The Fear Of The Lord Is The Beginning Of Wisdom

Good morning, everyone. God bless each one. It's good to be here today.

It's a privilege. It's a privilege to have the pilgrims here with us today. Blessing.

Thank you for sharing. John, Brother Dave, there is a blessing more than you know to us. You mentioned about the Eagle congregation having moved out and the sacrifices made and that's all good and we're encouraged, we're blessed for your information.

We're blessed and encouraged. It is busy though. There's six brothers serving out of seven of us every week and so when you come down and share with us, it's a blessing more than you know.

So thank you. Sometimes when I go to visit another church, I sometimes hesitate because I know they're gonna ask me to share. I would encourage you not to do that when you come visit here.

However it comes out, we sense the spirit of the heart and that it is blessed and that alone feeds us and aside from that, it's a tremendous blessing. So thank you and welcome to each one, members and visitors alike. It's a blessing that we can have a day of rest.

What a treasure that is. A day of rest, a day of fellowship, a day of laying the busyness of life aside and opening God's Word and hearing from the preacher and hearing from other brothers and being encouraged for a little bit again and being strengthened in our faith just that little bit more and we're gonna continue this until the Lord returns and so I'm sure it's on all of our hearts that the Lord would come for me, that the Lord would live in us and come for us. So let's bow for a word of prayer and we'll get into the message.

Our heavenly Father and merciful Lord, we thank you. Thank you Lord for the many blessings you bestowed on each of each one of us. Thank you that we can be gathered together with other believers.

Thank you Lord that although the world knows or thinks that we are crazy, Lord, but we know that we love you. Lord, we have a heart to serve you and that looks different from the world's perspective. But we know, Lord, it's your kingdom is different than the world's kingdom and we thank you that we can be part of your kingdom.

Lord, encourage us today with your Holy Spirit. Lord, I am a vessel here. I pray that you would use me as a vessel to even teach me and to teach everyone here what is your will for us.

May you receive honor and glory in the end and may each one of us benefit from it. We pray these things in Jesus' precious and worthy name. Amen.

Yeah, thanks for giving the parable of the parable. I think it's good and I'm encouraged to be able to gather together with other believers, even if some look at us as crazies. The title of the message today is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And so the verse that I'll start off with is in Proverbs 9 verse 9. You have your Bibles. Proverbs 9 verse 9. Give you a few minutes or a few seconds to turn there. Proverbs 9 verse 9 says, give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser.

Teach a just man and he will increase learning. I look across the room today and I see many wise and just men and women and I trust that it will be just like that. That we can give instruction, we can hear instruction and be made wiser.

It goes on, he says in verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. Why? For by me thy days shall be multiplied and the years of thy life shall be increased. And I just want us to note that there, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because to fear the Lord will multiply our days and our years.

Now, spiritually speaking, we know to fear the Lord will give us eternal life, but I believe this applies physically too. The fear of the Lord will also increase our physical life. It will increase our life expectancy.

Under normal circumstances, unfortunately, sometimes normal is that Christians get persecuted and end up with shorter lifespans. But if people would fear the Lord as a whole, I believe the lifespan of humanity would increase and we'll see a little bit about that. For example, did you know that hospitals were invented by Christians? The organized free healthcare for the poor and sick was actually invented by Christians in the fourth century.

It was invented by God-fearers. Thy days shall increase and the years shall be multiplied. Christians in the fourth century were motivated by compassion.

They were motivated by Jesus' teachings. They were motivated by God's desire to help the poor and the needy. And they were motivated by Jesus' personal ministry, healing the sick.

And so they did likewise. So to fear God has produced a longer lifespan for humanity, even today. Did you also know that Christians are credited for starting the first schools? So education institutions were started by catechumens in the first century.

So learning. They were learners. A catechumen is a learner.

And so Justin Martyr, Origen, some of these people started education systems to teach doctrine. And so that's how school started. So just some practical illustrations of how to fear God equals longer life, physically and eternally.

So this morning I would like to give instruction unto wise men and women, trusting that it will be like Solomon said, that it will make you yet wiser to believe in God, to respect Him and fear Him for who He is, for what He's done, for what He will do. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the creator of heaven and earth.

He is the creator of me. I just meditated on that over the last week. In prayer I said, God, You created me.

And just think about that for a while. Does that not deserve some fear and honor and respect, some reverence? He is loving. He is kind.

