The Fear of the Lord and the Beginning of Education - Alistair Begg

I invite you to turn with Erbs chapter one and as you turn there thank you for the welcome here to come I flew in yesterday in the late afternoon the early evening almost 46 years to the day when I arrived in America for the first time and came to Dallas and discovered air conditioning much much to my great delight I I I have fond recollections of being here and now added to that is the joy of this moment and this occasion I also am aware of the fact that as Churchill said we remain two nations divided by a common language and as I was flying in I was thinking about the Scottish grandmother who had come to visit her family in Texas and I would in one of the rural areas of Texas she had gone with her grandson and as they walked into this somewhat dusty town the boys saw cowboy getting off his horse at very bowlegged cowboy and he remarked to his grandmother he said hey grandma I ain't never seen nothing like that before and she said oh dear dear she said boy I need to teach you how to speak English properly and so during the month that she spent in Texas before she returned to Scotland she schooled him in English in the classics she taught him Shakespeare she had him read poetry and as the story of Adam and as time came for her to leave they were back in the same dusty town sure enough as the story demands the cowboy was there and as he got off his horse and walked down the street the grandson said hark what manner of man is this with his legs in parentheses I I have no doubt that the grandmother was absolutely committed to classical Christian education now let me read to you from the opening verses of proverbs chapter 1 the Proverbs of Solomon son of David king of Israel to know wisdom and instruction to understand words of insight to receive instruction in wise dealing in righteousness justice and equity to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth let the wise hear and increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying the words of the wise and their riddles the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction amen a brief prayer an old Anglican prayer father what we know not teach us what we have not give us what we are not make us for your son's sake amen in common conversation these days I find that there is virtual agreement across the nation as I travel that we live in a broken culture that we live actually in a broken world people are hard pressed to deny that reality and so there is general agreement the disagreement immediately comes concerning the reason for that brokenness why is our world broken and even greater disagreement how is that brokenness to be repaired and if there is general agreement at all on that third and final question it almost always has to do with education no matter where the person comes from they will somewhere along the line of the interchange say well I suppose if we only understood better I suppose if we only had greater clarity and so on and of course it would be strange if at a conference like this we were not prepared to reinforce that idea but we cannot reinforce that idea in terms of Education as such and so it is for that reason that I wanted to base my remarks this morning on the most familiar really of verses the 7th verse here in proverbs chapter 1 and I come to it as a native Scot and as an adopted American there are happy ties that remain over all of history between Scotland and America I'm proud of the fact that it was in 1696 that the Scottish Parliament issued an act for setting schools 1696 establishing a school for every parish in Scotland over a hundred years before that John Knox in his Book of Discipline had called for a national system of education that was in 1560 and Scotland despite its relative poverty and its small population had a built-in balanced bias towards reading learning and education in general and in that reality it outstripped every other nation in Europe and indeed it outstripped England as well for you know that the union of the Crown's took place in 1603 but the union of the parliaments did not take place until 1707 and so what Scotland was endeavoring to do was ahead of the curve when it came to the issue of Education the impact on America is undeniable people may choose to deny it but remains undeniable Ben Benjamin rush to John Adams writes America has ever appeared to me to be the theatre on which human nature will reach its greatest civil and literary and religious honors at 1788 fast forward all the way to 1949 Truman America's hope our hope the hope of the world is in education 1951 the educational policies commission here in America quotes the schools must educate for moral and spiritual values since the problems which now most urgently require solution are not physical and technical but moral and social that's the National Education Board in 1951 Linda B Johnston in the 60s the answer for all our national problems comes down to one single word education Andrew Carnegie another Scott the true panacea for all the ills of the body politic is education education education but here's the question DARS history does our contemporary landscape support the thesis for after all America provides more widespread educational opportunities than most countries in the world but progress in technology is clearly not matched by any sense of personal contentment education does not cannot answer the hunger for meaning we live in a highly educated culture and yet crime violence greed and fear persist we are more educated about racism than we have ever been yet it is questionable whether we are any less discriminatory in our hearts we have more sex education than