It was a cool night as these shepherds
were gathered together and watching over their flocks.
And breaking through the quietness and the stillness
of the evening air, the angel of the
Lord came upon them.
The glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid.
These shepherds were terror-stricken when the angel
said, Fear not, for I bring you good
tidings of great joy.
These trembling shepherds recovered themselves and hastened in
obedience to the angel's command.
These shepherds had not met God, but merely
the angel of the Lord.
In the Bible we have the unusual account
of many human beings that met with the
angel of the Lord.
We read in the book of Judges of
a man by the name of Manoah and
his wife, the parents of Samson, how that
they had a visit from an angelic being.
And the Bible says that when they beheld
the brilliant countenance of this angel, that they
fell on their faces in stark terror.
And Manoah's testimony was this, after it was
all over.
He said, We shall surely die, for we
have seen God.
We read in Matthew chapter twenty-eight of
some guards at the tomb of Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says, Behold, there was a
great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord
came and rolled back the stone.
His countenance was like lightning.
His raiment was as white as snow.
And for fear of him, and for fear
of him, did the keepers shake and became
as dead men.
We read in the Gospel of Luke of
Zechariah, father of John Baptist, how that he
had a visit from an angelic messenger.
And the Bible says that when he, when
he, when he saw this angel of the
Lord, he was troubled and fear fell upon
him.
And the angel came with that familiar introduction.
Fear not.
Have you ever noticed that whenever an angel
appeared to human beings by and large, they
always started out with the same two words,
fear, not giving us the indication they had
every reason to be deathly afraid.
And I want to suggest tonight, men and
women, that if angels who are merely creatures
of God, if they are fearful, how much
more fearful it must be to encounter God
himself.
We read in the book of Genesis of
one such person that met with God face
to face and live to tell about it.
We read of Jacob.
You know, when I was, when I was
in grade school, we used to sing that,
that old, that old, I don't want to
do the course or verse or whatever it
is, but we are climbing Jacob's ladder, great
emphasis on the ladder.
But in that vision, in the book of
Genesis, not only was there a ladder that
Jacob saw as he was fleeing for his
life from his brother Esau, but the significant
thing was that the Lord was at the
top of that very ladder.
And Jacob said after this vision, he said,
surely the Lord is in this place.
And I knew it not.
And he was afraid.
And he said, how dreadful, how dreadful is
this place?
You know, it must be a dreadful experience
to encounter this God of the Bible.
We read in the book of Exodus of
Moses.
He spent 40 days and 40 nights on
Mount Sinai, tremendous thundering, tremendous lightnings and tremendous
smoke all around.
And the Bible tells us that he prayed
to see God and God put him in
the crest of the rock and the back
parts of God, the glory of God passed
by.
And the Bible says that when Moses came
down from that mountain, his face literally radiated
with the glory of God.
He had to put a veil on his
face, but Hebrews tells us so terrible was
the site.
So terrible was the site that Moses said,
I exceedingly fear and great exceedingly fear and
great.
You know, it must be a dreadful experience
to really encounter this God of the Bible.
We read in Isaiah chapter six, that in
the year, the King Uzziah died, the prophet
said, I also saw the Lord high and
lifted up.
And brethren, if there's anywhere we need to
see God at the end of this century
is right there high and lifted up.
And the Bible said above the throne of
God was seraphim, two wings covering their face,
two wings, covering their feet.
And with two wings, they were flying and
they were crying.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
You realize tonight that the word seraphim literally
means flaming one.
The word seraphim literally means burners, burning ones.
These seraphim are so holy during the immediate
presence of God.
They're there to do God's bidding and they
are so holy.
They're literally burning up in their own holiness.
They're like a holy incendiary, but I want
to tell you my friend, holy, though these
seraphim might be, they can't even look on
God because the Bible says with two wings,
they have to cover their face.
Holy though they might be, they can't even
stand before God for with two wings, they
have to cover their feet.
And it's with two wings.
They fly.
I find it very interesting tonight that only
two wings are used for service.
Only two wings used for service while the
other four wings are used to shield themselves
from the brilliance of a holy God.
You know, it must be a dreadful experience
to encounter this God of the Bible.
We read in revelation chapter one, how John,
the beloved apostle, the Bible says that he
was in the spiritual, in the spirit on
the Lord's day.
That's about the best place you can be.
Amen.
In the spirit on the Lord's day.
And he had tremendous vision of the resurrected
Christ.
Listen to the content of this vision.
John said in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks, there was one likened to the
son of man.
He was clothed with a garment, a golden
girdle.
His head, his hair was like wool.
His eyes were like flames of fire.
His feet were like burnished grass.
His voice, like the sound of many waters,
his countenance like the sun that shineth in
spring.
And John said, when I saw him and
when I saw him, I fell down as
one that is dead.
I'm here to tell you that John was
no enemy of Jesus Christ.
In fact, if the Lord had ever had
a friend in his humanity, it was the
beloved disciple, John.
He was the one whom the Lord loved.
He was the one that put his head
on his master's breast at that last table.
Yet when the beloved disciple, John, whom Jesus
loved, saw Jesus in his resurrection glory, he
fell down as one that is dead.
Brothers and sisters tonight, if God is dreadful
when he appears in mercy, how much more
dreadful he must be when he reveals himself
to show us our sin.
I was sitting in Shelbyville, Indiana, in a
motel room one afternoon, meditating on this very
theme, this very message.
My attention was arrested when a semi-tractor
trailer pulled into the Kmart shopping plaza across
the street.
I noticed that this attractive trailer was solid,
white, squeaky clean, no writing on the truck
at all.
