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Welcome to the Stone Choir podcast. I am Corey J. Moeller, and I'm Woe.
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There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit,
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and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
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the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,
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and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
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Today's episode is discussing the fear of the Lord, the fear of God. What does it mean to fear God properly?
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What you'll find as you look at all the examples in Scripture, particularly throughout the Old Testament,
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fear of the Lord is used as synonymous with one who has faith, someone who was a believer was described as fearing God.
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This is how Jonah described himself. It's how Joseph described himself to his brothers when they didn't recognize him.
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Those men describe themselves as having fear of the Lord. It's synonymous with having faith. It means to be a believer.
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Something that's lost on us in the modern world is the connection between proper fear, as it's understood scripturally,
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and what it means to have faith. We think of it in sort of euphemistic terms, like, oh, he fears God.
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No, these men actually feared God. They were afraid of God in the traditional sense,
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which is not the sense of a spooky movie, or of being afraid of the dark, or being afraid of running out of fuel on the highway.
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It's not that exact type of fear. It's a much more properly oriented relationship to God.
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Harkening back to the episode that we did a while back on Perfect Hatred,
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it's important to note that when we're talking about these things that today we called emotions, fear and hatred,
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those are prime emotions or primal emotions, that's not all that they are.
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When we talked in the episode on Perfect Hatred, we talked about the fact that hatred is in fact a fruit of the Holy Spirit,
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proper hatred against those things which are opposed to God.
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And in that sense, it's not emotional. It's not an emotional response or outpouring. It's relational.
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If you love God, if you are oriented towards God's things, naturally that flows to a hatred of that, which is contrary to God's will.
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The same is true of the fear of God. When we say fear God, it doesn't mean hide in terror.
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It doesn't mean flee as the wicked man when no man pursues.
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To be afraid of God is to understand your relationship to God as your Creator. We're creatures.
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We are at the bottom. God is at the top.
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So today we're going to basically be doing another Bible study.
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We're going to go through a bunch of Bible verses talking about all the manners in which scripture describes fear and examples of it being used.
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Well, not all the examples because as we said, there are hundreds of them. This could be a 30-hour Bible study if we went through every single one.
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They're redundant, but it gets the point across that if you are not able to say, I fear God, there's something wrong with your faith.
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And I think today that's largely absent from the way we think of our own relationship to God.
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We think of God as being loving, as being our loving Father.
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A Father in a head also naturally inspires fear, properly understood.
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That's a part of that relationship because there's a hierarchy.
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Any time there's a hierarchy, there's fear, properly understood.
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Again, not in the sense of a scary movie, but in the sense of there's something greater above me that can do good or ill.
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And I understand my relationship to that as one of submission and one of not being able to resist whatever comes from above.
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And so today we're going to talk about how we properly understand what it is to fear, love, and trust in God.
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That's how Luther correctly, I think, explained the first commandment.
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You shall have no other gods before me.
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Luther said that means we fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
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Fear comes first.
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And that wasn't just Luther sort of picking words at random.
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What we find in scripture is that fear comes before love.
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Just as law comes before gospel, it's synonymous.
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It's the same thing.
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You cannot understand God's love for you if you do not have a proper fear of the God who must love you so that he doesn't destroy you.
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So that's where we're going to begin.
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So to start off, we'll turn to Genesis 31.
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I think this is a good place to begin because here we actually have fear as a name of God.
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If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.
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God here is called the fear.
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Yes, it's the fear of Isaac, but fear is properly capitalized in the ESV and some other translations because it is a name of God.
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This is an attribute of God.
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God is fearful in the sense that he is something to be feared.
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And as was mentioned, modern readers, modern listeners are going to have an incorrect background set of assumptions when it comes to what fear is.
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And when preparing for this episode, I looked up fear in the 1828 dictionary to get a better idea of what this term used to mean in English.
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And as we were discussing before we started recording, there's actually a hierarchy given in the definition, and I think it's an important hierarchy for modern ears.
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This is something we should hear, something we should understand.
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We have fear, dread, terror, and fright.
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Now, fright is the one that, as we were preparing for the show, we discussed because fright to the modern ear doesn't really mean worse than fear, dread, and terror anymore.
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But that's the hierarchy here.
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And the reason that I want to point out this hierarchy is that the classical definition of fear, one of them in English that is sort of fallen by the wayside, is that fear is a mixture of dread and reverence.
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And so it's important to recognize that dread.
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That's the aspect that we're really missing today when we think about what it means to fear.
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And so if we fear God, yes, there's the reverence, yes, there's the respect, these other things.
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But there is also dread because God is something that is wholly other from us.
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I'm not saying in the sense of anti-realism or moral anti-realism, anything like that.
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That's a different subject.
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But in the sense of God is sui generis.
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God is different from us.
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His ways are not our ways, our ways are not his ways.
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He is above and beyond us to an incomprehensible degree.
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And so there is a certain response that we would and should have when in the presence of God.
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And in the theological and philosophical literature, this has sometimes been called the numinous.
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This comes from a Lutheran theologian called Rudolf Otto.
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His main book on the subject is actually a good book worth reading.
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It's the idea of the holy.
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It's worth noting again what holy means.
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Holy means to be set apart.
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It means to be other.
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It means the sacred.
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These are interchangeable terms in this case.
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But again, God is sui generis.
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God is Gansandra.
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He is, this is the holy other God.
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And that elicits from men who have a proper respect for God,
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a proper conception of God insofar as the mind of a mortal man can conceive of the infinite.
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It elicits fear.
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And so that is what we are talking about today.
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That's what we're going over in Scripture.
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And as mentioned, Scripture uses the word fear repeatedly.
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It appears over 400 times in the ESV's text.
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The connection between fear and dread is also called out in Genesis 9 where it's given context.
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God said to Noah,
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the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon the bird of the heavens,
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upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.
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Into your hand they are delivered.
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And that's fundamentally what fear and dread is.
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The beasts today naturally fear us.
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Now some are less fearful than others.
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Some are too dumb to be afraid.
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But when you encounter a wild beast, it will be fearful of you.
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It may not be fearful of other things in nature,
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but it will be fearful of man in the sense that it will naturally understand that you are above it in creation.
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It doesn't know why, but it knows that you're something dangerous,
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something that might be a predator, something that could hurt it.
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It has the sense that it is delivered into your hand.
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Now, a dumb beast isn't comprehending these things in the way that a man does,
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but as God said, he put the fear and dread of man in the beast's heart.
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So it doesn't have to understand.
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God has given those things into our hands.
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And the beasts understand that as well as they can understand anything.
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And the fact that being delivered into someone's hand is the root for that fear and dread is why we should fear God.
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We are not delivered into his hand.
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We were held as his children in his hand, but it's in his hand.
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He's our creator.
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Again, he's at the very top of creation.
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We're not at the bottom because there are many things beneath us,
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but relative to him, we're less than worms.
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That's something we'll get into a bit later in some of the examples.
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One of the first passages I wanted to call out was from Psalm 19.
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Before we move on to that, I actually just want to add an anecdote here because very convenient timing.
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When it comes to the fear of God and particularly the analog here, the fear of man that animals have,
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I went down to take care of my chickens a little while before we started recording,
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and I went down there and one of them had managed to get out of the pen because every so often they do fly.
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Chickens can actually fly.
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They don't really remember they can fly, so they get spooked, they go upward, they get out of the pen,
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and then they look at the fact they're out of the pen and go, how did this happen?
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And they can't figure out how to get back in because, again, they don't realize they can fly.
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But the chickens obviously trust me to some degree because I feed them, water them and all those things.
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I take care of them and I haven't harmed them, but they are still afraid of me.
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They will run away if I try to capture them and pick them up because there is still that fear.
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They recognize that I am something that could very well cause them harm.
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That is analogous in some ways to man's relationship to God, the fear of God that man should have with respect to God
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because God, the difference between me and the chickens is nothing compared to the difference between God and me,
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between God and man.
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God is infinite, man is finite.
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God has absolute control over your life, over what will happen in your life, over the world, over everything.
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God has control over the universe on the grandest scale down to individual divisions of cells,
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the way that quarks interact inside the particles inside atoms.
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God has control over absolutely everything.
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And it's the fear of God flows in part from that proper understanding of the majesty of God,
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the power of God, the nature of God relative to man.
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And so it's good to think of the way that animals interact with man to some degree because it gives us a picture of that sort of fear.
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It's not always just abject terror.
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It is a respect due to the power differential, due to the nature of that relationship.
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And it is because of God's love for us that He reveals all of this to us in Scripture.
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He tells us why and how to fear Him, why and how to love Him.
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He tells us that He loves us.
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Again, He tells us these things because He loves us and He wants us to fear and love Him in that order.
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In Psalm 19 it reads,
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And I did that whole passage.
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You could cherry pick just the fear of the Lord is clean and during forever and say,
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well, obviously fear is good.
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When you look in context, fear of the Lord is put in a list of synonyms for God's will,
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the law of the Lord, the testimony, the precepts, the commandments, the rules, the fear of the Lord.
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Those are all part and parcel according to God of the same thing.
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So when we say fear God, when God says fear God, like this is in stone choir theology,
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God is literally saying, if you fear me, you know my law.
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It's the same thing.
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God lifts synonym after synonym in Psalm 19 for the purpose of making clear that the fear of God is not emotional, principally, it's knowledge.
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The proper, rightly ordered knowledge of God is itself fear.
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It is interesting that she would pick that example for explaining that the fear of God can be a synonym for His law, His word for obeying God,
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because that is literally the example verse given in Webster's 1828.
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Because one of the, and I want to point out that you did not actually look at Webster's 1828 before this episode.
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I happen to have it open, but the eighth definition under fear is the law and word of God.
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And it gives Psalm 19 nine as the example, which this is actually something worth noting here.
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Webster's 1828 cites to scripture constantly.
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It is, it's probably far and away the top source that is cited for examples of the use of various words.
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So just looking at this one, the verses themselves are hyperlinked, so it's very easy to see they're all blue.
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It is almost every single definition of fear cites to scripture.
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And this is something that we've lost as a society.
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If you open up a modern dictionary, it is not going to cite to scripture as often.
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Academic ones, interestingly, will actually cite to scripture more because, as we have mentioned previously, if you do not know scripture, you are functionally illiterate in a Western context.
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It doesn't matter if you're Christian, if you're pagan, Buddhist, whatever you are, if you are in a Western context and you do not know scripture, you are functionally illiterate.
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And that definitely shines through when looking at the examples in older dictionaries.
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Just imagine how terrible things must have been in 1828 when we had a Christian nation and people had to know the word of God to understand their own language and how they related to others.
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Sounds like a nightmare.
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It's a good thing we're not Christianizing nations anymore.
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Another Psalm that I wanted to highlight was Psalm 111.
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The works of his hands are faithful and just.
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All his precepts are trustworthy.
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They are established forever and ever.
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To be performed with faithfulness and uprightness, he sent redemption to his people.
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He has commanded his covenant forever.
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Holy and awesome is his name.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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All those who practice it have good understanding.
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His praise and dirt is forever.
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There's a passage that ties into what we'll be talking about in Job in a little bit.
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How not only is fear of the Lord wisdom and understanding, but it is glory to God to fear him.
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And again, I talked at the beginning about how this is a relational concept, not an emotional one.
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When you hate that which the Lord hates, as we talked about in the perfect hatred episode,
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that's not you being angry.
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That is you having a spirit that is oriented in the same way that God's spirit has told us to be oriented
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against those things which are contrary to God.
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So when we talk about fearing the Lord, it is giving him glory to fear him.
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It is not being presumptuous to not fear the Lord is to be a cocky jerk.
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I was thinking earlier about examples.
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I'm going to give this example by realizing it's not blasphemous, but it's kind of absurd.
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I was thinking of the example in Die Hard when the cocky idiot in the tower wanted to go in and negotiate with Hans Gruber.
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And he puts his feet up on the desk and he says, Hans, booby, like they were equals.
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And Gruber is sitting there just astonished that this idiot could be so close to death and not realize it.
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That man did not have a proper fear of someone who had his life in his hands.
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Now, Lord, forgive me, I'm not comparing God Almighty to Hans Gruber.
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But that sort of inversion of proper understanding of relationship is when you get your head bitten up.
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There are examples in scripture where God himself says, don't put yourself at the high place at the table.
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Go at the low place at the table.
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Let God invite you. Let the master of the ceremony invite you up to the place of honor.
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That is the approach that we're to have with God.
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If you fear and have the dread of God in your heart, you're not going to be cocky.
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You're not going to put your feet up on the table and act like you're in equal and act like you can negotiate with God.
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You're going to come as a supplicant.
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That is what God wants from us.
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By God telling us in scripture that that's what he wants,
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it then permits him to invite us to the table to receive us as his adopted children.
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None of what we're saying today is about nullifying God's love.
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It's about making sure that we don't lose the context of who God is.
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I think so much modern theology is oriented completely around man.
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It's all focused on us, on you, on me, on our feelings, on our relationships in the small R sense.
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Not in the sense of how we are oriented towards or away from God.
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When Psalm 111 ties the fear of the Lord with wisdom and praise and how holy and awesome God's name is,
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it's all part and parcel.
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Just as in Psalm 19, the rules and the precepts are part of the fear of the Lord.
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God's glory is to be feared by us.
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That is a good thing.
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We're not saying hide in terror.
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We're not saying, as God doesn't say, flee and just be mindlessly terrified of me.
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God says you should have a proper orientation towards me that is one on your knees.
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It's something that used to be a part of worship in the West where a lot of most churches used to have kneelers.
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There were periods in the church service where you would literally get down on your knees.
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Thankfully, at least in the Lutheran church and some Catholic churches and probably others,
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there are still kneelers or there's a bench to kneel at a rail when you receive communion.
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That is the proper posture of fear.
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When you get down on your knees, it is a posture, a physical posture of supplication.
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If we met in person and I said, get down on your knees, you would be deeply unnerved.
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You don't know what's going to happen next, but it doesn't seem like it's probably going to be good
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because the physical orientation of me standing and you kneeling by command
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is fundamentally one of dominance and then fear on the part of the kneeler.
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When we kneel before God at the communion altar, it is in fear as well as thanksgiving.
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We are kneeling before the Almighty in receiving His body and blood in our mouths.
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That is a fearful thing.
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It is a wondrous thing.
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It is a gift beyond imagining.
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But if you just go up there and say, I want that, that's mine.
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It's like putting your feet up on the rail as though you were entitled to these things.
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These are gifts from the Master that are undeserving to any of us.
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When they're received, receiving them through the love by which they're sacrificed and offered
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means fearing the nature of He who's giving these things
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because God could just as easily have not given these things.
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In fact, it would make far more sense for us, for God not to give us anything.
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We know naturally we don't deserve any of the good gifts.
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That's not what we're talking about when we say fear God.
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We're not saying fear God is a pagan.
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We're saying fear God so that when you receive His gifts,
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it is in the proper understanding of how much He loves you,
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that you do have to fear Him and yet you receive these things anyway.
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And despite of the infinite disparity between the Creator and the creature,
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all of these things of love are still poured out for us.
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And so to not fear God is to receive those gifts unworthily if we receive them at all.
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You mentioned pagan fear and I think this is a good spot to divide two different kinds of fear,
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two different senses of the term that we can mean when we use it.
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And that is what you call the pagan fear would be just blunt fear, fear of being squashed like a bug.
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That's the sort of fear that you would have of a tiger or a bear or trapped in a cave, what have you,
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something like that, that kind of fear.
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There is some of that when it comes to God.
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It's not exactly the same.
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Yes, God is so high above you that obviously it is worse in a way to stand in the presence of God,
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you know, as a man of unclean lips say, than to be trapped with a bear.
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But there is a difference between the kind of fear that we mean when we are speaking of the Christian versus the unbeliever.
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And I'll just read definition six from the 1828 version of Webster's.
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In scripture, fear is used to express a filial or a slavish passion.
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In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws,
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which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character.
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Leading the subjects of it to hate and shun everything that can offend such a holy being,
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and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience.
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This is filial fear.
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Slavish fear is the effect or consequence of guilt.
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It is the painful apprehension of merited punishment.
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And so that's the distinction here.
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There is a difference in the sort of fear that a believer will have with respect to God versus an unbeliever,
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because an unbeliever does not have a loving father.
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An unbeliever has an angry God who is going to punish him for eternity.
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Whereas a believer has a loving God who is going to chastise him yes here in time,
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because beloved children are disciplined by their fathers.
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However, he is a loving God who is doing that for our good.
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That is filial fear.
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That is the fear that a son has toward his father, which is a good thing,
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as opposed to the slavish fear of the pagan, of the unbeliever of the atheist.
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That also ties back into what was said in Psalm 111.
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This is the glorification of God comes from a proper fear.
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You can't glorify God if you're just in blind animal terror.
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The last verse I wanted to pull from wisdom of literature is from Proverbs 1.
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At the very beginning of Proverbs, it says,
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I think that last line,
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fools despise wisdom and instruction is something that many of us encounter in our own lives.
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You're interacting with someone.
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You're trying to tell them something important that they don't want to hear,
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that they don't understand.
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Maybe it was about COVID vaccines or any number of things.
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One of the most common responses that you'll find with some people is,
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I don't want to hear it.
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I don't want to hear anything about it.
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Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
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What is the exact opposite of that?
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
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Fear of God is a blessing.
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We're not talking about something that we do, again, not out of animal terror.
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We're talking about a fruit of the Spirit.
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The fear of the Lord is a fruit of the Spirit.
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If you have the Holy Spirit, you're going to fear God.
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If you are listening or you know someone who has absolutely no fear of God,
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if they're just going to put their feet up on the table and chat away like they're equals,
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and that's the only understanding that they have,
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that person, their faith is in trouble.
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Obviously, Jesus, God, the Son of God, came down from heaven,
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was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was made man.
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He sat and ate with his friends.
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We're not saying that that is not God, that is absolutely God.
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God can sit among us.
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He can sit across the table and be a friend, and be a brother,
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and be someone who is close and intimate.
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This is not a denial of that,
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because there were also times, even in Jesus' earthly ministry before the ascension,
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when the apostles were afraid, when the disciples were afraid of what was going on,
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because although their knowledge of him as the Son of God was imperfect
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before the veil was lifted from their eyes at Pentecost,
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they still knew that he was God,
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and they knew that there were things that he could do that no man could possibly do.
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It's one of the reasons that they believed in him,
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and their response to that knowledge was fear.
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They feared Jesus.
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They loved him.
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They loved him as a brother who had lived with him for years,
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and they feared him because he was God.
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He was fully God and fully man,
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and so the love of God and the fear of God are part and parcel.
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They go together, but they didn't just hang out with Jesus because he was a fun guy,
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and they liked being around him.
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They were with him first and foremost because he was God.
