Definition, Part 1

Review of Previous Study on Predominance

0:00 The fear of God is the soul of Godliness. And yet, as we commented last Lord's Day morning, it is obvious to any observing person that this pervasive and dominant theme of Holy Scripture has well nigh been lost to our own generation. in order to acquaint ourselves with at least some of the pivotal aspects of the scriptural teaching on this subject, we are spending a few Lord's Day mornings developing the theme of the fear of God. Last Lord's Day we sought to do but one thing, namely,

0:46 to set out and seek to capture and feel something of the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought. I indicated at that time that there are no fewer than 150 to 175 direct and explicit references to the fear of God in scripture And dozens and dozens of implicit examples of the fear of God Where the thing as such is not mentioned in those words So in any attempt to set out the predominance of this theme in scripture it is obvious that one must seek to be qualitatively selective and by no means exhausted. And so we looked very quickly at 13 key texts in the Old Testament,

1:35 and then 9 pivotal texts in the New Testament, which dealt with this theme of the fear of God. And at the conclusion of our exposure to those 22 texts of Scripture, I drew three very simple but obvious conclusions. Number one, we are warranted to state that to be devoid of the fear of God, whatever it is, is to be devoid of biblical religion. According to the writer of Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of knowledge or of wisdom, but it is the chief part.

2:12 just as the learning of one's ABCs is the beginning and the chief part of all writing and reading in English just as the learning of the numbers 1 through 9 is the beginning and the chief part of all mathematics so the fear of God is the beginning and the chief part of all true heavenly wisdom and knowledge. To be devoid then of the fear of God is to be devoid of biblical religion. Secondly, the measure of spiritual growth is the measure in which an individual or the church, any given body of individual believers, grows in the fear of God. Acts 9.31 is the divine commentary on that principle where it speaks of the growth and increases of the churches

3:04 which were walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And then the third conclusion we drew was that to the ignorant of the meaning of the fear of God is to be ignorant of a fundamental truth of Scripture, and is certainly not to our profit. I would nowhere infer that unless a man understands what the fear of God is in terms of being able to verbalize it, he's a stranger to the fear of God. No, everyone who is a true Christian is acquainted with the fear of God for one of the blessings of the new covenant.

3:38 According to Jeremiah 31, is that God has said he would plant his fear into the hearts of his people. But ignorance is never the handmaiden of spiritual growth, for we grow in grace and in knowledge. And so it is to our spiritual benefit that we seek to grapple with an intellectual understanding of what the fear of God is in order that we might seek to grow more in that fear. So much then for our review of this one thing that I tried to convey last Lord's Day morning, the predominance of the fear of God in biblical thought.

Two Aspects of Fear in Common Language

4:17 Now this morning we begin to come to the second area of our study, namely the meaning of the fear of God as defined by Scripture. It is one thing to capture and feel and sense something of the predominance of this concept of the fear of God in biblical thinking. It is another thing to know that we attach to that concept the meaning which scripture demands that we attach to it. And at this point, as with all learning, we have a problem.

4:51 for some of us have erroneous concepts of the fear of God, concepts which we have rejected. Others perhaps have concepts erroneous nonetheless, but because they are compatible with our own natural inclinations, perhaps we embrace them and cherish them. And so it's necessary as we come to this subject that we inwardly, we who are the people of God, cry to the Lord that he would make our minds virgin minds, minds unspoiled, unprostituted minds, minds that can receive what he himself would say to us through his own holy word. Now how should we attempt to arrive at the meaning of the fear of God in the light of

5:37 holy scripture? Since the Holy Spirit saw fit to use the two most common Hebrew words for fear when describing the fear of God, and the most common Greek word, what we're going to do in attempting to arrive at the meaning of the fear of God is, first of all, attempt to find how the word fear is used in its general usage. And having established how it is used in its general usage in Scripture, then we'll see how these two facets of its general usage have been attached to its usage with reference to the fear of God. How then is the word fear, the words which the Holy Spirit took to use in

6:23 describing and defining the fear of God, how are those words fear used in everyday, common, ordinary language in Scripture? Well, first of all, there is the fear which can be described as being afraid, having terror or dread. It's the kind of fear a little nine-year-old fellow feels when he's walking home from school and he turns the corner to go the last block between where he is and his house, and he sees standing there in the middle of the sidewalk the neighborhood bully. Here's a 14-year-old kid. He's 5'10", 170 pounds, and he loves to beat up little nine-year-old.

