Episode Transcript
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Please remainstanding. And let's turn our
attention to proverbs, excuse me, proverbs,
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Chapter One, verses one through seven. I will be preaching on on
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verse seven in particular. So we
continue our series on Christian wisdom. It's
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appropriate at some point to turn to
the book of proverbs, right, this
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very important book on wisdom, and
here in the opening verses we have a
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promises and instructions and various other things
concerning wisdom. So let's give our attention
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to it and receive God's word by
faith, the proverbs of Solomon, son
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of David, King of Israel,
to know wisdom and instruction, to understand
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words of insight, to receive instruction. And why? Is Dealing in righteousness,
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justice and equity, to give prudence
to the simple, knowledge and discretion
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to the youth. Let the wise
here and increase in learning, and the
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one who understands obtain guidance to understand
a proverb and to saying the words of
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the wise and their riddles. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
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knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction
may be seated. Why? Hope that
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all of you are at least a
little bit familiar with the book of proverbs.
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Surely you have heard proverbs in your
life, both proverbs from this book,
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from God's Holy Word, and proverbs
just things that your parents teach you,
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things that apply always and in all
times and and sometimes are very specific
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to certain contexts, like look both
ways before you cross the street right.
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Sometimes they're very simple, one line
kinds of things, sometimes they're richer observations.
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The book of proverbs is unsurprisingly full
of them, full of proverbs,
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and here in the introduction to proverbs
there is this promise to us that this
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book is going to give you wisdom
if you receive it rightly. This book
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begins Chapter One, Verse One,
the proverbs of Solomon, son of David,
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King of Israel. That's what it's
about. Here's its purpose, summarized
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in verse two. These are for
knowing, to know wisdom and instruction to
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understand words of insight. It goes
on to expand on verse two and versus
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three and four, and then five
and six, and then we get the
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theological key right. This is the
key that in some ways opens the door
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to all of the rest of the
book and, more than the book,
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really all of life. It's in
verse seven the fear of the Lord is
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the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise
wisdom and instruction. The fear of the
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Lord. Now you'll notice in your
Bible's that that word Lord is used.
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Small caps are used there, and
that's to indicate that God's divine name,
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Yah Way, is being given there. That's true throughout throughout the Bible.
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Whenever you see that, it's that
name that God gave to Moses from the
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burning Bush when he said WHO Shall
I say sent me? What name Shall
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I give them? I am is
perhaps one way, a trench translate that.
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It's one of God's ways of expressing
his awesome power and supremacy as God,
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but also his closeness to his people
as their God in particular, is
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the one who made covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the one who
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made a covenant with Moses, who
established this people. Yeah Way, the
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fear of him, not just of
a higher power in general, not just
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a God or God's in general,
but fear of Yah Way. Fear of
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the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So if we want to think about
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Christian wisdom, which I am encouraging
us to think about through this servant series,
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if we want to think about what
it means to be wise, how
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we can become wise. Surely at
some point we have to talk about this.
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This is, after all, the
beginning of knowledge. This is the
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starting point. It all comes here. Wisdom, instruction, knowledge, it's
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all all begins with the fear of
the Lord, which means if you don't
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start with the fear of the Lord, you are going to fail in some
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way. You're going to get off
on the wrong path. It may not
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seem to happen right away, sort
of like if you if you're supposed to
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go due north on a compass and
you start walking forward and then you get
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off just slightly, maybe even one
degree. If you begin wrong, it
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may not seem like much of a
difference for a little while, but at
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the end of the journey it will
be very, very clear how much a
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difference even one degree can make.
But of course, when we fail to
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fear the Lord, when we fail
to begin at that starting point, it's
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not just one degree off, it's
a hundred navy it's going the opposite direction
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and it will result in failure.
Not Wisdom, not knowledge, not instruction,
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but foolishness. It's a curious Phaise, though, and I want us
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to think about it this morning.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning
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of knowledge for a lot of us. I think there's a big disconnect between
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our sort of surface level agreement of
proverbs, with proverbs one, seven and
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other places this occurs in the scripture, and our actual desire, understanding and
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habit, hopefully, of fearing the
Lord. I know for myself for a
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long time I felt, even as
a Christian, kind of uncomfortable saying that
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I ought to fear the Lord.
It's not that I didn't want to,
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because it's obviously in the Bible.
That's clearly important, but I struggled to
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understand. I personally understood struggle to
understand what it meant. Doesn't the Bible,
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for example, say, and it
does in First John, perfect love
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casts out fear. Right, Jesus
has loved me, loved us with a
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perfect love. Perhaps I should not
be fearing God, and yet it says
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to fear God. How do you
make sense of these things? Well,
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maybe I remember thinking at one time
perhaps fearing God was something that you would
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do before becoming a Christian but not
after. Or maybe fearing the Lord was
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an old testament thing, but not
a new testament thing. Maybe the Old
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Testament God is some people say was
a scary, vengeful, on terrifying God,
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but the New Testament God was different. He was loving and peaceful.