He is almighty. He is merciful. He is patient.

He is just. He is holy. He is who He is.

He is all that He is. And much more than we can even imagine. And that deserves respect and honor.

And if we believe that, and if we do respect and honor Him and fear Him rightfully, it is a very good foundation for us to build our life upon. It will produce good fruit. It will cause us to make decisions that will be blessed.

It will cause us to make good decisions on how we raise our family, on how we treat our spouses, on how we do business. It will cause us to make decisions on the friends we make, the places we go, the things we do. And these decisions and the outcome of these decisions will be far more blessed if they are built upon that foundation.

For an example, some of you came to the Lord later in life. I would say, I came to the Lord too late in life. But think about the decisions that you made before you feared God.

What was the fruit of it? Was it good? John, was it good? Dave, Abe, was it good? Abe, was it good? Some of you would share many things. But the wisest decisions that we could have made without fear of God was really bad decisions. And it ended in misery.

Here's an example. I was 21 and I wanted to make a really good decision. I was not a God-fearing person yet.

But I didn't like it when we spent our money on little, little things. You know, I wanted an asset. I wanted an asset.

And I remember specifically thinking, I want a good asset. So one day, maybe if I get married, I actually have something to show for the hard work that I did. You know what I said? I'm going to get myself a big screen TV with a TV stand as a video game console.

I did not fear God. And this is the one of the wisest things that I could do. Decisions that we make when we don't fear God are horrible decisions.

I believe that I came to the age of accountability, probably at the age of 14 and 15. And then I started making decisions, many, many bad decisions. Remember, I didn't fear God.

Bad, horrible decisions. I didn't think they were. I was blinded.

By the time I was 22, I was a miserable young man. Anxious, had seen too many of my peers die in accidents and unnecessary stresses of the world. It just, I couldn't believe who I had become in eight years of deciding, making decisions without fearing God.

I came to a point where I begged God, I do not want to make decisions anymore. Please, God, make the decision for me. I specifically prayed, God, if I have a choice, then I choose that I don't want to choose.

And that was the best decision I had made. And he heard me. And then he chose for me a new way.

And then I started making decisions based on the fear of God. And I'm telling you, it changed the direction 100%. But the core was fear of God.

So whatever decisions you make, the core needs to be a fear of God. And then it will be blessed. I believe there's many different paths that you can take.

But if the decisions are based on fear, they're all blessed. And there's many different paths that you can take if you don't fear God. None of them are good.

And they all end in eternal death. And so that's just a testimony of mine. And I know you could share the same testimony, many of you.

And I hope that some of you young people will not have to share that testimony. I hope the testimony you share is that I decided that I would serve the Lord early in my life and base my decisions based on the fear of God and prosper therewith, because you will prosper therewith. And that doesn't really matter what decisions you make, but you will prosper if it's based on the fear of God.

Is it funny that the wisest man that ever lived ended his conclusion was, after he said, I got me maidens that cleaned my house, I got me orchards, I got me wealth, I got me this, I got that, I got that. It was all vanity and vexation of spirit. And what is the conclusion? At the end of his life, Solomon says, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

He wasted his whole life only to find that out. But we can learn. We can learn the conclusion now already.

We don't have to conclude with that in a negative sense later on. Now, to fear God, we don't fear him like he's scary. God isn't scary.

You know, many people run away from God as though he's scary. Even in our Mennonite culture, you know, he's going to get us. If you don't do good, you're going to go to hell.

You know, that's a wrong idea. That's not how we should see and fear God. He's not scary, but he is after us.

He is after us. And if we're running away from him, he's after us. But you know, he's after us to save us from our own self-inflicted eternal damnation.

You know that the eternal damnation that we face when we run away from God is self-inflicted. And when God is after us, he's after us to save us from ourselves, to save us from the poor decisions that we will make because we don't fear him. That's why God is after us, for our good.

Do we feel it in our hearts sometimes that God is convicting us and drawing us and we're saying, no, no, no, no. God is after us for our good. And when things don't go well with us, it's not that God is punishing us.

It's our own decision and the fruit thereof. Jeremiah 29 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

And ye shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. This is God's heart. When we feel like he's after us, he is after us, but he's after us for our good, not for our evil.

