First Peter, chapter number two. I know we all sense somewhat of a somberness that has settled over our services today, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, that is a good thing. As we continue our consideration, Third part of Peter's statement that he makes in chapter 2, verse number 17, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God. We've recognized that these four short statements including when he says, honor the king, the fourth one, is Peter's summary of his instructions. He's capsulized the truth concerning four relationships for us that we are involved in and connected to during our earthly journey, our pilgrimage. on the earth. Peter identifies these relationships and gives us one imperative action connected to each one. We have mentioned the first one, the imperative verb, honor. Honor the world around us is the primary idea. We are to give honor to those who we interact with meaning that we as Christians are people who can identify, recognize the value of each person and treat them with respect. Our goal is always the same as we live out our faith in this world. We are called by God to be his witnesses showing to the world the glory of God and his salvation through the way that we live our life. Our lifestyle must always be guarded in order to help us achieve our mission. And so we are told to value every human life knowing that God is at work through us to save his elect people. What a great honor and privilege that God would include us in his redemptive plan. The second imperative that we have here, love the brotherhood. We are instructed on our primary duty that we are to give to every believer that we share our pilgrimage, primarily our pilgrimage with. We are a community of believers. We are a family. We are a body of Christ. And to this group of people that God has providentially connected us to, we give love. We endeavor every day to give what God has so freely given to us to our brethren. This love is the bonding glue agent that keeps us united and strong no matter what we encounter as a church. Knowing the reality of our enemy that hates the purpose of the church, we are encouraged to know that God has provided us with counsel, direction, as to how we can stay united, love the brotherhood. Do not give the forces of darkness entrance by turning our own spirit and disposition to be disobedient and not obeying this directive, and to love one another. And so we can persevere through all the trials that we will encounter on our pilgrimage as a body of people. Peter summarizes all the instructions he's given to us, and he's said a bunch of stuff that we share a common pilgrimage together with, and this is our duty. Know it. Be clear about it. Love the brotherhood. There is no exception, no exemption, no reason why you would not love the brotherhood. The third directive, imperative statement that Peter makes pertains to our relationship with God. And this is where we have been for now a third week, and Philip is right. I feel the same inadequacy. Every time I'm preparing these three sermons, it needs a hundred. It needs many. And I feel very as if it's an incomplete kind of series because we're just barely barely dealing with this matter, but I hope in what we are doing, as Peter did here, just a simple fear of God, in that statement, he stirs up all kinds of thoughts in us as to what that means. That's what we have been considering. The person of God, his nature, And Peter has said much to us about who God is and his work, especially for us through his own Son, whom he made to be for us our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter, as we've read up to this point in our study, Peter is building a theological construct about the person and work of God as he instructs us concerning our journey and the many trials that will test our faith. God must be front and center in the pilgrim's life. Front and center in the pilgrim's life. It is extremely important for all believers to have a working knowledge of God, and it should be growing. We are speaking of a being, and you've heard words regarding who he is already this morning, who is infinite in all of his qualities, who is sovereign over all of his creation, who is holy and righteous in all his ways. Eternity is not sufficient for us to fathom the fullness of his being. So why would we ever think that we've gained enough knowledge of God today? Peter has made 12 statements about the person and work of God before he reaches verse 17 and summarizes everything he said about the person and work of God with this statement. Fear God. We are to give to him the utmost reverence No one or anything is to be given this degree of reverence that we give to God. And as we grow in our knowledge and understanding of God, this fear should be increasing in us. Familiarity with God should not breed carelessness in us. but rather a greater reverence for who he is. And so this fear increases as we grow in our knowledge and understanding of God. This fear is a positive response. We don't want to fear the fear of God. This is a positive statement here. not a negative one, because of what it's intended to produce in us. And it's something that we are to freely give. When we hear Peter reach this statement at the end of his instruction, in his brief conclusion before he moves on, we ought to see that as we have gone through it, that yes, Peter, amen, Peter, we would say, we agree with you, fear God. We're on the same page as Peter has instructed us. And God has been manifested to us, and this call to fear him is being manifested in our devotion to him. Fearing God looks like, there's certain features about it, that we should be able to identify in our own life. What does it look like? We can give a simple word definition of that fear and say revering, reverence for, ultimate reverence. But there are other features. that I want to emphasize, too, and make sure they're in your mind. I mean, the fear of God is manifested in our devotion to him. We talk about having devotions. And this word, this Latin word that this is taken from, devotio, I mean, it means simply a life given to God. So devotions that doesn't produce a greater giving and offering of your life to God