I love the title of that relentless
love. When with the ransomed in glory
his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. I've entitled the message for
this morning I fear God. What does that mean? Joseph's ten brothers had sold
him over 20 years before this event took place. You'll remember
he was 17 years old and they sold him. to be a slave, they
hated him, and now he's nearly 40 years old and they don't know
that through an amazing process of events, by God's grace, Joseph
is now the most powerful man in the world. And if you were
going to have food, it was going to have to come from Joseph.
There was no other source. his 10 brothers have gone down
to buy food not knowing that Joseph was now the head of Egypt. Let's pick up in verse 6 of Genesis
chapter 42, and Joseph was the governor over the land. And he it was that sold to all
the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Now do you remember Joseph's
dream? He told his brethren when he
was just a teenager, I dream that every one of you are going
to be bowing before me. And oh, how they hated that. We're gonna bow before you? That's
why they sold him. Now, Joseph recognizes them. They don't recognize him, but
he knows exactly who they are. And he sees them bowing before
him. Verse seven, and Joseph saw his
brethren and he knew them, but made himself strange under them.
and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, whence
come ye? And they said, from the land of Canaan, to buy food.
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto
them, your spies, to see the nakedness of the land, ye are
come. And they said unto him, nay,
my Lord, but to buy food of thy servants come. We are all one
man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants
are no spies. And he said unto them, Nay, but
to see the nakedness of the land are you come. And they said,
Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land
of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father,
and one is not. Speaking of Joseph, they thought
he was dead. And Joseph said unto them, That is that I spake
unto you saying your spies hereby shall you be proved by the life
of Pharaoh you shall not go forth hence except your youngest brother
come hither." Benjamin. Now remember Benjamin was his
mother's son as well. Rachel only had two children
and how special this young man was to Joseph and he's not letting
him know exactly what he's got in mind but he's saying if you
bring your brother That'll prove you're true. Now remember, they
didn't know as yet who he was. Verse 16, send one of you and
let him fetch your brother and you shall be kept in prison that
your words may be proved whether there be any truth in you or
else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you're spies. And he put
them all together into ward three days. Now they spent three days
in prison. What do you reckon they were
thinking about? What do you reckon they were talking about? Maybe
they'd never had this conversation before, but I dare say they were
saying, it's finally come back on us. What goes around comes
around and this is coming around. We are getting what we deserve
because of the way we did our brother. And they were nervous. They were scared. They didn't
know what was going to take place. Verse 18. Now Joseph appears
unto them again, and Joseph said unto them the third day after
they'd been in prison for three days, this do and live for, I fear God. Now you can bet that this shocked
them. This was not the God of the Egyptians. This is Elohim. That's the word used. That's
the plural of God. The same God that created the
universe, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit. Now they didn't know the fear
of God was there. They assumed nobody believed
Elohim, the God of glory, the God of of the covenant, the God
who created the universe. They just assumed nobody there
believed him. And I'm sure they were shocked
when Joseph came to them and said, I fear God. The difference between me, Joseph
is saying, and everybody else in Egypt is that I fear God. In Exodus chapter 11, some 400
years later, Moses will say through the inspiration
of God, against the children of Israel shall not a dog move
his tongue, against man or beast that you may know how that the
Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Now, this is what Paul quotes
in first Corinthians chapter four, verse seven, when he says,
who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have
that you didn't receive? Now, if you differ from another,
I know who made you to differ. God did. Elohim. I love the way God is called
God in the plural. God, the father. God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. God made you to differ in eternal
election when he chose you before time began. God the Son made
you to differ when he bore your sins on Calvary's tree and put
them away and gave you his righteousness. God the Holy Spirit made you
to differ in that he gave you a heart that was not there before
that loves and fears God. Now God made you to differ, and
you know what that difference is? It can be summarized by this. The fear of God. The fear of God, the believer
fears God. The unbeliever has no fear of
God. Turn with me, hold your finger
there in Genesis 42 and turn with me for a moment to Romans
chapter three. Romans chapter three. Verse 10, as it's written, where would we be without a written
revelation? We'd be in trouble, wouldn't we? Thank God for the
written revelation. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seek it after God. They're all gone out
of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that do it good.
