It's great to be here and great crowd tonight and this is sort of like the last meal before
the execution with that 100-mile bike ride tomorrow. But Pastor Randall and I have been
friends for a long time. How long ago was that? That we went on that hike five years ago or was it
three years ago? How long ago was it? It was a long time. It was like five years ago.
But I appreciate his friendship and appreciate the work that he's doing out here. I can't believe how
many times he preaches in one week because I preach three times a week and when I do
trips like this I end up preaching four times a week where I'll do a Thursday night. Like last
week I was in Atlanta. Before that I was in Tucson. I do this for like three weeks in a row and I'm
burned out because four sermons a week is pushing it for me. I like to preach three times a week.
I heard you're preaching seven times a week. Is that true?
So he's preaching in Iola. He's preaching in Kansas City and so he is a hard worker. That's
a lot of preaching and so keep up the great work out here guys. I will say this, the soul
winning is receptive here. I only got to go out for an hour just now but it was very
receptive and listening to everybody else. So you guys really have a great opportunity here to win
a lot of people to Christ in this Kansas City area. I think it's going to be a big success
and that there are some really great works ahead for this group of people. So this sermon was
billed as a really scary sermon because the advertisement that was put out was,
be very afraid. Pastor Anderson's preaching on Halloween and then this fire is here and
everything. I'm just glad it's keeping me warm because it was like 80 some degrees in Arizona
today. So I am preaching a scary sermon tonight and I'm going to preach a sermon tonight about
reasons why we should fear the Lord. Why should we fear God? You know the world tonight on Halloween,
they're celebrating the fear of all the wrong things. Fearing ghouls and goblins and devils
and witches. We're to fear none of those things and the only person that we should fear is the
Lord God himself. You know what, there are plenty of reasons why we should fear God.
Some people will kind of relegate this as an Old Testament concept of fearing God,
but there's a lot in the New Testament about fearing God. For example, the Bible
tells those who serve their masters according to the flesh. You know when you go to work
it says, servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh
with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ with goodwill doing service
as to the Lord and not to men. So the New Testament tells us not only fear because some
people will say, well I don't know if fear really means fear. Fear and trembling, that's fear.
You can't misunderstand the word trembling, can you? And there are many places in the New
Testament that warn us about God's chastening, even if we're saved, that God's chastening can
come in our life and that God will scourge his sons and punish us. And there are so many
scriptures about the fear of God in Old and New Testament. The book of Revelation is the scariest
book in the whole Bible and it's the last book of the New Testament. But I want to just show you
tonight why we should fear God specifically because of the things that God can do to us.
Okay, God holds our very breath in his hand. God controls our destiny and whether we succeed or
fail, whether we're healthy or sick, whether we're blessed or cursed, I mean these things are all in
the hands of God. And so as the Psalm says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Now the first thing I want to show you is in Daniel chapter 4 here because to me this is one
of the scariest things that could ever happen to anyone that God could do to punish you. I think
this is the worst possible punishment that God could punish anyone with and that is to cause
them to lose their mind. And this is a punishment that God will bring upon people who are wicked.
Of course we know the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone is that they'd be given over to
the reprobate mind, okay, which is a form of insanity and craziness that an unsaved person
would get into where they're just ultimately doomed. But here we see a guy who's not a reprobate,
King Nebuchadnezzar, but he's a prideful man. He's puffed up. He's arrogant and full of himself
and so God takes him down a notch by striking him with insanity. I don't know about you,
I would rather lose any part of my body or any part of my health than to lose my mind.
I'd rather have any part of my body amputated. I'd rather have any illness than mental illness,
okay? Losing your mind would be the worst thing imaginable, okay? And this is a pretty amazing
story. Look at verse 24 in Daniel chapter 4. It says, this is the interpretation, O King,
and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King,
that they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field,
and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,
and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. So you see here, he didn't fear God like he should.
He thinks that he's so powerful and mighty and God said, I am going to make you realize that I
am the one who has the power here and I'm going to take you down a notch. And so the Bible talks
about him being out in the wilderness. It says, let seven times pass over and there's been debate
about how long that is. I believe firmly that it's seven years, because if we get the context
in the book of Daniel and in Revelation, when it talks about a time, times, and half a time,
it's referring to three and a half years. Not only that, but the Bible says that during this time,
when Nebuchadnezzar loses his mind, that his fingernails grow like bird's claws. Well, that's
not going to happen in seven days or seven weeks. Some of you might've never cut your nails for
seven weeks before, but anyway. So you could go seven weeks or even seven months. You're not
necessarily going to have bird talons yet. So that's why I think there's a lot of evidence here
that it was actually seven years that he was in this condition. Can you imagine living outside
like a wild animal, running around, eating grass, your fingernails grow out like bird claws,
your hair becomes like bird feathers because it just gets so matted and nappy and living outside.
And then after seven years, your reason comes back to you and you find yourself in that condition.
