Sermon: Avoiding Detrimental Assumptions

#1725
Martin G. Collins
Given 02-Sep-23; 63 minutes 2023-09-02

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Years ago, Sue and I listened to a radio program in which a Middle Eastern college professor, or possibly he was an international businessman, was interviewed about the West; that the West must understand about the perspective of Arabs and Muslims. And he said, "Arabic is a language with no real tense. It is very hard to tell when something happens. For the most part, the language has no past, no present, and no future, in the concrete way that English does. You cannot tell when something took place is taking place or will take place." So there is a certain amount of confusion when speaking Arabic.

In addition, according to this man, there are no words to show the possession or ownership of something and therefore no international businessman in his right mind will sign a contract written in Arabic. When transactions are made between Arabs, they strongly want to use a language other than Arabic: English, French, Spanish, Italian, just not Arabic.

The Koran is written primarily, if not totally, in Arabic. And according to this well educated Arab, the Koran is not chronological either. It has no true organization and is somewhat random in its style. He also said that since the Koran contradicts itself constantly, it is unreliable as a doctrinal work. Muslim terrorists have found all this so frustrating that they have been making up words to justify their jihad, their holy war against Christian and Jewish nations. So basically, they are defining their religious beliefs as they go along and by whatever is convenient at the moment. Their manipulative attitude is to force their god, Allah, to do things according to their plans. That is how weak their god is. They believe they can manipulate him.

This is a form of the same situation ethics that mainstream Christianity is struggling with now. What both religions do not realize is that their traditions come from the same human nature and satanic influence and are counterfeits of God's true religion.

The one true God is very clear in His inspired written Word regarding the moral and ethical laws of human life. But people worldwide who believe God exists think "God will understand when I sin. God will understand if I just do this one wrong thing." So they think God will understand if they choose to live by what seems right in their own eyes.

Now, this has been going on in human nature for a long time. Just to give you an example, on October 6th, 1866 Henry Amiel, a Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic, insightfully wrote in his journal, "We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own iniquities." I thought that was very insightful of that man several hundred years ago.

Many people have reasoned regarding their presumptuous sins, "God will understand." Will God tolerate our self-justification of our sins? Will He come around to see it our way? Will He ever want to understand our way? Make no mistake about it, God will understand, but His understanding will not be what most people think. What He will understand is that we have not overcome sin if that is the way we think, that He will understand. No. He is thinking and He knows and He will understand that we are not overcoming sin. So that is something to keep in mind.

Please turn with me to Romans 3. Now, Paul says there is no regard or reverence for the character, authority, and honor of God. So God does not restrain the Jews from sin any more than He restrains the Gentiles from sin. Their conduct shows they are not kept from sinning since they do not have a proper fear of God. The only thing that is effective in restraining people from sin is tremendous respect and reverence for the honor and law of God.

Romans 3:9-18 What then? Are we [that is, Jews] better than they [that is, the Gentiles]? Not at all [Paul says]. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. [continuing on speaking of unbelievers, he says] As it is written, "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one." "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "the poison of asps is under their lips"; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

So the lack of proper fear is manifested in the attitudes of human beings as disobedience to God's law, as disrespect of His authority, short-sightedness of His awesome power, and improper worship of Him.

Please turn over to Ecclesiastes 8. Now, since we do not always see God punishing us immediately for our sins, we tend to disregard our own bad actions and sin at times, sad to say. As a result, the longsuffering of God which leads to repentance is abused in a way that leads to further crimes.

Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are a shadow, because He does not fear before God.

We have a choice of eternal life or death, of blessing or cursing, of God's way or Satan's way. And all these contrasts lead to one core element: the choice to fear God or not fear God.

The fear of God is manifested in our attitudes of obedience, reverence, awe, and veneration. If we do fear God, there are many resulting blessings, they are uncountable. Paul mentions it in Ephesians that it is an abundance of spiritual blessings that we receive.

Please turn over to Psalm 19, verse 12. Self-justification by way of human reasoning is one of the most blinding human traits and it is fueled by pride. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated pride in most places, is also translated as presumptuous in Psalm 19, in keeping with the context.

