"What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?" RESCUE RADIO with Marjorie Cole

0:00 I have an emergency. What is your location? 'Cause there's a war for your soul. Yeah, that's for sure. Lord, we thank you for the war. We thank you for the revelation of the victory that gives us peace and joy and courage. I thank you, Lord God, that your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, in and through us, your kingdoms on earth, as it's being done and declared in heaven.

0:47 Lord God, we thank you for Jesus dying on the cross, for emptying out himself, completely disregarding his blessings and his merit, his good fortune, whatever, his health, his everything, giving it all up for us so that we could live and enjoy eternity with you. I thank you for salvation. I thank you for the fear of the Lord. I thank you for people waking up. I thank you for people being waken up from this enchanted stupor that most people have been brought under. I thank you, Jesus, for the Holy Spirit. I thank you for giving us your word. I thank you for teaching us through your word, Lord God, to walk in the fullness of the favor and blessing and power and authority that you gave us. You said you shall tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. So we thank you for that favor and that blessing and that courage to use the authority that you've given us today. And I thank you that you also promised us that no weapon formed against us will prosper.

1:46 None. No word said, deed done, action taken, You know how the enemy is trying to throw lots of roadblocks in front of your people these days, and you just blow away those roadblocks and walk with us as victorious in this life, in this journey. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, we're going to talk about a subject that is hardly ever talked about these days. Oh yeah, what would that be? Well, first of all, I want you to imagine a turkey dinner without turkey. It sounds like something I don't want to go to. And then we want to imagine, uh, apple pie without apples. Okay.

2:26 And then there's a basketball game without a ball. Where are we going? And that is like Christianity without the fear of the Lord. Yeah. And what, what is the fear of the Lord? It's not talked about much. It's like, are we supposed to be scared of God and just run away from him or whatever, freaked out by God? Well, basically, to know God is to fear him. To fear him is to love him. To love him is to obey him. So basically, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's Proverbs 9:10. It says fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, If you don't have fear of the Lord, you don't have any wisdom at all.

3:13 Exactly. No counsel. And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding is the last part of that verse. But the fear of the Lord basically is— what is it? It's essentially, it's a deep or holy desire to please God and a healthy dread of displeasing him. So you dread displeasing God but you desire to please him. It's, it's loving him, loving what he loves, hating what he hates. And it's basically the fear of the Lord. It's a holy reverence for God. It's an attitude of the highest respect and actually alarm and awe of him.

3:54 It is an ever-present awareness of his presence and our accountability to him and our judgment to come. So This is so important, but in our day, Romans chapter 3:18 says there's no fear of God before their eyes. Well, in Romans 1, it talks about that too. It says they've given over being thankful and God had to give them over to a depraved, deceived mind because they refused to acknowledge him as the creator when creation is all around us. Every tree, every bug, every bird, Everything cries out to the revelation of God's truth. So wisdom and foolishness are bound up in the fear of the Lord too. It's like, if you don't recognize that God is the creator, the one true God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who created and filled the earth with the creatures and the purposes and created the ecosystem and invite— and in all of this to connect the life forms, to sustain life and promote their, their, um, gainful advancement. If you don't recognize that, then all you have left is foolishness. All you have left is the Thanksgiving dinner without the turkey. And so what's happening is people have been so sedated, seduced, deceived, drawn away of their own lust and enticed and over— deceived, programmed, propaganda. I don't know.

5:22 The world has overtaken the common sense. Of most people? Well, it comes to fear the Lord, to recognize that God is the Creator, that he is the one who has ultimately created heaven and earth, and it is his heaven that we want to go to, not our own. You know what I'm saying? Well, the whole deal is, you know, in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, goes on and on and on about life and everything like that. He comes to the conclusion He says finally, he says, okay, in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 13 and 14, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. He discusses every possible thing you can discuss pretty much. He says, here's the deal. Well, here's what really matters. Bottom line, here it is: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all. The King James says, for this is the whole duty of man. Yeah. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Lots of secret things are going to be brought into the light and are being brought into the light. But the thing is, okay, so why, why is there so— is the fear of the Lord such a scarcity? Why is it that that is not preached? Why is it that that is not part of our everyday thought? Well, I'll tell you what.