is not devotion. Whatever you're doing, it's not devotions. Fearing God means and looks like we can recognize it in our devotion to him. Another feature that should be obvious to you as well is our worship of him. Those who fear God, those who highly revere Him, what is their disposition? They want to worship. They want to worship. They want to fall down before Him in mind, in heart, in praise and adore Him for who He is and what He's done. These are the people who fear God. They desire long to worship him. And another practical thing I think we've reached and drawn from Peter's statement so far about this statement to fear God is that it manifests itself in our obedience to him. How often did the other saints in the Old Testament summarize the whole duty of man, right, as Solomon did? Fear God, keep his commandments. And you can't choose between those two. They're one and the same. And so the way that you identify those who fear God is their obedience to the revealed will of God that has been made known to them. If you have interest in revering God, you have interest in His word. Why? Because in His word, He reveals Himself and His will for us. And so if we are a God-fearing people, these are the qualities that will be manifested in our life. We will be devoted, we will be worshiping, and we will be obedient. It is impossible to fear God, as we're commanded to do, and not be interested at some level in these things. I'm not saying they're perfected in us. They're not. Steve opened up his soul about the imperfections. Philip hinted at the imperfections. I will acknowledge the imperfections in my reverence for God. But for those who fear God, these things are there. They are there. there is devotion, there is worship, there is obedience, and they are not declining, they're not staying static, they ought to be growing in those who are truly godly people. It is an incomprehensible truth that we'll marvel at for all eternity, that the supreme Theos, God has chosen to make some of his creatures, his children, and that he desires to fellowship with us during our journey in this world. And that he will never grow weary of us nor become bored with us. That's incomprehensible to me. The more I know about God, and it's often been said the two most important things every man and woman needs to know is God himself. And you only know one because of the other, so knowing God reveals yourself. And the more you see of yourself because the more you know of God, the less you like what you see. The more you are troubled by it, and like Paul, we often cry out, oh, wretched man that I am. Grateful that God in his grace has paid the debt for him, but he looks at his flesh and sees a man who doesn't do the things he wants to do and ends up doing things he shouldn't do. And yet this God chooses to fellowship with us. In fact, he has determined to pour out on us immense privileges and blessings as we pilgrimage through this world. That's sort of where our third focus is this morning. When we hear Peter summarize our duty to God in this statement, fear God, we are reminded, as Peter was, that God's increased blessings on our life are attached to this duty. Do you know that God has wonderful promises made for those who fear him? And those blessings are experienced and known according to the reverence we have for him. It's obvious that some have a better understanding and experience with these things than some do. Why? Are they smarter, better, more deserving? No. They simply fear God. And God promises to pour out blessings upon them for having that kind of respect and reverence for him. as a father. Those believers who are actively fearing God are gaining the blessings of God on their life, not just for eternity, but they are receiving those blessings upon their life now as God has promised. I mean, just think about it. Fearing God will not be a prescribed duty that we're told to give to God in the life to come. Do you think everyone walking through the gates into heaven, that someone standing there and saying, oh, by the way, remember to fear God. That's not gonna be necessary, right? What reverence we're gonna have when we see the radiance of his being. We see angels humbled before him. We see countless saints through the ages bowing before him and worshiping him. We'll see God then in all of his resplendent glory and we'll be filled with great reverence. It won't have to be a duty that we have to think about. God does not minimize our reverence for him today, even though it's limited and it's tarnished by our flesh. To help us in our duty, God has made promises to bless those who are endeavoring, they are working at, working out their salvation. And a part of the working out of their salvation is reverence for the one who gave it. So God has made promises to you. Even while we live in this world that does not fear God, and we are daily fighting against our fleshly nature, which does not want to be holy, does not want to worship, does not want to be obedient. And yet God's people who seek to show the utmost reverence to God, they are marked by the devil himself constantly. He hates God. and refused not only himself to give reverence to God, he hates everyone who seeks to do so. So when God's people strive against these evil forces and are committed to revere him, he will bless them. That's his promise. He knows the difficulty. He knows the challenges. And when he sees that kind of devotion to him, He will bless them in greater ways. And so how precious it must be to our God to see His people giving Him fear, revealed in their devotion, their worship, and their obedience to Him. There are so many numerous promises made to those who fear God that we could not cover them all, but I will give you a challenge. Some years ago, many years ago, my wife was challenged to take a little book, and every time, as she reads her Bible, focuses on spiritual things daily in her life. Every time she found the fear of God, she started this lengthy list and all the blessings that were attached to those who fear God. I would love to read all of those to you as we've accumulated them throughout the years. Don't have the time. But I will encourage you as you read, get a notebook, start