The Fear Of The Lord

That is when you take the life of Hananiah and compare it to other men, his life revealed he feared God much more than most men.

In this society in which we live, we do not hear very much about the “Fear Of The Lord”.

One of the reasons we do not SEE and HEAR much about the fear of the Lord is because people do not understand what it means to fear the Lord.

For example, we understand when the preacher talks about loving the Lord. We can relate to what he is saying. But when it comes to the Fear of the Lord most can not comprehend what he is talking about.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN THE BIBLE TALKS ABOUT FEARING THE LORD?

It means several things:

(1) LOVE AND FEAR GO TOGETHER

In fact, LOVE and FEAR are inseparable!

Illus: Some young girls were walking by a coal mine and one of the young girls said, “Let’s go inside!” One of the young girls said immediately, “Oh no, I can not do that, my dad told me to never to go in there!” One of the other girls said in a mocking way, “The reason she won’t go inside is because she is afraid of her father.”

The girl said, “Well, I am afraid of my father, but not in the way you are tying to make it sound. He asked me not to go in there and I am AFRAID if I went against his wishes it would hurt him.”

This is the kind of fear God would like us to have. Our love for him should be so strong that we FEAR if we disobey His commands we will break His heart.

LOVE AND FEAR GO TOGETHER. But also:

(2) FEAR AND RESPECT GO TOGETHER

They are inseparable!

Listen, do not live a sinful life and tell people that you LOVE AND RESPECT almighty GOD. When a professing Christian lives their Christian life like this, they are making a mockery of almighty God.

For example, look how people make a mockery of the God they claim to love.

Look at some of the flimsy excuses that people use for putting things ahead of the Lord.

Illus: They should be AFRAID to live their lives selfishly and hide behind the flimsy excuses they use. Such as:

• “I had a headache”

• “I had a toothache”

• “I had a backache”

• “My child was sick”

The reason we know these are flimsy excuses is because they use these same excuses over and over. The amazing thing is, these people with all the problems they claim to have on Sunday, are suddenly miraculously recovered on Monday and they are able to go to work or to go to school.

Do you reckon they think they are fooling God with these ridiculous excuses?

They should be AFRAID to do such a thing. What if God decided the next time they made up an excuse to stay home, He was going to give them just what they claimed to have?

Illus: A man on his death bed said, “Preacher, I used to give you all kinds of excuses for why I did not come to church.” He said, “I no longer have an excuse, God has now given me a reason why I can not come!”

People who live their lives like this are making a mockery of Almighty God.

When it come to the FEAR OF THE LORD, we have to always remember two things:

• LOVE and FEAR GO TOGETHER.

• FEAR and RESPECT GO TOGETHER.

I want us to look at the “Fear of the Lord”, and ask God to help us grow from this time spent in the Word. Let me show you two things:

I. THE SINNERS LACK OF FEAR OF THE LORD

Rom 3:10-18 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Notice, God lists some of the things the wicked do, and then God tells us why they do such things - THEY DO NOT FEAR GOD.

WHY DON’T THEY FEAR THE JUDGMENT OF GOD ON THEIR LIVES? Because they have convinced themselves they can sin and

get away with it.

WHY DO THEY THINK THAT?