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Good morning. We're continuing
this week with what we started last week, which is an overview
or study on the thoughts of ethics from a Christian perspective,
from the perspective of the Word of God, which we would say is
absolute, unchanging and inherent. So as a text and just a way to
begin, turn to Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13 we'll
start at verse 25 read through 33 This particular portion of scripture
has much to do with what we'll be speaking on and looking at
today. And most anyone that has read
the scripture or even as much as attended a Sunday school class
or sat under much preaching has probably heard many sermons on
this particular passage of scripture. But it does point to us Our subject,
our particular subject for this day, which is the fear of God
versus the fear of man and its impact and effect on a Christian
ethic or the way that Christians view their values and what they
do in this life. So, reading Numbers 13 beginning
at verse 25, And they returned from searching of the land after
40 days. And they went and came to Moses,
and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children
of Israel, unto the wilderness of Parai, to Kadesh, and brought
back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed
them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said, We
came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth
with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless,
the people be strong that dwell in the land. And the cities are
walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land
of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites dwell by the
sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb still, people before
Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we
are well able to overcome it. But the man that went up with
him said, we'd be not able to go up against people, for they
are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report
of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel,
saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is
a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that
we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the
giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were
in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. As we move into the subject of
the fear of God versus the fear of man, I would think that that
portion of scripture is rather self-explanatory or contrasting
the two, but we'll have more on that a little bit later on
that particular passage. But this week we're going to
talk about fear, the subject of fear as it plays out in A
Christian ethic. Fear. Now, I want to do a slight,
not disclaimer, but a slight qualifier, is there are preservative
fears in the world. I'm sure that some of you are
in here are afraid of spiders. Some of you may be afraid of
snakes. Some of you may be afraid of
this or that. Now, I never had any of those
types of fears. I used to catch snakes and catch
spiders and look at them and take them apart and do all kinds
of things to spiders and insects. And when I see a lost nest, it's
more of a challenge than it is a fear that I'm going to destroy
them. And so some of you boys might
be able to identify with that lack of fear, but you mothers
may cringe and think, oh, no, not that again. It's just something
boys do, isn't it? So we're laying aside that there
are preservative fears, fears that keep us from being hurt,
fears that keep us from being damaged, fears that are just
a part of a healthy respect for the natural environment in which
we find ourselves. So those are not the types of
fears we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about
a more sinister type of fear in the fear of man, and a holy,
good, life-giving fear that is in the fear of God. So by way
of review, last week we looked at, as an overview of Christian
ethics, there are three foundational things. One is the sovereign
order of God, that God has and does order all things according
to the counsel of his own will. He has made all things that are
good, and he brings himself glory through all those things that
he made. And he does not allow competing ideas through his statutes
and laws, is a sovereign order. The second doctrine that we visited
a little bit last week was the fear, I'm sorry, the fall of
man. The fall of man that God did
make man, made man and placed him in paradise. He did make
man with the capacity to sin, which he did. And that this thing
that he did in sinning was Catching to all men, it was contagious. It came through Adam, the fact
that we now have in us not only our own sins that we do in the
flesh, but the very principle of sin is in us, in Adam. That
is, in understanding the world of ethics, we have to understand
the fall of man. And then the idea of redemption,
the doctrine of redemption, that God took upon himself the salvation
of man. He took it upon himself in the
person of Jesus Christ, whom we claim in this blood that he
shed as God required blood to be shed for sin. It was. taking care of all the legal,
salvific, and every ethical aspect of the salvation of those for
whom it was spilt. So we have that as an undercurrent,
that men have a way now to work out their salvation. In other
words, the law of God is now written on our hearts and in
our souls, as opposed to just on a rock or a parchment or something. some other situation that we
might find ourselves in. And the core of that is Hebrews
8, 10 and 11 if you want to read that. But now this week we're
going to start on another aspect. The first of several aspects.
Today we're covering fear. The fear of God versus the fear
of man. The word fear and the word afraid
in English appear in the Bible thousands of times. It actually
appears more than the word life, or live, or death, or dying. It is a very pervasive part of
human existence, this idea of fear. And many entire systems
of government, many entire systems of family order are built upon
certain types of fears. So we have to understand that
fear is a part of human nature. It's a part of the human experience. In the scripture, it's translated
and has many meanings. We think of terror. We think
of awe and respect. We think of reverence. We think
of fright. We think of fear of itself. We all know what that is, although
it's hard to define. I fear this. Oh, I'm afraid it's
going to rain today. Are we really afraid it's going
to rain? Are we fearing that it's going to rain? We use the
word rather lightly. But nevertheless, we all understand
the idea of what it means. But in the Scripture, all these
different meanings are built into the word. And we in our
day, we often try, well, I fear God. Well, I do fear God. I fear in a reverential, awesome
way, but I also fear that God could smash me like a potato
bug. God could squish us. God could, with His Word, the
same way He spoke into existence, you and me and everything that
we see, seen and unseen. He can speak it out of existence.