And one word on the trailer part, big,
bold blue letters, spelling the word majesty, majesty.
But when I sit there in my motel
room and I kind of begin to chuckle
under my breath and I said, now, isn't
this a paradox majesty comes to Kmart.
And I sat there and I just kind
of chuckled.
I said, man, there must be an illustration
in here somewhere.
Majesty, majesty goes to Kmart.
And I was sitting there kind of chuckling
out of my breath.
And I stopped chuckling because I began to
understand that this is precisely what has happened
in the church of Jesus Christ in North
America, that the glory and the majesty of
our great God has all been reduced to
a cheap blue light special in the minds
of most people that come to the best
churches in these days.
I contend we have an inferior concept of
God.
When you study out the Bible view of
God that we just heard about, and you
compare that to the contemporary view of God,
you find little comparison.
You find namely contrast.
I go from church to church folks, and
it's not uncommon for me to hear people
talking about the man upstairs.
And I want to tell you that they're
not talking about the guy across the street
in the apartment complex.
When they make reference to the man upstairs,
these church members are talking about Jehovah God.
My little boy went into a Baptist Sunday
school and came out with a sticker on
his lapel.
You know, our kids love stickers that I
mean, they don't make a difference what they
say.
They'll wear them.
I mean, they love stickers and he came
out with this little sticker.
I said, come here, son.
Let me see what it says.
And it read somebody up there likes me.
And I thought to myself, when we had
gotten to the point, when we think of
God merely as a bridge over troubled waters
as a man upstairs or a somebody up
there, we have gotten very, very far from
the Bible concept and the Bible view of
God.
I was shocked in Wisconsin when I was
listening to television and a beer commercial came
on.
It's about the only ones that can afford
to, uh, to, uh, uh, advertise on certain
channels.
And I was listening to this and this
beer advertised itself as being the beer from
God's country, using the name of God to
sell alcoholic beverage here in the land of
the free and the home of the brave
in the early seventies.
Some of you will remember when the Dubie
brothers came out with a song.
Some of you will remember this.
Jesus is just all right with me.
I mean, you remember that Jesus is just
all right with me.
Some of my Christian friends thought that Dubie
brothers had become believers, but we've all lived
to see that that was hardly what happened.
And folks, I've learned to understand that it
doesn't make any difference whether Jesus is all
right with me.
And quite frankly, it doesn't make any difference
whether Jesus is just all right with you.
The real encompassing issue tonight is am I,
are you all right with Jesus?
That's really the issue tonight.
Is it not Tom P hall, the country
music steamer came out with a song.
He went like this, me and Jesus.
And then notice the order of this lineup.
If you would me leading the way, naturally
Jesus bringing up the rear, me and Jesus
got our own thing going boy.
We don't need nobody to tell us what
it's all about.
Larry Gatlin, one time gospel singer came out
with an album called the midnight choir.
One of the takes went like this.
Will there be Mogan David in heaven?
And if not, who in hell wants to
go there?
I believe tonight that we have gotten to
the point where we view God as some
sort of a celestial good old boy.
He's some sort of a cosmic job.
He only exists for our benefit and our
happiness.
But I'm here to tell you tonight that
the God of the Bible is my brethren
tonight.
We need to get back to the Bible
and get off of this psychology and get
off of this shulerism and get back to
what the word of God says that our
God is a Holy God.
I fear tonight.
We have communicated a bad message to our
generation and we've done it with our bumper
sticker theology.
Smile.
God loves you.
Well, folks, if you're going to have that
on one side of the bumper, you better
have it on the other side of the
bumper.
That God is angry with the wicked every
day.
Then in Ravenhill said, if we're not careful,
we're going to send a whole generation to
hell with a grin on their face.
Listen to that.
You say, hell, don't you think, don't you
think tonight that God loves the sinner while
he hates their sin?
Well, there's an element of truth in that,
but you better understand one thing, Mike, my
friend, when it comes to the great white
throne judgment, it is not going to be
sin cast into a Lake of fire forever.
It will be unrepentant sinners that will be
cast into a Lake of fire for all
eternity.
And my brethren tonight, I believe we need
a baptism of more than ever.
And I invite you to take your Bible
open, open to Romans chapter three tonight, if
you would Romans chapter three, and I want
you to notice what one of my friends
calls God's autopsy of a dead society, Romans
chapter three and verse twelve.
God's commentary on the human race.
Here it is Romans chapter three, verse twelve
quoted from the old Testament scriptures.
Notice what God says, Romans three and verse
twelve.
They are all gone out of the way.
They have together become unprofitable.
There is none that do it.
Good.
No, not one.
And notice the description.
This is us.
Their throat is an open grave with their
tongues.
They have used the seat.
The point of ask is under their lips.
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
You don't believe it.
Watch thirty minutes of primetime television, whose mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their way.
The way of peace had they not known.
There is no fear of God before their
eyes.
Look at that letter.
There is no fear of God before their
eyes.
I believe tonight that verse eighteen is the
reason for verses twelve through seventeen, because they
had no healthy fear of God.
They sinned with abandonment.
And my friend, these are days when God
consciousness is dying out in America.
And I'm here to tell you tonight, people
think nothing of taking God's name in vain.
And you don't have to curse a blue
streak to use God's name in an empty
vein, futile way.
Let me give you tonight some Bible examples
of those that did not fear the Lord.
Bible examples of those that did not have
the fear of God.
We read over in the Old Testament in
the book of Leviticus, how that God executed
judgment.
Literally, he devoured by fire, because they offered
strange fire on the altar of the Lord.
I remind you tonight that are Aaron's sons.
These are priestly men.
These are praying men.
