I feel like in that hymn the gospel has been preached and so that's all we need, right? But let's then turn to Proverbs chapter 10. Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 24. Of course, we've been studying the book of Proverbs Some period of time and. And. We're actually in Chapter 11 in our study, but I skipped these verses because I wanted to preach them on a Sunday morning. And so, verse 24 says, the fear of the wicked will come upon him and the desire of the righteous will be granted. Let's go to the Lord once again in prayer. A father in heaven, we Look to you now that your Holy Spirit would illumine your word. Smile upon your word. Shine your light of your countenance upon your word. That your word might bring forth fruit in our lives. For it is your word that is powerful and breaks the rock in pieces and breaks the hard heart in pieces and brings about salvation. So work in our lives today as we consider this passage. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is about the fear of the wicked and the desire of the righteous. Now, it's important to note that this passage is not meant to teach us that every fear of every wicked people or every wicked person will happen to them, or that every desire of every righteous person will come true for them. We need to always remember that a proverb is not meant to convey that kind of absolute coverage of everything that we can imagine. As Dan Phillips says in his very excellent book, God's Wisdom in Proverbs, he says, Proverbs convey pithy points and principles, not precious particular promises. Now, I think he probably meant that they're not always meant to convey particular promises, because they do sometimes. Because in another place, he says, a proverb is not always intended to be a guarantee or an exhaustive statement on any given subject. Rather, it is a pithy pointer, usually designed to drive one truth into the mind. And he says in another place, a proverb is a compressed statement of wisdom, artfully crafted to be striking, thought-provoking, memorable, and practical. See, if we don't keep this in mind, when we come to verses like this, we'll run into problems. We must acknowledge that on the surface, this verse seems flawed if you only look at the surface, because is it not also true that oftentimes the fear of the righteous comes upon them? And also, oftentimes, the desire of wicked people is granted them. Job 35, 25. Job, a righteous man, said this. He said, for the thing I greatly feared has come upon me. And what I dreaded has happened to me. You see, we see this in scripture. Likewise, also, we see in our own experience that wicked men and women obtaining often what they desire. And they do it often through lies and fraud and harming others. But at least for a time, They seem to have obtained their coveted desire. And we'll consider this more later, for the Bible also acknowledges this observation that we can see around us all the time. So how should we apply this verse? How should we look at these two statements? Well, I have a series of questions that I propose need to be answered in order to properly understand these two parallel and opposite statements in this verse. And if we answer these questions, it will help us to apply this verse in a way that is ultimately true in every single case. And in the end, we'll find that there is a precious particular promise indeed for us in these verses, in this verse. Here are the questions that I wish to answer this morning. What is this that is denoted as the fear of the wicked? Or, what is the ultimate fear of the wicked? Secondly, how and when does their ultimate fear come to pass? Three, does it have to come upon them? Could they escape? Fourthly, what is this that is denoted as the desire of the righteous? And fifth, how and when is this desire granted? Well, first of all, what is this fear of the wicked? Well, I would answer that the fear of the wicked is the fear of divine judgment. The greatest fear of men is that they will give an account one day of their evil and that there really is a God after all. And this God really will bring all their works into judgment. But there are some things about this fear that we need to qualify because after all, we know that many lost people Don't even acknowledge that there is such a thing as God, or that there is such a thing as sin or judgment. It reminds me of the man that was held up in downtown and held up with a gun. And he said, well, I'm not going to hand over my wallet because I don't believe in bullets. You see, you can deny God's judgment all you want. It's not going to help you on Judgment Day. The first thing that we need to qualify about this fear of the wicked is that this fear is not felt by them in the day of their power. And by the day of their power, I mean in the time of their health and while they're prospering in this life. In the day of their power, they feel no or little fear. In fact, they make much of this. Truth that they don't feel the fear some years ago There used to be a movement and many of you may remember it where they people would put no fear They have no fear t-shirts no fear bumper stickers you remember that and It was very anti scriptural anti Christ because Jesus said I will tell you someone you should fear and He mentions this God that we read about here in Exodus 19 and 20, he says, I tell you, fear him. But they make much of the fact that they don't fear. But unconverted people often want to say that they're not afraid to die. I remember my own grandfather, when he would say this, I think he only, I think I only heard