The Fear of God

Q: What does the Bible say about fearing God?

The Bible emphasizes that fearing God is essential for true worship and obedience. Fearing God is a central theme throughout Scripture, underscoring its importance in our relationship with Him. Psalm 34:7 states that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, delivering them from harm. This reverential fear leads to genuine worship, as Psalm 5:7 highlights the connection between God's mercy and fearing Him in worship. Moreover, Ecclesiastes teaches us that fearing God and keeping His commandments is the whole duty of man. Without this fear, true worship is impossible, as a natural man lacks the holy, obedient fear of God and instead exhibits enmity against Him.

Q: How do we know that the fear of God is true?

The fear of God is affirmed through regeneration, given to believers by the Holy Spirit. The fear of God is not something we can conjure up within ourselves; it is a gift from God through the process of regeneration. As stated in Jeremiah 32:40, God promises to give His people a new heart, filled with fear for Him that leads to lasting obedience. This fear keeps believers from departing from Him and is essential for persevering in faith. Moreover, it is through the law and the gospel that God instills this fear within us, revealing our sin and our need for Christ, thus prompting a holy reverence for Him.

Q: Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

The fear of God fosters a humble heart, leads to wisdom, and ensures proper worship. The fear of God is vital for Christians as it cultivates a humble heart and aligns us with God's will. Proverbs reminds us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, which means that recognizing God's holiness and authority leads us toward a true understanding of our own nature and need for salvation. Fear of God also leads to a desire to depart from evil as expressed in Psalm 34:11. Furthermore, this fear produces obedience and reverence in all aspects of life, making our worship more authentic and keeping us focused on Christ. It is through this fear that we can express true love for God, as we understand that His holiness is beyond our comprehension and leads us to honor Him appropriately.

Q: How does fearing God affect our daily lives?

Fearing God influences our relationships, decisions, and commitment to spiritual practices. Fearing God profoundly affects our daily lives by guiding our choices and interactions with others. Romans 13:1-7 teaches us to submit to authorities as they are instituted by God, indicating that our reverence for God should extend to how we respect and honor those He has placed in positions of power. Additionally, the fear of God prompts us to act with integrity and love in our relationships, be it with family, friends, or colleagues. Ephesians 6 calls servants to obey their masters with sincerity, which translates into modern contexts as a diligent work ethic toward employers. Moreover, this fear leads us to prioritize our spiritual practices, such as worship, prayer, and studying the Word, as we sincerely seek to honor God in all aspects of our lives.

Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 34. Let's read verses 7 through 11. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him. and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O 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 thing. you children, hearken unto me,
I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Last Sunday we saw
how that God destroyed Nadab and Abihu because they didn't
fear God. They didn't approach God in Christ
in the one sacrifice He will accept. They didn't reverence
His worship. They didn't fear God. And so
God destroyed them. And when I was preaching that
message, several times I mentioned the fear of the Lord, the fear
of God. And I want to preach on that
tonight, that subject, the fear of God. Without the fear of God,
a sinner can't worship God. The fear of God in the heart
is so important to God-wrought worship that a lot of places,
well throughout the Old Testament really, Whenever the Lord speaks
of worshipping God, in the place of worshipping God, He speaks
of those that feared God. They feared God. And He means
by that, they worshipped Him. They worshipped Him. And He calls
those who worshipped Him, those that feared God. Psalm 5 and
verse 7, David says, As for me, I'll come into thy house in the
multitude of thy mercy and in thy fear. will I worship toward
thy holy temple. It is the duty of all men to
fear God. Ecclesiastes says, Fear God and
keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man.
God said, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and
before all the people I will be glorified. But the first thing
I want to... I'm going to give you four points.
The first thing is this. A natural man just does not have
a fear of God. He does not have this fear of
God of which we speak. Look at Psalm 36 and look at
verse 1. The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his
eyes. The transgression of the wicked
speaks, he said. And within my heart, this is
what his transgression is saying. Without the man saying a word,
without the wicked man saying a word, just the way he conducts
himself, the way he speaks of God, the things he says and does,
screams loud and clear, there is no fear of God before his
eyes. Those of you who love sin, those
of you who You don't want to be here. You don't have a love
in your heart for Christ. Do you know that everything you
think is against God? Do you know that everything that
you do is against God? Your desire to be somewhere else
is against God. And without you doing anything,
without you saying a word, just your conduct says, there is no
fear of God before my eyes. Against the very God who holds
your life in His hands. against the very God who will
judge you in righteousness by Christ Jesus one day. Against
that God. Screaming by all action, by all
thoughts, by everything that's in the sinful unregenerate man's
heart. He's saying, I do not fear God.
The natural man has no reverential affection for God. All he's got
is enmity against God. You hear me say that a lot. What
does that mean? This enmity is manifest in rebellion
against those that God has placed in authority. Against God's preacher,
number one. Against believers. Against parents. Against civil rulers. Authority. Against authority. And since
the natural man's enmity is against God, where it manifests most
is when he has to go to a place where God is exalted, where God
is preached, where God is declared to a church service, or to hear
anything of God's Word. Anywhere he'll hear God's Word,
anywhere he's going to hear the mention of God exalted, of Christ
exalted, this enmity just boils up in him. He's uncomfortable. He don't like it. He hates it.
He'd rather not do it. Is anyone here? Have you ever
wished that you didn't have to come to this place? Believers
struggle with this. That's the enmity of the flesh.
That's the enmity against God. Have you ever tried to be late?
Have you ever tried to stop up your ears from hearing what's
been said? See, I'm not preaching to you a doctrine of depravity. I'm trying to get a point across
to you that you're the depravity. The thoughts that are against
God is the depravity. That's the depravity. Well, let
that be evidence to you. Your heart is enmity against
God. The flesh is enmity against God. Brother Ravi just read it.
The flesh profits nothing. The flesh can greatly hinder. That's all it does. If you do
fear God, you know what you fear? You fear of getting caught. You
fear being exposed. You fear being punished. You
fear being thrown into hell. Do you think about dying? You
ever think about dying? Young people usually don't think
about dying. But have you ever thought about the fact that you're
going to die? Have you ever thought that after
you die, you're going to stand before this God in judgment? Natural man just has no holy,
humble, obedient, loving fear of God. He has nothing but enmity
against God. Now secondly, God gives true
fear in the heart. Let's look at Jeremiah chapter
30. God gives a true fear in the
heart that He's made. The heart He's made new. And
none but God can give it. And He gives this true fear because
God promised to do it in the everlasting covenant of grace.
And He promised that He would give a true loving reverence
for Him in the heart. And when He does, it's going
to keep His people. Jeremiah 32. This is what's going
to keep His people. Look here. Jeremiah 32, verse
39. I will give them one heart. That's a new heart. That's a
heart we didn't have. I'll give them a new heart and
one way. You picture all the commandments
and all the instruction God had given. He says, I'm going to
bring it all right down to one way. Just one way. You know who