And the bad things that happen to us when we make decisions based on an evil heart of unbelief, they are not God's judgments as much as they are the fruit of bad decisions. The fruit of the decisions that we make because we lack the fear of God is bad fruit. And if it takes 10 years to find that out, that's a lot of wasted time to plant those seeds and 10 years later find out that they're bad seeds.

I had to think about it. When we run away from God, do we think that God is so small that he can't get us? What are we trying even to run away from God for? Is he that small that he can't get us? There's a beautiful song sung, taken out of the verses in Job. If in Sheol I would hide, even there he'll find me.

Jonah ran away from God and he got a certain distance and then finally he's at the bottom of the sea somewhere and there God found him. Or should we say he found God. One day people are going to run up to the mountains and they're going to say, mountains and rocks fallen us because the great day of the Lord has come and who is able to stand.

They've run away from God their whole life and now they're going to try one more time. They're going to try to hide under the rocks and mountains. But you can't hide from God.

We need to understand that. And we also need to understand that God's heart is not to destroy anyone. Does God take pleasure in the death of the wicked? The Bible is clear that he doesn't.

That's not why he's after us. And when we're running away from God then we're riding with the devil. And when we ride with the devil, he takes the driver's seat and his desire is to destroy us.

You see, we need to change that mindset. And I don't think most of us, maybe all of us don't have that mindset. But there are people that listen online too.

And I thought about that too as I shared this message, as I prepared this message. So if God is chasing us, brothers and sisters, or unbelievers, if he's chasing us and we can feel it in our conscience and we can feel it that we're convicted, it's because he's trying to save us from the bondages of the devil. And he's trying to save us from the bondages that come from the results of our own wicked decisions when we don't fear him.

I want us to consider the verse of Jeremiah, the context of the verse in Jeremiah 29.10. The context is the verse that I just shared. It says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me, and you shall find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

You know what the context is? Judah had been incredibly wicked. They were besieged now in Samaria, and they were in an incredibly far away from God state. They were serving idols.

They had forsaken God. There was no fear of God left, and now their enemies were besieging them, and they were about to pull them into Babylon. That's the context.

And then God says, in that, when they hated him, and they're going through these difficult things, I have good in plan for you, and yes, I'm after you, but for good, not for evil. That's the context. So the fear of God, brothers and sisters, is first of all for his glory, and second of all, it's for human benefit.

But what is it like then, when there is no fear of God? The fool hath said in his heart that there is no God, and it is truly foolish to come to the conclusion that there is no God. In the beginning, God, or in the beginning, nothing. It is truly foolish to come to the conclusion that there is no God, and if it's wisdom to believe that there is God, and to fear him because it gives us eternal life, then it's foolish to believe that there is no God, because it will self-destruct.

It is that way. Societies, and civilizations, and people self-destruct when they lack the fear of God. They literally self-destruct.

If you ever want to watch a good video, a devotional video on this, look up D.L. Moody's Empty Cities, a 20-minute devotional video. It gives a very beautiful picture of how what the atheists today call, what's that word, what's that word when atheists call a very poor group, primitives. What the atheists today call primitives, that is like, oh, they're not as far as the others yet, you know, they're poor, most of them don't know what clothes are, that group of people.

The atheists say, oh, they're not evolved yet, but he follows that primitive group, Mayans for one, and he traces their lineage backwards, and he finds that they were an incredibly wise group of people at one point in time. They knew astronomy, they knew building, they were masters, they had amazing civilizations, and he sees something in his studies, that as the civilization was getting better, and better, and more prosperous, something happened where they started worshipping idols, and especially child sacrifice, and then it goes down. There was a lack of fear of God, else they would never do child sacrifice, but he follows five or six different civilizations that way.

There's a Machu Picchu, who's ever heard of Machu Picchu? There's a another group of people, which today are primitives, that lineage, they're primitives, most of them are servants of some sort, most of them are on cocaine, very, very poor third world looking like people, and he follows them back, and he traces the lineage back to the Machu Picchu group, an amazing civilization that they had, and he finds the same thing there, the civilization prospered, it was organized, it was doing well, it's all good, and then somewhere along the line, human sacrifice came in, and then they went down, and so they're not primitives at all, they were actually once very, very wise, intelligent, prosperous people, who left God, who forsook the fear of God, and then went down. They're not getting any better, unless they're serving God. I would encourage you to watch that, it's called Empty Cities, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, because it self-destructs.