him say it once or twice, I'm not sure, but I remember him saying this, that he wasn't afraid to die. But, you know, God graciously gave him a fear of God before he actually did die. And I was there when he asked the Lord to save him. And I believe he's in heaven waiting for me now. But when he was healthy and young, it was easy for him to say that. But you start to face death, face that mighty gulf. it's a little easier to fear. And hopefully God will give you that fear at that time. I believe this fear of my grandfather's was there all along, but he suppressed it. And there again, it's easy to suppress the fear of God and judgment while we're young and healthy, and death seems a long ways off. So we could say that though people do have this fear, they're mostly not conscious of it. And they usually want people to know that. They're not afraid and they're proud of it. You can see them on the evening news sometimes or on the social media or the Internet. And they're bold in denouncing good. They're bold in slandering good men and in promoting all manner of evil in the public square. They sometimes carry signs advertising their evil desires and want to be seen by as many as possible. The one thing that they have in common is Romans 3.18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. In other words, they have no sense of fear. They live their lives without the fear of divine justice. But nevertheless, this fear will come upon them. This lack of fear, I mentioned this as well, that this lack of fear that they have is not good for them. It's like a child. You have a very small child and he's not afraid of the fire. And it was good for him to be afraid of the fire. And once he's burned, then a lot of times he'll realize he needs to stay away from the fire. So why is a little child not afraid of the fire? Well, it's because of ignorance. And ignorance that unsaved people have is really more than just ignorance. It's a culpable ignorance, the Bible says. Children culpable means that they don't have any excuse for not knowing because the Bible says God has revealed himself to them. First, not that God has not spoken or that God has not revealed his true nature to mankind. God has done so in many different ways. And at various times throughout history and in human existence, he has revealed his will to us. And then he caused many of those things to be recorded in the most well-known book of all time, the greatest bestseller of all time, which is the Bible. But many people won't even bother to read the Bible, and that's for many reasons. One of Satan's ways to destroy souls is to get them to ignore the Bible. We have many Bibles in America, and if 10% of them were read on a regular basis, we'd have a different America than we have today, wouldn't we? See, Satan keeps his people distracted by other things that seem more exciting, or that feel good to do, or that are more interesting to them. And he keeps them thinking about these things rather than the things that their soul needs. People are busy, busy, busy, busy, aren't they? But not doing the most important thing, and that's to learn about God and to seek Him. But some, of course, will read it and reject it because it doesn't fit their idea of what they want in a God. They go God shopping. They want a God that fits their own agenda, that will do their own bidding. Cosmic bellhop scroll. Mentions that term people want a cosmic bellhop. They'll snap snap their fingers and God will do what they want They've already made a God in their own image and the real God the true God the God we read about this morning Doesn't get along well with the God of their own imagination and so they reject the true God and they remain as ignorant of him as they can thinking that that if they deny his existence, maybe he'll just go away. But the problem is they can't speak something into existence. They can't speak their false gods into existence, and they cannot wish God's existence away. You can create a God in your own mind, but you cannot give it existence. You cannot make it real. And many people have. If you heard people say, oh, my God would never send anyone to hell. Well, Yeah, I'm sure your God wouldn't. But the real God of the Bible promises that he will. People make up their own gods with their own code of ethics. We read God's code of ethics this morning in the Ten Commandments. They have their own code of ethics. But they cannot make those ethics effective without some God to back them up. And since they have a God that doesn't exist, they'll try to force their code of ethics on others through the means of the government or some false religion, but always something that has the power to enforce their agenda. And all the while, nurturing ignorance of the true God that has already intervened in history and revealed his will. And whenever they see glimpses of that, they just hit their delete button. You know the delete button? You just keep hitting the delete button. They don't want that God. Just delete, delete, delete. And so they're ignorant of the God who spoke from Mount Sinai. This mountain that we read about this morning, this mountain that according to Hebrews 12, and I'm quoting from Hebrews 12, it says, it burned with fire and blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For the Bible also says they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that even Moses, the man of God, said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling." Now, they're ignorant also of this God's same appearance to the prophet Isaiah in the year King Uzziah died, when Isaiah saw