Sunday, August 14, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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We're going to return to our study, a Biblical practical study of fear.

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And if you'd like, we can turn in our Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. We have the text that we're going to read over on the back of your handout as well.

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But we have been seeing what the Bible has to say about fear, which the terminology for fear in the

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Scriptures is far and away more abundant than many other terms that we might consider to be key

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Biblical terms, such as the words of faith and trust. Far more often we read about fear and being afraid.

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And we've talked about the three types of fear described in the Scriptures. And so what are they?

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The fear of man, the fear of death, and the fear of God. Fear of man is a snare, and the fear of death is slavery, the

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Scriptures tell us. But the fear of the Lord, what a blessing. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding.

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The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil, the fear of the Lord is life and health. So many of the things that we find, the promises and the descriptions and the blessedness of fearing the

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Lord, to think of him first, to think of him most, rather than being ensnared by the fear of man or enslaved to the fear of death.

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And we've discussed how fear impacts the whole person, as the Bible talks to us about how we are, there's the outer man and the inner man together in the image of God.

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The fear impacts both the inner and the outer man, influencing the entirety of our human experience.

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We've talked about the human experience, how the Bible, because it speaks to us of Christ, who is the

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Son of Man, the Bible speaks to every facet of the human experience, and we see how fear, what we fear, impacts everything about us.

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And so we're going to continue our biblical practical study, still paying attention to how fear is described in the

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Bible, and what a big impact it has in our lives.

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So, tonight, we're going to look at a famous passage in the

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Bible that deals with fear. And that famous passage is in Numbers 13.

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We remember the story about the spies who were sent into the

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Promised Land, as God had powerfully, miraculously delivered

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Israel from Egypt in such a robust fashion that Egypt was utterly defeated without Israel ever shooting an arrow or raising a spear.

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Egypt was so defeated by the last plague that they were throwing their valuables at the

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Israelites, saying, take it and go. And even with Pharaoh's last second hardening of heart, where he goes and tries to run down the

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Israelites, God defeats Pharaoh and his army utterly through the

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Red Sea as well. And so this is the God who redeemed

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Israel up out of Egypt, and he has preserved them in the wilderness, giving them manna to eat and water to drink.

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He has delivered them time and again from various enemies and difficulties. He's brought them up to the edge of the

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Promised Land, and it's time to enter in. And they send out a representative of each of the twelve tribes to go into the land to spy it out and to come back with a report.

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And so now, we come to verse 17 of Numbers 13. Now, let's pay attention and let's think about those categories of fear.

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Let's watch and see and make notes to ourselves about where we see the fear of God, where do we see the fear of man, and where we see the fear of death.

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Verse 17, then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up this way into the south and go up to the mountains and see what the land is like.

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Whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are forests there or not, be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.

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Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath.

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And they went up through the south and they came to Hebron, Ahimon, Seshai, Ptolmai.

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The descendants of Anak were there. Now, Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

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Then they came to the valley of Eshkol, and there they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes.

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They carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.

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The place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down there.

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And they called it Eshkol because it cluster. This was such a big cluster of grapes.

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They named the place after that cluster of grapes. Verse 25. And they returned from spying at the land after forty days.

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Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh.

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They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him and said,

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We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

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Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong. The cities are fortified and very large.

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Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south.

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The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the

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Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

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But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

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And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out, saying,

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The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

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There we saw the giants. The descendants of Anak came from the giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight.

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And so we were in their sight. So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried.

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And the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron.

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And the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness, why has the

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Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims?

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Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt? So they said to one another, Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.

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Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel, but Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying,

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The land we have passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey.

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Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.

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Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. And all the congregation said to stone them with stones.

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Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel. We'll pause the story there.

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What did we see there in those interactions? A well -known story.

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Twelve spies spied out the land. Ten of them came back with a bad report. Two of them had a good report.

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They saw the same grapes, same figs, same pomegranates, same people, same cities, same land.

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Ten of them had a bad report. Two of them had a good report. What makes the difference?

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They say faith. So we hear Caleb and Joshua, how they talk about it. How do they talk about it?

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Did they say those cities weren't that fortified? Is that what they said?

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They didn't say, those giants weren't that tall. Is that what they said?

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How did they phrase it? And why is that? Because of how numerous and powerful

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Israel is? All their fancy high -tech weaponry? It says, yes, their protection has been stripped from them.