Genesis 20 11, Abraham said he went to Canaan, and then there was a famine there, and he went back to Egypt, and then Abraham said to his wife, hey, I know it, that there's no fear of God here, so tell them that you're my sister, not my wife, so that they won't kill me and take you. See, Abraham knew that if there's no fear of God there, things aren't in a very good place, and he even was tempted in that group of people to yield to temptation and lie. Abraham, you know, the father of faith, our example, knows that if there's no fear of God, it's unwise and it's foolish.

Moving on, the Israelites were warned in Deuteronomy that if they would depart from God, many terrible things would happen to them. They would suffer famine, which they did, they would suffer plagues, which they did, and eventually they would suffer devastation, which they did. Turn with me to 2nd Kings 6. I want to go over this with you.

2nd Kings 6 verses 24. 2nd Kings 6 verses 24 says, and it came to pass after this that Ban-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it.

Remember, these are God's people, besieged, stuck in Samaria with the enemies all around, making sure that nobody comes in and nobody gets out, no food gets in and no water gets out, and these are God's people, after they had forsaken God, and God's enemies are surrounded them. I don't know how many years it was, but it was a long time. And all of a sudden it says, until an ass's head was sold for 80 pieces of silver.

Here they are in such a desperate place because they lacked the fear of God and they forsook him. Things had come to such a desperate place that a donkey head was worth $500. 80 pieces of silver today is worth $500.

I had to think, who's ever eaten a donkey to begin with, and then yet a donkey head for $500. It gets worse, and a fourth part of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver. Imagine being in such a place of such desperation where a cup of pigeon poop is worth 20 bucks.

Make decisions based on no fear of God. This is the fruit of it. This is not God's punishment.

This is the fruit of bad decisions. I hope they were using that for fuel to maybe cook the donkey head. I don't know.

But this is the place, brothers and sisters, if we make decisions based on not fearing God, this is where it could come to. They were warned that this would happen. And as the king of Israel, listen to this, it gets worse again.

And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him saying, help my lord, O king. And he said, if the lord doesn't help you, how am I supposed to help you? Out of the barn floor, out of the wine press, there isn't any food there anyway. And then he said to her, what aileth thee? And she answered, this woman said, give me thy son that we may eat him today.

And we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat him. And I said unto her the next day, give thy son that we may eat him.

And she hath hid her son. Brothers and sisters, why do people run away from God? Is this God's heart for them? This is the context when God said, I know that my plans for you are good and not evil. This is how far away from God they were.

And God is chasing them. And he's saying, I want good for you. Why are you running away from me? Look at your own consequences from the choices that you made because you ran away from me.

This is not my heart for you. And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the women, that he rent his clothes and he passed upon the wall. And the people looked and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

Then he said, go do so and more also to me if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day. And then they blamed God's people. Things got so bad, obviously, because they feared not God.

And then what's the conclusion? Well, it must be the Christians, must be the God-fearing people. And that's actually a pattern that has repeated itself many times over the years also. History repeats itself.

Society today also self-destructs. In areas where the fear of God is lost the most, you see self-destruction at its highest. You see, I had to think about the LGBT community just to give some examples.

The homosexuals, they self-destruct. They don't have children. They self-destruct.

They don't multiply. Diseases that stem from their lifestyle, like monkeypox, which is a new one recently that stems from their lifestyle. AIDS.

The National Library of Medicines has a document on this and it states that based on four different surveys in differing countries, life expectancy for homosexuals is 20 to 30 years less than regular or other human beings. I'm not sure if I said that in a mean way. I'm not trying to.

But do you think God's heart is that for them? But what is God's heart for them? That they would repent and that they would quit self-destruction and that they would come to Him and that they would live and that they would prosper. That's God's heart for them. That's why God is after them.

They have a disease that all of humanity struggles with. That disease is called sin and that disease is healed through faith in Jesus Christ. Now I know these messages go online and I was wondering, I wonder if this will get portrayed as hate crime.

I hope not because it's not. Because God is after them. God is after you, if you're listening to me online, for your good.

God is not after you for your destruction. God is after you for your good. My heart would be the same as God's heart that you would repent of your sin and find peace in Jesus Christ and that you would prosper.

My heart would be for good, not for evil. So I hope that when this comes across that it will not be counted as hate crime, but as love and mercy. It feels strange in a crowd talking, expecting that someone will hear this, but I pray that they will take it to heart.

