Proverbs 3:7-8
Fear the LORD
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Proverbs 3:7-8, focusing on the command to "Fear the Lord, and depart from evil." He defines the fear of God as an affectionate reverence for God's majesty, holiness, and love, leading to a desire to please Him and dread of displeasing Him. Martin argues that true fear of God requires right views of God and a right heart response, which is only possible through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and union with Christ. He then demonstrates how the fear of God is inseparably linked to departing from all evil, not merely out of fear of consequences or human authority, but from a deep, gospel-motivated desire for universal holiness. The sermon concludes by emphasizing that a believer's success in pursuing holiness is directly proportional to maintaining the fear of God in their heart, and that true trust and fear are complementary, not antithetical.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 9 sections · 59 min
- Introduction: The Christocentric Perspective on Proverbs 3:7-8 0:02
- Review: The Call to Humility of Mind ("Be not wise in thine own eyes") 4:47
- The Call to Godliness of Heart ("Fear the Lord") - Definition and Requirements 7:43
- The Call to Godliness of Heart - Humanity's Inability and God's Provision 16:24
- The Call to Righteousness of Life ("Depart from evil") - Inseparable Link to the Fear of God 23:39
- The Call to Righteousness of Life - Universal Holiness and Gospel Motives 30:53
- Why Some Disobey and How Believers Maintain the Fear of God 38:22
- The Practical Implications of Maintaining the Fear of God 43:02
- Conclusion: Trust and Fear are Complementary, Not Incompatible 51:14
Key Quotes
“It is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his father's law.”
“It is the fear which consists in awe, reverence, honor and worship, and all of these in the highest level of exercise.”
“It will manifest itself in leading us practically to seek his favor as the chief good we can enjoy, and to avoid his disfavor as the most tremendous evil we can be subjected to.”
“And I will put my through their hearts that they may not depart from me. So then, this becomes a gospel text, you see.”
“The heart of a Christian is, Lord, by your grace I shall fear you and depart from evil.”
“Your success, and I use the word in its proper sense, your success in pursuit of a life of holiness will be in direct proportion to the maintenance of the fear of God within your heart.”
“My friend, a trust that snuggles is no true trust, as well as a fear that cringes and doesn't rest upon Him is no true fear.”
Applications
Parents & families
- Let the fear of God be before your eyes in your social relationships, guiding your interactions with young men and women.
All listeners
- Approach biblical precepts as disciples bound to Christ, seeking His commands and grace to comply, rather than as mere moralisms.
- As unbelievers, seek mercy in Jesus Christ, recognizing your destitution of the fear of God and asking Him to grant that Spirit.
- As believers, remember that compliance with the call to godliness of heart is only possible in living union with Christ, feeding upon Him and abiding in Him.
- Do not sulk or pout when obedience to God's fear leads to suffering, but commit to fearing God and departing from evil, even if it means personal cost.
- Examine your personal, business, and home life for areas where you are giving yourself to evil, and recognize that the root problem is a lack of the fear of God.
- If you are a stranger to departing from evil, face the real problem of an unregenerate heart and mind, and seek grace in Jesus Christ.
- Recognize that your success in pursuing universal holiness will be in direct proportion to the maintenance of the fear of God within your heart.
- Cultivate the fear of God by drawing aside in private prayer and study of God's Word, contemplating His greatness, majesty, and grace.
- If your heart is hardened to the fear of God, cry mightily to God, recognizing that you are capable of any sin without it.
- Let the fear of God regulate all your business dealings, ensuring honesty and integrity.
- Let the fear of God be before your eyes when giving the Lord His portion, honoring Him with your substance and first fruits.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 75 paragraphs, roughly 59 minutes.
Introduction: The Christocentric Perspective on Proverbs 3:7-8
We will resume our studies tonight in chapter 3 of the book of Proverbs, as we are at a snail's pace working our way through this wonderful book of instruction, Proverbs chapter 3. And we are presently considering the fourth of these miscellaneous directives found in chapter 3, directives enforced by the most powerful and practical of motives. The verses to which I refer are verses 7 and 8. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It will be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. Be profitable as that objective revelation is applied to the conscience and to the life. And I remind you that we're studying the passage in that light, and also in the perspective that a greater than Solomon is here. It is the Spirit of Christ speaking through Solomon, giving us these instructions, and therefore we approach them not as mere moralisms, sort of a poor man's almanac on how to live. and be successful in life, but rather we approach it as disciples, bound to Jesus Christ in a relationship of faith and love, coming to sit at His feet to know what He would command us in every area of life.
