[Rick Shabi] Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I hope that wherever you are as you’re hearing this, during the Feast of Tabernacles, that your Feast has gone very well so far. The Feast of Tabernacles is a special time for everyone. Many would say it is the highlight of the year and indeed it is, it is a highlight. When you look at God’s plan for mankind and humanity, if you see that, it culminates in the return of Jesus Christ, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ and the plan of God is complete during this time when all of humanity has an opportunity to learn by God’s ways and His laws and see the benefits and the peace and joy that can only come and that fully comes as a result of living that way.

You know, through the year we plan for the Feast of Tabernacles, we look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles. It should be on our minds all the time just like it’s on God’s mind and the hosts of heaven. When you read through the book of Revelation, you see that they’re all anticipating, all anticipating the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom that begins during the millennial reign but lasts forever and ever and ever. As we prepare for the Feast each year and as we come to the Feast each year and we observe it, there’s many things that are on our minds. Sometimes we may need to just stop and think about all the things that God has built into the Feast of Tabernacles and our preparation for it that help us to remember what His way is all about and what you and I are here for.

So, to rehearse just a little bit, you may have already done this during the Feast but turn with me back to Leviticus 23. Now let’s just remind ourselves of a few of the things in case you haven’t been reminded yet of what this Feast is about and what God designed as He told us to go from our homes and keep this Feast for seven days of the Feast and then the Eighth Day as well. In Leviticus 23, at the end of the chapter, we find the Feast of Tabernacles mentioned, begins on the 15th day of the seventh month, as you know. And then God gives quite a bit of instructions. First, He talks about it being a Holy Day on the first day and the Eighth Day as a holy convocation as well. But as we come down to verse 39, you see some more specific instructions that He gave to Israel for that Feast that they were to keep. Let’s just pick it up in verse 40 and see some of the things that He said as He ordained this Holy Day and gave instructions for its keeping.

Verse 40 says, “You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the eternal your God for seven days.” So, rejoicing, rejoicing is one of the keys of the Feast. There is reason to rejoice. Christ has returned, He has been established as King of kings of Lord of lords. His way of life will be taught, the restoration of the world will begin, and the world will begin to see how wonderful God’s way of life is. So, rejoicing is one of the things that, as we think about the Feast and as we read about it in other places, is a key that God wants us to go there rejoicing, remembering where we’re there, what we’re picturing, and what we’re doing.

So, dropping down to verse 42, He says, “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths.” So, temporary dwellings are part of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. There is a reason that God said, and we’ll look at other places where more instructions for the Feast are recorded, that we leave our homes. We leave our homes behind, we leave the world behind, and we go to the place that He chooses to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. There’s good reason for that. When we are in the millennial, when Jesus Christ returns, the world we know will have passed away, no longer there. We will be leaving these temporary homes that we are in now, this temporary society that we live in now, and we will be living in a Kingdom that we are citizens of now, if we’ve repented and had received God’s Holy Spirit, living in that Kingdom that He has prepared for us for eternity.

So, we leave our homes, and when we leave our homes, that means we leave the world behind. It’s coming out of the world, putting it behind for the seven days, and then the Eighth Day that we’re there, living in a temporary place. There with other people of like mind, there in the presence of God, there every day hearing His word preached, and in a completely different environment that God wanted us to be involved in for those eight days, the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day.

If we go back to verse 36 of Leviticus 23 here, you notice that it says, “For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the eternal.” And if you go back and you look at the offerings that God designated on each day of those seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, they’re pretty specific. They’re not just the routine, everyday sacrifices, they’re something that Israel did every day to God. They were there for seven days, they had specific things they do just like you and I. When we go to the Feast, we’re there for seven days. We go to services all seven days and on the Eighth Day, it is a holy, kind of, like, a week-long holy convocation to God. He’s called us out to do that.

Now there’s other places in the Bible that talk about the Feast of Tabernacles as well. Perhaps about this holy time, God’s recorded more instructions than other places, but if you turn with me to Deuteronomy 16, we find some other features of the Feast of Tabernacles that God gives us. We pick it up in Deuteronomy 16:13. God records through Moses, “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you’ve gathered from your threshing floor and from your wine press.” And verse 14, He repeats, what was said in Leviticus 23, “And you shall rejoice in your feast.” And then He mentions all these others that we’re supposed to be sure are rejoicing as well. “You and your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.”

