This is one of the first of the verses that I memorized, Job 28, 28, when I was dealing with this fear of the Lord. Under man, he said, behold. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. The same time I was quoting Proverbs 66, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. And by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. And so there's so much weighs in on this, what the fear of the Lord means. And so I'm going to just, I won't take long because we've got a business meeting, election of officers, things like that. And so I'm just going to take kind of an introduction to this, if I can, and deal with this thought. This is Job speaking along this line, and he comes on down to verse 28, as I said was my text. Under man, he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. It's not intellect. It's not knowledge. It's not you learning a language. This is different. This is different. And we'll see that. I believe it'll open up to us. I'm hoping that, and I won't verily just be able to touch some of the things that needs to be said along this line, but I want to keep going. Through the Bible, there's so many of these reasons to fear the Lord and the effect it has upon your life and what that fear stands for and why it's so important to you and me of why God wants us to have this adoration, to have this worship about showing our love for Him, showing our understanding how, just a little bit, how great He is, how wonderful He is, how glorious He is, how marvelous He is, how He loves us, how He cares for us. Really just this awe of what a God we have. And if we could learn this, through spiritual wisdom, and we'll get on that a little bit maybe tonight. But it's completely different than what we think being wise and have the wisdom of this world. And that's pretty easy to refute when it comes to the effects of salvation or knowing God. Man by wisdom knew not God. says in 1 Corinthians 1. So man doesn't learn by the wisdom of this world who God is. There has to be a revelation. There has to be a spiritual awakening. There has to be a spiritual informing in the minds of people. It isn't something you do on your own or something you know how to do or something you can figure out, something you can say, no. This has to be, this has to be God moving in a person's life. We'll look at 1 John, it talks about unction from the Holy One, enduement of power, that you might know all things, all things we need to know. You're never going to know all things, but you'll need all the things you need to know. Job, Job gives us a little lesson here and he's, he's helping us to look for wisdom. It's, it's a, it's really, uh, the, when you read this, it's really an inspiring and encouraging. It's, it's kind of just something that draws you to it. Did you, you want to, I want to stay with it a while, but I'm not going to do it tonight. Uh, but Job's saying, okay, if that's, that's what we need. Uh, if it's the fear of the Lord, it'll cause us to depart from evil. Give us wisdom and depart from evil have understanding and we need that we need that wisdom So look back with me to verse number 12 in chapter 28 of Job Chapter 28 same chapter just verse 12 He says but where shall wisdom be found Where are you gonna find it? If you just can't learn it, you can't get in a book, you can't develop a better vocabulary, you can't learn from something, how in the world are you gonna find wisdom? He says, but where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Where's that? Show me the place. I mean, if it's going to have that effect on me, wisdom in and understanding, that I'll depart from evil, I want to know where it's at. Now, follow down. Man knoweth not the price thereof. He doesn't realize how valuable it is to him. You're not putting it in dollars and diamonds and things. He says, It is not with, he says, man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. You think on that measure, it isn't found. They can't just, people just can't come up on it because they're alive and they can search it out, no. This is something beyond. This is just something mysterious. This is something hidden. Notice what it says. The depth saith, it is not in me, and the sea saith, not in me, not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with gold of offer, with the precious ornix or the sapphire, the gold and the crystal, cannot equal it, and exchange of it shall not be for jewels or fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies." It's so valuable. It's so valuable and precious. It's higher than any one could ever attain in riches to reach. "'The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued in pure gold.'" Okay. He says, all right. "'Whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?' It's not you can't buy it, you can't find it. You just search for it and you can't see it. He said, verse 21, sin, it is hid from the eyes of all living. Oh, come on. God wants us to have wisdom and wisdom Wisdom will protect us. Wisdom will give us understanding. Wisdom is the principal thing. You heard me read it in the beginning. It's the number one. It's the most important thing, that you get wisdom. Where is it? Sin is hid from the eyes of the living, kept close from the jewels, the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understands the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth unto the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure. And when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning and thunder, then did he see it and declare it. He prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man he said, unto man he said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Job was hunting. He could see that you couldn't see it, you couldn't buy it. He realized that it's the most important thing for us to have. I'm saying this fear. I looked at the 1828 dictionary, and this is what it says in there about this fear of God. It says, the fear acceptable to God is a filial fear, an awful reverence of divine nature, proceeding from a just esteem of His perfection, which produces in us an inclination to service, to His service, and an unwillingness to offend him. This is what he's saying, this fear of the Lord makes us to where we esteem his perfection and that we have the inclination, the desire in our heart that we'll never do anything to offend him. I hope you'll see what the fear of the Lord is like, how it affects us, how it influences our lives. I'm saying it's something that God has for us. He'll give it liberally, but he'll only give it to those, only give to those that will fear him, that will will show their adoration of him, to show their love for him, to show their obedience to him. He's going to help us to find it. This is something that You just don't see any place. You can't dig it up. You can't pay for it. It's something God has to give because you have proven, you have proven what your fear of God is. I got another paper in here someplace that I