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He was the fearful God who was capable of infinite things,
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and the fact that he masked that infinite glory,
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glory that would kill them if they had seen it fully,
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that was his love for them.
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But the fear always came first in the relationship.
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Even when they weren't necessarily thinking about it,
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it still was there because they knew that he was God.
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They feared the Lord, and they loved their brother, Jesus, who lived among them.
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That's what all these passages are talking about.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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It's the law of the Lord.
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It's all of these good things.
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That's the point of this entire episode.
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The fear of the Lord is a good thing.
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We're not saying be terrified like an animal.
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We're saying that if you have no fear of God,
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you're missing out on one of God's blessings,
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and it's such an important one that it's potentially jeopardizing your faith.
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That's the reason that we're devoting an entire episode to this.
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It's not saying, oh man, you should be afraid of God.
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It's terrible.
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God is glorious.
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God is perfect.
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He is infinite, and his love for you is infinite as well,
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and that is something that's fearsome,
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and it's okay for a Christian to say that out loud.
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We could spend hours just going through fear in the wisdom literature,
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particularly in Psalms,
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but I want to read one more snippet from one of the Psalms
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because it highlights this difference between the slavish pagan fear
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and the fear of a believer, and that's from Psalm 130.
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If you, oh Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand,
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but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.
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Now, obviously, this is not the kind of fear that an unbeliever would have
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because it says with you there is forgiveness,
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and it is only believers who benefit from the justification.
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Yes, all of creation is redeemed in the objective justification,
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but the subjective justification is applied to believers by faith,
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and so this sort of fear is the fear that a son has for his father.
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This is filial fear.
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This is exactly the kind of fear that we are speaking of with regard to Christians.
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This is what we should have in relationship to God.
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We can properly fear God because there is forgiveness of sins.
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If there were no forgiveness of sins, we could very well still fear God,
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but it would not be filial fear.
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It would be the fear of God as transcendent,
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the fear of God as so totally other that we are forever disconnected from him.
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It's the kind of fear that an animal has of a hunter.
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It is sheer animalistic terror.
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That is what you would have if there were no forgiveness,
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but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared.
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Which is why God revealed all this to us in Scripture.
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God has given us this knowledge for our edification, for our comfort, for our fear.
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That's an okay thing to say.
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God wants you to fear him, and if you understand him, you will.
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We're going to get now into Job, which is one of both Cory and my favorite books of Scripture.
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I think that the way that Job and God interact is a perfect illustration of what we're talking about here.
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It also lends into what we're going to talk about at the end about trusting in God,
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because fear and trust are part and parcel.
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Cory's chickens fear him, and they trust him.
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They know that when he comes out, he's going to feed them.
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That trust, they can be confident that they're going to receive treats,
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and they're going to receive food, and they're not going to be hurt when he's doing good things for them.
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The fear of him as being over them is also manifest in their trust for the gifts that he gives.
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That's the same thing as true for all of us.
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I think there's no better example in all of Scripture than the entire story of Job.
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I recommend you read the whole thing.
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I especially recommend, even if you want to cut out some of the dialogue between Job and his three friends,
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the first couple chapters and the last four chapters, beginning with 38,
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are really the perfect encapsulation of what we're talking about here.
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I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I want to give some clips from it
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to give a sense of what it is that God says when he's describing fear being a good thing.
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And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, for there is none like him in the earth,
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a perfect and an upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil?
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And Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for naught?
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Have you not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side?
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You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock has increased in the land.
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But put forth, pray your hand, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.
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So it's notable there that God specifically holds up his servant Job as someone who fears God and turns away from evil.
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And Satan's argument against him in the Divine Council is, Well, of course he fears you.
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Look at all the good things you give him.
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So this is right here in the very beginning of Job.
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The fear of God is faith, and it is the natural response to God's blessings.
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That's what Satan says.
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And he's right.
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Like Satan's not lying about this when he says, Does Job fear God for naught?
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He's absolutely right.
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Job was blessed.
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And I think in a recent episode, Corey, you mentioned that the list of all the animals and the servants and all the wealth that Job had marked him as probably one of the richest men on earth.
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He was profoundly wealthy.
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And God's response is, Go ahead.
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You can go and you can do evil to this man, to my servant, but don't harm him.
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And so Satan went down and he killed all of his animals.
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He killed all of his children.
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He killed all of his servants.
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The only thing that Job had left at that point was his wife, who was never touched, and his health.
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And so when I read next, I'll just read from ESV.
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Interesting.
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ESV and ALV are actually very close in this.
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I preserved a lot of the same wording, which is nice to see.
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I'm glad that that literalism carries through.
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After Satan delivered this evil to Job, a servant, three servants, and each rapidly in term came and told him and his wife, all the evil that had just befell him.
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Here's Job's response to finding out all his kids are dead.
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All his servants are dead.
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All his animals are dead.
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Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.
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And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return.
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The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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And all this Job did not sin or charge God with any wrong.
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I think I mentioned this in a previous episode.
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Imagine you're Satan in this scenario.
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You basically make a bet with God that you're going to torture this man so that he will curse God.
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You go down.
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You kill his entire family.
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You basically take all his possessions.
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He has nothing but his health and his wife.
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And after all of this evil, what does Job do?
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How does he respond?
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He falls to his knees and he worships and he gives glory to God.
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Imagine you're Satan.
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Imagine what a kick in the teeth that is to do just about the worst possible things you can do to any man.
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He just found out all his kids are dead.
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All of them, all 10 children, seven sons and three daughters have just been killed.
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His enemies from other nations have slaughtered all of his servants and all of his livestock.
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He basically has nothing left.
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He went for being one of the richest men on the planet and blessed by God and protected by God with a hedge,
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as Satan pointed out, to someone with nothing but his health and his wife.
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He falls to his knees.
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He worships God and he said,
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The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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He doesn't attribute the evil to the Lord.
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He doesn't give Satan any credit at all.
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He said, bless God.
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Bless God for having given me these things and bless God even though these things have been taken away from me.
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That is fear of God.
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Just as God said he had, God said that he had fear of the Lord and this is a fearful response.
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When calamity falls, whatever it is in your life, you should be equipped by your faith and by your meditation on scripture
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that whatever happens to you, you should be able to respond to it the way Job does here.
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Because such a man is unbeatable.
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Such a man lives his life every moment of it in fear and trust of the Lord.
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Satan has taken everything and in the next passage, he takes his health as well.
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He's covered in sores from head to toe.
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But even at that, Job still knew that he was in God's hands.
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Such a man cannot be defeated because such faith, which is a gift from God, is forever.
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If that is your faith, if you have the faith of Job, there's nothing that can possibly happen in your life that will rob you of that faith.
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Again, God's giving it to us.
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God is telling us these things for our edification.
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God is encouraging us to fear him such that when calamity befalls, we give thanks for it.
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How can you possibly have your spirit broken when that is your response to the worst thing imaginable?
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You have to think that Luther probably had
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this section among other parts of Job and mine when he was writing
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the four stanza of Ein Festerberg.
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For those who aren't familiar with it, I'll read it in German and then translate it
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because I don't like a lot of the English translations.
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And the English translations lose a little bit.
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The rough translation from the German would be,
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Let them take our life, God's honor, children and wife.
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Let these go.
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He cannot win.
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The Reich, the kingdom, must remain with us.
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And so it really is a picture of what is happening to Job here.
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And it was also, of course, what was being threatened by the Papus against the Lutherans at that time
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and thereafter for quite a while.
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And they nearly succeeded in the Thirty Years' War, of course.
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But this is what happened to Job.
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Satan took his goods, his honor, his children,
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didn't take his wife, notably, although did drive a wedge between them
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because of her reaction to what happened versus Job's reaction,
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because, of course, she says curse God and die, which is not the reaction Job has.
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Job has the proper reaction.
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But this is what happened to Job.
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And the reaction of Job and the words of the hymn are equivalent.
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Let these things go.
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If they do, if it be God's will,
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everything works together for the good of those who trust in and love God.
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We know that from Romans.
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Satan cannot win.
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The evil cannot win because Christ has already won.
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And so we know, and in later verses in Job,
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I know that my Redeemer lives
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and that at last he will stand upon the earth
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and that I will see him with my own eyes, I and not another.
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Satan cannot win.
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The evil cannot win.
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All of this works together for good in God's plan.
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And so even if the worst happens,
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which the worst very well happens to Job,
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this is about as bad as it can possibly get.
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You lose your possessions.
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You lose your servants.
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You lose your children.
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You lose your position.
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You lose everything.
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And finally you're afflicted with some sort of terrible disease.
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That's rock bottom.
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And he still praises God.
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That is the correct reaction.
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That is proper fear of God.
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That is fear directed toward a proper ultimate end.
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God, instead of fear of these temporal consequences
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of losing these things in life.
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Yes, they are important.
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We're not saying they're not.
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That's not what Scripture is saying.
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It's not saying that your children, your wife, your health, your goods,
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these are all blessings from God.
42:03.000 --> 42:06.000
These things are good, but they are not an ultimate good.
42:06.000 --> 42:08.000
They are not ultimate goods.
42:08.000 --> 42:10.000
They come from God as blessing.
42:10.000 --> 42:16.000
And so proper fear is directed toward God as that ultimate good.
42:16.000 --> 42:23.000
And that is really, if you look properly at the first commandment,
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that is what you are supposed to do.
42:25.000 --> 42:26.000
That is what Job is doing.
42:26.000 --> 42:28.000
Job is obeying the first commandment.
42:28.000 --> 42:32.000
He is not putting his trust in these temporal goods.
42:32.000 --> 42:36.000
He is putting his trust in the eternal good that is God.
42:36.000 --> 42:39.000
And that is right fear directed rightly.
42:39.000 --> 42:44.000
And when after Job is beset by the sores from head to toe
42:44.000 --> 42:47.000
and he's scratching himself with broken pottery,
42:47.000 --> 42:50.000
he's sitting in ashes and his wife is nagging at him saying,
42:50.000 --> 42:52.000
Curse God and I, he said to her,
42:52.000 --> 42:54.000
you speak as one of the foolish women would speak.
42:54.000 --> 42:58.000
Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?
42:58.000 --> 43:02.000
Which is reiteration of what he said previously.
43:02.000 --> 43:05.000
You take the good with the bad because it's all blessings from God.
43:05.000 --> 43:08.000
The bad things are a blessing from God too.
43:08.000 --> 43:10.000
It's not obvious, doesn't make sense.
43:10.000 --> 43:13.000
But if you receive it as a blessing, as God intends it,
43:13.000 --> 43:16.000
God didn't intend for Job to be cursed here.
43:16.000 --> 43:21.000
God permitted evil to befall him, but it was not a curse.
43:21.000 --> 43:25.000
And that's something that intellectually I don't think we can process.
43:25.000 --> 43:30.000
It's not how we would treat each other typically.
43:30.000 --> 43:33.000
Although I think it's important to acknowledge that throughout all of this,
43:33.000 --> 43:37.000
fear is fundamentally a part of headship.
43:37.000 --> 43:42.000
In some of the passages in the New Testament talking about the relationship
43:42.000 --> 43:45.000
of husband and wife, and one of them specifically says
43:45.000 --> 43:48.000
that the wife is to fear her husband in this sense.
43:48.000 --> 43:51.000
Not that she should be terrified that she's going to be beaten,
43:51.000 --> 43:53.000
that something horrible will be happening to her,
43:53.000 --> 43:57.000
but she should have a properly ordered fear of her husband.
43:57.000 --> 44:02.000
In the same sense, fear and headship go together.
44:02.000 --> 44:06.000
So when Job receives this evil, these bad things,
44:06.000 --> 44:10.000
he says, this came from God, I receive it in gladness.
44:10.000 --> 44:15.000
Even though he was suffering, and after he was reduced to scratching
44:15.000 --> 44:19.000
his terrible sores with pottery, he did curse the day that he was born,
44:19.000 --> 44:24.000
and then his three friends laid into him and made his life miserable
44:24.000 --> 44:26.000
for a while on top of everything else,
44:26.000 --> 44:29.000
having friends who were giving him bad advice
44:29.000 --> 44:32.000
and saying things about God that were not true.
44:32.000 --> 44:35.000
I want to jump ahead to Job 38,
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which is where I highly recommend that you begin reading
44:37.000 --> 44:38.000
and just read the rest of it.
44:38.000 --> 44:41.000
Start in Job 38 and read every word of it.
44:41.000 --> 44:43.000
I want to highlight a few portions here,
44:43.000 --> 44:46.000
but the specific thing I want to call out is that
44:46.000 --> 44:50.000
after Job had been bitching at God for a while
44:50.000 --> 44:54.000
about having been born and when God comes to him.
44:54.000 --> 44:59.000
Now keep in mind, Satan and God had had this discussion.
44:59.000 --> 45:03.000
God had permitted Satan to do this evil to Job.
45:03.000 --> 45:10.000
Job never cursed God, but he did get fed up with how miserable he was.
45:10.000 --> 45:14.000
When God comes to him, when he comes out of the whirlwind,
45:14.000 --> 45:16.000
what does he say to Job?
45:16.000 --> 45:19.000
This is what he says, and then we'll get into what he...
45:19.000 --> 45:21.000
I'll just highlight up from what he doesn't say.
45:21.000 --> 45:26.000
Job, when God comes to Job and says, I'm God and here's what I'm here to say,
45:26.000 --> 45:28.000
he doesn't blame Satan.
45:28.000 --> 45:30.000
He doesn't say, Satan did this, I didn't.
45:30.000 --> 45:34.000
Why are you complaining to me? This evil stuff is coming from somewhere else.
45:34.000 --> 45:36.000
He doesn't even acknowledge the evil.
45:36.000 --> 45:41.000
Basically, what God is about to do to Job is to put him completely in his place.
45:41.000 --> 45:47.000
He completely ignores his complaining and his moaning and his whining,
45:47.000 --> 45:50.000
and he says, who do you think you are?
45:50.000 --> 45:55.000
God in this passage puts the fear of God in Job.
45:55.000 --> 45:59.000
And Job relents, Job, I'm not going to read that passage, but when you read it,
45:59.000 --> 46:01.000
you'll see Job repents.
46:01.000 --> 46:03.000
He's like, you're absolutely right.
46:03.000 --> 46:07.000
I was way out of line complaining to you, Lord.
46:07.000 --> 46:10.000
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
46:10.000 --> 46:13.000
Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge,
46:13.000 --> 46:15.000
dressed for action like a man?
46:15.000 --> 46:18.000
I will question you and you make it known to me.
46:18.000 --> 46:21.000
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
46:21.000 --> 46:23.000
Tell me if you have understanding.
46:23.000 --> 46:26.000
Who determined its measurements, surely you know?
46:26.000 --> 46:28.000
Or who stretched the line upon it?
46:28.000 --> 46:30.000
On what were its bases sunk?
46:30.000 --> 46:34.000
Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together
46:34.000 --> 46:37.000
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
46:37.000 --> 46:40.000
Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?
46:40.000 --> 46:44.000
When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band
46:44.000 --> 46:47.000
and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors
46:47.000 --> 46:50.000
and said thus far you shall come and no farther.
46:50.000 --> 46:53.000
Here shall your proud waves be stayed.
46:53.000 --> 46:55.000
Have you entered into the springs of the sea
46:55.000 --> 46:57.000
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
46:57.000 --> 46:59.000
Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
46:59.000 --> 47:02.000
Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
47:02.000 --> 47:04.000
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
47:04.000 --> 47:06.000
Declare if you know all this.
47:06.000 --> 47:08.000
Can you bind to the chains of the Pleiades
47:08.000 --> 47:10.000
or loose the cords of Orion?
47:10.000 --> 47:13.000
Can you lead forth the Maseroth in their season?
47:13.000 --> 47:15.000
Or can you guide the bear with its children?
47:15.000 --> 47:17.000
Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
47:17.000 --> 47:20.000
Can you establish their rule on earth?
47:20.000 --> 47:22.000
I skipped a few passages,
47:22.000 --> 47:25.000
but what God is saying to Job and all of this
47:25.000 --> 47:28.000
is who do you think you are?
47:28.000 --> 47:31.000
Where were you when I created the foundations of the earth?
47:31.000 --> 47:33.000
When I set the stars in their places
47:33.000 --> 47:36.000
and ordained their movement through the heavens?
47:36.000 --> 47:37.000
Where were you?
47:37.000 --> 47:39.000
You are nothing compared to me.
47:39.000 --> 47:41.000
How dare you criticize me?
47:41.000 --> 47:43.000
Who do you think you are?
47:43.000 --> 47:46.000
This was God's response to Job's complaining.
47:47.000 --> 47:49.000
I think that that's important.
47:49.000 --> 47:54.000
That is God establishing his fearful relationship
47:54.000 --> 47:57.000
with all his creatures.
47:57.000 --> 48:00.000
God upfront said that Job was without sin.
48:00.000 --> 48:01.000
He was blameless.
48:01.000 --> 48:04.000
He feared the Lord and obeyed his precepts.
48:04.000 --> 48:07.000
And yet when Job mouthed off,
48:07.000 --> 48:09.000
he didn't get any credit for that.
48:09.000 --> 48:11.000
God said, who do you think you are?
48:11.000 --> 48:13.000
And he goes on for four chapters
48:13.000 --> 48:16.000
describing his own glory
48:16.000 --> 48:19.000
in terms of creation.
48:19.000 --> 48:20.000
Which is an aside,
48:20.000 --> 48:23.000
as some of the numerous pastors for the past week
48:23.000 --> 48:25.000
have been viciously going after Cory
48:25.000 --> 48:27.000
for something he wrote a couple of years ago
48:27.000 --> 48:29.000
where Cory made the same argument
48:29.000 --> 48:33.000
that the heavens testify to God's glory as God.
48:33.000 --> 48:35.000
Well, where did Cory get that from?
48:35.000 --> 48:36.000
He didn't get it from Odin,
48:36.000 --> 48:39.000
as these idiot pastors claim.
48:39.000 --> 48:41.000
Cory got it from Job.
48:41.000 --> 48:44.000
This is how God talks about himself.
48:44.000 --> 48:46.000
When dealing with someone who's acting faithless,
48:46.000 --> 48:47.000
who's acting apathy,
48:47.000 --> 48:49.000
who's putting their feet up on the table
48:49.000 --> 48:51.000
and saying, God, booby,
48:51.000 --> 48:53.000
God puts his foot down
48:53.000 --> 48:55.000
and said, you've got to be kidding me.
48:55.000 --> 48:57.000
Do you have any idea who you're talking to?
48:57.000 --> 49:00.000
The fear of the Lord is oriented around
49:00.000 --> 49:02.000
we are not the same.