No, not one. You know, that's talking about
you, me. There's none that do it good
verse. 13, their throat is an open sepulcher,
with their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of asps is
under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery in their ways, and the way of
peace, have they not known? There's no fear of God before
their eyes. This is the description of every
one of us by nature. We're born into this world with
no fear of God. And Joseph says to these people,
I fear God. That's what distinguishes me. I fear God, the fear of God. The scripture calls the fear
of God, the beginning of knowledge. The scripture calls the fear
of God, the beginning of wisdom, any knowledge or wisdom that
I may think I have that is not founded in the fear of God. is a false knowledge and a false
wisdom. Now, before I go on, I wanna
talk about what the fear of God is not. And that's very important. I wanna talk about what the fear
of God is not. It's not the fear of hell. Now, if there's one kind of,
there's a lot of kind of, any kind of preaching that's not
gospel preaching, I hate. Amen. You believe that? Any kind of preaching that's
not gospel preaching, I hate. I'll tell you what, I hate it
when preachers use what they call hellfire and brimstone preaching
to try to scare people into the kingdom of heaven. You know,
when I was growing up, there was actually a film going around
where they'd show kids that would talk about hell and describe
hell. Man, everybody got saved that
night. You know, I don't want to go there. That's not salvation,
and you never scare anybody into the kingdom of heaven by scaring
them about hell. Now, that's not denying the reality
of hell. There is a place called hell.
And the Lord said this. He said, fear not them that are
able to kill the body, and after that, that's all they can do.
I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. Fear him who after
he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto
you, fear him. Hell is real. But the fear of
hell never caused anyone to truly believe the gospel. Might have
scared them. Might have talked them into some
kind of religious experience. The fear of punishment. The fear
of mistrust. The fear of having no control.
You know, that's the biggest illusion there is anyway. Somebody
says, I'm not somebody that's a control freak. You don't have
any control. Why would you be a freak about it? You have no
control. The fear of being exposed, the
fear of humiliation, the fear of loss is not the fear of God. That's just the fear of mistrust.
That's all it is. You don't trust him and you're
afraid of circumstances. That's not the fear of God. You
know, people, um, Talked about, say, back in the
50s and 60s, where there were more good, God-fearing men and
women. And I think about my, when I
grew up, things were more moral. They really were. They were more
moral. All the stuff that's talked about
in the papers all the time, I'd never even heard of it. I mean,
this stuff is new. But were those people back then
more God-fearing? No. No. The fear of God is the worship
of God. The fear of God is, is being given a heart to fear him.
Only the believer fears God. Everybody that knows God fears
him. Those who do not know him have no true fear of God. What is the fear of God? Let
me read a passage from second Kings chapter 17. I'd like you
to turn there if you would. 2 Kings chapter 17. This kind
of represents what men think of as the fear of God. Beginning
in verse 24. 2 Kings 17 beginning in verse
24. This is after the children of
Israel have been carried off into Babylon. Verse 24. And the king of Assyria Brought
men from Babylon and from Kuthath and from Avon from Hamath and
from Sepharavim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead
of the children of Israel. Now this is where the Samaritans
come from that we read of in the New Testament that everybody
despised. The Pharisees despised these
people. Here's their history. Here's where they come from.
The Samaritans. Verse 25. And it was so at the
beginning of their dwelling there, these people that the King of
Babylon had placed there in Jerusalem, because the children of Israel
had been taken away. And it was at the beginning of
their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord. They had
no fear of God. They didn't know who he was.
Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of
them. Now that's going to get my attention.