wanted to show. And I, I guess I had it someplace here. Lord, my helper, I had it and I don't know where it went. That's me anymore. Okay, here we go. I got this one and this one. Okay. The scripture, the scripture theology, when it comes and he's defining wisdom, It's the right of exercise of knowledge, the choice of laudable ends. That's wisdom of man. And the wisdom of man can't know God, can't find God, can't understand God. So it takes this scriptural theology. Wisdom is true. This is the 1828 dictionary. And he writes these words. Wisdom is true religion, godliness, piety, the knowledge and fear of God, and sincere and uniform obedience to his commands. This is the wisdom which is from above." Now, God uses this wisdom. and people that just love him, people that'll serve him, as I said, people that really you wouldn't think was qualified. The Lord likes to use people that he'll get the glory out of. He likes to use people that really on their own They probably couldn't do nothing to please God. But God likes to give this wisdom to people like Brother Williamson. And don't think I'm looking down or speaking. Brother Williamson was my friend. And we had a lot of times we got together, times he went through trials and But Brother Williamson, as you know, he couldn't read. He's told you that. He went to Sightler's Bible College. He couldn't read. And a lot of it, his wife helped him through it. But he still couldn't read even as later years. He could just barely get some words out that he got what was common to him. But God, could give Brother Williamson a message that would make the eloquent preachers look silly. I remember he was in a meeting down here in Carolina, and some of the top, some of the big boys, some of the guys that really were eloquent in the pulpit, they had a message by that just, oh, it just rang the bell. But it didn't that night. And I guess the theme of part of it was, what's wrong? What's wrong with America and what can be done? How are we going to see revival? Well, they all got up, all the ones that normally just moved the congregation. They were really popular, strong preachers, but nobody was moving. I'm talking about some of the top preachers around that we knew years ago. I'm not going to name them. But it was Brother Raines' church when it was in South Carolina. And it was probably, Barbara and I was there, it was probably a good 1,500 people in the building. He always had this Christmas to New Year's meeting. And these other preachers got up and preached and preached. Nobody moved. They called Brother Williamson, and he only gave him about 20 minutes to preach because he wanted to get another one in there. Brother Williamson started preaching from Psalms 51, and he dealt with this thought. He says, will not deal seriously with sin." And in his way of preaching, and he had a way. He could hold the corn, as they say. And he didn't preach for about 20 minutes, 25 minutes. He stopped. And the altar call didn't stop till 11 o'clock. I mean, people just come out and flood the aisles, flood the pews and around the steps and the fronts of the pulpit. People were coming to the Lord. I mean, God was moving in that service. And it was because somebody like Brother Williamson that couldn't read very good, that God could anoint him. And you couldn't give the glory to Brother Williamson. You had to give it to God. God had to be in him. God had to use him. God had to give him the words. God had to anoint him afresh and anew. I'm saying this is the wisdom that comes down from heaven. Brother Burns, old coal miner, you couldn't find a better spirit a more precious man. He preached hard. He preached straight. And Brother Burns would move people. I'm telling you, he'd preach on sin and deal with it in the camp. Sammy's camp is not like it used to be. They used to have old preachers like that come in. And Brother Williamson, Brother Burns, they would preach. Brother Green, different ones. And God would just really move in the services. But it was God that worked in him. It was God to get into glory. You knew that he had to get help. He wasn't that educated. He wasn't that wise on things. He had to get extra help. And it was the Holy Ghost of God. It's like Uncle Bud Robinson. Uncle Bud would get, everything about him would be detestable about, you know, my, his speech, his manner of speech. He'd pass out in front of the people. He had seizures. And yet, God would use him greatly. Why? I mean, everything about him, when he has those seizures, he would wet himself. He'd fall backwards. I remember one preacher said, he said, while he's falling backwards, having a seizure, he'd cry out, come to Jesus, come to Jesus, and fall back on the platform. And the altars would be filled, people all over the place. Now in the normal, natural sense, you'd think that ain't possible. It's because God worked in his life, and God gave him the words, and God blessed him. I'm saying it's wisdom from above. It's unction from the Holy One. It's the way that the Holy Ghost of God breathes upon people, moves in their life, and gives them that wisdom. Let me just read this Corinthians. I could read this 100 times. We still not get it. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. Listen to the words real carefully. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to know. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Ah, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But it is written, I have not seen, nor hear, neither had entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the Spirit of man, which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we've received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not with words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual with spiritual. But the natural man, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, nor foolishness of him, Can he know them? Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. It's the reason, whole reason. Father, in Jesus' name, as we enter this business part of the service, I'm asking, Lord, that your spirit would prevail. Lord, you know, you know it all. Nothing hidden. nothing hid. You know everything that's going on in the hearts and minds of people. You know what we think. You know our hearts, what we desire. You know whether we have the love of you as our motive, as our aim, to please you, or whether we have a desire to please ourselves. You know. Lord, so important things as this is, I'm asking in Jesus' name, we'll not take it lightly, but we'll be led by you. And know with a certainty we'll stand before you one day for what we do. I pray, Lord, you'd give me wisdom. I pray, Lord, that your spirit would move on the hearts of people. I pray, Lord, that you'd have your way as each one of the folks that have reports to read. I pray, Lord, you'd help them. Then, Lord, in the election, I'm asking in Jesus' name, Lord, you'd move in our midst again. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.