May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
first book of Kings, the 18th chapter, and we'll read verses
three and four. The first book of the Kings,
chapter 18, and reading verses three and four. And Ahab called Obadiah, which
was the governor of his house, Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly,
for it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord.
But Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave
and fed them with bread and water. It is really quite amazing that
this King Ahab, who was an ungodly king, actually was prepared to
have a man of God as the governor of his house. And this man Obadiah,
who was the governor of his house, and it's quite clear, that he
was a child of God and you may ask well why was that well we're
told this great truth about him now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly
and it's a very positive word regarding this man Obadiah and
then later on in this chapter we also read when there was Obadiah
came before Elijah and he said and it shall come to pass as
soon as I am gone from thee that the spirit of the Lord shall
carry me thee whither I know not and so when I come and tell
Ahab and he cannot find me he shall slay me And then he says,
but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. So we don't of
course know how old Obadiah was when he referred to himself as
a youth and came to fear the Lord. Neither do we know how
old he was when this statement is made of him. Now Obadiah feared
the Lord greatly, but what we do know is that he did fear the
Lord. This is a very important fact,
a very important statement. And it's something that needs
to be said of all of us. That we were someone, or we are
someone, who fears the Lord. What a blessing that is. And you know, this word fear,
is perhaps, in one sense, a difficult word to appreciate and put into
context with the various statements that have this reference to the
fear of the Lord. Well, this word really means
that we are to be reverent in this fearing, reverent then to
the Lord. And then as we come to the Lord,
to come in a right way with an attitude as though he truly is
our Father in heaven. He is, as it were, our parent. As we would come to and treat
a parent, hopefully, I know there are many today who don't treat
their parents rightly, but if we treat our parents rightly,
we would treat them in a way which desires to please them
and to obey them. and not to do things which they
would not agree with, and to do things which would not be
in accordance with God's will and purpose, but that which would
just be pleasing ourselves. So when we talk of the fear of
the Lord, realising it is, as it were, the attitude that we
have as we would come to our parents and speak and do that,
which is in a right way. relating to or benefit or befitting
our attitude to our natural parents, so that should be the same way
that we would come then before our God. And we can perhaps immediately
recognise that such an attitude would indicate that we do have
reverence and we do have a right attitude towards the Lord God
of heaven and it's a test for the reality of our religion to
see whether that is so in our life that we do have this right
attitude as we come to God and we don't treat God just as a
mere person, just as a mere man. And we don't reject that which
God has said. You know, if we love our parents,
we won't want to upset them. We won't want to do things which
we know they wouldn't want us to do. And we would have that
concern, desire to therefore do that which is right and to
obey them. as they direct us. And of course
I'm referring principally here to those who have godly parents,
those who do set a good example and therefore that should be
an example which we desire to follow and not to turn away from
and to go our own way. Well this man Obadiah, we're
told that he feared the Lord greatly. That's a wonderful commendation,
isn't it? To fear the Lord greatly, not
just in a little way. Sometimes we may perhaps operate
so that we don't do things wholeheartedly, No, we just do things to perhaps,
what you might think, please ourselves or satisfy our conscience
so that we're able to say, well, we've done our duty, we've done
that which is right. Well, that clearly is not the
way that we have here. Because here we have a man, a
man Obadiah, who feared the Lord greatly and desired to do that
which was right, even when he was a young man, a youth. how good it is if you and I today,
and we always need to apply these things to ourselves. See, God's
given us the Bible to read as an amazing book which gives us
so much instruction and directs us as to how we should respond
in our own lives to the truth of God and to the ways of God. And we should therefore not think
that somehow we are excused, somehow it doesn't matter. Well,
it does matter. Because the truth of God is the
Word of God and it emanates from Almighty God, that One who created
all things and that One who always is and ever will be. And that
One who holds you and me, just like that, He holds our life.
Our life is in the hand of God. Never forget that. Yes, you won't
live one second longer than God has ordained you should on this
earth. You won't be able to extend your
life at all. People think they can extend
their lives these days and it's almost amusing to see how people
use all these potions and things to put on their body and to eat
and to think that they'll somehow lengthen their life. Well, our
lives will only be as long as God has ordained they will be.
