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Adult Sunday School Class
You realize, I'm sure, that what we fear controls us. What we fear controls us. Many, many years ago now, our son was all of four years of age, and we were living in Tennessee at the time, and in the back of our property, back of our house property, there was a little stream that ran through the yard.
It wasn't a huge piece of property, it was in a subdivision, but this stream ran through the backyards of several homes in this subdivision, and it ran through our house. Well, Melissa and Scott were in the backyard playing, and Chris was in the front yard working in the flower beds or something like that, and all of a sudden, she heard, Chris, heard this blood-curdling scream, and she recognized that it was coming from Scott, and she's, of course, she panics.
She's certain that he's gotten hurt somehow terribly, whatever, so she, of course, drops what she's doing, and she's running toward the back of the house, and at the same time, he's running around the side of the house, and they meet each other, and he's screaming, and he's bawling, and carrying on, and he just screams out, a snakey, a snakey, a snakey, and he was doing this, with his tongue, and he's just carrying on, and it was all she could do to console him, and it was nothing but a garden snake.
There's nothing that that snake would do to him, but to this day, he can't even look at pictures of snakes, not even a picture of a snake, and it doesn't matter how venomous or not it is. It just doesn't make any difference.
Now, in contrast to that, I have a picture of Melissa during that same era. I think she was probably seven, and we were at the Knoxville Zoo, and she's got, in this picture, she's got this yellow, I don't remember if it's a python or a boa constrictor, you know, one of those huge, monstrous snakes, a picture of this yellow snake, and she's holding onto it.
She's just carrying it and looking at it like, oh, this would make a wonderful pet. You know, not in the least bit afraid. What we fear controls us, and it's because of that that the Bible has so many places where God tells his people, fear not, fear not, don't be afraid, and sometimes that's easier said than done.
Sometimes nothing. Most of the time, that's easier said than done, because most of the time, the things that we're told not to be afraid of are things that we are naturally afraid of. So, for example, the Lord Jesus says, do not fear, in Matthew 10, 28, he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
Well, okay, that's an easy thing to exhort somebody to do. Don't be afraid of someone who can kill the body, but can't kill the soul, but it's altogether a different thing when you're standing on the receiving end of a gun pointed at you, threatened with being shot if you don't turn over your wallet, or something like that, right?
So there's this natural response of fear that we have, and there are many things that God tells us that we're not to be afraid of. On the other hand, though, there is one thing that we are to fear, and that is God.
So even what Jesus said, fear not him who, don't fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, he goes on to say, but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And he's talking about fearing God.
And the Bible says much about the fear of God. It is something that is to mark the life of a human being, but particularly of the Christian. Now, fearing God, though, does not imply that he is some kind of a scary monster.
That's not what we're exhorted to do, to fear him like an overbearing ogre, or something of that nature. But rather, to fear God does, and I'm quoting here, does demand that the conscious awareness of God should govern life.
So Ray Ortlin, let me read this rather extended description of the fear of God. He says this, what then is the fear of the Lord? It is not a cringing dread before the Lord. It is not a guilty, oh no, here comes God, I'm in for it now.
You know, like I remember as a kid in elementary school being very much afraid of Mr. Ford, the school principal. You know, so we're carrying on out on the playground, but oh no, here comes Mr. Ford. You know, that kind of thing.
No, this is not how we're to fear God. The fear of the Lord is openness to him, eagerness to please him, humility to be instructed by him. It takes us to that place of maturity where no one has to follow us around with a tedious list of do's and don'ts, constantly telling us what to do.
We are motivated instead from deep within. We know what is right, and it is what we love because it is of God. This is a description of the fear of God. And it's that fear, that kind of fear of the Lord, that dispels other fears.
So, for example, in Psalm 23, the psalmist writes, though, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, a very reasonable place to be living in fear, right? The valley of the shadow of death.
He says, I will fear no evil, no calamity.
Why?
Because you are with me. You are with me. Now, all of this is by way of introduction, but let me, a few points, okay? The fear of God is, in the first place, all-encompassing and all-pervasive. You could think of the fear of the Lord as the essence of true piety.
The essence of true piety. It ultimately defines true religion. Somebody who claims to be religious, claims to be a Christian or whatever, but has little or no fear of God, is, something is greatly missing in that verbal testimony.
