NO LONGER FEARFUL
II CORINTHIANS 5:1-11
Introduction: Dean Martin once said, "Show me a man who doesn’t know the meaning of the word fear, and I’ll show you a dummy who gets beat up a lot." (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 118) We are living in a day in which man has lost his most important sense – the sense of fear.
I. No fear of the Lord
A. II Corinthians 5:11 “Therefore, knowing the terror (fear of the Lord), we persuade men. But we are revealed to God, and I trust also that we are revealed in your consciences.”
B. The fear of the Lord ...“is an awe and reverence of the divine Being, joined with love to him, trust in him, and a desire to serve and worship him in a right manner; no sooner is a man converted, but presently there is in him a fear of offending God, from a principle of love to him; for not a slavish but a filial fear...” – Gill
C. I Peter 2:17 “Fear God” (ton theon phobeisthe). In both senses of reverence and dread, and keep it up (present middle imperative).
D. Fear of God is a strict regard for His will and a recognition of His Holiness , and His indignation over sin.
E. Proverbs 9:10 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
F. Too many are more in love with, or with the conception of God as an amiable being who says, "Oh, well, sin doesn’t matter much God rather than as a holy God.”
G. Habakkuk 1:13 “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity...”
H. In reading the Scriptures, I find a great moral power. Therein I am made aware of two great forces for good in human experience: the "fear" of God and the "grace" of God. Without the fear of God I should not stop at doing evil; the fear of God restrains from evil. Without the grace of God, I should have no desire to approach positive goodness. The one is a deterrent from evil; the other an encouragement to good. – Jim Elliot, The Journals of Jim Elliot Christianity Today, Vol. 31 no. 4
I. "I fear God, and next to God I chiefly fear him who fears Him not." - Saadi
II. No fear of the Lord’s Bema
A. 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to that which he has done, whether good or bad.”
B. Romans 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
C. Church attendance is infected with a malaise of conditional loyalty, which has produced an army of ecclesiastical hitchhikers. The hitchhiker’s thumb says, "You buy the car, pay for repairs and upkeep and insurance, fill the car with gas--and I’ll ride with you. However, if you have an accident, you are on your own! And I’ll probably sue." So it is with the credo of so many of today’s church attendees: "You go to the meetings and serve on the boards and committees, you grapple with the issues and do the work of the church and pay the bills--and I’ll come along for the ride. But if things do not suit me, I’ll complain and probably bail out--my thumb is always out for a better ride." - R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 6.
D. 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 “Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”
E. My greatest thought is my accountability to God. - Daniel Webster
F. After spending months writing his book The French Revolution, Thomas Carlyle took his manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill for his comments. Mill passed the manuscript on to a lady named Mrs. Chapman, who read it by the fireplace on the evening of March 5, 1834. Before she went to bed that night she laid the manuscript on the mantel. Early the next morning the servant girl came to clean the room and to start the fire in the fireplace. Not knowing what the papers were, the servant used the manuscript as fuel to kindle the fire. The work of months was burned up in a matter of seconds. Some Christians spend their entire lives on earth building with wood, hay, and straw. At the judgment seat of Christ, many people’s work will go up in flames. They will be admitted into heaven, but will be saved “as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, p. 85)
G. Matthew 24: 45-47 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods..
H. Donald Grey Barnhouse told a story he read in a London newspaper about a divorce case heard in the courts of that city. A wealthy young man had gone away to war soon after he was married. His new bride wrote him of the demanding schedule she had to keep as a nurse in a certain hospital. Apologizing for her infrequent writing, she explained that she was spending a great deal of time with the wounded. Some months later when the man was scheduled for leave, a friend suggested, “Don’t announce your coming. Slip in quietly.” Arriving in London, the young man went directly to the hospital, but his wife was not there. He then went to their house, where he was told by the servants, “Oh, she will probably be at the tea dance at the Ritz.” Going there, he found her in the company of another man. How shocked and ashamed she was at her husband’s appearing! Our Daily Bread, 9-17-90
I. Matthew 24:42-44 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
III. No fear of the Lord’s chastisement
A. Hebrews 12:5-6 “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
B. Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore, and repent.
C. After the Ananias and Sapphira incident, I wonder how long it took the apostles to realize God was making a point, not stamping a pattern. – Michael E. Phillips in Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 4
D. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 “Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
IV. No fear of the Lord’s Wrath
A. Jeremiah 10:10 “But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.”
B. 2 Chronicles 32:26 Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
C. I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded love, therefore I believe in a loving anger of his, which will and must devour and destroy all that is decayed, monstrous, abortive in the universe. - Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)
D. Walking towards the United Nations Building in New York City, a street evangelist was observed who was trying to get the attention of passers-by. He urged those near him to flee from the wrath to come. "I warn you," he roared, "that there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth!" An old woman in the crowd shouted snidely: "Sir, I have no teeth!" "Lady," the evangelist retorted, "teeth will be provided!" - Matthew Thomas, Jr., Lynchburg, VA. Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."
E. Edwards - How awful are those words, Isaiah 63:3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation.”
F. Matthew 10:27-28 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
