Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church
## Pastor Dennis Tuuri

David Hammerstrom from Family Camp. That’s great. All right. So, if you all have your outlines now, maybe you already did, the sermon text today is Psalm 34 verses 11-22. And the first note you can take is to change at the top of the outline. It says “third of three.” You can make that “third of four.” Too much here. So, and what I’m going to do is we’ll do this overview today from the Old Testament. And then in probably two or three weeks, we’ll come back to Psalm 34 and spend an entire sermon on it.

For reasons that you will see as we read now this sermon text, Psalm 34. I’m going to start at verses 11 and read to the end of the psalm. And verse 11 is a summary statement of what follows. And so, please stand for the reading of God’s word. Psalm 34 beginning at verse 11.

Come you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of his servants and none of those who trust in him shall be condemned.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for these wonderful blessings as well as the strong warnings found in this text. Help us as we look at your word now, Lord God. Give us, Father, the knowledge of your Holy Spirit. May he write this law upon our hearts. May he open our eyes, Lord God, to its truth. May we, as a result of your gracious and sovereign action today, Father, be people who are moved to increase a proper fear, a godly fear of you. And so be more effective in our lives and delight in them as well and have long lives.

Bless us, Father. Bless the preaching of your word to the end that your people would be matured in the fear of you. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen. Please be seated.

We began this series of three messages by talking about the fear of God being a New Testament truth. Kind of ridiculous that we have to make that point, take a whole sermon to do it, but it was, I hope, helpful to us to combat the cheap grace, easy believeism, Arminian view of Christianity that’s so dominant in our culture, a view that says that grace is what it’s all about now and fear is Old Testament stuff.

We saw that simply wasn’t true over and over again in the New Testament. We saw admonitions to fear the Lord and the blessings of them, etc. So in, I found another verse that useful for us in this way. Jeremiah 32:38-41. This is, you know, in Jeremiah it’s discussions of the new covenant and that it’ll apply to the renewal of the covenant when they go back into the promised land after exile. But ultimately, the New Testament makes it clear that Jeremiah is looking beyond that to the great fulfillment, the great renewal of the covenant that happens with Jesus.

So, this is new covenant stuff. So, in Jeremiah 32:38-41, we read that they shall be my people and I will be their God. He says, “I will give them one heart and one way.” He says that he will make an everlasting covenant with them, them. He won’t turn away from doing us good. Verse 41 says, “I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will assuredly plant them in the land.” So, this is all New Testament promises.

But notice now if we inject a couple of points about this and the point that we want to point out is when he says, “I will give them one heart and one way.” The next phrase in verse 39 is that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And then he says, “I’ll make an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me.” Twofold emphasis that when the new covenant is fully established through the work of Jesus Christ, great blessings, but it’s not as if those blessings come from a removal of a proper fear of God.

And in fact, it’s the fear of God now that is supposed to indwell us at the very heart of our being. God writes his law there. He puts his Spirit within Jesus dwells in us through the Spirit. But these verses describe it as the indwelling of the fear of God in the context of our hearts. And as we saw from Isaiah, Jesus is the fear of God. And so his coming to us by the provision of the Holy Spirit matches up with this.

But the point here is a simple one and that is that the new covenant continues, yes continues, the emphasis upon the fear of God by way of predictions in Jeremiah 32.

Now this is a fear of God that’s unlike certain fears. Remember we said from Exodus 20 that Moses told the people don’t fear, for God has come to test you and that his fear may be before you. So there’s an improper fear and there’s a proper fear.

Okay? And so that’s important to know. It’s to put off certain kinds of fears but to put on certain kind of fears. The old man fears improperly, pulls back from God. The new man fears God properly and is moved to maintain relationship with God by that fear. But remember that, you know, we’re not replacing Old Testament fear with New Testament fear. It’s not a different kind of fear and it’s not a fear that can be reduced to reverence.

And as I said two weeks ago, you know, if it is reverence, how much of that do you do? Most people that claim it’s reverence, well, their reverence doesn’t move them to action. Typically, reverence is an okay word to translate this, but it involves physical fear. In Jeremiah 5:22, we read, “Do will you not fear me, says the Lord, will you not tremble at my presence? So the fear of the Lord is linked here to trembling, physical shaking at the presence of God.

And he says, will you not tremble at my presence who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass beyond it? And he goes on to explain his creative powers. We’re talking about the God of the whole universe that were brought close to. Shall we not fear and shake some and tremble at that? Yes, of course we should.

You know, I live in Canby. We get, I don’t know, 18 trains or something a day through there and I don’t live that far away from it. I can see it. The house sometimes shakes because of it. There are houses that are real close to it. Now, if you’ve ever been close to a train track, when the train comes, you shake a little. You know that thing’s on the tracks. You know it’s not going to do you damage. But there is power and majesty in that freight train rolling down that track with great power, right? And it makes you kind of, wow, this is really a big deal.

