The Fear of the Lord Prov 1 :7-8 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Here is one of the greatest verses in the Bible –
The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of knowledge!! All the knowledge of a PhD while spending eternity in hell would be equivalent of having no knowledge – Bob Jones, Sr. said “Education without salvation is damnation” – Prov 15:33 – Dr. Ruckman said “Wisdom is just knowing what to be afraid of” – Cornelius feared the Lord – he was devout, gave alms and prayed always because that’s all he knew to do in his fear of the Lord – however, because he feared the Lord, God showed him Jesus and he got saved; Job 28:28; Ps 111:10; Ecc 12:13 – the trouble with the human race is Rom 3:18 – the fear of God must be BEFORE their EYES!!! – You have to know that God can bust your chops for getting out of line with him – people don’t want to know that – Paul did – he said “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” Phil 2:12.
The trouble with fools is that they despise 2 things – they despise wisdom – they don’t care anything about it – and they despise instruction – in instruction they don’t want to be reproved Pro 5:12-13; Pro 6:23; Prov 10:17 – Marines go through instruction so that they can be the best – Be all that you can be
A wise man will take the reproof and the instruction – it’s what he wants because he’s wise and he loves wisdom – it’s like going to a surgeon that has to hurt you to make you better – a wise man will take the pain of instruction and reproof in order to get better Pro 9:9-10; 12:1; 15:31-32
Reproof is connected with discipline and we have an undisciplined society that can’t take a good bawling out – they get offended and they want to fight back against the wisdom of instruction – they don’t fear [no fear] authority – they are fools
In v.8 Most early instruction comes from your family (mom & dad) and you learn to take it there – I feared my dad and my fear was balanced with love – the trouble came when I wanted to do something that I knew he wouldn’t approve of – I battled with that – and I was miserable while doing it – I was relieved to not get caught [though God sees it all] and terrified when I did – I learned that it is easier to just do right than to do wrong and there is more joy in doing the right thing, too!!
According to Pro 15:5, you can tell quickly whether a kid is a fool or a prudent young man by how he handles the instruction of his dad – trouble is dads aren’t doing much instructing these days – there’s a lot of fussing but little to no instructing – kids don’t want to hear it and dads don’t want to fight to get it into them – so we’re raising a generation of fools.