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The Lord is on our side. He's the one who promised to give us the land. So if we just follow

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Him and please Him and do what He's called us to do, then He's going to give us the victory. That was their confidence.

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So when they looked at the land, they saw the abundance that God had promised, sure enough.

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And when they saw the opposition, the armies, the strongholds, and so on, they said, this is our bread.

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This is the Lord's, He's provided them for us. Now, that is not hubris.

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That is not folly. That is not arrogance. They feared the

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Lord and saw the world radically differently from the other ten spies.

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And they focused on the enemies, the

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Amalekites, the sons of Anak, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Canaanites.

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Look at these mighty people. Look how well fortified they are. Look at the quality of their weapons.

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This is a land that devours people. There's no way we're going to go in there and come out alive.

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And the classic line, you ever want to get some political movement, the women and the children.

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Boy, did that move the nation. As soon as they brought that up, the children.

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The classic political move to sway everybody. Let's make you afraid for the children, and now we'll get with the way we want.

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So, the fear of man is obvious. They list all the people they're afraid of.

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But we see how closely connected that is to the fear of death. They will be the death of us.

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So, what is their solution? Caleb and Joshua say, well, the solution is simple.

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We obey God and go do what he told us to do. Isn't that refreshingly simple? Contrast that to those who are ensnared by the fear of man, enslaved by the fear of death.

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What is their solution to the current problem? Go back to their oppressors.

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Run, that's right. Isn't this interesting? They wail and bemoan and say, if only we had died.

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What a very despairing way of talking. Well, if only we had died in Egypt, if only we had died in the wilderness.

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And so, their solution is to run back to their enslavers. You see, the reason why they want to go back to Egypt and be enslaved there is because they already are enslaved.

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Scripture tells us that fear of death is slavery, enslaved to the fear of death.

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That's what they're comfortable with, that's what they prefer. Many times, the burdens of freedom are abhorrent to the slave.

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Here's their opportunity to go into the land and do responsible things and take risks and obey

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God and step out in faith, and they don't want that. They don't want that. And they say, let's get a leader and let's get back to Egypt.

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And you see, they're not averse to violence. Did you notice that? They're not averse to violence.

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It isn't a matter of not willing to fight. They're willing to kill anybody who contradicts them, right?

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Let's take out Joshua and Caleb and silence this dissension in the ranks.

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We all need to be unified about our path back to Egypt. So they're ready to stone Joshua and Caleb.

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And then the Lord shuts down the whole thing, showing up in his glory and power at the tent of meeting, tabernacle of meeting.

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This is very interesting. So when we read through the scriptures, very often we're going to read about moments of fear.

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As we do, we need to think about how are they handling the situation?

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How are the people of God or the prophets or how are the apostles or how are the churches handling these situations and handling these fears?

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Are they fearing God? Are they fearing man? Are they fearing death? When we think about fear, the

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Bible does not tell us that fear in and of itself is bad.

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We're made in the image of God. We're made to fear the Lord. That's a good thing.

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Fearing the Lord is a good thing. Fearing anything else is bad. Fear and worship are entirely interconnected.

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It's difficult to dissect fear and worship from one another.

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What we fear, what we are captivated by, what we think of first and think of most, is indeed what we worship.

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And so we must be very cautious about what we fear. The very nature of fear, as we've been looking through various vocabulary words in the

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Hebrew and the Greek, show us that fear constrains both vision and will.

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So you can fill that in your handout. Fear constrains both vision and will.

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Do you see that in the story? Do you see that in the story? The ten spies.

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How was their vision of what lay ahead of them and the prospects that lay ahead of them and the decisions that they had ahead of them, how is their vision constrained by fear?

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They could only see the problems, right? They could only see the dangers. They could only see the disaster that lay before them.

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Why? Because they feared man and they feared death. Thus, their will was constrained, wasn't it?

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Look, going into Canaan, as we have been instructed to do, is a no -go.

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We can't even make that decision. That's not even on the table. That's not even an option, folks. Here are our options.

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We die in the wilderness or go back to Egypt. Right? Do you see how their vision is constrained, how their will is constrained?

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They can't even bring themselves to obey the Lord's instructions. The reason why fear constrains vision and will is because fear colors understanding and affection.

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So if the way you understand everything going on around you is colored by what you fear, okay?

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And then this has an impact on your vision, what you anticipate, what you're looking forward to, what you're expecting.

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Now, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of understanding.