The perspective of Matthew chapter 28, make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. And so this passage that we come to tonight, in a very real sense, comes from Christ, and should lead us unto Christ in new devotion and in seeking Him for new supplies of grace that we may comply with its directives. And from time to time I will give you that reminder, lest our teaching and our understanding of the passages degenerate into mere lifeless moralisms. We must constantly come to the preceptual aspects of the Word of God, the directives, the commandments, the commandments of the Word of God.
So let usıyoruz each other to a firm quotient of scripture, within that thoroughly christocentric perspective and the perspective that we come as the people of God, to hear directives from our Lord who has redeemed us and to carry them out by the grace that He supplies. You will remember, I trust, that we suggested this passage breaks down very naturally into four distinct categories of thought. There is first of all the call to humility of mind. Be not wise in thine own eyes Then secondly there is a call to godliness of heart Fear the Lord Thirdly a call to righteousness of life Depart from evil And then to those three calls there is appended this promise The promise of good health It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones And it is not these things as individual precepts But together as a unit to which the promise is given For you'll notice the promise is not They will be health to thy navel But it will be health to thy navel And the it the pronoun refers to a course of life Characterized by compliance with the call to humility of mind The call to godliness of heart And the call to righteousness of life
Review: The Call to Humility of Mind ("Be not wise in thine own eyes")
In our previous study we had time only to expound the first call The call to humility of mind Be not wise in thine own eyes And the sin which is condemned in these words Is the sin of self-conceit The conceit which makes a man think that he is competent to make judgments Assess reality Lay plans without consulting god And his mind as revealed in the scriptures This is a parallel sin to the one treated in the previous verses Trust in the lord with all thine heart And lean not upon thine own understanding Don't make an oracle of your own judgment Don't make your prophet your own mind This is the sin that is here condemned It's the sin into which our first parable Parents fell and plunged themselves into misery God says I will interpret reality for you Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil For I know that in the day that you do you'll die Take my word for it There is a reality of death Spiritual, physical and eternal There is a reality of sin Don't prove it by experience Take my word for it
Eve was to lean upon her own understanding I will discover Independent of the directives of God The scripture says it was this sin that came to crowning expression When the lord Jesus Christ was crucified For it speaks of the rulers of this world Walking in the wisdom of this world And thereby expressing their folly In the crucifixion of the son of God For Paul says had they known it They would not have crucified the lord of glory And all the pain that comes When men will be wise in their own eyes When they feel they can know who they are What life is about The way to happiness Without consulting the mind of God As revealed in holy scripture They bring upon themselves Innumerable woes Temporal and eternal So then there is first of all this call To humility of mind And the evidence of humility of mind Is not crucified In your intellect But bringing it subject Actively and persistently To the word of God As found in the scriptures It is being the blessed man or woman of Psalm 1 Who walking not in the counsel of the ungodly Nor standing in the way of sinners Nor sitting in the seat of the scornful Meditates in the law of God Day and night
The Call to Godliness of Heart ("Fear the Lord") - Definition and Requirements
So much for our review then The call to humility of mind This is followed Immediately by the second call A call to godliness of heart And I will demonstrate I trust to your satisfaction That the words fear Jehovah Are a call to godliness of heart As the first call was negative So we move now into a positive directive If we do not make our own minds our oracle If we do not make a God of God Of our own vaunted wisdom What's the alternative? Well the alternative is To fear Jehovah To make him the object of your trust And your confidence To make him the source of your wisdom Now this matter of fearing God Is a duty constantly laid upon us In the word of God About two and a half years ago I preached some ten sermons On the biblical principle Theme of the fear of God I don't intend to re-preach those sermons If you have access to the tape library I would commend for your careful study Some of the material that I tried to lay out In which we saw in that study That the theme of the fear of God Is found literally From Genesis to Revelation
So that the words of Professor Murray Are warranted words That the fear of God in Scripture Is regarded as the very soul of God Where there is no fear of God There is no true religion The absence of the fear of God Is parallel to And illustrative of The absence of true and vital religion But I must seek to expound the phrase Without going into that kind of detail So let me attempt In a very brief way To bring into sharp focus The essence of this call To godliness of heart In the words Fear of God Fear of God Fear of God Fear of God Fear of God Fear of God Fear Jehovah What is this fear of God To which we are directed In this passage Well one man has suggested As a definition of the fear of God The following It is that affectionate reverence By which the child of God Bends himself Humbly and carefully To his father's law Let me give that again That affectionate You see It is not a cringing Kind of fear It is that affectionate reverence Not an affectionate Fawning upon God An over familiarity with God It is an affectionate reverence By which the child of God