7:06 And so when this little nine-year-old turns the corner and he sees the neighborhood bully standing there, and he looks like a giant to this nine-year-old kid as he stretches up his five-foot, ten-inch, 170-pound frame, and all of a sudden this child is gripped with terror and with dread. that terror and dread is based on the recognition of the potential harm that the object of that dread can do to the individual. Now, the word fear in everyday biblical usage sometimes is used to describe this kind of fear. Notice the reference to this in Deuteronomy chapter 2.

7:50 Deuteronomy chapter 2.

7:56 Beginning with verse 24.

8:04 God gives command to his people, saying, Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of Arnon. Behold, I have given unto you the hand, I have given into thy hand, Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and this land. Begin to possess it, and contend with them in battle. This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the peoples that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of thee and shall tremble and be in anguish because of thee.

8:43 God says, I will so attend your efforts to subdue these Canaanites, that when word begins to spread around of how mighty you are in battle because of my presence and power upon you and in your midst, people hearing of you shall be filled with dread. They shall be filled with terror. They shall be filled with anguish. And the word used here in verse 25 is the same word used when the fear of God is dealt with.

9:15 I will put the fear of you upon this people. You have a similar reference in Psalm 105 and in verse 38. Psalm 105 and verse 38. Speaking of the deliverance by which God brought his people out of Egypt, verse 36 says he smoked the firstborn of their land.

9:42 He brought them forth with silver and gold. verse 37, verse 38, Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon them. That is, they had begun to dread the presence of the Israelites because of the terrible judgments of the God of that people which were exercised upon them and directed toward them. So this is the fear again of terror and of dread. You have an example of this in the New Testament, in that familiar Christmas passage, Luke chapter 2.

10:18 For we read in Luke 2 and verse 9 that when the angels suddenly appeared to the shepherds, they were terrified. They were filled with fear, and it was the fear of dread, this fear at the presence of the angels in this unusual manifestation. One other reference in the New Testament, Acts 5 and verse 11, When the news went out of how God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead because of their attempts to lie to the Holy Ghost, Scripture tells us that fear came upon all men who heard these things. The exact wording, and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all that heard these things.

11:05 So you have then in both the Old and the New Testaments this common word fear used to describe this emotion of being afraid, of being gripped with terror and with dread. Then there is another kind of fear. The same word used, but obviously a different meaning. And it's the fear of veneration and of honor.

11:29 The fear of respect. Let's take that same nine-year-old boy. And he's no longer turning the corner now on his way home and confronting the town bully, but he's with his school. And they've taken a class trip and they've gone to Washington.

11:43 And as they're going through the various parts of the White House where they go on guided tours, suddenly an official breaks into the ranks and says, calling this young man by name, the President of the United States wishes to talk with him. Suddenly the little boy's eyes get wide and his breath begins to come hard.

12:06 Talk to me.

12:10 Yes, to you. Your name is such and such, isn't it? And the fellow is filled with fear. But it's not the fear of dread.

12:18 He's not afraid that going to see the president, he's going to suddenly give the orders that will bring soldiers out and put rifles to his breast. No, no. It's the fear that comes when an individual stands in the presence of an object that is superior in word and in dignity. It's the fear of veneration, of honor, and of awe.

12:41 Now notice how this aspect of the word fear is captured in texts like Leviticus 19.3.

12:50 Leviticus 19 and verse 3.

12:57 Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and ye shall keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Now, does God command you children every time you look at mommy and daddy to have the same feeling you have when you meet the neighborhood bully? Does he want you to, every time you see mom and dad, to tremble in your boots?

13:23 No, no. But he says you shall fear them. The same word is used, but it's obvious it has an entirely different meaning. God is saying to all children, you are to recognize in your father and mother, not just someone who is taller than you are, someone who is bigger, and even though you don't think so, someone wiser and a little bit smarter and a little bit more experienced, but you are to recognize that because they are your father and mother They are my representatives to administer my rule and my will to you Therefore because of the dignity of their position you are to regard them with veneration and honor and awe This is not the fear of dread, but the fear of veneration and honor.