that way is? He's Christ. It's not all these
commandments out here that He gave to Israel. That's not the
commandments that we're to obey. We're to fear God and keep His
commandments. The commandments He gives in one way, one holy
commandment, is believe on my Son and love your brethren. Believe
on my Son and love one another. He brings it down to one way.
Here's why. He says, I'm going to give them
this heart and give them this one way that they may fear me
forever. And he says, for the good of
them and of their children after them. Look at verse 40. And I'll make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me. Do you see this? This is how
we don't depart. This is the substance of our
perseverance. God puts the fear of God in your
heart. And you know, if I don't have God, I don't have anything. If I don't have God, I don't
have life. If I don't have God, I don't
have righteousness. If I don't have His Son, I don't have...
I don't have the things I need to be accepted of God. Now, children,
read what that says there in verse 39. He says, I've done
this for the good of them, for them that He saves, and of their
children after them. You that have believing fathers,
God has saved them and given them a fear of God in their hearts,
and it's for your good. Don't fight against them. Don't
rebel against them. Don't rebel against them bringing
you to this house. Don't rebel against them insisting
that you listen and hearken to the Word of God when you're here.
It's for your good. It's for your good. God implants
His fear in the heart and regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God. Listen
to this in Psalm 86, verse 11. Psalm 86, 11. He says this. He says, teach me, Psalm 86,
11, teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite
my heart to fear thy name. Unite my heart to who? Unite
my heart to Christ. Christ said, except you abide
in me, like a branch in a vine. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. Except you abide in me, you can do nothing. And
this is our prayer. Unite us to Christ, Lord. Unite
us to Him that we might fear Thy name. Because in the face
of Christ is where we learn the name of God. We learn that He
is the Lord, the Lord God. We learn that He is merciful,
reserved in mercy for thousands. And we learn in His face that
He will not clear the guilty. We learn who God is. We learn
His name. We learn that He is long-suffering
and patient. Right in the face of Christ Jesus.
We need to be united to Christ. United to Him. And when God does
this by His Spirit, one of the first things He gives a child
of God in our hearts when He does this is a tender conscience. Before we had just a stony heart,
you couldn't convince us of anything. In earthly terms, we call it
a hard head. You're hard headed. And that's
what we all were, hard headed and stony hearted. But God gives
us a tender conscience. And then when He gives you that
tender conscience, you don't want to fear God. You have a
fear then of offending God. You don't want to offend God.
You have a fear of sin. You don't want to sin against
God. You have a fear of departing from God. You have a fear of
offending God. And that's the substance of hating
every false way. The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil. When we really fear God, that's
when we start hating evil. And everything that just looks
like it, we hate it. There's no wisdom in a sinner
until he fears God. The scripture says, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of
the holy is understanding. So, if the fear of God, the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of God the Holy
One is understanding, that means we have to be given a sight of
God. We have to be shown who God is. Listen, this is what
He does. I want you to see this. Psalm
51, verse 6. As soon as we fear God, because
God has put this fear in our hearts by regeneration, made
us to see Him, this is what He does. We begin to be wise because
this is what happens. Psalm 51, verse 6. Watch this.
Verse 6, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and
in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Now you see this? In the inward
part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. In that inward man that
he gives. Now listen to this, you don't
have to turn here, just listen carefully. In Job 28, 28, Unto
man he says, this is what God speaks in the heart, Behold,
the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. He said, you'll make
me to know wisdom in my inward part. And he says, now old man,
here's the fear of wisdom. Here's the fear of the Lord.
He says, I'm going to make you to know wisdom in the heart.
And then he says, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. That
is wisdom. To fear the Lord and to depart
from evil. That's understanding. That's
God giving us faith and repentance. That's God giving us this godly
fear in our heart to where we fear departing from God and we
cannot depart from evil fast enough. We want to get away from
it. We want to be from it. And it's through the gospel that
God gives this wisdom. Our text says, back in Psalm
34 11, our text says, come you children, hearken unto me, I
will teach you the fear of the Lord. Some may think that I'm
being mean. Or legalistic maybe. By demanding
that you learn to show reverence while the gospel is being preached.
Even if it's just outwardly. I can't give you that in the
heart. But I can... I can't outwardly. I can make
you sit here outwardly and do it right. But it is so you can
hear the gospel. You understand that? It's so
you can hear the gospel. The reason for every practical
word in the New Testament Scriptures is not so you can work your way
