Proverbs 9:7-12, The Fear the of the Lord

Proverbs chapter 9 and verses 7 to 12 hear the word of the Lord Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse and he reproves a wicked man incurs injury

Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you reprove a wise man and he will love you

Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the

Holy One is Insight for by me your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life

If you are wise you're wise for yourself if you scoff you bear it alone

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, how do you feel about God take a poll here do you feel safe around him

Is that your feeling about God safety no matter no matter how you live You're not really worried.

You've got him pretty well tamed. So you think so when it comes to being close to God you're chill

You're relaxed Nothing to fear you think maybe sometimes you even kind of feel sorry for God, you know, since he's he's not getting his way

You think people are turning from him I mean you feel bad when people reject you so you

You just kind of assume that God must be God must feel bad when people reject him and there's so many people doing that So you you wish they felt as good those other people reject him.

You wish they felt as good about God as you do and You think

God must be pleading with them You know the song you ever heard the song the

Savior is waiting To enter your heart Why don't you let him come in as though it totally depends on you time after time?

He has waited before Can you see him there just so desperately? He's waiting. He's he's pleading

He's begging with apparently nothing that he can do and now the song goes on and now he is waiting again to see if you are

Willing to open the door. Oh How he wants to come in but he's not getting what he wants because of you

That's the song you heard that song before some of you maybe That's supposed to make us feel good about God while making us feel bad for him

Some people think then that since he's he's waiting so desperately Well, I can put him off a little longer

Can I I mean he's the one in need I can have my fill of The good times now, you know all the fast cars fast times fast women and then and then when

I feel like settling down later I can go back to God after all he's He'll still be waiting right time after time

For me to let him in such a portrayal of God tells people That he's not

Someone to be feared Well, how do you feel about God? Do you feel he's someone to be feared in 1997 a man named

Gavin de Becker published a best -selling book about how to predict and avoid Violence avoid getting it attacked entitled the gift of fear

He studied incidents in which people were attacked and found that in most cases there were signs prior to the attack

What he calls pre incident indicators that signal that there was something wrong

Maybe not anything obvious just you could kind of tell there's something wrong To fear from this person or from this situation and One case he consulted with a woman who had been raped by a man who had murdered his victims in the past But she got away

Because she feared the rapist promised he wouldn't hurt her He closed the window and said he was going to the kitchen to get a drink and then he would leave

But as soon as he turned his back She took the chance of being caught and she snuck out while the rapist was still around Unlike other victims who have been killed she survived she survived because she felt that something was wrong

She didn't believe his promise that he wasn't gonna hurt her He was just gonna he was about to leave and so she tiptoed out saving her life the

Becker says that human beings will often seed signals of of danger of something to fear and signals that an animal would see and and immediately fear and run away, but you people will see things and Suppress it not be afraid

They'll be waiting for an elevator. And when it comes there's a man there alone who makes them feel uneasy.

He's kind of creepy But because they they don't want to make the suspicious looking guy feel bad

They make to make them think well, I'm not I'm not a nice person They'll get into a soundproof steel chamber called an elevator

With him. We're so often assured that we don't need to fear That we don't pay proper attention

To when we should fear that there is a there's a gift of fear signaling that there's danger

Okay, sure someone say yeah, yeah, yeah, we should fear the rapist we should fear the creepy guy in an elevator

But when it comes to God, they'll say well then there's there's nothing to fear

He's nothing fearful about God is there. I mean, he's good and we're good and he's good to us

So what's there to fear? That's the kind of the new assurance that's just handed out to almost everybody these days warnings about the dangers of God like from the

Bible like From Exodus chapter 15 verse 3. The Lord is a man of war

Be sure your sin will find you out from number 732 verse 23 prepare to meet your

God from Amos chapter 4 verse 12 or Our God is a consuming fire from Hebrews chapter 12 verse 29

Or just a simple one -word command repent All of which he's kind of warnings about God that he can be dangerous

They used to be common in the church used to be common for preaching and now we're often looked on as It's kind of immature.

That's that's the primitive way. That's the all that's that's embarrassing now now We we know so much better.

