Definition – 4
David mentions that in other places. But here, as he’s contemplating the judgments of God and what it would be to have this God whom he knows by divine revelation, this God whom he has come to see and love in all the magnitude and glory of His holiness and omnipotence–and he thinks, “What will it be when that great God takes men in hand for judgment?” And just the contemplation of it, he says, “It causes me in my flesh to tremble!”
You see, the Christian has a greater and more accurate view of the character of God than the non-Christian. When he contemplates those darker sides of God’s character as they relate to judgment, he cannot help but tremble because he knows God is true. That’s the confession of Moses. Psalm 90:11: “Who knoweth the power of Thine anger? Even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.” He says, “O God, in the light of Your anger, there is a terror and a dread that is due unto Thee.” And failing to render it, is failing to give God what is His due.
Ah but again, someone says, “That’s the Old Testament. Does not the New present us with a different perspective?” No, the New Testament only enforces this perspective, for we read in 1 Peter 1:17: “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.” Never get so irresponsibly happy and so flippantly cock sure of yourself that you forget you’re dealing with a God who judges without respect of persons. Let there be something of holy dread about you throughout the entirety of your days.
Paul underscores the same principle in Romans 11 where, having dealt with God’s judgment upon Israel as a nation because of unbelief, he says in verses 20 and 22a: “Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.” I believe it is clear from these passages (and others could be brought forward), the answer to the question, should the child of God have this aspect of fear? Yes, he should. It is not the dominant thought of the fear of God as we shall see in our study, God willing, next week, but it is nonetheless a vital part of what comprises the fear of the Lord which is the chief part of knowledge and of wisdom.
May I, in closing, bring a word of exhortation to you who are strangers to God’s grace? Do I speak to some this morning, young and old, who are strangers to vital union with Christ, strangers to the regenerating work of the Spirit, who bear no positive marks of a saving union with Christ and of true discipleship? Have you no dread of God’s awful judgment? Can you sit here this morning and say, “Yes, I believe God is the God as revealed in Scripture. And if He is that God, then like the train that is bearing down upon that man, His judgment bears down upon me.” Can you say that without fear and trembling? Can you sit through another Lord’s Day a stranger to grace and to the cleansing of the blood of Christ? If you came in this morning ignorant, don’t leave ignorant. If you came in spiritually insane, will you leave the same way?
Ah, but you say, “Are you trying to scare me into being a Christian?” Listen, suppose I yell out to the man on the track, “Sir, a train is coming! Flee the track!” Am I trying to scare him out of the way? You bet I am, but I’m not scaring him with any phantom scare. I’m scaring him with naked reality, the reality of hardened steal that will crush his throbbing flesh. When I cry out, “Flee the wrath to come! Repent! Give yourself no rest until you know you’re joined to Christ!” You say, “Are you trying to scare me into being a Christian?” Yes, but I’m not scaring with phantoms but with awful realities.
If the man walking down the track hears my voice and says, “Ah, that guy’s just trying to get me off the tracks because he’s a killjoy.” Or “He’s just trying to get me off the track because he wants to hit me for a few bucks.” In a few seconds, he’ll know I had no motive but his own good. My friend, it will be but a few short seconds as God reckons time. You go on in your impenitence, the very cry that’s entered your ear this morning (“repent and flee to Christ”) will come to you. May God grant that you will fear with a fear that will cause you to flee from your sin.
And I say to you and myself as the people of God, let us not be caught up in the idea that the essence of spirituality is the measure to which we can carelessly regard the judgment of Almighty God and the terror of the Lord. As one has said,
“Humility, contrition, lowliness of mind, are the essence of Biblical godliness.” And the dispositional complex which is characterized by these fruits of the Spirit is one that must embrace the fear and trembling which reflect our consciousness of sin and of frailty. The piety of the New Testament is totally alien to the presumption of the person who is a stranger to the contrite heart. And it is alien to the person who never takes account of the holy and just judgment of God. No little part of our perseverance is that holy dread. When sin becomes so seductive and attractive in its overtures, and it seems as though the reality of a dying Savior and all the other motives of grace have suddenly been cut off in our minds and hearts, there is one motive that is often used of God: if I go down that path, God will have to damn me, for He says, “The wages of sin is death.”
Then not only with reference to ourselves, Paul speaking in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” My friend, if you stand there seeing the train come to another man, you don’t stand there and whistle and say, “Well, it’s not going hit me.” The thought of what the train will do to him will make you tremble.
If you have any sense of ability to identify with a fellow human being, you could do nothing but grow white with horror as the train bore down upon him. So the child of God who’s been rescued from the tracks and knows he’s been delivered, as he beholds the train of God’s fury and wrath bearing down upon others, he cannot help but tremble. And the terror of the Lord becomes part of the motivation to persuade men to flee the wrath to come.
May God grant that this aspect of His fear will become an increasing part of our hearts, of our thinking, and may have its commensurate effect in our living. The presence of this fear is no evidence of grace. You may like Felix and tremble this morning and still be impenitent. This fear is no evidence of grace, but it’s doubtful there’s any grace where this fear is not present. For grace has introduced you to the knowledge of God, the God who is terrible in His judgments. The fear of the Lord is the chief part of wisdom.
God willing, next week, we shall consider that which is the far more dominant aspect: that fear, not of dread and of terror but of veneration and awe which draws us to our God and binds us to Him in a life of loving obedience. And that fear is the fear which is the fruit of the work of God’s grace in the hearts of those who become partakers of the benefits of the new covenant.