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So when we fear the Lord, that colors everything about the way we see the world, the way we understand our day.

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We wake up in the morning, you know, six o 'clock in the morning or ten o 'clock in the morning or, you know, what was it like that afternoon?

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We reflect about our day before we go to bed. Everything about our understanding of the world in which we live is colored by what we fear.

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If we fear death and man, we are going to be full of worry and anxiety and turmoil because of all of the events that are going on in the world around us, the big events, the things that we hear about through various news media and sources.

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And even the phone calls or the emails we receive through the day about, oh, you know, my grandchild or my nephew or my sister or so on and so forth.

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And here's the difficulties of the people that I know and love, right? If we fear death and fear man, the way we understand the information coming into our lives is completely colored by that.

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And thus our expectations and our visions of what this is all about is completely changed.

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However, if we fear the Lord and that colors our understanding, it's entirely different. It's entirely different where Jesus is telling us to not be anxious, to not fret, but to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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And all these other things will be added to you, but to think of God first and to think of him most, to fear the

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Lord, and then that colors our understanding and thus our vision. In the same sense, what about our affection, what we desire, what we value has an impact on our will.

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Fear does cause us to forget what God has already done. So fear has an impact on our understanding.

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We fear man and we fear death. Guess what kind of information doesn't get past the sensors, right?

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All sorts of information, all sorts of facts, all sorts of stories of how

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God has kept his promises, how he's powerful, how he's delivered, how he has answered prayers. Guess what?

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All that information doesn't make it past the sensors because we're fearing man and fearing death. That colors our understanding, and those facts don't even get in.

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And we see that kind of forgetfulness, don't we? We see that forgetfulness on display in Israel, even among the disciples, the apostles.

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We've experienced that in our own lives. Yeah, exactly, in gratitude.

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We see all sorts of impact that happens if we don't begin with the fear of the Lord, to think of him first and to think of him most.

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I think it was Randy Brooks who encouraged us to keep a prayer journal, prayer requests, and to keep up with the

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Lord's answering of those prayers, and to go back and to look at that and say, wow, thank you,

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Lord, look at this, look how you answered here, and so on and so forth, and to recall and to bring to mind the ways in which the

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Lord has provided and answered and shown himself to be faithful and good.

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That's a very biblical practice. As we look at perhaps even some of the Psalms, you'll see the Psalms retell the events of how

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God answered the cries of his people, and he was faithful and he always came through. So, I want to recommend to you three different passages to meditate on, to read through, to ponder.

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We may come back to them next week, we'll see. But these pertain to what we went over last week when we talked about, we were finishing up descriptions of the human experience, and seeing how fear has an impact on our relations with the state, and in the home, and in the church.

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So, I would have you use this handout and read and perhaps reflect upon the centrality of the fear of the

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Lord in household relations, in church relations, and in civil relations. Just how central the fear of the

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Lord truly is for his design for these forms of government in our life, these hierarchical relationships which are good by God's design, but they're only good if we fear the

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Lord. If we fear man or fear death, then all these things get perverted and twisted and misused.

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Now, so that'll be your homework, but I want to turn to Malachi chapter three, and we're going to do a little bit of a follow -up and connection to our study this morning in the morning service, where we were talking about the pattern there in the book of Joel, as Peter is quoting

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Joel there in Acts 2, and how there was a pattern in which there was the judgment of God in light of the new covenant blessings, so that the arrival of the new covenant signals the end of the old, right?

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But that the last days of the old showcase the blessings of the new, for the old is obsolete and ready to pass away, but the new is supreme.

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So let's go to Malachi 3, and this is tying in to that same pattern. However, as part of the new covenant,

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I want us to see how important the fear of the Lord is.

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There is a thought, perhaps, that, oh, you know, fearing God, that's an

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Old Testament thing, right? But what we will discover here is in light of the new covenant, one of the promises and blessings of the new covenant is that those who are in Christ truly do fear the

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Lord, and that's the grace of God. Now let's look at this. Malachi 3, verses 1 through 4, we see the promise of the new covenant.

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The promise of the new covenant. So you can fill that in your blanks, the promise of the new covenant. Malachi 3, 1 through 4,

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Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and we know that that little section of Malachi 3, 1 is quoted in the

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New Testament as being fulfilled by what person? John the

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Baptist. That's right, John the Baptist. Have you ever noticed that our Presbyterian friends call him

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John the Baptizer? Have you ever noticed that? Yeah, they're just not really comfortable calling him John the

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Baptist, are they? I think that's hilarious. So, behold,

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I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. That's John the Baptist. And now, look here, and the

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Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger, and you'll see that that word should be capitalized, even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight.

