It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 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 Nyvert. In Luke chapter 12, beginning
in verse 4, the Savior says, And I say unto you, my friends,
and I love the way he calls his disciples, his friends. Every believer is a friend of
Christ, and Christ is the friend of sinners. Isn't that a blessing? He says to his disciples, but
I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will 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." I want to try to speak this morning
on this subject. the fear of God. Now you have to admit that this
is quite an unusual statement that the Lord makes when he says,
fear not them that kill the body, and after that they have no more
that they can do. Now I must say that if I saw
a man running at me with a weapon with the intention of killing
me, I would have some apprehension and fear. But notice what the
Lord says. He says, be not afraid of them
that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they
can do. You see, after that, after death
is eternity. Eternity in heaven, or eternity
in hell. And no man can affect where you
spend eternity. If a man kills you and that's
all he can do, that's really no one to fear. And look what
the Lord goes on to say in verse 5, but I will forewarn you whom
you shall Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to
cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Now the life that we're living
right now is compared in the scriptures to a vapor that appears
for a little while and passes away. It's a life of vanity. It's a life that's so temporary. You may do many things. You may
achieve many things. You may do very little, and it
may be that nobody knows you. But whether you're great in this
world's eyes or insignificant in this world's eyes, it really
makes no difference. This life is a vapor that only
lasts for a little while, and after that, there is eternity. There will be no more time. After
10 trillion years, eternity has not yet begun. And you and I
will spend eternity in one of two places, heaven or hell. Heaven is where Christ is. Heaven is a place of no pain,
no sin, no suffering. Everybody there will be perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ, living in bliss that can't be
explained. They paved the streets of gold
to let us know how unimportant gold is in heaven. That which
we consider so important is so unimportant there. Heaven. No way I can describe it. You
know, people talk about going to heaven and coming back. That's
not happened. I know it happened with one person,
the Apostle Paul, and he didn't know whether it was heaven or
whether it was, he said, I'm not sure whether I was in the
body or out of the body. I don't know. God knows. But
he said, I saw and heard unlawful things, which are not lawful
for a man to utter. So when someone says they've
been to heaven and they came back, they're not going to be
able to describe it. Human words couldn't describe it, but there
is. a heaven. And there is a place called hell. And the Lord Jesus Christ talked
more about it than anybody else. This is not some red-faced, fundamentalist
preacher trying to scare people. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who spoke of hell, a place of torment, a place of loss, a place
where God meets out His justice against sin. You see, God is
just. and he never gives a punishment greater than crime, the crime.
And the people in hell are there because that's where they deserve
to be. God is holy and the fuels of
God's, the fires of hell are fueled by God's holiness and
God's justice. There is a place called heaven
and there is a place called hell. Now don't fear that man who kills
your body and after that, that's all he can do. Our Lord says,
fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. The fear of God. There's little said in our day
concerning the fear of God. It's certainly not the subject
of most of what goes on under the name of preaching in our
day. As a matter of fact, there's a lot said about the love of
God and mercy of God and not really what the scripture teaches,
but there are certain terms used. But I hear very little about
the fear of God. And that's rather strange when
you think how much emphasis the scripture gives to the fear of
God. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7 says,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If I don't fear
God, whatever I know is spurious. It's false. I don't really know
anything if I don't fear the Lord. Proverbs 9, verse 10 says,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If I don't have this
godly fear of the Lord, I do not have a drop of wisdom. I
might be so educated, I might have degrees in everything, philosophy
and science, and still, I have no wisdom if I don't have this
fear of the Lord. Not only is the fear of the Lord
the beginning, it's the conclusion. The wise man said in Ecclesiastes
chapter 12 verse 13, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. The fear of God is the beginning.
