Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs 14. I'd like to read verse 27,
Proverbs 14. says that the fear of the Lord
is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Let's pray together. Our Father, Lord, by your good pleasure and
your eternal decree, we have met this morning in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you bless the word today?
Lord, would you bless this word to the salvation of sinners? Lord, you alone can bless this
word to the regeneration of those that you've everlastingly loved.
Lord, I ask you, have mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. the last time that we considered
the fear of the Lord. It was in verse 26 of this chapter,
and the Scripture says concerning the fear of the Lord, that it's
strong confidence. The fear of the Lord is boldness. to believe Him. It's boldness to have confidence
in the Lord. The Lord's people, they leave
the well-being of their eternal soul, their eternal security
in the hands of Him who is mighty to save. They're able to relax. and to
rest. And to believe God. They have
a strong confidence, verse 26 says, and therefore, his children,
God's sheep, God's elect, those he calls out of darkness, they
shall have a place of refuge. An enduring place. A settled
place. The Lord is our refuge. He is our strength. The scripture
says He's a very present help in time of trouble, by the grace
of God, to be able to believe God. What a blessing. But in this refuge, that is that
place of security and help being found in Christ, Verse 27 says
that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. That is,
the fear of the Lord possessing a reverence for Almighty God,
a respect, an honor for Him, reveals that the Lord has opened
to me the fountain of Christ Himself. Life. Eternal life. Everlasting life. Now, before
we look at the fear of the Lord as a fountain of life, I want
us to look once again at the fear of the Lord. Now, from the
fall of man, every creature born in Adam has or knows something
about natural fear. A fear that arises from a conscious
sense of sin. It's a slavish fear. It's a fear
that is accompanied by anxiety and uncertainty or dread. Every time one of my kids called
me, and say, Dad, I need to talk to you about something. I said,
oh, if this is not going to be good,
I don't want to hear it. If this is not going to be something
that, you know, go ahead, but tell me fast. Don't make me sit
here and think about it. I dread fear. If there was no sin, there would
be no Slavish fear. No anxiety. No natural fear. When Adam in the garden ate of
that forbidden fruit, the Lord told him, He said, in the day
you eat thereof, you are going to die. The instant he ate that fruit,
spiritually he died. What have I done? I have disobeyed
God. Why? Why? And he was afraid. The Scripture
says he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. Where are you? You think God
knew where he was? Yeah, he knew where he was. Adam,
where are you now? Well, I hid myself. Why? Because I was afraid. Afraid? Afraid of the presence
of God. That's right. Adam, did you eat
of the fruit? The woman that you gave, she
gave it. Oh, the immediate effect of sin.
It's shame and guilt and fear. It's not a fear of respect. It's
not a fear of honor. It's a fear of judgment. I'm deserving. after Jacob had obtained the
blessing from his father Isaac. And he knew that Esau was coming
later with 400 men in Genesis 32.7. It says, Then Jacob was
greatly afraid and distressed. Afraid. Every time we find ourselves
afraid. Afraid of the unknown. What's
going to happen? What is this? What is that? The
reason for that is because of sin. Sin. Before sin entered this world,
Adam was not afraid of God. He wasn't afraid to walk with
the Lord. He wasn't afraid to have fellowship with Almighty
God. That's a slavish fear. But this
fear that we're talking about, it's called the fear of the Lord,
the fear of Jehovah, the respect of Almighty God. And that fear
is freedom. Free. Free by the grace of God
to have a respect and a reverence for Almighty God given By God,
by the grace of God, by the kindness and mercy of God. Listen to this,
Jeremiah 32.40, I will make an everlasting covenant with them
that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will
put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Almighty God keeps His people
by putting a respect for Him in their heart. He gives them
a new heart. He takes that old heart and He
beheads it. I'll remove it. It's not that
it's gone, as I've said before. It's there. But it's beheaded. It doesn't
rule as a new nature imparted. One that fears God, respects
God, reverences Him, respects His Word, His will, His government,
His lot for me. Oh, I fight against it by that old
man. Yes, yes, flesh. Oh, you'll try to have your way.
But you're not going to win. Bless you that war against the
law of my mind. I hear what you're saying. I
see. I see that slavish fear still
in me. I know that because of the presence
of sin. But you're not going to win.
I put an article in the Bulletin this morning right on the front
page, on the bottom by Daniel Moose Parson. That's what he
talks about. God puts a new nature in His
people. And that old man doesn't like
it. He doesn't like that new nature. That old man wars and
strives against it. But he's not going to win. The fear of the Lord. Respect. It's consistent with love for
Him. And in fact, it actually springs
from The love that Almighty God has put within His people. We
love Him. We do love Him. Why do we love
Him? Because He first loved us. Gave
Himself. Psalm 111.10 says, The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The foundation. First fruits of wisdom imparted. Christ imparted, the knowledge
of God imparted, the knowledge of who I am, the knowledge of
who He is. The fear of the Lord. Respect. We grow. We grow in grace. We grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior. Of good understanding have all
they that do His commandments, His praise, endure it forever. Fear of the Lord. is a calmness
of mine. That's a blessing, isn't it? It's a blessing. If by the grace
of God, I can lie down at night, close my eyes in the midst of
trials and troubles and things that I know surround me, if I
can rest, if I can sleep, If I can trust, if I can be thankful,
what a blessing! What a blessing that my fears
would not have the best of me. The fear of the Lord. Oh, it's
a deliverance from the bondage of that sin that still resides
in my being. This Scripture reveals that the
fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. It is a continual supply. An everlasting fountain, the
fear of the Lord, the ever-flowing fountain of the blessing of God's
grace, now and forevermore. David said in Psalm 73, 24, Thou
shalt guide me with Thy counsel. And afterward, receive me to
glory. Lord, I'm here for just a little
while. I don't have long. I know I don't have long. Lord,
teach me the number of my days. I don't have long. Someone says,
well, yeah, but you're not that old. Let me tell you something.