to heaven. It's not so you can work your way to God. It's to
teach us who are yet in our flesh how to come into God's house
and worship God in a way to where we will not be distracting from
the focus of Christ and Him crucified. That's the purpose. That's the
purpose of every word. to put you in the back, in the
foreshadow, in the background I mean, and put God in the forefront,
put Christ before everybody. That's the purpose of all practical
instruction. It's because through the Word,
that's how God's going to work in the heart and give His child
a fear of the Lord in the heart. Come ye children, hearken unto
me, I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. But if we're distracted,
because we woke up late, we fought against coming here, We argued
our whole way here. And we don't have time to get
the clutter out of our minds so we can hear. Then we can't
hearken. We can't hearken. These are things. I can't put anything in your
heart. I can't put a new spirit in your
heart and make you desire to know God. I can't do that. But I set the alarm clock earlier. I can get you here as early as
you need to get here to get all the junk out of your mind so
you can worship. I can do that for my family.
Or, if the way a girl's dressed has your attention, you can't
hearken. You can't hearken. The preacher sees things when
he's preaching that everybody else don't see. Mothers, your
daughters are teenagers now. They're not little girls anymore.
I need you to teach your daughters to dress like ladies when they
come here. Teach them by word and teach them by deed. That's
what Paul said to Titus. Tell them that. Teach them that.
Teach them that. Or if the services are not conducted
in order, you can't hearken. This is why your mean old pastor
is insisting that you get here early and get in your seats before
the services begin with enough time to read your Bible or read
a bulletin or something like that. To get settled, to get
your ears attentive, to get your heart ready, to hearken, to hearken. I haven't made this clear enough,
but when I say get in your seats, I mean about 15 minutes before
the service starts. So you can sit down and pick
up one of those bulletins back there or a Bible and read. And I mean do it. I don't mean
just... I'm not just saying this to hear myself talk. I mean do
it. From here on, do it. Why? Why do I insist on you go
to the restroom beforehand so you're not getting up and down
and up and down going to the restroom? So you can hearken to the Word.
So you can hear the Word. That's not being mean. If you're just laying out here
in the street run over by a car and the only thing that's going
to help you is get you to a doctor, it wouldn't be mean to try to
get you to a doctor. And what I'm trying to tell you
is I'm trying to prevent the things and get you turned to
the great physician who's the only one that can heal you. If you're sick, you know you
might need to go to the restroom, sit back in the back so you can
get up and go and not disturb anybody, but don't make a habit
out of it. I insist on these things because you need to hearken
to the gospel because you need life that only God can give. Disorder and distraction makes
it so you cannot hearken. And so I insist on these things
because I pray God will teach you the fear of God. And because
I work diligently and hard to get a message for you through
which God is going to teach you the fear of God if He does. That's
why I want you to hearken. So, if you meet God, you can't
say, well, that preacher never told me to pay attention. Yes,
he did. Yes, he did. Alright, here's
the third thing. Let's focus more on this now.
God gives this fear through the law and the gospel. Through the
law. Look over at Deuteronomy 4, verse
10. Through the law, God gives this
fear, this wisdom, making us to see that our sin, our transgression,
what we are, what we are from the inside out is transgression
against God. Now this is the day the Lord
gave the law at Mount Sinai at Horeb that the speaker is speaking
about. And this is what he said. He
said, remember now, remember why the Lord... They saw that
mountain fear and quake and tremble and they saw when God gave the
law. And they said this, Deuteronomy 4 verse 10, Remember especially
the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when
the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I
will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me
all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that
they may teach their children to fear me. This is why He brought
them. This is why He brought them to
the law, to Mount Sinai. To that law was to teach them
to fear the Lord. This is where it starts. It starts
at Mount Sinai. It starts with the law, with
the commandments. and to teach them to teach their children
to fear the Lord. That's why he said I did it.
One of the first things that encouraged me about coming here
was that I recognized right away that you mothers and fathers
speak with your children about the gospel they hear. You speak
with them about what's been preached. Don't stop doing that because
that's why God saved us to teach our children these things. Now
if God blesses us to hear the law, just like He did the Apostle
Paul, He's going to shut our mouth, He's going to make us
guilty. Paul said the law was given that every mouth may be
stopped and all the world become guilty before God. That's why
He brings us to this mountain first, to shut our mouths, to
see Him fearful, fear in fear, quaking and trembling so that
they couldn't even come to that mountain. And they ran back,
and you know what they asked for? I need a mediator! I need
somebody to go between us and God! Me and God! I can't do it! That's why we've got to be brought
