The Fear of the Lord

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you, but I will read it to you.
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It's Job chapter 23.
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And, um, I'm going to read it from verse 13.
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Just listen to it.
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Listen to how it's laid out as, um, the author writes, and he's speaking about God and it says this, but he is unique and who can make him change and whatever his soul desires that he does.
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For he performs what is appointed for me and many such things are with him.
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The dead tremble, those under the waters and those inhabiting them.
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Sheol is naked before him.
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Destruction has no covering.
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He stretches out the north over empty space.
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He hangs the earth on nothing.
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He binds up the water in his thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it.
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He covers the face of his throne and spreads his cloud over.
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He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.
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The pillars of heaven trembled and are astonished at his rebuke.
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He stirs up the sea with his power.
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By his understanding, he breaks up the storm.
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His spirit, by his spirit, he adorned the heavens.
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His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
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Indeed, these are the mere edges of his ways and how small a whisper we hear of him, but the thunder of his power, who can understand.
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My friends, that is a great description of the God that you and I serve, of the one who is, as was said, the one who has the final word, the one who rules over all, the one who lays out for us what he commands of us.
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And so as we begin to think about the fear of God, I want to suggest one way to think about the fear of God is to realize that he's the great other, that he's the one who is untouched by any and anything, that he is outside of that which he has bound everything else in, and that if we could begin to understand that, if we could begin to set our minds on something that's really beyond our full ability, I think we will begin to understand what the fear of the Lord is.
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It is to reverence him.
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It is to put him in his rightful place as the only wise, infinite God who alone has immortality.
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And so as I read this section to you, I hope that that begins to help us to think about this.
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And as we go through the book of Proverbs, and as we read about the different things of the fear of the Lord, that we would understand that our lives need to be brought into subjection to him, that we cannot.
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And that's why the fool is a fool, right? He's a fool because he has, as Paul says, what? There is no fear of God before his eyes, right? And that is really the great tragedy, is it not? That the fool does not comprehend nor submit to the fact of God as the only unique other, that he's so high and so exalted, and yet he's so intimate and he's so involved and yet he's untouched by it.
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So just keep that in mind as we go through that.
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And as Brother Lee brought up, and I'm just quoting a bunch of scriptures, but I think it would be helpful that in Isaiah chapter eight, it says this, the Lord of hosts, him shall you holler, let him be your fear and your dread.
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Let us think about that.
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And let us consider, is God really our dread? And not in the sense, if we are the children of God, should we fear him? I'm not going to do anything until so many answers.
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Is the way you fear him? Sir? It's your motivation.
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Yeah, I mean, I think we have to define what we mean when we say fear.
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And if the fear is the reverence and the awe of who he is, then I think we were on the right road.
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If we say, if people say, well, I'm afraid of God, should we be afraid of God to not approach him? Aren't we exalted to boldly come through Christ to the throne of grace? Has not the veil been torn? Do we not have access? So there has to be a right understanding of the fear of the Lord.
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It's not just in first John, what does it say? It says, perfect love, cast out fear.
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Why? Because fear has torment.
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That's what it says.
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And so you and I have to think about that.
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If we, if we're going to look at this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
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There's two definitions of fear.
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The fool, he's a fool because he doesn't fear God.
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And we're wise because we fear God the way God ought to be feared as the great God overall.
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So something to think about as we go through this, and even in this verse, there's many things that come from that, right? Here it is right here.
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We gain knowledge.
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Isn't that great? I mean, isn't it great that you and I, by realizing who God is, of his exalted position overall, that even that alone gives us knowledge that many in this world are missing.
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That I truly believe that, let me see how I could say this, that the simplest child of God is wiser than the smartest man who's ever lived.
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And the reason why I say that is because he knows God and he knows who God is.
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And he has that reverence for God as God.
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And so the simplest child who believes in Jesus far surpasses the wisdom of this world and all that the world could offer.
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But a couple more verses, I have a few minutes left, a couple more verses, and I'm just going to walk us through Proverbs and just look at verses that specifically speak about the fear of the Lord.
