Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20100131.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Exodus: God's Forming The Nation Israel For His Abrahamic Covenant
Part II: God's Forming Israel To Heed Him, Exodus 15:22-40:38
G. God's Motivating His People To Heed His Moral And Civil Law
(Exodus 20:18-21)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Ecclesiastes 12:13b KJV commands us: "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

    However, the idea of "fearing God" is met with very divided opinions and concerns in today's world, even among Christians:

    (1) A few Sundays ago, a Church member asked my opinion on the Biblical concept of "fearing God". She explained that a Bible study group recently struggled with the idea, with one side thinking it was wrong "to be afraid of God" and the other side trying to support it.

    (2) This issue is highly relevant in light of recent news stories:

    (a) Donna Leinwand, Marisol Bello and Martha T. Moore's article, "In Haiti, children are the most vulnerable victims," p. 1A of the January 25, 2010 USA TODAY, told how many children who experienced Haiti's catastrophic earthquake "wake up crying." A hospital worker added, "They always ask for someone to be with them. They ask why it happened. They think God is mad at them.'" (Ibid.)

    (b) In contrast, an increase in student behavior problems in American public schools would cause some to think a healthy dose of the fear of God would help: Kurt Moffett's article, "Lion Helps Teach Respect," in the January 25, 2010 Republican-American, p. 2B, tells how Principal Matthew O'Connell of the Hinsdale Elementary School in Winsted, Connecticut takes a stuffed lion with him around to the school's various classrooms, a lion called "Respect," to teach the children to "respect" authority figures like their teachers.

    This program is part of a nationwide one involving seven million children (Ibid.), so there is a national awareness among school officials for the need for some respect for authority by children!

    Many Americans would then claim that a healthy fear of God that leads a child to respect rightful authority figures is a good thing!

    (3) However, others feel that man needs to have a deep fear of God. A. W. Tozer, a renowned pastor of the last generation, wrote: "Wherever God appeared to men in the Bible times the results were the same -- an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt." (Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 1961, p. 110-111 as cited in joshuawinters.wordpress.com)



    So, we ask, "When the Bible calls us to fear God, what does it mean, why, and how can this command be properly obeyed?!"

    Need: "When the Bible commands us to 'fear God,' what does this mean, why is it necessary, and how can this call be heeded?!"