I know just enough. to know that age hasn't got anything
to do with it. I know that. And I mean it can
be over right now. Just right now. Lord, guide me
with Thy counsel right now. Lord, today, this is all I've
got right now. This is it. Last Wednesday, last
Sunday, yesterday, This morning, earlier, it's gone. Lord, guide
me right now. Today is the day of salvation,
Lord. And then, receive me unto Yourself. Receive me in glory. Lord, may
I see You. Psalm 31, 19, Oh, how great is
Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee,
which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the
sons of men. a witness. Lord, help me to be faithful. Last Friday evening, I was sitting
out on the front porch and the phone rang, a lady from the newspaper. And sometimes they'll call and
they just want to ask a question, you know, and I never know what
it's going to be. It's always just current events or something. I don't know. And she said, I'd
like to know what you guys do at your church for fundraisers. And I said, we don't have fundraisers. I said, in the mid-fifties, Summon
it all up real quickly. I said, Almighty God raised up
a church in this place. And I said, by the grace of God,
I said, Almighty God has sustained it all these years. I said, by
God's grace, we're going to wait on God. Almighty God shall supply. He'll move on. His people. God's
people. They're generous people. They're
not stingy. They give. Most generous people
I've ever met in my life. God's people. No, we don't sell
hot dogs. We don't have raffle tickets.
What we do here is we preach the gospel of God's grace. And
we trust God. What if you start something and
you don't have enough money to do it? I said, well, then we
won't do it. We don't have to beg people, tell people, well,
if you don't give, now this ministry is going to shut down. Almighty
God is going to sustain it. That's what's going to happen.
And after I got off the phone, it just worried me. I kept thinking
to myself, I should have said this, I should have said that.
This is what I thought. Lord, oh, how good is Thy goodness,
how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for me. Lord,
help me, help me that I might be consistent, that I might walk
in consistency before You. By the fear of the Lord, Almighty
God has set forth This fountain of life is given to God's people
in closing to depart from the snares of death. Now, right now,
there are some snares of death that every believer is dealing
with. The snares that seek for a man's soul. Here's the first
one. There's an old nature that's
still within every believer That is a snare. Psalm 916, the wicked
is ensnared in the work of his own hands. At the end of that
Psalm 916, you want to look at it now or later, there are two
words at the end of that verse. Hegion silah. Now look that up. Meditate and
pause. Pause and meditate upon the cause
of man's destruction. He's ensnared, trusting in the
work of his own hand. The wicked is snared in the work
of their own hands, trusting that what they've done has caused
them to be righteous before God. Ensnared. I talked to a friend of mine a few days ago
in Texas. And he was real concerned about
his son. And his son just doesn't want
to go to church anymore. That's what he told me. He said,
my boy doesn't want to go to church anymore. And the man I'm
talking to is just sitting there. He's sitting under a message
that's not consistent. It's not the gospel. Trusting
in himself that he's right. And I asked the Lord, Lord, help
me to say the right thing. And I told him, I said, this
is what I would do if I were you. Why don't you have him call
me? Have your son call me. And I
said, we'll talk. And I pray that Almighty God
moves on His heart to call ensnared. And I can't deliver, but I know
one that can. Ask Him. Ensnared. Second, the snare of the devil.
2 Timothy 2.26, that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil who are taken captive of Him by His will. The
unregenerate is ensnared by the arts, the wiles, the connivance
of Satan himself. And they comply to his will and
they will remain in that state, in that situation, unless they
are made alive by the mercy of God. And then thirdly, the snares
of the cares of this world. Matthew 13, 22. He also that
receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and
the care. I looked that word up. The distraction. The distraction. The care of this world, the distraction
of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and
he becometh unfruitful. Or the things that deceitfully
lure men away from the worship of God. It's the most deceitful
thing. They leave no opportunity whatsoever
to examine the state of the soul. They tell men, they promise men,
you'll enjoy me. I'm what it's all about. I'm
where it's at. They promise, but they never
yield fruit. They promise gain. They promise
happiness. But it's deceitful. Lie. Disrespect. Oh, the blessed mercy
that Almighty God will put His fear within a man, and that man
would by God's grace depart from the snares of death. Malachi
3.16 says, Then they that feared the Lord. I've read this scripture
and I thought, Boy, if we only knew what was really going on.
They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the
Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon his name. Someone should say, can you explain
the fullness of that? No, I can't. But I can tell you
this. When God's people, those that
fear him, speak often one to another about the Lord, and they
do, they do. A book of remembrance is written
before God concerning those that fear His name. Lord, tune my
heart to sing of Your grace. Tune my heart to hear. Lord, grant that I might know
You. Oh, that I might be found in
Him. That's what Paul said. The fear of the Lord. the respect
of Almighty God. May God bless these words to
our heart for Christ's sake.