to this law. We've got to be made to see what we are. This
fear comes when God shows us our sin and His holy justice. Paul said, I was alive once without
the law. People think they're alive because
they come to church. They think they're alive because
they've read some scripture. Alive because they've been baptized
or whatever. Paul was doing all these things
whereby he thought he had life. And he said, and I was alive.
And then the commandment came. God spoke into my heart. And
when He spoke into my heart, sin revived and I died. I saw my sin then. And all this
goodness and everything I thought was good died. I died. I died. The thief on the cross
was given this fear of the Lord. He was standing there, sitting
there, hanging on that cross, and was joining with that thief,
railing on Christ. Save us if you're the Christ.
Get us down off of here if you're the Christ. Railing on Him. And
the next minute, something happened. God spoke into his heart. And
he heard. And he feared. And he trembled.
And this is what he did. He turned to that other thief
and he says, Does not thou fear God? Don't you see thou art in
the same condition? We're condemned. That's what
he was saying. We're condemned. And we're to condemn justly,
he's saying. For we receive the due reward
of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord... That's how he addressed
him. Lord, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. after God reveals our sin. He
gets us good and lost. He gets us good and down in the
dirt. Good and honest about what we
are before Him. To where we're crying out, I
acknowledge my sin. My transgressions are ever before
me. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. Then He shows
us something marvelous. He shows us something marvelous
that puts His fear in our heart. This fear of condemnation is
given when God gives us a sight of Christ bearing condemnation
on that cross in place of His people. You look there at that
cross and you see Christ stripped completely of all His clothes
on that cross. The law strips you. The law takes
away everything from you, strips you. And you see yourself nailed
there. Him nailed there to that cross.
The law nails you. The law hammers down on you that
you're guilty before God. And you see all the hosts turned
against Him. They're running around Him against
Him. You flip that host and you look
at that host and see all the hosts of heaven against you in
your sin. And you see God turn His back
on him. You see God turn His back on
you. Because God will not look upon sin. He will not stand amongst
sinners. And there He is bearing the condemnation
and the shame of sin. God shows that God will not clear
the guilty even when the sin bearer is His own son. God gives
this fear by showing us that by Christ putting away the sin
of His people, by Him perfecting them forever, Christ is that
one way, and there's forgiveness with God. That's what He shows
you. Listen, why? Why does He show
me that? Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord,
hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. If thou, Lord, should markest
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Can you stand before God? Does anybody here can stand before
God on their own? If the Lord marks iniquities,
who will stand? Nobody will. And He is marking
them. He is marking them. But here is where we are brought.
But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. That's when you're going to start
fearing God. You who are born of God, why do you fear God?
Because God has sanctified Himself in your hearts, teaching you
something of how holy God is, how high, how set apart God really
is. He's not like us. He's not like
us. He's high and holy and way higher
and holier than we are. God's so holy that God provided
His own Son to take the place of us sinners that He chose before
the world began. We're so He's so holy, He gave
His Son to take your sin, to take your punishment and to own
it all to be His. God's so holy then that when
His Son bore our sin, God wouldn't spare His Son. That's how holy
He is. Are we that holy? We'll spare
our sons when they're doing something wrong and have done something
wrong and it's just caught dead handed doing something wrong.
We'll try to spare them. But God didn't. God didn't. When He made Him to be sin for
us, God poured out wrath on Him. That's how holy God is. Now you
see that by Christ alone you made the righteousness of God
in Him, that you're perfect in Him, that you're accepted of
God in Him, and He's able to present you to Himself spotless
and holy and without blame, without blemish whatsoever. There's where
the fear of God comes from. Therefore, you fear God. Not
in terror, but you fear God as a holy, just, and righteous,
loving Father. You obey Him. Therefore, from
the heart, you want to honor Him. You want to exalt Him. You
want to glorify Him. And the brighter the light in
a room, the more you see the imperfections in that room. Isn't
that right? This light gets brighter. And the more light God gives
us, the more we see our imperfections and our sin that's yet in us.
And so growing in grace and growing in this state of holiness, growing
in His grace and the knowledge of Him by that light shining
greater and greater in our hearts, it makes us more and more see
the filth that we are. And it makes us not exalt ourselves
to become holier than now. It brings us down. It makes us
submit to God in humility in the dust. This is what the fear
of God does. And it makes us so that we grow
more sympathetic to the imperfections and the weaknesses of our brethren
because we see our own. And it makes you not want to
