The Fear Of God Series

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.