Lions all over the place. Uh, what are we going to do about
this? They were concerned now. They didn't have any fear of
God, but they were afraid of those lines. I would be too. You ever heard a lion roar? Verse 26, wherefore they spake
to the King of Assyria saying the nations, which thou has removed
and plates in the cities of Samaria, no, not the manner of the God
of the land. Therefore, he hath, he has sent lions among them
and behold, they slave him because they know not the manner of the
God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded saying,
carry. Did there one of the priests whom he brought from Vince and
let them go and dwell there and let him teach them the manner
of the God of the land. Now, what they're saying is you
get a Levitical priest and bring him back here and let him teach
everybody how to live. And that way we can avoid these
lines. Verse 28, then one of the priests
whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel
and taught them how they should fear the Lord. How be it, every nation made
gods of their own, even though they had this priest teaching
them the fear of the Lord, how be it every nation made gods
of their own, gods of their own imagination. gods of their own
making and put them in the houses of the high places, which the
Samaritans had made and every nation in their cities, wherein
they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made Succoth, Benoth and the
men of Kuth and Nergal and men of Haman, Ashema and all these
different names. Verse 32, look at this. So they
feared the Lord and Made unto themselves of the lowest
of them priests of the high praises would sacrifice for him in the
houses of the high places. They feared the Lord and serve
their own gods. Was that the fear of the Lord?
Look at the last verse. So these nations feared the Lord
and serve their graven images. both their children and their
children's as did their fathers. So do they to this day. Now that would be an example
of men's religion. Yeah, we say we fear the Lord,
but we don't really fear him because we worship gods that
are not him. False imaginations of God. We
join them together. This will keep us from getting
eaten by lions. Their fear was not the fear of God, but the
fear of bad circumstances. That would illustrate men's religion,
wouldn't it? Yeah, we fear the Lord. We want
to get out of this thing of lions eating us. That is the motive
behind this kind of fear. Now, the fear of God is the fear,
the awe, the reverence, the respect toward him. It's not a fear of
punishment. It's not a fear of bad circumstances. It's not a
fear that, well, if I don't serve God, I'll wreck, I'll lose all
my money, I'll get sick. That's not the fear of God. That's
a mistrust of God. The fear of God is the reverence
for him for who he is. I love the disciples reaction
when they saw the Lord rebuke the winds and the storm and suddenly
there was a great calm and the scripture says they feared greatly. saying, what manner of man is
this that even the winds and the sea do obey him? The fear of God is the response
to seeing who he is. You know, the son of God had
the fear of God. Hebrews chapter 5 says He was
heard and that He feared. Now He wasn't afraid of bad circumstances. I mean He came to go to the cross.
He feared this thing of being made sin. There's no doubt about
that and the thought of being forsaken by God. But I love the
way the scripture says with regard to Him, He was heard and that
He feared. that fear of which the psalmist
said in Psalm 19, the fear of God is clean. You see, the fear
of God is the new heart. The fear of God is being born
again. People who have been born again, you know what they do?
They fear God. They have a great respect and
awe for the Living God. They have a reverence for his
person. This is the fear of the new birth. It's worship. Here's an example
of the fear of God. There was a Syro-Phoenician woman
and her daughter or son, I can't remember,
which are demon possessed. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Now,
son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. You know what the scripture says?
He answered her, not a word. Did she give up? Did she get
angry? Did she say, well, this is not
fair. I mean, I've asked him. Isn't he gonna answer me? No,
she continued to cry. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou
Son of David. And you know what he replied
to her? Listen real carefully. He said, it's not right. He said,
I've not come, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know what that means? I've
only come for the elect. I have only come for the elect. That's exactly what that means.
The lost sheep of the house of Israel, the elect. What did she
do then? Did she get mad and say, well,
what's the point in me doing anything? He's turning me away.
You know what the scripture says? Then came she and worshiped him. Now you will only worship an
absolute sovereign that you cannot control. You will worship and
you will fear him. And I'm not talking about the
fear of mistrust. You will only, now understand
this. This is true of me, this is true
of you. If we can manipulate God, if we can get him to respond
to us because of something we do, we'll never worship him.