6:46 The reason is partly is there's kind of a general denial of his existence. You know, there's an address that— there's a special day called April 1st, April Fool's Day, which is dedicated to all atheists because Psalm 14:1 says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Can we talk about foolishness then for just a second as you're on that word and subject, which we're going to go down to the other things too. But in Proverbs where it says that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So when you look at wisdom, understanding, of course, fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. So the opposite of that is foolishness. So what Proverbs is talking about in a kind of a parallel is that wisdom has prepared her table, her turkey, her apple pie, all that.

7:40 She's prepared the good things with the genuine articles and ingredients. And, but people, Um, she's inviting people to come in, to join with her, to eat my bread and drink my wine, which I have mixed. Forsake foolishness, verse 6, and live. So the contra— contraindication is that if you're not walking in the wisdom of God, the fear of God, which are both the same thing, you're walking in foolishness. And, you know, forsaking foolishness is the ingredient to live, to being alive, to live. Forsake foolishness and turn away from it. Turning away means repenting. So people have to give up, repent, change their mind, stop going in that direction, whatever all that means spiritually, carnally, whatever, to change their mind in order to get rid of the foolishness.

8:29 Yeah. Well, you know, why is there so no or very little fear of the Lord? You know, we deny his— we can deny his existence or we can misinterpret his nature and character. Yeah. So we make God after our own image instead of recognizing that we're created in his image. That's exactly what they did in Romans. Yeah, in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, beginning with verse 11, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil 100 times and his days are prolonged, yet surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him, but it will not be well with the wicked. Nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God. He doesn't fear God, but he's distracted by everything else, so he doesn't even know the stakes, what the stakes are in this war.

9:25 Yeah, and sometimes, you know, there's no fear of the Lord because we're busy serving other gods, demon gods, ourselves, fear, pride, success, you know, and that Romans chapter 1 again talks about that. And then there's the ignorance of his word. You know, um, you know, we read about Samuel when he was a boy, 1 Samuel 3:7. It said he did not yet know the word of the Lord. So people are ignorant of the word, or they just— and they depend on his word, or there is a perversion of the gospel. So they're depending on someone else to give them that word, to bring the word, especially if they're young and they're not getting it. They're getting video games and Instagrams and all kinds of other things, but they're not getting the word, the serious word of the Lord that's able to save their lives. And so the problem is Satan has blocked or plugged up all those avenues and channels of giving the word of God. And like you said, the gospel of Jesus Christ has been mutilated.

10:25 Twisted. Yeah. Uh, just, you know, and they have not really given an accurate understanding that people, even the theologians, are still fighting about big issues and they can't seem to get it straight. And so some churches preach grace, some churches preach, uh, what, what, I don't know, do the best you can. Um, some preachers preach it doesn't matter what you do. I mean, the gospel has been so messed up that the fear of the Lord has been lost in that translation. And another thing too, there's warnings that come out, but if you don't take heed to the warnings of God, I think of, uh, in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 talks about— it's kind of a summary about God had sent prophets over and over again, rising up early and sending them, rising up early. They got up, they did year after year after year. They warned the people to turn from their wickedness, turn to the Lord, and they did not take heed.

