Should fear God? (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Grace, Covenant Theology, and the Meaning of Grace Before the Fall

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. What do we do around here? Well, maybe the sub-theme of the ministry is duplex, double, gratia, grace, double grace. I have one grace at home. Well, she doesn�t live at home anymore, but a double grace, that would be wonderful.

We use the word grace for lots of different things. You say grace. You name your children grace. What else? My dad, if you stumbled and fumbled, he�d say, �Hey, Grace. I paused because I didn�t know if I wanted to admit that or not.

Of course, grace is not just a theological concept of demerited favor, but of course, you could think of the Lord Jesus as grace incarnate when the grace of God appeared bringing salvation to all men, Titus.

By the way, before I get into the show�s topic today, was there a grace before the fall? Lots of people in the news these days talk about this issue, and they�re the federal vision kind of people, and others whom we call mono-covenantalists.

They don�t believe in a covenant of works and a covenant of grace. They believe in just one covenant, and of course, that�s going to blend law and gospel together. And they say it was gracious for God to give the law.

So before Adam ever fell, God was showing grace to Adam by giving the law. Was that a good thing that God did? Yeah, that was very good. Westminster Confession talks about it was condescension, and it was out of his goodness.

But the Westminster Confession avoids the word grace because there�s no grace until Genesis 3 .15 with the covenant of grace. What was the demerit? What was Adam�s demerit? Why did he need grace? And maybe another way you could think of it is this way.

Is grace an attribute of God? Now, for most of us, probably, who grew up on pink and tozer, we would say, �Well, of course, God�s gracious. He is gracious. He doesn�t have grace. He is gracious. And that�s true, although let�s do it this way.

Is God wrath? Well, certainly, he has wrath. That�s true. Is he wrath? Next question. Does God ever change? No. He�s immutable. No mutability. What about pre-creation? What about Genesis 1 .1? Before that, not after.

All right, we would all agree that God is love, and you can even see that love ad intra in the triune Godhead. Love, Father to the Son, Son of the Spirit, et cetera, Spirit to the Father. So God is love.

He is loving. And when you talk to folks that believe in Islam, of course, how can their God be a God of love if it�s just a monad, if there�s not a triune God? Is there wrath ad intra in the Trinity before?

No. So is God wrath? Does he have wrath? Obviously, God is holy, and there�s a holiness there. He is righteous. He is just. And therefore, because of that, he has wrath on sinners. Anyway, I would say the same thing about grace.

I�m not going to jump all down your throat if you say God has an attribute of grace. Certainly, if you say God is gracious, that�s true. But I think the grace comes because of his goodness. And anyway, make sure when you hear people, you�ll know they�re off kilter if they say there was grace needed before the fall.

Giving the law was gracious. Uh-uh-uh-uh, what was the demerit? If grace is unmerited favor, is that what people call it? Well, really, it�s demerited favor, right? You do something wrong, and you get favor anyway.

So very, very tricky. You have to just beware of what people are saying in their mono-covenantalism. And if you don�t know that word, if you don�t want to think about that word, you just think about blending law and gospel.

And if you blend law and gospel, of course, as Horton calls it, and I think Uncle Pat, Pat Abenroth of the Pactoms, got a shirt, �Glossable. Anyway, he has so much swag, I don�t even get the stuff anymore.

I mean, I have a hat, it�s cool. I have a T-shirt, it�s cool. I have a sweatshirt, it�s cool. I have not worn the sweatshirt yet, but I�m going to break it out. It�s nice and fluffy on the inside. I drank the coffee that he sent.

But he�s got so much other stuff, I�m sure it would cost too much to keep sending his older brother all this stuff. We are Radio Show, started that way. Now we�re just simply a podcast. And boy, aren�t there a lot of podcasts.

Why would anyone want to listen to No Compromise Radio? Just a hick from Nebraska, public school. One of the things that make us distinct is we try to talk about the Lord Jesus, and I guess that the umbrella of No Compromise is pretty big, right?