Psalm 19:12-13 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins [or you could insert in there prideful sins. Presumptuous goes beyond pride in many ways, but pride is usually the core of something that is sin.]; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

The word presumptuous in verse 13 is noticeably designed to contrast with secret faults mentioned in verse 12. The Hebrew word zeed from which presumptuous is translated, in its basic sense, means that which is boiling, swelling, or inflated, and then it leads to proud or arrogant, with the attachment of shameless sinfulness. It is the attitude behind the self-justification statement, "God won't mind if I do this sin" or whatever that might be in that way. The prevailing thought in verses 12 and 13 is that of pride. And the reference is especially to sins that proceed from self-confidence and reliance on one's own strength. So the psalmist's prayer is that he might have a proper distrust of himself and might not be left with an improper reliance on his own power to sin.

Please turn over to Ephesians 4. One of the greatest deceptions that mainstream Christianity has convinced people of is that God loves us just the way we are, which suggests that God does not care if we sin and that we do not try to overcome it. Then why is He working to change us if that is the case? And why does He require that the old worldly person be totally replaced by the new righteous person?

Ephesians 4:20-24 But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

God is the one who creates it in us if we are willing to work with Him. The new man refers to our renovated nature. This is called in other places the new creature or the new creation, and refers to our condition after our hearts are changed. We have new motivations, new beliefs, and new desires.

We have discarded our old values and behaviors, and in everything that concerns our moral character, we become new. Also we must rid ourselves of excuses because that is what we use when we say God will not mind or God will understand. We are just excusing it away.

Please turn over to Job 15. In Job chapters 12 to 14, Job claims to be esteemed wise. And then in Job 15, Eliphaz replies that Job's attitude was manifested in his incoherent choice of words and that this alone was sufficient to expose his lack of wisdom. This is Eliphaz's accusation. A wise man would not be guilty of mere talk or language that conveyed no worthwhile ideas. Job had been rambling and to Eliphaz this showed his confusion.

Job 15:1-6 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: "Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or by speeches with which he can do no good? Yes, you cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yes, your own lips testify against you."

The reply that Job made to the arguments of his friends in previous chapters was referred to as empty or vain knowledge. Some Bible margins have "knowledge of wind" instead of "empty knowledge." The wind is used to represent aimless change and in verse 2, it is used as a metaphor for remarks that were unproductive, pointless, and irrelevant. So the east wind was used to express not only the tempestuous wind of the Middle East, but one that is stifling and destructive to vegetation. That wind in the Middle East passed over immense deserts and was characterized by severe dryness and heat.

Eliphaz asks, "Should a man fill his mind with insignificant arguments or sentiments as inappropriate for usefulness as the east wind is for food?" The image is that he filled himself with mere wind and then blew it out under the pretense of delivering proverbs of wisdom. I would not necessarily call somebody a friend when they said that about me! Throughout Job's suffering, his friends accused him of making excuses without backing them up with substance or facts.

Eliphaz was not accusing Job of losing all reverence for God, but that if Job's arguments continued in the same direction, he would eventually come to the point of losing his fear of God. Job was coming dangerously close to indirectly accusing God of not being fair to human beings. But we see a hint of this in Job's words of the previous chapter.

Job 14:19-20 "As water wears away stones, and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth, so You [that is, God] destroy the hope of man. You [meaning God] prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away."

Sometimes Job seems to accuse God of being too hard on people. But remember, in Job 1:22 it is said that, "In all this [that is, in the earlier trials that Job went through, Job did not sin nor charge God with any wrong." So he was a man of great integrity and faith but he came to a point where he was suffering so badly that he said some things indirectly, I think, about God.

Job 2:3 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you cited Me against him, to destroy him without cause."

Job 2:9-10 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? [speaking to Job] Curse God and die!" He [Job] said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

So we know that Job did not sin in what he said but he came pretty close to it at times out of frustration, but never directly accused God of wrongdoing. He did explain though that God was kind of tough on people.

Does that sound like a man who would wrongly accuse God? I do not think so. But yet he had his frustrations and came out well in the end.

