Sunday, July 17, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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We're going to hand out here in a little bit, but if I give it out too early, you'll have the answers. So, I'll ask for some help handing that out in a moment.

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But we're returning to our study on fear. A biblical, practical study.

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A biblical study in that we want to understand what fear is according to the

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Bible. Wherein we may have light from God's word to understand what fear is.

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That we may recognize it in our own lives. And recognize it in the world around us.

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Not only a biblical study, but a practical study. In that we are commanded in the word to live differently than the world.

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To take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We are told many times in the

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Bible to not fear. And if we are going to follow through on those loving commands from our

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Lord. And take hold of all those reasons that God gives us to not fear.

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Then we ought to understand what fear is. That we may reject it, repent from it, and fear only the

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Lord. So, we're doing a biblical, practical study.

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I found a great article this afternoon. It was for Patriots Only. And it was on how

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NPR is shamelessly engaging in fear -mongering. Talking about a new strain of COVID that you're going to get every single month.

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Nothing but despair ahead. Oh, great article.

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And it was set right in between several other articles. One of which is, you know, they're coming for your children.

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So, the website complaining about fear -mongering was engaging in it.

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It's everywhere. So, let's talk tonight.

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Open up on the white board tonight. Let's talk about some symptoms.

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What are some symptoms that we think of when it comes to fear?

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What are the symptoms of being afraid? What does it look like?

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What does it feel like? What does it sound like?

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What are the symptoms of fear and being afraid? What do we think of? Trembling.

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Fear and trembling, right? Yep. Anxiety.

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Dread. Hiding. Heart racing.

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Panic. Okay, that's a good word. Complaining.

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I heard worry. And Lisa?

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Preoccupation. Hmm? What now?

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Shutting down. Okay. Sleeplessness.

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Scared. Yeah, that would definitely.

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Selfishness. Dissipation.

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Fine dissipation. We're trying to do this on our podcast, by the way. No, it's not, is it?

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Awe. Alright, so why am

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I listing these various symptoms in two different categories?

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What are they, how are they distinguished? The Bible talks about the inner man and the outer man, doesn't it?

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Now, the Bible does not say that the flesh, the human body, the physical aspects of our lives, that those are bad, and that only the life of thought and the inner feeling and thinking is good.

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That's Greek philosophy, that's not Scripture. Scripture tells us that God made us in his image, and it was very good.

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That he made us both physical and spiritual. That there was an inner man and an outer man united together, organized into a human being, mankind made in the image of God.

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We are a psychosomatic whole. The inner and the outer man are to be together.

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Death is unnatural. Death is not natural to Eden. For the soul to be separated from the body is unnatural.

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The soul departing from the body, the body being laid in the ground as a seat of hope for the day of resurrection, the soul being absent from the body but present with the

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Lord, is not ultimate victory. That's not the win.

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Your soul leaving your body is not big V victory.

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There's a resurrection coming. And setting all things right will include reuniting the inner man with the outer man in a glorious, sin -free fashion.

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But we have the inner man and the outer man, and fear impacts both, doesn't it? Fear has an impact on both the inner man and the outer man, and we should recognize that.

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So we can identify the various symptoms of fear.

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Last time we talked about three different types of fears. I'll ask for a couple of, or maybe three volunteers help me with the handout.

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And you're going to see on the back, oh yes, Brian drafted some of you. People who root for sports teams automatically.

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That means you Dylan. So we got Dylan, Ben, and anyone rooting for a sports team has to help hand out.

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Okay. We talked about three fears last time.

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What were the three fears that we talked about last week? You're going to remember that.

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Fear of man, the fear of death, and the fear of the Lord. So we talked about three fears last time.

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And Bill reminded us that all ungodly fear is built on untruth.

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I deceit a lie of some kind. The fear of man and the fear of death. We talked about how it was,

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I'll take one. We talked about how it was that the word fear in the

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Bible shows up far more often than words like hope or love or faith.