It ultimately defines true religion. One writer put it this way. He says, the fear of God governs both worship and ethics, affecting both attitudes and actions. And we're gonna see that on the back of your handout.
There is a chart that we're going to be referring to here in just a few minutes that encompasses that. So, Ecclesiastes 12, 13, for example, says, fear God and keep his commandments. Fear God. That has to do with worship and attitudes.
Keep his commandments. That has to do with ethics or action. For this is the whole duty of man. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is our whole duty. So, that's what I mean by being all-encompassing and all-pervasive.
The second idea, by way of introduction, is that living in the fear of God is actually living in the reality of God, the reality of his existence, the reality of his presence, by which we factor him into every situation and every circumstance of life.
If I'm living in the fear of God, I'm living in the awareness that he is here right now, right in the midst of this situation, right in the midst of this set of circumstances, right in the challenging decision that I have to face.
He is here. He is here right now. All right, now let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10, and we'll look at a couple of verses here to get us launched. Deuteronomy 10, verse 17, Deuteronomy 10, verse 17, tells us a little bit about who God is, all right?
Verse 17 says, for the Lord your God is, for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome. I think that King James says terrible, which is a good reason to change that to a more accurate description in up-to-date English.
Awesome, evoking great awe, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. All right, so what does this verse tell us? It tells us that God is supreme, he is great, he is mighty. He is supreme, he's great, he's mighty.
He's God of gods, Lord of lords, great God, mighty. It also tells us that he is to be revered. He is to be reverenced. He is to be honored. He is awesome. He is to fill us with awe, all right? Now with that in mind, look at verses 20 and 21.
Based upon who God is, in verse 17, verse 20 says, you shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him, and to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. He is your praise and he is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.
All right, so based upon who God is, the great God, the powerful, mighty God, the one who is worthy or deserves to be feared, he's awesome, because of that, fear him. And the expressions of that living in the fear of him come out in verse 20, worshiping him, that's what it means when it says serve him, you shall serve him, and be holy.
Serve him and be holy. This comes out in the idea of to him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. All right, now turn with me to Psalm 86. Psalm 86, and I want to remind you of our rather lengthy series on the heart.
And you remember when we studied the heart, we said the heart in scripture is comprised of these three chambers. The mind, the desires, and the will. The mind, what we know or what we think. The desires, what we want or what we love.
And the will, what we choose, what we do. All right, the heart has those three chambers. Now look at verse 11. The psalmist writes, teach me your way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name.
Unite my heart to fear your name. So what the psalmist is saying is, look, I've got these three chambers in my heart. He understands this. My mind, my intellect, my desires, my emotion, my will. These three chambers.
And he's appealing to the Lord to unite his heart so that he fears the Lord's name. Unite my heart to fear your name. All right, now, with that in mind, remember back in Deuteronomy 20, verse 17. Fearing God begins in the mind what you know about him.
Right, what did Deuteronomy 20, 17 say? You know, our God is God of gods, Lord of lords. He is the great God. He is the mighty God. All right, it's telling us truth about God, about what he is like. So the fear of God begins in the mind.
It is then expressed in the desires of the heart, what you love. That's why Deuteronomy 10, verse 20, says hold fast to him. That's an idea that you would express in a marriage relationship, right? Cling to him.
Cling to your spouse. Cleave to that person. All right, so the fear of God begins in the mind what you know about him. It's expressed in the desires of the heart. Hold fast to him. And it's evidenced, that fear of the Lord is evidenced through the will, what you choose to do in worship and in holy behavior.
Again, verse 20, serve him. In Deuteronomy 10, verse 20, serve him, serve him. And so what we want to consider in the minutes left today is the question of the relationship between the fear of God and God's call to holiness.
What is that relationship between the fear of God, the Bible exhorts us to fear God on the basis of what we know of him, and his call to holiness, his call to holiness? And our basic premise is this, that holy living doesn't happen with an empty head or an unfeeling heart.
Holy living doesn't happen with an empty head or an unfeeling heart. The reason it is so important to understand this is that it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that, if I just follow somebody's list of things that I'm supposed to do and things that I'm not supposed to do, that they define as holy living, then I am holy, I am set apart, I am sanctified.
