The Fear of God.
1 Peter 1:17-19
• The Fear of God is one of the least taught major topics in Christianity.
• No one alive has spent more time studying and writing about the fear of God than my dear friend, Kinney Mitchell.
• It is mentioned more than 45 times in the Bible, the fear of God, the fear of the Lord, and the terror of the Lord.
• Again, it’s a topic found in both the Old and New Testament.
• Our text today is one of those.
• Before I get into the text, I want to share a few things about the Fear of God so when we cover it in our text, we have the foundation to understand more of it.
• Part of our lack of understanding of this major truth is found in the modern day uses of words, compared to how they were used in the original texts.
• There are two Hebrews words used for “Fear”, as in Fear of the Lord.
• Pachad comes at the introduction of God, or the discovery of His will.
• It means the terror of the Lord.
• This is a typical use of this word.
• (2Ch 17:10) And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat.
• Remember, Israel approached Jericho, Rahab said,
(Jos 2:9 …“I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.”
• Yirah, which is used in most places, is the one we most relate to.
• It means to fear, reverence, honor, adore, sort of.
• You can easily look into this if you download ESword and the associated Greek KJV bible.
• We learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalms 111:10.
• We learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7.
• It is so important, no learning or wisdom is beneficial that does not begin with the fear of God.
• The uses of the two words will bear out what Mitchell says about the two types of fear of the Lord.
• One fear will move someone away from God.
• The other fear will move one towards God.
• The wrong fear of the Lord focuses on a sense of unfairness.
• A powerful bully who doesn’t like us.
• The right kind of fear has three components in my simple mind
• First is the Highness and Holiness of God.
(Jas 1:13) Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
• The realization of how high God is creates in us an awe, a complete wonder of how Great God is.
• He is perfect in every way.
• The second aspect of proper fear of God comes in understand of our unworthiness.
• It is partially a biproduct of understanding of how high God is.
• That distance between our lack of perfection and God’s perfection should generate a holy fear.
• The third component of holy fear of God is the understanding of grace.
• Don’t look at grace as a totally different concept than love.
• Think of grace as God’s perfect, unlimited favor wrapped in His perfect, unlimited love.
• That component is so important.
• It bridges the gap between God’s highness and our lowness.
• Jesus bridges the gap between the unimaginable perfection of God to the total unworthiness of mankind.
• I worked on this introduction, using the best of my memory from Mitchell’s seminars.
• I have forgotten as much as I learned.
• But I was startled when I got into the text and saw that outline match our three components to understanding the fear of God.
• God is awesome.
• Let’s look into the text. (Prayer)
1Pe 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
I. Our Review.
• We fear God because our works will be judged.
• This aligns with the highness and holiness of God; the judge.
• You see, that judgment is going to be based upon the holiness of God.
• I am not just speaking of the great white throne judgment.
• For that judgment, we have an advocate who pays for our sins, if we are saved.
• Oh, what a terrible price Jesus paid for our sins.
• That was necessary because of the highness and holiness of the judge.
• There are, in fact, seven major judgments taught in the Bible.
• I will present four of these, and just mention the other three.
1. The first is the Judgment of self.
(1Co 11:28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
(1Co 11:29) For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
(1Co 11:30) For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
(1Co 11:31) For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
(1Co 11:32) But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
2. The second is the temporal judgment of deeds.
• Reaping in this life what our deeds have sown.
(Gal 6:7) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
(Gal 6:8) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
(Gal 6:9) And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
• Hebrews 12 refers this judgment of God the discipline received in this life.
• If you sin as believers, you will get disciplined, because God loves you.
• Self judgment will minimize this. If you judge self, you will not be judged.
• That ties in with 1 John 1:9.
(1Jn 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
• The third judgment also involves the believers.
3. It is the Judgment Seat of Christ, the eternal judgment of believer’s works.
(1Co 3:11) For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
(1Co 3:12) Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
(1Co 3:13) each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
(1Co 3:14) If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
(1Co 3:15) If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
4. The fourth judgment is the Great White Throne Judgment.
• Although it is the judgment of all, it mostly impacts the unbelievers who die
without repentance.
We have an advocate.
(Rev 20:11) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
(Rev 20:12) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
(Rev 20:13) And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
(Rev 20:14) Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
(Rev 20:15) And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
• There is no remedy for not being prepared for this judgment.
• According to the Word of God, there is not excuse.
5. The fifth is the Judgment of Nations.
• This is found in Matthew 25:31-46.
• Some refer to this as the judgment of governments.
• You will not want to be in politics if you are in this judgement.
• God granted politicians and rulers power, but He holds them to a high standard.
6. 6th is the Judgment of Israel. Ezekiel 20:34-35; Zechariah 12:10-15.
7. 7th is the Judgment of Angels.
• The surprising part of this judgment is, we will be the judges.
• 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Jude 1:6-7; 2 Peter 2:4.
• Now, the focus of this point is the high and holy standard, based upon the position of God.
• When we understand this, it gives us a respect, awesome fear of God.
1Pe 1:18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
II. Our Rescue.
• From our futile way.
• From our harmful ways.
• This parallels with our unworthiness.
• We were ransomed with a high price from a terrible life, a horrible condition.