11:28 And it said it came to the point where there was no remedy. Right. No remedy. It was too late for them to repent anymore because they'd hardened their hearts. They'd resisted the warnings of the Lord. Well, he's talking to the nation, the kings, the ruling body that was leading Israel at the time. There's no hope for them. They wouldn't turn. They wouldn't bow. They wouldn't repent and recognize that they're in big trouble. They thought they could handle it. They thought they had allies. They thought they had a plan. And the only ones who really At that point, when you can't get the group to repent, when you can't get the society to see what's gone wrong, when you can't get them to admit they've been deceived, when you can't get them to admit that they're lost, the only thing left is to admit it yourself. You have to get to your own individual, this is okay, you know, this is my life, my eternity is at stake here. I'm not going to walk away acting like they're all right and I don't know anything. You have to make your own decision and turn from the foolishness. King James says, Foolishness is defined as void of understanding or sound judgment. Foolishness is defined as a lack of good judgment, or we would say maybe even common sense or wisdom. So poor judgment, unwise or irrational choices, silly behavior, careless, poorly thought out ways. Um, the opposite of wisdom, not properly thought out. So this is what people are in there. They're, they're not properly thinking out the word

13:02 of God, the consequences, the destiny, and the fact that God's word is God's word and God is God and God created everything. It's just like we can take it or leave it. And we prefer most of the time to leave the word of God because for all kinds of excuses, I don't get it. It's too hard to understand. It's boring. I, you know, I don't like what it says. Um, I don't know how to make God happy. And so I'm just going to do the best I can. Don't do the best you can. That's not going to work. What works is accepting Jesus Christ as your, as your redeemer, as your Savior, as the one who paid the price for you to get to heaven, and then do the second thing he said to do, and that is follow him. And following him means denying yourself, giving up, you know, you know, what did Jesus say? How do you say, come follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

13:46 So it's really what, what is eternal life worth to you? I mean, what is, what are you given? He says, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you want foolish, you know, temporary remedies to fill your days until your days are done. And then you have to give an account to God for the foolishness and the way you spent your time. It's not going to be good. 2 Timothy chapter 4 talks about the time will come, verse 3. Paul is warning Timothy. He tells him, verse 2, preach the word. Just bring the word of God. He says, why do you do— and he's basically explaining why. Verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires. They want it the way they want it. Because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will— these teachers— so if they don't want the truth, the enemy will send teachers, will give the people what they think they want, which is not the truth, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables, foolishness, fantasy, folly, foolishness, all these things. That's what we're feasting on.

15:04 We're eating at imaginary dinners of Thanksgiving dinners, imaginary, you know, uh, virtual dinners, not really sit down at the table, eat and fellowship. We're being satisfied with nothing, with, uh, visions and images that are not even real. And yet where is reality? Where's truth? Where's seriousness? It's like, um, God, Jesus said, follow me, you know, the fear and the reverence of the heaven and maker of heaven and earth. That is where in Romans 1 we've lost it. You don't reverence, we don't reverence the fact that God is God and he is over and in control of all these things because we have given all that power and authority to the devil.

15:47 And with your phone now, you can just make yourself look like anything. You can make anybody look like anything. You can just make— create images. And so that— but that's what we've done, created false images. We've created our false images of who God is, the record of heaven, rather than examining, like you say, the record of heaven. The record of heaven. My book, it says the books are written. The book of your life is being recorded, the real life of you, not your fake identity and your foolish silliness, but really the divine choices we're making either for or against ourselves and eternal life. And so if there's no fear of God, no fear and reverence for the maker of heaven and earth and his laws that govern that earth and us, which simply— his law simply reduces down to one very simple thing: do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. It's the law of love, the golden rule. And so Really following Jesus and walking in the fear of God will promote the love of God, and it will promote righteousness and truth and justice and equity for everyone. And so when there's no fear of the Lord, there's, there's chaos, there's anarchy, there's corruption, there's lying, there's injustice, there's frustration. There's sickness and death. There's plagues and epidemics because people are being destroyed

17:19 literally, physically, mentally, emotionally by the very things that we permit because there is no fear of God and there's no love of one another. God's law of love. What's so bad about that law? When God says love, forgive. When God says forgive and God says love. So if God is commanding us to forgive and love one another and forgive ourselves, forgive then what kind of a God would say that if it's not a God who practices the same things? Why would God tell us to love if he doesn't love? Why would God tell us to forgive if forgiveness isn't that important? Yet we realize that God is asking us to live in the mandates of love, forgiveness, and the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, we tend to think of as, you know, being scared of God and just, you can't do anything right. And you're just under the gun all the time. Well, God is keeping track of our lives, right? And we're accountable to him.

