The Fear of God

Transcript

We’ve been thinking about thinking for some time. We’ve been thinking about the kinds of thoughts that Christians think and the kinds of thoughts that unbelievers think. And we’re going to continue that today this morning. And in particular, I want us to be thinking about how we should be thinking about God. A.W. Tozer once wrote, “What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. And I think he’s exactly right. What what we think about when we begin to think about God is probably one of the most important things that tell us who we really are and is one of the most important things and how we are living our life.

So we got on this idea of thinking a couple of months ago. I guess it’s been a while back. When we started looking at Romans chapter 8 and verse 6, the phrase there is for the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. And the two categories there, the mindset of the flesh is the mindset of an unbeliever. And the other category is the mindset of the spirit is the mind that the the mind of a Christian that is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God.

Defining the Fear of God

And so I was what I was thinking about is one of the most important phrases that you come across in the Bible that tells us about how we’re to think about God that runs through both testaments. You find it in the Old Testament. You find it multiple times in the New Testament is the phrase the fear of God. You’re familiar with the verse Job 28:28. Behold the fear of the Lord. that is wisdom and to turn away from evil is understanding. We’ve heard we remember the psalm that says the fear of the Lord is the is wisdom and we and the proverb that says the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge and it is something that is crucial it’s something foundational in Exodus 20 and verse 20 Moses wrote for God has come in in order to test you and in order that the fear of him may remain with you so that you may not sin.

And in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 12, we we read, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him.” So the idea of that passage is is the the fear is one of the basic ideas in that covenant and that covenant relationship with God. So, it’s crucial that we begin to think about what the phrase means.

Now, this shows up in lots of sermons because you come across it a lot. And I was looking through my notes to find the sermon that I preached on the fear of God before. And I think I discovered that I’ve never preached a sermon on the fear of God before. And so, but I have talked talked about it multiple times before and I think that’s true of most preachers. I don’t think you often get a sermon just on this phrase the fear of the Lord and what that means. And one of the things that you do get almost every time when you when anyone is talking about the fear of the Lord is almost always they began by saying it’s really not fear. You know is that what you usually hear? It’s really not fear. The Fear of God is defined as a profound reverence for God that results in a life that is seeking to please God. Well, that’s true. It’s true. But I think it’s secondary. It’s a second step.

The Mindset of the Unbeliever

And so, what I want to do this morning is begin to think about the way an unbeliever thinks about God. Beginning with that, those kinds of thoughts. What is the thoughts of an unbeliever? about God. And when we when we when we go there, we’re going to find that that the unbeliever doesn’t think about God a lot at all. That’s the norm. Unbelievers tend to not think much about God at all. That’s true for an awful lot of people. You You know, I was talking someone with someone this this week and and it you know it just came up and and it and and what I said was it’s it’s typical isn’t it a man goes to work in the morning gets up he he gets ready he’s thinking about his job he goes to work he interacts with the people in his job he tries to do a pretty good job he works all day he comes home he does a few things around the house and then maybe watches television for a couple hours and goes to bed doesn’t think about God at all.

And we occupy our time. People occupy their time and all of us can occupy our time with all kinds of things. If you watch a television show, when was the last television show you watched that had something truly to do with God. And it’s not that it never happens. It does. We heard an example of ana an accidental thing of that because it was based on a novel from the 1800s. But the but you do find examples But boy are they rare. Most of the time when you watch a show or something, you find that there is no reference to God at all. You go through the thing from beginning to end, never have a thought of God.

Same thing is true for just about any magazine that you pick up or the newspaper. Wasn’t always true of newspapers and magazines. Certainly true of just about all newspapers and magazines today. You look at these things, you will never think about God. as long as those things occupying your thought and that’s by design. I mean that’s part of the reason people buy the magazines. People don’t particularly want to think about God and when they do think about God they usually rep push those thoughts aside because there is a kind of fear of God that’s just so so so small. so small as to be called no fear of God at all.