We don�t want to compromise law and gospel, we don�t want to compromise and believe in mono-covenantalism and federal vision and new perspectives on Paul and final justification, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

So we�ll stick with that. I was tempted to change it to Duplex Gratia, so I bought the website, duplexgratia .com and Twitter, at Duplex Gratia. So that might be a little spinoff somehow, Duplex Gratia.

And therefore, if you try to name your show that, I�m already naming mine, and you can do whatever you want, but I have those two domains. You can buy them off me if you want. Hopefully in the fall, later this fall, we�re in the fall now, American Gospel 3, we�re waiting for that to come out.

And my guess is, out of the two and a half hours of the shoot time, the filming time here at the church, I�ll probably be in the show two minutes. Listen to the other scholars instead. As you know, I�ve been working through Ecclesiastes, and Ecclesiastes is the preacher, and he�s preaching wisdom.

Of course, this is wisdom literature, and there�s some very difficult things in this book. Now, one of the things that we start off with as we think about books and we talk about the Lord Jesus, Jesus could have said, remember when he comes onto the scene, and should have said as Messiah, �By the way, such and such a book, Esther, doesn�t even have the word God in it, let alone Lord or Yahweh or anything like that, El Shaddai, therefore it�s not in the canon.

If in fact it wasn�t in the canon, he should have done that. If Jonah wasn�t supposed to be in the canon because of its supernatural elements, Jesus must have said, it was mandatory for him to say, �That�s not in the canon because when the Messiah shows up, he�s going to help us.

But the view that we have of the Old Testament is Jesus�s view, and that is from Genesis to Malachi in our Bibles, or Genesis to 2 Chronicles in the Jewish Bible, it�s inspired by God and breathed out by God, and it is revelation from God.

Whether it�s Sodom and Gomorrah, whether it�s Lot and the daughters, whether it�s Joseph, Daniel and the lion�s den, it�s just a story, whatever it is, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, it�s there in Jesus by his, not just silence, but by his quoting of the Old Testament scriptures, talking about how he�s to fulfill and not one little jot or tittle is going to be abolished, we can come to the book of Ecclesiastes and say, this is good wisdom literature for us, even as Christians, and that�s the way you have to look at Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs too.

These aren�t just moral things. This is in the Christian canon from Genesis to Revelation, it�s a Christian Bible, there�s one author, and there�s a unity there, and there are types and shadows and other things in the Old Testament and prophecies, and they point, of course, to the fulfillment of Christ.

Fearing God in Ecclesiastes 8

Today, I want to talk about Ecclesiastes 8 and fearing God. Now, I�ve touched upon this in the past, but this is an important thing because we�ve got a lot of people who want you, a Christian, to be afraid of Judgment Day and to be afraid of God.

Remember, basically, we�re looking at the fear of the Lord as a beginning of wisdom, that�s in Proverbs 9, that I think, maybe with a minor deviation, Job 28, it says here in Ecclesiastes 8, verse 12, �Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it would be well with those who fear God, because they fear before Him.

But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. And there are people that are trying to make you, Christian, afraid of God in the same way an unbeliever would be afraid.

They want you to be afraid on Judgment Day so that you work harder and do more. And in effect, they�re making your holy living, your justification, your sanctification category, your justification, and they are afraid to say, �There�s no condemnation for you in Christ, dear Christian.

They�re afraid to say, �Whatever sins you�ve committed past, present, and future, they�re all forgiven Colossians chapter 2. They�re afraid to say that Jesus was the propitiation, He exhausted, He assuaged all the wrath of God for all those that would trust in Him.

And the only kind of judgment there�s going to be on Judgment Day isn�t going to be based on sins. Those have been judged, right? You have an advocate now, and you have a mediator. That�s 1 John 2, 1 and 2.

The only judgment is 2 Corinthians 5, 10, and it�s a judgment of works, whether they�re good or, the Greek says, worthless. I think the English says good or bad, but it has nothing to do with you going to heaven or not.

That�s all taken care of. Therefore, how can we fear God? Do we no longer fear God as Christians? And it is really important for you to think of your relationship to God, because that helps you with the law, right?

