We're going to continue our sermon
from last week today, titled today's message, What is the
Fear of the Lord? What is the fear of the Lord?
This is such a big subject. We really can't do it justice.
But by God's grace, I hope that you get at least some concept
from scripture of what bad fear is and what good fear is, for
lack of a better way of describing it. I'll try to be plain, but
I want to take you to several scriptures as we look at this,
the fear of the Lord. In Proverbs chapter one, it says
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the
fear of the Lord. And this has always been a subject
in my own thinking that has not been so clear. So maybe by God's
grace, some of the clarity that we've been given from scripture
will shine through. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
according to your power and your grace, we would be given to understand
as your children what it means to truly fear the Lord. We want
this wisdom. We want it bad. And we can't
live without this because we desire to walk as dear children
in the fear of the Lord. And so we pray, Lord, that you
would show us your grace and help us who call upon the Father
to know that we should pass the time of our sojourning here in
fear and to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. The fear of the Lord. It's hard
really to know where to start on this concept, but I want to
start where we left off last week and remind you of those
things that strike terror in the hearts of sinners. Remember
in 2 Corinthians, and I'm just going to refresh your memory
of these scriptures, but in 2 Corinthians 5, it says this, the apostle
Paul said, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that everyone may receive the things done in his body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore,
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest
to God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, according to this word here, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good
or bad. And then we also added to that
in Romans chapter 14. I'll read this to you from Romans
chapter 14. He says, for to this end, verse
nine, for to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived,
that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why
does thou judge thy brother? Or why does thou set it not thy
brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall
confess to God. And then we could look at Matthew
25, where Jesus, it says in Matthew 25, I will show you this also,
the scripture also, Matthew 25 in verse 31. When the son of
man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him,
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him
shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one
from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left. So it goes through here. And
if you look at the last part here, it says, On the left hand,
verse 41, then shall he say to them on the left hand, depart
from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. And so he goes on and lists the
evidences of how they rejected him. I was hungry, you gave me
no meat. Thirsty, you gave me no drink.
A stranger, you took me not in. Naked, you clothed me not. Sick,
and in prison, and you visited me not. And they shall say, They
shall answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered, or
thirst, or stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did
not minister to thee? Then shall he answer them, saying,
verily I say to you, inasmuch as you did it not to the one
of the least of these, my brethren, you did it not to me. And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal. All right, so these verses from
scripture do strike terror in the hearts of men. Why? Why do they cause us fear? Why
do these things cause us fear? Look at Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. It says
in verse, let me get there. I'll tell you the verse to go
to in Hebrews chapter two. In verse 14, he says, for as
much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
the children of God, those given to Christ, because they were
partakers of flesh and blood, because they had a body and a
soul, he, Christ, also himself, likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And so Paul is saying
in 2 Corinthians 5, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. There is a fear of God that results
in terror. And that terror, it comes about
because of the fear of death, even an everlasting death. And
this fear, even though it is known to men, we naturally suppress
it. We can't face that, can we? And
it is as a heavy stone laid upon us that crushes us in our conscience. And there's nothing we can do
to relieve our conscience. But this is what we do naturally.
We hide. And we do something else. We
compare ourselves to the worst that we can find. And in fact,
in our everyday lives, you hear about cruel things that occur
in life, or perverse things. And you talk about it with other
people. And we hold these things as an example of what we are
not. How could they be so vile? How
could they be so callous? How could they be so insensitive,
unmerciful, and cruel? We should be ashocked at that.
But we always gravitate towards comparing ourselves to the worst
of things. We can't face the fact that we
are also of that kind and of that nature. And so look at this,
and considering the fact that in 2 Corinthians 5, it says that
we shall not only all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
but he says that every one of us would receive the things that
are done in the body according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. Now, considering that, turn to
Romans 3, And listen to this. First look
at Romans 1, verse 18. In Romans 1, 18, he says, for
the wrath of God, the wrath of God, the wrath of God, God is
love, God is infinite, and His justice, His wisdom, and His
nature, it's His nature, the wrath of God, think of that.