this in Isaiah chapter 6. And I want to read that passage for us. He saw God sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above the throne, he saw a seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. And all this caused Isaiah to cry out, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Now, I read these passages because I want to show just how great and how holy God is, and how it is that even holy men, when they would come into contact with him, would tremble with fear. Moses and Isaiah were not wicked men, but from our standards, they were very righteous men. But even they quaked with fear when God revealed himself to them. Indeed, the whole nation of Israel trembled when God spoke to them on Mount Sinai, and they didn't even see him. They just heard his voice. But most people, and especially in our day, are ignorant of this God, as I said earlier. They're ignorant of the power, of the majesty, the holiness, and the absolute sovereignty of God. They do not know him to be a consuming fire, as the Bible says of him. They have not learned, as Paul said, as I said earlier in our scripture reading, they have not learned the terror of the Lord. And they try to make themselves to believe that they'll never have to give an account to him. And yet the Bible is clear and unmistakable. The fear of the wicked will come. And how then? Let's go on to the next question. How then will the fear of the wicked come and when? Well, first, it does not yet appear. As I said earlier, now they're in their power. Jesus said to them in Luke 22, this is your hour and the power of darkness. It's important for God's people to understand this. On account of this fact, many saints have stumbled in the past and are stumbling even today. I'd remind you that godly Asaph nearly stumbled When he saw the prosperity of the wicked, he called it, in Psalm 73, he said, there are no pains in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. He said, their eyes bulge with abundance. They have more than heart could wish. You see, the Bible acknowledges that wicked men get the things they like, oftentimes, in this life. And it was a stumbling block for Asaph, because Asaph said, I'm chastened every day. God gives me troubles and sorrows in my life, and I'm trying to live for Him. And all these wicked men, they're just living the life, having a great time. Does that ever bother you? It bothers Christians in every generation. But this is the truth. And even today, it causes sorrow in God's people when they see wickedness abound on every side. Does it cause you sorrow? It causes me sorrow. And even today, it does. And it's as though they can go on forever without being set back, without having any negative consequences in their lives on account of their sins. And so we ask and we wonder in our minds, where is their fear? And sometimes we're tempted to think these thoughts. Where is God? Is he asleep? Does he slumber? Can't he hear? Maybe he just doesn't care. You ever think that way? When will he arise and do something about all this? You see, God is not asleep. There's nothing wrong with his vision. He has perfect hearing. He hears it all. He sees the innocent blood that they shed. And he sees every dirty, immoral thing they ever do. And he's not unconcerned or unoffended by all of this. But neither is he a man. His wrath should be kindled quickly like ours is sometimes. God doesn't fly off the handle. He doesn't have a short fuse. It's a good thing he doesn't, because I'd have been toast a long time ago if he did. He's not like us at all in the display of his anger. But he has done two things with the wicked that will ensure that their fear will come upon them. First, as Asaph himself observed later on in Psalm 73, verse 18, he says, surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. And he said something similar to Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 35. He said, vengeance is mine and recompense. Their foot shall slip in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand. And the things to come hasten upon them. You see, they may enjoy the day of their power when they feel no fear, but they stand and they live as though walking on ice. And you know, I've noticed the older I get, the more careful I've got to be about walking on ice. When I was a kid, you know, you walk on ice, you don't think any of it's no big deal. If you do fall, it doesn't hurt. Well, now if I fall, it hurts. It really bothers me. And I know if I fall just the wrong way, it could kill me. People die every year, even in Rockford, just from falling on the ice. If I walk on ice, I know that, OK, I might take a few steps, but I'm in a slippery spot. And sooner or later, I'm going to lose my grip. And I'm going to go down if I continue to walk on ice. And so I avoid it. Well, that's where he's put them. He's put them as though they were on ice. So God says he's put them in this slippery place, and no matter how careful they are, and that's the way I am on ice, I don't care how careful I am, sooner or later I'm going to fall. And when they do fall, then the fear of judgment will come upon them. So even though they have their day, God will have his too. And that's the second thing that God has done. He has appointed for himself a day. It's a very notable day. It's spoken of throughout the Bible. Sometimes it's abbreviated. Sometimes it's just denoted as the day. Other times its full name is given, which is the day of the Lord or Judgment Day, an ominous sounding day. It's a day for which all other days exist and which all other days are leading to. It's