The Fear of God in Preaching

Introduction

Now, I say, since the name of God is that by which his nature is expressed, and since he naturally is so glorious and incomprehensible, his name must needs be the object of our fear, and we ought always to have a reverent awe of God upon our hearts at what time soever we think of, or hear his name, but most of all, when we ourselves do take his holy and fearful name into our mouths, especially in a religious manner, that is, in preaching, praying, or holy conference.

John Bunyan

The fear of God is not something that is not talked about often in our churches today. It is as though it is a forgotten doctrine, but today I will argue that is a doctrine of great importance and should impact our entire lives, especially our preaching. I have personally heard it referred to as a healthy fear that we are to have and I think this is taking away from the true meaning of the word. Luther described this fear as a twofold fear.

The twofold fear

So what does this twofold fear mean? The first part of it is a fear of the punishment that we deserve, it is a fear that God will inflict his justice on us. This occurs most in non-believers as they come to the realization of their sin. This should be used from the pulpit carefully. We want true conversions not fake fear filled decisions. This fear is on display in Isaiah 6 where the prophet is confronted with God’s holiness. In this instance Isaiah is afraid because he is a man of unclean lips. We also see this type of fear mentioned in Hebrews 10.31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

R.C. Sproul describes this fear as the fear that a prisoner in a torture chamber has as the the tormentor comes in to inflict his pain. It is a dreadful anxiety about a clear and present danger.

The second fold of the fear of God that we see Luther describe has the same Latin root word as family. This fear is a fear of offending or displeasing one you love. It is a fear that shows reverence and obedience. We should be afraid of displeasing our master, this should be conveyed to those of true faith in our congregations as we seek to live for the Lord. We see this fear described in Deuteronomy 10.20-21 “You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

As believers we need to understand the first fear of getting the punishment we deserve but we should know that we have been saved from that and no longer have to live in that fear. The second fear is the one that we need to be living our lives in every second of every day. As we minister we must convey both fears accurately so that the people that we preach to can fully understand the doctrine of the fear of God.

The object of our fear

When thinking about the fear of the Lord we must think deeply about what the object of this fear is. In both folds as we call them, the object of this fear is the same, it is God. In John Bunyan’s treatise on The Fear of God he says that there are three things that make God’s presence dreadful to us; first is his greatness and majesty, second is when he grants his presence, and third is the revelation of God’s goodness. These three things push us towards the one thing that causes the dreadful fear of God and the thing that causes reverent awe of God. While God is the object of this fear, it is his perfect holiness that brings this fear out in our lives. Holy is who and what God is and it is the chief cause of dreadful fear for the unrepentant sinner and the cause of reverent awe and obedience for the faithful Christian.

Transition into body

Now that we have a healthy understanding of the fear of the Lord and have heard what those before us have said such as Luther and Bunyan let us now move to how it should impact our lives and finish with how it should impact our preaching.

The Fear of God in Our Lives

Our Motivation

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Throughout the New Testament we find a rhythm of indicatives (what God does) and imperatives (what we are to do). In 2 Corinthians 7.1 we are given a clear imperative of what we are to do. Because of all of the promises we are led up with we are to live and walk a certain way. We are to work to cleanse every defilement and bring holiness to completion. Our motivation to this is the fear of God. Pursuing holiness is the thing that originally brought us together. Throughout the Bible we see that the fear of God should be our chief motivating factor in all that we do.

Our Attitude

Psalm 2:11 ESV

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Not only is the fear of the Lord our motivation but it should be our attitude as we serve him. We are to serve God with fear. Reflecting back to the beginning of the sermon I described the different aspects of the fear of God, the aspect that drives our motivation is the desire to not disappoint God. The aspect that drives our attitude is reverent awe. When we are living the life of a servant, which I hope you are, are you serving with the knowledge that it is God that you are serving? The fear of God should be our attitude as we serve.

Our Action

Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

As we are beginning to see, the fear of God should permeate our whole lives. Our whole duty is fearing God and following him. Our fear pushes our actions towards God and ensures that we keep a heavenly perspective in all that we do. As we live out our lives and this holy fear is pushing us to obedience through our actions. Remember that in this part of the twofold nature of our fear we do not want to disappoint or displease our savior. As a boy seeks the approval of his father so should we seek the approval of our heavenly father. This is the fear of God.

Godly Examples

As I read and teach the Bible I look for examples to follow through Godly men. When looking into the topic of the fear of the Lord two men specifically stood out to me. These men were both known for their faith but we also see through their stories that they also feared God in the right and proper manner. The first of these men is Abraham. We all know the story of Abraham and how he went as commanded by God to sacrifice his only son, that leads us to the portion of the story seen in Genesis 22.12

Genesis 22:12 ESV

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

This is the cry to Abraham stopping him from sacrificing his son. This was a test for Abraham as we see in Genesis 22.1 where it says “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”” In the end of the test we see that it is known without a doubt that he fears God, he followed through in full obedience out of his fear of God. The second man that stands out to me is Job.

Job 2:3 ESV

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

God himself describes Job as a man that fears him. Through Job’s story we see him endure all things and never waiver from following God, he and his friends are not perfect but Job holds true and never looses his fear.

