We're going to start tonight. I just want to go to Psalms 34,
Psalms 34, verses 7 through 9 and I want to talk a little bit
about the fear of the Lord. And so in Psalms 34 it reads
this way, it says the Angel of the Lord and I'm reading out of
the amplified in camps around those who fear him with awe
inspired reverence and worship him with obedience.
Our obedience worships him. Have we ever made that
connection that when we actually obey him and are obedient to his
word, it brings worship towards him?
And so then he goes on to say, and he rescues each of them.
Taste and see that the Lord our God is good.
How blessed, fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God
is the man who takes refuge in him and reverently fears the
Lord, you, his Saints, believers, holy ones.
For those who fear Him, there is no want.
See, we don't have to want for any good thing when we fear the
Lord, right? We don't have to want for
anything when we fear Him. And then he goes on to say, Come
you children, listen to me and I will what teach you to fear the
Lord with awe inspired reverence and worship him with obedience
and worship him with obedience. And we want to give the correct
definition and define what fear is.
This is not a fear in the fact that we are afraid, like when we
are afraid that we may get hit by a car or we're afraid to get
on a plane because it may crash. This is not this type of fear.
We have learned here that fear, this fear of the Lord is to
Revere, is to Revere Him. It is to stand in awe.
And that's what we did. As we began to worship Him, we
were reminded how awesome our God is, how big our God is.
And we stand in awe that He is the Creator.
Come on. Of everything in the universe,
He created it with His mere words.
He spoke it into existence. Come on.
And and so it means to stand in awe of who he is.
It means to honor Him, to honor him.
When we come in corporately to begin to have praise and
worship. It is for one thing and one
thing only, to bring honor to God, to bring honor to the Lord,
Amen. To honor who He is and what He
has done in our lives, that is the only reason why we are doing
praise and worship, is to remind ourselves that we must honor Him
and who He is because we fear Him.
Amen. We honor Him.
We honor the fact that He would want to come and dwell and and
bring His presence to His people.
We honor that. We honor Him because He brought
us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
We honor Him because of that. And so every time we come to
worship, there should be that honor towards Him, not just so
we can have a fun little praise and worship.
That's not what that's about. It's about us bringing our honor
towards Him, our honor towards Him.
And when He is honored, He'll fill this place with His
presence. When He's honored, when He's
honored for who He is, it means to esteem Him, right?
And we've also read that it means to be devoted to him, that
when you say you are one that fears the Lord, you're saying
that I am devoted to him, I'm devoted to him, I honor him, I
fear him, I'm devoted to him. It means to respect, right?
I respect him. I, I respect what he has done
for me in my life, for what he's done for me in my life.
And then it means to be afraid. It does mean that or to dread,
but to be afraid or to dread in the context of you don't want to
ever do anything that would dishonor him or displease him.
You would never want to be a person that would dishonor who
he is and what he's done for your life, or displease him by
not doing the will of the father, because you can
displease him. When you refuse to do the will,
that of the Father, you can displease Him for Him who knows
what to do through scripture and doesn't do it.
What is that to you? The Scripture says it's sin.
And so when you choose to not do what Scripture says, it
dishonors Him. It actually displeases Him.
Amen. He's not pleased with it,
especially when you know what the Scripture says to do and you
don't do it. So it's very important as
believers, if we're going to continue to reign in this life
and we're going to continue to reign as a church and be all
that God wants us to be as his children, as representatives and
ambassadors of Christ. We have have to ask ourselves,
are we simply obeying what Scripture says in areas of our
life? Because if not, then we are
dishonouring Him and we're not respecting the fact that he has
put things in His word that he expects his children to do.
And isn't that something even with your own children, you
know, it is disrespectful when you tell your child to do
something and they refuse to do it.
What are they doing? They're rebelling against you.
And and some people think that, oh, they're just playing,
they're just having fun. Oh, you know, and make excuses
for that behavior because you do it as a parent.
But that is not what our father thinks about it.
When we see things in his word that he says as a believer we
ought to be walking in and we refuse to do it.
He does not think it's funny. He thinks it's dishonouring and
displeasing and disrespectful. Right.
And so here, as we continue to go through some things on the
fear of the Lord, we have to exercise, you know, the things
that we know as a believer that we should do.
And I can just go ahead and let you know, as a believer, even as
an infant in Christ, as a babe in Christ, if you just got into
this thing, if you just simply read Scripture and do whatever
the Scripture tells you to do, you are going to be pleasing to
God. It's that easy.
And do you know, it doesn't stop.
It doesn't stop. But you know, I found that the
longer, sometimes the longer people are actually believers,
the more they lapse and not do any longer what the Scripture
has done. And maybe things they did in the
beginning that they don't do now because they were so thankful
and so in awe of him saving them and rescuing them from the
situation that they were in and drawing them in the beginning.
