
They view this book of Scripture as really like the advice Benjamin
Franklin gave. Nothing but an advice column. And yes, there's some great advice
contained in this book of Scripture. If you would, start beginning
to turn to Proverbs chapter 14. We're going to turn away a couple
of times this morning, so you may want to mark it. I will return
back there at the end if I don't run out of time. But if you follow
this advice that Solomon gave us, your relationship with others,
your family, your work, and even some peace with yourself, you'd
all be better, we'd all be better off. Just one example, look here
in verse 17 of Proverbs chapter 14 with me. Solomon wrote, he
that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is
hated. How many here wish that they
had always learned the words found in the first part of the
verse, he that is soon angry dealeth foolishly. Have you ever
said something that you wish you could take back? Oh, I do
it minute by minute. I got a big mouth. I got a witness
to it here. She's shaking her head. Did you
ever take quick and rash actions in anger? And in the end, by
doing that, it caused you more angst than if you just waited
and acted rationally to start with. I think most of us here
would answer affirmative to those questions. We'd all be better
off if we could just apply the lessons taught by Solomon, if
we could apply these lessons to our own lives. But there are
two things that bother me about going to this book really as
an advice manual. The first is we all know what
our natures are. Just as soon as we start applying
some of this advice to our personal lives, we start doing the right
thing as God here teaches us, we start to get puffed up a little
bit, don't we? We start to think we're impressing God just a little,
a little bit with our actions and our better living. That's
the way we think, isn't it? We do a little good and we begin
to think that, well, maybe we are just a little little worthy
of God's grace and mercy. Any chance of that happening?
You know anybody that does that way, thinks that way? Have you
ever done that way, thought that way? Worst of all, though, the second
thing that bothers me, or maybe a better word with it, is it
worries me. It takes me back to one of the
first things that Greg Elmquist told us in his messages last
weekend. It was in his very first message
last Friday. He quoted from Psalm 47. He said,
in the volume of the book, it is written of me. In the volume
of the book, it is written of Christ. This book, from start
to finish, is a book about Christ. And this verse I just read to
you from here in Psalm and Proverbs 14, it's a verse about Jesus. It's just not a verse about better
living. And I'm afraid that just as soon
as you go to this book of Scripture and you start looking on a way
to improve your lives by what it says, when you start to take
your eyes on what it's really about, you miss the boat and
you start to drown. And I'm going to tell you the
truth. I'm too spiritually blind to really see Christ in this
one verse of scripture that I just read to you. But that doesn't
mean He's not there. I know He is somewhere. He's
in all places in this scripture. And I hope you're like me. One
of these days I hope to be sitting at His feet when He teaches me
these things. That's my hope. But though I
understand that I don't see Jesus now in every verse of the Proverbs,
I do see him in some places. So that's what I wanna direct
our attention to is one verse here in Proverbs chapter 14,
where I do see Jesus. And it's in verse 26. Verse 26
of Proverbs 14, let's read it together. It's written, in the fear of
the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a
place of refuge. Now I will attempt to show to
you Christ here in this passage in a few moments, but I need
to lay some groundwork for us first. And I want to do that
by looking at this word fear. And I'm going to do it by speaking
about three different types of fear. This first fear all men
have. The second, well, it seems that
it's becoming less and less common as the holiness of God is watered
down in our churches. And this third and last is a
fear that it's necessary to have. It's necessary in order to spend
eternity in God's presence. The first fear that I will talk
about is what I'll term natural fear, and it's the fear that
all men have if they have any mental faculties at all. Now,
sometimes this fear, it takes a form of apprehension or a dread
of what may come your way in the future. A few of us here
have got a little wood blood in us, and we know all too much
about this fear. We spend a whole lot of time
worrying about what never comes to pass. But natural fear most often takes
the form of being scared, really scared for your physical well-being. Why don't you step off the edge
of a cliff? Why don't you go up to a pit
bull and aggravate him? Afraid of getting hurt, you're
afraid of getting mauled, or maybe even worse. In most circumstances,
and though you don't enjoy it while you're going through it,
Natural fear is often a good fear because it restrains you
from doing something stupid. But now this second type of fear
I'm bringing to our attention this morning, I'll begin by this way. I'll
take us back to the first picture of man in history. So this comes
from the scriptures. Craig's already taken us to this
this morning if you were here in the Sunday school hours, so
I won't ask you to return. Most of us are familiar. It comes
from Genesis chapter three. It begins in verse 6, And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both
were opened. And they knew that they were
naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves
aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst
the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and he said unto him, where art thou? And Adam said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I listened closely to Adam's
justification for his actions, making the fig leaves and hiding
from God. Adam replied to God and said, and I was afraid because I was
naked and I hid myself. Adam was afraid of God because
he had committed the first ever sin. That's what this second
fear is. It is the fear of sin and its
consequences. But unlike natural fear, which
subsides after the danger has passed, I'm not sure that we
ever outgrew this fear, this fear of the consequence of sin.
