Proverbs 20 in verse two, we'll
consider the subject, the fear of a king. The fear of a king is as the
roaring of a lion, who so provoketh him to anger, sinneth against
his own soul. It's self-destructive. to provoke one who has power
over you, who has the ability to save or destroy. Pilate presumed that power when
he told the Lord, I have power to crucify you or I have power
to let you go, and the Lord gave Pilate a little lesson on who
it is that has power. He's the only one that has power. But the point of our text is
the point Gamaliel made when the Jewish council was trying
to decide what to do with the Lord's disciples. They had arrested
them and had detained them, and they were trying to decide what
to do. Listen to Gamaliel in Acts 5, 38. He said, now I say
unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone, for if
this council or work be of men, it will come to naught. You don't
need to do anything about it. Causes come and go. Fakes and impostors come and go. But if
it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found
even to fight against God. So you see the point of our text
is the same point. you don't know who you're dealing
with. If you, if you harm these men and they're sent by God,
you're gonna have to suffer the consequences. And to walk past
a lion without proper respect, you're gonna suffer the consequences.
Everyone knows that you don't provoke a lion But think about
why. Why would not someone do that? Why would it be stupid to provoke
a lion? Well, because you're outmatched. He's faster than you. He's stronger
than you. And when you're in his jungle,
he's smarter than you. He knows a lot more about taking
down prey than you know about killing lions. That's why. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the lion of the tribe of Judah, Revelation 5.5. And listen to
what he said to his disciples in Matthew 10.28. Fear not them
which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Fear him, respect him, give him
the proper due reverence that he deserves. And we don't do
that, and hence our text. Hence Proverbs 20 verse two.
The Lord reminding us how foolish it is to walk by a lion nonchalantly. And that's the meaning of it.
We'll talk about that in a minute, but he's teaching the disciples
here. Just a couple of verses later,
he says, fear not. because you're mine, you're protected. A lion's not a threat to his
own, generally speaking. He's a threat to enemies, anybody
that would harm his own, or those who are natural prey to him.
But he's teaching them in that verse who they're dealing with,
who they are to preach, because he's sending them out in that
context to preach the gospel. How many times have we seen in
the scripture, and I've exhorted you, that would play religious
games with God, neglect the worship of God in
his church, not just to your own detriment, because you're
not gonna be comforted, you're not gonna have peace in this
world unless it comes from the Lord through his gospel. but
also to dishonor the Lord that way, to live your life for yourself. It's thumb in your nose at the
God who made you. It's thumb in your nose at the
one who controls everything and everybody, who determines everything
that happens to you every second of your life. It doesn't sound
like somebody to travel with, does it? It doesn't sound like
somebody that said, if you don't honor me, you're not honoring
God. One who has demanded worship since the day that a man was
formed on this earth, who has called together a holy convocation
for his glory since Egypt, since Abel offered a lamb in honor of his Savior, by faith
in Him. He will decide everything. Not
a good idea to provoke Him to anger. Not a good idea to ignore
Him. And listen, the word provoke
is interesting here. It's not what it sounds like.
It's not you're poking a line with a stick or you're throwing
a rock at Him. That would be provoking a line.
But this word provoke means to pass over, to pass by. In other words, you just aren't
afraid of him. You just ignore him. You just pass by him like
it's no big deal, like you're walking past a bunny rabbit. And the lesson of our text is
you don't realize who you're dealing with. People don't realize
who they're dealing with. You see these videos of people
getting up close to bison. You've seen that at Yosemite
or somewhere. They get right up close. They're trying to take
a selfie, you know. Next thing you know, they're running for
their life. And because they didn't respect, they didn't realize
what they were dealing with. And that's what our text is talking
about. A lion, the roaring of a lion. And the lion is not silent
in our text. The Lord's not hiding in the
bushes. He's roaring. He's telling you where he is.
He's telling you who he is. He's telling you what he'll do.
And you still just walk past. Nobody would try to take a selfie
with a lion, but spiritually speaking, that's exactly what
sinners do. They disrespect the lion, they
just pass by, they just walk by him like he's not there. People fear death, they fear
poverty and want, they fear each other. The believer says, I won't
fear what man can do to me. But sinners fear each other.
They fear pain and loss and failure, but they walk past the line without
a care in the world. In all of their dealings in this
world, they walk right past the line. Psalm 36 one, turn with
me there if you would, please. Psalm 36, one. The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his
eyes. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes. He thinks he's something. You're
not worried about the lamb because he thinks he's a big shot. He's
10 feet tall and bulletproof, so the lion doesn't bother him.
