The Fear of the Lord The Great Essential for Godliness — Al Whittinghill

Unite our hearts together before the Lord, and I'm asking him to stir up your mind with the scripture that today might be a day that really is one that we mark things from in our lives. Father, we bow before your throne.

We've sung about your throne as we've done many times before, but today we pray with all these hearts here united. We pray that you will bring us into a oneness right now in the presence of the Holy One.

Lord, we invoke your presence here in Jesus' name, and we thank you that you are Lord, and that there's no part dark allowed in this building, and that you are by your precious blood able to save to the uttermost.

That means your definition of that, and we thank you in Jesus' name that you're at work in us to will and do what your pleasure is in the throne room of our heart. May the throne room of our heart be in agreement with the throne room in which we now find ourselves with others who you've redeemed.

In prayer, we come together in Jesus' name, and we ask that in this moment that those who are in this room and those who listen will find their hearts and minds being stirred, provoked, encouraged, convicted, moved with holy fear, and may we prepare the ark, your word, your sacrifice, that others will enter in to the joy of being in Christ.

Glorify your name. We thank you in advance in the name of Jesus, amen. Well, we don't have to look far to know that something is missing in the experience of the church. And probably you've been burdened, that's why you've come to this conference.

Revival Requires the Restoration of Truth and the Fear of the Lord

Before revival ever comes, there's got to be a recovery of truth to the hearts of those who can respond. It's the revelation of God that he gives to us through the scripture, through the word preached, through the word ministered, that brings a heart to the place where there is conviction of being out of that blessed throne room, being away from his control.

And when this happens, we have the privilege to get in line with it, repent before God. And when the church repents, when those who are called by his name do that, then he hears from heaven as we humble ourselves and he does what he loves to do.

And that's glorify his self in our midst with his presence. And we call it revival, but you know what really happens in revival? It's when the fear of the Lord is restored to the presence of God's people.

And they began to move and walk and live in the fear of God. And that is what is missing in our day. I want to just take you this morning through the scripture, and I'm asking you to take these scriptures down, to write them down and to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance, as second Peter says, to be sanctified by the renewal, not removal, but think and concentrate as we look in the word of God and really see what he says to us.

And this message, this time this morning is not meant to necessarily produce a huge effect right here. My heartbeat is that you'll be provoked to go back to your churches and back to your fellowships and wherever you are, and that you'll be provoked to seek the face of God and really understand the fear of the Lord and walk in the wisdom of God.

Old Brother Ravenhill used to say this. He says, if the prodigal son had lost his father's address, he wouldn't know where to go to when he finally came to himself. And if the church of the Lord Jesus loses the father's address in the word of God, if we don't understand what it really means, then even when we know we need revival and something in the church, we won't know what really to do.

And we'll end up, as it says in scripture, having something lesser than what he wants. Their fear of me is taught by precept of man, it says in Isaiah. That's what happens. We come to some lower thing than what God has.

Well, there's over 1 ,000 verses in the scriptures explicitly and specifically that set forth the fear of God. That is such a volume. And there's hundreds of other texts that imply and point toward this as being our experience.

To tremble before the Lord, at the voice of the Lord, at the word of the Lord. To tremble in his presence, to have a heart that's moved to silence and desperation and joy unspeakable and full of glory.

To fear before him all the earth. That's what he says in the word of God. But now most of us have experienced enough bad fear in our life, the wrong kind, that we cannot believe that there is a type of fear in the scriptures that God not only wants us to have, but commands us to have.

And he even says that it is a vile and wicked thing that his fear is not in us. He says that to his people if it's not. Think of that, 1 ,000 verses. If you took the whole book of Romans and the whole book of Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and 1 Timothy and 1 Thessalonians and the book of James.

Take those eight books. You've got about 987 verses total. You imagine what would happen to your Bible and to the knowledge of God and our churches, what it means to know him. If those books were taken out of your Bible and suddenly removed, what would you be left with?

Well, it would be something less than what God wants for us. And this is what happens when we hardly hear of truth, preached or hardly study the great truth of the fear of God, the fear of the Lord that over and over in the scripture is not only commended to us, but commanded for us to walk in.

And the question for you and for me is to answer this morning, am I a God-fearing person? Once, not long ago, there was the description of the Puritans and others. It would be commonly said, he was a God-fearing man.

She was a God-fearing woman. And a God-fearing woman is to be praised, it says in Proverbs 31. But today, we seldom use those words to describe anyone that loves the Lord with all their heart and mind and soul and strength.

