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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/reality-of-fearing-the-lord/
Here's the book of Hebrews. William quoted one of the verses I was going to read in chapter 5. We're going to read at verse 7. Hebrews 5. Verse 7. Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard, and that He feared.
I'm interested in that word feared. Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.
Chapter 12, please. Verse number 28. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
Now we'll go to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. We read here in Hebrews of a reference of the Lord Jesus in fear and in His labors and work for God and His reverence. We're going to go to Deuteronomy and we're going to learn to fear.
Four times in this book, this little phrase is mentioned that we're to learn to fear. And you remember the book of the Deuteronomy is really the re-giving of the law. For the first giving of the law, most of those people had perished in the wilderness.
And now Deuteronomy is written to the next generations that they might get the same message that those that have gone on before received. We're going to chapter 4 of Deuteronomy. Read verse number 3 with me, please.
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor. For all the men that followed Baal-peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day.
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations.
That's interesting. Which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for?
And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons, especially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
And ye came near and stood under the mountain, and behold, and the mountain burned with fire under the midst of heaven with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire, and ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only heard a voice.".
We'll read a little more in just a few moments, but what my burden for this conference is is the reality of fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord. It was something that the children of Israel needed to learn.
They needed to understand it. And their forefathers, they were there, especially the day on the mountain. And if you and I were there that day when that fire came up from the mountain and the place was filled with smoke and we heard the voice of God with our own ears, it would have been a life-changing experience.
And my question just to the young folk here, there are a lot of young people here, do you understand what it is to fear God? Has there ever been a moment in your experience when God was absolutely real?
All of us here that are saved, before we were saved, we feared God. We did. Our sin against God was real to us. And because of His holiness and because of His righteousness, we knew that we were in great danger, in great trouble.
And we feared the Lord. We feared God. Remember the thief upon the cross. He says, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And so we feared. Because we understood what we deserved.
So we have all feared God. If you've been saved, you feared God. But then we learned what it is. And my question is this, in your life's experience, can you think of any time that God was real? That God was real.
I'm not thinking about the things we know from the Word of God, but I mean real personally, experimentally in your lifetime. Has there been a time that you just had to drop to your knees and just say, that was God?
And it was the most humbling thing. And it was the most frightening thing because you knew that God was there and did whatever it is in your life that He did. That's what He's trying to draw their attention to.
He's trying to draw their attention to what their forefathers saw on the mountain. And those people were absolutely terrified and they realized that God was real. Why is it then that we live as though God is not real?
Did you ever think about that? We go about our day-to-day business as though God is some imaginary person in the sky. And we go around, and maybe this is just me. Maybe the shoe only fits me this morning.
But we go around in our pride and our arrogance and that God is not even real. And we go about in our own understanding instead of by faith that we've been reminded of. Instead of looking to the future that Scott reminded us, we just go about our life day-to-day just as everyone else in this world goes about day-to-day.
I want to challenge my heart this morning and yours. When was the last time I found myself in the fear of God? They were to learn to fear. They had to learn it. How does God teach us to fear Him? Well, we can read the Bible.
We can look at the examples of the Scriptures and we can see what happened to those people and we can learn to fear. And we can learn to fear in a way that is experiential, even in ways that come into our life that hurt us.
And we learn to fear. We learn the humility of fear. We learn the awesome reverence of fear. And we also have a fear of God that is true fear. It takes all of them in. And there's also an aspect of the fear of God that what I might do might bring dishonor to His name.
That what I might do, the way I might live, the choices that I might make will profound the name of our God. And so this was something that they were to learn. It was to be passed down from generation to generation.
And so just to encourage everyone here today, when there's something in your life that is evident that God was there, don't be afraid to share that. The little things in life. Maybe you're looking to visit someone with the Gospel and you don't know where to find them, and then all of a sudden, you go to the gas station and here they come.
That's God. That's God working. And that should just humble us. Humble us. That God is real. These people, when they were at Mount Sinai, there would be no doubt in their mind that God was real. They'd never seen anything like that in their life.
It would have had a lasting impression upon them. It would have been a life-changing experience. Maybe even a turning point in their thinking. But they needed to learn to fear. Does this mean we walk around cowering all the time and our God is austere and He is hard?
No. But we need to be aware. It is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is the beginning. And we cannot get to the second part without the beginning. To give God His due place. To give God His due glory.
To give God our utmost respect in all things. To learn to fear God. This world now as it rubs off on Christians, and it always has rubbed off on Christians, but the fear of God, there's no fear of God before their eyes.