Bends himself Humbly and carefully To his father's law His wrath is so bitter And his love so sweet That hence Springs an earnest love And his desire to please him And because the danger of coming short From his own weaknesses and temptations There is a holy watchfulness and fear That he might not sin against this God And this disposition Still quoting from Bridges Enters into every exercise of the mind And every object of the life Proverbs 23 17 Be thou in the fear of God All the day long In your bosom This constant sense Of the majesty and greatness of God And that attachment to him In a loving reverential awe That makes pleasing him Your greatest delight and longing And the thought of displeasing him Your greatest dread To use the words of another servant of God Who has attempted to define for us The fear of God It is the fear Which consists in awe Reverence Honor and worship And all of these In the highest level of exercise It is the reaction of our minds
And our spirits To a sight of God In his majesty His holiness And his love That's the fear of God The reaction of the heart and the mind To a sight of God In his majesty The sight That Isaiah had As we sang together From the paraphrase of Isaiah 6 Holy, holy, holy Is the Lord God of hosts A sight of God In his holiness His majesty And his love And his grace It is the reaction of the heart and mind Which will always be awe Reverence Honor Love Worship Or again We may describe It as the controlling sense Of the majesty and holiness of God And the profound reverence Which this apprehension elicits This constitutes the essence Of the fear of God Or, and this will be my last attempt To give a brief definition I quote from John Brown Whose definition and description Of the fear of God I have quoted from on several occasions From this pulpit And I make no apologies In quoting it again For I go back to it again and again For my own edification We are to fear God That is
We are to cherish an awesome sense Of his infinite grandeur and excellence Responding to the revelation He has made of these attributes In his works and word That's the first element We are to cherish an awesome sense Of the great glory of God Of the great glory of God Of the great glory of God Of the great glory of God Of the great glory of God Of the grandeur and excellence of God As revealed in his word and works Inducing a conviction That the favor of this God Is the greatest of all blessings And his disfavor The greatest of all evils That's the second element If we have that sense Of the grandeur and majesty of God Revealed in his word and works Both in creation and redemption If we have that sense It will produce in us The conviction that his favor Is the greatest of life's blessings His disfavor The greatest of life's curses And this will be the fruit of it Here's the fruit of it now It will manifest itself In leading us practically To seek his favor As the chief good we can enjoy And to avoid his disfavor As the most tremendous evil We can be subjected to And you see that's the key to it And you see that's the key to it And you see that's the key to it And you see that's the key to it And you see that's the key to it And you see all of those attempts To define the fear of God
Have common denominators Because they are not inspired We cannot say this is the best one And that's why I've given you three or four For you see the common denominators Of all of these attempts To collate the biblical materials Relative to the fear of God And to state them in a succinct And summarized form Now having given this brief attempt Or made this brief attempt To define the fear of God To which we are directed in this passage What is required to possess this fear When Solomon said to his son Either his literal earthly son Or his pupil Solomon being the tutor When he said Be not wise in thine own eyes Fear Jehovah What was he requiring Of his son or his pupil In order that he might fear Jehovah Well I think it's obvious To everyone who's thinking at all tonight That there are two indispensable requirements To the true fear of God The first is There must be right views of God And secondly a right response In our hearts To those right views The fear of God cannot exist Without those two things If the fear of God is our reaction To a sight of the grandeur Of the majesty and excellence of God If we have no knowledge of his grandeur And his excellence There can be no fear of God
The Call to Godliness of Heart - Humanity's Inability and God's Provision
Hence the first requirement For the fear of God Is right views of God But you see the demons have right views of God The devil and fallen angels Have right views of God But they do not have the fear of God in their hearts Why? Because there is no proper dispositional response To those right views of God Having seen him as the God Of infinite might and grandeur The God of loftiness And majesty Infinite Not only in his power But in his love There must be a response of the heart That says I'm glad that God Is that kind of a God And nothing matters more in life Than knowing him and pleasing him That's not the reaction of demons That's not the reaction of the devil And that's not the reaction Of any man by nature For you see the scripture teaches That by nature we have neither of those Essential ingredients of the fear of God It's interesting And you might want to look at this In Romans chapter 3 That when Paul is describing The state of unregenerate men Men devoid of the grace of God Through the gospel He gives us the crowning description Of unregenerate men These words in Romans 3.18
There is no fear of before their eyes He says you want to know Why they are what they are And why they live the way they live And do what they do Here's the reason Here's the reason They are not regulated By the fear of God There is no fear of God Before their eyes As they look at life As they interpret life As they set their goals As they accomplish their ambitions Whatever is before their eyes The love of money The love of praise The love of lust Ambition Whatever is there The fear of God Is not before them Regulating Directing Dominating Their lives Do you know why there is no fear of God? He tells us in the first verse The first couple of verses of the passage Look back to chapter 3 And verse 11 There is none that Understandeth There is the deflection of the mind There is none that seeketh after God There is the deflection of the affections in the heart And where the mind does not understand who God is And where the heart does not seek Him for what He is There will be no fear of God before the eyes Now you see The simple little directive of Solomon Becomes a little complicated Here we are told Fear the Lord Ah, it's easy for you to say that, Solomon