He has that sovereign power to do so. So there is no reason
for us to separate the ideas that are built into this word
fear in the scripture. There's no reason to separate
it. It's not necessary for us to understand it. And the context
always defines what it means. The context, where it's found
when you read the word fear or afraid, whether it's good fear
or bad fear, right fear or wrong fear, the context decides it.
But even in the context, many times inside the word are contained
awe and terror. Reverence and fright are contained
in the word at the same time. So let's look into the scripture
a little bit more and look at the word fear, and fear as it
defines our lives. We all make decisions every day
at one level or another. As you define fear broadly, we
make decisions based on it all the time. A lot of our choices
come out of one level of fear or another. Many times we talk
about peer pressure, that we may dress this way or dress that
way or wear this or not wear this out of fear of what our
friends and family may think. We have to ask ourselves, is
this the right kind of fear? You answer that question. But
we have it. It's part of our everyday experience. But I have to give this other
thought that we cannot Ignore that most of the time in scripture
when God is talking with fear, He's saying, fear not, be not
afraid. So we see that our good God and
Father gives us the right kind of fears to have and the wrong
kind of fears to avoid. So God says, fear not. Most of
our fears obviously never come to pass. I've had imaginations
of things that I thought was going to happen or not happen,
and only to find out it didn't turn out like that at all. In
fact, that was completely and totally and absolutely unfounded,
because it was based on fear instead of its opposite. And
the opposite of fear, as we all get into the study, is faith.
Faith is the opposite of fear. Boldness is not the opposite
of fear. Faith is. Because faith is an
undercurrent of a belief system. Fear is an undercurrent of a
belief system. If we fear God, we may do things
one way. If we fear men, we may do things
another way. In Genesis chapter 3, verses
9 and 10. It's our first text. We'll dive
into it a little bit. And says this, but the Lord called
to the man and said, where are you? This is not King James here.
I thought it read well in another and I don't remember what it
is. ESV, I think. But the Lord God called to the
man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the
sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked
and I hid myself. Here we see the very first mention
or understanding of fear as an element of human experience right
after the fall, right after Adam had partaken of what he was forbidden
to take of, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. And his first unethical behavior wrought out by the wrong
kind of fear drove him to think and to actually try to hide from
omnipotence, from omnipresence, from all the glory and power
and constant nearness of God. And we find ourselves in that
today. We find young people, children, older parents. When
we have sinned, when we do that which is wrong, when we do that
which we know is not pleasing even to our earthly parents,
don't we try to hide it? Did you hit your sister with
that stick? No. Sticks behind the back in
the hand. No, I did not do that. Why? Fear. Fear. Fear drives, many times, unethical
behavior. So, the idea of fear is completely
a part of our everyday experience, and we've all experienced the
temptation to hide our sin. Scripture teaches that somebody
who confesses and forsakes their sin will find mercy. But if you
hide it, you don't find mercy. So there's the first mention
and aspect of fear that we tend to shy away from the remedy to
the thing that we've done to the fear. Then Proverbs 22 verse 13 lays
it out very nicely. The slothful man said, there
is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. Then in Matthew, I'm sorry for
the quickness, let's find out if you're all part of Bible drill
or not. Matthew 25 verses 24 through
28. Then he, which had received the
one talent, came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man,
reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast
not strawed, and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in
the earth. Lo, there thou that is There
thou hast, that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto
him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed. Thou
oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers. And
then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Therefore take the talent from
him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. We see here
that fear drove, in both cases, an unfounded behavior, an unfounded
ethic that caused judgment to come from God. Now, slothful
and lazy men, women, children are paralyzed by fear. These
are excuses. These are unfounded. Now, there
may be a lot of things in the streets in Columbus, Mississippi,
but there are probably no lions. But there are other things that
we might conjure up to keep us from doing and knowing to do
what we know is right. Men, we do not need to fabricate
lies or other irrational things that could go wrong and avoid
the real truth, the real fear of diligence, persistence, and
faithfulness and responsibility. Do not fear those things. Young
men, brothers, I assure you, I speak to you and speak in this
generation, this is a sin to avoid slothfulness, spiritual
or physical. It will render you ineffective
in your calling before God. Fear slothfulness. Avoid substituting
ease, comfort, security, for sacrifice, for diligence, for
productive risk-taking, and for initiative. Do not let the lines
in the street keep you from doing that which you know is right
and good. And we see from our text earlier
in Numbers 13 that fear can have long-term and generational effects. It doesn't just affect the one
who has an irrational faithlessness or fear. It can affect a generation. How do we know that? In Numbers
13 and 14, that was the event. that kept him in the wilderness
for 40 years, until all those unbelieving, until all those
doubters died, and the scripture says their carcasses rotted in
the wilderness. This is a strong word, isn't
it? This is a strong idea that our
faithlessness, our fear, causes such behavior that we may poison
A whole generation or two behind us. We should look upon those things
with great trembling in the right sense. So you know the story.
