THE FEAR OF GOD

"THE FEAR OF GOD"

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been driving down the road and read a bumper sticker that said: "Ain’t Skeered," or "No Fear." And each time I see it I think the same thing: stupid! While the rest of the world thinks its tough and manly to go around parading as a person who fears nothing, Scripture portrays that person as a fool. Because, quite frankly, there are some things that should produce fear in us. Like the possibility of one of these horrible Louisville drivers slamming into you in the freeway when the roads are wet. (Lord knows Louisville people can’t drive!!) Or the possibility of a criminal breaking into your house and harming your wife or children. Like one of your little ones accidentally running out in the street and being hit by a car, or being snatched by a kidnapper walking home from School. And oh, by the way, an intelligent person will have a healthy fear of GOD!

When I survey the moral landscape of contemporary society, I am driven time after time to the same conclusion: "There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom. 3:18). Now, Christians reading this are probably sitting back right now in a most pious fashion and saying to themselves: "that’s right; there is no fear of God before their eyes." But if you are like 99% of all other Christians out there, unfortunately you don’t fear God either. In fact, when I survey the broad landscape of contemporary Christianity, I sickeningly see the same thing that I see in the non-believing world: "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Some of you are seething mad right now at me, saying "how dare you tell me I don’t fear God!" Well I’ll tell you why I dare. For starters, the divorce rate within the Christian community is scarcely less than that of the non-believing community. Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? There are scarcely less cases of adultery in the Christian community than there are in the non-believing community! Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? There are scarcely less cases of abortion within the Christian community than there are in the non-believing community. Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? There is just as much bickering in our churches as within the non-believing community - and over stupider things! Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? The vast majority of Christians are no more than pew warmers; and those who do take church involvement seriously are more concerned with their own personal recognition than they are about self-sacrificial service solely for the glory God. Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? Scarcely one in ten Christians have a regular prayer time. Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God. Still less have a regular time for devotion to the Scriptures. Does this demonstrate a healthy fear of God? Every day you hear about more and more pastors and music directors who have made shipwreck of the faith though sexual infidelity, destroying their own families and causing un-repairable damage to some poor, unsuspecting congregation, with the inevitable result of tarnishing the credibility of the churches witness within the world! Now I ask you, does this really demonstrate a healthy fear of God!? The obvious answer is no, No and NO! Everywhere you look Christians have "trampled under foot the Son of God, and have regarded as an unclean thing the blood of the covenant. . ." (Heb. 10:29). I could go on and on, piling up example after heart-wrenching example of the dreadful lack of a healthy fear of God in our churches. This ought to cause us to fall on our faces to repent in dust and ashes!! And if we are truly concerned about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that’s exactly what we will do.

I don’t lay all of the fault on the people for this horrible deficiency that has robbed Christiandom of it’s power. In fact, I lay the great bulk of the blame upon pastors who fear God so little themselves that they have failed to faithfully teach others to fear Him. If and when you do hear of the fear of God from the pulpit, it is quickly followed by some stupid explanation about how if your a Christian you don’t need to fear God anymore. And in the extremely rare cases where preachers don’t do this, they almost always reduce the fear of God to what they like to call "reverential awe." It’s high time we had a serious discussion about what it really means to fear God. So what do I mean when I use the phrase: "The Fear of God?"

To begin with, let me say that there is a sense of reverential awe in the fear of God, but to reduce it to that is to leave it sadly anemic. The essence of what it means to fear God is that you truly fear Him - and that with a real fear. Look at what happened to Daniel when he was confronted with a divine visitor: "I was left alone and saw this great vision; yet no strength was left in me, for my natural color turned to a deathly pallor, and I retained no strength. But I heard the sound of his words; and as soon as I heard the sound of his wards, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. . .And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who was standing before me, ‘O my lord, as a result of the vision anguish has come upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can such a servant of my lord talk with such as my lord? As for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me" (Dan. 10:9-17). Now, I ask you, what is it that Daniel is experiencing here? Is this simply reverential awe? No, no, a thousand times, no! This is a real fear, a paralyzing fear. Shear terror had gripped the very soul of Daniel. He was reduced to a quivering lump of flesh. He fell prostrate to the ground, trembling uncontrollably and the very breath within his breast was stolen from him!! This is a man who was almost literally scared to death! And Isaiah’s response to a heavenly visitor in (Isa. 6) is scarcely less powerful, as he is forced to cry out "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." There is room for reverential awe in the fear of God, but we must also recover this lost element of real fear.