14:11 You find a similar reference in Joshua 4 and in verse 14. And I think this will suffice to underscore what is very obvious, I'm sure, to all of us, but what I wish to see specifically rooted in text of Scripture. Joshua chapter 4, verse 14. And on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life.

14:47 And again it is obvious this is not the fear of dread or of terror, but the fear of veneration, of honor, and of awe. As the fear of terror is based upon a recognition of the harm that the object of fear can bring to me, so the fear of veneration is based upon a recognition of the intrinsic dignity and worth and exalted position of the object of that fear. Now, these two common usages of the word fear that were found in the vocabulary of the people of biblical times, that are found in some measure in our vocabulary, are the two concepts which come together in the biblical thought of the fear of God.

The Fear of Dread as Part of the Fear of God

15:36 The fear of God involves both of these concepts. There is a legitimate sense in which the fear of God involves being afraid of God, being gripped with terror and with dread. Though this is not the dominant thought of Scripture, it is there nonetheless, and I want to demonstrate it this morning. And then the second aspect of fear, which is peculiar to the people of God, is the fear of God in terms of that veneration and honor and awe with which we regard our God, which leads us not to run from him, but to gladly submit to him.

16:19 So then, let us move to consider the first aspect of the meaning of the fear of God as found in Scripture, the fear of dread, of terror, and a fear that leads to anguish. The first instance of this fear is Genesis chapter 3 and verse 10.

Adam: The First Instance of Fear of God

16:43 Genesis chapter 3 and verse 10.

16:49 The first recorded instance of any fear of God is in this passage, and this is the first aspect of that fear, dread or terror. You remember the setting? God has placed Adam in a perfect environment, surrounded him with everything that his holy nature could desire. And then God has issued the threat.

17:16 If you eat of that one tree that is forbidden, in the day that you eat, you shall die. We read now in Genesis 3 and verse 10, when the Lord comes and calls unto the man, And he responds by saying, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. God had threatened Adam with death if he disobeyed. Adam has sinned, and now upon hearing the voice of God, he says, I was afraid.

17:56 I was gripped with a terror and a dread which led to aversion. I hid. I was afraid. I hid.

18:07 Now, the question is, is it right for a person to have this kind of dread with reference to God? Is this kind of fear any part of the fear of God which is commanded and commended in Holy Scripture? Is this sense of dread and terror any part of that virtue which is such a dominant theme in Holy Scripture? The answer, Professor Murray has so beautifully and accurately stated, and I quote, the only proper answer is that it is the essence of impiety not to be afraid of God when there is reason to be afraid of God.

18:54 Once Adam had sinned, suppose he had simply tripped up to God when he called and said, heard his voice in the garden, and came tripping over very lightly and say, oh, how are you God? Nice to see you again. Have a visit. that would have been the essence of impiety and hardness of heart and the searing of a conscience.

19:17 For if Adam had any remaining sense of who God was, of the terribleness of sinning against him, of the certainty of the fulfillment of the threat in the day that thou eatest, thou shalt die. Anything less than this fear of dread and of anguish would have been the grossest form of impiety and brazen religious and moral folly. This kind of fear is right and proper in every situation where our condition makes us exposed to the righteous judgments of God. Is it right to be afraid of God?

20:04 Yes, if you have scriptural grounds to be afraid of God. Was it right for Adam to be afraid? Of course it was. He had sinned against God.

20:16 He had flown into the face of the explicit command of God, Thou shalt not eat of it. And now as God draws near to him, He is gripped with this dread which leads to a running from this God. And I say that Scripture warrants this dread of God whenever the cause of that dread is present. Notice the references to this aspect of fear, commanded and commended in Holy Scripture.

Old Testament Commands Enforcing Dread

20:49 Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse 13. Deuteronomy chapter 17.

21:06 The context is that if a man disregards the directives of the appointed judges in Israel, he is to be put to death. And one of the reasons for this, God clearly states in verse 13, and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously.

21:34 Here they go out one day for their neighborhood powwow and they find that one of their friends is missing. They say, hey, where's so-and-so? Oh, didn't you hear? Well, what happened?

21:45 Well, he flaunted the laws of God. He was indifferent to the enforcement of those laws by the judges. He was taken out in stone yesterday. Stone?

21:56 For doing what? They mention something that perhaps seemed very insignificant in itself. It was not the issue so much as his regard, his disregard, to the institution of the law and the administration of that law by God's directive. What should happen?

