Should You Fear God? (Part 2)

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Email me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. We're talking about the fear of the

Lord, and should Christians fear? Last time, we discussed it a little bit, and we're going to talk about it a little bit more.

I was specifically talking about Jesus and Jesus fearing the

Lord, and of course, this whole topic came up because I'm in Ecclesiastes, and that's one of the themes, right, even at the end of it, fear

God and keep his commandments. As you know, if you think about your relationship to God, that helps in many areas, right?

With the law, it's now a guide. It's no longer a condemning judge because I am a son, and the wrath of God has been assuaged in my place because of the

Lord Jesus, and I am free from that, and I'm adopted as a child of God, and therefore,

I have a relationship that's different. God's the same, the law is the same, but I have been redeemed by the blood of the

Lamb. Maybe what we could say is what's different? Yes, my relationship because I now am different. I have been declared different and am in the process of becoming different, and one day will be ultimately different if I can exchange sanctification categories for different categories, or as we say in Nebraska, different.

I asked the question, did Jesus on earth fear the

Father? And we had talked a little bit about 1 Peter chapter 1 about even if you call

God your Father, you need to conduct yourself with fear, and that helps us kind of think through this relationship deal.

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Should unbelievers fear God? Yes, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living

God. Should Christians fear God? Yes, but in the same way, cringing, afraid, what's

Judgment Day going to be? And sadly, many pastors who talk Romans 2 or Romans 7, who teach final justification stuff, they're going to make you afraid of Judgment Day.

Christians shouldn't be afraid of Judgment Day. They shouldn't be wondering what's going on here, and of course, the

Gospel Assurance Book will probably help it when you focus on the Lord Jesus. How can you be lost? When you focus on yourself, how can you be saved?

Jesus feared the Father. It says in Isaiah 11, speaking of the

Messiah in this messianic passage, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the

Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Talking about the Messiah, delighting in the fear of the Lord, that's amazing.

You can think he revered, he obeyed, he submitted, he honored, but it also says he delighted in that.

Of course, Jerry Bridges says, if you want to be like Jesus, you also should delight in fearing

God. Wow, that's amazing. Delighting in fear.

So, if it's the first kind of fear, servile fear, as an unbeliever must have, should have, is going to have, well, okay, that's a little different, but different.

Hebrews 5 verses 7 through 10, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his fear or reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, believing, that's

John 6, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, Melchizedek, King Sedek, righteousness.

I did start my Duolingo Hebrew. I did quite a few days of Latin, and then

I'm going to Israel, so I thought I better brush up on some modern day Hebrew, Yala, Yala.

Let's go, Yala. I think Yala comes from, that's Arabic, Arabic, yeah. I think they just switched it over,

Yala, Yala, Yala. Let's go, Yala. That's your word of the day,

Yala. So Jesus feared. You know, in this particular case, it isn't the typical word for fear in Hebrews 5.

It's the word Eulabia, Eulabia. And it means to act cautiously, to fear, to beware, handle with care.

Eulabia would be something with nitroglycerin, handle with care, to be circumspect, to make sure you're not just doing what you want to do, but what the

Father wants you to do. Piety and devout, circumspect character as that of Christ, that's what that is, according to A .T.

Robertson, God was able to save him from death altogether, Robertson writes. He did not do this.

He was able to sustain him under the anguish of death and give him strength to suffer the Father's will. He was also able to deliver him from death by resurrection.

Both these he did. It is not possible that both these may be combined. Is it not possible that both may be combined in a statement he was heard?

All right. The other time that this word is used is in Hebrews 12, therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence, fear, and awe.

Here we go. I like it, don't you? Reverence, fear, our

Father who art in heaven. And there's a trust involved too.

There's a trust, remember, with Abraham, and he was going to slay Isaac, and the angel stopped him.

He said, now that I know you, what? Fear God. Right? You believe God, and you're going to do what he says.

Do you fear God? I mean, remember Romans 3, the fear of God is not in their eyes.

It's not before them. There's no fear of God. What's the actual quote? There's no fear of God in their eyes before Him.

Did I just say that? There's no fear of God before their eyes.

See? That's Hebrews, no, that's Romans 3, verse 18. Interesting.

What's the ESV Study Bible say about that? The citation from Psalm 36, 1, identifies the root cause of sin as the failure to fear and honor

God. Any society that commonly assumes that God will not discipline sin in this life or judge it in the next will have no fear of God and will therefore give itself increasingly to evil.

Now, that's kind of fascinating here on No Compromise Radio. Why? Okay. The ESV Study Bible rightly says, a society that says, you know what?

