Introduction – 4
Well, look at Ephesians 5:21 and then Colossians 3:22. Ephesians 5:21 introduces the climate of the home: husband-wife relationship, parent-child relationship. And notice what the Apostle says in introducing that subject: “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” All of these injunctions concerning the nitty gritty of practical Godliness in the interpersonal relationships of the home are couched in the framework of the fear of God. Therefore, any attempts to go on in holiness in these relationships that ignores this idea of the fear of God is something less than that which is set before us in the Word of God.
In the parallel passage in Colossians 3, you have your interpersonal relationships found in your place of work: servants/masters, masters/servants. And in that context, the admonition is: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.” In other words, the fear of God is to be as present in that place of business as that lathe into which you put that piece of steel; as that foreman who passes by to check your work; as that person who stands next to you at the work bench; as that girl who sits next to you and bangs her typewriter and blows her smoke into your face; as near as her dirty smoke that you’ve got to absorb against your will should be the fear of God in that relationship. Now, that’s a pretty central thing, is it not? And so, rather than finding a negation of this concept, we find it intensified; we find it enlarged; we find it set before us in even a wider scope.
Turn to Philippians 2. We could say as a summary of what we’re admonished to do in 2 Corinthians 7: going on cleansing ourselves from defilement of the flesh and the spirit; going on in practical Godliness in the home and in the place of business–all of this comes under the general heading of working out in greater measure our salvation. And as the Apostle commands the believers at Philippi to work out their salvation, what’s to be the context of that working out? Philippians 2:12: “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Now I ask you, where in the world do we get this idea that the people who are most jumping about with jolly, jolly joy all the time, time, time are the most spiritual? “Fear and trembling”–and anyone who is working out his salvation in any other context is working it out in a context unauthorized by the Word of God.
Well then, you say, “Does this have to go on all the while we’re here? Can’t we come to the place where’s there’s no longer the constraint of the fear of God?” Well, let Peter answer that question in 1 Peter 1. We’ve looked at the words of our Lord; we’ve looked at the words of the Apostle Paul. Peter speaks the same word. And he speaks it in the most interesting context. Verse 17: “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” Ah, but you say, “If you’ve got real assurance that you’ve been saved by the blood of Christ, doesn’t that negate the fear of God?” No, for he says in the next two verses, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” He says the knowledge that you’ve been redeemed at such an awful price will intensify the reality of the fear of God, not negate it. He uses as the very argument to enforce the necessity of walking in Godly fear the fact that we know we’ve been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.
Now, don’t you put a meaning on that that I haven’t put yet. You’re temptation’s going to be to say, “The pastor said you’ve got to walk around cringing like someone before a bully.” I didn’t say that. I haven’t defined what the fear is. I’m simply exegeting these passages in a very surface way which shows the centrality of this concept. And Peter says you’re to pass the whole time of your sojourning in fear, so that at any point in my sojourn from the moment I breathe my first breath as a new creature in Christ to the moment when the Lord comes to take me at His glorious appearing, or I pass through the valley of the shadow of death and breathe my last, the fear of God should characterize the entirety of my sojourn. This is why Luke, in describing the maturity and the blessing of God upon the early church, sets forth the beautiful effusion of things that so often we would separate, but God brings together.
Following the conversion of Saul who had been making havoc of the church, we read in Acts 9:31: “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified [brought to fuller development in the fullness of Christ]; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” Why you say, “If there’s the comfort of the Spirit, wouldn’t that negate the fear of God, and wouldn’t the fear of God negate the comfort?” No, for the Spirit who rests upon Messiah, and the Spirit He received in plentitude and now Himself pours upon His church is, according to Isaiah 11, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. And just as the fear of the Lord characterized our Lord Himself, so now, as He who received the Spirit without measure has gone to the right hand of the Father and sheds forth the Spirit upon and into the church, the more that church is filled with the Spirit of Jesus, the more that church will reflect the fear of the Lord.
So indispensable an element is this, that on into eternity, even after the last remains of sins are purged from the believer, we’ll still fear God. So our last two references are taken from Revelation 15. Here in symbolic language, we have set before us the redeemed of God. Verses 2-4a:
“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. [What should be the response of the redeemed there in His presence?] Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name?”
So then, the fear of God will mark the worship of the redeemed even in His presence. And in a similar hymn of praise recorded in chapter 19, verses 4 and 5 we read: “And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.” That’s taken as the dominant characteristic of the service of God, even as they know the completion of God’s redemptive purposes in them.
So then, what can we conclude in the light of these thirteen pivotal texts in the Old Testament and these ten texts in the New Testament? Let me draw three conclusions very briefly. Number one: I believe we are warranted to conclude that to be devoid of the fear of God is to be devoid of Biblical religion. No matter how much of the Bible we may know; no matter how many verses we may claim to be embracing; no matter how many promises we may claim to believe, in the light of these texts of Scripture, I believe the youngest child here would agree with me this morning–if you don’t know what the fear of God is in your heart and life, you don’t know the first thing about Biblical religion experimentally.
Now, that’s a pretty serious conclusion, but no less a conclusion can be drawn from the texts of these Scriptures. Since Jesus Christ is the sum and substance of Biblical religion, and since the Spirit given to Him and sent from Him is the Spirit of the fear of God, to be without the Spirit of God is to be without the Spirit of Christ, and to be without the Spirit of Christ is to be none of His (Romans 8:9). If you sit here this morning saying, “I don’t know what in the world that preacher’s talking about. I’ve never heard this before,” you better do some serious reflection. You better do everything possible to make sure. You can be present for the further expositions; you can go home and get your Bible and start crying out to God saying, “God teach me what it is to fear you, for I see that if I’m devoid of Your fear, I have no true saving religion.”
The second conclusion we are warranted to make is this: the measure of growth in any individual and in any church is the measure to which that individual or church is increasing in the fear of God. It speaks of Nehemiah in chapter 7 and verse 2 as man who feared God above many. And so his spiritual stature above many was in great measure due to the fact that he feared God above many.
And then thirdly, to be ignorant of the meaning of the fear of God is to be ignorant of the basic and essential doctrine of revealed religion. And I believe there are many of you here who are not strangers to the fear of God in your experience, but you are very woolly about the fear of God in your understanding. And since growth in grace is always joined to growth in knowledge, I exhort you who have the fear of God in your hearts to give yourself to earnest prayer and study together with us that you might have a clearer understanding of the fear of God to the end that the understanding may lead to your growth and to your development.