22:16 His friends are filled with fear. There's a dread. We dare not do as he did. lest we get what he got.

22:24 And God says the very purpose for which he gave this directive was that his people might be possessed of the fear of God which has dread and horror in it. This is commended. It's the very end for which this was instituted. Deuteronomy chapter 21.

22:45 Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 21. The context, again, directives as to how to deal with a stubborn and rebellious son, who in spite of the faithful discipline of his parents, refuses to walk in the ways that they have directed before him. When the situation seems hopeless, verse 19 of Deuteronomy 21, Then shall his father and mother lay hold on him, bring him out unto the elders of the city, into the gate of his place, and they shall say to the elders of the city, This our son is a stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard. All the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.

23:30 So shalt thou, number one, put away the evil from the midst of thee, and the second reason, and all Israel shall hear and hear. There's some young fellow tempted to begin to be a smart aleck with regard to his parents. It's the in thing in his particular neighborhood, in that group of tents out there in the wilderness, to start mouthing off about your mom and dad. and you begin to show your maturity by how smart-alecky you can be.

24:04 So one day the little group gets together, you know, to have their little clandestine session of bragging before one another of how they've been able to get away with things at home and one of their cohorts doesn't show up. And they say, hey, where's Johnny? Didn't you hear what happened to Johnny? No, what happened to Johnny?

24:23 The mum and dad took him to the elders of Israel. He is dead under a pile of stone. Suddenly a lot of the gaiety leaves the little group. They are not so apt to be bragging now.

24:40 The group just gradually dissipates and they go to their homes, gripped with the dread. Lest by coming into the same sphere of guilt, the same condemnation come upon them. God says, I'm giving this mandate not only to put away evil so that it will not be infectious, but to put fear upon the hearts of the people. This is the fear of dread, the fear of terror.

New Testament Endorsement of Dread

25:07 Ah, but someone says that's in the shadowy, hard-angled, iron-like climate of the Old Testament. The New Testament is a new climate, is it?

25:20 Listen to the words of our Lord Jesus. I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them which kill the body. But after this have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you, whom ye shall fear, fear him which after he hath killed hath cast and cast both soul and body into hell.

25:47 Yea, I say unto you, fear him. What is that fear? That's not the fear of veneration and awe. That's the fear of dread and of horror.

25:59 Jesus said, if you come into that sphere of conduct which warrants the damnation of God, he said you should be gripped with terrible dread that God can cast into hell.

26:13 Our Lord not only commends this fear, He commands it. Then we find in the writer to the Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 1, exhorting these people to press on into the full knowledge of Christ and into an unswerving commitment to the Christian faith as they begin to waver. Some of them who've been enlightened, they've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, tempted to go back to the old shadowy forms of the past. He says in his exhortation, chapter 4 and verse 1, Let us fear, therefore, lest happily a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to have come short of it.

27:00 What fear is that? He said, let us be filled with horror and dread as the thought that we might fail to enter in to full gospel rest. And failing to enter in, find ourselves under the condemnation of God. Turn over to chapter 10, where the same thought is enlarged more fully.

27:24 I'm not expounding what verse 26 means. I'm simply trying to extract from the passage the concept that this aspect of fear is commended and commanded in the Word of God. For if we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversary

27:57 Which shall devour the adversary. A man with set it not Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment think ye shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense.

28:31 And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. See what the writer is saying? He is saying if a man places himself in that relationship to God where judgment is inevitable, then he should be filled with a fearful looking for of that judgment, for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

29:06 And for a man to judge himself as being a candidate to fall into God's hands in judgment and not to fear is to show a total insensitivity to all that Scripture reveals about the character of God and the terror of His judgment. So in answer to the question, is it right to have this aspect of the fear of God, this dread or terror of the Lord? The answer of Scripture is clear, yes. But a second question I trust arises in your mind, and it's this.

The Basis of This Fear: Apprehension of God's Holiness

29:42 What lies at the basis of this dread and fear? Let me state 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.

30:06 But positively, that which lies at the basis of this fear is some apprehension, 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.

30:40 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 when he heard that voice calling to him to run. 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.

31:12 Isaiah 4, 42 verse 25. We read in the prophets of the fury of his wrath. We read in Romans 2.9 such terms as tribulation, anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.

