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[0:00] I venture to ask you to turn with me to the 111th Psalm and read the last verse, verse 10. The 10th verse, the 111th Psalm.

[0:17] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.

[0:30] His praise endureth forever. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[0:44] What a tremendous effort centers around the acquisition, obtaining of wisdom in a natural way.

[1:07] That is presented to them in many ways.

[1:42] And we think particularly as we think of education, the natural effort that is centering around the acquisition of wisdom necessary to progress in this present life.

[2:01] And we think of the benefits given by God in his sovereignty to families of children through the wisdom of their parents.

[2:42] And how good it is for children to appreciate the wisdom and affection that underlies the teaching that they are under in the family circle.

[2:58] Oh, what a good thing it is to look back overnight. And truly thank God that he placed us in the hands of those who feared his name.

[3:12] And who indeed had an eye to our progress. And who had an eye to our fellow, the spirit, the spirit, the spirit, the spirit, the spirit, the spirit, and eternity to come.

[3:27] And we go on to realize as we proceed through life that great opportunities are afforded to us to learn.

[3:41] And I suppose in our generation there is a facility present and presented to us somewhat freely to learn.

[3:54] And we go on to realize as we go on to realize as we go on to realize as we go to school early in our lives. And we attend to the superior instruction of our teachers, educators themselves to communicate their knowledge and understanding to us.

[4:13] And we should be wise enough to become established in the things of this world.

[4:24] Able to learn and living. Able to sustain our financial responsibilities. And fulfill those commitments which are natural to us as we journey on in the sovereign purposes of God.

[4:42] providentially considered. But now, natural wisdom, how far does it take us when we have acquired a good education, when we've really been sensible in the opportunities that are afforded to us in the days of youth. And we've done our utmost to conscientiously acquire natural wisdom. And it has been acknowledged that our efforts have been crowned, as it were, with a measure of natural success. Not only have we found pleasure in ourselves, in the accomplishment of certain qualities and abilities, but also has given pleasure to those that are near and dear to us, to see us get on. I've been in the company of a neighbour of ours at

[5:53] Old Hill in the past week, and she's got a little grandson. And he's a very studious boy. He spends a lot of time reading and so on. And he's just passed the entrance exam to the grammar school in Birmingham to commence a superior education to what he's been receiving in the elementary school. And so on. And all the pleasure that Grandma had in telling me that they'd received a letter saying that he was to commence at the grammar school in due time. Yes, it gives pleasure to parents.

[6:48] And grandparents too. We're all pleased when our loved ones become conscientious in using the means that God appoints to acquire natural wisdom.

[7:04] It's wonderful sometimes as grandparents to see the superiority of knowledge exhibited even in our grandchildren, that they can give expression to certain abilities that we ourselves can't rise to, never had the opportunity to apply ourselves to such standards.

[7:32] natural ability. And my friends, the world, as it were, is conscious of the benefit, not only personally, but generally, in the furtherance of natural wisdom.

[7:52] natural ability. And I suppose there's not been a generation in time that has had the opportunities and facilities that our generation has to further their wisdom and knowledge in things temporal.

[8:10] natural ability. And what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? I have a responsibility to you and you will one day acknowledge the discharge of that responsibility.

[8:32] natural ability. Look, we admire learning. We admire a conscientious approach to natural things. But if that's all you're after, if that's all you're seeking, if that's the great end, as it were, of your future concern, you're not going to be sufficient for all of your future. It's going to leave you absolutely destitute of the great thing that matters.

[9:22] what does the text say? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Spiritual wisdom. Wisdom that stretches beyond time, beyond this life, beyond all the possessions and acquisitions, all the honors, all the honors, all the powers, with which we may be given in our passage through life. My friends, there comes a time when one thing is needful. One thing is needful. And it's a foolish approach. And it's a devilish deception. And it's so common in the world.

[10:18] And it's so common in the world to centre on things that are temporary. That are governed to the length of life. And not ever, as it were, approach in thought, in word, and in deed. Those things that are eternal.

[10:44] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Real wisdom, real wisdom is not confined to time. But real wisdom stretches forth into a never ending eternal life.

[11:11] into a never ending eternity. And we're not just creatures of God's creation. Like the dogs and cats and the pigs and the cattle and all the other animal creatures that constitute the universe.

[11:33] They have no soul. They have no soul. They have no soul. They have no soul. They die. It's the end. But it's not the end with us. It's not the end with us.

[11:49] The beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is a realisation that God has made man in his own image. God has breathed into him a living soul. And that soul is an everlasting consequence.