Can you think of anything more humbling, more humiliating, and you'd realize,
okay, I need to fear God. I need to respect God now. I mean, can you imagine finding yourself
like that? And so this has always been one of my favorite Bible stories, but look what it was
that got him put in this position. Look at verse 28, all this came upon the King Nebuchadnezzar
at the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the King of Babylon. The King spake and said,
is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power
and for the honor of my majesty. So it's pretty obvious what the problem here is
pride and arrogance. And then once he goes through this craziness for seven years of living outside
like a wild animal, it says in verse 34, and at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up
my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the most high and I praised
and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And his
kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as
nothing. And he do it according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth and none could stay his hand or say to him, what doest thou? At the same time, my reason
returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me and my
counselors and my Lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty
was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven,
all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and watch this and those that walk in pride,
he is able to abase. And let me tell you something, if you walk in pride, if you get arrogant and
prideful and start thinking, I don't need God, I don't need the Lord, I did this on my own,
and you don't seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, God can and will abase you.
Now he may not do something this dramatic, but you know what? If you did lose your mind,
you wouldn't be the first person to lose your mind. Folks, there are people losing their mind
every day. I've seen a lot of pastors lose their minds even literal. I mean, I'm talking about
pastors who get up and they just start going crazy and talking nonsense. They have to be pulled out
of the pulpit. Okay. Pastors who've gotten complete amnesia, forgot who they are, forget
their name, forget who their wife is and going completely crazy. And many times that could be
a chastening and a chastisement from God when someone gets puffed up or backslidden or does
something wrong. You know, I don't want God to humiliate me. I don't think you want God to
humiliate you because you know what? It's not just something as dramatic as causing you to
completely lose your mind. He could cause you to lose your job. He could cause you to lose your
family. He could cause you to lose your health. I mean, he can do anything to take you down. You
better walk humbly before God. You better wake up every morning and just thank God for everything
that you have. Thank God that he's allowing you another day to live and serve him. And you better
just realize that God's in heaven and you're on earth. He's the creator. You're the creature and
you need to walk humbly and don't make God have to humble you. And I'm telling you, this is one
of the most important subjects that there is, this thing of pride versus humility. Because first of
all, it's the number one factor in salvation. Okay. Go to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18.
And then after salvation, it continues to be key in the Christian life. But you know, it's
interesting. Just on Sunday night, I preached a sermon about Kanye West's so-called conversion.
And I gave all these quotes in that sermon just showing how just prideful and arrogant and lifting
up himself and praising himself and glorifying himself. And just even after I preached that
sermon, people just emailed me, oh, here's all the stuff you missed. You know, and they're
giving me all these other horrible quotes and everything like that. And you know,
it's just bizarre that people could think that someone like that is saved who is just 100%
taking glory for himself, praising himself. Look, the words that are coming out of his mouth are not
glorifying God. Okay. And he's not presenting the gospel. You don't hear him getting up and saying,
hey, salvation is by faith alone. We need to make sure we're not trusting in our works.
He's not using his platform to do that. He's glorifying self, selling $275 sweaters over here
and $225 sweaters over here. And you say, well, how do you know that Kanye West isn't saved?
How do you know that he's not saved? Let me tell you something. It is impossible
for anyone who is that prideful to be saved. It's impossible. And let me prove it to you
from the Bible. Look at the Bible. Matthew chapter 18, verse number three says, and he said,
verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter
into the kingdom of God. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now, what did he mean when he said,
if you're not converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven? He explains in the next verse, what it means to be like a little child is to be humble
like a little child. And here's why it's impossible for a prideful person to be saved.
Because the whole distinction of who's saved and who's not is who is trusting Christ as their
savior versus who is trusting themselves. A prideful person trusts themselves. Right?
And a humble person says, Hey, I'm a sinner. I don't deserve to go to heaven. I'm going to put
all my faith in Christ. And what is the number one obstacle to people getting saved? It's pride.
I mean, if we go out soul running and someone can't accept that salvation is by faith alone
and they want to trust in their works, they want to trust in turning from their sins,
turning over a new leaf, living a good life. Why is it that they would want to trust those things?
It makes no sense because wouldn't it be just the greatest news ever that it's free?
How can anyone not be happy or excited about getting a free gift?
And how many times when you're out soul winning, do people get happy when you give them the gospel
and you show them and they say, wow, this is great. Great news. Wow. It's so easy to be saved.
It's all by faith. Jesus paid it all. Why would anyone not want a free gift?
There's only one reason to turn down that free gift. Only one. Pride. Somebody is offering you
a free gift. Of course you're going to accept it unless you're too proud to accept it because
you say, no, I want to do it on my own. And when you talk to people who don't believe in salvation
by faith alone, they'll always say, well, you mean to tell me these people over here are going
to go to heaven and you know, cause they think they're good enough and someone else isn't good
enough, but the truly saved person realizes that none of us is good enough, right? As it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. You cannot be a prideful, arrogant, puffed up person and
enter the kingdom of God. It's not going to happen because you have to humble yourself as a little
child to be saved. You have to have that childlike faith we talk about where you're fully trusting
just as a child fully relies on their parents to feed them, clothe them, take care of their needs.
