Two Types of Fear — Zac Poonen

Two Types of Fear: Earthly Fear and the Fear of God

I want to speak today on the subject of fear, the fear that we should not have and the fear that we should have. In the old covenant, they lived with a great deal of fear. And it's important for us who have spoken much about the new covenant that we understand that that old covenant type of fear is not what we are supposed to have.

But what has happened to many Christians is they've given up fear altogether. They've given up the fear of God. But if you look into their lives, there's a lot of fear about many earthly things. They've got it all upside down.

And I don't want anybody here to get it upside down. We keep saying in this church that we are preparing people to get 100 in the final examination. And as for the judgment seat of Christ, it's my personal burden as a servant of the Lord that nobody to whom I preached, either in this church or anywhere in the world, should be able to say in the day of judgment to me, Brother Zach, you never told us the truth.

I tell you, they will say that to many, many preachers in the world, to most preachers in the world. So that is the burden with which I speak only to please God. I want to show you in Hebrews chapter 12.

It says that when in the Old Testament, that's starting at verse 18, they came to a mountain that may be touched in those days. And even Moses, verse 21, the sight was so terrible that Moses said, I am full of fear.

The mountain where God manifested himself brought such fear. God intended it to bring fear upon people because that was the only way by which he could get people to be holy in those days. So he intended it to bring fear.

And even Moses, the greatest man of God, who was closest to God, was in fear. And that brought a holiness in the lives of those people, that if we had that much fear in our lives, we would be a lot holier than we are.

Sonship and the New-Covenant Fear of God

But in the new covenant, it is even higher. Now turn with me now to Romans and chapter 8. In Romans 8, it says that God has not given us a spirit of fear. Now it's contrasting the old covenant with the new covenant now.

Romans 8 and verse 15, you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. He's comparing with the old covenant. They were servants of God in the old covenant. Today we are sons of God. I don't know whether you realize that it is a greater thing to be a son of God than a servant of God.

Today, a lot of people respect somebody saying he's a servant of God. So if I say I'm a son of God, it looks inferior. That is the crazy idea that so many believers have, that a son is inferior to a servant.

It's not true in your home. Is your son inferior to your servant? And yet many people talk about someone as a servant of God with great reverence. And they think of themselves, I'm only a son of God. These are some of the many, many foolishnesses that believers have, which never seem to be corrected, even after years of hearing the truth.

And that's the reason why their lives are so shallow. Because they don't take the word of God seriously. Man is supposed to live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. So it says, you're being led by the spirit of God.

You're the sons of God. And when you're the sons of God, you're not a slave. You're not a servant. Only servants have that type of fear. What will my master do to me? But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which you cry out, Abba.

Father. So the fear disappears when we no longer know God as master, but as father. There's a lot of difference between the two. But it doesn't mean that because he's a father, we don't fear. Because the Bible says that we had earthly fathers whom we respected and feared.

And it says in 1 Peter in chapter one and verse 17, if you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourself in fear. So if God is your father, you must have a fear.

But not the type of fear that Moses had. A different type of fear. Not the fear that you have in your office where your boss may fire you from your work or punish you in some way unreasonably. But another type of fear that you should have if you have a godly, loving father, that you respect him and that type of fear.

So if you get rid of the old fear and you don't have the fear of a heavenly father, that could be the reason why you're defeated in so many areas still. I find so many believers who have heard the message of overcoming sin for so many years and who are still saying, brother Zach, I'm defeated, I'm defeated, defeated.

Consider if this is the reason. That you don't have a fear of your heavenly father. We have heard so much about the fact that we are forgiven, cleansed, the blood of Jesus has blotted us out and God looks at us, our past, as if we have never sinned.

All that is great. But if that leads to a life without a holy fear of God, it will not save us from sin. In 2 Corinthians, in chapter seven, 2 Corinthians seven, it says, it's talking about the promises we have.

And the promises are, chapter six, verse 16 to 18. So let's begin there. God has said, I will dwell in them, I will walk among them, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So we come out from others and are separate and don't touch what is unclean.

And he says, I'll welcome you and I will be a father to you. You shall be my sons and daughters. This is new covenant, 100%. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says God Almighty.

