[0:00] Psalm 112, that's our Psalm 4 tonight. As you turn there and I'll read it for you here in a moment, a twin Psalm, the Psalm 111. I'll tell you what that means.
[0:11] But as you're turning there, just kind of opening question. You probably have thought about this before. Somebody has asked you, if you could go back in time and talk to your teenage self, what would you say?
[0:22] You get one chance. You got one sentence. What are you going to tell your teenage self? You know, invest in Tesla, buy a Bitcoin. This is who wins the World Series, all those different things.
[0:34] I heard one comedian say how he wouldn't really make any difference. You have to be pretty clever, pretty smart. You go back in time and he wouldn't make any difference at all. You wouldn't know that he went back in time because people would say he would see somebody on an old phone.
[0:47] He'd be like, hey, you know, in the future, we'll have wireless phones with the Internet. And you're like, well, explain how that works. He's like, I have no idea. He's like, well, there's a satellite. What's a satellite?
[0:58] Well, I shouldn't have said satellite. It's just up in the air. And he's like, they would be able to make no proof that he was from the future because we don't know how anything of this works. Right. And they would say, who's the next president? He was like, I don't have any idea.
[1:09] I know. I know Lincoln's going to die. That's all I know. All right. And you have to have some knowledge to make a difference if you went back in the past. And so what would you tell your teenage self if you had one sentence?
[1:19] And this week, as I have looked at this psalm, if given that opportunity, this is what I would say if I only had the one sentence. It would be fear God, delight in his word.
[1:31] Fear God and delight in his word. And I want to challenge you with that thought tonight. What are we doing here tonight on a Thursday night? But we gather around God's word.
[1:42] Well, it's what our kids are doing. I really enjoy the midweek service. Enjoy every service that we have. But I know that there's often many more barriers that you have to cross to get your kids here or to come yourself.
[1:54] And you come to a midweek service. But you come together around God's word. And as we center our life around this word, we learn a proper fear of God and we delight in it more.
[2:07] Psalm 111, and I showed you last week through a handout and on a screen how there was 22 different statements. And each one of them was taking a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. And that would allow you to memorize it, to help you as you would follow through.
[2:20] Same things happening in this chapter. 22 statements, kind of the A through Z, if you will. And this time, it's a reflection of what it looks like in your life if you fear God.
[2:33] Last one talked a lot about the goodness of God and the nature of God. And this time it talks about the characteristics of us as God-fearing people. Ever use that to describe somebody?
[2:43] You know, that's just a good God-fearing family. That's a God-fearing man. That's a God-fearing woman. That's a great reputation to have, to fear God and to light in His word.
[2:54] Spurgeon said about this chapter, It bears the same relation to the preceding, chapter 111, which the moon does to the sun. For while the first declares the glory of God, chapter 111, the second speaks of the reflection of the divine brightness in men born from above.
[3:14] You know, Psalm 4, I stand in awe of God and may He shine forth from me. Is that the reflection of God's goodness? What has the fearing God and knowing Him developed in us in character?
[3:28] And that's what's laid out for us here in Psalm 112. I'm going to read and pray. Verse 1, Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. That's how we started the last chapter.
[3:40] Let's praise the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
[3:54] Wealth and riches shall be in his house. And his righteousness endureth forever. Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous.
[4:05] A good man showeth favor and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be an everlasting remembrance.
[4:18] He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid. Until we see his desire upon his enemies.
[4:29] He has dispersed. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor. Speaking of his strength. The wicked shall see it and be grieved.
[4:41] He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall perish. Heavenly Father, I ask that you would be with us tonight, Lord. Remove me from the equation. Show your people your word.
[4:53] May it have its desired intent in all of our hearts. Lord, as we stand in awe of you, Lord. May our fear of God change us, Lord. And change our character. Allow us to be a living demonstration of what it is like for people to see him and to know you.
[5:09] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So here in chapter 12, verse 1, it says, Praise you, the Lord. Blessed is a man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
[5:22] What does it mean to fear the Lord? It means that you take God very seriously. It means that it's a weighty matter. That he is a profound reverence to you.