They don't go out and work a job. We have to fully trust in Christ as our savior. It is impossible
for a prideful person to do that. And that is why Jesus said that it's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Why is it so difficult for a rich man
to be saved? And God also said, Jesus also said in Mark 10, 24 children, how hard it is for them
that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Because the person who is rich is prideful
typically because they feel like, Hey, I've earned all this. Look is not this great Babylon
that I've built. Isn't that what he said? Hey, look at this great business I've built.
Hey, I'm the greatest rap artists of all time is basically what Nebuchadnezzar said.
You know, I'm getting a little loose with my interpretation there,
but I mean, he basically got up and said, look what I did. I did all this. I built this.
I'm the greatest and God in his mercy took him down a notch because it'd be better to go be
crazy out in the wilderness for seven years and get saved and go to heaven
then to skip the craziness and spend eternity in hell. So, you know, that's what needs to happen
to Kanye West. He needs to go live as a wild animal for seven years and then maybe he won't
be so puffed up and arrogant, but look, that's why I personally, I don't think that Donald Trump
will ever be saved because Donald Trump is one of the most prideful, arrogant, forget the politics.
He's one of the most prideful, arrogant people on the planet. How can a person like that enter
into the kingdom of God? It's not going to happen. You have to humble yourself to be saved. Okay.
Now he said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be
saved. But then of course the disciples said, well, how can anyone be saved then? And they
said, and this is what Jesus said with men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are
possible. So it is possible for a rich man to be saved. Even though Jesus said, Hey, it's easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. He's obviously exaggerating there. He's using
hyperbole, but the thing is with God, it's possible. This is why it's possible with God.
He can change their heart. Okay. But guess what? Their heart's going to have to change for them
to be saved. So when he says, look, it's easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to be saved. And they're like, well, who can be saved? And he says, well,
with men, it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Look, it's possible for
the gospel to reach the rich man and for a change to take place in his heart. But you know what that
changes? He has to be converted and become as a little child. Then he can enter the kingdom of
God. That's not what happened with Kanye West. We don't see a childlike faith. We see a puffed up,
arrogant blowhard who's making merchandise of God's people who needs to be taken down a notch.
Okay. And God, look, I don't think that God's going to abate him because frankly, you know,
I believe he's a reprobate and he's not even a child. You know, when you start declaring yourself
to be Jesus Christ and going around as the Messiah on tour, calling yourself Jesus,
you know, that's probably a reprobate zone that you've entered at that point. So I don't even
think that God even cares enough about him to even make him go crazy and go in the wilderness
for seven years. I think he's just doomed friend, but I'm preaching to people today that are not
doomed. I'm preaching to God's people, people that are saved. And let me tell you something.
God does love you. God does care about you. But if you start walking around prideful and arrogant
and, you know, I know, I know you were humble when you got saved because otherwise you wouldn't even
be saved. You must be humble to be saved because you have to fully trust Christ and admit your own
weakness. But let me tell you something, after you've been saved for years, it's possible to
start getting puffed up and backslid and prideful. And you know what? God will chase in every son
whom he receives and he will take you down a notch. And look, I don't want God to have to
hurt me or harm me or punish me and scourge me and whip me. I'd rather just be humble every day
and just serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling because the scariest thing I think God
can do to you is make you lose your mind. But there's so many things God can do. Look at
Deuteronomy chapter number 28. You know, all throughout the Bible we see even God's people
being punished by God to take them down a notch. We see different chastening and chastisement that
comes in the Bible. We think about the life of King Saul, you know, and how God ended up destroying
him and his children. And the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. We want to make sure that we walk humbly before God and don't make him take us down a
notch. Look at verse 15 of chapter 28. The Bible lists many of the things that God will do to you
if you don't keep his word. Now you say, well, it's the Old Testament, right? But here's the
thing. These Old Testament blessings and cursings though, the same principles apply in the New
Testament. We still see in the New Testament believers getting backslid and getting chastened
and punished and not being blessed and the reverse as well. But look at Deuteronomy 28
15, but it shall come to pass if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to
observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that
all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city and cursed
shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit
of thy body, the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep. Look,
these are things that God affects, the Bible's telling us. You might think to yourself, well,
you know, whether I succeed at my job or not, that's just based on how hard I work. Nope.
Nope. It's God that gives you the power to get wealth. And it's God who decides whether you
succeed or fail at your job, because you know, there are so many factors that are out of your
hands when you go to your job. You might go to your job and say, Hey, I'm going to do everything
myself. I'm going to work hard. You know, God, if God's working against you, everything you touch
is going to break and fall apart and fail. Think about all the problems. And you know,
everybody's in a different trade here, but you know, let's say you're in construction.
Think about how God can doom your construction project. You know, anybody who works in
construction has seen the horror stories and the jobs where you end up losing money and don't make
a dime. You don't think God can send those curses on your construction project? God can send those
curses on your computer programming, where there'll be just the ghost in the machine,
and you can't make that program work, and it just keeps not computing, not compute, error, error. No!
