Fear the Lord
Jesus Christ came to set the captives free. He said to the Jews that believed on him, “If you continue in my word, he shall be my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The worst prisons are the prisons in our own minds. Because of the sin nature that we inherited from Adam, we are held captive by sin, fear, guilt and condemnation. However, according to 1 John 4, there is no fear in love for perfect love casts out fear.
Pete recently talked to a man who thought that he should be doing better in life. He was struggling with his spiritual self image. Pete asked him, “What do you think that God thinks of you?” The guy’s mind went blank and he couldn’t think of a response to Pete’s question. Everyone struggles with fear and guilt. There are two types of fear. One is the fear that is the opposite of faith. The other is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is characterized by reverence, awe, respect and honor. Walking in the fear of the lord is to love God to the point that I fear not honoring him. Many men think that they should fear and honor God, but they don’t think that God loves them. The devil’s scheme is to question the love of God. As David said, “search me O God and try me to see if there if there is any evil way in me. Cleanse me and create in me a new heart O God. The fear of the Lord is to sense his presence and his love.
Men often feel unworthy. In our own power we can never love enough, give enough, serve enough or perform enough. Most men fear the handwriting on the wall that said, “thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.” You’re never good enough, righteous enough or rich enough, wise enough or strong enough. We all have a problem with sin, of missing the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. However, God made a way where there was no way. For Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Pete recalls that when he played baseball, he was struggling at third base. He was hitting well but his pitchers threw balls that caused the batters to pull their hits toward third base. His manager came up to him and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse third baseman.” Pete wrote down his sins when in his daily journal. God asked him, did you confess your sin? When Pete answered “yes,” God said, “I’ve cast that sin as far as the east is from the west and remembered it no more.”
Warren Wiersbe said that the fear of God is a fear that makes us want to serve him from a heart of love. Serving God is not what we’ve got to do but what we get to do. God knows our heart’s desire to love him above all. According to 1 John, even though our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and knows all things. As we come into the light of his Word through his love, the darkness of sin fades into the background. According to John 3, he that walks in darkness hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought of God.
Christians have two natures. One is the carnal nature of the flesh, the sinful nature of sin and death that we inherited from Adam. The other is the nature of the spirit of life in Christ, the righteous nature that we inherited when we were born again of God’s Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul said, the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. Romans 7 says, “what I want to do I don’t do and what I don’t want to do, I do. O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this dead body?” Paul used this picture of one of the worst forms of capital punishment to illustrate the war between our spiritual nature and our carnal nature. As punishment for a terrible crime, the executioner would strap a dead body to the convict who would rot to death with the dead body on his back.
Who shall deliver me from this dead body? The answer is in Romans 8: Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I am made the righteousness of God in him. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus… For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Saint Augustine said that after he had come to Christ, the prostitute that he had frequented saw him and called out to him, “Augie, it’s me.” Augustine’s reply was, “but it’s no longer me. I’m no longer the man that I was.” When we’re redeemed, God has made us a new creation. However, the renewing of the mind according to our new nature is the result of deliberate and intentional action. According to Romans 12:1-2, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto him which is your reasonable act of worship. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The key to walking in fellowship is to renew our minds according to the truth of the word of God. The word says of itself, meditate upon these things. Commit thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all. According to Philipians 4, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Pete was asked to speak to the Dogers at their chapel. He felt unworthy and prayed that God would give him a word. He opened his bible to Jeremiah 1: “Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,”“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. 6. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. 9. Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”
God said to Jeremiah, Don’t say that you can’t speak because I’ll do the speaking through you, I’ll put my words in your mouth. We all have a testimony. We have all had a life changing encounter with the risen Christ. We’re the only bible that some people will ever read. He has made us able ministers of the New Testament. He has made us worthy of His testimony. He has given us grace to walk in his strength that we would reflect his glory.
Matthew Henry said that many a man recognizes that his worst handicap is his own self. By grace God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit. Therefore I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live I live by the faith of him who loved me and gave himself for me.
The liberty that we have in Christ is to serve one another in love. According to Proverbs, a man’s gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men. We’re called to deliver the message of the gospel of salvation. We’re called to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” …to realize God’s wholeness, with meekness and fear, awe, respect, and love. For it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.
We gather together with likeminded men so that we can build each other up. We’re most like the people we spend time with. According to 1 Corinthians 15:33, bad company corrupts good morals. Therefore as Psalm 1 says….. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Solomon, was known for his wisdom. At the end of of his discussion of the duty of man in the book of Ecclesiastes, he wrote by inspiriation: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
As we fear God by loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
MIchael