is justifiable and yet we live in the realm of moral chaos so the idea that education as such can solve our real problems both personal and social is a myth it is a myth and it is long exploded by the harsh realities of life I say all that by way of introduction in order to get to this essential point which of course will not surprise you I feel very much like Peter when he writes in his second letter and says I intend always to remind you of these things even though you know them and are established in the truth that you have it's really the role of a pastor and a teacher not so much to come and instill in people things they've never known as it is to remind one another of things we must never forget so that underlying principles of methodology whether grammar logic rhetoric or others another solution either the answer is not in a methodology the answer is in a theology and it is the theology it is the knowledge of God which gives grounds for a methodology which then in turn may impact the lives of those under our care is you a passing word of warning to this great Association trace the history of the United States take the finest institutions of Education and weep over their demise from Harvard Yale Princeton and beyond let us never be so naive as to assume that that which we hold most dear and most essential will continue in and of itself without the underlying impact of the work of God the Holy Spirit and an awareness of God Himself to my point in the 1642 handbook of Harvard College it called then for every student to be quote plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his studies namely to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life and therefore to lay Christ as the only foundation of all solid knowledge and learning 1642 Harvard the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom that is essentially the mortal of the entire book of Proverbs proverbs as you know is provided for us in as much as Solomon is giving a course in education a course if you like in wisdom and he does so says Kidner by getting under the readers skin by thrusts of wit paradoxes common sense and teasing symbolism some of us have grown up with our fathers quoting proverbs to us in the morning as we get ready for school I can still hear my father's voice from downstairs calling out proverbs 26 10 as a door turns on its hinges so turns our sluggard upon his bed to which I replied yesterday I am coming I definitely am and in the warning about how you pick your fights and your quarrels whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears makes perfect sense is vivid it's immediate it's impactful so the purpose of the book is given in this section that I read essentially verses 2 to 6 and the entry that to that pathway which continues for the book is in verse 7 now what I'd like to do in the balance of the time is just ask for questions or definitely at 3 and perhaps an observation first of all then we have to determine who is the Lord who is the Lord if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom we need to know the identity of the Lord well the answer to that is that he is the one who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers he is the one who brings princess to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth and emptiness he is the God who disclosed himself to Moses as I am that I am he is self-existent he is therefore not dependent on anything else for his own existence he is the creator and sustainer of all that exists before there was time before there was anything there was God he is immutable in his being and in his character he is eternal this is the Lord and no one else is the Lord this is the Lord who is proclaimed by Paul in Acts chapter 17 when in the context of a fairly erudite group of individuals on Mars Hill he begins not with some speculative notions but rather he begins doesn't he the God who made the world and everything in it that is his opening line after his his statement concerning I can see you're a religious group and so on but straight at the business one of the foundational elements of all education is in the beginning God and we are living in a present climate in which evangelical Christianity in Western thought plays fast and loose with the first eleven chapters of Genesis and we wonder how it is that we might then be able to educate with such vagueness at such a foundational point he is the Lord proclaimed by Paul because he is the Lord who revealed himself to Paul and on the Damascus Road you will remember he asked the question who are you lord who are you Lord and foundational to all that follows is that in saying that we have to recognize that despite the fact of the ruination of so much in terms of biblical conviction our culture is not dismissive of the notion of God the inroads of Eastern thought are dramatic the extent to which pantheism has taken hold of vast swathe of our culture is actually undeniable and therefore in enforcing the truth about the goddness of God it then falls to us to articulate to those under our care not only what we are seeing but also at the same time what we are not saying so we help them for example with the weather forecast so that as some well-meaning soul says well let's see what Mother Earth has for us to stay today if you've been silly enough to watch that then you have to press pause then you have to say to your grandchildren now honey there is no mother earth there is no mother earth God is the one who controls the tides and the winds and the way and God makes the Sun Shine on the righteous and on the righteous and so on why because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom secondly then we have to