The Feast is not just about us, it’s not just about what we want to do, but built into proper observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, it’s thinking about others as well. Part of our lives in the world today is that we develop agape and outgoing concern for others, being aware of the needs for others. And that’s built into the Feast as well, that we don’t have our tithe and go to the Feast just to consume it on ourselves, but making sure that others are enjoying the Feast as well and watching out for each other. That’s part of the community that God has us building, part of the community even in our local churches that we are to be building. Look out for the needs of others and when you see a need, fill it. If you see someone who’s alone, go talk to them. If you see them alone, ask them to go out. Make sure everyone is included and everyone has the opportunity to rejoice and feel a part of the family that God has called us to be.

Going on in verse 15, then, He says, “Seven days you shall keep a sacred Feast to the eternal your God in the place which He chooses.” Now we have a choice in today’s world to go to the many Feast sites that are offered around the world, but those are all places that God has placed His name in. That’s where we go. He chooses where to keep the Feast, not us. We go there because we go where God says has us go, just like when He returns we will be where He wants us to be in the state that He has us in. So, we go to the place God chooses as part of the proper observance of the Feast. Now, I know some are thinking, “Well, what about if I’m really sick or I can’t go?” Well, there’s exceptions, but if we can go, we should go to the place that God chooses. That’s part of the proper observance and part of what we learn by keeping to the Feast.

“Go to the place which the Lord chooses because He will bless you.” Oh, when we do what God says, we keep learning. When we do what He says, blessings result. Everyone in the millennial time will learn that. If you obey God, He blesses. If you reject Him, if you count it not important or just sort of play at it rather than doing it with your heart, those blessings don’t occur. “Go to the place God says and He will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you surely rejoice.”

So, we add bit by bit what it means to keep the Feast and what we learn from keeping it, and how we approach it as we go there. If we go back a couple chapters to Deuteronomy 14, God talks about the tithe. We commonly call it either second tithe or the festival tithe that He has us keep each year and to put away through the course of the year so that we have the funds to go and adequately enjoy the Feast. Let’s pick it up in Chapter 14:23. It’s another aspect of keeping the Feast in the way that God ordains for us to keep it. Chapter 14:23, “You shall eat before the eternal your God in the place where He chooses to make His name abide.” There we have that again. “The tithe of your grain, and your new wine, and your oil of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks.” So, keep your tithe, He says. And then verses 24 and 25, it says, “The journey is too long. Go ahead and turn it in for money.” And in verse 26, “You shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires.” And then He says kind of, “Whatever our heart desires is for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, or for whatever your heart desires, eat it there before the eternal your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.”

So, the Feast is a time of spiritual food, certainly. For seven days of the Feast and the Eighth Day, we are fed richly spiritual food. And we shouldn’t neglect those meals and skip those meals at all because that’s why we’re there. But the Feast is a physical time, too. In the millennium, maybe you’ve already read, you know, Amos 9 where it talks about the complete abundance that will be at the time of the millennium. There will be no scarcity of food. There will be plenty of food for everyone all over the world. It will be a time where God’s blessings rain out on all of mankind as they learn and as they apply and they do the things that He commands them to do. So, it’s a time of physical blessing that God wants us to enjoy. That’s why He says, “Keep the tithe and eat whatever your heart desires.” Eat whatever your heart desires, but do it there in His presence. Do it at that Feast that pictures that coming millennium, that coming thousand years where Christ will be on earth and physical human beings will live over into it. And you and I, you and I as teachers who have learned this way in this lifetime will be there to help them appreciate it, to learn it, to do it, and to speak from our hearts that God’s way works. This is what the Feast of Tabernacles and God’s way brings into our lives.

If we look at verse 27, again, He mentions others, others that are part of it. And as we think about keeping second tithe, it’s something in this day and age that we do pretty much year-round. It’s not something that we just think a week before the Feast, “I got to save tithe.” If we’re doing that, we’re missing part of what God wants us to do. We save our tithe all through the year. So, every time we get a paycheck or whatever time that you’re paid in, you keep that money aside and you’re thinking about the Kingdom. And that money is special. That money is exactly what God said. It’s not something to be used in case of an emergency. It’s something we put away in faith to God. And as we do that, we develop that faith in Him. We’re keeping that tithe because it’s important to us or important, well, important to us as it is important to Him that we’re there at that Feast and we make sure we have the funds to get there the whole 10th of our income that God wants us to save. So, throughout the year, the Feast of Tabernacles is always on our minds. There’s something that’s going on just as it should be spiritually, that the Feast and the coming of Jesus Christ and seeking first the Kingdom of God is always on our minds.

