Posted on 08/31/2022 7:03:20 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7 KJV).
Verse 5 is the first proverb in the Book of Proverbs.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,” there is awareness. You just get somebody afraid of God and they are on the way. Now, that is not the complete solution—but that is the beginning—you have to start somewhere. The best way to deal with a lost sinner is to get him scared to death. It is best not to teach the lost man about the “love” of God—you can throw that in—but primarily teach him about the judgment of God. Teach them about heaven, hell, sin, the damnation of sin, but most of all—the judgment.
That’s what got Paul in trouble in the Book of Acts. Paul was over there dealing with all those philosophers and educated scholars at Athens, Greece—you know, the epitome and the elite of education—the epicureans and the stoics, and all the professors at the state university. And he got to preaching to them, in verse 30: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world.”
That was about the end of the discourse right there, because, “when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter” (Act 17:32 KJV).
They didn’t want to hear that business. They didn’t want to hear about judgment, they don’t want to hear about that resurrection, they don’t want to believe that they will have to come up some day and face their sins somewhere down the road. They didn’t want to hear that.
If you can get a man to listen to that, that’s “the beginning of wisdom.” If you can get him afraid of the judgment of God, then he will open up to God. There are a lot of preachers and a lot of churches today that say it is not good to scare folks. The Bible says that Noah “moved with fear” (Heb 11:7), he was motivated by fear. If you really stop to think about it, why are we wearing clothes? Fear! We don’t want to be exposed. Yes, there are also laws in our civilization, but the fact is we don’t want to be exposed. Why do we drive on the right side of the road? Why do we have a job, why do we have insurance? Fear.
Folks, we have these screwball preachers that say we ought not scare anybody, but advertising is based on fear. It’s either fear of losing something—not having something that somebody else has—or something might happen to you before you get it. They use fear to motivate you into buying their product. Fear is one of the prime motivations of men. Advertisers know something that most preachers don’t.
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Bump.
It’s a healthy fear, one that leads to repentance and Salvation. Bring it on, it’s Truth!
Amen.
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