Another movement that self-destructs is the feminist movement. It self-destructs. They tend to be career women and so therefore homemaking and having children is kind of out of the question.

There was a time when I believe it was Hillary Clinton, she was running on campaign and she made a comment that she's not the type of woman that stays home and bakes cookies. And she actually offended a lot of women because it attacks them, but there's nothing to attack there. God has called us to be homemakers, to get married, to have children, to bless your home and to be a home.

God has called us, called women to be that. And so you are actually in God's will and that is a blessing and I understand why so many women would have been offended at that, rightfully so. But the feminist movement sees that as a bondage.

And so what do they do? They abort their little ones. They maybe have one or two children, maybe. Maybe it seems like a bondage to them.

Maybe they don't see the blessing. They wish they could run the workforces like the men do. They use ungodly child prevention methods.

Finally, they self-destruct, right? Another means of self-destruction from those that fear not God is euthanasia. Another method that's recently come up where people can choose to take their own life. And I heard of a story, Brother Pete was actually sharing a story with me that I'll just try to repeat.

He heard a story where a woman went to the doctor's office and found out that she had cancer. And the doctor told her that she doesn't necessarily have to live with cancer. There was another option.

And he explained to her euthanasia, how that works. And so she would have gone home and was it a short while later, the doctor came into her house with a bag and the ambulance was on the driveway. And 10 minutes later or so, he walks out of the house.

And shortly after, they carried her out of the house into the ambulance in a body bag. So another unfortunate situation, another unfortunate consequence of having no fear of God. I hope I'm bringing the point across that to not fear God is to self-destruct.

And God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. It is not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is God's will.

And I'm persuaded that most of the time, the fool hath only said in his heart that there is no God. Meanwhile, he knows there is actually a God. But he has said in his heart that there is no God.

And so he denies Him as God and ends up suffering because of it. Romans actually says the same thing. It's out of Romans 119.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God and were not thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. So when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. And now they say, Oh, I don't believe in God, but I believe that everybody knows that there's a God.

And if they persuade themselves that there isn't, they once knew that there was. And they become darkened. So it's incredibly foolish to think that there is no God.

Because in running away from God, they choose their own self-destruction. They choose life or they choose death instead of life. Proverbs 8.36 says, But he that sinneth against me wrongs his own soul.

All they that hate me love death. If we sin against God, we're doing ourself harm. And if we hate God, we love death.

Very clear. So why would then anyone go against God when doing so is to destroy themselves? I would give two answers for that. One is that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.

And secondly, is that the devil has blinded them. And notice that it says their foolish heart was darkened after they consciously made the decision not to glorify Him as Creator. So first of all, they made the decision not to glorify Him.

And then it's like they got what they wanted. And then their foolish heart was darkened. And one day when they stand before God, they will stand before Him without excuse.

They will know that when God says to them, depart from me, they'll say, yep, I know. I'm not going to fight. They will have zero excuse.

That is a righteous judgment. It's kind of like when you're caught red-handed. And you know you did wrong.

And you can't lie. And you're not going to get out of it. One time that happened to me.

I was going about 125 in an 80 zone. I was in a hurry. I don't know why.

But I was going 125 on County Road 14 right past Weeby's Welding. And I seen a police. And he blew by me.

And I seen his tail lights go on. I just pulled over. I didn't even wait for him to turn around.

It's like, yep, I knew it. I'm done. His tail lights went on for a second.

And I was already on the side of the road. Yep. Surrender.

He turns around. And I knew whatever ticket he gives me, I deserve it. 100% I deserve it.

Now I'm going to accept it. And I'm going to say, thank you, officer for doing your job. Keep going.

I'll pay this ticket as soon as I get a chance. He turns around and he must have not minded that I surrendered so quick. He pulls over beside me and I open my window.

He's like, slow down. Okay. Okay.

Thank you, officer. Yeah, I will. Close call.

I did not deserve that pardon. But you know, none of us deserve that pardon. When God is after us, and we just say surrender our life, none of us deserve that pardon.

And he comes and he says, I forgive you just now move on. But if we insist on keep driving, God's that police would have been after me. And if we don't surrender and pull over, God is going to be after us.

And if we insist that we don't want it and we keep driving, we will drive right into eternal damnation. And then when we see God one day, we will know, yep, I should have surrendered. I get it.