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Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. So there is a one who prepares the way, and then the one whom he prepared for arrives.

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He is the Lord himself, who comes to his own temple, and didn't he do that? And he comes as the messenger of the covenant.

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He comes and declares the good news of the kingdom, declaring the new covenant. Ah, but a question, verse 2, but who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

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For he is like a refiner's fire, and like launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner, and a purifier of silver.

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He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the

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Lord an offering in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the

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Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.

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And so it is that Christ comes, and he purifies, and he changes, and he sets things straight, so that no longer will there be the displeasing, covenant -breaking kind of worship, but in Christ there will be a worship pleasing to God.

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And then in Malachi 3, verses 5 through 15, we find a promise.

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In this, verses 5 through 15, what do we find? We find judgment upon those who do not fear the

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Lord. In contrast to the ministry, the accomplishments of Christ, there will be judgment upon those who do not fear the

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Lord. So verse 5, and I will come near you for judgment. I will be a swift witness. Now remember, this is after the destruction of Jerusalem.

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This is after the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah. The city has been, the walls have been rebuilt, the temple has been rebuilt, a remnant has returned to the land, and here is a promise of further judgment to come.

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The promise of the new covenant, the Messiah is coming, and now yet there's going to be judgment.

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Same thing that happens in Joel chapter 2, same thing that is declared in Matthew 21 through 24.

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And I will come near you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien.

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Now those were all particular references to Mosaic case law, where God told

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Israel, here's how you, in covenant with me, treat the following people.

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You don't allow a sorcerer to live. Here's what you do with adulterers. Here's what you do with perjurers.

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Here's what you do against those who exploit wage earners, widows and orphans. Those are all Levitical case law.

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You can go read several expressions about how God's covenant people were supposed to obey certain instructions concerning all these groups of people.

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Now here's the question. Why are they not following the law of God? Why are they not obeying his instructions?

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Why are they breaking covenant with God? Because they do not fear me, says the

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Lord of hosts. Isn't that the premier problem that Paul talks about in Romans 3, after describing mouths that are full of wickedness and poison and evil, feet that are swift to shed blood, and all the problems of the depravity of man, he wraps it all up by saying, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

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Now God says, I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

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Meaning he has his plan, he has his timing. The only reason why they are not immediately consumed is because it's not his time.

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Yet from the days of your fathers, you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the

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Lord of hosts. But you said, in what way shall we return? Well, he's already told them you haven't feared me. So what does the lack of the fear of God look like?

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And then what does the fear of God look like? So then we have several expressions wherein

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God levels accusations against, through his prophet Malachi, shows the people how they're not fearing

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God. When it comes to them giving tithes and offerings, they're just going through the motions.

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When it comes to offerings and sacrifices, they're giving him the weak and the sick, the animals that were gonna die anyway.

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God says, why don't you try that on your governor and see how he takes it, you know? You fear man, you fear man and pay him what he's due, because if you don't, he's coming after you with the sword.

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But you don't fear me, right? You give me the weak and the offcast, but you'll pay the governor what he's due.

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God's saying that shows that you fear man, but you do not fear the Lord. And God promises that if they will turn back to him, if they will obey and rejoice in him, then he would bless them.

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He says, verse 13, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord, that you say, what have we spoken against you?

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Well, look, they complain in verse 14. They're complaining against him. Oh, this is useless, this is pointless, this is insignificant.

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Oh, that's a symptom of not fearing the Lord, is complaining about him, complaining against him.

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And so then look, verse 16, now in contrast to those who do not fear the Lord, verse 16, then those who feared the

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Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the

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Lord and who meditate on his name.

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They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels and I will spare them.

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As a man spares his own son who serves him, then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves

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God and the one who does not serve him. There's a development of that idea in chapter four as well.

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But notice, there are the covenant breakers of the old covenant who are slated for judgment.

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Here's the reasons why. But in contrast, there are those who fear the Lord and God says,

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I make them mine. He says, I make them mine. Those who fear the Lord, I'll make them mine.

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They're like precious jewels to me. And when I do that and I select them out and set them apart, then once again, everybody's gonna know who's who.