Right? Because God's not blessing you. Or, you can be like the man who walks not in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate. Day and night he shall
be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His fruit also shall not wither. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Right? You could be the tree
planted by the river of water. Whatsoever you do shall prosper. But what was Nebuchadnezzar?
Nebuchadnezzar was that tree, and God said, cut it down, getting too prideful, chop it down.
You want God to chop you down? He'll do it. I don't want to be cursed when I'm in the city.
I don't want to be cursed out in the field. I don't want to be cursed with my basket. What's
your basket in your store? This is your goods, your possessions. You don't want your possessions
to be cursed. You don't want your business to be cursed. You don't want the fruit of your body to
be cursed. That's your children. The fruit of your land. Again, that's your livelihood,
your business. You know, you're growing crops and growing things for food. You're kind,
the flocks of your sheep. Again, that has to do with your livelihood. Cursed shalt thou be when
thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee,
cursing, verse 20, vexation, and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do,
until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings
whereby thou is forsaken. I mean, how would you like, just everything you do fails.
Folks, you don't think that's possible? That's possible. You do a business venture, fail.
Try to continue your education, fail. New job, failed. Relationship, failed. You get a girlfriend,
it fails. Right? Get a boyfriend, failure. I mean, is that how you want to live your life?
Just everywhere you're sure, just fail, fail, fail, fail. Hey, God says, if you disregard my
word, if you forsake me, if you don't keep my commandments, that's how your life's going to be.
Where every time you turn around, everything goes wrong. And look, we've all had times and days
where you just felt like everything's going wrong, right? There have been days when it's like seven
or eight, and I'm just like, man, I just need to go to bed because this is a bad day. Like,
I just need to go to bed. And I always think, you know, tomorrow is going to be a better day,
but today is doomed. But you know what? For some people, when they're not living for God,
every day is like that. And it's just day after day of punishment and chastening.
That's a scary thought. You don't want to get on God's bad side. Look at verse 21,
the Lord shall make, and we haven't even gotten into the really bad cursings yet,
except the mental illness is the worst one. But it says in verse 21, the Lord shall make the
pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from off the land, whether thou goest to
possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever and with an
inflammation and with an extreme burning and with the sword and with blasting and with mildew,
and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. Illness, pestilence, mildew. God can smite us
with these things. I remember when I was at, this is one of my earliest memories.
When I was a child, I used to get these really sharp pains. I don't know if I've ever talked
about this before in a sermon, but I'd get these really sharp pains in my guts. Like,
I don't know if it was like a gas pain or who knows, you know what I'm talking about?
Where you get like these really, where you're kind of like, you got to get in the fetal position.
Who's ever had that where you, you got to kind of get in the fetal position and you're just like
in agony. You know what I'm talking about? And I remember when I was a kid that used to happen to
me and I would just be curled up in the fetal position, just in agony with like some kind of
gas pains or I don't know, growing pains, or I don't know what it was, but I'd be just doubled
over just in so much pain. And every single time that happened, I always thought the same thing.
I always thought, man, God can just do this to you anytime. He can just debilitate you like this.
Or God can just fix this right now. You know, and I just met whenever I would feel that way,
I would meditate on the fear of God. Even as a little kid, that was my thought process. I was
just thinking like, man, God has my breath in his hand and God can just humble me at any time by
just putting severe pain in my body and just putting me, I mean, anytime he, you know, it
reminds me of these police training videos where they're showing them how to use the tasers and how
powerful the taser and they show like this big, like buff bodybuilder guy who's ever seen this
and he's holding like a plastic knife and he runs toward the cop and then they shoot him with the
taser and he just drops. But you know what, no matter how tough we think we are, no matter how
smart we think we are, no matter how much money we have, no matter how much we just have the
charisma and the personality and oh man, we're going to make it wherever we go. You know,
anytime God wants to, he can just snap his fingers and you could just be in the fetal
position on the bathroom floor in agony, just clutching your gut in pain. Why? Because he's
God and you don't have the right to go through this life just puffed up and just not caring what
he says, disregarding his word. Look, this is the God that created heaven and hell and he's not
playing games with you. Don't go through life thinking, oh man, I got it. I don't need to go
to church. I don't need to serve God. You know, I got my own things going on. Hey, let me tell you
something. God can cut you down. He can abase you. He can humiliate you. I don't care what you have
going for you. He can just knock you out like that. You could fall over dead or he can put you
doubled over in pain. I mean, as a little kid, I meditated on that and I rarely have that feeling
as an adult. It's more like a kid thing. I guess, you know, your body's growing and whatever. But
rarely as an adult, I've had those kinds of pains, rarely. And every time I do, it brings me back to
that and I think, fear God. You know, fear God. This is what God can do to you. He can just put
you in these pains that you don't even understand. I still don't know what was so painful. But I tell
you what, you know, I'm glad, I'm just glad that I had those thoughts as a kid. I'm glad that I was
taught by my parents to fear God and I was taught by church to fear God so that that's the way I
thought, you know, that that was ingrained in me because it made me want to serve the Lord. And
you say, well, preach on the love of God. The thing is, there are a lot of motivations to do
what's right and the love of God is one of them. And obviously, we're motivated by love for the
lost. We're motivated by our love of Jesus Christ, our love of the word. But let me tell
you something, the fear of God needs to be a factor in our lives. It has its place in our
lives because you know what? We need to keep the love of God in front of us, but we also need to
keep the wrath of God in front of us all the time and keep his fear before us. It's like a child,
you know, they love their parents, but they also need to also have that respect and fear for their
parents as well and not just think of them as, oh, you know, just the old man or whatever.
