Reverent Disciples

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I’m gonna pray and then I’ll get started. Father, I thank you for tonight. Be with me as I speak. You call us to fear you, and you know where each of us are at, and I pray that you would strengthen what remains in our congregation. Help us to understand this by your spirit, help us to apply it. But I do pray that this message would be profitable to me and our people, And I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. So tonight we continue our sermon series in Proverbs. The title of my message is Reverend Disciples, The Call to Fear the Lord.

The theme I wanna draw upon from Proverbs is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord occurs 14 times in Proverbs. Proverbs gives us a lot of wisdom regarding the fear of the Lord. It is something that we must be growing in. The idea of being godly and growing is that you’re a disciple that is increasing in the fear of the Lord. I want to share a quote from a book called A Holy Vision for the Family Life. I really appreciated the definition that the author gave regarding the fear of the Lord. William Gao, the author, says, The fear of God is in all filled respect of the divine majesty. Sometimes it arises from faith in the mercy and goodness of God.

Then the heart of man has once felt a sweet taste of God’s goodness and found that all happiness consists only in his favor. It is struck with such an inward awe and reverence that it would not displease his majesty for anything. Rather, it would do whatever it knows to be pleasing and acceptable to him.” There are two effects that arise from this kind of fear of God, William says. First is a careful endeavor to please God, and the second is a careful avoiding of such things that offend the majesty of God and grieve his spirit. In one of the commentaries that I have, they quote this guy named C. Bridges, who wrote an exposition of Proverbs, says, the fear of the Lord is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father’s law.

While I do not know where I heard this from, I have come to know the fear of the Lord as having a heart that loves what the Lord loves and hate what the Lord hates. When someone loves what the Lord hates, they have departed from fearing the Lord, which means that they have disobeyed the great commandment to love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind. And when you get this wrong, whatever follows will be wrong. Beloved, do you understand what it means to fear the Lord? Last Men to Men we talked about how the fear of the Lord is connected to wisdom and fruit. This is important to understand.

God promises that we will reap what we sow. This is a promise we must remember. You will become wise and fruitful when you walk in the fear of the Lord. You must learn how to live under God and before man, and to do this we have to get wisdom. And this is impossible without first fearing the Lord. Our first proverb to consider is Proverbs 1.7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. To have knowledge that is profitable to your soul, first you must first belong to Jesus Christ. Unless he saves you from yourself, you will not have this knowledge. And just like the fool says, there is no God, the fool also despises wisdom and instruction.

The only fear a fool should have is standing before God facing his righteous and holy judgment and being cast into hell for all eternity because he refused to repent of his sins and honor God and give him thanks. The thing that I found interesting was in verses 8 and 9. Solomon says that fools despise wisdom and instruction in verse 7 and then in verse encourages the youth to hear their father’s instruction and forsake not their mother’s teaching. There is a connection between fearing the Lord in verse 7 that leads to hearing and not forsaking the instruction and teaching of parents. If our youth are going to grow up in wisdom they need to fear the Lord and respect their parents. This certainly puts a heavy weight on the parents of our youth. There is an instruction and teaching of parents are responsible for when raising their children up in the fear and instruction of the Lord. A parent that despises wisdom and instruction will be teaching that worldview to their children. Parents play a big part in the spiritual lives of their children.

While God saves sinners, He uses means, i.e. here He saved parents giving instruction and teaching to bring about the salvation of those He has predestined. As Mr. Sarr says, you are always teaching. And it’s important that our kids are seeing us fear the Lord all that we do. Another verse to consider regarding fearing the Lord is Proverbs 9 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Similar to Proverbs 1 7. If a man is to be wise and knowledgeable the heart must be marked with the fear of God. The fear, this fear is something that grows more and more as the Christian walks in obedience to the Lord and all that he has commanded. One way this works is when you seek the Lord and his blessing as you read his word and then seek his blessing to be able to walk in light of his commandments. I heard a preacher say that if you want to be a good Christian you need to read good books and I agree.

Often I find myself whether I’m reading the Bible or a book I am praying for the Lord to help me because like I’m not wanting to be wise in my own eyes I’m wanting him to teach me what I need to know to fear him There is much wisdom and knowledge that you can get from reading if you have a heart that fears the Lord and want to please Him and all you say and do if you consider the wise in verses 8 8 be and 9 which says give instruction to a wise man and He will still be still wiser teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning This goes into verse 10. This tells us that when God saves someone, they become humble.