The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, it's
known to them, for God has showed it to them. There's the accusation. There's the fact. God has shown
us And we have rejected what he's shown us. And therefore
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And look at Romans
chapter three, verse nine. What then, are we better than
they? No, and no wise. Not in any way. For we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.
As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There
is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that do with good.
No, not one. But what about this crime over
here? I can see it every day. It's in the news. There constantly
is a constant stream of deception and lies and cruelty and lawbreaking. And I can see that. I don't do
that. There's none good. No, not one. Last week we read
from Psalm 53, God looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. And they were all together concluded
to be filthy. Not one. Not me, not you. Their throat. In other words,
what we say, out of their throat is an open sepulcher, reveals
the death within. With their tongues they have
used deceit, the poison of asps, poison of snakes is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now, we know that what things
soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law
that every mouth, every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by the works of the law, by trying to be obedient to what
God requires of us, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight because by the law is the knowledge of sin. Now when you
read that and you lay that side by side in 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and Matthew 25 and Matthew 7, 21 through 23 and Romans 14,
10 and 11, what do you see? There's no hope for me, don't
you? And what does Paul say there in 2 Corinthians 5? Knowing the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men. To what? To what? To be reconciled to God by the
death of his son. You see, when any stand in judgment,
God will examine their works. And the books will be open, as
we read last week in Revelation 20. And the dead will be judged
out of the books of the things they've done, the record that
God has kept. And what hope do we have based
on our works? Absolutely no hope there's a
good cause for the terror of the Lord to grip our hearts. But that's not the fear of God
that we need. That fear of God is a gift from
God. All men by nature have a conscience
that accuses them and Satan himself is happy to accuse them before
God according to God's own law and to bring up God's curse of
his law against them. But in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
21, he says, God has made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. And here's the words, in him. Our only hope of standing before
God in judgment is in those two words, in him. When the books are opened and
God, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Lamb of God, who was crucified
to save sinners, will be the judge on the throne, according
to God's will, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. There, before our judge, we stand. What will be the question that
arises then? Have you done all that God requires? And what about your works? What
about your sin? There's only one answer. In the
Lord Jesus Christ, all that God requires, every part of what
God requires of me, in the Lord Jesus Christ, I have fulfilled
the law. Not me, not by my works, not
by my thoughts, not by my tears did I wash away my sins, but
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have access. into the
presence of God. And this is an all-sufficient
sacrifice to give me access into the presence of God. Now, this
is where the fear of the Lord, the true fear of the Lord, begins. Terror grips the heart of every
sinner, and it should. Knowing the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men. I was reading this last week
about King Saul. You know about King Saul in the
Old Testament? I was talking to Denise about
this. It just struck me as I was reading about King Saul's life. If you remember King Saul, and
we heard about this when we read through 1 Samuel 12 last week,
King Saul never fully obeyed God. He never fully obeyed God,
which means he was always disobedient. People like to think about obedience
as a sliding scale. I've obeyed 80% and the other
20 I couldn't obey because it was too hard for me. Well, King
Saul was one of these. He could never fully obey God
because his heart was wrong. And when the Philistines threatened
him, And Samuel had told him to wait for Samuel. King Saul
being afraid, he offered a sacrifice himself. And when Samuel showed
up, he says, what have you done? Well, I was afraid and the enemies
were here and I forced myself and I offered. And then when
the Amalekites, God told King Saul through Samuel, you go kill
all the Amalekites, young and old and all their animals. And
so Samuel comes back from the battle victorious. He's so happy. And he's completely victorious. He did everything the Lord said,
except he spared the king of the Amalekites and their sheep
and oxen, which the people wanted to offer to the Lord. Why should
we have to spend money ourselves? Look at all these fine animals
we can offer to the Lord. And so he was afraid of the people
and he gave in to what they wanted. And Samuel said, what is this? To obey is better than sacrifice.
