But I pray that this will be
our prayer. Verse 13 of Romans chapter 10. Paul quotes a passage that's
so often quoted in the Old Testament. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh, that God would enable us
to call upon his name. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into your presence in Christ's name and Lord, we ask
for the spirit of worship. Enable us to worship you in spirit
and truth for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Jesus, Savior, pilot me. Over life's tempestuous sea,
unknown waves before me roll. Hiding rock and treacherous shore
Chard and compass come from Thee. Jesus, Savior, pilot me. As a mother stilts her child,
Thou canst touch the ocean wild. Boisterous waves obey Thy will. When Thou sayest to them, Be
still, wondrous Sovereign of the sea, Jesus, Savior, pilot
me. When at last I near the shore
And the fearful breakers roar Twixt me and the peaceful rest
Then while leaning on thy breast, may I hear thee say to me, fear
not, I will Pilate be. Take your red hymnals and turn
to hymn number 393. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing
always, only for my King. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages for Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not
of mine but Thine withal. Not of mine but Thine withal. Take my love, my God, accord,
and my need is better stored. Be Thyself and I will be ever,
only, all for Thee, ever, only, all for Thee. Let's turn over to him number
212 now, nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other God I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my God in this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my sin he takes my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force sin alone,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. I'm good that I have done, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Christmas is now for whom and
things to buy and sell. All I have and I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. Turn your Bibles this evening
to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds
as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity as being
yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all,
and the bed undefiled, that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conversation Be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say the
Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the
end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. Be not carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart
be established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited
them which have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the
bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary
by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore,
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore,
that is by Jesus Christ, Let us offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving
thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate,
forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them
that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch
for your souls as they that must give account, that they may do
it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for
you. Pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscience,
in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you,
the rather, to do this, that I may be restored to you the
sooner. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good
work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing
in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. And I beseech you, brethren,
suffer the word of exhortation that I have written a letter
unto you in a few words. Know you that our brother Timothy
is set at liberty with whom, if he shall come shortly, I will
see you. Salute all them that have the rule over you and all
the saints. They of Italy salute you. Grace
be with you all. Amen. Let us pray. Our most gracious Heavenly Father,
we. We come here this evening seeking to hear your word. Seeking the same same praises
to your name, to glorify you. With our songs. To glorify you
with the reading of your word. Lord, we ask that you be with.
Todd this evening as he proclaims your word. We would not hear
the words of a man that we would hear Your words, that You would
reveal Your Word unto us, reveal Your Son unto us, and the mighty
work that He finished upon the cross. Lord, we know not what to ask
for, what we need in this world, but we ask that You would guide
us, give us what we need, withhold from us what we don't need, make
us happy with what we have, Make us happy with Christ. That's
all that we need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Wouldn't it be a blessing if
you and I were enabled by divine grace tonight to sit at His feet
and hear His Word. Let's open this preaching service
with that chorus. Sweep over my soul. Sweep over
my soul. Sweet Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. My joy is complete when I sit
at His feet. Sweet Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. Sweep over my soul, sweep over
my soul, sweet spirit, sweep over my soul. My joy is complete when I sit
at his feet. Sweet Spirit, sweet for my soul. Genesis 42. I've entitled this
message, I Fear God. I Fear God. We're going to begin reading
in verse 3 and read down through verse 18. And Joseph's ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother,
Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, lest peradventure
mischief should befall him. I guess it didn't much matter
whether mischief befell the other ten, but he sure wanted to look
out for Benjamin. And the sons of Israel came to
buy corn among those that came, for the famine was in the land
of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he
it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren
came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to
the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren. Now, this was the first time
that he had seen them in twenty-some years. They didn't know who he
was, but he knew exactly who they were. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake
roughly unto them, and said unto them, Whence come ye? And they
said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew
his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the
dreams which he had dreamed of them, and said unto them, Your
spies, to see the nakedness of the land, are you come? And they
said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants
come. We are all one man's son. We are true men. Thy servants
are no spies. And he said unto them, Nay, but
to see the nakedness of the land, you are come. And they said,
Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land
of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father,
and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, That
is it that I spake unto you, saying, Your spies, hereby shall
you be proved by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go forth
hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you,
and let him fetch your brother, and you shall be kept in prison
that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in
you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he
put them all together into ward, in prison, three days. What all you reckon was going
through their mind for those three days? They remembered everything
that they had done. Verse 18, And Joseph said unto
them the third day, This do and live, for I fear God. And Joseph's brethren were scared
to death. As far as they knew, they were
going to be executed. They didn't have any idea that
Joseph was their brother. They just thought he was a very
hard man, the ruler of Egypt, and they knew they were in his
hands. But as far as they knew, they were going to be executed. They didn't know Joseph. But
what do you reckon they felt when he said to them, I fear
God? They didn't even know he knew
who God was. But yet he says to these men,
I fear God and you don't need to fear what I'm going to do
to you because I fear God. And the fear of God that I have
is going to control how I treat you. Now, like I said, I want to attempt
to speak on this subject. I fear God. Do you fear God? Turn with me to Genesis 20, back
a few pages. I want to show you the first
time this is mentioned in Genesis 20. Now, Abraham has denied that
Sarah is his wife. Abimelech saw her. She was a
very beautiful woman. And Abimelech brought her into
his harem. And Abraham was scared to death.
