Mike Livermore - Class 4

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   We are always in need of encouragement and exhortation from our Heavenly Father. I'll ask our brother Mike to come forward and lead us in our exhortation this morning.

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   Well, thank you, Davey, and good morning, everyone. I'd like for us to begin our exhortation in Proverbs chapter 2. We'll be discussing for our exhortation today the concepts, or begin with the concept of the fear of the Lord. Look at it scripturally, the lessons we can learn from this phrase, and then apply it to our lives.

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   In Proverbs chapter 2 and verses 1 through 5, I'll read these. It says, So here in verse 5 there, we have a mention of this phrase, the fear of the Lord. It's a phrase not often used today, in fact, very seldom used, even amongst the community of Bible believers. But it was a phrase that was prevalent in biblical times, and they used it quite a lot.

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   And so what is this phrase, and what should it mean for us? And what is really the point, and what's the purpose of the fear of the Lord? Well, as we see right here to begin with in verses 1 through 5 of Proverbs chapter 2, that the fear of the Lord is connected with understanding and acquiring knowledge, and beginning to develop faith or the mind of God in our lives seems to have an origin or a beginning with the fear of the Lord.

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   In Proverbs, come to Proverbs chapter 8, please, just a few pages over. Proverbs chapter 8, verse 13, just the first sentence of this verse says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And I want to pair that verse with Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 6. So again, just a couple pages over.

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   Proverbs chapter 16, verse 6 says, So combining all of these verses from Proverbs seem to suggest that there's a connection between the fear of the Lord to begin with, and then after that, some sort of obedience or a hatred of wickedness and a love of doing the right thing. And perhaps the fear of the Lord is a good beginning in our lives as believers, as a good way for us to sort of get ourselves in check, to be humbled and realize that we are faulty, we're frail, and we make mistakes.

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   We need to be humbled, and the fear of the Lord helps us recognize that and seek for forgiveness for our mistakes and turn to our Father for mercy, because we know that otherwise we have this fear of the consequences, sin and death, for the mistakes that we make. So perhaps the fear of the Lord is really the beginning of our relationship with God.

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   It gets us in line and prepares us to learn God's ways in teaching. As an example of this, come please to Exodus chapter 14.

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   So in Exodus chapter 14, the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, after this event takes place, the final verse of the chapter, verse 31 of Exodus 14 says, Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses.

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    So again, I think the order of events is really important here, where the people saw the great majesty displayed in this wonderful event of the Red Sea. And they were so impressed by God, it humbled them, and they realized that they're but dust and ashes before this incredible, powerful, authoritative Father over them.

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    And they were moved with fear. Fear came first, followed then by belief. So if fear was what sort of brought them down and realized their position, upon that foundation then they could build belief and faith and build more of a love-based relationship with their Father. And so perhaps in our society, that's why the phrase is maybe not quite used as much, because just generally speaking, our modern-day Christian society, we perhaps only want to consider our relationship with God as purely a love or grace or mercy-based relationship, which of course it absolutely is.

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    But perhaps we're also missing a critical component, particularly at the beginning of our lives as believers, and that there also is a place for the fear of the Lord at times to humble us and check us and to bring us back to a proper position upon which then we can have love and hope and grace and mercy.

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    Come with me please to the Psalms, Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. And I'm going to read verses 8 through 14 and see if, with kind of what we've been discussing so far, if you can see this connection of what the fear of the Lord really sort of means for us as believers.

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    So Psalm 34, beginning at verse 8, says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints. There is no want to those who fear him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

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    Come, you children, listen to me, and 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. So here in this brief passage, it's presented that we as children, we need to come to learn the fear of the Lord.

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    And once we've embraced that and have that respect and consideration for our Father, upon that our lives can be blessed and they can be good and they can be long. And upon that we can then obey as, you know, verse 13 says, put away the bad, embrace the good, and we'll be blessed as verses 8 through 9 extend to us.

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    So perhaps we need to incorporate the fear of the Lord more into our relationship with our Father. And I think it actually is really important. There's going to be a series of passages we're going to go to now. I actually have four passages coming up, so just sort of prepare yourselves for those, that show us examples in the Bible of passionate, faithful, loving believers who also incorporated the fear of the Lord in their lives.

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    So our first is Jehoshaphat. Come please to 2 Chronicles chapter 19. 2 Chronicles chapter 19. The key verse will be verse 9, but as a, just for context sake, verse 8, this is when Jehoshaphat is trying to fix things. He's trying to bring the nation back into a better place, a more faithful place.

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    He's reforming the nation. So verse 8 says, So the fear of the Lord can work in conjunction with our heart. There can be emotion and love, and the priests and the elders here could also have, I would say they could both have those components in play. The fear of the Lord to obey and walk rightly, but also the love.

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    They could have the heart as well in their leadership with the people. Come next to Acts chapter 10. Acts chapter 10. We have the story of Cornelius. And in verse 2, we have a description of the man. So Acts chapter 10, verse 2 says of Cornelius, So he was a man who had a close relationship with his father, who was always praying to his father.