They won't be extended by doing anything to ourselves. I'm not
speaking against trying to do those things with the right and
we shouldn't try and bring our body into disrepute and wrong
situations, but we cannot extend our lives. And so what a good
thing it is if we are blessed with this fear of the Lord, like
this man Obadiah was. And to realise that this is a
wonderful blessing. We read together that 111th Psalm. There are several verses in the
Word of God which are virtually the same, but in that 111th Psalm
we have that statement which instructs us with regards to
the fear of the Lord and it's a very clear statement when the
psalmist says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
the beginning and so when God gives us therefore the blessing
of the fear of the Lord because of the new life which he's given
to us, then it is the beginning of wisdom. And what that really
is telling us, it means that all the wisdom that you and I
may be able to accumulate with regard to the things in this
life, in the spheres that we study, in the things that we
work in, he's not referring to that wisdom. Because you see,
that wisdom will die with us. Sometimes very eminent and clever
men and women die, and all their knowledge dies with them. It's gone. But here we have something
so different, and something far more important, which is the
fear of the Lord. And it's told here, it's the
beginning. of wisdom. That means it's the
beginning of spiritual wisdom. It's the beginning. When God
gives life in our soul, then we have this fear of the Lord,
which is the beginning of wisdom. And you see, this wisdom that
God gives, gives us then, won't be something which will finish
when our life on this earth ends. This wisdom will be with us.
because it's that which God has done for us and given to us and
instructed us and given us an understanding. You see, he goes
on to say here, a good understanding have all they that do his commandments,
his praise endureth forever. And the wisdom therefore that
God gives us through this fear of the Lord will grant us a good
understanding. in the things spiritual that
we need. It doesn't say that we'll have
a good understanding of all the things in this life, but it will
give us a good understanding of spiritual things. But there's
a very positive and very interesting statement that we have added
here. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. As I mentioned, if we desire
to please our parents, we'll desire to do those things and
to obey that which our parents tell us to do. Well, we have
this in a far more, in a far greater way, with reference to
our spiritual life. When these words are told us,
he hath commanded, well, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding of all they that do his commandments. It's very strange, isn't it?
That in the day and age in which we live, many people think they
can do what they want to. They can please themselves, and
they can obey God when it suits them, and they can disobey God
when it suits them. Well, that's not the tenor of
the Word of God. It's not the truth of God's Word. It's how we're left to our own
selves. It's when the devil tries to
sidetrack us and to convince us that some things are commands
and other things are not commands. And we therefore suit the commands
to our life, to our situation. We pick and choose. Well, what
does that mean? Does it mean that we're not therefore
walking truly in the fear of the Lord, and definitely not
walking in the way that Obadiah was, when he, we read, he greatly
feared the Lord. And we must infer from that statement,
therefore, that everything really he desired to do and to obey,
that which God had set before him. Well, these things are written
for our encouragement, are they not? What a blessing it is. And
in this psalm, as we commence this psalm, it's again interesting
to see the wording that the God uses. He says, praise you, the
Lord. And he says, I will praise the
Lord with my whole heart. That's a wonderful statement.