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Okay, let's just let the Bible kind of talk to us in Proverbs chapter 10.
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So you should be able to follow me in this.
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I'll try to make it in order.
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Proverbs chapter 10 verse 27.
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And again, all I'm doing is picking out a sample of how the fear of God, a right understanding of him, yields to the wise, to the diligent blessings.
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In Proverbs 10 verse 27, it says this, the fear of the Lord prolongs days.
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The fear of the Lord prolongs days.
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And then there's the contrast.
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Remember what I said? There's a theme that runs through Proverbs, the wise, the diligent, the blessed, the fool, the lazy, the curse.
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Look what it says.
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The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.
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Now we got to be careful with that, right? Because that doesn't necessarily mean just because someone lives a long life that they are being blessed of God.
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They could be treasuring up wrath against wrath, right? So, nor could we look at it from the other side and say, just because someone doesn't live a length of days that they have been judged by God.
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But there is a reality that the days that we are given are given to us by God, and that there is, I would say there are many times when people's lives are cut off.
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I think there is evidence that the wicked many times are cut off to prevent them from further wickedness.
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And that you and I can think about it as long as we fear the Lord, God will prolong our days until he sees fit, of course, to take us and to carry him to himself.
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But there it is, the wicked, their lives are shortened.
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And if they're not shortened, they're miserable, by the way, right? Again, be without God is to be without life.
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It might have physical life, you might even have mental life, but you certainly don't have true life.
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Okay, in Proverbs chapter 14, I want you to look at this one.
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Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 26.
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And this one is really, I'm going to use my word, my theological word.
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This one is really cool.
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Look at it, Proverbs chapter 14, verse 26 and verse 27.
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In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence, and his children will have a place of refuge.
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And the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to avoid the snares of death.
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Isn't that good stuff? The fear of the Lord is a strong confidence.
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Isn't it great that you and I, in realizing who God is, that we have confidence.
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And even as it talks about in Hebrews, it says we have an anchor, a strong refuge, a place to run to, a place of confidence for us, and that there is in that a fountain of life.
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Isn't that what this world needs? It needs a fountain of life.
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We don't need more programs and policies and procedures and all those things have their place.
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What we really need is for people to have a fountain of life, to have rivers of living water flowing out of them because of their relationship.
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But nevertheless, and you know what verse came to my mind as I went through this is the verse in Hebrews chapter two.
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And if you don't know it, you smiling at me because...
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You just said rivers of life.
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I did say rivers of life.
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I was hoping no one caught it.
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I have some issues tonight.
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I thought specific was going to be my trouble word, but apparently I'm nervous.
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But nevertheless, that's all right.
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And now that everybody on the internet knows that you corrected me for saying rivers of life, but to get back to the scriptures here, Hebrews chapter two, I want you to see this.
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So I just read to you this in Proverbs chapter 14, the fear of the Lord is a strong confidence.
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His children will have a place of refuge and the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to avoid the snares of death.
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And I want you to read with me in Hebrews chapter two, verse 14, look what it says.
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Speaking of our Lord, in as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same that through death, he might destroy him who had the power of death.
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That is the devil and release those, look, release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
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That's a great contrast, isn't it? In other words, the wise, the diligent, the blessed, they don't...
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You and I should not fear death.
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Now there's a reality, it's something we never did before.
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So there's an anxiousness.
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I realize that.
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I understand that.
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I think we all will have to face that.
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I know we will have to face it, but we have been released from the bondage.
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We have been released from the fear of death because Christ conquered death.
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Again, all these things come out of a right understanding of the fear of God.
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Again, that's why we read in the beginning that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that the fool despise the wisdom.
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Just like when we talk to people about Christ and okay, whatever.
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What will they do in that day? They will ask the rocks to fall on them, to hide them from the presence of God and of the lamb.
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Just things to think about.
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Let me ask you to just look at one or two more.
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Proverbs chapter 15, back in Proverbs, and I'll try to stay there for a moment anyway.
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Proverbs chapter 15 in verse 33, the fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility.
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The fear of the is the instruction of wisdom.