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Who belongs to the Lord and who does not? Who are the righteous and who are the wicked?

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Who are those who serve the Lord and those who do not serve him? In this we see the promise of the new covenant blessings, which is in conjunction with many of the other prophets about the gift of the

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Holy Spirit. Every member of the new covenant and dwelt by the Holy Spirit, blessed by the Holy Spirit is this, those who are of the new covenant fear the

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Lord. The big question throughout the

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New Testament, the big question is, who are the covenant people of God? That's the question.

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And those who opposed Christ kept on saying, we have Abraham as our father. We fast twice a week.

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We tithe our herbs. We observe the Sabbath the right way.

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And they kept on saying, we've got the temple, we've got the city, we are the covenant people of God.

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Who are you to come and say that we need to repent, that we need to convert, that we need salvation. And Jesus kept on proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and kept on proclaiming the new covenant.

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He kept on proclaiming that the difference maker is what's on the inside, not what's on the outside. And what's on the inside matters.

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They looked like they feared the Lord, but they were like those of Isaiah whose fear of the

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Lord was learned by rote or learned by routine. They just went through the motions and tried to appear correct.

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Jesus was very concerned about the inner man, about whether or not the fear of the Lord was truly present there.

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And this is the kind of contrast that we see here at the end of Malachi. And the difference maker indeed is the fear of the

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Lord. I find this to be a very helpful way of talking about contrasts and dichotomies in our day and age.

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We'll ever live in conflict and struggle, right? God determined that.

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He placed enmity between the serpent and the woman, between her seed and the serpent seed, right?

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So God is the one who initiated that conflict. He was not going to allow there to be peace at the cost of righteousness and truth.

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So we're always involved in some kind of conflict, some kind of struggle, okay? But what is the difference maker, right?

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What is the difference maker? Many times we're trying to land on those contrasts to understand the world in which we live.

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But if we fear man, we might just talk about everything in terms of who's on the right and the left politically, right?

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If we're thinking of man first and thinking of man most, right? If we're fearing death, we might be consumed with what accounts for human flourishing or human destructiveness, right?

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We might be very concerned with that and have different ways of defining that. But if we fear the

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Lord, well, there it is, right? Is the real contrast in this world today is about those who fear

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God and those who do not, right? Therein we have the contrast of what happened before and after the fall in the garden.

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There we have the contrast between those who were on the ark and those who weren't on the ark. Here we have the contrast in Proverbs about who are wise and who are foolish.

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Here we have the contrast between the remnant in the old covenant who were really truly circumcised of heart and loved the

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Lord and grown to evil versus those who were just going through the motions. Here we have the contrast between those who were of the new covenant in Christ versus the stewards of the old covenant under the judgment of God.

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Time and time again, the contrast we have in the scripture is between those who fear the Lord and those who do not fear the

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Lord. And that's really the contrast we've got to work with. That really is the apparatus, the scale that we need to be thinking about when we try to understand what goes on in the world around us, in the news and so on, about God fearers and those who do not fear

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God. Even our concern for our loved ones and our neighbors and our co -workers and so on. Our striving is not really about in the context of trying to fight against what we are afraid of in terms of man and death, but our concern should be fearing the

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Lord, growing in that fear. As children, thinking of God most, thinking of him first and then thinking of him most.

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And this is the promise of the Lord that many, many, many blessings are for those who fear the

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Lord. Okay, any questions or comments before we close with the doxology?

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Yes, so promise of the new covenant blessings. Sorry, I didn't stress that nearly enough, but the promise of the new covenant blessings for those who fear the

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Lord. Yeah, seeing things from God's point of view is just radically different, isn't it?

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Yes, so many people are afraid of so much, and this is where you see the very fast, you see how people are just thrown about by fear.

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The public thinks this, now the public thinks this, and this is what we're doing now, but now we're going to do this instead.

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Being tossed to and fro by every new wind of doctrine. And what makes for instability, like we said last week, is when the bird is caught in the snare, the bird's just flip -flop, flip -flop, flip -flop, like politicians.

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Yes? In chapter three, I've always been fascinated when he's telling them how he'll bless them if they fear him.

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He says, I'll rebuke the devourer. So we know there is a devourer, and we see things being devoured, but God will just prevent that for us if we fear him.

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Fear the Lord, trust in him, trust in his blessings. All right, well let's close by singing the doxology together.