Let's absorb that. The ruler of this universe says to us, he'll be our father. Therefore, since we have these wonderful promises, beloved, what should we do? Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness or defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

You see that? You see in all these places that when God is your father, there is a fear that should be there in your life, which is far superior to the old covenant type of fear, which is a fear of punishment.

Whereas here, it's a healthy fear and reverence for God. And the only way you can cleanse yourself, where chapter seven, verse one, from all the filthiness that there is in your life, the only way you can perfect holiness is if you develop this fear of God.

And I'm sorry to say that many people do not have it. I fear that many who sit in CFC do not have it. Because we've become so familiar with the truth, it's become something that we know, we feel we are better than other churches.

There could be an attitude in some of your hearts saying, Lord, we thank you that we are in one of the best churches. We hear the greatest truths. We're not like those others who don't have light. But some of those others may be living holier lives than you.

Jesus as the Model of Fearless Obedience

For us, the example is Jesus Christ, not any man. So let's see if Jesus had a fear about him or not. We know one thing, that there was never any anxiety in Jesus' life, never. When people came to capture him, you know, Roman soldiers, and then he knew that he was gonna be crucified.

It's like if somebody comes to raid your house, to take you to jail, to hang you. And Jesus said, whom are you seeking? Jesus of Nazareth? That's me. Take me, leave the others. Boy, I wanna have that attitude.

There's zero fear. Because he knew, my life is in my father's hand. What can any human being in the world ever do to me without my father's permission if I'm seeking to do the will of God? See, that was the difference.

If we are seeking our own and living for ourselves and aiming to make money, et cetera, you can't say that. You can't say that everything will happen to you in the will of God, it won't. But anybody sitting here, anyone, young or old, if your only ambition in life, and I wish this is your only ambition, is to do the will of God, whatever it is, and to finish the plan God has made for your life, which he made before you were born.

You say, Lord, many years I wasted, but I'm not gonna waste anymore, but at least for the rest of my life, my only ambition is to fulfill that plan you made for my life, which I messed up so many times, but I don't wanna mess it up anymore.

If you will say that, even today, there's hope for you. But if you don't take that seriously, and that means that if you've done things in the past, wrong in the past, you'll have said it right, like Zach is.

And that's how we move on. That's the first way we prove that we fear God and say, Lord, the rest of my life, I really want to live the way you want me to live in that holy, healthy, new covenant fear of a heavenly father.

Jesus' Warning About Fear of People

See, Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew chapter 10, now remember, this is speaking to his disciples, who were apostles, Matthew 10 verse one, he summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority, and that part everybody likes to hear.

He gave them authority to cast out evil spirits, and he sent them out to preach. All that is wonderful, but he also told them that you will be called bad names, verse 25. They called, Jesus said, they called me, the head of the house, Beelzebul, prince of devils, they'll call you by worse names.

You know, when I read that verse, 25, I take every word of God seriously, I hope you do. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his family. So the way I looked at it is, Lord, if I'm a member of your family, there should be people who have called me by worse names than prince of devils.

So that's the meaning of that verse. Otherwise, I've got to check up whether I'm a member of your family or I'm a compromiser. You know, if you're a compromiser, people won't call you bad names, they'll call you good names.

A lot of famous preachers in the world are called a lot of good names. A lot of Christians get honor. Jesus did not, they called him prince of devils. Religious people who had the Bible, the Pharisees, called Jesus the prince of devils.

And religious people who have a Bible today, Christians, will call you by worse names than that. Now, is that how you understand verse 25? That's how I understand it. So if you're not being called bad names by other Christians, ask yourself whether you're a compromiser, whether you're one who keeps your mouth shut, pretends to believe what they believe, don't want to offend any of them.

Then ask yourself whether you're being faithful to Jesus. If they have called the head of the house, Pilsip, how much more the members of his family, therefore, verse 26, don't fear them. We don't fear people who call us by such names.

You don't need that verse 26, because you're not even come as far as verse 25. If you haven't come as far as verse 25, where people are calling you bad names, why do you need verse 26? Verse 26 is for those who have come past verse 25.