writing them down and noting the promises that belong to those who fear Him. It will impact you. But I will give a couple. The first one, I need to give a context to you. It'll be found in Exodus 20 if you want to turn there and then we'll just take a a moment to set the context. Exodus in chapter number 20, God has redeemed Israel, his chosen people out of Egypt, and he has been leading them into the wilderness Probably a couple of years have passed as they have journeyed through different experiences and they now arrive at a particular point on their journey where Mount Sinai is. And we read Exodus 20 where in that location the event of God giving his law to them took place. It was there at Sinai that he gave instructions, commandments that were intended to govern their relationship with God, their relationship with one another, and their relationship to the world. That sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Pretty much the New Testament approach. And Exodus 20 tells the story of that event. They were there gathered, this whole thing had been orchestrated and planned by God, and they were there around Mount Sinai, and suddenly it gets dark. I mean, the clouds roll in, it is dark. They hear a voice unlike any voice that they have ever heard. We can't imagine the reverberating of the voice of God when it speaks. He spoke. And with his speaking, lightnings from the sky began to flash, thunderings began to roll, and the people quaked. They were overwhelmed with fear by the exposure to this being. He said, Moses, you be our mediator. We cannot deal with this. This is just too much for us. Moses' response is worth noting. Look at Exodus 20 and verse number 20. So all of this has happened. And they've requested Moses, they are so afraid that they're gonna die. They cannot endure what they have just encountered. And Moses said unto the people, fear not for God is come here and now to prove you. and that his fear, listen to this, and that his fear may be before your faces so that you do not sin. Now, at first glance, this may not sound like that's a benefit, that's a blessing. Actually, a lot of scriptures speak of this very same thing. And so, God has done this, Moses said, to put his fear before you so that you don't sin. Fearing God, we can conclude, we can make this point right now. Fearing God keeps us from sin. Would you agree with that? That was the plan then. The plan hasn't changed with Peter. These are mutually exclusive things, fearing God and sin. They just don't go together. But I have learned in life that there is a movement between these two. where one becomes more prominent and the other declines, or one becomes, the other becomes more prominent and the other one declines. It's not like they just don't exist at the same time. It's like a dimmer switch on the light switch, and you're kind of moving it slowly up, and there's a little bit of a shadiness, a little difficulty to see, and as it gets brighter and brighter, darkness disappears. Light takes over. That's sort of the anticipation as even in the Proverbs it talks about the righteous growing brighter and brighter until the perfect day. That ought to be the movement of light getting brighter. Sin being driven out. What drives it out? The fear of God drives it out. Your knowledge of the person and work of God is what will drive sin out of your life. And if it's not, then the other is probably at work, where sin is becoming more dominant and the fear of God is diminishing. Oh, there's a lack of growth in the knowledge and understanding of his person and his work. Look at Proverbs 8. I've got a few passages. I may go a little longer than normal this morning, but I trust it will be to your benefit. Proverbs chapter 8, I'll read this verse and then we'll put it in its context here. Verse number 13. This is sort of where Moses was with the people. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride, arrogance, and the evil way, and a forward mouth. Wisdom says, I do hate. So wisdom here is sort of taking a prominent role in helping us understand the fear of God. Interesting. Wisdom is helping us understand what the fear of God is intended to do in our life. Do you hear the things that wisdom is, the fear of God hates here? That it is opposed to? Wisdom, we're told in this chapter at the very beginning, she is crying out. Understanding is standing with her, hoping to gain the attention of people, passerbyers. Knowledge, of course, we know must be gathered as it's taught in Proverbs. There has to be the gathering and the accumulating of knowledge, not just any knowledge, but the knowledge of God. And there must be understanding. Knowledge cannot just lie dormant. It's not about being intellectual. It must become understanding where we begin to comprehend the dots are connecting. Knowledge is meant to produce understanding in our life. the understanding of God and His ways, His reasons for why He does what He does. Like Moses said, I'm gonna tell you why God does what He does. It's that you would hate sin. So wisdom and understanding bring us to this place of wisdom where we, a time when the truth that we have learned and grown to understand is now being applied effectively, skillfully, as the word wisdom means, literally. Skillfully, we are applying the things that we know and understand, not just about life, but about God. But here in verse 8, wisdom is crying out to us, and she is the means to take us to a higher place. Wisdom isn't the ultimate place. No, not according to Proverbs 8. Proverbs 2 and other places in Proverbs, it's to take us to a place where we fear God. Have you ever thought or imagined that the ultimate goal of your Christian life and your learning and development is that you would be brought to this great place where you fear God? Peter summarized, didn't he? Two words, fear God. He understood it. We understand what is said here to some degree, the fear of the Lord. Wisdom has brought us to this place. And she says, the fear of the Lord. She's telling us with understanding, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And then brings in a few interesting words here about what she's referring to. This is an action, hate is a verb, it's