49:02.000 --> 49:04.000
The creature and the creator
49:04.000 --> 49:06.000
are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
49:06.000 --> 49:09.000
So we'll turn now from the wisdom literature
49:09.000 --> 49:12.000
and the writings back a little bit in Scripture,
49:12.000 --> 49:13.000
although not in time
49:13.000 --> 49:16.000
because Job is the oldest book in Scripture
49:16.000 --> 49:18.000
to Exodus 3.
49:18.000 --> 49:20.000
Now Moses was keeping the flock
49:20.000 --> 49:23.000
of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian,
49:23.000 --> 49:25.000
and he let his flock to the west side of the wilderness
49:25.000 --> 49:28.000
and came to Horrib, the mountain of God.
49:28.000 --> 49:30.000
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him
49:30.000 --> 49:32.000
in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.
49:32.000 --> 49:34.000
He looked and behold, the bush was burning,
49:34.000 --> 49:36.000
yet it was not consumed.
49:36.000 --> 49:37.000
And Moses said,
49:37.000 --> 49:39.000
I will turn aside to see this great sight
49:39.000 --> 49:41.000
why the bush is not burned.
49:41.000 --> 49:44.000
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see,
49:44.000 --> 49:46.000
God called to him out of the bush,
49:46.000 --> 49:49.000
Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am.
49:49.000 --> 49:52.000
Then he said, do not come near,
49:52.000 --> 49:54.000
take your sandals off your feet
49:54.000 --> 49:57.000
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
49:57.000 --> 50:00.000
And he said, I am the God of your father,
50:00.000 --> 50:02.000
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
50:02.000 --> 50:03.000
and the God of Jacob.
50:03.000 --> 50:05.000
And Moses hid his face
50:05.000 --> 50:08.000
for he was afraid to look at God.
50:08.000 --> 50:12.000
And here we see that proper fear response
50:12.000 --> 50:13.000
from Moses.
50:13.000 --> 50:17.000
He is afraid to look directly at God.
50:17.000 --> 50:18.000
And of course we have other places
50:18.000 --> 50:20.000
and we'll get into those verses
50:20.000 --> 50:23.000
about why that is a proper fear to have
50:23.000 --> 50:25.000
of looking directly at God.
50:25.000 --> 50:28.000
But this is a recognition of,
50:28.000 --> 50:30.000
as mentioned earlier, the numinous
50:30.000 --> 50:33.000
of this presence of the divine,
50:33.000 --> 50:36.000
of God's physical manifestation
50:36.000 --> 50:39.000
in the world in a special way.
50:39.000 --> 50:42.000
That should induce fear in anyone.
50:42.000 --> 50:45.000
In the righteous, in a believer,
50:45.000 --> 50:47.000
it is going to induce a certain kind of fear,
50:47.000 --> 50:49.000
again, that filial fear,
50:49.000 --> 50:52.000
a proper respect and dread of God
50:52.000 --> 50:55.000
as our father and as God.
50:55.000 --> 50:57.000
As opposed to, if God had appeared
50:57.000 --> 50:58.000
to a pagan in a burning bush,
50:58.000 --> 51:00.000
he would have run away screaming as
51:00.000 --> 51:03.000
Moses does in a little bit with regard to the snake.
51:03.000 --> 51:05.000
But that is the response of an unbeliever
51:05.000 --> 51:08.000
to God is just abject terror.
51:08.000 --> 51:10.000
Moses doesn't have the abject terror
51:10.000 --> 51:13.000
because Moses believes in God.
51:13.000 --> 51:16.000
Perhaps he doesn't believe in God as fully
51:16.000 --> 51:18.000
as he will later on after seeing
51:18.000 --> 51:20.000
what God does to the Egyptians
51:20.000 --> 51:23.000
and what God does in the wandering
51:23.000 --> 51:26.000
in the desert and the Ten Commandments, etc.
51:26.000 --> 51:31.000
But this is a proper fear response
51:31.000 --> 51:35.000
from Moses with regard to the presence of God.
51:35.000 --> 51:38.000
This is awe of God.
51:38.000 --> 51:41.000
This is reverence for God.
51:41.000 --> 51:44.000
This is the kind of fear that God wants us to have
51:44.000 --> 51:46.000
in his presence.
51:46.000 --> 51:49.000
And yes, we do come into his presence still today.
51:49.000 --> 51:52.000
No, it's probably not going to be a burning bush.
51:52.000 --> 51:55.000
But every time you attend the divine service,
51:55.000 --> 51:57.000
you are coming into the presence of God.
51:57.000 --> 51:59.000
That is why you go to the divine service.
51:59.000 --> 52:01.000
You go to the divine service
52:01.000 --> 52:04.000
to be in the presence of God and to receive his gifts.
52:04.000 --> 52:07.000
Yes, then, in response to that,
52:07.000 --> 52:10.000
you offer your worship and praise.
52:10.000 --> 52:14.000
But it is first and foremost God coming to his people.
52:14.000 --> 52:18.000
And so that should instill awe and fear in you
52:18.000 --> 52:20.000
when you go to the divine service
52:20.000 --> 52:23.000
because you are in the presence of God.
52:23.000 --> 52:28.000
Moses gets a little more ambitious later on in Exodus 33
52:28.000 --> 52:30.000
when he goes up on Mount Sinai
52:30.000 --> 52:33.000
and God is about to give him the Ten Commandments.
52:33.000 --> 52:34.000
Moses said,
52:34.000 --> 52:36.000
Please show me your glory.
52:36.000 --> 52:37.000
And God said,
52:37.000 --> 52:39.000
I will make all my goodness pass before you
52:39.000 --> 52:42.000
and will proclaim before you my name the Lord.
52:42.000 --> 52:45.000
And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious
52:45.000 --> 52:48.000
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
52:48.000 --> 52:49.000
But he said,
52:49.000 --> 52:51.000
You cannot see my face,
52:51.000 --> 52:54.000
for man shall not see me and live.
52:54.000 --> 52:55.000
And the Lord said,
52:55.000 --> 52:58.000
Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock.
52:58.000 --> 53:00.000
And while my glory passes by,
53:00.000 --> 53:02.000
I will put you in a cleft of the rock
53:02.000 --> 53:05.000
and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
53:05.000 --> 53:08.000
Then I will take away my hand and you shall see my back,
53:08.000 --> 53:11.000
but my face shall not be seen.
53:11.000 --> 53:12.000
Now,
53:12.000 --> 53:15.000
Moses was perhaps a little less fearful here,
53:15.000 --> 53:16.000
not sinfully so,
53:16.000 --> 53:17.000
but he was curious.
53:17.000 --> 53:18.000
He said,
53:18.000 --> 53:19.000
I'm standing before you.
53:19.000 --> 53:20.000
I want to see your face.
53:20.000 --> 53:22.000
I'll come as close as I can,
53:22.000 --> 53:23.000
but if I show you my face,
53:23.000 --> 53:24.000
you'll die.
53:24.000 --> 53:27.000
It will kill you to see me.
53:27.000 --> 53:29.000
If we properly understand who God is,
53:29.000 --> 53:32.000
we understand that if God were to appear in your living room,
53:32.000 --> 53:34.000
you would be struck dead on the spot.
53:34.000 --> 53:36.000
That's God.
53:36.000 --> 53:37.000
Moses,
53:37.000 --> 53:38.000
I think,
53:38.000 --> 53:40.000
probably not arguably,
53:40.000 --> 53:42.000
has a higher standing in heaven
53:42.000 --> 53:44.000
than any of us will.
53:44.000 --> 53:45.000
And yet,
53:45.000 --> 53:47.000
Moses would have been struck dead
53:47.000 --> 53:49.000
if God had shown him his face.
53:49.000 --> 53:51.000
Because of the glory of God.
53:51.000 --> 53:52.000
Again,
53:52.000 --> 53:54.000
it goes back to the passages from Psalms.
53:54.000 --> 53:55.000
It is the glory of God,
53:55.000 --> 53:56.000
which is fearful.
53:56.000 --> 53:58.000
And the fear of the Lord
53:58.000 --> 54:00.000
is a recognition of his glory.
54:00.000 --> 54:02.000
So all of this fits together.
54:02.000 --> 54:05.000
It's not terrifying emotional response
54:05.000 --> 54:06.000
to spooky,
54:06.000 --> 54:08.000
scary Hans Gruber God.
54:08.000 --> 54:11.000
It is a proper understanding
54:11.000 --> 54:14.000
that the Almighty is just that.
54:14.000 --> 54:15.000
He's omnipotent,
54:15.000 --> 54:16.000
omniscient,
54:16.000 --> 54:17.000
omnipresent.
54:17.000 --> 54:19.000
All these words that we had to come up with
54:19.000 --> 54:21.000
to try to describe something
54:21.000 --> 54:22.000
that's inconceivable.
54:22.000 --> 54:23.000
We can't understand
54:23.000 --> 54:25.000
what any of those words actually mean.
54:25.000 --> 54:27.000
We know that they're just
54:27.000 --> 54:28.000
a collection of infinities
54:28.000 --> 54:30.000
of different properties.
54:30.000 --> 54:32.000
We can't understand.
54:32.000 --> 54:34.000
And that is why it shouldn't be hard
54:34.000 --> 54:37.000
for anyone to be properly fearful of God.
54:37.000 --> 54:39.000
So when God says himself
54:39.000 --> 54:41.000
in no uncertain terms,
54:41.000 --> 54:42.000
if you see my face,
54:42.000 --> 54:43.000
you'll die.
54:43.000 --> 54:46.000
You'll be killed if you see me.
54:46.000 --> 54:48.000
That's something to be fearful of.
54:48.000 --> 54:50.000
And that's something to be thankful for.
54:50.000 --> 54:52.000
We have a God who is so glorious
54:52.000 --> 54:54.000
that even seeing him would kill us.
54:54.000 --> 54:57.000
While that's something that is a source
54:57.000 --> 54:59.000
of fear in the proper sense,
54:59.000 --> 55:01.000
it's something to rejoice in.
55:01.000 --> 55:03.000
We don't have a measly, piddly God.
55:03.000 --> 55:06.000
We don't have a God that's just a superhero
55:06.000 --> 55:08.000
or part of a pantheon.
55:08.000 --> 55:09.000
We have an infinite God
55:09.000 --> 55:11.000
who's inconceivably glorious.
55:11.000 --> 55:14.000
So glorious that perceiving that glory
55:14.000 --> 55:16.000
would cause our physical death.
55:16.000 --> 55:18.000
That's incredible.
55:18.000 --> 55:19.000
That's amazing.
55:19.000 --> 55:21.000
That's the kind of God you want to have
55:21.000 --> 55:23.000
because that sort of God
55:23.000 --> 55:25.000
can overcome all of your evil,
55:25.000 --> 55:27.000
all of your own personal sin,
55:27.000 --> 55:28.000
which is why he came on the cross
55:28.000 --> 55:29.000
to do precisely that.
55:29.000 --> 55:31.000
It took a God that fearful
55:31.000 --> 55:34.000
to be able to sacrifice all
55:34.000 --> 55:36.000
for our sins.
55:36.000 --> 55:38.000
So this is about the gospel too.
55:38.000 --> 55:40.000
This is about the good news
55:40.000 --> 55:42.000
of what God has done for us.
55:42.000 --> 55:45.000
A lesser God couldn't have done enough
55:45.000 --> 55:47.000
for our sins and the sins of the world.
55:47.000 --> 55:49.000
It took a God this fearful
55:49.000 --> 55:51.000
to be able to do what was necessary
55:51.000 --> 55:54.000
for us to, in the resurrection,
55:54.000 --> 55:56.000
be able to see him face to face.
55:56.000 --> 55:59.000
As Job said, he knew that his redeemer lived
55:59.000 --> 56:01.000
and he would see him with his own eyes.
56:01.000 --> 56:03.000
Job was talking about the resurrection.
56:03.000 --> 56:05.000
The resurrection of the body
56:05.000 --> 56:07.000
was not some prophecy that came
56:07.000 --> 56:09.000
midway through the Old Testament.
56:09.000 --> 56:12.000
It was known by every believer from Adam on.
56:12.000 --> 56:14.000
They knew that they would die according to the curse
56:14.000 --> 56:16.000
and they knew that they would be restored
56:16.000 --> 56:18.000
anew in the flesh
56:18.000 --> 56:20.000
and that they would see God with their own eyes
56:20.000 --> 56:22.000
and not be struck dead,
56:22.000 --> 56:24.000
as was the case throughout Scripture
56:24.000 --> 56:27.000
in this life prior to Judgment Day.
56:27.000 --> 56:29.000
Before Judgment Day, if you see God, you're dead.
56:29.000 --> 56:31.000
After Judgment Day, those who see God
56:31.000 --> 56:33.000
will see him with their own eyes,
56:33.000 --> 56:35.000
with our own eyes, and we will live.
56:35.000 --> 56:37.000
And we will live in eternity
56:37.000 --> 56:39.000
with God in perfection,
56:39.000 --> 56:42.000
where his glory will still be fearful.
56:42.000 --> 56:45.000
Because again, this fear is not a product of the fall.
56:45.000 --> 56:47.000
It's not a product of sin.
56:47.000 --> 56:51.000
When God in Job described his glory in creation,
56:51.000 --> 56:54.000
describing how fearful he was
56:54.000 --> 56:56.000
in the six days of creation,
56:56.000 --> 56:58.000
that demonstrates the fear is not
56:58.000 --> 57:01.000
something that is a product of sin.
57:01.000 --> 57:03.000
It is a product of the disparity
57:03.000 --> 57:05.000
between the creature and the Creator,
57:05.000 --> 57:07.000
which is preserved in heaven.
57:07.000 --> 57:09.000
It's preserved in the New Earth.
57:09.000 --> 57:11.000
That is the dichotomy.
57:11.000 --> 57:13.000
That is the headship that exists
57:13.000 --> 57:15.000
according to God's proper order.
57:15.000 --> 57:17.000
Before we leave Exodus,
57:17.000 --> 57:20.000
there's one other instance of fear
57:20.000 --> 57:23.000
that highlights a point we've been making.
57:23.000 --> 57:25.000
And that's from Exodus 20.
57:25.000 --> 57:27.000
Now, when all the people saw the thunder
57:27.000 --> 57:29.000
and the flashes of lightning
57:29.000 --> 57:31.000
and the sound of the trumpet
57:31.000 --> 57:33.000
and the mountain smoking,
57:33.000 --> 57:35.000
the people stood far off and said to Moses,
57:35.000 --> 57:37.000
You speak to us and we will listen,
57:37.000 --> 57:39.000
but do not let God speak to us
57:39.000 --> 57:41.000
lest we die.
57:41.000 --> 57:43.000
Moses said to the people,
57:43.000 --> 57:45.000
Do not fear, for God has come to test you,
57:45.000 --> 57:47.000
that the fear of him may be before you,
57:47.000 --> 57:49.000
that you may not sin.
57:49.000 --> 57:51.000
The people stood far off
57:51.000 --> 57:53.000
while Moses drew near to the thick darkness
57:53.000 --> 57:55.000
where God was.
57:55.000 --> 57:57.000
And we see both kinds of fear
57:57.000 --> 57:59.000
and one of the reasons for the fear
57:59.000 --> 58:01.000
here in these verses.
58:02.000 --> 58:04.000
Initially, the people are afraid
58:04.000 --> 58:06.000
and that is a proper response.
58:06.000 --> 58:08.000
They see God's majesty
58:08.000 --> 58:10.000
descend on this mountain.
58:10.000 --> 58:12.000
That is a fearful thing. That is terrifying.
58:12.000 --> 58:15.000
And they are, in fact, terrified.
58:15.000 --> 58:17.000
And so they ask Moses
58:17.000 --> 58:19.000
to have God speak to him
58:19.000 --> 58:21.000
and then Moses speak to them
58:21.000 --> 58:23.000
because Moses is not terrifying
58:23.000 --> 58:25.000
in the way that God is, at least.
58:25.000 --> 58:27.000
And so Moses tells them,
58:27.000 --> 58:29.000
Do not fear.
58:30.000 --> 58:32.000
God is not displaying his majesty
58:32.000 --> 58:34.000
to destroy you
58:34.000 --> 58:36.000
until you make the golden calf,
58:36.000 --> 58:38.000
but that's a separate matter.
58:39.000 --> 58:41.000
God is showing his majesty
58:41.000 --> 58:43.000
so that they will fear God,
58:43.000 --> 58:45.000
have proper reverence, dread of him,
58:45.000 --> 58:47.000
that they may not sin.
58:47.000 --> 58:49.000
And that is one of the reasons
58:49.000 --> 58:51.000
to fear God.
58:51.000 --> 58:53.000
That is one of the chief reasons
58:53.000 --> 58:55.000
to fear God.
58:55.000 --> 58:57.000
You have fear for God
58:57.000 --> 58:59.000
that you will not sin.
58:59.000 --> 59:01.000
It is one of the reasons
59:01.000 --> 59:03.000
you will attempt to avoid sinning.
59:03.000 --> 59:05.000
Because if you sin,
59:05.000 --> 59:07.000
you incur God's wrath
59:07.000 --> 59:09.000
and that is a fearful thing.
59:09.000 --> 59:11.000
And so if you have proper fear of God,
59:11.000 --> 59:13.000
you will attempt to avoid sinning.
59:13.000 --> 59:15.000
Yes, of course,
59:15.000 --> 59:17.000
you are still going to fall.
59:17.000 --> 59:19.000
You are fallen.
59:19.000 --> 59:21.000
You are still corrupt.
59:21.000 --> 59:23.000
You have original sin.
59:23.000 --> 59:25.000
You will not be perfect in this life.
59:25.000 --> 59:27.000
The fear of God set before your eyes,
59:27.000 --> 59:29.000
the indwelling of the spirit
59:29.000 --> 59:31.000
will give that to you.
59:31.000 --> 59:33.000
If you have faith, if you are a Christian,
59:33.000 --> 59:35.000
that fear of God will keep you
59:35.000 --> 59:37.000
from some sins.
59:37.000 --> 59:39.000
That is part of your sanctification
59:39.000 --> 59:41.000
is developing that proper fear
59:41.000 --> 59:43.000
of God, that proper reverence
59:43.000 --> 59:45.000
and dread for God.
59:45.000 --> 59:47.000
In order to, over time,
59:47.000 --> 59:49.000
through sanctification,
59:49.000 --> 59:51.000
diminish the rate
59:51.000 --> 59:53.000
at which you give in to temptations.
59:53.000 --> 59:55.000
And in case of some sins,
59:55.000 --> 59:57.000
to simply drive them out of your life.
59:57.000 --> 59:59.000
You won't drive out all,
59:59.000 --> 01:00:01.000
but you will be able, over time,
01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:03.000
with the help of the spirit,
01:00:03.000 --> 01:00:05.000
to drive out some sins.
01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:07.000
And that is one of the chief purposes
01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:09.000
of this fear of God
01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:11.000
that all believers
01:00:11.000 --> 01:00:13.000
should have.