31:28 2 Thessalonians 1.8 and 9, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on those that oppose, believe not the gospel, who shall be destroyed with everlasting destruction. 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.

32:05 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 to Bloomfield Avenue today, for the sake of our visitors, that's the main street here in town, and running parallel to it are some railroad tracks where the Erie Lackawanna train used to go or still occasionally goes.

Illustrations: The Man on the Railroad Tracks

32:42 What would you think if on that track you saw a train bearing down at 50 miles an hour, about 100 yards away from a man, was walking right down the center of that track in the direction in which the train comes, and he's whistling Yankee boots?

33:02 You say, one of two things is wrong with that man. Either he's blind and deaf, utterly ignorant of what is 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.

33:29 An insane man who has failed to be able 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.

33:50 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 tracks, 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 tracks.

34:16 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 either that he's blind to the character of the God of the Bible or having been made 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 and judgment.

34:56 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 shove out of your mind 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 he'll try to riddle himself of that terror.

35:24 So what does he do? He tries to say the locomotive is only a paper mache flavor. And he'll tamper with the character of God. God loves his creatures too much to destroy them.

35:37 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.

36:01 Of course, he had lots of scripture to prove it to you. Not a one. What was he doing? He was a man standing on the tracks who sees the train coming and he knows he should be destroyed and he's trying to kid himself. It's not a train made of steel and tons of it that will crush me. It's 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.

36:35 And even the heathen man who's never seen a Bible has something of this terror and dread. You read about it in Romans 1. Who, knowing the judgment of God, Romans 2, their conscience accusing them, saying, the train of judgment is coming. No, no, it's just a mirage.

36:54 That's what men will do. Seek to change the character of God or, or, will seek to find some way to so utterly submerge their senses in sensual delights that they can push these thoughts utterly from their mind.

37:16 What makes incessant television such a national pastime in our own country and in 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 rules of a coming God, coming to judgment.

37:51 And they see themselves upon the tracks. and they say, well, 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. And so they are obsessed with activity. What will drive Americans this weekend to cover 10 billion passenger miles this long Labor Day weekend?

38:21 I heard the secretary of whatever it is giving the announcement pleading for carefulness in driving and he said this weekend Americans will travel 10 billion miles. Oh, with some, it's a good opportunity to visit the relatives to honor Father. Yeah, granted. All right, let's say if we even knock off half on that thing.

38:40 What is it that drives others to go from crowded cities to crowded highways to crowded beaches?

38:49 I've got to keep busy. lest I hear the rumbling of the weak.

Should a Christian Have This Dread?

38:59 But 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 justice. The third question that perhaps has come to the minds of some, If not, it would 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 that train of judgment has crushed his Lord and will never crush him?

39:38 Should a Christian, one who knows that there is no condemnation for him in Christ Jesus, Should a child of God have any of this aspect of the fear of God? Any dread? Any terror?

39:53 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 from sin.

40:12 For God gave the command and couched it in the form of a threat, didn't he? He said, of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, and he could have stopped there. That's the command. Don't eat of that tree.

40:31 But to enforce the command and to give added motivation to obedience, what did he do? He stated it in a negative form in terms of a threat. For, if you begin to contemplate eating that tree, Adam, listen. In the day that thou eatest, thou shalt surely die.

40:54 Adam, if you have any dread of me as a God of judgment, don't eat, for you're going to put yourself in the tracks.

41:05 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, yes, but not yet perfected. The sin that is still within us and about us can have terrible, terrible effects upon us and 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. And so it is not surprising then to find such confessions as these coming in the Old and the New Testament from the saints of God I read now from Psalm 119 and verse 120

41:56 My flesh trembleth forth here of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgment.

42:05 This is the nine-year-old bully on the street corner trembling. This is not the trembling of awe. David mentions that in other places. But here as he is contemplating the judgments of God, 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 power, as 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.

42:47 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 in the 90th Psalm. Psalm 90 and verse 11, Who knoweth the power of thine anger and thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee?

43:18 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?

43:40 No, the New Testament only enforces this perspective. So we read in 1 Peter 1 and verse 17, this clear command of Scripture, And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, past the time of your sojourning in fear. Never get so irresponsibly happy and so flippantly cocksure 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.

