One of the thieves crucified with Jesus said to his companion in crime who railed against Jesus, Don’t you fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation? I mean, here was a man so close to death and to meeting his Maker in judgement, dying for a capital offence with the knowledge of the law which said Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree! Dare we provoke God? Are we stronger than Him? (1 Cor. 10:22).
Some do not fear God (Ps. 36:1). Some do, and for those who do there a blessing (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7) – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Without the fear of the Lord we do not have the paradigm for knowledge and wisdom – or the framework and foundation of knowledge and wisdom. We don’t know how to construct our world as it should be and see things in their proper perspective. We don’t know how to arrange our lives and have proper priorities and values. At the risk of appearing to ask the obvious, why must we fear the Lord?
He is our Creator. Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He who made us and not we ourselves (Ps. 11:3). Many people do not know that. Multiplied millions believe we are nothing but accidents, and whilst it is thought that such a belief promises the ultimate freedom, there being no demands and in the end it doesn’t really matter what we do. However we must consider if we are but accidents there is no meaning to our existence and there is no ultimate purpose for our being here…no sense of oughtness. There is a branch of counselling therapy known as Gestalt Therapy, being described as phenomenological and existential. These big words mean that it stresses the importance of personal experience and responsibility all acted out in a seemingly meaningless universe. With the assumption of meaninglessness, a person’s significance is based upon what they are feeling and doing in the here and now. It would seem to me that one ought to give attention to the assumption of meaninglessness rather than try to develop a therapy to live with it. No wonder one of the things that has been lost in our world is the sense of stewardship of a life:- life is a gift from God created with some return on His investment (2 Cor. 5:10).
He is our Sustainer (Col. 1:17; Acts 17:28 – in Him we live and move and have our very being). we are such limited creatures: we are made in a certain fashion and bound by genetic limitations (Matt.6:27). We are so puny (Ps. 8:3,4), but we would certainly rank ourselves higher and more important than an insect. Having said that, someone has estimated that if all the insects in the world ran amuk (ie. did not obey their inbuilt instincts), it would take but 30 minutes for man to be destroyed. God made things reproduce after their own kind: some plants and animals are poisonous and would destroy man. However they can only reproduce after their own kind but suppose they could germinate every other plant and animal in the world? Eventually every plant and animal would be deadly enough to destroy man. The forces that exist in this universe are immeasurably greater than man. How then does man continue to survive? Because God sustains! Remember the flood? It wasn’t a flood throughout the universe – only on this one planet. God made a promise He wouldn’t do it again and He’s kept His word (Job 38:8-11).
He is our Observer (The Lord looks down upon the earth, beholding the good and the evil – Prov. 15:3). God does take an interest in us. Many of us could quote bits and pieces of Ps. 139 which also testifies to the same truth. Many thoughts in the Psalm grab us, and maybe even stagger us when we reflect upon them. They all centre around the idea that God knows everything there is to know about us – even our thoughts!
He is our Saviour (I alone am Saviour and there is none else – Isa.43:19,11). We know the way He went about to save us:- what awesome respect we should have for the One who saves us by dying Himself. In the portals of Heaven in eternity when the Godhead discussed this creature in their image they were to make, and the subsequent fall into sin they foreknew would happen, they knew the dictates of justice required a perfect sacrifice for sin. Knowing that sin would be universal, they also knew that love would dictate that one of the Godhead would have to go to provide that sacrifice. When the question was asked, Who will go for us?, one put up His hand and said, Here am I send me.
And what kind of holiness is this that God could not simply ignore and overlook sin? What kind of love is this that God could not ignore us? I remember a Saltbush Bill cartoon where a hunting party of aborigines came across a freshly-laid railway track. They had never seen such before and one said, These are the tracks of no ordinary animal. God came into the world and left tracks that went from a crib in Bethlehem, down into Egypt, up to Nazareth and around the traps until they led to a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. Thankfully they didn’t end there but led into a tomb AND OUT AGAIN. These are the tracks of no ordinary God! What is the only appropriate response to such a God? fear Him.
He is our Judge (Eccles 12:13,14 He shall bring everything into judgement including every secret thing – even idle words (Matt.12:36,37). A man saved a youth from drowning one day. Years passed and the youth grew and entered a life of criminal behaviour. He was arrested and brought before the judge who just happened to be the man who had rescued him from the river on that earlier occasion. The young man pleaded with the judge, Remember me, I’m the fellah you saved from drowning years ago. You wouldn’t send me to jail would you? The judge replied, Young man, on that occasion I was your saviour, today I am your judge.
I saw an advertisement for a camp a while back with the theme Jesus is Cool, and I was struck by the thought that it does nothing to promote godly fear (respect). Yes, Jesus is the older Brother to the Christian, and yes He is our Friend, and yes, He does love us, but what do we owe Him? All the titles His disciples used of Him were titles of respect: Lord, Master, Rabbi, teacher, The Christ, Son of God. Coming before Him with boldness (Heb. 4:16) is not to be construed as being synonymous with flippancy! Whatever cultural meanings we may attach to certain words, we must weigh them up against the backdrop of the fact that Jesus is the One before whom every knee should bow! To use terminology to supposedly gain the attention of the young is to abuse the privilege that is afforded us to speak about the matchless name of Christ. We must be relevant, but we must be righteous too. “Cool” is not a new word; it was around when I was a youth and used exactly as it is now. We live in an age of promoters and gimmicks. The problem is people are converted to promotions and gimmicks. What happens when the promoter moves or the gimmick is old hat? The convert is gone too.
Jesus contemplated His ministry upon His baptism and went into seclusion for forty days. The Devil popped up and had his ideas for a successful ministry. Offer people bread first. Man is turned off by scripture and preaching so de-emphasise scripture. Use drawing cards like tongues-jargon, healings, praise teams and rock groups, popular guests who speak piously about Jesus who supposedly has burdened them with great projects that must be supported by everyone. Offer sensationalism. There’s no business like show business. It’s about the greatest crowd attraction on earth. I noticed that James Caan, the actor, said that the garbage man performed society a great service than actors did – nevertheless it is still big business. Offer thrills for the worshipers. Turn pulpits into set decorations that would be the envy of Hollywood. Make your worship professional: discourage hymns, and sing peppy songs with lots of physical movement. Avoid the word ‘sin’ except when speaking of world evil. Never use it to point out personal faults. Fall down and worship me. Be pragmatic. Do whatever it takes to grow your following. Don’t focus on the spirit- focus on the flesh. Tell everyone what each person wants to hear – that God loves to be worshipped in whatever way people want to worship him. God loves it when men believe what they want to believe. Make sure you cater to the consumer spirit, otherwise they will shop elsewhere.
Material bread has its place but you cannot build a congregation on bread alone. It takes a church where every word proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus refused to play to the grandstand (John 4:24; John 6; Luke 14). It’s a calling to come and die – in order that one might live. Do you fear God?