[5:35] That the things of God are not, they're unconsequential to you. That every matter of that, of the Lord, matters to you. But that sounds to be a very, in itself would seem to be a miserable life.
[5:49] But it's a life that brings great joy. And so it's a life that has great understanding of who he is. But it also brings great joy to us. Psalm 99, verse 1.
[6:00] The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. He sitteth between the cherubims, let the earth be moved. The Lord reigneth. And in the Lord reigning, and we tremble, the earth moves.
[6:14] And that's the kind of reverence that ought to be taught to our kids and to our lives. Teaching what is the fear of the Lord is the great theme of all of our teaching to our children and in our lives.
[6:30] And it's what I would say to myself as a teenager is to have that holy reverence of the Lord. And so how would we get to that? How would we get to a place that we would fear the Lord?
[6:42] And it says here that if you fear the Lord, you delight in his word. So there's an element of fearing him and a reverence of him, but also it's delighting.
[6:53] These two things come together in a way that nothing else can. We should be people that are enthusiastic about the things of God, that were enthusiastic about the study of the Bible, helping people learn to appreciate and value the Bible.
[7:11] Something that Brother Austin often told me when you're helping somebody in discipleship. You know, you can lay out all kinds of plans for people. You can make all kinds of systems for people. But that usually isn't where things fail.
[7:21] You could try to lay heavy upon them, but that isn't what's keeping people from the Bible. But if you could just share with them your love that you have for the word, it would provoke them to also want to have the same.
[7:33] Kind of like the Lay's potato chip commercials, right? You can't just eat one chip, right? You've got to eat the entire bag of chips. And so that in studying the word, it creates a delight in you.
[7:44] And so here it says that it's referred to as his commandments. It doesn't say delight in the word, but it refers to his commandments. God's word, it's not suggestion. It's not opinion. It's not advice.
[7:56] But it's the commandments of God. And we should have a proper fear and delight in God's word. And we can never make too much of it. And this fear of God should shape our lives more than anything else.
[8:10] I like asking teenagers sometimes, so tell me who you are. Or tell me five things about who you are. And you normally can find their priorities very quickly.
[8:21] If you would ask me as a teenager, who are you? I would have said basketball player in the top two or three. Which is really funny. Because I don't remember the last time my hands went above my head, okay?
[8:32] Definitely haven't shot a basketball. Like if I shoot something, it feels very weird, okay? But it was like so much part of my life. And now it's absolutely not part of my life at all. But I found it to be a defining aspect of my life.
[8:45] But what ought to be the most defining aspect of my life at any age would be my fear and reverence of God. So how does a fear of God shape our lives?
[8:56] Proverbs 31, 30. You know this chapter speaking about a virtuous woman. Many wonderful things are said about her. But in verse 30 it says, Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.
[9:08] But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. If you work backwards through that chapter and you see all the characteristics of this woman. And you say, what makes her such a contrast between her and many other people?
[9:22] And it's that she had a real fear of the Lord. And if you're not used to that expression in here, the fear of the Lord. And because typically in the way that we'd use the word fear, it's always negative, right?
[9:34] You're not looking to be made afraid. You're not being looking to stand in astonishment. But what we're saying here is we're talking about standing in awe and amazement.
[9:45] You know, just going wow when you see the Lord. To have a reverence of Him. But it also means that we understand He's of complete power. He's in complete authority.
[9:55] That we would never consider to question Him. We would never want to rebel against Him. Because we have such a high reverence for Him. But our mind and heart would just be filled with wonder and worship when we would think about Him.
[10:07] So a virtuous woman is the one that fears the Lord. And because she fears the Lord, all these things are said about her. So when your character is grounded in the fear of the Lord, it changes how you work.
[10:20] It changes every aspect of your life. It did for the woman in Proverbs 31. And it will in your life as well. Also, how could fear of the Lord shape you? How would having a respect for the things of God shape your life?