Back in Job 15:5, Eliphaz accuses Job of distorted reasoning. So Job's whole speech, according to Eliphaz, was a clever work of art designed to make his friends feel sorry for him and to get them to recognize his devoutness. We sometimes use the reasoning of indirectly accusing God of not caring enough about us. So we self-justify our own shortcomings by reasoning that God does not really care about our lesser sins. But the little things we do, whether righteous or unrighteous, do count in God's eyes.

Luke 16:10 [Jesus said] "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much."

The little things do matter to God! We have to be careful not to say things like, "Oh, God will understand why I'm committing this sin," or whatever it may be. In verse 6 of Job 15, Job was accused of condemning himself with the words of his own mouth.

Job 42:7-8 And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is aroused against you and your friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has."

So Job upheld his integrity and continued his fear and reverence of God to the end. And at no time did he use the excuse "God will understand if I compromise my faith."

Please turn over to Isaiah 55. Even though we are in the process of conversion to God's way of thinking, His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways His ways completely. Yet they are headed that way if we are submissive to Him.

Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Most mainstream Christians misinterpret the principle of God's abundant pardoning. Too many people stop there and say "God will understand and He will pardon me," and just shrug it off. But it is not simply a matter of repenting later—when it is a more convenient time or just in time for the resurrection. God does not think as we do; just because He is silent does not mean He approves or forgives.

Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts."

In verse 7, Isaiah admonished that a sinner first forsakes his own way and seeks God's. The idea behind the word "thoughts" is that we must abandon our worldly plans and purposes of life and we must do God's will and make sure that our will is His will, that it coincides with His will, which was already established.

To a holy God our thoughts are not less important than our actions; no one can obtain God's favor who is not ready to abandon his own wrong opinions, his pride and vanity, his plans of pleasure-seeking, and his purposes of life that oppose God. Human nature naturally tends that way.

Verses 7 and 8 relate to pardon and the plans and purposes of God regarding forgiveness are as far above those of people as the heavens are higher than the earth. So the average person finds it difficult to pardon or forgive someone of personal injury. Humanly we tend to harbor malice, we seek revenge, and we are slow to forgive. That is not so with God, thankfully. As you well know, He harbors no malice. He has no desire for revenge. He has no reluctance to forgive. And if we do not forgive others, God will understand that His love is not developing in us. It is that important.

Please turn over to Matthew 18. Even if we have forgiven once, most people are slow to forgive a second time, and still more reluctant to forgive a third time. And if the offense is repeated, we refuse to forgive altogether. Not so, again, with God! No matter how often we have broken His law, yet upon our true repentance, He can forgive all our sins.

Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

Seventy times seven represents an unlimited number of times. So when a person is genuinely sorry, and if repented of something, we should always forgive them even if it has done us personal harm.

God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not ours regarding His whole creation and government. He has plans for accomplishing His purpose that are different from ours and He secures our own welfare by plans that contradict our own. One indication of this is people's interpretation of prophecy. How many times in the last decades, many decades, has somebody come up with an idea of how prophecy should be and who should be in it and how wrong they have been every single time. And so we have to be careful that we stick to the Scriptures and not add our own interpretations to these things. Although it is fun sometimes to just brainstorm about these things, we just have to be careful about it.

We look at God differently than He looks at us and think differently than He thinks, especially when He disappoints our hopes, or foils our expectations, or crosses our designs, or removes our property or our friends, and thwarts our worldly purposes in life. He leads us down a path that we had not intended and secures our ultimate happiness in modes that are contrary to our intentions and desires. So it can be quite confusing to us as human beings with human reasoning to wonder what in the world is God doing in my life with all of these trials that I am going through.

It follows from this then that 1) we should form our plans with submission to the higher purposes of God. 2) We should resign ourselves to Him when He chooses to thwart our plans and to make a way for to take away our comforts. 3) We should never assume that God overlooks sin, even that which is committed in weakness.

So instead of saying "God will understand," we should say "God's will be done." And we work toward accomplishing God's will.

Please turn over to Luke 13. Not only does God not recognize our thoughts to be like His if we sin, He says He does not even know us if we sin.

Luke 13:22-28 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you where you are from,' then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' [We could even say we went to Sabbath services, kept the holy days and things like that we did with You.] But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out."