And it was easy for them to want to there we're excited about the
Word and read the Word and do the Word and participate in the
Word and all the things that he tells us to do as a new
believer. But then the more they kept
growing, you know, coming to church, serving the Lord, the
longer, the more those things got familiar, get familiar.
And then as believers, we start slipping in things that we know
we should do in Scripture. Amen.
And know that that is a place that we have to, as believers,
always judge ourselves. Do you know the Scripture tells
us, judge yourself lest you be judged?
Do you know He wants you to judge yourself so that
ultimately you don't have to stand before him and Him judge
you on that? And do you know why he would
even have to judge you on that? Because you refuse to do it.
You refuse to obey. You refuse to be obedient to the
very thing that His word was saying for you to do, right?
And He's always there wanting us to obey him, wanting us to do
things. And that's just like, as a
parent, if I give my child a directive to do and they don't
do it, there should be a consequence.
There should be a consequence. See, there's so many natural
aspects in the earth that we can look at to see that this is how
God operates through His Word. And as a parent with a child,
this is how I should be operating with my child as well,
right? Amen.
So let's move on. So, you know, John Bevere made
this statement which made me actually go back to looking at
some things concerning the love of God.
And so he said this. He said you cannot truly love
God until we fear Him, nor can you properly fear Him until you
love Him, right until you love him.
And so you know, Pastor has taught us and we have taught
that the the foundation of the Kingdom of God is on love.
It's built upon God's love and who he is.
But I would say that it is as equally built upon the fear of
the Lord. And if one of those 2 is out of
balance, if you're only focused on, oh he loves me, he loves me,
he loves me, he loves me, he loves me and not have any fear
of him, then there is going to be abuse.
There's going to be abuse, right?
We can see that even in a marriage.
Do you know the Bible says women ought to honor their husbands
and respect them, right? They ought to honor their
husbands and respect them. So you could.
I know women that say they love their husbands all day long, but
when they open up their mouth I know they disrespect their
husband. They disrespect him because of
the way they talk to him, especially in front of people.
Degrading, belittling, demeaning.
That's no respect. That's no honor for him being
the lead in the home. I don't care if he's a good
leader or not. You have a responsibility as a
wife who loves the Lord. Amen.
And actually the scripture says do it because you may win him by
your behavior, your godly behavior, your godly behavior.
But anyway, I'm not talking about marriage and I'm not
talking about parenting. But we're going to move on, OK?
Because it gets tight anytime somebody talks about don't be
talking about my kid and surely don't be talking about my man
and my marriage anyway. But anyway, really the Kingdom
of God is built upon the love of God and the fear of God.
And they work hand in hand. And again, if one of them is out
of out of balance, you could also say it will become
perverted and abused. It will become a perverted and
abused. Do you know, even in Christian
marriages? I guess I'm on the marriage
topic. I don't know.
Somebody in here must need it anyway.
I need it always. What was I going to say?
Oh, abuse. Yeah.
See, when one of these is out of balance, then abuse will happen.
And you know, you can act like you love this person all day
long and you know, do all these things, but in your heart, isn't
that what even he God says? He says you, you love me with
your with your words of the mouth, but your heart is far
from me, right? So you can tell you, you can
tell those things. There's an atmosphere there in
relationships and different things.
And when there's no respect, you can tell they're they're taking
advantage. Oh, I know what I was going to
say. Here it is.
Thank you, Holy Ghost. There have been Christians,
women especially, that I've seen through the years that we've
done counseling with and different things that, you know,
they think because and see this is where it's out of balance.
They think because they're a Christian and because they are
supposed to walk in love that they can be abused and taken
advantage of and manipulated. Well, God tells me I just need
to forgive him. 70 Psalms 7 But no behavior ever changes.
No, that's abuse because something's out of balance.
You see what I'm saying? And so again, even in our
relationship with the Lord, if we don't have a clear
understanding of what the fear of the Lord is and what the love
of God is, and that it is the foundation of everything that's
built from the Kingdom of God, then there's going to be abuses.
And you've seen that in the church, right?
You see that in the church with people thinking, oh, well, God
loves me, He loves me, He loves me.
I'm under grace, grace, grace. So I don't have to obey what the
Scripture says and I can still have sex out of marriage.
That's abuse. That's abuse.
You're disrespecting God and his holy word.
You see what I'm saying? And so again, we have to have
that clear understanding of what it is.
So the being afraid or dread that is defined with fear is
associated with obedience to His will, that you would be afraid
to not obey God's will for your life.