[10:33] Exodus 20 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the way that we would avoid sin. It says, And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
[10:51] That you fear may be before your faces, and you sin not. What is an argument against all the wild sin of this world, and this perverse worldview that people would have?
[11:02] Sure, you could get into an argument logically over everything that people did, that is running towards sin, and leaning towards sin, and you could try to make some kind of argument for it. But what is really at the root of people loving sin?
[11:15] It really comes down to having no fear, and having no understanding of God. If that's at the root of it, and when that changes, then all these other aspects of their lives would change as well.
[11:27] And so as it says there in Exodus, that the fear may be before your face, and that you sin not. You find yourself overcome with some particular sin, you could begin to study it, you could begin to dissect it, you could begin to think about it, and what will you find?
[11:42] As you apply a law to this sin, you're going to find that it multiplies. You're going to find that you continue to think about it more. But if you went to the God of the Bible, and you looked at Him, and you delighted in His Word, and you saw His opinion on the matter, and you begin to study His Word, you would be like the psalmist David, who would say that his sin is ever before Him, that His opinion would change of the matter.
[12:03] And then it says, Psalm 3411, that the fear of the Lord must be taught. Fear is one that does not naturally, something we don't naturally possess. Psalm 3411, Come you children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
[12:20] Our children have to be discipled, they have to be educated. All people have to be discipled and educated. If it didn't happen at childhood, have you ever met an adult that wasn't taught the fear of the Lord as a kid, and they're living out the consequences of it, and that we need to educate people in what a God-centered life would look like, where He would have His rightful place.
[12:41] And so that leads us to a natural question of, how do we learn to fear the Lord? If it's so important, if we're told to fear the Lord, delight in His Word, how do we fear in the Lord? Psalm 33, 8, 9 says, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spake, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast.
[13:05] All the earth should fear the Lord, every person, every creature, all inhabitants should stand in awe of God in reverence to Him, because He spake, and the world was created.
[13:16] He commanded it, and it stood fast. I'm sure I've shared with you many times, Mark Tolson and I at the University of Cincinnati many years ago, he was working with Chinese students, and Mark was just witnessing the Chinese students all the time, and I'll never forget, he woke me up, we had a wedding in Boston in the middle of the night, he said, Trey, you're never gonna believe this.
[13:35] I believe that God is calling me to China, and I said, Mark, I knew this a long time ago, it's the middle of the night, let's celebrate in the morning, all right? But it was quite obvious, everywhere we went, God was giving him more people from China to witness to, and this one time, in witnessing to a person, a man just said, there's just no evidence that there is a God, and we took him high up to, at the stadium, and he had covered his eyes, and Mark said, uncover your eyes, you're gonna have all the proof that you would ever need that God exists, and Mark pointed to creation, you know?
[14:07] And he says, you ought to recognize that there is a God of heaven that created you, and so that would be a place that a person could stand, you could take them up to a high rise, and look out, and see those things, or see, maybe go on top of a mountain, and to see that, but where in the world would you stand where you would get the greatest glimpse of God, where you would stand in awe of Him, and learn a proper fear of Him, the place that you would stand would be a place like where I'm standing right now, which is beholding the Word of God.
[14:36] Within the pages of Scripture, I learn everything about this Creator that I need to know to set my heart to where it belongs so that I recognize that He is good, that He is loving, He is gracious, and that He is the Creator, and I am not, and so that's where we must go to.
[14:55] If you're living a life of sin, you're living a life that is not honoring the Lord as it should, which means you're living a life that needs to behold His goodness. And so what would it look like if you were to fear God and delight in His Word?
[15:08] And it's outlined for us here in this chapter, which leads, it's one of the reasons that you can imagine that this would be such a great chapter to memorize. It was written in such a way that, as I told you, the Hebrew letters would help you remember it.
[15:21] Ask Whitney, the commander of Awanum, before I said, I'm still thinking about this idea of how we have a Scripture memory contest between the kids and the adults. She agrees with me, we don't have much of a chance, okay?