01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:15.000
There's one more passage from Exodus
01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:17.000
that's worth mentioning.
01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:19.000
It comes immediately after Moses came down
01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:21.000
off Mount Sinai.
01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:23.000
One of the two tablets of testimony in his hand
01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:25.000
is he came down from the mountain.
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:27.000
Moses did not know that the skin of his face
01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.000
shone because he had been talking with God.
01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:31.000
And Aaron and all the people of Israel
01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:33.000
saw Moses, and behold,
01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:35.000
the skin of his face shone,
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:37.000
and they were afraid to come near him.
01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:39.000
But Moses called to him, and Aaron and all the leaders
01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:41.000
of the congregation returned to him,
01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:43.000
and Moses talked with them.
01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:45.000
Afterward, all the people of Israel came near,
01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:47.000
and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken
01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:49.000
with him on Mount Sinai.
01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:51.000
And when Aaron managed speaking with him,
01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:53.000
he put a veil over his face.
01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:55.000
Now, Moses didn't even look
01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:57.000
at God's front.
01:00:57.000 --> 01:00:59.000
He looked at his back after he had passed.
01:00:59.000 --> 01:01:01.000
So much glory was present in that moment
01:01:01.000 --> 01:01:03.000
that it was terrifying
01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:05.000
for the people of Israel to look
01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:07.000
at a man who had looked at God.
01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:09.000
That's the transitive property
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:11.000
of the fear of the Lord.
01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:13.000
That degree of radiance
01:01:13.000 --> 01:01:15.000
and magnificence,
01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:17.000
we don't have the words for it.
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:19.000
We don't even look like.
01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:21.000
And yet, Moses had to veil his face
01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:23.000
so that they could be around him
01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:25.000
and not be terrified.
01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:27.000
This is something that
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:29.000
is also exemplified in another passage
01:01:29.000 --> 01:01:31.000
from Isaiah 6.
01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:33.000
At the beginning of Isaiah's
01:01:33.000 --> 01:01:35.000
vision of heaven.
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:37.000
He wasn't physically
01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:39.000
in the presence of the Lord.
01:01:39.000 --> 01:01:41.000
It was a vision.
01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:43.000
Isaiah writes,
01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:45.000
In the year that King Uzziah died,
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:47.000
he lifted up and the train of his robe
01:01:47.000 --> 01:01:49.000
filled the temple.
01:01:49.000 --> 01:01:51.000
Above him stood the seraphim.
01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:53.000
Each had six wings with two he covered his
01:01:53.000 --> 01:01:55.000
faiths and with two he covered his feet
01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:57.000
and with two he flew.
01:01:57.000 --> 01:01:59.000
And one called to another and said,
01:01:59.000 --> 01:02:01.000
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.
01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:03.000
The whole earth is full of his glory.
01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:05.000
And the foundations of the threshold
01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:07.000
shook at the voice of him who called
01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:09.000
and the house was filled with smoke.
01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:11.000
And I said, woe is me for I am lost,
01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:13.000
for I am a man of unclean lips
01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:15.000
and I dwell in the midst of a people of
01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:17.000
unclean lips. For my eyes have seen
01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:19.000
the King, the Lord of hosts.
01:02:19.000 --> 01:02:21.000
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
01:02:21.000 --> 01:02:23.000
having in his hand a burning coal
01:02:23.000 --> 01:02:25.000
that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:27.000
And he touched my mouth and said, behold,
01:02:27.000 --> 01:02:29.000
this has touched your lips, your guilt
01:02:29.000 --> 01:02:31.000
has taken away and your sin atoned for.
01:02:31.000 --> 01:02:33.000
So here
01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:35.000
Isaiah has a vision of God.
01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:37.000
He sees God in heaven and he says,
01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:39.000
woe to me, I am undone.
01:02:39.000 --> 01:02:41.000
He was utterly terrified to see
01:02:41.000 --> 01:02:43.000
God. He knew that it was the end of
01:02:43.000 --> 01:02:45.000
him, unlike Moses on the mountain,
01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:47.000
because he was not physically present.
01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:49.000
He was not killed.
01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:51.000
But even at that, the angel of
01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:53.000
one of the seraphim came to him
01:02:53.000 --> 01:02:55.000
and touched his tongue and said, your sin
01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:57.000
is atoned for. That
01:02:57.000 --> 01:02:59.000
reconciliation was necessary for him,
01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:01.000
even the vision to be able to be
01:03:01.000 --> 01:03:03.000
in the presence of God. He was
01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:05.000
rightly terrified of what he saw,
01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:07.000
because he saw God in his glory,
01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:09.000
something that no man is equipped
01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:11.000
to see.
01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:13.000
We see a similar reaction in
01:03:13.000 --> 01:03:15.000
the New Testament. When John
01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:17.000
has given a vision of heaven in
01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:19.000
Revelation, he writes,
01:03:19.000 --> 01:03:21.000
then I turn to see the voice that was
01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:23.000
speaking to me and on turning I saw
01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:25.000
seven golden lampstands and in the midst
01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:27.000
of the lampstands one like a son
01:03:27.000 --> 01:03:29.000
of man clothed with a long
01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:31.000
robe and with a golden sash around
01:03:31.000 --> 01:03:33.000
his chest. The hairs of his head were
01:03:33.000 --> 01:03:35.000
white like white wool like snow.
01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:37.000
His eyes were like a flame of fire.
01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:39.000
His feet were like burnished bronze,
01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:41.000
refined in a furnace, and his voice
01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:43.000
was like the roar of many waters.
01:03:43.000 --> 01:03:45.000
In his right hand he held seven stars.
01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:47.000
From his mouth came a sharp
01:03:47.000 --> 01:03:49.000
two-edged sword, and his face was
01:03:49.000 --> 01:03:51.000
like the sun shining in full strength.
01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:53.000
When I saw him, I felt his feet
01:03:53.000 --> 01:03:55.000
as though dead. But he laid his right
01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:57.000
hand on me, saying, fear not,
01:03:57.000 --> 01:03:59.000
I am the first and the last, and the
01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:01.000
living one. I died and behold,
01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:03.000
I am alive forevermore, and I have the
01:04:03.000 --> 01:04:05.000
keys of death and hades. Right
01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:07.000
for the things that you have seen,
01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:09.000
those that are and those that are to take
01:04:09.000 --> 01:04:11.000
place after this. So this was
01:04:11.000 --> 01:04:13.000
John seeing in heaven
01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:15.000
Jesus Christ seeing the
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:17.000
second person of the Trinity.
01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:19.000
I think just as an aside,
01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:21.000
read that passage in John 1
01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:23.000
and tell me this is not the picture of
01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:25.000
masculinity. God is
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:27.000
not a wimp. Jesus,
01:04:27.000 --> 01:04:29.000
the second person
01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:31.000
of the Trinity, the son of God,
01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:33.000
is not a wimp. He is not
01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:35.000
a mild man.
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:37.000
He's so terrifying
01:04:37.000 --> 01:04:39.000
that when John saw him, he dropped
01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:41.000
as though dead.
01:04:41.000 --> 01:04:43.000
Isaiah in his vision was at least
01:04:43.000 --> 01:04:45.000
able to spit out woe as me.
01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:47.000
John didn't even get that far. He dropped
01:04:47.000 --> 01:04:49.000
like a sack of potatoes, and Christ had
01:04:49.000 --> 01:04:51.000
to come to him and touch him and say,
01:04:51.000 --> 01:04:53.000
you're here for a purpose.
01:04:53.000 --> 01:04:55.000
We have almost totally lost
01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:57.000
this sort of reaction to anything
01:04:57.000 --> 01:04:59.000
in the modern world.
01:04:59.000 --> 01:05:01.000
And unsurprisingly,
01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:03.000
this is
01:05:03.000 --> 01:05:05.000
one of the consequences of the
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:07.000
Enlightenment.
01:05:07.000 --> 01:05:09.000
And we don't harp
01:05:09.000 --> 01:05:11.000
on the Enlightenment
01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:13.000
because we just hate the Enlightenment.
01:05:13.000 --> 01:05:15.000
That's not the point.
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:17.000
We point out
01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:19.000
the Enlightenment in so many
01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:21.000
of these episodes because it really
01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:23.000
is the nexus.
01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:25.000
It's the proximate cause. It is
01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:27.000
the fount from which so much of this flows.
01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:29.000
Because
01:05:29.000 --> 01:05:31.000
the Enlightenment attempted
01:05:31.000 --> 01:05:33.000
to subject everything to human reason.
01:05:33.000 --> 01:05:35.000
And
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:37.000
if you subject everything
01:05:37.000 --> 01:05:39.000
to human reason, there are some
01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:41.000
things that you will simply have to
01:05:41.000 --> 01:05:43.000
jettison or ignore.
01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:45.000
And one of those
01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:47.000
of course is mystery, because
01:05:47.000 --> 01:05:49.000
if something is a mystery, it is by definition
01:05:49.000 --> 01:05:51.000
not subject to human
01:05:51.000 --> 01:05:53.000
reason. If you subject it to human
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:55.000
reason, it is no longer a mystery.
01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:57.000
And so
01:05:57.000 --> 01:05:59.000
there are aspects
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:01.000
of the Christian faith
01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:03.000
that are mystery.
01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:05.000
There are things that we cannot understand.
01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:07.000
There are things that we cannot reconcile
01:06:07.000 --> 01:06:09.000
with our
01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:11.000
limited abilities.
01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:13.000
Perhaps God will explain them to us
01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:15.000
one day. Perhaps we don't need to understand
01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:17.000
whatever happens. That is
01:06:17.000 --> 01:06:19.000
in God's good judgment.
01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:21.000
That is in His order,
01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:23.000
His design.
01:06:23.000 --> 01:06:25.000
But in addition
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:27.000
to getting rid of mystery,
01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:29.000
you have to get rid of things
01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:31.000
like the numinous. You have to get
01:06:31.000 --> 01:06:33.000
rid of things that
01:06:33.000 --> 01:06:35.000
are outside
01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:37.000
the realm of human reason
01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:39.000
that are above and beyond it.
01:06:39.000 --> 01:06:41.000
And there are many things like this.
01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:43.000
If you
01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:45.000
go out into creation
01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:47.000
and view the beauty of God's
01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:49.000
creation, you cannot entirely
01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:51.000
reduce to reason
01:06:51.000 --> 01:06:53.000
why you believe,
01:06:53.000 --> 01:06:55.000
why you know
01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:57.000
those things are beautiful, because it is not
01:06:57.000 --> 01:06:59.000
purely a matter of reason.
01:06:59.000 --> 01:07:01.000
Beauty is beyond reason.
01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:03.000
There are
01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:05.000
metaphysical truths that are
01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:07.000
beyond human reason.
01:07:07.000 --> 01:07:09.000
They have existence
01:07:09.000 --> 01:07:11.000
that is prior to and
01:07:11.000 --> 01:07:13.000
above our reason.
01:07:13.000 --> 01:07:15.000
And so
01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:17.000
when it comes to the glory
01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:19.000
of God, when it comes
01:07:19.000 --> 01:07:21.000
to being in the presence of the divine,
01:07:21.000 --> 01:07:23.000
when it comes to this proper reaction
01:07:23.000 --> 01:07:25.000
of falling down dead
01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:27.000
before God,
01:07:27.000 --> 01:07:29.000
we do not
01:07:29.000 --> 01:07:31.000
have that anymore
01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:33.000
as part of our culture, because
01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:35.000
it has been ruthlessly driven
01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:37.000
out over time by the cult of reason.
01:07:37.000 --> 01:07:39.000
And so this is
01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:41.000
something that the modern reader
01:07:41.000 --> 01:07:43.000
has to come to with different eyes.
01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:45.000
If you bring your preconceptions,
01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:47.000
your presuppositions
01:07:47.000 --> 01:07:49.000
that were instilled in you
01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:51.000
by a post-enlightenment culture,
01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:53.000
by rationalism,
01:07:53.000 --> 01:07:55.000
you are going to miss
01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:57.000
a great deal of what Scripture is telling you
01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:59.000
and you are going to miss a great deal
01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:01.000
of any old book.
01:08:01.000 --> 01:08:03.000
Because there are things
01:08:03.000 --> 01:08:05.000
in those books that you will simply
01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:07.000
not understand, because they are
01:08:07.000 --> 01:08:09.000
so alien to you,
01:08:09.000 --> 01:08:11.000
because of the background
01:08:11.000 --> 01:08:13.000
information that forms
01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:15.000
your view of the world.
01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:17.000
And your view of the world,
01:08:17.000 --> 01:08:19.000
if you have this post-enlightenment
01:08:19.000 --> 01:08:21.000
view of the world, is very much
01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:23.000
an impoverished view of the world.
01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:25.000
Because you do not recognize
01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:27.000
that there are things outside
01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:29.000
of reason, things outside
01:08:29.000 --> 01:08:31.000
of so-called science.
01:08:31.000 --> 01:08:33.000
One just brief example
01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:35.000
is what we would call qualia.
01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:37.000
And that is
01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:39.000
the perception
01:08:39.000 --> 01:08:41.000
of something that is intrinsic
01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:43.000
to a person, so for instance
01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:45.000
the best example.
01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:47.000
Yellow
01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:49.000
is a color.
01:08:49.000 --> 01:08:51.000
Yellow is a certain wavelength
01:08:51.000 --> 01:08:53.000
of electromagnetic radiation.
01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:55.000
That is how it works.
01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:57.000
It hits the eye, certain wavelength
01:08:57.000 --> 01:08:59.000
you see yellow, because it activates
01:08:59.000 --> 01:09:01.000
certain cells in the eye.
01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:03.000
But it is more
01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:05.000
than that, because
01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:07.000
your conception of yellow
01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:09.000
in your mind
01:09:09.000 --> 01:09:11.000
is something distinct from
01:09:11.000 --> 01:09:13.000
that physical reality.
01:09:13.000 --> 01:09:15.000
It is above and beyond it. It is a metaphysical truth.
01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:17.000
Incidentally it is proof
01:09:17.000 --> 01:09:19.000
that materialism cannot be true
01:09:19.000 --> 01:09:21.000
but that is a discussion for another time.
01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:25.000
That's something that the modern mind hates.
01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:27.000
Because it cannot be reduced
01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:29.000
to the material, because
01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:31.000
the post-enlightenment thought,
01:09:31.000 --> 01:09:33.000
the schema in which we are
01:09:33.000 --> 01:09:35.000
operating in the modern world,
01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:37.000
wants to be able to reduce everything to matter.
01:09:37.000 --> 01:09:39.000
Because if it's matter
01:09:39.000 --> 01:09:41.000
it can be reduced to reason. If it's
01:09:41.000 --> 01:09:43.000
matter, I can poke at it until I understand it.
01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:47.000
And that is not how this works.
01:09:47.000 --> 01:09:49.000
That is not how God works.
01:09:49.000 --> 01:09:51.000
There is no amount of poking
01:09:51.000 --> 01:09:53.000
at God that you can do
01:09:53.000 --> 01:09:55.000
that will make you understand God fully.
01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:57.000
And so your reaction
01:09:57.000 --> 01:09:59.000
to God
01:09:59.000 --> 01:10:01.000
properly is one of fear.
01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:03.000
There is a mystical element to it
01:10:03.000 --> 01:10:05.000
not advocating for mysticism
01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:07.000
but there is
01:10:07.000 --> 01:10:09.000
a mystery to it.
01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:11.000
God cannot be fully understood.
01:10:11.000 --> 01:10:13.000
He is Holy Other.
01:10:13.000 --> 01:10:15.000
He is above and beyond us.
01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:17.000
And so we have this
01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:19.000
proper response
01:10:19.000 --> 01:10:21.000
to God, this proper relationship
01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:23.000
to God when we recognize
01:10:23.000 --> 01:10:25.000
this chasm
01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:27.000
between us, this vast difference
01:10:27.000 --> 01:10:29.000
between the finite
01:10:29.000 --> 01:10:31.000
man and the infinite God.
01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:35.000
And there are some authors who
01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:37.000
have captured some aspect
01:10:37.000 --> 01:10:39.000
of this, the unknown, the uncanny,
01:10:39.000 --> 01:10:41.000
the numinous.
01:10:41.000 --> 01:10:43.000
And in some cases
01:10:43.000 --> 01:10:45.000
it's actually been horror writers
01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:47.000
who have captured some of this. Well Lovecraft
01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:49.000
captures some of that
01:10:49.000 --> 01:10:51.000
because that is a lot of what
01:10:51.000 --> 01:10:53.000
his horror is about. It's the
01:10:53.000 --> 01:10:55.000
unknown. It's in the opposite direction
01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:57.000
of course because he was an atheist.
01:10:57.000 --> 01:10:59.000
And so for the atheist
01:10:59.000 --> 01:11:01.000
well that's the proper response because the
01:11:01.000 --> 01:11:03.000
unknown for someone
01:11:03.000 --> 01:11:05.000
who does not believe in God
01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:07.000
well it can be only sheer terror
01:11:07.000 --> 01:11:09.000
because something
01:11:09.000 --> 01:11:11.000
that is incomprehensible
01:11:11.000 --> 01:11:13.000
so far and above you
01:11:13.000 --> 01:11:15.000
that it is utterly alien
01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:17.000
is terrifying if there
01:11:17.000 --> 01:11:19.000
is no God.
01:11:19.000 --> 01:11:21.000
God for the believer is not
01:11:21.000 --> 01:11:23.000
terrifying. Yes he is dreadful
01:11:23.000 --> 01:11:25.000
but that is a different thing. That is
01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:27.000
paired with reference that is again that
01:11:27.000 --> 01:11:29.000
filial fear of God.
01:11:29.000 --> 01:11:31.000
And it's
01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:33.000
just something that we have lost in the
01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:35.000
world and so we read these things
01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:37.000
and with modern eyes
01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:39.000
we miss so much. I'm not saying you have
01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:41.000
to go back to being an ancient
01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:43.000
to understand scripture. No that's not it.
01:11:43.000 --> 01:11:45.000
But you do
01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:47.000
have to be careful when you are reading
01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:49.000
these things
01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:51.000
to assess your own
01:11:51.000 --> 01:11:53.000
presuppositions, your own priors
01:11:53.000 --> 01:11:55.000
and make sure that you are not bringing
01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:57.000
something to the text that isn't there.
01:11:57.000 --> 01:11:59.000
So see what it is saying
01:11:59.000 --> 01:12:01.000
form your world view from
01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:03.000
scripture. Don't bring your world
01:12:03.000 --> 01:12:05.000
view to scripture and then try to
01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:07.000
switch scripture into a little box.
01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:09.000
The fear of God is a good thing
01:12:09.000 --> 01:12:11.000
and the fear of God
01:12:11.000 --> 01:12:13.000
is based in
01:12:13.000 --> 01:12:15.000
large part on the fact
01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:17.000
that God is other.