It's the sign of someone people who say that kind of stuff They don't understand how to market

God how to advertise for him now We now we know better people are assured you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

Now we tell our kids as one youth leader told me when I was in high school that God doesn't get angry.

Well, that's nice I can I can feel safe right God didn't get angry. No matter what

I do. He's never gonna get angry at me The result of this is that now many people Christian or not are absolutely sure that they have nothing to fear from God The way the gospel is presented to many people like in that song makes it sound if God were out there

He's kind of desperately pleading for us to please Believe him.

He's kind of a hand -wringing God. You're just worrying about us He's a therapeutic God who's there to soothe you?

that feeling about God Makes us insensitive to the signals that we should be getting from his word from the

Holy Spirit As the Spirit is telling us he's convicting us of our sin of his righteousness and the coming judgment

That we should be trembling that there are things to fear. We were made insensitive to that now

Because people are telling us well, there's nothing to fear people now tell us there's nothing fearful about God and and so They're insensitive to what is indeed the

Holy Spirit given gift of fear Again we're doing something that's unusual for us rather than our usual what call expository message in which we have one passage in front of Us that we're delving into today

We'll be looking into many short passages in Proverbs because that's kind of the way the book of Proverbs is all about one topic and the topic that underlies and really fills is the basis of all the

Proverbs The fear of the Lord the idea that's the key idea To understanding the book of Proverbs and Proverbs says it is the key to being wise

We can answer two questions What is the fear of the Lord and second?

What does the fear of the Lord do? But first what is the fear of the Lord? Well, it is three things

First it's rational then it's relational and finally it's radical

It's rational and that is the only logical conclusion from considering who

God is we say I Assume everyone here I would say there is a

God who is eternal who created everything who is all -powerful who controls everything

Including us the only rational conclusion from that is that we have no way of controlling him

We have no way of bargaining with him No way of forcing him to do what we want him to do or to keep him from doing what he wants to do

We have no leverage over him Understand we have no way of controlling him maneuvering him.

So you think about that if you have someone in your life Who has total power ultimate control over you and you have no power back over him

What would your attitude toward him be? Now, maybe he's he's good and you could respect him, but fundamentally

You would have to fear him Fearing God is the only rational conclusion from from believing in God if you don't fear him

You think his rules can be flouted his word ignored his warnings just just blown off That you just assume he will always be there waiting for you time after time if that's your attitude toward God either

You don't really believe in God. Maybe you just believe in some like small

G God in in like a an idol kind of mythological

Greek kind of God or you don't really believe in the in God of the Bible or your irrational

As you don't understand the meaning of your own beliefs and CS Lewis is the lion the witch in the wardrobe one of the children asked about Aslan talked about this a few months ago into The book of Job they asked about Aslan the lion who's the figure representing

Christ. He's he's powerful. He's awesome And so the child asked is

Aslan a tame lion No comes the answer He's not tame

But he is good We need to understand that as much as we want to talk about the goodness of God the love of God and of Christ He is not tame

That he is dangerous and our rational response to that Should be to fear him

That rational understanding of God then becomes the the beginning of wisdom as we saw in chapter 9 verse 20

It's the starting line like an erase For being wise you want to be wise you gotta start there

You can't make progress and wisdom unless you start with fearing God Because then if you start with that then you realize

How small you are? How little you know and so you become teachable

So you begin to learn you begin to destructive like the people here You can be taught people can correct you and you can you can grow from that You can begin to become wise whereas if you think you know it all pretty well already

Then you're unteachable and you never grow to become wise. We all need to know that there's much we don't know and The fear of the

Lord reminds us of that continually Now some people think their knowledge about God Makes them experts on everything knowledge puffs up.

I was tempted to comment on Simone Biles dropping out of most events at the Olympics You know like I know anything about it, but I but I should realize that I don't really know anything about gymnastics

I don't know what it's like to spin in the air and try to land on my feet So I fear being false so I Don't don't don't form opinions.

I try not to and don't express them I've seen I think pastors or Christians at least commenting like they're experts on kovat or on vaccines and they'll make authoritative statements like They're not really vaccines.