not a thinking or an emotion, it's an action that the fear of the Lord produces in the wise. The fear of the Lord produces in the wise a hatred for sin. Why do we still love sin? Well, it gets personal here, doesn't it? Because our reverence for God is not what it ought to be. And here he picks on these dispositions as being the things that we are to hate. Pride. God hates pride. The thing that took Lucifer, the bright morning star, and turned him into a devil was pride. It refers to an unreasonable deceit. How can you think that way? Have you lost your mind? That's pride. Thinking too highly of our abilities and making ourselves somehow superior to others and even to the wisdom of God. We can be guilty of that kind of pride and arrogance. That's pride reaching another level. of self-exaltation, arrogance. And the evil way describes the way of the evil that opposes God, is disagreeable to the way of God. The forward mouth, the disposition of perversity, always opposing what is right. These are the sins, listen now, these are the sins that wisdom is focusing on and telling us how to be delivered from. The fear of God will bring us to that place. It's not easy to deal with pride and arrogance and all these things mentioned here, but the fear of the Lord, wisdom wants to bring us to this place so that we can hate these things. And so what drives these sinful dispositions and attitudes out of our life and protects us as we apply God's word to our life? The fear of God. There's no higher place, no higher level of empowering your life than the true fear of God. This is indeed a great benefit that God gives to those who revere him, to hate evil. Fearing God ought to bring an action that is increasing in this movement, not one that is declining. And according to Peter, if you just contemplate on the personal work of God, you'll get here. You'll get here. The fear of God blesses us in our efforts to resist evil. and to put off our old nature. The fear of God also blesses us in helping us to become more holy as it sets us apart for greater devotion, greater worship, and greater obedience. Quickly, look at 2 Corinthians. Paul makes this statement to the believers at Corinth who were having a real difficult time in their living and conduct. He talks about the benefits in chapter six as the latter portion there of what God has done for them. And calls them to separate themselves from these things that pollute them. With a promise that God would exercise his fatherhood towards you in a special way and you will know and understand with greater awareness what it means to be his sons and daughters. And then he says, having therefore these promises in chapter seven and verse one, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved. Remember, Peter uses that same expression. Oh, do you comprehend the love that God has shown to you? Oh, dearly beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves. Let us be engaged in this process and this activity. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, the dispositions, and let us be busy perfecting holiness in the fear of God. And so the fear of God is a tremendous thing. What a blessing it is. God has set it before our faces as he reveals himself and his work to us to keep us from sin, to hate it, and to be more devoted to the sanctification of our life, setting it apart more and more for God's use, and it's all done under the influence of the fear of God. You see, I trust the powerful influence that the fear of God is able to produce in your life, that it pushes out sin and promotes holiness all in the same action. You see how that works? Wouldn't you say with me, the fear of God is a wonderful blessing that he has bestowed upon us? Not something to be feared, but rather something to be desired. Look at Jeremiah in chapter 32. And again, we're being selective. There's just no way to be exhaustive in this, but I hope these are helpful to you. Jeremiah chapter 32. Jeremiah makes a statement in verse 38 that is what Paul quoted in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul making the New Testament Christological application of an Old Testament thought. And he even goes beyond, Jeremiah does. He says, and I will give them one heart. I will give them one way so that they may fear me forever. for the good of them and for their children after them. Reverence can be passed on. The fear of God can be passed on. And he goes on to say, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Here's the revelation of the everlasting covenant that is made through the new covenant, as Paul describes it in Ephesians one, that God has made an eternal covenant with his people. That began before time. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And I will not turn away from them to do them good. but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me. So the fear of God is a blessing promised to new covenant people. It doesn't mean that you're utilizing it or you're recognizing it or that you're developing it, but God has promised to put it in you. And we have a responsibility for its development. Nurturing it, how do we nurture it? It's through the word of God where we contemplate God through his word, his person and his work. Enough of that, I want to take about 10 minutes before we close. And that is one aspect of the fear of the Lord. It's a blessing to us because of how it enables us to deal with sin that plagues our life, and how we can drive it out, and how we can promote holiness all under the influence of the fear of God. I want to focus on one other benefit quickly this morning, and this is the increased blessing of God's promised mercy to you. God has promised to give more mercy to those who fear him. You've already received an abundance of mercy. Out of his grace, he has in compassion done amazing things for your soul and an inheritance that is for your future. but there's so much more mercy. That's why the apostles are always saying in their opening statements that God would give more mercy because there is so much more. And God promises to give that mercy to those who fear him. Look at Psalm 103, Joe read Psalm 103 verses one through 11 for us. in our opening this morning. And the