GODLY FEAR AND
GRACIOUS PROMISES
Fear can provoke some rather unusual
behavior, especially when we are frightened unexpectedly. We are created by God with a capacity to be
afraid as a protective measure against those things which threaten to harm us,
or create undesirable circumstances in our lives.
Fear can be a
very positive and protective instinct, or it can be a counterproductive
attitude that can paralyze people until they are totally incapacitated by what
are usually known as phobias (from
the Greek word for fear, jobos).
Claustrophobia—an irrational fear of being in a confined or closed place
Agoraphobia—an irrational fear of public or open spaces
Acrophobia—an irrational fear of being in high places
Sometimes these
fears are so powerful that they completely shut a person down rendering them
incapable of normal function. But when
fear works as it should, it serves to guard us from harm, keep us from danger,
and alert us to imminent trouble. Fear
when we see lightning alerts us to find a safe place, fear when we see a coiled
snake warns us to stay away, fear when we face a big exam prompts us to study
hard, fear when we see a truck cross the center line toward us startles us to
get out of the way. Therefore, we should
learn to value and appreciate the fear factor God has built into each of us.
But there is
another kind of fear that we seldom discuss anymore—the fear of God. Yet the Bible is full of exhortations for us
to fear the Lord and explanations of why that is such a powerful force in
shaping our response to and relationship with the Lord. The only negative aspect referred to with
regard to the fear of the Lord has to do with those whose lives demonstrate
that they have no fear of God. (Cf. Romans 3:10-18; esp. 3:18)
Through the next
eight messages, we are going to
explore what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord, to understand the
biblical phrase “the fear of God,” and discover the key to many aspects of the
Christian life that have remained locked up for many modern day followers of
Christ.
We are going to
take time in this series to…
·
Teach you what it
means to fear the Lord
·
Warn you of the
consequences of ungodly fear
·
Point out for you the
promises to those who fear the Lord
·
Explain to you the
“grace of fear”
·
Show you why fear is
the beginning of wisdom
·
Distinguish for you
between ungodly and godly fear
·
Challenge you to work
out your salvation with fear and trembling
·
Call you to worship
in the fear of the Lord
Since this is
such an important topic in the Scriptures, we want to devote ourselves to the
task of understanding what it means so that we will learn to fear the Lord.
Psa. 34:11
Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Like little children at the knee of our heavenly Father, we
want to have Him teach us the fear of the Lord.
THESIS: Until we walk in the fear of the Lord, we will not
be prepared to know Him as He is and will not be able either to serve Him or
love as we should.
I. GOD’S GRACE
FOR THOSE WHO FEAR THE LORD
--The language of the Scriptures paints a vivid
picture of what it means to follow the Lord and serve Him, to live for the Lord
and love Him.
--At the head of the list in hundreds of exhortations and
words of counsel, we are told of the vital importance to our relationship to
God to “fear the Lord.”
Deut. 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your
God require from you, but to fear
the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him,
and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the LORD’s commandments and
His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?
--Although we will go into more detail later in this
series of messages, it is important to note a couple of important details here
at the very beginning.
A. FEAR AND
GRACE ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
--Many in the church today have traded the God of the Bible,
the God of eternal revelation, for the god of modern speculation.
--Consequently, there has been a steady, almost
indiscernible “dumbing down” of God so that He is more accessible to those who
want some religion in their lives but who are unwilling to submit their lives
entirely to a deity they cannot come to on their own terms, a deity they cannot
control.
--One of the most obvious areas of decline in the biblically
revealed understanding of God has been in this area of the fear of God.
--That decline
has been the result of three factors:
1.
Redefinition of the Biblical Word “Fear”
--In many translations of the Bible and general discussions
of the subject, the biblical words for fear in both the Old and New Testaments
have been redefined in such a way that we hear people say with alarming
certainty that “fear” does not really mean “fear” but instead refers to
“reverence, respect.”
--While that has some elements of truth to it, for reverence
and respect are indeed aspects of the fear of the Lord, you will be hard
pressed to escape the translation and meaning of “fear” without making sure
that the understanding that includes “frightful, fearsome, dreadful,
terrifying, intimidating, awesome, to make afraid.”
--Of course it makes us feel better to have a God who is
much more approachable than these words suggest, a God who is more like us and
less like Himself!
2. Reinterpretation of the Meaning of “Perfect
love casts out fear”
--Perhaps the most quoted verse about the fear of God does
not actually refer to greatest volume of verses about the fear of God, but
instead to the results of responding by faith to Jesus Christ so that there is
no more fear of condemnation, no more fear of rejection, by God.
1John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear
involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
--Armed only with this verse and an idea that the Bible
actually means reverence instead of fear, many Christians have dismissed the
who idea of a God who is to be feared by all—even those in whom His love casts
out one kind of fear, the fear of His condemnation and rejection forever, the
fear of existing without His love.
3. Revision of the Idea of a Personal
Relationship with God
--Wanting to have a warm, loving, personal relationship with
God through His Son, Jesus Christ, many
have reduced God only to a God of love and have effectively forsaken any notion
of Him as a God of holiness, might and awesomeness.
--Somehow we have bought the idea that He cannot be both
overwhelmingly awesome and fearsome in His might and personally loving and
tender in His mercies.
--The Bible does not sacrifice one for the other, but
affirms that in the mystery of His grace, He does not have to diminish His
deity to delight in our fellowship!
Psa. 62:11 One thing God has spoken, two
things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will
reward each person according to what he has done.
--From His perspective, His strength and His love, His power
and His tenderness, are not mutually exclusive—they form the foundation for a
genuine relationship that affirms the wonder of His grace that He remains who
He is while inviting us to know Him!
