Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's go to proverbs we're going to start in chapter eight. Today, Lord willing, we're going to conclude our study on this theme of the Book of Proverbs, which is we're of course we're doing a major themes study in Proverbs and this is the first one, which is the fear of the Lord.
[00:00:24] So we'll be in chapter eight.
[00:00:28] We've seen the different ways, the fear of the Lord, we've looked at the definition of the fear of the Lord, what it means.
[00:00:38] Just as a side note, I always think it's important when you read the Bible to make sure that you understand what you're reading along. We've been saved the longer we've walked with the Lord and read the Bible. Sometimes we get so familiar with what it says, we know what it's going to say as it comes and then we keep reading and we don't even know what it says. Like how many of you know what the word emulation means or how many of you know what the word whatever variance. Yeah. Or the fear of the Lord, even what that means. And I know the Lord teaches us, despite the fact that we might not be able to recite a dictionary definition, he teaches us through the context in really an amazing way. We learn not just from the definitions, but also from what's around it. And that's why the context is really important. But anyway, it is an important thing that we understand what these things mean because by doing that you understand the Scripture. God chose to give us the Bible in written form for a reason.
[00:01:44] So we looked at the definition of the fear of the Lord and we've looked at several other verses that deal with it. But what I want to look at now as we try to finish up this theme is the benefits, the benefits of the fear of the Lord. Or we might say how the fear of the Lord affects us or influences us. So the first one is in Proverbs 813, which was quoted earlier. So let's look at that.
[00:02:14] I was turned to psalms by accident.
[00:02:17] Proverbs, chapter eight, verse number 13.
[00:02:25] The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the frowward mouth. Do I hate?
[00:02:38] Do I hate? Now, in this particular context, the I is most immediately referring to wisdom. That's a key thing you need to make sure when you read the Book of Proverbs cults like to misuse different passages in Proverbs. Like chapter eight, for instance, verse one says, doth not Wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice, she standeth in the streets, she cryeth at the gates. Verse four is the quotation of what wisdom is saying when she's preaching on the street corner. And she says, O men unto you, O men, I call. And my voice is to the sons of men. Verse six, I will speak of excellent things. So wisdom is speaking. This is not God speaking and this is certainly not Jesus speaking, but it is wisdom personified speaking. All right? You got to make sure. And I know there's a lot of overlap because wisdom, obviously we've already studied, comes from God. But it is important to understand that sometimes people will take verses out of Proverbs and will try to undermine biblical doctrine, especially about Christ, by saying that this is referring to Christ. Because it says that wisdom was created with the Lord, brought forth wisdom in the beginning and all this stuff, as if Christ was created. So that's what I'm saying. You have to understand the context and understand how it applies. We know that Jesus is unto us wisdom. Somebody who quoted that, I think it was Ari quoted that, I believe first corinthians yeah. So Christ is wisdom unto us. But this is obviously kind of a poetic or a literary form personification.
[00:04:25] And so just keep that in mind. Now, so when we see verse 13, the Bible says pride, arrogance, et cetera, do I hate? Now, this is obviously referring to wisdom. Now, we can definitely apply it to ourselves. So we'll look at that right here. It says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. The first thing I want us to see about the benefits of the fear of Lord, we've understood the definition, we've understood the source of wisdom. And that relates to the fear of the Lord because it's the beginning. It's the beginning when someone goes on a journey, an intellectual or a spiritual journey, you might say, for lack of a better term, to find wisdom. The first stop, the first thing God reveals to them is not wisdom, but the fear of the Lord, because that's the beginning of wisdom. It's the first stop on that track. And so the Lord says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
[00:05:19] So here's what I want us to understand, that when a person fears God, it affects their view of evil.
[00:05:32] It affects their view of evil. Now, remember, the fear of the Lord primarily is not intellectual.
[00:05:39] The fear of the Lord is not so much intellectual.
[00:05:44] It's not just information or data that's put into our mind. The fear of the Lord is relational. Even though it's the beginning of wisdom, it deals with our relationship to God. In other words, wisdom is directly connected to our relationship to God. All right? So here you have it is to hate evil. So the fear of the Lord, that relationship to God, which is the beginning of wisdom, will necessarily affect the way we view evil. Now, note it says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Now, this is not disagreement with evil.
[00:06:24] I just want to make a little bit of a distinction. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil does not mean that I do not think it is not equal to saying, well, I don't think that's right.
[00:06:37] I don't think that's good. I don't think that is moral.
