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Reflecting On (sometimes) Perplexing Bible Truths
Part 2: To Fear or Not to Fear?
We are so excited that we have an opportunity to get together today to learn from God’s Word, and so I would invite you to take out the Word of God, if you would, and turn in it, in the Old Testament, to the book of Isaiah, in chapter number 41.
Isaiah chapter number 41 and verse 10. Now, today is the second part of a two-part series we have been doing that we have entitled, Reflecting on (sometimes) Perplexing Bible Truth. Last time we looked at Perplexing Bible Truth that related to the arena of salvation. We looked at Bible Truth about Divine Election, God’s sovereign action in salvation; and we also looked at the idea of Human Volition, man’s personal responsibility in salvation. What I want to do now, today, is to shift to an entirely different focus.
In fact, the title I’ve given to today’s message is this: To Fear or Not to Fear. You know, there are many things that we tend to fear, even as followers of Jesus, so let’s be transparent about it. We can fear about a loss of health. We can fear about a loss of friends and loved ones. We can fear about potential failure and rejection.
We can, especially when you live in this part of the world, we can fear extreme weather events, you know, like tornadoes, or wildfires; or if we lived in Florida, we might say we have a fear of hurricanes.
We have a lot of things that we tend to fear, and with everything going on in our world right now, you know, we can have maybe a fear of kidnapping. We have such a very prominent case going on in the country right now. We can have a fear of a pandemic.
We can have a fear of inflation. We can have a fear of political turmoil. We can and should, I think, somewhat, have a fear of online predators, what they could do. And yes, we can have a fear of terrorist attacks that could come our way.
The list could go on, right? But it has been stated many times—I don’t know if you’ve ever heard it or not—but it has been stated that “do not fear” is the most common command in Scripture.
Now, I don’t know for sure if that’s really true or not because I haven’t counted all of the commands, but I will say this: the command to ‘do not fear’ is very common in Scripture. Let me just illustrate it by looking at some passages.
For example, Genesis 15:1, God says to Abraham, do not fear (or fear not), I am your shield.
And then in Isaiah 41:13, God says, Fear not, I am the one who helps you. Isaiah 43:1, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. Fear not, fear not.
More passages: Fear not (Isaiah 44: 8) nor be afraid. How about this one from Jeremiah 46, verse 28, Fear not—what does it say?— for I am with you.
I don’t know if you ever pictured that if Jesus was standing right next to you, would that affect whether or not you were afraid? Of course it would! But God tells us, Fear not, for I am with you.
Another passage from Luke 12, verse 7, this is Jesus speaking to the disciples: Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. More passages we can look at…Fear not. Fear not, John 14:27, let not your hearts—this is Jesus to the disciples again—let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
And then in the Book of the Revelation, in chapter number one, in verse 17, to John, Jesus says, Fear not, I am the first and the last.
And then we could look at maybe a summary passage, which is the one that we looked at as we began our service today, from Isaiah 41:10:
Fear not, Why? Why should I fear not? for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
And then as we had our prayer time this morning, we looked at 1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxieties—where do anxieties come from? They come from fears. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
So, are we To Fear or Not to Fear as followers of Jesus? And what would you conclude so far? We’re not to fear, right? Yet numerous times in Scripture, Scripture instructs those who know God, they are instructed to Fear God.
Remember some of those passages? So, we’re not to fear, but then, we are to fear. How does all of that fit together? We struggle to understand how does that fit together?
I mean, right away when we look at a passage and it says we should Fear God, even as a follower of God, we’re going, wait a minute, I don’t get this. I mean, God is our Heavenly Father. Jesus, He is our Savior and our Rescuer. The Holy Spirit, who’s God Himself, resides inside of us. Jesus called His disciples in John 15, “friends.” Why should I have to fear a friend?
1 John 3:1, we are His children. Should children be afraid of their Father? I mean, how does all this fit together? We know we’re not to fear as a follower of Jesus, but what happens when we’re told we should fear God? We are, Scripture teaches us, expected to, and called to, fear Him, to have a fear of Him.
You know, we’re going to look at a number of these passages which talk about how we are to have a fear of the Lord. And what is interesting to me—and I’ve been guilty of this too—a lot of times these passages are there and we don’t really know what they mean, so we just sort of jump over them. We don’t wrestle with them at all, try to figure out how does all this fit together.
So, let’s look at some of these passages that talk about the fear of the Lord.
Psalm 111:10, The FEAR of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then in Proverbs 1:7, it says, The FEAR of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. If we want to have wisdom and we want to have knowledge, where does it start? It says it starts with the Fear of the Lord.
