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Sunday 9/20/26
Title: Training our hearts in the Fear of the Lord
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Training our hearts in the Fear of the Lord
I reached out to you all to inform you that today our message would be on the fear of the Lord.
And this morning we sang a song together which I believe captures what many in the body of Christ desire regarding the Fear of the Lord and yet more often than not, they find themselves failing to live in the reality of it.
The sentiments were:
- Fill me with the fear of the Lord
- Keep me on the narrow road
- Lead me by the Holy Ghost
- Consecrate my heart shake me to the core
- Wrap me in a righteous robe
- You way and will made my own
- I just want to stay so close
- Sold out for you alone
- Mark me with Your presence
- Set apart as Yours
- Fill me with the fear of the Lord
But if a request FOR these things is all we possess, then THAT is why it never goes further than a desire and a prayer.
But I have good news for you this morning – we can change that!
We’ve been going through the letters Jesus had John send to the churches in Revelation 2 & 3. We’ve been doing this as part of our greater focused studies on the righteous LIVING by faith.
As we know, Living by faith, requires a relationship with Christ Jesus that is intimate, alive, submitted to Him and which looks to Him in honest trust for His power to enable our obedience.
Additionally, back when we were looking at the 4 devotions of the early church, we concluded that we needed to take communion more often.
So I thought I’d marry the two together, so to speak, by teaching a lesson on the ‘Fear of the Lord’ before taking communion, with a focus on how faith plays a part.
The one factor that seems to unify all of these are the fact that in Jesus’ address to each of the churches, there is a call to repentance or ongoing fidelity to Christ – both of which are produced by the Fear of the Lord and looking to Jesus in faith for His power to accomplish His transformative work in our lives.
Remember these passages?
- Prov. 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;”
- Prov. 14:27 “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.”
So this morning we are going to define the Fear of the Lord again, and then look at things the scriptures actually tell us helps to facilitate the development and growth of the fear of the Lord in our hearts and lives. I truly hope you possess the kind of heart that will find delight in the fact that God has made this easy for us, by clearly spelling out some very practical ways we can cause the Fear of the Lord to increase in our lives.
Defining the Fear of the Lord
The Fear of the Lord is, as most of you know, deep reverence for God which directs our hearts towards honoring Him and deferring to Him in all things.
Though worded differently and while actually not being the same thing, the first and greatest command captures the heart of the fear of the Lord perfectly and that should come as a very little surprise.
What is the first and greatest commandment?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind.” which is Moses’ retelling of the 1st and 2nd commands found in Exodus 20:1-6.
Moses’ retelling of this again at the end of Deuteronomy is perhaps even clearer in that he reveals the very close association which exists between loving the Lord and fearing Him. It says,
“(12) Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you except to revere Him, to obey all His commandments, to love Him, to serve Him with all your mind and being, (13) and to keep the LORD’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good?” – Deut. 10:12-13
The wording of “with all your mind and being” simply put, describes the entire disposition of the inner person being one that is totally committed to the Lord which includes the thoughts of your mind and the feelings of your heart. Things which only God can fully discern.
If this is true, you will find yourself inwardly compelled to honor and defer to Him out of your deep reverence for Him as your God and Father.
So this isn’t something you can fake. The encouraging thing is that such is the automatic outpouring of a heart made alive to God in the New Birth.
Romans 4:25-5:5 tells us that we have been justified by faith in the person and work of Jesus and His physical resurrection. This also resulted in giving us unfettered access to God’s influence (grace), ongoing awareness of our great hope of Christ being fully formed in us which is our cause for rejoicing. Furthermore we’ve been given the precious and powerful Holy Spirit, Who when He moved within our hearts, actively spread and is currently flooding our hearts with the Love of God. This causes our great hope to not disappoint.
So respecting, revering, honoring, obeying and loving God with all we are – is a gift that was given to us and is being worked through us.
Now, assuming you are a thinking person, you have to be wondering – then why do I struggle with living as if it were true? Why don’t I feel that such is true? Why does loving God and honoring Him in all my ways seem so elusive?
Good observation… good question!
Things can exist within the human heart which, though there in reality, are not experienced in anything approaching their full potential if we fail to stir them up.
A good, albeit kind of obvious comparison, is the potential eruption which is contained in a dormant, cold soda can. When you open it, they nearly always give off some pressure which was there all the time, but was not obvious, witnessed or even experience while it lay undisturbed.
Take that same can and warm it up, and the results will be more spectacular.
Take that same warm can and shake it up, and good heavens – open it away from your body unless you want to be baptized with nearly all of its contents!
THAT is how it can be in you, and yet it not be immediately experienced or felt.
Obviously, this same thing is true in relationships.
If we allow a relationship to grow too comfortable, it also settles into a largely inactive state. But let something heat things up, maybe even shake things up a little and you will find there is more in there than you believed still existed.
In natural relationships that may be good or bad, but you certainly move from settled coexistence to something more lively either way. You find that you still have a profound effect on one another. Almost nothing stirs the embers (whether good or bad) like remembering thoughts, feelings, events and actions of first love.