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Of course, not two different gods, but maybe a changed God. Well,
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even as a young person I could
smell something was wrong with that,
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but I couldn't figure it out because
in part the new testaments tells us to
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fear. The Lord Mary proclaims in
Luke One hundred and fifty that the mercy
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of God is on those who fear
him. Paul says to Christian slaves and
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Colossians Three D and twenty two,
bond servants, obey in everything those who
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are your earthly masters, not by
way of I service as people pleasers,
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but with sincerity of heart, fearing. The Lord Peter says to Christians in
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general in first Peter to Seventeen,
honor everyone, love the brother, fear
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God, honor the emperor. And
fearing God was one way Luke summarizes the
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spread and effect of the Gospel and
acts undred and thirty one. He says
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so the Church throughout all Judea and
Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being
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built up and walking in the fear
of the Lord and in the comfort of
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the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
It was in this context that the church
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was growing up and was growing in
number as well. They were walking in
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the fear of the Lord and in
the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So
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somehow that the Bible tells us that
the fear of the Lord and the comfort
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of the Holy Spirit are not clashing
together, but go together and go together
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perfectly, even as the spirit of
God is perfectly at one with God the
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father. And this walking, this
word, walking in the fear of the
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Lord and in the comfort of the
spirit is are a minder to us that
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it is a pattern of life.
It's not a one moment thing here or
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a one moment thing there, but
it is how we move, how we
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act, how we live our lives. And so in these verses we see
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that there's no contradiction between obedient walking
of the church in the New Testament and
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the walking of the Church and the
old fearing God is pleasing God. Enoch
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walked with God, we read in
Genesis, and he was not for God
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took him. What better example do
we have than Enoch? I'll give you
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one Jesus himself. If you have
any shred of doubt left that the fear
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of God might not be a godly
thing, that it might be opposed to
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the Christian faith, here what the
Prophet Isaiah says about Jesus, the son
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of David, in Isaiah Eleven two, he says, and the spirit of
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Yahway shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
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of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,
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the fear of Yahway. So John
Murray, O P C founder and
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New Testament scholar, says this.
The church walks in the fear of the
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Lord because the spirit of Christ endwells, fills, directs and rests upon the
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Church. And the spirit of Christ
is the spirit of the fear of the
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Lord. So we can give our
whole hearty agreement, or we ought to
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to proverbs one seven at. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
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knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction, or another summary of it in ecclesiastes
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twelve thirteen. The end of the
matter, all has been heard. Fear
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God and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man so
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right as we begin. You,
I hope you will understand, but the
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fear of the Lord is not something
you can brush aside. It is the
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whole duty of man. It is
our walking, it is our obedience,
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it is fully of Christ and of
his spirit. All true Christian life,
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including our search for knowledge, wisdom, our desire to walk, our desire
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to love, to obey, to
be in the Lord, must begin here.
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It's not a part of what we
do, it is a summary of
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all that we do. So,
with that being said, what is it
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then? What how are we to
understand it rightly? Well, the fear
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of the Lord can mean a couple
things. It can refer to either fear
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as in terror, or it can
refer to the fear as in reverence and
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honor, being terrified and scared of
of someone or something, or having that
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undeep and reverence for something or someone. Now the first part of this definition,
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that terror of the Lord, is
not the kind of fear that belongs
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to us as Christians. Those who
are condemned because of their sin and face
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the wrath of God do feel this, or they ought to anyway. God
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Is Holy, God is strong and
mighty in battle. Those who protect their
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sin. Those who remain in rebellion
against God, they are fools and ought
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to tremble like the Canaanite, seeing
the armies of Israel coming upon them,
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hearing of God's coming wrath, they
ought to tremble, they ought to flee
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or, even better, repent.
But for Christians, who belong to the
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armies of the Lord, who belong
to our father as sons, for those
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of us whom condemnation has passed,
who have the justification of our sins in
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Christ we don't stand at the tip
of God's sword. We are on the
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Lord's side. So we tremble in
a way, at his power, but
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in a different kind of way,
because we have peace with him. One
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great example of this is given in
we can see in Martin Luther's life,
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the great reformer under the power of
the law, not understanding the Gospel,
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he felt the terror of God.
He describes day after day feeling the way
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of God's law on him and his
own disobedience in despite efforts again and again
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and again, to do well,
the further he understood the law, the
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more he tried to obey, the
more he felt his disobedience, the more
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the farther he felt away from God. But though he felt the terror of
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the law, the threat of the
law, the condemnation of the law and
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God's holiness, it didn't save him. Just because he became more and more
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sensitive to his corruption in the sinfulness
of his heart, it only made him
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feel it more. Something had to
change, and it did when he came
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to understand the forgiveness that is found
in the Gospel, the free salvation that
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God offers to sinners through Christ.