[15:33] But I'm still considering this, and I'm thinking that, I'm first thinking Psalm 111, and this time I'm thinking Psalm 112, and as I told you, next week I'll be thinking Psalm 113, but I'm really thinking that Psalm 111 or Psalm 112 memorize this summer, and then at the end of the summer we'll have the WANA people set up, and we'll see if more adults memorize one of those chapters or the kids, and I will give you guys a pizza party if you win, all right?
[16:00] And it will be a lot of fun, and so we'll see if that works. I'll first have to memorize the chapter myself because that's what really I'm hesitant if I'm going to be honest about it, is because you may not play by my games, but I have to, right?
[16:13] If I say this, there'll have to be at least one adult that memorizes it, and so of all the places in the universe to get a glimpse of the proper view of who God is, it's to stand here by God's Word and to look in it, and so this is what it would look like.
[16:29] Verses 2 through 9 gives us some things here. One thing that we will see is that having a fear of the Lord gives us something that we desire, which is an influence through generations. His seed shall be mighty upon the earth.
[16:42] The generation of the upright shall be blessed. That's said in all of our hearts. Is that Ecclesiastes 3.11, that eternity is said in our hearts, that every one of you want to live a life that makes a lasting impression.
[16:55] None of us want to just live and die unto ourselves. Isaiah tells us that none of us live and die unto ourselves, but you have a responsibility to steward the influence that you're given, and you want to have a lasting impact.
[17:07] So the seed here is descendants, leaving a godly legacy. And what does mighty mean? It means to be a spiritual strength in the Lord. So his seed, his descendants, will be mighty in the Lord upon the earth, and the generation of upright shall be blessed.
[17:23] That's in all of our hearts. Some of you in here as grandparents, you probably think about it more. As parents in here, you think about, I want to create something that will last for generations.
[17:36] You can look this up, but there's a study called the Dugsdale Study, and a man studied the descendants of Jonathan Edwards, great preacher, great awakening, and a man named Max Jukes.
[17:47] And one man, Max Jukes, had no fear of God, had no interest in the things of God. Jonathan Edwards obviously had a great love for the Lord. And if you look at the descendants that were written about, Jonathan Edwards' legacy up to that time had one U.S. vice president, one dean of law, one dean of medical school, three U.S. senators, three governors, three mayors, 13 college presidents, 13 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, a partridge in a pear tree, 75 military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates out of the 1,300 that they had.
[18:27] And they took the same man and they just found sin was riddled all throughout the family. That's what, you know, we want to create a stand for Christ. We want to take such a stand for Christ that our fear of God would pass from one generation to the next.
[18:43] A book I love to read about college ministry back in the day talked about raising up ultra-portable disciple makers. called them UPDs, an ultra-portable disciple maker.
[18:53] That you would take the kids that we have raised together in this generation as a church, be able to give them a Bible, drop them off in any part of this world, and they would be able to land and begin to make disciples in whatever context.
[19:07] And Jonathan Edwards created something that God allowed to last through the generations. I do know and I do love as the saying goes, it ran in the family until it ran into me, right?
[19:17] Well, even better, it ran in the family until it ran into Christ in me, that you can change your family tree, that you can change the direction of it, and I'm so thankful that you can be a first-generation Christian and that makes all the difference in the world.
[19:32] It's a personal decision highly influenced by our family. And so God has equipped children with gifting, and they're specifically chosen for this moment in history and we want to raise them for His honor and glory.
[19:44] And this happens by exposing them not just to the Word, but to a delight in the Word. That's what's happening is that in the fear of the God that we're showing them is that we're teaching them to delight in the Word of God.
[19:58] That we just, we enjoy it. It's not a burden. You know what's a more important message than the one I will preach tonight? It's the message that you preached bringing your kids here tonight. It's the message that you will be preaching on driving your kids home.
[20:11] And I have no doubt those are fantastic and wonderful messages that you are preaching to your kids to that, hey, things were tight tonight. We don't have enough time. Grab a ham sandwich.
