Transcription
What a great thing to be able to say, "I am saved." I am saved by His grace and His mercy. I am redeemed by His blood. Father, we thank You.
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I do, Lord. I sat here this morning and listened to this beautiful music and I watched the fellowship [snorts] of the saints. I felt Your Holy Spirit inside of me. I watched You at work around me. Lord, I'm so thankful that I get to be a part of this great family of God. I thank You for Your shed blood, Jesus. I thank You for dying on the cross. I thank You for rising from the grave. I thank You for ascending to heaven. I thank You for pouring out the Holy Spirit. I thank You for building Your church, Lord. I thank You for the blessed hope that You are coming soon to take us to be with You. And now, Lord, help me to preach Your word in a way that glorifies You. Everybody, if you will look at me right now, please.
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If you would extend your hand in this direction and say, "Lord, help the pastor to preach the truth and speak to my heart in Jesus' name. Amen." Thank you for being seated. I think I'll begin my reading from Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 9, I think. There you go.
"What [snorts] then? Are we better than they?" He's talking about people living in sin. "Are we any better than they if we live the same way and call ourselves believers? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written, now watch this carefully, church. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known." This sums it up. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." No fear of God.
If you look around you, this is not our world, but we're in it. You'll see a lot of activity that screams, "We don't fear God or anybody else." There'll be a lot of marching this week. People parading their dirty lifestyles publicly. Or this month, the whole month. I No fear of God.
You know, one of my responsibilities as a pastor is to teach the difference between right and wrong from scripture. To be able to differentiate between the holy and the profane. And another one of those responsibilities is that I am supposed supposed to teach the fear of the Lord. It dawned on me this week as I studied. People people don't really fear God until after they're saved. Because then their eyes are opened and they suddenly see what danger they were in, what judgment they were under. That they were a breath away, a heartbeat away from hell. But God in His mercy in the nick of time reached down, picked them up, picked us up, and saved us. And the more you study and pray and live for Christ, the more you think, "Where Where would I be today had it not been for Jesus? How close did I come to losing my life and being lost for eternity but for Jesus?"
So, as I stand here today, I'm supposed to be teaching people to fear the Lord. Psalm 34:11. Listen to these words. "Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord." It has to be taught. "Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous."
So, He says, the first lesson you learn about the fear of the Lord is that there are things you do and things you don't do. There was a life you live and a life you shouldn't. There is a path you take and those you avoid. I know I'm repeating myself already. There are practices a Christian cannot do anymore. Because they violate the heart of God. Proverbs 16:6 says, "By the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil." If the fear of the Lord is not taught and if it's not lived, evil does not frighten you anymore. Evil is easy if you don't fear God.
I heard about a minister pastored a great church, but he fell morally. He fell into sin, as they say. I'm not sure you fall, you walk into it. You make a decision. And in the process of helping him, one of the counselors said, "When did you lose your love for God?" He said, "I never lost my love for God. I lost my fear of God." That's where we're going this morning. The fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom, it is that thing that causes you to run from evil and seek good.
There are people who talk about how much they love the Lord all the time while sinning. You know, you get some fellows together and they start drinking some whiskey. Get people together, they get a little liquid fire in them. They get emotional, they'll talk about how good God's been to them. "God loves us and we love God." That's easy to talk about when you are under the influence. But you don't hear them talking about the fear of God. Because if they feared God, they wouldn't be in that condition right then and there. Oh, there are people that that scroll the pornography sites while thanking God that He still loves them. But they don't fear God. Because if they did, they would never open that website again. And there are people that in business will tell bold-faced lies to make a profit or to make a sale and think about how good God has been to them that they could make this kind of money. But if they feared God, they would never tell an untruth for any reason. People cheat on taxes all the time. And they talk about how good God is, how much God loves them, how much they love God, but folks, I'm telling you, when you fear [snorts] God, something rises up inside of you that says, "Don't play with your soul." Do not play with a holy God.
Sports bars. You know, if you mean business with God, if you mean business with God, you won't get off every get off of work every day and head straight to a sports bar. If you truly fear God, you'll do everything you can to avoid drunkenness, dissipation, and all of those things that go along with losing control. People are lying in beds of adultery this morning. They're thinking about how good God has been to them, how much they love God. I've told it before, but I had a young woman come up to me one time and say, "This is my second time here. This is my church." And usually those people will say, "And I'm going to get in the choir." They have no idea what it takes. But she said, "Yeah, this is the church. I'm excited. I love the Lord. My boyfriend loves the Lord. He's not able to come yet, but he loves the Lord. We were lying in bed the other morning just talking about how much we love the Lord and the Lord loves us, and that's the condition of the church today." And that's the thinking of people in pews today. Somehow sin does not frighten. The judgment of God does not make them tremble. And if we don't get back to a life not only of loving God, but fearing God, we will learn how to justify that which breaks His heart.