They're experimental gene therapy. So don't take it Now the fear of the Lord the fear of being wrong of saying things that you really don't know what you're talking about You know, you don't have a medical degree

The fear that your words will be judged by God. Remember what Jesus said every idle word you say will be judged and you should fear that Every you think about what you say, this is gonna be judged

That should stop That kind of blather talking about things like, you know what you're talking about we trust ourselves

Less the fear of the Lord makes us humbly aware of how much we don't know That's why humility is so important in Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 33 says the fear of the

Lord is instruction in wisdom and humility comes before honor

That is you fear the Lord So you're now it's Open to be instructed in wisdom and that that's the first line.

The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom That's the same as the second line Humility comes before honor you are humble and you eventually get honor you accept

God's conviction of your sins What he's what he says Maybe the world says your sins are fine

Everybody does that but he says it's sinful and you accept that you accept his provision for your salvation

And you trust him So then you get honor you get the honor of new life a resurrection

You were humble because you fear the Lord which is the only rational thing you can do because you fear the Lord you believe his

Word in Proverbs chapter 30 says the words of Agur most of the Proverbs from Solomon But a few are from other people like near the end.

It's a man named Agur. We don't know anything about it But in verse 5 chapter 30 verse 5 he says every word of God proves true

He is a shield to those who take refuge in him Now, how do you take refuge in him and take refuge in God?

Well, we believe his word every word of his word from him proves true And so we fear the Lord and in verse 6 do not add to his words

That's part of fearing the Lord and believing it all his words are true You don't add your opinions to them as though his word needs your opinions.

We restrain ourselves from adding what we wish it said To what it really does say we don't insert our opinions into God's Word Which means we humbly understand where God's Word ends

What it says and where our opinions begin? We have so much respect for God.

We realize that he doesn't need our help By us is kind of making up words for him

That he didn't really say the passage continues. It says do not add to his words Lest he rebuke you and you'd be found to be a liar

Now I'm sure the anonymous donor remember these signs of several years ago on the highways the billboards It's some anonymous donor sponsored billboards with sayings

Supposedly quoting God. I mean sure I guess he meant well, but he put these billboards up with these sayings

Supposedly from God that someone just made up, you know, I keep using my name in vain and I'll make rush hour longer

Quote God it's kind of ironic because The billboard is actually using the

Lord's name in play by saying that by just making up this the saying But but he didn't really have the right to make up quotes for God Does he

I mean if people made up quotes for you and went around quoting you something you didn't say

They just made it up because they liked it said, you know, you say this when you get mad at that when you know

You say no, I did not say that Well, God has to say God will be the same way he'll say

I did not say that I did not say keep using my Lord My name in vain and I'll make a rush hour longer We don't have we don't have the right to make up quotes for God If your view of God is that he is someone who is desperately got he's just waiting for us to open the door

Then you want to help him out, don't you? He needs your help So you got to make up things that he did really say because you got to help him out, right?

You don't fear him. You might pity him you feel sorry for him and you're wanting to help you this you really he's desperately pleading

He's wringing his hands and you you want to help him out And so you he didn't say this, but he should have said it right if he was as smart as you

You're not really in all of him. Are you? I'm not saying you said that I'm Hypothetically to this person who put up these billboards, but if you believe in the

Lord you have the fear of the Lord You'll know that he doesn't need That kind of help

You're afraid That you'll be exposed Remember how it goes at the end. Let's he rebuke you and you'd be found to be a liar

So you're afraid you'll be exposed for saying thus says the Lord By the

Lord who never said what you said he said Humility is so connected with the fear of the

Lord that Proverbs chapter 22 verse 4 It is ties them together the reward for humility and fear of the

Lord Humility and fear of the Lord like they're connected is riches and honor and life

You have the fear of the Lord you will get humility if you're humble you learn you learn you do better And you often if you do better you get

You prosper in life And so we see what is really wrong though with people who may profess to be Christians who say they love the

Lord But they can't be corrected. They're unteachable. They're like the people in chapter 9 you correct them, but they scoff back

They abuse you back if you try to correct them, they'll bite your head off. They start blame -shifting.

