Reverence and Godly Fear

Any Other Name

Jehovah?

I have always found the trademark claim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be a bit ironic. Make no mistake, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are a part of a false religion and a cult. But, they claim that they use the name of God, and so by this they are proving that they are the true religion. They claim that all of the other religions who use the Bible are false because their Bibles use the word Lord instead of the proper name of God.

In most bibles if you look at a passage where God’s name is used, you will find the the word LORD written in all caps. For example. In Deut 6:4 the opening verse of the Shema, we know the words:

Deuteronomy 6:4 KJV 1900

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

In both places, and anywhere in the Bible where you find the word LORD in call caps, the word LORD is used in place of what is known by theologians as the Tetragramaton. 4 Hebrew letters which represent God’s name. יהוה yodh, he, waw, he (yhwh).

It became a practice to not speak he name of God aloud, when they came to God’s name in the reading of scripture they would instead use the word Adoni. Meaning Lord. When Jewish scribes would copy scripture and came to God’s name they were required to wipe their pens and solemnly say “I am writing the name of God for the Holiness of His name” before they could continue.

The truth of the matter is that the true pronunciation of Gods name is likely lost to us. The one thing that is most likely, and you certainly won’t convince a witness of this, is that God’ name is not pronounced Jehovah.

How do we come to that conclusion? Hebrew doesn’t have vowels. When you come to the name of God, it is just like I said, yodh, he, waw, he; or YHWH. Yahweh is probably a more accurate pronunciation. But Jehovah comes from a practice of placing the vowel markings that came later in Hebrew, for the word Adoni, Lord into the letters YHWH to remind them to read God’s name as Lord rather than to speak Gods name aloud.

Reverence

I tell you all of that not to discredit the Jehovah’s Witnesses, we don’t really have the time today to scratch the surface of that subject, nor is it terribly profitable for our church to do so. What I want to draw attention to is the great reverence for which the Jewish people regard the name of God. To write God’s name they would specially prepare their pen and their hearts, and to read God’s name in scripture they would substitute His name with LORD.

We find the reverence of God a theme in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Psalm 89:7 we read

Psalm 89:7 KJV 1900

7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

and then in Hebrews 12:28 we have an example

Hebrews 12:28 KJV 1900

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

The word translated reverence in the Old Testament is a compound of two words yare and shahah meaning fear and falling down. And in the New Testament the word is also a compound word, but of three words. Aidos, Phobemai, and entrepomai. Modesty, Fear, and the last word essentially meaning a self value of inferiority.

A Picture begins to be painted with these words; doesn’t it? To reverence God is to have a fear of God that brings you to your knees before Him, it is relational where you see yourself in light of glory of God and deem yourself to be inferior. The heart of someone who reverences God is not the heart of a show-boat, it’s not the heart of a peacock. Someone who reverences God isn’t going to act as if they are the greatest being in the world, because they will concede that God is the greatest being and even in humanities limited ability to comprehend the greatness of God will leave them with a character of humility.

We are taking a break in our study of the Book of Hebrews and This morning’s message is entitled Reverence and Godly Fear

Let’s Pray

Fear Not

There is a balance to be had.

You might be most familiar with these words by the hymn How Firm a Foundation but

Isaiah 41:10 reads

Isaiah 41:10 KJV 1900

10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: Be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

You have likely heard before that the command Fear Not is the most repeated command in the Bible. 96 verses in the Bible contain the phrase Fear Not or Be Not Afraid. A few of these instances aren’t really commands for us to fear not but by-and-large most are, at least 90 of those 96 are commands for man not to fear.

But the balance is this. We need to put fear in it’s place. Matthew 10:28 says

Matthew 10:28 KJV 1900

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Fear of God, well that is the beginning of wisdom according to Proverbs 9:10. Fearing the world is a lack of trust in God, but fear of God is understanding our position in relationship with God.

Fear of God does not mean living in terror. Fear of God is the kind of fear that a child has for a parent. They love the parent, they trust the parent and they feel safety with the parent but they also know that if they disobey then the parent has ability to give them punishment.

Reverend

As is often the case, man tries to steel glory due only to God. Matthew 23:8-12 says the following:

Matthew 23:8–12 KJV 1900

8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

But men, even men who are leaders in the church take to themselves titles that put them above their brothers and sisters in Christ. Reverend is one of those titles. But, it’s not to men we should have our reverence, whom we should fear.

RHC Lenski wrote in his Bible Commentary

“Any title that is contrary to [the] equality of brethren in Christ Jesus, even the desire for such a title and honor, is wicked usurpation as far as our one real Teacher is concerned”

Regardless of the title, A church leader who expects you to regard them in a way other than that of a brother or a fellow servant, and uses their unbiblical title to Lord over a congregation is abusing his office and is someone you should stay far away from.