They need to have that respect and fear and we need to have that for God. But as we go down
through these plagues that he'll smite those with the disobeyed, he talked about the consumption,
the fever, verse 22, inflammation, extreme burning, all these different things. And then
he says in verse 23, in thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass. What he's saying there
is it's not going to rain. It's going to be like brass where it's just solid, nothing coming down
because these people, you know, without rain, their crops aren't going to grow because these
are people that are farmers and they're shepherds and so forth. They needed the rain. And so he
says, look, I have the power to make the heaven above you become like brass. And he said, I can
make the earth that is under you like iron where, you know, you go to till up the ground, you go to
dig and the shovel just bends. You know, you're just, you can't get in there and dig. You can't
plant anything. God says, I have the power to do that. And now that he's saying, I will do that.
If you start thinking that you're so great, you know, oh, the nation of Israel, you're so great
because, you know, you have these great kings or you have this great culture that, you know,
no, it all needs to be glorifying God. Or he's saying, he'll take away those blessings.
The Lord shall make the reign of thy land powder and dust. He'll turn into a dust bowl.
From heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed. The Lord shall cause thee to
be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go out one way against them and flee seven
ways before them and shall be removed unto all kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcass shall be
meat unto all the fowls of the air and under the beasts of the earth. And no man shall fray them
away. And the Lord shall smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with the emerods. You say, what,
what is the emerods? Well, just put an H on the front of it and see if, see if that helps.
But anyway, and with the scab and with the itch where of thou canst not be healed.
But how, stop and think about this.
How would you like God to smite you with itchy scabs that won't heal?
Right? That's scary. Being covered in just an inflammation and burning and just itchy scab.
Look, this is what Job went through. Now, of course, Job wasn't being punished.
So we don't want to judge other people. You know, if we see bad things happen to other people,
we don't want to jump to that conclusion because Job went through some of these things
as a testing, as a trial of his faith. But you know what? We know
when we're not right with God and these things start happening to us.
Then we put two and two together. Look, if you're living a righteous life and bad things happen,
you know what? Then you can be like Job and say, he knoweth the way that I take. And when I'm tried,
I'll come forth as gold. So when you go through bad things and you're right with God,
there's a joy in that because you think to yourself, you know what? When I'm tried,
I'm going to come forth as gold. And this is all trials and tribulations that are strengthening
my faith. But you know what? You know when you're not right with God. You know when you're out of
church. You're not reading your Bible. You're not soul winning. You're living in sin. You're
fornicating. You're drinking. And then the scabs come. And then the inflammation comes.
Then the burning comes. Then the pains come. And then you realize, wow, God is punishing you. And
there's no joy in that because it's like a lose-lose. Pain, suffering, misery because I
was an idiot. At least let it be pain, suffering, and misery because I'm serving God and I'm going
to go through this. And then I'm going to be like, Job, I'm going to end up with twice as much
blessing in the end. But man alive. The itching and the burning. Remember Job scraping himself,
scraping himself with a piece of pottery? There's nothing worse than a bad itch.
You know, I'm thinking about the worst itch I ever had in my life. One time I got just the
worst sunburn ever. I mean, my back just got cooked. My whole back, and it was like parts
that you couldn't reach to scratch. I'm not very limber in my arms. So my back just got cooked.
And I remember I was at work. I was doing fire alarm inspections and I had just the worst ever
sunburn. And you know, it's like after a couple of days, you hit that one day where the itching
hits its peak. My back was itching so bad. It felt like it was on fire. I mean, I'm just scraping it
and nothing would satisfy. I'm trying to put lotion on it, scratch it. It was torture. It was
like the worst feeling. It was one of the worst things ever. Can you imagine just having that and
you can't be healed for a week, a month, years? Torture. You don't think that God could just snap
his fingers and send the scabs and send the itch and send the burning, send the inflammation.
You don't think God has the power to do that? God has the power to do that. And He has done that to
people to punish them. The Bible says in verse 28, the Lord shall smite thee with madness. And this
is what we saw with Nebuchadnezzar, which I think is really the worst. Madness, craziness, losing
your mind, blindness, astonishment of heart. Thou shalt grope at noonday as the blind grope
in darkness and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. And thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled
evermore. And no man shall save thee. Thou shalt patrol the wife. Hey, things are finally turning
around for me. And another man shall lie with her. How would you like that to happen? Thou shalt
build a house. Thou shall not dwell therein. Thou shalt plant a vineyard and shall not gather the
grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes and thou shalt not eat thereof.
Thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face and shall not be restored to
thee. Thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies and thou shalt have none to rescue them. Thy sons
and thy daughters shall be given unto another people and thine eyes shall look and fail with
longing for them all the day long. And there shall be no might in thine hand. The fruit of thy land
and all thy labors shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up and thou shalt be only
oppressed and crushed always. I mean, is this a pretty dramatic chapter? So shalt thou be mad.
And mad here doesn't mean angry. It means crazy. You're going to be mad for the sight of thine eyes
which thou shalt see. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees. I mean, just imagine just getting hit
in the knees, right? Just imagine somebody just taking a rod of iron and just hitting you in the
knees with it. Can you think of anything more painful? And a sore bite, you're going to be
smitten in the knees and the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of
thy foot and to the top of thy head. I don't know what a botch is, but it's some terrible thing,
whatever it is. It's bad.
It's some kind of a, I don't know if this is a rash or sores or what this boils, who knows what
it is. I don't want it. From the top of your head to the bottom of your foot, the Lord shall bring
thee and thy King, which thou shalt set over thee unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers
have known. And there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone, and thou shalt become an
astonishment, a proverb and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
What does it mean to be a proverb and astonishment, a byword? It means people will use
you to scare other people like, hey, do you want to end up like Steven Anderson?
I didn't, you know, cause if you, if you go down this road, look what happened to him. You know,
how would you like people to use your name like that? Hey, how would you like to, you know,
they're going to use your name as just the example of the person who's doomed. Hey, don't kids,
you know, stay in church, stay right with God. Cause you don't want to end up like so and so
insert your name here, but look at him. I mean, he's the ultimate failure. I mean,
he's the ultimate in torture and punishment. Look at the horrible things that he went through
when he forsook the Lord. You don't want to end up like him.
Verse 38 thou shall carry much seed out into the field and shall gather, but little in for the
locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards and dress them, but shall neither
drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worm shall eat them. Thou should have all of trees
throughout all like, I mean, look, this just goes on and on and on and on. You say, pastor,
it's the old Testament. Okay. But here's what the Bible says. It says all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. This chapter is for instruction in righteousness.
Are you going to tell me that God doesn't chase in people in the new Testament?
Go to Hebrews chapter 10, go to Hebrews chapter 10. What we find is that God expects more of us
in the old Testament than he expected in the, in the new Testament, he expects more than he
did in the old Testament. Why? Because unto whom much is given of him shall much be required.
We have more in the new Testament. We have the whole Bible in the old Testament. They saw through
a glass darkly and had only limited scriptures. We have the entire book. We have 66 books. Also,
they did not have the indwelling of the comforter of the Holy Spirit as we have. So we've got the
Holy Spirit indwelling us, the entire Bible on our smartphone and in print, we've got Bibles all
over our house. We've got a church. We've got pastors preaching to us and warning us and telling
us, what do you think God expected more of them back then? And in the new Testament with all
these blessings, all this knowledge, all this preaching, God's going to relax his standards.
Do you think God is going to relax his punishments? Absolutely not. Look what the Bible says
in Hebrews chapter 10, 24. It says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to
good works. Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner
of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
For if we sin willfully after that we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries. Now watch this comparison in verse 28. He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. So he's going back to old Testament.
He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
It sounds like we're relaxing in the New Testament. He says it's a sorer punishment
when you disregard the words of our Lord Jesus Christ than those who disregarded the words of
Moses. What are the words of Moses? Deuteronomy chapter 28. That's Moses where he's preaching
to them and he's giving them commandments from God and he's saying, look, if you don't obey
these are the type of punishments that God's going to bring upon you if you don't obey.
And then the New Testament, it says, well, back then God really punished sin, but now it's just
sort of anything goes in the age of grace. Is that what it's saying? He's saying, look, of how much
sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who had trodden underfoot the Son of God, counted the
blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and had done despite unto the
grace. Yeah, of course there's the grace of God. We're saved by grace. None of us would be going
to heaven without grace. Salvation's a free gift simply by putting our faith. Remember we talked
about you got to be so humble that you just trust Christ. That's it. Isn't being saved just so
simple? It's not complicated. Just put all your faith in Jesus. But people have trouble grasping
that a lot of times because they're too prideful. They don't want to grasp that.
Okay. So yeah, we're saved by grace, but the Bible says, brethren, you've been called to liberty,
but use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. So we don't want to take God's grace and abuse it
and say like, oh, well, no matter what I do, I'm going to heaven. Well, then I'm just going to go
out and live a wicked life. Well, guess what? If you do that, you still will go to heaven.
If you have believed in Christ and then you choose to go out and live that way. Yeah,
you'll go to heaven. But you know what? All this stuff that we're reading about is going
to happen to you here on earth before you get there. Because I've heard people say this,
well, you know, if we're going to go to heaven, no matter what, then why even live right?
