Fear of the Lord III: Faithful Fear | Behold Your God

Welcome to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm John Snyder and I'm here again with my co-pastor Chuck Baggett. And this is the third of our series on the fear of the Lord. So good to see you Chuck.

Good to see you.

So Chuck, our series is based on a series of sermons that you did a couple of months ago for the church. And I think we all found that really helpful reminder about such a significant theme. But we have been talking about the fact that there are different ways to approach it.

So how would you suggest that people approach this other than what we say in the podcast?

Yeah, so we can study this as a doctrine. We're kind of introducing this as a doctrine I guess to the podcast and to those sermons. And in doing that we can see something of a definition. We see some boundaries so that we stay within those boundaries as we think about this idea.

But that's not necessarily how we cultivate the fear of the Lord. You don't get people to fear the Lord by saying fear Him. But rather we look at God, we see Him, we see something of His majesty. Isaiah sees something of that in chapter 6.

And seeing that He's gripped and says, woe is me. We see His works in creation. We see His works in redemption. You mentioned recently in Psalm 130 there's forgiveness with the Lord. That's why we fear Him.

Shocking. So we see that and those things stir our hearts to fear Him. And so we can put boundaries on this fear by looking at the doctrine. But we cultivate the fear by looking at God Himself. So today we're looking at Isaiah 8 and backing up from there.

In Isaiah 8, Isaiah tells the people that God's to be their fear and their dread. But Isaiah himself has already been gripped by this fear in chapter 6 when he sees the Lord high and lofty in the train of His robe filling the temple.

And the seraphim crying back and forth, holy, holy, holy. That's on the occasion of King Uzziah's death. He goes to Uzziah's son Ahaz, young Ahaz. And the nation's facing war from Syria and from the northern kingdom of Israel.

The Bible says they're shaking like trees shaking in the wind. They're terrified. And Isaiah comes with what for the moment was good news. They're coming but they're not going to be successful. But the people are gripped by fear and they refuse to listen.

God offers Ahaz a sign, ask me so you'll know that this is true. And Ahaz disregards God's word and says, I will not ask. And God gives them that anyway. He promises the coming Emmanuel, Christ. And so in chapter 8, they're warned not to view this coming war like most of the people are viewing it.

But to view it with reference to God, that God Himself is on the throne, that He's sovereign. And they're assured that there's a remnant of people that God is preserving. Even with the coming battles, not only Syria and Israel but ultimately the Assyrians coming.

And these people will be set apart by the presence of God, by the word of God that they value and by the fear of God.

Isaiah 8 and the Call to Fear the Lord Instead of the World

So at the heart of your sermon was the passage Isaiah 8, 11 through 15. Let me read that. Isaiah writes, for thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, you are not to say, it is a conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy.

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary, but to both the houses of Israel a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Many will stumble over them, they will fall and be broken, they will even be snared and caught. So quite a shocking passage from God to the prophet. In your sermon you pointed out three main points and we're only going to get to the first one and a little bit of the second one today.

And that is there was a warning there for the prophet, there was a remedy for their problem, and then there was some very clear encouragement. So the warning comes from verse 12. You are not to say, it is a conspiracy.

That is, you are not to look at what is happening in the world right now. As you said, it was a pretty traumatic time for them. And you are not to respond in the same way that the unbeliever responds when they're gripped by the crisis.

And this certainly is such a significant passage for us, particularly in America, not only with the coronavirus, but with the issues of race, issues and riots and protests. And I've been thinking, you know, this week when we see things that are done that grieve the Lord, injustices, whether it's racial or whatever, and how it really is a sign that we do not fear the Lord.

No man that fears the Lord would treat other men the way that we see people being treated. If a man is governed by the fear of the Lord, you know, he can be trusted. If he is not governed by the fear of the Lord, then, you know, what restrains men in power when they have no fear of God?

But while that's true, it's also a wonderful truth, as you're going to point out for us, that how we who are watching these crises that are pretty big, how do we respond appropriately as believers? How is our heart to be moved, but not in the same way that an unbeliever's heart is moved?