But by nature there is nothing in me That can respond and comply With that directive And that's absolutely true Hence we need on the one hand The word of God to teach us Of the majesty, the holiness And the infinite grandeur of God's being And on the other hand We need the operation of the Spirit of God To create in us That right response To those right views of God And it's an interesting thing, is it not That one of the works of the Holy Spirit In the blessings of the new covenant Is stated distinctly to be The putting of the fear of God Into the hearts of men Jeremiah 32, verses 39 and 40 The prophet says And I read now from that passage Jeremiah 32, verses 39 and 40 And I will give them one heart And one way That they may fear me forever For the good of them And their children after them And I will make an everlasting covenant with them That I will not turn away from following them To do them good And I will put my through their hearts That they may not depart from me So then This becomes a gospel text You see
This is not mere moralisms Fear the Lord No, no When you see that almighty God Commands you to fear Him And you begin to take seriously What this same God says About the essential ingredients of that fear And see that you are destitute of that by nature This text should be a lever To prod us from your creature confidence And your pride And set you free from the evil of God And set you to seeking mercy In Jesus Christ There is a beautiful description of Him In the 11th chapter of Isaiah As the one upon whom the Spirit of God Will rest for the accomplishment Of His messianic role And in the description of the Spirit of God Resting upon Him You have these words in Isaiah 11 And verse 2 And the Spirit of Jehovah Shall rest upon Him The Spirit of wisdom and understanding The Spirit of countenance The Spirit of counsel and might The Spirit of knowledge And of the fear of Jehovah The Spirit that was placed upon Christ For the accomplishment of His messianic role Is the Spirit of the fear of God And that Spirit was not given to Him in measure As it is given to us But was given to Him in plentitude Why? That as the great head of the church Having received the promise Of the Spirit of God
The Spirit He might shed forth upon His people The Spirit of the fear of the Lord So the only place where this command Can be met and employed I'm sorry Applied to our hearts Is at the throne of grace Coming to Christ The mediator of the new covenant Saying to Him Lord just as I am destitute of righteousness Just as I am destitute Of all that is necessary To find legal acceptance With the Lord The Father I'm destitute of the fear of God But Lord Jesus The Spirit of the fear of Jehovah Rests upon you In plentitude Lord Jesus graciously grant That Spirit even unto me And so our text is a gospel call To seek the Lord While He may be found And then it's a call to us as believers To remember That it's only in living union With Christ Feeding upon Him Dwelling in Him Abiding in Him That we will comply with this call To godliness of heart Fear the Lord Now let's hurry on to the next call Added to the call To humility of mind To godliness of heart Is the call To righteousness of life Fear the Lord And depart
The Call to Righteousness of Life ("Depart from evil") - Inseparable Link to the Fear of God
From evil Now the word often joins These two things In fact There are times When they are almost used As synonyms The fear of God And departure From evil Let me give you just a few examples And this is by no means Exhausted Turn in the same book of Proverbs To chapter 8 in verse 13 Chapter 8 in verse 13 What we're attempting to see now Is that this call to righteousness Following hard on the call To godliness of heart Fear the Lord And depart from evil Is a couplet Of spiritual reality Proverbs 8 in verse 13 The fear of the Lord Is to hate evil Here the fear of God Is defined as existing In the hatred of evil Chapter 14 in verse 27 The fear of the Lord Is a fountain of life That one may depart From the snares of death Here the fear of the Lord Is described as departing From the snares of death Chapter 16 in verse 6 By mercy and truth Iniquity is atoned for And by the fear of the Lord
Men depart from evil Here the fear of the Lord Is described in its primary Functional element By means of the fear of the Lord Men depart from evil And depart from that which is evil Now turn to a classic example of this In the actual life history Of a servant of Christ A servant of God Nehemiah The book of Nehemiah That's before Job and Psalms We have some new Christians Who are not very familiar location wise So you go back a few pages Until you find Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther Nehemiah chapter 5 Nehemiah chapter 5 Nehemiah chapter 5 Verses 14 and 15 Moreover from the time That I was appointed Nehemiah vindicating the righteousness Of his motives and his activities Moreover from the time That I was appointed to be governor In the land of Judah From the 20th year Even until the 2 and 30th year Of Artaxerxes the king That is 12 years I and my brethren Have not eaten bread of the governor We haven't been panhandling Is what he's saying But the former Governors that were before me Were chargeable unto the people