01:12:17.000 --> 01:12:19.000
God is above and beyond
01:12:19.000 --> 01:12:21.000
us. He is God. He is
01:12:21.000 --> 01:12:23.000
infinite. You are finite.
01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:27.000
You can contemplate that. You can meditate
01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:29.000
on it and you should. That is an important
01:12:29.000 --> 01:12:31.000
thing to do.
01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:33.000
Meditation in the sense of
01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:35.000
Christian meditation, which is to meditate
01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:37.000
on something, not to clear your mind.
01:12:37.000 --> 01:12:39.000
If you clear your mind, you are just
01:12:39.000 --> 01:12:41.000
making room for demons to move in.
01:12:41.000 --> 01:12:43.000
So never do Eastern meditation.
01:12:43.000 --> 01:12:45.000
But Christians
01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:47.000
should think about these matters
01:12:47.000 --> 01:12:49.000
because the fear of God
01:12:49.000 --> 01:12:51.000
runs all throughout scripture
01:12:51.000 --> 01:12:53.000
and if you
01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:55.000
look at it as
01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:57.000
just, oh it's the word fear and then you move on
01:12:57.000 --> 01:12:59.000
No, think about it. Think about what that actually
01:12:59.000 --> 01:13:01.000
means. What does it mean to fear God?
01:13:01.000 --> 01:13:03.000
Look at the reaction
01:13:03.000 --> 01:13:05.000
of those in scripture who come
01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:07.000
into the presence of God.
01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:09.000
They fall on their face. They drop
01:13:09.000 --> 01:13:11.000
down to their knees. They
01:13:11.000 --> 01:13:13.000
cry out in terror
01:13:13.000 --> 01:13:15.000
that they are of
01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:17.000
unclean lips and they are in the presence of God.
01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:19.000
We have seen God
01:13:19.000 --> 01:13:21.000
and not died
01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:23.000
and that is an alarming thought.
01:13:23.000 --> 01:13:25.000
This is the right reaction to
01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:27.000
a proper fear
01:13:27.000 --> 01:13:29.000
of God.
01:13:29.000 --> 01:13:31.000
Both you and I are very fond of
01:13:31.000 --> 01:13:33.000
posting the meme that I made
01:13:33.000 --> 01:13:35.000
with the judgment day
01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:37.000
with Jesus and the angels coming back
01:13:37.000 --> 01:13:39.000
and judging that the pagan pantheon
01:13:39.000 --> 01:13:41.000
I superimpose the words
01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:43.000
every knee shall bow and every tongue
01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:45.000
shall confess.
01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:47.000
That will be a day of fear
01:13:47.000 --> 01:13:49.000
for everyone. Two different kinds
01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:51.000
of fear. For believers
01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:53.000
we will fall to our knees
01:13:53.000 --> 01:13:55.000
in fear and thanksgiving.
01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:57.000
Pagans won't have
01:13:57.000 --> 01:13:59.000
thanksgiving. They will have only fear.
01:13:59.000 --> 01:14:01.000
But they will fall to their knees and they will confess
01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:03.000
Christ just as we will.
01:14:03.000 --> 01:14:05.000
Only it will be too late for that to be a saving
01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:07.000
confession. It will be a damning
01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:09.000
confession. Nevertheless, they will be
01:14:09.000 --> 01:14:11.000
compelled to confess with their lips
01:14:11.000 --> 01:14:13.000
that Jesus Christ is Lord
01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:15.000
and those will be their final words
01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:17.000
before they are cast into eternal destruction.
01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:19.000
That's
01:14:19.000 --> 01:14:21.000
fearful.
01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:23.000
Corey, I think you meant an outstanding
01:14:23.000 --> 01:14:25.000
summation of all this. How did we get
01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:27.000
here? The Enlightenment
01:14:27.000 --> 01:14:29.000
let us put reason above everything
01:14:29.000 --> 01:14:31.000
and if you can understand something
01:14:31.000 --> 01:14:33.000
then you don't need to be afraid of it because you can
01:14:33.000 --> 01:14:35.000
put it in its proper category
01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:37.000
or you can taxonomize it
01:14:37.000 --> 01:14:39.000
and you can say, okay, it gets this flags
01:14:39.000 --> 01:14:41.000
I'm going to call it this sort of thing.
01:14:41.000 --> 01:14:43.000
I understand it now. I don't need to be
01:14:43.000 --> 01:14:45.000
afraid. God doesn't fit
01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:47.000
in any of those boxes.
01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:49.000
God doesn't fit anywhere. God is
01:14:49.000 --> 01:14:51.000
too big to fit, literally.
01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:53.000
Again, we don't have words for
01:14:53.000 --> 01:14:55.000
how big God is. It's just, it's God.
01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:57.000
There's God and there's everything
01:14:57.000 --> 01:14:59.000
else and everything else is what God created.
01:14:59.000 --> 01:15:01.000
And so when our reason
01:15:01.000 --> 01:15:03.000
attempts to rob
01:15:03.000 --> 01:15:05.000
God of his fearful majesty
01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:07.000
it turns God
01:15:07.000 --> 01:15:09.000
into something less than God. And if you're
01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:11.000
worshiping a God who is less than God
01:15:11.000 --> 01:15:13.000
it's not
01:15:13.000 --> 01:15:15.000
the God that you're going to be kneeling before on judgment
01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:17.000
day. That God is a fearful
01:15:17.000 --> 01:15:19.000
infinite unknowable God.
01:15:19.000 --> 01:15:21.000
That God is the God who will judge me.
01:15:21.000 --> 01:15:23.000
That God is the God who died
01:15:23.000 --> 01:15:25.000
for your sins on the cross.
01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:27.000
Fear
01:15:27.000 --> 01:15:29.000
is our acknowledgement
01:15:29.000 --> 01:15:31.000
that we are creatures
01:15:31.000 --> 01:15:33.000
in this hierarchy and that
01:15:33.000 --> 01:15:35.000
the creator is he who
01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:37.000
made us, who redeemed us
01:15:37.000 --> 01:15:39.000
and who calls us to be enlightened
01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:41.000
and sanctified by his word.
01:15:41.000 --> 01:15:43.000
Just to sum up this part
01:15:43.000 --> 01:15:45.000
about fear, I want to read another passage
01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:47.000
from Deuteronomy 10 that I think summarizes
01:15:47.000 --> 01:15:49.000
all this perfectly.
01:15:49.000 --> 01:15:51.000
And now Israel,
01:15:51.000 --> 01:15:53.000
what does the Lord your God require of you
01:15:53.000 --> 01:15:55.000
but to fear the Lord your God
01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:57.000
to walk in all his ways, to love him
01:15:57.000 --> 01:15:59.000
to serve the Lord your God with all your heart
01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:01.000
and with all your soul
01:16:01.000 --> 01:16:03.000
and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
01:16:03.000 --> 01:16:05.000
Which I am commanding you today
01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:07.000
for your good. Behold
01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:09.000
to the Lord your God belong
01:16:09.000 --> 01:16:11.000
the heaven of heavens, the earth
01:16:11.000 --> 01:16:13.000
and all that is in it.
01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:15.000
God is
01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:17.000
referencing back
01:16:17.000 --> 01:16:19.000
or forward in this case, I guess back
01:16:19.000 --> 01:16:21.000
in both directions, you know. God's outside of time
01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:23.000
we'll talk about that some other time that
01:16:23.000 --> 01:16:25.000
time is part of creation. So
01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:27.000
when God operates in time
01:16:27.000 --> 01:16:29.000
that's according to his
01:16:29.000 --> 01:16:31.000
good will, but it's not because he's stuck there.
01:16:31.000 --> 01:16:33.000
It's not that God has to do things
01:16:33.000 --> 01:16:35.000
in certain order, which is why
01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:37.000
on the night on which
01:16:37.000 --> 01:16:39.000
Jesus was betrayed, he broke the bread
01:16:39.000 --> 01:16:41.000
and said, this is my body
01:16:41.000 --> 01:16:43.000
that wasn't a forward looking statement.
01:16:43.000 --> 01:16:45.000
It actually was his body.
01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:47.000
It was Christ's crucified body that would be crucified
01:16:47.000 --> 01:16:49.000
the next day.
01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:51.000
God is outside of time. When he operates
01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:53.000
within it, sometimes it doesn't make
01:16:53.000 --> 01:16:55.000
sense.
01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:57.000
But when God says that everything belongs
01:16:57.000 --> 01:16:59.000
to him in this passage in Deuteronomy 10
01:16:59.000 --> 01:17:01.000
that's arcading back to his
01:17:01.000 --> 01:17:03.000
proclamation to Job
01:17:03.000 --> 01:17:05.000
to say, I made everything
01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:07.000
who are you to question me
01:17:07.000 --> 01:17:09.000
in this passage, love the Lord your God
01:17:09.000 --> 01:17:11.000
with all your heart and with all your soul.
01:17:11.000 --> 01:17:13.000
It's something that Jesus quotes.
01:17:13.000 --> 01:17:15.000
Jesus references this
01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:17.000
as the law
01:17:17.000 --> 01:17:19.000
as proper fear of the Lord
01:17:19.000 --> 01:17:21.000
of faith and God
01:17:21.000 --> 01:17:23.000
is this is the manifestation
01:17:23.000 --> 01:17:25.000
to love God is to fear God
01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:27.000
as notable at the beginning of that
01:17:27.000 --> 01:17:29.000
God requires of you to fear the Lord
01:17:29.000 --> 01:17:31.000
to walk in his ways to love him
01:17:31.000 --> 01:17:33.000
and to serve him. Love comes third
01:17:33.000 --> 01:17:35.000
in that list. Fear
01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:37.000
walk in his ways and love
01:17:37.000 --> 01:17:39.000
when the modern
01:17:39.000 --> 01:17:41.000
so-called Christian tries to put
01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:43.000
love before everything else
01:17:43.000 --> 01:17:45.000
it upends
01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:47.000
the God that is revealed in Scripture.
01:17:47.000 --> 01:17:49.000
God begins
01:17:49.000 --> 01:17:51.000
with fear.
01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:53.000
God testifies in Job and in Genesis
01:17:53.000 --> 01:17:55.000
as well.
01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:57.000
The creation of the universe is fearful.
01:17:57.000 --> 01:17:59.000
We can't even comprehend
01:17:59.000 --> 01:18:01.000
what it's like for God to be creating
01:18:01.000 --> 01:18:03.000
everything that we know
01:18:03.000 --> 01:18:05.000
from the smallest scale to the largest
01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:07.000
neither of which we can conceive of
01:18:07.000 --> 01:18:09.000
and those are finite. Those are measurable
01:18:09.000 --> 01:18:11.000
those are concrete and yet
01:18:11.000 --> 01:18:13.000
they're still beyond our minds.
01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:15.000
What God did in creation
01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:17.000
is far beyond anything
01:18:17.000 --> 01:18:19.000
that could fit in our minds because that's how God works
01:18:19.000 --> 01:18:21.000
and so
01:18:21.000 --> 01:18:23.000
it is a natural properly ordered
01:18:23.000 --> 01:18:25.000
response to fear that
01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:27.000
God. If you don't fear God
01:18:27.000 --> 01:18:29.000
you don't know that you're God. It's as simple
01:18:29.000 --> 01:18:31.000
as that. When we try to
01:18:31.000 --> 01:18:33.000
subject everything to human reason
01:18:33.000 --> 01:18:35.000
we don't just
01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:37.000
miss the proper
01:18:37.000 --> 01:18:39.000
relationship of man
01:18:39.000 --> 01:18:41.000
to God.
01:18:41.000 --> 01:18:43.000
We also lose
01:18:43.000 --> 01:18:45.000
a proper understanding, a proper
01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:47.000
perspective on many of the good things
01:18:47.000 --> 01:18:49.000
that flow from God, on many
01:18:49.000 --> 01:18:51.000
of the gifts God gives to us.
01:18:51.000 --> 01:18:53.000
For instance
01:18:53.000 --> 01:18:55.000
I'll just give one example.
01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:57.000
If you attempt
01:18:57.000 --> 01:18:59.000
to reduce love
01:18:59.000 --> 01:19:01.000
to reason, if you attempt to reduce
01:19:01.000 --> 01:19:03.000
it to material, if you attempt to explain it
01:19:03.000 --> 01:19:05.000
in a materialistic
01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:07.000
framework, you are going
01:19:07.000 --> 01:19:09.000
to destroy it. You are going to
01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:11.000
utterly
01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:13.000
misunderstand it
01:19:13.000 --> 01:19:15.000
and you are going to miss the entire point
01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:17.000
because love
01:19:17.000 --> 01:19:19.000
is not simply
01:19:19.000 --> 01:19:21.000
a matter of neurochemistry.
01:19:21.000 --> 01:19:23.000
It is not dopamine and serotonin.
01:19:23.000 --> 01:19:25.000
I could explain
01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:27.000
all those pathways and how that works
01:19:27.000 --> 01:19:29.000
and which chemicals are
01:19:29.000 --> 01:19:31.000
released when you do certain
01:19:31.000 --> 01:19:33.000
actions, whether it's a hug
01:19:33.000 --> 01:19:35.000
or other things.
01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:37.000
That's not what love is.
01:19:37.000 --> 01:19:39.000
Love is something above and beyond
01:19:39.000 --> 01:19:41.000
that and we are actually starting to get
01:19:41.000 --> 01:19:43.000
into some proof of
01:19:43.000 --> 01:19:45.000
that on the physical side because
01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:47.000
when you start looking
01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:49.000
very specifically
01:19:49.000 --> 01:19:51.000
at when a thought originates
01:19:51.000 --> 01:19:53.000
and when an action starts
01:19:53.000 --> 01:19:55.000
we start running into problems
01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:57.000
of causation because it starts to look like
01:19:57.000 --> 01:19:59.000
you are doing things before you think them.
01:19:59.000 --> 01:20:01.000
Which is of course
01:20:01.000 --> 01:20:03.000
proof that materialism is false
01:20:03.000 --> 01:20:05.000
but to return back to the issue of love
01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:07.000
if you try to reduce
01:20:07.000 --> 01:20:09.000
your relationship with your wife
01:20:09.000 --> 01:20:11.000
to neurochemistry
01:20:11.000 --> 01:20:13.000
you are going to get divorced.
01:20:13.000 --> 01:20:15.000
It's really the long and the short of it.
01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:17.000
That relationship is not going to last
01:20:17.000 --> 01:20:19.000
if you start to reduce it to that.
01:20:19.000 --> 01:20:21.000
Yes, you can take those things into account
01:20:21.000 --> 01:20:23.000
because you are not
01:20:23.000 --> 01:20:25.000
a spirit, a ghost, piloting
01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:27.000
a meat suit as
01:20:27.000 --> 01:20:29.000
some atheists and others, particularly
01:20:29.000 --> 01:20:31.000
Gnostics, will attempt to argue.
01:20:31.000 --> 01:20:33.000
You are your body.
01:20:33.000 --> 01:20:35.000
You are body and soul, also
01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:37.000
mind but that's a separate
01:20:37.000 --> 01:20:39.000
matter.
01:20:39.000 --> 01:20:41.000
You cannot reduce these things
01:20:41.000 --> 01:20:43.000
to the purely material. You cannot
01:20:43.000 --> 01:20:45.000
reduce them to reason. You cannot
01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:47.000
subject them to the
01:20:47.000 --> 01:20:49.000
limited human understanding
01:20:49.000 --> 01:20:51.000
post enlightenment.
01:20:51.000 --> 01:20:53.000
That's not how this works and
01:20:53.000 --> 01:20:55.000
if you do it you will destroy it.
01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:57.000
And so
01:20:57.000 --> 01:20:59.000
in the small case as it were
01:20:59.000 --> 01:21:01.000
with
01:21:01.000 --> 01:21:03.000
relationships between human beings
01:21:03.000 --> 01:21:05.000
if you try to reduce them in this way
01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:07.000
you will destroy them. You will not understand them.
01:21:07.000 --> 01:21:09.000
You will miss the real
01:21:09.000 --> 01:21:11.000
import of what they are.
01:21:11.000 --> 01:21:13.000
And on the grander
01:21:13.000 --> 01:21:15.000
scale you will do the same thing
01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:17.000
with your relationship
01:21:17.000 --> 01:21:19.000
to God if you attempt
01:21:19.000 --> 01:21:21.000
to reduce it simply to reason.
01:21:21.000 --> 01:21:23.000
You attempt to put God in a box because
01:21:23.000 --> 01:21:25.000
you will no longer have God.
01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:27.000
You will have your
01:21:27.000 --> 01:21:29.000
conception of God and your
01:21:29.000 --> 01:21:31.000
conception of God is
01:21:31.000 --> 01:21:33.000
imperfect. Your conception of God
01:21:33.000 --> 01:21:35.000
is inaccurate. Your conception
01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:37.000
of God is an idol.
01:21:37.000 --> 01:21:39.000
And so if you attempt
01:21:39.000 --> 01:21:41.000
to use these post enlightenment
01:21:41.000 --> 01:21:43.000
presuppositions and priors, if you attempt
01:21:43.000 --> 01:21:45.000
to use human reason
01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:47.000
to say this is God, he
01:21:47.000 --> 01:21:49.000
sits in these little boundaries that I have
01:21:49.000 --> 01:21:51.000
created because I can understand these boundaries
01:21:51.000 --> 01:21:53.000
and so I am comfortable with them.
01:21:53.000 --> 01:21:55.000
If you attempt to do that, you no longer
01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:57.000
have God. You have an idol.
01:21:57.000 --> 01:21:59.000
You have violated the first commandment.
01:21:59.000 --> 01:22:01.000
You have probably ceased
01:22:01.000 --> 01:22:03.000
to be a Christian. At least you will
01:22:03.000 --> 01:22:05.000
if you continue down that path.
01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:07.000
And so this is
01:22:07.000 --> 01:22:09.000
why it is vitally important
01:22:09.000 --> 01:22:11.000
for Christians to come to the text
01:22:11.000 --> 01:22:13.000
of Scripture and
01:22:13.000 --> 01:22:15.000
see what it says.
01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:17.000
Not to import the
01:22:17.000 --> 01:22:19.000
world has told us that it
01:22:19.000 --> 01:22:21.000
has to mean or cannot mean.
01:22:23.000 --> 01:22:25.000
Scripture should form your thought.
01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:27.000
Your thought,
01:22:27.000 --> 01:22:29.000
your reason, your limitations
01:22:29.000 --> 01:22:31.000
should not form Scripture.
01:22:31.000 --> 01:22:33.000
So to wrap up, we are going to
01:22:33.000 --> 01:22:35.000
be bridging a little bit from
01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:37.000
fearing God to talking
01:22:37.000 --> 01:22:39.000
about in particular
01:22:39.000 --> 01:22:41.000
what we shouldn't fear.