If we go back to verse 23 for a moment, there’s another point in there of what we learn by keeping the Feast in exactly the way that God has us do. Verse 23, in it He says that, you know, go to the place where He chooses to make His name abide and I’ll finish reading the verse there. “Eat there the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks.” And notice that last phrase, “That you may learn to fear the eternal your God always.” That you may learn to fear Him always. Whenever God says, this is the reason, we should pay attention that we do all these things, we keep the Feast exactly the way He said to do it, that we may learn to fear Him always.

You know, fearing God, fearing God is such an important foundational part of our lives. Maybe we don’t talk about it enough. Maybe as the world goes on and we get immersed in it or go about our everyday lives, maybe we forget about how important the fear of God is. But every time we go to the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the things we’re reminded is that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Not just once in a while, but God has that annual reminder for us to do that. Such a basic concept, but so foundational to our Christian lives. And without it, without it, we lose a lot.

Let’s go back to Exodus 20. I think you’re all familiar with Exodus 20 where God has brought Israel out of Egypt. They’re standing there at the base of Mount Sinai. They hear the thunderings and they realize the omnipotence and the power of God and the Israelites become afraid. They recognize God’s power and they’re physically afraid of Him. They understand what He can do, and they know what He’s done in parting the Red Sea and the power that He has. And remember they tell Moses, “No, Moses, you speak to us. Don’t let God speak to us. We don’t want...we’re afraid of Him.” And in verse 20, kind of a hallmark part of the Bible of what the fear of God, how important it is. Now, it’s not fear as in timidity but an awesome reverence of God, understanding His power, understanding His outstanding love for all of us, that He really wants us all to have eternal life. Repentance has to precede that. All that has to happen.

And in verse 20, Moses said to the people, “Well, don’t fear God as in being afraid of Him. He’s on your side. He wants you to succeed but you need this. You need to have the proper fear of God for God has come to test you,” he says, “And that His fear, the reverence of Him in your eyes, that it may be before you so that you may not sin.” If we have that proper fear of God, if we understand what God is doing with us, if we understand what He has promised us, if we really want what He has promised us, and that’s what our goal in life is, then that fear of God may stop us from sinning. It may cause us to stop and think, “This is not God’s way. This is not the way of life that will be in the millennium. This is not the way of life for the eternity with Christ as King of kings and God as our Father.” We know the way, we’ve been taught it, that fear, if we let it, can keep us from going astray and from losing it.

We don’t have to turn back to Genesis 22, but when Abraham... when God asked him to sacrifice his son and Abraham was willing to do it, you know, God stopped him, and He said, “Now I know.” Now, what He said in that verse was, “Now I know that you fear Me. Whatever I say, you have such respect, trust, and reverence in Me that I know you would do whatever I tell you. Now I know.” God wants to know that you and I come to that same thing as well. Now I know that you fear Me. Whatever I say to do, you’ll do. Wherever I say to follow Me, you will follow. You have developed that trust and absolute trust in God of what He’s doing and where He’s leading us.

Let’s go to the New Testament. New Testament, Romans 3. Paul, he is talking to the Roman church that’s comprised of Jews and gentiles. He has quite a bit to say about the way people are. Let me just read through Chapter 3 of Romans 10 and down through verse 18 because it’s a very telling tale here that God has. He says what people are like when they don’t have the fear of God. He’s talking about the world, but he could be talking about some of us as well. If this fits the bill at all, maybe we want to see where we are, and do we have that proper fear of God that we are reminded every year, at the Feast at least, that should be there?

Verse 10, Romans 3, “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.” What awful traits that God lists here. “Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known.” He concludes, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” How important is the fear of God? Foundational. Foundational. Must be who we are. We can’t have peace without God’s Spirit. We can’t have the fear of God without God’s Spirit, the proper fear of God. So important and so foundational is the fear of God that even Jesus Christ had the fear of God.

If you turn back to Isaiah 11, it tells us that specifically. Isaiah 11:2, Isaiah 11:2, as the Messiah is being prophesied, it says, “the Spirit,” verse 2, “The Spirit of the Eternal will rest upon Him. He’ll have the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Eternal.” Even Christ has the fear of God. And you notice it’s listed last, right? But it is so foundational because without the fear of the Lord, without the fear of God, we’re not going to have wisdom. We’re not going to have knowledge. We’re not going to have the traits that God wants us to have. It’s listed last, but it is foundational. Foundational. And even Jesus Christ, as He is in God’s right hand today, He still has a fear and a reverence for God the Father. When He was on earth, He continued to remind us, bring glory, bring honor to the Father. If He has that, we must have it. It must be what we need to do.