It's not my fault It's your fault. Maybe Do not reprove a scoffer. He will hate you reprove a wise man and he will he will love you

We've read verse 8 and in Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 29 people who hate knowledge

Despise God's reproof now. Why do they do that? Why do they despise God's reproof? Because they have no fear of God No, no fear that they are sinners and that God is holy that they are limited and ignorant and he knows everything

Now that's not rational. Of course What is rational is? to fear the

Lord The fear of the Lord is also Relational to fear

God isn't just to be intellectual that is to be a good student. It's always learning is to know

God To be in a relationship with him in Proverbs chapter 2 verse 5 when you have the fear of the

Lord Then he says you find the knowledge of God You don't you don't just know about him as you know him

Like someone you're very close to you may know their facts about them You may know their birth date and their birthplace and what they like to eat or drink or watch

TV or listen to her entertainment But beyond that you have a sense of them

You you you know them who they really are We can learn theology about God We can learn how to articulate the doctrine of the

Trinity correctly and all that kind of thing. But beyond that we should have a sense of who he is and that sense

Will always have some fear in it because we sense that he's not tame

Charles Bridges has defined the fear of God as quote that affectionate Reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law

God's wrath is so bitter and his love

So sweet that we have this earnest desire to please him and to fear him

So that we will not sin against him The fear of the

Lord describes our relationship with God how we feel toward him our internal disposition

That moves us to worship and obey that relationship is life the fear of the

Lord leads to Life in Proverbs chapter 19 verse 23. This is faith in God faith

Produces joy because you believe his promises the fear of the Lord causes you to believe his warnings to respond to his conviction so when the

Holy Spirit convicts you of of your sin of his righteousness and of the judgment you are to face you believe him and You repent you have eternal life

Because you sensed in your heart that you were a sinner and you needed a

Savior You didn't try to justify yourself shift the blame. Oh, it's society's fault The way

I was raised my parents fault you humbled yourself and Accepted what he said about you and your need

You sensed the danger of his judgment. You had the gift of fear

It's so fled to him for safety for mercy knowing that there is no way That you could just get away

The fear of the Lord is relational It's the basis of our relationship with God and makes us make

God preeminent in our relationships The Lord Jesus said do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell

Matthew chapter 10 verse 28 now too often Christian today have the view that the relationship with God can always take a backseat to every other relationship

After all, you remember the song he's always waiting time after time with open arms

But you know that that girlfriend or that boyfriend He or she might not be so patient So we think hmm, you know you do a cost -benefit ratio and analysis to this

Okay, God's gonna wait all the time, but the boyfriend might not so well dating marriage family friends

Reputation with people around us, whatever. Yeah that that that could come first Over the relationship with the

Lord after all, he'll always be waiting time after time So we put that relationship first or spouse first or we put make money -making first instead of seeking

God We fear losing approval from people or maybe losing money but not feeling not losing

God's approval losing his kingdom But the fear of the Lord creates a relationship with God It's so total

We must be willing to sacrifice Every other relationship and that's because the fear of the

Lord is radical the the real Jesus Not the fictional one people think you don't have anything to fear from the real one said that God is to be so feared his judgment so fearsome that it would be better for you to cut off your hand or Gouge out your eye if that's what it took to keep you from offending this

Holy God that is if Notice the if the if is crucial, but if by mutilating yourself, you could stop making

God angry It would be worth it But of course that's not how we stop ourselves from angering the

Lord No cutting off your hand or scooping out your eye won't do anything about the sin in our heart

That offends him. That's what really makes God angry but Jesus's point was that it takes that kind of radical commitment the willingness to do that cut off your hand gouge out your eye if That would actually solve the problem

But that's not what solves the problem of us being sinners In the hands of an angry

God only God's grace can solve that problem The problem today is that we're often told that there is no problem except for maybe our ignorance

Our not feeling sorry for the hand -wringing God The gentle Savior is pleading with us with open arms time after time for us to finally open the door.

He's safe He's tame. We're told we can live we can live with him without fear

Don't worry about anything from him. We're told he's not gonna do anything He's not gonna do anything to upset our comfortable life

Just a little money in the basket. That's all it takes a little time on Sunday morning. That's it That's all he cares about and something.