Many of you know that one of my favorite books of the Bible is the Book of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon is looking back on all of the mistakes he’s made in life. He’s looking at life just as we observe it on the plane of everyday life. And he’s writing about key lessons we’re to learn—not only from what he went through personally—but from what we see and experience in everyday life.
When he comes to the end of the book—he’s given us 11 and a half chapters of information—he says in Ecclesiastes 12:13, the end of the matter when all has been heard…I’m going to give you the bottom line of everything I’ve talked about throughout the book…and here it is. I’m giving it to you right now. He says, Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.
Now, we’ve looked at these passages that talk about Fearing the Lord and Fearing God. And you may have noticed that they’re all Old Testament passages. And so, some of us might be thinking, you know, I don’t really know what all that meant, but that’s an Old Testament thing. You know, that’s not a New Testament thing. And if we think that, we would be wrong.
For example, in Acts chapter 9, verse 31, speaking of the early church, it says the early church was walking in the Fear of the Lord. Those early followers of Jesus were moving through everyday life with a Fear of the Lord.
And then here’s another passage from the New Testament that talks about this. Second Corinthians chapter 7, verse 1: Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the Fear of God.
In other words, this is to be normal for you and for me, that we have in our everyday life a Fear of God. And then another passage we want to look at in the New Testament, 1 Peter 1, verse 17. If you call on Him as Father…conduct yourselves with Fear throughout the time of your exile. Conduct yourselves with fear while you’re on this planet.
And we’re going, what?? What?? I don’t understand what’s going on here. I mean, this negative tone that I should Fear God.
I remember when I was very young, I had this image of God that if I were to take one step out of line, He’d get His divine wiffle ball bat [plastic bat] out and start whacking me right on the ear. Is that what this is talking about??
And maybe you’re thinking, well, wait a minute now. Wait, there must be different words for fear. So maybe there’s some word over here for ‘fear,’ and another word over there for ‘fear.’ Both translated as fear. And so, maybe they’re just different terms. And that would explain some of the confusion, some of the perplexing truth here.
But the answer to that is that both in Hebrew—which is the Old Testament—and in Greek—which is the New Testament—there’s one basic term for fear. But what’s interesting is, that the one basic term, over here and over there, has two senses to it. Two senses to it. And we’re going to take a look at that.
Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but did you know this? That the Lord Jesus set the pattern of operating with the Fear of God? The Lord Jesus set the pattern of operating with the Fear of God…he nailed it! He perfectly modeled it.
And I want you to look at a passage from Isaiah chapter 11. Many of you are familiar with it. It’s a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. And in verse 1, it says that the Messiah will come forth from the stump of Jesse. Well, who is Jesse? Well, Jesse was King David’s father. He’s going to come out of the lineage of David.
What else about the coming Messiah? This is all talking about Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and, oh, the spirit of knowledge and what? The fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. Jesus set the pattern for operating in his life with the Fear of God. He perfectly modeled it.
Now, I want you to do something, if you would just cooperate with me. I want you to just close your eyes. And as you’re closing your eyes, I just want you to think for a moment, what’s the most delightful aroma you can think of? Maybe it would be freshly brewed coffee in the morning like my wife. I mentioned that in the first service. Someone said, Amen. Amen!
What’s the most delightful aroma to you? Just imagine it for a moment. Maybe it would be the fragrance of beautiful flowers. You think, wow, that’s really good. Maybe it could be the tantalizing smell of your favorite food or your favorite baked good. Good. What’s the most delightful aroma to you?
You know, as I was thinking about that, I was thinking the most delightful aroma to me is the captivating fragrance of my wife’s perfume. Oh, wow. Wow! Now, you can come out of your dream for a moment.
Do you know that if you’ve studied languages, but some languages can be very picturesque…they draw a lot of mental pictures. And Hebrew is a picturesque language.
And we’ve looked at these things about Jesus, that he was going to have the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. And what is interesting to me, this is why we study Scripture. I had never seen the next verse before. Oh, I’d read it, but I just didn’t pay much attention to it.
But I want you to see what the next verse says. He shall have the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, verse three, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
And when you look at that, I want you to see what this word ‘delight’ is really pointing at. In Hebrew, the word delight is riach, r-i-a-c-h. It’s a picturesque term. The picture is that of inhaling the most delightful scent. That’s moving to me. That’s really living when I get to smell that! And that’s the picture here.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. That’s what really gets me going! That’s really living!!
You know, if Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord, maybe so should I. Maybe so should we. So, how can we best understand this idea of Fearing the Lord? And we’re going to investigate this a little bit more. What we’re going to find out is that there are two aspects to the fear in Scripture. And the lexicons will agree to this. There are two shades of meaning.