Yet the scripture says that they offered this
strange fire and God calls that fire on
the altar to leap off the altar and
to literally burn them alive and burn them
to death.
I've studied that out and best I can
understand.
It's when the Bible says they offered strange
fire.
That means that they use some charcoal, other
than what God had commanded.
They presumed it would be all right.
And upon that presumption, they were burned to
death.
May I say it to you tonight that
presuming on God is an evidence of a
lack of the fear of the Lord.
We read in the Old Testament, the book
of first Samuel, how that Eli's sons are
slain by the Philistines because they ministered without
the fear of the Lord.
Here they are priestly men.
And the Bible tells us that these two
characters, half die and Phineas are slain.
Why?
Because in first Samuel chapter two, the Bible
says that they lay with women at the
tent of the congregation.
You know what that means?
These two priests commit immorality with the women
who have brought sacrifices to offer to God.
They're committing immorality at the house of God.
May I say tonight that immorality is an
evidence of a lack of the fear of
God.
And let me say to you tonight that
immorality is an evidence of the judgment and
the wrath of God that when people reject
God, God gives them over to their own
affection.
And the ultimate end of that is perversion
and destruction and evidence of a lack of
the fear of God.
What about in first Chronicles?
We read of the Coa fight.
His whole duty in life was to guard
the ark of the covenant.
He knew that no human hand was to
ever touch that sacred art.
Yet one day the, the archers on a
cart and the ox stumbles and the archers
about to tip over and fall into the
mud and also reaches out his hand instead
of the art, because he didn't want it
to be desecrated by that earth.
But God knew that it wasn't the ground
that would desecrate that ark.
It was the touch of a human hand
that would desecrate that sacred vessel.
And when he reached out to study the
art, what happened?
God struck him dead on the spot.
May I say it to you tonight, that
disobedience disobedience is an evidence of a lack
of the fear of God.
What about in the new Testament and book
of Acts and an eyes in Sapphira, things
are happening in Jerusalem.
A great revival is underway.
Everybody's selling their property, bringing the money and
laying it at the apostle's feet and Ananias
and Sapphira want to get in on the
act.
So they go out and sell a little
parcel of land.
Ananias comes in by himself at first.
He lays the money down before Peter.
Now folks, he could have, he could have
kept the money.
He could have kept it all, but he
lied about it.
And he said, this is all the money
that we got for the land.
And he pocketed half of the proceeds.
He lied about it.
Peter looked at Ananias and said, why has
Satan filled your heart to lie to the
Holy ghost and God struck him dead?
Now Ananias came water or Sapphira came waddling
in late that night.
This is why you ought to always be
on time for church service.
Baptist.
Amen.
You never know what happens prior to your
showing up.
And she did not know what had happened
to her husband tells the same lie.
And what happened to her?
God struck her dead.
May I say it to you tonight?
Dishonesty dishonesty is an evidence of a lack
of the fear of God.
And we read in first Corinthians, how that
many partook of the Lord's table unworthily.
And because of that, many of them slept.
They got a premature death and many of
them were very sick.
I believe tonight that taking God lightly is
an evidence of a lack of the fear
of God.
But folks, we read about it.
Not only in the Bible, all we need
to do is to open our newspaper to
find a rampant evidence of a lack of
the fear of God that permeates our culture.
I don't know if we understand tonight that
we're living in a post-Christian world where
we have rejected the light of scripture and
the light of God as a nation tonight.
And we're reaping these consequences and we'll continue
to reap.
One of the evidences of a lack of
the fear of God is our overwhelming sensuality.
That is just swallowed up the entire, the
entire generation that in which I live, they
tell me there are over 2000 pornographic magazines
are public or sold rather here in America,
over 250 of them feature children.
This was some years ago when they said
that over 300,000 children are used every
year in the making of pornographic materials, 300
,000.
They tell us that we have more adult
bookstores than we do McDonald's hamburger outlets here
in America.
It's getting rather severe folks.
I was in Canada at a revival conference.
One of the speakers was a Christian who
worked in government.
He was a speechwriter for Trudeau.
He got up and said at that time
in Canada, that before their government, there was
a lobby at that very moment.
And they were fighting for the right.
They were lobbying for the right to get
the legal age for sexual consent between adults
and children.
They were trying to get that Lord, the
legal age for sexual consent between adults and
children.
They were trying to get the child's age
Lord to age four in Canada.
Do you understand that some of our liberal
lawmakers in Washington, DC have before us this
year, a bill before the United States government
that I understand is my understanding to get
the legal age for sexual consent between adults
and children, Lord down to age 12 here
in America, whoever felt the day would come
when they perverts would be fighting for the
right to rape your children.
You know what?
One of their slogans is sex before eight
or it's too late.
God help us.
They tell me that one out of three
girls will be sexually abused.
Hardly a crusade goes by, but when you
have to deal with someone who was in
one out of five boys, they say sexually
abused in America before reaching age 18.
And now we've got a campaign for safe
sex.
So we're going to give them all the
materials to arm themselves because they're surely going
to get involved in this anyway.
So let's, let's help them do it right.
Listen, young people, I'll tell you all you
ever need to know about safe sex.
All you ever need to know two words,
holy matrimony is all you ever need to
know about safe sex.
We give them a hundred thousand reasons why
they all not to fornicate.
That's, that's no, that's no different.
That's no different than telling that all the
reasons why y'all not to do such
and such because you'd go to jail.
I'll tell you why God said, be pure.
That's the only thing you need to know.
My friend, an evidence of a lack of
the fear of God.
What about, what about the drug crisis and
evidence of a lack of the fear of
God?
