The Fear of God (Proverbs 1:7)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:07.509 Please remainstanding. And let's turn our attention to proverbs, excuse me, proverbs, 2 00:00:07.509 --> 00:00:12.429 Chapter One, verses one through seven. I will be preaching on on 3 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:19.109 verse seven in particular. So we continue our series on Christian wisdom. It's 4 00:00:19.390 --> 00:00:22.780 appropriate at some point to turn to the book of proverbs, right, this 5 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:30.219 very important book on wisdom, and here in the opening verses we have a 6 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:36.649 promises and instructions and various other things concerning wisdom. So let's give our attention 7 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:43.369 to it and receive God's word by faith, the proverbs of Solomon, son 8 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:48.609 of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand 9 00:00:48.729 --> 00:00:53.600 words of insight, to receive instruction. And why? Is Dealing in righteousness, 10 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:59.679 justice and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion 11 00:00:59.880 --> 00:01:04.230 to the youth. Let the wise here and increase in learning, and the 12 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:11.549 one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and to saying the words of 13 00:01:11.629 --> 00:01:15.870 the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 14 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:25.780 knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction may be seated. Why? Hope that 15 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:30.299 all of you are at least a little bit familiar with the book of proverbs. 16 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:37.049 Surely you have heard proverbs in your life, both proverbs from this book, 17 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:42.569 from God's Holy Word, and proverbs just things that your parents teach you, 18 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:49.799 things that apply always and in all times and and sometimes are very specific 19 00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:56.000 to certain contexts, like look both ways before you cross the street right. 20 00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:00.950 Sometimes they're very simple, one line kinds of things, sometimes they're richer observations. 21 00:02:02.230 --> 00:02:07.829 The book of proverbs is unsurprisingly full of them, full of proverbs, 22 00:02:07.870 --> 00:02:13.909 and here in the introduction to proverbs there is this promise to us that this 23 00:02:14.189 --> 00:02:22.580 book is going to give you wisdom if you receive it rightly. This book 24 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:27.979 begins Chapter One, Verse One, the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, 25 00:02:27.979 --> 00:02:32.930 King of Israel. That's what it's about. Here's its purpose, summarized 26 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:38.330 in verse two. These are for knowing, to know wisdom and instruction to 27 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:46.039 understand words of insight. It goes on to expand on verse two and versus 28 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:49.719 three and four, and then five and six, and then we get the 29 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:53.479 theological key right. This is the key that in some ways opens the door 30 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:58.360 to all of the rest of the book and, more than the book, 31 00:02:58.629 --> 00:03:02.669 really all of life. It's in verse seven the fear of the Lord is 32 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:12.389 the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the 33 00:03:12.509 --> 00:03:16.300 Lord. Now you'll notice in your Bible's that that word Lord is used. 34 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:22.699 Small caps are used there, and that's to indicate that God's divine name, 35 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:28.330 Yah Way, is being given there. That's true throughout throughout the Bible. 36 00:03:28.409 --> 00:03:31.729 Whenever you see that, it's that name that God gave to Moses from the 37 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:37.449 burning Bush when he said WHO Shall I say sent me? What name Shall 38 00:03:37.530 --> 00:03:42.840 I give them? I am is perhaps one way, a trench translate that. 39 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:49.560 It's one of God's ways of expressing his awesome power and supremacy as God, 40 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:55.110 but also his closeness to his people as their God in particular, is 41 00:03:55.189 --> 00:04:01.270 the one who made covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the one who 42 00:04:01.349 --> 00:04:06.150 made a covenant with Moses, who established this people. Yeah