Well, not even that they have nothing to fear that kind of God is a Domesticated pet you maybe have to do a little to maintain him like you do a little give a little food to your dog

But he's not gonna go wild He'll get along You know like the way

Southern religion got along nicely for a couple hundred years with slavery and racism But the fear of the Lord tells everyone who has it that the true

God doesn't get along He's not tame He's wild and sometimes ferocious

Especially when it comes to opposing sin the fear of the Lord is Hatred of evil pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech

I hate in Proverbs chapter 8 verse 13 Today's tame religion tells us that God doesn't hate anything

Not even sin But the fear of the Lord tells us that when it comes to evil we are to hate sin like God does to radically deeply convictionally

Passionately Hey it especially pride and arrogance the double -tongued

Fraudulence that dispels the right words the Christian ease. It's always self -serving just unfaithful

Empty words perverted speech. He calls it God Hates it and he wants us to hate it to our attitude toward that isn't just a shrug our shoulders at it

Well, that's just their personality. That's the way they were raised or defended in ourselves. That's just me is to be radical to hate it

We're radical and hate it because pride and arrogance Offends it angers

God It says our pride our arrogance says that my ego my words my reputation.

My opinions are more important than the Lord himself Nothing can be more blasphemous or offending to God than that too often

Christians want to object You know to words their ears Don't want to hear or insist on the respect they want to be given

But the fear of the Lord esteems the glory of God to be the highest value not our glory

Fear the Lord is rational relational and Radical that's what it is

What does it do? Well, it does three things It provides life it produces security and it protects from conformity

First the fear of the Lord provides life the fear of the Lord prolongs life But the years of the wicked will be short in Proverbs chapter 10 verse 27

Both blessings in this life and eternal life begin with us fearing the Lord. It's kind of the flip side of faith

Faith believes God's promises the fear of the Lord believes his warnings the result of both

Believing his promises for life and fearing his threats for death. It's really the same we flee to him and are saved

You know fear of the Lord is fleeing from his wrath faith in the Lord is fleeing toward his love

That's why in Proverbs chapter 14 verse 27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life

Life is just gushing out of it from the fear of the Lord that one may turn away From the snares of death because we know those things

Those sins were otherwise drawn to that's the way to death because we fear God's judgment if we go that way

Proverbs chapter 19 verse 23 again the fear the Lord leads to life and Whoever has it rest satisfied and He will not be visited by harm

That last proverb after 19 verse 23 tells us that the fear the Lord produces security

Whoever has it That's the fear of the Lord rest satisfied

Kind of ironic, isn't it? I mean we often think that fear is a lack of rest here the fear and the right thing produces

Rest and satisfaction the right kind of fear the fear of God makes us rest

Satisfied we think of fear as a feeling of being unsafe, but Proverbs chapter 29 verse 25

Says whoever fears the Lord is safe We have to live under One kind of fear or another basically pick your fear.

You're gonna fear something Fear the right thing either we fear the Lord or we fear what?

bad luck, maybe bankruptcy poverty Maybe fear chance angry spirits hungry ghosts

Offended ancestors who've come back and try to torment you, you know, give them what they want Maybe we feel maybe we'll fear a virus viruses

Maybe we'll live in fear of a disease like Koba that has a 99 % survivability rate for people under 65

That doesn't make much sense. Does it that's not very rational. Maybe we'll fear that we haven't worked hard enough

That we don't have enough savings That our family has too much trouble Maybe we'll fear that our spouses that love us or we'll fear that we'll never get married

Well, maybe we'll fear the end we don't have enough insurance Maybe well, maybe it's politics.

We fear we fear the the party. We don't like we'll get in power. They'll get elected maybe we'll fear that we'll have a heart attack or Diagnosed with cancer or that something will fear something

Somehow no matter how hard we've worked and how are we how much we've saved we tried to take care of every danger

We'll fear Something is going to go wrong And so we have no safety no sense of security our choice is whether we will fear one of those things

Or whether we'll fear the Lord If we fear the Lord Then we can trust him with all of those other things so that even if the banks fail and we lose our money or inflation makes our cash worthless a new variant arrives or tragedy strikes

Even if that happens we still We still don't have to fear Chapter 19 verse 23.

