Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Fear: The Highest Worship Pt.1

Turn to Ecclesiastes 12:13. I want to pick up where we left off in our last session, relating to the highest form of worship. We said the highest form of worship is obedience. It's not in works. It's in the heart attitude of our relationship with our Father and our desire to please Him. The greatest worship, then, is not going out in obligation, but going out in gratitude to serve Father and to keep His commandments. He said, "If you love Me, you will keep my commandments, and the commandments won't be grievous to you." In Ecclesiastes, we read all of the different revelations of what man is really about--the vanity of humanity under the power of sin and all that life affords, and yet, it's without justice, it's unfulfilling. The wise man says it is vanity, it is vexation. There seems to be no purpose in life. You can become frustrated and wonder why the wicked prosper. The psalmist said, "Then I went to the house of the Lord, and I saw that there is a day of justice that's coming and that our lives in this realm are just a vapor." They're going to pass, but everything that we do in relationship with Him is eternal. We're eternal beings, and we live for an eternal purpose. Life is not yours to squander on temporal things. Life is not yours to limit by carnal understanding. We've been called and separated from the foundations of the world. Before we were formed in our mother's womb, God knew each of us in this room who has been regenerated. He called us by name, and He's brought us to this place for one reason: to effect His eternal purposes and to fulfill His will. The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments. That's a pretty awesome thing isn't it?

So, we need to sober our minds and move opposite of humanity. They're trying to take control of their lives and trying to invest all of their time and energies into the temporal. We must begin to realize that God deals with us from the eternal perspective. We're a special people, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Think about that! We're an entity separate from all of the nations of the earth. All the nations of the earth are a drop in the bucket, the Scripture says, but one holy nation, a people called by His name, His eye is on the least of us. Not a sparrow falls that He's not aware of. He can call you by name; the hairs of your head are numbered tonight. You've got a reason for living. You've been gifted and placed in the body as it pleases Him. There's a purpose for each of us. That should strengthen us; that should encourage us. It should cause worship to rise in each one of your hearts in thankfulness, that while billions go to a devil's hell, God in His grace saved you. Can you say, "Praise God!" for that? Let's not squander it on the things that the world considers valuable. The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments.

What an exciting time! There's a lot going on right now. The groups are preparing to go to Africa, so we encourage you to pray for them. There's a lot that's going on there. Some of our pastors there are experiencing opposition, partly because God is blessing and opening doors of utterance. Continue to pray for them and for the team that's going over. This isn't just a cakewalk. Those of you who are going, this is not a vacation. You are going into the heart of demonic powers in this nation of Africa. You're not going to go over there and war in the flesh. You're not going to get it done with smiles and trite sayings; it's going to be in the power of the Holy Ghost. Those of you who are going, get yourself empowered. Be ready to speak as the Spirit of God gives you the utterances, and be prepared for battle.

Tony is especially in need of prayer. He's had a real flaring up of the malaria--far greater than his first encounter with it. Tony's descriptions, as you know, are very graphic. As I was reading his declaration to me that he was still alive, it sounded like he was trying to convince himself that he was still living! I'm trying to remember the wording he used. "Having lived past forty years [now you know how old Tony is!], I've never experienced a sickness like this." He said it was like individual segments of pain were boring into his bones throughout his body. He said his brow burned with a temperature of 104 degrees, but his blood ran cold as he couldn't stop shaking--on fire and chilled at the same time, with uncontrollable cramps throughout the digestive system. Those of you who haven't gotten your malaria tablets yet, I thought I'd use that as a commercial! Make sure you have them before you go, and trust God. One of the men who's going to be conducting the meetings there in Eldoret (this gentleman we're working with, Kyle) has not been this ill in years, and he was struck with mountain malaria, which is one of the more severe types. And I think, along with that, he's also had some type of flare-up of two other things that he was warring against. There's opposition that's going on, so be prayerful!