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    He had that level of intimacy and care in his relationship, and he was generous and gave to the poor. So his emotions and investment were in his discipleship. But this man also had the fear of God, as verse 2 says. And what does verse 22 say of the same chapter? Cornelius, the centurion, a just man and one who feared God, has a good reputation among all the nations of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and for you to hear words from you.

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    So it's absolutely essential. And I would say in no way would it be wrong for us to say that we have a fear of the Lord in our relationship with our father. Cornelius did. And he was a faithful, just man who prayed always to his God. Come with me now, please, to Hebrews chapter 12.

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    In Hebrews chapter 12, the chapter begins by discussing how our relationship with our father is like a family. He's a father and we're the children. And so you have in verse 5, for example, you have the quote from the Psalms, my son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you're rebuked of him.

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    For whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And verse 7 says, if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. So God loves us and considers us his children. And it's a wonderful, close relationship. And we can look up to God as if he was our father. But at the end of the chapter in chapter 12, let's read verses 28 through 29.

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    It says, So God can take both of these places in our lives. He can be a kind, loving father to us, but he can also be a consuming fire. There can be a fear if we fall back, if we've fallen away and that fear can check us and bring us back and help us to realize we've fallen astray and help us realize that we need to change, repent, and get back into a place where now we once again can view our father as our father, as one who loves us and care for us.

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    The relationship can change and we need both to keep us in the right place. And now come back to one more in Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9 and verse 31. Where we see here both elements of our father, both sides of his character, were at work in the ecclesia in Acts chapter 9.

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    So Acts chapter 9 and verse 31 says, Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. So these people saw both the comforting side, you know, and, for lack of a better word, the serious side of God.

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    They saw the consuming fire and the loving father. And both were at work in the ecclesia. And perhaps we would be, we would do well, even in our modern day, at times to recognize that there are both components from our father and involve those in our discipleship. And perhaps use the phrase, the fear of the Lord.

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    So having discussed this phrase, the fear of the Lord, there is nonetheless a contrasting phrase that's also, I think, put in place for us as a real warning of a bad kind of fear, a wrong kind of fear, which on one hand, if we should be motivated at times by a fear of the Lord, there also is something that we should never, ever be motivated by.

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    Come with me, please, to Luke chapter 20 and verse 19. Luke 20 and verse 19 says, the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them. And so here, the enemies of Christ, they wanted to strike him, get him out of the picture, but they were motivated by a different kind of fear, a fear of the people, which sort of selfishly led them to go through some different tricks and manipulation to try to crucify Christ and remove him through more subtle means.

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    Come as well to Mark chapter 11, verse 32. Really the exact same example. Mark 11 and verse 32. Here we have Christ, you know, reasoning with those who are trying to capture him. Maybe for context, I'll begin at verse 30. It says, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?

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    Answer me. So this was Christ asking them this question. And his enemies, they, in verse 31, they reasoned amongst themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.

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    So here, a fear of the people led the enemies of Christ to be unable to truly engage with him and debate because they feared the repercussions of their answer as it would affect their popularity and their authority and their status as the rulers or the sort of in-place rulers of the nation at that time.

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    Come with me, please, as well, to Numbers chapter 14. We have just two more examples of this kind of fear. Here is where fear really flew contrary to faith in the history of the nation of Israel. As they could have entered the land here in Numbers chapter 14 and begun to claim the promised land, we have this unfortunate story and in verse 9 of Numbers chapter 14 when Israel made a bad decision.

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    So Numbers chapter 14 verse 9 says, So here Joshua and Caleb, they're trying to get the people to go into the land, to claim it by faith, but as we know, the bad report of the spies caused the fear of the Lord to overwhelm them and it was stronger than their faith and their fear failed them and they failed to enter the promised land being motivated, first of all, by a fear of the Lord over a trust in him to protect them and to provide it for them as he had promised.

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    And our last example is in 1 Samuel chapter 15. So we're all aware of the many mistakes of King Saul and in 1 Samuel chapter 15 we have, you know, his mistake with sparing King Agag and offering a sacrifice that he shouldn't and hear what he has to say about it in verse 24 of 1 Samuel chapter 15.

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    Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. So Saul, who could have been a much better king, obviously, he could have let faith have more of an impact in his life and trusted his father so much more but we see what his real motivation was, was keeping the people satisfied, was obeying their voice, listening to them and really more being fearful of them and just wanting to be popular in their eyes and he failed as a leader because he let fear rule his decisions.

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    And so now we need to think about our own lives and make this applicable to ourselves and how it might have an effect on how we live in our modern world. And we have to ask ourselves, what really is our motivation? What drives us and the choices we make on a daily basis?

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    Is it the fear of the Lord or is it a fear of the people? And we can perhaps think of many occasions in our life where we were sort of stuck at a crossroads between these two paths, these two decisions or one decision for two outcomes. And one story I'll share as an anecdote which I think is representative.

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    I recently had a conversation at work with some of my buddies that I work with in my office and we were just talking about our lives and it was the three of us talking and the other two in the conversation both brought up sort of kind of coincidentally how they were both in a life situation where they were just living with their girlfriends and these were the girls they would want to live with the rest of their life but they weren't married.

