Definition – 3
But a second question, I trust, arises in your mind, and it is this: what lies at the basis of this dread and fear? Let me state it negatively. It is not a work of God’s grace. This fear is known by unconverted people. This fear and dread is rooted in things that do not necessarily have a relationship to the operations of grace within the heart. But positively, that which lies at the basis of this fear is some comprehension of the character of God as holy. And because He is holy, He is infinitely opposed to all sin. It’s the recognition of who God is as a holy God. And because He is holy, how He feels with regard to sin–it is this that lies at the basis of this fear of dread and of terror.
It is what Adam knew of the holy character of God, a holiness that had been stamped upon his own inner being but now marred by his sin. It’s what he knew of the character of God as holy that caused him to run when he heard God’s voice calling him, because there was dread and terror as a result. So when we read through the Scriptures, we find such phrases as “the fierceness of God’s anger” (Isaiah 42:25). We read in the prophets: “the fury of His wrath.” We read in Romans 2:9 such terms as “tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.” 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9: “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”
What’s involved in all of these terms? It’s the Biblical concept that when omnipotence is wielding the sword of vengeance; when the infinite God takes the finite creature into His hands for judgment, that creature ought to tremble with horror and with dread. For it is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And it’s only ignorance of the character of God or spiritual insanity that will deliver a man from this aspect of the fear of God if he’s in the way of the judgment of God. Let me illustrate.
What would you think if you walked down Bloomfield Avenue today (the main street running through our town) and running parallel to it are some railroad tracks on which a train used to go or still occasionally goes–what would you think if on that track you saw a train bearing down at 50mph about 100 yards away from a man who’s walking right down the center of that track in the direction in which the train is coming and he’s whistling “Yankee Doodle”?
You’d say one or two things is wrong with that man: either he’s blind and deaf, utterly ignorant of what’s about to overtake him and utterly destroy him, or if he has eyes and ears and all his senses, he’s insane. He can’t relate the coming of those tons of steel at that speed to what it will do to his body; what it will do to his life. He’s an insane man who has failed to relate facts that are obvious to everyone else. And so people stand back horrified, helpless to do anything.
People who have their sanity are able to make a relationship between the onrushing train and this poor man. He can’t. He’s out of touch with reality, so he has no fear. Or it may be that the man is blind and deaf and therefore utterly ignorant of the danger that is coming. That’s the only way a man can be walking down the track whistling full of apparent joy and peace, not someone who’s deliberately out to kill himself or take his life because of discouragement.
But here’s a man perfectly happy; whistling “Yankee Doodle” going down the track. And my friend, the only reason any fallen son of Adam who is not savingly joined to Jesus Christ does not find himself gripped with a constant terror and dread of God is because he’s either blind to the character of the God of the Bible, or having been acquainted with that character, he is so filled with spiritual insanity that he can make no relationship between the fury of God’s wrath and his own reception of that wrath in judgment.
I would speak to you young people here this morning. You adults who may be strangers to a saving union with Jesus Christ, it’s difficult to shut out of your minds this aspect of the dread and terror of God, isn’t it? No man likes to live with dread and terror. So what every son of Adam will do prior to a work of God’s grace is try to rid himself of that terror. So what does he do? He tries to say the locomotive is only a paper mache plaything. And he’ll tamper with the character of God. “God loves His creatures too much to destroy them.”
I read some sermons the other day preached by a Presbyterian minister in a liberal church not too far from here (not in this town) on the subject of the future life. And in one of the paragraphs he said, “Now one thing I am absolutely sure of, God would never send one of His creatures to hell. That I know.” Of course he had lots of Scripture to prove it–not a one. What was he doing? He was a man standing on the track; who sees the train coming, and he knows he’s to be destroyed. And he’s trying to kid himself that it’s not a train made of steel–and tons of it–that will crush him but a paper mache mirage.
That’s what lies behind all the attempts to change the character of God, because men don’t like to live with terror and with dread. And even the heathen men who’ve never seen a Bible have something of this terror and dread. You read about it in Romans 1: “Who knowing the judgment of God….” Romans 2: “Their conscience also bearing witness [saying the train of judgment is coming].” “No, No, it’s just a mirage.” That’s what men will do. They’ll seek to change the character of God. Or they’ll seek to find some way to utterly submerge their senses in sensual delights that they can push these thoughts utterly from their minds.
What makes incessant television such a national pastime in our own country and other places where people have a plethora of televisions? May I suggest that this is the main reason behind it: Men don’t want to leave themselves alone five minutes with their thoughts, because unless the conscience has been totally seared, they hear the rumbling of the wheels of a God coming in judgment. And they see themselves upon the track, and they say, “If only I can so fill my mind with other things between now and then, I won’t have any agony until it overtakes me.” So they are obsessed with activity.
What will drive Americans this Labor Day weekend to cover 10 billion passenger miles? For some it’s an opportunity to visit relatives. Yeah, granted. Alright, let’s say we knock off half on that basis. What is it that drives others to go from crowded cities to crowded highways to crowded beaches? “I’ve got to keep busy lest I hear the rumbling of the wheels.” What lies at the basis of this dread and fear? Some apprehension, some comprehension of the character of God as holy and of the sinner’s being in the way of judgment.
A third question that perhaps has come to the minds of some. If not, it will come sooner or later. What about the child of God who knows he’s accepted in the beloved one–I say it reverently–who knows that train of judgment has crushed His Lord and will never crush him? Should a Christian, one who knows there is no condemnation for him in Christ Jesus–should a child of God have any of this aspect of the fear and dread of God? May I answer emphatically and then demonstrate from Scripture, YES! Think with me, even before Adam sinned, this aspect of the fear of God was to have been part of his deterrent function, for God gave the command and couched it in the form of a threat, didn’t He? He said,
“Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it [and He could have stopped there, but to enforce the command and give added motivation to obedience, He stated it in a negative form in terms of a threat]: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. [Adam, if you have any dread of Me as a God of judgment, don’t eat, or you’re going to put yourself in the track.]”
Now, if this was a legitimate motive for a man in an unfallen state, how much more for us who are in a redeemed state but not yet perfected? The sin that is still within us and about us can have terrible effects upon us, can bring great reproach to the name of our God, and cause us to be wounded and pierced through in many ways with God’s chastening hand. So it’s not surprising, then, to find such confessions as these coming in the Old and the New Testament from the saints of God: Psalm 119:120: “My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments.” This is the nine year-old bully on-the-street-corner trembling. This is not the trembling of awe.