[12:10] God has breathed into him a living soul. And that soul is an everlasting life. How many that are in the world with us know nothing of that wisdom.

[12:25] God has breathed into him. The beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. The reality of spiritual life.

[12:41] The reality of eternal things. The reality of eternal things. The reality of time things. The reality of time things. That this is all temporary. This is not...

[13:03] There's nothing really enduring about it. It's a phase in the purpose and wisdom of God that we should be born in the flesh. And that we should live a certain number of days determined not by any personal determination.

[13:29] It is decreed of God. There is a time to be born. And there is a time to die. And my friends there's nothing. No nothing. In all the medical skill. That is in evidence. According to the wisdom of this world. In our generation.

[13:48] There's nothing that can alter the determinate time. When God will call us. From life. Here below. To present our souls. Before our maker. In eternity to come.

[14:05] Or is the living God. Is the living God a reality. Is the fact that you were born. When you were born. To whom you were born. And in the condition that prevails.

[14:24] That is naturally speaking. With your personal state and standing. There is such a thing. As an individual handiwork of God. In the life of every person that exists.

[14:45] And my friends. Every man. Every man. Woman. And child. Is a possessor. Of an immortal soul. That most important. Possession. Is universally. Disregarded. In. A general. And natural.

[15:15] Attitude. Common. Attitude. Common. To the world. But God. God. God. Blesses his people. With wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom. From on high. Wisdom. That's supernatural.

[15:43] Wisdom. That involves. Wisdom. That involves. A concern. A concern. Spiritual. A concern. To be right with God. A concern. To have. As it were.

[15:58] A64. A feature. In life. That is all important. As we comparatively. Consider it. With. The things. Of time. The things. Of the body. The pleasures. Of this life. And the possessions. Of this life. And the.

[16:19] of this life and the abilities acquired by natural means. My friends, oh we're here this morning with this text from God I trust to deliver affectionately to you.

[16:37] Because I don't want you in the day of judgment to turn to me and say you came to Attleboro and you never told me. I lived and I died without any real fear of the Lord.

[16:53] I wasn't altogether atheistic to such a degree that I banished all knowledge and acquisition of learning relative to the existence of God.

[17:10] But the fear of God was not a reality. The fear of God was not a governing principle. The fear of God didn't weigh so heavily that I considered comparatively the things of the soul and eternity to take precedence over the things of time and of sense.

[17:38] Now everybody on the face of the earth at this present moment of time is either blessed with this fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, or they're yet in ignorance with respect to the most important thing that associates with any problem.

[18:06] And my friend you can go to the reaches, far reaches of education and you can find these experts in knowledge and understanding these men that can lead us and amaze us with their interpretations of life and so on.

[18:30] And so many other things. Yes, but if they die without the fear of God, their ignorance will destroy them.

[18:44] Their ignorance will be the terrible feature of their natural existence which will determine the consequence of their condition in life forevermore.

[19:02] Where do those that are destitute of this wisdom end their day? Where does that blessed company who by God's grace are made wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ, the God-given saviour of lost mankind?

[19:32] Where are they going to spend eternity? Two places and only two places for each and every person that upon the face of the earth ever has been and will be.

[19:50] Heaven or hell. Inexpressible peace, joy, satisfaction. Everything as it were to bring pleasure in the perfect sense to the favoured subject of God's grace and love and mercy in paradise. Or, and I can't begin to describe it. Or, I can't begin to describe it. In my world of hope. It is and I can't begin to describe it. In my world of hope. joy, satisfaction, everything as it were to bring pleasure in the perfect sense to the favored subject of God's grace and love and mercy in paradise.

[20:19] Or, and I can't begin to describe it, the awfulness of being a lost soul, the awfulness of closing our eyes on this world and being strangers to God and to godliness.

[20:42] Now sometimes it pleases God in life to bring individuals into experiences when, as it were, these alternatives are very, very strong, very, very clear.

[21:09] And the prospects associating with heaven and hell are all important. I remember, and I'm going to introduce a personal experience.

[21:27] I remember it was after the war, and I may have told you this before, because it's a living experience. I'm only too thankful for it. I was a soldier, and through God's ordering of my ways, I never left the shores of England until all the fighting was over.

[21:54] I was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful providence God exercised in my military, four and a half years in military service. But I never fired a shot in anger, and I never saw a shot fired in my direction, in anger.

[22:15] But I never saw a shot fired in my life, and I never saw a shot fired in my life. Nevertheless, the war finished in August 1945.

[22:28] I soon received papers saying that I was to go to the Far East.