  1. When God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, His displays of thunder, lightning, thick cloud, smoking mountain and loud trumpet so terrified the people that they trembled and backed away from God's presence at Mount Sinai! (Exodus 19:16; 20:18)
  2. They even urged Moses to give them God's message instead of having God speak directly to them lest they die! (Exodus 20:19)
  3. Moses' Exodus 20:20 response to this urging in view of the rest of the Old Testament is very instructive on the "the fear of the Lord":
    1. Moses told the people of Israel not to be afraid (verb), for God had come to prove them that they might fear (noun) Him.
    2. This explanation initially seems to be a logical contradiction, that Moses seems to tell Israel not to fear God, but then again to fear Him!
    3. Indeed, the noun "fear", yirah, is a derivative of the verb "fear", yare', so the two words have the same lexical meaning, so Moses' statement seems illogical! (B. D. B., Heb. & Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 431-432)
    4. However, the immediate and extended Biblical context explains Moses' statement as being a very logically consistent truth as follows:
      1. God's dramatic displays of thunder, lightning, thick cloud, smoking mountain and loud trumpet sound had evoked dread in the people of what harm God WOULD UNPREDICTABLY do unto them!
      2. However, Moses explained God's PURPOSE (leba'abur) in this display was to cause the people to fear what harm God COULD do to them WERE they to DISOBEY Him, Ibid., Bib. Hebraica.
      3. Previous Old Testament Scripture contexts where the "fear of God" is mentioned amply illustrate this theological truth (as follows):
        1. In Genesis 22:12, when Abraham heeded God's command to slay his only, beloved son, the Lord kept him from harming the boy, stating Abraham's obedience showed that he feared God.
        2. In Exodus 1:16-17, the midwives refused to obey Pharaoh's call to drown the Hebrew baby boys in the Nile River because they feared greater punishment from God for hurting the babies than what they would have faced from Pharaoh for saving them.
        3. In Exodus 14:23-29, 30-31 when God in raw power killed the Egyptian chariot army to rescue Israel at the Red Sea, the people of Israel reacted by fearing God due to what He evidently could do in judgment to anyone that He saw fit to judge!
    5. Thus, Moses taught that though God was NOT UNPREDICTABLY ABUSIVE by NATURE, He WAS to be FEARED in the sense that DISOBEYING Him Who was PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS WOULD RESULT in HIS SURE, SEVERE DISCIPLINE!
  4. This truth is REPEATED for US CHRISTIANS in OUR ERA:
    1. Hebrews 12:28a,b NIV claims that we Christians in the Church era have received participation in Christ's Kingdom that cannot be moved, so we must be thankful to the Lord for this secure salvation.
    2. However, with our thanksgiving, we believers are to worship the Lord with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire," a phrase taken from Deuteronomy 4:24 as cited in Hebrews 12:28c-29 NIV.
    3. The Hebrews 12 context explains why this verse mixes thanksgiving for God's grace with fear of God's punishment: Hebrews 12:25 in light of Hebrews 12:18-21 claims that if Old Testament Israel did not escape God's severe discipline for refusing to heed Him after He had spoken to her at Mount Sinai, how much more would we believers in the Church era face God's severe discipline if we failed to heed Him Who speaks to us from heaven in our dispensation of the Church!
    4. The context of the Deuteronomy 4:24 passage that Hebrew 12:29 cites on God's being "a consuming fire" adds even more force to this idea:
      1. In Deuteronomy 4:21-24, Moses was recounting to Israel how God had been angry at his disobedience in Numbers 20:1-13, and, for that, he was judged of God to die in the wilderness like the rest of his disobedient generation in Israel, Numbers 20:12; 14:22-23!
      2. Thus, if even the great servant of the Lord in Moses did not escape God's "consuming fire" discipline for his sin, neither can we Christians today escape God's "consuming fire" discipline for our own disobedience to the Lord!
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ for salvation from sin to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit for the will and power to obey God, John 3:16; Philippians 2:12-13. (2) Then, may we FEAR God, realizing that we WILL face His SEVERE discipline IF WE DO NOT OBEY HIM, and so DILIGENTLY HEED Him for BLESSING!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 God used my Dad to begin to teach me about a healthy fear of God when I was 16 years old and about to be a junior in high school.

Dad was farming an alfalfa field south of Chico, California. He had assigned my youngest brother to drive the truck that pulled a lift to pick up bales from the field while another brother pulled them off the lift so mostly I could stack them a breathtaking 7 layers high on the bed as the truck rocked about in the field! We would drive the load to the roadside to re-stack it there for the feed mill semis to haul away.

The operation was very hard work. Besides the nerve-racking ride in the field to stack the hay, alfalfa bales are dense and heavy, and daytime temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees F. from May to early September. On top of that, I one day realized our job assignments had left me with most of the work! That made me upset, so, when Dad drove his pickup out to the field to check on us, I angrily told him, "I'm doing most of the work around here, and it's just too hard, so, I quit!"

He calmly replied, "Don, you can't quit!"

I haughtily retorted, "Oh yes, I can -- I quit!"

Again, Dad said, "You can't quit -- if you quit, you can't eat!"

He explained how my brothers were younger and not yet able to "buck" alfalfa bales all day, that his health kept him from the work and Mom sure couldn't help! If I quit, neither I nor the family could eat!

His words left me stunned! I had not realized Dad was relying on me to bear the brunt of the toil for the family's livelihood! I also realized God had assigned me a key role to help the family in a time of great need, that He was calling me at age 16 to toil and help the rest of the family survive in great accountability to Him!

So, for the rest of that long, hot summer, I returned to my work of "bucking" alfalfa bales with a great sense of duty before the Lord!

God has since then reinforced that sense of duty in His call that I now labor in the fear of the Lord to expound His Word so that His spiritual "family" can "eat." He has used a life-threatening car accident in 1990, moving testimonials from believers in this body and feedback from how people around the world are extensively using our Church web site to drive that sense of duty home with mammoth force!

May we then be AFRAID of God's PUNISHMENT for SIN, and, as believers in Christ, RELY on the HOLY SPIRIT for the POWER to HEED the Lord as we live in the FEAR of the LORD!