And took of them bread and wine Besides 40 shekels of silver In other words They fleeced the people They took advantage Of their position of authority To have a back door To the pocket books of the people But he says I disclaim any kind of activity Of this nature Yea even their servants Bear rule over the people But so not did I Why? Because of the fear of God See what he's saying? He's saying that which lay At the root of my distinctly Righteous activity Was not that I was afraid I'd be caught and called On the carpet by you boys He said it was my regard Of the infinite grandeur And majesty of my God And the realization Of my relationship to him So that I regarded his frown As my greatest dread His smile as my greatest delight Therefore See what he's saying See how practical it is I would accept no graft I would take no advantage I was righteous In the details Of my ethical relationship To my fellow creatures Even when it touched My pocket book And my bank account Again another classic example Of how the fear of God And departing from evil Are joined together Look at the testimony In the book of Job chapter 28 I'll just go towards The book of Psalms
From the book of Nehemiah And we'll hit Job Chapter 28 And verse 28 And unto man he saith Behold the That is wisdom And to depart from evil Is understanding Now here it's almost used As a synonym What is wisdom? What is understanding? The fear of the Lord What is the fear of the Lord? To depart from evil Ah but you say That's an Old Testament emphasis Oh no It's pervasive In the New Testament As well as in the New Testament Well Just one example Classic example Second Corinthians 7 In verse 1 Having therefore These promises Dearly beloved Gracious gospel promises Let us cleanse ourselves Of all defilement Of the flesh And of the spirit Perfecting holiness In the fear of God A man says That gospel privileges Shoot him beyond He's ignorant He's ignorant There is never A state in which We are brought Beyond the fear of God Even in our glory The fear of God Will continue
You find in the book Of the revelation The redeemed Gathered before his throne Saying Hear thee O great God Because the infinite Grandeur and majesty Of God Will continue to eternity And in the bosom Of every one of the redeemed Pleasing him Will be their greatest longing And the thought Of displeasure Of displeasing him Their greatest dread Throughout all eternity And so I suggest to you That when we have this call To righteousness of life Depart from evil On the call To holiness of heart The call We are in the Prominent biblical theme In which the inward disposition Of the fear of God Is inseparably linked To the activity Of departing from evil Now why is this so? Well simply because The fear of God Being an inward disposition Will never be dormant Or non-influential Because whatever holds your heart Molds your life Of the heart Are the issues of life As a man thinketh in his heart So is he
The Call to Righteousness of Life - Universal Holiness and Gospel Motives
What holds your heart Molds your life So if the fear of God Holds your heart There is that constant regard Of his infinite majesty And grandeur Causing that response Of loving his smile And dreading his frown It cannot help But produce its fruit In the details of life Particularly in the realm Of a call to righteousness Of life No little part of which Is the negative Departing from evil Now then having shown The relationship Between these two things Let us address ourselves To the question From what are we to depart In this call to righteousness of life? Well look at the text Depart from evil And if you take your concordance A strong's or a young's concordance You will find that the word For evil here Is the general Most frequently used word For evil in the Old Testament And it refers In the broadest sense To anything That is contrary To the will of God Expressed in the law of God Now you see That touches Not only the outward life He doesn't say Depart from those things That are in the evangelical checklist He doesn't say Depart from those things That will bring your reputation As a Christian Into suspicion He says
Depart from evil Manifest itself In your thoughts In your attitudes In your reactions to people In your ambitions In your dreams In your dreams your suspicions in the deepest cogitations of the mind as well as the outward expressions of the life we are to depart from all that is evil in other words this is but an echoing of the call to what the old writers described and i love the terminology universal holiness what do we mean by universal holiness holiness that touches every department of life it's a call to be set apart from sin and evil in all of our life on the basis of these gospel motives the fear of god is a gospel disposition therefore when we're called upon fear god and depart from evil we are to depart from evil spurred by gospel motives and by gospel desires now notice he doesn't say depart from evil because you're afraid of the consequences of sin
the only reason you depart from evil is because you're afraid of the consequences of sin then those times when you're pretty sure you can sin without bearing the consequences you'll go ahead and sin it's like a little kid who's never afraid to take cookies from the cookie jar when mama's not around because he knows he won't be caught but if she happens to be in and out of the kitchen he refreshes brains. No, no, look at the text. Hear the Lord and depart from evil. If the fear of God is constantly before your eyes, then you see you depart from sin and evil, not simply because you fear the consequences. There may be times when there are no apparent consequences apart from a nagging conscience. That will be reason enough for you to fear, to depart because you carry the fear of God within your bosom. Notice he does not say, depart from evil because I, Solomon, tell you to. That is
depart because of human authority and human directives. No, no, fear the Lord and depart from evil. With you the sense of your responsibility to him, the sense of his infinite grandeur and majesty, the magnitude of his love and grace, so that in every circumstance you feel bound by the authority of your God. To use the words of David, I have set the Lord always before me. That's it. So that in every circumstance he is before me. How can I dare sin for I'm in the presence of my awesome, my great and my gracious God. Notice he does not say either fear the Lord because of the personal good it will bring to you. The promise is not given as some kind of promise. It is not given as some kind of promise.
