Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. These are Joseph's words to his
brothers. They did not know Joseph was
their brother. They simply thought he was the
ruler of all of Egypt. And he says to them while they
are in jail, they've been in jail for three days in the land
of Egypt. And Joseph, this is from Genesis
chapter 42, verse 18. And Joseph said unto them the
third day, this do and live for I fear God. Now you can be sure that his
brothers were shocked when they heard that statement. He's talking
about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And all they knew
him to be was the ruler of Egypt. And they were shocked when he
said to them, I fear God. Now, through an amazing amount
of events, Joseph had become the ruler of all of Egypt. Now
he started out as his father's favorite. His brothers despised
him. They sold him as a slave. He
went down into the land of Egypt. He prospered in Potiphar's house,
and then he was accused of a crime he did not commit. He was thrown
into prison. While in prison, he interpreted
two men's dreams, and when those men got out of prison, Pharaoh
had some dreams. They told Pharaoh about this
young Hebrew that could interpret dreams. He interpreted Pharaoh's
dreams correctly, and he foretold the seven years of plenty and
the seven years of famine and how Egypt should save corn during
those seven years of plenty, and Pharaoh made him the top
man in Egypt, equal to him. And if you were going to have
food, you were going to have to come to Joseph for it. Now,
this famine was in Canaan as well, so Joseph's brothers, who
he hadn't seen in 20 years, come down to buy food. He recognizes
them. They don't recognize him, but
he recognizes them. And he first speaks roughly to
them, and then he has them put into jail. And I can imagine
all the things they were saying while they were in jail those
three days, finger pointing, wonder what was going to happen
to them as a result of them being in Egypt. And all of a sudden,
this man that they were so afraid of, comes to them and says, I
fear God. I'm not like any of the rest
of the Egyptians. I am one who fears God. This is the difference between
a believer and an unbeliever. The believer fears God. The unbeliever has no fear of
God. Romans 3.18 says, with regard
to every unbeliever, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, there's a passage in 1 Corinthians
4.7 where Paul says to the church of Corinth, who made thee to
differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
hast not received? Now, it's very true that the
believer does differ from the unbeliever. And Paul says, who
made you to differ? Well, I can answer that question
from the scriptures. God made the difference. He made the difference of it
in eternal election when he chose the believer into salvation.
He made the difference when Christ died on the cross and their sins
were paid for. He made the difference when he
gave them a new birth and gave them spiritual life. The difference
between the believer and the unbeliever is God, not the believer
being a better person than the unbeliever. No, God made the
difference. Salvation is of the Lord. And
that difference is seen here. One fears God. The other has no fear of God. Now I've heard of, and I'm sure
you've heard of people described as good God-fearing people. There is no natural man that
is a God-fearing good person. I have no doubt that there's
some people that are more outwardly moral than others, and I'm all
for outward morality, but that's not the fear of God. What is
the fear of God? That's what I want us to try
to learn this morning. What is the fear of God? In the scripture, the fear of
God is called the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of
wisdom. Any so-called knowledge or wisdom
that I may have that's not founded on the fear of God is a false
knowledge and a false wisdom. What is the fear of God? Now, before I go on, I need to
say what the fear of God is not. The fear of God is not the fear
of punishment. The fear of God is not even the
fear of hell or going to hell. You know, I've heard red-faced,
hellfire, brimstone preachers screaming and scaring people
about the fires of hell. When I was young, I remember
there was a church that had a film they wanted young people to see,
and it showed hell, and everybody was scared, and they would get
all kinds of, quote, decisions. Nobody wants to go to hell. Nobody
wants to go to that awful hot place. That is not the fear of
God. The fear of punishment is not
the fear of God. The fear of loss. I'm afraid if I don't serve God,
I'll lose money or I'll lose my health or I'll take it out
in a coffin. That's not the fear of God. That's the fear of mistrust. That's the fear of unbelief. That comes from really not knowing
who God is. There are a lot of kinds of fears
that are not the fear of God. Now, it was said of the Son of
God, He was heard in that He feared. God the Son feared His
Father. Now, that was not the fear of
mistrust. That was the fear of reverence. That was the fear
of awe with regard to His person. Now, God the Son is equal with
God the Father. He is the second person of the
blessed Trinity, but how He feared His Father, and this was not
a slavish fear of mistrust. This was not the fear of punishment. This was this awe of His Father. Oh, he feared his father. That fear that's called clean
and enduring forever. You see, when God does something
for a sinner, he puts his fear in their heart. The fear of God
is worship. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. That's worship. And let me remind
you, You will only worship an absolute sovereign. I will only
worship a God that I can't manipulate, that I can't control, that I
am in his hands and he can do with me whatever he's pleased
to do. Only that God will I worship.