He wouldn't say she's his wife. He thought he would be in trouble
if he did. Now look what he says after Abimelech finds out that
Sarah is Abraham's wife. Verse 10, And Abimelech said
unto Abraham, What sawest thou that thou hast done this thing?
He was saying this is wrong what you've done. And Abraham said,
because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place. And they will slay me for my
wife's sake. Now, when he makes this statement,
he's saying. Because I thought the fear of
God was not here, I thought you all would treat me in this certain
horrible way. But what that tells me is that
wherever there is the true fear of God, whatever that is. It's going to have a bearing
on what you do if you have it. The fear of God. Now, what best
describes the true worship of God? I bet you know the answer to
that. This phrase best describes the true worship of God. The
fear of God. I'm going to read a passage of
scripture to you from Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13. This is
the wise man's conclusion of everything that he'd written.
He said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. And keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. You want to know what your duty
is? Yes, you have a duty. What is it? It's to fear God
and to keep His commandments. Now, since it's the conclusion
of the whole matter and the whole duty of man, it's imperative
that you and I understand what it means to fear God. Joseph said to his brethren,
they had no idea that he even knew who God was. He said, I
fear God. Therefore, you don't have to
fear. What is the fear of God? You've heard the phrase I know
many times, what is the fear of God? Well, I need to spend
just a minute telling you what it's not. The fear of God is not the fear
of mistrust. And unbelief. That's not what
the fear of God is when you don't trust him and you're afraid of
what's going to happen. That is not the fear of God. The fear of God is not the fear
of having a very powerful enemy who can overcome you. When you look at God as just
so powerful, he can do what he wants to with you and you're
afraid of him because of that. That is not the fear of God.
The fear of God is not the fear of punishment. And every one
of us know what it is to fear punishment. The fear of God is
not the fear of hell. Do you know all my life, all
my life, I've been scared to death of going to hell. When I was a little boy, before
I was even in grade school, I can remember laying in my bed at
night, fearing going to hell. I was always afraid of that.
But do you know that's not the fear of God that's spoken of
here? You can have those fears. You can be afraid of hell, afraid
of punishment, afraid of the fear of mistrust and unbelief
where you don't really trust God and never have the fear of
God. You see, the natural man does
not have the fear of God. Let me show you a scripture in
Romans chapter three. Now, we always quote Romans 3, 10 through
12, but we don't go on much. with it. Romans chapter 3. I know I've referred to this
many times about what sin is. Look in verse 10. As it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're together become unprofitable.
There's none that do it good. No, not one. Now, that's Paul's
testimony of human sinfulness. Now, look at his summary of everything
that he said down in verse 18. He goes on to describe human
sin. And look at this last statement
he makes in description of human sin. There is no fear of God. Have you all seen those T-shirts?
They were out for a while. No fear. No fear. No fear of God. But what is the fear of God?
The fear of God, first of all, is the gift of His grace. If you have this fear, it's because
He, in His gracious purpose, has given it to you. He planted
it in your heart. It's not something that grows
naturally in the heart. You were born into this world
with absolutely no fear of God. And if you have it, it's the
gift of His grace. I want to show you a couple of scriptures,
one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. Would you
turn with me to Jeremiah 32? Jeremiah 32, beginning in verse
38. And they should be my people.
And I will be their God. And there's a blessing thing
to think about. Me being his people, him being
my God, I like the way that sounds. And I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. And 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. And here's why we don't depart.
We're afraid to. He puts that fear in our heart.
