This morning I am reading from
the book of Psalms, chapter 33. Psalm 33, and I am reading verse
8. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him. Perhaps the greatest preacher
this country has ever known was a man named Jonathan Edwards. he has been called by some the
Isaiah of this generation. During the years 1735 and 1736,
at the age of 32, the Lord began doing a marvelous and mysterious
work among the people in the town of Northampton, Massachusetts,
where Mr. Edwards was the pastor. It is
now what is commonly called the great awakening of the 18th century,
a great spiritual awakening or revival as some may call it. It came during the course or
the ordinary and faithful course of a local pastor's preaching,
Jonathan It was not the outcome of a well-organized and highly
advertised evangelistic effort, but was the supernatural work
of God Almighty in shaking up or awakening a church and a community
through the preaching of the gospel. It was true revival in
the scriptural sense. I want you to note with me now
as I tell what happened then. At this great awakening, there
were no public invitations ever given. That is, people were not
asked to come forward to the front of the church building
and make any type of decision, nor were there any spiritual
counselors ready and waiting in the wings. pleading and pulling
and trying to get decisions out of people to accept Jesus. There were no healing crusades. There were no special gospel
singing groups, no ridiculous religious sideshows or shenanigans
going on. Only the preaching of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. By preaching I mean expository,
that is, verse by verse preaching from God's Word, God's truth
concerning Jesus Christ and His work. And the reaction of the
people was the same at that time as in the days of Pentecost when
Peter stood up to preach. The reaction was no There were
no vain babbling of tongues, no faked and forced show of emotion,
no hand-waving, dancing, or any such thing. But people, as they
heard the Word of God concerning the sovereign God on the throne,
the sovereign Christ, not some impotent Jesus or loving God,
but a sovereign, holy, And yes, angry God on a throne, the people
were pricked in their hearts, convicted of sins, and with one
voice cried out, What shall we do? And upon their conversion, the
scripture says in Acts 2, that they received the word gladly,
that is, the preaching of the word, all of it. They were baptized,
which is the public confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They continued in doctrinal truth,
yes, doctrine, fellowship, that is, faithful attendance to the
preaching of the word, the Lord's table, and were with one accord
in the temple, assembling together to worship. And the chief evidence
of that true work, that true revival at Pentecost And yes,
at the Great Awakening, the chief evidence is told in Acts 2, verse
43. It says that fear came upon every
soul. Fear. Fear of what? Fear of God, as we just read. The scripture says so much concerning
the fear of God, and yet in our day, in the words of the Apostle
Paul, Romans 3.18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. It is indicative of our day that
one of the most popular slogans is this, no fear. We see that everywhere, and I
see it everywhere in religion. The scripture says so much concerning
the fear of the Lord. Psalm 25 14 says the secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his
covenant or his gospel, his word, his truth. But the scripture
says the fool hath said no God. They hated knowledge and despised
wisdom and destruction, the proverb says, and they do not fear God. In Psalm 36, verse 1, I read,
The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there
is no fear of God before his eyes. The transgression of the
wicked tells me, the psalmist says, that there is no fear of
God before him. And it's evident that the openly
wicked or immoral in our day, or any day for that matter, it's
evident that the openly wicked and immoral do not have any conscience,
or that is the law of God written on their heart, nor do they have
any fear of God. It's evident by their wicked
actions which are clearly condemned in scripture and the judgment
of them foretold. But there is a far worse form
of wickedness which proves no fear. A far worse form of transgression
going on today. I'm talking about religious wickedness,
spiritual wickedness. And if you want to turn with
me to the book of Isaiah chapter 29, we'll read here something
that reads like the front page or a commentary on our day, 1999. I'm reading from Isaiah 29, verse
9 reads this way. It says, Stay yourself, or that
is stand and look and wonder. Cry ye out and cry. They're drunken. but not with
wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. All of this foolish and ridiculous
nonsense that goes on today in the name of God is an utter abomination
to God. And he says here, in the words
of his prophet, they are drunk, but not with wine. Everyone is