The fear of God is the conclusion. And the fear of God is everything
in between. You see, there's no worship of
God without the fear of God. David said, In thy fear will
I worship. There's no serving God without
the fear of God. The scripture says, Serve the
Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Listen to this scripture
in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28, wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. May that be said of what is said
of any true worship service. There's reverence, not a bunch
of foolishness, but reverence and godly fear. Reverence, that
word means caution and apprehension. Holy and reverend, the scripture
says, is thy name. I read the paper last week of
a preacher who was defrocked and then restored. And he was
so thankful that the church had restored him to his position
of pastor. And he said, I love to be called
reverend. Really? Holy and reverend is
His name only. No man is to be referred to as
reverend, to be revered. Holy and reverend is Thy name. He's to be served with reverence
and godly fear. It was said of the Lord Jesus,
In the book of Hebrews concerning his relationship with his father,
he was heard in that he feared. He feared his father. He's equal to his father, but
he feared his father. This is the godly fear spoken
of in the scripture, the reverence and the respect. God the Son feared God the Father. You know, the more you fear,
the more you'll love. And the more you love, the more
you will fear. Without fear, faith turns to
presumption. Without fear, love turns to an
unbecoming familiarity. Without fear, joy is turned to
flippancy. Now what is the fear of God? Because it's a good thing. It's
a holy thing. It's a glorious thing. It's what
every believer has. It's what no unbeliever has. What is the fear of God? Now, I have to ask that question
because there's so many kinds of fears that are evil fears
that have nothing to do with the fear of God, even if they
go under the name of the fear of God. For instance, the fear
of punishment. The fear produced by guilt is
not the fear of God. That's just the fear of consequences,
the fear of punishment, the fear of man, that you're so concerned
about what men think that you conform to what they think. under
religious terms. That's not the fear of God. What
about those Pharisees who believed in Christ, but they wouldn't
confess Him because they loved the praise of men more than the
praise of God? They had an intellectual belief,
but if it cost them anything, they wouldn't stand for it because
they didn't really believe. They were more concerned about
what men think than what God thinks. There's the fear of mistrust,
where you don't trust the Lord. You don't trust what he's doing.
There's the fear of unbelief. There's the fear of the future.
There's the fear of punishment. All these things have nothing
to do with the fear of God. The fear of God is not a slavish
fear. but it's the fear of reverence
and respect. I believe the best way we could
describe it is to call it the awe of God. People use that word so freely. How was the food? Oh, it was
awesome. Awesome? awe-inspiring, it was good, but
I don't know that we should use this word in that way, describing
something as being in awe by it. There's only one word to
be in awe of, and that's God himself. I stand in awe of his independence. He has no needs. He's not worshipped with men's
hands as though he needed anything. He says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. The cattle on a thousand hills
are mine. We are completely dependent on
an utterly independent God. He's self-sufficient. He has
need of nothing because he has all things in himself. I stand
in all of his eternity. He never had a beginning. He
never began to be. And He'll never end. I can't comprehend it. I just
stand in awe. I stand in awe of His sovereignty. That's who He is. He's sovereign. Now that word means God has a
will, God has the power to make His will come to pass, and God
always does make His will come to pass. His will is never thwarted. His will is always done. Whatever happens, God's in control
of it because God is sovereign. I love to think of His sovereignty
in creation when He simply willed this universe into existence. He created something from nothing.
I love to think of His sovereignty in providence, how He controls
everything. Do you know that He's controlling
the thoughts that go through your mind right now, either by
way of mercy or by way of justice? He's controlling every thought
that's going through your mind right now. The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it
whithersoever he will. The lot is cast into the lap,
that's what we think of as luck, but the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. He controls everything in providence,
everything that happens in time, and He's sovereign in salvation. That means He saves whom He's
pleased to save. Salvation is of the Lord. If
you're saved, it's simply because He saved you. Now, if you're
lost, it's your fault. It's your sin. But if you're
saved, it's all His fault. It's because He willed your salvation. We stand in awe of His holiness. Because thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. That's as good a definition as
I know of holiness. Therefore God, even thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Only thou art holy. We are awed by his justice. All sin must and will be punished
because God is just. We're awed by his righteousness. He's always perfectly righteous. We're awed by his wisdom, how
he's made a way to be consistent with his justice and righteousness
and take somebody like me, who in and of myself, I'm nothing
but sin and makes me perfectly righteous, where his law actually
says there's no sin. Only God could do something like
that. His wisdom in making a way to be just and justify the ungodly. We stand in all of his love.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. We stand in awe of forgiveness.