And we're afraid to depart. Turn to Hebrews 12, New Testament
scripture. Verse 28. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Now, you catch
that? Reverence and godly fear, for
our God is a consuming fire. You know, the fear of the Lord,
the fear of God is a good fear. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ
when he walked upon this earth? You know how he was described
in Hebrews chapter five, verse seven, makes this statement regarding
our Lord Jesus Christ when he walked upon this earth. It says
he was heard talking about him being heard by his father. He
was heard in that he feared. The Lord Jesus Christ feared
his father. And you know, that wasn't the
fear of mistrust or the fear of unbelief. That was the fear
of reverence for his holy father. He submitted. To his father. Fear is a good thing, the fear
of the Lord, the psalmist says, is clean. Enduring forever now,
the fear of the Lord is a reverence. For the Lord. It's a respect
for the Lord God. It's a standing in all of him. That, I think, describes the
fear of God as well as any way I know how to describe it. It's
a standing in all of him. And do you know that there is
only one evidence of fear? You know what that is? Obedience. Anything else, let's just talk.
The only evidence of the fear of the Lord is obedience. This is the whole duty of man.
This is the conclusion of the matter, that you fear God and
that you keep His commandments. Obedience is worship. Listen to this scripture. Now,
this is after Abraham had offered up Isaac to the Lord. In his heart, he had already
slain that boy. He lifted up his knife to slay
that boy. And God said, and the Lord Jesus
Christ said in Genesis 22, 12, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything to him, for now I know that thou fearest
God. seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thy only son from me." The only evidence, let me repeat
that, the only evidence of the fear of God is obedience to what
he says. Now, we generally don't think
that fear is a good thing, but it is. For instance, I can think
of several examples of this. If you use power tools, what happens when you lose your
fear of those power tools? How many people have you seen
without fingers? They've lost their fear. They've
lost their respect. They became comfortable with
those power tools. You know, it's a good fear to
fear offending somebody you love and respect. That's a good fear,
isn't it? You love that person, you respect
them, and you fear offending them. It's a good fear to be
afraid of taking someone for granted. You know, I notice in
the public prayers, and I tell you, public prayer is a difficult
thing. You're trying to you're trying to pray and kind of shut
everybody out, yet you know everybody's listening. It's a very difficult
thing. But how many times do I hear men pray, Lord, deliver
us from taking these blessings for granted. Deliver us from
being thankless. It's a good fear to be afraid
of taking somebody for granted. It's a good fear to be afraid
of taking the Lord and his mercy and his blessings for granted. As the psalmist said in Psalm
19, the fear of the Lord is clean. Enduring forever, even in heaven,
the fear of the Lord will endure. Now, you are afraid of that which
you can't control, aren't you? If you can control it, you're
not afraid. But you're afraid of that which you cannot control,
which you cannot defeat, which you cannot manipulate. And we
fear the Lord in that sense. We can't control him. We can't
defeat him. And we cannot manipulate him. But it is not the fear that we
would have of an enemy that's more powerful than us. Not that
fear, but we fear him nonetheless. We fear him. whom we cannot control. Now, the fear of God is seen
in the reverential awe of His person and the reverential awe
of His works. Now, if I truly fear God, I have
an awe of reverence a submission to who he is. Now, we think of
the attributes of God. You think of the holiness of
God. And when I talk about the holiness
of God. I don't even know how to describe it properly, other
than that he's altogether different than you and I are. He's the
word holy means other. He's not like me and you. That's
about the best way we can describe holiness. He's just not like
us at all. He's holy. He hates sin. And when we think of His holiness,
you know what it does? It makes us filled with awe and
fear at His presence. When you think of His sovereignty,
the fact that He's in control of everything, How come you're
here tonight? Because He purposed for you to
be here. That's why you're here. What
about the folks that aren't here? He purposed for them not to be
here. That's the bottom line. You know,
that's scary, isn't it? That fills me with awe at His
person. You think of His eternality.
any aspect of who God is. Think of the fact that He never
had a beginning. He never began to be. He'll never end. I can't grasp
that. Think of this. There was never
a time when He began to love you. There was never a time when He
didn't know you. Does that oil you? Wisdom. The way He, in His omniscience,
in His awed by His wisdom, He's made a way for me, sinful as
I am in myself, to be wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. What wisdom? I'm awed by His
wisdom. Think of His justice. He'll never
let any sin go unpunished. We're awed by His justice. All His excellent, glorious attributes,
His mercy, His love, whatever we talk about, we stand in awe
of Him. We reverence Him. We bow to who
He is. Do you know everything He reveals
about Himself in His Word? And I can say this honestly. If it were in my power to change
Him, I wouldn't do it. And if it were in my power to
change his providence, I wouldn't do it. Why? Because I believe he's God.
Beside him is none else. We stand in awe of his person,
and we stand in awe of his works. We are amazed. I think of his works of creation.