And they want to teach that to you too. They want you to learn that. And so we're going to learn a little bit about learning to fear God. God is real. God is to be revered. And so we go now to chapter 14.
We're just going to touch briefly these four instances. We'll read at verse 22. Verse 22 says, Thou shalt truly tithe all thy increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose to place His name there, at the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, of thine oil, and of the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks, that thou mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always.
What's the point here? They're bringing their tithes. They're bringing God the first. They're giving God what He requires. And that shows that they reverence Him and that they respect Him. And when they're doing this, what they're really doing is they're manifesting their faith in Him.
That what God has given me, I'm going to give back to Him. And that He will provide for all of my needs. And this is in a temporal thinking, in a temporal setting. All that God has given me, He is providing for my needs.
And when they would bring the firstfruits, what would happen if the locusts would come or the hail would come and destroy the rest of the crop? And they'd already given God the firstfruits and they would end up with nothing.
That would be the natural thinking, wouldn't it? That we'll fill up our barns and we'll fill up our storehouses and that whatever is left we'll give God. And what they were doing is they were showing their fear of God and their humbleness and dependence upon God and that they would wait for God for everything for their temporal needs.
And they would not withhold from God what was His. I think this is a tremendous way to fear the Lord. To show that we respect Him, that we reverence Him, we fear Him, and we trust Him. We trust Him. And there they are.
And they're doing what He had asked them to do because they feared Him. They feared Him. But they had to learn. And so they obey God. What happens? God is faithful. They obey God. God is faithful. What are they doing?
They're learning that God is faithful. They're learning the One who is all-powerful, the One who is all-knowing, the One who meets every supply, that He is trustworthy. And it continues and it crescendos.
And that's why we look at our older brethren and sisters who fear God, and they're different. There's a calmness to them. There's a reality to them. There's a weight to them. There's two sisters in particular in Garnevillo.
You know who they are. They're the dear older sisters. And they sit in the third row in the Gospel meeting. And when they are in the meeting, there's weight. There's reverence on display. There's faith in God on display.
One of them is 99. She's hardly missed a meeting. She's reverent. She wants to be where the Lord is. She wants to be where the Word of God is. She wants to be where the power of God has been made known to her and the voice of God has been real to her in a day gone by.
Young people, are you interested in that? If you have a choice to sit and watch the meeting on Zoom or be there, what's going to be your choice? You're going to go through the effort and you're going to get to a meeting or you're going to sit in your jammies and drink orange juice and watch the meeting.
Even in these little things, we acknowledge the fear of God. That God is here and God is meeting with His people. In all four of these instances where we learn to fear, you'll notice this. It talks about when His people are gathered together.
Or when He gathers them together. And it reminds me of the local assembly. And there's nothing like a meeting when we all come in humble. And we all come independent. But yet, we come expectant because our God is faithful.
He is faithful. And so they were to learn in the temporal things of life. Right? So God is real. And God is real in everyday life. And now we're going to go to chapter 17. Chapter 17. Verse 19. Now this is really a prophecy.
And what God is doing here is He's prophesying that the people are going to ask for a king. That doesn't come until Samuel's day with Saul. But God is preparing them and He's setting the stage because He knows what's going to happen.
And notice this. It says, When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like is all the nations that are about me.
Thou shalt anyway set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shalt choose. One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother, but he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Notice it says, Neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites, and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in the kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
So we have a king that is to learn to fear. It was a sad day in Samuel's day when they cried out for a king. God wanted to be their leader. God wanted to be their God. God wanted to be their judge. God wanted them to trust him.
But they set their heart upon a king is what they saw in the nations. Maybe it was the fact that it was someone that they could see or someone that they could approach, or maybe it was someone that if they didn't like him, someday he would be gone.
I'm not sure they're all of their motives, but the reality is just simple that there was coming a day that God foreseen that they would cry out for someone to rule over them other than God. What does that reveal about the heart of the people?
That they had entirely come to a place in their life where God wasn't real. That God wasn't reliable. That God wasn't enough. And they wanted something of their own thinking. Something of their own desire.
Someone that maybe they could relate to. Maybe even someone they could overthrow. But God said, your king is going to be a man of the Word. He is going to be a man of the Book. He must be. A man of the Book.
And He must through reading these laws and through reading these commandments, He must come to learn to fear Me. When it comes to government, the governments of the world do not fear God. They do not fear God.
The day is coming, if the Lord be not come, that you and I will have a great choice to make. Are we going to follow the king? Or are we going to follow God? You see, it is the Word of God. God intended as He gives the governments over men and ordains their governments, believe it or not, He intended those governments to rule with the Word of God.