And that's a terrible misconception of what it means to live a holy life, and a misconception of holiness altogether. No, holy living doesn't happen with an empty head or an unfeeling heart. Now, at this point, look on the back of your handout at that chart that I drew up for you.
I got this from the book we're using, the Radical and Comprehensive Call to Holiness. And this chart puts together all the pieces that we'll look at in the next little bit. And this chart reflects a wholehearted, Psalm 8611, unite my heart, a wholehearted fear of the Lord.
It involves the mind, there at the top, what I know of God. I'll never fear God rightly if I don't know Him rightly. The extent of a correct or proper fear of God and then from therefore holy living is going to flow from a right perception of God.
All right, so the fear of the Lord begins with the mind, the knowledge of God. And that affects these two other chambers of the heart, the desires and attitudes, which has to do with our worship. What we're gonna see, I think, in a little bit, in a few minutes here is, in speaking of worship, I'm not talking about the actions of worship, singing hymns and praying, the actions of worship that we will engage in in just a little bit in the morning service, in the worship service.
Instead, we're talking about the heart behind those actions. When Jesus said those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, well, He's dealing with the inner man. True worship of God begins in the heart, all right?
So, fear of the Lord begins in the mind, what you know about God. It affects the other two chambers of the heart, our desires, our attitudes, our love, and it involves an attitude of awe. And the right fear of God affecting the mind, the right knowledge of God leads to, it involves the chamber of the will of your heart, your actions, your ethics.
This brings in the actions of sanctification, the actions of holiness. Now, you see how the chart then branches out from there and deals with two outward actions of sanctification that reflect a fear of the Lord.
The dread of chastisement, there's a certain level of anxiety there, and the dread of marring the relationship, that emphasizes our love for God. All right, so that's a big overview of what we want to deal with in the rest of our time this morning.
All right, so we want to first of all go from the mind to desire. In other words, showing how knowing God and fearing God are inseparably linked. First of all, fear is, the fear of the Lord is both the starting point and the chief principle of knowledge and wisdom, all right?
So, you see this on your handout. Proverbs 1 .7 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And Proverbs 9 verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the point here is that fearing God is the consequence of knowing God.
Fearing God is the consequence of knowing God, and that fearing God is the core of wisdom. Now, let's explain what the Bible means in the Hebrew language by the word wisdom. The word essentially means skill or ability.
And so, you know, the book of Proverbs is the ultimate in the wisdom literature of the Bible. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, these are wisdom literature, wisdom books of the Bible. And in the book of Proverbs, when it speaks of wisdom, this wisdom in Proverbs designates the skill or the ability to live in a way that pleases God, all right?
The skill or the ability to live in a way that pleases God. Where does that come from, that wisdom, that skill, the ability to live in a way that pleases God? At the root of it is the fear of God. Where does the fear of God come from?
The knowledge of God, you see, goes back to the knowledge of God. So the fear of God is the starting point and the chief principle of true knowledge and wisdom. Now again, in Psalm 86, are you still there in your Bible, Psalm 86, verses 10 and 11, emphasize the fact that God deserves to be feared.
He deserves to be feared. Psalm 86, 10, echoes what we read in Deuteronomy 10. It says, you are great and you do wondrous things. You alone are God. Then verse 11, teach me your way, O Lord. I will walk in your truth.
Unite my heart to fear your name. God deserves to be feared, why? Why does he deserve to be feared? Because of what he's like. He is great, you are great. What's our little motto that we like to say from time to time?
That we wanna know, we wanna learn what God is like and what God likes, why? So that we might love him rightly and live for him rightly. So begins here, what is God like? What is God like? He is great, he is great.
And secondly, he deserves to be feared because what he has done or what he is doing and what is that? He does wondrous things, does wondrous things. And God deserves to be feared because of who he is.
He alone is God, there is no other God. Okay, so God deserves to be feared. Now, that fear, you know, the fear of God's the beginning of knowledge and wisdom, that then compels the worship of God. Look at Psalm 150, Psalm 150 verses one and two.
And remember what we just read about the, you know, why do we fear God? Why does he deserve to be feared? Because of what he's like, he's great, because of who he is, because of what he's done. Now look at Psalm 150 verses one and two.