At least not if you're an awakened sinner and you've been awakened
to the holiness of God. You've come to the realization
to know that you stand before a holy God dead in trespasses
and sins. That seems to be the experience
of me. It seems to be the experience
of believers that I speak with. And it seems to be the experience
of believers that I read. If you would, keep your place
here and turn to Psalm 38. Let's look at the words that
were written by the man who's described in the Scriptures as
a man after God's own heart. So of course we know we're talking
about King David. Psalm chapter 38, just a few
verses here. If your Bible has it, not all
do, but many do, take note of the introduction to this psalm.
It says, a psalm of David to bring to remembrance. After you
listen to just a few of these verses, see if you're like me
and you're wondering, why does David want to remember any of
this? He writes, O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither
chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in
my flesh because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest in
my bones. Why? Because of my sin. Because of
my sin. David shares the same fear as
Adam, the fear of the consequence of his sin. Verse four, for mine
iniquities are gone over my head, and as an heavy burden, they
are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long.
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there
is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. Though you may not be able to
speak with such poetry and so eloquent as David did, is this
a pretty good description of those of you who have been awakened to your sin? To those of you who sit around
and contemplate sometimes just what a sinner you are? Do you sometimes share this fear
with David and with Adam of the righteous punishment of God for
the iniquity you've committed? Is this fear ever far from you? However, I'm afraid that for
so many people in the world this morning, that's no longer the
case. It might be just because there's just so many people now.
But there seems to be an ever-growing number of people who go about
their lives never even contemplating God. And most especially contemplating
in their standing before Him. Even if they do admit of His
existence, they have no time for spiritual and eternal matters. There's the opposite side of
the coin also. There are so many religious people
in this world who I'll term, they're as lost as geese in a
snowstorm. I'll describe these folks this
way. Actually, I listened a couple of times this past week to a
message that David Edmondson gave at this past conference
at Katy Baptist Church. He relayed a conversation he
had with a lady, and she made the comment to him that God is
not going to punish sin. Her reasoning behind it was,
God loves everybody too much. Well, Mr. Edmondson, he laid
most of the blame at the feet of the ladies preacher. And that's
probably true. It does seem that most messages
today are just trying to come up with a different way to say,
smile, God loves you. But if a person can read it all,
The only way you can read your Bible just a little and come
to this conclusion, the conclusion that God will not punish sin,
is just to willfully be ignorant, to deny what your own eyes see. I had my own conversation the
other day with someone and they left me with the impression that
they are quite ready to stand, if you let me say it this way,
they're quite ready to stand face-to-face with God on Judgment
Day. I'm not so self-assured. If I did die today, my plan right
now, when I meet God, is to be hiding under Christ's robes.
And if I dare look upon Him, I might sneak one eye out, a
squinted eye, and take a peek. I want to be hidden in Christ's
righteousness, not mine. Unfortunately, I didn't get the
impression of that from this person I was speaking with. As I thought on it, maybe that's
why David began Psalm 38 to bring to remembrance. This song, it reminds us of who
and what we are. And it reminds us of what we
deserve from a perfect God. But more importantly, it reminds
us of how necessary it is for us to have an advocate and a
substitute. How we must have a Savior. How
we must have Jesus. Natural fear comes and goes.