Francis Schaeffer said that being, we had rejected
the light of scripture that in this country,
we will be given to Eastern mysticism and
drug taking.
You tell me if he was not a
prophet drug taking, you know, the word sorcery
in the old Testament has to do with
drug taking witchcraft.
And you understand that when people take dope,
they open up themselves to what the Bible
calls evil spirits or demons.
That's not Pentecostalism brother.
That's the Bible.
What about this idiot that blew 22 people
away down in Texas, Killeen, Texas?
Oh, he was a drug addict.
Have you ever noticed that the mass murderers,
everyone I've ever seen is either a Satan
worshiper or a dope addict.
Have you ever noticed that my brethren tonight,
I want to tell you the war on
drugs.
There is no war on drugs.
Drugs.
Aren't the problem.
Columbia is not the problem.
Cocaine is not the problem.
The problem is the immoral behavior of the
American people.
That's the problem.
And it's a sin against God.
We're morally insane.
Well, not only the drug crisis.
What about tonight?
Our preoccupation with violence and evidence of a
lack of the fear of God preoccupation with
violence.
They tell me that by the time the
average kid gets to be 16 years old
in this country, he has witnessed 18,000
murders via television, 18,000 people.
He's been shot, blown up and stabbed and
murdered.
One television producer said he had to show
a murder or rape or the equivalent every
seven or eight minutes because the people have
such a short attention span that if you
didn't show something exciting, they would get bored
and turn the channel to look for something
a little more entertaining.
What kind of people I asked you, what
kind of people would entertain themselves by watching
other people get shot, stabbed, assaulted and blown
away?
Doesn't the Bible right here say that their
feet are swift to shed blood and destruction
and misery are in their ways.
You take away of a handgun in the
country plan, and you're not going to stop
the murder that's going on.
I want to tell you something tonight.
I want to tell you tonight.
It's people that kill people and evidence of
a lack of the fear of God.
Oh, what about it tonight?
A lack of respect for the human for
human life and evidence of a lack of
the fear of God.
Folks, I'm here to say, if you've got
no fear of God, you'll have no respect
for anybody else.
Not even your own children.
You know, you know, the most dangerous place
to live in America.
It's not New York.
It's not Harlem.
It's not Los Angeles.
You know where the most dangerous place to
live in America, your own mother's womb, the
most unsafe place to live in America.
25 million innocents have been slaughtered in this
country.
Think of it 300,000 strong in Washington,
DC, fighting for the right to kill their
own offspring.
I'm here to tell you, you're never going
to solve the abortion crisis until you solve
the immorality crisis that has created the abortion
crisis.
Lack of respect for human life.
Think of it tonight.
How bad it's gotten.
I'll tell you not only the abortion epidemic,
but leading to infanticide, which is just the
killing of the unborn or killing of the
born.
If they don't turn out right.
One Nobel prize scientist said that every child
born in the world ought to undergo a
barrage of tests.
Nobel prize scientists.
If you can pass the test, give them
a birth certificate.
If they cannot pass the test, terminate it.
Polite way of saying, kill them, kill them
infanticide.
Listen, folks, if you can abort them before
they're born, you can kill them after they're
born.
If they don't turn out right up to,
up to specification.
And I want to tell you, if you
can do that with the young people and
the babies, why not get rid of the
old people, euthanasia?
We're not talking about a team tour in
a foreign country, euthanasia.
You know what we're talking about here?
We're talking about happy death.
We're talking about mercy killing.
We thought about the hemlock crowd.
I was listening to radio the other day.
And this woman who was an expert in
these matters said that in Holland, that 25
% of all deaths in Holland are physician
assisted.
The, you know, you know, at times bestseller
list comes out with one.
Guess what it is.
Final exit, a manual on how to kill
yourself.
Suicide.
The folks here we are, where we've got
43 million people receiving a social security check.
That's 20% of the population.
The rest of us are supposed to come
up with the money to fund these people.
And what are you going to, what do
you think is going to happen when the
pyramid gets even more inverted and we have
no funds and we have all of these
demands, what do you think we're going to
do with these old people?
Well, like one government spokesman said, you ought
to have mercy and compassion.
Notice the word compassion on your mother and
father.
When they get old, they don't feel good.
They don't get around like they used to.
You ought to have compassion on them and
you ought to allow them to be put
to sleep.
Oh, my friend.
I think, I think we don't understand how
far we have descended as a people in
this country.
When these things are being talked about by
the so-called intellectuals among us.
And God's people sat around with our heads
in the sand.
And we think if we can continue to
have our services and continue to do what
we want to do and have our home
and have our home on the lake and
do this and do that, all will be
well.
Look at what we're handing to the next
generation.
Hemlock society had a meeting, the right to
die people over in Europe.
A girl rolled out on the platform in
a wheelchair in front of the microphone.
She got out in front of the microphone.
She made the announcement.
I've decided to take the plunge.
Know what she meant by that?
She meant that she had decided to kill
herself.
You know how the crowd responded?
A standing ovation.
Now, these are our liberal friends who call
themselves compassionate, caring, death with dignity.
I'm here to tell you, they're a bunch
of barbarians.
And my brethren tonight, this is all due
to a lack of the fear of God.
If you have no fear of God, you
will have no respect for other people.
And ultimately you will have no respect for
yourself.
Humanism has a death wish tonight, a death
wish tonight.
And we wonder why young people are committing
suicide.
We wonder about it.
Well, I'll tell you why, because they've been
told there is no God.
Listen, if you've got no God, you've got
no law.
If you've got no law, you've got no
meaning.
And if you've got no meaning, you've got
no hope.
Here we have a generation that has no
hope.