That�s one of the things we talk about all the time. Your relationship to the lawgiver, now that you�re a Christian, is He�s a Father and He guides you. When you are not a Christian, your relationship to the lawgiver, He�s judge and creator, and therefore, sin shows your sin and misery, and it condemns you.

It used to be a mirror to show the real you, and you would realize you�re a sinner and you�re standing condemned before God. Now the relationship changes. God�s law doesn�t change. God doesn�t change.

But because of the work of Christ, your relationship to the lawgiver changes. And so He still says, �Don�t commit adultery. Well, one, if you�re an unbeliever, you look at a woman of lust, you stand condemned, one sin, James 2, 10.

And now as believers, it�s good for us, that�s true, don�t commit adultery, but it�s also glorifying to the Lord, and it will guide us. In addition, think about your relationship to God when it comes to this topic, fearing God.

We need to fear God, not as Luther said, �With a servile fear of an unbeliever, crouching afraid, God as judge, jury, and executioner. No, that�s not what we do at all. We have a relationship to God the Father, yet we still fear Him.

So today on No Compromise Radio, we�re talking about how do Christians fear God? Should you fear God? Are you fearing God? To what extent should you fear God? What�s the proper way to fear God? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

How must I fear Him? There�s a way that the wicked act, and there�s a way that the Christian acts. How do we fear Him? And maybe one of the things I�ll say from the very beginning when it comes to fearing God, we have to remember that God is other, God is holy, God is transcendent, God is great, God is immense, God is simple, God is impassable.

I mean, we could go down the list. He is ase, He is from Himself, and while we have God as our Father, and yes, we can call Him Abba, Father, Galatians chapter 2, Romans chapter 8, excuse me, Galatians chapter 4, Romans chapter 8.

That is true. But He�s such a great Father, He�s such a honorable Father, He�s such a majestic Father, He�s such an exalted Father, He has so much honor and dominion and glory and kingship and lordship, that we need to respect Him, obey Him, revere Him, i .e., fear Him.

That�s the kind of fear. And I think you get a sense of this when Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this.

You can certainly pray this prayer exactly, but you�re�this is a template, right? You can�t pray like this. He didn�t say, �Pray this although I wouldn�t mind if you did, but here�s the template. If you can�t think of the template, you just pray the prayer, right?

Well, how would you know how to pray the prayer if you didn�t know the template? People said, �How much editing do you do They don�t listen to the show, obviously. Our Father, who art in heaven, what�s the next line?

He�s in heaven, He�s a Father, true, but He�s in heaven, hallowed be your name. God is holy. God is different. God is to be feared. And it�s like 1 Peter chapter 1, �Even if you call Him Father, you need to conduct yourself with fear.

That�s what we�re talking about for Christians when it comes to fearing God. And here in the book of Ecclesiastes, that�s something that�s very, very important. There�s not much fear of the Lord in the unbeliever�s eyes.

I read a commentary that quoted Cornell University�s William Profane, P-R-V-I-N-E, it should be Profane, about the same difference, in my opinion. �When you die he said, �you�re not going to be surprised, because you�re going to be completely dead.

Now, if I find myself aware after I�m dead, I�m going to be really surprised. But at least I�m going to hell, where I don�t have all those grinning preachers from Sunday morning. He went on, �There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind.

There is no life after death. When I die, I�m absolutely certain that I�m going to be dead. That�s the end of me. There�s no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning for life. Since we know that we are not going to live after we die, there�s no reward for suffering in this world.

You live, and you die. Now, see, that�s right there from Ecclesiastes, �though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know it will be well for those who fear God, because they fear before him.

The wicked he does not fear before God. Michael Eaton called this, �The awe and holy caution that arises from realization of the greatness of God. Isn�t that good? Holy caution. God is so great. It just made me think of Moses and his sandals and holy ground.

Caution. Here�s that quote I alluded to in 1 Peter 1, verse 14 and following, �As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conducts.