Yeah, I deserve this. This is not going to be fun. But that's just the way it is.

It's a righteous judgment. And anyone who denies Him now, and glorifies Him not as God now, will know that that's a righteous judgment. So we've considered now the fear of God.

We've considered life without God. I want to consider one more thing. The Bible says that the path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day.

So we're growing, right? We're learning. We got born again, it's like the sun came up, but the sun isn't all the way up yet. The path of the just is as a shining light that shines more and more until it's full daylight.

And so we all have to grow, every one of us. And so I want to show us a better way than a fear of God. I want to encourage love for God.

Love for God is better than fear of God. Fear of God is good, love for God is better. Jesus said that on love for God and on love for others, everything else hangs on those two.

What a blessing. A new commandment I have given unto you that you have loved one for another. Matthew 22 37 says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So you have the commandments, you have the 10 commandments. The first tablet has all the commandments that relate to where the love of God, everything hangs on that. The second tablet, the love of others, everything hangs on that.

And so I wrote the 10 commandments down here. Now I want to show this to us. The 10 commandments say thou shalt have no other gods before me.

If I fear God only, I will obey that commandment. But if I love God, I don't need that commandment. Nobody needs to tell me to have no other gods before me if I love him.

But if I fear him only, I will obey it. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. If I fear God only, I will obey that.

But if I love him, I don't need that commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. If I fear God only, I will obey that commandment.

But if I love him, it will hurt me when others do it. Does that hurt you when somebody uses God's name in vain? Does it hurt? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. If I fear God only, I will come to church and do my duty.

But if I love him, it will be a joy to be with God's people. That's the first tablet. And then the second tablet on others.

Honor thy father and thy mother. If I fear God only, I will obey that. But if I love God wholly, then I will automatically love my parents and I will automatically love others because God loves them.

And there's a tie between our love for man and our love for God. It's together. John makes that clear.

That if we say that we love God but hate our brother, then we are liars. There's a connection between loving God and loving others. Thou shalt not kill.

We don't need that commandment if we love our brothers, if we love each other. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. If we love our brothers, if we love each other, we don't need these commandments.

So in a way, our obedience to Jesus far exceeds that of the Old Testament, because it says that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. Love is better. The law is a schoolmaster that points us unto Christ, and then Christ has some instruction for us.

Love. The law is good. It shows us our guilt.

It causes us to have a holy fear and reverence to God, and it brings us to repentance. And to have a fear for God is very good, but to love God is better. 1 John 5 says, By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous unto us. They're not burdensome. We don't dread them.

When we love God, then we naturally keep His commandments. We don't feel pressured to. We don't feel burdened to.

We naturally do. Yes, we're still burdened by our flesh, but as we love God more and more, we are able to lay our own desires down more and more. We become less, and He becomes more.

And then we do as John the Baptist said, He must increase, I must decrease. Consider for a little bit the Ephesian church. They had a testimony, a very good testimony, but there was one thing that they lacked, and that was a very significant thing.

They did many good works. They hated sin. They called out the false apostles.

They did many good things, but Jesus said, you have lost your first love. Return to your first love, or I'll put out the candlestick among you. So brothers and sisters, do we do good things out of obligation? The good things that we do, is it because we're obligated to? Or is it a love for God that causes us to do these things? Where am I at this morning? Do I have a fear of God instilled in my heart? That's good, but that's the beginning of wisdom.

Do I love Him? Do I keep a tab on all the good things that I do, wondering when I'll get them repaid? Do I love Him? Is reading God's word a chore, or is it a delight? Do I love Him? Can I serve His sheep continually, and truly count it a privilege to do so, and a joy, or is it a burden to do it? Do I love Him? Brothers and sisters, this message was for me as much as it was for anyone else. These are questions that I have for myself, but also ask them yourself. Do we love God? I trust that we do, and I trust it is as a shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day, and we can always love Him more.

So let's close with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You so much for what we heard today.

I pray that You would instill it upon each of our hearts, Lord, the fear of God, that it would be upon each of our heart, and not only the fear of God, Lord, but the love for You. Lord, I pray for a blessing on each one, Lord, if You're speaking to anyone here today, that You would work in their hearts, and bless them, and prosper them. And Lord, work in my heart.

Help me to love You more. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.