The Fear of the Lord

By Michelle Stace

 

     Are you used to hearing that God is Love? That He is merciful and forgiving? He is! But this is just one side of Him. He is also holy and righteous, meaning He is pure and has absolute standards. He is a God of judgement; every sin has a punishment and consequences. He is a jealous God: He settles for nothing less than first place in our life and affections.

     Through the Bible, the believer learns about the whole character of God. They also learn about the character of man. Man, who from Adam onward, is in bondage to his sin nature, capable of all manner of evil. Then through the Lord Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, those who believe in Him are freed from the bondage of sin and given a new nature. Now the process of sanctification begins. God's people are set apart to be holy. But how does God go about this process of teaching sinful man to be holy? Through the word, through the Holy Spirit, we are taught what sin is. We see that "in me dwelleth no good thing,"  "my righteousness is as filthy rags,"  "Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"  The sanctification process is a life long one. God continually exposes sins and sinful tendencies that we are not aware of - that we didn't even know existed. We indeed see that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."  We are taught to hate our sin as God hates it. We also become fearful of sinning and of displeasing God and of suffering sin's consequences.

     There are 2 kinds of fear. The first kind of fear is anxiety over real or possible danger or pain; fright. This is the kind of fear the unbeliever should have for God. The second kind is Godly fear. This is defined as reverence towards God. We revere Him. The word revere means to regard with deep respect, love and awe. Notice the 3 ingredients that make-up reverence. It is similar to what a child would feel towards his parents, only much more so. Under normal circumstances a child loves his parents, he has a healthy respect for them mingled with fear of punishment for wrong doing. He looks at them in awe for they seem to be so wise having all the answers for his questions and always knowing the right thing to do. This is the kind of fear the believer is to have for the Lord. Godly fear bears much fruit and many blessings as we will see from Scripture.

     Ps.111:10  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments . ."  The fear of God produces obedience to His word. We love Him and want to please Him and He is pleased by obedience. One must realize that the Lord in not pleased by good acts done out of self-righteousness, nor by service to Him that He has not willed.

     Ps.25:12,14  "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall He teach in the way that He shall choose. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will shew them His covenant."  There are 2 beautifull promises here - God will teach those who fear Him and He will show them His covenant.  Oh, to be taught by God, what a blessing!  He reveals to the seeking believer the deeper truths of scripture, not readily apparent to the casual reader. But He only reveals these treasures as we apply  them to our lives and live by them.

     Ps.103:11 "For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him."  The Lord's mercy is why we are saved. He has shown His mercy towards us in thousands of  different ways, the most important being the shed blood of Jesus Christ to pay for our sin.

     Prov.8:13 "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate."  Reverence towards God produces His likeness in us. His thoughts become our thoughts, His ways our ways. We learn to love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. He tells us to be holy as He is holy.

     Prov.14:26,27  "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." One of the needs we have as humans is that of security. Here we find it. The Lord is our stability. He is our refuge for eternity. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

     Prov.16:6  "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil."  God's mercy and His truth ("Thy word is truth," "and the Word was made flesh," "I am the way, the truth, and the life.") purge the repentant sinner. He is a new creation. He follows His Lord, which is the same as departing from evil.

 Prov.28:14  "Happy is the man that feareth always: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief."  The fear of the Lord brings peace and contentment. It brings freedom from self; freedom to follow  Him. Think back on the times when you hardened your heart against God. Most likely you then fell into sin. Happiness fled. In its place was conviction, guilt and sin's consequences.

     Matt.10:28  "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  Take seriously  these words of our Lord Jesus. It matters not what happens to the flesh if our soul is secure in Him. For the believer has a living hope, not so for the unbeliever.

     Heb.12:28  "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us hold fast grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."  May we be worthy of this promised kingdom. The interesting thing in the second part of the verse is the word "acceptably."  Only service that is done "with reverence and godly fear"  is acceptable to God.  Is your service to God done in reverence?

     Ps. 19:9, Isa.66:22-24  "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever."  "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new  moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."  The verse in Psalms says the fear of the Lord is clean (defined as pure, innocent, holy) and endures forever. The verses in Isa. support this. Look at v.24. It's not a pleasant thought to think of viewing those who, because of their transgressions, will suffer forever. But try to imagine the feelings you might have as you look at this. It would produce a deep reverence for God and be a constant reminder of what we ourselves have escaped. It would produce a humbleness beyond words, that God had shown us His love and mercy - we who are just as undeserving and sinful as the ones being punished. May we fear the Lord and live!

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

                                                                             Rom.11:33