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    They were just living together before marriage which may or may not eventually happen. And they both sort of were venting how their parents in their minds they viewed them as their parents as old-fashioned and their parents were sort of complaining to them about how they consider their lifestyle to be living in sin.

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    And so my two buddies at work were saying oh my old-fashioned parents they're condemning how we live but I don't care we love each other. And it led to a really awkward point in the conversation where then I had to say well I kind of agree with your parents and it was a very very difficult awkward moment where I had to choose between the fear of the Lord and a fear of the people if you will of my two buddies at work.

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    And I think we can all relate to situations like that. A lot of us have been in that kind of encounter whether at school or at work where there is a bit of a crossroads and we have to decide what do we really stand for and what is our motivation? Are we like King Saul who just give in for the sake of popularity and fitting in and just wanting to appease those around us?

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    Or do we truly stand for something and do we truly believe that God's at work in our lives and we have a relationship with him which begins with the fear of the Lord? But in our modern world there's a new avenue in which this temptation can strike us and especially of course strike our young people and that is on social media and on the various mediums whether it's Facebook or Instagram or whatever app is to be used there's a quest for popularity on these apps and on this media and there's a desire to appeal and gather the most likes and the most attention and we do this by sort of selling out to the mainstream way of viewing things what we consider to get the most likes possible and sometimes I think our behavior on social media can be fueled more by a fear of the people than a fear of the Lord and social media can make for a very very difficult medium to have real you know beneficial rational conversation about the challenges and the positive things of life in Christ it's a difficult medium on which for iron to sharpen iron and when we try to discuss and maybe perhaps stand up for the fear of the Lord on these mediums we get labeled as haters and it can kind of turn back on us and lead to a lot of stress and anxiety and oftentimes choosing a fear of the Lord over the fear of the people has sort of challenging consequences for us on these online platforms and other examples that I think maybe are not necessarily going to happen

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    but there's a real threat they could happen if you think in recent years about how the fear of the people the power of people the power of online mobs can really have an effect in our world one sort of benign example I'll reference is a lot of us maybe remember the story of an MBA owner who in his own home said some insulting comments things which I we certainly wouldn't agree with but he said a few things which leaked online and the Twitter mob like the internet world just jumped on this guy we shouldn't shut any tears for him but doing a legal activity in his own home millions and millions of people turned on him when his comments went viral and he lost his MBA franchise now again don't feel bad for this guy but this is an example of what could happen in our modern world something we might say in a lecture in a class something we might post online could potentially go viral and millions and millions of people could see it and condemn us for something that we might say or stand for as believers and choosing the fear of the Lord online may it's possible it may in the future before Christ returns lead to a really really challenging test for us of the fear of the people turning back on us in our lives the Twitter mob is real and it's out there it is a threat to spiritual thought now this may never happen this is perhaps a doomsday scenario and you're all saying this this is ridiculous Mike this is crazy it may never happen but nonetheless

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    there's a very real threat on a very daily basis to all of us if we participate online and social media of a quest for praise from the people to overtake our own personal commitments in life to fear God it's a very real challenge for all of us and especially our young people in these last days and something for us to keep in mind what could help us as the example of believers that came before us come please to Acts chapter 5 in Acts chapter 5 when the early ecclesia was facing persecution and when the things they were doing were inciting the wrath of the mobs and the authority stepped in in verse 26 for example of Acts chapter 5 and the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should be stoned so the military the authorities the captains here they feared the people and they were persecuting bringing in the disciples they brought in Peter and here's the lesson for us verse 29 Peter's answer to this this arrest this persecution he says in verse 29 we ought to obey God rather than men and that really is the lesson and the approach and attitude that we should have in our modern world where the world online is becoming very powerful and can influence us in the wrong direction we should strive always to obey God first no matter what the medium is and not man so now with that lesson in mind we'll now shift our attention to the emblems that we're about to share together and the example of Christ who gave his life

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    for each one of us there's a wonderful passage which shows us that Christ also has set an example for us of the fear of the Lord in his life come with me please to Acts chapter 11 or I'm sorry Isaiah chapter 11 Christ who lived perfectly and was sinless and who actually was the son of God in a literal sense and is someone who had an unbelievably close and intimate relationship with his father such that he said I and my father are one if there was anyone who did not need to have a fear of the Lord it was Christ but let's see how Christ and his kingdom are described in Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 through 3 it says there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord his delight is in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears Christ who was sinless and is the embodiment of love personified in a human being he also delighted in the fear of the Lord so perhaps we need to value it as well in our lives as well and as we think about what our Lord accomplished for each one of us how every day of his life he was obedient and followed his father's will and left a wonderful example for each one of us

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    that can be oppressed upon us and inspire us with how we should live each day as we share this bread and wine together come with me please to our final passage in Matthew chapter 27 Matthew chapter 27 the key verse will be verse 54 perhaps for context I'll begin with verse 50 which says and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit then behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth quaked and the rocks were split and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many so when the centurion and those with him were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happened they feared greatly saying truly this was the son of God as we share the bread and wine together may we also be similarly impressed with what our Lord has accomplished for each one of us and agree with the centurion here moved with fear that truly this is the son of God thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Thank you.