Now no natural example is foolproof, but you get the idea.
So does God, as the One Who designed us – have any words of instruction on how to take what has settled into inactivity within our hearts, and warm it up and shake it up?
Well, yes it does and I will tell you one of the unifying aspects of all of these – they stir up a mindset which holds God in more immediate mental focus and attention. They all, in their own various ways, make you mindful of Him. They all cause you to acknowledge Him in all your ways which, according to Proverbs 3:6, has what outcome? He directs your paths!
Do you think He is going to direct you towards what pleases and honors Him and what results in your good – or away from it?
So these are some passages which help warm and stir us up towards the fear of the Lord. You will find there is some spill over from one passage to another and that is okay. Each one of these are points which can also stand on their own towards this effect.
#1 Gathering to hear and learn God’s word
Deuteronomy 31:9–13 “(9) Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, AND to all the elders of Israel.
(10) And Moses commanded them,
“At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of tabernacles, (11) when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
(12) Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, (13) and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Now granted this was a once every 7 year occasion, but you can see the effect God claimed it would produce. Furthermore, this is not these people’s only exposure to God’s law as we will see in the next example.
This passage clearly says that the elders had copies and the people of each tribe had, more or less, access to it (whether directly or indirectly). But this represents one of the few times all Israel gathered together in one place with even their children and sojourners.
- The activities are gathering, hearing, and learning God’s law.
- The result is the fear of the Lord
Now who can elaborate on this. Don’t seek to strain the point, but obviously one can assemble to hear God’s words and it NOT have this effect on them.
So what is silently obvious about those who gather and hear?
According to Jesus’ parable of the Heart Soils, it has to do with how much they value the One Whose words they are hearing.
This does not require to already possess a robust the Fear of the Lord in the heart initially, but it does require the common sense to realize and inwardly acknowledge that His words are the source of truth and transformation. Thus you give it your honest, open attention and expect for it to do its work within your heart where it is planted.
#2 Remember God’s interventions in your life, His encounters with you and tell teach your children God’s works and law
Deuteronomy 4:8–14,
“(8) And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
(9) “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.”
In other words, call them to mind! – Remember!
“Make them known to your children and your children’s children— (10) how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me,
‘Gather the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words, so THAT THEY MAY LEARN TO FEAR ME ALL THE DAYS THAT THEY LIVE ON THE EARTH, and that they may teach their children so.’
(11) And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.
(12) Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.
(13) And He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. (14) And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.”
- Here you have an encounter with God recalled.
- The terms of the covenant which were spoken almost like the vows of a wedding.
- The need to have them taught to us.
- The need to teach the next generation.
ALL OF THESE activities, stir up, rekindle and fan into a flame the Fear of the Lord.
#3. Diligently seeking wisdom from God
Proverbs 2:1–5,
“(1) My son, if you receive My words and treasure up My commandments within you, (2) making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
(3) yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
(4) if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
(5) THEN you will understand the Fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.”
In other words when you make the choice to value God’s word more than any other natural pursuit.
We often complain that we our natural passions outstrip our spiritual obligations and that is precisely because we have these reversed.
Our natural passions are pursued – which keeps our desires for them ardently alive.
If we would value and treasure God’s words to us as our passions and view the affairs of this life as obligations, we would be infinitely further along towards obtaining our hope of glory than we are.
The person who receives God’s words, treasures His commandments, cries for wisdom, seeks it as silver, and searches for it as hidden treasure will reach this result:
“Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”
This isn’t an arbitrary claim, it is a direct progression methodically laid out for us in scripture.
- Receiving
- Treasuring
- Seeking
- And searching
All lead to understanding the fear of the LORD.
How does understanding equate to “walking in the Fear of the Lord”? Because this understanding is a type of experiential knowing!
The Hebrew verb בִּין (biyn), used as tavin (תָּבִין) in Proverbs 2:5, does not inherently mean “experience” in its etymology, but the process required to achieve it heavily implies experiential engagement.
This intense, active pursuit requires time, lifestyle alignment, and intentional action—the very definition of personal experience.
At its core, the root meaning of biyn is to separate mentally, distinguish, or discern. It is etymologically related to the Hebrew preposition beyn (בֵּין), which means “between“. Therefore, biyn is the analytical faculty used to look at a complex situation, distinguish between options, and perceive the core truth.
However, the specific context of Proverbs 2:5 demonstrates that this discernment is an experiential reward rather than a purely academic or theoretical exercise.
#4 Writing out a personal copy of God’s law
We mentioned this last Wednesday in our Old Testament Review: Exodus 32-Numbers and it has remained in my mind ever since.
It is found in Deuteronomy 17:14-20,
“(14) When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say,
‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ (15) you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose…
(18) “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of THIS LAW, approved by the Levitical priests. (19) And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, (20) that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”
Now the command was given through Moses for all further kings, once Israel had them.
So while this cannot be considered an actual commandment or even an indirect encouragement in scripture for the common man, humans are humans and the effect is the same regardless of who you happen to be.