01:22:41.000 --> 01:22:43.000
And in a minute, Cory is going to
01:22:43.000 --> 01:22:45.000
read from the ALV
01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:47.000
in Matthew 6 where Jesus
01:22:47.000 --> 01:22:49.000
tells us not to worry about
01:22:49.000 --> 01:22:51.000
tomorrow, not to worry about where
01:22:51.000 --> 01:22:53.000
food is going to come from and so forth.
01:22:53.000 --> 01:22:55.000
I think that that is
01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:57.000
an important part of properly understanding
01:22:57.000 --> 01:22:59.000
fear because if you fear
01:22:59.000 --> 01:23:01.000
God properly,
01:23:01.000 --> 01:23:03.000
you don't fear anything else.
01:23:03.000 --> 01:23:05.000
And that is probably
01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:07.000
the chief benefit
01:23:07.000 --> 01:23:09.000
apart from doing what God says
01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:11.000
is that when you are fearful of God,
01:23:11.000 --> 01:23:13.000
nothing else can matter.
01:23:13.000 --> 01:23:15.000
Job understood that.
01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:17.000
Job understood clearly
01:23:17.000 --> 01:23:19.000
that all the good things he had
01:23:19.000 --> 01:23:21.000
came from God.
01:23:21.000 --> 01:23:23.000
And when those good things went away,
01:23:23.000 --> 01:23:25.000
God was still God.
01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:27.000
So he had nothing to fear.
01:23:27.000 --> 01:23:29.000
That is a key part of this.
01:23:29.000 --> 01:23:31.000
And I think that
01:23:31.000 --> 01:23:33.000
it's something that we are
01:23:33.000 --> 01:23:35.000
particularly going to have to
01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:37.000
grapple with in our own personal lives
01:23:37.000 --> 01:23:39.000
in this decade.
01:23:39.000 --> 01:23:41.000
As the world gets worse
01:23:41.000 --> 01:23:43.000
and more dangerous,
01:23:43.000 --> 01:23:45.000
as the actions of the state
01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:47.000
and the actions in our churches
01:23:47.000 --> 01:23:49.000
and our communities and our own families
01:23:49.000 --> 01:23:51.000
get worse for us,
01:23:51.000 --> 01:23:53.000
we are going to be confronted
01:23:53.000 --> 01:23:55.000
with fear that Jesus
01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:57.000
condemns.
01:23:57.000 --> 01:23:59.000
And I think that in particular
01:23:59.000 --> 01:24:01.000
pastors who are called
01:24:01.000 --> 01:24:03.000
to proclaim the whole council of God
01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:05.000
have become so fearful
01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:07.000
of proclaiming the parts
01:24:07.000 --> 01:24:09.000
that might get them into trouble
01:24:09.000 --> 01:24:11.000
at some point.
01:24:11.000 --> 01:24:13.000
They are devolving into idolatry
01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:15.000
because they don't believe Jesus
01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:17.000
words here.
01:24:17.000 --> 01:24:19.000
When Jesus says you don't need to worry about
01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:21.000
where your next meal is going to come from,
01:24:21.000 --> 01:24:23.000
I'll take care of you.
01:24:23.000 --> 01:24:25.000
How many of our pastors are like,
01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:27.000
oh, I can't say that. I might lose my job.
01:24:27.000 --> 01:24:29.000
Well,
01:24:29.000 --> 01:24:31.000
there's a pragmatic concern
01:24:31.000 --> 01:24:33.000
and there's a right way and a wrong way
01:24:33.000 --> 01:24:35.000
for a pastor to preach these things.
01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:37.000
Nothing that we're saying here
01:24:37.000 --> 01:24:39.000
about your life and
01:24:39.000 --> 01:24:41.000
be as stupid as possible
01:24:41.000 --> 01:24:43.000
and trust that God is going to take care of you.
01:24:43.000 --> 01:24:45.000
That's foolishness. That's not what we're advocating.
01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:47.000
However,
01:24:47.000 --> 01:24:49.000
if proclaiming the whole
01:24:49.000 --> 01:24:51.000
council of God
01:24:51.000 --> 01:24:53.000
means that bad things
01:24:53.000 --> 01:24:55.000
happen to you, is that a reason not
01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:57.000
to do them?
01:24:57.000 --> 01:24:59.000
Is the reason that you might lose your job
01:24:59.000 --> 01:25:01.000
a reason not to obey God?
01:25:01.000 --> 01:25:03.000
Is your job
01:25:03.000 --> 01:25:05.000
an end? Or is that a means to an end?
01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:07.000
Is it a gift that God has given you?
01:25:07.000 --> 01:25:09.000
Just as
01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:11.000
Job had been given all the gifts of
01:25:11.000 --> 01:25:13.000
camels and livestock
01:25:13.000 --> 01:25:15.000
and servants and children,
01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:17.000
when those were taken away,
01:25:17.000 --> 01:25:19.000
Job was still Job and God was still God.
01:25:19.000 --> 01:25:21.000
Job still ate
01:25:21.000 --> 01:25:23.000
despite being reduced to nothing.
01:25:23.000 --> 01:25:25.000
He didn't starve to death.
01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:27.000
God continued to take care of him
01:25:27.000 --> 01:25:29.000
as Jesus promises here in Matthew 6.
01:25:29.000 --> 01:25:31.000
And so when we are confronted
01:25:31.000 --> 01:25:33.000
with situations in our own lives
01:25:33.000 --> 01:25:35.000
where there may be material
01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:37.000
consequences for being faithful,
01:25:37.000 --> 01:25:39.000
there's a time
01:25:39.000 --> 01:25:41.000
and a place to be judicious
01:25:41.000 --> 01:25:43.000
about how you approach these things.
01:25:43.000 --> 01:25:45.000
But ultimately, if you can't
01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:47.000
tell the truth because you're afraid
01:25:47.000 --> 01:25:49.000
that you might not be able to feed
01:25:49.000 --> 01:25:51.000
your kids, that is faithfulness
01:25:51.000 --> 01:25:53.000
to God. You have a vocation
01:25:53.000 --> 01:25:55.000
to keep them fed. God
01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:57.000
has promised he will keep them fed.
01:25:57.000 --> 01:25:59.000
If you think disobeying God
01:25:59.000 --> 01:26:01.000
is going to win you points,
01:26:01.000 --> 01:26:03.000
it will with the world, but it won't with God.
01:26:03.000 --> 01:26:05.000
And so we're going to end with this
01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:07.000
and I'm going to end with a personal story
01:26:07.000 --> 01:26:09.000
about something that I dealt with
01:26:09.000 --> 01:26:11.000
in a much smaller manner than Job
01:26:11.000 --> 01:26:13.000
that I think illustrates how this stuff
01:26:13.000 --> 01:26:15.000
all ties together.
01:26:31.000 --> 01:26:33.000
Not so nor reap nor gather into barns,
01:26:33.000 --> 01:26:35.000
and your heavenly father feeds them.
01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:37.000
Are you not of much more value
01:26:37.000 --> 01:26:39.000
than they?
01:26:39.000 --> 01:26:41.000
And which of you by being anxious
01:26:41.000 --> 01:26:43.000
can add one cubit to the measure of his life?
01:26:43.000 --> 01:26:45.000
And why are you anxious concerning
01:26:45.000 --> 01:26:47.000
raiment? Consider the lilies
01:26:47.000 --> 01:26:49.000
of the field, how they grow,
01:26:49.000 --> 01:26:51.000
they do not toil nor spin.
01:26:51.000 --> 01:26:53.000
Yet I say to you that even
01:26:53.000 --> 01:26:55.000
Solomon in all his glory
01:26:55.000 --> 01:26:57.000
was not arrayed like one of these.
01:26:57.000 --> 01:26:59.000
But if God so close the grass
01:26:59.000 --> 01:27:01.000
of the field, which today is
01:27:01.000 --> 01:27:03.000
and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
01:27:03.000 --> 01:27:05.000
shall he not much more clothe you,
01:27:05.000 --> 01:27:07.000
you of little faith?
01:27:07.000 --> 01:27:09.000
Be not therefore anxious saying
01:27:09.000 --> 01:27:11.000
what shall we eat, or
01:27:11.000 --> 01:27:13.000
what shall we drink, or
01:27:13.000 --> 01:27:15.000
with what shall we be clothed?
01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:17.000
For after all these things the Gentiles
01:27:17.000 --> 01:27:19.000
seek, for your heavenly father
01:27:19.000 --> 01:27:21.000
knows that you have need of all these things.
01:27:21.000 --> 01:27:23.000
But seek first his kingdom
01:27:23.000 --> 01:27:25.000
and his righteousness.
01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:27.000
And all these things shall be added to you.
01:27:27.000 --> 01:27:29.000
Be not anxious therefore,
01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:31.000
for the morrow, for the morrow
01:27:31.000 --> 01:27:33.000
will be anxious for itself.
01:27:33.000 --> 01:27:35.000
Sufficient to the day is its own evil.
01:27:37.000 --> 01:27:39.000
So in Matthew 6, Jesus
01:27:39.000 --> 01:27:41.000
talks about anxiousness, not so much fear,
01:27:41.000 --> 01:27:43.000
but I think that fear
01:27:43.000 --> 01:27:45.000
is typically how it manifests
01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:47.000
among us when we're afraid
01:27:47.000 --> 01:27:49.000
that, you know, I have to take care of myself,
01:27:49.000 --> 01:27:51.000
I have to feed myself, I have to clothe
01:27:51.000 --> 01:27:53.000
and shelter and all these things.
01:27:53.000 --> 01:27:55.000
And that's functionally true,
01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:57.000
but it's not ultimately true.
01:27:57.000 --> 01:27:59.000
If you fear
01:27:59.000 --> 01:28:01.000
and trust in God, you know
01:28:01.000 --> 01:28:03.000
that those things come from him.
01:28:03.000 --> 01:28:05.000
That is what Job knew,
01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:07.000
when those things were taken away from him,
01:28:07.000 --> 01:28:09.000
what did he say? He said,
01:28:09.000 --> 01:28:11.000
the Lord giveth him, the Lord taketh away,
01:28:11.000 --> 01:28:13.000
blessed be the name of the Lord.
01:28:13.000 --> 01:28:15.000
God pours out his bounty on all of us
01:28:15.000 --> 01:28:17.000
every day, and we should be thankful
01:28:17.000 --> 01:28:19.000
for it and we should be acknowledging it
01:28:19.000 --> 01:28:21.000
because the manner
01:28:21.000 --> 01:28:23.000
in which those things are delivered
01:28:23.000 --> 01:28:25.000
is another testament
01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:27.000
to God's glory.
01:28:27.000 --> 01:28:29.000
The fact that, especially, and we're so blessed
01:28:29.000 --> 01:28:31.000
to live in the West, where
01:28:31.000 --> 01:28:33.000
we have relative peace,
01:28:33.000 --> 01:28:35.000
we have relative security,
01:28:35.000 --> 01:28:37.000
we have relative prosperity,
01:28:37.000 --> 01:28:39.000
frankly, that exceeds almost
01:28:39.000 --> 01:28:41.000
all times and places in history,
01:28:41.000 --> 01:28:43.000
even at this late hour where things seem
01:28:43.000 --> 01:28:45.000
to be getting ugly,
01:28:45.000 --> 01:28:47.000
we're still well off today.
01:28:47.000 --> 01:28:49.000
And
01:28:49.000 --> 01:28:51.000
I think one of the things
01:28:51.000 --> 01:28:53.000
that as we face
01:28:53.000 --> 01:28:55.000
harder and harder days,
01:28:55.000 --> 01:28:57.000
the reason we're talking about this today is that
01:28:57.000 --> 01:28:59.000
this is going to get more and more important
01:28:59.000 --> 01:29:01.000
in your own life,
01:29:01.000 --> 01:29:03.000
in your faith,
01:29:03.000 --> 01:29:05.000
in your relationship with God.
01:29:05.000 --> 01:29:07.000
If you are confronted with
01:29:07.000 --> 01:29:09.000
your children dying, you losing your home,
01:29:09.000 --> 01:29:11.000
are you going to curse God
01:29:11.000 --> 01:29:13.000
and die? That's what the world says to do.
01:29:13.000 --> 01:29:15.000
You know, when something
01:29:15.000 --> 01:29:17.000
terrible befalls a Christian,
01:29:17.000 --> 01:29:19.000
the atheist mocks
01:29:19.000 --> 01:29:21.000
his, where's your God now?
01:29:21.000 --> 01:29:23.000
Why didn't your God save your wife
01:29:23.000 --> 01:29:25.000
or your child, or whatever you've lost?
01:29:25.000 --> 01:29:27.000
Horrible losses that
01:29:27.000 --> 01:29:29.000
are heart-wrenching.
01:29:29.000 --> 01:29:31.000
When you trust
01:29:31.000 --> 01:29:33.000
in God, you know
01:29:33.000 --> 01:29:35.000
that those gifts were from him,
01:29:35.000 --> 01:29:37.000
and as long as they last, we enjoy it.
01:29:37.000 --> 01:29:39.000
And when they're gone, we give thanks
01:29:39.000 --> 01:29:41.000
that we had them. And we give thanks
01:29:41.000 --> 01:29:43.000
for whatever's coming next.
01:29:43.000 --> 01:29:45.000
We don't know what's coming next, but we know
01:29:45.000 --> 01:29:47.000
that it will also come from God.
01:29:47.000 --> 01:29:49.000
And so, to end with a personal story,
01:29:49.000 --> 01:29:51.000
we say I and we and
01:29:51.000 --> 01:29:53.000
us more than I would like on this
01:29:53.000 --> 01:29:55.000
show. We don't want this to be a show about us.
01:29:55.000 --> 01:29:57.000
The story I'm about to tell is a
01:29:57.000 --> 01:29:59.000
personal story because
01:29:59.000 --> 01:30:01.000
I'm an expert on it. I lived it. I was there.
01:30:01.000 --> 01:30:03.000
I know what it was like.
01:30:03.000 --> 01:30:05.000
I'm not telling it for the sake of
01:30:05.000 --> 01:30:07.000
self-aggrandizement.
01:30:07.000 --> 01:30:09.000
I'm not telling it for the sake of saying,
01:30:09.000 --> 01:30:11.000
oh, I'm great. You should be like me.
01:30:11.000 --> 01:30:13.000
The purpose of
01:30:13.000 --> 01:30:15.000
sharing this particular story is to
01:30:15.000 --> 01:30:17.000
illustrate that when one has
01:30:17.000 --> 01:30:19.000
the particular
01:30:19.000 --> 01:30:21.000
sort of faith that we're trying to
01:30:21.000 --> 01:30:23.000
emphasize, when bad
01:30:23.000 --> 01:30:25.000
moments in your life arrive,
01:30:25.000 --> 01:30:27.000
you will have confident
01:30:27.000 --> 01:30:29.000
faith that God will take care
01:30:29.000 --> 01:30:31.000
of you no matter what.
01:30:31.000 --> 01:30:33.000
So, my story is this.
01:30:33.000 --> 01:30:35.000
On January 27th,
01:30:35.000 --> 01:30:37.000
2020, it was about two
01:30:37.000 --> 01:30:39.000
months into COVID becoming
01:30:39.000 --> 01:30:41.000
a thing that was well known. I'd been tracking
01:30:41.000 --> 01:30:43.000
it for about two months. I was already
01:30:43.000 --> 01:30:45.000
tracking
01:30:45.000 --> 01:30:47.000
plague doctor memes at the end of January.
01:30:47.000 --> 01:30:49.000
I knew it was going to be a big deal
01:30:49.000 --> 01:30:51.000
even before most people had heard anything about it.
01:30:51.000 --> 01:30:53.000
I think it was either a Friday or Saturday.
01:30:53.000 --> 01:30:55.000
I was
01:30:55.000 --> 01:30:57.000
sitting in my living room, probably watching
01:30:57.000 --> 01:30:59.000
something on TV and playing on my computer.
01:30:59.000 --> 01:31:01.000
My dog got feisty,
01:31:01.000 --> 01:31:03.000
wanted to go outside, wanted to play for a bit.
01:31:03.000 --> 01:31:05.000
And so, I took him out
01:31:05.000 --> 01:31:07.000
and we went out the sliding
01:31:07.000 --> 01:31:09.000
door in the backyard.
01:31:09.000 --> 01:31:11.000
And I live on kind of a steep hill.
01:31:11.000 --> 01:31:13.000
It was January. It was snowy. It wasn't too cold.
01:31:13.000 --> 01:31:15.000
So, I didn't have to bundle up,
01:31:15.000 --> 01:31:17.000
but the ground was slippery.
01:31:17.000 --> 01:31:19.000
And because of how steep the hill was,
01:31:19.000 --> 01:31:21.000
when, what I did, I grabbed
01:31:21.000 --> 01:31:23.000
I think either a stick or a
01:31:23.000 --> 01:31:25.000
Frisbee to play with him just to run him around
01:31:25.000 --> 01:31:27.000
for a few minutes.
01:31:27.000 --> 01:31:29.000
I threw the, it was a Frisbee, I remember.
01:31:29.000 --> 01:31:31.000
It was a Frisbee. I threw it once
01:31:31.000 --> 01:31:33.000
and he ran down the hill after it because he's got four legs
01:31:33.000 --> 01:31:35.000
and he's unbeatable. He's
01:31:35.000 --> 01:31:37.000
a super athlete. So, he just charged down
01:31:37.000 --> 01:31:39.000
the hill one after it. I had to be more careful
01:31:39.000 --> 01:31:41.000
so I wouldn't fall on my butt
01:31:41.000 --> 01:31:43.000
and hurt myself. So,
01:31:43.000 --> 01:31:45.000
because of how slippery it was, now steep
01:31:45.000 --> 01:31:47.000
it was, I decided to stomp all the way
01:31:47.000 --> 01:31:49.000
down the hill, basically planting my heels
01:31:49.000 --> 01:31:51.000
with every step to make sure I had
01:31:51.000 --> 01:31:53.000
good purchase and wouldn't lose my footing.
01:31:53.000 --> 01:31:55.000
But it's steep enough
01:31:55.000 --> 01:31:57.000
that I had to do it in a hurry. So, I kind of half
01:31:57.000 --> 01:31:59.000
ran, half stomped
01:31:59.000 --> 01:32:01.000
down the hill, got to the bottom and was flat
01:32:01.000 --> 01:32:03.000
and stopped. He brought
01:32:03.000 --> 01:32:05.000
the Frisbee back. I threw it once
01:32:05.000 --> 01:32:07.000
or twice more. And
01:32:07.000 --> 01:32:09.000
the last time I threw
01:32:09.000 --> 01:32:11.000
it, it went off to the right. He ran
01:32:11.000 --> 01:32:13.000
off to the right to run after it.
