Proverbs 10. I'd like to look at one verse
this morning. Proverbs 10, verse 27. It says,
The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall
be shortened." Let's ask the Lord to bless them again. Our Father, we again ask, even
before we even begin to hear the Gospel preached, Lord, we
come as needy people, needing, desiring your blessing and guidance,
your peace and your comfort. Lord, would you bless this Word
to our heart. Cause us to hear. For Christ's
sake, Amen. We looked at a verse of scripture
last week before I preached out of verse 26. And it was 2 Corinthians
5, 17. Let me just read this. Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new kind
of creature. That's what it means. When it
says new, it means a new kind. He's a new kind of creature. He has a new heart, a new will,
a new desire, a new attitude before God. Now before the Lord called this
new creature, this new kind of creature, before the Lord called
him out of darkness, The Scripture says that he walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh internally in
the children of disobedience. But having been regenerated by
the power and grace of God, and this is the way God regenerates
His people. The Gospel, which is the power
of God. Almighty God uses the Gospel,
the preaching of the Gospel. That's why there's no other focus,
there's no other games, there's no other tricks. We don't have
cake sales and bake sales and we don't put ten dollar bills
books and stuff like that. We don't use gimmicks. We preach
the Gospel. This is what God's going to bless.
If He's going to bless to the salvation of your soul, it's
going to be under the preaching of the Gospel, the preaching
of Christ, the setting forth. I've said before, the Gospel
is not an offer. It's a declaration. This is what
God has done. This is what he says he's purposed
to do. The Lord Jesus Christ, John 6.37
says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So what we're
doing this morning, just as we just looked at just a few moments
ago, we're a voice. We're a voice. steering men to
Christ, preaching the gospel. The Lord calls out one of His
own. It's going to be God's way. You're not able to convince men
and appeal to their conscience or their sympathies. It just
doesn't work like that. God's got to give a man a new
heart. I will give them a new heart, a new spirit. I'll put
my spirit in them. I'll write my law, my word. God's people love His Word. They love Him as Christ. Having been regenerated, this
new creature, Romans 8, verse 1 says, reveals that there's
now no condemnation. to them that be in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now, strictly
speaking, there was never any condemnation.
It says, there is therefore now. Here again, you have to understand
that now to us in our human body, we always think of that word
now as relative. to right now. No, well, I mean now. Now is
now. No, no, that's past now. Now. You see, now is just a constant
now. It's a constant changing, but
not with God. There's therefore now, but there's
never been any condemnation for God's people. Never. What does it mean if a man be
in Christ, he's a new creature? That means that Almighty God
in regeneration calls you out of darkness, reveals to you what
God Almighty has eternally purposed and has eternally seen you as,
holy and without blame before Him in love, in Christ, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And in regeneration,
you know it. Because Almighty God does put
a new heart, new spirit. Now you know something that you
previously didn't know, but He always knew it. No condemnation. Now, it does not mean that there
is nothing within the regenerate that's worthy to be condemned.
That does not mean that. It does not mean that there's
not something within you that's worthy to be condemned. As Paul says, in me, that is
in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. Sin dwelleth in me. But what it means is the Lord
Jesus Christ has taken away the guilt by His blood. paid the debt. Now, having realized
what He's done for me, there is, to me, an understanding of
what God Almighty has eternally done. Salvation is an actual
calling out of darkness. It's an actual impartation of
life. There's life there. You're a
new creature. You know it. He makes you something
in time. That's exactly right. But in
His sight and His will and His purpose, He's always loved you. He's always loved you. Even when
we were dead in trespasses and sins, Christ died for us. We walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. There's a change. There's an
actual change. Here's the thing. We're not freed
from the presence of sin, but we're freed from the dominion
of sin. We're now led and guided by the
Holy Spirit of God. Before a man or a woman is called
out of darkness, there's only one Spirit there, one flesh. And there dwells no good thing
there. God Almighty's got to give you
something that you didn't have before. He's got to give you
a new heart. You've got to be born from above,
born again. And the reason that a man or
woman is born again is because God Almighty has eternally seen
them in Christ, satisfied in Christ, looks upon them in Christ,
is pleased with them in Christ, loves them in Christ, and they
shall come to Him. And He will, He will give them
life. I will give you a new life. I shall give you life. Almighty God, this is absolute. God is absolute. Well, the last time when we looked
in the book of Proverbs, we looked at chapter 10, verse 26. As vinegar to the teeth and smoke
to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that sent him. And we
looked at that in light of the faithfulness of God's people.
Faithful. Faithful. Remember we looked
at that scripture about how the good man had given up. He had some servants, and he
gave one servant five talents, and one servant two talents,
and he gave one of them one talent. You know the story. Faithfulness. Faithfulness. Well, today we're
going to look at another evidence of God's people. And I've entitled
this, The Fear of the Lord. Now, I know that we've looked
at many, many verses that speak of the fear of the Lord, the
reverence of the Lord. But the reason that we need to
hear it again is because we need to hear it again. We're prone
to forget. We're prone to waver. And I'm telling you, faith cometh. That is a progressive, present
progressive word. Faith cometh and cometh and cometh
and cometh and cometh by hearing. Right now. Yesterday is gone. There's no tomorrow. Faith must
come. Presently come. You are not believing
God by yesterday's faith. It's a right now. It's a gift. It's given unto you to believe.