Way, the 43 00:04:06.389 --> 00:04:11.659 fear of him, not just of a higher power in general, not just 44 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:16.379 a God or God's in general, but fear of Yah Way. Fear of 45 00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:23.899 the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So if we want to think about 46 00:04:23.980 --> 00:04:28.649 Christian wisdom, which I am encouraging us to think about through this servant series, 47 00:04:28.689 --> 00:04:30.129 if we want to think about what it means to be wise, how 48 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:35.050 we can become wise. Surely at some point we have to talk about this. 49 00:04:35.129 --> 00:04:41.000 This is, after all, the beginning of knowledge. This is the 50 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:46.920 starting point. It all comes here. Wisdom, instruction, knowledge, it's 51 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.560 all all begins with the fear of the Lord, which means if you don't 52 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:56.350 start with the fear of the Lord, you are going to fail in some 53 00:04:56.550 --> 00:05:00.029 way. You're going to get off on the wrong path. It may not 54 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:06.379 seem to happen right away, sort of like if you if you're supposed to 55 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:11.779 go due north on a compass and you start walking forward and then you get 56 00:05:11.819 --> 00:05:17.259 off just slightly, maybe even one degree. If you begin wrong, it 57 00:05:17.379 --> 00:05:20.610 may not seem like much of a difference for a little while, but at 58 00:05:20.649 --> 00:05:26.569 the end of the journey it will be very, very clear how much a 59 00:05:26.730 --> 00:05:31.290 difference even one degree can make. But of course, when we fail to 60 00:05:31.449 --> 00:05:36.000 fear the Lord, when we fail to begin at that starting point, it's 61 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.519 not just one degree off, it's a hundred navy it's going the opposite direction 62 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:48.600 and it will result in failure. Not Wisdom, not knowledge, not instruction, 63 00:05:49.910 --> 00:05:56.709 but foolishness. It's a curious Phaise, though, and I want us 64 00:05:57.269 --> 00:06:01.149 to think about it this morning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning 65 00:06:01.189 --> 00:06:06.339 of knowledge for a lot of us. I think there's a big disconnect between 66 00:06:06.579 --> 00:06:12.220 our sort of surface level agreement of proverbs, with proverbs one, seven and 67 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:15.899 other places this occurs in the scripture, and our actual desire, understanding and 68 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:20.930 habit, hopefully, of fearing the Lord. I know for myself for a 69 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:27.170 long time I felt, even as a Christian, kind of uncomfortable saying that 70 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:30.569 I ought to fear the Lord. It's not that I didn't want to, 71 00:06:30.889 --> 00:06:36.279 because it's obviously in the Bible. That's clearly important, but I struggled to 72 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:43.680 understand. I personally understood struggle to understand what it meant. Doesn't the Bible, 73 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.389 for example, say, and it does in First John, perfect love 74 00:06:47.629 --> 00:06:57.990 casts out fear. Right, Jesus has loved me, loved us with a 75 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:03.139 perfect love. Perhaps I should not be fearing God, and yet it says 76 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:08.259 to fear God. How do you make sense of these things? Well, 77 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:13.779 maybe I remember thinking at one time perhaps fearing God was something that you would 78 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:17.769 do before becoming a Christian but not after. Or maybe fearing the Lord was 79 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:23.370 an old testament thing, but not a new testament thing. Maybe the Old 80 00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:29.209 Testament God is some people say was a scary, vengeful, on terrifying God, 81 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:34.240 but the New Testament God was different. He was loving and peaceful. 