ask the question what is this fear what is this fear you know to fear God is essentially to walk in all his ways it is to love him it is if you like in Deuteronomy tend to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep his commands for your good throughout proverbs he comes back to this proverbs 14 he says in the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children will have a heritage the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life enabling the one who fears the Lord to escape from the snares of death to fear God is not to be frightened of God to fear God is to love God terror of God frightened by God is the necessary reaction of guilt in the face of God's power and holiness it desires only to run from God in despair when a boy or a girl a man or a woman understands that that real guilt has been dealt with as we have just heard in the sacrifice of Jesus then that child may then come to fear God so instead of running from him that child now runs to him to fear in is not to run away from him to fear him is to run towards him it is about loving him being in awe love him respecting him being devoted to him it is if you like the well-disciplined beloved child's relationship with an earthly father and the motivation for it comes from within not by external constraint but by internal transformation and one of the great dangers of engaging in an exercise such as this as has been pointed out again in the previous address is the incipient danger of Pharisee ism whereby we manage to turn our children into the kind of children who know what is right to say and what is not supposed to be said who are able to order themselves circumspectly but unless the transforming grace of Christ has brought them to fear God and keep his Commandments then the lasting benefit will be lost along the way very important isn't it that we understand what we mean when we use a verb like that it's so different from common understanding then thirdly we should ask the question in what sense is it then the beginning of knowledge if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge what does that actually mean well I think it means this I take it to mean the entry point or the gateway or the threshold you remember CS Lewis in mere Christianity he writes in God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself unless you know God as that and therefore yourself as nothing in comparison you do not know God at all as long as you are proud you cannot know God a proud man is always looking down on things and people and of course as long as you're looking down you cannot see something that is above you it's bit like Calvin isn't it when he talks about coming to an understanding of ourselves and I think the phraseology is something like it is only as we descend from a devout musing upon the Godhead that we can even begin to approximate to considering who and what we are so then the beginning not in the sense of a point of departure but rather as a continuing principle in other words the fear of the Lord is always the foundation of knowledge it is not something that you start with and then leave behind but it continues all the way through so for example you have in Ecclesiastes at the end of Ecclesiastes he says now here is the end of the matter and what is the end of the matter was the very next line fear God and keep his Commandments so he says here's how it begins fear God and here's how it ends fear God you see how important it is that we teach our children what it means to fear God so that they realize what a wonderful is that they might run to him welcomed in the embrace of a savior the Lord Jesus Christ now the knowledge is clearly not simply information you don't need me to come down from Ohio to inform you of that it's not simply information about but it is a relationship with it is this knowledge of God that comes by way of his self disclosure he has disclosed himself not only as creator but as Redeemer he has disclosed himself as the one who loves the world so much that He gave His only Son that the Lord Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners so that it is only then when we are made aware of the reality of our sin that we would come to embrace him as a savior we sing routinely at parks I to him often on Sunday evenings it has the refrain mine mine mine I know thou art mine and I think all of our favorite verses verse is thou art the sinners friend so I die friendship claim a sinner saved by grace when thy sweet message came you see when we think in terms of the framework of the fear of God and the knowledge of God it's vitally important isn't it that we press upon those under our care the fact that we're not trying to teach a formula here we're not teaching ultimately a philosophy were not teaching an arm's-length theology we're teaching about the way in which God has made himself known in order that we in turn might know him that's why Paul when he writes he writes always in such personal terms to me to live is Christ to me it is something personal to live it is something practical is Christ it is something possible now it is in this knowledge that the contrast is so stark with the foolishness and that really is the fourth question what what is this folly then what are we dealing with when he says that the knowledge of God is the beginning of wisdom and in contrast to that we have all that is represented in the folly of man fools despise wisdom and despise instruction now the fool here of course is not a reference to mental or intellectual feebleness it is an expression of moral and spiritual rebellion so for example when the when the psalmist says The Fool has said in his heart there is no God the sammich