Episode Transcript
All right, if you take God's precious word and turn the book of Proverbs chapter 9. Proverbs chapter 9. God willing we'll be expounding verses 10 through 12 tonight. The title of tonight's message is personal accountability. Personal accountability. Man, I love teaching through these Proverbs. He had so many different topics. So in verses 10 through 12 tonight, Solomon is going to repeat something that he told us in chapter 1 of our study when we first began. When something is repeated like that, we have to understand this because God wants us to hear it again. It's common in human language. We repeat ourselves when something's important to us. We bring it up. Don't forget this. Don't forget to do the other or whatever. We bring it up because it's important to us. And the fact that God tells us to renew our mind in Scripture lets us know that we're prone to forget things. And so it needs to be repeated. And so in the New Testament, for example, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you." You know, he'll say that. Well, he could say, "Verily, I say unto you." He could just say, "I say unto you." And it would all mean the same thing because everything he says is true and he doesn't have to say truly, truly twice. But it wouldn't have the same impact even though it had the same meaning, see. So he said it twice. So tonight Solomon is going to tell us again what he told us in the beginning about wisdom so it can have a greater impact on our lives. Solomon says if you'll look in your text, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's what he said back in Proverbs 1 verse 7, if you're taking notes. But since he said it again by the Holy Spirit, then God willing, we're going to listen to it again by the Holy Spirit. And if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then that means the fear of the Lord is the most valuable thing a person can obtain. I can picture someone reading this verse and thinking, what exactly is the fear of the Lord? You know, I also have to remember too, that when I'm teaching in here, number one, a lot of the people can't remember everything we taught on. I can't. I think Brother Shepherd does a better job remembering what I taught on than I do. I really do. But then I have to remind myself that we have people that tune in and watch or that begin coming here who wasn't here when we first began. And you may think, well, what is the fear of the Lord? Does it mean we're supposed to be scared of God? Well, in a sense, yes, but not the way you would think of fear today. There are several occasions in the Bible where either the Lord himself or an angel of the Lord appears to someone, And that person that's being appeared to becomes terribly afraid. Being a sinful person and now suddenly they're in the presence of the overwhelming power and glory of God or his angelic representative. The reason those people become afraid is because they recognize at that moment the awesomeness of God. Something that we don't have in ourselves. You remember the Apostle Paul. We're thinking of the fear of the Lord trying to hammer down in our minds what exactly that means. And I prayed that I'd be able to do that tonight when I was sending this message. The Apostle Paul, he once persecuted the people who served Jesus, remember? Paul did not believe Jesus was the Savior of the world. He did not recognize the awesomeness of Christ. He did not recognize Him, acknowledge Him as the Creator and Savior of men. But the Bible says in the book of Acts, chapter 9, verse 3 through 6, that Paul was traveling one day, remember? And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecute as thou may?" And he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecute as." It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And then in verse 6 it says, "And he trembling and astonished." What is this trembling and astonished? That's the fear of the Lord. See? But watch what happens. There's a connection here between Paul's fear and Paul's faith. You got it up here? Yes. Here we go. Wish brother Neil. Oh, your brother Neil. Here we go. Now I'll just use this brother, that's what you got it for. Thank you though. We save that for next door. "Trembling and astonished said, 'Lord, what would thou have me to do?'" You see, at that moment, Paul's fear was coupled with Paul's faith. Paul's fear and Paul's faith were just like repentance in faith. Repentance causes you to change your mind. When your mind has changed, well, you certainly believe. When Paul was trembling and astonished, that's the fear of the Lord, he then confessed the Lord Jesus Christ. "Lord, what will thou have me to do?" And the Lord said unto him, "Arise and go in the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do." When Paul recognized Jesus for who he was, he was trembling and astonished. The Hebrew word translated fear in this passage, it means to stand in awe of. He was trembling and astonished in the sense that he's like, "This is the Lord God. Jesus, when you stand in awe of something, you recognize its awesomeness, right? He at that time, as he's trembling and astonished, he's recognizing the awesomeness of Christ. On this day, Paul recognized the awesomeness of Jesus. He recognized the Lord for who He was. He