82 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:42.199 Of course, not two different gods, but maybe a changed God. Well, 83 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.149 even as a young person I could smell something was wrong with that, 84 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:53.470 but I couldn't figure it out because in part the new testaments tells us to 85 00:07:53.509 --> 00:07:58.069 fear. The Lord Mary proclaims in Luke One hundred and fifty that the mercy 86 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:03.500 of God is on those who fear him. Paul says to Christian slaves and 87 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:09.060 Colossians Three D and twenty two, bond servants, obey in everything those who 88 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:13.529 are your earthly masters, not by way of I service as people pleasers, 89 00:08:13.850 --> 00:08:20.209 but with sincerity of heart, fearing. The Lord Peter says to Christians in 90 00:08:20.370 --> 00:08:26.850 general in first Peter to Seventeen, honor everyone, love the brother, fear 91 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:33.960 God, honor the emperor. And fearing God was one way Luke summarizes the 92 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.879 spread and effect of the Gospel and acts undred and thirty one. He says 93 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.990 so the Church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being 94 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:46.950 built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of 95 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:52.429 the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. It was in this context that the church 96 00:08:52.549 --> 00:09:00.539 was growing up and was growing in number as well. They were walking in 97 00:09:00.700 --> 00:09:07.179 the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So 98 00:09:07.379 --> 00:09:11.490 somehow that the Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord and the comfort 99 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:16.570 of the Holy Spirit are not clashing together, but go together and go together 100 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:22.009 perfectly, even as the spirit of God is perfectly at one with God the 101 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:28.919 father. And this walking, this word, walking in the fear of the 102 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.799 Lord and in the comfort of the spirit is are a minder to us that 103 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:37.000 it is a pattern of life. It's not a one moment thing here or 104 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.509 a one moment thing there, but it is how we move, how we 105 00:09:41.029 --> 00:09:46.230 act, how we live our lives. And so in these verses we see 106 00:09:46.230 --> 00:09:52.899 that there's no contradiction between obedient walking of the church in the New Testament and 107 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:58.580 the walking of the Church and the old fearing God is pleasing God. Enoch 108 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.340 walked with God, we read in Genesis, and he was not for God 109 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:09.210 took him. What better example do we have than Enoch? I'll give you 110 00:10:09.289 --> 00:10:16.690 one Jesus himself. If you have any shred of doubt left that the fear 111 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:20.409 of God might not be a godly thing, that it might be opposed to 112 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:26.440 the Christian faith, here what the Prophet Isaiah says about Jesus, the son 113 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:33.120 of David, in Isaiah Eleven two, he says, and the spirit of 114 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:39.190 Yahway shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit 115 00:10:39.269 --> 00:10:43.909 of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, 116 00:10:45.750 --> 00:10:52.059 the fear of Yahway. So John Murray, O P C founder and 117 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:56.980 New Testament scholar, says this. The church walks in the fear of the 118 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:03.899 Lord because the spirit of Christ endwells, fills, directs and rests upon the 119 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:07.809 Church. And the spirit of Christ is the spirit of the fear of the 120 00:11:07.970 --> 00:11:13.610 Lord. So we can give our whole hearty agreement, or we ought to 121 00:11:13.929 --> 00:11:18.519 to proverbs one seven at. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 122 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:26.120 knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction, or another summary of it in ecclesiastes 123 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:31.519 twelve thirteen. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear 124 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:37.629 God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man so 125 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:41.629 right as we begin. You, I hope you will understand, but the 126 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:46.669 fear of the Lord is not something you can brush aside. It is the 127 00:11:46.830 --> 00:11:50.299 whole duty of man. It is our walking, it is our obedience, 128 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:56.659 it is fully of Christ and of his spirit. All true Christian life, 129 00:11:56.820 --> 00:12:01.529 including our search for knowledge, wisdom, our desire to walk, our desire 130 00:12:01.690 --> 00:12:07.289 to love, to obey, to be in the Lord, must begin here. 131 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:13.490 It's not a part of what we do, it is a summary of 132 00:12:13.570 --> 00:12:18.000 all that we do. So, with that being said, what is it 133 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:24.679 then? What how are we to understand it rightly? Well, the fear 134 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:28.679 of the Lord can mean a couple things. It can refer to either fear 135 00:12:30.029 --> 00:12:35.149 as in terror, or it can refer to the fear as in reverence and 136 00:12:35.590 --> 00:12:43.990 honor, being terrified and scared of of someone or something, or having that 137 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:52.100 undeep and reverence for something or someone. Now the first part of this definition, 138 00:12:52.259 --> 00:12:56.740 that terror of the Lord, is not the kind of fear that belongs 139 00:12:56.820 --> 00:13:01.370 to us as Christians. Those who are condemned because of their sin and face 140 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:07.370 the wrath of God do feel this, or they ought to anyway. God 141 00:13:07.529 --> 00:13:11.730 Is Holy, God is strong and mighty in battle. Those who protect their 142 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:18.159 sin. Those who remain in rebellion against God, they are fools and ought 143 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.399 to tremble like the Canaanite, seeing the armies of Israel coming upon them, 144 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:28.269 hearing of God's coming wrath, they ought to tremble, they ought to flee 145 00:13:28.590 --> 00:13:35.350 or, even better, repent. But for Christians, who belong to the 146 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:41.460 armies of the Lord, who belong to our father as sons, for those 147 00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:46.740 of us whom condemnation has passed, who have the justification of our sins in 148 00:13:46.899 --> 00:13:52.620 Christ we don't stand at the tip of God's sword. We are on the 149 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:58.169 Lord's side. So we tremble in a way, at his power, but 150 00:13:58.289 --> 00:14:03.649 in a different kind of way, because we have peace with him. One 151 00:14:03.769 --> 00:14:09.879 great example of this is given in we can see in Martin Luther's life, 152 00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:18.840 the great reformer under the power of the law, not understanding the Gospel, 153 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:26.549 he felt the terror of God. He describes day after day feeling the way 154 00:14:26.789 --> 00:14:33.710 of God's law on him and his own disobedience in despite efforts again and again 155 00:14:33.789 --> 00:14:39.299 and again, to do well, the further he understood the law, the 156 00:14:39.419 --> 00:14:43.700 more he tried to obey, the more he felt his disobedience, the more 157 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:52.529 the farther he felt away from God. But though he felt the terror of 158 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:56.490 the law, the threat of the law, the condemnation of the law and 159 00:14:56.610 --> 00:15:01.570 God's holiness, it didn't save him. Just because he became more and more 160 00:15:01.649 --> 00:15:07.720 sensitive to his corruption in the sinfulness of his heart, it only made him 161 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:11.159 feel it more. Something had to change, and it did when he came 162 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:16.639 to understand the forgiveness that is found in the Gospel, the free salvation that 163 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.990 God offers to sinners through Christ. When God's wrath was removed from him, 164 00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:31.629 then Luther learned how to walk freely. He no longer feared hell, not 165 00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:37.059 because it wasn't real or because it wasn't dangerous, but it because it no 166 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:41.659 longer was his. It was no longer a threat to him, because Christ 167 00:15:41.700 --> 00:15:46.740 had taken hell on for him, as he does for all who put their 168 00:15:46.820 --> 00:15:52.090 faith and believe in him. Paul says in Rome is. There is therefore 169 00:15:52.210 --> 00:15:56.769 now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus, God is on 170 00:15:58.090 --> 00:16:02.730 our side. You have peace with him and you can stand strong and secure 171 00:16:03.250 --> 00:16:08.480 in His grace. Neither height nor depth, nor angels or powers or principalities 172 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:15.200 or anything Paul will say listing a bunch more to that. Nothing will separate 173 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:22.309 you from the love of God. You need not fear. We