Evidence of Human Depravity

To to see that in the Bible, I I want to read a passage you’re familiar with in Romans chapter 3. And I’m going to read I’m going to read from verse 9 to verse 19. 10 verses here for short. And and let me explain Paul’s argument here. He’s explained that all people basically he’s concluding here that all people of all kinds are guilty before God. Every one of us are sinners before God. He started with pagans who reject God. He moves on to people who have a kind of morality and they’re also condemned before God. And then he looked at the Jew with all the special advantages of the Jew in chapter three. And they do. God has shown them special grace. He’s given them and entrusted them with his very word. He They have experienced great mercy and they have received the law of God. But what about them themselves? The law that they’ve received from God condemns them. That’s his point. They’re found in short falling short in so many ways and so much in need of God’s mercy because they are found to be sinful before God. And that’s what he is doing.

Okay. So in verse n he when he says are we we Jews better? Are we better than the others? And he says not at all for we’ve already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all all under sin. And what he does here next is he starts quoting scripture. He’s this is scripture and he’s quoting scripture. He’s quoting from the Old Testament all of these separate things. And and and so he says it is written There’s none righteous, not even one. There’s none who understands. There’s none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become useless. There’s none who does good. There’s not even one.

I mean, literally, he’s saying when you start looking around and finding the good person and you start counting all the good people that you’re going to ever count, you’re not going to get to one. There’s not one and their throats isn’t here. Here he begins to focus on the individual sinner. And the point is that every aspect of the person is touched by sin in a in a most profound way. Their throat is an open grave. Their tongue with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Remember all of these are Old Testament quotes. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. So that pretty well takes care of your speech, doesn’t it? All those we don’t speak very well, do we? When we we we fall great short and our speech is sinful in its nature.

And then their feet are swift to shed blood. The things that we do and our actions, destruction and misery are in their paths. We ways that lead us into more sin and the paths of peace they’ve not known. And look verse 18. Why is this? Why is the nature of people so sinful? And he says there’s no fear of God before their eyes. That’s the answer. They do not fear God.

The Terrifying Nature of a Holy God

You know my I think when we start thinking about that phrase, the fear of God, which translates an Old Testament word that means fear and when you get to the New Testament passages translates a New Testament Greek word that means fear and it’s translated with an English word that means fear and I think the place to begin is with fear I think that’s the place to begin when we come to understand who God is and his nature and when we understand who we are and our sinfulness We should begin with a serious understanding that we should be in fear of this God. We should be fe in fear of this God. That’s the place of a sinner before God. Do they think that way? Typically, no. Not at all. They don’t think that way at all.

And yet, and yet in the Bible, when people are confronted with God. It’s evident. It’s evident that God can be terrifying. He is terrifying. I’m I’m I have to be careful not to get caught up with too many sidrack things. But that word terrifying is interesting to me. God is terrible. Terrible. We don’t like that phrase, do we? Why? Because we don’t know what the word terrible means anymore. We think that terrible means something unpleasant like Alexander who had a terrible no good very bad day terrible as you know broccoli sprouts something I don’t like is terrible terrible originally the idea of terrible means something that causes terror and I want to tell you God is absolely absolutely capable and it does and should cause terror. Terror.

We don’t tend to think about God that way, do we? We’re kind of encouraged never to think of God that way. But when you read the Old and New Testament, so many times you come across places where that is so clear, so clear because God is not like us. He’s not like another human being. The way we can tend to think about God, God is altogether different. And he’s perfectly infinitely powerful in all that he is. He’s perfectly holy and righteous and pure in all that he is. And to come into his presence, it’s a terrifying thing.

I mean, there’s there’s examples of that. Adam, after he sins, he knows God. He’s been walking with God, enjoying fellowship ship with God. But now he’s sinned. And what is he doing? He’s hiding. Hiding in the garden. He hides from he’s fear. He’s his His his sin has caused him to dread God. The book of Isaiah. Isaiah is given a vision of God, an incredible vision where he sees God. And when he’s confronted with the purity of God. You know the you know the passage, it causes him to say, “Woe is me because I’m a man of unclean lips.” We read about those lips a few moments ago. I’m a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. He was terrified. He he he was totally crushed by the holiness of God.