known as the final day, after which eternity will begin and there will be no more days. It's the final day. When will the fear of the wicked come upon them? That's when the fear of the wicked will come upon them. That's when their fear will be fully realized. Now, fear comes upon them when they die and they wake up in hell and they realize there really is a God, there really is a hell, I'm really here. But after the resurrection, because there will be a resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. After the resurrection, then they come to this day, this judgment day, and they stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there'll be the day that they will have even greater fear. And here's a description of that day as recorded for us in the book of Revelation. Revelation 6 says, I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair. And the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? This is when the fear of the wicked comes upon them. Now here in this verse we see, in this passage I just read, we see a very great change. You see, because they used to not fear. They used to parade their wickedness in front of as many as would see them as they could. But now they're afraid. Their fear has finally come upon them in their fullness. And their fear is so intense that they become insane. They asked the mountains and the rocks to hide them, as though the mountains and the rocks could hide them from God, from the God that brought them to this awful place of final judgment, this great white throne upon which the judge of the universe is seated, and they have to give an account. When does this fear come? How does it come? It comes at last. It comes on time. It comes most surely. It cannot be delayed. The angels have gone forth and harvested every soul that's assembled at the judgment seat from the four corners of the earth, and not a soul has escaped them. The next question, could they escape? Well, not then. It'll be too late then. There is no second chance. The rocks in the mountains cannot hide them. But they could have escaped. For the same God who has promised judgment is also a merciful God and a gracious God who takes pity on our poor fallen race. He's seen the trouble that we've gotten ourselves into. And it's because of our own sinfulness, our own breaking of His law. And He's had compassion upon us. And He sent us a Savior. And if we will have Him, He can take all our sins away. I love 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You know, there's not very many acceptable sayings nowadays, is there? There's not very many things you can read on the Internet or hear on the evening news that you can say, I agree with that, that's true, that must be true. Here's something Paul says, here's a saying that's acceptable. Here's a saying that you can sink your teeth into. Here's a saying you can take to the bank. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I'm so glad he came into the world to save sinners. I qualify. See, this great God, this holy God, this magnificent God we've been talking about, whose very presence and whose very voice caused men to tremble, is also the same merciful God who does not want us to face his wrath and condemnation on that great day of judgment. So he thought of a way, he devised a way whereby he could remain holy and we could have our sins forgiven. He could judge our sins and forgive the sinner. How did he do that? He did it by sending a Savior into the world. His name was Jesus. And He is the desire of the righteous. And the righteous desire Him because they know that they have no hope except in Him. We can never pay God for our sins. And so God sent Jesus Christ into the world, as I've said, as the scripture says. And how did he save us? He saved us with a cross. He went to the cross. And what happened at the cross is what saves us. At the cross, we have this thing called double imputation. Nobody's saved except for double imputation. If you don't learn anything else, learn this from this message. on the cross, when Jesus died on the cross, all of the sins of all the people that would ever call upon Him were imputed to Him. And He bore those sins and He paid for those sins. In 2 Corinthians it says that He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Our sins were imputed to Him, but that's not all that happened. At the same time, His righteousness that he earned when Jesus Christ came into the world, he kept the law. He never failed the law. If he hadn't kept the law, he wouldn't have qualified to be a savior. He kept it perfectly. And that perfect righteousness was imputed to us that believe on him. Double imputation. No one is saved except through this method. That's the way God devised that he could do it this way. He could punish sin on the cross, and Christ was punished for our sin. He felt the full weight of our sin. When He hung on the cross, He cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And the reason He cried out that way is because this was at the time when He was bearing the full penalty of our sins. God didn't see Jesus on the cross and say, Oh, it's Jesus. Oh, well, I guess I'll just let it go. I'm not going to punish. They're on Jesus. I'm not going to punish those sins. He didn't have that option. If he wanted to continue to be holy, he couldn't let sin go unpunished. Did you know that every single sin will most certainly be punished? Every sin ever committed in the entire universe at any time in the history of the world Every single sin will be punished. Every single one of your sins will be punished. Either Jesus