In both of these men’s lives we see what walking in the fear of God looks like and we can see what it would look like for us. In the New Testament we see a glimpse of the early church walking in the fear of the Lord in the book of Acts

Acts 9:31 ESV

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Spiritual heroes and average church members can walk in the fear of the Lord. Through these few examples we see throughout the Bible we can begin to develop an image of what this should look like in our lives and what can happen if we fully live in it.

Now I want to move from our personal lives to our preaching to see how the fear of the Lord should be handled in it.

The Fear of God in Our Preaching

The primary purpose of this sermon is to discuss the fear of God in our preaching. I spent considerable time defining it and showing what it should look like in our lives because we cannot effectively preach something that we do not understand and do not know how to practice in our own lives. Some of our most effective ministry can be found in our day to day lives as we live out the truths that we find in the text of the Bible. So now, how can we effectively communicate the fear of God in our preaching? Firstly I want to turn our attention to the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 12:28–29 ESV

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

In the beginning we described this fear as showing reverence and awe, here acceptable worship is described as having reverence and awe. When we preach we are worshiping. Reverence and awe should be the first things that we take to the pulpit with us. If you want to know what the fear of God should look like in your preaching you need to fear God when you preach, show reverence and awe from the pulpit.

Today so many people make a mockery of preaching and what it should look like, treating it like a stage for stand-up comedy or somewhere to display how great they are. What we need today is more people using the pulpit to show how great God is not themselves. To call attention to God and all of his goodness not how funny the jokes they found in the internet are. The fear of God needs to return to the pulpit. Most pastors wouldn’t preach the sermon that they had planned if they knew Jesus was in the room, remember men God is here in our presence, fear him. This is our acceptable worship.

So how is it that we show this second fold of the fear from our pulpit, the fear of disappointing our master, the fear that shows reverence and awe?

aspects of the sermon

don’t over use jokes

jokes are effective things to break tension within a sermon, they are also the fastest way to make a sermon flop. Jokes should come naturally and not be forced, they should also be relevant to the audience that you are preaching to. The biggest thing you want to watch out for is the overuse of jokes, this is a sermon meant to glorify God not a nightclub to practice your comedy act.

2. show respect for all of God’s word

2 Timothy 3.16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” note here all scripture. Not only should we never talk down on any part of the Bible, we should also make efforts to preach from the whole Bible. To show God the reverence and awe that he desires we should preach from all of his inspired word.

3. preach the fear of God

Most people do not know what it means to fear God. I hope that by now you all have a good idea of what it means and can take that knowledge and effectively teach it. Don’t shy away from this topic because it sounds controversial, take it head on. My biggest desire for all of you is that you would never shy away from preaching anything, especially the fear of God.

the fear of punishment in your sermon

Earlier I mentioned that you want to be careful when you use this fear from the pulpit, I want to take this time to explain further what I mean and how to do it.

We have all seen at one time or another someone go in tears and pray some prayer and a week later they are the same person they were before. I am not the one who judges peoples salvation but it appears as though that salvation was not genuine. That is an easy result to get, preach hell, fire, and brimstone and you are sure to scare someone to repentance. The only problem is the genuineness of that decision, did they seriously put their faith in Jesus or were they just afraid of the other option. I do not want to diminish the seriousness of hell or even scare you away from telling the people that you preach to about how serious it is. What I want you to do is to exercise caution as you do it to make sure it is clear that it is faith in Jesus that saves you from eternal punishment.

in my youth group I could go and scare so many of the youth that they are all coming and wanting to be saved. That is a in the moment fear filled decision not a genuine conversion. This could easily be seen because you could easily see many denounce Jesus the next week.

I do not want to discount the use of fear as a means of grace that God uses, after all it is healthy to know what it is that you are being saved from.

when you use this from the pulpit it is at your discretion. Strike a balance to where you are not fear-mongering your people into listening but they also know what it is they need saved from. Ultimately they need to know what it is that is sending them there and that is sin. When preaching this fear make it very clear that it is our own sin that sending us on a one way trip to take the full force of the wrath of God.

Strike a balance when conveying fear of God because sinners need to be afraid but their faith also needs to be genuine.

Conclusion

As we come to a close this morning I want to send you with a few key reminders. firstly remember that this fear is multifaceted, in that it looks different to the unbeliever than it does to the believer. This fear is a fear of punishment to some and a fear of disappointing that shows reverent awe to others. This fear permeates every aspect of our lives and should be put into practice for all of us. It is our motivation, it should affect our attitude, and it should effect our actions.

When we preach we must make sure to convey the fear of God. We must show it from the pulpit and make our sermons point to it. We must also take heed to using it as a tool to get professions of faith that are not genuine. The fear of punishment is a real thing that should be revealed but it should not be used for coercion.

As we live and as we preach we should be known as the people that fear God. Remember also what the object of this fear is, it is God. We serve a perfect holy God that deserves our fear, fear him and lead others to do the same. Let us pray.

Prayer

Lord help us to fear you.

Help us to show you the reverence and awe that you deserve so very much.

Be with us as we preach so that others may know what it means to fear you and salvation and sanctification may come from it.

Help us to always remember that you are God and there is no other. you deserve all the glory and honor and praise.

Before you there was nothing and there will be nothing after you. you are the beginning and the end.

Guide us to more fully understand you and allow our fear to grow through that.

Show us what it means in each of our lives to fear you and give you the reverence and awe that you deserve so that you may be glorified above all else.

Lord the fear of you is good, help us to never forget that and help us to always walk it.

In your most holy name I pray amen.