Psalm 34 and the Meaning of the Fear of the Lord

But this morning, I wanna set before us some things to help us in this understanding of what God wants for us. If you turn to Psalm 34, I wanna take this like a glorious diving board of God to dive into the scriptures and set before us this subject of the fear of the Lord.

And that how it is indeed the great essential, the great and grand theme of so much of the Bible that without which we cannot walk in the wisdom of God, we cannot have the true knowledge of God, and we cannot really enjoy and know and serve and honor him as we ought.

In Psalm 34, verse one, it says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will always continually be in my mouth. My soul will make her boast in the Lord. The humble will hear about this and they'll be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all of my fears. You see, that's what he does. He delivers you from all of your fears so that he might put his fear in you.

At Sinai, when they were so afraid to come to the mountain, the noise and the glory of God, they said, let Moses talk to us, but not God. We can't come near to a God like that. God says to them in Exodus 20, verse 20, he says, listen, I wanna free you from your fear so that you might learn my fear.

Learn to walk in the fear of the Lord. So when I come to him and magnify him, he'll free me from my fears. And they looked to him and they were lightened or they became radiant and their faces were not ashamed.

The angel, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord camps round about those who fear him. And he delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who trusts in him. And then the command, fear the Lord, you his saints and a promise. There is no lack or no want to those that fear him. To have a lesser view of the fear of God that man has designed, such as just a dread that he might punish me for something.

That's such a limited view, although it does carry that in it, a dread and an awe and a shaking on the inside when I see how glorious and holy he is. But to leave us with just that and to reject that and call just the fear of the Lord is merely to reverence him.

It's so far short of what God is saying. There is no lack to the life, the person that has the biblical true godly fear. There's no lack. God says that's a promise. The young lions may lack, they may suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not lack or want any good thing.

And then the Lord says this invitation to us, come ye children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. God promises to teach us the fear of the Lord.

Now, what is the fear of the Lord? What does it really mean to have the fear of the Lord? Well, the fear of the Lord is that godly fear that is appropriate and proper to believers. And it arises out of a right view of God and a reverence for his person and for the character of God.

We respect his person and his ways. And then the result is there's a supreme desire for that person to please him, not to act unworthily of such love and such grace and to respond to him. What is the fear of the Lord?

It is an authentic sense of his presence that is moving to the person. And it fills the heart with veneration and with awe. It's conscious of the presence of almighty God. You can see people in the scriptures who were going along in their normal routine of worship of God, like David, when he brought the ark back to Jerusalem the first time.

And they had all the praise people out there mightily praising God with all their might. And they were coming up towards the temple, not far away. And the cart that had the ark stumbled and started to drop the ark.

And Uzzah in absolute sincerity reached out his hand to steady the ark. And God smote him dead because you see, he touched the ark of the covenant. And it says in 1 Chronicles there that, and David was afraid.

And he says, wait, we can't bring this ark because you see they weren't prepared. And he put it in the house of Obed-Edom for three months until there was preparation made. You see, there was a fear of God.

Jacob came and he was just on the way. And he had a dream that night when he was at Bethel. And he saw the Lord and angels. And he woke up in the morning and he says, how dreadful is this place? I did not know that God was here.

See, he wasn't aware of the immediate presence of God until God revealed himself. And when he did, he says, I was afraid. And he called it Bethel, the very house of God. You see, what happens in the fear of the Lord, there's a deep inner respect and a trembling that comes to the heart and to the mind.

And when I began to realize that God is who he is, regardless of whether I'm lost or saved, it's to happen when I see him as he is, something on the inside moves and I'm moved into a new place. And it knows inherently when you see him that this holiness will not be changed for anything of man.

It's me that must adjust. So what happens? There's an inward reverential awe of God, but I'm gripped by the reality of the unseen. And there's an amazement. This is pervasive, as you'll see in a moment through the scriptures.

Over 300 times in the scriptures, the Bible connects the fear of the Lord with the majesty and the holiness of God. It's when it becomes real and authentic to us. And what happens when we do that? There's a sense of God's bigness and our smallness.

It's like what happened to Isaiah when he saw the hugeness of God, almighty God. And suddenly he realized how small and how needy he was. And in that amazing, what looks, I shouldn't be here, God's grace comes to him.

And this is what happens to us. When we begin to see him rightly, he begins to say, I want you to appreciate and know who I really am. We're gripped by the reality of the unseen and driven to our knees by the awareness and truth of what we see.

He discloses his person and he displays what he purposes in your life or in history. And he absolutely displays all that he is. And the veil is lifted. It's like the disciples when they were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and he was praying and suddenly the face began to glow and they began to see.