that is not suggesting there that is somebody who's the equivalent of the village idiot no he is saying that no matter the extent to which a man or woman's intellectual prowess may have been developed at the end of the day it is a manifold folly to seek to traverse the thoroughfares of life while despising a knowledge of God himself The Fool in Proverbs in fact the fool really in Scripture is dull and is obstinate and has no reverence for God at all if I can see the text up here I think if you check you can see but I think proverbs 1:29 it's very small text here I don't even know if I can see it doesn't matter well I'm going to read this verse and you see if this is the verse for this simple for the synthesis I think proverbs 1:29 for the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster we had a classic illustration of this didn't we I just was it last weekend or the end of last week when the mortal remains of Stephen Hawking the cosmologists and physicists were laid to rest under a piece of catalyst slate Caithness being the most northern County of Scotland under a piece of Katniss skates day at Caithness a slate that's what I get for mentioning Scotland again but we'll leave that aside it's a little book I said don't be jingoistic bag okay sorry anyway it was Caithness sleet and and and and and on it was one of his formulae which only he and maybe three other people understood what he was on about all right which is remarkable he was a remarkable man to have endured that illness and to have sustained life by the providence of god whether he admits it or not to have developed thinking that stands with the best of cosmologists and physicists at least in the recent history and yet he was a fool it's not politically correct to say that i wouldn't want to say that or not for the fact that i have a bible because he was very clear he said the belief in the afterlife was fairy stories for people who were afraid of death he said that life really had no meaning whatsoever and therefore to ask about meaning was a complete waste of time and another irrelevance at his actual funeral in April when Eddie Redmayne who played him in the movie read from the Bible at the funeral he read interestingly from Ecclesiastes three the London Times referred to it as a tear-jerking reading I wonder why at one point he would have read for God has said eternity in the hearts of men well I think Hawking knew why is it that he wanted his voice to be beamed out through a French satellite to the closest of the dark holes that he had discovered if it's all meaningless if it's all irrelevant if it just doesn't matter you see when we start with the fear of the Lord when we enter through this porthole into the journey of life and the exercise of Education we start by the mercy and grace of God at the only point for starting and we then as CS Lewis says don't just have an esoteric perspective on things but we say with Lewis I believe in Christianity this is a rough quote as I believe in the rising of the Sun not simply because I can see it but because by it I can see everything else so that the Christian understands cosmology in a way that is orientated by a god-shaped worldview enjoys poetry enjoys music enjoys the arts enjoys investigation again in the words of the hymn writer heaven above is softer blue and earth around is sweeter green and something lives in every hue that Chrysler sighs have never seen and birds with gladder songs or flow and earth with deeper Beauty shine since I know as now I know that I am his and he is mine you see that transforms everything that makes us run to them not run from them that puts us on our knees before him that decreases the profile of our eagle that brings us down in the awareness that he is so clearly up the 20th century Bertrand Russell arguably the best that Britain had produced for a silly philosopher said to himself you know it is only on the foundation of unyielding despair that the soul's habitation can be built have a good day as here doesn't work it can't work you need to be seeing two people why would you walking around with that on the front of a t-shirt have you been thinking at all go to the Boston Museum of Fine Art if you choose and view their gogans largest can canvass go Gann who died after a profligate life down in the islands painting all those paintings he only wrote on one of his paintings and it's the one that you'll find there in the museum he was schooled as a Catholic he was brought up with a catechism in you the questions that were supposed to be asked and on his painting he asked those questions he wrote up in the corner do the NAM do kasam knew i long knew where do we come from what are we where are we going and he died without an answer to the question why because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Paul Simon is on his homeward bound farewell tour I know he's now 76 approaching 77 the nearer his destination the more he's slip-sliding away hee hee I don't say that in any sense of judgment I admired his lyrics more than any lyricist in my lifetime but if you've listened to him through the years and I started with him and have gone all the way with him how my heart yearns for this little Jewish man how I longed for him not to end his concerts telling us how important it is to save the wheels but all that he might end his concert saying you know I have discovered in the dying embers of my day that a fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom that the Shema my mother taught me I've come to embrace here o Israel the Lord your God the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind all your strength you will teach them to your children