That means people have called you bad names because you're standing up for Christ. Maybe you're ridiculed in your office, or you suffer something because you stand up for Jesus. Don't fear them, because everything will be exposed one day.

There's nothing covered that will not be revealed. I want to tell you this, my brothers and sisters. There is nothing that you have covered up in your life that will remain covered. It'll one day be revealed.

There's nothing that you've hidden in your life, which will not be revealed one day, verse 26. And so he goes on to say in verse 28, don't fear those who can kill your body. What is the maximum any human being can do to you, kill you, hurt your body?

Calling you bad names is nothing. Like the old saying goes, sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words can never hurt me. That's what worldly people, even a worldly person can say. But a time may come when they kill you, when he says don't even fear that.

Rather, fear him. These are the words of Jesus, verse 28. Fear him. He's telling his disciples, to whom he has given authority to cast out demons, to go out and preach to people with such authority, he says, you must fear God, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Nobody preached on hell as much as Jesus Christ. Many preachers don't preach on hell, and I'll tell you why. Because they don't love people like Jesus loved people. It's like a doctor who won't tell you that he's got cancer, that you've got cancer, because he doesn't love you enough.

You just wanna keep collecting your fees and let you die. That's how a lot of preachers are. They won't tell you about hell, but Jesus loved people so much. He loved people so much that he was willing to die to save them from hell.

That's why he said, there is a hell. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time coming here to die for you. To me, the greatest proof that there is a hell, a terrible hell, is the terrible death that Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus dying on the cross, that terrible death, is the proof to me that there's some type of terrible punishment for people who don't accept it. I believe it. I don't doubt it, and that's why I preach it.

So, on one hand, he says, fear him. Fear God, who can cast your soul into hell. To whom is he saying that? To disciples. Not to unbelievers. I mean, we can tell unbelievers, hey, listen, you ought to fear God, who can cast your soul and body into hell, but read here, to whom is he saying it?

He's saying it to disciples. Verse 24, a disciple is not above his teacher. So, don't fear the others, but fear him, who can cast your body into hell. Don't take lightly your relationship with God. At the same time, the very next verse, don't be afraid.

And see the balance there? Fear him, but don't be afraid. The two go together. The more you fear God, the less you'll have of any earthly fear. So, for myself, this is the way I assess it. The more I have of earthly anxiety and fear is the proof, is the proof that I have very little of the fear of God.

The two, you know, one side of the balance goes up, the other side goes down, like a seesaw. If I have a lot of fear of God, I have no fear on this earth. If I have less and less of the fear of God, the fear on things earthly, things come up.

That's what he's saying here. He's talking about not having a fear on earth. Aren't two sparrows sold for a cent? Not one of them will fall to the ground without your father. The hairs of your head are numbered, therefore don't fear.

You're of more value than many sparrows. You see this contrast always in scripture? Fear God, but don't fear anything on earth. Fear God, but don't fear earthly circumstances and people. I want you to see today the very clear relationship there is between fearing God and all earthly fears and anxieties that you have about your health, your family, your children, your finances, your job, everything.

Christ's Peace in the Midst of Tribulation

So where there is this healthy fear of God, I believe all earthly fear will go. That's how it was with Jesus. Jesus lived without any anxiety. He said in John chapter 16 to his disciples, the last verse of John 16, 33, this is the last sentence that he spoke to his disciples as a message before he went to the cross.

The next, chapter 17, is a prayer, and then he went to Gethsemane. So we can look at John 16, 33 as the last verse, the sentence that Jesus spoke to his disciples before he went to the cross. All these things that I've spoken to you for three and a half years, and especially here in chapter 14, 15, and 16, I've spoken that you might have peace in me.

That is the opposite of fear. In me, you have peace. But in the world, you will have tribulation. But take courage. Take courage means don't be afraid. It's the same thing. Don't fear. It's the last words he spoke to his disciples.

Don't be afraid. I have overcome the world. And I tell you, we will need that message more and more in the days to come, to hear Jesus saying to us in different situations that we face, take courage now.

Don't be afraid. I have overcome this situation. I have overcome the world. You don't have to be afraid of people or situations or circumstances or anything on this earth. Those are his last words to his disciples before he went to the cross.