How does the fear of the Lord play a central part in controlling the way we see and react?

And it is an important question, because though we have been brought to fear the Lord by His kindness, you know, this filial kind of fear, it doesn't mean that it's impossible for us to experience the wrong kind of fear, and so we can look at the protest or coronavirus and have the wrong kind.

But we need to respond differently than the world, and that's what Isaiah is calling them to do. You can imagine with the approaching army in this day, Isaiah's day, the people are outnumbered. You know, they're coming to siege the city, lay siege to the city, and everything looks terrible.

It looks gloomy. It looks terrible. And their hearts surely would fear. That's not an irrational response. And whatever the unbeliever experiences in the atrocities of war, the believer is going to experience it also.

The Syrians are not going to distinguish between one and the other. And so how do you keep from seeing it like the world sees it? But they're warned not to do that. They're warned to remember what we talked about last time, I think, is foundational, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

View this through the lens of the fact that there is a God who's sovereign, and He's good, and He has not abandoned you.

Not Fearing What the World Fears

The second point you made is that they were not to buy into the fear that gripped the people. And we read in verse 12, the second half, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. Isaiah is not telling the people that they're to kind of put their head in the sand.

And it is easy for a believer to do that. And there are ways to justify that that sound very biblical, like, well, we're only concerned about eternal matters, or we're members of a higher kingdom, of an everlasting kingdom.

So what's happening around us right now doesn't matter. But it does matter. It matters to the Lord how men behave, what people do, and so it matters, it ought to matter to the people that love the Lord.

But while we are to be genuinely concerned and aware, and not having our head stuck in the sand and saying, you know, Jesus is coming back and He'll save us from all this mess, so we'll just kind of circle the wagons till it happens.

We are not to be gripped by the fears that grip an unbeliever who doesn't have our King, our Redeemer. And so, you know, it's not that we pretend there's no problems. The Israelites were not to pretend there wasn't a war.

It's not that we aren't to make legitimate preparations for needs. The Israelites were not told that you're not to make any preparation. They're not to act as if problems don't exist. But they are to be in the grip of God in such a way that it alters how they respond to those fears.

Sure.

Personally, I can say there are times when things have happened that I have responded to emotionally, maybe verbally, that gave evidence to the fact that I was not considering God at the moment. I wasn't in the grip of the fear of the Lord.

I was in the grip of that moment, that circumstance. But then by the grace of God, there are other times when I have remembered, and that's what Isaiah is calling them to do, is what he's calling us to do, is to not make emotional responses that forget that there's a God, to not live as if God does not exist or matter.

Sanctifying Christ as Lord in the Heart

Yeah, and, you know, the remedy there is found in verse 13, because how we're supposed to not be gripped by what an unbeliever is gripped with, the fears that grip an unbeliever, the remedy is actually a strange remedy.

It is that we are to be in the grip of something much more fearful, not in that slavish sense that we talked about in previous episodes, but we are to be in the grip of the greatness, the majesty, and the goodness of someone, this person, this God, who is so infinitely bigger than our present crisis that it holds the Christian to a course.

So verse 13 says this,.

Yes, and I feel almost like I'm saying the same thing again, but here are the people, here we are. We're living in the same land, the same things are going on around us. We're just as subject to a virus as anyone else, etc.

But our response can be very different. We can live in dread and fear, or we can remember that there's a God, and facing sickness, death, whatever, we can live with an awareness of the holiness of God, the character of God, and let Him be our dread.

Yeah, I guess, I mean, really we could think of it this way. There is an anchor that the Christian has on this sea that's storming that an unbeliever doesn't have, and this anchor holds the believer. It doesn't make him immune to storms.

It certainly doesn't say that the part of the ocean we're on won't have a storm, but there is an anchor to something that's so significantly bigger, something that's so much more consequential than anything that can happen in the year 2020.