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We who fear God can be assured that he is going to instruct us, that we will grow in grace, that we will grow in the knowledge of the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.
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That you and I have this place and that place being in the presence of God through Christ, by the power of the spirit, and that we can be assured that he is going to instruct us.
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Jesus, just as Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans.
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I will come to you.
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I will instruct you in the way you should go.
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And if you just came to my mind, if you remember what Psalm 32 talks about, talks about how God says, don't be like the horse and the mule who needs the bit and the bridle in his mouth, but be as one, almost as if all God's got to do is look our way, in that sense, and we follow him.
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And there's instruction to be had in that, and it's a glorious thing.
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Proverbs chapter 16, verse 6, where you're right in the same area, look what it says.
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In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil.
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And I might as well read verse 7, because it's always been a verse I've looked to.
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When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
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When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him, and by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil.
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So again, reverence in God, sanctifying God in our hearts, living our lives, walking in the fear of God helps us to depart from evil, and the evil will depart from us.
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When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
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Is that exclusive? No, but it's a blessing.
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At least I would ask you to consider it as a blessing.
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How many times have we been, you know, I guess we all have, we all have those things where we could have gone this way, and it could have been really bad, but we went that way, and it turned out good.
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You know, I don't want to go into my younger days, and my ungodly days, but I will tell you this.
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I was in certain situations that, one, for the grace of God, I would have been, I mean, just the situations that me as a fool put myself in, and how evil was all around me, and I, some people might say I just kind of slipped through.
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I didn't slip through.
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Now I know what it was.
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God had his hand on me, and a glorious truth.
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Okay, Proverbs 19, just about done.
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Proverbs chapter 19, in verse 23, the fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction.
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He will not be visited with evil.
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Again, these are glorious truths, are they not? These are great, these are things that everybody wants to hear.
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These are those things that come from having a fear of God, a right fear of God, a reverent fear of God, because really, if you think about it, what is everybody after? Everybody's at the satisfaction and peace, and we all define it a different way, and we all seek after it, perhaps, in different ways, but really, at the end of it, I don't want to say at the end of the day, because that's a saying that's often said too often, but at the end of the day, what do we really want? Satisfaction and peace and quietness and rest, and all these things come from the fear of God, and all these things are given to the wise, and it's a blessing, it's a blessing.
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Okay, two more, and I'm done, and then Brother Keith's coming.
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Proverbs chapter 22, Proverbs chapter 22, in verse 4, it says, By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.
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By the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.
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I'm so tempted to just keep reading these verses, because they all connect, because if you look at the next one, thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse.
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Again, contrast, wise, diligent, blessed, fools, lazy, cursed, but the fear of the Lord yields riches and honor and life.
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Aren't we not rich? And we might not be rich in this world, but we have been given rich.
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Sometimes I wonder how we're going to spend our time in heaven.
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I guess everybody thinks about that.
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And you know all the imageries that's laid out for us, and streets of gold, and gates of pearls, and all the glorious things that this world longs for, and so you and I have riches, and we will have honor, and we will have life.
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And again, if only we would set our mind on the fear of God, these things would come to us in abundance.
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Maybe one of the reasons why we are not satisfied, maybe one of the reasons why we are in the midst of so many different things, maybe we just don't have the right understanding of the fear of God.
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I'll just quote this one to you.
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You don't have to turn to it.
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It's in Psalm 25, and it says this, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him.
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The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant.
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Isn't that great? Secret of the Lord.
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And I close with this, and I'll just read it.
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This is from the Psalms, and I won't tell you which Psalm it is until I finish it so you don't turn to it.
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It says this, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him.
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As far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us.
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As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame.
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He remembers that we are dust.
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As for man, his days are like grass.
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As a flower of the field, so he flourishes, and its place remembers it no more.
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But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.
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That's from Psalm 103.
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And so, brothers and sisters, I hope this will work in us to, in a practical way, that we would be more conscious of walking in the fear of God, in a right fear of God, and less conscious of the things in this world that cause fear, because our God is greater than all.
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Okay.
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Brother Keith.