[00:06:43] All right, hear me now.
[00:06:46] It is more than that. It is more than just disagreement with evil. This is hatred.
[00:06:53] Hatred. Hatred is not just disagreement. There are many things I disagree with. I disagree with Brother Stuart's hatred, true hatred for cucumbers. I don't agree. David also doesn't agree because he likes cucumbers. I trust he doesn't like, what is this church coming to? We need another revival.
[00:07:16] Well, I'll have you know, last night I chopped up raw cucumbers to put in my salad on Lyn. Is she's right? She's right because she's like me. So she's right.
[00:07:39] Yes. You just want to do it in front of him. The more he talks about it, the more you want to do it. Right. That's why this is called rebellious generation. Yes.
[00:07:49] So I have no idea where the cucumbers came into my mind.
[00:07:53] Oh, the hatred. All right, so we disagree. In other words, I don't agree with him that cucumbers are bad, but sin? Listen, if we fear God, sin should not be something we merely disagree with. Here's the thing.
[00:08:09] That is the common kind of philosophical view of sin in this world. I'm going to mention the world both this morning and tonight, this morning in Sunday school and in the morning service. Because the philosophy of the world is, well, when they're presented with something like a drag queen story hour or homosexuality, or raw, gross, ugly, vile, ungodly sin, a lot of times they say this is what they say. They kind of, like, kind of dismissively. Well, I don't agree. But that's not this.
[00:08:48] You can't look at evil and just be like, well, I don't agree.
[00:08:53] Whatever's. Good for them. But that's not what I do. That is not the description of what we read here. And that is not the attitude that we should have if we fear God. In fact, if we fear God, it says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. You know what that is? That is an equating. That means if you fear the Lord, this will be true. They're equal Misten.
[00:09:27] We should not be passive and we should not be passive and just unbothered by sin and evil. If we fear God, if we fear God, the effect of that is that we hate it.
[00:09:45] That's what I want us to understand. This is not an intellectual indifference. And that is everywhere in this world. That is everywhere in this world. The only thing that this world, as far as sin is concerned, the only thing in this world that gets people stirred is when someone says something negative about the evil.
[00:10:07] I'm talking in Christian people, moral people, religious people, they don't get stirred up about any kind of sin. Hardly ever. They get stirred up about politics. They get stirred up about sports. They get stirred. And then the opposite side of the people that don't have traditional morals, I'm using that term on purpose. Those that don't have it, they get stirred up whenever anyone says anything about their particular pet things that they like that are wicked, they get stirred up and they get mad and they want to throw bricks and Molotov cocktails and whatever.
[00:10:43] As a person who fears God, evil ought to be the object of our hatred. It's more than intellectual. Hatred is not intellectual. Hatred is a visceral abhorrents of evil. Visceral referring to the heart, the emotion.
[00:11:03] It's not indifferent, it's not passive. You see, this is what the text says, does it not?
[00:11:10] It should get our goat. Who was it on Wednesday? I think it was on Wednesday night, something we were talking to somebody about.
[00:11:16] I think we were talking with you about getting somebody's goat. Maybe it was David, I can't remember.
[00:11:23] But evil should get our goat. It should bother us. It should be the object of our hatred. Now, lest we think this is only an Old Testament feature, Romans Twelve nine says this let love be without dissimulation. That's a good word. You don't need to skip over stop, look it up, right?
[00:11:41] Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. This is a New Testament truth as well. It's not just in Proverbs, it's in the New Testament, Psalm 45, verse seven. Listen to this.
[00:11:52] Speaking of the Lord, specifically the Lord Jesus, because this is quoted in Hebrews, it says thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness.
[00:12:05] God loves righteousness and hates wickedness. So the visceral reaction to evil, it has a flip side, it has the other side of the coin, which is love for righteousness, which is not intellectual. Also, that deals with the heart, deals with the inner man, the emotions. So just as much as we hate evil, we should also love righteousness if we're going to follow in the pattern of the Lord.
[00:12:32] Now, the evil spoken of, notice what it says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, the evil spoken of here, this is another philosophy of the world. I say philosophy, we could use the term worldview, we could use the term viewpoint to refer the world. Because, listen, all of us, it doesn't matter if we're believers or unbelievers, all of us have a set of they call them mores, that is, ideals, right? Or those would be the morals. The mores are what they do. But anyway, all of us have a set of morals. Everyone does, even immoral. People, by our view, have a set of morals. Things that you should do and shouldn't do, things that are ethically right, ethically wrong.