If I've got a God that I can manipulate or get to respond
to me and he'll do this, if I do that, I will worship that God.
but I will worship an absolute sovereign. Now the fear of the
Lord is the evidence of the new birth, being born again. As a matter of fact, David said
in Psalm 19, the fear of the Lord is clean, spotless, pure,
perfect, enduring forever. It will never stop. It's only
the one who's been born again that has the fear of God in their
heart. Now, to fear Him is to know Him. It's to respect Him. It's to
bow before who He is. It's to rejoice in who He is.
You bow before the God of Scripture. You believe the God of Scripture. You believe God is as He reveals
Himself in His Word, and you fear Him. You respect Him. You have an awe and reverence
for His person. He's the God of glory. I'd like to read you a passage
of scripture from Jeremiah chapter 32, where a promise is made with
regard to the fear of God. This is God speaking, and he
says in verse 38, and they shall be my people, and I will be their
God. There is such a thing as the
people of God. Remember when it was said of
the Lord Jesus, excuse me, in Matthew 1 21, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now God goes on to say in verse
39, and I will give them one heart. and one way. God's people have one heart,
the heart he gives, the heart that loves him. They have one
way, the way of the cross, Christ, the way to the father, that they
may fear me forever. for the good of them and of their
children after them, and I will 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, and they shall not depart
from me." You see, this is the promise of the covenant. God
said, I'll put my fear in their hearts. We read where David, a man after
God's own heart, said that he was devoted to God's fear. And he said, unite my heart to
fear thy name. Now, what is the fear of God?
It's to fear his name. Now, when we're talking about
the name of God, we're not just talking about being able to audibly
articulate his name. His name is the person behind
the name. His name is his character. His
name is his attributes. And this is how a believer responds
to God. They fear, they're in awe at
the majesty of his name. Now, every attribute of God produces
awe in a believer, reverence. And now I realize in a lot of
the religion you see, there's not any reverence. It does not
even look like reverence, but in the truth, in the true fear
of God, there's reverence. His attributes, the person behind
the name, his holiness, His holiness, his otherness, that produces
awe and reverence in a child of God. His absolute justice. He shall not the judge of the
earth do right. Yes, he shall. He's absolutely
just. That produces awe. What about
his absolute sovereignty? Somebody says, well, what does
that mean? That means His will is always done. Nothing can prevent
His will from coming to pass. His will was done in creation
when He created the universe. His will is done in everything
in providence. Everything that happens in time,
He's in control of it. You know, the Lord said, a sparrow
won't fall to the ground without your heavenly Father. And oh,
his will is done in salvation. If you're saved, it's because
he willed you to be saved. And you know what that produces
in a believer? All and reverence, bowing before his sovereignty. What about his eternality? The fact that he never began
to be. He has no beginning, he has no
ending. All you can do is bow. He's glorious. What about His
omnipotence? Whatever He wills, He has the
power to bring to pass because He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He knows all things. He's never
learned anything. He's independent. He has no needs. We're so dependent. He is an
utterly independent being. He's immutable according to the
scriptures. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. We bow before his
immutability, his everything concerning God. The believer
is in awe of. I mean, when I read the Bible,
I better read it with reverence. This is God's Word. I don't read
it flippantly. I'm not reading it as my duty.
This is God's Word. When I mention His name, oh,
may I always do it with reverence and fear because of the glory
of His name. God is a God to be feared. Now, what is the one great indicator
of the fear of God? I can answer that with this one
answer, faith. Faith is the indicator of the
fear of God. Now here's what that means. If I fear God, I am afraid to
look anywhere for acceptance from Him but Christ alone. That's what faith is. Faith is
looking to Christ alone as everything God requires of me. Faith trusts
His righteousness only. Faith trusts His shed blood only
as all that's needed or required to bring me into God's presence.
And if I don't look to Christ only, what I prove by that is
I really have no respect, no reverence, no awe, no fear of
God. If I don't look to Christ only,
if I can't say with Paul, oh, that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness. which is of the
law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith. Now, if I fear God,
I will not dare come into his presence on the footing of my
own merit, my own works, my own religious experience, my own
good deeds. I come only in Christ and know
I can only be heard for Christ's sake. That is the fear of God.
Any other religious activity that's not founded in the fear
of God is filthy rags and nothing more. Foolishness and nothing
more. Now let me give you some scriptures
with regard to this thing of the fear of God. We read in Luke
1 50, his mercy is upon them that fear him. You know, the
evidence that God has given you his mercy is that you fear him. You have this awe and reverence
and respect for his person. And knowing his character, you
can trust him. Whatever is going on, whatever
calamities may be taking place in your personal life or around
the world, knowing God's character, you know that whatever he does
is right, just, holy, and good. That's the fear of God. Psalm
103 verse 11 says, for as the heaven is high above the earth,
so is his mercy toward them that fear him. Psalm 103.13, As a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth. them that fear him. Psalm 103 verse 17, but the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him. Are you someone that fears God?
