The Fear of God
PROBLEM
Fear drives me to do what I do. I’m not talking about the fear of a snake or the fear of a spider, or the fear of something else, I am talking about the fear of God.
Unfortunately, many of us presume that the world is the ultimate threat and that God’s function is to offset it. How different this is from the biblical position that God is far scarier than the world …..
an awareness that I’m doing life in front of a holy, just and almighty God. And then every word thought and action is open before him.
I can’t teach someone to fear God, It’s whenever it finally dawns on them, their position and God’s position, whenever you truly get that revelation, comes into alignment correctly. God is really on the throne
GOD
First of all, the fear of God comes from God. The natural person doesn’t have a sense of fear of God.
“a fountain of life,” (Proverbs 14:27), a blessing (Psalm 12:1), a source of strong confidence (Proverbs 14:26), the start of wisdom (Psalm 111), and Psalms 25:14 ESV The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him.
Revelation 1:9-18 – We have an absolutely clear record of the response, wasn’t a handshake. total fear.
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
APPLICATION
Oswald Chambers said, “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear no one, nothing else. Whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”
Almost every case, when we’re complaining to God, we’re complaining about the horizontal. this temporal Earth. But they look up and they say, it’s the fear of the Lord that smashes through the fear of man.
If you pull the fear of God out of teaching, everything is up for interpretation and corruption.
a declaration to these judges saying that there is a higher court than yours. you’ll have to give an account for what your decision was.
You say, I don’t care what supreme court may rule or what President what Emperor or what Empire, what legislative body, I do not care… choose this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
VISION
When Martin Luther, that unique genius in the German Reformation, was hauled before the Emperor Charles V at the court in Vernes in 1521, he was accused of disobeying the Pope, dishonoring the Church, and misrepresenting God’s truth. visibly shaken. He was overwhelmed. He hesitated. And finally he was able to ask for more time to “think it over.” overawed by the emperor. Luther is a peasant. He’s a simple monk, son of a miner. They figured he was humbled by the presence of this prince, the lord of Austria, Burgundy, the Low Countries and the most important man on the continent. But they were wrong. not so much that he stood in the presence of the emperor but that he and the emperor alike were going to be called upon to answer before Almighty God. trembling. Luther feared God more than he feared the emperor. He said, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.”
Matthew 6:24 – What did Christ say no man can serve two masters. A kingdom divided cannot stand. You can’t do that. You either with me? Or you’re against me. Jesus Christ said. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say I’m gonna be with Jesus Christ and the world or and my sinful flesh. You can’t do that. Whenever you come to the Lord and repentance and being born again, truly, it’s a total surrender.
JOHN Payton, those who have tasted this highest joy, the joy of the Lord will never again ask, “is life worth living?”
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