He flattereth himself until his iniquity be found to be hateful. He flattereth himself to the
extent that he's disgusting. That's us by nature. It's so
foolish and blind and reckless that it's just disgusting. The
words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He hath left off
to be wise. It doesn't matter to him to hear
what God said and to follow what God said, to believe what God,
it means nothing to him. He's all about himself. He's left off to do good. It
doesn't matter to him. You see, he exists in his truth. He diviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. You know, the scriptures talk
a lot about what you think about in bed, when you're in your bed,
when you're alone, when you're, things are out of your mind,
when the real you, you're away from the world, you're away from
influences, you're away from everything. David in the Psalms talks about
his meditations upon his bed will be sweet because he'll be
thinking of the Savior. But even when he goes to bed,
he's thinking about mischief, and when he wakes up, he goes
about. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He doesn't hate evil. It may sound like an understatement,
but that's where we should be as sinners. We ought to hate ourselves and
our sin and all things that oppose God. But here's the hope for
such a one. I don't want this to be all doom and gloom. The
gospel is not doom and gloom. It's good news for if this is
you, if you live your life and you really don't really give
much of a hoot about God and what he said, thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens. and thy faithfulness reacheth
under the clouds. The lesson of our text is don't
travel with God. Don't count his worship a small
thing, his honor in this world, his people or his truth. Pharaoh traveled with God. We
have many examples in the scripture of that, don't we? He played
games with God. He said, who is your God that I should listen
to him? It was pretty clear what he was supposed to do, let my
people go, just don't do anything, just let them walk. But he played games. He said,
I'll let him go, and then he didn't. He lied to God Almighty. And God destroyed him spectacularly. But you don't have to openly
defy God in order to pass by him without fear. Jezebel perverted
the worship of God and dishonored him. We just recently saw her. She dishonored the Lord among
his people. She made his worship a joke and defiled it. She was
thrown off of a balcony. and her smashed and bloody corpse,
and that's not me embellishing that, that's what it says in
the scriptures. Her blood splashed upon the wall and all over the
ground and her corpse was eaten by dogs. God does that deliberately. There's
a reason she didn't die in her sleep. There's a reason for that. The man who touched the ark of
the covenant, even for a logical reason, it was on a cart. It was being carried, it was
being moved in a way that God had not prescribed. You see,
the ark is Christ. The mercy seat is Christ. And
he's not to be trifled with. He was struck down where he stood.
He steadied, because the cart shook and he steadied the ark
and touched it. God killed him, it says he died right beside
the ark. He was that close to the glory
of God, but destroyed where he stood. And listen to this, listen to
2 Samuel 6.6, when they came to, Nashon's threshing floor, this
is the story of it, I want you to see something in there. When they came to Nashon's threshing
floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold
of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error,
and there he died by the ark of God. not superfluous language,
right there, before God's very, where he promised to be, to meet
with sinners in communion on the mercy seat. He died by the ark of God. And
David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon
Uzzah. And he called the name of the
place Pereza to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord
that day. You reckon that's why God does
things like that? You reckon that's why we can
see in our lives, those that we love that have no regard for
God and they wonder why their life is a disaster. They wonder why they don't have
any real satisfaction or purpose in life. And they're going to wonder one
of these days why God sent them to hell when they went to church
and paid their time. You're going to have to worship
God where he's set forth as God. That's the thing about it. David was afraid of the Lord
that day and said, how shall the ark of the Lord come to me?
God had already answered that a long time ago. And it was buried
somewhere in a dusty room or something. But God had told him
exactly how to carry the ark. And now, David, after somebody
struck dead, now you're gonna get God's thoughts on the matter? That's us. Now is the time to
notice who he is. Now is the time to heed his word
with care, to take heed how you hear. Will you wait until you're
a broken disaster before you realize who God is
and care about what he said? He may yet save you. The thief
on the cross waited, didn't he? I don't know if he knowingly waited,
but he was on the brink of hell when God saved him. God can do
that. I don't recommend pushing it.
You read the Bible and let me know if you recommend it, if
you think that's a good idea to trifle with God. What will it take for you to
realize that this is not sweet little Jesus waiting in the corner,
hoping you'll pick him? You ever read one of those books
that has 365 pages or sections that has a scripture for each
day of the year? I like those. Here's your scripture
for the day. Psalm 211. Serve the Lord with
fear. Serve him with reverence and
awe. Don't serve him when it's convenient.
Don't serve him nonchalantly. Don't serve him when it serves
you. Serve him with fear. And rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. We're not walking around with
dread all the time. Is God gonna strike me dead? Not if you're
in Christ. Not if your delight is in the
Lord and His house. It was good when they said to
me, let's go to the house of the Lord. Let's go. Rejoice with trembling, with
awe, understanding who's who. Next verse, Psalm 212, kiss the
sun. lest he be angry, and you perish
from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little, just a
little bit. And here's the last line of that
chapter, Psalm 212. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Isn't that simple? Isn't that
simple? But you're gonna need God's mercy
and grace to do that. You're gonna need it, I'd ask
for it. God, give me grace to ask for it constantly. Constantly,
Lord, don't let me go. Put us on our faces before you.
Help us to understand who you are. Give us an understanding.