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The word fear is far more prevalent. The different cognates of fear and being afraid show up about 700 times in the

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Bible compared to all of that about faith and believe and trust, which is about 425.

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And we are given a great wealth of information in the Bible about fear.

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How to think about it, how to understand it. We talked about last time that there are over 17 different types of Hebrew words for fear.

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And there are several for Greek as well. I want us to read some passages tonight that have to do with fear.

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And then we will complete the reverse side of our handout.

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But on the front side we have passages from Genesis and Deuteronomy. And I want us to look at these passages to know where they talk about fear.

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And see if we can identify some of the symptoms we've already talked about. Some of the symptoms of fear.

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Can we find those in these passages? So in Genesis 3, verses 8 -10, a familiar story we read about Adam and Eve after they had sinned.

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Genesis 3, verse 8. And they heard the sound of the

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Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

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And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

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Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him,

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Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

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The word for afraid here is the most common one in all of the Old Testament.

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And it just has the basic ideas of fear. It can be used to talk about dread and reverence.

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It could be used in terms of being frightened and to be terrified.

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But in this passage, we see that Adam is afraid. What are the symptoms of his fear?

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Yeah, but what do we see? He hid, right? So we have hiding and retreat, right?

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What else do we know about the symptoms of his fear as we think about this passage in the larger context?

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What else did he do? Well, sure.

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Yeah, so he hid, he retreated. Did he engage in any complaining? The woman you gave to me, right?

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One thing we didn't put up here in terms of being afraid, we didn't put lying up.

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Now isn't that one of the major symptoms of fear, is lying? Yes.

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Yeah. In Genesis chapter 42, this is the next passage on your handout,

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Genesis 42 verses 25 -28. In the drama unfolding as Joseph is dealing with his brothers and they do not know that he is

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Joseph. We read verse 25, Genesis 42, Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey.

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Thus he did for them. So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money, and there it was in the mouth of his sack.

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So he said to his brothers, My money has been restored, and there it is in my sack. Then their hearts failed them, and they were afraid, saying to one another,

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What is this that God has done to us? Now, what kind of symptoms do we have here?

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Panic. Their hearts failed them. Yes, what has

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God done to us? They feel guilty. They feel, yes, it's kind of coming out of their guilt, anxiety.

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Do you remember what they did after this? They went on home and hid out.

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They were not going back to Egypt. What kind of fear did they have though?

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They talked about God in this text, but what kind of fear are they having right now? Fear of man?

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Fear of death. They're afraid of this ruler in Egypt, and they're afraid of what he might do to them.

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So they're afraid of man, they're afraid of death, and they're blaming God. So we see the types of fear and the symptoms.

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Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 9 -18.

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By the way, the word for fear here in Genesis 42 is another Hebrew word, fairly common.

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It has the idea of to shudder in horror. To shudder in horror.

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It has the idea of quaking and trembling. We have the word trembling up here. To hasten anxiously, speed up.

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That's the kind of fear that they were having. So Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 9 -18. Moses giving instructions.

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And I spoke to you at that time, saying, I alone am not able to bear you. The Lord your

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God has multiplied you, and here you are today as the stars of heaven in multitude. May the

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Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as he has promised you.

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How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.

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He's forming up the civil government here. And you answered me and said,

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The thing which you have told us to do is good. So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.

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Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who was with him.

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You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great.

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You shall not be afraid in any man's presence, for the judgment is

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God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring it to me and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

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So we hear the instructions and the formation of the civil government in the name of justice, putting together a system whereby cases may be heard by various civil servants.

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The instructions that he gives to these judges is simply this. You shall not be afraid in any man's presence.

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He's told them they have to hear the cases of the small and the great, but they are not to fear in any man's presence.

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It's a word in the Hebrew, which talks about turning away, shrinking back, hiding, or gathering in hostile fear.

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Sometimes when people get afraid, they gather together, don't they? And they become hostile to all outside influences.

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This is the kind of fear that Moses forbids them. He says, don't shrink away.