Listen to this scripture from Psalm 130 verse 7. It says, There
is forgiveness with thee that thou mightest be feared. The only person who truly fears
the Lord is the one who's been forgiven. You see, that one who
has not been forgiven resents the Lord. He's got a slavish
fear of the Lord, thinking the Lord requires too much and wondering
what he still needs to do. He has no true fear of God. Let
me give you some differences between the fear of a true child
and the fear of a slave. Slavish fear is no good. Slavish
fear has its roots in the covenant of works. What do I need to do? And there's a resentment and
a mistrust involved. Childlike fear has its roots
in the covenant of grace. Slavish fear is provoked by the
fear of punishment. Sin brings punishment. Childlike fear hate sin because of its God dishonoring
character. Slavish fear is motivated by
hope for reward. Childish fear is not mercenary
like that. It's voluntary and it's not looking
for reward. It's looking for grace. Slavish
fear has at its heart enmity for God. Childlike fear has love
for God as he is. Slavish fear has hard thoughts
of God. Childish fear has high thoughts
of God. Slavish fear hates the punishment
of sin. Childlike fear hates sin because
it's against God. Slavish fear seeks self-preservation
and self-honor. Childlike fear seeks the glory
of God. Slavish fear never produces humility. Childlike fear always produces
humility. That childlike fear always sees
itself as the very chief of sinners. Slavish fear never looks to Christ. Childlike fear always looks to
Christ. Now, not only are we awed or
stand in awe by who he is, if we have the fear of God, We also
fear what he has the power to do, the power to cast into hell. I fear that because I know what
I deserve in and of myself. And if it were not for the gospel,
I would have no hope, but I fear him who after he has killed my
body, has the power to cast me into an eternal hell. Now, evidently,
that's a reason for fear. Somebody says, well, we should
never fear because of that. Well, the Lord tells us to. These
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the fear of God
is seen in our fear of his word, the written word of God. I'd
like to read a passage of scripture to you from Isaiah chapter 66. We read in verse 1, Thus saith
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that you build unto me, and where is the place
of my rest? For all those things have mine hand made, and all
those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will
I look. And he's talking about looking
in favor, and looking in mercy, and looking in grace. To this
man will I look. Even to him that is poor. He doesn't have anything he can
offer me that he thinks could be acceptable. And he's of a
contrite spirit, a crushed spirit, a humbled spirit over his sin. And here's the third description.
He trembles at my word. Now what you and I really think
about God is seen by what we think about what He says in this
book. We don't just say we believe
the Bible is the Word of God, although we do say that, but
we believe what the Bible says. I don't know how many, there's
so many people who would fight for the inspiration of Scripture,
don't pay attention to what it says. And when you show them
something in the Scriptures, they say, oh, I don't believe
that's what it means, or I don't believe it. No, God's people don't do that. They bow before His Word and
they tremble at His Word. They believe what His Word says. It's the fear of the Lord that
makes us afraid of sin. I'm afraid of sin because God
hates it and says He'll punish it. And that's why I'm afraid
of sin. I'm afraid of sin because of
what God says regarding sin. The fear of the Lord causes a
man to be afraid to look anywhere but Christ. He's afraid to look
to his works. He's afraid to look to his efforts
because he knows something about himself and he knows something
about the character of God, and he's afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone for everything. Nothing more, nothing less, and
nothing else but Christ only. That's why Paul said, oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him. When God comes looking
for me, I want to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ so that
all that God sees is Jesus Christ. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of
the law, which amounts to filthy rags, but that which is through
the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of God
by faith. Now this holy godly fear that
every believer has is a product of the regenerating grace of
God the Holy Spirit. I'd like to read a passage of
scripture in Jeremiah chapter 32. God says, 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's where it came from, him
putting it in the heart. You see, no natural man has this
fear. Romans 3.18 says there's no fear of God before their eyes.
But God says, I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall
not depart from me. It's the fear of God that keeps
a believer from departing. Now, I've heard people say, well,
the Old Testament talks about the fear of God, and the New
Testament talks about the love of God. That's foolishness. The
love of God is the fear of God, and the fear of God is the love
of God. Psalm 2514 says, the secret of
the Lord is with them that fear Him. That word secret means intimate
counsel. If you want to know who the Lord
is intimate with, it's those who fear Him. Psalm 33 verse 18 says, The eye
of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope
in His mercy. Now this is what those who fear
Him do. They have hope only in His mercy. If you have hope in anything
that has anything to do with you, it's because you have no
real respect or fear of God. Because if you fear Him, the
only hope you will have is in His mercy. Proverbs 147 verse
11 says, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him. We read
in Psalm 103, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. Proverbs chapter 14 verse 26
says, in the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence. You see, when you fear the Lord,
you fear a great God, an infinite God, an absolute God, a holy
God, a sovereign God, an all-powerful God, an immutable God, and there's
strong confidence in that God. There's strong confidence in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe Whatever He intended
to do, He does. And if He saved you, you are
saved. You have strong confidence in
that. Proverbs 8, 13 says, The fear
of the Lord is to hate evil. If we fear the Lord, we hate
what He hates. Now, the Lord said, Be not afraid
of them that kill the body, and after that they have no more
that they can do. But 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. To request a copy of the sermon
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