[22:42] We boarded ship, troop ship, in Glasgow, and sailed well out into the Atlantic, to eventually come into Gibraltar and the Minas Rays and Sea.

[22:59] And we were warned always to wear life jackets. The war was over. We were saying, well why?

[23:11] Floating mines. The Germans had let loose in the Atlantic Ocean, especially around the west coast of Ireland.

[23:24] mines that were floating just as it were beneath the surface of the sea. And we were warned everyone is to wear life jackets night and day.

[23:39] Well, military orders were to be observed, or punishment given, so we will, for safety's sake, as well as submission to higher authority, we wore our life jackets.

[24:00] And there was, on the rear end of the ship, a rifle party engaged in, if a floating mine was seen from the troop ship, this rifle party were to fire their rifles at the mine from a distance in hope of exploding it.

[24:24] And so on. We never saw any exercise of that nature. But of course, there was a watch, all through the hours of day, that the night came.

[24:43] And we retired to our places of rest, I sleeping in a hammock in this troop ship. And it came to me.

[24:56] What without the lookouts, without the safety that the forces could produce, what if this vessel struck a mine, floating by?

[25:19] What would happen to your soul? And, my friend, all pleasure was taken from me.

[25:33] In a moment, I just felt utterly miserable in a way of excessive torment that I find it difficult to describe.

[25:49] I thought I should drown in all probability and be a lost soul. I felt my soul was so full of sin.

[26:04] Full of sin. I don't have religious upbringing. I've been in congregations similar to this this morning. I've been faithfully warned of the fact that I needed something more than I naturally possessed.

[26:18] And I had a soul that must live forever. And I thought I shall sink to hell. I shall sink to hell. I was terrorized.

[26:31] The fact that there were floating mines in the Atlantic Ocean was minimal in its influence on my spirit to the fact that God is angry with the wicked every day.

[26:45] And I felt God, God, my creator, must be angry with me in that condition of sinfulness that I knew was my life to a great degree.

[27:05] Not altogether, but a great degree. I felt to be lost. I say, how real God was.

[27:23] How real God was. A God of judgment. God that has given commands. A God that looks upon the universe and records every transgression that is ever committed in any mind, any will, or any way whatsoever.

[27:44] Blessed be God. I cried.

[27:57] Jonah cried from the belly of hell. I didn't sink as Jonah did. But I felt very exposed to the anger of God against my sins.

[28:10] And you know, I cried in bitterness of spirit to the living God. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

[28:28] God was so real. God was the only one with whom I felt to have to do relative to the future.

[28:38] God was so real. And eventually, the Lord spoke, Peace into my troubled soul.

[28:51] He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. I felt my friends a security that was absolute.

[29:05] I felt that whatever, it was all in the hands of God. And His eye was a part. And He knew where every floating mind was in the Atlantic Ocean.

[29:20] And He knew the passage which the vessel was to take in sailing from Glasgow to Gibraltar. I couldn't be troubled.

[29:33] I couldn't be troubled because I felt the Lord was watching over me. The Lord was mindful of me. And the Lord was not dealing with me as my sins deserve, but for His name's sake and for the Son of His love, the one Saviour of lost sinners, I was in safe hands.

[30:06] God is so real and sometimes we're brought into extreme situations situations that only God can help us. Only God can be a deliverer, a Saviour to us.

[30:24] My friends, what a wonderful thing it is to know this God. To know, you say, well, the circumstances are tending. Yes, they were alarming, they were distressing, they were beyond human control.

[30:42] Ah, my friends, with God all things are possible. My life's minutest circumstances. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

[31:02] Safety is of the Lord. God. Well now, do you know this God?

[31:21] If the Lord has a purpose of grace to you, he'll make himself known to you. It won't be just something that religious people, as it were, considered and become concerned about.

[31:43] God is very, very real to his people. He makes himself known.

[31:54] The fear of the Lord, this great creator, who in the beginning created us, planted us in circumstances upon the face of the earth, that were beyond our control, provided for us in his providence, sufficient to maintain the life that initially he gave to us in a natural way.

[32:24] And not only in a general kind of presentation manifestation of the truth, but in a very personal way, a very personal way.

[32:39] The fear of the Lord is a personal matter and it's the beginning of wisdom. All your natural acquisitions, all your natural knowledge, all your natural attainments, all the acquisitions of riches and lands and properties and whatever, my friends, there'll come a time when it can't do anything for you.

[33:13] It can't do anything for you. The richest man that's ever lived upon the earth, that's been a stranger to God and the things of God, has been a destitute person when God has terminated their life here below and called them into a vast eternity.

[33:38] The wisdom that is eternal is the wisdom that is the fear of God, makes God a reality.