The Other Ditch

Informality

One of the most useful expressions, that I find used alot is this: There is a ditch on both sides of the road. Regardless of how flawed it may be, people tend to regard religions expression of godliness as reflective of God. The problem is that when religion over steps and when leaders in the church fail to live up to their office that ends up distorting the view that people have of God.

So in a reaction to the overreach of men in positions that have been ordained by God, people push back against formally regarding God. The word of God becomes suggestive, instead of authoritative. Worship becomes optional rather than prescriptive.

The Name of God

Even when the name of God where scribes would clean their pens and make statements of God's holiness before they would write his name, even the name of God where rabbis reading would say Lord instead of using God’s proper name. Even with all of this being true the name of God is used as a curse word and nobody bats an eye.

And you could say, well they are saying God and God could many any God so it isn’t really that they are using the proper name of for God, just a term that refers to a divine being. And I could give you that much, but when somebody uses the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as a curse word then they are absolutely using the proper name of God as profanity.

I remember as a kid thinking it's strange especially since I went to a Catholic school that people using God's name as an expletive was looked over, it was even something that you could hear the teachers doing without much regard. All the while if you used any four letter word you were likely to be sent to the principals office quickly followed by a phone call home.

To really consider it I find curse words to be a ridiculous invention of our culture anyway. I would contend that if somebody said to someone else jokingly one of the words that we were guard as a curse word with no intent behind it that spiritual that is better than for someone to call someone else a jerk with hate in their heart. But we weigh some words differently than others for some reason. Now I'm not giving license for people to use potty language. Ephesians 4:29 is not unclear.

Ephesians 4:29 KJV 1900

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Some other time we might get into it more but, let me just say this. This passage is much more than an admonition against against using swear words. But in our culture, where certain words are classified as corrupt, it is absolutely a prohibition against using those words. And those words do have a meaning behind them that are corrupt, so we should take care in how we speak.

But to violate the 3rd commandment and use the name of God in such a crass way speaks volumes a out the heart of the one using God’s name in such a way, it speaks volumes about their lack of reverence.

Christian Comedy

I have to be careful about what I about to say cause I don't want anyone to get the impression that I am overly rigid or to think that they should be overly rigid. I definitely enjoy Christian comedy. When I was a kid my dad had a tape of a Christian comic that he would play while we were in the car and I thought it was just the funniest thing in the entire world, then when I got a little bit older Mark Lowry had a comedy album and I had that on cassette tape and I would listen to it and thought it was hilarious. I am a fan of the Chik-fil-a song.

I am subscribed to Christian comedy pages on Facebook. There are a lot of people who would say you can't make light of Christianity at all, that it is not proper, it is not reverent. I enjoy Christian comedy, but comedy that makes fun of Christians or maybe even a broad assortment of the people we find written about in the Bible. Because let's be honest Christians, we do plenty of things that are deserving of being made fun of a little.

But, I can’t tolerate jokes at the expense of my savior.

I want you to imagine if you will that you were caught in a burning building and the firemen came and he rescued you out of that building. You were moments away from being consumed by the flames be picked you up and carried you out and led you to safety but as he was doing that himself was lost to the flames. In all seriousness you would owe that fire fighter your life. I don't think he would allow anyone making light of what that fire fighter dead. I don't think you would allow jokes to be made at the expense of that fire fighter because you know that you owed him your life. That is true about this imaginary fire fighter that I came up with for the story how much more true should it be for God who came to earth and died like a criminal on the cross to save you from eternal death.

A Practice of Reverence

Our culture does not give God the respect that He is due. If you were famous and you said something derogatory about pretty much any other world religion you would be crucified by the media. God on the other hand, you can say whatever you want, in fact the more irreverent you are is often the more celebrated that you are.

As Christians we have not been called to live outside of our culture. Sometimes I think it would be easier if we could just all go away to some Hermitage somewhere but I suspect that will have a pretty severe impact on our ability to fulfill the great commission. But we need to be careful that as we conduct our lives in an irreverent world that we don't allow that irreverence to become part of who we are.

We should conduct ourselves towards God with a Reverence. To consider that Greek word agains, we should conduct ourselves with a sense of modesty, fear, and a self value of inferiority that constantly keeps us looking up towards God. I don’t know everyone here’s testimony, how you became a Christian. For me, though, when I look back and I consider who I was, and how I lived, and how deceived I was by the world. I can do nothing but be thankful for the grace of God to save me and put a burden on my heart of repentance.

Our God is worthy of Reverence.

Let’s Pray