David said the heavens declared the glory of God and the firmament
showeth forth his handiwork and how we reverence our God in his
almighty work of creation. You think of the Lord Jesus Christ
simply speaking this universe into existence. And it was. Aren't you all about that? His mighty power. I love that
hymn we sing. How great thou art. O Lord my
God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands
have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power
throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art. We adore
Him for His works of creation. We awe Him. We're standing awe
Him in His works of providence. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Isaiah 46? Verse 9. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God. And there's none else. I am God
and there's none like me. Here's one thing you can never
say. God is like this. Can't say it. No one can be compared
to Him. Go on reading. He says, I declare
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executes my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it.
I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Everything that happens is what
he has done. Don't you like it that way? We
stand in awe of his providence, and we stand in awe of his works
of judgment. Turn with me to Luke 12 for a moment. Luke chapter
12. Look at the words of our Lord. Luke chapter 12, beginning in
verse 4. And I say to you, my friends,
isn't that amazing the Lord calls us his friends? I'm a friend of God. I'm astounded I can say that.
But every believer is his friend. He has made himself known to
you. You know what friends do? Friends
bear their heart to each other. Do you know the Lord has borne
his heart to you? He's given to you that which is most precious
to himself. And he calls every one of his
people his friends. And I say unto you, my friends,
be not afraid of them that kill the body. And after that, they
have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you who you
shall fear Fear him, after he hath killed, hath power to cast
into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. You know where we're most especially
awed and reverence him? It's when we behold his works
of salvation. There isn't anything that awes
me more than this, that God became a man. The infant became an infant in
his mother's belly. I'm awed at his life as a man. He never sinned. He never thought
evil. You know, that's the most inconceivable
thing to me. He knew no sin. He perfectly kept God's holy
law. I'm awed by his life. I'm awed, oh how I'm awed by
his death. The fact that the God-man could
die. What he accomplished in his death.
He drank the dregs of God's wrath completely dry so there was nothing
left. He completely satisfied the justice and holiness of God.
He completely put away all my sin. I'm awed by that. Oh, I'm awed by the power of
His resurrection. He raised Himself from the dead. I'm awed at the thought of His
ascension going back to the Father. Wouldn't you like to be in there
and see that? Well, you know, there's something we're going
to see that's even more glorious than that. We like, I don't want to send
him back to heaven, but I'm going to send him back to this earth.
And that's going to be even more glorious. Every eye is going
to see it. And we're awed by that. We're awed by his works
of salvation. I want to read a scripture from
Psalm 130. David said, If thou, Lord, should
mark iniquities. What if he would mark any of
your iniquities? If that should mark the niche,
who would stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. Do you know the only time you're
truly going to fear God is when you see your sins have been forgiven
for Christ's sake. You know, when you see your sins
have been forgiven for Christ's sake and holy for Christ's sake,
you know what that's going to make you do? You're going to
bow down and worship at his feet. You're going to truly fear God.
You're going to have a reverence for his person. Now, I want to
try to talk some about the benefits of the fear of the Lord. Let
me give you just a few things. The benefits of the fear of the
Lord. How many times do we read in
the Psalms and the Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Do you know somebody that doesn't
have the fear of the Lord, doesn't have a drop of wisdom? But I'm looking at some people
who are truly wise. Do you fear God? You have the
beginning of true wisdom. That's the worship of God, this
fear of God, all this reverence for His person. All who truly
fear Him are truly wise people. The fear of the Lord is a state
of blessedness. Psalm 112.1, David said, Blessed
is the man that feareth the Lord. Blessed is that man. He's blessed
by God. If you have the fear of the Lord
in your heart, how blessed. God's done something for you.
You have been an object of His amazing grace. He's put that
in your heart. You've been blessed by God and
you're blessed. You know, somebody who fears the Lord is a happy
person. They're happy. How can you put
happiness and fear together? Well, when you fear the Lord,
you really believe that He's in control of everything. And
that makes you happy. You're rejoicing that. You're
rejoicing who he is. No need to worry about anything,
is there? I want you to think of how much you've worried in
the last few days. About different things. You've probably done
a lot, haven't you? Did you have any ground for it
at all? Oh, and God gives us grace to
fear the Lord. We just rejoice. Proverbs 14,
verse 26 says, In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. In the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence, and His children shall have a place of refuge.