[33:54] God a reality. He's the only saviour, he's the only one that can save, and he can save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.

[34:08] Man chooses, as it were, the course of ignorance, seeking after things that please the flesh, and the most valuable possession he's possessed of, he neglects, he totally banishes from it and boasts of his atheistic attitudes.

[34:29] Oh, what that day of awakening will be, when he realises the one thing needful is the great thing that he's despised and rejected, and said, I want nothing or very little to do with it all.

[34:47] I hear sometimes, as you doubtless do over the radio, I heard a man say this week in any questions, I think it was on Friday night, I listened to any questions, a man said, he said, I'm an atheist, I don't believe in Christianity, I think, you're a poor man, you can be recognised as wise enough as it were to be summoned to the panel of any questions, the world can think you're a knowledgeable person, but when the Lord terminates your life here below, what have you got?

[35:33] A terrible eternity, a terrible eternity, beyond words to adequately convey, and beyond our minds to adequately comprehend.

[35:52] The anger of God against a sinner who not only rejected all the ministry that is exercised, naturally speaking, by the Creator to His creatures, but despised the great gift of saving conscience, the only one that can make our souls pure, holy, justified, as before, the eye of a holy God.

[36:35] God is the God is the beginning of wisdom. The text puts its finger the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[36:54] Are you wise? Are you wise? Do you fear God? He's got a reality.

[37:08] Do you want God to have to do with you? Do you want God to show mercy to you? Do you want God to send forth His Spirit in quickening power, making your soul to live?

[37:22] Do you want God by His Spirit to sanctify your life, that your life is made in the fear of God?

[37:33] God as a reality, as it were, in every point of the compass, bringing you to commit the simple decisions of life into His hands prayerfully, in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.

[37:51] Let your requests be made known unto God. Nothing too small to desire God's will to override, overrule, and bring to pass whatever God sees fit for you in the best sense, in the spiritual way, as well as in the providential goodness and mercy of His appointments.

[38:21] hands. What's the clock? What's the clock? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[38:34] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you fear the Lord? Is the Lord a reality? You say, well, I'm in chapel because I recognise there is a God.

[38:45] God controls the lives of His people. God doesn't leave them, as it were, to sink into the quagmire of natural ambitions and neglect, concern about the spiritual and eternal well-being.

[39:20] What a wonderful thing to fear the Lord in the days of our youth. All these dear children that are here with us this morning, one does hope and pray that the exercise of instruction that is given not only in the home but also in the Sunday school and in the environment of the Lord's people will be a means of grace to bring them to an understanding really that the greatest need that ever obtains in any person's life is that they may know the Lord.

[40:03] They may be brought to it recognise that over and above everything is a sovereign God who created all things, who maintains all things, who feeds all things, even the stars of the sky are numbered and the sand that is on the seashore is all calculated and numbered and known to him.

[40:35] My life's minutest circumstance is subject to his eyes. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[40:47] You start to pray about it. You start to commit yourself into the hands of God. God. You begin to realise that God is a God that opens and a God that closes doors.

[41:03] You realise that he has a will and that will is a governing principle and is not your own choice that is the criteria in the manner of life you live.

[41:18] you realise that God appoints. The lot is cast into the lap and the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

[41:30] The reality of God, the reality of God everywhere, in control of everything, in command of salvation toward his people and who has a just right as it were to leave those who rejoice in their ignorance of God and of Godness go on and the wicked go on and ultimately perish in their sins.

[42:10] God, the wisdom that is involved in the knowledge of God. Well, now, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[42:29] God, by his spirit, teaches, but he has means. One of the means that God has wonderfully given and maintained is his holy word.

[42:48] One of the things that associates with people made wise unto salvation is they start reading their Bibles.

[43:03] They want to know more of this God. They want to know more of him in the various facets of himself, that he's a God, a holy God, that he's a God that is in absolute control and authority, who has a perfect right as the creator of all things, to govern and order all things according to his pleasure.

[43:34] fear. The fear of the Lord, it's an influence that's so comprehensive that when the Lord blesses our soul with that principle, that gift to salvation, my friends, it covers, I was going to say, almost everything.

[44:00] It should cover everything, but sad to say, we're not always in the spirit, we're not always, as it were, thinking in the context of godliness.

[44:14] Oh, how God brings us back, again and again, does he not, to the fact that the Lord God omnipotent reign in.

[44:27] My times are in thy hand, not a single shaft can hit until the God of love sees fit. The hairs of our head are all numbered, the hearts of all men are in his hand, he turns them with us however he will.