When God's wrath was removed from him,
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then Luther learned how to walk freely. He no longer feared hell, not
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because it wasn't real or because it
wasn't dangerous, but it because it no
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longer was his. It was no
longer a threat to him, because Christ
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had taken hell on for him,
as he does for all who put their
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faith and believe in him. Paul
says in Rome is. There is therefore
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now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ. Jesus, God is on
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our side. You have peace with
him and you can stand strong and secure
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in His grace. Neither height nor
depth, nor angels or powers or principalities
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or anything Paul will say listing a
bunch more to that. Nothing will separate
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you from the love of God.
You need not fear. We do not
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fear God as people who are still
under the law. If you wake up
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every moment and wonder am I saved? Maybe I'll go to hell today because
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of my sins, then you do
not yet understand the Gospel, not fully
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anyway. So if that's not how
we fear the Lord, if we know
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that condemnation for us is past,
if we know that we have peace and
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God and that perfect love does cast
out fear, in what sense, then
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are we to fear the Lord,
as I said, in this sense of
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honor? Now, at the risk
of telling too many personal things, I
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will say that when I first heard
this, I'll admit that I I think
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I let myself a little bit off
the hook a little too soon, and
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I don't think I'm alone in that. That's why I mention it. Sometimes
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people here okay, fear the Lord
means reverence and honor, and then it's
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like, okay, I don't have
to fear. Well, if that's your
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thought, then you don't yet fully
understand what it means to fear the Lord.
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You, Peter Says Um to honor
the emperor and fear God. Right,
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he would say honor God. If
he only meant honor, we would
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be instructed not to fear the Lord. If we weren't to fear the Lord.
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The word fear is used and it's
used for a reason. It is
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a certain kind of fear and it
does mean reverence and honor. But don't
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pass it off as mere respect.
Right. Yes, I respect God.
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He's very good. Right, like
a like a nice worker at a gas
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station or something. God is awesome, God is grand and glorious. Right,
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if you you can't stand one of
my favorite examples, you can't stand
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at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Go that's that's really big. Right.
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Have you ever seen anybody do that? Could you do that yourself?
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Even perhaps when somebody says, Oh, I'd love to come visit you in
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Arizona, can we go look at
the Grand Canyon? I've seen some pictures
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you like. Well, pictures don't
really to describe it. When you stand
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there and you look at it,
there's a sense of awesomeness there. Or
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maybe you've gone and seen the redwoods
in California, or maybe you've stood at
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the ocean. I remember the first
time I saw the ocean. It's so
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big and you feel the pole of
it round your ankles, or maybe even
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your legs, if you're that brave
enough to wade in. You feel and
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you think this thing is big,
way, way bigger than me. Or
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you look up at the stars at
night, maybe you go out of town
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to see a meteor shower or something, and you try to count them and
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you see how many there are,
you get a little bit of fear in
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you, little sense of that Awesomeness
of your smallness in the world. And
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these examples that I'm giving are just
creation in some ways. The the vastness
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of the ocean or the Grand Canyon
or the stars in the sky. They're
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more similar to you than God is
to you, because they are just a
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part of creation, like you are. God, in his awesomeness and his
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glory, is far above these things, as the one who made them crafted
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them. The fear of the Lord
doesn't just mean respecting God. That's it's
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really a little too easy. I
think the problem with describing the fear of
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the Lord is mere reverence, although
that's a good word, and honor.
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The problem really isn't with those words, it is we just don't understand what
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it means to honor. I don't
understand reverence. To fear the Lord in
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part means to have a deep,
deep sense of his power, of his
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awesomeness, of his infinity, of
his omnipresence and his omnipotence as creator.
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Think of Isaiah, for example,
and Isaiah Chapter six. Here the Prophet,
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here the Prophet gets a gets a
sense the Lord by through a vision
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of him. I'll read to you
a little bit Isaiah six, in the
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year that King Oz a, Rosa
IAH rather, died. I saw the
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Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up, and the train of his
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robe filled the temple. Above him
stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings.
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With two he covered his face and
with two he covered his feet,
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and with too he flew. And
one called to another and said Holy,
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Holy, Holy, is the Lord
of hosts. The whole Earth is full
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of his glory, and the foundations
of the thresholds shook at the voice of
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him who called, and the house
was filled with smoke, and I said,
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woe is me, for I am
lost. I am a man of
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unclean lips and I dwell in a
people of Unclean Lips, for my eyes
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have seen the king, the Lord
of hosts. Then one of the Seraphim
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flew to me, having in his
hand a burning coal that he had taken
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with tongs from the altar, and
he touched my mouth and said, behold
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this, as touched your lips,
your guilt is taken away and your sin
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atoned for. And I heard the
voice of the Lord saying, whom shall
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I send and who for it will
go for us? Then I said here
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am I send me. When Isaiah
sees and has this vision of God,
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how does he respond to say that's
nice to see you have have some questions
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for you. I've been wondering.