To hearken is better than the fat of rams. But rebellion is
as iniquity and witchcraft and idolatry. And you could feel the sting
in Samuel's words penetrating what Saul was. And so Saul begged
Samuel, let me now offer to the Lord before the people. And Samuel
said, no, I'm not going to. And Saul continued to press him. Finally, Samuel said, okay. Saul
was interested in that his people would see that Samuel was with
him and that he could offer sacrifices. He didn't understand spiritual
things. And when I read about Saul, you
know what I see? I see me. I have two thumbs pointing
at me. Everything that he did, I find
myself doing. What a sad, sick man, right? What a man to be afraid and he
ended his life in terror and fear because he died at the hands
of his enemies. But you know what? God found
another man. A man after his own heart, David. And through David, God saved
Israel and delivered them from their enemies. But Saul hated
David. He envied him because he saw
he was good and God was with him and the people loved him.
Saul hated David, but David was the savior. And so even though
Saul tried to kill him, God exalted him. And this is the story of
redemption, isn't it? We in our natural condition are
no different than Saul. And God exalts his son and finds
a man after his own heart, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only through
him can his people Israel be saved. Even Saul himself needed
salvation by him, by David. Of course, Saul never understood
that. And God exalted David. And David said this in Psalm
34, 11. He says, come ye children. You children, come, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. This is King David when he's in the city of Gath
where the King Achish is the king and all of his enemies are
surrounding him and they're doubting why he's here running from King
Saul and he has to pretend to be a madman and let his saliva
drip from his mouth onto his beard and scratches on the gate
of the wall, the door of the city and the king says, why do
I need madmen here? He made himself foolish because
he was in the presence of his enemies. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came in humiliation, humility and humiliation before his enemies.
He looked like a fool. He was mistreated and mocked
and stripped of all of his clothes and his robe and a crown placed
on his head and they made fun of him. And what did he, he didn't
pretend to be, he took our sins. My foolishness. he says in Psalm
69. And so we see the Lord Jesus
Christ is telling his people, come ye children, listen to me
and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Now look at Hebrews
chapter five. Hebrews chapter 5, this is the
true fear of the Lord. In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7, Paul
tells Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind. God hasn't given us the
spirit of fear. We do not fear our enemies. In Psalm 27, he says, the Lord
is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? I will not
fear what man shall do to me. We do not fear men. We do not
fear the kingdom of Satan. You hear people all the time
talking about, well, you know, I'm afraid of Satan, what he's
going to do. We do not fear the kingdom of Satan. Why? Because
the king of glory reigns on the throne, having disposed him,
deposed and disposed of him. Right? Revelation 12. Read it.
Christ came. He was born. He lived. He suffered. He died. He rose.
He ascended. He took the throne. And Satan
was cast down. Cast out. This is the story of
redemption. But in Hebrews chapter 5, the
Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of in verse 7, who in the days of
his flesh, Christ, when he had offered up prayers and supplications,
was strong, crying in tears unto him that was able to save him
from death, and was heard in that he feared. Like David said,
he's gonna teach you the fear of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled it. Come you children, all you who
hear the voice of Christ, come to him and he will teach us to
fear the Lord. He came, he died in order to
set at liberty those who were all their lifetime in fear of
death. Why do we fear death? We ought
to fear death, but why? Why do we fear death? Isn't it
because of sin? Isn't it because we sinned against
God who holds our life and death in His hand? Isn't that it? It's sin. Sin is the issue. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
came. He bore our sins and He suffered for them. And He had
to pray out of that suffering, as we just read here. And He
says He was heard in His prayers in that He feared And how did
he fear? He feared as a son. A son. What kind of fear does a son
have? Let's go on. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. The fear here spoken
of as a son is a fear that leads the son to submit in humility
to his father unto obedience. You know what the fear of God
does? It makes us humble. It humbles us. It arrests us. It puts us in a state of mind
that's sober, and it humbles us, because we're in the hand
of Almighty God, who is perfect in His judgments. His wisdom
is infinite. He can't do wrong. He is holy,
reverend. is his name. Holy, reverend is
his name. Look at Psalm 33. The fear of
the Lord. That's what we need. Christ himself
must teach us the fear of the Lord, the proper fear. He himself,
in the days of his flesh, walked with this fear as a son. And he, though he were the son,
he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Psalm 33,
verse six. He says, by the word of the Lord
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth. Now, this is intended to strike awe in us. God is greater than we are. That
seems like an understatement, doesn't it? I don't know how
else to say it. God is greater than we are. He
made the heavens. by the breath of his nostrils,
by the word of his mouth, the breath of his mouth. He gathered
the waters of the sea together as a heap. He laid up the depth
in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
You see, the Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nothing.