It's a very important statement. And some people then say, well,
of course, I just do that before God. I recognise that, but I
have this kind of personal situation, I just do this to God, I praise
God in a private way. Well, the Word of God gives us
a contrary statement to that. It says, I praise you the Lord,
I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of
the upright and in the congregation. Again, the Word of God is very
clear and we need to have spiritual eyes to observe the whole council
of God and not our council. And the whole council of God
therefore here clearly demonstrates to us that his name is to be
praised and his name is to be praised in the assembly of the
upright. And so if we have something to
praise God for, it's not to be done in secret behind closed
doors, it's to be done in the assembly of the upright and in
the congregation. I just mention that in passing
because it struck me as I was reading this and how relevant
it is to our lives today. You see, how we fail to walk
out the Word of God. How we easily seem to pass over
statements. We read it in part. We don't
read it totally, and yet it's a very full statement. Well,
coming back to this, fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. Now, no doubt, you young people
studying hard at school and university and wherever it may be and desiring
to gain knowledge and wisdom so that you may be able to progress
in life, be able to go to university and get good jobs, Well, all
these things are right and proper, aren't they? There's nothing
wrong in that. But they are relatively insignificant
in comparison with the great need there is to be blessed with
this fear of the Lord, this wonderful favour that God gives, which
is the beginning of spiritual wisdom. And so, perhaps we should
look in our hearts and see whether there has been a change. Because when God works, there
is a change. Without any doubt, there is a
change. Our attitudes change. Our attitude towards God changes. Have we had our attitude towards
God changed? Has God changed it? and produce,
therefore, in our hearts this fear of the Lord. This fear of
the Lord. Now, none of us can tell what
another person thinks. Nobody can tell what has occurred
in another person's heart. It's a very personal thing between
our souls and God. My friends, what a blessing if
we do have the evidence that God has blessed us with His fear,
His fear, so that we are concerned to do His will, to obey Him,
and that because we desire to please God. It's not something
which we feel, well, it's a duty and I've got to get on with it.
It's because of God's favour, it's because of his love, it's
because of his mercy, it's because of his grace toward us. And what
that produces is a great humbling in our hearts to think that Almighty
God should take notice of us, you and me, so utterly unworthy
That's the evidence of God's work when he points his finger
to us and we realise there's nothing that we deserve from
God. And it's all of his mercy and
all of his love if he's come and given to us his fear. It is his fear. The fear of the Lord is his fear.
And it is that which you and I must know. and must have. You may think, well I want to
pass this exam, I must have it, if I don't pass it I won't be
able to do this and I won't be able to do that. It may be true,
but if you fail it doesn't matter, really. But it does matter if
you don't know the fear of the Lord. If you don't know the fear
of the Lord, you know what will happen? You'll end up in hell. for eternity. No escape from
that place. No escape from that place. You'll
be found there. And we have the illustration,
don't we, of that rich man, Lazarus. He had his wisdom in this world. He had his success in this world. He dined sumptuously every day.
He was very pleased with his life, but the day came when he
died. And where did he end up? In hell. No escape. No way back. It's a very, very sad and terrible
consideration, isn't it? And yet you see in that illustration,
no doubt he would have heard the gospel. And yet, turn his
back upon it. Turn his back upon it. What did
he do? He concentrated on making money. That was his life. Making money. So what he wanted to do? Make
money. My friends, let us be very careful.
See, it won't matter how much money we've got when we die,
will it? You can't put it in your pocket and take it to heaven.
There's no currency of money in heaven in any event. It won't
do you any good at all. But if we possess something which
is of far greater value, there's no real comparison between natural
wealth and spiritual wealth. There's no real comparison. And
we do need the Spirit of God to alert us continually, to direct
us to the vast difference between natural prosperity and spiritual
prosperity. Because those things which God
gives, the fear of the Lord is an eternal blessing. And may we be very desirous of
it. The Bible tells us this. You may say the Bible tells us
not to covet, no, but it does tell us to covet this, covet
earnestly the best gifts. And this is a gift of God, the
fear of the Lord. And if we don't possess it, oh
my friends, go after it, covet it, pray for it, earnestly, far
more than anything else, far more than any other success in
this life. Pray earnestly. the blessing
of God to bring you to know the fear of the Lord and then you
will so rejoice when you have the evidence of it that God has
given you this spiritual wisdom and what is it? It's the beginning
of eternal life. You'll never perish. Eternity
in glory will be yours." And going back to that illustration
of the rich man and Lazarus, there was poor old Lazarus, he