The king was to write a copy of THIS LAW and read it all his life, and the effect would be that he would :
“…learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law…”
Writing and continually reading the law were given as means of learning to fear God.
Now to be clear, I don’t believe anyone knows for certain what “THIS LAW” means, only that it clearly is not the words “the Law”. At the very beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses refers to Deuteronomy as “THIS LAW”, and so it is that a great number of Jewish scholars and scribes from antiquity as well as modern commentators of all ethnicities largely agree that this is talking about a king physically writing out a personal copy of the book of Deuteronomy.
Now I already can hear the ardent objections levied by those who do not attend this church and who possess a poor education regarding the relevance of the Law to the New Covenant believer – but Jesus Himself was a living illustration of the Old Testament law. He lived it flawlessly – upon that most Christians will agree. What many fail to perceive is that it is precisely this quality in Jesus which made Jesus’ claim a fact, when He said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” because the scriptures – ALL OF THEM – are God’s Own personal self disclosure!
Now as you pastor and therefore the one whose labors are at least partially answerable for Christ being formed in you – I would encourage you to do this. I’ve already begun and I am finding it a delight, even though I can barely get through 14 verses at a time without my hand throbbing like a pulsating neon sign on the end of my arm. It is nevertheless, wonderful and heart endearing. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just the truth!
As your pastor I also am NOT your Holy Spirit or one who actively patrols everything in your lives so you take this up with God. Perhaps if you get tired enough of always failing to honor Him, you will become just desperate enough to do something like this.
Now I did a cursory inquiry into the many benefits of writing out what you have read, but the summary of all of that was that it is a powerful tool for improving both comprehension and memory retention.
#5 Meditating on God’s law continually
You are already familiar with this one found in Deuteronomy AND in Joshua and it is all but clearly implied in much of all we have so far covered, but here are God’s words on this practice.
Deuteronomy 17:19 we just read,
“And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them,”
Joshua in 1:8–9 says,
“(8) This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (9) Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
While this does not directly employ the use of the word “fear,” it does so indirectly.
Our passage in Deuteronomy 4, 17, 31 Proverbs 2 all specifically link the reading of the law so as to result in the “fear of the Lord.” Thus, continual reading and meditation on the Law can hardly be expected to yield lesser or different results.
Finally the one I saved to last since if I had mentioned it earlier, those who are very legalistic with their understanding of grace would have tuned out long ago (if they haven’t already) is…
#6 Giving (specifically mentioned are tithes and offerings)
No doubt this is because it is the first step in loving God and pursuing Him with more passion than silver and gold as mentioned earlier. But it is also one of many ways in which we acknowledge God in everything.
The passage is found in Deuteronomy 14:22–23,
Israel was commanded to bring the tithe before the LORD, and eat it there:
“That thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.”
Now I almost did not mention this one for several reasons, but the greatest of them is again due to the strikingly poor understanding many in the modern church have of tithe. I believe it is 100% more than fair. It is accurate that well over 70% of those who believe this is the only example of tithe in the Old Testament have never one time studied the topic for themselves.
In all actuality, this is only one of 7 tithes mentioned in scripture.
Deuteronomy 14 represents a system of tithes designed to teach Israel to fear God, one of the means of fearing God was honoring those He called and commissioned to represent God to the people and the people to God – which was their requirement to sustain the Levites—who had no land inheritance.
The entire tithe system also involved a “second” tithe for festive meals.
The Levitical tithe however, (Numbers 18:24-28) required Levites to give a tenth of the 10% all of Israel gave to them – to the priests. So one tribe was receiving 10% from 12 tribes and one family (Aaron’s) received 10% of that which was quite a lot!
10% was given to Levites but there were several kinds and were based upon what year they were on in the cycle of the year of Jubilee.
Predictably there were 7 cycles of 7 years in the Jewish calendar, so when there is a reference to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th year, it is speaking of the particular year within that particular cycle of 49 years making up the Jubilee.
- Nearly 100% of families grew crops and raised kosher cattle. The torah didn’t mention giving tithes of money since all were to participate so the tithe was of crops and cattle.
- 10% of the agrarian produce was to be given on the 1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th year of the sabbatical cycle.
- 3rd & 6th year of the sabbatical cycle, tithe was stored up and brought to the priest to be eaten by them AND THE poor, stranger & widow. – Deut. 26:12-16
- Tithe in future years was allowed to be liquidated into cash form for ease of transport. Deut. 14 – spent on whatever one’s heart desired only they were commanded to not forget the Levite, the poor, the orphan…etc.
- 10% of 10% to Priests – Num.18:26-31 – represented the Best of the Best
But none of this is the point. The point is that tithing or giving to your spiritual leaders is presented as an ongoing tutoring in your understanding of the fear of the Lord!
Other practices—such as prayer, fasting, singing, or general worship—may be biblical, but these passages do not plainly state that those activities cause or increase the fear of the Lord in the same direct way as those I’ve mentioned this morning.