He�s talking about holy living. �Since it is written, �You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you, or even if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one�s deeds, conduct yourself or yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

The wicked don�t fear. We fear. And it all has to do with the relationship we have to the Father, the relationship we have to the triune God. And Ecclesiastes is saying, the right way, the safe way, the cautious way is to fear God.

It�s just like out of Job 37. Out of the north comes golden splendor. God is clothed with awesome majesty. The Almighty, we cannot find him. He is great in power, justice, and abundant righteousness he will not violate.

Therefore men fear him. He does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit. Verses 22, 23, and 24,. �Therefore, dear Christian, we fear before him. And you can see the context in 1 Peter chapter 1, especially it should drive you to obey.

It should drive you to be pious. Not some pietism, but piety is good, to live holy, that�s what we�re after. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7, �Make holiness perfect in the fear of God. Philippians 2, �Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Ephesians 5, �Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. 1 Peter 2, �Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. It�s interesting, we live in a world where everybody wants to talk about the love of God, and I wish they would talk about it more properly, though, in Christ Jesus, and nobody much talks about the fear of God.

What about these verses? Psalm 130, �If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, therefore you are feared. 1 John 4, 18, �Perfect love drives out fear.

So what do we do? Perfect love drives out fear, but I�m supposed to have fear, and you�ve forgiven me so you�re to be feared, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Revelation 15, �Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy. And, of course, we know the answer. We aren�t dreading eternal torment, we aren�t fearing eternal torment, we�re not worried about the eternal lake of fire and the damned. Love drove that out of our hearts, right, because we realize we�re safe in Christ Jesus.

And therefore, because of that, we adore Him, we respect Him, we honor Him, we revere Him, we walk with holy caution before Him, right? I mean, the society we live in, there�s not much fear, and maybe not much fear of God properly in Christian churches.

Transcendent majesty. �Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We know God�s going to take care of unbelievers, and we are resting in the finished work of Christ. We want to obey. Jerry Bridges said, �It is because a profound sense of awe toward God is undoubtedly the dominant element in the attitude or set of emotions that the Bible calls �the fear of God.

He likes to use that term �reverential awe. I think that�s fine. Reverential awe. Right? �The unbeliever, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Romans chapter 3. And we don�t want that set of us.

Did Jesus Fear the Father? Hebrews 5 and the Fear of Christ

And I don�t know if you knew this or not, but here�s the cool part. On No Compromise Radio, we talk about Jesus. Question, did Jesus Christ, on earth, God-man, did He fear God? Did He fear God? Well, I hope you�re already thinking, �Hmm, I don�t think He was fearing God�s execution.

I don�t think He was fearing God�s wrath. I don�t think He was fearing God like an unbeliever would, a sinful unbeliever. I guess all unbelievers are sinful, right? It�s a sin not to believe. Jesus, did He fear God?

Well, Pastor Mike, if you�re telling me there�s different ways to fear God, depending on your relationship to God, then Jesus as Son, well, then there must be a certain kind of thing there. And I�m hearkening back to 1 Peter 2, even if you call on God as Father, talking to us.

What about the Lord Jesus? Think of Isaiah 11. This is a messianic prophecy about Jesus. �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 of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and He, the Messiah, will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Jesus delighted in fearing God. Jesus�s heart, obviously, was completely filled with awe. Well, shall I say awe? Okay, you could say awe if you want. You could say honor, adoration, obedience, reverence, trust, right?

That�s the Lord Jesus. And whether He was on earth and when there were good times or when He�s on earth suffering, Hebrews chapter 5. I�m running out of time is what I�m doing. Hebrews 5, �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.

Our reverence. Not �fabos not the ordinary word, but another word means to act cautiously, to beware, to fear, to handle with care, kind of like nitroglycerin. It's used two places. Only in Hebrews 5 and Hebrews 12, A .T. Robertson said, �Cautiously taking hold of and careful, respectful handling.

Isn�t that of Jesus, perfectly obeying in our place? My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. Don't forget the new book Gospel Assurances is on Amazon. It's also out now on Kindle if you want to go to Kindle and download it from Amazon on Kindle.

Maybe Audible, coming up soon.

Have a great day. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth 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 bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.