Well, first of all fear always sound very negative, right? Nobody wants that fear. But when we talk about the fear of the Lord is not a fear that we are afraid of God, it's a different fear. It's a fear that goes into respecting God, worshiping God, making God the supreme person in our life. And like it says in Matthew 6:33, "seek first the kingdom of God" so before I seek anything else I seek God first because without him I am nothing I can do nothing.
And by the way, my dear friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ, can I ask you how many times is the word fear of the Lord or fear of God mentioned in the Bible? Do you have a clue? I was amazed that the word "fear of the Lord" is mentioned 300 times and there is no other subject except the love of God. His love for us and our love for Him is mentioned in the same way as the fear of the Lord.
The word love to God, love for Christ, love for the word of God... that's mentioned a little bit more than 300 times. But then comes already the fear of the Lord.
So we can see. It's mentioned so many times, so God has a purpose for that. God's purpose is, that we live for His glory. And a person who fears God starts to live for His glory.
Now let me give you a practical example. Now that fear of God touches our life. One morning I was reading the book of Proverbs 8:13... and I was amazed that the book of Proverbs talks a lot about the fear of God.
The fear of God, for instance in chapter 1, is the beginning of wisdom. Many people sometimes wonder, "Oh, why do I not have more wisdom?" Well, here is a good answer. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
I was reading through the book of Proverbs when I was going to my first ship, there was a feeder ship (a small container vessel) and I climbed the gangway and went to the mess room, and there was nobody in the mess room. Nobody was in the mess room, so what to do now?
I continued my way and went to the galley because the cook is always there since he must cook for the guys so they have food at lunchtime. And on my way to the galley, I saw a huge nude picture. It was amazing that the moment I saw that picture, Proverbs 8:13 came to my mind: The fear of the lord means to hate evil" And I knew that God compelled me to turn away from the picture. So I went back to the crew mess room and that very moment, 2 Filipino seafarers just came into in and said, "Do you have a Bible for me?" "Tagalog bible?" I said, "Yes I have. I gave them a Bible and they had only 5 minutes to drink a cup of coffee and we shared a little bit about the Word of God and they said this is the first Bible in their life.
So God taught me a lesson at that time that if I would not fear God and would spend my time in my thoughts with the naked lady on the picture I would not have met these two people who wanted a bible.
You see it's a very very important subject the fear of the Lord leads us so we can do the things that God wants us to do. I must admit I have experience (at the other times?) why I had to confess to God "sorry for not being in the fear of God".
But it was very encouraging to me the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Now we are not allowed to hate. The Bible says always that hatred is sin.
But there is one hatred that is allowed for us, and this is to hate sin.
You are allowed to hate kasalanan (Tagalog Word for sin).
And there is a (muffling/rumbling noise).
James says in chapter 4 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you".
Eccl. 12:12-13, "Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind."
So there was a lot of discussion happening in that book and a lot of introductions to different topics. But the conclusion is: fear God and keep His commandments.
In the German translation, it did not say "the conclusion..." but it says: "the end result of all teaching is: fear God and keep His commandments.
If you like basketball, you always like the end result.
If you watch a match, and after half the match you go home, it doesn't make sense. You need to know the end result. because the end result will never be changed.
So the end result is... God's final teaching is: fear God and keep His commandments. What are His commandments? His commandments are to love God with all your heart and soul, and then the next one is (to love your neighbors) as yourself.
So actually there are three basic commandments in the Bible. Fear God, Love God, and love the next one (others). And under these three commandments, all the other teachings follow.
Let's turn to the book of Isaiah 11:2-3. It says "the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him" Him, that means Jesus Christ. "The spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and of fear of the Lord." I was amazed that even Jesus Christ needed the fear of the Lord. Although He is the son of God, although He is God. I was even more amazed in verse 3 which says, "and He will delight in the fear of the Lord." So Jesus had a great delight to fear His Father, to respect, to worship, and to honor.
When we turn to the book of Job.. and by the way, if Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord, then we also should delight in our fear of Him for Jesus is our great example. He is the one who teaches us what is good and what is not good.
Job 2:3. You probably all know the story when God and Satan were talking and it says here, "Then the Lord said to Satan, 'have you considered my servant Job? There's no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright. A man who fears God and shuns evil."