I have to be careful. I don’t want to step on the track here. I don’t want to be stupid like I am sometimes and trip and fall and not be careful with my steps. I don’t want that train to kill me. Well, that’s the way God is. He’s well, he’s not like that. He’s like a billion freight train power more.

So, will we not tremble at his presence? You know, when I used to play basketball, still when I play basketball, I look up at the hoop and there’s something goofy in my head. I guess I get vertigo and I feel like I’m falling kind of and it just sort of it’s almost like it puts me in dread or terror or something. I don’t know what it is. And so, you know, if you’ve ever had that experience of being next to something very tall and lifted up and it sort of makes you almost feel like you’re going to fall or something. Well, that’s again somewhat of what this is like. The fear of God is a trembling because God is so massive, so vast, so powerful, and so holy and we’re so weak and so sinful.

So, there’s a trembling that’s involved in this proper fear of God. In Isaiah 2:10, it says, “Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.” There’s several verses in Isaiah that talk about that, that the ungodly will try to hide in the rock. Of course, we are hidden in the rock, which is Jesus Christ. But they have this terror or dread, and it’s the same word.

God couldn’t have used a different word. He doesn’t. So, the fear of God there is an improper fear we put off, but there’s a proper fear that is related to trembling, terror, and the dread majesty of God. As in the New Testament, here in the Old Testament, then the fear of God is a summary description of fallen and righteous men.

So remember, we said that in the New Testament it’s a summary description. Well, it’s the same in the Old Testament. In Genesis 20:11 and 12, Abraham is talking, I explained this before, but he’s talking to Abimelech. Why did you do this thing? And Abraham says, because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place. When the fear of God is absent from a place, men will do evil.

So, evil men are described as those not having a fear of God. Psalm 36:1, an oracle within my heart concerning the transgressions of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes. So David wants to use a specific citation of what the wicked are. He says there’s no fear of God with them. That’s a description of them. Its absence in Jeremiah 2:19 is equated with forsaking God.

Jeremiah 2:19, “Your own wickedness will correct you and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the Lord your God and the fear of me is not in you.” So if there’s no fear of God in us, and I ask you to do a little inventory, if there’s no fear of God in us, it’s an evidence in this text that we’ve forsaken God. You know, you can go to church and you can try to live a good life and all that stuff and look okay and not kill anybody and not commit adultery, but still have no fear of God in your heart. You have some kind of moralism. Well, that’s apostasy. It does you no good.

You see, our basis of security and confidence is the fear of God. And here, the absence of the fear of God is equated to forsaking God and apostasy. In Malachi 3, John S. preached on this. I made reference of it a few sermons back. I think remember he says that if you, if you, if I, when I transform the Levites and get their act together and then they lead my people into proper worship and a result of that lifestyle, that’s when judgment will come. You’re tiring me out by asking where is judgment.

Well, if you want judgment, transform your lives. Seek judgment in your own heart. Judgment begins at the house of God. But if you do that, if you clean up the act of the church and its people, then God will bring judgments against the wicked. And here’s what he says. Then I will come near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against those sorcerers that you don’t like, against the adulterers. We would say against the abortionists, against the perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans.

Important to remember that, by the way, that here in terms of adulterers and sorcerers are people that exploit wage earners. Man, that’s heavy duty if you’re a businessman to determine wages for people. Am I right? That’s it should be, it should put the fear of God into you to make sure you’re doing that in a good way. And also widows and orphans and you know the abortionists would be included there, against those who turn away from an alien, an immigrant.

Be careful in this situation we got going on in our country. So he gives this long list of people he’ll bring judgments against. The summary statement is he’s going to bring judgments against these horrible people because they do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. If you don’t fear God, you’re lumped together with sorcerers and abortionists and all those horrible things, people that the judgment of God is going to strike out at.

Maybe it hasn’t stricken out at you yet. But God will bring his church around, mature it, they’ll clean up their own act. They’ll pray effectively and precatorily, and then your judgment will come.

So, it’s a summary description of the wicked. It’s also on the other hand, its presence is a summary description of the good. In Psalm 66:16, come and hear all you who fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul.

So, who’s going to come and hear, you know, the great testimony? It’s those who fear God. In Acts 13:16, going to sneak in a couple of New Testament verses. Acts 13:16-26, Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.” Again, in 13:26, “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God to you the word of the salvation has been sent.

Now you would normally think that’s parallelism. So if you’re a true Jew, you’re one who fears God. But what he’s talking about there is at that time there was Israel and then there were the Gentiles. And the Gentiles again here the summary description is that they fear God. So you got those who are from Abraham and you who fear God. The Gentile God-fearers. That’s the very name of Christian in the book of Acts.