18:14 That's in a sense that way we're under the gun from, from the Lord. But here's the deal, is the fear of the Lord is something, it's so marvelous, it's so wonderful. It's life-giving. It really is. It says in Proverbs 14:26-27, In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have a place of refuge. Amen. And, and then in the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. Right. So it's a fountain of life, it's life-giving, it's the beginning of wisdom. It's basically the fear of the Lord is really, it's a monitor of our behavior When we have reverence for God. And it's not, I think I could do this, I want to do this, but I— there's a temptation to do this, but I have a fear of the Lord that I'm not going to do it because I have reverence for God. It's interesting, in Genesis chapter 39, verse 9, Joseph was a young man away from home. Long ways away from home, working away, no hope of being reunited with his family either, working though with integrity, doing a great job.

19:35 But then he had Mrs. Potiphar saying, you know, come to bed with me. And he said no. He resisted her over and over again. And finally his reason was, you know, that you could think, okay, then I said this would be fun. You could do this. Nobody will know. Nobody will know. You know, but anyway, but the fear of the Lord— why? He said, how can I do this thing? This is how he replied to her when she was trying to pressure him to have sex with her. He said, how could I do this great wickedness, this great evil, and sin against God? And also sin against himself, right? Against himself, against her, against Potiphar, and all that stuff. But his primary motivation was, I am not going to sin against God. Well, here's the interesting thing. If you declare, I am not going to sin against God, and that's your standard and that's the way you make your decision, then you're not going to sin against yourself and you're not going to sin and do something you hate yourself for. And you're not going to sin against another person who is being defrauded or being used by the enemy through you to be hurt.

20:46 So when you have the fear of the Lord, you're going to walk in counsel and godliness. And that can apply to every area of your life, not just, you know, religious things. I mean, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is the contradiction or the destruction of foolishness. Foolishness is based on, like you said earlier, the fables, the fantasies, the fairy tales, uh, and all of that stuff that people are just taken up with. It is terrifying if you really stop and think about how many people are being seduced by that, that feeling, that foolishness and that folly and not walking in the fear of the Lord. I mean, if there were a fear of the Lord, there would be a fear of sinning. There would be— sin would be curtailed and not exploding all over the place. And there would be safety because people wouldn't be killing each other randomly just to shoot their gun or whatever they're trying. They're insane. They're being taken over by demonic forces. And there's no, there's no way to restrain them because the fear of the Lord is a restraining spirit because it brings us into the place of being in our right mind. In your right mind, you know that this earth is a temporary dwelling place, that this earth is not my eternal home.

22:06 We— a temporary dwelling place that I need to, I want, I must understand what is the call here? What is the purpose here? Why am I here? And it's not just to live under the trees and have a picnic all the time. And yes, that's fine, but You— it's to know your eternal identity and destiny in Jesus Christ. In Jeremiah 23:23-24, it says, am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? He's saying, I am— he's saying, I am a God near at hand. I'm right here all the time. Verse 24, can anyone hide himself in secret places so I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. Hebrews 4:13 says everything is naked and open with whom we have to do. And so he, he basically sees us. He sees everything.

23:03 He's always here. He's always watching. And we, we are accountable to him. And it's not like he's watching in it like a hawk to try to find a fault with us. God already knows the difficulties you're in today. He knows the battle you're having with folly and foolishness and lies. He knows how the enemy is, the liar, the snakes are trying to wrap themselves around you to choke you, to bite you, to sting you, to discourage you, to poison you. He knows all these things and he is here as a refuge. He's here as a protection. He's where he walks this road with us by the power of his Holy Spirit and through the word of his word.