But for many, this fear of the consequence of sin, it hangs
around us, like a chain around our necks. But maybe that's a
good thing. It reminds us to look to Him. Now I'm going to get to, I'm
eight pages deep, and I'm going to finally get to this fear that's
spoken of here in Proverbs chapter 14. And it's the fear of the Lord.
I readily admit, we were singing that second hymn a while ago,
and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Man, I'm really swimming in the
water. That's way too deep for me. I'm
not even brushing this subject for y'all, so I'll apologize
for that. But this fear that is spoken
of here, this fear of the Lord, it's a different type of fear
than the fear of the consequence of sin. This is a fear that I'll
term the right fear of the God of heaven and earth. There is
a right fear of the Lord. And believe it or not, it surprised
me Webster actually had a definition related to this type of fear,
and it wasn't too bad. Webster described it as a profound
reverence and awe, especially toward God. Now, in studying for this morning's
message, I only came across one sermon that really helped me
very much. For those of you who've got Hawker's
commentaries, look up this scripture on Proverbs 14 and see how much
help I got from him in this particular place. I did use him in others. The Prince of Preachers, when
he was speaking on this verse, as an example, or one of his
examples, talked about how a child looks up and views his father.
And it made a lot of sense to me. So I want to speak along
those lines. But I do want to add my two cents
to us and to say that the remarks that I've got to follow and if
you ever take the occasion to read his sermon, it'd be best
to this best describes a very young child and not a teenager.
Those of us parents who have teenagers or have had teenagers,
we know that once they hit about 12 or 13, let's say the polish
has been rubbed off the stone a little bit, the parents don't
stand quite as tall in their eyes. But not for a young child. Not for a young child. This fear of the Lord Many places,
if you do read about it, it is described as, I can't even hardly
say the word, but it is to have a childlike fear of the Lord.
Think about how a child views his father. To borrow Webster's
word, the young child looks in awe on his father. To give us
an illustration and me just trying to use words, have you ever watched
Little August after he's been separated from Jason for just
an hour? You know, he's usually pleasant,
say a few things, he'll laugh at you and cut up with you a
little bit. He's a great little kid. But you look at him when
Jason walks up. It's as if Jason is ten and a
half foot tall and riding a white stallion. That little kid, his
face and eyes, they just light up when he sees his dead daddy. Is it this way for you if you're
a believer? Is there anything bigger, better
or more special in your sight than God? Don't you just wonder
in his power? And in his sovereignty, how he
rules? Don't you marvel at His grace
and mercy? And better yet, marvel that He's
shown some of that to you. So many are gaga over overpaid
athletes and bad actors. Aren't you starstruck by God? And to come back to August, when
too many of us start to gather around Him, You'll see him, he'll
start to get a little nervous. He'll get a little timid. Gets antsy. Jason will walk up,
he'll see that and he'll take that kid. You can just see the
relief and the comfort come over him. He's safe in his father's
arms. Isn't that what believers do? When they're confronted with
some of those fears that I spoke about earlier, those apprehensions
and dangerous fears, worries of life, don't they run to God
the Father with their cares and their concerns and these fears?
There's nothing that eases a worried mind like being in the arms of
God the Father, and knowing, not with head knowledge, but
with heart knowledge, knowing that all things are under His
control, and because of that, all things will be okay. To fear the Lord is to respect
the Lord, most especially His character and His exercise of
it. Not just his love, but also his
wrath. Not just his forgiveness, but
also his judgment. Not just his mercy, but also
his anger. You love all of his character. The child that fears his father,
He'll do everything in His power not to upset and disappoint Him. Is this why a believer worries
over his sin so much? I got to this part and it came
to my mind of a story in my past life and so I'll just use it. The worst beating I ever took
from my daddy He never laid a glove on me. No belt, no hand, no switch. I had a many a tail whippings
in the past and I don't know I ever got one I didn't deserve.
For every one I did deserve, or I got, I deserved many a more. And I don't remember exactly
what I did that day, but I do remember it was egregious. I
always seemed to cause the most trouble when Daddy was at work.