Says, praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament. Praise him for his mighty acts, his wondrous works, the things he has done. Praise him according to his excellent greatness, because of who he is and what he's like, praise him.
One of the old divines, Steve Charnock, old theologian, who's long gone to glory, he said this. Okay, get this. When we see, therefore, the frame of the world to be the work of his power, the order of the world to be the fruit of his wisdom, and the usefulness of the world to be the product of his goodness, we find the motives and reasons of worship.
So what he's doing is, Charnock is looking at these couple of verses, especially verse two. Praise him for his mighty acts. What mighty acts? Praise him according to his excellent greatness. What excellent greatness?
Look at the world. Look at what he's made. Look at the frame of the world, and we could expand that to the framework of the universe, of our solar system, and all the rest of those intricate details that allow us to live on this planet, uniquely in the universe.
Look at the frame of the world. When we look at all of that to be the work of his power, the order of the world, how everything is so well-ordered and organized, and the, let's see, and the order of the world to be the fruit of his wisdom, and the usefulness of the world to be the product of his goodness, we find the motives and reasons for worship.
I think about this, even, Chris and I were talking about this last night. Somebody gave us some sweet corn, and still in the husks, and all that kind of stuff, and it had the silk flowing out of the top of the thing, and I grilled that.
You ever grilled corn and still in the husks? It's really good. You should try it sometime. Well, anyway, I couldn't remember exactly the role that corn silk played. I knew it had something to do with the kernels and all that kind of stuff, but I wasn't exactly sure, so I did what any modern individual in the world would do today, and that is Googled it, yeah.
You don't even say, you search on the internet. You say, I mean, that's how predominant Google is. I Googled it. Okay, what is the role of corn silk? Now, one of the first things that, you know what first came up?
It talked about the medicinal value of corn silk and how it has natural properties that can be used for all these different purposes, and I read this article about all these different ways that corn silk can be medicinally helpful on WebMD, and it goes through all this list of things, but then at the bottom it said, but there are no scientific studies that prove the effectiveness of all these things, you know?
But I went on to read about the role of corn silk, and here I learned the details that when I read them, I thought, wow, what God has done in creation. You know, you've got these long filaments, and at the end of that filament, it kind of has a little tiny explosive tip to it, and that little explosive tip collects pollen from the air mostly, it just flows through the air, and sometimes insects, but mostly just because the pollen flowing through the air, and it grabs a hold of those little tiny exploded tips on the corn silk, grab a hold of the pollen, which then germinates and causes eventually the flow of the chemical releasing in the pollen to flow down the pipe of the corn silk to then ultimately create the kernel, and we get this wonderful ear of corn.
And so I read about that, and then we made a comment to each other, how in the world can anybody believe evolution? How can you believe evolution? I mean, like, where would the corn silk thing first come from in the first place?
Why would it just evolve this strand of silk? I mean, no, it doesn't make any sense. And she goes, which came first, the chicken or the egg? And it's obvious what came first, the plant, just like Genesis tells us.
The wisdom of God in the creation of this world to provide for what you and I need to survive, when we realize the wisdom of God, the order of the world that is the fruit of his wisdom and the usefulness of the world as the product of his goodness, we find motives and reason of worship.
This is the fear of God, learning what God is like, what God has done, it motivates us, it gives us reason to worship. Now, again, as I said, I'm not so much interested here about, when I'm talking about worship, in the acts of worship at this point.
I'm thinking more about the heart of worship. It's like I said, we're reading this article, we're reading this stuff about how corn silk works and what it does, it leads us to understand a little better the wisdom and the goodness of God in creating this planet and all these little details on the planet, and it created a heart response, you see, a heart response that was one of awe of this God that we serve.
I think it's Barrett who wrote, a genuine fear of God will express itself in true and reverential worship. Let me say that again. A genuine fear of God will express itself in true and reverential worship.
What did Ezekiel do when he saw the glory of God in Ezekiel chapter one? Remember that fantastic vision that he had that has been interpreted in modern days as like some magnificent UFO. What he saw was the glory of God.
He kept saying in Ezekiel one, this is like that, this is like that, this is like that. He didn't even have the words to express what he was seeing, but what did it all lead him to do? He says, when I saw it, I fell on my face.