Well, turn to Deuteronomy 28. I don't know about you, but to me, I'm not just satisfied to say,
oh, I'm going to heaven. Torture me for the next 60 years.
Folks, do you want to live a miserable life for the next five years, 10 years, 20 years, 40 years?
Do you want to have 50 miserable years on this earth before you go to heaven? Or do you want
to have 50 blessed years? And I'm not talking about a prosperity gospel. I'm talking about
the blessing of God where you go through life and God allows you to succeed at spiritual endeavors
and you accomplish something with your life. And even when you go through the hard times,
even when you're like Paul and Silas in jail with your back still bleeding from the beating
that you just got, hey, you're singing praises to God in the jail cell. Hey, I'd rather live that
life, the joyful, victorious Christian life, rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
and then go to heaven and then get the rewards. Then to go through life, having God just punish
and everything I touch fails and all my relationships fail and everything financially
with me is a failure and my health goes down the toilet and then, oh, but I'm still going to heaven.
So I'm just going to go out and have a good, you're an idiot. You're a fool. You don't want,
and plus you don't want to get to heaven and, and, and, oh, sorry. Everything you did was
wood hay and stubble. You just wasted your life. Well, you know, I'm going to get the best of both
worlds. I'm going to have the fun and the party folks. No, you're going to get the botch or
whatever that you're going to get the scabs. You say, you know, I want to celebrate Halloween. Well,
let me give you something really scary kids being covered in scabs from head to toe, burning,
itching, doubled up on the floor with sharp pains in your gut. That's what the sermon's about
tonight. Folks. God is the same God of the old Testament and you know what he's done. He's raised
the bar in the new Testament. You know, have you ever just kind of wondered at how much the old
Testament saints got away with? I mean, they, you know what I mean? They got away with some
squirrely stuff, didn't they? You know, you're reading about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
and they got away with some squirrely stuff. Don't try that stuff because you know what?
God's holding us to a higher standard in the new Testament. And he looked the other way at some
things back then and you know, but even back then you see him punishing people and people are
reaping what they sow even in the old Testament. But folks in the new Testament, he's tightened
things up. He's given us more tools. The comforter within us, the Bible in our hand, we've got the
tools. Hey, he expects us to tighten things up in the new Testament. And you know what? We need
churches to get back to fearing God. The fear of God is absent today in Christianity. In most
cases, you know, you have a lot of talk about the love of God, which is great teaching on grace.
Amen. You know, teaching on forgiveness, second chance, restoration. Those are all great things.
They need to be taught. We don't want to be all negative, all doom and gloom, but folks,
we've got to grasp the subject of the fear of God and this I'm tying it in with humility because
I feel that the fear of God and humility really go together, hand in glove. I feel like the fear
of God is the key to making you humble in many ways. And humility really just goes with the fear
of God because what was Nebuchadnezzar's problem? Pride. And you see, he didn't fear God. How do we
know that? Because Daniel already told him exactly what was going to happen to him. Okay. We read the
chapter before the sermon started. How did the chapter start? The chapter starts with Nebuchadnezzar
having a dream. God's warning him in this dream. Then God puts this preacher in his life that's
going to interpret the dream for him. Daniel's brought in and Daniel tells him, this is what's
going to happen to you. You're going to be driven from wind. You're going to eat grass like an ox.
You're going to lose your mind. You're going to lose everything. You're going to get wiped out.
And he pleads with him. I'll just read it for you in verse 27 of Daniel 4. You don't have to turn
there. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins by
righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening
of thy tranquility. So he's saying, look, God has sent this vision of what's going to happen to you.
He's showing us the future that you're going to be insane and humiliated and literally lose
everything and be out like an animal eating grass in the dirt with your hair like bird feathers and
your fingernails like bird claws. He's like, you know, but maybe here's my advice. You know, maybe
if you get your act together and actually clean up your life and start following the rules here and
being righteous, he said, you know, this may be a lengthening of your tranquility. I don't know.
Maybe this maybe this can be pushed back. You know, maybe this can be pushed back into the future or
something. You know, it won't come from or maybe it won't come at all. Because what about when God
told Nineveh he's going to wipe him out? He didn't do it. You know, because they got right. God's
merciful. Folks, if Nebuchadnezzar would have had the fear of God in his heart, he would have said,
oh, man, that's scary. That's a scary thought. I'm going to get right with God. The fact that 12
months later, nothing has changed. 12 months. He gets the warning. 12 months go by. And here he is
still doing all the same things. And then he just bragging about, oh, man, I did this all myself.
And isn't this great Babylon, the excellency of my majesty and my honor. And I'm so I'm the
greatest artist living or dead. No fear of God and pride are going together. And then he's brought
down and now all of a sudden he has what? He has the fear of God and he has humility. OK, humility
is what causes us to fear God and say, you know what? Hey, God can just smash me anytime he wants
to. And you say, oh, you know, you believe in a vengeful God. You got it right. Vengeance belongeth
unto me, saith the Lord. I will repay. God is not mocked whatsoever man. So that's how you also reap.