There's two primary ethical opposites, faith and fear. God commands
them to go and spy out Canaan. Moses sends out twelve. Twelve
go, find more bounty than imagined. You know, I understand grapes,
this big around, you know, just all kind of really good things.
So much that it took, you know, two of them on a stick, a bundle
of grapes. It took them to carry it coming
back, one on each shoulder. Just one dropping of grapes there. So we know it was a rich land
flowing with milk and honey. Well, wherever there's honey,
there's bees. And wherever there are bees, there are lots of plants.
Where there is lots of plants, there's lots of food. So we know
that there were many cattle there. There was much good there. That
God had said, that's your land. You're going to have to get those
people out of there, and I'm going to help you do it. But we know the story. The narrative comes back. 10
of the 12 come back, no we can't do it. It's really a nice place
to live, but there are giants over there. And not only are
there giants in our sight, but we're puny in their sight. Those
were their lines in the streets, I think. But two of them, Joshua
being one, says no, we can do it. We can do it. So we see some
quick lessons from this passage, and I'll go through them quickly.
So what can we learn from that particular passage? And I would
encourage you this afternoon, if you want something to read
over, Numbers 13 and 14, both chapters, is that whole narrative
of what happened there in the beginnings of the wandering in
the wilderness. Looking at it from a framework of faith versus
fear is an interesting aspect of it. So what do we learn? One,
the majority is usually wrong. Girls and young girls and men,
if you found that to be true, are your friends usually wrong
or are they usually right? Moms, dads. Brethren, in the
workplace, are mobs and majorities usually right or not? Second
thing, fear is contagious. The wrong type of fear is contagious. There's a line in the streets.
Next thing you know, there's a whole herd of them. By the time it gets to this house,
to that house, And next thing you know, you have a whole society,
a whole town, a whole area that is permeated with fears, irrational
fears of what might happen. It is contagious. Fear draws
back and finds excuses to not move forward. You military fellows
probably know about moving forward. Most armies that are in perpetual
retreat do not win. Most battles are won by pressing
on against insurmountable odds. So fear draws back and finds
excuses. Fear can lead to insurrection
in this story. The next thing we know, the fear
gets so permeated that they're scared to death to go in the
land and take the grapes and the land and the cows and all
those things that they were supposed to get. They're afraid to do
that, but they have no fear about taking it on the very God of
heaven in His mouth, Jesus, Moses and Aaron. It can lead to insurrection. Fear brings judgment. Judgment
fell upon those who were that. You know, many were struck dead
right there on the spot because of this idea of insurrection,
refusing to move forward when God had commanded them to do
so. And the good side of it, we see in Joshua and Caleb, that
faith stands alone regardless of the consequences. They stood
alone. And guys and girls, young men,
husbands, wives, there will be many times in this life when
you will have to stand alone. And if you're always looking
for the majority to support you in your standing, you will be
sorely disappointed. You must stand alone, and you
must stand in faith. So, we see the great lever here
of fear in ethical responses. Basically, we end up taking a
whole generation of women, husbands, children out because of a lack
of faith or because of fear. It paralyzes and impedes progress,
while faith emboldens us and energizes us to move forward,
believing that if God be for us, who can be against us? Great
promise from the Scripture. This is the heart of ethics,
doing the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time,
without majority support. You will not have majority support
very often. This is why God calls faithful,
not fearful, faithful leaders into His church and into many
ranks and offices in this world. We pray often that God will give
us the Godly to rule over us. So be faithful, not fearful. So from the Scripture, there's
only one justifiable fear. Only one. A singular type of
fear. And this fear opens the gates
of wisdom and truth to us. So I'm going to go through these
very quickly for your encouragement, for your edification. And so
if you can jot them down, this would be a great afternoon meditation. And they're all from Proverbs. And Proverbs is what I call a
book of one-liners. If you need things to memorize
that will encourage you, go to the Proverbs and the Psalms.