God doesn't care about sin now, and He's not going to judge it later, well then, why are you afraid of Him?

I mean, if He's just some fluff God, some, you know, some God up in the, you know,

George Burns God, that old movie, or, you know, Grandpa God, or Floating in the

Clouds God, or do whatever you want God, made -in -your -own -image God, then why?

You know, Grandpa God, He's not going to discipline you. I've told the story many times that I was raised every other day in my grandparents' house.

Raised at night, of course, with my parents, but both my parents worked when I was little. I went to Grandma and Grandpa Ebendroth's house,

Grandma and Grandpa Ebendroth, and Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, my mom's parents. And Grandma and Grandpa were the

Ebendroths. Grandma and Grandpa, up the hill, they lived up a big hill, pretty big hill with a pretty big tree.

That house is still on a hill when the tree's gone, cut down. A little tiny house up on a hill, and Grandfather would usually be working or drinking, and Grandma pretty much raised me,

Grandma up the hill, every other day, right during the day. Grandma Ebendroth, she didn't really put up with as much.

Hedvig Anna Clausen Ebendroth, and so I obeyed her, but I didn't obey,

I didn't obey Nona. Nona Anderson. I forgot what

Nona's maiden name was. She was a Roman Catholic, Anderson, Grandpa was

Swedish, I don't know what Grandma was. What was Grandma Nona's maiden name? Wow, that's amazing.

Anyway, I love my grandparents, and Nona would say, if you don't obey,

Mike, you're going to get the yardstick. You know, you get the yellow yardsticks from the Ace Hardware or Habeshan or whatever the hardware place is called.

You get paint sticks, or in those days you could get yardsticks for free too, because I think it was advertising, or maybe you had to pay 50 cents or something.

She said, I'm going to take that, and I'm going to use that on your bottom if you don't obey me. I walked over and took the yardstick, and I broke it over my knee, handed it to her, and she still didn't spank me.

That's the Grandma Nona who said, you know, I should have said to her, you know.

I should have said, I should have said, you know.

That's funny. You say, oh, what are you doing? You're just laughing at your own jokes?

Yeah. I know. People say, you just sit there in your office by yourself laughing, doing a radio show, laughing at your own jokes.

Yes, of course I do. Who else is going to laugh at him here? I actually do think many times,

I haven't thought about it today, but many times I do the radio show, since I know many of you and have met many of you at different conferences, and of course, the folks at the church here,

I know you, and so we laugh at our own jokes.

I know. Fear of God. Back to that point. Not thinking there's going to be any future judgment.

Okay, so for the unbeliever, that's really a bad thing. There's future judgment. But for the believer, this is even a bigger point, because I'm mainly preaching to Christians in this show.

There's no future judgment for you. Don't let John Piper, don't let Shriner, don't let

Moo, don't let New Perspectives on Paul, don't let Doug Wilson, don't let anybody tell you.

If they're telling you that, don't believe it. If an angel from heaven comes and tells you that, don't tell you.

Think about Jesus's death. Let's just think of a few words of comfort, so you know you don't have to pay for anything in the future.

It's done. If you're a Christian, eternal life, done. No condemnation. Let's think about the death of Christ.

That will solve your problem. If you want to have assurance, think about the death of Christ, and of course, His life. Forgiveness.

Sins are taken away. Justification. Declared perfectly righteous.

Sins credited to Jesus. Sanctified. Definitive sanctification, set apart.

Reconciliation. You were enemies, now you're friends, because of the

Lord Jesus. Redemption. In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1, 7.

Slaves to sin, bought out of the marketplace of sin with a price called a ransom.

Jesus redeems us. He is the ransom price. Think about Jesus.

It is finished, He said on the cross. One word, tetelestai, paid in full.

Three English words. How are you going to have to pay for anything if those words are true?

Propitiation. Now remember what happens with propitiation. People know they do bad things.

They have a conscience given by God, and they realize they break God's law. They break laws.

They do bad things. They sin. Well, other gods, you make propitiation unto them.

They don't make propitiation for you. You say, well, I have to give up something for Lent.

I have to give some oranges to the little cat god at the restaurant.

I have to give the virgin daughters to this god. I have to give babies to Molech God.

Otherwise, we're not going to have good crops. We're not going to have rain. We've done some bad things.

There's a drought, and we make propitiation. But we can never make propitiation for our sins.

We're sinners. How do we then extract ourselves from such a Chinese finger puzzle?