make your brethren tarry for you constantly. It makes your brethren willing
to do it. But it makes you willing to not have them to do it forever. You know, at the day of the Pentecost,
everybody says, you know, that's communism. That's not communism.
When communism as a natural man is given, he's given something
by his fellow countrymen, he'll just take advantage of it and
not work, not get a job. But believers, by God's grace,
He gives the grace to want to take care of one another and
He gives us the grace not to want them to have to keep taking
care of us. That's what He does. This is the fear of God. Here's
the fourth thing. This is the last thing. The object
of our fear is God. The object of our fear is God.
God our Father, God His Son, the Holy One, the Faithful One,
our Savior, our Lord, and God the Holy Spirit. by whom we believe. Nothing about what I'm saying
to you is to cause you to fear men. That's not what I'm saying.
But there is a fear due to men by which we learn much about
how we are to fear and reverence God. Look at Romans 13. Romans 13. I'm going to show
you that and then I'm going to give you some of these offices
that we're given that we're supposed to fear. You see, how we conduct
ourselves toward these offices reveals really what we think
about God, how we reverence God in our heart. Look at Romans
13, verse 1. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers
that be are ordained of God. He's talking about those... He's
talking about from your president, to your parents, to your local
police officer, to everybody in an office of authority, God
put them there. And God is the one represented
there in that office. Verse 7, he says, Render therefore
to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. You see
that? This thing of fear and reverence for a believer toward
God extends way beyond the walls in which we worship. The reverence
shown in all our relationships conveys the reverence toward
God in our hearts. This is a fear and a reverence
due to parents from their children. Look at Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Verse 9. Furthermore, we have
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them
reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? A child reverences their father
and their mother by giving them honor and respect that's due,
and you do so by yielding obedience to them the first time. If you
have to be told second time or third time or fourth time, you
haven't reverenced them. You haven't obeyed them. Not
at all. God's Son walked this earth before
God His Father and everything He went about doing, He did from
a perfect heart that was set on obeying His Father every moment
He walked this earth. And He did. That's all He did
was obey His Father and fulfill and magnify the holy law of God
in everything He thought, said and did. Everything. And brethren,
His obedience and His Spirit that's been put into us is whereby
we're able to come into God's presence. Because by Him, by
what He's done, He's been made righteousness unto us and sanctification
unto us, so that we can enter into God's presence. By that
obedience. Doesn't that make you want to obey God, our Father? As a child of God, much more
ought we to be in subjection unto God, our Father, who says,
believe all my Son and love one another. How so? How should we
be obedient? How should we be obedient to
Him? Peter said, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as He
which hath called you is holy, so be you holy, full of fear,
full of reverence, full of obedience to Him in all manner of conversation.
Believers delight in this message just as much as they delight
in the message of Him electing a people and predestinating a
people. And if we don't, we don't know Him. It's that simple. Somebody
would say, I've never feared God, I've always loved God. You
don't know God. I'm not talking about fear again
into bondage. No, no. I'm talking about the
true fear of God that casts out fear. Out that kind of fear.
This fear that makes you want to love Him and honor Him and
serve Him because of what He's done for us. Husbands and wives
are to fear and reverence one another. I'm trying to show you
these offices, not to just show you these offices and make you
think, well, if you do this, this is how you can be righteous.
I'm trying to show you in these offices how Christ reverenced
the Father. Look at 1 Peter 3. Husbands and
wives are to fear and reverence one another. Look at 1 Peter
3. Verse 5. 1 Peter 3, 5. After this manner, in the old
time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves. You want to know how they adorned
themselves? Read the next word. By being in subjection unto their
own husbands. Nothing more adorning than that. And nothing more ugly than the
opposite of that. A woman back talking to her husband.
That's just ugly. I don't care how pretty she is. She makes
herself ugly. But look at this. Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, as long as you do well,
and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace
of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Now look at that
verse. Keep looking at it. This relationship of husband
and wife illustrates what Christ Jesus, our husband, did for his
bride. Look at it. Christ dwelt with
us and He continues to dwell with us according to knowledge.
He's wisdom. And everything He does is for
our good. He gives us what we need when we need it. He gives
us the word we need. He gives us the providence we
need. He gives us what we need when
we need it. He dwells with us in knowledge. And Christ loved
His bride as Himself, giving Himself for us. Even the death
of the cross. Christ gave honor unto us. And