I'm telling you, it's an evidence of a
lack of the fear of God in our
society.
But what about tonight?
What about it tonight?
Is there a possibility, a lack of the
fear of God in the church?
Is it possible tonight, my friend, that Jesus
is being wounded in the house of his
friends?
Take your Bible tonight and look in the
book of Malachi right before Matthew.
The last book of the old covenant, God's
last word to his covenant people, Israel.
This is a hard thing.
You know, folks, there are some people, there
are some people that deny the Bible, deny
the word of God, deny the virgin birth.
They deny all of these things.
They throw the Bible right out the window.
There's another crowd over here.
On the other hand, we say we believe
the Bible from cover to cover.
We believe it's the inspired, infallible, inerrant word
of God.
Well, let me make an announcement tonight, the
atheists and the Bible deniers and these people
over here, listen to me tonight.
I don't think that the atheists have hurt
the cause of Jesus Christ.
I really don't believe it.
Madeline, Mary O'Hara has never hurt the
Lord.
You look at her long enough.
You'll have to get saved.
I listened.
She is not the problem.
We can talk about her all we want.
She is not the problem.
I believe tonight that more damage has been
done, not by those that the disclaim the
Bible and deny the Bible, but by those
that say they believe the Bible and then
turn around and live in such a way.
So it's denied the reality of what they
say.
They believe this is where the damage is
being done.
Now, listen to what God had to say
to his people.
Malachi one in verse six, look at this.
God says a son, a son honors his
father.
A son honors his father and a servant,
his master.
If then I'd be a father, God says,
where is my honor?
And if I'd be a master, where is
my fear?
A son honors his father, a servant, his
master.
If I'd be a father, Hey, where's my
honor?
And if I'd be a master, where is
my fear?
And Jeremiah thirty-five, God told his prophet
and Jeremiah thirty-five.
God told his prophet to go out and
invite the record bikes into the house of
the Lord.
Jeremiah went out, invited these record by people
in invited into a certain room in the
house of God.
God told him to give him wine to
drink.
He's recognized.
They come in, they sit down.
Jeremiah says to the leader of that troop,
he said, I want to offer you a
glass of wine to drink.
He declined and said, no, thank you.
He went to the next man and offered
him wine to drink.
He said, no, thank you.
He went to the next man.
He said, no, thank you.
He went all the way around that room
and nobody took it.
I'm thinking maybe these people are fasting today
and maybe they're mourning about something grieving here.
Finally, one of them spoke up and said,
Jeremiah, by the way, we don't drink wine
period.
He said, Oh really?
How long has that been going on?
They said for generations, our forefather Jonah, dad
commanded us never to drink wine, never to
live in houses made with hands and never
to succeed.
They said out of respect for our forefather
Jonah, dad, we don't drink wine period.
His theology is being crippled, crumpled here.
I can imagine he sent those record bikes
out and start an audience with God.
I can't, you see, it's just profit.
God, you told me to invite the record
bikes in and God, you told me to
give them wine to drink and God, you
knew all the while that they wouldn't drink
it.
Now, God, why did you do it?
I can imagine God coming back with a
bold, pungent, two-fisted statement that just crippled
the mouth of his prophet when he said,
for one simple reason, Jeremiah, these people are
implicitly obedient to an earthly father, but your
people are so stiff-necked and I happen
to be their God.
If I'd be a father, hey, where's my
honor?
And if I'd be a master, where, where
is my fear?
You don't want my little boys call me
what they call me.
Daddy got a good ring to it.
Don't you think daddy, I kind of like
term of endearment, a term of affection, daddy,
and I'm all the time getting requests addressed
to daddy, a daddy.
Can we call dominoes tonight?
I guarantee you right at the church.
Daddy, can we go fishing this week?
Hard to turn down that request anytime.
Amen.
And daddy, can we, can you come out
and play ball with us?
Hey daddy, can we, can we watch that
Christian video?
Hey daddy, this daddy, that, you know, you
know, folks of my children all this week
address me, daddy, can we go here?
And daddy, can we go there?
And daddy, can we do this?
And, and yet they never obey anything.
I say never pick up their toys.
When I ask them to never make up
their bed of a morning, never do anything.
I ask them, you know, it wouldn't take
me very long to say, now, wait a
minute, fellas, hold, hold everything here.
You've been calling me your daddy.
You've been calling me your father.
Now, how about a little respect and a
little obedience for the title that you're giving
me and folks, we expect our children to
honor us and obey us.
Do we not?
And if we expect that out of our
children, don't you imagine that God expects the
same out of his, if I'd be a
father, where is my honor?
If I'd be a master, where is my
fear?
Let me give you tonight, four characteristics of
the fear of God, right out of the
Bible.
Duncan Campbell was in the new Hebrides.
I mentioned him this morning.
God swept through those islands.
Campbell said in one of those meetings, a
sinner came and got up under the pulpit,
oblivious to anybody else's.
Campbell said, the man cried out at the
top of his voice.
And he said, Oh God, hell is too
good for me.
Oh God, hell is too good for me.
You know what you call it?
That's Holy ghost conviction.
And it's becoming rarer and rarer in Baptist
churches in America.
Oswald chamber said, the conviction is the rarest
thing that ever strikes a man.
My brethren, I believe the fear of the
Lord has certain characteristics.
Let me give you four of them tonight.
Number one, Proverbs eight, 13.
The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil pride, arrogancy, and the evil way.
The fear of the Lord is to hate
sin.
Charles Finney said, when you have the fear
of God, you not only dread the consequences
of sin.
He said, you get to the point where
you begin to dread sin itself.
You just hate to sin.
You know, there's some things I don't like
to do.