Jesus' Godly Fear and Victory Over Sin

Now, we've seen what Jesus taught. Now, let's look at his own life in Hebrews chapter five. Hebrews in chapter five, please turn there. It says here about how Jesus lived on earth in the days of his flesh.

This is the one place in scripture where we read about in the days of his flesh, Hebrews 5, seven. In the days of his flesh, that means 33 1⁄2 years, he offered up to his father prayers and specific requests.

Applications means specific requests, not just Father, bless me, but something specific. And most of those prayers were related to being free from sin. Don't let the smell of sin come upon me. Jesus hardly ever prayed for anything earthly because he knew those things would be provided for him if he sought righteousness and purity in his life.

So his prayers were more related to being free from sin because if there was even the slightest thought or attitude of sin in 33 1⁄2 years, he would not have been a holy sacrifice for our sins. So he had to be very, very careful.

Never, never to sin. I mean, you know how, supposing you're told, now tomorrow from Monday, from morning till night, supposing I give you a project, tomorrow, homework, from morning till night, try never to sin in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive.

I want you to take just one day seriously tomorrow. And if you do that, I believe you can do it. I believe that if you seek God, you're born again, and you really say, Lord, I wanna live like that today, just Monday, one day.

I believe you can do it. And you'll find at the end of the day that you have lived in a completely different way. You didn't gossip, you didn't backbite, you didn't reply angrily to somebody who spoke like that to you because you determined early morning that today I'm gonna live without sin.

And you didn't look and lust at anything because you had decided today I'm gonna live without sin. You'd have a wonderful day at the end of the day. You'd probably have much better sleep at night as well.

And then you come to Tuesday morning and you say, okay, one more day. I'm gonna live one more day without sin. I enjoyed it so much yesterday. I'm gonna do it today, Tuesday too. And you'll be able to do it.

You'll need to pray many times and the pressure gets a bit strong. The thing that we cry out with loud crying and tears, save me from sin. Because he's talking about that previously in chapter four, verse 16.

Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we can find grace to help us in our time of need. So he's saying, come to the throne of grace and ask for grace to help you in your time of temptation. Time of need, according to Hebrews 4 .15, is a time of temptation.

That's what he's talking about, temptation. And Jesus, and then he gives this example of Jesus. He was heard because of his godly fear. So we've seen what, you know, the Bible speaks about God being our father and having a fear.

And that is the way we are freed from earthly fears. I told you that this balance, you know, a seesaw. The more you fear God, your earthly fears come down. The higher you go, your earthly fears come down to zero.

When the earthly fears start rising up, anxieties, you're not able to be free from them, it means your fear of God is coming down. Remember this picture all your life. That's what we see in scripture.

Fear him who can cast your body into hell, Jesus said. But don't fear. The hairs on your head are numbered. Two go together. In the world, you'll have tribulation. But don't fear, don't be afraid. I've overcome the world.

What we do need to fear is that we might sin. He had a godly fear of sinning. So when I think of this proportion, I mean this balance of the seesaw as I said, the more I fear to sin, that's how I prove my fear of God, earthly anxieties go down and down and down and down.

If earthly anxieties are going up and up and up and up in your life, you better know the truth. You're not so serious about sin, brother and sister. You are not, though you talk about it and act very holy and yeah, I'm very serious about sin, you're not.

The proof is your anxieties are going up. For myself, I take God's word. That if I have one fear, I won't have the other. If I have a lot of that other fear, that means fear of God has gone down. Maybe today things will change in your life.

Delighting in the Fear of the Lord

That's the only one he took out of those requests and said, make sure you forgive others, otherwise you won't be forgiven. In the same way, out of these seven titles of the Holy Spirit, one is taken out.

Important. Verse three, he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will delight. You know, like ice cream, I want it. Or chocolate. Or whatever you like. Biryani, I don't know what you like. Delight.

You know, you look at that food and say, wow, it's a special lunch today. I thought it was just rice and sambar today. No, it's special lunch. Delight. No, by the way, it's not. So. He will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Think of that. It's not something, oh, I have to fear God. It's not like that. You know, in the midst of all this talk about Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit among Pentecostals and everywhere, people talk about the Holy Spirit.