said, "Lord, what will Thou have me to do?" We see then that the fear of the Lord is not simply being afraid of God. You remember the soldiers who were guarding Jesus' tomb? Remember when that angel came, a great earthquake happened. They rolled the stone away. The Bible says those soldiers were scared to death. When the angel came to roll back the stone, they were scared to death, but Paul was scared to life. See the difference? They had the fear of dying. Paul had the fear of the Lord. What's the difference here? Well, the fear of dying caused those soldiers to shake. The fear of dying caused those soldiers to become like dead men. The fear of the Lord caused Paul to acknowledge Jesus for who he was. Those soldiers never did that. Those soldiers later lied and said the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus. If they had the fear of the Lord, they went out and told the truth that Jesus Christ was alive and had been raised from the dead. Paul later preached the resurrection of Christ. They denied it in exchange for money. The fear of the Lord is when we recognize God for who he is, and the moment we recognize God for who he is, that is the beginning, the Bible says, of wisdom. The Hebrew word translated beginning, it literally means to break. Not to break as a sense of breaking glass or something like that, or breaking something in the sense of damaging it, but it means to break in the sense of breaking forth, like the breaking of the day. It's all dark outside, there's no light. And then suddenly, the day breaks, and that light goes forth. And that's what this word means. The fear of the Lord is the breaking forth of wisdom, such as breaking news, right? Hot off the press, breaking news, such as the breaking forth of water from a dam. It's the initial breaking forth of wisdom in a place where wisdom had not previously been. And you know what, when we're raised up in this world, haven't been born an Adam, there is no wisdom in us. And so at some point there has to be this initial spark where wisdom or light or however you wanna put it, breaks forth in that darkened heart that we were born with. And that happens with the fear of the Lord, just like it did with Paul. I'm sure most everyone in here has purchased an electronic device with batteries included. I put in a luxurious automatic, everything I get is luxury, everything. a luxurious automatic chicken coop door opener last night. You got one of those, Sister Elizabeth? I didn't figure Brandon would spring for that. But it's got this little solar charger and a little light beam. So what was happening is when we would leave church on Wednesday night, well, it was too much daylight for the chickens to go roost when we left. When we came home it was too dark and they could be exposed to critters, the door would still be open. So now, this morning when the daylight came, the door opens on the chicken coop and God willing, when it gets dark tonight, it will be closed when we get home and everyone will be safe inside. And one of the little devices had batteries in it, and you know what I'm talking about, to preserve the battery life and keep things from corroding and all, they'll put that little plastic tab between the battery and between the wiring and that device. And so it won't work, it won't activate, there is no breaking forth of energy to that device until the tab which stands in between them is removed out of the way. So you pull that plastic tab out from between the batteries and the wiring and suddenly the device has its first contact with the batteries that power it to do what it was designed to do. The moment the tab is removed, power breaks forth. Every person is born to And every person is born with the plastic tab of sin and unbelief in between them and God. It just does not allow us to experience the life of God, the knowledge of God, because of that sin and unbelief that separates us from God. And we can only know God one way. You know how that is? By faith. believing, by knowledge, by truth, because it's impossible to know something that you don't believe to be true, right? You can't say you know something that you don't believe to be true. That would not be knowledge. The apostle Paul was persecuting Christians in the name of God because he had the tab of sin and unbelief in Jesus that separated him from the wisdom that we're learning about in the book of Proverbs and I. Remember, we have learned, we have seen very clearly that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of the book of Proverbs. So Paul did not have that wisdom. And then suddenly, Paul sees Jesus for who he is. He now has the fear of the Lord, that tab now because of his faith, because you can't have the fear of the Lord without faith. You can't believe in the Lord you don't believe in. And suddenly that tab had been removed. "Lord, what would you have me to do?" He goes off preaching Jesus and Him crucified. It was the writing of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 5, "For when we were yet without strength and due time Christ died for the ungodly." It was that verse that Paul wrote that I believed and brought me to faith in Christ. I have it inscribed on my Bible cover. My most favorite verse in the Bible. And he was able to pass that wisdom down to me because