But I knew that day when he got home, I was in bad trouble. So
I was already hiding in my room. I did like Adam. I ran away.
Daddy come home. He got the lowdown from Mama.
Here he comes. I could hear his feet. Unfortunately,
in that little house we lived in, that one long walk for him,
he was there in about two, three strides. He opens that door,
but he didn't have the belt in his hand. He came down, he sat
on the bed beside me, talked to me, and proceeded to tell
me how disappointed he was in me. It broke my heart. Worst whipping I ever got. Is that why a believer obsesses
over his sin? Sin is a very affront to the
Father, to just go out and to break His holy law. And we do
it not once and not twice, but over and over and over again. Read those words here in Psalm
38 again. Can't you take these words to
be yours? Don't you disgust yourself when
you trouble God. Don't your conscience weigh you
down? Weigh you down for disappointing Him? Just like it did David.
If you rightly fear God, it does. To wrap this section up, to fear
God is to have faith in God. You believe in your heart and
mind that there is a God. But not only that, He's the God
as revealed here in the Scriptures. That's why you take all of his
character, not only his love, but his wrath. And you know he's
justified for that wrath. You believe in the promises he's
made, made to his children. To fear God is to have hope in
God. To fear God is to love God. But
where does it come from? How does a person obtain this
type of fear? Well, that answer comes from
Jeremiah chapter 32 and verse 40. God says, and I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away
from them to do them good. And listen to this. But I will
put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. I will put my fear in their hearts. Just like faith is the gift of
God, this fear, this right fear of God, it's also a gift. To have it, he must provide it. The prayer of Jonah, when he
was in that fish's belly, That prayer rings forever true. Jonah cried out, salvation is
of the Lord. All of God's people cry out the
same words. Time flying by and I haven't
even got to how I wanted to show you Christ here in this verse,
so I'm going to get around to it. I'll stop there. I got to this part when I was
trying to make my notes and decide what way I wanted to take. I don't know, I'm just such a
sinful person in my flesh. It mingles with my spirit so
much. How in the world can I describe this right fear of God to you? I can't, but we do have an example
in Scriptures. Turn to Hebrews chapter 5. There is a picture of the right
fear of the Lord. So I would like to read it to
you and speak to you in just a couple moments on you or for
you. Hebrews chapter 5. Start at verse 7, I'll leave
some off. Who in the days of His flesh
and in the days of Christ's flesh, when He had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that
was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared. Though He were a Son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Verse seven begins with reminding
us that though he is God, Jesus was also a man just as much as
you and I. He felt hot and cold, sickness,
pain. He was tempted to sin just as
you and I were. Greg spoke to it, Craig spoke
to that same thing this morning. The exception being with him,
when he was tempted of the devil, he was able to resist and remain
perfect. Like us, he too had his emotions
moved. He felt lost when Lazarus died. He got angry just like you and
I do. He scattered the money changers when he found them in
the temple. He had kindness and compassion. This book is replete
with him healing both body and soul. Verse 7 tells us that he feared
God. He had that fear of God that
all of God's children must possess. When I got to this part of my
outline, I got stuck for an hour. I didn't type a single keystroke. Just which way to go. There was
just so many examples and so many paths I could take us this
morning to show us how Christ feared the Lord. He so often
went to God in prayer. This is a picture of the right
fear of God. He had so many glowing things
to say of God the Father. This is a picture of the fear
of God. But the route I finally decided on and the picture of
fear I'll turn our attention to now, and just quickly, is
to look at the suffering of Jesus as mentioned here in verse 8
of Hebrews 5. When I looked up the meaning
of the word fear in my concordance as it was used in Proverbs 14,
26, it used the term reverence. And I guess that there is no
better way for a child to show reverence to his father than
to do his father's will. And no son ever followed his
father's will better than Jesus the son did that of God the father. Through his taking on the flesh
of man and living the life he lived, that's a reflection of
that reverence, the reverence he had of God. And nothing better illustrates
that than the very last day that he lived. The last night, just a few hours
before he was to die, Christ prayed in the garden. He prayed
to his father. He said, Oh, my father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me. As a man, he did not
look forward to the agony he must go through these last few
hours that he lived. These few hours that he spent
paying for the multitude of the sins of his children. But he
ended up that prayer with these words. Nevertheless. Not as I will. But as thou wilt. Jesus did the will of the father. Shortly after that, he made a
statement to Peter and some of the other apostles they heard.