Pray for us as we're preparing to go over and hold the seminars shortly, following the team over, and then going into Tanzania. As we said, this is going to be an historic event in that nation. The two major Pentecostal groups have never come together for conferences, and for the first time in the history of that nation, they're going to come together. We still don't have a final tally, and we're not really taken up with numbers. They are, because they're having to plan for it. They're cutting off registration in the next week or so, so they'll know how many they'll have here. But they're expecting the leaders of that nation to come, and we're believing that God has a word for them. So, pray for us. We know that we're not going to go without opposition, but our weapons are not carnal; they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

As I've been prayerful in trying to consider what the Spirit of God would have to say to these men, it's really an interesting thing to hear the state that these people have gotten themselves into because of a lack of shepherds after God's own heart. Here are these men in the same condition as so many here in our country--seeking titles, and seeking dominance, and seeking riches, and seeking personal fame. Flesh is flesh, isn't it? That's what makes it easy, really. You have all of these people, and I've had it happen to me so many times, but it's still amazing. They all want to come and tell you how to respond to this culture because, "You see, Africa is different from India, and India is different from Mexico," and whatever it is. Flesh is flesh, man! You take the message of the gospel, and it is applicable to every situation. It doesn't matter what gender they are; it doesn't matter what color they are; it doesn't matter what culture they come from. They've all ultimately descended from Adam, and sin is the dominant force in their lives. They live for themselves, and God's Spirit wants to set them free, praise God! So, be prayerful. We believe that we do have a word to take there, and we're excited about that!

You remember Patrick, who's been with us for years now and was used of God to help us in getting set up in Kenya. He's the gentleman who's high up in their CIA. Interestingly enough, he has access to the e-mail of everyone in the complex. Not long ago, he sent out 2,000 e-mails of our devotional. So, everyone in the Kenya CIA got put on Sword of the Spirit's devotional list! He did tell these people that they were not required to read this daily, but he wanted every one of them to have access to it, to see it, and to know what it was about. He also has a way of following up on who reads it and who doesn't. This has been going on for weeks now, and he said that there are at least two hundred people who read it every morning! Can you say "Praise God!" for that? That's a lot of folks, man, that are over there just hanging out in the CIA building reading our daily devotional when they should be working! We trust that it will affect their lives. And this is just another way of showing each of you the effects of your prayer, of the work that you've done, and of your contributions. We don't have any idea what's going on in the spirit realm and where this word is going, praise God! We don't know who's printing that thing out and handing it to somebody else. And the next thing you know, the thing ends up in a thatched hut out in Busia somewhere, and somebody gets saved! Isn't it exciting how God works? We're believing that the Word of the Lord is going to go forth!

I'm excited about these books! I hadn't read them yet, but when we were here in prayer last night, I pulled out the little booklet entitled, Holiness: Jesus' Imminent Return. That thing is exciting, man! I got so blessed reading my teaching; there's good stuff in there! How many of you have seen a copy of that so far? Steve said he made mention of it the other night. You can't read that thing and your mind not be turned to the coming of the Lord. I was shocked at how powerful this message is! And, you know, there's hardly any teaching on it anywhere today. We've printed this thing for Africa, but I'm just sensing in my spirit that somehow it's going to get out in our country. That little booklet with just those little quotations--I'm believing God can get it out in this country, and it can change the heart of many professed Christians from being earth-dwellers to looking up, for our redemption is drawing nigh. So, be prayerful about that. Let's believe God to do exceedingly abundant above anything that we could ask or even think, because I believe He's coming back real soon. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus! Pray for the guys, pray for doors of utterance to be opened, and let's pray that each of us would be found faithful and be ready to finish this course.

The Scripture says in Deuteronomy 10, "And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (verse 12). What does the Lord require of us? To fear Him. The fear of the Lord--we're talking about a reverential fear and, of course, that's been lost in our society today. There is no respect of authority or for the elders any longer. Each person is not only an entity unto himself, but each one thinks that we're all equal. Each one thinks that his purposes are of the same magnitude of others that are around him, and we're being schooled into this communistic mentality. It's not so in the Scriptures. God requires a respect and an honor of parents. There's a double honor to those in the church who bring us the Word of God and have the oversight of our souls, the pastoral epistles tell us. When those two roles are being fulfilled in each one of our lives, then we're disciplined on a daily basis through that natural contact. We're able to have an understanding of the authority and our response to God in reverential fear and honor. As we relate to the designated authorities of parents and pastors, it gives us an appreciation of the awesomeness of our God. If there is no respect for parents, then there is no respect for God. If there is no respect for authority, there is no respect for God; because the powers that be are ordained of God, the Scripture tells us. He has established this order. Everything within man is repulsed by the thought that somehow he may not be superior. "I, as an individual, am superior. I am the exception. All that exists, exists for my pleasure and for my purposes."