I’m just going to put it this way: first, we have a Sinful Fear. We could call it a negative fear. It is a dread of punishment. It is a fear of God’s light and a fear of God’s judgment. And you see Sinful Fear talked about in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In fact, you see it at the very front of Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, and you see it in the very back part of Scripture, in the Book of the Revelation. And you’re going to see it scattered between both of those places.
A Sinful Fear, a negative fear, a dread of punishment. Now, what happens in Genesis chapter 3? Adam and Eve rebelled against God and they sinned.
And what did they do? You remember? They hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. It was this Sinful Fear that they had. It was this negative fear.
It was a dread of punishment.
You see that in the Book of Genesis, and then we see it also in the Book of the Revelation. In Revelation chapter 6, verses 15 to 17, the evil people of the world—remember this is talking about when God is going to be bringing His wrath upon the planet before Jesus returns a second time in Revelation chapter 19. And there’s judgment and wrath falling on the people of the world who’ve rejected God. And it says at this point, in chapter 6, verses 15 to 17, they call to the mountains and the rocks. And they say, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
What were they talking about? What were they experiencing? They were experiencing Sinful Fear, a negative fear, a dread of punishment in light of God’s judgment falling on the world. There was a sense of dread that came upon them.
So, you have a Sinful Fear, but also you have this idea of a Spiritual Fear. It’s a positive fear, if you would. It’s a fear of respect and gratitude. It’s fear in reverence and adoration.
And so, we see this expression, a Spiritual Fear, a positive fear, and we see this in the Word of God. In the book of Jeremiah chapter 33, verses 8 and 9, God says, I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sins against Me. I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against Me…they shall fear and tremble, notice, because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide.
See, this fear is a positive fear. It’s a Spiritual Fear. It’s a fear built around respect and deep gratitude. Jeremiah 32, verses 38 to 40, they shall be My people, God says, and I will be their God, and I will give them one heart …that they may fear Me forever for their own good and the good of their children after them. Notice what he then says, I will not turn away from doing good to them. This is the Spiritual Fear, a positive fear, a fear of respect and gratitude, a fear in reverence and adoration.
So, so very important that we see this is what it’s talking about to a believer in Jesus Christ, when we have a relationship with God. There should be Spiritual Fear, positive fear, respect, gratitude, reverence, and adoration.
Let me put it to you a little different way. This fear of God comes when we are marvelously overtaken in God’s love and mercy. This fear comes on us when we have a deeply moving sense of the splendor of God. Wow, this fear has an intensity of delight in God’s goodness. This fear has a heart that delights in honoring God, honoring Him.
So, what I want to do is just quickly look at some Insights into the Fear of the Lord, okay, from Scripture. Job 28:28. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. In other words, the phraseology in here, this gives you the idea of what the fear of the Lord really looks like…to turn away from evil.
And so, one of the questions we should ask ourselves is, is that what I’m doing in my life? Am I turning away from evil? Because that’s really one way the fear manifests itself. In what I am watching, in what I am saying, what I am doing, am I turning away from evil?
Proverbs 8:13 says, The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. That’s how the fear of the Lord is expressed in our life. Another passage from Proverbs 28, verse 14, just giving us some insights into the fear of the Lord, says, Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Now, a lot of times in Proverbs, and even in Psalms, there can be parallel phrases, so the parallel phrase gives us insight into the first one. This is one of those cases where it’s a contrastive phrase. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity. So, is there any area in my life where I might be hardening my heart to the Lord? That’s not the fear of God.
Psalm 33:8, Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. This gives us some insight into what the fear of the Lord is, that we stand in awe of God.
Psalm 86:11, Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. What does it mean to unite my heart to fear your name? Takes you back to this previous phrase, to walk in your truth. So, as a follower of Jesus, I ask myself, is that a priority in my life, to walk, to live in light of His truth?
Then a great verse from Psalm 112:1, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, (the woman who fears the Lord), who greatly delights in His commandments. That’s what it means to Fear the Lord, greatly delighting His commandments.
He commands it, and I am delighted to follow it—not to rationalize it away, not to try to ignore it, but I am delighted to follow His commandment. That’s what it means to Fear the Lord.
So, those are some Insights into the Fear of the Lord. I want to just take a moment or two to look at some of the Benefits of the Fear of the Lord.
Notice it says, Proverbs 10:27, The fear of the Lord prolongs life. It doesn’t just mean that someone who fears the Lord is going to live the longest. It means that when we fear the Lord—and we’re walking in that way as a follower of God—we’re going to add years to our life. It’s one of the benefits.
Proverbs 19, verse 23, The fear of the Lord leads to life and whoever has it rests satisfied. When we have a Fear of the Lord in our life, we’re going to be satisfied in our life.
Proverbs 22:4, you see these benefits? The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Over that, I would just write the word “blessings.” The reward for a Fear of the Lord are blessings upon blessings upon blessings.
Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 12, Solomon again, he says, …I know that it will be well with those who fear God. Those who fear God will find deep, true satisfaction in their life! Those who fear God will not get to the end of their life and wish it gone differently. There will be true satisfaction.
And then again, the passage we looked at before, Psalm 112, verse 1, Blessed is the one who fears the Lord.
All this making a little bit of sense? Anybody still awake? Just checking (smile). I want to share with you some Summary Statements of what we’ve looked at, all right? And see if this just helps us kind of pull it all together.
Here’s the first summary statement:
“The fear of the Lord is not dread that drives us from him, but awe that drives us to Him.” That’s what the fear of the Lord is. Not dread that drives us from him, but awe that drives us to him.
Here’s another summary statement:
“The fear of the Lord is a healthy respect for God’s holiness that keeps us from foolish choices.” I wish I had known that when I was younger.
Here’s another summary statement:
“The fear of the Lord is not a cringing dread; it is love, reverence, and respect that lead to obedience.” Are you getting the feel of this?
What is the fear of the Lord? Now I want to give you quotes from three different individuals on this subject matter. The first one comes from Chuck Swindoll. He said this, The fear of the Lord means taking God seriously—His holiness, His standards, His authority. What a great summary statement that is. Thank you, Chuck Swindoll.
Here’s another one from Ray Pritchard, who is one of my former classmates at seminary. His summary statement goes somewhat like this: When I choose to fear the Lord, I am choosing out of respect and love to do the things that please Him. Man, that’s a great summary statement too.
And then the last one comes from some guy named Bruce Hess. This is what his summary statement is: The fear of the Lord is not a fear that God will hurt us in some way, but a fear of disappointing the one who loves us so deeply.
So, To Fear or Not to Fear as a follower of God? The answer is yes and yes. Yes and yes! We are NOT to fear, remembering that He is with us, that He is our God, that He cares for us, and that He will strengthen, help, and uphold us.
Fear or Not to Fear? But also, we ARE to fear. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. We must remember that He is with us; He is our God; He cares for us; He will strengthen, help, and uphold us.
What a great, great verse is Psalm 112.1. Blessed is the man, the woman, the young person who fears the Lord.
And then think about this: Jesus’ delight was in the Fear of the Lord. It’s the most pleasant thing to me, He said. May we be like Jesus, you and me, and may our delight be in the fear of the Lord!
You know, while looking at these passages I must say that I learned some things that were new to me as I worked through this. It just makes me want to worship. It makes me want to worship.
As we close, I want to look at a couple of passages in the book of Psalms that talk about worship.
Psalm 47, verses 1 and 2 and verse 6, Clap hands all you people, shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great King over all the earth. Sing praises to God, sing praises.
What this is really saying to us is that when it comes to praising God, there should be a heart energy that’s coming through. Not that we’re just going through the motions, that we’re just “singing a song.” No, we’re remembering that the Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth, and we sing praises to Him!
And then Psalm 96, verses 2 to 4, Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all peoples! For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; (here we go again) He is to be feared above all gods. Fearing the Lord should elicit praise from us! Great is the Lord!
Would you bow with me please? Father, we thank You again for Your Word. We thank You that Your Word instructs us, it directs us. We can understand how You want us to live our life by delving into it.
And may we be men and women who are like Jesus, as followers of Jesus, to find our delight in fearing the Lord, wanting to give You awe and reverence for all that You are and all that You do. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
Perplexing Bible Truths: To Fear or Not to Fear?
1. There are many things in our world today that easily can elicit a sense of fear and concern even for followers of
Jesus. Honestly share what some of those are for you.
What are some that you can see which most alarm our families, neighbors and co-workers?
2. What are some truths about God found in Isaiah 41:10 and 1 Peter 5:7 that can help us as we find ourselves
face-to-face with some fear?
3. In both the Old Testament and New Testament, the ‘Fear of God’ for a believer is described in positive terms
(see Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 1:17).
Why do you think there seems to be so little teaching on this idea?
4. How much have you heard about what it means for a believer to ‘Fear God?’
5. Bruce mentioned how in Isaiah 11, regarding the future Messiah (Jesus) that it says of him,
‘His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.’ What does the idea of ‘delight’ mean practically?
6. Bruce mentioned Sinful Fear and Spiritual Fear. What do each of them mean in more detail?
7. Bruce shared several ‘insight statements’ from Scripture about Spiritual Fear. List some of them.
What were some of the ‘benefit statements’ about Spiritual Fear?
8. Chuck Swindoll was quoted as saying: The fear of the Lord means taking God seriously—His holiness,
His standards, His authority. What would that look like in our everyday life?
9. Pause to pray and thank God for His marvelous works, His promises of protection,
and for His awesome greatness.