There ought to be fear. And, and you've even seen this,
if people have been called by God specifically for a purpose
in their life and they refuse to obey that calling, there ought
to be so much fear of the Lord. They ought to be afraid because
they know, look what happened to Jonah in the well, right?
He wanted to disobey and not do what God was asking him to do.
OK, so just because we're in the new covenant doesn't mean that
we get to disobey or not be obedient to especially what
Scripture is telling us we ought to be doing as a believer in our
life, because those who fear Him will want to do what God's will
is for their life. It is not about being afraid of
God, but rather acknowledging His authority and holiness.
It's about acknowledging His authority and His Holiness, and
which leads us to a desire to do His will for our life, OK?
Because of His authority, because of who He is, because I
fear Him, I'm going to. I want to do what the Lord wants
me to do. I don't want to disobey Him or
not do the will of God for my Life, OK.
And so it's important that we recognize that.
And then let's read out of Proverbs 14 so everybody has a
clear understanding what the fear of the Lord is.
Proverbs 1427 says this. The fear of the Lord is the
fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.
And we want to see here that the fountain of life is the starting
point. The fear of the Lord is the
fountain of life. When you look up the fountain of
life, it is the starting point. So what he's saying is the fear
of the Lord is the starting point of your life.
It is the fountain of your life. And everything is going to flow
from the wellspring of the fear of the Lord in your life.
It's good. That's what that literally
means. It is the source of life, and it
is the wellspring, the starting point of your life.
The fear of the Lord, The fear of the Lord to honor him, to
reverence him, to not want to disobey him or displease him in
any way, to want to respect him. And he's letting us know if you
don't have that in your life, there's going to be issues.
There's going to be issues. And we see here in Isaiah 33 and
six, it says this Isaiah 33 and six, it says in that day he will
be your sure foundation, providing a rich storehouse of
salvation, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is your
treasure, is your treasure. He's saying that the fear of the
Lord, when it is your treasure, the treasure is that storehouse,
just like it's the fear of the Lord is the life source or the
spring, the fountain of your life.
He's saying, listen, the fear of the Lord, it is the treasure of
your life and it is the storehouse that when you look at
that word treasure, it literally means a storehouse.
It means an Armory. You know, we have armories here
at the Florida National Guard in Saint Augustine.
We have the headquarters and they have armories.
And you know what's in those armories?
Weapons, weapons. And he's letting us know in
correlation to which I'm not going to go into today, but in
correlation to this storehouse, this treasury, it is your
weapon. The fear of the Lord is a
weapon, and that's why he says that the angels will encamp
around those who fear the Lord. You being a person that will
honor God, you being a person that wants to do his will, You
being a person that does not want to disobey him or displease
him. It is a weapon that he is
saying. Listen, if you'll stay up
underneath the fear of the Lord, there is a storehouse of
weaponry. It will be like a Armory around
you. Come on.
And it also means a full supply. A treasury also has what riches
in it? Gold, silver.
Come on. So think about Pirates of the
Caribbean, right? That's also what is references.
When you fear the Lord, there is riches, there is honor.
Come on, there's provision, there is a full supply, there's
a treasury waiting for you. Who will fear Him?
Everything that you need as a believer will come from the live
source or the spring. Come on, the fountain of life,
of the fear of the Lord, everything you need as a
believer, that's what it's saying, that's what it means.
So it's your treasure. Amen.
Glory to God. Let's look at Philippians,
Philippians chapter 2. I read a lot of Old Testament in
the Psalms and you know, Isaiah, but I want to go over to what
the New Testament has to say about the fear of the Lord
because it actually has a lot to say about the fear of the Lord.
But we're just going to tap into a just a couple of scriptures
tonight. That's all we have time left to
do. So Philippians chapter 2 and
verses 12 through 13, it says this.
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, what does He say?
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is
God who is at work in you both to will and work for His good
pleasure. So there is His will and his
work for you, because you have called on the name of the Lord,
and you have been granted salvation.
And He lets us know that now that we're born again, there's a
will and there is a work that you need to do as a believer.
Now, again, this is not a work to earn your salvation because
you've already earned it by His work, by calling on His name, by
faith. And that came first.
You see that you're born again to do a will and a work.
And He lets us know that we now are responsible to work it out.
And how are we to work it out? How are we to work it out?
With fear and trembling, With fear and trembling.
That means we are to work out this will and this work and our
salvation with the Lord, with honor, with honoring him, with
respecting him, with thinking about how awesome he is, being
in awe of what He's done. The fact that He even drew you
out of darkness and saved you and brought you into the Kingdom
of God and gave you a new life in Christ and put the third
person of the Godhead on the inside of you.