It is not given as a kind of a lollipop held out in front of the person to make him comply. It's just a statement of fact. Comply and God will graciously see that in most circumstances this kind of blessing will follow. But you see we are to comply not because of the blessing that may follow. We're to comply because of the fear of God. The root motive of our obedience to God is to comply. We're to comply because of the fear of God. We're to comply because of the fear of God. To this command is not anything it may bring me. It's because I fear guarding from evil. The surface is the opposite of blessing.
Look at Joseph. Potiphar's wife begins to get flirty with him. And he says, how can I do this sin against God? I fear God.
What did fear of God mean for him? It meant to depart from evil. What did that mean? It meant into a prison. That's what it meant.
Into a prison. And if Joseph was departing from evil because he had struck some kind of bargain with God, he would not be able to do it. He would not be able to do it. He would not be able to do it. He would not be able to do it.
God, did you imagine how he'd have sat around and sulked and pouted in the prison? Here I resist the overtures of that woman. Look what I get for it. Good me. Here I'm all the rest.
And I've heard professing Christians talk that way. Shame on you. The heart of a Christian is Lord. By your grace I shall fear you and depart from evil.
Though in so doing, if he slay me, yet will I trust him. And I believe it's legitimate to say, though he slay me, yet will I fear him. and depart from evil.
No, the root of this departing from evil,
this persistence in a life of universal holiness is the fear of God. You see then it is religious in the truest and the highest sense because I know that this God is my Creator, because I know that He's my Redeemer, because I know that He's full of majesty and holiness, because I know in the words of the psalmist His favor is life, because I know that His disfavor is death, I shall by His grace depart from evil in private, in thought, in attitude, in disposition, in action. Why? Because I fear Him and I fear His crown and I delight in His smile.
Why Some Disobey and How Believers Maintain the Fear of God
Now why don't some of you obey this call? I have no doubt that in a congregation this size I'm talking perhaps to not a few to whom the concept of the fear of God leading to departing from evil is as far from your thinking and your experience as night from day. In your personal life you don't depart from evil. You give yourself to evil, the evil of pride, of lust, of envy, of dishonesty, of infidelity.
In your business life you give yourself to the evil of double talk, of selfishness and all the other things that characterize so much of the business world today. Why do you do this? Why are you giving yourself to evil in your personal life, in your business life, in your home life? Not regulating your husband-wife relationship by the word of God.
Parent-child relationship by the word of God. The use and abuse of your TV by the word of God. Why?
I'll tell you why. It's because there's no fear of God before your eyes. That's why you're not pursuing a life of universal holiness. That's why I may be talking to some who are pretty content that you're departing from the evil that's in what I call the evangelical chess list.
You don't do this, you don't do that, you don't do this, you don't do that.
We laugh and maybe it's proper but dear ones, I could weep.
Let me illustrate it. If I could gather together a thousand evangelicals at random from the greater metropolitan area tonight and have them line the streets of Caldwell and then walk right down between them and walk into the local movie theater and they knew I was a preacher, they'd all be appalled. Look at that. Going to a commercial movie theater and those same people will go home and this week watch two or three movies over television and it never troubles their conscience at all.
Why? They're departing from the evils of their little checklist. Not because they fear God. If they carried a sense of the fear of God into their living room, the moment they saw that movie that had as its structural plot lechery lechery and infidelity and grass.
If I could have a nickel for every movie that's watched by an evangelical this week in the metropolitan area, I could retire.
Take the same group of people and invite them to a large banquet.
Take out a little bit of champagne and thank God for wine that make it glad the heart of man.
Those same people will pump gallons of coffee ruining their stomachs,
excessive calories into their bodies until they become fat and flabby and tax their hearts and kill themselves with their own teeth and it never enters their mind. Why? Because the fear of God when you sit at the table is supposed to be be thou in the fear of God or from evil the evil of gluttony the evil of indiscriminate television watching the evil of entertaining attitudes of suspicion and envy and jealousy. Do you see the prince? I'm not care...
I'm not a vendetta against the TV or about the issue. I'm illustrating the principle. And the principle is that you will never...