23:45 So you can make it. You can walk this road and be successful in the, in the wisdom and the counsel and understanding the fear of the Lord. You can do it because if it would be impossible, then God would be unjust to expect us to do something that cannot be done. It's not like you have to be— he's not saying be perfect. Jesus, when the rich young ruler came and he listed, you know, what must I do to be saved or do to inherit eternal life? Jesus asked him, what were the commandments? The guy told him what the commandments were. And Jesus says, great. He says, but you missed one. That is, you know, go sell all that you have and follow me. In other words, the kid was trying to be good, good, good, perfect, good, A+ on his report card every day, perfect in every way. And Jesus said, what? Whoa, whoa, that's— you missed something. And the big thing he missed was, you know, can he part with his idol? Can he part with his wealth, his self-righteousness, his religious perfectionism?

24:40 Can he let go of that and follow Jesus, roll up your sleeves and get messy to help other people get saved. I mean, the kid was not ready, but Jesus, he said in the beginning of that conversation, there's none good but one, and that's God. Because the man said, good master, what must I do to inherit salvation? And Jesus said, there's none good. So God does not expect us to be— I'm not giving you a blank check to go be naughty. You don't want to be naughty. You're not created by God to want to be bad. But we don't have to be perfect. We follow Jesus, and in that following, he perfects that which concerns us. And we don't have to be paranoid that, ooh, I gotta just be perfect, do everything just— or God will be mad at me, you know.

25:22 So you— God isn't calling— God isn't like that— to neurosis, right? To be neurotic about following the Lord. It's just interesting. Psalm— God is our Father. Psalm 24, beginning with verse 12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him he shall teach in the way he chooses. So he— if you have fear of the Lord, the Lord is going to teach you, right? He himself shall dwell in prosperity. There's prosperity that's going to come to you. His descendants shall inherit the earth. So you— when you fear the Lord, I think the best thing that, you know, I heard a broadcast a few days ago saying the best thing you can do for your kids is follow the Lord yourself. Don't be praying so much for them to follow the Lord. Yes, you do, but when you follow the Lord yourself, that's the best thing to have influence your kids, that they too will follow the Lord. It says he himself will dwell in prosperity, his descendants shall inherit the earth. I just repeated that. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenant. So the, the arrangement that he has made with us— so there's going to be revelation, the secret of the Lord, those things God is going to reveal things to you that you need to know. But here's the bottom line: if you have the fear of the Lord, well, the fear of the Lord helps us to make right decisions, and the right decision is to Walk in fear of the Lord.

26:53 Now that doesn't mean, again, God calls himself, reveals himself as our Father, our Heavenly Father, as Jesus told us and showed us. So a Father, he is a perfect Father, a perfect Father that lets us, lets things kind of play out sometimes when he's teaching us, letting us learn things, exercising our free will, deciding that he's the right answer. And so as we learn to make right decisions, wise decisions, that foolishness, he says foolishness is bound in the heart of the child. So when we walk in wisdom and the fear of the Lord, of that foolishness dissipates and we're becoming more and more righteous in our faithfulness and in the finished work that God has for us. But I'm gonna tell you something, people, we are in such a critical place right now.