Gentile converts like you and I, their whole name throughout the Bible is God-fearer. So if you’re not a God-fearer, you’re not a Christian. It’s that simple. It’s evidenced by a lack of fear. So you say, “Well, I’m a God-fearer.” Well, are you? How do you know? Are you a God-lover? God says, “If you think you’re a God-lover, see how you relate to the image of God around you?” And the same thing’s true with this.

We read from Chronicles, from David’s last word last week. But the other thing we read about David and the fear of God is that the fear of David fell on all the nations in 1 Chronicles 14:17. And Paul tells Christians in Romans, you’re supposed to have a proper fear of his authorities. If you don’t fear the authorities that God has placed in your life, that’s evidence you don’t have a fear of God.

You see, God sets up authorities in the land. And this is why, as we said a couple of weeks ago in Leviticus 19, the very beginning of holiness you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his father and his mother. Now partly that’s because of the importance of the family as an institution. Yeah, that’s okay. That’s good. But that’s I don’t think why it’s at the head.

It’s a way of saying if you’re going to be holy, you have to fear me. And you know if you fear me as to whether or not you have a proper fear of mother and father, of civil rulers, of church rulers. That’s how you know if you fear God or not. Yeah, it’s easy to think we fear God if we’re just sort of isolated to our own heart experience. Easy to think we love God. A lot harder to actually love God’s imagebearers.

So this is the test of it. And again, it’s a basic requirement of rulers. We talked about this last week a lot, but I wanted to mention a couple more verses. In Exodus 18:21, you shall select from all the people able men. This is the selection of the tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands, the judges of the Old Testament. How do you pick a leader over you in the state? You shall select from all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, hundreds, 50s, and tens.

Basic requirement of the tens, 50s, hundreds, and thousands, fear God. Malachi 2:5, back to that text that John preached from in verse 5. My covenant was with him, one of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. He’s talking about the Levites. We’ll talk about this a little later, but he established the Levites. And a specific requirement of the Levites was to fear God that they might fear me.

So indeed, he feared me. He was reverent before my name. We’re going to see later the historical reference to when that first happened. So anyway, you know, it’s a basic requirement in church and state of rulers. It’s an evidence of whether or not you’re a Christian. It’s evidenced by your response to those rulers. And it’s a summary description of the wicked and the righteous, if you got it or not.

Well, okay. So, how do we get it? If it’s that important and you’re thinking, I don’t have as much of it as I think I ought to have. How do you get it? How do you learn the fear of the Lord?

Psalm 34:11 says it can be learned. Listen to me. He says, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Praise God. We don’t sit around praying and waiting for a mystical experience for us to begin to fear God. You say, “Well, gee, I don’t fear God. I don’t know what to tell you.” Well, if you don’t fear God, this is the stuff you ought to do to fear him. God works through means, okay? We’re not, you know, existentialists when we just sort of think it should happen to us. No, there’s stuff you ought to be doing.

And the first thing you ought to do is to choose it. If you don’t choose the fear of the Lord, you’re not going to have it. Am I right? Am I right? I’m right. Proverbs 1:29. Because they—that’s right—because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, Lord, not—you know the context is different but the point is I don’t, we have to get into it but what this verse tells us in the opening chapter of Proverbs about the wicked is they didn’t choose the fear of the Lord. Now it says over and over again they didn’t have it. Why don’t they have it?

They didn’t choose it. They didn’t decide. They didn’t come to the end of the sermon and say when I go up front I’m going to pray to God that I’d have more fear of him. Proper fear. I’m choosing it today. You know the sermon, it’s supposed to move you to a point of decision. The decision is reflected as you come forward and offer yourself to God. If you don’t come forward, that’s okay. Make the decision in your pew.

Decide, choose it. You do that right now. Right. Let’s pray. Father God, we do. I choose, Father, the fear of the Lord. And I pray that you would give me more of it. May each of us here who hear my words today, Lord God, choose the fear of the Lord that we might be more honoring to you, more established by you, that we might be more effective. Father, we want your blessings upon us. To that end, help us to have the fear of the Lord.

We choose it before you now. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

All right. So, you got to choose it. Secondly, you got to prioritize it. Yeah, I want the fear of the Lord. How important is it to you? Got to be very important. That should be obvious by implication. But there’s other things that tell us this very explicitly. Again, in Proverbs chapter 2, verses 1 to 5. My son, if you receive my words, treasure my commands within you that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.

Yes, if you cry out, if you cry out for discernment, lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver, search for her as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord. Okay? So, you know, first what he’s saying is you got to prioritize wisdom, but he’s also equating wisdom and the fear of the Lord. So he’s saying the fear of the Lord should be you could should seek her as silver.