It's impossible. Is it even okay to say Chinese finger puzzle anymore? I mean, I just said it, but that's what we always call them.

That doesn't make it right. Maybe we said that because they're made in China. That's my guess. We can't get out.

It's a straitjacket. It's self -imposed. Get it from our father, federal head, and then ourselves, consequently.

Sin nature. We sin. But God makes propitiation. God is the one.

Right? And you go back to the Old Testament, and you think of the mercy seat and the bloods on top of the mercy seat from the sacrifice of the animal, and it's as if you were

God looking down, and you can't see through the mercy seat into the Ten Commandments that were inside the

Ark of the Covenant because those laws were broken. Right? We have manna in there and Aaron's rod, but we have the

Ten Commandments in there, and they're broken, and there's mercy because there's blood poured out of the mercy seat, and it's a covering.

Right? Of course, God can see, but the picture is...so it's covered, and so they're taken care of.

There's already been death. You break the law, you die. Well, there's already been a death, and there's blood here to prove it. God makes propitiation for our sins.

We don't make it for ourselves. So, when we're thinking about final judgment, we already know what it is, and that judgment, no condemnation, is pushed into the future.

No. In the future, it's pushed into the present, and when you believe, you're told there's no condemnation for you because you're in Christ.

Forgiveness. Therefore, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's true, and it's always true.

I just want you to know there's a different kind of fear that a son should have than an enemy.

Right? I'm just trying to think of...if I'm a tough guy, and I'm a boxer, an

MMA guy, and I fly off the handle or whatever, and you rub me the wrong way, I might go after you, and then

I have a son, and I protect. It's different because of our relationship. Anyway, God's not an MMA fighter.

I knew I was going to be giving a bad illustration the second

I opened my mouth. Wisdom teaches us to say, the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and of course, wisdom goes on to say, fear the

Lord and keep his commandments. Let me find what

Ecclesiastes 12 says. I want to know what the study notes say here in the book of Ecclesiastes.

The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ah, see, Mike, I got you. I got you. Chapter 12, verse 13 and 14,

ESV study notes. The preacher has already pointed out the need to fear God. Chapter 3, chapter 5, we could add chapter 8, and to keep his commandments.

The whole duty of man thus involves genuine faith in God, as well as works which are the inevitable result of true faith.

That's good, right? Evidences, consequences, not conditions. God will bring every deed into judgment, thus the importance of obeying his commands.

So, what kind of judgment are we talking about? I mean, is there going to be some judgment?

Well, let me read to you 2 Corinthians 5, verse 6 and following.

So, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the

Lord, for we walk by faith not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the

Lord. So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or, the text says evil in ESV, but it's really worthless.

See, I'm going to be judged one day. Christian, are your sins going to be judged?

You're going to go to the tribunal bench, and you're going to be judged for your sins, for what's due you?

Now, let's see what the ESV study Bible says. Oh, it's debated, however. One, whether the aim of this judgment is to determine the measure of reward that Christians will receive in the age to come.

Two, whether the aim is to provide demonstrative evidence regarding who is lost and who is saved.

Say what? No, no, no.

And then they give almost all their study note time to that.

That's just interesting. Paul's context of the statement refers back to both the believer's hope of the resurrection and to the reward of glory beyond all comparison, chapter 5 and chapter 4.

It would seem that both aims are in view. Really? In the second case, some interpreters hold that the believer's deeds will also provide public evidence brought forth before the judgment seat to demonstrate that one's faith is real.

Public evidence, not as a basis of salvation, but a demonstration of the genuineness of faith.

Likewise, giving evidence for the genuineness of one's faith, Paul is confident that the genuine believers will pass

Christ's judgment, since the new covenant ministry of reconciliation has brought them under the life -transforming power of the

Spirit, based on the forgiveness of their sins through faith in Christ alone, all of which is the result of God's grace alone.

Well, I usually like the SB Study Bible, but not so much here. How much fruit do

I need? How much evidence? Does anybody know? Answer? More? If you must, think this way.

God accepts my works, frail and feeble as they may be, sin tainted because He accepts me.

You are accepted. Paul is not going to change his mind about that.

He's not going to change 2 Corinthians chapter 1, to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction.

Anyway, show's over. My name is Mike Aventroth, and I want you to know, you're not going to be judged for sins.

I don't care what the ESV Study Bible says, you're not going to be judged for sins, they're taken care of. You're reconciled, redeemed, forgiven, justified, sanctified, sins have been propitiated, you're good to go.

Amen? No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Aventroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word, through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015, and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org, or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.