And you that believe, believe Him right now by the grace of
God. This is God's grace manifested to you. Faith cometh by hearing. And here we talk about the fear
of the Lord, the respect given Almighty God. I'm telling you
that we all need to be right now given faith afresh, right
now. How am I going to grasp hold
of something that was yesterday that's gone? I don't have that. I need it right now. I need to
believe Him right now. The fear of the Lord prolongeth
days, reverence, respect before Almighty
God. That is a fear that only a believer
has, the fear of the Lord. the fear of the Lord, the reverence
for God Almighty, respect for Jehovah Himself. Now, there is a fear that every
creature, every creature, all, I mean, men, animals, there is
a fear that is common to everything. Everything that has life in its
animal, what I'm talking about, everything that has an animal
spirit about it, because of sin, there's fear, fear, slavish fear. And it's because of sin, fear. You know, we're afraid of the
dark, afraid of the unknown. Animals
get spooked. You know, just babies, they don't
see their mama. And all of a sudden, I went to
see our grandkids the other day. I'm telling you, babies are fine
until they realize mama's not there. And all of a sudden, everything
fell apart. Fear, slavish fear. Adam, where are you? I was afraid. Did you eat of the fruit? Well,
I was afraid because I was naked. Who told you that? Who told you
that? Slavish fear. That fear, right
there, because of sin. The root cause of that fear,
because of sin, comes back to a fear of punishment. It amazes
me every time I watch television, somebody gets caught doing something.
I mean, man, they are the most repentant people that I've ever
seen in my life, and I know I'd be just like them. We're all
like that. I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just telling you
this is the way it is. Do you know when people are so sorry?
When they get caught. Oh, I don't know. I've disrespected
my family and I've disrespected my wife. Oh, I just can't believe
I did this to my company. Oh, I feel so bad about it. No, you got caught. That's what
it is. Fear. That's why men love the
darkness. But the fear of the Lord, the
fear of the Lord for longest days, that fear, Paul said in
Romans 8, 15, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage
again, the fear, the fear of punishment for your sins. That
is a fear that God's people do not have. fear of the punishment. They know. They're convinced. Now, I'll be honest with you. We struggle. We struggle with
the presence of sin. Now, if you say you don't, you're
lying. We do. Paul the Apostle said,
Oh, wretched man that I am. You struggle with that. But the
fear of the punishment of your sins Paul says we have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. A believer when he is brought,
which he has always brought to this point over and over and
over, he sees himself struggling with the presence of sin. And
he cries out in his heart to the Lord, Lord, I'm sorry. Forgive me. Forgive me for Christ's
sake. And that's the only way that
God will forgive a man, for Christ's sake. Because the blood, he said,
when I see the blood, you know, I don't see the blood
right now. By faith I do. He's always seen it. And you
think about this. That blood that answers right
now. That blood that answers right
now. That Almighty God eternally sees
when I see the blood. Oh, thanks be unto God that He
eternally sees the blood. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. We've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, fear of punishment for our sins. A
believer is settled in his heart. He's adopted me. He's taught
me that. And we cry unto him, Abba, Father. That word, Abba, that's a personal
word. My dad is my dad. Now you may
know, if you would have known my dad, you would have maybe
known, well, he is a dad. But see, he was my dad. That's
what that word is right there, Abba. You're my father. You're my father by adoption. You chose me. Now, now are we
the sons of God. Lord, you've made me what I am. In my heart, though I struggle
with the presence of sin, I know based on God's Word, He said,
when I see the blood, and I believe He's given me a heart to trust
Him. I believe He has. I look to Him
and I say, Lord, thanks be unto You. Thanks be unto You that
salvation is all of grace. Lord, You say it. You'd never
leave me and never forsake me. And I'm going to tell you something.
It takes regenerating power for a man or a woman to be able to
lay down or come to the end of their life or see it coming or
see the end approaching and to be able to say with a grounded
peace, my eyes are going to see God. I'm going to see Him. I'm going to look upon Him by
sight. and not by faith anymore. And
let me tell you something, that's a blessing. Oh, that Almighty
God would settle a man or a woman's heart. 1 John 4, 18, there's
no fear in love, in God's love. But perfect love casteth out
fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. Can you imagine the thought coming
to the end of a life? Particularly what I'm thinking
about right now is standing in the Day of Judgment. A man or
a woman standing there before Almighty God and beginning to express the reasons
why they think they should be in His presence because of what
they've done. We prophesy in your name. cast
out devils in your name, done many marvelous works in your
name. And then to hear Him say, depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you in an eternal covenant of grace. I never knew you in love.