You see, when you fear the Lord, now you think about this, there
isn't anybody in here that is free from the fear of man. You know that. And that makes
you so ashamed when you think of your fear of men. But let
me also ask you this. When God gives you grace to fear
Him, when you're looking to Him and fearing Him, you're not afraid
of men, are you? You see where the fear of the
Lord is? The fear of man. If you fear
the Lord, you're not really too concerned about what any man
thinks about you, are you? All you care about is what he thinks,
what he sees. With the fear of the Lord, there
is strong confidence. And the reason there's strong
confidence is we have strong confidence in Him who cannot
fail. We really believe His salvation, and we know that He cannot fail. Here's where my strong confidence
is. I have strong confidence that His blood washes away all
my sin. I have strong confidence that
His perfect righteousness is all the righteousness that I
need. I've got strong confidence in that. I've got strong confidence
that His grace really saves and that it's going to preserve me
all the way to the end. In the fear of the Lord, there's
strong confidence. In the fear of the Lord, we have
His fatherly pity. Turn to Psalm 103 for a moment. This is a precious passage of
Scripture. Beginning in verse 10. Psalm 103, verse 10. He had not dealt with us after
our sins. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. Aren't you thankful for that? For as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward than that
fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us, like
as a father pitieth his children. I want you to think of how you
pity your children. If they hurt, you hurt. I can remember when Aubrey was,
oh, three or four years old, and we took her to this school
at UK. And Aubrey was, I guess she was
kind of a loner or something. But I remember when we'd go to
pick her up, and she'd be sitting there playing by herself with
a sand, putting sand in bucket, and all these other kids were
all playing, and she'd be there to be by herself. It ripped my heart out. As a
father pities, oh, it just, she liked it that way. I mean, she
wasn't bothering her, but boy, I thought, None of the kids will
play with her. As a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. And look at this next
verse. He knows our frame. He remembers that we're dust. In the fear of the Lord, we have
His intimate counsel. Would you turn with me to Psalm
25? Verse 14. The secret of the Lord. Psalm
25, verse 14. The secret. That word secret
means the intimate counsel. I'm interested in that, aren't
you? The intimate counsel of the Lord is with them that fear
Him, and He will show them His covenant. A child of God, the
Lord has revealed to you that which is most precious to Him.
You have His intimate counsel if you believe the Gospel. I've
already touched on this, but your friends, you bear your heart
to them. Do you know the Lord has borne
His heart to you? He's made known to you that which is most precious
to Himself. The secret of the Lord, the intimate
counsel of the Lord is within that fear-hen. He brings you
into His intimate counsel. The world may not care for you,
but He does. He called you His child, His friend, His lover. Think of that. His wife. his bride. I am my beloved's, and my beloved
is mine. It's the fear of the Lord that
causes us to obey him. Let me look at a couple of scriptures.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Having, therefore, these promises, promises of His grace, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh
and spirit, perfecting holiness, bringing an end to holiness in
the fear, in the fear of God. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Beginning in verse 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves
in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves one to another. How? In the fear of
God. It's the fear of God that will
cause us to submit ourselves to one another. And the last
scripture I want to look at is Joshua 24. The fear of the Lord
is our response to his grace. Joshua, Chapter 24. I want to begin reading in verse 11. The Lord's speaking to his people
through Joshua, and he says, beginning in verse 11, And you
went over Jordan and came into Jericho, and the men of Jericho
fought against you, the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. And I delivered them into your
hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drave him out from
before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with
your sword. and not with your bow. And I
have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities
which you built not, and you dwell therein, of the vineyards
and oliveyards which you plant, what do you eat?" There's His
grace to us. Now, therefore, fear the Lord
and serve Him in sincerity. and in truth. Now, here's the bottom line. If I fear God, let me tell you
two things that I'm also going to be afraid of. If I really fear God, I'm scared of sin. I'm afraid of sin. Oh, I'm so afraid of sin. I'm
afraid of myself. And if I really fear God, I am scared to death to look anywhere
but Christ alone for all things. If I really fear Him, I'm scared
to death to look anywhere but Christ. I'm not going to look
to myself. I'm not going to look to my fear.
I'm not going to look to my anything. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Fear God. I do. I'm scared of Him. I fear Him. But it's not the
fear of mistrust. It's the fear of all. And you
know, I've been talking about me being afraid. I am afraid
of sin. But you know, I really believe that I'm never going
to have to stand and give an account for my sin. And that makes me all the more
afraid of it. And may God add His blessing to this portion
of His Word. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that You would put Your fear in our hearts that we might not
depart from Thee. Lord, truly, we We fear Thee. We believe Thee. We believe Your
Son is all our salvation. Lord, give us grace to walk in
Thy fear. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In His name we pray. Amen. Mitch, I'd like to sing
the first and last verse of How Great Thou Art. We'll stand and
sing.