He makes the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of
the Lord stands forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations. Do you see this? We need that
kind of fear, awe, reverence of God. This is the fear of children. This is the fear that we have.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 1. This is what the Lord
impresses upon us when he gives us this, teaches this to us.
Ephesians 6, it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right. Honor thy father and mother,
which is the first commandment with promise. Honor, that's it,
isn't it? It's honor. We honor our mom
and dad. Our mom and dad tell us what
we should do. And we do it, if we are in a right relationship
with them, out of love and respect. We know that when we've done
wrong, mom or dad is going to hold us to account. But even
in the process of chasing us, we trust our mom and dad to do
the right thing, don't we? They're not going to beat me
forever. They're not going to take me out. We trust them. And we know because they've taught
us that they're doing this for our good. As scripture says in
Hebrews chapter 12, the Lord chastens us for our good that
we might be partakers of his holiness. So there's this fear
that comes, which is a reverence for God. It's a reverence of
awe because he's greater than we are. And it's a reverence
for Him because we trust in Him. In Isaiah chapter 57, it says
it this way, in verse 15, in Isaiah 57, verse 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy or Reverend, I dwell
in the high and holy place with Him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. God, in all of his majesty
and holiness and greatness, stoops to those who are of a humble
heart and contrite heart. Why? How can we have this humble
heart and spirit? Well, God has to give it to us.
And that's what the fear of the Lord does. He lowers us. Look at Psalm 115. Psalm 115.
Read a couple of verses there. In Psalm 115 and verse 11, notice
what it says. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Remember last week when we read
about Samuel and the people of Israel, how they chose, they
rejected God as their king. And that the Lord gave, and because
they wanted a king, God gave them a king out of their own
hearts. And then Samuel taught them how wicked that was. And
God verified Samuel's word by sending rain and thunder in the
middle of the wheat harvest. And so the people were terrified.
And what did Samuel say to them? Fear not. And then he goes on
and says, even though you've done this great wickedness, do
not turn aside from serving the Lord. What mercy is that? He didn't just, God didn't just
destroy them. He tells them, no, it pleased
the Lord to make you his people. That's why you aren't destroyed,
because it pleased the Lord to make you his people. And then
he tells them, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth. So the fear of the Lord, they
were taught to fear the Lord even though they were wicked
to show them that they were to trust Him. That's what it's saying
here in verse 11 of Psalm 115. You that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
The God against whom we've sinned and who is also our judge is
also the one we look to as our Savior. And that produces this
reverential awe that cannot be described, that God puts it into
our heart. and it causes us to trust Him
even though we're sinful and deserve His wrath and know something
about the terror of the Lord, yet we find that in our sin,
God has delivered us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that strikes
a different kind of fear in us of reverence and awe that our
salvation hangs on the sovereign, free grace of God, that He would
be so gracious to us And so we trust Him. Even though I have
done wickedly, yet God was pleased to make me His people. He showed
me Christ and drew me to Christ and overcame my fear that held
me in doubt and terror and always holding God as my adversary in
my mind. I couldn't be vulnerable at all
because I knew that whatever He found sinful in me deserved
wrath. And then he showed me he has
taken away his wrath. Suddenly I come to him and confess
my sins and find they're all answered in Christ. And there's
this tingling sense of odd reverence that comes about because now
we've received not the bondage again to fear, thinking that
we can only escape God's wrath by our own personal obedience
to God's law. But now there's something else
that arises, a reverential awe of God that he would make Christ
our sin in order that he would make us his righteousness in
him. And now we see that the Lord
has made us his children. And so we, that fear the Lord,
trust in the Lord. Look at also Psalm 31. Psalm 31, this is throughout
the psalm, you can just pick up the psalms and I encourage
you to do so and just start reading and you'll see this. Psalm 31
and verse 19, oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou has
laid up for them that fear thee, which thou has wrought for them,
worked out for them that trust in thee before the sons of men.