You see it on the roads. One thing has really stood out to me recently. We've been on the road a lot, driving out in California. As I've come back here, there's just something that I've become more and more aware of. Have you noticed that people don't understand what "merging" means anymore? People think that they have the right of way, and they wonder what you're doing getting in their way. You're driving at seventy miles an hour, and they want to pull in front of you and slow down to forty! They have no concept of merging. Or, as my father used to say--he always played on words; he'd take a word like that and make something else up. He'd say, "Watch out! Here comes that 'migrating' traffic!" These people that are migrating into our lanes instead of waiting their turn--it's the spirit that I'm talking about, and you can see it. Does it make you as angry as me when you look in your mirror, and you see a guy driving up the shoulder, and then he wants you to let him in? There is no any way in the world that guy's getting in front of me! I just got a brand new car the other day. It had fourteen miles on it, and this person started doing that. I said, "I don't care if you tear the side off this thing; you're not getting in here!" I had a guy do that in New York when we had just bought our first trailer. I can still remember it. This guy had one wheel up on the curb! We were coming down an off-ramp, and he was coming around everybody and wanting to get into the lane we were in. I'm pulling a trailer, and I thought, "You're not getting in there!" The guy rolls his window down, and I roll my window down and say, "What are you doing?" He said, "Just let me in!" I said, "You're not getting in!" He said, "What are you going to do--knock my mirror off?" At just about that time, I ripped the mirror off the side of his car with the trailer as I went by him!" I can still see it today. He pulled up beside us, and the mirror was hanging down off of all of those wires. It was a power mirror, and it was hanging, and he's going [makes the expression of disbelief]. And I said, "I told you, you weren't getting in here!" Now, he was in the flesh, and I was right! I didn't say I was morally right; I was legally right. But people today don't even care about moral or legal. What they want to do is what's right [for them].

I've said all that to say that there's no fear; there's no reverence. People think there's no one to answer to, that there's no day of reckoning. But the God that we serve is a God of justice; He is right. He's a good God, but He's a just God. We need to fear Him, not just because of the administration of justice; that's not what I want to talk about tonight. I want to talk about fearing Him because of the quality of His goodness and His holiness, because He's an awesome God. He's not just awesome in power, but awesome in majesty. He's incomprehensible in His beauty, His mercy, His justice, and His purposes for us. It's because of the awareness that we're being made like Him, and that life circumstances are for the purpose of conforming us to His image, that we need to walk in obedience to Him and seek His will and good pleasure.

Turn to 2 Corinthians 7 for just a second. We've seen the whole duty of man: fear God and keep His commandments. As we look at 2 Corinthians 7, the apostle is speaking to this Corinthian church. Now, we know who these guys are--so taken up with themselves, bound in carnality, in a condition of spiritual deception that's almost incomprehensible. They see themselves of such great spiritual stature that they would require letters of recommendation from the apostle Paul, while letting people who are living in incest speak in tongues and prophesy in their services! Do you see the condition we can get into and be deceived about our own spirituality? Paul writes to this church by the Spirit of God, trying to set them back on course and bring them into making God the focus, and not their own lives and their own times of worship. This is really where we are today with all of our hype, and bands, and entertainment, and theatre in the churches, with no respect anymore for the Word of God. It's just entertainment. It's how many people we can gather together, not whether they're ready to go to heaven or not. It's all the fruit and the symptom of a lack of fear. God is no longer the focus when people come to church. It's about them! "What can we do to make people feel better about themselves?" "What can we do to project some type of image of success into the community?" "How can we become better known?" instead of "How can God be made known to the remnant that He's calling to Himself?" Then, once people are gathered into our midst, so many are afraid to speak the truth in love, afraid of how people will respond. But Paul says in the second letter to the Corinthians, up in the sixth chapter, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (verses 14-16).