We we rest satisfied We're safe because We fear the

Lord Proverbs chapter 14 verse 26 says in the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children

Will have a refuge His children have a refuge in the fear of the

Lord that's Security the fear of the

Lord produces security it provides life and finally it protects from worldly conformity

Now worldliness is the fruit of fearing the wrong one. Like I said, you got to fear something

Pick pick your object of fear In Proverbs chapter 29 verse 25 the fear of man

Lays a snare. It's a trap if you fear people But whoever trusts in the

Lord is Safe, there's your security So many people live in a constant fear what others think yes, not really

It's not just teenagers really a fearing peer pressure all my friends think if I talk about Jesus or the

Bible or church I don't want to be known as the Jesus freak But even older people, you know, what do they think if I go to that church that meets in a gym

Those are weird people there even adults fear being made to look ridiculous. If you fear the

Lord You won't be afraid of all the pressures a sinful human society puts on you

To conform to join with the mob because you fear being

Insulted by them being cast out Proverbs chapter 24 verse 21 says my son fear the Lord and the king and do not join with those who do otherwise

Always don't join with those who don't fear the Lord or the rulers There's pressure there's movements

To join in some ungodly cause whatever it is They're pressuring you join or we will get you

Live for money -making like we do live for the swagger for supporting so -called same -sex marriage if you don't you're a bigot will call you a bigot if you don't and Generations past here in the

South that same thing was in force Was used to enforce

Segregation and racism the mob would rain down insults on you particularly to white people you're a inward lover

If you dared cross that line you didn't go along with us and our racism and segregation you're outcast

That was their way of enforcing their ungodly ways That was the world

Pressuring people to join them The world molding them making them conform or threatening to break you

Striking fear in you. So you either fear that the fear of man or You fear the

Lord and broke away from that and Today they will either strike fear in you to join them

And so you'll either fear the world and conform to be just as greedy just as sexually immoral

Just as going along with the approval of perversion and if you don't they'll call you a hater But maybe they'll take away your social media and you'll either fear that mob or you'll fear

God and tell the truth If you fear the Lord You'll know that the reward for you and The penalty for them for the world

Puts you in a much better position Than the world than them and those people trying to make you fear them

Even if you are vastly outnumbered Proverbs chapter 23 verse 17 says let not your heart envy sinners

Don't envy them even if they're wealthy and successful but continue in the fear of the

Lord all the day When we fear God We believe his promises we tremble at his threats

So it wouldn't occur to us would we we really believe his threats were trembling at them

It wouldn't occur to us to want to be like those people Who are living under his threats?

We have the gift of fear and so we sense the danger of being like worldly people

That's dangerous. They may be prospering. They may be living in mansions and have millions of dollars of driving expensive

Luxury cars, but they're in danger and you know that because you fear the Lord Even if they're doing better than you materially, they're rich and you're not

Still we know Better is a little With the fear of the

Lord in great treasure and trouble with it in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 16 so How do you feel about God?

Do you have? the gift of fear as the

Lord placed within your heart the sure knowledge of how great and and powerful and Awesome he is so much so you actually fear offending him that you're afraid of being caught in the sin that you are naturally inclined to you tremble at offending your

Heavenly Father and you're even willing to cut off your hand or gouge out your eye if That's what it took

To keep you from his anger, but you know, that's not how you get safe from God's judgment

Jesus showed us by going to the cross That this fearsome God has taken his own fearsomeness on himself

For all who fear him, how do you feel about God?

Have you been humble? but how puny and limited and sinful you are compared to an almighty all -knowing

Holy Creator Do you know? Your desperate need

Are you eager to know him? So radical in your determination to be saved from his judgment you hunger you long to be right with him

Is that how? You feel about God list so You have the gift of fear you fear the

Lord so rest Satisfied have a strong confidence

Feel safe. Enjoy him better than great wealth If not

Now's the time to change How you feel? to change

What you believe? what you fear and to tremble