The fear of God becomes a living reality within your breast. That's why Jesus said make the tree good and the fruit good.
That's the thing we're driving at. The tree must be made good. The heart must be changed. In the heart must be implanted the true fear.
The true fear of God.
The Practical Implications of Maintaining the Fear of God
So I call upon you tonight if you sit here a stranger to this departing from evil I call upon you to face what the real problem is. It's because you've got an unregenerate heart an unregenerate mind and you need to find grace in Jesus Christ. But now I want to speak a word to the saints of God and all what motives we have to fear God. And to depart from evil.
What motives we have to pant after a life of universal holiness. And dear child of God if you can get hold of this principle it may help you greatly. I trust it child.
Your success and I use the word in its proper sense. Your success in pursuit of a life of holiness will be in direct proportion to the maintenance of the fear of God. Within your heart.
Whenever you begin to dally with sin in your mind in your attitudes in your TV with your tummy in your business as a Christian you know what always happens first? There is a declension of the fear of God as the regulating principle of your life.
For you see you cannot have a present sense of the fear of God. He is infinite in His presence. His holiness His majesty in His love and His grace and His claims over me. His eye is upon me.
His smile is my greatest delight. His frown is my greatest dread. Hide Him while carrying a present sense of that within your breast. You can't do it.
The devil knows this. So what's the first thing that happens? There is a bleeding off of the present reality of the fear of God. Now we're vulnerable to sin.
You see it? Now it is true. You see how this is tied in with the disciplines of the Christian life? How is the fear of God kept living within the breast?
If the ingredients of the fear of God are right views of God and a right response to those views in the heart then these right views of God must be kept fresh in our minds. And how are they kept fresh in our minds? Ah, you say you're sneaky pastor. There you go.
Right back again to the old matters of private prayer and study of the word of God. That's right. That's right. But I'm not being sneaky.
I'm just being honest with you. Because it's when we draw aside in the secret place and we get away from the good of our own voices and the voices of others we begin to contemplate the greatness of our God. In the words of Psalm 46 we are still that we might know that He is God.
As we're quiet before Him and contemplate His greatness His majesty the exalted nature of our God and think that He loves us in Christ and has redeemed us and made us His own then what happens? The response of our heart is oh God how could I ever think of displeasing a God so glorious as You are? Oh God how could I ever think of deliberately violating Your righteous holy laws grieving Your fatherly heart dishonoring Your claims over me and it's there that Your prayers that You might not be led into temptation but be delivered from evil are real and vital because they flow out of a fresh realization of the greatness of Your God and the grace of that God in Christ.
So I plead with you as a child of God recognize this fundamental principle that your success in pursuit of universal holiness will be in direct proportion to the maintenance of the fear of God within your heart. The saints of the Old Testament understood this. There's a very interesting text that flashed into my mind and I don't often have them flashing. I don't want to give a wrong impression.
Generally you have to dig them out. But as I was preparing for the message the text in Isaiah 63, 17 came to my mind where the prophet asks a question of God. Isaiah chapter 63 in verse 17. Concerned about God's crown the fact that He's withdrawn His mighty works pick up the thread of thought at verse 15.
Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory where are Thy zeal and Thy mighty acts the yearning of Thy heart and Thy compassions are restrained toward me for Thou art our Father though Abraham knoweth us not and Israel doth not acknowledge us Thou O Jehovah art our Father our Redeemer from everlasting is Thy name He says O God if our state is such that even Abraham father of the nation would say I wash my hands of that renegade bunch though Abraham will disclaim us O God you will not disclaim us you've entered into covenant with your people that's the logic of his prayer. Now notice what he says verse 17 O Lord why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways and hardenest our heart from Thy fear you see what he ties together he says Lord we are erring from Your ways because our hearts respond as an and child of God when your heart is hardened to the fear of God when you find it difficult to carry with you a sense of His majesty and glory creating that response of longing to pray to displease Him
dreading to displease Him you better get on your face and cry mightily to God because there's no sin that you're not capable of if your heart departs from the fear of God.