It's like God took the corner of the veil into the Holy of Holies that had been emptied into the Lord Jesus and lifted that veil. And they saw him and they were afraid and overwhelmed with the glory of who he is.

That ever happened to you? Have you ever seen beyond the historical Jesus to see the majesty and the glory of the one who emptied himself and was found in fashion as a man, obeying unto death, even the death of the cross.

And when you see him, you can't ever refer to him again as the man upstairs or whatever you might say, the senior partner or my bro in heaven or whatever, my homeboy, what an abomination. But what a revelation that we've never come to the true knowledge of God.

Holiness, Awe, and the Love of God

This cannot continue in America. What's happening is the results of our waywardness are coming, we've sown the wind and we're reaping the whirlwind, you see, over and over in the scripture, a sense of wonder, a stunned at the majesty of God and amazed by his works and driven to unction and driven to urgency and driven to stillness and quietness and amazement in his presence.

This is what happens when the fear of the Lord comes. It's like this, it's the hush of the eternal, gripping the heart and saying to me, worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness and the fear of the Lord is actually mentioned more in the scriptures than the love of God.

We want to retreat and say, oh, it doesn't mean what, and we retreat from the bad definitions and we don't retreat to the scriptures and say, but the fear of the Lord is clean, it endures forever, kiss the sun, worship the Lord in fear, rejoice with trembling, there's no contradiction between the love of God and the fear of God.

In fact, the fear of God and who he is and knowing him makes the love of Christ infinitely more precious when you finally see what it really means that such a God as this would come and give himself for me and commend his love toward an enemy in heart and mind and all that I am to such a one as him worthy as the Lamb of God.

And it puts us on our face in absolute amazement, astonishment, and we can't go on. You see, William Newell once said, the fear of the Lord is to have such a due sense of the majesty and the holiness and the justice and the goodness of God is to make me tremble at the idea of offending him.

Most of us live our lives by what we should and shouldn't do. Instead of an awareness of his presence like Joseph who says when Potiphar tempted him every day and nagged at him, he says, how can I do such a thing seeing as how I worship God?

And later when Joseph was asked, what makes us know you'll keep your word? He says, I fear God. That was his testimony down deep on the inside. This is the reason that he walked and it says God was with him in prison.

We read right over these things in the scripture. I mean, it's amazing what you'll see when you look at it with focus. Abraham, Abraham, take your son, your only son Isaac, the one you love, first mention of the word love in the scripture, taking an only son and take him to Moriah and there go worship.

First mention of the word worship in the scripture. And it's in connection with giving of what's most precious to your heart, that which God has given to you. All the promises of God are yes and amen.

Lay it back on the altar of God. And you see, you learn that he goes up and as he's there at the top of that mountain and the son says to the father, my father, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the lamb?

And Abraham says these words, he says, my son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, Jehovah-Jireh. And he looks, you see, and he sees that, he sees that ram caught in the thicket. And you know, he puts, but before he sees that ram, he holds the knife up like this.

And father God says to him, Abraham, Abraham, touch not the lamb because now I know that you fear God. And he says, I've never seen that until about a year ago. And I just said, all of this was that God's teaching at the end of his life, the fear of the Lord.

He's making perfect in us. It's not just something that happens when I get saved. It's a continual learning process that God brings me into a greater and deeper and more intimate relationship and greater love with himself because he's faithful.

If it were up to me and up to you, we'd be back at the hog trough tomorrow. But he keeps that which he seals and he saves to the uttermost that which he calls. And he equips his precious bride with things that cannot be organized from earth.

The fear of the Lord is a disposition of heart. You see, it's what happened to Nehemiah when he looked at the wall, astonished and broken. And he led this amazing obedience to God. And someone says, why are you doing it this way?

He says, this I did because of the fear of the Lord. That was his motivation. He reverenced God and the definition of what it really meant. Job, God said, was the best man on earth. Nobody liked him in all the east.

And three times, Father God in chapter one gives his description. He was a man who feared God, uncontaminated, pure, and walked before the Lord. Three times, the character quality cited by God. Noah moved with, what, fear.

And I don't know how God told him, but he told him to build an ark. And he moved with fear. And that means a response. You see, when you start seeing what the scriptures are used by the Holy Spirit, you start understanding more what the fear of God really is.

It was when the angels appeared in the heavens and said, unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who's Christ the Lord. And the shepherds feared. You see, what happens is God pulls back the veil.

He shows that in this person here, I live. And you begin to see your brothers and sisters as members of the body of the risen, glorified Christ. And you begin to understand, not at the outward appearance, but you begin to see the real, authentic nature of things biblically and by the Spirit of God.