We're talking about the intimacy, the presence of God, and the awareness of God's presence. As we were sharing the other morning, Joshua was so aware that the glory was going to come that he wouldn't leave the tabernacle. We've got to try to entice people to come to church, and Joshua wouldn't leave! He was afraid he was going to miss God. This is the place where God has chosen to put His name--not just this building, but every place where people are gathered together in His name, He's there, the Scripture says. Whether it's this fellowship or others, there are times that we set, there are places that we set, where we believe that we're coming for the purpose of honoring God and encountering God. We know that He's with us every day, every moment of the day. We know that He doesn't slumber or sleep; we know that He never leaves us nor forsakes us. We know that He is omnipresent, but He has also told us to designate times and places to encounter Him. Did you come believing to encounter the living God tonight? We've made an appointment to meet God here tonight. Is that why you came? Is there an awareness of who we are? Now, this building is just where we gather to keep the weather off our heads. We are the temple of God! We are the lively stones that have been called together for God to come and tabernacle in our midst this evening and be glorified among us!

So, what do we have to do with the world? How can we have relationship with all that defiles God--whether it's with our ideology, whether it's in relationships and friendships we build that begin to pull us away from God? There's nothing wrong with having acquaintances that are in the secular. But how strong are they, and how do they influence us from fulfilling our role as living epistles written of God? Have we lost the fear? Have we lost the reverence of God by the polluting of all that's in the secular around us? Do we value what they value? "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (verses 17-18). The Lord Omnipotent reigneth--the Lord Almighty, Omnipotent, the all- powerful One. If you're going to be a success, there has to be an awareness of Who God is, of His omnipotence. The fact that we are in Him is what guarantees our success. If God is for us, nobody can be against us! So, here we are--that peculiar people called and set apart for God to bring glory and honor to Him through our obedience, our representation of Him, and our bold stand in the midst of society, declaring the goodness of God and the right things of God. Paul says, "Beloved, come to understand what your role is and that we're not part of this world's system; we don't have an allegiance.

It's still sad to me. I know my relationship to our country as a citizen, I know my relationship to the kingdom as a son and citizen of heaven, and I know where each allegiance is to be placed. There's the big hoopla today about the phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance, "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." As children, we'd stand up and salute the flag. I don't know if they still do that. Those that do now are wanting God to be taken out of it. What's tragic is that most people don't have an allegiance anywhere but to themselves. Have you noticed that at different events now where the National Anthem is played, people are just walking around, talking, and don't pay any attention? They truly believe that this nation exists for them, that all of the bounty and the benefits are here for their squandering, and that there's no obligation to contribute, but just to take. That's sad, but it's more sad when you see it in the church. There are a lot of people that come to the house of God with that same attitude. It's overtaken them. There's no fear for the authority of the nation, and there's no fear for God. Why? Because they see themselves as superior. If we're ever going to fear God properly, there has to be a biblical humility. The Scripture says, "Humble yourselves." So many of us say, "Well, I just want God to humble me." God will humble you if you won't humble yourself, but self-induced humility brings blessings; God-induced humility brings judgment. We're looking at being able to come to the right awareness of ourselves through reverential fear, through biblical cleansing, through the Word of God, and through purposing in our hearts to be holy, without spot or blemish (for the Scripture says to be holy, for He is holy). There must be a longing to be like Him--not a badge of holiness to wear, but an identity with God, a likeness to God. I want to be like Him! Don't you want to be like your Father?

So, Paul says to the Corinthians, "Look; you need to come out from among them, and He will be your Father, and you'll be His son." "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves [this is your job; this is something you need to purpose to do] from all filthiness of the flesh and [of the polluted] spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (emphasis added). The perfecting of holiness is not performance; it's relational. Holiness cannot be perfected without fear, without a reverence. It's not just the acts; it's the motivation behind what I'm doing. Why am I obeying? Why am I ceasing to partake of what the world is offering me? Am I afraid of judgment, or am I wanting to honor God? Why am I refraining from this opportunity to sin? Is it because I don't want people to find out? Is it because I don't want to have to pay the consequences, or is it because I'm a person now who's been set free from the power of sin? "I am no longer the slave to this force that's dominates the majority of humanity. I will not sin because I am not the servant to sin. Sin no longer has power over me. It not only has no power to control my life, but it has no power to satisfy me, because I've partaken of something better!" We've all heard the saying, "Why would I steal a Volkswagen when I've got a Mercedes in my garage?" (I started to say, "Why would I steal a Ford when I've got a Chevy?" It's the same thing.)

