The Fear of the Lord

Introduction

Good morning church. If you have your copy of God’s Word this morning I would ask that you turn to Luke chapter 1. And we will be examining verse 50 today. This morning we are going to be visiting more of a subject matter, and that subject matter is the Fear of the Lord. This is a topic that I believe is often mentioned, but seldom studied in our modern church context today. However, I give First Baptist of Salem a pass on that because I know that First Baptist of Salem is a church that cares deeply about the Word of God and the Things of God, and for that I praise God for the faithfulness that is displayed here week in and week out.

If you have found your place in God’s Word this morning I will go ahead and read then from Luke 1:50

“And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him.”

Let’s pray.

In this passage, we see Mary, the mother of Jesus, giving thanks to God for the news that she has just recieved from Gabriel. She has just been told that the long awaited prophecy was going to be fulfilled through her. Though scared to death at first, she is now giving thanks to God for this news. This is often referred to the song of Mary too.

Mary’s song here is not an unfamiliar song by any means either. Portion of her song takes us back to another place in the Scripture, and that is one of David’s songs. If we take a look at Psalm 103, we see much of what Mary is saying somewhat paralleled with what David is singing in the Psalm, and specifically in Psalm 103:11

Psalm 103:11 LSB

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

So once again, we hear this phrase often, “the fear of the Lord.” But we must then ask with the most sincerity and trembling, what is the fear of the Lord? And we must seek for this answer with all diligence and sincerity.

Proverbs 9:10 LSB

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

So we could start here. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Just as ignorance in God is the root of all sin, the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. These two points I think are important to contrast. Sin is something that we choose to do, whether we like to admit it or not. And whether it is the Christian or the Atheist alike, the choice to sin is founded in ignorance of God. For the Christian it is choosing in that moment to do what we want over what God wants, either because of a lapse of the fear of God or a misunderstanding of the fear of God. For the Atheist it is the same thing, but without the fear of God at all.

To quote Thomas Watson, he says on the matter,

“These men proclaim to the world that they are atheists; they do not believe in the immortality of the soul. They are worse than brutish — a beast fears the fire — but these fear not hell-fire!”

Those who claim this atheism should be afraid of the fire of hell, for that is where their eternal soul will spent the rest of it’s days after death. The fear of God is not in him so he spends his living days ignorant to who God is, what God has done, is doing, and will do, and to what will happen to himself once his last breath has been taken. And it is a blissful ignorance. This should not only spark alarming concern to the Christian to tell them and plea with them the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it should spark an overwhelming fear into the life of the atheist who fears nothing.

Aristotle had a quote some time ago that said that the reason why the chameleon changes colors is out of fear. It allowed them to hide from those they believe were going to harm them. The same goes for human beings! Our religion changes just as the chameleon does change color. We want to be liked! We want to fit in and we don’t want people thinking we are different. It is because of a lack of fear of the Lord.

I have encountered far too many men and even was once one of these men who would profess Christ to those who I felt wanted to hear that from me, and then I would deny Him once I was out of sight of those people. God was never in mind during these things. It is easy to answer the Sunday School questions to try and provide security to the people who we talk to Jesus about, but it is a far different story to desire the things of God in our hearts when we are completely alone, or with those who outwardly oppose God. There is where the truth comes out, not when it is easy and we are around Christians.

To say that you are a Christian with your lips and then deny Him in your heart is to live in a house that seems to be a mansion on the outside, but has dirt floors and mud walls on the inside. Though it may make us feel better for others to see the beautiful exterior of our professions, there is no true possession of Christ.

And it goes even beyond this doesn’t it? The one who claims Christ but has him not often times goes the extra mile to make sure everyone knows they have it all together. They make sure they have a luxurious life, they get the nicer clothes, and they make sure everything in their life is top notch. All that money can buy. Now do not get my wrong, to have, want, or own nice things is not a sin. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying though is that your exterior can be the nicest of anyone around, but if the interior is still dead, then all you’ll end up with is a soul in hell and a nice casket.

Thomas Watson, again, puts it this way: “He who pampers his body and neglects his soul, is like him who feasts his slave and starves his wife.”