Now, what God thinks is not what we think, as I have been getting at here. It is amazing how far we will go in deceiving ourselves about the appropriateness of our actions—speaking of human nature here, and we all have some of it at least, if not too much. Sometimes people convince themselves that God would overlook their sin because they thought it was the right thing to do. They are making a misguided assumption that God thinks like they do. Their faulty human reasoning is not based on the truth. Well, God will understand but not the way they think. God knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly leads to death.

Please turn over to Psalm 50. Psalm 50 is addressed to His saints, as verse 5 verifies, "Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made My covenant with Me by sacrifice." And in Psalm 50, verses 16 and 17, Asaph, announcing God's charge, criticized the nation's hypocritical thinking. God first rebuked the wicked for reciting His laws and speaking of His covenant as their statement of faith, while they hated God's instruction. Pretty much the way this nation is today. And though these wicked people assembled with God's beloved saints, God knew the true motives of their evil hearts.

Psalm 50:16-17 But to the wicked God says, "What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you?"

In verses 18 through 21 the psalmist then selected several examples of their wickedness. While appearing righteous, they tolerated and took part in theft and adultery and slander. God warned them not to confuse His patience with His approval. God's silence did not mean that He agreed with their actions. Instead, He reprimanded them directly to their face. And this is what He says:

Psalm 50:18-21 "When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and you have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought it was I was all together like you; but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes."

In verse 21, the idea is that they thought or imagined that God is just like themselves in their thinking and they acted under this impression. Their conduct appeared to portray how God was and they were acting in a way that matched the "good" they had created in their own minds. They have a false sense of good, as this nation does today even as far gone as much of the morality in the nation with the LGBTQ+ and so on, they still think they are right and they are doing the right thing. And they do it in the name of their god.

In other words, they thought God would be satisfied with their forms of religion and that all He required was the appropriate offering or sacrifice according to their idea of religious belief (talking about those ancient Israelites). They believed that God did not care about principle, justice, pure morality, and sincerity because they did not care themselves. They thought He would not be strict in punishing sin or to correct them for it, if these forms or rituals were kept up.

Psalm 50:22-23 "Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver you. Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright [or you could say overcome sin, repent] I will show the salvation of God."

So if a person lives righteously, his worship will glorify God.

Now please turn over to Hebrews 4. The inspired written Word of God shows exactly what God will understand. The Word of God is what He thinks. Hebrews 4, verses 12 to 13 shows that we cannot escape the notice of God, that He will detect all insincerity, unbelief, and hypocrisy. Since our hearts and minds are perfectly open before Him, we must be sincere and not attempt to deceive Him or deceive ourselves prior to that so that we do not end up deceiving Him. The truth of God is all-penetrating and all-searching and the real thoughts and intents of the heart will be exposed. And if there is insincerity or self-deception, there can be no hope of escape from judgment.

Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creation hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

It gives us the shivers because we know we are trying. We are in God's church and we are the apple of His eye, but we are trying and we cannot do it without His help.

The Word of God can detect hypocrisy and lay open the true nature of the feelings of our mind so that there can be no escape for the guilty. So His truth is tailor-made to bring out real feelings and to show us exactly what He is. Truth always has this power, whether preached, read, communicated by conversation, or impressed upon the memory and conscious by the Holy Spirit.

Now, there is no escape from the penetrating, searching application of the Word of God. The truth of God has the power to show what we really are and sometimes we squirm when we read the Bible realizing we are not doing it perfectly.

The phrase "word of God" in verse 12 is equivalent to the truth of God made known to our minds. It brings out our real beliefs and feelings to show us how we really are. It puts a light, shines a spotlight on our lives. That is why the people in the world, when they want to do their worst crimes and their worst sins, they do it at night under the cloak of darkness.

So the Word of God is living and not dead, inert, or powerless. It is a living power and is energetic and active and it is dynamic. As I have mentioned many times, the Word of God is powerful. Its effect is seen in awakening our consciences, alarming our senses, laying open the secret thoughts and feelings of our minds, and causing us to tremble when we sin with the anxiety of coming judgment. If it does not, when we sin, we may be committing a presumptuous sin or a sin out of pride.