If you look at verse 3, “His delight,” see that word delight? “His delight is in the fear of the Lord.” His delight is in that. It causes joy. It causes peace. It causes the peace that surpasses all understanding. His delight. Same word delight in keeping Sabbath days. Keeping the Sabbath should be a delight to us. And when we’re doing things God’s way, when we’re embracing what He wants us to learn and we have God’s Spirit in us, His way becomes a delight to us. “His delight is in the fear of God.” So, I ask myself, and maybe we can all ask ourselves, do we have the fear of God? Is it there in everything we do, every there of our lives? Are we letting the Holy Spirit and that fear of Him permeate our lives to drive the actions, the reactions, and our behavior, and conduct, and our words that we might say, and our attitudes?

Well, let’s go back to Deuteronomy again. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 31 and look at some of the aspects of the fear of God. Let’s begin in Deuteronomy 31. It’s a Feast of Tabernacle set of scriptures here. Deuteronomy 31:10. Now, if you study Deuteronomy, you know that the last several chapters here of Deuteronomy are speaking of the end time as well, not just for Israel back then. There’s prophecies are there. And so here in Chapter 31, and it says, “Moses commanded them saying, at the end of every seven years at the appointed time in the year of release at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the eternal your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.” Read it. It pertains to all of us today. It’ll pertain to those in the millennium. It’s part of who we become. “Gather the people together.” We go to the Feast of Tabernacles. We assemble together for those seven days. “Gather the people together. Men and women and little ones and the stranger who is within your gates that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully,” carefully, “observe all the words of this law.” That they may learn. Read this to them that they may learn to fear God, and carefully.

You know, as you read through Deuteronomy, it’s carefully, diligently, and earnestly when Moses... when he uses those adverbs. This is how you keep God’s law, carefully. Every word of God, he said in Matthew 4:4. Verse 13, It applies to our children, too. Part of our job as parents is teaching our children the fear of God. “And that their children,” verse 13, “who have not known it, they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” They were preparing to pass over into the promised land, just like you and I are preparing for Christ to return to earth and move into that time, that next age in the history of man.

Back in Deuteronomy 6:1, we read again about this preparation as they’re about to cross over into the promised land. Verse 1 of Deuteronomy 6, “This is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which the eternal your God has commanded to teach you.”

These are His words. This is His way of life. This is what frames our conduct, and our behavior, and attitudes. “These are the statutes and judgments which the eternal your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.” Verse 2, “That you may fear the Lord your God to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you. You and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore,” verse 3, “Hear, O Israel, and be careful.” Be careful. Make sure it’s on your mind. Don’t put it in the back of your mind every day. Be careful to know what God has called us to do and what our behavior should be like. “Hear, O Israel, be careful to observe it that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God your Father has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.” Do it that you may even be there in that Kingdom because now is the time that we perfect God’s ways, become holy and blameless in the way we do things, growing ever closer to the way He wants us to be.

Okay, Deuteronomy 10. Deuteronomy 10:12. There’s many other places in Deuteronomy as well. You can do a study of the fear of God. It’s quite educational when you go back, and you look at the verses that God says, how many times He says it, and in the context of what He says. And Deuteronomy 10:12, it says this, “Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This is what He requires. This is what we do. This is our life description. Verse 13, “And to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today,” and notice the last three words, “for your good.” Whatever God commands us to do, whatever God asks us to do, it’s always to our good. It’s always to our benefit.

The natural reaction of man is, I’ll resist it, or I may be skeptical of what God is doing. That’s the natural man in us that thinks, “Oh, we don’t have to do that or I don’t want to do that.” That’s part of what we overcome, that resistance and that skepticism. Then we learn to fear God. We do His commandments. We’ve used the strength of His Holy Spirit to do it, even when it’s not the thing we want to do. Because that’s what builds character. And that’s what begins. That’s what builds the obedience and complete surrender to God that we do. And as we do it, we learn how good it is. We learn what joy, what peace, what purpose, what meaning in our lives it all has when we just simply yield to God and do the things that He asks us to do.

In 1 Peter 2, Peter very succinctly talks about the fear of God as well in a very simple but direct scripture. 1 Peter 2:17. 1 Peter 2:17. He says, “Honor all people. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood.” Love the people that God has called. “Fear God.” “Fear God and honor the King.” You know, respect is one thing that, as we look at the world around us today, sorely lacking. The world seems to be tearing down everything that it can. Do people honor the King? Do people respect law enforcement? Do children respect their parents? Are they taught to respect their parents? Or are they taught that maybe they know more than their parents? Respect is something that’s been under attack in the world for some time, and it can seep into our way of life as well as we listen to the things around us. But that respect has to be there.