You will find much there. Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fools despise wisdom and
instruction. Proverbs 1.29, for that they
hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Proverbs
2.5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find
the knowledge of God. Proverbs 8.13 The fear of God
is to hate evil, pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward
mouth do I hate. Proverbs 9.10 The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy
is understanding of promise. The fear of the Lord is strong
confidence, Proverbs 14, 26, 14, 27. The fear of the Lord
is a fountain of life. Who doesn't want life? Who doesn't
want life and that more abundantly? Even the unbeliever walks out.
They seek it in many places. But here we're pointing to the
scripture. Well, here it is right here. Let's just go get it. The
fear of the Lord is the fountain of life. Proverbs 15, 16. Better is little with the fear
of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Proverbs
15, 32. The fear of the Lord is the instruction
of wisdom, and before honor is humility. Proverbs 16, 6. By mercy and truth, iniquity
is purged. And by the fear of the Lord,
men depart from evil. There's the ethical understanding
there. You want evil out of your society?
Fear the Lord purges it, purges our consciences, purges our evil
works. Proverbs 19.23, the fear of the
Lord tendeth to life. And he that hath it shall abide
satisfied, he shall not be visited with evil. Great promise. Proverbs 22.4, By humility and
the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Who doesn't
want those? Riches, honor, and life. Fear
the Lord. Proverbs 23, 17, Let not thy
heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the
day long. What a wonderful promise. Something
that's fear God, fearing God, working out our salvation in
fear and trembling. The great reward, the eternal,
abundant, overwhelming, press down, rolling over type reward. In Psalm 34, verses 4 through
11, I'll leave you with this. Oh, I'm almost done with you
with this country. I sought the Lord, and He heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him
and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of
all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamped
around them that feared Him and delivered them. Oh, taste! and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusts in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye
His saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young
lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good things. Come, you children, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord." The fear of the
Lord contrasted against the faithlessness. of man. The fear of man brings
a snare. In Proverbs 29, 25, the fear
of man brings a snare, but whosoever puts his trust in the Lord shall
be safe. The fear of man brings a snare.
That's the heart of the epics right there. It's what is the
product of the outcome of what we do and believe. So let's look
at snares. There's problems with snares,
brethren and sisters. There are great problems with
them. One, they are set for a particular prey. In this context, the souls of
men is the prey. They are disguised. Now, most
of the time, you know, you see some of the old Vietnam information. different places how the Viet
Cong would make these snares. The soldiers would be walking
through the junk. There's a trivet and boom, they're gone. Well,
why don't they just put a sign there and say, hey, there's a
snare here that we've said to kill you with. You should step
on the other side. They are disguised. They are philosophies embroidered
with scripture. They are alluring. As the serpent
said to Eve, this will make you wise. You'll be like God. They are alluring. They are affirming.
Everyone's doing it. Dad, all our friends are doing
this. That's why we should do this. Because they're all doing
it. Don't we fight with that daily? They are hard to escape. Snares
are hard to escape. Once in them, once trapped. They
are designed to keep the prey until the captor comes and gets
released, usually to prison. An ox led to the slaughter. They
don't escape. So brethren, faith is the antidote
for fear. And fear of man brings a snare.
The fear of man will cause us to do unethical, wrong things. Faith is therefore the true ethic,
the foundation of all decisions. Let me leave you with Matthew
10. This is really leaving you. Matthew 10, 24-39. It's a long
passage, but meditate on it and hear the weight of it, the weight
of the words of our very Lord Jesus Christ spoken to His disciples. by what could come upon them
because of faith. Matthew 10, 24-39, the disciple
is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It
is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant
as his Lord. If they have called the master
of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of
his household? Fear them not, therefore. Listen
to this. Fear them not, therefore. For there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known.
But I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light, and what
ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul. but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your Father? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not? Therefore ye are more valuable
than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I am not come
to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother More than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he
that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy
of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it. And he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it. These are strong words from the
Scripture. We must fear God and not mere
strength.
A Study of Christian Ethics: Fear
Series A Study of Christian Ethics
Part two of Barry Steele's October study
| Sermon ID | 1023112058418 |
| Duration | 34:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Language | English |
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