do not 174 00:16:22.669 --> 00:16:27.629 fear God as people who are still under the law. If you wake up 175 00:16:27.669 --> 00:16:33.860 every moment and wonder am I saved? Maybe I'll go to hell today because 176 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:41.179 of my sins, then you do not yet understand the Gospel, not fully 177 00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:48.409 anyway. So if that's not how we fear the Lord, if we know 178 00:16:48.649 --> 00:16:52.090 that condemnation for us is past, if we know that we have peace and 179 00:16:52.250 --> 00:16:59.450 God and that perfect love does cast out fear, in what sense, then 180 00:16:59.610 --> 00:17:03.759 are we to fear the Lord, as I said, in this sense of 181 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:10.039 honor? Now, at the risk of telling too many personal things, I 182 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:14.880 will say that when I first heard this, I'll admit that I I think 183 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:17.910 I let myself a little bit off the hook a little too soon, and 184 00:17:18.829 --> 00:17:21.950 I don't think I'm alone in that. That's why I mention it. Sometimes 185 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:26.349 people here okay, fear the Lord means reverence and honor, and then it's 186 00:17:26.390 --> 00:17:30.700 like, okay, I don't have to fear. Well, if that's your 187 00:17:30.859 --> 00:17:33.859 thought, then you don't yet fully understand what it means to fear the Lord. 188 00:17:34.819 --> 00:17:42.059 You, Peter Says Um to honor the emperor and fear God. Right, 189 00:17:42.819 --> 00:17:48.089 he would say honor God. If he only meant honor, we would 190 00:17:48.130 --> 00:17:51.569 be instructed not to fear the Lord. If we weren't to fear the Lord. 191 00:17:51.609 --> 00:17:56.089 The word fear is used and it's used for a reason. It is 192 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:59.599 a certain kind of fear and it does mean reverence and honor. But don't 193 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:04.680 pass it off as mere respect. Right. Yes, I respect God. 194 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:10.559 He's very good. Right, like a like a nice worker at a gas 195 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:18.190 station or something. God is awesome, God is grand and glorious. Right, 196 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:23.910 if you you can't stand one of my favorite examples, you can't stand 197 00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:29.619 at the edge of the Grand Canyon. Go that's that's really big. Right. 198 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:33.859 Have you ever seen anybody do that? Could you do that yourself? 199 00:18:33.859 --> 00:18:37.500 Even perhaps when somebody says, Oh, I'd love to come visit you in 200 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:41.250 Arizona, can we go look at the Grand Canyon? I've seen some pictures 201 00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:45.569 you like. Well, pictures don't really to describe it. When you stand 202 00:18:45.690 --> 00:18:52.769 there and you look at it, there's a sense of awesomeness there. Or 203 00:18:52.849 --> 00:18:56.279 maybe you've gone and seen the redwoods in California, or maybe you've stood at 204 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:03.039 the ocean. I remember the first time I saw the ocean. It's so 205 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:10.390 big and you feel the pole of it round your ankles, or maybe even 206 00:19:10.430 --> 00:19:12.710 your legs, if you're that brave enough to wade in. You feel and 207 00:19:12.789 --> 00:19:19.789 you think this thing is big, way, way bigger than me. Or 208 00:19:19.869 --> 00:19:23.069 you look up at the stars at night, maybe you go out of town 209 00:19:23.109 --> 00:19:26.579 to see a meteor shower or something, and you try to count them and 210 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:32.220 you see how many there are, you get a little bit of fear in 211 00:19:32.339 --> 00:19:37.930 you, little sense of that Awesomeness of your smallness in the world. And 212 00:19:40.529 --> 00:19:48.930 these examples that I'm giving are just creation in some ways. The the vastness 213 00:19:48.970 --> 00:19:52.000 of the ocean or the Grand Canyon or the stars in the sky. They're 214 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:56.960 more similar to you than God is to you, because they are just a 215 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:02.880 part of creation, like you are. God, in his awesomeness and his 216 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:08.549 glory, is far above these things, as the one who made them crafted 217 00:20:08.710 --> 00:20:17.309 them. The fear of the Lord doesn't just mean respecting God. That's it's 218 00:20:17.349 --> 00:20:22.019 really a little too easy. I think the problem with describing the fear of 219 00:20:22.099 --> 00:20:26.619 the Lord is mere reverence, although that's a good word, and honor. 