I want to read to you an article that I pulled out that I read in a sermon 15 years ago, 15 years ago. And the article is by a lady by the name of Susan Reimer. She was a syndicated writer for many newspapers. I have no idea if she continues to write or even if she’s alive. But I gave this as part of a sermon because I thought she did a very good job. She’s not in the Church, associated with the Church, but I’m going to read it because I want you to see the difference from just 15 years ago, what society was like and what would have been printed and syndicated in papers across the nation versus what would happen today or if people would even begin to say this.

So, let me just read excerpts from this. She says, “I volunteer. I volunteer to lead the campaign to restore fear among children.” And she’s talking about the way society has been going astray and all the things and all the evils, as she would call them, evils and sins of the world that were beginning to be championed back then in that time, things that we would just consider normal life in the world today when you look at what she introduces this with. So, she goes, “I volunteer to lead the campaign to restore fear among children, not the monster under the bed, boogeyman variety of fear. Your kids will keep you up all night with those kinds of fears. I’m talking about the fear of authority, fear of consequences, the kind of fear that will keep you up all night if your children don’t have it, the kind of unexamined, non-specific fear we grew up with.”

Of course, she’s in a different generation than many who would read this today. “The fear behind the refrain of our youth, my mother will kill me if. Remember that?” She goes, “I want that. I want that for my children. I want them to live in fear of what I will do if I catch them doing whatever it is they’re thinking about doing. And I want my children to be afraid of more adults than just me. I can’t be everywhere, after all, and my children must believe, must believe that all grown-ups are working off the same list of crimes and misdemeanors and any one of them that can be counted on to report to me or exact punishment in my stead. I want my children to be afraid of what the teacher will do when she stops writing on the board, turns around, and sees them. But most of all, I want them to live in stomach-flipping fear of what will happen if they don’t do their homework.” A simpler time, right?

“I want my children to be afraid of the crossing guard and what will happen if they jaywalk on the way to school or the convenience store cashier, and what will happen if they shoplift or of the fireman and what will happen if they play with big lighters in the woods. I want my children to fear the lifeguard and what will happen if they run on the deck or dunk someone at the pool. I want them to fear the coach and what will happen if they pout when he tells them to play left field or back on defense. At all other times,” she concludes, “of decision and conscience, I want them to worry about God, what God would think if He knew what they were doing because God will know even if they fool me.”

If she tried to publish that today, she’d be canceled, wouldn’t she? She would no longer... not one paper would publish that. It’s the antithesis of what society is today and how they promote and what the loud chorus out there is, don’t respect any authority. Your truth, your truth, your way of doing things, that’s what the preeminent thing is. And so, society is at work, so far different. Look where we’ve come in just 15 years of where it is that today that wouldn’t even play, and it sounds so foreign that anyone outside of the Church would even write that. It’s an alarming thing when we see where we are and where we’ve come as a society and if we don’t pay attention to it, we can find that some of those attitudes can come into the Church as well.

Fear of God. Fear of God. As people of God, we cannot cancel out fear of Him, respect for Him, doing what He says to do. The results, we’ve already seen it, discord, strife, contentions, upset, none of the things that people want, but it’s the way that it is that is when people don’t have the fear of God before their eyes. You know, the fear, it keeps us from sin, but the fear of God is going to stand us in good stead as we look at the time between now and the return of Jesus Christ as well. You know, there’s a time ahead, and sometimes people don’t like to hear it, about tribulation and persecution. Christ Himself talked about the times where they will hate you because they hated me. They’ll hate what you stand for. They’ll hate what you believe. They’ll bring you up before tribunals and councils, and who knows who they’ll be bringing you up before. There’s also the mark of the beast at the time of the end where your livelihood can be cut off, where your entire finances can be cut off. We live in an age where it’s just a push of a button. There’s going to be a time of fear, the prime of fear that man inflicts. And who will we fear? Who will we fear at that time?

Let’s go to Psalm, Psalm 27. And David asks that very question. How important is the fear of God? Oh, it is so important even for when we look down the road of the things that we develop now. Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” Who am I going to fear? He’s salvation. The only hope from a humanity is Jesus Christ. Our expectation is that He is returning. That’s what we do. That’s who we are. That’s what we’re looking to. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? He is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came up against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war may rise against me. In this, I will be confident.” His confidence was in God. His confidence was in the fear of the Lord, and no matter what it is, that came his way, he knew it was God’s will and he was completely comfortable with that.