You'll only worship a God in whose hand you are and he can
do with you whatever he's pleased to do. That is worship. That is fear, the fear of God. Turn with me to Jeremiah 32 for
just a moment. I'd like you to read this as
well. Jeremiah 32 beginning in verse 38, God is speaking. And he says
in verse 38, and they should be my people and I will be their
God. And I will give them one heart
and one way 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. that they shall not depart from
me. No natural man has the fear of
God, but when God puts it in your heart, it's there and you
won't depart because of the fear of God. Now this fear, let me
repeat, this is not just a phrase that's going to smash me if I
do. It's an all of who he is. His otherness, his utter otherness. He's unlike anything in this
world. He's the God of glory and there's
a fear and a respect and an awe of his person. David, the man
after God's own heart said, I'm devoted to your fear. He said, unite my heart to fear
thy name. Now listen real carefully. His
name, unite my heart to fear thy name. His name is his attributes. The person behind the name. It's
not just articulating the name. The name of God is His holiness,
His otherness. The name of God is His justice. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of Thy throne. Absolute justice. The name of
God is His immutability. He can't change. The name of
God is His independence. He has no needs. He doesn't need
me or you. The name of God is his omnipotence. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? The name of God is his eternity.
He never began to be. He'll never end. The name of God is his omnipresence. You can't go anywhere where he's
not. The name of God is his omniscience. He's never learned anything.
He knows everything. The name of God. is majestic. We fear his name,
don't we? We stand in awe at the glory
of his person. You know, when I read the Bible,
I better do so with the fear of God. When I even use his name. There's a realization that every
time I even use his name, I'm taking it in vain because I'm
not showing the proper reference to it. Oh, let me be found in
Christ. The name of the Lord, the fear of his name. Now, the one great indicator
of fearing God is faith. Faith in Christ. That's the one indication of
the fear of God. If you have this fear of God,
now remember, I'm not talking about the fear of hell. I'm not
talking about the fear of circumstances where I'm gonna get in trouble
if this happens. I'm talking about the fear of God. If you
have the true fear of God, you are afraid to look anywhere but
Christ alone. That is the fear of God. You don't want to stand before
Him on your own, in your own righteousness, in your own merits.
You want to be found in Christ. That is the fear of God. Your continual greatest desire
is, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him, so that
when God looks at me, all he sees is Christ. And if I don't
have that in my heart, it's because I don't have any respect or fear
for God. I don't really know who he is.
If I know who he is, I'll know that I only want to be found
in Christ. You know, somebody, Doesn't look to Christ alone
because they don't know who God is. They're ignorant of God. Paul said, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They're
very religious, but not according to knowledge. Ignorance of God
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. What do they do?
They go back to establish their own righteousness. They've not
submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Now, the fear of God
is a state of blessedness. Do you believe that? The fear
of God is a state of blessedness. That means God has blessed you.
Luke 1 50, his mercy is upon them that fear him. That's the
evidence that he's had mercy on you. You fear him. Your fear
was not the cause of his mercy. His mercy is the cause of your
fear. 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
verse 11 for as the earth, as the heaven or, uh, as a father
pity at his children. So the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. Psalm 147, 11, the Lord taketh
pleasure. Do you hear that? The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, them that hope in his mercy. Isaiah 66, verse
two says, for to this man will I look, even to him that's poor
and of a contrite spirit who trembles at my word. Psalm 33, 18, the eye of the
Lord is upon them that fear him. Upon them that hope in his mercy. Psalm 25, 14 says the secret
of the Lord. The secret of the Lord. I love
that. The intimate counsel, the secret
of the Lord that you won't know unless he makes it known. The
secret of the Lord. is with them that fear Him. He will show them His covenant. Psalm 34 verse nine says, there's
no want to them that fear Him. The Lord's my shepherd. I shall
not want. Listen to this scripture. Psalm
130 verse four, there is forgiveness with thee. that thou mayest be
feared. You know who fears God? Someone
who sees that the complete forgiveness of sins comes to them through
Christ. And that makes them fear this
reverence, this respect, this awe of God that he's made a way
to be just and justify me and forgive all my sins for Christ's
sake. You know what the response to
that is? Fear. reverence, awe, respect. Proverbs 19 verse 23 says, The
fear of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall abide
satisfied. You know the only truly satisfied
people are people who fear God. You know what they're satisfied
with? They're satisfied with what God
is satisfied with. What is God satisfied with? His
Son, His precious blood, His perfect righteousness. God is
satisfied with His Son. I am too. I find complete satisfaction
in what God is satisfied with. It's only the fear of the Lord
that may enable somebody to see that. And they are satisfied. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse
13 says, fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole
duty of man. You want to know what your duty
is? Fear God. Keep his commandments. Believe the gospel. First Peter
three 15 says, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always
be ready to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason
for the hope that's in you with meekness and with fear. That ought to be something that's
apparent in every one of us. Meekness and fear. I can give
you the reason for the hope that's in me. Christ is all. Turn with me to Luke chapter
23. Now we know that the two men
that were crucified with Christ are two representative men. I
love the way the Bible always gives two representative men.