Search for her as for hidden treasure. You’ll then find the fear of the Lord and you’ll find the knowledge of God. Prioritize it. More important than silver and gold. You try to work hard to balance your budget, make more money, do that sort of stuff. You take very seriously, I know you do, the education of your children in the scriptures. Raise up a godly seed. That’s great. Prioritize all that stuff, keep it high priority.

But above those things, I think the thing that should drive those and the thing without which all that stuff will turn to dust in your mouth and your children will go bad apart from the grace of God is the fear of God. Properly prioritize it. It should be sought as having great value.

Now, if we’re going to properly prioritize it, we ought to be careful that it doesn’t go away. All right, we don’t want to diminish it. And in Isaiah 57, he tells us that the fear of men, now we’re supposed to have a proper fear of men, and there’s an improper fear of men. Proper fear of men is as God’s imagebearers, rulers, and authorities, bosses at work, school, church, parents, state. But there’s an improper fear of men. You care more if you offend men than if you offend God. That’s bad. That’s real bad. Then Isaiah 57:11 says, “Of whom have you been afraid or feared that you have lied and not remembered me nor taken it to your heart?

It’s not because I have heard. Is it not because I have held my peace from of old that you do not fear me?” So he says that you don’t fear me, but you’re fearing the wrong people. So you’ve prioritized, you know, how men think of you higher than how God thinks of you, which is exactly the reverse. If you’re going to choose the fear of the Lord, you have to choose it. And then you have to choose it as more important than how people look at you, more important than silver and gold.

More important than one of the most blessed things the Lord God gives us, one of the most important things for transformation and reconstruction of a culture is the Christian family. Its importance cannot be overstated. It is a great thing. Am I right? Amen. You bet it is. Praise God for families. But if you prioritize the family above the fear of God, you’ve completely gotten it wrong.

In Leviticus 32 or Exodus 32, Moses comes down at the Ten Commandments. And now we never think about this, but pretty soon he’s going to get commandments about setting up Levitical worship. Well, there isn’t Levitical worship set up yet, that they’re still in patriarchal times, so to speak. What happens? Well, they sin on Pentecost when he gets the word. 3,000 of them die just like 3,000 are born again. And on the day of Pentecost after Jesus comes, transition. But 3,000 die.

How do they die? The Levites. Moses stands at the gate of the camp and he says, “Who’s on the Lord’s side? Let him come here.” And the Levites, then the scriptures tell us, “Go to him.” He says, “Get out your swords and start hacking away.” And everybody that’s sinning, including your brothers and sisters if they’re sinning. And the Bible tells us that is why the Levites are given the priestly role. That’s why the next time Moses go up the mountain, he gets the regulations about Levitical worship.

It’s because they stood in the gate with God. They chose the fear of God and his importance as more important than their families. They reversed their curse. Remember Levi earlier? Well, you know, Levi, the actual son of Jacob. They’re hanging out, you know, with the Shechemites. And Levi’s sister, Dinah, has a relationship with a Shechemite who apparently really loved her. I don’t know, but it was improper.

Levi uses this covenant sign of circumcision to get personal revenge on the men upon the Shechemites because of his offense about his sister. He placed his family, his sister’s well-being above the importance of God’s signs. You see, God cursed him. Jacob says, “You’re not going to get any land when you go into the promised land.” And they didn’t. They got no land. But what they ended up as were God’s servants in the land dispersed around.

And they’re the ones who got to minister to the people and bring them close to God. Why? Because they reversed that improper priority. They reversed the priority of family over God. And they put God over family in Exodus 32. And because of that, the Bible tells us then they were given the priestly responsibility to serve God.

Abraham in Genesis 22:12, God says to Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the lad.” Now Abraham’s already to sacrifice Isaac. He’s going to plunge the dagger in. He’s not making believe. God has to stay his hand. And when he does, this is what God says. Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear him. Fear God rather. Now I know you fear God since you have not withheld your son your only son from me. All kinds of imagery of Jesus there and all that stuff but understand that Abraham is regarded as a God-follower because he is a God-fearer and places that as a higher priority than the well-being of his own son.

I get tired of hearing you know churches talk about the unconditional love people should have for their kids but by which they mean that they can do anything they want to do. Apostasize, bring drugs into your house, do whatever they’re going to do, and you’re supposed to love them in the midst of that and be kind to them. No, you’re not. You’re supposed to cut them off. That’s what Levi did. You’re supposed to kick them out of the house. You’re supposed to go to the elders of the church and say, “I got a rebellious son.” That’s what you’re supposed to do.

There are people in this congregation who have done that, and their lives have been quite traumatized by that fact. And I tell them, and I tell anybody else who has cut off relationships with sinful, rebellious children, praise God for your actions. It’s exactly what these texts tell us you’re supposed to do. And if you don’t do that, if your children are more important to you than Jesus, then you have not properly prioritized the fear of God. You’re not really a God-fearer. No matter what you tell me is in your heart, you got the wrong priority.