The Apostle John, and this one is startling. In the New Testament, you have John the Apostle who walked with Jesus all those days. Among Jesus disciples, John was among the closest. He’s called the beloved disciple. John receives a vision. We the it’s a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the book of revelation of Jesus Christ. And as John sees Jesus, as John meets the glorified Jesus, he falls as a dead man before him. It’s like, you know, it’s terrifying to be in the presence of the perfectly righteous Jesus and all that he is, the line of the tribe of Judah, and all of his glory. And he collapses was a dead man before him.

Deuteronomy 7:21, “The Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.” Terrible. That means that he causes terror. Nehemiah 15, the great and terrible God. Psalm 47:2, the Lord most high and terrible. That that psalm is describing the nations trembling before God. Psalm 68:35, “Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places.” Daniel 9:4, “The Lord great and the the great and dreadful God.” We don’t use those language, that language to talk about God anymore. We don’t, you know, God is terrible.

One of the words that we used to use, you can find it in hymns if you go back a hundred years, and you can find it in The Bible, if you look carefully enough for it, is the word awful. We don’t think of God being awful. Why? Because the word awful doesn’t mean awful anymore. The word awful means very bad, something unpleasant, just like terrible. It’s funny how we’ve pushed those words aside so that we don’t know what they mean anymore. But awful means co causing something causing you to be filled with Awe. That’s the idea. And it absolutely is a terrifying thing. If you could grasp anything true about God that is true about God, any aspect of the any of his attributes, no matter which one, you could pick any of them. If to comprehend the one attribute is so overwhelming, so overwhelming, it has to lead us to awe. When you think about the greatness of his power, it has to lead us to incredible awe. He’s way so far beyond us, we can’t comprehend. Can’t comprehend him at all. And to comprehend him should lead us to a frightful terror.

The Consequences of Ignoring God

People aren’t afraid of God. Most people have no fear of God at all. They may be afraid of all kinds of things and they are of course they’re they’re afraid of, you know, they’re they’re they’re afraid of um they’re afraid of other people certainly. It’s why we put locks on our doors, isn’t it? Afraid of people, afraid of all kinds of things, afraid your car might break down on the on the on the interstate. afraid of all sorts of things. Afraid of afraid of the future. Afraid of all kinds of things. But we’re not. We don’t tend to be afraid of God. People don’t tend to be afraid of God. They should be. They absolutely should be. Jesus said that we should not fear those who can kill the body only, but But instead, fear him who after he’s killed has the power to cast into hell. He says, “Fear him.” Fear him. And you know what that word means? It means fear him.

So people don’t think about that God. They don’t live their life with him in mind at all because as long as they don’t have to think much about him, They can live comfortably in their way in their little routine. Getting up in the morning, going to their job, coming home and watching a little TV, maybe doing a few things on the internet they shouldn’t and going to bed and then starting their day tomorrow. As they progress in that, the sin gets worse and worse. That’s why our society is so corrupt today because we live in a godless society where God is banned banned from our educational system. Go to send a kid to school and he’s not allowed to think about God. He’s given no instruction in God. It was not that way when our country was founded. It was exactly the opposite. All education was moral and its instruction, but it was also centered on Jesus Christ and who he is. Look at the founding documents of our major educational institutions that was originally founded, Harvard or Yale or Princeton.

But we live in a godless society where God is not to be thought of. And what does it lead to? Well, it leads to more and more people taking delight sometimes in the fact that they think God is not nothing much. They minimize God. They think they think very little about him. So they become contemptuous and that contempt multiplies and as their mind is controlled by the flesh, it grows. There’s a years this is this stuff is old. What I’m about to tell you is a couple it’s a decade or more old, but a San Diego strip club, a large sign that reads, “We didn’t create sin. We just perfected it.” A TV channel boasted about its adult programming guaranteed to break more commandments than any other lineup.

You know what they think of God? If they think of God at all, they think that God is such a soft person. He’s so He loves everybody. Loves everybody. And he has no standard. There’s no standard. But God has taken the time in his word to tell us what his moral standard is for us. He gives it to us in the Old Testament and all those commandments that teach us how to live before him. Teach us what morality is teach us what the holy standard of God is and he expects us to live to up to it not partially but perfectly. That’s the standard of God. Jesus said be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. That’s the standard.