of that moment on the road to Damascus when that initial spark of faith happened in his life. And the light of Christ shined at the moment of the fear of the Lord. He recognized him for who he was. Paul was a man in bondage to the foolishness of false religion until he recognized Jesus for who he was. And the moment he recognized Jesus as Lord, that's when the wisdom broke forth. That's what the light of God's wisdom was all about. Breaking forth into Paul's heart at the moment of the fear of the Lord. It's impossible to have wisdom apart from the fear of the Lord because it's the beginning of wisdom. It's the catalyst of wisdom. So without the fear of the Lord, there is no wisdom, because wisdom comes from God, and the fear of Him is the acknowledgment of the same. People often mistakenly consider foolish men to be wise because they're clever, because they're good with money, because they're skillful, or they have practical know-how in life. But if a person has all of those things, but doesn't acknowledge God for who He is, then He doesn't have the fear of the Lord. He's one of the biggest fools of all. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In this book we've learned that God has made Jesus to be wisdom unto us. But if you don't recognize your Creator, then you'll never recognize your Redeemer. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Look back in your text now, and the knowledge of the Lord is understanding. So what is knowledge? Knowledge is faith. Faith is knowing something. Knowing something is believing something, right? To be real, to be true, to be fact. So knowledge is faith. It's knowing the truth of God and the literal, the literal translations translate this as the knowledge of the holy one. You see where it says, it says here in the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Well, if you were to read in the literal translations, it'll say the knowledge of the holy one is understanding which makes perfect sense. Not the holy blank, you know, the holy, the holy one. He was talking about God, the Holy One. The difference between knowledge and understanding is knowledge means knowing something while understanding means to comprehend it, to be able to mentally break it down, to figure it out. In the Hebrew word, when you're talking about understanding, it means to be able to mentally separate things. them apart and separate them, divide them up. We would call it digesting. If we were speaking in our English language, we would say, "Give me a moment to digest that." Basically, you mean, "Let my mind break that down to small parts that I can mentally process." That's understanding. People say, "Brother Richard, I love how you break that down." Well, you know what? It's the same thing. You're imparting understanding. Knowledge, I can take the book of Proverbs and give knowledge, just give facts, but when we break it down to where our mind can digest that knowledge, then we have understanding. So that's the difference between the two. The Bible's just not repeating itself here. When you know God, when you finally come to realize the truth of God and his plan to redeem mankind, you've got understanding. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. When you know God and you finally come to realize the truth of God and his plan to redeem mankind, that's when you finally figured things out. That's when you finally get it. You finally get a grasp and understanding of what life is all about. And until that time, without the knowledge of the Holy One, without the knowledge of his plan for you and his purpose for mankind, you don't get it. You go through life mastering trivial things and never knowing eternal things. I thank God, I thank God that I finally got things figured out. I talk to people a lot of times and they don't have things figured out yet and I feel sorry for them. They say, "Well, I don't know if anyone can really know. I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure about that." I don't believe in God. Well, I believe this and that and the other and they're just going through life and they don't have understanding. When you have that understanding, that comprehension of God, that's when finally everything falls into place in life. And until you have that, you won't get it. Wisdom says, verse 11, "For by me thy days shall be multiplied." By me, that is by wisdom, your days shall be multiplied. Notice the pronoun "thy," which means "your." The tile of this message is personal accountability. And after telling us how wonderful it is to have the fear of the Lord, how that is the beginning of wisdom, wisdom now turns around and says, "Let me tell you what that means to you." Up to this point, in the previous chapters, wisdom's been talking to the foolish young man who's on his way to the strange woman's house. Up to this point, the wisdom has been talking to someone in the city, inviting them to come in. Now wisdom is talking to the individual. He's talking to you. You by me, your days shall be multiplied. Well, first we want to see wisdom extends life. Foolishness shortens life. It just all depends on to what degree. Wisdom can extend life eternally. Foolishness can terminate life eternally. Wisdom can extend life temporarily. Foolishness can terminate life temporarily