And I don't do it.
If I don't do it, if I can
get out of it, I don't like cut
grass.
I don't like to wash the car.
I don't like to wax the trailer.
Believe me.
I don't like to do that.
I don't like to wash dishes.
I don't like to do certain things.
And folks, I want to tell you, I
don't do it.
If I can get out of it, there's
some things I don't like, and there's some
things I really despise.
There's a few things I hate.
Changing diapers is one thing I hate.
All the men here say it.
Amen.
And a pastor.
I'm not working in nursery on Tuesday.
I'm sorry about this.
I, I'm going to be busy.
I can tell right now I'm busy.
I'm not going to be available for that.
Now you say, brother, how you just fight?
Yeah, I just find that.
And I don't do it.
If I can get out of it, that's
my wife.
I mean, folks, I don't do the things
I hate.
I don't do the things I don't like.
And I'm here to tell you tonight that
when a man hates sin, he's not likely
to get engaged in it.
And that's what the fear of God is
all about.
The fear of God is to hate.
My brethren, that is the fear of the
Lord.
Number two, the fear of the Lord prevents
sin.
Listen to me.
This is the only adequate moral restraint.
We can't understand why we don't have any
ethics anymore.
You cannot have ethics and morality apart from
Bible religion.
Are you listening to me tonight?
You can't have it.
You're not going to have it.
And the farther we get away from God,
the more scandals they're going to be in
the professing church.
Oh, my brethren, tonight, the fear of the
Lord is the only adequate moral restraint.
It prevents sin.
Proverbs 16, six, by the fear of the
Lord, men depart from evil by the fear
of the Lord.
Men depart from evil.
This is the answer to moral problems.
Brethren, here it is by the fear of
the Lord.
Men depart from evil.
My wife's not in here.
She's not.
My wife is one of the most godly
people I've ever met.
I mean, she's just a good person.
I mean, she's just that way.
And I'm telling you, she's also one of
the most naive people I've ever met in
my life.
She doesn't know what's going on.
Praise God that there's a few people that
don't even know what's happening in terms of
evil.
We've been married for three months.
I got up enough courage to question my
wife.
I said to her, and I said, I
got a question for you.
Let's have it.
When you were a teenager, why didn't you
do what all the other teenagers were doing?
I wanted to know, why didn't you party?
Why didn't you go out and get drunk?
Why didn't you fool around?
Why didn't you do what everybody else was
doing?
My wife looked at me as sober as
she could be.
And she said, Harold, when I, when I
was a teenager, the reason I didn't do
what all the other kids were doing, because
I knew if I did it, it would
just kill my father.
It hurt him so bad.
It was just killing.
I didn't want to hurt my dad.
Pretty good motivation for not wanting to get
involved in those things.
And my brothers and my sisters tonight, I'm
here to tell you that the reason you
ought not to want to sin is not
because of the trouble it's going to get
you in, but because of how it's going
to grieve and offend and hurt our great
holy God.
By the fear of the Lord, men depart
from evil.
Number three, by the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, seeing life from
God's point of view.
First church I ever got involved in, we
had an unhappy incident where the pastor decided
to leave his wife for his best friend's
wife.
It became public knowledge.
The people of the church went to the
land broken and in tears.
They said, man, in God's name, in God's
name, don't do it.
Don't leave your wife.
Don't divorce your wife.
Don't don't commit the sin.
And they were, they were, they were broken.
You know what the response was?
Well, we know what we're doing is wrong.
We know what we do is wrong.
We know it's wrong, but after we've done
it, we're going to claim first John one,
nine, we're going to confess our sin.
God's not going to forgive us and everything's
going to be all right.
I don't care if you're a Calvinist.
I don't care if you're an Armenian or
a scopio light or something in between all
of those shades, my friend, that's sorry, theology
in anybody's book.
And I'm here to tell you tonight, we've
gotten to the point where seeing makes no
difference.
Just do what you want to claim a
verse everything will be.
Well, my friend, there are consequences that go
along with sin tonight.
And I want to tell you that the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom.
I'll tell you number four, the fear of
the Lord will affect the fruit of our
lips and the conduct of our life.
Are you listening to me tonight?
The fear of the Lord will affect the
fruit of our lips and the conduct of
our life.
George Gallup said, we've never been more religious
and our religion has never made less impact
on the way we live our lives in
America.
It's false religion folks.
We've our churches packed out with people that's
never been converted by the power of God.
Listen, the fear of the Lord will affect
the fruit of our lips and the conduct
of our life.
The Bible says, let them that name the
name of Christ depart from iniquity.
John Bunyan preached 15 sermons on that text.
Let them that name the name of Christ
depart from iniquity.
I think we need to have such a
reverential, all of God on our hearts, such
a fear of God that if we ever
dare to take his name upon our lips
and preaching, praying, conversing or singing, we have
no privilege use of the name of the
Lord, but I will not hold him guiltless
and take his name in vain.
All my brethren tonight, Martin Luther said we
needed to love and fear God.
That's what he said.
We need to love and fear God.
I want to give you tonight.
The main reason you ought to fear God.
I think you'll be surprised.
I want to illustrate it by way of
parable.
Parable comes from India.
Robbie Zacharias gives this parable from his homeland.
Two young people are engaged to be married.
The time for the ceremony to take place
draws near.
It becomes very apparent that this young woman
is a wicked minded person.
She comes to her fiance and says, in
what way are you going to prove to
me that you love me more than anyone
else?
The young man said, well, I'll prove it
in any way.
I'll do anything you ask.
The young woman said, well, if you really
love me more than anybody else, I want
you to prove it one way.
I want you to take your mother's life.