And look, it doesn't make God any less loving.
Because like I said, this was good for Nebuchadnezzar in the long run. It made him a better person.
To me, looking at your parents with respect and fear and saying, you know what? I don't dare
mess with my dad or I don't dare disregard what my dad is telling me. That doesn't make you love
your dad less. That makes you love your dad more. I'm talking about your earthly father.
You know, when you have a healthy respect and fear of your dad, that doesn't negate your love
for your dad. And many children despise their parents precisely because their parents are so
milk toast and weak and have no real authority in their life. Show me the parent who never
disciplines their child and lets their child just do whatever. And I'll show you the kid
who in their twenties is going to say, I hate you, mom. I hate you, dad. You know, I've heard
children when I was a child, I heard other children tell her I was at a friend's house
and I heard them say, I hate you to their parents. And I just, I couldn't even believe that.
First of all, I didn't feel that way about my parents. But second of all,
I just thought to myself, I would never say that to my parents. And if I did, I think I
would literally die if I said that. And not necessarily that my parents would kill me,
but that God would kill me. You know, I just thought to myself, this is bizarre. This is
insane. But it's the lenient parents whose kids tell them, I hate you, mom. I hate you, dad.
And you know what? The parent that lovingly disciplines their child, that child is going
to grow up and love their parents. You know, and we love God and his rod and his staff,
they comfort us. Okay. So don't try to set the fear of God somehow against the love of God and
say like, well, you know, we can't love God and fear God. That's a misunderstanding of
scripture to try to do that. Okay. Because we have to understand that. And I know first John,
you know, people are twisting that passage. You know, I've done sermons where I go verse
by verse to that chapter and explain that where it says, you know, well, perfect love casteth
out fear and so forth. But, but here's what you have to understand though. This side of eternity,
we're never going to be so perfect where fear doesn't need to play a role anymore.
Theoretically. Yeah. If we were just living a perfect life, there'd be no reason to ever
fear God because God would never punish us. And obviously, yeah, the more we grow in love for God,
the less motivated by fear we are. And we grow into being motivated more by the love of God
and less by the fear of God. But folks don't kid yourself and think that you can reach a state of
sinless perfection in this life. If Paul didn't get there, if John didn't get there and they said,
Hey, if you say you have no sin, you're deceiving yourself. Okay. And the truth is not in you.
We're not going to get to the point in this life where fear no longer plays a role. We are sinful
flesh. We every single day are in the flesh and have to put on the new man. The apostle Paul said,
I die daily. We got to take up the cross and deny self daily. Look, while you are in this
tabernacle, while you are in this sinful flesh, while you are living this mortal life, you
had best fear God because God is willing and able to take you down a notch. If you start getting
puffed up and prideful and doing whatever you want, just like a kid who goes out and
does whatever they want, their parents are going to reign them in the loving parents.
Now, sure. When we get to heaven eventually and we're in our perfected state and we no longer have
our sinful flesh anymore, then there's going to be no need to fear the Lord at that point.
But right now it's fear God and keep his commandments. Right now it's serve the Lord
with fear and rejoice with trembling. Right now it's in singleness of your heart with fear and
trembling as unto Christ. Those are the commands. Okay. And we need to take that command seriously
to fear the Lord. Fear, the Bible says, fear the Lord and his goodness. Fear him
because God can do some pretty scary things to you.
And so look, if you're living a very Christian life and you're really dedicated and you're
reading your Bible consistently, going to church consistently, praying and you're living a clean
life, of course, nobody's perfect, but you're, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're walking
in the will of God. You know, maybe the fear of God isn't a huge thing in your life because you're
just enjoying the love and enjoying the fellowship. But you know what? It always needs to be there in
the back of your mind. But most people are not really to that point yet that I just described.
So if you're the one that's struggling to read your Bible every day, you're struggling to pray,
struggling to even get in church, rarely going soul-winning, or maybe you haven't even started
soul-winning. And, you know, let's say you're still trying to quit smoking and you're, you're
still trying to get off this addiction and that addiction and you're fighting this sin and that
sin. Boy, you better have the fear of God right front and center in your life and start running
scared and getting things right and getting your act together. Because this is a part of the
Christian life. It's, it's, it's a factor that needs to be there. The fear of God. Let's bow
our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for these warnings. Lord,
help us to take these warnings seriously. Help us not to just think that we're invincible
and that nothing can take us down and we got money and in different parts of our portfolio,
because Lord, we know you can smash that portfolio at any moment. You can smash our health. You can,
you can smash us. Help it never to come to that, Lord. Help us every single day to just
get on our knees or on our face before you and give you all the glory and ask you to give us
the privilege of living another day serving you and to walk humbly before you and never to get
puffed up or arrogant or think that we don't need you. Help us to seek first the kingdom of God
so that we could be blessed and not just think, oh, we're going to do it in our own strength.
Help us to fear. The Bible says blessed is the man that feareth always. Help us to have that,
that, that healthy fear of you, Lord. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.