And God’s blessing is not on you. His curse resides upon you.

Isaiah 33:6, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times and the strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure.” Who’s this talking about? It’s about Jesus. The fear of the Lord is the treasure of Jesus. It’s the most important thing to Father’s word. Fearing him, desiring to please him. You see, that’s what we have to do.

You got to choose it. You got to properly prioritize it and put value upon it. Third, you have to learn it. It’s like any other thing, you know. You got to learn to ride the bike. There are things you have to do to learn it.

And Psalm 34, we’ll return to this in more detail later, but the structure I’ve given you there of the section of Psalm 34 that has that header about learning the fear of God, which I think then carries through the end of the section, what it does is it alternates back and forth between God-fearers and the evil. God-fearers and the evil, God-fearers and the evil, God-fearers. There’s a seven-fold structure that goes back and forth between good and evil. Good and evil. Good and evil. It contrasts them. And the way it contrasts them, there’s stuff we’ll come back to here, but the way it contrasts them primarily is about the judgments of God that fall upon those who do not fear him. And on the contrary side, the blessings of God upon those who fear him.

You learn the fear of God by reading Psalm 34 regularly. If you’re having trouble with this, and we all do, and reminding yourself about what happens. You want long life, you got to fear God. You want God to hear your cries. You want his face to shine on you. You want—you want him to hear and save you and get in trouble, got to fear God. You know, you say, “Well, who cares about long life?” Wow. The quicker I die, the quicker I get to be with Jesus, right?

You ever wonder about that? Honor your parents, first commandment with promise. And here the honor of parents, reverence of God, equated again, right? The fear of God is what’s necessary to live long on the land. We should want to live long, healthy lives. Yet is a gross perversion of Christianity that says that these lives are not important. Of course, they’re important. The Lord God didn’t save you so you can then dog paddle for the next 30 years.

No. And then go to heaven. He saved you so you can swim across the pool. You can do laps. You can do stuff for him. There’s a song out by Nick Cave. None. Nobody I’ve had listen to it likes it, but I like it a lot. There she goes. My beautiful world. There are those of us who are older and we can identify with that sentiment. There it goes. It’s fading away. It’s getting bad. And then he has admonition at the end of the song.

He says, “If you’ve got a field that won’t yield, get up off your use the word behind. He uses a stronger word and ho it apply yourself. We’re not sitting around, you know, the world’s going to heck in a ham basket. God knows what we really mean by heck, right? It’s going there and we just sort of as Christians say, “Well, it’s not important. Spiritual stuff’s important. This isn’t important.” That’s boloney.

You should want to live long. You should want temporal blessings. You should want God to hear you in your distress and bring temporal relief to you. You see, if you don’t, you got bigger problems than the fear of God. You got a whole messed up view of what reality is. This is heaven and earth come together. Yet, you know, we don’t just heaven is heaven and earth are not distinct ultimately. They’re now merging together.

And Revelation makes that quite clear that the that the temple of God comes down from heaven and goes over the earth, fills the whole earth. All right, enough of that. The point is Psalm 34. If you want to learn the fear of God, then properly prioritize this life and want to live a long life. Understand the kind of judgments that happen to those who don’t fear God. Okay? If you fear God, the eyes of God are on you.

His ears are open to your cry. If you don’t fear God and you’re evil, the face of God, his eyes and his ears, they’re against you to cut off even your memory from the face of the earth. If you’re righteous, you cry out and he hears. And he hears in such a way as to deliver you. He’s near to you. He saves you. He delivers you out of all your troubles. He guards your bones. On the other hand, if you don’t fear God, evil will slay the wicked.

That’s what’s going to happen. You read the word of God, you believe it. You ask the Holy Spirit to empower it to you to transform your life. This is one major way yet you learn the fear of God. Psalm 34, we were talking proper we got to prioritize scripture memorization more. There’s block box of scripture we think everyone ought to memorize at this church over the next few years. Well, here’s one of them from my book.

This is this is getting one of my votes. And when we put together the list, Psalm 34, good memorization project. If the fear of God is so important and he gives us, you know, all these verses to teach us the fear of God. Well, why don’t we memorize them? And as we do, we’ll understand God’s temporal judgments on the wicked and his temporal blessings upon the righteous. None of those who trust in him will be condemned.

You want to know what the fear of the Lord is? It’s to trust in God. And the end result of that is not being condemned. In what is this reference? Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him. It will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow because he does not fear before God.

Seems contradictory. It’s not. We look around and we think that the wicked are prospering. But God says, “Go to the worship service, hear the word of God, understand that his path is headed to destruction. He’s going to be like that ox led in, cut apart at the altar.” Okay? So, we know this that those who fear God will live long before him and be blessed by him. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter—Ecclesiastes is full of reference to the fear of God.