220 00:20:26.339 --> 00:20:30.500 The problem really isn't with those words, it is we just don't understand what 221 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:40.329 it means to honor. I don't understand reverence. To fear the Lord in 222 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:47.970 part means to have a deep, deep sense of his power, of his 223 00:20:48.210 --> 00:20:59.920 awesomeness, of his infinity, of his omnipresence and his omnipotence as creator. 224 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:07.549 Think of Isaiah, for example, and Isaiah Chapter six. Here the Prophet, 225 00:21:10.349 --> 00:21:15.150 here the Prophet gets a gets a sense the Lord by through a vision 226 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:19.579 of him. I'll read to you a little bit Isaiah six, in the 227 00:21:19.619 --> 00:21:23.140 year that King Oz a, Rosa IAH rather, died. I saw the 228 00:21:23.259 --> 00:21:29.180 Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his 229 00:21:29.259 --> 00:21:34.089 robe filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim. Each had six wings. 230 00:21:34.690 --> 00:21:37.970 With two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet, 231 00:21:38.049 --> 00:21:42.369 and with too he flew. And one called to another and said Holy, 232 00:21:42.529 --> 00:21:47.240 Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole Earth is full 233 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:52.200 of his glory, and the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of 234 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:56.519 him who called, and the house was filled with smoke, and I said, 235 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:00.869 woe is me, for I am lost. I am a man of 236 00:22:00.950 --> 00:22:06.670 unclean lips and I dwell in a people of Unclean Lips, for my eyes 237 00:22:06.829 --> 00:22:14.069 have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the Seraphim 238 00:22:14.309 --> 00:22:18.539 flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken 239 00:22:18.619 --> 00:22:22.619 with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said, behold 240 00:22:22.819 --> 00:22:27.180 this, as touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin 241 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:33.250 atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall 242 00:22:33.289 --> 00:22:37.250 I send and who for it will go for us? Then I said here 243 00:22:37.329 --> 00:22:44.519 am I send me. When Isaiah sees and has this vision of God, 244 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:51.519 how does he respond to say that's nice to see you have have some questions 245 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.559 for you. I've been wondering. Does Isaiah stand before the Lord and say, 246 00:22:56.839 --> 00:23:00.829 you know what, I'm really busy right now. I've I've got a 247 00:23:00.869 --> 00:23:03.269 lot of things to do today. You wouldn't believe my to do list. 248 00:23:03.349 --> 00:23:11.069 So go ahead and let me know what's on your mind. Does Isaiah stand 249 00:23:11.150 --> 00:23:15.059 before the Lord and sort of fiddle and his pockets, a look at his 250 00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:21.579 phone. And what is Isaiah do? He puts a curse on himself, 251 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:30.730 basically asks for death, says I'm undone, it's all over for me right 252 00:23:30.849 --> 00:23:34.250 now, right now, it's all that I have seen. The Lord of 253 00:23:34.329 --> 00:23:41.799 hosts, the mighty Yawway, the one who commands millions upon millions of angels, 254 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:49.599 seeing some of those angels of themselves. It's all done, and that's 255 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:56.549 where he stays until the Lord sends one of these angels, one of these 256 00:23:56.029 --> 00:24:03.190 ministers. He sends him to proclaim this Gospel. He takes something from the 257 00:24:03.349 --> 00:24:07.589 altar and he touches his lips and says, your sins are atoned for. 258 00:24:08.789 --> 00:24:17.059 And once he receives that word, everything changes. Instead of asking for death, 259 00:24:17.099 --> 00:24:21.380 essentially, woe is me, I am undone, I am unholy. 260 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:26.049 He believes the promise and now he says, with an exclamation point here, 261 00:24:26.170 --> 00:24:32.650 I am send me. He stands in the presence of this awesome Lord with 262 00:24:32.930 --> 00:24:37.210 confidence and boldness, ready to do the work of the Lord. Right. 