It makes things simple. One or the other. And when these
two men were initially nailed to the cross, both of them were
spewing out venom against Christ. If you're the Christ, save yourself
and us. Prove it. Get us off here. If there's anything to you, you
can save us. The scripture says both the malefactors
railed at him. But something amazing happened. Look in verse 39. And one of the malefactors, now
it began with both of them, but now it's just one. The others
groaned silent. Now, instead of hearing two people
bark out against Christ, you only hear one. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked him,
saying, Dost thou not fear God? Now he had something he'd never
had before. The fear of God. The beginning of wisdom, the
beginning of knowledge. He now knew that Jesus Christ
is God, God, the son. When he was saying, don't you
fear God, he is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, the son
of God, the creator. Don't you 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 exactly what we deserve, but this man
hath done nothing amiss. He understood that Jesus Christ
never sinned. How would he have known? Same
way you and I know, revelation. He had revealed to him who Jesus
Christ is. He's God. We're getting exactly
what we deserve. You didn't hear him calling into
question God's fairness. We're getting exactly what we
deserve. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. Let's go on reading. And he said unto Jesus, Lord. He saw this man hanging
on a cross where you couldn't even recognize his face with
the blood coming down, mangled and bruised and crushed. And
he says, Lord. He's the Lord. Now that's the fear of God, seeing
that Jesus Christ is Lord. And what does he say? Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. He knew he wouldn't stay on the
cross. He knew he would return as a mighty reigning Lord. He
knew that he must be successful in whatever he did. Somebody
says, well, how did, how could he know that? Because he knew
who he was. That's why he's God. He's to be feared. He's done
nothing amiss. He's going to come down from
the cross and be buried, but he's going to be raised from
the dead. He's going to come back as a mighty reigning king. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. That is the fear of God. You remember the Roman centurion.
Rome had such power because of the crucifixion. They kept people
afraid because, man, if you go against us, you're going to be
nailed to a cross. And they kept people in check because of that.
That's the way they killed people. That's the way they punished
enemies of the government, enemies of the state. And this Roman
centurion, he presided over many crucifixions. And when Christ
was crucified, it was business as usual. I've got somebody else
to crucify. We're doing this for the government. But when
he saw the earthquake, And the rocks rent when he heard Christ
cry out the way he did. It is finished, the scripture
says. He feared greatly, saying, surely
this is the Son of God. Our fear of God is most clearly
expressed by our answer to this question. What think ye of Christ? That's the only issue. What think
ye of Christ? What do you think of him as the
Christ that's God's prophet, God's priest, God's king? Whose
son is he? He's the son of God. How God views me and you is seen
in how we view his son. That is the fear of God. And may we all cry with David,
oh Lord, unite my heart. to fear thy name. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the high and
the holy name of your son, your blessed son, the son that
you love. We ask in his name, by thy spirit,
thou will unite our hearts to fear thy name and to look to
thy son only as our everything in your salvation. Bless your
word for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.