That’s where you and I need to be. That’s where we have to do that no matter what comes our way, it’s God’s will and we will, if we fear Him, choose the right way and we will be in that Kingdom for eternity. If we choose the wrong way, if we’re afraid of the world, if we’re afraid of the threats that come against us, we don’t have to worry about being in the Kingdom. The answer will be no. No, only those who fear God, who do His way, who live His way, who have that fear before them always, as we have an annual reminder every year at this Feast, will they be there.

Jesus Christ said the same thing basically in Luke 12, Luke 12:4. In His own words, He said this, “I say to you, My friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body.” That’s a daunting thing to think of, isn’t it? That someone might say, bow down before me or bow down to this image or whatever, or here’s the gun at your head or torture, or whatever it is, do this, do this, or else. And Christ Himself says, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.” There is life after this life. If we continue to follow God, if we yield to Him, this is only the first part of life, then there is the birth into the Kingdom of God. Verse 5, He says, “I’ll show you whom you should fear, fear Him who after He has killed has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him.” The second death, He can provide eternal death. We look to Him for eternal life, and there’s only one way to achieve that. Fear of God. Fear of God, part of everything we do and what we’re doing here on this earth.

Philippians 2, Philippians 2:12. “And therefore,” Paul writes, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear, with fear and trembling.” With fear. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Work it out with fear. Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another.” Oh, God is always about the relationships. He’s always about how the Church of God and the body, all one, all united, striving for peace and unity, understanding that God does what God does and our job is just to follow it, no matter where we are, no matter what position we’re in or what we do, we do it God’s way and trust that this is His Church and His will is being done. Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another in the fear of God.” Even in our relationships with one another, look and see, look and see what is going on. Are things being done the way God would have them done?

2 Corinthians, going back a couple of books, 2 Corinthians 7:1. “Therefore,” Paul writes, “having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves.” 1 John 3:3, anyone who has this hope of being in the Kingdom, what do they do? They purify themselves, right? They purify themselves. Paul says, “Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Do it because He says to do it and He says, remember Deuteronomy 10:13, “Do it for your own good.” Do it because it’s the best thing for you. You may resist it. You may be skeptical. You may want your own way more than God’s way, but He says, “Do what you do in the fear of God.” The way will absolutely be taught in the Kingdom.

So, turn back to Psalm 102. And again, when it’s taught in the Kingdom, it will be you and me if we continue to live God’s way, if we learn this way, if it’s in our hearts and He can see, I safely trust, I safely trust that they will teach things exactly the way I would have them taught. That’s what we’re doing now as we yield to God and as we allow Him to work out our imperfections and our faults and our weaknesses before Him, that He can safely trust. I’ve seen what they do. I’ve seen how they put it to practice in their lives and I know that they will teach My way exactly the way He does.

And Psalm 102, Psalm 102:12, you can see these verses, we’ll read down to verse 18, you can see that this is for a future time as Christ returns and Ge talks about Zion and the kings of the earth bowing to Him. In verse 12 it says, “But You, O Lord, shall endure forever and the remembrance of Your name to all generations. You will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time to favor her. Yes, the set time has come. For Your servants take pleasure in her stones and show favor to her dust so the nations shall fear the name of the eternal and all the kings of the earth Your glory. They will all learn to fear God. They will all give glory to Him. For the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in His glory, He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and He shall not despise their prayer.” And then he says, “This will be written for a generation yet to come for a people that God will create.” It is something, it is what will be taught, it is what we need to do today, and it has its benefits.

So, I want to take a few minutes to talk about some of those benefits and I’m going to do kind of a shotgun thing through the Psalms and Proverbs. First, I want to go to Psalm 36. Psalm 36. And read again what happens if we don’t have the fear of God. None of us want this to define us and then let’s go into some of the benefits of it that are clearly written in the Bible. Psalm 36:1. Again another one of David who is a man after God’s own heart. He learned this in his life. He says, “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes.” The transgression of the wicked. “There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters Himself in his own eyes.” I’ve got the better idea. All these other people have no idea what they’re doing. They made their mistakes. “They flatter himself in His own eyes. When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates,” nope, someone else’s fault. Not mine. Not me. I’m good.

“Flatters himself in his own eyes when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceased. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.” He’s lost the fear of the Lord. “He ceases to be wise and to do good. He devised wickedness on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.” Those are some harsh things to have to think of. None of us want to be that way. That is the antithesis of everything God has called us to become. And yet, sometimes we can see that even appear. And we need to be on our guard to know what God’s way is, what God’s will is, and to go back and develop that fear if that might define us in any even little bit of a way.