Many will claim they love the Lord, yet they do not fear Him. Friend, if you truly know the Lord and you truly love Him, then you will rightly fear Him.

Luke 1:50 tells us exactly what happens to the one who does not fear the Lord, right? If his mercy is upon those who fear Him, then that can only mean one thing. Those who do not fear Him will not receive His mercy! Though the Scripture doesn’t say that explicitly, this is one of those times we can make an inference and we are correct.

A fear of the Lord is not a fear like we fear a diagnosis of a life ending disease from a bad hospital visit. It is not a fear of an abusive parent or spouse. It is a fear that we have that gives us hope and peace. It is a fear that we have for the one who has the power to take our life from us any time we choose to sin, yet has the grace and mercy to give us even another breath. But we must understand this fear even further in order to truly practice it in our own lives.

We must understand this fear or the Lord in 2 ways.

The first way we must understand it is in its cause. What is the cause of our fear of the Lord. Why should we fear the Lord. Isn’t God love? We shouldn’t fear love, right? Yes, of course God is love. God’s love for us is beyond our human comprehension, so much so that even when we don’t love Him, His love for us is infinitely wider, deeper, and stronger than any ocean that we can imagine. His love and His mercy for us even when we neglect Him roots deeper and is taller and stronger than any redwood tree we could find.

However, God is also just. And this is one of the causes of our fear of Him. Abraham and Lot were traveling together in Genesis chapter 13. During their travels, some of their herdsmen had a bit of an issue. Abraham wanted this to be resolved, so he told Lot that he could choose where to go from there, and Abraham would go wherever Lot chose not to go. Lot scanned the scene and he saw where there was beautiful land, and lush pastures, and streams of water that all seemed to be of perfection. Abraham then prayed to God and asked Him to send Him wherever He saw fit.

Abraham was a man who feared God and sought out His direction and His will. Lot did not. Lot wanted to fulfil whatever it was inside of himself that he desired, and that was the seemingly beautiful land with flowing waters and green grass. But that “beautiful land” Lot desired to go to ended up being the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. A land that had no fear of God and wound up in a state of despair and destruction. God is just. And though Lot showed up a wealthy man with many possessions and family, he came back with absolutely nothing. He did not fear the Lord. And God is just.

And there are many today who will read that story and they will say, “Well that was the God of the Old Testament, Jesus didn’t do that!” To that I would say repent for the heresy you just committed. We see God’s righteous justice carried out in the New Testament as well for those who did not fear the Lord.

In Acts chapter 5 we see of a couple names Ananias and Sapphira. And they had sold some land and knew that they were to give all that he had gained to the church, but Ananias decided to keep some for himself. After doing so, Ananias fell down and breathed his last as the text says. And shortly thereafter, his wife Sapphira shows up and Peter asks her, did you pay this much for the land? And she says yes it was this much, and Peter asks her, Why do you put the Lord to the test?

Her result was the same as her husband before her. You see friends, the Lord is love and we will never understand his love fully, but he is a just God who will not be trifled with. He is the Beginning and the End. he is the Author and Sustainer.

The second reason we must fear God is the Effect. Our Cause is that God is just, and the effect is that God is good. Let us look at Luke 1:50 once again. His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.

God is merciful toward those who fear Him. You see we just spent some time looking at examples of those who did NOT fear God. And God was not merciful toward them. God demands our fear of Him, but again, not as a monster, but as the One who holds us in His hand and allows no one or no thing to pluck us from that righteous hand. God was merciful to Abraham where he was not toward Lot. He was merciful toward Peter who denied Him, yet showed remorse, but not Judas who sought his own gain.

The one who fears God directs the rudder of his life according to the compass of the Word. God shows the one who fears Him so much mercy that He sent His own Son to take on the full wrath that was reserved for all who sinned. He put it on Jesus instead of you and me so that we might repent and believe in Him! If that isn’t the ultimate picture of mercy, of love…then I have no idea what mercy is!

God shows us his mercy daily by allowing us to show up here on a Sunday morning and gather in His house and worship Him in such a way that he commands us to.