[20:22] Jump in the van. We still got to get to God's Word. And that is a wonderful message. And in the fearing of God, we have influence through the generations. Something that we want and that God allows us to have.
[20:33] Next we have, and this is for you, Greg, we're alliterating tonight. Increase and properly gained. An increase and proper gain. Verse 3, Wealth and riches shall be in his house and his righteousness endureth forever.
[20:47] So whose house is the person who fears God and delights in his commands? That person, his house, it says that there are wealth and riches and his righteousness endures forever.
[20:58] And why is that so? Because God, a God-centered life is a hard-working life. Proverbs 10, 4, He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
[21:11] Also, a highly properly motivated life. We live for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
[21:24] Fearing God changes the way you go about your day. Fearing God changes the way that you view work. God rewards diligence. I'm not going to move away from that.
[21:34] Just because there's people that have taken that idea and created something that would be called, you know, a prosperity gospel, which means that people just accept Jesus so that they could get something, just because that's a false teaching doesn't mean that this true is not the case.
[21:50] God-fearing people are honest in their dealings and God rewards diligence. Proverbs 13, 4, The soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
[22:02] What will make you a diligent person? What will make you an honest person? What makes you a hard-working person? What makes you honest in your business dealings? What will give you wisdom in every area of life?
[22:13] What is the beginning of wisdom? It's the fear of the Lord. We do not worship our God of heaven for these things, but as a result of knowing and serving God, this character changes our lives.
[22:27] And these are proverbs that are given to us. But our Lord is good regardless of the outcomes of our lives, that it's the right thing to do, and we are set forth in the lighting of His Word because we fear Him.
[22:39] Moving on here, Psalm 112, verse 4, Unto the upright there rises light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous. So this is an insight into life decisions.
[22:52] We live in a world that is as full of darkness, that is so confused about what is right and what's wrong. I read this week about a family that ran a marathon together. That sounds great.
[23:02] They had a six-year-old kid. They're from Kentucky. The six-year-old kid ran the marathon with the family. This absolutely blows my mind, okay? Kid, you know, obviously being small, didn't have to carry much, you know, but I just can't even imagine that.
[23:17] And all these people were criticizing this family's decision, and I may even say rightfully so. I don't know about Selah running a marathon anytime soon, but I just thought about the foolishness. You're right, a six-year-old kid can't decide if they should be able to run a marathon.
[23:31] A parent should make that decision. But I don't have to enumerate for you all the silly decisions that our world is allowing kids to make today. Of course a kid isn't old enough to make that decision, nor are they old enough to make any other decision that's going to affect the rest of their lives.
[23:47] But the world lives in darkness, and it lacks common sense, and they don't have any light, they don't have any guidance to make these decisions. But we live in a world of darkness, and so we need light. Psalm 119, 105.
[23:59] And when we get to Psalm 119, we're also going to see it's divided by the Hebrew alphabet. The 14th letter starts off 105. The word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
[24:11] A fear of the Lord provides us light and guidance in this world that we live in. So you know that passage. The word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. But let me show you the verses before that.
[24:23] How sweet are the words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Though the precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
[24:35] Before we talk about that word being a light unto our path, we're talking about having a love and a delight in that word and hating everything else that is false. And so do you value or delight in God's word?
[24:47] And if so, you'll believe Psalms 119, 98. It says, Though through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me, I have more understanding than all my teachers.
[25:01] For thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts. I'm afraid that sometimes maybe one of my kids may think they have more understanding than all other teachers and that's not the proper context for that.
[25:15] But in going to the word, the wisdom that we get from the word is going to be greater than all of the teachers of this world. There's nothing that you will find outside of this word that is of greater value, not in the ancients, not in the understanding of the teachers here.
[25:29] And so unless we subject our mind to God's perspective, we will stay in the dark. In science, it doesn't matter how much of the science you know, if you don't fear the Lord and see it from the proper perspective, you're going to miss obvious things there.