[00:13:17] The issue is what that is based upon. The issue is what that is based upon. So we look at the word evil here. I remember after September 11, the president, President Bush at that time, not only President Bush, but politicians in general, it didn't matter if they were Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative, whatever. Politicians all the time referred to the terrorists and the terrorist attacks as evil, evil, evil. And it was really an OD thing because you heard that term a lot. Does anybody remember noting that, how often they used the term evil? Because that's not something politicians use very much. Is that right, David? Evil. Evil. Because that's a very moral term and that's not something they want to be indifferent. They want to be indifferent.
[00:14:12] But the world likes to define evil as the big things that hurt other people.
[00:14:21] What is evil? Things that really hurt other people. That's about it. That's about it.
[00:14:28] Think about it.
[00:14:29] You read the news. Anytime someone invokes the word evil, it's going to be usually it's going to be some bad thing you do to somebody else, like a murderer, rapist or something like that. A terrorist.
[00:14:43] But that's not what the Lord is saying. Here. Look at the text.
[00:14:48] He says, the fear of the Lord has aid evil. There's a colon. And then it says pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the frowward mouth do I hate?
[00:15:02] This is the evil. Now, outside of this description, there are many other forms of evil, but this is what the Lord names.
[00:15:11] How many of these things that are listed in verse 13 does the world look upon fondly?
[00:15:24] My son and I last night, we watched some football. I like watching football from time to time. I don't have a dog in the fight, really. I mean, I like Clemson, glad they won yesterday, but it's not the end of my world if they lose.
[00:15:39] But you see these players, they score a touchdown, they make a catch or whatever.
[00:15:45] The way they act in arrogance and pride.
[00:15:52] It's one thing to be excited, but this is not excitement. What I'm referring to is something that's not excitement, it's pride, it's arrogance. Here's the thing.
[00:16:02] People look at that and they kind of chuckle or they snicker or whatever, like it's not a big deal.
[00:16:08] Those are the kinds of things that God says that he hates.
[00:16:13] Those are the evils that God points out notice. And the world looks upon many of these things as either as all moral, just not good or bad or actively good. They're often praised and rarely viewed as sinful, and at worst they're viewed as maybe unfortunate or maybe a little less than good. In some way you think about pride, arrogancy. That's what I just got done telling you.
[00:16:47] People talk about going up the corporate ladder and the things that you have to do to move up the corporate ladder. You have to assert yourself and you've got to this and you've got to show them that when you sit in that chair and you're getting interviewed for a job, you need to let them know that they need you, that they can't live without you. And that kind of stuff that's praised that's in these self help books. It's praised and God says this is the things that we should hate if we fear the Lord. Notice what it says, a good example. It says the evil way, the forward mouth.
[00:17:27] How many people have heard people use foul language?
[00:17:32] Now all these videos where people, instead of helping somebody or whatever, they take videos of everyone and just the foul language flying. Abby said there was a fight, almost a fight at Chick fil A, of all places, a Christian place when she was at work. Were they using foul language? Of course.
[00:17:51] You know what? Nobody says boo about that. Nobody says anything about it because they don't view it as all that. Well, maybe they shouldn't use that, but that's about it.
[00:18:01] The Lord says forward mouth, do I hate you? See, another thing that's part of this term, the evil way, that is rarely treated evil is living with someone who's not your husband or wife.
[00:18:20] Listen, in our world, that is common.
[00:18:23] That is not unusual. It is common.
[00:18:27] And look, you look at Fox News any day of the week, any day of the week, you will find it filled with trash that is promoted almost as a joke for clicks.
[00:18:46] The stories, the political stories, the Hollywood stories filled with trash that is glorifying these very things. Here's the thing.
[00:18:57] We cannot let the world determine for us what evil is.
[00:19:04] That's my point. See, the thing is, we look at these things because we've heard it so much and we see them on the news and we see them in the media and we see them on the TV and we oftentimes will have the same reaction that the world has. Yeah, that's not good.
[00:19:20] But not good is different than the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
[00:19:27] Here's the thing.
[00:19:29] One cannot say he fears God if he tolerates evil passively. And this is not evil as defined by politicians or the media or the world. This is evil as defined by God as we see here.
[00:19:45] You cannot say you fear the Lord. I cannot say I fear the Lord if I do not hate that. That's what the text says. All right, so the first thing is the benefits of the fear of the Lord. The influence of the fear of the Lord is it affects our view of sin and evil. All right, let's look at Proverbs chapter 14 a little bit quicker.