So, get your Bibles ready. I’m going to run through some scriptures here and I’m just going to turn to them. Let’s start in Proverbs 1. These are some spiritual blessings of having the fear of God. Proverbs 1, let me get to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Self-explanatory, right? “But fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs 9, and I’m not going through every proverb. Again, you can go back and do a study on this yourself. Proverbs 9 and verse... No, that’s not the verse I want. Let’s look at Proverbs 8:13. I have the wrong scripture. “The fear of God is also the beginning of wisdom.” I’m sure we’re going to come up to that scripture here in a minute.

But Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of the Lord,” verse 13, “is to hate evil.” Is to hate evil. “Pride, and arrogance, and the evil way and the perverse mouth, I hate,” God says. Those are all the antithesis of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 14:16, “A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self-confident.” Verse 26, same chapter. “In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence, and his children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death.” I hope you see the beginning. Proverbs 16:6, “In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity, and by the fear of the Lord, by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil.” Chapter 19:23. “The fear of the Lord leads to life.” Leads to life. We know that. Eternal life is what God has called us to receive if we do what he asks us to do. “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and He who has it will abide in satisfaction. He will not be visited with evil.” It’s quite a promise of God.

Go to the Psalms. Let’s go back to the Psalms. Let’s go backward here to Psalm 119:36. Well, I can see I didn’t write down that correct one either. We’ll come back to Psalm 119. Let’s go back to Psalm 13. Psalm 13. Psalm 13:13. Okay, maybe that’s... Let me look at Proverbs 13 here. Yeah, Proverbs 13:13, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” Fearing God and His way of life. Let me apologize. I must have done some of these by memory and didn’t go back and double-check my scriptures. But again, you can find those in... if you put in fear of the Lord or fear God, you can find those scriptures and it will be very valuable to do that study yourself.

But let’s look what is said in Luke 1. Luke 1, as Christ is being born and He is coming. In Luke 1:50, says, “His mercy, God’s mercy is on those who fear Him.” Don’t we all need God’s mercy? Aren’t we all here because of God’s mercy? “His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.” You know, the New Testament Church, as it began, you remember in Acts 2 when it talks about how they continued in the apostles’ doctrine, they prayed, they were in the company of each other, they were part of a community, the fellowship, the koinonia that they were part of, and they practiced those things that God had them to do. And God says something pretty instructional in Acts 9. Let’s look at Acts 9:31. That Church grew. When people looked at that Church, they saw something different than they saw about their own places, about their own ways of doing things. Just like when people come to our fellowships, our congregations, our body, they should see something different about us. They should feel the agape. They may not understand what they’re seeing, but they see people who are dedicated to God. And there’s a noticeable difference.

Acts 9:31, it says, “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace.” They were doing things God’s way. “They had peace and they were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.” God put people into a Church that was living His way of life. Same thing He’ll do to us today, I believe, when we are fully doing what God wants us to do, and He feels comfortable in putting people in our midst that will learn the things that He wants us to learn as we practice it.

Let’s go back as I’m looking at my time. Let’s look at a few physical benefits here, because the physical benefits of fearing God and doing His way, He’s got spiritual laws and He’s got physical laws as well. I’m going to mention just a few of them here, Proverbs 3. And I’m pretty sure these are the accurate scriptures here. As I recognize, I could probably tell this one without even reading it, but just to be sure I will. Proverbs 3:5-8, “Trust in the Eternal, trust in Him with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.” So, many mistakes are made when we just lean on our own understanding rather than looking in the Bible because everything we face in life, we can find the answer in the Bible. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge Him.” He gives us everything. It’s because of Him that we do the things we do and follow wherever He goes. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Don’t be wise in your own eyes.” “I know more than them, da, da, da, da, da.”

“Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” Put it out. Don’t let yourself fall prey to the old ways of doing things. “If you do that,” verse 8, “It will be health to your flesh, and it will be strength to your bones.” Do things His way.

Proverbs 22:4, “By humility...” so important, humility, humility, one of the things that come from the fear of the Lord when we recognize it’s all about God and not all about us, all about His ideas and not our ideas. “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.” Isn’t that what people look for? Are riches and honor and life; do it. Do it God’s way. Psalm 25, back to the book of Psalms. Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man? Who is the man that fears the Lord?” Who is the man that fears the Lord? “Him shall He teach in the way He [God] chooses.” He’ll teach him. Isn’t what we’re here for? We sing a song, “Lord, teach Me Your ways.” That’s why we’re here. Learn from Him, from every occasion of how He would handle things. “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way he chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth.” Verse 14, “The secret of the eternal is with those who fear Him and He will show them His covenant.” All the things that God will do when He sees that we’re using it for the way that He wants us to use it. Dedicated to His will and becoming who He wants us to become.