will take that punishment upon himself when those sins are imputed to him, or you will bear that punishment and you will have to pay for your own sins. This is why, by the way, hell is eternal. We sin against an eternal God. Your debt to God is an eternal debt. You can't pay it in a period of time. Jesus Christ could because He was the eternal God. And as He hung there, He was able to absorb the wrath of God in a period of time. Whereas for us, we would have to absorb it for all eternity. We only really realize the significance of what He did on the cross. All that He really did for us on the cross, if we ever did, We'd be the most happy people in the world. And it wouldn't matter what people did to us in this life. We wouldn't care. We'd say, my sins are forgiven. I've got a future with God. Everything's going to be OK in the end. It doesn't matter what I go through here. Instead, what do we do? We get all upset and uptight about politics. the coronavirus and all kinds of other things, and we forget to be happy about our salvation. And we ought to be happy about it. Jesus Christ absorbed the wrath of God. He was the propitiation for our sins. And we ought to be praising Him every day for that. This is what God did. He is the desire of the righteous. And we're called righteous here not because We are righteous, but because He is righteous, and our righteousness is from Him, as I've already said. And that's why the wicked could have come, if they only would have, because the righteous, to find their desire in the desire of Christ, could have also been theirs. Because Christ is offered to them. Christ is offered to them freely. Christ is offered to all men. You see, the desire of the righteous will be granted. And it has been granted in Christ. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So on that judgment day, when the fear of the wicked comes upon them, He'll command them to depart. But that day has not yet come. Now, at this present time, His invitation stands. Throughout the Word of God, He holds out His hands to you, and He invites everyone to come to Him. His generous heart is such that he would far rather save you than to condemn you. I'm glad God's that way. If he was like man, he wouldn't be that way. God is God. And so he invites us freely to come to him. Think of this. You're alive now. You're still on this side of the grave. It's not too late for you. If you're here without Christ, it is not too late for you now. But tonight, tomorrow, next week might be too late. None of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. Even you young people, even you kids, you're not guaranteed a tomorrow. You don't know that you'll live another day. I know I say that often, but I can't say it too often because it's amazing how people ignore the fact of their mortality. and the awesome idea of facing God in the next life. The Bible says that for some it is already too late. He says in Proverbs 1, he says, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Hell has many souls. in it, and not one of those souls intended to go there. And I would hate to think of any of you going there, especially after you've heard the gospel preached. Because people that haven't had the gospel preached will be punished much more lightly than you who have had the gospel preached to you. We went over that, I think, recently in one of our lessons. Luke chapter 12, I think it is. But He says now to you, now the invitation stands. Jesus Christ beckons you now when He says, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart. And you'll find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. You know, you're under somebody's yoke right now. You might not feel like you are, but you are. You're either under Christ's yoke, or you're under the devil's. And Christ, believe me, is much lighter. It's much better in the long run. Jesus describes his offer, his invitation, as easy And in elsewhere, he describes it as easy to accept as drinking a glass of water. In Revelation 22, 17, it says, And the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. Won't you come and drink? Won't you come and drink of his salvation? And if you're a believer in Christ, be encouraged by this. Though every earthly desire is denied you, your greatest desire, your true desire, will not be denied you. David said, I will be satisfied when I wake in your likeness. And then Job said, in the midst of Job's suffering, he said this, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Fear not God's people. It is his desire for you to see him and for you to have your desire, and it will come to you in its fullness. at due time. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you so much that you have sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. We thank you all the more when we consider your holiness and we consider that you are a consuming fire. And even when you touched the mountain, it began to smoke. Father, the people stood and trembled and quaked with fear when they heard your voice. How will the unconverted cry out to the mountains and to the rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from the face of Jesus Christ as he sits upon that throne? Father, we pray that there are none here under the sound of my voice today, either here or on the internet, that would put off accepting your invitation to come to Christ. We pray that all would be saved. And we pray that all of your people would take courage, and be encouraged by the fact that our desire is Christ and it will not be denied to us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.