Does Isaiah stand before the Lord and say,
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you know what, I'm really busy
right now. I've I've got a
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lot of things to do today.
You wouldn't believe my to do list.
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So go ahead and let me know
what's on your mind. Does Isaiah stand
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before the Lord and sort of fiddle
and his pockets, a look at his
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phone. And what is Isaiah do? He puts a curse on himself,
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basically asks for death, says I'm
undone, it's all over for me right
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now, right now, it's all
that I have seen. The Lord of
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hosts, the mighty Yawway, the
one who commands millions upon millions of angels,
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seeing some of those angels of themselves. It's all done, and that's
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where he stays until the Lord sends
one of these angels, one of these
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ministers. He sends him to proclaim
this Gospel. He takes something from the
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altar and he touches his lips and
says, your sins are atoned for.
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And once he receives that word,
everything changes. Instead of asking for death,
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essentially, woe is me, I
am undone, I am unholy.
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He believes the promise and now he
says, with an exclamation point here,
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I am send me. He stands
in the presence of this awesome Lord with
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confidence and boldness, ready to do
the work of the Lord. Right.
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He doesn't all of a sudden become
complace and he says, Oh, okay,
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now that my sins are atone for, we're good and we can be
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pals. No, he stands at
attention, he salutes the Lord and says,
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I'll do whatever you ask. He
receives the grace of the Lord and
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he stands in the presence of God
not only a wondering, it as Awesomeness,
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just as God, as Creator,
is this magnificent Lord of hosts,
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Lord Sabbah, of his name,
as another way we say it in one
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of our hymns, mighty fortress Martin
Luther's him. But he also said,
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but he also has senses and fears
the Awesomeness of the grace of God.
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He stands in the glory of God's
grace as well as his redeemer, and
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it's in that position that he is
now ready to obey, to walk,
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to fulfill his calling as a prophet
of the Lord. And then, in
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verses nine and following, he gives
Isaiah his instructions. This is what it
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means to fear the Lord. It's
to understand and have a deep sense and
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attitude, a disposition of who he
is. If you take God lightly,
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if you think of him as no
big deal, you are a fool.
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But if you understand, or at
least are beginning to understand, if you
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are beginning to understand, beginning to
comprehend, the awesome power and glory and
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weightiness of God, what it means
that his love is steadfast, that is
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holiness is perfect, that is power
is complete and Almighty. If you are
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beginning to understand what it means to
be forgiven by a holy God, then
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you are beginning to understand the fear
of the Lord. Hebrews tells us that
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we worship God with reverence and awe
because our God is a consuming fire.
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We have this amazing privilege is Christians
to know the Living God, to understand
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him and to call him father.
But God is a consuming fire. Doesn't
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change. Our relationships of m changes, but he remains powerful and wonderful and
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one to be feared. If you
want wisdom, if you want to know
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how to walk in this world,
how to walk after God, to walk
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in faith, you have to begin
here. Wisdom, as it is found
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in knowledge and obedience and love,
is only possible when we come to know
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the Lord. And, like Isaiah, we can only come to know him
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in this way by having our sins
forgiven from the altar, the altar in
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which God has laid his own son
that our sins might be forgiven. We
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come into true wisdom and knowledge not
by going into our rooms and turning off
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the light and sitting down on a
chair and emptying ourselves of all things,
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and starting from pure reason and then
working our way upward. We start by
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hearing those words your sin is atoned
for, and believing. We Find True
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Wisdom, true knowledge, true instruction, by finding the love and obedience and
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knowledge and wisdom of God in Jesus
and positioned in him, belonging to him,
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being close to our heavenly father,
then we are ready to receive his
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words and walk in fear of his
name. And when we do that,
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when we fear him and fear him
alone, everything else sorts itself out.
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The Bible says, don't fear horses
and Chariots and kings and your life and
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money and all of these things.
Fear Him, fear God. When you
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fear him, who rules all things
and he's given you this salvation, all
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of a sudden a lot of other
things begin to make sense. Difficult,
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complex problems, everything from the most
mundane thing you do to the greatest act
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you might accomplish in your life will
come under this category. So it's my
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prayer that you would learn to fear
the Lord. It's my prayer that I
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would learn to fear the Lord.
It's something that we don't just have once
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and it's something that we grow into. It's something that God grows us into.
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We work out our salvation, as
Paul says, in fear and trembling,
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by the power of him who is
working in us. Let's put our
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faith in him, beloved, and
grow in wisdom. Let's pray
