Fear of the Lord (Proverbs)
Proverbs • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
The fear of the Lord is an important theme in Proverbs and an important theme throughout Scripture
O taste and see that the Lord is good:
Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints:
For there is no want to them that fear him.
The fear of the Lord should be a natural response and an ongoing response from those that have come to the understanding that the Creator of the universe is the Lover of their soul.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Without a proper understanding of the fear of the Lord we are destine to live a life of foolishness.
The book of Proverbs is dedicated to teaching God’s people how to live well.
I think we all understand this but the fear of the Lord is not terror or a knees knocking at the return of Jesus.
There is the reality that without Christ there ought to be that level of fear
But God’s people are told to fear Him
So what is the fear of the Lord
A lot of one word definitions have been used to attempt to define it
I appreciate them but they are insufficient
Tonight I want to present a definition given by Ed Welch and think through his definition
“The fear of the Lord is knowing I live coram deo, before the face of God. It is knowing that the Holy God sees every aspect of my life. The result is that we live knowing that we are seen. We live publickly, and follow Christ in joyful and reverential obedience.”
Coram deo…what in the world is that? Does anyone know Latin
It is found in the Latin Vulgate in Psalm 56:13
That phrase “that I might walk before God”…with the emphasis on “before God”
The essence is what we saw when we talked about Hagar in Sunday school and how she was put in a position where she felt it was best to leave Abraham and Sarah
She was a pregnant foreigner trying to find a way to live in a foreign land with no family, no friends, and no resources
The angel of the Lord comes and at the end of their meeting in Genesis 16:13 and she calls Him El Roi
And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
What do we learn from this?
If we are to live a life characterized by the fear of the Lord we need to remember we live our lives before the God who sees
The reality is that when we sin we are in a practical sense saying that God is present sometimes and other times He is not
God is present and seeing in our lives 24/7/365
You think Alexa, Siri, and Google know a lot about you
These “smart devices” give us the feeling that nothing is done in private
The truth is whether they see it or not God does
The contrast though is that God doesn’t see with the intent to crush us or use us in the way our devices do
God sees out of compassion…El Roi is only used in Genesis 16:13 and is used not in a judgment sense but for the purpose of meeting the needs of Hagar
So the fear of the Lord has less to do with judgment and more to do with us acknowledging God’s presence in our lives and allowing Him to lead us
We are not hiding anything from Him
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
At first, and to the unbeliever the fear of the Lord ought to bring an awareness of God’s holiness and hatred of sin
But as a believer matures that understanding of the fear of the Lord ought to bring out God holy patience and His forgiveness
As we mature we no longer fear God’s holiness or His hatred of sin but we ought to remember them
When we remember that God is holy and hates sin and couple that with His patience and forgiveness we can live our lives in the open
That is God’s intent for each of us…to live a life that can be on open display
He invites us to live that life
He cleanses us in preparation for that life
He sees our lives and empowers us to live before Him
It is living in the sense that God is not out to get you but there to guide you and meet your every need
So why do we then life practically in ways that are contrary to the truths we know?
Because as human beings it is easier to believe what we feel rather than what God says.
That is when an overlooked word in the Bible is so important
“Remember”...
One of the occuring reasons for the sins of the Israelites and I believe is at the root of our issues is our forgetting God
Being so tied to this world that we choose the world and forget God.
Finally, the fear of the Lord is not a gift bestowed like our positional sanctification or our justification
It is the progressive development of our understanding and acceptance of the holiness of God
If God really is holy we will life in “the fear of the Lord”
the result is not shaking in our boots or running and hiding
The result of a proper understanding of the fear of the Lord is joyful obedience.