• Ransomed, or redeemed, means purchased.
• If one is being held as a hostage, and someone has to pay for their release, they are ransomed.
• We used to roam my hometown as kids to find coke bottles discarded by careless travelers.
• We would take the bottles, which were trash on the side of the road, and cash them in at the grocery store.
• We got 3 cents per bottle for regular size and 5 cents for large one.
• They were redeemed because they went from trash to serve their purpose.
• I can think of no better illustration of our redemption.
• The amazing thing here is that he redeemed us from our futile ways.
(Eph 4:17) Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
• Foolish ways, futile ways, futility of their minds.
• God has saved us from our unworthiness.
• It speaks to our depravity, and our resistance to holiness.
• We can use the standard verses with a brief explanation.
• Psalms 51:5 is where we start.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
• Why did David say this? Did his mother conceive him from adultery?
• Christians in Israel believe this. At least some do.
• I don’t. First, we are conceived in sin from corrupt seed.
• Inherent sin is passed through the Father.
• Jesus’ contributing Father was God Himself.
• But everyone else born of woman had a sin nature from their father.
• Second, we are inherently flawed.
• We are subject to disease.
• We are limited physically.
• The first cells of life that formed us were flawed.
• They are not perfection.
• Our physical bodies cannot stand before a perfect God.
• So, we are formed sinfully in spirit and in body.
• Then we chose to disobey Him.
• It was, at some time in our lives, standing in our guilt that led us to repentance.
1Pe 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
III. Our Redemption.
• By the blood of Jesus.
• This is the grace of God we need to understand.
• We fear God because we understand the grace that saved us.
• Grace has been much defined, but little explained.
• G.R.A.C.E.
• The unmerited favor of God.
• 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that God’s grace is sufficient for anything we face.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we receive salvation by, or through, grace, by means of faith.
• G.W. Knight, When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day's pay for his time, that is a wage.
• When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize.
• When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award.
• But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award--yet receives such a gift anyway--that is a good picture of God's unmerited favor.
• This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.
• There are two aspects of grace we can understand.
• When we see someone under extreme pressure handle other with gentleness and wisdom, we say they handled it with grace.
• That is human grace.
• Human grace can be seen in the life of any human, although some consider it a weakness.
• The problem with it, as is the problem with all of mankind’s attempts at righteous, is that it falls short of the glory of God.
• It pails in the light of divine grace.
• In divine grace, a perfect Father offered the life of His perfect Son to those who hated Him.
• The Holy Son gave up the most glorious palace and life in Heaven to be born in a stable, to enjoin with mankind, his own creation.
• Jesus taught people, fed people, healed people, loved people who He knew would reject Him.
• He died for all, knowing that only a fraction of those would accept His gift.
• The rejection of His gift meant the rejection of Him as God’s Son.
• And in a moment, after He had been falsely acused, beaten to an inch of His life…
• …had a crown of thorns smashed into His head, nailed to a cross…
• …ridiculed, laughed at, mocked, spat upon…
• …had his beard ripped from his face…
• …and the crowd watched, not in horror, as He was dying..
• They watched in glee.
• They were giddy. Victorious…
• He said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
• That is still not the depth of grace.
• That grace riches to the heights of a Holy, perfect God.
• It reaches down to grab the worst of sinners.
• It spans not only heaven and earth…
• It spans heaven and hell.
• It reaches to the two opposites.
• The high and holiness of God, and the totally unworthiness of every man, woman, boy and girl.
• When we read 18-19 together, we get a fresh picture of grace.
• (1Pe 1:18) knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,
• (1Pe 1:19) but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
• God created all the gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and everything deemed valuable.
• When the price of our souls came up in the counsel rooms in eternity past, God could have offered to make all the precious metals and stones until He had enough to redeem us.
• But our sins are so grievous, if He had, He would have never had enough to redeem one soul.
• Remember, Jesus asked if there was another way.
• He looked across the planning table at His Son.
• “We can redeem mankind if you will go and shed your blood for them.”
• That put the whole plan into action.
• When we consider that, we should raise our fear of God.
• Not the fear that makes one run away from Him, but the kind that makes us run to Him in gratitude, and in complete confidence in the price He paid.
• “…not with perishable things such as silver or gold…”
• Some would tell you that gold, silver, and diamonds are not perishable.
• In February 1980, gold hit a record high, and in record time.
• It looked like there would be no slowing of the rise in price.
• But in 1985, gold was worth 1/3 of that high price.
• Savy people told everyone to buy gold when it was high.
• They sold shorts in the commodities market and then giggled at the dropping price.
• You see, gold didn’t perish, rust or ruin, but the Greek word means to become valueless.
• So what was worth more than all the precious metals and stone God could create?
• “…but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
• There is nothing as precious as the blood of Jesus.
• It represent all the grace and love of God.
• I mentioned Kinney Mitchell at the beginning of this sermon.
• I used to call him when I had a problem I needed to discuss with someone.
• He always said the same thing.
• He would ask, “Do you know what their problem is?”
• I would say, “I’m trying to figure that out.”
• He would respond, “They don’t fear God.”
• I would end up with the same shocking response when I considered myself.
Do I fear God?