The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. This literally means two-mouthed sword. The word "mouth" was added to sword because it seemed to devour everything that appeared in front of it. So the two-mouthed sword consumes and destroys, as the wild animal does.

The comparison of the Word of God to a sword is designed to show its power to penetrate the heart. This use is found in Isaiah 49:2, which says, "He has made my mouth like a sharp sword." And in Revelation 1:16 where he says, "Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." It is piercing and penetrating and the Word of God teaches the depths of the heart—the very center of action and lays open our motives and feelings. So obviously, these things are not something to take lightly. I think most people in God's church do work very hard to overcome sin.

Now, the Word of God openly exposes the attitude and motivation of the heart. We are all made to see our real character under the light of the truth of God in at least three ways. One, in the light of the law, we see our past lives to be sinful. Two, the recognition of truth reminds us of many long-forgotten sins. And three, our real feelings are exposed when the truth of God is stated.

So when the truth is revealed, we are forced to look at our own motives as never before. Declaring truth is like shining the light beams of the sun at midnight on this dark world. And that is why they do their dirty deeds in the dark or in secret. In this way, the truth lays open the real beliefs and feelings of each person as the sun exposes the wickedness that is now performed under the cover of night.

David expressed this principle that nothing is hidden from God.

Psalm 139:11-12 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall upon me," even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.

When God is shining His light, this bright, bright light, nothing is hidden.

Many people have a deep and fixed hostility toward God and to His Word who might never be exposed to it. If the truth was not faithfully proclaimed, which is the church's responsibility to proclaim it to the world the best that we can. And with the Internet, we can do greater things with that than we ever could before.

It detects the true feelings of the hypocrite and the self-deceiver. And because they cannot always conceal their emotions, eventually the time will come when truth, like light poured into their minds, will reveal their unbelief and their secret sins.

Hebrews 4:13 There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

So there is no living being who is not completely known to God. He distinctly understands all our thoughts and our feelings and our plans. He warns us that even in self-deception, we cannot conceal anything from Him.

The Greek word tracheelizoo, translated into the English word "open" in verse 13 means, to lay bare the neck or to bend it back, to expose the throat to being cut. The description intended by this verb open is to bend back the neck of the animal to expose it in front when it is slain. It generally means to make bare, removing any covering, exposing the thing entirely in preparation for using a knife or a sword. Occasionally an accident or throat cancer from smoking may render a person incapable of breathing from his mouth or through his mouth. A hole is cut at the base of the neck in the front to open the windpipe to receive air. Today, this medical procedure is called a tracheotomy and that is from the same word that is translated open here. The original Greek word for open is the same word that tracheotomy comes from.

Now, the allusion is like that of the sword that Paul referred to in Hebrews 4:12 as dividing the body and spirit and the joints and marrow. The significance is that in the hand of God, who holds that sword, everything is exposed. So in a spiritual sense, everyone is like an animal whose neck is bent back, laid bare, and ready for slaughter. If we do not submit to God, to the power of God, all is bare and open. God may choose to strike at any moment or in the future, and His dreadful sentence falls on the sinner like the knife on the exposed throat of the victim.

Please turn over to Matthew 12. It is amazing how much depth there is in the meaning of some of these Greek words and their intention in the context. Jesus Christ makes it clear that by our words we will be justified or condemned, including every idle word.

Matthew 12:34-37 "Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

In verse 36 the phrase "idle word" literally means a vain, thoughtless, useless word or excuse; a word that accomplishes no good. It refers generally to anything that is not true and helpful when spoken. So God sets the moral bar very high and expects us to aim for it. And He provides a Spirit to help us not only reach it but to surpass it.

The context gives it, that is, the "idle word," the sense of wicked, injurious, false, malicious, since this was the intent of Christ's accusers.

All things are known to God. He reads every thought, sees every feeling, and looks through every thought and attitude.

Please turn over to Ezekiel 33, verse 30. The religious hobbyists like to hear the words of God since they are positive and give hope, but people do not do them because they do not have a proper fear of God. It all gets back to that.

Ezekiel 33:30-32 "As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, 'Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.' So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not do them."

This is a very apt description of a tare, sadly, and tares are among the church members. We do not know who they are. They are not exposed until God decides to expose them. But they can be deceptive.