The boy said, don't be ridiculous.
My love for you is categorically different than
my love for my mother.
And when I marry you, you're going to
be that number one person in my life.
Don't be ridiculous.
That young woman said, no, if you really
love me more than anybody else and want
to marry me, I want you to prove
it by taking your mother's life and taking
her heart out of her body and bringing
it to me as a token of my
victory.
Well, the parable states that boy went home
and was troubled and tossed and turned, but
he decided to do it.
He took his mother's life.
He gets the heart out of her body
in his hand.
He goes running across the miles with this
token of victory for his fiance.
As he's running through a picket in the
woods, he stumbles and trips and the heart
bounces out of his hand.
Frantically, he gets down on all four and
he can't find it at first.
And then finally under a bush, there was
a kind of a crumpled mess.
He began to try to gather and piece
together his mother's heart in his hands as
a token of her victory.
And as he's gathering that heart together in
his hand, suddenly a voice comes out of
the heart saying, son, are you hurt?
There's something indescribable about a parent's love, even
for an erring child, if they're not.
And I'm here to tell you tonight that
there's something indescribable about the parental love of
God for us, his people that ought to
strike a note of trembling and fear in
our hearts here this evening.
Jeremiah chapter 29.
I think it is.
God says, I'm going to cleanse my people
from all their sin, whereby they have sinned
against me, saith the Lord, and all the
nations of the earth shall tremble and fear
when they hear of all the good that
I'm going to do for them.
My brethren tonight, I'm here to tell you
that God has been mighty good to us.
Do you understand tonight?
God doesn't know you a thing.
Are you aware of this?
You aware tonight?
It's the very goodness of God.
If you have any heart left for holiness,
that you're not a complete reprobate.
My wife is not an emotional person.
We were coming home one night out of
church service on a rare occasion, tears began
to scream down her face.
And she looked at me and she said,
Harold, why has God been so good to
us?
Why has God been so good to us?
Man, here we are.
God's been so good.
I said, honey, there's no reason for it.
He's just a good God.
He didn't give us anything we deserve.
And he's a good God.
We just sit there and worship God.
Oh, my brethren tonight.
Some people are puzzled.
Why?
How God could allow this maniac in Texas
to blow away 22 innocent people.
How could God allow a drunk driver to
have a head-on collision and kill an
innocent child?
How could God allow these terrorists to terrorize
and torture these innocent victims folks tonight?
The thing that's got me puzzled is not
how could God allow some people to die.
The thing that's got me puzzled tonight is
how could God allow any of us to
continue to live?
Has God been good to you tonight?
Do you understand tonight?
The very fact, the very fact you have
any heart for God whatsoever is an evident
token of the goodness and the grace of
God.
And my brethren tonight, I'm here to tell
you that when we understand how good God
has been to us, it ought to instill
in us a note of trembling and fear
before the Lord.
Philippians chapter two, the Bible says, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Let me ask you tonight, kind sir, when's
the last time you ever trembled in the
presence of God, working out your salvation?
Dear ma'am, when's the last time you
ever trembled before a holy God?
Brethren, we are rejoicing, but we are lacking
the trembling in the church of God.
It says in the book of Corinthians that
we ought to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God.
It says in Hebrews that we've received such
great promises that we might serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear.
And it says in the book of Acts
that the churches had rest and were multiplied,
walking in the fear of the Lord and
the comfort of the Holy ghost.
Listen, folks, you can't have the comfort of
the Holy ghost until you, first of all,
have the fear of God.
And I'm here to tell you tonight that
when God's on the scene, you've got these
two things.
Always you get the fear of the Lord
and you've got the comfort of the Holy
spirit.
The fear of the Lord is a spirit
of conviction and the comfort of the Holy
spirit is a spirit of celebration.
And I'm telling you when God's in your
life, you don't have one or the other.
You've got both.
You've got a spirit of conviction and you've
got a spirit of celebration.
There's rejoicing yet with trembling.
My brethren, when we realize the great awesomeness
of our great God and our accountability to
him and the very fact that we will
give an account of every idle word that
we've ever spoken tonight, it's enough to cause
us to rejoice with trembling tonight, with trembling.
You said, brother Harold, how in the world
can we obtain the fear of God in
our culture?
How in the world can we be those
that grow and really obtain a real serious
fear of the Lord?
Well, I want you to look in Proverbs
chapter two tonight, because that gives us the
answer best place in the Bible.
I can find on how to obtain the
fear of the Lord.
Proverbs chapter two and verse one underscore the
verbs tonight.
Notice carefully these verbs.
How do you obtain the fear of the
Lord?
Solomon tells us the answer.
Proverbs two, verse one, my son, if thou
wilt receive my words and hide my commandments
with thee, so that thou incline thine ear
unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding.
Yea, if thou cryeth after knowledge and lifteth
up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest
her silver and searches for her as for
his treasures, then thou shall understand the fear
of the Lord and find the knowledge of
God.
Notice receive, hide, incline, apply, cry, lift, seek,
search.
Then you will understand the fear of the
Lord.
You know what God's saying to us tonight,
folks?
He's saying he's not interested in the casual
inquiries.
He's looking for diligent seekers.
He's not looking for casual inquiries.
He's looking for people that's going to get
serious, diligent seekers.
And God says that when you'll receive and
apply and incline and hide and cry and
lift and seek and search, then you'll come
to know this thing called the fear of
the Lord and you'll find a true knowledge
of God.
You should make it practical.
Let me give you four things tonight on
how to obtain the fear of the Lord.
Number one, the way to obtain the fear
of the Lord.
Number one is by confessing.
First of all, that you don't have it.