And I want to tell everybody in here today, if you want to learn what the fear of the Lord is, you start in the book of Revelation. I'm sorry, in the book of Genesis and go all the way to Revelation. You read about how God handled things in the Old Testament and you say, "I'm glad that's over." I'm not so sure it's totally over because God has not changed His mind about sin at all. God has not customized His feelings towards the way we live. There is a way that seems right unto man, but the way of the end is death. But we live in the most modern time in history and the church is now being infiltrated by liberal theologians who are not saved teaching damnable doctrines and none of that teaching, preaching, and doctrine has anything to do with the fear of God. It's with this familiarity, this friendship, this pal-ship that we're supposed to have with God instead of telling people that there is coming a judgment day. And every man, every woman is going to stand before the judgment of God, whether it's the judgment seat of Christ where the believers are evaluated, or the white throne judgment, where all the unbelievers will gather one of these days.
And see, all of that unnerves me. I'm as saved as I can be. I love the Lord, and I fear the Lord. I fear the Lord to the point that when I begin to study the judgment seat of Christ, where I will one day stand in front of Him. He He God is my Father, but He's my judge. And Jesus is my Savior, but He's going to judge me. He's not going to judge my sin, because that was washed away, but He's going to judge my works. And when He does, He's going to objectively, with holy eyes and fiery eyes, look through me and tell me everything I've ever done in my life. I don't know about you. There are some people that say, "I don't I don't have a problem with that, as long as I get to heaven." Well, I fear that moment when I stand before the judge of all the earth, and He looks through me and in me, and He tells me everything I did and why I did it. And if those things stand up under His fiery scrutiny, then I'll get a reward. But if He finds things that were done with the wrong motive, for the wrong reason, those things will be burned up. I'll be saved, but those things will be burned up. And whether we like this or not, we are working today. You see, you earn rewards. You can't earn salvation. Salvation is a gift from God, but crowns and rewards have to be earned. And everything I'm doing now as a believer, I'm doing with that in mind. A crown laid up for me, a crown of righteousness, an incorruptible crown. A position in the kingdom of God one of these days. That makes me want to live right and work harder. I I have to repeat it cuz I'm misquoted all the time. Salvation is a gift. You can't do anything to earn it except call on the name of the Lord and believe. But everything else is worked for and it's earned. And that's why Paul said essentially, "I'm wearing myself out for the cause of Christ. There's a crown waiting on me. And I don't wish to have someone else take my crown. I don't want to preach to others and yet I be disqualified from all that God has for me."
So when you think about these things, to me it intensifies the fear of God in my life. Now there will be those who will say, "But pastor, I thought the Bible said and I thought you preached that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind." Well, yes, I did preach that because that's what's in the Bible. That's not the same kind of fear. God has not given us a spirit of timidity and being bashful and ashamed and afraid and intimidated by this world. He's given us power. HE'S GIVEN US LOVE. HE'S GIVEN US A SOUND MIND. So I don't have to walk around afraid of what the devil is going to do. He can't touch me. He's defeated in my life as LONG AS I STAND ON THE PROMISES AND WALK IN THE fear and admonition of the Lord. But, I do have to walk around with a deep sense of reverence.
You know, I have a friend who's in Alabama. He's one of the greatest Bible teachers I've ever heard. He can not only he not only knows it, he can teach it. It's one thing to be a scholar, it's another thing to be able to teach what you know plainly and clearly. He's a friend of mine. And he was telling me one time we did a conference together. And I was about to get up to speak and he was sitting right beside me. And Roger, if you're listening, it's Roger Daniel, my good friend. He looked over at me and said, "Loren, you know God's listening to the message you're about to preach." And I don't know why I went, "What?" God's listening to this message. And it made me think, how many times preachers get up and tell illustrations that aren't exactly true. How they will stretch things to make a point. How they will say things that never happened. Just to try to to make it fit in. And as I walked to the pulpit that night, I had a little weakness in my knee and I was praying, "God, don't let me say anything that's not totally true. BECAUSE IF IF HE'S RIGHT, and he was right, you're going to listen to this message. Cuz I'm doing it on your behalf. I'm an ambassador of Jesus Christ."