Christian, if you want to take your walk with Christ to a new level, I urge you to embrace this fear of the Lord. Pray for it. Labor to get hold of it and make it part of you. John Bunyan, in his excellent book, ‘The Fear of God’ writes: "The fear of God is called ‘God’s Treasure," for it is one of His choice jewels; it is one of the rarities of heaven. "The fear of the Lord is His treasure" (Isa. 33:6). And it may well go under such a title, for like treasure, the fear of the Lord is not found in every corner. ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes,’ that is, the greatest part of men are utterly destitute of this goodly jewel, this treasure, the fear of the Lord. When poor vagrants come straggling to some lords house, they may perhaps obtain some scraps and fragments; they may also obtain old shoes and some sorry, cast-off rags, but they do not get any of his jewels. They may not touch his choicest treasure, for that is kept for the children and those who shall be his heirs. We may say the same also of this blessed grace of fear, which is here called ‘God’s Treasure.’ It is only bestowed upon the elect, the heirs and children of the promise; all others are destitute of it, and so continue to death and judgment" (pg. 68).

We shouldn’t think, however, that just because we are amongst God’s elect, that we automatically possess the fear of God. The catalogue of miscarriages cited in the third paragraph of this treatment proves that the greatest part even of the church does not possess this fear of God. It is something we must labor for, pray for, and work toward. It is un-natural to the human heart to fear God and therefore, it is not achieved without much effort. Take a look at your life, your walk with God. Does it manifest signs of the fear of God? John Bunyan again says: "Sinner, do not deceive yourself; if you are a stranger to sound repentance, which stands in sorrow and shame before God for sin, and also in turning from it, you have no fear of God. You have none of this godly fear, for that is the fruit of and flows from sound repentance" (pg. 78). Although these last two sentences are addressed primarily to non-Christians, it is more than fitting that Christians take these words to heart as well. The Christian church today lives in a manifestly unrepentant condition with regard to sin. It would not be too strong a suggestion to urge upon the vast majority of Christians to "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! (2 Cor. 13:5).

Christian, where are you today with regard to your walk with Christ? How goes it with your soul? Do you live in manifest unrepentant sin? If so, you have no fear of God in you. You are in a dangerous position. Your very salvation stands in question. Fall to your knees and repent before the very God at whose judgment bar every man shall stand with every thought, every deed, every intention of his heart "laid open and bare before the face of Him with whom we have to do."

Allow me to quote John Bunyan once more as I bring this treatment to a close. He writes: "Truely to fear, and to abound in this fear, is a sign of a very princely spirit; and the reason is that when I greatly fear my God I am above the fear of all others, nor can anything in this world, be it ever so terrible and dreadful, move me at all to fear them. And hence it is that Christ counsels us to fear: ‘And 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 ye shall fear: fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him’ (Lk. 12:4-5). Indeed, this true fear of God sets a man above all the world; and therefore it is said again, ‘Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread’" (Isa. 8:12-13). Christian, if we would be all that we can be for the glory of God, if we would have all the blessings God would bestow upon us, if we would draw as close to God as is humanly possible, we MUST cultivate and take seriously this tragically overlooked principle of the fear of the Lord. Study it with all your mental powers, pray for it with buckets full of tears, pursue it with relentless tenacity, sell whatever you must to gain it, give up whatever stands in your way of embracing it, seek for it as for buried treasure and never, never, never leave off your mission until you have found and possessed this priceless treasure, this grace of all graces, the scarcest of all Christian posessions, the rare jewel of the fear of God.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shane Morgan