I told Jonathon the other day--he and Richard came up to the drag strip. We were up there the other day, and Jonathan was going to take his car down the strip for the first time. I was going over some things with him and sharing with him what to do and how to be careful. The first law in drag racing is this: at all times, you go straight; if you start going any direction other than straight, lift. That's a good rule. I said, "Then once that becomes a reality, drive it like you stole it!"

Why would we go out and want to involve ourselves with everything that's counterfeit when we have the real thing? Why would you accept the flattery of that woman who's there to destroy you and fulfill her own purposes when you have the real thing, the love of God? Why would you sell your soul for temporal, earthly riches when we possess the Pearl of Great Price? What would a man give in exchange for his soul, when he's come to realize the worth of his soul and the price that was paid for the redemption of it? It's the lack of fear; it's the lack of the knowledge of God. It's the lack of reverence of the awesomeness of God. He is that majestic, separate, and eternal being Who's worthy of His creatures' praise and subservient attitude. You see, we just think too highly of ourselves to have fear for God. "Well, bless God, I'm as good as anybody else!" You're not as good as God. The fact of the matter is, you don't think you're as good as anybody else; you think you're better than everybody else. "No, I don't." You just proved it by that statement. "Well, I don't. I don't think I'm better than everybody else." "Yes, you do." "No, I don't." "I know you do." "No, I don't." Then you're saying you're the only person who's a son of Adam that doesn't deal with pride and selfishness, and I'm not buying it, because we're all the same. You've just lied to yourself long enough to be deceived, and you're in greater trouble than anybody. You'll never know what you can be in Him until you come to the realization that without Him you can do nothing.

So, as God is speaking to us, and Paul's speaking here in this seventh chapter of 2 Corinthians, he says we're to cleanse ourselves and perfect holiness in the fear of God.

Now go over to Proverbs 16 with me for just a second, and look at verse 6. The wise man is speaking to us, and he's talking about the awareness of the proud heart, that haughty spirit within man. He says in verse 1 that we have to realize that it's the wisdom from God (that which He speaks to the heart) that is true wisdom. But our hearts are wicked and deceitful; and, as the prophet said, who can know it? Everyone that is proud, verse 5 says, is an abomination to the Lord, but "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." Now, if evil still has power over you, then what's lacking according to this passage? Fear; because it's by the fear of the Lord that you and I are delivered, the Scripture says, from evil. Now we have to identify what evil is. What is evil? Evil, to give it its broadest definition, is anything that doesn't proceed from God. When we get into the secular and the mundane, there are many things that we say are "amoral," and they may be in and of themselves. But whatever is amoral has to receive some type of momentum from good or evil. Whatever is amoral cannot remain static; it will be affected by the dynamics of good or evil. It may be amoral, but what are you going to do now in this amoral situation?

This is probably a bad illustration, but it's the only one I have right now. So, I have this pie--let's make it a pizza, just for fun, because I happened to think of one of the things that Yogi said. One time, Yogi had a pizza, and a guy asked him, "Do you want me to cut it into eight pieces or four?" He said, "Four; I can't eat eight." So, now we have this pie. It can be a pizza pie, chocolate pie, apple pie, apple pie a la mode, or hot apple pie a la mode. (It's almost nine o'clock, so we can talk about that kind of stuff; we're going to be out of here in a minute!) Now, the pie is amoral. What am I going to do with it? (Be warmed and filled!) It's amoral, but in the dynamics somehow we make choices. As humans, we were created to bring glory to God, to honor God, and to serve God; and yet, the majority are in the arena of rebellion and are exiled. These things that are amoral are being used by both immoral and moral beings. And the moment a moral or immoral being takes that amoral circumstance or thing into its control, that amoral situation or object is now going to be used or abused (one or the other) by God's creation. Evil, then, is anything that doesn't proceed from God or that is not for the purpose of the glory of God. An amoral thing in the hands of an evil man is evil, and in the hands of a moral man, it can be moral.