Ecclesiastes 7 verse 18, he who fears God will escape them all. He’s talking about various troubles. If you fear God, you escape all those troubles. Wisdom strengthens the wise more than 10 rulers of the city. You want to be strong and established. You want blessings, then fear God. The fear of God enhances our sanctification. We talked about this in New Testament Proverbs. 16:6. In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity.

By the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. I can’t break sinful habits. How are you going to do it? You’re going to cultivate the fear of God. So, you learn the fear of God. Learning the blessings of the fear of God. And one of those great blessings is increased sanctification. Proverbs 23, do not let your heart envy sinners. Be zealous for the fear of the Lord. You see, so you know this is properly understanding the blessings of it will keep us from improperly envying sinners.

Therefore, as 2 Corinthians says, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Another good memory verse, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Another blessing, its presence produces longevity and satisfaction. Proverbs 10:27, the fear of the Lord prolongs days. The years of the wicked will be shortened. Proverbs 14:27, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.

to turn one away from the snares of death. Proverbs 19:23, the fear of the Lord leads to life. He who has it will abide in satisfaction. He will not be visited with evil. You want satisfaction, right? The whole culture. I can’t get no satisfaction. You know why you can’t, Mick? Because you don’t fear God. The fear of the Lord yields satisfaction with longevity. Are you one of these guys that are always grasping, craving, never coming to satisfaction?

Understand that the more grasping you do won’t help. What brings you satisfaction, the scripture says, is the fear of the Lord. You learn the fear of the Lord by realizing its connection to emotional, mental satisfaction. And to a strong confidence, we want to have hearts and a mindset. So, we got physical blessings going on and we’re talking about mental blessings. Now, we learn the fear of the Lord by meditating upon its results.

Its results are satisfaction and its results are a good conscience. Proverbs 14:26 or good confidence rather. Proverbs 14:26. Listen. In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence. His children will have a place of refuge. Job 4:6. Is not your reverence your fear of God? Your confidence in the integrity of your ways your hope. You want hope. You want confidence. You want mental stability that looks forward to the day instead of shrinking back from it.

You want to be confident as you go into the day. These verses tell us this is what comes from the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord produces satisfaction. The fear of the Lord produces confidence as we walk into various problems. We learn it by understanding the blessings that are attached to it and that it is necessary for those kinds of blessings.

Its presence yields victory. I’ve listed verses there. We won’t need to turn to them now, but over and over again, the fear of the Lord produces physical victory for Israel in the midst of its nations. Midst of the nations rather. Well, that doesn’t hold any water with evangelical churches. We’re not looking to victory. We just want an exit strategy. Yeah, that’s what we want. We want just like Iraq. We just want to get out somehow. It’s a mess. The world’s a mess.

We’re not thinking of victory. Well, we are at this church, right? Yeah. We’re thinking of victory. We want victory in the context of this world. We want the world to reflect the glory of God. God’s going to give it to us. Great Commission says we’re going to convert all the earth and we’re going to do it. That victory is tied to the fear of the Lord. So, it’s important to us. It’s important to us and it’s important because we know it’s linkage to the commandments.

How do we learn the fear of God? Well, we recognize all these blessings that are attached to it and then we hear and obey God’s word. It’s the first part of wisdom. It’s evident with obedience to God’s law. Psalm 111:10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding of all those who do his commandments. You don’t have the fear of God, you want the fear of God, do his commandments.

To do them means you got to know him. You know, what do we have here? We got all our distinctives again, right? We got theonymy or theocrasy. The commandments of God are related to the fear of God. They’re equated here. Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Put a plug in for Sunday school, sermon, go to bed at time on Saturday night.

Where are you going to get the understanding of the Holy One? You can get a lot of places. Great tapes, great books. But here on Sunday, if you want the fear of God in your life, attend to his law, attend to his word, know the Holy One as he’s revealed himself in the scriptures. Come to Sunday school class, learn more about the Bible. You see, that’s how the fear of the Lord increases. Deuteronomy 8:5, “Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

Therefore, you shall keep my commandments to walk in his ways and to fear him.” Fearing is to keep his commandments. I don’t have the fear of the Lord. You know what his commandments are? No. What are you doing Sunday? Oh, whatever I want. And you don’t have the fear of the Lord. Well, okay, I understand. See, if you don’t seek out increasing understanding of the Holy One of Israel and his word to you, you’re not going to attain to a greater degree of the fear of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 13:4, you shall follow the Lord your God, and fear him. You shall keep his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him, and cling to him. All of a piece. Deuteronomy 5:29, oh, God says that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments. See, you want to increase the fear of the Lord. Choose it, prioritize it, learn it by knowing its connection to so much of the physical and mental blessings that we want properly in this life.