[25:43] In history, and in marriage, and in finances, and every aspect of life, if you don't live with a fear of the Lord, you're living in darkness. Psalm 19, 8, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing in the heart, the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes.
[26:00] The fear of the Lord gives us light in this world that we live in. It gives us insight unto life's decisions. Verses 4 and 5, unto the upright there arises light and darkness.
[26:10] He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous and a good man showeth favor and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Fearing God creates gracious people.
[26:21] Fearing God will fill us with compassion. Being mean or cantankerous aren't people that delight in God's word. Fearing God makes us generous because we know God has been generous to us.
[26:34] We will live with discretion and integrity. If you say that you fear the Lord and you know the Bible that might create a certain type of person. But if you fear the Lord and delight in God's word it's going to create the characteristics that he wants to bring out into your life of knowing him.
[26:51] Fear of God ought to make us loving and generous people. And then, immovable by our established hearts. Verse 6, Surely he shall not be moved forever.
[27:02] The righteous shall be everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies.
[27:16] He is dispersed. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor. His strength shall be. A fear of the Lord brings stability in an unstable world.
[27:28] A fear of God will bring stability in your life. What could move us? Well, it tells us here he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. Knowing God will remove the fear.
[27:40] I was looking at some notes Robert taught at orientation a few years back and he says a proper understanding of God may not remove the circumstances but he can remove the fear of the circumstances.
[27:53] Having a fear of God expels the fear of all other things. And it's the fear that causes us to move. It's the fear that's always making us trying to manipulate situations or be shaky in one area or another.
[28:05] But a fear of God says I am going to stand. My heart is fixed. I will not be moved because I can trust in the Lord. I can delight in his word. And it removes the fear and we've already seen it. It removes the fear about family in verse 2.
[28:17] It removes fear of finances in verse 3. It removes the fear of the dark things in life in verse 4. About business decisions in verse 5. About bad news that could come our way here in verse 7. About the fear that we have that wouldn't allow us to be generous.
[28:30] A fear of God will remove that. And we even remove the fear that we have of our enemies here in verse 10. McLaren, the theologian, not the car. Cars don't speak. McLaren says, He who builds his transient life on and into the rock of ages wins rock life steadfastness, lives rooted in God, are never uprooted.
[28:51] If you build your life on the rock of ages, you'll have a steadfast rock-like life. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that something that's so unique in the world that we live in?
[29:03] Just a steady faithfulness unto our Lord. And so a contrast of this God-fearing life, it says, the last verse talks about, He will gnash with teeth and melt away and it's the wicked, they're grieved.
[29:14] The desire of the wicked shall perish. This melt away is giving this picture of this red-hot jealousy that the wicked look at this God-fearing man that fears the Lord, fears His commandments, that's a prosperous man.
[29:28] He's a man who has a home for his family, makes a home for his family. As we said, he's loving, he's a kind man, he's a helping man, he's a wise man, he's a strong man, he's a generous man, he's a man who does not abuse his power but his strength will be exalted.
[29:43] But he's also a hated man. The wicked man looks at this with a red-hot jealousy and he just hates it because the man that fears the Lord has obtained the thing that people who can't fear, do not fear the Lord will never attain to.
[29:59] And so there's a, it melts, it's melting jealousy. And so the desire of the wicked will perish. The wicked will be eternally in a lake of fire but their desire will perish away.
[30:14] The wicked will never perish, they will live forever but their desires will melt away. And so there's this contrast here of fearing the Lord. And so you have heard, rightfully so, that to become a believer is a person who acknowledges their sin.
[30:32] That acknowledging your sin means that God, what you have said about sin is what's right about sin, not what I have said about sin. So there's, it becomes an acknowledgement. So that's why the Bible tells us that when we hear God's word, it causes us to confess our sin.
[30:46] God, what I have said about sin in the past is now wrong. I am now turned and I am going to say what you say about sin is correct. Your ways are right, my ways are wrong, I repent of that.
[30:56] And in fearing God, we find the wisdom and wisdom of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our wisdom that we have in knowing that He died for us.