The fear of God is the main biblical theme and is distinct from the terror of God. There are well over 100 references to the fear of God in the positive sense of faith and obedience. The sheer number of references to the fear of God signals that it is central to spiritual faith. It is essential to a saint's faith. The fear of God is the proper and elemental response of the person of God, and the person to God. It encompasses and builds on attitudes of awe and reverence and is a deep, heartfelt, continuing respect for Him. Psalm 33:8 says, "Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." That is what is going to happen in the Millennium, which we can very much look forward to.

Malachi 2:5 "My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear Me; so he feared Me and was reverent before My name."

So to fear God or be God-fearing is a synonym for being a follower of God. This is sometimes in implied contrast to those who do not fear Him. Today, there is a relative absence of this way of thinking in our culture and now we are seeing the inherent result of the lack of it. Secular society is degenerating rapidly because of the level of evil being done. We must hate and avoid evil as God hates it.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Proverbs 16:6 In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.

Flip over to I Samuel 12. The actions most frequently associated with fear of God are serving God and obedience to His commandments.

I Samuel 12:13-15 [here Samuel is speaking at Saul's coronation as king] "Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. If you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers."

This is what we are looking at, at the leadership of this country and all the countries of the world, especially the Israelites countries. They do not fear the Lord and so things are going to go very bad for these nations.

I Samuel 12:24 "Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you."

When we get down and depressed or get close to being angry at God, one of the first things we should do, besides our inner prayers actually, is to start listing the blessings of God and the miracles in our life that God has given to us during our lifetime. Every single last one, no matter how small or large, start listing them, and you will find yourself feeling very guilty of even getting close to accusing God of anything.

The fear of the Lord is also linked to wisdom.

Proverbs 15:33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.

The experience of the sailors in the book of Jonah provides a good illustration of the fear of the Lord and the difference between the terror of God and the saving fear of God. Jonah told the sailors that it was the Lord who made the sea and the land. God sent the storm upon them, terrifying them. But once the storm subsided, they greatly feared the Lord and the sailors were filled with awe of the Lord, making sacrifices and vows to Him. The significance of the response of sacrifices and vows is that they originated from some knowledge, however small, to who God really is.

Turn with me to Proverbs 2. Verse 5 equates the fear of the Lord with the knowledge of God. It also hints at something that the biblical passages imply, that the fear of God stems especially from an experience of His divine existence and power.

Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

So the fear of God produces practical results, as it did with the awe-filled sailors who offered sacrifices. When God gave the law to Israel through Moses, the command to fear the Lord occurred repeatedly, often coupled with obeying God's decrees.

Deuteronomy 5:29 "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!"

This is something that God desires in us; that it go on forever, that we have this blessing and peace and way of love.

Several biblical people are explicitly said to exemplify the fear of God, sometimes confirming its relationship to obedience. After Abraham had obeyed God's command by showing his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, an angel of the Lord declared to him,

Genesis 22:12 "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

Joseph was also a man of integrity. He attempted to dispel his brother's fears with the comment, "I fear God."

Turn over to Exodus 9. The Bible also describes people who do not fear God. By the time Moses had brought seven different plagues upon Egypt. Pharaoh knew God well enough to fear Him, but he did not. Though Pharaoh appeared to repent, Moses replied, "I know that you still do not fear the Lord."

Exodus 9:27-30 And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat the Lord, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer." So Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the Lord God."

So even after Pharaoh allowed Israel to flee Egypt, his disobedience and later pursuing the children of Israel indicated that he still did not truly fear God, even to the point where he was killed. And to that point, he still did not fear Him. He had a terror of God, possibly, at times but not a fear. Consequently, God destroyed Pharaoh's army, just as He promised to bring judgment upon all who do not fear Him, while preserving those who do fear Him.

Please turn over to Malachi 3. God will not forget and will rightly judge both the good deeds of the righteous and the evil deeds of the wicked. In Malachi, the insolent complainers charged that evildoers not only prospered, but they put God to the test and they escaped. But the Lord promises that a day is coming when these complainers will see how wrong they were.