Brothers, sisters, church, listen to me. We never do anything apart from the presence of God. Everywhere you go, you take God with you. Everything you say, God's listening to it. You can't excuse yourself. You can't use tactics that will make the point. Uh you can't skirt the issue. You can't be deceitful. YOU CANNOT BE DISHONEST. YOU CANNOT PANIC AND JUST SAY STUFF BECAUSE GOD IS LISTENING. And when you stand before Him on that day, the Bible said, Jesus said, "Every word is going to be judged." OH MY GOD. Every deed is going to be judged.
So, you wonder why I would walk to the pulpit today and preach on the fear of the Lord? Because the church has lost it. We have turned church into everything but a sacred thing. Folks, a sacred activity took place here this morning. Redeemed saints were offering sacrifices of praise to God. People who've walked through the valley of the shadow of death this week have come into the house of God and they are praising God anyway. We're lifting up the name that's above all NAMES AND WE'RE GLORIFYING THE KING OF ALL KINGS. A sacred thing is taking place here today. THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME. THIS IS NOT ABOUT ANYBODY. THIS IS THE GATHERING OF THE FAMILY OF GOD. WE ARE HERE TO GLORIFY, PRAISE, AND LIFT UP HIS NAME TODAY. JESUS, JESUS, JESUS. And and everything we think and say and do is in the presence of God.
So, when we talk about the fear of God, I'm talking about reverence, deep respect, heartfelt honor, adoration, devotion, awe, admiration, worship, praise. There's none like Him. He's in this place right now. He's in your bedroom. He's in your cubicle at the office. He's in your writing, your singing. He's in your selling and your buying. "Do all to the glory of God." God is hovering over you. He's watching. And when you come to that realization, it will make you think twice before you allow your flesh to take control of you. And when you get tired and give yourself permission to be loose morally, knowing that God is there to give you strength, will make you reconsider that which is going to harm your soul and grieve the Holy Spirit. I need to ask, is anybody hearing me today? Isaiah 8:13: "The Lord of hosts him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread."
There's a great chasm between that teaching and what's going on in the church today. In many churches they're throwing out balloons and confetti and calling it a big party. There's no contrition, no conviction, no repentance and above all no Bible preaching. It's about making the mass feel better. It centers around the preacher, the star, the entertainer. And the fear and dread of the Lord does not go before the people. That's a worldly church. That's the church that may have a name that they are alive, but the spirit says they're dead. "You have a name that you live but you are dead." Jesus said to the church at Sardis. You have a name that you are vibrant in the community because you got a thousand cars parked around your building and people moving it's look like a hornet's nest. But there's no spiritual life. There's no truth, there's no conviction. And above all there is no fear and dread of God.
Isaiah was saying, "You don't have to fear any man. God's going to take care of you. Don't dread any man. If you're going to fear and dread, it better be towards God." But He's my Savior, pastor. I know all of that. But I also know what I'm preaching here this morning. He's still a holy God. He's righteous. He is deeply offended when we get in the flesh. He is a just and holy God. God kills. God makes alive. He does it because He wants to. He's sovereign. We don't question that. We don't say that God's not fair. We say that God is who He is. He does what He does because He's holy in all that He does. We don't try to change or redefine God. We don't question God. We worship humbly before God BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW THE HEART AND MIND of God. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. And for us pewty people who have been saved by grace AND STILL DON'T KNOW OUR WAY AROUND, we are not to look up in heaven AND SAY, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND. YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THAT. THAT'S UNFAIR." NO, YOU BOW YOUR HEAD IN HUMILITY AND SAY, "You are God and God alone and You know what I don't know and You know things and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus Christ."
That's why Jesus said in Matthew 10, "Don't fear those who can kill your body, but fear Him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." There it is. THAT'S JESUS AGAIN. JESUS TALKING ABOUT HELL. THEY TURNED JESUS INTO A GAME SHOW HOST. BIG WHITE BRIGHT TEETH AND A SUNTAN. JUST GIVING AWAY GIFTS TO EVERYBODY IF THEY GUESS THE RIGHT NUMBER. NO, HE'S GOD. HE SPEAKS. And what He speaks is never unsaid. He's God. He's eternal. HE DOES NOT CHANGE. He never has. He never will. He's holy. He's different. HE'S APART FROM. HE'S NOT ANYTHING LIKE ANYTHING WE KNOW. HE'S ALL POWERFUL. HE'S ALMIGHTY. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING about everything AND HE KNOWS EVERYBODY. THERE'S NOTHING GOD CANNOT DO. HIS POWER IS UNLIMITED. SO IS HIS LOVE. BUT HE'S A GOD OF JUSTICE AND HE WILL POUR IT OUT. HE'S A GOD OF MERCY, BUT HE WILL JUDGE THOSE WHO REFUSE THAT MERCY. AND I TELL YOU TODAY, EVEN AS LONG AS YOU'VE LIVED FOR THE LORD, SOME OF YOU ARE VETERANS OF THE FAITH. You never get to the place THAT YOU TAKE GOD FOR GRANTED OR SPEAK ABOUT HIM LIGHTLY. HE'S STILL GOD. HE'S STILL THE CREATOR. HE'S STILL HOLY.