I wish it were this Holy Spirit, which rested upon Jesus. Spirit of the Lord, rest upon him. I'll tell you honestly, this is the Holy Spirit I want to rest upon me, because this is the Holy Spirit that rested upon my Savior, that made him live that wonderful life on Earth.

Not just free from sin, but a life so full of love for others, compassion, goodness, a life of such strictness that anybody who tried to make money in the house of God, anybody who tried to make money in the house of God, he'd never speak gently to them.

He'd take a whip and chase them out. To go and make money in the marketplace. Not in the house of God. I want to be like Jesus. And you can turn to adulterous women and say, you're forgiven, don't sin again.

That's the Holy Spirit. That's the only Holy Spirit I want to experience. He may give me many other gifts, but those don't excite me so much. What is there to speak in tongues or cast out demons or even preach like this?

I know I won't do this in heaven. There'll be no casting out demons or preaching or speaking in tongues in heaven because perfection would have come. All those things are for our imperfect state. But there will be goodness and love and humility and compassion forever in all eternity.

That's the Holy Spirit. So whenever you think about the Holy Spirit and all that people talk about the Holy Spirit, you check, is that the Holy Spirit the Bible speaks of? The Spirit that rested upon Jesus?

The Spirit of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit, the one that makes you delight in the fear of the Lord. And here's one, when we think of delighting in the fear of God, the first sin that sort of comes to our mind is lusting with our eyes or getting angry.

Discernment, Impartial Judgment, and the Fear of God

Hang on. Here it speaks of another thing which we don't think so much about. When he delights in the fear of the Lord, he will not judge by what his eyes see. He will not make a decision by what his ears hear.

You know, we have such a tendency, all of us, we hear something without verifying it. Yeah, yeah. Not only we believe it, we pass it on to so many others and later on we discover it was not true. How do you feel then?

Or sometimes we say, it's not something I heard, brother. I saw it. Really? Are you sure what you saw was right? I'll give you an example. Many years ago in one of our conferences that we had in the old Campus Crusade place, late in the evening after the sessions were over, there were a group of our own CFC young people were sitting together, small group, it was dark, and one young boy, young boy means maybe 10, 12 years old, he saw puffs of smoke coming up from that little group there, it was dark.

So he went and told his mother, hey, mommy, do you know that some CFC boys are smoking cigarettes at night? And nobody was there. And the mother, stupid woman that she was, by the way, she's not in the church today.

Such people, as good they leave. Passed it on to others, came to my ears. Whenever I hear something, I go and check it out. Want to find out who are those young people? Want to find out, were you guys sitting there out there at night?

Was there somebody complaining there was some puffs of smoke? They said, yes, brother, we had put this mosquito coil there to drive out the mosquitoes. There were so many mosquitoes over there. Oh, those are the puffs of smoke.

Give me an example of, be careful that you don't even judge by what your eyes see. See, even there you could be mistaken. I believe God has allowed the sun to rise in the east and set in the west every day to tell us something you cannot believe what your eyes see.

The sun is not moving. Go and tell that to somebody who has not studied geography. He'll think you're crazy. It actually happened in one of the village churches, not ours, another village church, somebody asked me, brother Zach, are you one of these foolish people who believe that the sun does not go around the earth?

I said, yes, I am one of those foolish people who believe the sun does not go around the earth. He really believed, this is 20th century, he believed that the sun still goes around the earth. He didn't study geography, I didn't despise him.

We would have believed the same thing too. Peter and James believed it, did you know? They hadn't studied the geography, we knew. It's not a sin to be ignorant of these things, but it's to prove to us you cannot believe what your eyes see.

You cannot even believe what you feel. Do you know that right now underneath your feet, the earth is rotating at a speed of 1 ,000 kilometers an hour? Does it feel like that? You feel you're in a vehicle going at 1 ,000 kilometers an hour right now?

It is, whether you know it or not. That's the speed at which the earth is rotating on the equator. All these things are to show to us you can't believe what you see. You can't believe what you feel. You can't believe what you hear.