[44:48] All are subject to his sovereign overruling pleasure, he raises up one and he casts them another according to his wisdom, power and purpose.

[45:05] God in control, God in control. My friends, what a wonderful thing that God is in control of the eternal destiny of mankind time.

[45:24] And it has pleased him to save a people for his praise. And everything is necessary to that end. His good spirit accomplishes in their hearts and in their lives.

[45:40] Yes, for a certain number of years it might be, a certain number of days or a certain number of years, they're without God and without hope in the world, they're living as if there was no God and their own will and wish is the overriding feature of their existence.

[46:04] But my friends, oh how some of us have had to learn, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, said the Lord.

[46:18] I'm so thankful to God. that He didn't leave me to myself. I know where I should have finished if God had said He was having nothing to do with me as far as spiritual necessity and salvation purpose is concerned.

[46:46] God's in control. What a wonderful thing it is. I'm going to hasten to a close. What a wonderful thing it is. Amidst the trials and cares and anxieties and burdens, the frustrations and disappointments of life, sicknesses, pains, sorrows, things.

[47:11] What a wonderful thing it is. God's in control. God's in control. And my friends, there's peace.

[47:25] There's peace in this. There's peace in this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You can be as peaceful in distressing circumstances, whatever the nature of those circumstances, you can be at peace when you realize God is on the throne and God is in perfect control.

[48:03] I remember in Coventry, you know, we had a terrible raid. Some of us, some of us, only a few now, I suppose, remember November 1415 in the city of Coventry when the Germans sent waves and waves of bombers over in hope of crippling the aircraft industry in the city of Coventry.

[48:31] he poured down terrible weapons of destruction. We had a dear deacon, one of his descendants, more perhaps than one of his descendants, known to some of us who were attending Coventry Chapel and Francis Negus was a deacon.

[49:00] Lovely man, lovely man by the grace of God. And he lived in Hartlepool Road, Coventry, which was toward the ordinance factory, which was obviously a target of the Germans.

[49:14] and he was entertaining on a Saturday night, a dear minister of the gospel, Mr.

[49:26] Charles Henry Gascois. Those two old saints were in this house in Hartlepool Road on their own and they felt that it was wisdom as the terrible weapons were descending that they should get under the stairs to be as safe as, naturally speaking, they could be in the property wherein they were living.

[49:58] And eventually I heard a knock on the door and Mr. Negus went to the door and it was a policeman and this policeman raised the question, you know, are you all right?

[50:22] And these two dear men, they were so at peace together in those circumstances with all the noise and the guns and the bombs and the landmines and incendiaries going off all around them, I was going to say hundreds being killed around in the city.

[50:47] But these two men were at peace together. Mr. Negus could talk in the act of the wonderful calm that they felt living in those terrible circumstances where death must have been knocking on the door almost as loudly as the policeman when they were hiding under the stairs.

[51:11] My friends, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Oh, calm amidst tempestuous motion, knowing that the Lord is nigh.

[51:27] There's such a thing as terrific circumstantial storms breaking and yet an indescribable consciousness of spiritual peace.

[51:45] You can knock death in the face without fear, without fear, because the last enemy is subject to the power and purpose of God as any other enemy that ever was encountered in the pilgrimage of life.

[52:14] I'm going to close. Whatever you may covet, oh, may God help you to covet the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord.

[52:33] Christians are not fools, Christians are the wise of this world, made so by the very embodiment of all real and lasting wisdom, that is, God himself.

[52:52] I, wisdom, dwell with prudence and find and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The experiences of the Lord's people are appointed in wisdom for their good and profit, as well as the glory of God in time.

[53:17] It stretches through to eternity. Blessed art thou, O Israel, O people, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord.

[53:30] I hope in the simple ministry I'm able to exercise that you may think seriously about what part the fear of the Lord occupies in your approach to life.

[53:54] Are you concerned to know what the will of the Lord is? It's a great, great benefit and blessing.

[54:05] Show me thy way, O Lord. Lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. One of the chief enemies is your own natural ambitions to acquire yourself with things that, yes, they may be useful for a little while, but all a little while associates with everything but the salvation of your soul by God in the person, the precious righteousness and blood of his own dear Son.

[54:44] And my friends, washed in the blood of Christ and clothed and his righteousness. There'll be no trouble in the hereafter and forever and the presence of God will be known in a greater and more pleasurable degree than ever has been known when here upon the earth.

[55:12] I commend you to God. May he help me to read the Bible and to covet the direction, instruction and knowledge that God gives in his word of himself and his way of saving sinners from their sins.

[55:35]  Amen. and to high come to the son