reeling to and fro, staggering around, talking gibberish, all
in the name of God, waving and falling and jumping. He says
they're drunk. Isaiah the prophet says they're
drunk, but not with wine. Is it the Spirit of God they're
drunk with? Well, they say so. The Word of
God doesn't. Verse 10. The Lord hath poured
out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, a mind void of understanding. He hath closed your eyes, he
said, the prophets and your rulers, or spiritual leaders, the seers
hath he covered, or that is, blinded. Another passage says
that people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, that is, lack
of the truth. They are being carried about
with every wind of doctrine when they should be grounded and settled
in the Scripture. Carried about with every new
thing, the telling and hearing of every new thing and every
false prophet that comes and goes, people follow him like
the pied piper, when if they were listening to God's Word
line upon line, precept upon precept, he would not be taken
in by all of it. And what I see in here today
is mostly emotional cheerleading, religious pep rallies. This is
exactly what Isaiah said was going on in his day. In verse
11 and 12, it reads this way, the vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book. It is delivered to one that is
supposed to be learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he
says, I cannot. It is sealed. Nearly everyone has a Bible,
but few know what it says. In verse 13, which was quoted
by our Lord Himself, which is written twice in the gospel,
He says, the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near
with their near me with their mouth and with their lips do
honor me and have removed their heart far from me. A lot of singing and preaching
and shouting and testifying and talking, but he says their heart
is far from me. Well, how do you know? How do
we know this is so? Because verse 13 goes on to read
this way. It says, their fear toward me,
that is, their fear of God, is taught by the precept of men. Their fear toward God, or the
fear in which they are supposed to have of God, is taught them
by the precept, by the ideas, the notions of men, false preachers. You see, people, The clarion
cry of all false prophets is this. The first thing out of
their mouths is this. God loves you. Jesus loves you
and cares for you. There's no need to fear God.
And I want to say to these false prophets just what Jeremiah said
to those in his day, or what God asked them in his day, or
in Jeremiah's day. Verse 18 of Jeremiah 23 says,
Who stood in the counsel of the Lord and had perceived and heard
his word? Who had marked his word and heard
it? Who heard God say that? Verse 17 says, They, or these
false prophets, say unto those that despise me, unto men and
women who have no interest in God whatsoever, no fear of God
whatsoever, they say, the Lord has said you shall have peace.
They say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his
own heart, no evil shall come upon you. Why, God loves you,
has a wonderful plan for your life. Jesus needs you. Won't
you let him into your heart? Who heard God say that anywhere
in God's Word? And these ignorant false prophets
will cry out one verse. They know one verse, John 3.16. Not knowing the context of that
passage, to whom he was talking and what the subject was, nor
what the word world means in reference to 1 John. If any man
loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Compare
those Scriptures. Well, I want to tell you the
truth of what God's Word says. If you'll look at Psalm 33 again
with me. Psalm 33. We'll see what God's
Word says. Psalm 33. Psalm 33, verses 4
and 5 says, The Word of the Lord is right. Now, only the Word
of God is to be heeded. Verse 5, The Lord loveth righteousness
and judgment. Verses 6 and 7 says, By the word
of the Lord the heavens were made. Verse 7, He gathers the
waters of the sea together as a heap. He laid up the depth
and storehouses. Verse 8, Let all the earth fear
the Lord. Why? Because He is our Creator
and we are creatures and we are in His hands. Shall the clay
say to Him that formed it, Can the pot say anything to the potter?
No, the pot's in the potter's hand. What a simple thing this
is. So he says, let all the earth fear the Lord, because He's our
Creator and He does what He will with whom He will, with His own.
The wisest man to ever live was a man named Solomon. And the
very first proverb, he wrote over 3,000 proverbs, by the way,
And the very first proverb, which he wrote, says this, Proverb
1, verse 7, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And he says that three
or four times throughout the proverb, and he learned it from
his father, David, who was a man after God's own heart. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm 111, verse 10,
The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him. Psalm 37,
18. What is this fear of God? Well,
go and learn what it means, the fear of the Lord. And may God
make you a God-fearing man or a God-fearing woman.