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Do not turn away. You shall not be afraid in any man's presence for the judgment is

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God's. So obviously, Moses is saying, thou shalt not fear man.

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All right, don't fear man. What would happen if the judges began to fear man? Justice would be perverted, wouldn't it?

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And notice, did you see that there's the fear of the Lord in here? The fear of the Lord is a huge portion of this text.

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Does it say fear the Lord? No. What does it say? You shall not be afraid in any man's presence for, here's your reason, here's your substantive reason for not fearing man.

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The judgment is God's. It belongs to God. So you see how the fear of God stabilizes the judge so he does not have to fear man.

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See how that works? Okay, one more passage. Deuteronomy 31, 1 -6.

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Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel and he said to them, I am 120 years old today.

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I can no longer go out and come in and also the Lord has said to me you shall not cross over this

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Jordan. The Lord your God himself crosses over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you and you shall dispossess them.

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Then Joshua himself crosses over before you just as the

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Lord has said. And the Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og the kings of the

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Amorites and their land would destroy them. The Lord will give them over to you that you may do to them according to every commandment which

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I have commanded you. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them for the

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Lord your God he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Now this term for fear.

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Do not fear be afraid of them is a word first time it's used and he's saying do not be in awe of these nations.

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Now what happened to the first tribes or the first spies who went into the land? They were in awe of all these

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Canaanites the massive cities the huge giants who roamed the land the mighty armies that they had they were in awe of the

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Canaanite armies the Canaanite tribes. They were in dread of them.

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They were sure that they would be oppressed by them.

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The fear itself was an oppression against their hearts. And this is the kind of word for fear that Moses is using here.

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He's saying do not be in awe of these great powerful nations.

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Why not? Because they were supposed to be in awe of the

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Lord. And when people are in awe of the mighty resources and armies and powers of wicked men you know who they're not in awe of?

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They're not giving reverence to the Lord. They're not in awe of the Lord. They're not rejoicing in Him.

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They're in awe of man and man does not deserve that type of fear. So just in a quick survey of some passages about fear

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I hope that we've already seen the practical import of this study.

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We can already see that fear is manifest by various foolish symptoms especially with Adam and with Joseph's brothers.

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We also see the practical outworking of not fearing men and the impact that it has on the quality of civil government.

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That if those servants in the civil government fear man we end up with injustice on a wide scale.

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Also in Deuteronomy 31 we see that fear and worship are intrinsically tied.

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That which we fear or are in awe of, that which captures our dread ultimately is what we worship.

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And isn't that a very important part of our lives considering who it is and what it is that we actually worship.

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So coming back to symptoms of fear and recognizing it where it arrives in our lives

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I've taken the synonyms the English lexical synonyms of the 17 various Hebrew terms for fear and I've listed them here on the back of your handout.

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And we're going to do a simple exercise and I want to show you some things about the breadth of the description of fear in the

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Old Testament. Why 17 terms for fear? Well, because it's such a huge part of the human experience.

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And every aspect of the human experience is spoken to by the Word of God. And fear gets listed about 700 times in the

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Bible and so there needs to be a wide strong foundation of terms to help us understand it.

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So we have a list of terms and what I want you to do first of all is we see this expression out of wits

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I'm scared of my wits if you ever hear that expression just under that and over the top of the four columns below I want you to draw a line.

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Let me show you what that looks like. So right below out of wits right below out of wits you're going to draw a line like this.

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Okay? Go ahead and draw a line across just underneath the expression out of wits and right above where the columns take back up all four of them.

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You see that? That's what you want to do. Now we you see that?

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Yes. It's humorous. Now do you see the difference between the top and the bottom?

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Right? The top deals with the inner man and the bottom deals with the outer man.

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Okay? Now right down the middle below dividing up the four columns into two equal groups just draw a line like that.

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Can you do that? So you have two columns and two columns you divide them right down the middle. Okay? Now when you look at your page on the left hand you have the involuntary symptoms of fear in the outer man.