And in Revelation one, what did John do when he saw the revelation of the exalted Lord Jesus? He says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet. Again, I quote, the level of genuine, heartfelt, and heart-active worship.
Whole heart, right? Unite my heart to fear your name. The level of genuine, heartfelt, and heart-active worship will always be in proportion to how much we are impressed by the object of that worship.
The greater the knowledge of God, the greater will be the exercise of true worship. All right, so that's from the mind to the desires and our worship. Now what about from the mind and desire to our hands or to the will?
This statement, the fear of God starts in the mind, what you know, and governs your desires, what you love and your attitudes, but it also dictates your hands. A little aphorism that may be helpful here.
Attitude affects action. Attitude affects action. Belief determines behavior. True belief affects your attitudes, right? What you really, truly believe that determines your attitudes, which then affects your action.
Here's the bottom line. The fear of the Lord is not only the motivation for the actions of worship, but also for the actions of sanctification, for dying to sin and living to righteousness. So a few verses in Proverbs, Proverbs 16, six.
By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Proverbs 3, seven. Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. And Proverbs 8, 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. You see the connection here between fearing God and sanctification, between fearing God and your hands.
All right? When we know God's hatred of sin, when we know how sin displeases Him, and when we know the consequences of sin, that should motivate us to resist it. Now in terms of worship, fearing God involves the attitude of reverential awe.
In terms of worship, the fear of God involves the attitude of reverential awe. In terms of ethics, that's our behavior, that's how we behave, that's what, you know, our ethics determine what we do, how we behave.
In terms of ethics, fearing God involves the dread to disobey Him and to displease Him. Now this dread to disobey Him follows these two tracks, you see that on that chart on the back of your handout. And it involves two motivations.
One is a less mature motivation, and that is the dread of chastisement. The dread of chastisement. If I fear God, one of the ways that's going to affect my behavior is I will be motivated by the dread of chastisement.
Understanding that disobedience has consequences. Another way to put it, and I like this way better because it's easier to remember. Sin hurts. Sin hurts. And this is an important truth to teach our children.
Sin hurts. Now there's a modern philosophy of child rearing now that says you don't ever use corporal punishment because you don't inflict pain upon a child. Well I would absolutely agree that you don't do so capriciously by any stretch of the imagination.
And you don't do so with anger that's controlling you. But that doesn't mean that corporal punishment should be completely discarded.
Because how do we teach our children that sin hurts if when they sin, it never hurts? There's no hurt involved in that sin. Now I'm not going to go into a whole parenting thing on corporal punishment.
But that principle guides in parental rearing of children and helps understand when and how to incorporate corporal punishment. When that child has been rebellious and defiant, that's sin. Deal with it in a way that it's going to be painful.
Doesn't always have to be painful on the back end or a slap on the hand. But it does have to be painful. Sin hurts. And it's perfectly proper for parents to inflict pain in teaching their children that sin hurts because that's what God does.
Hebrews chapter 12, right? Verses five through seven. The person, the child the Lord loves, he chastens, disciplines. So the fear of discipline can be an effective motivator for obedience. I think we understand that.
Well we may say, well wait a minute, isn't that kind of an immature thing? After all, 1 John 4, 18 says perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Well a couple things. One of them is the word perfect means mature.
Mature love does cast out fear. And fear, the verse goes on to say, fear has torment. That word means punishment. So the verse could be read this way. There is no fear in love but mature love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not come to full maturity in love. Now it is true that this motivation to obedience or a life of sanctification, this dread of chastisement is indeed a less mature motivation but it doesn't mean it's an illegitimate motivation.
As we progress in our Christian life, in our maturity, the anxiety over punishment gives way to a focus on love for the person behind that punishment. As John Newton wrote in his hymn Amazing Grace, t 'was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.
The more mature motivation of course is the dread of marring the relationship. Mature believers don't ask the question what will happen to me if I do this? What will God do to me if I commit this sin?
Mature believers don't ask that question. Instead they ask the Joseph question and the Joseph question is how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Out of a love for God, we should fear doing anything that we know displeases him.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is a proper motivation for a holy life. Our Father and our God, I pray that you would help us grow in the development of a wholehearted fear of you and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, thanks for your attention.