didn't have anything really in his life, but he ended up in
glory. And that forever and ever. So
we see the wonderful difference. And Lazarus was with the Saviour
throughout eternity. What an amazing blessing. And
so may we be concerned today that all of us have the evidence
of the fear of the Lord. And may it be indeed like Obadiah. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. God's servant Job, I'm sure you're
familiar with Job, or you should be because I've preached from
him quite a few times. God's servant Job, he didn't
have an easy life really. He had an easy life to start
with and God wonderfully blessed him at the end of his life. But
during all the intermediate time, he had great opposition and great
difficulty and great hardship. And we're told when he speaks
to his three friends, and they speak to him and he speaks to
them, And he tells us in the 28th chapter, he says, whence
then cometh wisdom? He asks the question. And where
is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes
of all living, and kept close from the founts of the air. Destruction
and death say, we have heard the fainter off with our ears,
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the
whole heaven to make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth
the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the
rain, and a way for the lightning and the thunder, then did he
see it and declare it. He prepared it, yea, and searched
it out. And unto man, he said, behold, the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. Now, God taught Job many things. And thankfully, they're written
down for our encouragement today. And Job didn't learn these things. when he was in the midst of great
prosperity. But he learned these things when
God had brought him very low and had taken away so many things
from him. Then God came and spoke to his
soul, to his heart, and he was able then to realize the value
of spiritual things far more than the value of natural things. And the hymn writer tells us,
to know my Jesus crucified by far excels all things besides. And you may think, young people
may think, well I think the hymn writer is really stepping out
a line, he's exaggerating. Well, the hymn writer, in fact,
has things in a right view. He understands the greatness. And this fear of the Lord will
direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ, because we'll be concerned to
do His will, which, of course, is also the will of our Father,
the will of our Father in heaven. They're united. There's no divergence. It's the same, totally and completely. And what a blessing it is for
you and me to realise this when God gives us this spiritual fear,
this fear of the Lord to do those things and to seek earnestly
His face. and to seek after that great
blessing of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as our all-sufficient
Saviour. There's no sufficiency of the
things of God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is and
He must be the centrepiece, central in our faith, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so this man Obadiah, he feared
the Lord greatly. Now as we may think the wonderful
blessing this is and the desire that we may therefore be blessed
with this fear which would direct us without any doubt to our need
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. And then to be able
to come and to pray that our eyes may be, our spiritual eyes
may be opened to see the greatness of the plan of salvation. You
know this will bring praise into our heart. You know, when God
shows us the wonder of God's plan and the infinite goodness
and mercy which it brings to unworthy sinners, to bow down
before a holy God and to have the evidence that our hearts
have been changed and moved to seek the living God, to pray
that Christ may be revealed to us as our Saviour. And when the
Spirit of God reveals to us this great plan, to see what it involved
in the eternal Son of God, nonetheless, being born in that humble situation
in the manger in Bethlehem, and to live that perfect life, and
to die that sin-atoning death, in order that we might receive
this great gift of the fear of the Lord, this great gift of
heavenly wisdom, this great wonderful prospect of eternal life in glory,
what would it do? Bring praise to our hearts, praise
to our Saviour, praise to our Heavenly Father, praise to the
Holy Spirit. for revealing these things unto
us. The true child of God, without
any doubt, is a Trinitarian. He believes in the work of the
Holy Spirit. He believes in the great and
glorious plan of salvation. He rejoices in what the Father
has said, and the wonderful work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
you know, this is the fulfilment of this fear of the Lord. And
so this man here, Obadiah, was blessed with it. We look back,
don't we, to the Saviour. Obadiah looked forward to the
Saviour. But it's all through the grace
and the mercy and the fear of God. Now, just to move on in
this a little to a more providential way, We should not think, therefore,
that our lives must consist of just doing something very menial
in this world. The Lord has ordained his people,
some of his people, to be in very eminent and prominent places. There have been kings in our
nation, queens in our nation who have been godly people, have
been prime ministers, have been presidents of America, have been
godly people, and we should be thankful for this. And therefore
we should recognise that God does and can bring people into
places of eminence. And in those places, not to be
as it were despised in their position because this King Ahab,