01:32:13.000 --> 01:32:15.000
As I was standing there sort of watching
01:32:15.000 --> 01:32:17.000
him, not really thinking
01:32:17.000 --> 01:32:19.000
about it, it dawned on me
01:32:19.000 --> 01:32:21.000
that something was wrong.
01:32:21.000 --> 01:32:23.000
I couldn't tell what it was.
01:32:23.000 --> 01:32:25.000
I, like, it wasn't, there was no
01:32:25.000 --> 01:32:27.000
sensation, there was no
01:32:27.000 --> 01:32:29.000
thought. It was just, I
01:32:29.000 --> 01:32:31.000
could tell it was missing something and it
01:32:31.000 --> 01:32:33.000
was beginning to concern me. It's like,
01:32:33.000 --> 01:32:35.000
did I leave the gas on? It was just
01:32:35.000 --> 01:32:37.000
there was something wrong. I didn't
01:32:37.000 --> 01:32:39.000
know what it was. And so I had
01:32:39.000 --> 01:32:41.000
this sort of sense of illities,
01:32:41.000 --> 01:32:43.000
disease.
01:32:43.000 --> 01:32:45.000
As I was trying to figure out
01:32:45.000 --> 01:32:47.000
what it was that I was missing, what it
01:32:47.000 --> 01:32:49.000
was that I didn't know, I
01:32:49.000 --> 01:32:51.000
felt my dog tapping on my
01:32:51.000 --> 01:32:53.000
left thigh.
01:32:53.000 --> 01:32:55.000
And that confused
01:32:55.000 --> 01:32:57.000
me because he was still off to my right.
01:32:57.000 --> 01:32:59.000
I was watching him get the Frisbee and run
01:32:59.000 --> 01:33:01.000
around. But he was tapping on
01:33:01.000 --> 01:33:03.000
my leg. I looked down
01:33:03.000 --> 01:33:05.000
and it was my arm.
01:33:05.000 --> 01:33:07.000
It was my hand tapping
01:33:07.000 --> 01:33:09.000
against my leg, basically swinging
01:33:09.000 --> 01:33:11.000
in the wind like a wind chime.
01:33:11.000 --> 01:33:13.000
I thought, huh,
01:33:13.000 --> 01:33:15.000
that ain't right.
01:33:15.000 --> 01:33:17.000
So I reached out, I tried to move it.
01:33:17.000 --> 01:33:19.000
My arm couldn't move at all. It was completely dead.
01:33:19.000 --> 01:33:21.000
I grabbed my left wrist
01:33:21.000 --> 01:33:23.000
with my right hand, picked it up,
01:33:23.000 --> 01:33:25.000
totally dead. At that point
01:33:25.000 --> 01:33:27.000
it was not my arm at all. It was
01:33:27.000 --> 01:33:29.000
it was just an appendage attached
01:33:29.000 --> 01:33:31.000
to my shoulder.
01:33:31.000 --> 01:33:33.000
It was meat, but it had nothing
01:33:33.000 --> 01:33:35.000
to do with me anymore. My wrist
01:33:35.000 --> 01:33:37.000
was flopped down, totally
01:33:37.000 --> 01:33:39.000
dead. Zero motion.
01:33:39.000 --> 01:33:41.000
I thought, wow, this is some sort
01:33:41.000 --> 01:33:43.000
of medical condition. I am going to have to address
01:33:43.000 --> 01:33:45.000
this pretty urgently.
01:33:45.000 --> 01:33:47.000
So standing at the bottom
01:33:47.000 --> 01:33:49.000
of the hill, my first thought was I need to
01:33:49.000 --> 01:33:51.000
get back inside because this
01:33:51.000 --> 01:33:53.000
is a medical problem. I don't know how much
01:33:53.000 --> 01:33:55.000
warts is going to get, but I
01:33:55.000 --> 01:33:57.000
need to get inside so that I at least
01:33:57.000 --> 01:33:59.000
have the opportunity to call for help before
01:33:59.000 --> 01:34:01.000
I am incapacitated.
01:34:01.000 --> 01:34:03.000
It was just my arm. Everything
01:34:03.000 --> 01:34:05.000
else was working, but I didn't know what
01:34:05.000 --> 01:34:07.000
it was and that's a bad sign.
01:34:07.000 --> 01:34:09.000
So I called the dog, thankfully, he listened
01:34:09.000 --> 01:34:11.000
to me and came up with me. As I
01:34:11.000 --> 01:34:13.000
marched back up the hill, I hung
01:34:13.000 --> 01:34:15.000
on to my dead arm because
01:34:15.000 --> 01:34:17.000
I realized it was
01:34:17.000 --> 01:34:19.000
sufficiently dead that if I moved up the
01:34:19.000 --> 01:34:21.000
hill with the speed I intended, I
01:34:21.000 --> 01:34:23.000
was running the risk of actually
01:34:23.000 --> 01:34:25.000
dislocating my shoulder
01:34:25.000 --> 01:34:27.000
because I knew it was just going to flop around like crazy.
01:34:27.000 --> 01:34:29.000
So I hung on to it. Basically, I carried
01:34:29.000 --> 01:34:31.000
myself and I carried my dead arm up the hill.
01:34:31.000 --> 01:34:33.000
I got back inside
01:34:33.000 --> 01:34:35.000
and went back into the living room.
01:34:35.000 --> 01:34:37.000
As I was standing there, my arm started
01:34:37.000 --> 01:34:39.000
working again, partially.
01:34:39.000 --> 01:34:41.000
It still felt a little
01:34:41.000 --> 01:34:43.000
funny, but I was able to move it again and go,
01:34:43.000 --> 01:34:45.000
oh great, whatever that was, maybe it was a nerve problem.
01:34:45.000 --> 01:34:47.000
It kind of came and went.
01:34:47.000 --> 01:34:49.000
Obviously, I was
01:34:49.000 --> 01:34:51.000
still concerned. I got to figure out what's going on,
01:34:51.000 --> 01:34:53.000
but momentarily I had the use
01:34:53.000 --> 01:34:55.000
of the arm again. So
01:34:55.000 --> 01:34:57.000
I remember I grabbed my
01:34:57.000 --> 01:34:59.000
iPad and I walked back to my bedroom,
01:34:59.000 --> 01:35:01.000
which is a long way away.
01:35:01.000 --> 01:35:03.000
Part of what I
01:35:03.000 --> 01:35:05.000
was thinking was that I might be having
01:35:05.000 --> 01:35:07.000
a stroke. If I'm having a stroke, do I take
01:35:07.000 --> 01:35:09.000
aspirin or not? I wasn't sure at the time
01:35:09.000 --> 01:35:11.000
what to do, but
01:35:11.000 --> 01:35:13.000
I thought I'll just go back to the bathroom
01:35:13.000 --> 01:35:15.000
and get
01:35:15.000 --> 01:35:17.000
aspirin. Whether I was going to
01:35:17.000 --> 01:35:19.000
take it, I was going to have it in hand and
01:35:19.000 --> 01:35:21.000
look in the mirror to see if my face was drooping or anything.
01:35:21.000 --> 01:35:23.000
So I carried
01:35:23.000 --> 01:35:25.000
the iPad back to my bedroom. It's probably
01:35:25.000 --> 01:35:27.000
about 120 feet away.
01:35:29.000 --> 01:35:31.000
Look in the mirror, face looks fine.
01:35:31.000 --> 01:35:33.000
I speak out loud to see if I can talk.
01:35:33.000 --> 01:35:35.000
I was able to speak okay, so I'm like, well,
01:35:35.000 --> 01:35:37.000
I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it's a stroke, maybe
01:35:37.000 --> 01:35:39.000
it isn't. And I wanted
01:35:39.000 --> 01:35:41.000
to pick up the iPad, I think, to look at stroke symptoms
01:35:41.000 --> 01:35:43.000
online, because
01:35:43.000 --> 01:35:45.000
even in a medical emergency, I want to be
01:35:45.000 --> 01:35:47.000
analytical. I realized that
01:35:47.000 --> 01:35:49.000
my arm was dead again and I didn't have my iPad.
01:35:49.000 --> 01:35:51.000
So I walked back down the hallway
01:35:51.000 --> 01:35:53.000
and found a halfway down the hallway.
01:35:53.000 --> 01:35:55.000
The iPad was laying on the ground.
01:35:55.000 --> 01:35:57.000
So at some point, I had dropped it
01:35:57.000 --> 01:35:59.000
from my hand, which had died again.
01:35:59.000 --> 01:36:01.000
I didn't even know it. So, well,
01:36:01.000 --> 01:36:03.000
that's strike two. Something's definitely wrong
01:36:03.000 --> 01:36:05.000
here. I picked it up, went back
01:36:05.000 --> 01:36:07.000
towards the living room
01:36:07.000 --> 01:36:09.000
and the arm came back kind of
01:36:09.000 --> 01:36:11.000
again. So I went back to the living room,
01:36:11.000 --> 01:36:13.000
set the iPad down again, went into another
01:36:13.000 --> 01:36:15.000
bathroom to look at my face,
01:36:15.000 --> 01:36:17.000
because I've been moving around for a bit
01:36:17.000 --> 01:36:19.000
and look at a better mirror
01:36:19.000 --> 01:36:21.000
more closely. The left side of my face
01:36:21.000 --> 01:36:23.000
was starting to droop a little bit
01:36:23.000 --> 01:36:25.000
and so I tried speaking out loud again. I was
01:36:25.000 --> 01:36:27.000
still able to speak, but I was pretty sure
01:36:27.000 --> 01:36:29.000
I was having a stroke.
01:36:29.000 --> 01:36:31.000
And so I walked into the living room and
01:36:31.000 --> 01:36:33.000
this is the point of the story. What happened
01:36:33.000 --> 01:36:35.000
next?
01:36:35.000 --> 01:36:37.000
I had realized at that point I'm having a stroke.
01:36:37.000 --> 01:36:39.000
I'm going to be going to the hospital today.
01:36:41.000 --> 01:36:43.000
Before I called 9-1-1,
01:36:43.000 --> 01:36:45.000
I said a prayer. It was like a 10,
01:36:45.000 --> 01:36:47.000
15 second prayer.
01:36:47.000 --> 01:36:49.000
I remember very clearly
01:36:49.000 --> 01:36:51.000
I bowed my head
01:36:51.000 --> 01:36:53.000
and I began the prayers. I begin every
01:36:53.000 --> 01:36:55.000
prayer, no matter what, with Thanksgiving.
01:36:55.000 --> 01:36:57.000
I will not pray without
01:36:57.000 --> 01:36:59.000
first thanking God for something.
01:36:59.000 --> 01:37:01.000
Sometimes it's dumb.
01:37:01.000 --> 01:37:03.000
I'm not talking about
01:37:03.000 --> 01:37:05.000
big ticket items, you know,
01:37:05.000 --> 01:37:07.000
whatever, like eating or anything.
01:37:07.000 --> 01:37:09.000
I don't pray unless I thank God first.
01:37:09.000 --> 01:37:11.000
So as I was standing there with a dead arm
01:37:11.000 --> 01:37:13.000
knowing that I was almost certainly having
01:37:13.000 --> 01:37:15.000
a stroke, I said,
01:37:15.000 --> 01:37:17.000
Dear Lord, thank you for the use of this
01:37:17.000 --> 01:37:19.000
arm for these many years.
01:37:19.000 --> 01:37:21.000
If it is your will that I regain
01:37:21.000 --> 01:37:23.000
the use of this arm, please
01:37:23.000 --> 01:37:25.000
guide me through whatever I need to do
01:37:25.000 --> 01:37:27.000
next to get help.
01:37:27.000 --> 01:37:29.000
Please help the doctors to figure this out
01:37:29.000 --> 01:37:31.000
and if this is going to get worse
01:37:31.000 --> 01:37:33.000
and if I'm not going to
01:37:33.000 --> 01:37:35.000
be healed
01:37:35.000 --> 01:37:37.000
or if I'm not going to recover, if I'm not
01:37:37.000 --> 01:37:39.000
going to survive, please strengthen
01:37:39.000 --> 01:37:41.000
and preserve my faith under the end.
01:37:41.000 --> 01:37:43.000
Amen.
01:37:43.000 --> 01:37:45.000
9-1-1.
01:37:45.000 --> 01:37:47.000
And the reason I did that
01:37:47.000 --> 01:37:49.000
was that I knew that
01:37:49.000 --> 01:37:51.000
a doctor wasn't going to save me.
01:37:51.000 --> 01:37:53.000
9-1-1 wasn't going to save me. It wasn't going to be a paramedic.
01:37:53.000 --> 01:37:55.000
I was in God's hands.
01:37:55.000 --> 01:37:57.000
That's something that
01:37:57.000 --> 01:37:59.000
I know all the time.
01:37:59.000 --> 01:38:01.000
It's not something that
01:38:01.000 --> 01:38:03.000
you're always conscious of,
01:38:03.000 --> 01:38:05.000
but it's something you should reflect on
01:38:05.000 --> 01:38:07.000
and I'm thankful that prior to
01:38:07.000 --> 01:38:09.000
January 27th, 2020
01:38:09.000 --> 01:38:11.000
I had thought about
01:38:11.000 --> 01:38:13.000
being in God's hands because
01:38:13.000 --> 01:38:15.000
when I was having a stroke
01:38:15.000 --> 01:38:17.000
my first thought wasn't
01:38:17.000 --> 01:38:19.000
oh, I got to fix this problem.
01:38:19.000 --> 01:38:21.000
My first thought was, I'm up a creek
01:38:21.000 --> 01:38:23.000
and there's nothing I can do about this.
01:38:23.000 --> 01:38:25.000
I got to go try to get help, but
01:38:25.000 --> 01:38:27.000
the only way I'm going to make it
01:38:27.000 --> 01:38:29.000
is by God's grace.
01:38:29.000 --> 01:38:31.000
So before turning to the state, before turning
01:38:31.000 --> 01:38:33.000
to 9-1-1, I turned to God.
01:38:33.000 --> 01:38:35.000
And
01:38:35.000 --> 01:38:37.000
after I hung up
01:38:37.000 --> 01:38:39.000
and it was funny, when I called 9-1-1
01:38:39.000 --> 01:38:41.000
I said, I think I'm having a stroke.
01:38:41.000 --> 01:38:43.000
At that point
01:38:43.000 --> 01:38:45.000
that's where my speech was
01:38:45.000 --> 01:38:47.000
and that was kind of confirmation.
01:38:47.000 --> 01:38:49.000
The operator didn't really argue with me.
01:38:49.000 --> 01:38:51.000
He's like, okay, what's your address?
01:38:51.000 --> 01:38:53.000
And it came up and took about 8 minutes
01:38:53.000 --> 01:38:55.000
for the ambulance to get there. I went outside.
01:38:55.000 --> 01:38:57.000
I locked up the house so my dog wouldn't get away.
01:38:57.000 --> 01:38:59.000
I think I texted a friend to say, hey,
01:38:59.000 --> 01:39:01.000
can you come get my dog? I'm going to be at the hospital for a while.
01:39:01.000 --> 01:39:03.000
And
01:39:03.000 --> 01:39:05.000
by the time
01:39:05.000 --> 01:39:07.000
the ambulance got there about 8 minutes later
01:39:07.000 --> 01:39:09.000
arm was completely dead.
01:39:09.000 --> 01:39:11.000
I could barely speak at all.
01:39:11.000 --> 01:39:13.000
My face was severely drooping.
01:39:13.000 --> 01:39:15.000
It was a severe stroke.
01:39:15.000 --> 01:39:17.000
I would have been permanently
01:39:17.000 --> 01:39:19.000
debilitated if I had not
01:39:19.000 --> 01:39:21.000
been healed. And so they took me
01:39:21.000 --> 01:39:23.000
to the local hospital.
01:39:23.000 --> 01:39:25.000
They did a quick MRI, I think.
01:39:25.000 --> 01:39:27.000
And within
01:39:27.000 --> 01:39:29.000
about 15 minutes they said, yeah, you're having a stroke.
01:39:29.000 --> 01:39:31.000
And I'll tell you
01:39:31.000 --> 01:39:33.000
secondarily, another value of me sharing this
01:39:33.000 --> 01:39:35.000
story, there's a drug called TPA.
01:39:35.000 --> 01:39:37.000
You don't need to know what the name of the drug is,
01:39:37.000 --> 01:39:39.000
but there's a clot busting drug
01:39:39.000 --> 01:39:41.000
that if it's administered within like the first 90 minutes
01:39:41.000 --> 01:39:43.000
or so, I think 90 minutes to 2 hours
01:39:43.000 --> 01:39:45.000
is the absolute outside of when they can
01:39:45.000 --> 01:39:47.000
administer it. It's a super clot busting
01:39:47.000 --> 01:39:49.000
drug that will just break up the clot
01:39:49.000 --> 01:39:51.000
and minimize the amount
01:39:51.000 --> 01:39:53.000
of brain damage you suffer. Because
01:39:53.000 --> 01:39:55.000
the reason my arm was dead was that
01:39:55.000 --> 01:39:57.000
I had brain damage.
01:39:57.000 --> 01:39:59.000
If the clot gets broken
01:39:59.000 --> 01:40:01.000
up quickly enough, that can be temporary.
01:40:01.000 --> 01:40:03.000
It goes on long enough for the clots
01:40:03.000 --> 01:40:05.000
to move around. If there are more of them, it could be permanent.
01:40:05.000 --> 01:40:07.000
It could very easily kill you.
01:40:07.000 --> 01:40:09.000
But they said,
01:40:09.000 --> 01:40:11.000
do you want to take aspirin or do you want
01:40:11.000 --> 01:40:13.000
the drug? And he said, give me the drug,
01:40:13.000 --> 01:40:15.000
give me the drug. Well, I couldn't say anything.
01:40:15.000 --> 01:40:17.000
I couldn't speak at all. I was just sort of
01:40:17.000 --> 01:40:19.000
I could kind of
01:40:19.000 --> 01:40:21.000
struggle to the point of getting out a single word.
01:40:21.000 --> 01:40:23.000
But it was not really articulable
01:40:23.000 --> 01:40:25.000
speech. They gave me the
01:40:25.000 --> 01:40:27.000
drug and within about 90 minutes it knocked some of it
01:40:27.000 --> 01:40:29.000
out. And they kept me for about
01:40:29.000 --> 01:40:31.000
24 hours because one of the risks of the drug
01:40:31.000 --> 01:40:33.000
is brain bleed
01:40:33.000 --> 01:40:35.000
hemorrhage. So I had to be under
01:40:35.000 --> 01:40:37.000
neurological analysis
01:40:37.000 --> 01:40:39.000
once an hour for 24 hours,
01:40:39.000 --> 01:40:41.000
which was itself worse than the stroke.