So God's description of the person is not (like) "oh He's a busy person. He's a nice person. He's a kind person, and He's a humble person." No. God's description of Job was a man who fears God and avoids evil. And I thought by myself, "This is what I have to learn."
Hebrews 5 talks about prayer. Jesus Christ is giving us a very good example of how He prayed.
It says there that "Jesus in the days of His flesh when he offered up prayers and supplication with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from the dead and having been heard because He feared God."
Jesus' prayer was answered because He feared God. And sometimes I wonder why are so many prayers not answered. Is it because the prayers are selfishly made? Is it because we pray to have our own profits/ our own things to do? Or do we pray because we want to honor God? Do we want to live for His Glory? Do we want to see His ministry be accomplished here on earth? Jesus' prayer was answered because He feared the Lord.
Proverbs 23:17 says, "Do not let your heart envy sinners. But always be zealous for the fear of the Lord."
So here it says 'always'. Always means every day. This is not a subject that we can just learn on Sunday morning in church. This is a subject that should really touch our lives day by day. Because the subject that comes from God as we have read in Ecclesiastes "the end result of all the matters is to fear God and keep His commandments.
Now dear brothers and sisters, what are the results when we fear God. Well, It says in Malachi 3:16, "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name."
This is the most amazing verse. Why? Because we read here that God started to listen to the people when they feared Him. In other words, God was there and the people with Him, and he stopped His word and started to listen. Not even that, It says here, "the scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored His name."
So there was a scroll written and their names were written on that scroll. It's amazing that God wrote down with His mind, "oh, here are the people who fear my name. The people who revere and honor me. Who wants to do what I say. People who are willing to live for my glory."
What are other results when we fear God? I already mentioned Proverbs 8:13. It says, "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; to hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech."
So when we start to fear God, we will get a strong desire to hate sin. We will not lightly deal with sin. We will want to tackle against sin.
So once again, maybe that's the verse that we should all know by heart. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Or the fear of the Lord is to hate sin.
Finally, as a result of our fear of the Lord is that we will be tremendously blessed.
Our life will be truly blessed.
It says (there), "But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing Love."
So God's eyes, God's presence is with us when we fear Him when we seek Him when we live for Him.
When I was a young guy, I remembered in our youth group, there was always a Christian saying, "let's talk about the will of God. What is the will of God? How can we know the will of God?" And this was always the subject. I don't know if this is the subject of the Christian youth in the Philippines. But at least in Germany, it was. And I was amazed to read in Psalms 25:12-14.
It says there, "Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. They will spend their days in prosperity, and their descendants will inherit the land.
The Lord confides on those who fear him; He makes his covenant known to them." Isn't it amazing? God promises us that when we fear Him, He makes His covenant with us.
In other words, He makes His way and His will be known to us. So we don't have to go for a long study of what is the will of God. If we start to be the people who honor God, who seek Him first, then He will make His covenant and His will be known to us.
There are many kinds of the will of God that are already known to us that we just have to do.
For instance, in Thessalonians it says, be thankful.. pray always, this is the will of God. We already know that so it's kind of easy. If we want to ask for the will of God, we just say, "thank you, God." We start thanking Him with whatever situation we are in; we are already doing the will of God. "Pray without ceasing" is always the will of God.
Promises. There are a lot of promises when we fear God. Proverbs 10:27 says, "The fear of the Lord adds length to life." Isn't that amazing? When we come to a certain age when we know half of our life is already finished, the question is, "What will remain? How old will I become?" It's a very funny question sometimes. But here it says, "The Lord adds length to life when we fear Him. Then it says in Proverbs 14:26, "Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for there children, it will be a refuge." So God not only honors us when we fear Him but also to our children, blessings will go on and on and on.
And then in Psalms 103:13, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him."
Dear friends, we all need compassion. We need compassion day by day. Because we all are still sinning. We are not perfect yet. We will be perfect when we will be with the Savior in Heaven. but we are still sinning right now, so we need God's compassion.
So there are lots of promises in the Bible when we fear the Lord. This message has already been shortened very much. There are 300 verses about the fear of the Lord and many many promises which I've not read to you yet.
So please take your time studying what is the fear of the Lord. And you will be tremendously blessed. It has blessed and reached my life so much.
Let me end this with what Oswald Chamber said,
"If you fear God, you need to fear nothing else in life.
But if you do not fear God, you need to fear everything else in life."
Thank you. May God bless you.
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