How do you think about a God like that who is so perfectly holy and who calls us to holy holy iness. There’s internet sites there’s there’s a group of internet sites called the Alibi Network. Have you ever heard of that? They I’m glad you haven’t. They they are set up to to help you have an alibi. when you need it. And they’re very sophisticated. They can give you fake travel documents. They can they set up to make you have this perfect alibi for when you want to spend time doing whatever it is you want to do so that you don’t get caught with it. They will lie for you so that you can commit adultery or whatever else whatever other sin you want to commit. You just contact the Alibi network and pay the feast and you can have a very convincing alibi. But every day these people who don’t think of God at all are creating a debt to God that increases moment by moment and day by day for all their life creating a debt that is incomprehensible. One sin is eternal against God and they multiply sin against sin against sin and they have no fear from the God that they’re offending. No fear of him.

I think the place to begin when we think about the fear of God is to have a big enough understanding of God, the incredibly infinite God that we worship to be able to fear him, to understand who he is. is and to recognize that a day of judgment is coming. And God will bring judgment. He’ll bring judgment. We need it, don’t we? Everybody knows there needs to be justice done when you think about the sinfulness and the wickedness and the things that happen in the world. But what happens if God brings justice on all of us? None of us stand before him. Why? Because every one of us is found in Romans 3:10 to 18. That’s where we began this life. It’s where many of us end this life. We’re all sinners before God. Condemned. Condemned under God is the natural state because of our sin. So we need grace. We need grace.

The Believer’s Transformation

Well, that’s the mindset of the flesh and the fear of God. The contrast with a believer is that they do fear God and that their fear has transformed more like what I was that definition that I read earlier more about reverential awe. But but still with the trembling because God is infinitely great and we are not and he’s infinitely holy. So when we come to the mindset of the spirit we begin you know with a true vision of God by the grace of God. God has confronted us with our sin and given us that vision and we recognize our place. before God.

I remember Jerry Bridges and one of his books was talking about someone had gave him gave him Steven Charox’s books on the attributes of God and he happened to be thinking about and studying the holiness of God at the time. So what did he do? He turned to that section on the holiness of God and he you know he had read Isaiah’s vision that I talked about earlier where Isaiah says, you know, I’m lost from a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean lips when he’s confronted with the holiness of God. Well, as as Bridges reads what Char wrote a couple hundred years ago, as he’s reading that, he’s just brought to his knee is he recognized he’s a he’s a believer. He’s a Christian and he recognized the sinfulness of his life when he when he’s confronted with how incredibly holy God is as Sho begins to explain the holiness of God. He recognizes how far short he falls of that. And so he’s on his knees repenting of his sin. And then finally he gets up and reads some more. And then he’s on his knees again repenting of his sin.

And he says he says that’s a nano experience of what Isaiah experienced. He he he says you know we use he says those words we use he said when you start hearing about computers he says first you heard about micro you know a micro second which is a very small thing and then and then you began to hear about you know as microprocessors and micro seconds and then you heard finally about nanoconds and a nancond is 1 billionth of a second. He says my experience with char was probably 1 billionth of what Isaiah experienced when he got a true vision of what God is like.

You know when we realize what it’s going to be like to be in the presence of God It it should absolutely bring us to a knees and we need that vision. Otherwise, we’ll never be humble before God. We need that vision of God’s holiness. We need that vision of God’s perfection. And then it leads us to our knees, doesn’t it? It causes us to repent, to turn to him, to seek his forgiveness, his righteousness. And it’s then we can begin to see what Christ has done for us. See what the love of God has done for us.

Grace Through Jesus Christ

When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, because of Christ’s perfect work on the cross, because of that perfect work where Christ gave us his righteousness, but first took upon himself our sinfulness, paid that sin debt, took the condemnation that we deserved, paid that debt, that and paid it fully completely satisfying it before the father so that the father is satisfied when he looks at us. He sees no more sin in us because Christ has paid that sin debt. We’ve been reading Romans 8 so many times and a few times we’ve gone back to verse one where it says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means It’s right to fear and understand the awesomeness of God, but you don’t as a believer who is in Jesus Christ. If you’re in Jesus Christ, if you’ve put your trust in him, you’re trusting the sacrifice that he has done in your place and you and God sees you in Christ. If God sees you in Christ, then you don’t have to fear condemnation or judgment or stand before him on that great day because Christ has borne that wrath. You don’t have to be afraid of that ever again. You don’t have to be afraid of God as your judge.

Perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God

So, what is the fear of God for the believer? Let me I’m I’m going to conclude with this, but we’re going to do the Lord’s table this morning, but I I think a good place to to see this is in in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 7. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 in your Bible. See if I can do that. I’m going to read verse one. One here. Verse one of 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. All right. Do you know where you have to begin with this verse with that word therefore? For this reason. For this reason, having these promises. Well, what promises? We’ll look back just a little bit. Look back toward that last part of 2 Corinthians 6. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. This is the covenant promise of God for people who are in Christ. I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from a midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

Well, think about that mighty God who can crush nations, galaxies. It’s nothing. Think about the power of God. And then think about that God being your father and you’re his son. You’re his precious daughter. And he loves you with a mighty love. How differently that power seems, doesn’t it? How how great what a great difference that is when you know he the shepherd’s rod and the shepherd’s staff are a terrifying thing to the one who wants to to invade the sheepfold to steal the sheep. But for the sheep, what comfort they are. The mighty power of God becomes the greatest comfort to us. So sweet. Such a blessed place to be to be in the care of such a loving father.

So because of these promises, because we are like a son, we should be sons and daughters to the such a a great father. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse oursel from all definement of flesh. Put aside all that stuff. You don’t need it. The the things in this world that draw you and those things that happen in your mind, set them aside. God, you don’t need it. Perfecting holiness. Yes. In the fear of the Lord, not fear of his judgment, but just the awesome nature of his presence and to know him. You know why we can do that? We can do that just and only because of what Christ has done for us. Our precious Lord who gave himself on the cross for us. That’s why we can do that. That’s the That’s the change in our relationship with him. That makes all the difference. It makes all the difference.

Communion and Closing Prayer

We celebrate that this morning. And when you come to the Lord’s table, we celebrate what Jesus Christ has done for us to love us with an unfathomable love, a mighty love where he takes his own body and uses his body to pay the sin debt that we owe before God. Has it broken on the cross so that we wouldn’t be broken eternally before God estranged from his presence so that we can have a loving relationship with the father forever and ever. His blood was poured out on the cross to give us life. We celebrate that this morning. I’m going to ask the men to come and I’m going to pray for us and I’m going to ask them as I pray I would like the men to come to so that we can celebrate the Lord’s table, the bread and the cup. If you have trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then it’s your right to share in this table. If not, we would ask that you restrain from the table. Let me pray.

Father, I’m so overwhelmed when I think of your greatness and the infinite power that you have. And Father, when I see myself before you and recognize how undeserving I am, I can but wonder that you you have such a love for us that you would give in such a way to give your only begotten son to see him crushed before you in order to pay her sin debt so that we can call you a father so that we can own you as our as our lord as our father and father we thank you that as we reflect on this that you truly you truly have changed our heart. We want to serve you. We want to think about you. We want to spend our time in worship of you. you because of the preciousness of your great love for us and all that you’ve done for us in Christ.

Father, as we share the table this morning, I pray that this would be a genuine act of thanksgiving on our part to you and that as we take the bread that symbolizes Jesus’ body broken for us, that we would think about the cross. We would think about the a great sacrifice. Not just his body nailed to a cross and all the things he suffered through the Roman hands, but Father, him hanging on that cross for those hours under your condemnation and judgment, bearing the helldeserving sin, paying for the helldeserving sin that we owe. More than anything, we can’t we can’t comprehend that. Can’t comp apprehend it. And Father, as we drink the cup, help us to truly remember the blood that was shed for us, his life being poured out in our place. And Father, as we praise you, we thank you for Jesus’ resurrection life and the life that you’ve given us in the spirit of God. Help us, Lord Jesus, to work worship you as we share this table this morning. Please bless the bread and the cup as we pass it in Jesus name. Amen.