And I've been thinking about that thing that the minister said. "I didn't lose my love for God. I lost my fear of God." How does that happen? How do I get so familiar with God that I don't fear Him anymore? It's when I I see this as a rut. I'm in a habit. I'm a I work in church. I play a piano. I sing. I work in the church office. I go to all the church functions. It's my life. And we fail to take those times when we back off. And I mean what I'm saying. And you get along with God in a quiet, closed-up place. And you lay before Him. Have you ever done this? Tell me if you've done this before. You lay before Him and you say nothing. You just lay before Him and offer your body as a living sacrifice. You say, "I have nothing better to do than lay before my Maker. I have nothing to say cuz You already know what I'm going to say before I say it. I have nothing to ask for cuz You've already met all of my needs in Christ Jesus. But what I am doing is fearfully, reverently laying before the man the the God-man Jesus who has the power to take my life, to call me home. He has the power over every human being in the world to cast them into hell. He is not a a FIGURINE ON A CROSS IN A CATHOLIC CHURCH. HE IS NOT SOME IMAGE ON A STAINED-GLASS WINDOW. HE IS THE GOD OF ALL [screaming] THE EARTH, ALL CREATION, ALL POWER, ALL EVERYTHING."
So, how do you reconcile this, pastor? This joy that we have [snorts] with this fear that you're saying we ought to have? I think I'll just read a verse of scripture to you. It's in uh Acts chapter 9 verse 31. "Then Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit they were multiplied." Do you see what the the Spirit of God just told us? He said, "This is the way you walk through life in the fear of the Lord with the comfort of the Holy Spirit." And until YOU COME TO THAT place where you reverently adore and RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS HERE AND THAT you must live accordingly, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW the true comfort of the Holy Spirit. The more you fear God, the more comfort the Holy Spirit brings into your life. The more you yield and present yourself to God, the more comforted you feel in your walk with Jesus.
I want you to notice two verses this morning. [snorts] One is Philippians chapter 2 verse 12. And I think they're going to put it on the screen. "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence." What are the next two words, church? "Work out your own salvation with" and "fear." Right. Paul said, "I was with you and you did what you were supposed to do. Now that I'm gone, now that I'm absent, I want you to continue doing what you were doing." And that means I want you to work out. You see, folks, God is at work inside of you right now. There is a holy thing going on inside of every believer. I don't know if you heard me. Something very holy, uh indescribable, is taking place in every believer right now. God is at work inside of you. Giving you the will and then showing you how to carry out His will. So, when we indulge in sins, give ourselves permission to become lax and loose, it it grieves the Holy Spirit inside of us. You do not always feel this going on, but it is. IT'S GOD AT work inside. Oh, what a holy thing. And He says, "I want you to let that work out of you. Let the work of God inside of you work to the surface in your life. Work it out. Walk it out. How? With fear. Fear? Yeah. Fear. Holy God lives inside of me. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is at work inside of me. And He says, "Don't ever forget it. Let it work itself out. Be patient with God and do it with fear." Here's what I and trembling. Not just fear, trembling. When you come to the stark realization of the heaviness of this truth that the same God who spoke and the universe appeared is the God that's working inside of you. And when you realize that before you turn up a tankard of ale and start talking dirty and filthy and before you crawl back under the sheets the sheets of fornication and adultery and before you start scrolling and before you start gambling your money away you will HAVE THIS THOUGHT: GOD IS HERE. GOD IS WATCHING THIS. GOD is on the inside of me. And I have to live my life in fear and trembling. And trembling.