I have heard it as someone being fat, faithful, available, teachable. If we are running in that direction, it will bring about wisdom, growth, and fruit to the glory of God. There is no place for pride in someone who is fearing the Lord. God will give grace to the humble and in that they become wise and fruitful.

We can’t escape the truth that we will be known by our fruits. Those who fear the Lord will have good fruits and it is something you can’t hide. It is impossible to have a heart that fears the Lord and a life that produces bad fruits. If you know Jesus Christ your life should not look the same as before you didn’t know Him. John tells us in 1 John 2, 3, and 6, and by this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected by this we may know that we are in him whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked there is wisdom and fruit that the fear of the Lord produces in his disciples you can’t escape it your heart is like a teabag and those around you will taste and see what fruit is in your heart and And it is not possible to fear the Lord in your heart and walk in a manner that is not pleasing to him.

If you are fearing the Lord, you will walk in a manner that is pleasing to him. And if you’re not, then he will discipline you. But the fear of the Lord is what guides us and instructs us in that way. Those who fear the Lord will profess to know God and will walk in good works. But those who do not fear the Lord may profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. Like Jesus said, we will be known by our fruits. Another proverb that has helped shape my worldview in faring the Lord is Proverbs 3, 5-7. Early in my Christian walk I memorized verses 5 and 6. Many Christians know this verse, and Bruce Walt says in his commentary that to trust him is a platitude divorce from the book.

Many can go their way and tag this verse somewhere in their conversation to justify their choices and actions. What allowed me to think differently regarding to trust him was verse 7. I don’t remember when the Lord opened my eyes to connect the verses, but it was an aha moment for sure. If you have a Bible or an app, you can turn to Proverbs 3, 5-7. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. To fear the Lord complements trust in the Lord.

Without verse seven, it would be easy to misunderstand verses five and six and apply them wrongfully. The idea of being not wise in your own eyes should challenge a disciple to consider their own opinions and heart’s desire when put up against God’s law and his will for your life. To fear the Lord here would mean to turn away from evil. the fear of the Lord and turning away from evil present the sum of godliness and goodness, as one commentary said. Beloved, what does repentance look like in your discipleship? If you are fearing the Lord, we should be growing and turning away from all that is evil. Fearing the Lord includes repenting from sin, and without act of repentance, you are probably guilty of not fearing the Lord in all your ways.

One way that I have repented and turned away from evil was by seeing my bitterness as a sin and dealing with that. It’s a funny story, but my wife struggled with a relationship years ago and I thought she was bitter. She probably was. So I bought her the book How to be Freed from Bitterness and she never read it. And still probably I don’t think she’s read it to this day, but I actually did and one time I came across it and decided I would pick it up and read it. And And it was brutal. Like that book exposed my bitterness towards a brother and I had to repent and deal with that.

What I learned was that for me bitterness was when when my brother did something that was good that the Lord would have been pleased with. I would have looked at that as something that was bad and that that showed me that I had bitterness. And so as I repented and dealt with that the Lord allowed me to grow out of that and we actually have a very good relationship today. So praise the Lord. But what is crazy is I would have never thought that I had struggled with bitterness. But God used that book to expose it and show me how and when bitterness is taking root in my heart. Maybe not everyone is fighting the same sin, but there are sins that we are each blind to.

And we need to remember not to be wise in our own eyes and to fear the Lord when we see sin in our own hearts. If you are not turning away from evil, you find you are not fearing the Lord.

Proverbs was a blessing to teach me that fearing the Lord included turning away from evil. A book that was helpful in gaining a better understanding of turning away from evil for me was Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. In the book he says, sin is sin even though sins that I call the acceptable sins of the saints, those sins that we tolerate in our lives are serious in God’s eyes. Our religious pride, our critical attitudes, our unkind speech about others, our impatience and anger even our anxiety, all these are serious in the sight of God.” End of quote. It is easy to think that this sin over here is not as bad as that sin over there, but as Jerry says, sin is sin and God had his son crucified for our sins. When we tolerate even the smallest sins, we are playing with nails in our pockets. I had heard a sermon long ago that referenced a Christian pursuing sin as like playing with nails in your pocket. Why would you think about playing around with sin, nails and purposely crucifying the Lord for a sin that he has paid for and with

