“The fear of God” for today.
By Andrew Chan, PBC, Vancouver, BC
13 Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
Eccl. 12:13,14 (NLT)
“Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person.” This is not something you hear everyday on the streets. It sure is not a popular thing to say. Fear is more likely a response to perceived threat such as bad guys, criminals who want to do u harm. So we buy alarms for cars, homes, fear of breaking in. Fear is negative in most of our experience. I sense that because of that negative perception re: fear it is also not something you’ll hear everyday in church either. So “the fear of God” is something that gets very little coverage. You’ll hear more about “love God” and that kind of stuff but seldom do u hear “fear God”, including myself, cos I rather focus on what’s good. I don’t like the hell and brimstone stuff, it sounds too scary and too hot to handle, and that is why I choose Christ in my life cos’ that will get me to heaven, not hell.
But can fear be positive too? These days people pay to have this feeling of fear. This summer all across the world, millions of dollars are spent by people to have a fearful experience - Jurassic Park 3 (over $80 million just last week) and Planet of the Apes plus all the rides in Amusement Parks. There is fun involved here. That is the main pt. Of today’s message for people who know Jesus Christ, who have trusted God for salvation, the fear of God is a positive experience, as the price of admission to God’s holy heaven is paid for. Judgment day brings no fear. But to people who reject Christ, the fear of God is negative. I think that is why some people avoid the topic because they know they don’t have things right with God. I think that is why the author of Eccl. At last came to this final conclusion, it cannot be avoided, he has pursued pleasure, living for the moment, everything he pleases, in the end of his life, he says all is meaningless… And one day we’ll all face God and every pursuit to make life interesting is meaningless in front of the Creator… So he cautions 12:1 “Remember your creator in the days of your youth” for if there is a God, and there is, then they will be an accounting for everything we have done… so live then in the “fear of God” is the cry of the Eccl. Writer.
What does the Bible mean to fear God? Be afraid, be very afraid? So that you don’t dare to anything? Parable of Talents (Matt.25:25)… what was the outcome? The guy who did nothing with his one talent cos he “feared” the big boss was the one who got tossed out. So it does not mean be frozen in fear, right? In fact, faith, like our physical bodies, need a good work out if we want our bodies to be good, work it out with “fear and trembling” (Phil.2:12).
Somehow the Bible expects people to be fearful of God. But did not God command us to love Him with all hearts soul and mind? So how can love and fear co-exist at the same time, doesn’t seem to go together, right? To be sure, the Bible does speak about fearing God. So then, how does fear and love really go together? Or is this an archaic phrase that does not belong to our time, maybe a more appropriate phrase could be used, something more politically correct? And if it is still true how can this be applied for today?
I. Why is the “fear of God” a relevant truth for today’s Christians.
1. People who DISOBEY God are described as being NON-FEARERS OF GOD.
In describing people who do not seek God, who are under sin:
Romans 3:10-18 (NIV) clearly says: “There is no one righteous, not even one; …no one who seeks God. All have turned away…There is NO FEAR OF GOD before their eyes.”
Live with a brazen attitude, they foolishly believe that God is helpless to destroy them.
Implication: People who do not pursue God have no fear of God. This means people who seek God have the fear of God. Believers are ones who know God has power! Relevance: Christians do not have an in your face attitude, but humbly acknowledge there is a greater Power!
2. Even in the FUTURE, IN HEAVEN the fear of God IS THERE.
“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages. WHO WILL NOT FEAR YOU, O LORD, and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Rev.15:3-4 (NIV)
This text begins in Rev.15:1 “I saw in heaven…” What the writer saw was the people who have become overcomers – defeated the beast and are singing the Song of Moses and Song of the Lamb, i.e. victory song! Even in heaven – fear of God will continue.
Implication: In eternity future when we see God face to face, and this fear of Him will not be removed. In fact, it will be magnified, it will be cause for praise and worship in song/celebration.
Relevance: Christians from all over, with multi-cultural praise and worship will continue in humble adoration before a magnificent holy and Almighty God.
3. The fear of God is where BELIEVERS gain TRUE KNOWLEDGE of the Creator
In the OT, believers are said to have gained knowledge by recognizing the fear of the Lord so much so that in the Wisdom literature, they are described in the following:
7 Fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Only fools despise wisdom and discipline. Prov.1:7 (NLT)
26 Those who fear the LORD are secure; he will be a place of refuge for their children.27 Fear of the LORD is a life-giving fountain; it offers escape from the snares of death. Prov.14:26-27 (NLT)
Implication: To know God is to respect the Manufacturer’s specifications, to despise it, will cause irreparable damage. Relevance: Life is preserved when one sees faith in God as not a restriction but a true enjoyment of life.