263 00:24:37.250 --> 00:24:41.880 He doesn't all of a sudden become complace and he says, Oh, okay, 264 00:24:41.960 --> 00:24:45.480 now that my sins are atone for, we're good and we can be 265 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:49.000 pals. No, he stands at attention, he salutes the Lord and says, 266 00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:55.230 I'll do whatever you ask. He receives the grace of the Lord and 267 00:24:55.349 --> 00:25:00.309 he stands in the presence of God not only a wondering, it as Awesomeness, 268 00:25:00.789 --> 00:25:03.950 just as God, as Creator, is this magnificent Lord of hosts, 269 00:25:06.069 --> 00:25:08.420 Lord Sabbah, of his name, as another way we say it in one 270 00:25:08.420 --> 00:25:15.220 of our hymns, mighty fortress Martin Luther's him. But he also said, 271 00:25:15.259 --> 00:25:19.859 but he also has senses and fears the Awesomeness of the grace of God. 272 00:25:22.329 --> 00:25:30.769 He stands in the glory of God's grace as well as his redeemer, and 273 00:25:30.930 --> 00:25:36.440 it's in that position that he is now ready to obey, to walk, 274 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:41.480 to fulfill his calling as a prophet of the Lord. And then, in 275 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:49.910 verses nine and following, he gives Isaiah his instructions. This is what it 276 00:25:51.109 --> 00:25:57.109 means to fear the Lord. It's to understand and have a deep sense and 277 00:25:57.230 --> 00:26:03.339 attitude, a disposition of who he is. If you take God lightly, 278 00:26:03.460 --> 00:26:07.619 if you think of him as no big deal, you are a fool. 279 00:26:10.299 --> 00:26:15.299 But if you understand, or at least are beginning to understand, if you 280 00:26:15.420 --> 00:26:22.849 are beginning to understand, beginning to comprehend, the awesome power and glory and 281 00:26:23.009 --> 00:26:30.849 weightiness of God, what it means that his love is steadfast, that is 282 00:26:30.009 --> 00:26:40.960 holiness is perfect, that is power is complete and Almighty. If you are 283 00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:48.670 beginning to understand what it means to be forgiven by a holy God, then 284 00:26:48.750 --> 00:26:55.950 you are beginning to understand the fear of the Lord. Hebrews tells us that 285 00:26:56.549 --> 00:27:02.619 we worship God with reverence and awe because our God is a consuming fire. 286 00:27:04.779 --> 00:27:14.460 We have this amazing privilege is Christians to know the Living God, to understand 287 00:27:14.579 --> 00:27:21.650 him and to call him father. But God is a consuming fire. Doesn't 288 00:27:21.809 --> 00:27:29.529 change. Our relationships of m changes, but he remains powerful and wonderful and 289 00:27:29.769 --> 00:27:36.960 one to be feared. If you want wisdom, if you want to know 290 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:41.319 how to walk in this world, how to walk after God, to walk 291 00:27:41.559 --> 00:27:48.710 in faith, you have to begin here. Wisdom, as it is found 292 00:27:48.829 --> 00:27:53.269 in knowledge and obedience and love, is only possible when we come to know 293 00:27:53.470 --> 00:27:57.819 the Lord. And, like Isaiah, we can only come to know him 294 00:27:57.940 --> 00:28:04.940 in this way by having our sins forgiven from the altar, the altar in 295 00:28:06.019 --> 00:28:14.170 which God has laid his own son that our sins might be forgiven. We 296 00:28:14.450 --> 00:28:19.650 come into true wisdom and knowledge not by going into our rooms and turning off 297 00:28:19.769 --> 00:28:25.769 the light and sitting down on a chair and emptying ourselves of all things, 298 00:28:25.890 --> 00:28:30.480 and starting from pure reason and then working our way upward. We start by 299 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:41.589 hearing those words your sin is atoned for, and believing. We Find True 300 00:28:41.789 --> 00:28:48.390 Wisdom, true knowledge, true instruction, by finding the love and obedience and 301 00:28:49.069 --> 00:28:57.579 knowledge and wisdom of God in Jesus and positioned in him, belonging to him, 302 00:28:59.099 --> 00:29:03.059 being close to our heavenly father, then we are ready to receive his 303 00:29:03.339 --> 00:29:10.170 words and walk in fear of his name. And when we do that, 304 00:29:11.250 --> 00:29:15.210 when we fear him and fear him alone, everything else sorts itself out. 305 00:29:17.769 --> 00:29:22.170 The Bible says, don't fear horses and Chariots and kings and your life and 306 00:29:22.329 --> 00:29:29.599 money and all of these things. Fear Him, fear God. When you 307 00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:36.920 fear him, who rules all things and he's given you this salvation, all 308 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:41.109 of a sudden a lot of other things begin to make sense. Difficult, 309 00:29:41.269 --> 00:29:47.029 complex problems, everything from the most mundane thing you do to the greatest act 310 00:29:47.190 --> 00:29:53.579 you might accomplish in your life will come under this category. So it's my 311 00:29:53.819 --> 00:30:02.099 prayer that you would learn to fear the Lord. It's my prayer that I 312 00:30:02.180 --> 00:30:07.289 would learn to fear the Lord. It's something that we don't just have once 313 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:12.250 and it's something that we grow into. It's something that God grows us into. 314 00:30:14.170 --> 00:30:17.849 We work out our salvation, as Paul says, in fear and trembling, 315 00:30:18.650 --> 00:30:23.160 by the power of him who is working in us. Let's put our 316 00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:27.839 faith in him, beloved, and grow in wisdom. Let's pray