his death on the cross. We must remember that Jesus died for our sins and we need to stop playing with sin and become better repentors and that happens when we fear the Lord. Consider Proverbs 8 13 which says, the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. Here we see that the favor of the Lord teaches us to hate evil. There is a difference between turning away from sin and hating sin. Often men can turn from sin but still have some desire for it. Wisdom guides men in being prudent with their affairs and business and public matters. This wisdom leads to knowledge and discretion and is good for both man’s head and heart. The evil we as God’s flock are to hate is pride and arrogance in the evil way and perverted speech as said in Proverbs 8 13 not only does God hate them but they lead us toward the destruction of our souls those who are proud and arrogant are only interested in their own glory rather than the Lord’s glory I can’t help but

think of Colossians 3 16 which says let the word of Christ well in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom and letting the word of Christ-willing you richly leaves no room for you to be proud and arrogant. It certainly would keep you from other sins. James also tells us in James 3 17 through 18, but the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. This is the complete opposite of pride and arrogant people. It is why we must hate sin and not only in other people but more in ourselves. The way of evil is the path to ruin and all you could gain in this world you would still forfeit your soul. Jesus said that in Matthew 16 26 for what will profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul or what shall a man give in return for his soul for the Son of Man is going to come with these angels in the glory of his father and

then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Those who are ruled by pride and arrogance might be able to grab much in this life but they will fail to find the Lord in their ruin. This brings me to Proverbs 23, 17, and 18 which says, let not your heart envy sinners but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there’s a future and your hope will not be cut off. The temptation to end these sinners is real, but like death sin is all-consuming and will take you down to hell. Whether sin or success, as Matthew Henry says, their prosperity is their portion. Nay, it is their poison. Like even though people out there who don’t know the Lord may look like they are prospering, in the end they don’t. They don’t have a blessed life and they certainly are are giving up something that’s much more worthy when they pursue earthly praise rather than the Lord’s praise.

Consider Proverbs 2, 20-22 which says, “…so you will walk in the way of good and keep to the past of the righteous, for the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.” consider Psalm 1 which says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. This proverb here is for our caution and encouragement. Jesus said those who endure to the end will be saved. The fear of the Lord is our refuge. There is a future for God’s people who trust him by faith. Those who trust him have a solid hope that cannot be broken. There There is a sure future and hope for the one who conquers. Another proverb that is for our caution and encouragement is Proverb 2814, which says, blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

Here is the path to a blessed life, one who fears the Lord always.

The heart is an idol factory and will keep you from fearing Lord and walking in his commandments. The Reverend disciple must keep his heart with all diligence. Proverbs 4, 23 to 27 says, keep your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you ponder the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure do not swerve to the right or to the left turn your foot away from evil. There has got to be a purpose and intention with your own discipleship. You have got to lead your heart in holiness. You have to tend your heart in such a way that you pull weeds when needed. There are no days off when it comes to fearing the Lord. When you fail to keep your heart with all villages, you will start to compromise here and there. Failure to practice and keep after holiness will lead you to hardening your heart, the scripture encourages us that those who endure and conquer will be saved. Consider

2 Peter 1 3 through 11 which says, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that isn’t a world because of sinful desire. For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers, be all the

more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is what it looks like to fear the Lord, to keep, you know, to keep making progress, to keep moving forward for God’s glory. I want to finish off this point with a quote from Matthew Henry in his commentary on Proverbs 2317.

He says, we must be in the fear of the Lord as our employment, exercising ourselves in holy adornings of God in subjection to his precepts, submission to his providences and a constant care to please him. We must be in it as our element, taking pleasure in contemplating God’s glory and complying with his will. We must be devoted to fear, he quotes Psalm 119.38, and governed by it as our commanding principle in all we say and do. All the days of our life we must constantly keep up with the awe of God upon our spirits. Must be must pay a difference to his authority and have a dread of his wrath. We must be always so in his fear as never to be out of it.” End of quote. The last proverb that I want to talk about tonight is Proverbs 14 26 through 27 which says, in the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence and his children will have a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. In the Lord we have a strong confidence. Consider Proverbs 21,

2031, which says, the horse is made ready for the day of battle but the victory belongs to the Lord. It does not matter how strong the opposing army is. Our God can save without armies. Consider David and Goliath. David was in the fear of the Lord and had a strong confidence and was not afraid of the Philistines and their champion Goliath. David trusted that God would be his help and acted on that in faith. He was not wise in his own eyes and submitted to his God who was sovereign overall and is able to determine the outcomes and who shows favor to his people. This is the kind of confidence we have, we can have. God is for us and not against us. Parents have the opportunity to teach their children that there is safety and security in the fear of the Lord.