01:40:41.000 --> 01:40:43.000
Getting woken up every hour and being poked
01:40:43.000 --> 01:40:45.000
and prodded is
01:40:45.000 --> 01:40:47.000
pretty much torture. It's sleep deprivation. I don't
01:40:47.000 --> 01:40:49.000
recommend it.
01:40:49.000 --> 01:40:51.000
By the time I got out of there, I was
01:40:51.000 --> 01:40:53.000
good to go. My arm was working again. I could
01:40:53.000 --> 01:40:55.000
speak again.
01:40:55.000 --> 01:40:57.000
My speech was probably 99%.
01:40:57.000 --> 01:40:59.000
My arm was interesting.
01:40:59.000 --> 01:41:01.000
I could still move my arm. I got full function
01:41:01.000 --> 01:41:03.000
of the arm back within
01:41:03.000 --> 01:41:05.000
three hours, but virtually
01:41:05.000 --> 01:41:07.000
no sensation. It took a year and a
01:41:07.000 --> 01:41:09.000
half for the sensation to come back.
01:41:09.000 --> 01:41:11.000
And basically my arm was just tingling like it was
01:41:11.000 --> 01:41:13.000
waking up for a year and a half. It's
01:41:13.000 --> 01:41:15.000
still kind of tingling to this day.
01:41:15.000 --> 01:41:17.000
And
01:41:17.000 --> 01:41:19.000
unfortunately, for a new
01:41:19.000 --> 01:41:21.000
podcaster, I have brain damage. You probably
01:41:21.000 --> 01:41:23.000
hear me occasionally stumble over words.
01:41:23.000 --> 01:41:25.000
Use the wrong
01:41:25.000 --> 01:41:27.000
word once in a while like I'm doing
01:41:27.000 --> 01:41:29.000
right now in the sentence.
01:41:29.000 --> 01:41:31.000
I didn't used to be like that. I used to speak
01:41:31.000 --> 01:41:33.000
with perfect clarity like Cory's does.
01:41:33.000 --> 01:41:35.000
I was so
01:41:35.000 --> 01:41:37.000
precise in my speech at all times
01:41:37.000 --> 01:41:39.000
that on the rare occasions, by rare
01:41:39.000 --> 01:41:41.000
I mean like once a year, once every other
01:41:41.000 --> 01:41:43.000
year, when I might miss speak in
01:41:43.000 --> 01:41:45.000
front of friends, they would literally
01:41:45.000 --> 01:41:47.000
interrupt me to stop and laugh
01:41:47.000 --> 01:41:49.000
and point at me and mock me for
01:41:49.000 --> 01:41:51.000
making a mistake, which wasn't cruel.
01:41:51.000 --> 01:41:53.000
It would be cruel to do it to most people, but
01:41:53.000 --> 01:41:55.000
the precision
01:41:55.000 --> 01:41:57.000
of my speech was so
01:41:57.000 --> 01:41:59.000
reliable that I
01:41:59.000 --> 01:42:01.000
came across as an android just in terms of never
01:42:01.000 --> 01:42:03.000
making a mistake. So my friends would get
01:42:03.000 --> 01:42:05.000
excited that I would actually show I was a human being.
01:42:05.000 --> 01:42:07.000
God has since spared me
01:42:07.000 --> 01:42:09.000
any sort of vanity for that. That's long gone.
01:42:09.000 --> 01:42:11.000
So if I hadn't told you
01:42:11.000 --> 01:42:13.000
I think you probably most people wouldn't notice
01:42:13.000 --> 01:42:15.000
if you had heard
01:42:15.000 --> 01:42:17.000
if we had been recording before I had
01:42:17.000 --> 01:42:19.000
had the stroke, you would definitely be able to tell the
01:42:19.000 --> 01:42:21.000
difference. I certainly can. I find it
01:42:21.000 --> 01:42:23.000
very aggravating to do anything
01:42:23.000 --> 01:42:25.000
imperfectly, especially when
01:42:25.000 --> 01:42:27.000
the purpose of me being here is to
01:42:27.000 --> 01:42:29.000
speak clearly to fail to do
01:42:29.000 --> 01:42:31.000
that to my best ability.
01:42:31.000 --> 01:42:33.000
Well, this is my ability now, so
01:42:33.000 --> 01:42:35.000
it is what it is. I am absolutely not complaining.
01:42:35.000 --> 01:42:37.000
God gave me my arm back. He gave
01:42:37.000 --> 01:42:39.000
me my ability to speak without
01:42:39.000 --> 01:42:41.000
sounding like I was a vegetable.
01:42:41.000 --> 01:42:43.000
My brain worked fine the whole time. I just couldn't
01:42:43.000 --> 01:42:45.000
spit any words out. I could barely mumble
01:42:45.000 --> 01:42:47.000
a single word with great effort
01:42:47.000 --> 01:42:49.000
and it didn't last long enough that I really got
01:42:49.000 --> 01:42:51.000
upset about it.
01:42:51.000 --> 01:42:53.000
It was still a novel experience, so
01:42:53.000 --> 01:42:55.000
I would never call myself any sort of
01:42:55.000 --> 01:42:57.000
stroke survivor or
01:42:57.000 --> 01:42:59.000
anything like that. What happened
01:42:59.000 --> 01:43:01.000
to me, although the stroke was severe
01:43:01.000 --> 01:43:03.000
the recovery was
01:43:03.000 --> 01:43:05.000
very swift and I'm eternally
01:43:05.000 --> 01:43:07.000
thankful to God for
01:43:07.000 --> 01:43:09.000
sparing me. If God had not given me
01:43:09.000 --> 01:43:11.000
my arm back and my voice back, I couldn't complain.
01:43:11.000 --> 01:43:13.000
I certainly
01:43:13.000 --> 01:43:15.000
deserve far worse than that and so
01:43:15.000 --> 01:43:17.000
I'm thankful to have been put back together
01:43:17.000 --> 01:43:19.000
as well as I have been.
01:43:19.000 --> 01:43:21.000
Everything that we have
01:43:21.000 --> 01:43:23.000
is a gift from God, my ability
01:43:23.000 --> 01:43:25.000
to use my arm to speak,
01:43:25.000 --> 01:43:27.000
your ability to do everything that you can do,
01:43:27.000 --> 01:43:29.000
all the stuff that we take for granted.
01:43:29.000 --> 01:43:31.000
All of those things are gifts from
01:43:31.000 --> 01:43:33.000
God and so
01:43:33.000 --> 01:43:35.000
part of the reason for telling the story is
01:43:35.000 --> 01:43:37.000
that if you lose something
01:43:37.000 --> 01:43:39.000
temporarily, permanently,
01:43:39.000 --> 01:43:41.000
remember to give thanks for everything else.
01:43:41.000 --> 01:43:43.000
In addition to giving thanks
01:43:43.000 --> 01:43:45.000
for the
01:43:45.000 --> 01:43:47.000
for the cross to bear of
01:43:47.000 --> 01:43:49.000
something that will help maybe straighten your life
01:43:49.000 --> 01:43:51.000
out in a way that you needed,
01:43:51.000 --> 01:43:53.000
certainly did in my life.
01:43:53.000 --> 01:43:55.000
Give thanks for the stuff that still works.
01:43:55.000 --> 01:43:57.000
If you're blind, you can still taste
01:43:57.000 --> 01:43:59.000
food. If you can't move your arm
01:43:59.000 --> 01:44:01.000
you can do something else. There's always
01:44:01.000 --> 01:44:03.000
something to be thankful to God for
01:44:03.000 --> 01:44:05.000
and that's part of the reason that
01:44:05.000 --> 01:44:07.000
we focus this episode on fearing
01:44:07.000 --> 01:44:09.000
God. If you fear God
01:44:09.000 --> 01:44:11.000
all these other bad things that happen
01:44:11.000 --> 01:44:13.000
they're nothing by comparison.
01:44:13.000 --> 01:44:15.000
If you fear
01:44:15.000 --> 01:44:17.000
God, are you going to fear starving?
01:44:17.000 --> 01:44:19.000
Of course not. You can't
01:44:19.000 --> 01:44:21.000
fear starving if you fear God because
01:44:21.000 --> 01:44:23.000
the God that you fear has promised to take care
01:44:23.000 --> 01:44:25.000
of you and that taking care
01:44:25.000 --> 01:44:27.000
of you includes perhaps
01:44:27.000 --> 01:44:29.000
starving
01:44:29.000 --> 01:44:31.000
as stupid as that sounds, but
01:44:31.000 --> 01:44:33.000
we know the people sometimes starve, Christian
01:44:33.000 --> 01:44:35.000
sometimes starve.
01:44:35.000 --> 01:44:37.000
If the worst befalls
01:44:37.000 --> 01:44:39.000
us in our own personal
01:44:39.000 --> 01:44:41.000
lives, we must
01:44:41.000 --> 01:44:43.000
still fear, love, and trust in God
01:44:43.000 --> 01:44:45.000
above all things. Above
01:44:45.000 --> 01:44:47.000
the food that's not in our bellies
01:44:47.000 --> 01:44:49.000
or whatever abilities that we've
01:44:49.000 --> 01:44:51.000
lost, whatever things that we had
01:44:51.000 --> 01:44:53.000
and we don't have, whatever people are taken
01:44:53.000 --> 01:44:55.000
from us, if we get
01:44:55.000 --> 01:44:57.000
thanks to God none of that can be
01:44:57.000 --> 01:44:59.000
seen as anything
01:44:59.000 --> 01:45:01.000
more than a painful
01:45:01.000 --> 01:45:03.000
reminder that we live in a fallen
01:45:03.000 --> 01:45:05.000
world. The reason that I'm
01:45:05.000 --> 01:45:07.000
talking about this experience today again
01:45:07.000 --> 01:45:09.000
is not to say anything good about myself.
01:45:09.000 --> 01:45:11.000
Everything about that experience
01:45:11.000 --> 01:45:13.000
and my response to it
01:45:13.000 --> 01:45:15.000
was from God. It was
01:45:15.000 --> 01:45:17.000
completely outside of myself. I'm not saying
01:45:17.000 --> 01:45:19.000
oh, I have good faith, be like me. I'm
01:45:19.000 --> 01:45:21.000
saying believe in God in the
01:45:21.000 --> 01:45:23.000
manner that Job did, in the manner
01:45:23.000 --> 01:45:25.000
that I'm trying to describe in that
01:45:25.000 --> 01:45:27.000
moment. You know, if I tell an
01:45:27.000 --> 01:45:29.000
atheist, yeah, I was having a stroke
01:45:29.000 --> 01:45:31.000
and I wasted 15 seconds
01:45:31.000 --> 01:45:33.000
talking to Sky Daddy before I
01:45:33.000 --> 01:45:35.000
called 911, they would say that's
01:45:35.000 --> 01:45:37.000
completely retarded. When seconds count
01:45:37.000 --> 01:45:39.000
why on earth would you
01:45:39.000 --> 01:45:41.000
pray to your imaginary God?
01:45:41.000 --> 01:45:43.000
As a God-fearer, as
01:45:43.000 --> 01:45:45.000
a Christian, I knew that the
01:45:45.000 --> 01:45:47.000
opposite was true. Why would I bother
01:45:47.000 --> 01:45:49.000
calling 911 if I wasn't going to turn to
01:45:49.000 --> 01:45:51.000
God? So in that moment, it was
01:45:51.000 --> 01:45:53.000
the only possible choice that I had.
01:45:53.000 --> 01:45:55.000
It wasn't a burden, it wasn't
01:45:55.000 --> 01:45:57.000
scary. I was never scared through any of it.
01:45:57.000 --> 01:45:59.000
I knew that God was going to take care
01:45:59.000 --> 01:46:01.000
of me. Even if it got
01:46:01.000 --> 01:46:03.000
worse, even if I died
01:46:03.000 --> 01:46:05.000
I was still going to be in God's hands.
01:46:05.000 --> 01:46:07.000
That is what you
01:46:07.000 --> 01:46:09.000
should believe so that when the
01:46:09.000 --> 01:46:11.000
time comes, that is what you can feel.
01:46:11.000 --> 01:46:13.000
Because if these
01:46:13.000 --> 01:46:15.000
doctrines, if these understandings
01:46:15.000 --> 01:46:17.000
are not part of
01:46:17.000 --> 01:46:19.000
the way we view the world
01:46:19.000 --> 01:46:21.000
when everything's hunky-dory,
01:46:21.000 --> 01:46:23.000
when you're sitting in your living room
01:46:23.000 --> 01:46:25.000
listening to a podcast, then later
01:46:25.000 --> 01:46:27.000
on, when you're by yourself
01:46:27.000 --> 01:46:29.000
and something terrible happens,
01:46:29.000 --> 01:46:31.000
you won't have laid the
01:46:31.000 --> 01:46:33.000
foundation and the groundwork
01:46:33.000 --> 01:46:35.000
to be able to approach
01:46:35.000 --> 01:46:37.000
that issue in a God-pleasing manner,
01:46:37.000 --> 01:46:39.000
in a manner that shows that you fear God.
01:46:39.000 --> 01:46:41.000
Dealing with these
01:46:41.000 --> 01:46:43.000
things in this manner is a
01:46:43.000 --> 01:46:45.000
godly order in our lives.
01:46:45.000 --> 01:46:47.000
It is how faith is to be
01:46:47.000 --> 01:46:49.000
manifest, to fear God, to
01:46:49.000 --> 01:46:51.000
love God, to know that God will
01:46:51.000 --> 01:46:53.000
take care of us no matter what.
01:46:53.000 --> 01:46:55.000
It's something that used to be part of the Christian
01:46:55.000 --> 01:46:57.000
life. We used to focus on
01:46:57.000 --> 01:46:59.000
our death a lot more.
01:46:59.000 --> 01:47:01.000
Memento Mori used to be an important part
01:47:01.000 --> 01:47:03.000
of the Christian life.
01:47:03.000 --> 01:47:05.000
Graveyards used to be right next to churches.
01:47:05.000 --> 01:47:07.000
When you go to church, or the same church
01:47:07.000 --> 01:47:09.000
that your family has gone to for generations,
01:47:09.000 --> 01:47:11.000
you're walking past their
01:47:11.000 --> 01:47:13.000
dead bodies. The unbeliever
01:47:13.000 --> 01:47:15.000
finds that incredibly morbid.
01:47:15.000 --> 01:47:17.000
The believer knows that the vast
01:47:17.000 --> 01:47:19.000
majority of Christian
01:47:19.000 --> 01:47:21.000
burial grounds, the feet
01:47:21.000 --> 01:47:23.000
are facing east.
01:47:23.000 --> 01:47:25.000
Why east? He's going to appear
01:47:25.000 --> 01:47:27.000
in the sky everywhere once, with
01:47:27.000 --> 01:47:29.000
the promises that he's going to come from the same
01:47:29.000 --> 01:47:31.000
place that we saw him go up.
01:47:31.000 --> 01:47:33.000
Christians in the west
01:47:33.000 --> 01:47:35.000
face to the east in death
01:47:35.000 --> 01:47:37.000
because we know that our bodies have been planted
01:47:37.000 --> 01:47:39.000
in hope of the resurrection.
01:47:39.000 --> 01:47:41.000
Hope doesn't mean, I don't know if it's going to happen.
01:47:41.000 --> 01:47:43.000
Hope, for the Christian,
01:47:43.000 --> 01:47:45.000
is certain.
01:47:45.000 --> 01:47:47.000
I hope in the resurrection.
01:47:47.000 --> 01:47:49.000
I don't know if I'm going to wake up tomorrow.
01:47:49.000 --> 01:47:51.000
I don't hope for that. I like to.
01:47:51.000 --> 01:47:53.000
I hope in the small
01:47:53.000 --> 01:47:55.000
age sense, but my hope
01:47:55.000 --> 01:47:57.000
is not in waking up tomorrow.
01:47:57.000 --> 01:47:59.000
My hope is in the God who my fear
01:47:59.000 --> 01:48:01.000
who's given me
01:48:01.000 --> 01:48:03.000
all these things, who's given you all these
01:48:03.000 --> 01:48:05.000
things.
01:48:05.000 --> 01:48:07.000
If you think about these things now, when the pressure
01:48:07.000 --> 01:48:09.000
isn't on, when you're on your death bed
01:48:09.000 --> 01:48:11.000
it's going to be easier for you.
01:48:11.000 --> 01:48:13.000
And that's why Cory and I speak about these
01:48:13.000 --> 01:48:15.000
issues. That's why we talk about these doctrines
01:48:15.000 --> 01:48:17.000
that are neglected, because all these
01:48:17.000 --> 01:48:19.000
places where Satan is trying to weasel
01:48:19.000 --> 01:48:21.000
into our lives and saying, oh no,
01:48:21.000 --> 01:48:23.000
you need to be afraid about losing
01:48:23.000 --> 01:48:25.000
your job, about not being fed, about
01:48:25.000 --> 01:48:27.000
health concerned, about having a stroke,
01:48:27.000 --> 01:48:29.000
about being on a ventilator. That's what should
01:48:29.000 --> 01:48:31.000
terrify you. No.
01:48:31.000 --> 01:48:33.000
If you fear God, none of the rest
01:48:33.000 --> 01:48:35.000
of that stuff can take hold of you.
01:48:35.000 --> 01:48:37.000
Because there's no room.
01:48:37.000 --> 01:48:39.000
You're in God's hands.
01:48:39.000 --> 01:48:41.000
Job knew that. He knew it
01:48:41.000 --> 01:48:43.000
before Satan came and killed his entire
01:48:43.000 --> 01:48:45.000
family, except for his wife.
01:48:45.000 --> 01:48:47.000
Killed all of his servants, killed all of his
01:48:47.000 --> 01:48:49.000
animals. Job believed it
01:48:49.000 --> 01:48:51.000
and God credited it to him as righteousness.
01:48:51.000 --> 01:48:53.000
So when Satan came and killed
01:48:53.000 --> 01:48:55.000
everything, what was Job's response?
01:48:55.000 --> 01:48:57.000
It's the response that we should all have
01:48:57.000 --> 01:48:59.000
when we're confronted with every
01:48:59.000 --> 01:49:01.000
day, with the good or the bad.
01:49:01.000 --> 01:49:03.000
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
01:49:03.000 --> 01:49:05.000
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
01:49:05.000 --> 01:49:07.000
Amen.
01:49:55.000 --> 01:49:57.000
Amen.
01:50:25.000 --> 01:50:27.000
Amen.
01:50:55.000 --> 01:50:57.000
Amen.
01:51:25.000 --> 01:51:27.000
Amen.
01:51:55.000 --> 01:51:57.000
Amen.
01:52:25.000 --> 01:52:27.000
Amen.
01:52:55.000 --> 01:52:57.000
Amen.
01:53:25.000 --> 01:53:27.000
Amen.
01:53:55.000 --> 01:53:57.000
Amen.