And something happens far beyond what you could ask or think on the inside. One of the most moving ones to me, I'd never seen it until a couple of years ago, at the cross, the place of ultimate light, where we see what's really going on.

There at the cross, you see two thieves on the cross. And one of them rails on the Lord Jesus. And the other thief that ended up in paradise that day looks at him and he says, don't you fear God? What a question to you and to me.

Don't you fear God? I mean, here's a thief on the cross asking another thief if he fears God. Whether it be Jonah, who was thrown into the ocean and the sailors feared God because the storm was stilled, or whether it be Jehoshaphat, or whether it's the last words of Joshua.

All through the scriptures, over and over, we're told that we must fear God. All other fears that we know as harmful in our life result from that we don't know God, we have an unworthy idea, we don't see Him.

We have unworthy thoughts and concept of who God is. And our false fears arise from that. It's a distrust, it's a disrespect, it's a disregard. And there's an ignorance about who He really is. So when we sense God's majesty, all the other fears, I sought the Lord and He answered me, He heard me.

And He delivered me from all my fears. You see, if you fear God, you'll fear nothing else. The way He really wants to be feared. If you really fear Him, the way the scriptures say, to walk in the fear of the Lord, then suddenly all the other fears will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

And you'll be filled with amazement in His presence. When was the last time you were reduced to tears alone with Him, alone with Him in His presence because of how glorious He was, and how need you know you still are, and how sufficient His ability to meet that need really is.

And like Charles Wesley wrote, from my broken heart with tears, two wonders I confess, the wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness. And the two are so colossal that the Spirit of God breaks you.

It's the goodness of God that leads to repentance. The brokenness is greatest in the life when we see that He is the high and holy one who dwells in eternity. And He lives there with the broken and the contrite, with the poor in spirit to send revival into their hearts.

New life, not just a thing that happens, but life that comes, the life of God in the soul of man, in the spirit of man, and coming out. Well, come my children, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. God wants us to learn what His fear is all about.

He wants us to walk in it. Listen to these scriptures. Back in the book of Deuteronomy, He says it's His desire for His people to walk in the fear of the Lord. He says, oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

And someone says, well, that's not what we're to do. We're not legalistic like that anymore. Chapter 10, verse 12, now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God and to walk in His ways and to love Him.

They're best friends. The fear of Christ, the love of Christ, they're best friends. And to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. After warning them not to forget Him when they go into Canaan, He says, look, only fear the Lord over and over.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God says, look, when you move into the place of blessing, when I'm giving you my promises, don't forget the person that brought you here. Don't begin to look at the things He's given you, but look at me.

And if you do forget me, then I promise you just like all the other nations that have gone before, then you'll be separated from me. And I'll turn the heavens to brass and the earth to powder, and you will be driven to your knees until you seek me.

And I'll treat you like the other nations. And so you see, He longs for them and He threatens them if they don't fear Him. And Deuteronomy was the book that our Lord Jesus quoted the most from, lest we get confused on this matter.

It's the book He quoted the most. It was the book that four times in it says, I want you to learn to fear me, honor the words, read the words. And every king in chapter 17 of Deuteronomy, it says, had to write out longhand the whole book of Deuteronomy so that they would, the kings, learn to fear the Lord.

Learn to fear the Lord. You see, well, sometimes we think if we fear God, it means we don't love Him. We kind of like see Him in a slavish way like He's gonna smack me. No, that's a men's definition of the fear of the Lord.

Yes, there is dread. It was the Lord Jesus Himself that said, listen, He says, I say to you, my friends, don't fear these people that threaten you. Don't be afraid of them that can kill your body. I'll tell you who to fear.

I tell you solemnly, fear the one who has the authority and the power to kill both body and soul and cast it into hell. He said that to His friends. And when you see in Isaiah 11, it talks about the spirit of the Messiah.

It's amazing to read the sevenfold aspect of the spirit that would so fill the Messiah. It actually says they'll come forth one, a root out of the stem of Jesse, a branch will grow out of the root and the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him.

And listen to how it describes the spirit that would rest upon, that came upon and was in fullness without measure in the Lord Jesus, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

And the spirit will make him quick, living in his understanding in the fear of the Lord. It talks about how the Lord Jesus walked in the fear of the Lord, in His fullness, the way the Bible wants us to walk in it.

He looked to His Father, not one word, not one thing I do as the second man, the last Adam, do I do apart from intimate contact and total dependence. The glory was that He was not coming as only God in the flesh, that wasn't hard to believe when you saw His mighty works, but that He was limiting Himself in a real way to all the resources only that Adam had.