[31:07] It seems to be quite obvious. Why would a person want to live a life living in their own pleasures, ignoring the things of God and live a life and die and be eternally separated from God and it seems so obvious to us, no, I want to put my faith and trust in Jesus and honor Him and what separates the two people?
[31:25] Is it intelligence? Is it opportunity? What it really comes down to is, do you have a fear of the Lord? And having a fear of the Lord, it not only changes your eternity, not only changes where you will live for all eternity, but it changes us in the here and now.
[31:42] And so you can ask yourself, do you have a delight in His Word? In fearing of the Lord, it creates a delight in His Word and these things will be made real throughout your life. One last quote before we pray.
[31:54] When all the flashes of sensual pleasure are quite extinct, when all sin is gone, when there's no more parties to go to, when there's no more life to be had, when there's no more ways to rebel against God, to transgress, to go against what He says, when all the flowers of secular glory are withered away, there's no more Olympics, there's no more job promotions, there's no more people saying, hey, you really fit into this group.
[32:17] When all earthly treasures are buried in darkness, your bank account is gone, your name doesn't exist anymore at the bank, you're gone. When this world and all the fashion of it are utterly vanished, the bountiful man's state will be still firm and flourishing, and His righteousness shall endure forever.
[32:40] That fearing the God allows us to be steadfast, not just today, but all through eternity. The things of this earth are going to pass away. The desires that you have now are going to pass away.
[32:53] And the question is, are you going to be with the things that pass away and that perish? Or are you going to say, I recognize God in His word and I'm going to have a proper fear of God and I'm going to respond to Him.
[33:04] I'm going to delight in Him. I'm going to make Him the treasure of all that I have and give that to Him. And it's the decision and it's the dividing point for everybody in this world. You can divide the world in so many different ways, but none of them really matter.
[33:18] And all those lines could be erased, but this one is the dividing line. The Bible tells us that the wicked envy the life of a person that fears God and their desires will perish, but we will stand forever.
[33:31] And that's something to rejoice in, isn't it? Isn't that wonderful that God would give us His word and that in delighting in it and that we continue to grow in it, that we were just not commanded, that we did not just give one scripture, the fear of the Lord, but in this book from the beginning to the end, we know Him and we get to know Him.
[33:47] And as we know Him, our fear, our reverence of Him grows and He does this in our lives. And we should all be thankful tonight. We should all be thankful. And I'll pray and we'll be dismissed tonight.
[34:00] If you don't know the fear of the Lord, if you don't know that expression or you just don't know exactly what that means or you say, I don't know if I am a believer, we would love to talk to you tonight about it.
[34:11] But Christians in here, as the majority, if not all of you, profess to be believers tonight, somebody taught you the fear of the Lord. I've heard Jeff give testimony, I've heard different people give testimony in here that taught you to have a proper high view of God.
[34:24] And that teaching has just transformed our lives. We're such a blessed group of people, aren't we? In so many different ways. Some of you are about to go pick up your kids on the way out and they just memorize some more of His scripture.
[34:36] They're going to bring you a picture of something they colored. You're going to go home and sure you're going to have some problems. One kid's going to want to sit in the front when he's not supposed to. One kid's going to take his shoes off when he's not supposed to.
[34:46] You're going to have all those problems. But the major things of your life are established and they're eternal. And because somebody has brought you the truth of God's word and taught it to you, you know the fear of the Lord, your life has been tremendously blessed.
[35:01] But there's so many people in this world today in our community that their lives are just moving to and fro. They don't have these blessings. They would have a red hot jealousy towards your family. They want what you have and they think that they can mimic it.
[35:14] They can mimic it in their morality. They can mimic it in some of the decisions they made. But what they need to know that isn't mimicable, it comes from having a fear of the Lord which comes from knowing His word and responding to it.
[35:28] And so we need to take it. We need to fill the city with doctrine. We need to publish it far and wide. And we need to do it by the night by just simply being grateful people that the greatest things about our lives have been created by having a proper fear of the Lord.