I think one of the things that marks the believer is that there is a calm, so we're concerned, but there is a calm depth, an immovable, you know, a solidity to the Christian's life, the complete opposite of the kind of the frothy life that's constantly in a drama, you know, and it's just constantly everything is, you know, the sky is falling and the paranoia that is very easy to fall into, not because the Christian doesn't care, not because it's not happening to me and my family, but because I am rooted in something more significant than that.

Peter talks about this. He quotes from, in his first letter, he quotes from this passage, and he applies it as referring to Jesus here. He says this in 1 Peter 3, 14,. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed.

And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you and to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence or fear.

Yeah, so he tells the people to fix their sights on Christ, sanctify Him as the Lord, don't be troubled, even though they're facing persecution. And Isaiah is doing something similar. He's told them that the Messiah is coming.

He's, in chapter 7 and in chapter 8, pointed them to Emmanuel. And in this context, with what appears to be the world crashing down around the people in Peter's day, to sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts is to regard Him as possessing all the power in heaven and on earth, and to believe Him when He says that He's exercising it for our good.

So what can separate us from the love of Christ? Well, nothing. What can be against us? What power should we fear if God is for us?

Well, nothing.

And because those things are true, this is the antidote then to distressing fears and fretting and being anxious about things that are in God's control but are not in ours. So this is the antidote to distressing fears and to fretting about things that are outside of our control but that are clearly within God's control.

The answer is that Christ Jesus is Lord, and not just a Lord, but He's my Lord. He's the Lord to the believer. And so in Colossians chapter 3, Paul writes,. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

The Fear of the Lord as Fuel for Christian Stability

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I think one thing we might encourage ourselves to do, not just the people that are listening, but, you know, to stir our own souls to do, is that sense a sight of God through His Word for the opened eyes of the believer is really the source of the fuel for that fear.

You know, so you talked about all the passages we have on the fear of the Lord, which are so many and varied. I mean, they just show up in every aspect of life, whether it's the believer, like you mentioned from Psalm 130, so thrilled with this majestic God who also has stooped low to forgive, and that makes me want to take Him even more seriously than I did before, or whether it's in our songs of praise or the way we treat people at work or, you know, how we pray.

The fear of the Lord affects everything. So those passages set, in a sense, like a clear path. Or if you think of a riverbed, they're the two banks of a riverbed. But what causes that river to really flow and not just trickle is such frequent, long exposures to the greatness of God in Scripture that the heart is captivated by that sight, like Isaiah in chapter 6, and from that flows this happy reverence for this person, you know, that I see that He is a weighty matter.

But as we've just mentioned, that also, Peter connects that with the person of Jesus. So nothing could be more beneficial for a person who says, I lack the fear of the Lord, than to stop and give some significant time in the week, you know, to make room in the day, to begin to seek the clearest and highest views of God, but not just in His absolute greatness, His unapproachable glory, His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, but as we see that coming, crashing into our world in the person of His Son.

All the fullness of the deity, all the dreadful, glorious, transcendent, terrible purity of God coming to us in a human, united to a humanity, not to destroy us, but to save us. And any man or woman or young person that will soak a long time in that, by the blessing of the Lord, they will grow in the fear of the Lord, you know.

So it's not an if-then. Which do I study, the character of God or the verses that tell me how the fear of the Lord behaves? Well, no, not if-then. First, then. Look here, then let that flow through these appropriate channels.

We want to close with a prayer from Charles Spurgeon. And Spurgeon is, you know, really everybody, one of everybody's favorites. I don't know anybody that can say things so wonderfully as Mr. Spurgeon.

So let me read this prayer to you. Come near our Father. Come very near to your children. Some of us are very weak in body and faint in heart. Soon, O God, lay your right hand upon us and say, fear not.

Come near to kill the influence of the world with your superior power. Our Father, come and rest your children now. Take the helmet from our brow. Remove from us the weight of our heavy armor for a while.

And may we just have peace, perfect peace, and be at rest.

Amen.