[00:20:24] Verse 26 says this in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.
[00:20:42] In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. That is, by fearing God and of course, living in the fear of God, we have something upon which we can trust and rely safely. That's confidence. That's similar to the word refuge in parallel.
[00:21:03] And because we have a place that we can trust and we have a place upon which we can rely, something upon which we can rely safely.
[00:21:15] We have peace. Now, here's the second point I want us to get, and we'll look at a couple of verses that deal with it. The benefits of fear of the Lord. Number one, view of sin and evil. Number two, the fear of the Lord promises success and prosperity in this life.
[00:21:32] It does.
[00:21:34] You think of what it says here, shall have strong confidence.
[00:21:40] I don't know if I would say the worst thing, but one thing that's really you think of Miss Judy and the difficulty she's struggling with, with Van van, her son is he was here on the anniversary, on September 3, but when he first started having symptoms, that was very alarming to Miss Judy, right? That was very alarming to Woody because of the unknown. That's the opposite of what we're reading. No, you did not know what was going to happen. The peace was taken away because of the unknown, you see? And that's how it affects us. When we don't have a confidence, we don't have something that can give us safety.
[00:22:24] And see, in the fear of the Lord, you have that. You have that you have a certain level of predictability, you know, what is right and what is wrong. And then the benefit to that is that it brings about things naturally into our lives that give us peace. It's not magic, but it sets in motion things that give us peace and confidence. And just like with Miss Judy, I was saying those things come upon us and they trouble us, because that confidence. What's going to happen to my son? Is he going to be okay? That confidence is taken away. And so for that temporary period, we're worried and concerned about him, and that happens to all of us.
[00:23:09] But the fear of the Lord gives us that safety.
[00:23:13] But notice what it says, and his children shall have a place of refuge. Notice who benefits from the safety.
[00:23:22] Not you.
[00:23:24] By you fearing God, it's not just you that benefits with success and prosperity, which is what we're talking about, but your kids.
[00:23:34] Your kids have peace. Your kids have stability. Your kids have tranquility in their lives because you fear God.
[00:23:44] That's fantastic. You know, when a kid goes through a divorce, kids go crazy. You know why?
[00:23:53] You know why? Because everything that was their confidence and their stability is ripped away.
[00:24:01] That hurts them.
[00:24:03] That hurts them.
[00:24:06] So by fearing the Lord and having that peace, that confidence, that refuge and that stability, well, they benefit, you see? They benefit, and that produces good effects. Success in one's life. Proverbs 2029, verse 25 says, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Like that word safe.
[00:24:33] All right, look at Proverbs 22 as we move right along here. This is in the same vein as what I just said. Verse number four says this, the fear of the Lord I'm sorry. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life.
[00:24:52] I say the benefit of the fear of the Lord is that it promises success and prosperity. That's what this verse says you think about when the Bible says, well, think about the Book of Proverbs. What is a proverb? It's important for you to understand that, and I'll say it at the outset, even in our crowd, there might be somebody who disagrees with me a little bit, that's fine. But on this question, what is a Proverb? It is a short traditional pity saying, a concise sentence, typically or metaphorical. Typically metaphorical or alliterative informs stating a general truth or piece of advice, an adage or maxim. The key is general truth. There the question is, are the Proverbs promises or are they not? Are they Proverbs or are they promises? I take them. I believe the Proverbs are Proverbs and not to be taken as absolute promises. Like you would say, jesus said, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. That is a promise that is absolute under all circumstances and there are no exceptions. But the Book of Proverbs has exceptions because they are Proverbs generally applicable truths.
[00:26:15] This verse says, by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor in life. Okay, so if I fear God, I'm going to be rich.
[00:26:26] You see what I mean?
[00:26:28] But although we might not be able to say that, we can look at this verse and say this is the natural result, and the general truth is you will have riches, honor and life. And that's what I'm getting to look at the next verse and it'll make more sense. Look at chapter 19, verse number 23.
[00:26:52] This is what I mean by this being a Proverb, these being Proverbs and not necessarily promises. Verse 23 says of chapter 19, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil.
[00:27:11] All of us in this room know of someone that feared God but was killed in a car accident or died of some terrible disease. Those people exist.