You see how there's this connection, this intimate, inseparable connection
between the fear of the Lord and trusting the Lord because
they go hand in hand. They that trust in the Lord,
fear the Lord. And they that fear the Lord,
trust in him. They can't be separated. This reverential awe that God
would be so great as to pardon my iniquity for Christ's sake.
Look at Psalm chapter two. Psalm chapter 2 and verse 11,
he says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry
and you perish from the way when his wrath has kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. The one who
is our judge, whose wrath we must not face. He tells us, worship
him. In other words, like the woman
who poured her tears upon his feet and wiped his feet with
her hair and poured the ointment on them. She kissed the son in
worship because she knew she had been forgiven much. Kiss
the son. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. You see the comparison here?
There's a contrast here, a contrast. Look at Luke chapter 13 with
me for a minute here. We're taking a lot of scripture
in consideration in order to see the patterns here that God
has set up in scripture. Look at Luke chapter 13. In Luke chapter 13 in verse 1,
there were present at that season some that told Jesus of the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. So Pilate,
the one who told them that they could crucify Jesus, he had also
murdered these people and mixed their blood with their sacrifices.
And Jesus said, verse two, Jesus answering after they told him
this, he said to them, notice these words of Jesus. Consider
these people. Pilate killed them and mixed
their blood with their sacrifice. And Jesus said, suppose ye, that
these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans because they
suffered such things? Is that the way you see it? You
see the calamities that come upon people. Do you suppose those
calamities came upon them because they're sinners above all others? I tell you, no. But except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. If you think that they
received judgment because of their sins, then unless you repent,
you're going to perish just like them. Verse four, or those 18,
upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them. Think ye
that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise
perish. Now, consider those words and
turn to Matthew 21. These things are getting us to
how the Lord, who says, hearken to me and I will teach you the
fear of the Lord, teaches us the fear of the Lord. Actually, this is the wrong place.
This is the wrong place. I was going to go to the place
where Jesus said there were two sons and I'll just tell it to
you, because I don't have the reference in front of me. Jesus
said there were two sons. He told this to the Pharisees
and the scribes. And the father told his first
son, he said, you go work in my field today. And he said,
I will not. But then later, he did go. And
then he went to his second son. He said, son, go work in my field
today. And he said, I will, sir. But he did not go. And Jesus
asked the scribes and Pharisees, which of these did the will of
their father? And they said, well, the first, clearly. He
said, all right, listen to me. John the Baptist came preaching
to you. You would not believe him. But
the publicans and the harlots, they believed him. And then when
you saw that the publicans and the harlots believed him, you
did not repent. You're the second son. You said,
I will, sir, but you did not go. The first son were the publicans
and the harlots. Jesus is saying in Luke 13, you
think that these men who received these people who died in calamities
are worse than all other people? No. The issue The issue here
is that unless you repent, you shall perish. The publicans and
the sinners, they turn from their unbelief to trust the words John
preached, which was concerning Christ. The Apostle Paul told
those people in Acts, I think it was 19, he says, John the
Baptist preached that we should believe on him who would come
after. And that was that turning from
this cringing fear of God's wrath, knowing I'm a sinner and deserving
of it, to hear of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world and trusting Him. And so they believed John. the
publicans and harlots, but the Pharisees, they would not submit. They proudly held stubbornly
to their own self-righteousness. And Jesus said, unless you repent,
you're going to perish. You don't think that these others
out here are worse and therefore perish. You will perish. And
so we must have this change of mind that God puts in us to cause
us to see that we are utter sinners before God and facing His wrath,
and unless God does something, and thus He, by the death of
His Son, reconciles us to Himself, we have no hope. And therefore
we're turned in our minds, and we see that all grace is given
us in Christ, for Christ's sake. Look at Psalm 130. And I should
just quote this for you, you know it so well. In Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Verse two. Lord, hear my voice,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If thou, Lord. Now here's the cry of a sinner.