Hallelujah and then gave you the Scripture says everything that
pertains to life and godliness that he's given us this earthen,
this treasure in earthen vessel. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, glory to
God. And he goes on to say, work it
out with honor, work it out with respect, work it out with
pleasing Him, work it out by being obedient to him.
This is your responsibility. God's already done his job.
Jesus Christ has already paid the price and poured his blood
out on the mercy seat. Come on.
And now it's our responsibility, by the grace of God, by the
mercy of God, by the faith of God that He's given us a mustard
seed up to work our salvation out in the earth with fear and
trembling. And I believe there there has
been a lack of the fear of the Lord in the church today because
we're going to read anyway. So he tells us workout.
I want to read what workout means.
It's not like going to the gym, but we need to do that as well.
Hallelujah. And my daughter texts my husband
today as I was stuffing my face and said, Hey, dad, you want to
do this 5K across the lions? There's a Lions bridge 5K that's
coming up this weekend. And, and, and my husband said,
what do you want to do it? And she said, well, I'll do it.
And he said, well, I'll do it. If you want to do it, you know,
I'll do it with you. It's not like I want to do it,
but I'll do it if you want me to do it with you, you know?
And then he looks over at the table, he said, I think that's a
good goal for you too, and I'll help start training you.
Can you imagine him as my trainer?
That's why it's not happened in 34 years.
He's trained me enough anyway. But I thought to myself, he
said, you know what he told me? He told me, you know, a long
time ago you told me you had a dream of you just running and
that you were a runner. I said it must have been the
pizza you made me eat that night.
No, anyway, but I might do it. Hey, you never know.
I'm ready to turn a new leaf. Come on anyway.
So work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
That word work out means perform.
But yet you know, there's this whole teaching now that you're
it's not about performance. It's not about performance, but
working out is about perform you.
What is he saying? You need to perform the
salvation that has been given to you.
You need to work it out. You need to.
It also means produce it, have fruit of it in your life.
And again, we're not doing it in our own work.
We're doing it through the grace that strengthening that
empowering that we learned about that grace, that supernatural
grace that's been instilled in every believers life the day
they called on the name of the Lord.
It means workout means this to accomplish, to achieve, to do
that from which something results.
Is there any results in your life as a believer?
That is a good question. That is a good question that we
should be asking ourselves if we claim to be a Christian.
Is there fruit? Is there those things that are
having a result in our life? Because we year after year, are
continuing to work out our salvation?
We're letting the Holy Spirit deal with us and work us out.
You know the Holy Spirit will work you out.
It's not there just to give you chill bumps, right?
And it means this to bring about to fashion or to render.
Listen to this. This is what it means in the
Greek to render one fit for a thing.
What thing you being a child of God to render one fit.
That's what that means to to do the work, to do the work or
deed, to do the deed. That's what it means.
That means there is going to be tangible results and your life
as a believer that you can see how God has changed you, has has
done things within you you never thought you would be doing as a
believer. You can see it in your marriage,
you can see it with your children, you can see it in your
finances. You can see it in every area of
your life because you've allowed yourself and the Holy Spirit and
the Word of God to work out that salvation in your life, doing
things by just simply obeying what the Word has said and what
God has said on the inside of you through the Spirit of the
living God. Amen.
It means to fully accomplish. Remember, the goal of salvation
is not just to get you in to get you to heaven.
It's to actually get you in. To be the sons and the daughters
come on and of the Kingdom of God, to be royalty, to be those
that know how to rule and reign and overcome in this life.
To be those that are accomplishing great feats like
we see those in the Bible do right to accomplish these
things, to mature, to flourish and to finish.
Because you know what? He tells us that we can not
finish our course in Scripture. So he's letting it.
We have to work out our salvation so that we do finish
our course. We run our race, we do the
things that God has put in us to be able to do, Amen.
And that is going to take us participating with God to do the
things that He wants to do in our life.
Now I want to read this out of the amplified OK, and I want to
go up early to verse 3. So from Philippians 2 to verse
13, and the reason why I want to read it, I want to want you to
see in full context of what he's actually talking about when he's
inserting in there that you are to work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. Because it's actually in context
of doing the will of God for your life and doing the things
that God is speaking to you to do in your life.
But then also talking about doing things not in your flesh
or carnally, because the fear of the Lord will bring you to a
place of holiness. I like to do it, this little
thing. Fear equals holiness.
Holiness equals glory. And this is how we see God work
in your life, is that when you actually understand the fear of
the Lord and begin to honor and be, obey and begin to do what
God is asking you to do in your everyday walk, being willing and
obedient to do His will, then guess what?
That is going to then produce holiness within your life
because you're actually doing the Word, and the Word will by
the Holy Spirit bring sanctification and holiness.