4. The new covenant believers, are those who will FEAR GOD.
Some argue that’s the OT way, not the NT. We have in Christ today a buddy. The Bible, in describing the new covenant believers, said that the new covenant folks will fear Him:
38‘They shall be My people, and I will be their God; 39‘then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may FEAR ME forever, for the good of them and their children after them. 40‘And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put MY FEAR in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. 41‘Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.’ Jeremiah 32:38-41 (NKJV)
Peter describes Christians in 1 Peter 1:17 (NIV) as people who should “live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” When Paul speaks of submission to one another out of reverence to Christ in Eph.5:21 the word “reverence” is translated from same Gk. Word for “fear”.
Hebrews 12:28-29 (NLT) noted that the new covenant in Christ does not negate the fear of the Lord:
“28 Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with HOLY FEAR AND AWE. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.”
Implication: God is a holy other, so holy, holy, holy and only because of His mercy we are allowed to come into His kingdom. His holy presence can still blow us away if we do not respect and honor Him as LORD and Master! Relevance: Christians are to live with the holy awe and reverence of the fear of God today!
Just from this survey of several Bible verses, we can see the fear of God is not something to be booted out of existence. It seems to be an appropriate response for people who want to know God more.
II. How to practice the fear of God today (Is.6, NLT).
1. Respond to God’s holy revelation (1-4).
Crisis: Create in me a clean heart. Bible REVEALS!
Realize own sinfulness (v.5) at the mercy of God…
Proverbs 20:9-10 (NLT)
“9 Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin”? 10 The LORD despises double standards of every kind.”
2. Receive cleansing and forgiveness (v.6-7) GRACE – Song that says:“Only the blood of Jesus covers all of my sin, only the life of Jesus renews from within, Your blood is enough, Your mercy complete, Your work of atonement paid for my sin, making me holy”
3. Renew your life mission (v.8) WALK IN REPENTANCE I have decided gcS.
4. Review your worship (Ps.95) EVERYDAY Shout to the Lord…
III. What is the response to “fear of God”
Lk.12:4-7 (NLT)
4 “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill the body; they cannot do any more to you. 5 But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill people and then throw them into hell.
6 “What is the price of five sparrows? A couple of pennies? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. 7 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows.
Do u see the goodness of God comes in this? Can u recognize that God values us! Yes, God is to be feared but not like our earthly negative experience but in holy awe and worship as we see Him reaching out, valuing us, loving us.
1. Ask God to give you a vision of holiness. Ps.99-100.
2. Bow in repentance before His majesty.
3. Come near, confess and rest.
4. Do what God asks of you.
5. Enjoy His favor.
1 Come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving.
Let us sing him psalms of praise.
3 For the LORD is a great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 He owns the depths of the earth,
and even the mightiest mountains are his.
5 The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land, too.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,
7 for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
the sheep under his care.
Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!
8 The LORD says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
9 For there your ancestors tried my patience;
they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles.
10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in my anger I made a vow:
‘They will never enter my place of rest.’ ”
So today as this Psalm directs us, do not refuse God’s gracious offer. We are the people under His loving personal care. Let’s not harden our hearts but bow in worship, recognizing that He is God, the Creator, who desire us to come near Him. Let’s not refuse Him who perfectly loves us that He sent Jesus to take care of our sins, to bridge the Gap of sin. Oh that u would see that God is love…
1 Jn.4:16-19 (NLT)
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us. 19 We love each other as a result of his loving us first.
So we live not in fear of punishment but we live in confidence that God has accepted us because we know that God loves us and He has done His part in making fit to enter His presence with confidence. When we fail to have this confidence in the goodness of God, we live in fear of judgment. But when we received the good news that Christ has taken away our sins SO THAT GOD’S HOLINESS CANNOT VAPORIZE US we can rejoice and worship with the appropriate response. LIGHT CANNOT COEXIST WITH DARKNESS. A.W. Tozer (1955,p.146) gives a good description of what it means for the Christian to fear God in The Root of the Righteous:
“Where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise his full sway in a redeemed heart the progression is likely to be as follows: First, voluble praise, in prose speech or prayer or witness; then, when the crescendo rises beyond the ability of studied speech to express, comes song; when song breaks down under the weight of glory, then comes silence where the soul, held in deep fascination, feels itself blessed with an unutterable beatitude. At the risk of being written off as an extremist or a borderline fanatic we offer it as our mature opinion that more spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome presence of God than in years of mere study.”
So the fear of God cannot be legislated. What God desires is a real heart change that comes from the deep within that has experienced and encountered God’s holiness. It is not an archaic phrase that belongs in the OT to "fear God". It is a totally biblical idea that will go on forever. However, you cannot get people to revere God, it is only when God permits a glimpse of the holy and how powerful He is will the fear come in. Today, we have grace, all of God’s holiness is veiled. He chooses to do so, so that people can repent and choose to follow Him. You cannot force fear of God on people. People who do not seek God, will not have any fear of God. One day they will see that every knee will bow… But we can today choose to respond voluntarily in our hearts, like Isaiah did. What’s your decision? My prayer is that u will not harden your heart but respond to the wise words of the Eccl. writer to begin today to fear God.