when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up you'll put them on the doorposts of your house and bind them around your wrists in your forehead so that one day when your children ask you what does this mean you will be able to tell them it's vital isn't this is Paul Simon a long long time ago and so you see I have come to doubt all that I once held is true I stand alone without belief the only truth I know is you he's writing to his girlfriend so here we are you're thoroughly depressed by now but I'll stop soon our culture is arguably adrift arguably adrift on a storm-tossed sea of moral and spiritual confusion therefore the door of opportunity swings wide open because people have a thousand questions that's the Moody Blues incidentally with the refrain I'm looking for someone to change my life I'm looking for a miracle in my life as the Moody Blues I have a thousand different questions about peace and love and war incidentally I didn't mean to say that but anyway that is representative of where we are and that some of us have known the benefits of the underpinnings of a biblical framework but that biblical framework at least here has eroded a long time ago and has collapsed that is not to say in light of how I began is not to say that education and instruction is now devalued no it's actually overvalued so that the continual answer to the question how will we fix this is education but if education fixed it you would think by now it might at least give an indication of being fixed this is where you have to become a Darwinian evolutionist with the preparedness to wait for a couple of million years till your program finally kicks in because if the Beatles had it right in the 60s that you've got to admit it's getting better it's taking its time right why why you see education - godly wisdom provides no basis for life and no provision for death is it any surprise that suicide is at the epidemic level that it is here in the states I can't possibly be why because people are being brought into the world without any understanding of origins at all what significance is there and being told that you exist as a result of time plus matter plus chance as opposed to Psalm 139 that you are intricately put together in your mother's womb that your DNA is unique to you when when the idea of life is to quote Hemingway a short journey from nothingness to nothingness so well then what am I going to do to make sense of the middle if there's no if there's no significant origin and there is no ultimate destiny it is no surprise that I have no arc through my own personal history I mean I've been no way of making sense of what I'm doing on all the freeways of Dallas this morning people coming and going back and forth everywhere like rats in a maze up a narrow little stair - a narrow little room as I lie upon my bed in the early evening glue impaled upon my wall my eyes can dimly see the riddle of my life and the puzzle that is me Paul Simon in the 60s the sayings of the prophets are actually written on the subway walls and tenement halls and they're whispered at the conference this morning parents grandparents and educators we have to in the face of huge opposition affirm our convictions in the truth of the Bible establish our instruction on the basis of a world view that is framed entirely by Scripture that explains about ourselves and about those under our care who and what we are because by and large the 21st century American dweller is on pretty good terms with himself he or she can usually make a pretty good case for themselves consequently large sways of evangelicalism have increased their numbers dramatically by making sure that they use that as the starting point good morning I'm sure you're feeling good about yourself we want you to feel good about yourself that's why we've allowed you to bring coffee into the auditorium please do not spill your sugar donut on the person next to you and so on can you imagine the fear of the Lord in the middle of this there's a very incongruous wouldn't it oh and by the way turn to the person next to you and say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom now you see it's so [Laughter] am I having difficulty communicating here I I need to know now you see here's the point where Tim were tempted to think that our newborn - we tend to think of our newborn children as a tabula rasa they're not tabula rasa they're born in sin and they're shapen in iniquity if you doubt I just go to the average nursery at your church just visit the grocery store it's there for all to see I don't know I don't know how anybody needs to be convinced of of the depravity of man all you need is a child I mean who was teaching the class on know who taught the class on pull your sister's here and who taught the class on all these toys are mine enough said so you see a message that says a good God will reward nice people if they do their best as opposed to the fact that a good God knowing the predicament of man in rebellion against him has in the men city of his love stepped down into time in the person of Christ thereby opening up a new and a living way because you see the biggest concern for my grandchildren I speak very personally is not their career I want them to be in this school they are it's not their career it's their conversion it's not how good they are at sports and therefore it is imperative that these eternal truths are established in the dawn of life in the dawn of life and this is where you as people in a realm that is uniquely your own have opportunity to do what others of us can't do maybe able to speak to those who bring their children to you who are consumed with a secular mindset that the children are supposed