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Shuddering, shaking, shivering. You see that? These are all terms that are part of the

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Hebrew etymology of fear. On the right hand on the right hand we read things like turn aside, hasten, shrink, hide, lie low, break gird, crawl.

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These kinds of terms which all have to do with the voluntary actions of the outer man when we are afraid.

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The idea of girding is when someone is afraid they gird on their armor and they gird on their weapons.

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The idea of gathering when someone is afraid they gather together with a group who can protect them.

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We have someone leaps to get away from danger.

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They turn aside away from where they see danger. These are all voluntary expressions voluntary expressions of the outer man in fear.

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Now up on the top when we are talking about the symptoms of fear in the inner man the first the first column that we are going to to look at reverence, awe, and dread you can just draw a line separating the first column off from the other three.

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And this is going to have essentially a different type of effect than the rest over here.

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When it comes to the aspects of the inner man things get mixed up a lot. But when it comes to reverence, awe, and dread these are large encompassing even worshipful terms that are essentially the response of our souls.

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These would be words that in the scripture are associated with the soul as the Bible talks about the soul being reverence or in awe or in dread.

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The worshipful part of the inner man. And then you can draw another line isolating the next column where you see it's troubled, vexed, anxious, agitated, confused, alarm, out of your wits.

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And this deals with the mind. The mind. Sometimes the

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Bible in talking about the inner man stresses the mind. It's not as if we are all fractured into four parts in our inner man.

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You know, well this part's my soul and this part over here is my mind. But the

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Bible will talk about the inner man emphasizing various nuances of the life of the inner person.

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And when talking about fear in the inner man regarding the mind a troubled mind, a mind that is like troubled water wherein there's nothing smooth or clear.

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The idea of being vexed and anxious and agitated, confused and alarmed, scared out of your wits.

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Not being able to think straight. Not being able to think clearly. That is a symptom of fear in the mind.

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And then you can draw another line isolating out the last two columns. And this third that begins with timidity.

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Timidity and then terror. Apprehensive and the idea of being careful. Now being careful is not a bad thing, but there's such an idea of just being way too careful about everything.

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And then I failed to get the T on there so I had to put it on. Circumspect.

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Always just having to think about and always, in other words, when you are problematizing issues constantly.

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I'm never going to make a decision or go forward in my life because I can always find problems with everything.

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That's a symptom of fear. That's the bad type of being circumspect. A bad way of being careful.

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Okay. Being careful is fine. That's a good thing. But you can also problematize things and never get anything done.

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This is the impact of fear upon the will. Upon the will. Many times in the scriptures,

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I'm talking about the life of the inner man, the inner person. The Bible speaks to the will. And the symptoms of fear upon the will are these.

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And the last has to do with the heart. With the heart. The affection.

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Where there is dismay and sorrow and one word in particular speaks of a whirlwind, a tempest.

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And this is a type of, this is the way that fear manifests in the heart.

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Now we've also had some other helpful symptoms.

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These are just terms that come out of the lexicon in describing the various words for fear in the

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Hebrew and in the Greek. So, as we look at this,

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I hope that this will help you in diagnosing fear. Okay.

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Now remember there are three types of fear. There's the fear of man and the fear of death.

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Fear of man is a snare. The fear of death is slavery. And we went over the blessings of the fear of the

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Lord last time. So fear in and of itself is not wrong.

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But we are made to fear the Lord not to fear man or fear death. And so what we need to be aware of is when the symptoms of fear manifest in our lives either in the inner man or the outer man.

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Voluntary and voluntary. Whether the fear of man and fear of death is working upon our souls, upon our minds, upon our wills, upon our hearts.

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You know, we need to be able to identify those with scriptural clarity.

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In Romans 7 Paul said that he knew he was a sinner and sinful but it was only when the law of God came and said thou shalt not covet that he saw how sinful coveting really was.

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Because the word of God made that clear to him. And we need the word of God to make it clear to us where we are living in fear.

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And so hopefully this survey will help us to begin to make those diagnoses.

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Alright. Well, let's close our time together by singing the doxology.