So, the Scripture tells us that it's by the fear of the Lord that men depart from evil--the thought processes. We've partaken of the goodness of the Lord. We've tasted His goodness and have seen that there's a purpose for man, that there's a duty we're under. It is not vanity. It is not vexation. Though life's circumstances are not fair, the end will be just. We're not living for the moment; we're living for the end, when God takes all things and works them together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His eternal purposes. Everything in your life is going to work for good if you'll fear God and keep His commandments. He tells us, then, that it's by the fear of God that we will depart from the seduction of evil and humanistic ideologies. The fear of God causes us to realize the vanity of that way. We can't be seduced to that street corner. We're not going to allow ourselves to dwell upon the things that are the treasures of this world. For all that is in the world's system, all that's evil, involves itself in that trinity of the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. When you fear God, you can live separate from the power of that; it doesn't dominate your life. You know who you are; you know why you're here. You know that you're an ambassador, but you also know that you're a steward; nothing belongs to you. And it's all the byproduct of knowing who we are as the sons of God. We've made the determination to come out from among them and be separate. We choose not to touch the unclean things.

Look here at chapter 19, and then we'll look at a couple more passages before we close, because I want to nail this one thought down. In Proverbs 19:23 the Scripture says, "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil." That doesn't mean you're not going to have adverse circumstances in your life. It means you're not going to be under the power of evil that seduces humanity, those that don't have a fear of God. The man who reverences God, the man who has the fear of the Lord, the Scripture says, abides satisfied. Are you satisfied? (Singing) "I can't get no..." (That's for you old people!) That's the song that was playing when I was arrested in the Coconut Grove in Santa Cruz--looking for satisfaction, not content, just hanging out. God's so merciful! I walked into that building a couple of weeks ago. Man, you talk about things rushing through your mind! That night came back like it happened the week before. I was arrested for attempted murder, assault on a police officer, attempted murder on a police officer, and inciting a riot. They came up with things that I didn't even know were in the books! They had me for transporting undesirables across county lines. Did you know that was in there? And, you know, I wasn't a bad kid. I really wasn't. I was a sinner, but I didn't consider myself a bad person. The reason I didn't consider myself a bad person was that I usually stuck up for the underdog--you know, the kid at school that everybody laughed at? I'd always stand up for him. I don't know if that was a way of trying to make me feel good about myself, thinking that I was championing somebody's cause, or what it was. I think that actually I was just basically a tenderhearted person who hated seeing things that were weak being taken advantage of. So, I didn't consider myself a bad person; but given the opportunity, put in the situation of having to choose, it seemed like I was always doing bad things. As I look back in the wisdom of God, it all comes down to the inability to be satisfied with what you have. I was always looking for something more, something better, something bigger, something to gratify, something to satisfy. We all know what that void was, don't we? Every one of us in here can identify with that to one degree or another. Some of us were just in hotter pursuit.

The fear of the Lord tends to life. That doesn't just mean that it keeps you alive as opposed to dead. It's not just speaking of the prolonging of our days. What is life really all about? The fear of the Lord tends to the reason for our being. The fear of the Lord begins to open the eyes of man to see that we are eternal creatures. We don't just live for the moment. Our decisions are not to be momentary; they are to be eternal. Young people, listen! This life isn't going to go forever; it's the life that comes afterwards. Don't make your decisions for the flesh. The years of your life are threescore and ten, eighty if you're strong. We make our lives investments into the eternal realm; we lay up treasures in heaven where thieves can't break in and steal. The fear of the Lord opens our eyes to our reason for being; it tends to life. The fear of the Lord causes us to be able to appreciate life instead of cry out, "Vanity!" We appreciate the privilege of representing His kingdom and of serving Him. He that has the fear of the Lord abides satisfied. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Can I ask you some questions as we get ready to close for this evening's session? Are you abiding satisfied tonight? Are you content? Do you realize that God is orchestrating your life? Do you realize that all you have has been given to you of God, and everything you don't have God has kept from you? "Well, thanks, God!" Now you wouldn't say that most likely, but how many times do you respond that way internally? "Why does everybody else have that? How come they have that new house, that new car, those new clothes? How come they can eat anything they want, and I look at it in a magazine and put on five pounds? Thanks, God! How come my brother and sister got all the brains and personality, and I got the zits?" Is there no fear of God? Can the thing created say to the Creator, "Why have you made me like this?" Where's our fear? How is it that we judge God's wisdom as it pertains to our daily lives, our daily circumstances? How is it that we can stand and say, "Why? God, why couldn't You have done this better (my way)?"