to be happy no matter what happens and as a result of that they have now they're now allowing their children to determine their menu I hear them all the time would you like some lunch no thanks well you're going to die [Laughter] [Music] it's not would you like some lunch it's here's your lunch what would you like to go to bed would you like to be quiet you see it's it's upside-down isn't it but the reason that you're able to laugh is because you identify it and what I'm saying to you is you're seeing yourself in the mirror grandma grandmother these are your children you see if we reject the biblical principles of the education and the formation of our children it is either because we're ignorant of their spiritual condition or we're afraid to address it or we're not Eve to the strength of the evil one education is distinct from grace but when conducted in the spirit and on the principles of God's Word it may be a means of imparting it and clearly God envisages the fight that our children will learn for some time without fully understanding that's a very important piece of this puzzle isn't it that they will learn for some time without fully understanding people say to me why are you teaching all this memorization to these children they don't understand what they're saying I mean you've got your granddaughter there's you talking like a parent and and it's very nice and it's very good but she hasn't a clue but really what she's on about well two things one she is far greater understanding that you give her credit for and to that fact that that truth is laid down in her tiny heart is there for the benefit that will accrue to her throughout all the days of her life I can actually give to you long pieces of the Bible quoted from memory that I learned when I was in the primary six in a secular Scottish school because I had a school teacher called Miss bone who in the morning put up on the blackboard Bible memorization before you did anything else in the entire day and so you sat at your desk and you memorized a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me and he divided unto them his his his thing which already forgotten and [Laughter] I think it's very unkind of you to do that I really could I I was gone really well there that early stuff is never a waste I was I'm gonna stop now because I've had enough and you hear I was driving I was writing on our train years ago in England and I I was wearing a clerical collar at the time that way you get four seats to yourself and and and so I was I was alone with three seats and absolutely was a young mother with a couple of children and in the course of the journey it was a long journey whose smiles going back and forth and the little girl was was drawing and eventually she said to her mom that she want to come over sit opposite me so she could draw it could never happen today but as she drew away we just engaged that thing was entirely open the conversation ensued and at one point somewhere along the line I said to her and do you go to Sunday school and her mother said sir I forget the girl's name we'll call her Megan she said immediately said Megan get back over here just like that Megan get back over here and she went over she was been mused I was been used the mother said to me she said no she doesn't go to Sunday school she says but what we're going to do is we're going to wait until she's old enough to decide for herself and then we'll go from there I sit there ma'am which he's old enough to decide for herself you've given or nothing to make a decision about that is the greatest fearfulness and in conclusion this is a this is a long journey this business isn't it training up a child in the way he should go and when he's old how in some cases very old some of you are here and you've got children in that category so you're a bit like Monica Augustine's mom watching us her boy in all of his brilliance goes down one dead-end street after another until in the Providence of God a little child says take it up and read it and of course you know the rest of the story I love Augustine for lots of reasons I love it when he says there is something about humility that appeals to my ego [Laughter] John Newton the slave trader reared in many ways by his mom she died when he was 7 in the midst of that fiendish storm when he thought his life was over he writes later that in an almost miraculous way it was the voice of his mother and the words of scripture that came to his mind and arrested him and converted him only the grace of God does that and surely you we are involved in one of the greatest adventures that we could ever be engaged to have under our tutelage those whom we want to love and serve and to say to them with conviction the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge father thank you thank you that we're not left to dream up ideas thank you that your word is all that it claims to be I pray that as the day unfolds and as we return to the place of our appointing that we might go increasingly humble and increasingly convinced that as we take the sword of the Spirit the Word of God to our hands that it is powerful to accomplish all the purposes to which you have established it thank you for this time and for each other and for those who are on our hearts and in Christ's name we pray amen

Channel: The Classical Difference Network

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Keywords: Classical Christian Education, Alistair Begg, Education, Classical, Christian, Repairing the Ruins, The Classical Difference Network, ACCS, 2018

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Length: 51min 8sec (3068 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 20 2018