Psalm 33:18, “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.” So, isn’t that an interesting verse in the times we live in when we hear talk of coming food shortages and coming famines, and the things that we are being told in the media or by the powers of be on earth of what’s coming our way? Let me redeem myself. I’ve got a few more here. I’m not going to go through all of them here though.

Let’s turn to Psalm 119, and I’m hoping this is an accurate scripture. We’ll find out very soon. So, I have a feeling I probably wrote down without 100 in some of them. Psalm 119. Let me check the verse before I give it to you. Psalm 119:63. You know, again, David wrote this Psalm. If you’ve never taken the time to just go verse by verse through the Psalm 119, do it. It’s kind of David’s love song to God’s way of life that you can learn a lot about Him and a lot about what we need to do. But in verse 63, he says, “I’m a companion of all who fear You.” That’s who I choose to be with. That’s who I identify with. You know, there’s an old saying that talks about birds of a feather flock together. We are people who fear God. We should flock together. And if there’s a separation, then something’s missing. Because if we’re all motivated, if we’re all led by God’s Spirit and the fear of God, we will be united. We will become one just as God the Father and Jesus Christ are one, and just as Their will for us is to become one.

So, let me leave... I could go on and on for that. But you know, while we’re in Psalm, let’s go back, let’s look at Psalm 34 because, at the beginning of this, we talked about one of the reasons we go to the Feast of Tabernacles, save our second tithe. God said, “Is that you may learn to fear the Lord your God only. That you may learn to fear Him always.” And in Psalm 34:11, David talks about that. He tells us how to fear God. Psalm 34:11, “Come you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” And then in the next few verses, he tells us what it is. We’ve already rehearsed it, but he boils it down to a few points here that we can look at. “Who is the man who desires life?” I hope everyone listening to this desires life, desires eternal life is seeking first the Kingdom of God. “Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?”

Verse 13, “Keep your tongue from evil.” So, many times it comes back to the tongue. What do we say? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What are we doing? How are we treating each other? What are we doing? “Keep your tongue from evil. Keep your lips from speaking deceits.” Isn’t it interesting that God talks about that? The very first thing. Depart from evil. Follow His way. Do His commandments. Follow them carefully, earnestly, and diligently, as we read in Deuteronomy. Depart from evil. Do good. Make yourself do what’s right. That’s how you build the character and the conduct that becomes you. “Seek peace and pursue it.” Seek peace and pursue it.

You know, Hebrews... keep your fingers there in Psalm 34. Let’s go back to Hebrews. I know in the opening night video I mentioned this, but let’s mention it again. Hebrews 12:14, the author here says, “Pursue peace. Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which...” Look at these words. There’s no if, ands, buts, compromises, or anything like this, “Without which no one will see the Lord.” Pursue peace. Fear Him. Learn the fear of the Lord. Teach the fear of the Lord to your children. “Seek peace and pursue it and holiness, without which, no one will see the Lord.” We’re at a time in history, that as we get closer and closer to the return of Jesus Christ, and the time that we’re picturing at the Feast of Tabernacles is here when Christ is reigning on earth to be paying attention, more close attention to what we do and how we live and the things that God would have us do.

If I’m back in Psalm 34, let me refer to verse 18. You can read the rest of the chapter yourself. “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, to those who have a broken heart and saved such as have a contrite spirit.” Humility, becoming one, honoring all people, doing the things that we talked about earlier. You know about the bride of Christ in Revelation 19:5-7. You can go back and look at that and you will see the bride of Christ has the fear of God. That is a hallmark or a trait of the fear of God. But in Malachi 3:16, as God closes the Old Testament, we read this. Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the Lord, those who feared the Lord, spoke to one another. And the Lord listened and He heard them. So, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.”

So, as we’re here at the Feast and as we’re spending the rest of the days that we have remaining in the Feast of Tabernacles there, think on the fear of God. Do you want to be in the Kingdom? Do you want to be part of the Bride of Christ? Do you want your name written in that book of remembrance? I daresay, every single person here who should say yes, should say yes, I want that. And if we want it, then let’s remember the fear of God. And may the rest of your Feast be filled with inspiration, joy, rejoicing in all the things that God has called us for as we look forward to His coming Kingdom when all these things will be fulfilled.