because of foolishness. Oh, Samson had his day shortened. I watched a terrible video a few years back in which a young man was making videos of himself. Kids do this now. They'll get on the side of a building and they'll take their fingers and they'll start climbing up the building. Have you all seen them do that? They're very athletic. He was climbing up skyscrapers and making a lot of YouTube videos and posting them. I think he was pretty popular. And this one particular day, he's climbing up the side of that skyscraper and he gets up to the top and instead of just pulling himself over and climbing up the top and celebrating, he's got a girlfriend watching and he wants to impress her so he starts doing chin-ups on the side of the building, hanging off the side of the skyscraper. And I watched the video and he came back down and he came up and he, at the point of failure, we've all been there. Those of you all who exercise point a failure and then suddenly his body's like, "We're done." And he went down and he sunk, he hung on as long as he could, and he finally let go and he fell to his death. That was foolish. And he had that foolishness because he didn't have the fear of the Lord. Foolishness shortened that young man's life. Had that young man known the Lord, that he would have recognized that he belonged to God. He would have recognized that his life was not his own risk like that. And his days would have been multiplied. By wisdom, our day shall be multiplied, not just temporarily like that, not just preventing us from doing something foolish like that, that could cause us to die early and hasten our death because you can't. People say, "Oh well, when it's your time, you're not going to go until it's your time to go." All right? That's not necessarily true. God could have a spot for you to go. Now God knows when you're going to go, but he could have a particular time for you to go in life. If you were to follow his plan and if you act foolishly contrary to his plan, you can hasten your time to go. So foolishness, it shortens life. "By wisdom our day shall be multiplied," again, eternally as well because wisdom gives us life not only in this world, What the world to come the fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom when Paul got the fear of the Lord and he came no Christ as his Savior at that time wisdom extended his life forever forever Look back in your text and the years of thy life shall be increased notice again the pronoun thy life Wisdom is speaking to you the individual here and Wisdom has not always been doing that He's speaking to the individual. The years of thy life shall be increased. Why? Because if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll have everlasting life. But again, the, the years of thy life and we wisdom, we see here, it supplies personal grace to those who possess it. Not secondhand grace. Wisdom speaks to you individually, personally, thy life. If my King James English serves me correctly, Brother Shepherd, you can tell me if I'm wrong, thy is singular, your is plural in the King James English. Is that right, Brother Shepherd? shake your head. Someone get on your phone and look it up for me. I know that's right though. I know it's right. Die singular, yours plural. And that, King James English. Brother That will be a good job for you, your takee. But he's speaking to the individual. Brother Richard, what are you talking about? Wisdom supplies personal grace to those who possess it. You cannot be wise for someone else. You can't be. You cannot be wise for someone else. The Bible says in verse 12, "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself." That's some deep doctrine right there, folks. Wisdom starts out so broadly. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, such a broad statement that applies to the the apostle Paul that applies to me, that applies to you, that applies to everyone in the world. But after making that broad statement, wisdom then comes down and says, now let's talk about you. Let's talk about how this applies to you. If you're going to be wise, you'll be wise for yourself. I can't believe in God for another person. I can't have the fear of the Lord for another person. Try as hard as you like. You can't do it. Wisdom by telling us that it's going to make you wise for yourself is telling us, "I, wisdom, hold every individual accountable to me." The children of God have no grandchildren. They have no children. There is no grandchildren. God has no grandchildren. You're either a child of God to them gave He power to become the sons of God, or you're not. You're not the grandsons of God. There is no second hand faith. There is no second hand wisdom. You cannot ride into heaven on the coattails of anybody else. You cannot. And boy, wisdom is just telling us like it is. If you be wise, you be wise, you shall be wise for yourself. That's simple. Listen, I've said this saying many times before. I've said, I thank God I can see, but sometimes it hurts to look. I thank God that I can look at the nation, I can look at the world around me, and see what's going on, that I'm not blinded as to what's taking place. that I can see perversion and recognize it for what it is. At the same time, being able to see it for what it is, it hurts to