He still does. You know how He does it? He gifts
us with His righteousness. He justifies us. He robes us
in His righteousness. He gives us a new heart. He gives
us a heart to go after Him. He gives us the precious jewels
of the gospel. He gives us a heart of faith
and love and longsuffering and gentleness and kindness. On and
on and on. He adorns us. And Christ continues
to deal with us as the weaker vessel. We're the bride. He's the husband. He deals with
us as the weaker vessel. He knows we're dust. He knows
the feeling of our infirmities. He's been in the flesh before,
yet without sin. He knows what we're going through
and He deals with us as the weaker vessel. As being heirs together
of the grace of life. Because we're joint heirs with
Him. That's what your wife and husband,
that's what you are. You're heirs together. What she
owns belongs to you and what you own belongs to her. What
Christ owns belongs to me and what I own belongs to Him. We
are heirs together of the grace of life so that by Him, by Him
alone, our prayers are not hindered and He overlives to make intercession
for us because He is our husband. So what do we do as the wife,
as the bride? By His Spirit dwelling in our
hearts, we're constrained by His love to reference Christ
because He's our husband. We adorn ourselves for being
in subjection to Him, calling Him Lord, for so He is, and doing
these things He's commanded us to do. All our beauty comes from Him.
Every bit of it. Everything. If there's anything
about us that's adorning, It's because He did it. It's because
He gave it. He worked it. That's right. Listen
to this Psalm 4511. So shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. He desires
your beauty because He gave it to you. He adorns you with it. He adorns you with it. You husbands,
we buy our wives a piece of jewelry. Why do you buy it? Because you
think she'd look good in it. And then when she puts it on,
what do you say? Man, you look good in that. You gave it to
her. Christ gives us all the jewels
of adornment and then tells us, man you look good in that. Alright, there's a fear and reverence
which servants should show to their masters. Look at Ephesians
6. This has to do with us being employees and employers in our
day. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 and
look at verse 5. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling,
in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Not with our service as men pleasers,
not just trying to do things when they're around so they see
you, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the
heart with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men,
knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. You
see this? Now you consider Christ the servant.
What did he do as the servant? He made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant. and came in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Christ did that. For me and you. For me and you. You might get the idea and say,
well, I can't serve my employer. He's just too mean and hard for
me. Think about what we were to Christ. Huh? And He came and served for us.
He's talking about here, when Paul gave that, he wasn't talking
about employers and employees, he's talking about if you're
a slave. If you're a slave, he said do this. By his grace, we're
seated together now with him at the right hand of God because
God highly exalted him for making himself the least for us. And
there we sit with him now because of what he did. Now he says to
you, his child, if I be a master, where's my fear? If I'm your
master, where's my fear? And his voice, if he speaks into
the heart, you know what it does? It melts our heart. It melts. Well, there's the fear of reverence
to offices like president, kings. Listen to this in Proverbs 24,
21. I'll just read this to you. My son, fear thou the Lord and
the king. Fear thou the Lord and the King.
Christ came to this earth as Lord. He came here as King. We
don't make Him King, we don't make Him Lord. He came to this
earth that way. That baby in the womb of His mother was the
King of the whole earth, especially of His people Israel. And that
King, Scripture says of Him, the Lord said, I'll raise unto
David a righteous branch, a King shall reign and prosper and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth. That's who Christ
is. And He said when He was born,
unto you this day in the city of David is born a Savior which
is Christ the Lord. He was born that way, born a
King. And God's now set His King in His holy hill of Zion. And
you know what Christ is doing? He's ruling in our midst right
now for His glory and for our good. You know who the scripture
is talking about when it says all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing and He does according to His will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand or saying to him, what doest thou?
He's talking about our King, Christ. That's who he's talking
about. Yep, that's who he is. So we're to reference magistrates
as unto Christ our King. As unto Christ our King. Alright,
lastly, look over Hebrews 13. There is a fear and a reverence
due to ministers of the gospel. Let me read this to you while
you turn in there. In 1 Samuel 12, 18 it says, So Samuel called
unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And
all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. They greatly
reverenced the Lord and Samuel. Look at Hebrews 13 and verse
7. Remember them which have the rule over you, who has spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the
end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Christ is that true prophet.
He is the true prophet. The true minister of the true