There is no way to describe fear. He said there's going to be weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth. There's no fear in love. Perfect
love casteth out fear. Perfect love is that love that
Almighty God has shown toward His people. It's that love that's
known by faith. How can God be just and justify
a sinner? Only in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Sin is going to be paid for. How can God be just? He hath
made Him sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. How can God be just and justify
a sinner? He must be made what I am, that
I might be made what He is in Him. The fear of the Lord prolongeth
days. But the years of the wicked shall
be shortened. You know when we first read that,
you know I like, I want to know what a word means. Shortened. Shortened. That's not what it
means. It means grieved, troubled. The years of the wicked are going
to be troubled. There's no peace. There's no
comfort. There's turmoil. You're just
going through this life and the life to come, grieved, tormented. Only by the grace of God can
a man or woman be brought to just settle down. Whatever, whatever,
whatever comes our way, His grace is sufficient. And God's people,
they rest in Almighty God in His Word. They read His Word
and they say, This is what the Lord said and this is the way
it is. The wicked go through this These
years right here, grieved, desiring the fleeting cares of this world,
and none of it satisfies. The stuff I thought I wanted,
it's not doing anything for me. And then there's the continual
struggle trying to establish a righteousness before God by
self-righteous works, and it's just grief. I told you this a few weeks ago.
Do you know the greatest struggle that I can remember having? Thinking
that because I had given my heart to Jesus that, you know, that
was the reason the Lord saved me. You and I constantly grieved
and struggled with. How sincere was I? How sincere
was I? I struggled with that all the
time. And what I would try to do is I would go ahead and then
try to Let's go ahead and just get it settled right now. Okay,
maybe I wasn't as sincere, but I'm going to be sincere now. I just made up my mind. I'm going
to follow the Lord, and I mean it. And I'd go through that sinner's
prayer that I'd heard that preacher say, and I'd just try to just
get as sincere as I possibly could. And then the first time
that I found inconsistency again in me, which was real quickly,
and I was thinking maybe I wasn't as sincere as I should have been.
Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I should have said it differently. Well, maybe the Baptist religion
isn't the right one. Maybe Pentecostalism is right.
Maybe I ought to try that. And if that don't work, then
maybe I'll go over to Roman Catholicism again, Mark. Maybe that was,
I don't know. The years of the wicked is just
troubled, grieved, never able, but oh, to be able to settle
down and to think. Almighty God has not looked at
me for satisfaction. He looked at His Son. And He
said concerning His Son, that is My beloved Son. This is My
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. And then
I think of that Scripture that says, the Lord Jesus speaking,
He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me."
And then I think, coming to the Lord by faith, I think then about
old Blind Barnabas. Look how many scriptures you
start, you know, iron sharpens iron, and you're just looking
at this scripture and you're thinking back. Blind Barnabas,
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. There was no blind
man, and if Almighty God didn't have mercy on him, he had no
mercy coming. Lord, if you've given me a heart
to cry unto you, I know what I am. Lord, I have no ability
in myself to do anything. Thanks be unto you. Christ Jesus
came to this world to save sinners. Those who can't help themselves,
those who won't help themselves, You know, you heard that old,
you know, God helps those that help themselves. I can't. What am I going to do for God?
What am I going to do to establish a righteousness before God? And
then if I would have thought that I'd establish a righteousness
before God, I've got to keep it! I've got to keep it! And if I deviate, If I do anything,
if I establish my own righteousness by something I did, and if I
don't keep it, then I can lose it. Oh, my! Yeah, the ears of the wicked
are grieved, troubled. Oh, but to settle down and to
think, He saved me by grace, taught me by grace that what
He had done, Peace before God Almighty according
to Colossians 1.20 is made through the blood of His cross established. I like what in Colossians
1.20 in the margin of my Bible where it says He has Peace has
been made through, that word is making, making. He is making
peace right now. His blood speaks right now, ever
living. Oh, what a blessing to be freed
from slavish fear. What have you done to establish
a righteousness before God? What have you done? The Lord said that without me
you can do nothing. Almighty God who holds our very
souls in His hands to fear and to respect Him, to
bow to Him and say, Lord, You saved me. Lord, You keep me. Lord, that You willed that I
be with You where You are, what a blessing. the fear of the Lord
that must be given from above. That sweet promise of Almighty
God taught by the Holy Spirit of God wrought within the heart of a
believer. Listen to this verse in closing.
Jeremiah 32, verse 40. Now listen to this. I pray the Lord to teach us this.
Listen. 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. Thanks be unto Him. that reveals to us what He's
done for us. He said, I'm going to put respect
in your heart, a respect that bows to God Almighty as He's
revealed in these Holy Scriptures. I will put my fear in their hearts
and they won't leave because they're kept by the power of
God through faith. You that are here today that
know Him, you know why you're here? Because He kept you. He's
keeping you. Making peace right now by the
blood of His cross. Amen.