You know, sometimes admitting you're wrong is the
first step to making it right.
When I begin to study the fear of
the Lord, I studied this theme for three
years.
I found it was a dominant theme of
the Old and New Testaments as well, but
I can name on one hand every sermon
I'd ever heard on the fear of the
Lord.
Just never heard much about it.
I began to study this out and I
read that text where God says that the
fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
And I said to God many a day,
I said, God, I want to tell you,
I don't have the fear of the Lord
because the fear of the Lord is to
hate evil.
And to be quite honest about it, Lord,
there's some sins I don't hate.
There's some sins I really enjoy, which told
me I didn't have the fear of God.
And my brethren, I want to tell you,
I'm still trying to perfect holiness in the
fear of God.
Listen to me tonight.
If you can entertain thoughts of lust and
rebellion and enjoy it, you don't have the
fear of God.
Listen, if you can be anything other than
a hundred percent truthful in your speaking, you
don't have the fear of the Lord.
Nehemiah didn't cheat the people because he feared
God.
It says, Oh my brethren.
First of all, we need to admit that
we don't have it.
Oh, we only have it to a degree.
Number two, I think we need to daily
ask for the fear of the Lord.
And I'm not talking about praying one prayer.
One time I'm talking about praying the same
prayer thousands of times, many days, maybe for
a year, maybe for a half year.
Have you found out that you're a slow
learner spiritually?
Have you found that out?
I found, I think sometimes I must be
spiritually retarded.
It takes me so long to really ingrain
and incorporate one concept in my life.
I have to work on it for a
couple of years daily.
Ask for the fear of the Lord.
Ask and it shall be given point three
by faith.
Receive it.
Listen, friend, when you ask God for something,
I think the next thing you ought to
do is to thank God for it before
it ever shows up.
Thanking God is the first step of faith.
You know, sometimes you have to pray like
this.
Lord, I, I admit, I need a better
fear of you.
And God, I ask you to give it
to me.
And Lord, even though I really don't sense
it in my spirit right now, I believe
it because I've asked for it in sincerity.
And I believe that you're working the fear
of God down into my heart right now,
by faith, receive it.
Folks, when you ask God for something, go
ahead and claim it by faith.
If it's in the will of God, you
know, you have the petitions you desire of
him.
Point four, memorize Psalm 34, memorize Proverbs chapter
two, memorize these verses on the fear of
the Lord.
The Bible is full of them.
Collect these verses, meditate on them.
Meditate.
We had two women in our church housewives
from all appearance, godly people.
And they decided to band together every week.
They determined they did not have a fear
of God.
I'm not talking about somebody running around.
I'm talking about godly housewives.
And they determined they did not have the
fear of the Lord.
They decided they determined they were going to
begin to pray every day, search, search the
scriptures, memorize, meditate, and meet together once a
week with each other to try to build
up one another and share what they had
learned and pray one for the other.
Even what that text said, if you receive
incline, apply, cry, hide, lift, seek, search, then
you will come to know the fear of
God and find a true knowledge of the
Lord.
All my brothers and sisters tonight, there it
is.
There it is.
And my challenge to you tonight is a
people.
My challenge to you tonight is a people.
It's a rise above the tide of religious
mediocrity that surrounds us in these days and
become desperate, diligent seekers of God and to
come to know this thing called the fear
of the Lord.
Wouldn't you like to get to the point
when you even hated the garment that was
spotted by the flesh?
When you wouldn't run off the cliff in
some sort of a mental sin, but before
it ever came into your mind, there would
be a reflex action against it.
The very holiness of God coming to repel
it.
And that you would get to the point
where you would not even entertain these thoughts
mentally much less than physically.
Are some of you wearing men with me
here tonight?
My friend working at your own salvation with
fear and trembling, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God, turning away from every, every sin
of the flesh and of the spirit.
Oh, my brethren tonight, that God was stir
our hearts up for a hungering and a
hankering after true holiness for blessed are they
are blessed to appear in heart for they
shall see the Lord.
Listen, folks, God's working in my heart in
these days.
And I want to give you a little
report tonight, struggling week.
The flesh is never going to be improved,
but I want to tell you something tonight.
It's getting to the point where I can
see that sin coming.
And many times I am able in these
days to say no to it before it
ever comes in full force.
I might not sound like much to you,
but I want to tell you to a
person that had his mind filled with trash
and feel for Jennifer for years.
It sure is a good victory to know
that the fear of God can shun these
wicked thoughts and put them to flight.
Oh, my brothers, my sisters tonight.
How many of you here tonight really think
that our God, this God of the Bible
deserves better than what he's been getting in
these lukewarm days?
How many of us here really tonight think
that our God deserves better than what he's
been getting from us in these days?
Do you feel the Lord?
Do you need to have a confrontation with
the holiness of God tonight?
Will you become a diligent seeker?
Will you tonight?
Will you have to say in your heart,
Lord, I only have the fear of God
to a degree or God.
I don't have it at all, but God,
I want it.
God, give it to me.
God, thank you for it.
God, I'm going to, you know, fly my
heart toward it.
God, make me one that fears you.
Oh, my challenge to you tonight, my brethren,
my sister, my teenage friend is to become
a diligent seeker after God.
The only way you're going to stay clean
is with the fear of God.
The only way that you'll not become a
shipwreck your own self with God.
If no one else is with this thing
called the fear of the Lord.
Oh, my brethren tonight, our God is worthy.
He's worthy of much better.
And brethren, it's up to us to apply
in crime, receive, hide, cry, lift, seek, search.
God said it to make any difference what
the culture is.
Then you find a true knowledge of God
and you'll know the fear of the Lord.