And then attend to an understanding of the commandments of God and walk in obedience to them. Deuteronomy 14:23, you know, it’s a great text. We like it. Use some of your tithe for family camp. Buy your favorite candy or whatever it is, strong drink, not on the campgrounds or at the camp. hard can’t do it there. But Deuteronomy 14:23, you know what part of our rejoicing at camp is supposed to be? It says, “You shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he has chose to make his name abide the time of your tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.” You ought to fear God more, go to family camp.

You’re going to convocate with his people. You’re going to hear his word preached. And putting yourself in the context of that word preached increases the fear of God in your life. That’s what the text says. Deuteronomy 4:10, he says, “I talks especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, that’s Sinai, when the Lord said to me, gather the people to me and I will let them hear my words that they may learn to fear me.” Special convocative times of the church like camp are times to come together to hear the word of God preached and proclaimed and taught and that increases the fear of God.

Deuteronomy 31 10 and following. Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles, family camp, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women, and little ones, and the strangers within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God, and that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God.

Put your children in the way of the commandments and instruction of God and you put them in the way of the fear of God. This is particularly important for kings. Deuteronomy 17, it shall be when the king sits on the throne of his kingdom and he shall write for himself a copy of the law in a book from the one before the priests the Levites and it shall be with him. He shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left.

The king was to write out the law of God and then all of his days he was supposed to read that law that it might bring him to fear of God. This is the private reading of your scriptures in your homes. Right? Read the scriptures to increase your fear of God. Ecclesiastes 5:7 in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity but fear God that’s the counterbalance. Ecclesiastes 12:13 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God keep his commandments for this is man’s all that’s the inspired word of God the end of the day the fear of God is linked to the keeping of the commandments and that’s all you’re supposed to do here.

You want a task for the rest of your years on this earth here’s the sum of the matter the preacher says fear God, keep his commandments.

In Joshua 4:20-24, he talks about the 12 stones, and they’re to teach their children the meaning of the 12 stones to the end that they might fear the Lord your God forever. They put themselves in mind not just of the commandments of God, but upon the actions of God to deliver them. And if we teach our children the mighty actions of God from the Old Testament and then in the New Testament, it increases the fear of God in them.

Okay. Next, you learn the fear of God by humbling yourself. The king humbles himself that he might fear God by the law. Proverbs 15:33, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom. Before honor is humility.” So, humility comes before the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 22:4, “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.” So, you’re supposed to humble yourself. Remember that Jehoshaphat, what did the prophet tell him?

He made this ungodly compromise with Abraham. He says, “Hey, humble yourself and fear God. You want to learn how to fear God, then you apply yourself to humbling yourself before God. Now, that’s a command. Okay? The king was given the command. Humble yourself that you might fear God. James 4:10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up.

1 Peter 5:6, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. It’s a command. It’s something you do. You see that? It doesn’t mean be humble. Abstract virtue. Nah, it says humble yourself. I understand your limitations. Humble yourself before God. Get on your knees. Get down on your face in prayer. Whatever it takes, but it’s an action you’re supposed to do. You want to learn the fear of God.

It’s connected to humility. Humility becomes before that honor the fear of God. You mean means you got to take positive steps to humble yourself a command. We can do it. If God doesn’t command, it’s something we can’t do.

Six, be charitable. When charity isn’t around, people are mean to other people. In Nehemiah chapter 5, you know, they enslaved their brothers and Nehemiah comes and rebukes them and he says, “What are you doing? What you’re doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of the Lord because of the reproach of the nations?” He says, “The fear of the Lord is evidenced in them by being charitable toward their brothers. And when they’re mean toward their brothers, absence of the fear of God. Remember the judge we talked about last week? He had no fear of God, right? Certain city, a judge who did not fear God, nor regard man.

If you don’t have the fear of God and you want the fear of God, begin to regard men. Do charitable acts toward other people. This is how one means by which you learn the fear of God. Exodus 1:17-22, we talked about the midwives and their proper rebellion against Pharaoh and his laws. They were doing charitable things. If the if the culture says you can’t go and minister or talk about the gospel to women who want to come in for a crisis pregnancy, too bad for the government.

You’re supposed to be charitable toward people and do it anyway. You see? So, be charitable toward others.

And then seven, encourage tough love. I never each sermon I’ve mentioned Saul. The spirit comes upon him. He gets angry, chops up an ox, sends it off to the Israelites and they fear God. You get a, you know, piece of a ax in the mail, you know, it’s like, you know, it’s like the mob, right, in Godfather.