When a father has a strong confidence in the Lord and instructs his children, they can find refuge in the Lord. The Proverbs are a call for the disciple to enter into the rest that is found in the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1, 4 says, I to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, And for the Father and His children that keep in fear of the Lord, they will find the abundant life. Think about John 10.10. And it will be saved from death. Because our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and defeated death, we who are in the Lord will have the same victory over death.

For your encouragement, I wanna share 1 Corinthians 15, 54 through 58. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. So where do we go from here? I would think that you need to take an inventory of your own heart.

Where are you with the Lord? If you have not trusted the Lord Jesus, why not? What is keeping you from trusting and obeying Him by faith? Because for you, death is your victory, and you will fill the sting in hell for all eternity. For those of us who belong to the Lord and would claim Jesus Christ as Lord of our life and have submitted to His authority, what effort are you making to supplement your faith? make 1 Peter 1, 5-8.

Like the slight edge there, nothing in life is a flat line. The trajectory of your life is either heading closer to the image of Jesus Christ or further away. God has promised that he will conform his children into the image of his son. Romans 8, 29 says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. How is this working out in your life? A few questions to stir your heart and what it means for you to walk in the fear of the Lord. While I was much older than the Lord when he saved me, these are questions that I wish I would have pondered in my youth.

And regardless if you are a youth or an adult, these questions are worthwhile to ponder and consider. What will your name stand for in the end of your life? If you can think about Proverbs 22.1, you know, you are showing people something about your name. And what will it mean to come from or be a part of your household? You know Proverbs 31, you know you especially if you have children you’re wanting them to Know what it means to be a part of your household so that way hopefully they can make something better when they have their own household How can you move towards this in some incremental increment of time? You know, where do you want to be? You know one two three five years?

We’re in your discipleship, are you lacking the fear of the Lord? That would be an area where you need to get after and you need to seek the Lord to help you fear him In all the areas, you know, we can lean on those that we are we feel confident in but Ultimately, the Lord wants us to fear him in all crevices of our lives What areas in your character need to be strengthened by God’s grace? what respectable sins are you tolerate tolerating in your character home marriage children friendships etc you will get more of what you create and allow and if you are fearing the Lord like those respectable sins those things will be put to death what running partners do you have brothers need a brotherhood a band of brothers who are willing to sharpen your iron and who need you to sharpen your iron, Proverbs 27, 17. We are not meant to run the race alone.

Is this something that we can just keep in our heart? And so those are some questions that I thought would be good to share with you. And that is it. I pray that I’m going to pray and then we’ll be done. Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you for your son. Thank you for giving us hearts that fear you. And I do pray that you would strengthen what remains in us. Help us to be the disciples that you have called us to be. May your name be hallowed among our lives, whether that’s in our church, whether that’s in our community, our homes, our workplaces, may it be apparent that we love you and we hate the things that you hate. So I pray that you would bless us, help us to work through the things that were said tonight and may that strengthen us in our faith. And thank you for the future and hope that we do have in you because of all the work that your son has done for sinners. And we trust you and thank you for your grace. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Is this something that we can just keep in our heart? And so those are some questions that I thought would be good to share with you. And that is it. I pray that I’m going to pray and then we’ll be done. Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you for your son. Thank you for giving us hearts that fear you. And I do pray that you would strengthen what remains in us. Help us to be the disciples that you have called us to be. May your name be hallowed among our lives, whether that’s in our church, whether that’s in our community, our homes, our workplaces, may it be apparent that we love you and we hate the things that you hate. So I pray that you would bless us, help us to work through the things that were said tonight and may that strengthen us in our faith. And thank you for the future and hope that we do have in you because of all the work that your son has done for sinners.