B. FEAR AND
HUMILITY ARE FRIENDS OF A GODLY LIFE
--Nothing promotes a proper perspective on life than to
realize that the Author of our lives is to be feared and as a result of that we
must approach each day with humility.
Prov. 22:4
Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and
honor and life
Prov. 19:23
The fear
of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content,
untouched by trouble.
Prov. 14:27
The fear
of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from
the snares of death.
--In order to keep our lives in a proper frame of reference
to who we are and whose we are, we find that having a healthy fear of the Lord
frames our view of life with a strong dose of humility and opens up for us a
fountain of never-ending contentment.
II. GOD’S
PROMISES TO THOSE WHO FEAR THE LORD
--In our remaining time, let’s take a look at a few
of the many promises God makes to those who will dare to take Him seriously
enough to fear Him.
--If you would like to know that God
·
will
save you,
·
will
pour out His goodness on you,
·
will
make sure you lack nothing,
·
will
delight in you,
·
will
confide in you…then fear the Lord!
A.
HE
SAVES THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
Psa. 85:9 Surely his salvation
is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
--Only when we fear Him enough to see that our eternal
destiny rests in His hands and realize that He would be justified in condemning
us forever will we seek our salvation from Him alone.
--Those who have no fear of God, who have concluded that
either His judgments are irrelevant or His hand is impotent, will see no need
for salvation.
We are afraid in direct proportion to our immediate
sense of danger. Although I may have a
fear of cancer, that fear does not grip me until I have reason to believe that
I have it. Although a person may have a
vague sense of fear for what happens after death, until its immediacy hits them,
their fear does not motivate them to find a satisfactory answer and genuine
solution.
Only those who fear the Lord and
His righteous judgments find His salvation…He saves those who fear Him!
B. HE STORES UP HIS GOODNESS FOR THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
Psa. 31:19 How great is your goodness, which
you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.
--Those who affirm the biblical revelation of
God will gladly acknowledge that He is good, and that all that He does is good.
--The promise of God is that those who fear
Him will enjoy the storehouse of His goodness toward them as He bestows that
goodness without measure on them.
In our minds, we tend to see the fear of the Lord as
a negative thing, a response to Him that limits the full extent of joy that we
would like to experience from Him. In
God’s plan, it is by fearing Him that His bounty is unleashed, that the flood
of His goodness is poured out. Those
who want to make Him their “good buddy” and avoid all notions of fearing the One
they call friend, not only mistakenly assume that He can be diminished to our
level and made like us, but they effectively cut themselves off from the very
thing they want…to enjoy the goodness of the Lord. He stores up His goodness not for those who presume to call Him
“pal” but for those who fear and revere and hold Him in awe.
C. HE MAKES SUFFICIENT
PROVISION FOR THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
Psa. 34:9-10
Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those
who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Psa. 145:19
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves
them
--If you want to find complete contentment,
you will find it only in fearing the Lord, because only in the fear of the Lord
are we promised that we will lack nothing.
--All that your heart desires as you have
learned to fear Him will be fulfilled as He hears your cry, recognizes your
need and gives so freely that you lack no good thing!
--When our longings are controlled by hearts
that do not fear the Lord, we will never be content and whatever provision we
receive will never be enough…it is only in allowing the fear of the Lord to
determine our desires that we will find contentment and realize that we lack
nothing.
D. HE
DELIGHTS IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
Psa. 147:11
the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing
love.
--Over the past few years, I have grown to
love the image of the Lord God Almighty delighting Himself in folks like you
and me!
--Who is it who brings delight to the heart of
God? It is those who fear Him, those
who put their hope in His unfailing love and abide in Him as those who could
not find any greater source of pleasure than to be with Him and stand in awe of
Him in all His splendor and majestic glory!
Zeph. 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight
in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with
singing.”
E. HE
CONFIDES IN THOSE WHO FEAR HIM
Psa. 25:14
The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
--When the Lord knows that we fear Him, He
then knows that He can trust us with the secret things of His heart and confide
in us by showing us those wonderful blessings and promises contained in His
covenant with us that are hidden to those who have no fear of God in their
hearts.
--Why should He reveal His heart to those who
do not hold Him in the highest regard and who see Him as the God whose revealed
glory causes every knee to bow and heart to cry out for mercy?
--No, the Lord only confides in those who fear
Him, shares the secrets of His covenant with those He can trust to handle such
things with reverential awe and profound respect.
What difference would it make in the way you
approach the Lord if there were a deeper and more profound fear of the Lord in
your heart?
·
Would we
be as inclined to come to worship Him without any soul preparation?
·
Would we
read His Word with as little attention and concentration?
·
Would we
pray with such carelessness and indifference?
·
Would we
sin with so little concern, such little grief and sorrow, so little genuine
repentance?
·
Would we
plan our days, set our priorities, establish our values with such disregard for
His good pleasure?
The
fears that steer the course of our lives often arise more from our human
desires than from any longing to know and fear the Lord. Often our fears of rejection and failure
alone do more to shape our character than a profound fear of the Lord.
In Christ, our fear of condemnation and punishment at the
mighty hand of God have been taken away.
But we are now called to fear Him in a new way, a deep way that impacts everything
we do and how we understand what it means to approach the God who really is
Lord of heaven and earth.
As we approach the
Lord’s table today, may we understand that as we come, we come in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ to meet His Father with reverence and fear that are
worthy of who He really is. We dare not
attempt to bring Him down to our level to have fellowship with Him when His Son
died to take us up into His holy presence as those who have been made worthy to
do so by His grace.
Psa. 103:11,13 11For
as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who
fear him… 13As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD
has compassion on those who fear him
Come, then, you who fear the Lord, and worship Him together here at His table.
September
7, 2003
Providence
Baptist Church
© David Horner 2003
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