That was God's intention. And the nations will be judged accordingly. They will be judged accordingly. But you and I, in our fear of God, in our humility, in our reverence, in our understanding of God, we will go by this book.
Elders will go by this book. Elders will teach us and guide us in this book. All those that were intended to rule over the people. Husbands, you will guide your family by this book in the fear of God.
That's what God expects. That's what He expects. God is not interested in our personal preferences. He is interested in what His Word says. Otherwise, we would have to say that God's Word is not perfect.
We would have to come to the conclusion then that God has held out on something from us as we add things to the Word of God. And I should have read that back earlier that they weren't to take anything away from it or add to it.
What God has given us is absolutely perfect for moral living. Nothing needs to be added to it. Nothing can be taken away from it. God's standard that is given to us in the Word of God is absolutely righteous because He is righteous.
We do not need to add something as events come into our life. We do not need to change anything because God has already foreseen it. God has already taken care of it. He has addressed every issue. Sometimes they may not be as plain as we would like them to be.
But if we live in the principle of the fear and reverence of God and we learn that, the way will be made very plain. And so here he's talking about the reverence in rulers and in governments. There is much question that's been raised on who do we obey?
Who do we obey? We always obey God. Always. It is not pleasing to God that we live in sin. It is wrong. And God would not sanction a government to tell us to live in sin and expect us to obey that when it would break our communion with Him.
So we always obey God in the fear of God. And you can go through the precedent set in the Old Testament of different peoples, but my emphasis isn't on that today. My emphasis is on this. Make sure we know what it is to fear God.
Let us learn it. Let us learn it by experience. Let us learn it through the Word of God. Let us learn it in temporal, everyday life. That's what it means to walk with God. And those that walked with God, they lived in a fear of judgment, didn't they?
Enoch, he walked with God, and he saw a vision of the Lord descending with 10 ,000 of his saints to bring judgment upon the ungodly. And he walked with God because he feared God. And Noah walked with God.
God told him of the judgment that was coming and the flood that was going to take place, and he feared God. And he walked with God against every grain of the world of his day. He walked with God because he feared God.
What about you and I? Well, we understand a judgment that's going to come upon this earth. And it is our responsibility to walk with God and to fear God and to give true witness to His character and to His Person.
True testimony. And so, here you've got the king, and he is learning to fear God. The reason he would have the Word of God with him was to never leave him. He was to write it in a book. Now that would be something, wouldn't it?
To sit down and write out the commandments but with your own hand, I think we would learn them better. If we would take the time to write out the whole Bible, I'm sure we would gain something more than just by reading it.
But he was to imbibe it. He was to carry it with him. It was to not only be seen about him, but it was to be lived out through him. And there was a consistency because of the fear of God. I want to take one more, and the last one in chapter 31.
Again, verse 12. Oh, verse 11, When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose. There's the place again. Thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and children. They made no separation. And thy stranger that is within thy gates. So everybody, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law.
That their children which have not known anything, the little ones, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land whether you go over Jordan to possess it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold thy day's approach that thou must die.
So it was the whole gathering. It was the whole group of God's people, the men and the women and the children. And the Word of God was read. Just like it is today. The Word of God is read and it would be taught that they may learn to fear the Lord.
How is it proof that we've learned to fear the Lord? It says here, verse number 12, and observe and to do all the words of this law. You see, it is not being threatened to obey the Word of God. It is the motive of love.
It is the motive of devotion. Because God is real to us and we've come to understand a little bit about Him. And we want to please Him and we want to glorify Him and so we love Him and so we keep His commandments.
And when we love Him, we keep His commandments and we feed His sheep and His lambs and we love the brethren. We love the brethren. And so, maybe this will be a challenge to us this morning of the fear of God.
Is God real? Is He real in our life? Personal experiences with Him. I'm afraid that sometimes we live like He's not. You see, when we fear men, how do we behave? We behave how men want us to behave. When we fear God out of devotion to Him, oh yes, it's respect, but it's far more than respect.
For our God is a consuming fire. And at the judgment, those things are going to be burned up. The judgment seat of Christ is going to be burned up. And only that which is done in love and fear of God, however small it might seem to us, will last.
So just to challenge our hearts this morning to learn to fear. It's an ever-growing education. It is not a once-in-a-lifetime deal and all of a sudden, you snap your fingers and you know what it is to absolutely fear God.
But it is a continual, lifelong education through experience, through the Word of God, through the help of those that are leaders and rulers over us that not only be in our generation, but in the generation that is coming up, that we might fear the Lord.