[00:27:21] And if there is one exception, it's not a promise. Now if there's one soul on the other hand that believes on Christ and does not receive eternal life, that is a big problem. But there's not, because it is an absolute promise. But as far as Proverbs are concerned, they're generally applicable truths, but they do have exceptions. Okay? Verse 23, the fear of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil. All right, even though I wouldn't say this is a promise, there is a truth in here, which is the fear of the Lord is going to put you on a path and set in motion things that are going to make your life better.
[00:28:02] It's going to give you more money, it's going to help your health and it's going to extend your life.
[00:28:10] That's what it says.
[00:28:12] It will affect our satisfaction.
[00:28:18] Don't you love to live a life and lay your head on the pillow at night without a guilty conscience? You just lay there and you're like, lord, I didn't do everything. Maybe I should have done 100%. I tried, but maybe I failed some. But you know what? I am happy. I am satisfied.
[00:28:36] You know what that comes from? The fear of God.
[00:28:40] You know what? That's fantastic. Money can't buy that.
[00:28:44] That's a direct result of fearing God. Look at another one. Chapter 14, verse 27.
[00:28:55] We got two more. We'll be done. Chapter 14, verse 27.
[00:29:00] The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. A fountain of life, it gives us life. This is referring to long life. This is the third point, which was alluded to in chapter 19, verse 23. The fear of the benefit of fear of the Lord. Is it how did I write it? I got to say it the way I wrote it. It tends to long life, in other words. But by fearing God, it causes us to avoid, because we hate it sin and evil and sin and evil we know have attached to them consequences that include suffering and ultimately death.
[00:29:42] James says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. How many of you want that?
[00:29:55] Just don't fear the Lord, because by fear listen, this is not magic. It's not like if I honor my parents, then I'm going to live a long life irrespective of any other thing that happens in my that's not the way it works. But here's the thing. When I honor my parents, because that has a similar promise, right? When I honor my parents, I get wisdom from them.
[00:30:17] And the effect of that wisdom is that it allows me to avoid the very things, sins and pitfalls and dangers that lead to my own demise and thus my life is extended. So this is not magic.
[00:30:33] This is in the natural world that God has set up, the world of consequences. And sowing and reaping fearing God sets in motion, just as sin sets things in motion that ends in death. Like James says, fearing God sets in motion certain things in our lives that end and tend to end in long life.
[00:30:54] Now, we all know examples of people that they died before their time, as we say.
[00:31:01] But that doesn't undo this truth.
[00:31:05] It tendeth to life. Proverbs 1416. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and is confident. Well, if I'm wise, I see evil and I'm like, I'll stay away from that. And then there's a fool who does not fear the Lord, and he goes right on and just he's confident, he's raging, and he's just like, I'll just do it, whatever. Nobody's going to stop me. Well, he's going to get the benefit of that.
[00:31:29] And sometimes that means he gets in a car accident because he's drunk. Sometimes it means he kills the other person and he goes to prison for 15 years. Sometimes it means that he himself is killed. Sometimes it means that his liver is destroyed.
[00:31:45] In all cases, that is not good, right?
[00:31:50] A prudent man foreseeth evil and hideth himself. But the simple pass on and are punished.
[00:31:59] Look at Proverbs ten. This will be our last verse.
[00:32:03] Verse 27 the fear of the Lord PROLONGETH days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
[00:32:17] As I said, many people view the promises of long life as a kind of magic or superstition.
[00:32:25] But as I said, it is a natural and God established product of fearing the Lord. If a person honors his parents but drinks himself into oblivion, he will not live long despite the fact he's honored his parents. It's true.
[00:32:41] But by fearing God, he'll both honor his parents and stay away from drink. And that will extend his life.
[00:32:51] Deuteronomy 440 listen to this.
[00:32:54] The Lord says thou shalt keep, therefore keep his statutes, God's statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day. Listen to what it says, that it may go well with thee.
[00:33:06] Notice that keeping his statutes causes things to go well and with thy children after thee. I mentioned that earlier. And thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth.
[00:33:19] See that by keeping God's commandments, it causes things to go well, which causes us to have a long life. That's what the Lord is saying here. Again, it's not magic. It's sowing and reaping on the positive side.
[00:33:36] And that's why we read in our verse here in verse 27 but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. So the same natural laws that God has established, published, that give us long life by fearing the Lord is the same laws that cause the wicked to have a shortened life because they don't fear God.
[00:33:58] That's just the way it works. God is the God of the natural world. He's the one that set these things up, these laws. And so we find these truths in Proverbs to benefit and help us. Let's pray together.