His mercy toward you is eternal. It was made before creation and
it will last eternally. Psalm 147 verse 11, the Lord
taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in
his mercy. Isaiah 66 too, for to this man
will I look, even to him that's poor. and of a contrite spirit
who trembleth at my word." Psalm 33, 18 says, the eye of the Lord
is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. Psalm 25, verse 14 says, the
secret of the Lord, that's the intimate counsel of the Lord,
is with them that fear him, he will show them his covenant. Psalm 34 9, there is no want
to them that fear him. If you fear him, there's nothing
lacking in you. You're complete in Christ. It
is only those who are complete in Christ that fear him. And
you have no wants. The Lord is your shepherd and
you shall not want anything. I love this verse of scripture.
Psalm 130 verse 4 says, There is forgiveness with thee that
thou mayest be feared. Do you know the only people who
fear God are the forgiven people? And those who are forgiven know
it took the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for their sins to
be forgiven. And they stand in awe at the
way their sins were forgiven. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. Proverbs 19, 23 says, The fear
of the Lord tendeth to life, and he that hath it shall abide
satisfied. You see, the only truly satisfied
people are people who fear God. And here's why they're satisfied.
They're satisfied with the exact same thing God's satisfied with.
God is satisfied with His Son, Jesus Christ. He's satisfied
with His righteousness. He's satisfied with His precious
blood as a sufficient sin payment. Nothing else is needed. Everybody
that fears God finds satisfaction in the same thing God does. The
wise man said in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13, Fear God and keep
His commandments. Now, what does he mean? Does
he mean fear God and keep the Ten Commandments? Well, the fact
of the matter is, my dear friend, that you and I have never kept
the one commandment one time. And if we think we have, we don't
really understand the Ten Commandments or the holiness of God's law.
But this is also true of the believer. In Christ, he has kept
all the commandments. But what he's talking about is
found in 1 John 3, verse 23. This is his commandment, that
we believe on the name of his son and love one another as God
gave us commandment. Every believer keeps those commandments. Fear God. That's the summary
of all true saving religion. Fear God and keep his commandments,
believe the gospel. This is the whole duty of man. Now, I would like to read a very
familiar story from Luke chapter 23, about two men. The thief on the cross, there
began with two thieves on the cross. And when they first went
to the cross, neither one of them had any fear of God. The
scripture says both of the malfactors were railing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They were making fun of him.
They were speaking reproachfully to him. But something happened. And now one begins to fear God. One doesn't. He represents the
natural man. Now one does. He represents the
man that God has saved. Now we read the beginning in
verse 39 of Luke chapter 23. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. He was making fun of Christ,
saying, if you really are who you said you are, you'd come
down, you'd save yourself, and you'd save us. He had no understanding
of the gospel. Verse 40, but the other answering
rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God? This man now had the fear of
God. And I have no doubt that when
he says, Dost thou not fear God? He's not only speaking of God
the Father, he's speaking of that one who is hanging on a
cross beside him. He knew who he was. And this is how he knew all the
other stuff that he's going to say, because he knew who he was. This is God the Son, the God-man
Christ Jesus. Now he says to the other thief,
Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly. For we receive the due reward
of our deeds. We're getting what we deserve.
But this man hath done nothing amiss. Now, how could he know
that about Jesus Christ, that he'd never done anything amiss,
that he'd lived a perfect life? Because he knew who he was, the
God-man. And he said unto Jesus, Lord. He knew Jesus Christ was Lord. Now, nobody else seemed to think
he was. They were making fun of him.
He had blood coming down his face from his hands and feet.
He seemed so helpless on the cross. And I imagine there were
people who snickered when he looked up at him and called him
Lord. But he knew who he was. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Now here's what he knew about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He feared him as God. He knew
he would not stay on the cross, but that he would return as a
mighty reigning king. That means he knew after he was
dead, God would raise him from the dead and he would come as
a mighty reigning king. Lord, Remember me when you come
into your kingdom. There's no way you can fail in
what you're doing because of who you are. Now that, my friends,
is the fear of God. He went to that cross with no
fear of God. When he was nailed to that cross
sometime, he began to fear God. He heard the seven sayings of
the Savior from the cross. He heard the gospel. He heard
the things people were saying about him. and he became a God-fearing
man. He never was before, but he is
now. When the Roman centurion Now
he was used to crucify many people. That was his job. That was the
way the Roman government kept people in check. If you go against
us, you'll be crucified. It kept people afraid. Now this
man had presided over many crucifixions, but when he presided over the
crucifixion of Christ and he saw the earthquake and the rocks
rend and He heard how the Son of God cried out, it is finished. The scripture says regarding
this man, he feared greatly and said, surely this man is the
Son of God. If I ever know who He is, if
you ever know who He is, we will fear Him. And we have this message
on DVD and CD. If you call the church right,
email, we'll send you a copy or you can get it off our website.
This is Todd Kniper praying God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. To receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard,
send a request to todd.neibert at gmail.com or you may write
or call the church at the information provided on the screen.