when God has put his fear into
our hearts, by Charles Simeon. Behold, the fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. Job 28.28 The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is
understanding. Proverbs 9.10 The fear of the
Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.
– Proverbs 14.27 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. All who follow His precepts have good understanding. – Psalm
111.10 I will put fear of me in their
hearts, so they will never again turn away from me. – Jeremiah
32.40 The fear of God is the essence of saving religion. It
manifests itself by a deep humiliation for sin before God, a simple
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and an unreserved obedience to
His will. Genuine fear of God does not
consist in a mere assent to the truths of the gospel or a mere
profession of it as the only way to eternal glory. True fear
of God is a real surrender of ourselves to Him as His redeemed
people. The fear of God, when genuinely
existing in the soul, is true wisdom. Without this fear of
God, a man views nothing aright, and does nothing aright. In his
eyes, earthly vanities have an importance which does not properly
belong to them, and heavenly realities are in no respect appreciated
according to their real worth. But when God has put His fear
into our hearts, then our misconceptions are rectified. Sin is no longer
that light and trivial evil which we before supposed it to be.
Nor is salvation judged to be a trivial thing as once thought.
The salvation of the soul becomes from that moment the one thing
needful, and all the concerns of time are swallowed up in those
of eternity. Fearing God is accounted to be
folly by the ignorant and ungodly world, but Scripture declares
it to be genuine wisdom, and such it will prove itself to
be in the outcome. An oracle is within my heart
concerning the sinfulness of the wicked, There is no fear
of God before his eyes. Psalm chapter 36 verse 1