And when He came to the cross, He really was the second man, who in Him all who trust Him can be utterly saved to the uttermost if they follow Him into all that He is. And so, it says in Jeremiah 2 ,19, thy own wickedness will correct you, your backsliding, He's talking to His people, will reprove you.

Know therefore and see, it's an evil thing and bitter that you've forsaken the Lord your God and that my fear is not in thee. We don't like to talk about the fear of the Lord. It has connotations of wrath.

Let me tell you, when Jesus comes, it's not all gonna be shouting ground for everybody. And even of His own people, there'll be some who will be ashamed when they see how glorious He is in His person and how powerful He is in all of His ways and His love and that, oh Lord, I traded this for trinkets.

I gave it up for playthings of dust. Oh, woe is me. I mean, there'll be tears in heaven. It says it, and I think that may be why. But then He'll wipe them away and all people that know Him and love Him will be covered with the banner.

He's given a banner to those who fear Him. And in Revelation, it says there's coming a time when He will reward those on earth who fear Him. It's interesting to me when He talks about the second coming in the last book in Malachi, when He says in chapter three and chapter four, the day will come that'll burn like an oven.

And He says, but in that day, the wicked, I will come and I'll make them like stubble. I'll burn them utterly, two kinds of people. But those who fear my name, there's a book that's written of those who speak often of the Lord and who fear Him, it says in Malachi 3, 16.

And it's a book of remembrance for those who have feared the Lord. And God says, in the day that I'm coming like this to burn up the wicked, I'll make these the jewels in my crown. Those who fear my name, oh, be diligent that you be found of Him dressed in that white robe of righteousness of the blood of the Lamb.

And that within and without, everything in your temple cries holy, not just the outer with what you do, but the inner that's just staggered by the glory of who He is. Listen, the fear of the Lord is expected universally by God.

The Fear of the Lord in Worship, Wisdom, and Holiness

Just listen to these scriptures. 1 Chronicles 16, verse, as you read in there, it says, He is to be feared above all gods. Fear before Him, all the earth. Psalm 76, 11, let all that are round about Him bring presence to Him, give gifts.

It means themselves, to Him who ought to be feared. He is to be feared, Psalm 96, above all gods. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him, all the earth. It actually equates walking in the fear of the Lord and seeking Him and obeying Him.

All those things are equated with the man who fears the Lord. And the song in heaven itself, in the book of Revelation, it just is amazing to me. The first song in the Bible in Exodus after they crossed the Red Sea, it's about the fear of God and His mighty works.

And the last song in the scripture in Revelation, the song of Moses and of the Lamb. And they sang, great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name because you alone are holy?

So see, they're singing about His fear and His blood around the throne of God at this moment. Those who see Him best are not afraid of His fear because He says, I want to deliver you from the things that you're afraid of.

There's a lot of lesser fears. There's the fear of man, there's the fear of heights, there's all kinds of, God gives us certain fears that are meant to help us. Don't walk off that cliff so you're afraid of heights.

Don't do certain things, you'll hurt your body and we're afraid of certain things. There are other fears that are bad. The fear of men brings a snare. And the fear that the enemy would hold you in bondage with and bring torment into your life, that's not the kind of fear that God gives.

He's given you the other kind of fear that puts you on your face before God and that is a good thing. That's a good thing in these days. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart on your bed, be still.

Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. Psalm 89 says, God is greatly to be afraid of fear in the assembly of the saints, right here. And to be held in reverence of all that are around about Him.

So the fear of the Lord is that attitude or disposition of mind of the person who is always aware that he's in the presence of God. And therefore every word, every action and every moment is lived in conscious, sincere, sober, single-minded adoration for Him.

This is what God is cultivating in your life. As you, by the Spirit of God, learn to live in that. The Bible says this several times. It says the fear of the Lord in Psalm 111 verse 10 and in Proverbs 1, 7, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

One of them says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge in Proverbs 1. There's two words for beginning in those four usages of that word. The first word beginning is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

It actually means it's like the chief. It's not just the first among many things. It's the chief ingredient in the knowledge of God. And it actually means it like this. If you look at how it's used in the original, what it means, it's like you wanna learn how to read.

So what does it mean to read? I have to learn my ABCs, A-B-C. And when you learn your ABCs, it equips you so that then you can write words and you might become Shakespeare one day. But I'll tell you one thing.

You'll never forget your ABCs if you're writing in the English language. And the fear of the Lord, it's saying, is the chief part, the beginning. It's that ingredient that begins it and goes right through.

And no matter how mature you get, the fear of the Lord endures forever. It endures forever. It doesn't just pass away after you repent. It's a growing and deepening repentance and awe that takes place in your life.