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. And if He speaks
into the heart, when He speaks into the heart, we hear Him.
And we affectionately obey His voice. He said, My people shall
know in that day that it is I that doth speak. Behold, it is I.
And when He speaks, His voice is the power that gives this
fear and this reverence for God. And we have it then when He speaks.
Brethren, as His minister, as this one sent to minister the
gospel to you, the end of my faith, And the end of my conversation
are the same. My conduct, the things I'm beseeching
you, and what I'm preaching to you, and why I'm telling you
these things, is the same as the end of my faith. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. I'm telling
you these things because I want to see you brought to Christ.
And I want to see you reverence Him. Look down at verse 17. Obey
them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for
they watch for your souls. Now watch this. As they that
must give account. You see that? Account to God. That they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you. Does any
of you find joy in correcting your children? Is that a happy
time for you? You'd much rather be spending
time with them, speaking to them about something joyful, about
Christ, something like that. Well, so would the Apostle Paul. That's what he'd rather been
doing. He told the Corinthians, I was determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what he
said. But he had to stop. And he had to write 1 Corinthians
to deal with things that were distracting and disrupting them
from the gospel. in order to restore order so
that they could focus their attention on the gospel of Christ and Him
crucified. That's why he did it. That was the end of his conversation.
Same as the end of his faith. That was not joyful for him and
it was unprofitable to them in this sense that they could have
been spending that time hearing about Christ and Him crucified. That same is true of us, brethren.
We have a need right now for speaking on some practical things.
We have a need for it. So I have to deal with them so
we can get back to focusing our attention on Christ and Him crucified.
The things Paul said in 1 Corinthians, that was not the focus of his
gospel. That wasn't the focus of his ministry. You can rest
assured this ain't going to be the focus of mine either. But sometimes
you have to deal with things that are needful so that they
don't become worse things and you end up having divisions and
things like that. Go home thinking on this. I pointed
out these earthly relationships to show you that God is to be
feared. He's to be hearkened to, served and obeyed. And in
all of these offices, they're all ordained of God. It's not
only men, it's God who's rebelled against. I don't think there's
a problem here with you who believe the Lord in this. I think there's
a big problem with you who don't. Well, I know what's in your heart. Believers have forgiveness with
God because the fire of God has consumed our offering, Christ,
the burnt offering. We saw that Sunday. That fire
came out and consumed the burnt offering picturing Christ being
consumed by the fire of God's wrath. It turned right around
and that same fire came out and destroyed those who were too
proud and too arrogant and too rebellious in their hearts to
bow in reverence to God. You don't want to meet God without
Christ. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. In that day, the unbeliever will fear God. Listen
to the scripture. The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall
dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings? They fear the end. Did you catch
that? Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. God says, now
consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces
and there be none to deliver. That's scary, isn't it? Paul
said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Christ
said, I forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him which after
he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto
you, fear him. But I'm not going to end on that
note. I've got to end on this note. Look back at our text. There's a lot of peace and joy
in this fear of the Lord. Look at there, Psalm 34, verse
7. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. Those that fear the Lord, the
angel of the Lord is encamped around them, and He delivers
them. Look at verse 9. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints,
for there is no walk to them that fear Him. The young lions
do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. There is no want to those that
fear the Lord. God says you are not going to want for anything. You are not going to lack anything.
We don't. We don't lack anything. Have
you lacked anything? Hebrews 12.25 says, See that
you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. Wherefore we, receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. We saw it Sunday. We saw it Sunday. So let us serve Him acceptably
with reverence and godly fear. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren,

The Fear of God

What does the Bible say about fearing God?

How do we know that the fear of God is true?

Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

How does fearing God affect our daily lives?

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The Fear of God

What does the Bible say about fearing God?

How do we know that the fear of God is true?

Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

How does fearing God affect our daily lives?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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