he obviously recognised this man Obadiah for his natural abilities
and he would have been observant of his spiritual condition as
well because this man Obadiah, he did that which was right in
the sight of God and his walk and his conversation would have
clearly set forth that he was a God-fearing person. Our lives,
if we are truly those who fear the Lord, will show us up as
a God-fearing person. And it's good to be able to speak
and it's right to speak. But sometimes I walk in conversation,
do speak. Thankfully to God in my life
sometimes I've never perhaps spoken to a person particularly
about my religion but you know they may have sworn and they've
said oh I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that before you I've
never said anything they've known the position and they've realized
now how good that is in our lives that we walk before the world
in a right way so they understand we are setting a godly example
and we're not following the ways of the world. I have to say though,
sadly, years ago I was very different from that. But thank the Lord
gave me that new heart and that new life. I look back and perhaps
over my school days and college days, I have much to mourn about
and be sorry about. but thankfully God's grace is
great. So here we have this testimony
of Obadiah and placed in this eminent position and Ahab had
confidence in him. There were the two people to
go and search the land out to find water for the cattle. King
Ahab was one of them. And he called Obadiah to be the
other one. And you see, the Word of God
gives us a little indication of Obadiah in that eminent position. He still was able to do that
which was right in the Lord's work. And these verses tell us
this. For it was so when Jezebel cut
off the prophets of the Lord, Jezebel being, of course, Ahab's
wife, The Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty
in a cave and fed them with bread and water. He did that which he could in
that eminent position. God places people in important
positions for his honour and for his glory. I don't believe
God puts people in eminent positions, just to enjoy life and to spend
it on their lusts, but he puts them there for his honour and
for his glory. And so we see that Obadiah was
put in that place for this situation. So we should never despise people
that God raises up. God raises up people, and he
does still today, and we pray he might do so still, mightily
in our nation. and the Irishman Ian Paisley. He raised him up, didn't he?
To be that place of prominence and to influence many things
in the Irish government and also in our own nation. Well, we're
thankful for people like that and we should pray that God will
raise up people who will stand firm for the truth of God and
not be swayed and be in important positions and be an influence
for good. You see Obadiah was here at this
very time when Jezebel intended to get rid of all the prophets.
And Obadiah was there at that very time to deliver those prophets. What a blessing it is when God
does raise up people for a specific time. Yes, there is a time. that God does this, and the Word
of God tells us, for such a time as this. We don't know in our
lives why we're in positions. It may be for such a time as
this. And I believe we should be looking
and desiring and be concerned to know why. We are in perhaps
places, we are perhaps studying a certain course. May it be for
God's purpose to bring forth honour and glory to his great
and holy name. And so we're thankful indeed
that we have such an account like this to encourage us. Firstly, with regards to the
need that we have of the fear of the Lord, let us never turn
away from that as being paramount, most important in our lives. And do be honest with yourselves.
Don't just assume that you possess this. Look at it carefully. Trace it out. Examine before
God your life to see whether you possess this fear of the
Lord. Don't just think, well I think
I do, or well I hope I will do. May the Spirit of God so come
and take possession of us that it's our chief concern to know
that we do possess the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning
of wisdom, eternal wisdom, that it may be a wonderful blessing
for us. Because what that will do, that will direct us, that
will lead us into all truth as it is in Jesus. This is the direction
that God's people are led to the Lord Jesus Christ. And my
friends, if you find your becoming hard-hearted. If you find you're
wandering away from the things of God, then you must greatly
question whether you possess the fear of the Lord. We do sometimes
come into backward conditions when we backslide, but nonetheless
there is that secret of the Lord within that fear Him. And the
Lord will show us His covenant, He will direct us to His truth,
He will bless us, He won't leave us, but may our concern be. to be found spiritually minded
and to be found serving the Lord. You and I only have a little
life. Let us not be found serving the devil. The devil is very
keen that you and I serve him. Let us not be found serving him.
Let us be found serving the Lord, blessed with the fear of the
Lord and growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. May it be our great concern to
have this spiritual growth, to know more of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and more, and more, until by His grace we shall be received
in the glory, and then we shall see Him as He is, without a veil
between, with no sin, in that perfect condition of happiness. Well, may the Lord give us to
know that we are amongst those like Obadiah who feared the Lord,
and may it be by his grace that we fear the Lord greatly. Amen.