27:38 You cannot play around with this anymore. You can't wait another day. You can't say, well, I'm just stuck. I'm demonized. I'm done. I'm bad. I'm this. Cry out, surrender your whole mess to God and say, Lord, will you give me not only the fear of the Lord, but also an understanding of why I should fear you? Because you love me. And so it's a— we think of fear as being a bad thing, but love is the— I fear the Lord because I love the Lord. I love the Lord because I fear the Lord. Yeah. And Jesus, as he, you know, lived here on earth in the fear of the Lord, it says in Isaiah 11:2, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So, and then it goes on to say here, his delight— this is referring to Jesus— his delight is in the Lord, in the fear, is in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor discern by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the weak of the meek of the earth. So his delight is in the fear of the Lord. And I think of in the book of Acts, there was— there were people that, well, when Ananias and Sapphira tried to lie to the Holy Spirit, God knocked them down dead. And there was a fear of the Lord, the reverence for

29:09 God. It's like God is just saying, draw the line here. He says, I'm not going to put up with this lying to the Holy Spirit. But now Nowadays, you know, when the correction doesn't come quickly in an error, then people think, well, I got by with that. I can do that again. There's no big deal. There's no consequences. There's no judgment. Don't be fooled. There is a judgment and it is coming. And you do not want to be on the wrong side of that judgment for your sake, for your children's sake, for even God's sake. So this is serious. I mean, your life can be full of the joy of the Lord, as you walk respectfully and in the fear of the Lord. So again, this is a crisis point we're at right now with people just pushing away the fear of the Lord and just saying, I'll do it my way, or I don't have to do this. I, you know, or I give up on doing anything.

30:00 I, you know, people are giving up on their lives. They're getting sick. They're getting medically diagnosed. You're going to die in 3 months, whatever. You got this, this, and this. People are just giving up on their lives. And if you've been diagnosed and are giving up on your life, at least do one thing right before you go. Begin to reverence and fear and seek God. Cry out to him for your life. Repent. Turn around. Get serious about your life. It's not too late. It's not even too late if you go up to the last minute. Please, it's not too late because you can still, um, make that thing right with God. Here's a wonderful description of the churches, the early churches in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 9, verse 31.

30:43 Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. They had peace and they were built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They were multiplied. So they were living in the fear of the Lord, respect and obedience, respect for God, reverence for God. And along with that, they had the comfort the strength and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And they were multiplied. Well, the fear of the Lord, one more thing, is believing what God says in his word. And if you fear the Lord and obey the Lord, then you'll have the rewards and the outcome that the Lord says. So the outcomes we're looking for begin with fearing the Lord. So Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, who you know, has come to give us life. Oh Lord, forgive us for being so ignorant, so distracted, so unaware of the stakes, of the things that are at stake in this matter of being on this planet. Father, I pray that your Spirit would move quickly and deeply in the hearts and the minds and the souls and the spirits of the people who are listening, that they will repent, that we will all repent, that we will change our minds, stop doing what isn't working and surrender to you, Lord God. Let the fear of the Lord come upon this nation,

32:15 uh, in, in a, in a true reckoning, a true opportunity to repent and be brought into the fullness of your salvation and your eternal life. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Hey, another thing here too, in the fear of the Lord, that affects of course our relationship with God first of all, with ourselves and with one another. And you have a wonderful book called Doing Relationships God's Way. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, there are many relationships we have. The one we have with ourself is probably the primary, most important one brings, defines all the other relationships we have with other people. But there's one, our relationship with God, our relationship with how we see him, who he is to us, and what does that mean? So I would say doing relationships God's way starts with your relationship with yourself and with God. So again, you can find that on amazon.com or amazon.com. I think this is Amazon and then, or liferecovery.com.

33:22 So we encourage you, Pick it up and be encouraged. Read your Bible most of all. Just find the places where God— read about Jesus in the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Open the book and start reading. Open the book. As the Bible says about Samuel when he was a little boy, God revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord. And you will come into a great reverence for God, an appreciation for God, his power, his magnificence, his beauty, his grace, his love, his truth, as the Word of God is going to reveal you and develop in you that proper reverence for Almighty God. So take a hold of your life. Pay attention to your life. It's your life. It is your life that you're going to give an account of someday. It is precious. It is a gift.

34:10 Pay attention. And God bless you. And hopefully we'll see you again soon. I have an emergency. What is your location? Rescue Radio, 'cause there's a war for your soul.