You see, the fear of the Lord tends to life. It gives us a perspective from the eternal as to why we are and who we are. Beloved, did you not hear what the Scripture said today? We are the treasure of God. He is our Father. We are His sons and His daughters. If we'll come out from among that thought and be separate, He will receive us. The rich man had his temporal riches, but the man who sat at the gate, and the dogs licked his sores, was the real wealthy one. Do you fear God's justice, God's investment of each one of us into His kingdom? The man that abides satisfied will not be visited with evil.

Let's finish with chapter 8 in Proverbs; we'll unhook with this one for this evening. Look at verse 11. "For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions." Verse 10 says, "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold." Do you believe that tonight? Do you fear God? Do you choose His Word, His wisdom, and His ways over all of the methods of men, over all of the treasures of men? Do you really believe that the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow? The wise man goes on and says in verse 13, "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength." He's talking about wisdom; he's talking about the fear of God. "I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness." He's contrasting the way of the world with the wisdom of the kingdom. But the fear of God is not only to abstain from the world's methods (look at what verse 13 says), but to hate them. There's a big difference. Abstinence says, "I'd like to partake of it, but there's going to be consequences, so I won't." Fear says, "I hate that! It is not to be partaken of. It is contrary to who I am--my righteousness, the holiness that flows in my being, and the covenant that I've cut with my God. That thing opposes who I am; it is not attractive to me; it has no power over me; it has no place in me. I'm not of this world. As our Master said, it has nothing in me."

Wouldn't you like to live that way? Now, that's contrary to your flesh. Your flesh is always going to have the appetite for the evil things. We're talking now about a spirit man that dominates the flesh, that brings it into the place of absolute subordination. Sin no longer has power over us. It still makes itself known, but it has no power. You'll never get to the place where your flesh doesn't go, "Chocolate!" But that voice is no longer the dominant voice; it's subordinate. "We're having no chocolate today." "Okay. Tomorrow?" It's always going to be there, but it no longer has power. The fear of God--the awareness of who we are, the realization of the finality of the power of regeneration in your life and thankfulness to Father for it--breaks the power of that thing in each of our lives. And we now begin to hate evil; we hate pride; we hate arrogance--all that was the prominent expression of the fruit of man's eyes being opened because he wanted to be as God. I don't want to be equal with God; I just want to serve Him in gladness. Like Joseph, Adam could've ruled everything but the throne. Pride will always destroy you because you're not satisfied, and only fear can bring you to that place of contentment and satisfaction. When you see the distinction between the Creator and the creature, you don't say, "Why have You made me thus?"

Father, make that a reality in our hearts from a practical perspective, that we would not question the family that we've been born into, the genetics that we have, or the opportunities that afford themselves. But in the fear of God, we would just say, "It's no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by grace and faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and bought me. Because I reverence God, I have no agenda of my own. I'm content with what You've given me, the condition that I'm in. I'm content in my job. I'm content with my parents. I'm content with my spouse. I'm content without a spouse. The awareness of Your lordship frees me to be content, to be satisfied, to realize that there is a purpose for my being as I am at this moment: to bring glory to You." Make it a reality, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. As Gary plays for us just a moment, we'll allow the Holy Spirit to take whatever He spoke to our individual hearts tonight and solidify it. Take whatever word it was that was spoken to you--one phrase, one principle, that was for you--and choose to do it, and your life will change. Choose to obey; that's the fruit of the fear of God. It'll bring life. It'll bring satisfaction and peace that passes understanding. It'll give you a reason for being. It'll cause you to recognize your sonship. It'll cause you to cleanse yourself from all ungodliness. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of that power called wisdom. The fear of God unleashes the wisdom of God in your life, and you begin to make decisions that are right, that are eternal, and that effect the glory of God. What does it mean to fear God? To recognize His worth and your lack. What does it mean to fear God? To realize that one glance from Him surpasses all the treasures of this world and its worth. For Him to just look, and recognize you, and say, "That's my son!" To hear my name upon His lips, to hear, "Well done," is my reason for being. The fear of God puts everything into perspective.

Let's sing this together as we get ready to go. Just worship Him. "Holy Lord, Most Holy Lord, You alone are worthy of my praise..."

Hallelujah! Lord, just receive Your glory tonight! Receive the fruit of our lips, Lord, as we worship You. We thank You for the strength; we thank You for the breath. We ask, Father, that You would cause us to effectively bring forth glory to You. As we go out and represent You now, strengthen us to be about Your business, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "The fear of the Lord brings wisdom." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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