Malachi 3:5 "And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien—because they do not fear Me," says the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 3:16-18 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. "They shall be Mine," says the Lord of hosts, "on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

The fear of God is an essential quality of those who know and obey God. For those faithful believers listed in the book of remembrance, it is a day when God will say they shall be My treasured possessions and they shall be spared. For those who fear God's name, it will be a day when they will subdue the wicked.

During the lockdowns and mask mandates of recent years the faith of every Christian was tested and now things look much clearer that our faith may not have been what it should. Jeffrey A. Tucker, the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and author of his recently written book, Liberty or Lockdown, had a commentary in the Epic Times on August 26, 2023, titled "Who Best Avoided the COVID Religion."

Before I read the quote from him, I will give you just a sentence of background. That is, that he is Catholic and he was heavily investigating how the Catholics and Protestants acted during the COVID response and lockdown and restrictions. And so, he talks about that for the first part of his article and then he gets to this point and it is quite a long piece. So please bear with me on this. Here is the excerpt.

The evangelicals were a bit slow to catch on to the scam that was the lockdowns, but they figured it out too, many by the summer of 2020, and they started holding weddings and funerals. Regular weekly services returned, to the howls of the media hounds, but they did not care. Once they had shaken off their fears, they were ready to get back to their religious obligations.

Tellingly, it was the more secular areas of the country that stayed closed longer. And the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches proved themselves all too willing to go along with the demands that they shut down services because of Dr. Fauci's diktats.

For most of 2020 and 2021, many of these churches simply kept their doors closed or forcibly masked their parishioners. Horribly, some of them even went along with the vaccine mandate, not only for staff but for parishioners too. [Following is a quote within a quote.] "Nationwide, a number of churches and synagogues are implementing vaccine mandates." The Deseret News wrote in September 2021, "Some are requiring not just the clergy and staff to get vaccinated, but even congregants. An Episcopal church in San Francisco, California is enforcing such an all-encompassing mandate complete with ushers who will politely turn away those without proof of vaccination."

[Then the author Jeffrey goes on to say,] I'm not saying that such churches deserve to go out of business, but actually, such churches deserve to go out of business. [he is quite frank]

What have we learned? [he writes] People who take their faith seriously have proven that they are more immune to the lies of the secular elites than those who barely go through the motions. [And I will just add my comment here. That is, those whose Christianity is only a preference.] It's the hardcore among them who put God ahead of government, their teachings ahead of the media, and their personal convictions ahead of the biomedical elite and their bogus claims.

In other words, it was faith itself that enabled people to follow real science better than those who outsourced their hearts and salvation to pharmaceutical companies and government bureaucrats. In still other words, it was the people of firm religious conviction who proved to be better practitioners of both science and human values.

Think about what that means in terms of the history of science and faith. For centuries, we've been told that only a faithless rationalism provides a guide to truth, while faith is merely a superstitious distraction.

The past three years have shown that this claim might be completely inverted. It's faith that allows people clarity to see through government propaganda and inspires people with more conviction to do what is right, regardless of what a totalitarian government happens to be preaching at any one time.

So preferences of belief are hard to admit because they expose weak faith. Faith is not a conviction if we require others to stand with us before we stand. Others have nothing to do with our obedience to God's requirements.

Now, anything we do apart from faith is a sin because faith glorifies God by trusting Him and the lack of faith dishonors Him.

James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Whatever is not of faith is sin. This describes what is commonly called sins of omission. It is not only what people do that matters. The good they fail to do is equally important to God. Christ is the supreme example of living for the glory of God. He willingly gave up His life.

Please turn with me to Deuteronomy 10 for a final scripture. God offers us the solution to all our problems for our own good and we decide whether to take Him up on it. He sets before us life and death. And of course, He wants us to choose life. Now, in Deuteronomy 10, we find an appropriate summary of what God requires to genuinely fear Him. It is the essence of His law of love.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 "And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?"

The fear of God is an essential quality of those who have a practical knowledge of who He is.

The real issue is the heart. God requires that we fear, walk, love, and serve the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul. If we truly love God, we will obey His Word and walk in His ways.

May God help us to fear Him with awe and reverence for the rest of our lives and beyond.

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