Being taught by the Spirit of God to fear the Lord. Listen
to what he says. He cries out of the depths. Be
attentive to the supplications that I'm crying. He says, if
you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. So we see the
fear of the Lord has to do with seeing by God's grace what he's
done for us in Christ to reconcile us to himself. In Christ, it's
all in him. It's not in me. And so in Romans
10, he rebukes the proud Jews who would not submit to the righteousness
of God. They held to their own righteousness.
And then he says, but Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. And Jesus says, whoever believes
on me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. But he who
does not believe on me is condemned already. because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now look at Galatians
chapter four with me. Try to wrap this up, Galatians
chapter four. This is describing all of God's
people here in Galatians chapter four, the first, I'm just gonna
read through the first seven verses. What we were before the
Lord opened our eyes, we were under the law. In our conscience,
we could not escape the wrath of God. We had only one thought,
that we had to somehow keep God's law. We had to fulfill the requirements
God laid upon us. We knew they were right and God
was just, but we couldn't do it. And we lived our life. Don't
you know this? Did you ever feel the bondage?
The bondage of feeling like you had to do something and you couldn't
do it in order to be saved. You had to perform or you had
to exhibit certain characteristics and you couldn't do it. And what
did you do? You tried harder and you kept
trying and finally you were just at your wits end and you gave
up hope like the man drowning. You were 67 feet under the water
and you were on your last breath. There's no way you could make
it to the top. That's what he's describing here. Verse one, Galatians
four. Now I say that the heir, the
one appointed by the father to be his heir, as long as he is
a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord
of all. In appointment, he is a son, but in experience, he's
a servant. But he is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. Even so, we, when we
were children, meaning we were adolescents, we were not yet
taught to be, we didn't know ourselves to be the sons of God.
We were treated like servants. Even so, when we were children,
we're in bondage under the elements of the world. Do this, don't
do that, touch this, don't touch that. But when the fullness of
the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Here what we see is
that God's sons will not fear the Lord while they are under
the law. They won't, will they? Until
we're redeemed from the law, until we're given to know that
we're the adopted sons of God, we cannot love God. We cannot
truly fear the Lord. Because we're under this bondage.
We think we're servants. And servants behave this way.
I'm going to do something to avoid the whip. I'm going to
do something to keep myself in good favor with my master. But
if I mess up, I'm doomed. Verse 6, Galatians 4, because
you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, father. This is a complete reversal,
isn't it? I was a servant. I was under the law. I feared
death. I feared death because of my
sin. I had no hope. I tried to alleviate my conscience. That wouldn't work. God was my
adversary. I hid. I covered up my sin. I
couldn't face what I was, and everything seemed doom and darkness
to me. I had no hope. And then God sent
forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, and he told us, Christ
has redeemed you. Christ has redeemed sinners and
caused you to come and call upon him and trust him. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. Isn't that amazing? Look at chapter
five, same book. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that
if you be circumcised, if you try to keep the law, Christ shall
profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law,
not just one part, but the whole thing, because he imagines that
he can come to God and must fulfill the law in order to come to him.
Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law, you are fallen from grace, for we, through
the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. There it is. It's all the Spirit
of God. And now look at Romans chapter
eight, and we'll close with this. We see here the fear of God.
Romans chapter eight, he says in verse 15, For you have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear." That's the way
we were until we received the Spirit of God. We were in fear. But have you ever seen a man
leading his child around, maybe Francis leading Audrey or Rommel
leading his youngest son, And what do you see? You see
them, the little boy or girl holding on to daddy's finger,
daddy stooping down, bend over so they can reach his finger,
and he says, come this way, this way, over here, sweetheart, come
over here. You know what that's called?
Being led. In Romans 8, it says in verse
14, as many as are led, as many as are led, like little children,
by the Spirit of God, the Father. They are the sons of God. You
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Fear
has torment. Perfect love casts out fear.
But God has given us the spirit of His Son in our hearts to cry,
Abba, Father. He's shown us that God has loved
us with an everlasting love. And He predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. And then He sent the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts so that we could cry, Abba, my
Father. And we trust Him. He who is high
and lofty and inhabits eternity, He dwells with those who are
broken in spirit, contrite in spirit, and made humbled by the
Spirit of God, showing us that we were sinners and without hope.
And God had to rescue us. He had to reconcile us for the
offenses we caused Him by removing the barrier of our sin, our offense
against His justice, and appeasing His own wrath. Psalm 85, verse
3, thou has taken away thy wrath. This is what we've learned. And
we come to God, even though we are sinners, trusting that He
was pleased to make us His children by Jesus Christ. He will see
it through to the end so that we won't stand before Him in
judgment in terror, but bold in the day of judgment. We will
look forward to judgment, He says in Jude verse 24, now unto
Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory. in the presence of His glory,
faultless. And so when that question comes
from the throne of judgment, have you? Did you? The only answer we have is, in
Christ I have. Not in me. In myself I am nothing. In myself I am no different than
the worst of men. and deserving of God's wrath.
But in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has made me his son and sent
the spirit of his son into my heart." We look at the redeeming
work of Christ and we see God in his goodness. has given this
to us. And the Spirit of God in us,
it says in Romans 5, that the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. And reminding
us that when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. And now he says in verse 10,
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, when we were
enemies, reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much
more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life? The devil
doesn't accuse us. God says every accusation against
my people is a lie. Christ bore it all. Who is he
that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, reigning for us and making intercession with himself to
God for his children. Does that not inspire taking
away the terror That fear of death and replacing it with a
trusting, reverential awe of God, that we come to Him and
confess what we are, looking to Christ at all times. And in
this, we fulfill what God says in Philippians 2, verse 12 and
13. It's God who's at work in you.
Therefore, he says, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. We know that God has to do this.
We don't arrogantly say, well, look at God cast off these people
who were the Israelites, but he saved me. No, he says, don't
be high-minded, but fear. You stand only by faith, you
see. We don't walk around arrogantly
as believers. We don't assert ourselves in
the congregation of God in order to create divisions. We walk
before God in our hearts knowing that we walk in the presence
of God, in the presence of God as our Father through Christ.
And that humbles us, doesn't it? It puts us in an attitude
of submission. and we welcome His chastening
hand, and we walk with Him, looking to Christ at all times. We know
the terror of the Lord, therefore we look to Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for... this
all grace, comforting work of our Lord Jesus Christ that draws
us to yourself and brings us to yourself as dear children.
We pray, Lord, that you would, in fulfillment of your everlasting
covenant, put your fear in our hearts to know Christ, to know
you in him, to see you as all glorious, and as your children,
to follow you, honoring you, and loving you. We could never
serve you in love, until you showed yourself loving to us,
until you forgave our sins, until you remove the barrier our sins
created, until you remove this terror in our hearts that made
you our adversary. Lord, we pray that you would
give us the spirit, not of bondage, but the spirit of God that we
might know our sonship in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.