44:28 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 chapter 11, verses 20 and 21, Well, by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee.

44:56 We behold then, have a constant view of the goodness and the 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 God willing in our study 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.

Evangelistic Appeal and Application

45:45 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 He's revealed in Scripture. And if He is that God, then like the train that is bearing down upon that man, His judgments bear down upon me.

46:23 Can you say that without any inward trembling? Can you sit through another Lord's Day a stranger to grace and to the cleansing of the blood of Christ?

46:36 If you came in this morning ignorant, you don't leave ignorant. If you came in spiritually insane, will you leave the same way? Ah, but you say, you're trying to scare me into being a Christian. Listen, suppose I yell out.

46:55 to that man in the tracks. Sir! A train is coming through the tracks! Am I trying to scare him out of the way?

47:03 You bet I am. But I'm not scaring him with any phantom scare. I'm scaring him with naked realities. The reality of hardened steel that will crush his throbbing flesh.

47:19 When I cry out and flee the wrath to come, repent!

47:25 Give yourself no rest till you know that you're joined to Christ. You say, are you trying to scare me into being a Christian? Yes!

47:40 Not scaring with phantom. With awful realities to you.

47:47 Awful.

47:49 If the man walking down the tracks hears my voice, He says, oh, 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 tracks because he wants to hit me for a few bucks. In a few seconds he'll know. I had no motive for his own good.

48:07 My friend, it'll be but a few short seconds, as God reckons time. If you go on in your impenitent state, the very cry that's entered your ears this morning, repent and flee to Christ, will come to you.

48:24 May God grant that you'll fear with the fear that will cause you to flee from your sin. I say to you and to myself as the people of God, let us not be caught up in that idea that the essence of spirituality is the measure to which we can carelessly regard the judgments 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.

49:13 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 confidence of 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 often is used of God.

49:53 If I go down that path, if God is God, you'll have to stand.

49:59 For he says the wages of sin is death. Then not only with reference to ourselves, and this is the last text, Paul speaking in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, 10 and 11 says, We shall all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. And with reference to that, he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade that. 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 to hit me.

50:32 The thought of what the train will do to him will make you tremble. If you have anything of a 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.

50:51 So the child of God who has been rescued from the traps and knows that he is 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 shall become an increasing part of our heart, of our thinking, and may have its commensurate effect in our life.

51:29 The presence of this fear is no evidence of grace. You may, like Felix, 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.

51:48 For grace has introduced you to the knowledge of God the God who is terrible in his judgment. The fear of the Lord is the chief part of which God willing next week we shall consider that which is the far more dominant aspect that fear not of dread and of terror but that fear 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 heart of those who become partakers of the benefits of the new covenant. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

52:40 Our Father, forgive us for the carelessness and the irreverence which all too often marks both our thinking and our living.

52:58 Teach us who you are, until with the psalmist we may be able to say in truth, my flesh trembleth for fear of thee. We thank you Lord that those of us who have been brought to vital union with your dear Son who by faith in him and his perfect sacrifice and perfect life are confident that there is no condemnation to us. Oh Father help us that behold the terror of your wrath to others we may be gripped in a new measure to persuade men to flee the wrath to come, that contemplating

53:46 our own frailty and weakness and the subtlety and power of sin, that we shall fear and tremble, lest through carelessness and sloth we come under its terrible dominion and power. O Lord for those present this morning who are not joined to your Son all be pleased be pleased to so move in their hearts there shall be no rest no peace until they repent and believe the God O may they even in this hour this moment be enabled to embrace Him and find deliverance from the dread and fear of coming wrath

54:35 through him who gave himself up to the full brunt of your wrath on behalf of all who will come unto you by him. Hear us, Lord, in our pleas and grant that you will fulfill your word of promise that every word that is gone from your mouth shall not return unto you, Lord. May those portions of scripture which have been read and studied and upon which we have meditated now continue to work in us by the power of your Spirit. Help us, we pray, to sanctify this day that you have given to us.

55:14 Enable us, O Lord, to jealously guard it from those intrusions which never have our good as their aim, but which always seek to drag us away from you, Lord, help us. We shall sanctify the day to your praise and to our promise.

55:35 Hear us then in this our prayer. Dismiss us with the blessing of your Spirit's gracious healings consciously known in each of our hearts. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

55:52 Thank you.