I've heard there's a thing called a dog whistle. A dog whistle, you know the dogs have a very sharper sense of hearing than human beings. I hope you know that. Just like some animals have got a sharper sense of sight than human beings.

Parental Partiality and Accountability Before Christ

Dogs have a range of frequency of hearing. Is that your children? Against other older people in the church? Is that one reason why your children are not wholehearted Christians today? Ask yourself. You can't do anything about it, but you can repent of it.

Be, ask God to give you the spirit of holiness, the spirit of impartiality. He will save your children from calamity thereby. Believe me. All those who are favorite, favorite, who show favoritism to their children, I can see where their children are today.

Mother and father, rise to the defense of their children. Okay? You are gonna reap calamity in their life one day, and it'll be much worse at the judgment seat of Christ. Earthly judgments and disciplines are to save us.

The Fear of the Lord as Spiritual Discernment

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, when the Lord disciplines us on earth, it is so that he does not judge us with the rest of the world. So to delight in the fear of the Lord, in the margin of my Bible it says, it'll make him quick of scent in the fear of the Lord.

I like that translation, Isaiah 11 three. And it reminds me of, you know, dogs have got a much sharper sense of scent than we have as human beings. They can smell a handkerchief that a thief dropped, and they can follow that thief, even though the thief left hours ago, and you don't sense any smell on the ground, the dog can pick up that smell.

Which the thief handled that handkerchief. That's how these police dogs track criminals. They go, go, go, go, go, and they come to a fork in the road, and they say, not this way, this way. How does that dog know?

Quick of scent. I've thought of that illustration, quick of scent in the fear of the Lord. I also sometimes come to a crossroad in my life. Shall I go this way or that way? I say, Lord, I wanna be quick of scent in the fear of the Lord, so I know which is the right way to go.

What is the right way to react to the way this chap is acting towards me? Two choices, this way or that way. I wanna choose what the fear of the Lord tells me. Dear brothers, if you choose this way consistently, consistently, consistently, you know what'll happen to the seesaw?

You fear God more and more and more and more and more and more and more. You'll find, hey, I'm not getting anxious like I used to. I don't seem to be worried. This is a terrible situation I'm facing, but I'm not anxious.

Pleasing God and the Judgment Seat of Christ

How is that? You took God's word seriously. That's what happened. You stopped playing the fool with the things you heard in CFC all these years. Turn with me now to 2 Corinthians in chapter five. 2 Corinthians in chapter five.

We read here about the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians in chapter five, verse nine. We have as our ambition, whether at home in heaven or absent from heaven on this earth. You see, he's speaking about, verse one, about heaven is our home.

That's why I used that paraphrase there, verse nine. Whether at home in heaven or absent from heaven on this earth. You know, just like a foreigner who's living in India. He says, my home is in the United States.

I'm absent from my home right now. I'm here in India for many years, but I'm only a visitor. That's how we are on this earth. Whether at home in heaven or absent from home, I want to please God. And the way I pictured that in my life is that if my direction of my life, my ambition, that's what he calls it, ambition.

My ambition is to go in this direction. Please God, please God, please God. Suddenly Jesus comes and I've entered eternity. I continue to go the same direction. Please God, please God, please God. But think of someone who's a believer and who's got some other ambition.

I'm seeking to make a little more money, get some honor from people, certain different directions he's got in his life, indulge in some pleasures, be careless about sin. And suddenly Jesus comes and he's got to change direction.

Yeah, I've got to please God now. I'm in eternity. That'll be sad. Paul is saying there's gonna be no change in the direction of my life, even if Christ comes right now. And my ambition is still the same.

Here on earth, I'm trying to please God. Christ comes, I continue without even one degree change to please God. Will you make that your ambition? I tell you, your life will come to an altogether different plane than you've ever experienced.

It's easy. That's the way Jesus lived. Don't let the world fool you. Don't let worldly Christians and CFC fool you. I told you the story of how one brother came to me once and said, brother, my little girl is asking me, why can't I dress like some of these fashionable young sisters in CFC?

They dress up with very fancy clothes and wear jewelry and all that. Why you don't allow me to do that? So he came to me and said, what shall I tell her? I said, tell her like this. In paradise, in Eden, there were two trees, one good, one bad.