You take a man who knew what it was to walk in God's fear but when the Lord allowed his heart to be hardened from his fear he stoops to calculated murder and adultery we're talking of David the man after God's own heart when the fear of the creature the fear of our own reputation looms bigger than the fear of God then we become Peters who deny our Lord under pressure oh may God give us the realization that our success in the pursuit of universal holiness will be in direct proportion to the maintenance of the fear of God within our hearts and then in closing I want to underscore one last principle and I don't didn't know anywhere else for it to fit in the structure of the sermon so I'm just tacking it on and I make no excuse for doing it no apology sorry you notice that a life of childlike trust and of constant reverential fear are not incompatible they are essentially complementary this is the same Solomon who has just finished saying trust in the Lord with all thy heart who now says fear the Lord and depart from evil
Conclusion: Trust and Fear are Complementary, Not Incompatible
and of the many things that I abominate in the present thinking of so much of the religious life that characterizes evangelicalism today it is this constant setting in a relationship of antithesis of opposites between childlike trust and the fear of God as though an elementary stage of spiritual experience is the sense of the dread and the awe of God but when you go beyond that then you can snuggle up to God and really trust Him my friend a trust that snuggles is no true trust as well as a fear that cringes and doesn't rest upon Him is no true fear but the Bible brings both together and true trust is trust in Jehovah living in the true God and how can you have Him as the object of your true trust and not fear Him for He is a great and a dreadful and an awesomely majestic God but if you truly see Him as the awesome majestic God you'll also see Him as the God who has stooped to redeem poor sinners such as you and me and therefore
the revelation of His love and mercy in Christ draws forth our trust such as you so that the fear of God and trust in Jehovah are fused in the heart of the true Christian let me ask you tonight what's your response to this call to godliness of heart fear the Lord what is your response to the words depart from evil this call to righteousness of life we haven't touched the promise it shall be health to thine able and marrow to thy bones and there's a sense in which I'm glad there's not time to enter into the promise because in a real sense the promise is irrelevant it has nothing to do with whether or not you should comply with the commands almighty God commands you be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord depart from evil and He's worthy of obedience whether He gives a promise or not the promise is purely gracious I ask you tonight do you find your heart leaping saying oh God implant your fear within my breast increase your fear within my bosom Lord I can see it these areas
where I'm not departing from evil I see the reason I'm not carrying the fear of God into every circumstance of life can you see what happens in times of true religious revival and I'm saying that in the historic sense when God visits a people can you imagine what would happen if in one square mile of real estate in the metropolitan area every person within that square mile walked and lived and thought and acted in the fear of God all the day long I dare to go out and buy myself a car I've been car shopping some of the past couple of weeks before I came down with the flu and I've gotten so absolutely shell shocked that I don't dare talk about it to another double talking deal who tries to treat me like some kind of a ninny that doesn't know when he's talking out of both sides of his mouth no fear of God all of the dishonesty the double talk the downright lies well I'd like to get you to sign today you know it's near the end of the month and the boss would like this to go through the computer for the records all that kind of business downright lies why no fear of God no fear of God read Psalm 50 their attitude is Jehovah does not see he does not regard he'll not call me into account what about you in your business
does the fear of God regulate all of your business dealings it meant I didn't sell my other car for a long time people come to look at it they say well what shape's the car in I told them said the engine's in good shape it was overhauled 30,000 miles ago doesn't burn any oil runs well brakes could go anytime power steering unit is the original could go anytime water pump original could go anytime why why the fear of God was before my eyes it means more to your conscience than sell my bucket of bolts the fear of God before your eyes what about you young people and your social relationships the fear of God before your eyes when you're with that young woman with that young man it's the fear of God before your eyes when you give the Lord his portion the next passage we deal with is honor the Lord with thy substance and the first fruits of all thine increase and the first fruits what's before your eyes your financial do you see how all pervasive this is fear the Lord and depart from evil may God give us grace so to do for his glory and for our good and I feel I would be ungrateful if I did not at the close of this day express my thanks to the many of you
who have fervently and faithfully prayed for my restoration this has been one of the most wonderful Lord's days for me in a long time because I've actually longed to preach twice and I really wondered if that would ever come again that other thing that flew bug so leveled me that I dreaded the thought of standing in the pulpit but I bless God and give praise to him and thanks to you his people for your prayers and pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen me as we face the responsibility just two weeks from this Tuesday I should be leaving for the ministry in France and in England and God willing four weeks from today both of those chairs will be filled four weeks from today Mr. Blaze will be here will be returning Lord willing four weeks from yesterday on April 14th and so let us seek the Lord's face that he may continue to strengthen us and lead us out with new vision and perspective of his will and purpose for us and fill us all in new measures with the fear of God you see this is the answer to our growing family as a church what's going to keep us in the unity of the spirit walking in the fear of God you see when churches get big and lose their intimacy and lose the oversight it's because they lose the fear of God it's not because they get larger no no it says of the early church that they increased and multiplied and walked in what in the fear of God and of the consolation of the Holy Ghost
and God is able to do that for us well I must cease I think now of all kinds of all kinds of ramifications but you were them out in your own thinking before the Lord let's pray together shall we
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is the foundation for the entire sermon, providing the four main directives and the promise that Martin expounds in detail.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
More from the archive