Guy goes to bed and there’s a horse’s head there. His favorite horse. What did he do? He responded with fear and dread and trembling. Now, I’m not saying, but I am saying that we should want tough love in our families, in the church, in the state, and in the workplace. This goes completely against the culture of our day. Everything today is, you know, we’re all friends. We’re all equals. We just try to encourage each other positively.

Negative is bad stuff. Fear is bad. Hatred’s bad. No, the Bible says it’s proper in its proper place. If we’re going to have strong rulers in the church that bring judgments against people and warn them by cutting up ox send it to him, whatever it is. And if we’re going to have those kind of people in the state and in the family and in the workplace, we’re going to have to work hard at doing that because the culture is not doing it.

So, you should want to encourage tough love on the part of your rulers. That’ll help you. Tell the elders, “Yeah, you know, if I miss church again, call me up. If I’m late again, hold me accountable. If I’m not tithing, give me a call and tell me the judgment of God is upon me.” Do that. Encourage your leaders in this church to do that. Children, tell your parents, “Hey, I’m just, you know, pulling the wool over your eyes time after time, you really ought to beat me.” Yeah, that’s the kind of kids we want, right?

Well, we do. And children, if you understand the importance of the fear of God, if you’re properly prioritizing, if you’re choosing it, one way to enhance it is to tell your parents, “You need to use that rod a little harder because I’m not feeling it.” Okay? Encourage tough love.

And then finally, have a proper relationship to evil. Don’t do it. Job 20:28 to man he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom to depart from evil is understanding. So the fear to depart from evil you see evil you stop doing it that’ll enhance the fear of God in your life and not only don’t do it you’re supposed to actually hate evil okay.

Job 1:1 the description of Job it’s it’s given over and over again in Job chapter one remember the devil and God and God says have you considered Job. And over and over again he says he is one who feared God shunned evil. Verse 8, one who feared God shunned evil. Chapter 2:3 he feared God and shunned evil. So over and over again fears God shuns evil. They’re connected. You want to learn the fear of God? Apply yourself to shunning evil. And not only that, but actually hate it. Proverbs 8:13.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth. I hate so again humility. Humble yourselves and then choose to hate evil. Not just coexist with it. Hate it. Want to burn it up. Get rid of bad stuff for you. Books, videos, whatever it is. Burn them. Yeah. Hate it. Express that hatred. It’s proper. Hatred is a good thing. Here it says it’s equated to hate evil is equated with the fear of God.

Oh, here’s the final thing then. And don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God. In Isaiah 11, the spirit of God that comes upon Jesus, he has the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord and it’s his great treasure. Ephesians tells us that we are it is possible for us to grieve the Holy Spirit through repeated not abiding by it. Ultimately, the spirit of God upon us is the gift of God that ministers his fear to us. And most of us, I think, most of us have a diminished fear of God because we continually grieve the Holy Spirit. We act in opposition to the holiness that the Holy Spirit urges and motivates us to do. We grieve him.

It’s possible to do. God set it up that way. And the end result of that is that when we grieve the Holy Spirit, we move another click away from a proper fear of God. You want to learn the fear of God? Choose it. Prioritize it. Learn by about it. Consider temporal and eternal judgments of God. Remind yourself of it. Memorize Psalm 34. Commit yourself to being sensitive in your conscience to the Holy Spirit of God, ministering God’s word to you.

Don’t grieve the spirit. Don’t coexist with evil. Don’t just shun it, hate it. If you come to me and say, “Well, pastor, you know, I see those really importance of the fear of God. I just don’t have it.” You know what I’m going to ask you now, don’t you? Have you chosen it? How big of a priority is it to you? Have you memorized Psalm 34? Have you tried to humble yourself? Have you done good to others? You see, all these things are related to the fear of God.

You know, it said in Psalm 34 that not one of his bones shall be broken. Well, I know lots of people with broken bones who are good people. What’s it pointing us to? It’s pointing us to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the one who the fear of the Lord was his treasure was Jesus. We’re connected to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. It. Jesus is the one ultimately who gives us who it who deserves all these benefits we’ve spoken of and didn’t get a bone broken.

He’s the picture of the one who fears properly God, he’s the one that ministers to us and the one ministered to us in the context of the worship service. May the Lord God cause us today as we’re coming forward or as we’re sitting in our pews to choose the fear of the Lord to follow up that choice of properly prioritizing it. to learning it, to memorizing Psalm 34, reading it frequently in our homes, applying ourself to humility, and applying ourself to be sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit.

And in that way, may the Lord Jesus Christ minister his proper fear of God to us. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the instruction it has for us relative to the fear of you. Help us, Lord, God, as a church not to be like the foolish man who heard the words, the foolish man went to church. Lord God, you know that. And yet he walked away and didn’t do it and his house was destroyed.

Help us be wise. Help us to have, having heard these words, act on the basis of them to choose to fear the Lord. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.