But then Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1: "Therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." Keep it on that one there, Stephen, for a moment. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." Flesh and spirit. That's my job every day. We get up and say we just need to praise the Lord. Yes, we do need to praise the Lord, but then we go to work keeping our flesh our I'm sorry our spirits clean from the flesh. All the filthiness that accompanies this world. I am to guard my heart against it with vengeance. I am to be violent about the holy work that's taking place inside of me. When I realize that I will I won't look twice at something. I won't let my flesh go off. I will bridle my tongue. I will walk in a way that glorifies Jesus. I will do it with fear and trembling because I DON'T WANT TO GRIEVE. I DON'T WANT TO SLOW DOWN. I DON'T WANT TO STOP THE HOLY work of God that's inside of me. See, give us MORE JESUS. I WANT MORE JESUS. JUST GIVE ME JESUS THAT I MAY KNOW JESUS. HE SAYS, "Then walk away from sin." Quit sinning. STOP DOING STUFF THAT CAUSES YOU GUILT. QUIT DOING THINGS THAT will bring condemnation into YOUR LIFE. WALK AWAY. RUN AWAY. WHATEVER YOU DO, STAY away and cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness. Working at it. Crafting it. Saying to yourself every day, "Now, how can I today live a holy life? Where must I not go? What can I not say? What will I not do that will cause the Holy Spirit to feel free and work deeply inside of me? I'm perfecting holiness."
I tell you, we went through a lot of years where holiness was stressed, especially in the Pentecostal churches. And I've told you about, you know, people used to call us holy rollers. Cuz they would roll in the floor. I don't know if it had anything to do with the way they wore their hair, either. They rolled it up. A lot of rolling going on in those days. And there were things you couldn't do and places you couldn't go. And Lord, how I've preached this so many times, when TV WAS A SIN. Oh, but we got liberated. And now we watch everything on it. Oh, all that stuff we said would hurt you, we said, "That's stupid. That's foolish. That's legalism." Look what happened. Christians are drinking all the time, gambling all the time, and on and on AND ON. PASTORS GET DIVORCED. They get remarried. They go right back to the pulpit. It can happen three OR FOUR TIMES. Why? Well, we're not legalistic. No, we're not holy anymore. Because when you live a holy life, your life will be filled with the fear, the reverence, and the AWE OF ALMIGHTY GOD, AND YOU WILL DO everything in YOUR POWER TO LIVE A LIFE THAT'S PLEASING UNTO HIM. CAN I GET AN AMEN THIS MORNING?
Stand with me, please. [snorts] Did it make sense to anybody? Flee the APPEARANCE OF EVIL. GUARD YOUR HEART. Bind your tongue. We are going to stand before Jesus one day. I tell you, I'm a happy Christian. But I realize what I got to face one of these days. Did I kind of throw cold water on everybody this morning? Let me tell you the easiest thing in the world I could have done today.
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Oh, it'd be easy, a lot easier for me. Come in here and just pick a subject that gets you going. Talk about your foot's on the devil's head and all of this and everybody be going crazy. That's not what the Lord laid on my heart in prayer. I felt impressed with the Holy Spirit to remind everybody a holy God requires a holy people. And the whole church said, "Amen."
I'm going to pray. Anybody that would like to come and be saved or come and say, "Lord, teach me to be holy." You're welcome [music] to come down. Father in heaven, I once again praise You for Your word which protects us. Oh, I thank You for the protection that the truth gives us. And I thank You, Lord, that it is by fear of God that I turn away from evil. Because I fear You there, things I will not do anymore. I cannot do them because they offend the heart of God. So, I'm asking now for the thousands that are present and the unknown thousands that are watching, calls us to walk in holiness, oh God. To walk in reverence [music] and fear before You until You come to get us. Hallelujah. And everybody said, "Amen."
You take your Bible. First thing you do every morning, every morning, I told a group this past week, Sandra and [music] I preached in or I did and she clapped. In Alabama. The first thing you do every morning [music] is go to the closet or kneel by the bed. The first thing you eat every morning is this. You don't stand a chance if you say, "Well, I'm I'm going to get up and go to the gym and work out and run a couple of miles and you know, get in a good sweat, then I'll go back and have my devotions." You're already defeated. You've put something before God that day. The first thing you do is offer a living praise to [music] God, a thank you, Jesus. And then you feed your spirit something from the word of God. You won't have a problem. Folks, I want to tell you something. You won't have a problem with addiction if you do what I'm telling you this morning. The Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Sin shall not have dominion over you. And when you read and pray and walk in the fear of the Lord, YOU WON'T HAVE A PROBLEM with addiction. [music] Now, that'll be contested all over the internet now. But that's all right. I believe what I'm telling you. Hallelujah. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about?
So, I'm going to let you go. As you go, walk in the fear of the Lord. With fear and trembling, remember you've been bought with a price. You belong to heaven. You're on your way to glory. And before YOU GET THERE, GOD HAS GLORY FOR you on the inside. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen. Love you, church. See you Wednesday night unless Jesus [music] comes.