This was right after Peter pulled his sword and cut the servant's
ear off. He told Peter, he said, Peter,
I could have called legions of angels to my side. But he didn't. Why? He tells Peter, he says,
but how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled? that thus it must
be. Jesus feared his father, and
so he drank of the cup which was given to him. He suffered the ridicule and
the mockery of the soldiers and of the people. If there was ever
a one who deserved no ridicule, it was he. Yet he never opened
his mouth against those people. Not even that, he even had kindness
in his last hours for these people. He petitioned the father, father
forgive them for they know not what they do. He suffered the crown of thorns
pressed into his skull. We sung of his crown this morning.
This was a completely different one. He suffered the sword which
punctured his side. He suffered the taste of the
vinegar on his lips as he fulfilled those scriptures, just like he
told Peter he would. But more importantly, for each
and every child of God, he suffered the punishment of a lifetime
of sin at the hands of God's justice. He did that as he hung
on a tree and as he laid in the grave. As a final show of respect and
honor and love, the sacrificial lamb must die. So Jesus bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. For those of you here who do
love God, compare your fear of God to this fear. To this fear that Christ showed
of the Father. this reverence, this awe, this
faith, this hope, this respect, this love. Do you in any ways
compare? How hard is it for us to do even
one simple act as directed by God, much less this ultimate act,
the perfect one to die for the imperfect, the just for the unjust? Senator, don't you see how much
you need Christ? We must have Him for everything, even to have
this right fear of God. Mark your place and return back
to Proverbs 14. Let's look at verse 26 one last
time this morning. In the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence. and his children shall have a
place of refuge." Now, I'm sure that if you ask a lot of preachers,
and I know that if you ask a lot of religious folk, they'd have
a lot of argument of what I'm about to say as I try to wrap
this thing up this morning. But as I stated earlier, in our
natural state, we read the Proverbs and we interpret them as giving
us something to do. We're all born to help God out
just a little bit, ain't we? But when I see this verse, I
see something we must have. Something we must have, not something
we must do. What we must have is Christ.
It is Jesus that feared the Lord. He had confidence that he would
be raised from the grave. He had confidence that all that
was given him would be his in the end. He believed God. He trusted God. He died. He rose. And he now sits with
the Father in heaven. Though I spent some time today
speaking about a believer's fear of the Lord, I firmly believe
that the first half of this verse is nothing but Christ and the
only true right fear of the Lord. Be honest with yourself just
a few moments. Do you have complete confidence
in God? If you do, if so, how come when
something goes badly for you, the first thing you do is try
and fix it yourself? It's only after you fail so many
times as a last resort we finally turn to Him, isn't it? Do you fear the Lord enough?
Do you reverence Him enough? Do you worship Him enough? Do
you have enough faith in Him? Do you love Him enough? Is your answer to these questions?
I do. Some. But not enough. No. Only Jesus had a perfect fear
and a perfect confidence in the Father. But that's where the
good news comes in. It's here in the end of this
verse. God's children have a refuge.
And that refuge is in Christ. His fear is their fear. His confidence is their confidence. Because he died, he secured a
people unto himself. He saved them from their sins
by dying for them. And since he did this for his
people, They rejoiced with Paul in saying, for all the promises
of God in Him, for all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and
in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. The fear of the Lord is to have
faith in Him, to believe in Him, to believe as is revealed in
these scriptures. and to believe those promises
that He's promised His people. Paul tells us they're all fulfilled
in Christ. To receive these promises, you
must have Him. You must have Him as your refuge. And just as you must have Him
for your righteousness, He must put the white robe of righteousness
on you to stand before God. He must also give you His fear,
this right fear of the Lord. Thank you.