look. It hurts to see it. It would almost be better sometimes, not in the real sense, but it would be less painful if I did not know the truth. Just run off in ignorance, they say, ignorance is bliss. it is until the bug hits the windshield of your car. Then that ignorant bug is not bliss anymore. But I believe the reason we're told this here that if you're gonna be wise, you're gonna be wise for yourself is because wisdom opens your eyes. Wisdom lets you see. And when you have the fear of God and that light of God's wisdom breaks forth into your heart, suddenly you look around, you think, well, how come these people aren't believing in Christ? How come these people aren't coming to the Lord? How come people aren't turning their lives over to God before it's too late? And suddenly you begin to fret because you see people who are lost and on their way to hell. And wisdom's reminding us tonight, I give you wisdom directly, personally, individually, but I wisdom hold all men personally accountable. I give you this wisdom, but it's for you alone. I can't believe in God for another person. I can't trust in Jesus for another person. There's times I wish so bad I could, but I can't. if you're wise and you're wise for yourself. You can't get to heaven on your parents' wisdom. You can't get to heaven and enter into eternal life on your pastors' wisdom. We preach the gospel to everybody, but we share our faith with no one. You have to make that difference. Make that decision yourself. You have to acknowledge God for who he is yourself. You have to acknowledge Jesus for who he is yourself. I've heard people say, "Well, I know I got a mom in heaven praying for me." Wisdom says, "You are accountable to me." Why do we, as parents, as wise parents, Why do we sometimes have foolish children? Because if you're wise, you're wise for yourself. That's why. This means everyone must seek their own wisdom. Each individual must themselves pull that plastic tab of unbelief from between them and God. They have to. There is no socialism in Christianity. And this is one of the things I hate about socialism. It makes people so lackadaisical. It makes people so dependent. It makes them assume that somebody else is going to take responsibility and take care of them. Not with God. Not with God. There is no socialistic Christianity. One must take responsibility for their own souls. They must repent and believe for themselves. If you're wise, then you're wise for yourself. Look back in the text. But if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Goes both ways. could probably be translated just as well. And if thou scornest thou shalt alone bear it just the same as the blessing of wisdom is born alone by those who are wise. So the burden of foolishness is born alone by those who are foolish. If you mock the truth of God, you'll bear the heavyweight of that guilt yourself. No one's going to share it with you. When I first started out in grade school, school was much tougher back then in my day kids, much tougher. Y'all couldn't have hacked it back then. When I started out in grade school, each child had to bring their own paper to school. And if you ran out of paper, on you. You were responsible for getting with another child and saying, "Hey, can I borrow a piece of paper to get me through this assignment and I'll pay you back tomorrow?" Then you have to go home and remember to tell your mom, "Hey, I need some paper for school." That's the way it was. You brought your own paper, you used your own paper, and suddenly a few years later people bring paper and they give it to the teacher, then the teacher takes the paper and they distributed out to all the children and they tell you when you need more. But here with Christianity, no one's got your back. You have to believe yourself. You have to take that individual responsibility for your own soul. Your family can't help you. Your pastor can't help you, yes we can tell you the truth, but we can't live for you, decide for you, believe for you. We can't care for you. I care about people's souls who I know don't care themselves. Your influential friends, your community, your village cannot help you. If you mock God's truth, then you alone shall bear that heavy weight. The Gospel makes each person personally accountable to God. That's wisdom. With that, we'll go ahead and close in prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word. Thank you, God, for wisdom having such incredible blessings. But at the same time, it warns us tonight, it has very individual restrictions. And I'm glad because no one wants to spend eternity with fools. We're doing that now. And I thank you that wisdom demands the individual, each individual, to bow the knee and confess Christ as Lord. And I pray, Father God, that if there's any here tonight, anyone listening online now or in the future, I pray for our loved ones that we all have tonight that are probably on many people's minds right now. We lift them up in prayer to you tonight, Father. And we pray, dear Lord, you'll get ahold of their hearts, and give them their Damascus road. Give them their time of coming to themselves while they're feeding the pigs. And I pray that wisdom will break forth in them before it's eternally too late. We ask in Jesus' wonderful name, Amen.