psalmist is just filled with joy and gratitude to God for all that he has done for him in those first ten verses and on through even to the end. He is just filled with gratitude. And so he is blessing the name of God and calling all believers to bless the name of God for all that he has done for them. And then we come to verse 11, and he says, for as the heaven is high above the earth. Can you compute that? Where is the ceiling, right? Where's the ceiling to the heavens above the earth? It's incomprehensible, it's great. For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. His mercy is infinite. His grace has opened it up to us and it's inexhaustible. There's more. There's so much more than what you already know. Do you know how you tap into that? It's reverence for God, reverence for him, opens up that channel. He goes on to say, again, look at verses 12 and 13. He says, as far as the east is from the west, or has he removed our transgressions from us for which we rejoice? And like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them. shows mercy to them that fear him. Just as Paul stated there in 2 Corinthians 6. And he goes on in verse 14. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust, as for man his days are as grass, and as a flower the field, so he flourisheth, and the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know no more, not be remembered. We have such a brief period of existence in this world. But notice verse 17, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. You have this little bitty period of time in which you lived. But the mercy of God has been eternal toward you. And there's so much more that he's going to yet pour out upon you. Do you desire to know it more fully? Do you desire to experience it poured out in your life more completely? Well, he does do that for those upon them that fear him. And his righteousness will be even unto his children to such as keep his commandments and to those that remember his commandments to do them. These are just reminders. And there are many other passages that deal with this idea of God's mercy. Compassionate God, he is a compassionate God. And I have found in my life, there are many occasions, I need his compassion. I need a father that pities his children. I need that from him. And he says that is available. You will know it, experience it more fully for those who revere him, who fear him. Our last one this morning, I'll close with this. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. There's some remarkable things here that I wish we had time to pull out, but I think you can get the main idea of how the fear of God in your life makes your service to God acceptable to him. Don't assume that everything you do that you define as religious activity is acceptable to God. Don't be convinced, don't convince yourself. But those who fear God have a sense and a clarity of what is acceptable. Notice how it's stated here, and it's in a wonderful context, but verse 28, he says, wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. The Old Testament saints, boy, what a difficulty. Kingdom now, kingdom gone, kingdom here. I mean, just nothing was settled until the Messiah came and secured it. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us Act upon that grace, let us have grace, let us receive this grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably. A thought here before we finish that verse, we may serve God acceptably. It's a remarkable thing. Peter dealt with this in 1 Peter chapter two about the reality that we can participate in religious services. We can bring our offerings, we can bring our songs, we can worship God together because we have formed a temple, the house of God, as he describes it in verses four and five, that we made living stones, attached to the stone that lives, which is Christ. We may serve God. That particular Greek word for service here is the word we get liturgy from. That we may participate in the services When you go back into the Old Testament, worship services, there was a process. It wasn't just one thing. There was a liturgy, services, which we do here in our church. We have services, we have a liturgy. whereby God's people can engage with God through different parts of the ministry that has been presented, whether it's adoration, whether it's Christ, or whether it's his word. These are the services that we engage in. Do we want that to be acceptable? Do we want that part of our activity and involvement of the services of God to be found before Him, to be pleasing to Him? Then do it with reverence and godly fear. And so the reason we encourage all the time, prepare yourself for worship. Come ready to worship. It's with reverence and godly fear. And it's the same idea, the same word, but in one sense it adds our own personal godliness to it. It's just not services that we're giving. It's being given by someone who is devoted to the fear of God. There is a godly fear that is guiding them. Well, there are many references pertaining to promised blessings of God that are given to those who fear him. These are a few. And I hope they have kind of stirred your interest. that you'll want to pay more attention to these things because of their value to your walk with God. If there's anything that you must not minimize in your life, it is the fear of God. And you must come to the recognition of its tremendous value to you. And it is a part of God's promised blessing to your life. He wants He's put the fear in you, by the way. If you're his child, it's already there. What are you doing to nurture it? How are you developing it? How are you responding to it? And God has provided the means of grace to provide that for his children. And I think we understand those this morning as well. Father, thank you for just a few more moments. that we could ponder this great subject that we admit we are just like little children in our understanding. But we ask that you would take note of our desire and you would seek to cultivate this in us more fully. that we would be more like what we ought to be, and that we would be more devoted and worshipers and obedient children to you that brings joy to you. We ask these things in your son's name.